HOHENZOLLERN. Oh, well then, what's the odds?
Call it the Platen lady, or Ramin.
There is a Prussian post on Sunday next,
So you can find out by the shortest way
Whether your lady fair has lost a glove.
Off! Twelve o'clock! And we stand here and jaw!
THE PRINCE (dreamily into space).
Yes, you are right. Come, let us go to bed.
But as I had it on my mind to say—
Is the Electress who arrived in camp
Not long since with her niece, the exquisite
Princess of Orange, is she still about?
HOHENZOLL. Why?—I declare the idiot thinks—
THE PRINCE. Why?
I've orders to have thirty mounted men
Escort them safely from the battle-lines.
Ramin has been detailed to lead them.
HOHENZOLLERN. Bosh!
They're gone long since, or just about to go.
The whole night long, Ramin, all rigged for flight,
Has hugged the door. But come. It's stroke o' twelve.
And I, for one, before the fight begins,
I want to get some sleep.
SCENE V
The same. Hall in the palace. In the distance, the sound of cannon. The ELECTRESS and PRINCESS NATALIE, dressed for travel, enter, escorted by a gentleman-in-waiting, and sit down at the side. Ladies-in-waiting. A little later the ELECTOR enters with FIELD-MARSHAL. DÖRFLING, the PRINCE OF HOMBURG with the glove in his collar, COUNT HOHENZOLLERN, COUNT TRUCHSZ, COLONEL HENNINGS, TROOP-CAPTAIN VON DER GOLZ and several other generals, colonels and minor officers.
ELECTOR. What is that cannonading?—Is it Götz?
DÖRFLING. It's Colonel Götz, my liege, who yesterday
Pushed forward with the van. An officer
Has come from him already to allay
Your apprehensions ere they come to birth.
A Swedish outpost of a thousand men
Has pressed ahead into the Hackel Hills,
But for those hills Götz stands security
And sends me word that you should lay your plans
As though his van already held them safe.
ELECTOR (to the officers).
The Marshal knows the plan. Now, gentlemen,
I beg you take your pens and write it down.