I'll smash that lute of yours to bits; you fritter away your working hours with it!----Second disciplinary punishment?
Then see how you will spend your time! In eight days you won't be able to stand on your legs!----Third disciplinary punishment?
Deprivation of a soft bed at nights.----My bed is as hard as if it were stuffed with pebbles!
Silence! This rascal would like to sleep in the hay. ----Fourth disciplinary punishment?
Bread and water from to-day for eight days!----Do your hear?!----Fifth disciplinary punishment?
By that you must understand you are chained all awry, so that after the first hour all the devils you have in your body say good-bye to you! Seventh disciplinary punishment?
(_Having reached the window._) You shall shed your hide here yet! You, you thief, shall clamber up and down the Jacob's ladder until you fall dead. (_He passes in front of the King, leaves the cell and shuts the door from the outside._)
(_Looks after him in surprise. Then quite calmly, with quiet deliberation, he turns toward the door._) What does it mean? Where have I made a mistake? For a whole year I believed that in the course of a year I had educated this beast into a human being. Suddenly, after all that trouble, he drops back again into the animal kingdom.----Or did I dream?----It is impossible entirely that the jug should have been broken. I drank out of it this morning. He will break it now outside and then show me the pieces. Will he let me go thirsty today? Will he let me thirst?----I fear worse!----At any rate I shall receive him with a look that will make his eyes sink to the ground. (_Bracing himself._) Help me, kingly majesty, in order that the fellow may realize his baseness of his own accord!----(_Listening._) He's coming!----A duel without weapons, man against man!
(_The door opens noisily. Princess Alma enters, clad as in the preceding act and carrying a jug with both her hands. The door closes loudly behind her._)
(_With the fright of immoderate joy._) Alma?! My child!----Oh, beastly spite!
O Father, I cannot embrace you now! I bring you this jug of wine.
(_Struggling for breath, with both hands at his breast._) Oh, satanic cruelty!----(_Takes the jug from her and sets it to one side._) Whence come you, my child? For twelve months I've thirsted for a sight of you! You are living yet, you are whole and well. Speak, how is it with you among miserable mankind?