daily guard; it is more numerous! almost all the troops! Oh, Brackenburg, go! Learn what it means. It must be something unusual. Go, good Brackenburg, do me this favour.       

         Brackenburg. I am going! I will return immediately. (He offers his hand to Clara, and she gives him hers.)       

         [Exit Brackenburg.       

         Mother. Thou sendest him away so soon!       

         Clara. I am curious; and, besides—do not be angry, Mother—his presence pains me. I never know how I ought to behave towards him. I have done him a wrong, and it goes to my very heart to see how deeply he feels it. Well, it can't be helped now!       

         Mother. He is such a true-hearted fellow!       

         Clara. I cannot help it, I must treat him kindly. Often without a thought, I return the gentle, loving pressure of his hand. I reproach myself that I am deceiving him, that I am nourishing in his heart a vain hope. I am in a sad plight! God knows, I do not willingly deceive him. I do not wish him to hope, yet I cannot let him despair!       

         Mother. That is not as it should be.       

         Clara. I liked him once, and in my soul I like him still I could have married him; yet I believe I was never really in love with him.       

         Mother. Thou wouldst always have been happy with him.       

         Clara. I should have been provided for, and have led a quiet life.       

         Mother. And through thy fault it has all been trifled away.       

         Clara, I am in a strange position. When I think how it has come to pass, I know it, indeed, and I know it not. But I have only to look upon Egmont, and I understand it all; ay, and stranger things would seem natural then. Oh, what a man he is! All the provinces worship him. And in his arms, should I not be the happiest creature in the world?       

         Mother. And how will it be in the future?       

         Clara. I only ask, 

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