Troop. Standard and all. Goetz behind them. He seizes the standard-he has it, he has it! A handful of men with him. My comrade reaches him-they come this way.

Enter GOETZ, GEORGE, LERSE, and Cavaliers, on horseback.

Sel. Joy to thee, Goetz !-Victory, victory!

Goetz, (dismounting.) Dearly, dearly bought! Thou art sorely wounded, Selbiss?

Sel. But thou dost live, and hast conquered! I have done little; and the dogs my troopers-How hast thou come off?

Goetz. For the present, well. And here I thank George, and thee, Lerse, for my life. I unhorsed the Captain-they stabbed my steed, and broke in upon me. George hewed his way to me, and sprang off. I threw myself like lightning on his horse, and he appeared suddenly like a thunderbolt upon another.-How camest thou by thy steed?

George. A fellow struck at you from behind; as he raised his cuirass in the exertion, I stabbed him with my dagger, down he came; and so I rid you of a backbiter, and helped myself to a horse.

Goetz. Then we stuck together till Francis here came to our help; and then we cut our way out.

Lerse. The hounds whom I led made a good show at first; but when we came to close, they fled like Imperialists.

Goetz. Friend and foe fled, except this little party of my own domestics, who protected our rear. I had enough to do with the fellows in front; but the fall of their captain dismayed them-they wavered, and they fled. I have their banner, and a few prisoners.

Sel. The captain has escaped you? Goetz. They rescued him during the scuffle. Come, boys-come, Selbiss-make a bier of lances and boughs. Thou canst not to horse-come to my castle. They are scattered, but we are very few; and I know not what troops they may have in reserve. I will be your host and physi

cian.-Wine tastes so well after action!

[Exeunt, carrying Selbiss.

This, however, is only a temporary advantage the Imperialists gather round the fortress at last, and Goetz finds himself besieged. George, a favourite youth, whom Goetz is training in arms, is the bearer of the conclusive tidings.

George. They are near!-I saw them from the tower. The sun is rising, and I perceived their lances glitter. I minded them no more than a cat would do a whole army of mice. 'Tis true, we play the rats at present.

Goetz. Go to the battlements-Look to the gates See they are provided with stones and beams. We'll find exercise for

their patience, and their fury may discharge itself at the expense of their own nails. (A trumpet from without. Goetz goes to the window.) Aha! there comes a redgowned rascal to ask me whether I will be a scoundrel! What says he? (The voice of the Herald is heard indistinctly, as from a distance. Goetz speaks at intervals.) A rope for thy throat! (Voice again.) “ Offended Majesty !" Some parson has drawn up the proclamation. (Voice concludes, and Goetz answers from the window.) Surrender myself surrender myself at all discretion!--With whom speak ye? Am I a robber? Tell your Captain, that for his Imperial Majesty I entertain, as ever, all due respect; but for himself, he may(Shuts the window with violence.)

(A sharp discharge of musketry, answered by firing from the castle.

SCENE-The Kitchen.

ELIZABETH preparing food-to her GOETZ. Goetz. You have hard work, my poor wife!

Eli. Would it could but last!-but you can hardly hold out long.

Goetz. We have not had time to provide ourselves

Eli. And so many people to feed !-The wine is well nigh finished.

Goetz. If we hold out a certain time,

they must give us articles. We keep them at a fine distance-They may shoot the whole day, and wound our walls, and break our windows. That Lerse is a gallant fellow He slips about with his gun; if a rogue comes too nigh-Ba!-there he lies! (Firing.

Enter Cavalier.

Enter LERSE with a bullet-mould. Lerse. Go, see for lead about the house

meanwhile I will make a shift with this. [Goes to the window and takes out the lead frames.] Everything is fair. So it is in this world-no one knows what a thing may come to; the glazier that made these frames little knew that the work of his hands was to give some fellow his last headache; and the father that got me little thought that the fowls of heaven, and the beasts of the field, were to pick my bones.

Enter GEORGE with a leaden spout.
George. Here's lead for thee: When

we have used the half of it, there will none return to tell his majesty "we have not sped."

Lerse, (cutting it down.) A famous prize!

