ELECTOR. Sweet child, consider! If I were a tyrant,
I am indeed aware your words ere now
Had thawed the heart beneath the iron breast.
But this I put to you: Have I the right
To quash the verdict which the court has passed?
What would the issue be of such an act?
NATALIE. For whom? For you?
ELECTOR. For me? No! Bah! For me!
My girl, know you no higher law than me!
Have you no inkling of a sanctuary
That in the camp men call the fatherland?
NATALIE. My liege! Why fret your soul? Because of such
Upstirring of your grace, this fatherland
Will not this moment crash to rack and ruin!
The camp has been your school. And, look, what there
You term unlawfulness, this act, this free
Suppression of the verdict of the court,
Appears to me the very soul of law.
The laws of war, I am aware, must rule;
The heart, however, has its charter, too.
The fatherland your hands upbuilt for us,
My noble uncle, is a fortress strong,
And other greater storms indeed will bear
Than this unnecessary victory.
Majestically through the years to be
It shall uprise, beneath your line expand,
Grow beautiful with towers, luxuriant,
A fairy country, the felicity
Of those who love it, and the dread of foes.
It does not need the cold cementing seal
Of a friend's life-blood to outlast the calm
And glorious autumn of my uncle's days!
ELECTOR. And cousin Homburg thinks this?
NATALIE. Cousin Homburg?
ELECTOR. Does he believe it matters not at all
If license rule the fatherland, or law?
NATALIE. This poor dear boy!
ELECTOR. Well, now?
NATALIE. Oh, uncle dear,
To that I have no answer save my tears!