crime. Raise your hands to heaven and call down upon her Woe! woe! woe!

Omnes. Woe! woe! woe!

Eldest. Avenger, come forth! (The Avenger advances.) There hast thou cord and sword. Within eight days thou must remove her from before the face of heaven. Judges! ye that in secret judge and in secret avenge, keep your hearts from wickedness and your hands from innocent blood.'

Is

The gloom and terror which darken this scene fitly prepare the mind for that more awful scene of execution which follows it (also struck out from the second version). Adelheid is in bed, tossing restlessly and sleeplessly; night is hideous to her, and she pines for the day. Is Weislingen dead?' she murmurs to herself. She rings the bell, but no one hears her. 'Sleep closes their ears! . Franz dead? . . . He was a loveable youth. Sickingen! Sickingen! . . . Thus murmuring the name now so dear to her, she closes her murderous retrospect in sleep. The ghost of the murdered Franz appears — calls upon her, and vanishes. The Avenger creeps from under her bed.

ร

Ah!

Adelheid (awakening). I saw him! He was struggling with the agonies of death! — he called upon me! called upon me. . . . His eyes were filled with love.... Ha! assassin! assassin !

Avenger. Call not-you call Death! The spirits of Vengeance will deafen Help.

Adelheid. Do you want gold? -jewels? Take them. Only let me live.

Avenger. I am no robber.

darkness: thou must die.

Darkness has ordained

Adelheid. Woe! woe!

Avenger. On thy head! If the odious phantoms of thy misdeeds draw thee not down to hell, look up look up to heaven, and pray that the sacrifice I now offer it be enough!

Adelheid. Let me live! What have I ever done to thee? I clasp thy knees.

Avenger (aside). An imperial creature! What a look! What a voice!... In her arms I-dog that I amshould be a god. . . . If . . . If I were to deceive her? She is in my power.

Adelheid. He seems moved.

e.... Wilt thou grant

Avenger. Thou weakenest me.

me •

Adelheid. What?

Avenger..... That which man can demand of lovely woman in the depth of night.

Adelheid (aside). My cup is full! Crimes and shame encircle me with flames of hell. I expiate! I expiate! ... Vain, vain to seek to obliterate crimes with crimes ignominy with ignominy. Dishonor the most infamous, and death the most ignominious, in one hellish picture rise before me !

Avenger. Decide!

Adelheid (aside). A ray of hope! (Goes towards the bed. He follows; she seizes a dagger and stabs him.)

Avenger. Betrayer to the last! (Falls on her and strangles her. Ah! the serpent! (Stabs her.). . . I bleed. . . . Thus is thy lust punished!... Thou art not the first. . . . God! didst thou make her so lovely, and couldst not thou make her good? (Exit.)

In the simple pathos of the closing scene there is a grandeur worthy of the occasion. All is over with Götz,

who, mortally wounded, comes out into the garden of the prison to breathe his last.

Götz. Almighty God! How sweet it is to be under thy heaven! How free! The trees put forth their buds; all the world hopes. Farewell, my children! my buds are crushed, my hope is in my grave!

Elizabeth. Shall I not send Lerse to the cloister for thy son, that thou mayest see and bless him?

:

Götz. Leave him where he is: he needs not my blessing he is holier than I. Upon our wedding, Elizabeth, could I have thought I should die thus!... Lerse, thy countenance cheers me in the hour of death. As in our most noble fights my spirit encouraged yours; now yours supports mine. Oh, that I could but see George once more, to warm myself in his look! You look down and weep ... is he dead? George is dead! Then die, Götz! thou hast outlived thyself-outlived the noblest! . . . How died he? Alas! they took him at Millenberg, and he is executed.

Elizabeth. No, he was slain there! He defended his freedom like a lion.

Götz. God be praised! He was the kindest, bravest youth under the sun. Now dismiss my soul. . . . My poor wife! I leave thee in a wretched world. Lerse, forsake her not. Lock your hearts carefully as your doors. The age of frankness and freedom is past; that of treachery begins. The worthless will gain the upperhand by cunning, and the noble will fall into their nets. Maria, God restore thy husband to thee; may he never fall the deeper for having risen so high! Selbitz is dead... and the good Kaiser . . . and my George. . . . Give me some water.... Heavenly sky!... Freedom! freedom! (Dies.)

Elizabeth. Only above... above with thee!... The world is a prison.

Maria. Gallant and gentle! Woe to this age that has lost thee!

Lerse. And woe to the future that misprises thee!

CHAPTER III.

WETZLAR.

In the spring of 1772 he arrived at Wetzlar, with Götz in his portfolio, and in his head many wild, unruly thoughts. A passage in the Autobiography amusingly illustrates his conception of the task he had undertaken in choosing to inform the world of his early history. Remember that at Wetzlar he fell in love with Charlotte, and lived through the experience which was fused into Werther, and you will smile as you hear him say: 'What occurred to me at Wetzlar is of no great importance, but it may receive a higher interest if the reader will allow me to give a cursory glance at the history of the Imperial Chamber, in order to present to his mind the unfavorable moment at which I arrived.' This it is to write autobiography when one has outlived almost the memories of youth, and entirely lost sympathy with its agitations. At the time he was in Wetzlar he would have looked strangely on any one who ventured to tell him that the history of the Imperial Chamber was worth a smile from Charlotte; but at the time of writing his meagre account of Wetzlar he had some difficulty in remembering what Charlotte's smiles were like. The biographer has a