George. The rain must seek some other way but never mind that a gallant trooper, and a smart shower, will always 'find their road. (They cast balls.)

Lerse. Hold the crucible-(Goes to the window.)-Yonder comes a fellow, creeping forward with his pop-gun; he thinks our fire is spent. He shall have the bullet warm from the pan. (He loads his carabine.) George. (Sets down the mould.) Let me

SCENE-A Hall. GOETZ, ELIZABETH, GEORGE, and troopers, at table.

Goetz. Danger draws us together, my friends! Be cheery-don't forget the bottle! The flask is empty-Come, another, my dear wife. (Elizabeth shakes her head.) Is there no more?

Elizabeth, (low.) Only one, which I set apart for you.

Goetz. Not so, my love !-bring it out; they need strengthening more than I.

Eliz. Hand it from the cabinet.

Goetz. It is the last, and I feel as if we need not spare it. It is long since I have been so much disposed for joy.-(They fill.) To the health of the Emperor !

All. Long live the Emperor !

Goetz. Be it our last word when we die! I love him, for our fate is similar; and I

Goetz. And if that survives us, we shall die happy: Our spirits shall see our sons, and the Emperor of our sons, happy! Did the servants of princes shew the same filial attachment to their masters as you to me-Did their masters serve the Emperor as I would serve him

George. It is widely different.

Goetz. Not so much so as would appear. Have I not known worthy men among the princes? and can the breed be extinct ?-Men, happy in their own minds and in their undertakings, that could bear a petty brother in their neighbourhood, without feeling either dread or envy; whose hearts were opened when they saw their table surrounded by their free equals, and who did not think free knights unfit company till they had degraded themselves by Court homage.

George. Have you known such princes?

Goetz. Well!-I recollect when the Landgrave of Hanau made a grand hunting party, the princes and free feudatories enjoyed themselves under the open heaven, and the vassals were as happy as they; it was no selfish masquerade, instituted for his own private pleasure or vanity-To see the great round-headed peasant lads, and the pretty brown girls, the sturdy hinds, and the respectable ancients, all as happy as if they rejoiced in the pleasure of their master, which he shared with them under God's free sky.

George. He must have been such a master as you.

Goetz. And shall we not hope that many such will rule together some future dayto whom reverence to the Emperor, peace and friendship with neighbours, and the love of vassals, shall be the best and dear. est family treasure handed down from father to son? Every one will then keep and improve his own, instead of reckoning nothing gained that is not ravished from their neighbours.

George. And shall we then have no skitmishing?

Goetz. Would to God there was no restless spirit in all Germany, and still we should have enough to do; we might then chase the wolves from the cliffs, and bring our peaceable laborious neighbour a dish of game from the wood, and eat it together. Were that too little, we would join our

brethren, and, like cherubims with flaming swords, defend the frontiers of the Emperor against those wolves the Turks, against those foxes the French, and guard for our beloved Emperor both extremities of his empire. There would be a life, George! to risk one's head for the safety of all Germany-(George springs up.)-Whither away?

George. Alas! I forgot we were besieged-besieged by that very Emperor; and before we can expose our lives in his defence, we must risk them for our li berty.

Goetz. Be of good cheer!

Enter LERSE.

Lerse. Freedom! Freedom! You are

cowardly poltroons hesitating, irresolute asses-You are to depart with men, weapons, horses, and armour-Provisions you are to leave behind.

Goetz. They will hardly find enough to tire their jaws.

The terms of this capitulation are broken in a shameful manner, and Goetz is wounded, and a prisoner, ere he has descended the hill on which his old castle stands. We now find him on his parole in the city of Heilbron, and there he appears to take his trial before certain commissioners, who, being under the influence of Weislingen, are not very likely to give the poor Ironhanded much fair play.

any?-Good offices are more difficult than the deeds of destruction.

Secretary. Shall I enter all this on record? Com. Only what is to the point. Goetz. Do as you please, for my part. Com. You know how you fell into the power of the Emperor, whose paternal goodness overpowered his justice, and, instead of a dungeon, ordered you to wait your future doom, upon your knightly pa. role, in his beloved city of Heilbron.

