SCENE V.
Privy Counsellor Clarenbach, Counsellor Wellenberg.
Well. Most honoured Sir.
P. Coun. What is your pleasure, Sir?
Well. I am forced, by necessity, to go in quest of you, Sir; the suit of the poor orphans--
P. Coun. Is determined; the will is confirmed.
Well. I know. (Pulls out a paper.) This is the decree. The oftener I peruse it, and the longer I consider it, the more it resembles a poor chest forced open, beat to pieces, and in the end carried off.
P. Coun. You grow impertinent, Sir.
Well. No, most honoured Sir! but I am filled with spirit and courage, like an old trusty servant, armed with perseverance and justice in the cause of the orphan, which calls aloud to heaven for redress. That I am, and that you will find me.
P. Coun. Do you intend to appeal?
Well. Yes, I do, indeed.
P. Coun. Well, do so, and leave me.
Well. No, no; I will not leave you. I appeal to you, most honoured Sir, not qua judex, but qua homo, qua homo, who believes in the day of judgment, and, at the sound of the last trump, would wish to be called to the right; not to be left among the damned, where many an Aulic Counsellor will be found, I am afraid.
P. Coun. I honour the feelings that animate you, Sir; but they are foreign to the affair. Appeal in form, at--
Well. To avoid all replicas, duplicas, et fatalia, that may delay and put off the cause, I will put you an argumentum, that, eo ipso, shall invalidate your sentence, and re-instate the poor children in their right, assigned to them by God and justice.
P. Coun. (pauses.) Are you possessed of such an argument? (With surprise.) It will be welcome.
Well. Indeed! what you should call truly welcome?--
P. Coun. By heaven, very welcome!
Well. Then give me the embrace of a good man, (Privy Counsellor goes to embrace him,) without touching my hands, which at this present time labour under the chiragra. (Embraces him.) So our town has doubted your humanity, and been of opinion that it is detained as a prisoner in a gold purse.--You blush;--well, that for a Privy Counsellor is a good sign; I will circulate it among the multitude. Now my argumentum is, that--