The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Volume Vi Part 70

QUEEN. Here are those others, here.

MANRIQUE. Nay, let them be!

What mayhap threatens us, struck them ere now.

I beg you, stand you here, in rank and file.

QUEEN. Let me come first, I am the guiltiest!

MANRIQUE. Not so. O Queen. Thou spak'st the word, 'tis true, But when it came to action thou didst quake, Oppose the deed, and mercy urge instead, Although in vain; for need became our law.

Nor would I wish the King's first burst of rage To strike the mighty heads we most revere As being next to him, the Kingdom's hope.

I did the deed, not with this hand, forsooth-- With counsel, and with pity, deep and dread!

The first place, then, is mine. And thou, my son-- Hast thou the heart to answer like a man For that which at the least thou hinder'dst not, So that thy earnest wish to make amends And thy return have tangled thee in guilt?

GARCERAN. Behold me ready! To your side I come!

And may the King's first fury fall on me!

ESTHER (_calling across_).

You there, although all murderers alike, Deserving every punishment and death-- Enough of mischief is already done, Nor would I wish the horrors yet increased!

Within, beside my sister, is the King; Enraged before he went, the sight of her Will but inflame his pa.s.sionate ire anew.

I pity, too, that woman and her child, Half innocent, half guilty--only half.

So go while yet there's time, and do not meet Th' avenger still too hot to act as judge.

MANRIQUE. Woman, we're Christians!

ESTHER. You have shown you are.

Commend me to the Jewess, O my G.o.d!

MANRIQUE. Prepared as Christians, too, to expiate In meek submission all of our misdeeds.

Lay off your swords. Here now is first my own!

To be in armor augurs of defense.

Our very number makes submission less.

Divide we up the guilt each bears entire.

[_All have laid their swords on the floor before _MANRIQUE.]

So let us wait. Or rather, let one go To urge upon the King most speedily, The country's need demands, this way or that, That he compose himself; and though it were Repenting a rash deed against ourselves!

Go thou, my son!

GARCERAN (_turning around after having taken several steps_).

Behold, the King himself!

[_The_ KING _rushes out of the apartment at the side. After taking a few steps, he turns about and stares fixedly at the door._]

QUEEN. O G.o.d in Heaven!

MANRIQUE. Queen, I pray be calm!

[_The_ KING _goes toward the front. He stops, with arms folded, before old_ ISAAC, _who lies back as if asleep, in the armchair. Then he goes forward._]

ESTHER (_to her father_).

Behold thy foes are trembling! Art thou glad?

Not I. For Rachel wakes not from the dead.

[_The_ KING, _in the front, gazes at his hands, and rubs them, as though was.h.i.+ng them, one over the other. Then the same motion over his body. At last he feels his throat, moving his hands around it. In this last position, with his hands at his throat, he remains motionless, staring fixedly before him._]

MANRIQUE. Most n.o.ble Prince and King. Most gracious Sire!

KING (_starting violently_).

Ye here? 'Tis good ye come! I sought for you-- And all of you. Ye spare me further search.

[_He steps before them, measuring them with angry glances._]

MANRIQUE (_pointing to the weapons lying on the floor_).

We have disarmed ourselves, laid down our swords.

KING. I see the swords. Come ye to slay me, then?

I pray, complete your work. Here is my breast!

[_He opens his robe._]

QUEEN. He has't no more!

KING. How mean you, lady fair?

QUEEN. Gone is the evil picture from his neck.

KING. I'll fetch it, then.

[_He takes a few steps toward the door at the side, and then stands still._]

QUEEN. O G.o.d, this madness still!

MANRIQUE. We know full well, how much we, Sire, have erred-- Most greatly, that we did not leave to thee And thine own honor thy return to self!

But, Sire, the time more pressing was than we.

The country trembled, and at all frontiers The foemen challenged us to ward our land.

KING. And foemen must be punished--is't not so?

Ye warn me rightly; I am in their midst.

Ho, Garceran!

GARCERAN. Thou meanest me, O Sire?

KING. Yea, I mean thee! Though me thou hast betrayed, Thou wert my friend. Come to me then, I say, And tell me what thou think'st of her within!

Her--whom thou help'dst to slay--of that anon.