Now, gentle hosts, within the close hard by, Will we our court, as queen of sorrows, hold-- The green graves underneath us, and above The all-seeing vault, which is the eye of God, Judge of the widow and the fatherless. There will I plead my children's wrongs, and there, If, as I think, there boil within your veins The deep sure currents of your race's manhood, Ye'll nail the orphans' badge upon your shields, And own their cause for God's. We name our champions-- Rudolf, the Cupbearer, Leutolf of Erlstetten, Hartwig of Erba, and our loved Count Walter, Our knights and vassals, sojourners among you. Follow us. [Exit Elizabeth, etc.; the crowd following.] ACT IV SCENE I Night. The church of a convent. Elizabeth, Conrad, Gerard, Monks, an Abbess, Nuns, etc., in the distance. Conrad. What's this new weakness? At your own request We come to hear your self-imposed vows-- And now you shrink: where are the high-flown fancies Which but last week, beside your husband's bier, You vapoured forth? Will you become a jest? You might have counted this tower's cost, before You blazoned thus your plans abroad. Eliz. Oh! spare me! Con. Spare? Spare yourself; and spare big easy words, Which prove your knowledge greater than your grace. Eliz. Is there no middle path? No way to keep My love for them, and God, at once unstained? Con. If this were God's world, Madam, and not the devil's, It might be done. Eliz. God's world, man! Why, God made it-- The faith asserts it God's. Con. Potentially-- As every christened rogue's a child of God, Or those old hags, Christ's brides--Think of your horn-book-- The world, the flesh, and the devil--a goodly leash! And yet God made all three. I know the fiend; And you should know the world: be sure, be sure. The flesh is not a stork among the cranes. Our nature, even in Eden gross and vile, And by miraculous grace alone upheld, Is now itself, and foul, and damned, must die Ere we can live; let halting worldlings, madam, Maunder against earth's ties, yet clutch them still. Eliz. And yet God gave them to me-- Con. In the world; Your babes are yours according to the flesh; How can you hate the flesh, and love its fruit? Eliz. The Scripture bids me love them. Con. Truly so, While you are forced to keep them; when God's mercy Doth from the flesh and world deliverance offer, Letting you bestow them elsewhere, then your love May cease with its own usefulness, and the spirit Range in free battle lists; I'll not waste reasons-- We'll leave you, Madam, to the Spirit's voice. [Conrad and Gerard withdraw.]