carry this inextinguishable jealousy even to yon distant
realms? Earth is no longer a tarrying place for me, and hell and heaven
offer equal torture. Now welcome to the wretched the dread hand of
annihilation!

[Exit. (The scene remains some time unchanged. Music sounds, indicating
Clara's death; the lamp, which Brackenburg had forgotten to extinguish,
flares up once or twice, and then suddenly expires. The scene changes
to.)

SCENE IV.--A Prison

Egmont is discovered sleeping on a couch. A rustling of keys is heard;
the door opens; servants enter with torches; Ferdinand and Silva follow,
accompanied by soldiers. Egmont starts from his sleep.

Egmont. Who are ye that thus rudely banish slumber from my eyes? What
mean these vague and insolent glances? Why this fearful procession? With
what dream of horror come ye to delude my half awakened soul?

Silva. The duke sends us to announce your sentence.

Egmont. Do ye also bring the headsman who is to execute it?

Silva. Listen, and you will know the doom that awaits you.

Egmont. It is in keeping with the rest of your infamous proceedings.
Hatched in night and in night achieved, so would this audacious act of
injustice shroud itself from observation!--Step boldly forth, thou who
dost bear the sword concealed beneath thy mantle; here is my head, the
freest ever severed by tyranny from the trunk.

Silva. You err! The righteous judges who have condemned you will not
conceal their sentence from the light of day.

Egmont. Then does their audacity exceed all imagination and belief.
Silva (takes the sentence from an attendant, unfolds it, and reads). "In
the King's name, and invested by his Majesty with authority to judge all
his subjects of whatever rank, not excepting the knights of the Golden
Fleece, we declare---"

Egmont. Can the king transfer that authority?

Silva. "We declare, after a strict and legal investigation, thee, Henry,
Count Egmont, Prince of Gaure, guilty of high treason, and pronounce
thy sentence:--That at early dawn thou be led from this prison to the
market-place, and that there, in sight of the people, and as a warning
to all traitors, thou with the sword be brought from life to death.
Given at Brussels." (Date and year so indistinctly read as to be
imperfectly heard by the audience.) "Ferdinand, Duke of Alva, President
of the Tribunal of Twelve." Thou knowest now thy doom. Brief time
remains for thee to prepare for the impending stroke, to