Wilt thou?
Eliz. Have mercy!
Con. Wilt thou? Sit not thus
Watching the sightless air: no angel in it
But asks thee what I ask: the fiend alone
Delays thy coward flesh. Wilt thou devote him?
Eliz. I will devote him;--a crusader's wife!
I'll glory in it. Thou speakest words from God--
And God shall have him! Go now--good my master;
My poor brain swims. [Exit Conrad.]
Yes--a crusader's wife!
And a crusader's widow!
[Bursts into tears, and dashes herself on the floor.]
SCENE X
A street in the town of Schmalcald. Bodies of Crusading troops
defiling past. Lewis and Elizabeth with their suite in the
foreground.
Lewis. Alas! the time is near; I must be gone--
There are our liegemen; how you'll welcome us,
Returned in triumph, bowed with paynim spoils,
Beneath the victor cross, to part no more!
Eliz. Yes--we shall part no more, where next we meet.
Enough to have stood here once on such an errand!
Lewis. The bugle calls.--Farewell, my love, my lady,
Queen, sister, saint! One last long kiss--Farewell!
Eliz. One kiss--and then another--and another--
Till 'tis too late to go--and so return--
O God! forgive that craven thought! There, take him
Since Thou dost need him.
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