WEISLINGEN: Such bliss for one so unworthy! [_Enter_ Franz. FRANZ: God save you, noble sir! I bring you greetings from everybody in Bamberg--from the bishop down to the jester. How they are distressed at your mishap! I am to tell you to be patient--they will think the more impatiently of your deliverance; for they cannot spare you. WEISLINGEN: They will have to. I'll return, but not to stay long. FRANZ: Not to stay? My lord, if you but knew what I know! If you had but seen her--the angel in the shape of woman, who makes Bamberg a forecourt of heaven--Adelheid von Walldorf! WEISLINGEN: I have heard much of her beauty. Is her husband at court? FRANZ: She has been widowed for four months, and is at Bamberg for amusement. If she looks upon you, it is as though you were basking in spring sunshine. WEISLINGEN: Her charms would be lost on me. I am betrothed. Marie will be the happiness of my life. And now pack up. First to Bamberg, and then to my castle. [_Exeunt._ SCENE II.--_A forest. Some Nuremberg merchants, who, attacked on their way to the Frankfurt Fair by_ Goetz _and his men, have escaped, leaving their goods in the hands of the knights. The page_ George _has, however, recaptured two of the merchants as_ Goetz _and his men enter_. GOETZ: Search the forest! Let none escape! GEORGE (_stepping forward_): I've done some preparatory work. Here they are. GOETZ: Welcome, good lad! Keep them well guarded! (_Exit his men with the merchants_.) And now, what news of Weislingen? GEORGE: Bad news! He looked confused when I said to him, "A few words from your Berlichingen." He tried to put me off with empty words, but when I pressed him he said he was under no obligation to you, and would have nothing to do with you. GOETZ: Enough! I shall not forget this infamous treachery. Whoever gets into my power shall feel it. (_Exit_ GEORGE.) I'll revel in their agony, deride their fear. And how, Goetz, are you thus changed? Should other people's faults and vices make you renounce your chivalry, and abandon yourself to vulgar cruelty? I'll drag him back in chains, if I can't get him any other way. And there's an end of it, Goetz; think of your duty! [_Enter_ GEORGE _with a casket_. GEORGE: Now let your joke be ended, they are frightened enough. One of them, a handsome young man, gave me this casket, and said, "Take this as ransom! The jewels I meant to take to my betrothed. Take them, and let me escape."