MEPH. Wilt thou grasp after a thunderbolt? 'Tis well that it was not given to you miserable mortals!... FAUST. Take me to her! She _shall_ be free!... Take me to her, I say, and liberate her! MEPH. I will take thee to her--and do what I _can_ do. Listen! Have I all power in heaven and on earth?--I will becloud the jailer's senses. Then do thou get possession of the keys, and lead her forth with human hand. I will keep watch.--The magic steeds will be at hand ... I will carry you off. So much lies in my power. * * * * * _Night. The open country. FAUST and MEPHISTOPHELES galloping past on black horses. They pass a group of witches busy round their cauldron. They reach the prison. Within is heard the voice of GRETCHEN singing an old plaintive ballad. FAUST listens:_ 'She dreams not' (he says) 'that her loved one is listening, and hears her chains rattle and the straw as it rustles.' [_He unlocks the prison door and steps in._ GRETCHEN (_crouching into her bed of straw_). Woe, woe--they are coming! Bitter death! FAUST. Hush! hush! I am come to free thee. GRETCHEN (_grovelling before him_). If thou art a man, O pity my distress! FAUST. Thou wilt awaken the watchmen with thy cries. [_He seizes her chain to unlock it._ GRETCHEN (_kneeling_). Who has given you, heads-man, this power over me? You have come for me already at midnight. Pity me, and let me live! Is to-morrow morning not soon enough? And I am still so young--and I must die! Fair was I too, and that was my ruin. Pity me! What harm have I ever done to thee! I never saw thee before in all my life. FAUST. Can I endure this misery? GRETCHEN. I am wholly in your power. But let me first suckle my child. I held it in my bosom all the night. They took it from me, to vex me, and _now_ they say I've killed it.... And I shall never be happy any more! FAUST (_kneels beside her_). He that loves thee kneels before thee. GRETCHEN. O let us kneel and call upon the saints. But ... ah!... Look!... Under those steps, under the threshold, hell is flaming. The Evil One is raging there so furiously. Listen, how he roars and thunders! FAUST. Gretchen! Gretchen! GRETCHEN (_listening_). That was the voice of my friend! Where is he? I heard him call.... Right through the howling and uproar of hell, through the horrid laughter of the devils, I recognized that sweet loving tone. FAUST. It is I. GRETCHEN. Thou!... O say it once more! (_Clasping him._) It is! it is he! Where is now all my pain? Where is the anguish of the dungeon and the chain? FAUST. Come! Come with me!