Jetter. Let him speak; one may always learn something.
Soest. He is quite right.
Several Citizens. Go on! Go on! One does not hear this every day.
Vansen. You citizens, forsooth! You live only in the present; and as you tamely follow the trade inherited from your fathers, so you let the government do with you just as it pleases. You make no inquiry into the origin, the history, or the rights of a Regent; and in consequence of this negligence, the Spaniard has drawn the net over your ears.
Soest. Who cares for that, if one has only daily bread?
Jetter. The devil! Why did not some one come forward and tell us this in time?
Vansen. I tell it you now. The King of Spain, whose good fortune it is to bear sway over these provinces, has no right to govern them otherwise than the petty princes who formerly possessed them separately. Do you understand that?
Jetter. Explain it to us.
Vansen. Why, it is as clear as the sun. Must you not be governed according to your provincial laws? How comes that?
A Citizen. Certainly!