Faust. Thou wilt awaken the watchmen with thy cries. [He seizes her chain to unlock it.
Gretchen (kneeling). Who has given you, heads-man, this power over me? You have come for me already at midnight. Pity me, and let me live! Is to-morrow morning not soon enough? And I am still so young—and I must die! Fair was I too, and that was my ruin. Pity me! What harm have I ever done to thee! I never saw thee before in all my life.
Faust. Can I endure this misery?
Gretchen. I am wholly in your power. But let me first suckle my child. I held it in my bosom all the night. They took it from me, to vex me, and now they say I've killed it.... And I shall never be happy any more!
Faust (kneels beside her). He that loves thee kneels before thee.
Gretchen. O let us kneel and call upon the saints. But ... ah!... Look!... Under those steps, under the threshold, hell is flaming. The Evil One is raging there so furiously. Listen, how he roars and thunders!
Gretchen (listening). That was the voice of my friend! Where is he? I heard him call.... Right through the howling and uproar of hell, through the horrid laughter of the devils, I recognized that sweet loving tone.
Faust. It is I.
Gretchen. Thou!... O say it once more! (Clasping him.) It is! it is he! Where is now all my pain? Where is the anguish of the dungeon and the chain?