(_Stepping past the stump._)
Oh, if you find them holding up the North,
Oh, tell them, Wiglaf, to keep iron hearts!
Say that the ancient trunk of Wittikind
Shows a green sprout! Say all the North is green!
RUDOLPH--Go with us to the mountains!
FRITZ-- Stay and die!
CANZLER--Or say--say, Wiglaf, say--it shall be green!
(_Smoke is seen curling above the roof of the
cottage._)
HARTZEL--I did not say he was a scoundrel. Eh? (_To Rudolph._)
Did I? Did I, Max? (_Calling to Canzler._)
Where is he going?
I don't doubt he's been wronged; I don't doubt that.
Where's he--
(_Fritz comes forward._)
RUDOLPH (_To Max._)--We must leave here.
FRITZ-- We must stay here.
(_In Hartzel's ear._)
He says we, too, must leave here.
HARTZEL-- Leave? What for?
What have we done?
FRITZ-- But I say stay and die.
Let them thresh us out, too. (_To Max._) What do you say?
RUDOLPH--What do you say, Max?
MAX-- I say stay and live.
They cannot kill us.
RUDOLPH-- How so?
MAX-- If they do,
They must kill Oswald, too. Then where's the child?
(_Fritz and Rudolph exchange glances._)
Where then's Val-father's promised child?