Goetz, Well, I am here, and wait it.

Com. And we are here to intimate to you his Imperial Majesty's grace and cle mency. He is pleased to forgive your rebellion, to release you from the ban, and all well-deserved punishment, provided you do, with suppliant humility, receive his bounty, and subscribe the articles which shall be read unto you.

Goetz. I am his Majesty's true servant as ever. One word ere you go fartherMy people-where are they ?-what is to become of them?

Com. That concerns you not.

Goetz. So may the Emperor turn his face from you in your need! They were my companions, and they are so What have you done with them?

Com. We owe you no account of that. Goetz. Ah! I had forgot-Never was promise kept by you to the oppressed. But, hush!

Com. Our business is to lay the articles before you. Throw yourself at the Emperor's feet; and, by humble supplication, you may find the true way to save the life and freedom of your associates.

Goetz. Your paper!
Com. Secretary, read it.

Sec. (Reads.) "I, Goetz of Berlichingen, make public acknowledgment, by these presents, that I having lately risen in rebellion against the Emperor and the empire

Goetz. 'Tis false! I never offended ei

ther.

Com. Compose yourself, and hear farther.

Goetz. I will not compose myself, and I will hear no farther. Let any one arise and bear witness. Have I ever taken a step against the Emperor, or against the House of Austria? Have I not, in all my feuds, conducted myself as one who felt what all Germany owes to its head, and what the free knights and feudatories owe to their liege lord the Emperor? I should be a liar and a slave could I be persuaded to subscribe that paper.

Com. Yet we have strict orders to persuade you by fair means, or else to throw you into jail.

Goetz. Into jail ?-Me!

Com. Where you may expect your fate from the hands of Justice, since you will not take it from those of Mercy.

Goetz. To jail! You abuse the Imperial power. To jail! That was never his command. What, ye traitors, to dig a pit

for me, and hang out your oath, your knightly honour, as the lure! To promise me permission to ward myself on parole, and then to break your treaty!

Com. We owe no faith to robbers. Goetz. Wert thou not the representative of my prince, whom I respect even in the vilest counterfeit, thou should'st swallow that word, or choke upon it. I was taken in honourable though private war. Thou mightest thank God that gave thee glory, hadst thou ever done as gallant deeds as the least with which I am charged. (The Commissioner makes a sign to the Magis trates of Heilbron, who go out.) Because I would not join the iniquitous confederacy of the great, because I would not grasp at the souls and livings of the helpless-Tis in this lies my crime! I defended my own life, and the freedom of my children-see ye any rebellion in that? The Emperor and empire were blinded to our hard case by your flatteries. I have, God be praised, one hand, and I have done my best to use it well.

The meaning of the affair is, that one of Goetz's oldest and best friends, the Lord of Seckingen, has found means, ere this, to comfort Maria for the slight she had received at the hands of Weislingen, and that this brave Baron is now in the midst of Heilbron, at the head of two hundred mounted men, to set his brother-inlaw of Berlichingen free from the clutches of these lawyers, and the Burgher-guard, in whom they have put their trust. The result is, that this expedition of Seckingen is crowned with success ;-that Goetz is once more his own man ;-and that, after a little negotiation, he makes his peace with the Emperor, (who, indeed, had all along had a private and personal leaning in his favour,) on condition that he shall keep himself and his followers strictly within the limits of his domain of Jaxthausen, until the whole affairs of these troubled districts shall

halberds and swords.

Goetz. What means this?

Com. Ye will not hearken-Appre

hend him!

Goetz. Is that the purpose? Let not the man whose ear does not itch come too near me: One salutation from my trusty iron fist shall cure him of headache, toothache, and every ache under the wide heaven! (They make at him—He strikes one down, and snatches a sword from another They stand aloof.) Com. Surrender !

Goetz, (with the sword drawn.) What! Wot ye not that it depends but upon myself to make way through all these hares, and gain the open field? But I will teach you how a man should keep his word. Promise to allow me free ward, and I give up my

sword, and am again your prisoner.

Com. How! Would you treat with your Emperor sword in hand?

