And how wonderful, how splendid does Nathalie appear in her calm nobility! How absolutely true to nature it is that her strength first begins gently and noiselessly to unfold its wings when the man, whom she had looked upon as her ideal, from whom she had expected all things, has succumbed. And how genuinely womanly are the words with which she attempts to raise him up once more: "Return, young hero, to your prison walls, And, on your passage, imperturbably Regard once more the grave they dug for you. It is not gloomier, nor more wide at all Than those the battle showed a thousand times!" But poetic beauty is like the fragrance of flowers--it cannot be described, but only perceived. Nathalie's character is rounded off in the first scene of the fourth act when she begs the Elector to liberate Homburg. She could have borne the death of the Prince, but this timorous misrepresentation of himself she cannot bear: "I never guessed a man could sink so low Whom history applauded as her hero. For look--I am a woman and I shrink From the mere worm that draws too near my foot; But so undone, so void of all control, So unheroic quite, though lion-like Death fiercely came, he should not find me thus! Oh, what is human greatness, human fame!" It is then that the Elector decides to make the Prince himself the judge of his offense, and writes him the following letter: "My Prince of Homburg, when I made you prisoner Because of your too premature attack, I thought that I was doing what was right-- No more; and reckoned on your acquiescence. If you believe that I have been unjust, Tell me I beg you in a word or two, And forthwith I will send you back your sword." He gives this letter to Nathalie for her to deliver to the Prince. I must set down the words with which she receives the letter: "I do not know and do not seek to know What woke your favor, liege, so suddenly. But truly this, I feel this in my heart, You would not make ignoble sport of me. The letter hold whate'er it may--I trust That it hold pardon--and I thank you for it!" Many another writer would have believed it was not enough for Nathalie to prove herself a heroine, but that she must stride onward with seven league boots and become an Amazon as well. Kleist, however, had looked deeply into feminine nature, he knew that woman's greatness only blooms above the abyss, and that she loses her wings the moment that earth again offers her a spot where she can safely and firmly tread. Nathalie sighs only once: "Oh what is human greatness, human fame!" But she rejoices when she has the saving letter of the Elector in her possession, and, without troubling herself further about its contents, she hastens, enraptured, to the Prince of Homburg.