Chapter 40

_The Castle with the terrace leading down into the garden, as in ACT I. It is night, as then.--The_ PRINCE OF HOMBURG, _with bandaged eyes, is led in through the lower garden-wicket, by_ CAPTAIN STRANZ. _Officers with the guard. In the distance one can hear the drumming of the death-march._

THE PRINCE. All art thou mine now, immortality! Thou glistenest through the veil that blinds mine eyes With that sun's glow that is a thousand suns. I feel bright pinions from my shoulders start; Through mute, ethereal spaces wings my soul; And as the ship, borne outward by the wind, Sees the bright harbor sink below the marge, Thus all my being fades and is submerged. Now I distinguish colors yet and forms, And now--all life is fog beneath my feet.

[_The_ PRINCE _seats himself on the bench which stands about the oak in the middle of the open space. The_ CAPTAIN _draws away from him and looks up toward the terrace._]

How sweet the flowers fill the air with odor! D'you smell them?

STRANZ (_returning to him_). They are gillyflowers and pinks.

THE PRINCE. How come the gillyflowers here?

STRANZ. I know not. It must have been some girl that planted them. Come, will you have a bachelor's button?

THE PRINCE. Thanks! When I get home I'll have it put in water.