Goetz. God forbid !-Only with you and your worthy companions. You may go home, good people: here deliberation is of no avail, and from me there is nothing to gain save bruises.

Com. Seize him, I say!-What! does your allegiance to the Emperor supply you with no courage?

Goetz. No more than the Emperor supplies them with plaster for the wounds which their courage would earn for them.

A Police Officer enters hastily. Officer. The warder has just discovered from the castle-tower a troop of more than two hundred horsemen hastening towards the town. They have already gained the hill, and seem to threaten an attack.

Com. Alas! alas! what can this mean?

mony restored all over the empire. To these terms Goetz submits, and, by way of shewing fight against the ennui of this quiet existence, the good man takes to composing his auto-biography. [This, by the way, is no fic tion: the said auto-biography exists, and has been printed, and a most singular performance, as might be suppoed, it is.]

Unfortunately for Goetz, there springs up an insurrection among the peasantry of a district not far distant from that in which he resides. The infuriated rustics sack, burn, and destroy everything, for miles around;— murder the gentlemen; and, in a word, it is a real jacquerie. The Imperial soldiers march against these outlaws, and a great deal of blood is shed on both sides, without any decisive advantage being gained. It occurs, unfortunately, to the peasants, that their want of complete success is owing to nothing but their want of a skilful leader, and knowing that Goetz had recently been an outlaw himself, and not doubting that insurrection in the abstract must always be a pleasant thing in his eyes, they determine to place themselves under the guidance of the iron-handed hero. They come upon him in great numbers, and will take nothing but himself for their general, or his head for their standard. In short-between threats of immediate violence to himself and his family, and the idea, which some of the in

Capt. We have been fishing in troubled waters. The peasants rob each other; we may be well pardoned helping them.

2d Wom. What hast thou got, Wolf? the spit-A bundle of linen some kitchen Wolf. A hare and a cock-there's for

surgents are artful enough to introduce, and to make the most of, that he by his influence might be enabled to repress outrage and bloodshed on the one side, and on the other to obtain, in a quiet manner, redress of certain real grievances of which these peasants had reason to complain-the die is at last thrown, and the noble Goetz becomes the nominal leader of this rebellion.

We say the nominal leader, because in reality he is never their commander. They are eternally jealous of him -of his honour and of his pride-and they break forthwith the oath, which they had taken to him when he joined them, against rapine and bloodshed. Goetz feels, too late, that it had been better for him to die at once, than to throw himself into the arms of these ruffians. A violent scene of mutual recrimination occurs-Berlichingen strikes down the most insolent of the mob leaders, and rides away from them solus into the forest.

It rains and thunders at midnight in the forest. He comes suddenly in front of a gipsy hut-there is a fire before the hut, at which the mother of the tribe and a little girl are sitting. Mother. Throw some fresh straw up the thatch, daughter; it rains fearfully.

ware and a horse's bridle.What hast thou, Sticks?

Sticks. An woollen jacket have I, and a pair of stockings, and one boot, and a flint and tinder-box.

Mother. It is all wet as mire, and the clothes are bloody. I'll dry them-give me here ! (Trampling without. Capt. Hark! A horse!-Go see who

it is.

Enter GOETZ on horseback.
Goetz. I thank thee, God! I see fire-

they are gipsies.-My wounds bleed sorely my foes close behind!-Great God, thou endest dreadfully with me!

Capt. Is it in peace thou comest? Goetz. I crave help from you-My wounds are stiff with cold-Assist me from horse!

Capt. Help him!—A gallant warrior in appearance and language.

Wolf. (Aside.) 'Tis Goetz of Berlichin

Capt. Welcome! welcome!-What we

gen!
have is yours.

Goetz. I thank you.
Capt. Come to my hut.

(Exeunt to the hut.

SCENE-Inside of the Hut.

Captain, Gipsies, and GOETZ. Capt. Call our mother-let her bring blood-wort and bandages. (Goetz unarms himself.) Here is my holiday-doublet. Goetz. God reward you!

(The Mother binds his wounds. Capt. I rejoice from my heart you are here.

Goetz. Do you know me?

Capt. Who does not know you, Goetz?