Carpenter.  Come, gossip.

Clara.  I have neither the arms, nor the vigour of a man; but I have that which ye all lack—­courage and contempt of danger.  O that my breath could kindle your souls!  That, pressing you to this bosom, I could arouse and animate you!  Come!  I will march in your midst!—­As a waving banner, though weaponless, leads on a gallant army of warriors, so shall my spirit hover, like a flame, over your ranks, while love and courage shall unite the dispersed and wavering multitude into a terrible host.

Jetter.  Take her away; I pity her, poor thing!

[Exeunt Burgers.

Brackenburg.  Clara!  Seest thou not where we are?

Clara.  Where?  Under the dome of heaven, which has so often seemed to arch itself more gloriously as the noble Egmont passed beneath it.  From these windows I have seen them look forth, four or five heads one above the other; at these doors the cowards have stood, bowing and scraping, if he but chanced to look down upon them!  Oh, how dear they were to me, when they honoured him.  Had he been a tyrant they might have turned with indifference from his fall!  But they loved him!  O ye hands, so prompt to wave caps in his honour, can ye not grasp a sword?  Brackenburg, and we? —­do we chide them?  These arms that have so often embraced him, what do they for him now?  Stratagem has accomplished so much in the world.  Thou knowest the ancient castle, every passage, every secret way.—­Nothing is impossible,—­suggest some plan—­

Brackenburg.  That we might go home!

Clara.  Well.

Brackenburg.  There at the corner I see Alva’s guard; let the voice of reason penetrate to thy heart!  Dost thou deem me a coward?  Dost thou doubt that for thy sake I would peril my life?  Here we are both mad, I as well as thou.  Dost thou not perceive that thy scheme is impracticable?  Oh, be calm!  Thou art beside thyself.

Clara.  Beside myself!  Horrible.  You, Brackenburg, are beside yourself.  When you hailed the hero with loud acclaim, called him your friend, your hope, your refuge, shouted vivats as he passed;—­then I stood in my corner, half opened the window, concealed myself while I listened, and my heart beat higher than yours who greeted him so loudly.  Now it again beats higher!  In the hour of peril you conceal yourselves, deny him, and feel not, that if he perish, you are lost.

Brackenburg.  Come home.

Clara.  Home?

Brackenburg.  Recollect thyself!  Look around thee!  These are the streets in which thou weft wont to appear only on the Sabbath-day, when thou didst walk modestly to church; where, over-decorous perhaps, thou wert displeased if I but joined thee with a kindly greeting.  And now thou dost stand, speak, and act before the eyes of the whole world.  Recollect thyself, love!  How can this avail us?

Clara.  Home!  Yes, I remember.  Come, Brackenburg, let us go home! 
Knowest thou where my home lies?