FORESTER.

Did you ask the lawyer how long it would be before the matter is settled? Till I have my rights?

WILLIAM.

He refuses to inst.i.tute proceedings.

SOPHY (_drawing a deep breath; aside_).

Then there is still some hope left!

FORESTER (_rises; quite perplexed_).

He refuses--

WILLIAM.

He says you are not in the right, father.

FORESTER.

Not in the right?

[_Is obliged to sit down_.]

SOPHY (_as before_).

If he only would yield.

WILLIAM.

He said state officials could not be deposed, unless it could be proved against them that they deserved it. But you were not a state official; your master was not the state, but he who owned the forest, the owner of the estate.

FORESTER (_with suppressed anger_).

Then, if I were an official of the state, Stein would not be allowed to do me an injustice. And because I am not, he is allowed to brand me as a scoundrel?--You did not understand him rightly, William!

WILLIAM.

He repeated it to me three times--

FORESTER.

Because you did not represent the matter to him as it is--that already your great-grandfather had been forester of Dusterwalde, and your grandfather after him, and that for forty years, throughout the whole valley, people have called me the Hereditary Forester.

WILLIAM.

That, he said, was an honor to both masters and servants; but before the court nothing could be based on it.

FORESTER.

But he does not know that Stein wants to depose me, because I had his best interests at heart, that the forest is exposed on the north and west. A lawyer does not know that a forest is like a vault, where one stone always holds and supports the others. Thus the vault can withstand any force, but take out only a dozen stones from the centre, and the whole thing comes tumbling about your ears.

WILLIAM.

At such arguments he only shrugged his shoulders.

FORESTER (_growing more excited_).

And my money that I have put into it? And all the trees that I planted with my own hands? Hey? Which the wind now shall wantonly break?

WILLIAM.

At that he only smiled. He said you might be a very honest man, but in court that would prove nothing.

FORESTER (_rises_).

If one is an honest man, that proves nothing? Then one must be a rascal, if he is to prove anything in court?--But how about Rupert of Erdmansgrun--hey, William?

WILLIAM.

He happened to have been a state official. After I had left him, I even went to another lawyer. This man laughed right in my face.

But to that fellow I spoke my mind like a hunter's son.

FORESTER.

You did well. But what about Andrew? Hey?

WILLIAM.

He said that you had been deposed at the time that Andrew went into the forest. You ought to know yourself that no stranger is allowed to take plants from a forest according to his own inclination, without the knowledge and consent of the forester. That then G.o.dfrey was the lawful forester, and consequently Andrew had no one to blame but himself, if he was treated as a poacher. And that Andrew himself must understand it would be wiser to take his punishment quietly, and not stir up the matter any further; and he might be glad to have come off so easily.

[_The_ FORESTER _has seated himself again; pauses; then whistles, and drums on the table_.]

SOPHY (_watching him with anxiety_).

When he becomes so calm--

FORESTER.

So I must remain a scoundrel before the world? Very well!--Why don't you pack your things, you women-folk? William, get me a bottle of wine.

SOPHY.

You are going to drink wine? And you know it is not good for you, Ulrich? And just now, in your present state of vexation--

FORESTER.