CURT. Let us put him to bed.
ALICE. No, I don't want to touch him. [Rings.
CAPTAIN. [As before] You must not be angry at me! [To CURT] Look after my children!
CURT. This is sublime! I am to look after his children, and he has stolen mine!
ALICE. Always the same self-deception!
CAPTAIN. Look after my children! [Continues to mumble unintelligibly] Blub-blub-blub-blub.
ALICE. At last that tongue is checked! Can brag no more, lie no more, wound no more! You, Curt, who believe in God, give Him thanks on my behalf. Thank Him for my liberation from the tower, from the wolf, from the vampire!
CURT. Not that way, Alice!
ALICE. [With her face close to the CAPTAIN's] Where is your own strength now? Tell me? Where is your energy? [The CAPTAIN, speechless, spits in her face] Oh, you can still squirt venom, you viper—then I'll tear the tongue out of your throat! [Cuffs him on the ear] The head is off, but still it blushes!—O, Judith, glorious girl, whom I have carried like vengeance under my heart—you, you have set us free, all of us!—? If you have more heads than one, Hydra, we'll take them! [Pulls his beard] Think only that justice exists on the earth! Sometimes I dreamed it, but I could never believe it. Curt, ask God to pardon me for misjudging Him. Oh, there is justice! So I will become a sheep, too! Tell Him that, Curt! A little success makes us better, but adversity alone turns us into wolves.
The LIEUTENANT enters from the background.