THEKLA. Had he a soft bed Under the hoofs of his war-horses? NEUBRUNN. Heaven! And then the many posts of the enemy! THEKLA. They are human beings. Misery travels free Through the whole earth. NEUBRUNN. The journey's weary length---- THEKLA. The pilgrim, travelling to a distant shrine Of hope and healing doth not count the leagues. NEUBRUNN. How can we pass the gates? THEKLA. Gold opens them. Go, do but go. NEUBRUNN. Should we be recognized---- THEKLA. In a despairing woman, a poor fugitive, Will no one seek the daughter of Duke Friedland. NEUBRUNN. And where procure we horses for our flight? THEKLA. My equerry procures them. Go and fetch him. NEUBRUNN. Dares he, without the knowledge of his lord? THEKLA. He will. Go, only go. Delay no longer. NEUBRUNN. Dear lady! and your mother? THEKLA. Oh! my mother! NEUBRUNN. So much as she has suffered too already; Your tender mother. Ah! how ill prepared For this last anguish! THEKLA. Woe is me! My mother! [Pauses. Go instantly. NEUBRUNN. But think what you are doing! THEKLA. What can be thought, already has been thought. NEUBRUNN. And being there, what purpose you to do? THEKLA. There a divinity will prompt my soul. NEUBRUNN. Your heart, dear lady, is disquieted! And this is not the way that leads to quiet. THEKLA. To a deep quiet, such as he has found, It draws me on, I know not what to name it, Resistless does it draw me to his grave. There will my heart be eased, my tears will flow. Oh hasten, make no further questioning! There is no rest for me till I have left These walls--they fall in on me--a dim power Drives me from hence--oh mercy! What a feeling! What pale and hollow forms are those! They fill, They crowd the place! I have no longer room here! Mercy! Still more! More still! The hideous swarm, They press on me; they chase me from these walls-- Those hollow, bodiless forms of living men! NEUBRUNN. You frighten me so, lady, that no longer I dare stay here myself. I go and call Rosenberg instantly. [Exit LADY NEUBRUNN. SCENE XII. THEKLA. His spirit 'tis that calls me: 'tis the troop Of his true followers, who offered up Themselves to avenge his death: and they accuse me Of an ignoble loitering--they would not Forsake their leader even in his death; they died for him, And shall I live? For me too was that laurel garland twined That decks his bier. Life is an empty casket: I throw it from me. Oh, my only hope; To die beneath the hoofs of trampling steeds-- That is a lot of heroes upon earth! [Exit THEKLA. [10] (The Curtain drops.) SCENE XIII. THEKLA, LADY NEUBRUNN, and ROSENBERG. NEUBRUNN. He is here, lady, and he will procure them. THEKLA. Wilt thou provide us horses, Rosenberg? ROSENBERG. I will, my lady. THEKLA. And go with us as well? ROSENBERG. To the world's end, my lady.