_Scene:_ Same as Act Five. Time, one day later.
[Very early in the morning. Helene and maid in traveling costume,
small valises and rugs rolled and strapped, on center-table.]
HELENE. You gave my letter to Doctor Haenle himself, into his own hands!
MAID. Into his own hands.
HELENE. Then there was no mistake. I told Lassalle I would meet him at
the station at seven o'clock--only half an hour yet to spare! We will
catch the Switzerland Express. Lassalle will have to go--this affair
means exile for him--but for us to be exiled together will be Heaven.
Now this is a pivotal point--we must be calm.
MAID. Surely you are calm.
HELENE. Yet I did not sleep a moment all the night.
MAID. Probably Lassalle did not either.
HELENE. Did you hear a carriage?
MAID. [_Peering out of window_] Only a wagon.
HELENE. Listen!
MAID. I hear the sound of horses!
HELENE. Running?
MAID. They are running!
HELENE. My God; yes, they come closer--they are running! Oh, thank
Heaven, thank Heaven, the Prince is dead--I am both sorry and glad.
MAID. There, they are turning this way--there, the carriage stops at the
door!
HELENE. Dead--the Prince is dead. Now in the excitement that will
follow the carrying in of the body, we will escape--we can walk to the
station in ten minutes--that gives us ten minutes to spare. Here, you
take the rug and this valise, I will take the other. We will find a
street porter at the corner, or a carriage. Do not open the door until I
tell you!
[Door bursts open and Prince Yanko half-tumbles in.]
PRINCE. I am unharmed--congratulate me--I am unharmed!
[Opens arms to embrace Helene, who backs away.]
HELENE. And Lassalle--Lassalle--where is Lassalle?
PRINCE. He is dead--I killed him!
HELENE. You killed Lassalle--the greatest man in Europe--you killed him!
PRINCE. He fell at the first fire--congratulate me!
HELENE. You lie! Lassalle is not dead. Away! Away! I scorn you--loathe
you--away--the sight of you burns my eyeballs--the murderer of
Lassalle--away!
[Helene crouches in a corner. Prince stands stiff, amazed. The man,
with valises in one hand and rug in shawl-strap, looks on with
lack-luster eye, frozen by indecision.]
* * * * *
_Note._--Helene von Donniges married Prince Racowitza three weeks after
the death of Lassalle. The Prince died two years later. Princess Helene
committed suicide at Munich, March Twenty-six, Nineteen Hundred Twelve,
aged sixty-seven years. These facts are of such a dull slaty-gray and so
lacking in dramatic interest that they are omitted from the play.