is a fact! I am dead to meinself and—and I am dead to my leetle girl. LOWENA. Oh, yes, Gustave, it is indeed a sad misfortune for us both, that my father should have entered into a contract which had for its object to coerce me into becoming the wife of Herman Van Slaus. RIP. [_Aside._] Yes, dat is a fact. I remember, de burgomaster come to my house last night mit a paper, and I wrote my name down on it; but I vas trunk. GUSTAVE. And having loved you so long, is it now impossible that you can become my wife? LOWENA. No, not impossible; but—oh, my poor dear father, if you had but survived to see this day! RIP. [_Aside._] I wish what I had—but I am dead, dat is a fact. _Enter_ HERMAN VAN SLAUS. LOWENA. Oh, Gustave! see, protect me from that wicked man—I will be thine, and only thine! HERMAN. No, Lowena; you will be _mine_, for you will not be suffered to resign into my hands that fortune of which I covet the possession, but which would lose half its value to me if you come not with it. RIP. [_Aside._] Dat is young Slaus; and he is as big a tam rascal as vas his resbectable fader. HERMAN. Hereafter, Lowena, I will cause you to repent that you have given a rival to the man to whom, from your very childhood, you have been pledged and bound. RIP. Herman Van Slaus, _you_ are bledged to old Nick, and vill never be redeemed. HERMAN. Who is this miserable old wretch? GUSTAVE. I would kill you sooner than you should become the husband of my heart’s adored. _Enter_ KNICKERBOCKER _and_ ALICE. KNICKERBOCKER. So, there you are, Master Herman, sticking to your rascally work like a crab to its shell, as fishmongers have it. ALICE. I should like to throw him into a saucepan of boiling water till he was done to rags. RIP. [_Aside._] Dat is my sister Alice—and dat is Knickerbocker—how fat they both is got since last night! What great big suppers they must have eat! _Enter_ NICHOLAS VEDDER _and_ DAME VEDDER. DAME. Oh, do try if you cannot save my poor girl! RIP. [_Aside._] Tonner unt blitzen! dat is mein frau! [_Retreating._] No, no! I forget—she not is mine frau now! [_Chuckles._ DAME. Let him take half the fortune and— VEDDER. What is that you observe? DAME. Nothing—nothing! VEDDER. Then don’t observe it any more. DAME. I—I only— VEDDER. [_Shouting._] Silence! RIP. [_Aside._] Dat is goot! [_Laughing._] Mine frau have caught a