ou love him!

LINDENSCHMIED (_with a gesture, as before_).

Ha! Ha!

FREI.

Weiler himself heard the Hereditary Forester say it. And, I tell you,
what the Hereditary Forester says--that's as good as if another fellow
had already done it.

LINDENSCHMIED.

He'll look out for his skin, the Hereditary Forester will.

[_Softly._]

If there were no judges that sit around the green table, and if there
were no--

[_Indicates by a pantomime that he means the hangman._]

FREI.

His reign is at an end. He--For now it is

[_Strikes the table._]

Liberty! Long life to the Hereditary Forester! And whoever has any evil
intentions toward him--I am alluding to no one--

MOeLLER (_hurriedly_).

Here, host. Almost eight o'clock!

HOST.

Are you in such a hurry, Mr. Moeller?

MOeLLER.

At the blast-furnace they are waiting for me.

HOST.

Your change--

MOeLLER (_already at the door_).

Never mind! Credit it to me for tomorrow.

[_Exit._]

SCENE II

LINDENSCHMIED; HOST; FREI.

FREI (_rises, shaking his fist after him_).

Nothing shall be credited to you and fellows of your kind. Everything
shall be paid to you. Lindenschmied, are you coming along to the duke's
estate?

LINDENSCHMIED.

I'm going my own way. [_Advances._]

Those judges around the green table! The idea, that an honest fellow
should be frightened when a leaf rustles, and look behind him to see
whether the constable isn't after him!

FREI.

We'll knock it down--the green table--I tell you. We'll see to it that
in ten years from now nobody will be able to get any information as to
what sort of thing a constable ever was. Now it is Liberty, and Order
has ceased to exist: everybody can do what he pleases. No more
constables, no green table, I tell you. No tower, no chains. If the Lord
had created the hares expressly for the nobleman, he would at once have
stamped his coat of arms into their fur. That would have been an easy
matter for a person like the Lord. Now men know that those who are in
prisons are martyrs worthy of veneration, and that the noblemen are
rascals, be they ever so honest. And the industrious people are rascals,
for it is their fault that honest people who do not like to work are
poor. That you can read printed in the newspapers. And if the Hereditary
Forester gets hold of Godfrey [_pantomime_] nobody can hurt him for
that; for Godfrey got honest people into prison, when they had stolen.

LINDENSCHMIED.