Egmont. No experiment is dangerous, the result of which we have the courage to meet.       

         Orange. You are irritated, Egmont.       

         Egmont. I must see with my own eyes.       

         Orange. Oh that for once you saw with mine! My friend, because your eyes are open, you imagine that you see. I go! Await Alva's arrival, and God be with you! My refusal to do so may perhaps save you. The dragon may deem the prey not worth seizing, if he cannot swallow us both. Perhaps he may delay, in order more surely to execute his purpose; in the meantime you may see matters in their true light. But then, be prompt! Lose not a moment! Save,—oh, save yourself! Farewell!—Let nothing escape your vigilance:—how many troops he brings with him; how he garrisons the town; what force the Regent retains; how your friends are prepared. Send me tidings—Egmont—Egmont. What would you?       

         Orange (grasping his hand). Be persuaded! Go with me!       

         Egmont. How! Tears, Orange!       

         Orange. To weep for a lost friend is not unmanly.       

         Egmont. You deem me lost?       

         Orange. You are lost! Consider! Only a brief respite is left you. Farewell.       

         [Exit.       

         Egmont (alone). Strange that the thoughts of other men should exert such an influence over us. These fears would never have entered my mind; and this man infects me with his solicitude. Away! 'Tis a foreign drop in my blood! Kind nature, cast it forth! And to erase the furrowed lines from my brow there yet remains indeed a friendly means.       

         ACT III       

         SCENE I.—Palace of the Regent Margaret of Parma       

         Regent. I might have expected it. Ha! when we live immersed in anxiety and toil, we imagine that we achieve the utmost that is possible; while he, who, from a distance, looks on and commands, believes that he requires only the possible. O ye kings! I had not thought it could have galled me thus. It is so sweet to 

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