SOPHIA (running between them, and throwing herself at the feet of LANISKA.) Save me! save me! You CAN save me! You are a powerful lord, and can speak to the king! Save me from this detested marriage.
KARL (aside to SOPHIA.)
Are you mad?
COUNT (raising SOPHIA, who clings to him, and shrinks from KARL.)
I will do so, or perish in the attempt!
KARL (aside.)
Ah! say you so? Then the king shall know HIS enemy and MINE! [Exit.
WEDGEWOOD (noticing KARL go off.) Whew! There's mischief brewing! If that black-muzzled rascal is not hatching trouble for us all, I'll never trust my seven senses again! I wonder they permit such a bear to go at large in a garden like this—he'll root up the flowers as well as weeds.—Dangerously odd!
(Trumpet sounds without, and a buzz and hum as if of a distant crowd; the noise comes near the Factory.)
WEDGEWOOD.
What's afoot now, I wonder?
ALBERT.
Some new freak, no doubt, of this eccentric monarch. (Noises.)
WEDGEWOOD (looking out.) The town is all astir (noise louder)—humming and buzzing like a hive of bees! (Noise, and distant shouts.) And yonder comes a fussy little burgomaster with a proclamation, and a crowd of noisy citizens at his heels—odd! [Noise and shouts increase.
(Sophia and the other GIRLS and the WORKMEN leave their occupations, as if anxious to learn the cause of the uproar. When the buzzing, huzzaing, and noise reach the Factory, loud sound of the trumpet.)