HEINRICH.

Good luck go with thee! I wait here the while.
[Exit ARNFELD.
Where will this end? Before I left the forest
Mysterious whispers, that were not the wind's,
Stirred threateningly the branches, and will soon
Swell to an angry roar.
Never did work

More worthy done, reap tardier recompense :
Yet still Sebastian must keep back their hire ;
And I stand pledged to payment! Should we fail,
I have but armed the knaves against their lord,
And found them a fair quarrel. We must wrench
Somehow the miser's hands from his own throat,
And force him to breathe free. 'Tis strange, methinks,
How sweet mere drudgery tastes at Schlafenstein,
That smelt so stale in Traumberg. (Picking up a paper.)
What is this?

"To the Chief Forester." From whom, I wonder.

[Opening it.

Some friend, who claims to preach incognito.

[Reading.

"One that hath hidden knowledge, from this day Bids thee consort not with the traitor A."

"A"? Arnfeld! traitor! Pshaw! and on the word

Of one who fears the sight of his own name?
I'll not believe it.

Enter DUKE, DUCHESS, and Arnfeld.

DUKE.

Treachery! treachery!

We have been robbed, robbed, robbed!

ARNFELD.

I trust your Highness

Will bid immediate search be made of all,

Who to the court have access.

DUCHESS.

'Tis well said.

Sir, give the order, and begin with him.

ARNFELD.

Madam, I too demand it, and dare hope
'Twill yet repent you of that heinous word,
When time unfolds the sequel. Foul suspicion
Taints not a life's pure service--no, nor yet

Stains the clear conscience, which, like earth herself,

To its own bosom takes the refuse flung,

And turns to wholesome savour.

DUCHESS.

Did you not

Lend countenance to bawling knaves, who came
With axes armed, and ruffian insolence,

To lop the laws and prune all privileges,
That curb the licence of their upstart growth,
And intercept forsooth the light of heaven?
Did you not carp at throned power, and plant
Ladders of hope, for indigence to climb by,
Wink at their claims, allow their grievances,
And send them glad and gilded to their homes?
Did you do this, or not? And, if you did,

How thrives your conscience, and whence came your

gold?

ARNFELD.

Madam, your spies have done their duty well,
Baked a fair loaf, with so much flour of truth
As hides the bane, 'twas kneaded up withal.
I deemed myself alone, and, with myself
Communing, spake what I will not repeat,
Save to myself again. Your listener lied

I chid their violence, fooled away their threats,
Dulled every axe-edge with my blunt reproofs,
And if their wives, at meeting, grasped that day
No empty hands, what filled them was my own.

DUCHESS.

Who else hath access to the treasury?

ARNFELD.

None that I know, except your Highnesses.

DUCHESS.

Then either are we robbers of ourselves,
Or else Well, well, the inference is easy.
Enough of this: we will make search anon.
Good Master Forester, how pay you now
The thews and sinews of your enterprise?

HEINRICH.

It much imports, believe me, that you keep

Faith with these men; the knaves are worth their

hire;

And, if denied, their numbers and their needs

Will make them dangerous.

DUKE.

I tell you, sir,

My means are bankrupt: many a time before,
Have I suspected from some petty loss

The pilfering finger-some slight surface-theft,
Beside the long slow thaw of time, that wastes,
Drip, drip, the polished crust-but never felt I
A crash like this. Bid them go starve, I say;
I have no doit to spare, no doit to spare.

HEINRICH.

What is the whole mass melted quite away?

All.

DUKE.

DUCHESS.

Or what seems all. (Aside) From a miser's heart Pluck but one treasure, the black void beneath Wells up and over, darkening what remains.

(Aloud) But tell me, sir, your lictors' claims appeased, Were there good market for our timber still?

HEINRICH.

Ay, to repay your cast a hundredfold: