FRANZ: No, you are mine. And if I get your freedom I get my own. With a firm hand I shall pour the poison into my master's cup. Farewell. [_He embraces her and hurries away_. SCENE IV.--_Rustic garden_. MARIE _sleeping in an arbour._ LERSE. LERSE: Gracious lady, awake! We must away. Goetz captured as a rebel and thrown into a dungeon! His age! His wounds! MARIE: We must hurry to Weislingen. Only dire necessity can drive me to this step. Saving my brother's life I go to death. I shall kneel to him, weep before him. [_Exit._ SCENE V.--WEISLINGEN'S _hall_. WEISLINGEN: A wretched fever has dried my very marrow. No rest for me, day or night! Goetz haunts my very dreams. He is a prisoner, and yet I tremble before him. (_Enter_ MARIE.) Oh, heaven! Marie's spirit, to tell me of her death! MARIE: Weislingen, I am no spirit. I have come to beg of you my brother's life. WEISLINGEN: Marie! You, angel of heaven, bring with you the tortures of hell. The breath of death is upon me, and you come to throw me into despair! MARIE: My brother is ill in prison. His wounds--his age---- WEISLINGEN: Enough. Franz! (_Enter_ FRANZ _in great excitement_.) The papers there! (FRANZ _hands him a sealed packet_.) Here is your brother's death-warrant; and thus I tear it. He lives. Do not weep, Franz; there's hope for the living. FRANZ: You cannot, you must die! Poison from your wife. [_Rushes to the window, and throws himself out into the river_. WEISLINGEN: Woe to me! Poison from my wife! Franz seduced by the infamous woman! I am dying; and in my agony throb the tortures of hell. MARIE (_kneeling):_ Merciful God, have pity on him! SCENE VI.--_A small garden outside the prison_, GOETZ, ELIZABETH, LERSE, _and prison-keeper_. GOETZ: Almighty God! How lovely is it beneath Thy heaven! Farewell, my children! My roots are cut away, my strength totters to the grave. Let me see George once more, and sun myself in his look. You turn away and weep? He is dead! Then die, Goetz! How did he die? Alas! they took him among the incendiaries, and he has been executed? ELIZABETH: No, he was slain at Miltenberg, fighting like a lion. GOETZ: God be praised! Now release my soul! My poor wife! I leave you in a wicked world. Lerse, forsake her not! Blessings upon Marie and her husband. Selbitz is dead, and the good emperor, and my George. Give me some water! Heavenly air! Freedom! [_He dies_. ELIZABETH: Freedom is only above--with thee; the world is a prison. LERSE: Noble man! Woe to this age that rejected thee! Woe to the future that shall misjudge thee! FOOTNOTES: