Bern. 'Tis false—most false!
Enter Ravensburg.
Rav. My lord, all's lost! The savage and inveterate foe have storm'd the walls, and rush to glut their vengeance.
Ab. (to Ravensburg apart.) And from your father! None—no hope?
Rav. None! He merely states, that dreading he might lose her, who'd supply a daughter's loss; and fearing to increase an orphan's grief, he cautiously concealed, how, one autumnal night some fourteen years ago, he saw upon the Danube's banks, an infant seemingly expiring. He snatch'd it—sav'd it! and what the mystery might solve, if now such mystery were worth solving—this scarf (producing it) encircled her.—(Abbot takes the scarf with great eagerness.)—But all is past! and Agnes, dear lov'd Agnes, by the father saved, the son must instantly behold destroyed.
Ab. (after having gazed on the scarf with the greatest emotion.) Eternal Providence! Theresa! princess! Oh, great God of Nature!—(rushing into the sanctuary.)
Rav. Theresa!—Mighty heaven!
[Flourish. The gates are forced.
Enter the prince Palatine, free knights, Crusaders, and soldiers.
Prin. First seize yon renegade! (free knights seize Ravensburg) next force the sanctuary!—(free knights and soldiers enter the sanctuary by force) and then no more on others shall her fate depend. This arm——(knights and soldiers bring Agnes from the sanctuary to the front, all the characters following)—Now, while all thoughts are deadened in my heated brain, but those of fury and revenge—thus treason falls, and the vile traitress dies. [Seizing Agnes, and going to stab her with his sword.