"Alas! No, he is not my son!" she answered in a weak voice. "A miracle! A miracle!" all cried, and then the Prophet passed on, Faith looking after him without following, the people again acclaiming him with joyous shouts. ACT V In a dungeon underneath the palace, John found his mother. He went to the place where he had privately ordered the Anabaptists to have her taken, the moment he could leave the ceremonies of his coronation. The feast of the day was yet to come, but while the ceremonies had been going on, the three Anabaptists had had a message from the Emperor of Germany, which promised safety to themselves, if they would give the Prophet into his hands. They had treacherously decided to do this at the coronation feast. In the dungeon the poor old mother had huddled down, no longer in fear, because her grief had rendered her insensible to everything else. "I forgive him," she sobbed, thinking of her son. "Let no ill come to him for what he has done to me this day." As she was thus plunged in deepest grief, the iron door opened, flambeaux lighted the palace up, and the guard cried the Prophet's name. "Woman, get upon thy knees; the Prophet is coming to thee," an officer said. She started up: "He is coming here--I shall see him?" she whispered to herself. Then the guard left, and John of Leyden came in. He ran toward his mother. "Mother! My mother!" he cried. "Nay!" she answered. "In the crowd I obeyed thee--I read some strange message in thy face. But here, with only God's eye upon thee, go down on thy knees before me." "Oh, mother, I love thee!" But the old mother reproached him with what he had done--how he had brought a people to despair and had imposed himself upon them as the son of God; but all the while she chided him, she loved him dearly. "It was my wrongs that made me do this thing, mother," he urged. But she showed him all his wickedness with such vehemence that he could not answer, and could only weep. Then she spoke quietly. "If thou art remorseful for thy sins, proclaim thy wrong. Be thyself, John of Leyden, the innkeeper, my son!" "Desert my soldiers?" he asked, in a frightened voice. "I have led others into danger--dare I desert them?" "Thy mother demands it: it is the only way to right thy wrongdoing. The blessing of God will only then descend upon thee." The Prophet, overwhelmed by her command, opened his arms to Heaven as a sign that he would obey, and Faith threw herself upon his breast. Now Bertha, utterly distracted by her troubles, had disguised herself as a pilgrim, and in her madness she had determined to set fire to the stores of wood beneath the palace. She found her way into the dungeon just as John and his mother were embracing. As the iron doors were heard to open again, John turned around and saw a woman enter. As she saw John she cried bitterly: "Behold the Prophet!" Both John and Faith cried out upon recognizing her voice.