MELCH.
On the same day they, too, are doom'd to fall.
ATTING.
And are the nobles parties to this league?
STAUFF.
We trust to their assistance, should we need it;
As yet the peasantry alone have sworn.
ATTING. (raising himself up in great astonishment).
And have the peasantry dared such a deed
On their own charge, without the nobles' aid—
Relied so much on their own proper strength?
Nay then, indeed, they want our help no more;
We may go down to death cheer'd by the thought
That after us the majesty of man
Will live, and be maintain'd by other hands.
[He lays his hand upon the head of the child who is kneeling before him.]
From this boy's head, whereon the apple lay,
Your new and better liberty shall spring;
The old is crumbling down—the times are changing—
And from the ruins blooms a fairer life.