TRUMPETER and RECRUIT.
Let us not hear that again, we pray.
CAPUCHIN.
Such a Bramarbas, whose iron tooth
Would seize all the strongholds of earth forsooth!
Did he not boast, with ungodly tongue,
That Stralsund must needs to his grasp be wrung,
Though to heaven itself with a chain 'twere strung?
TRUMPETER.
Will none put a stop to his slanderous bawl?
CAPUCHIN.
A wizard he is!—and a sorcerer Saul!—
Holofernes!—a Jehu!—denying, we know,
Like St. Peter, his Master and Lord below;
And hence must he quail when the cock doth crow—
BOTH YAGERS.
Now, parson, prepare; for thy doom is nigh.
CAPUCHIN.
A fox more cunning than Herod, I trow—
TRUMPETER and both YAGERS (pressing against him).
Silence, again,—if thou wouldst not die!
CROATS (interfering.)
Stick to it, father; we'll shield you, ne'er fear;
The close of your preachment now let's hear.
CAPUCHIN (still louder).
A Nebuchadnezzar in towering pride!
And a vile and heretic sinner beside!
He calls himself rightly the stone of a wall;
For faith! he's a stumbling-stone to us all.
And ne'er can the emperor have peace indeed,
Till of Friedland himself the land is freed.
[During the last passages which he pronounces in an elevated voice, he has been gradually retreating, the Croats keeping the other soldiers off.