HEDWIG, WALTER, and WILLIAM
HEDWIG.
My own dear boys! your father comes today;
He lives, is free, and we, and all are free;
The country owes its liberty to him!
WALTER.
And I, too, mother, bore my part in it!
I must be named with him. My father's shaft
Ran my life close, but yet I never flinch'd.
HEDWIG (embracing him).
Yes, yes, thou art restored to me again!
Twice have I seen thee given to my sad eyes,
Twice suffered all a mother's pangs for thee!
But this is past—I have you both, boys, both!
And your dear father will be back today.
[A monk appears at the door.]
WILLIAM.
See, mother, yonder stands a holy friar;
He comes for alms, no doubt.