No More Learning

LERSE (_entering_): The rebel peasants. Back to the castle! They
have dealt horribly with the noblest men!

GOETZ: On my own soil I shall not try to evade the rabble.

[_Enter_ STUMPF, KOHL, SIEVERS, _and armed peasants_.

STUMPF: We come to ask you, brave Goetz, to be our captain.

GOETZ: What! Me? To break my oath? Stumpf, I thought you were a
friend! Even if I were free, and you wanted to carry on as you did at
Weinsberg, raving and burning, and murdering, I'd rather be killed
than be your captain!

STUMPF: If we had a leader of authority, such things would not
happen. The princes and all Germany would thank you.

SIEVERS: You must be our captain, or you will have to defend your
own skin. We give you two hours to consider it.
GOETZ: Why consider? I can decide now as well as later. Will you
desist from your misdeeds, and act like decent folk who know what
they want? Then I shall help you with your claims, and be your captain
for four weeks. Now, come! [_Exeunt. _


SCENE II. --_Landscape, with village and castle in distance_. GOETZ
_and_ GEORGE.

GEORGE: I beseech you, leave this infamous mob of robbers and
incendiaries.

GOETZ: We have done some good and saved many a convent, many a life.

GEORGE: Oh, sir, I beg you to leave them at once, before they drag
you away with them as prisoner, instead of following you as captain!
(_Flames are seen rising from the distant village_. ) See there! A new
crime!

GOETZ: That is Miltenberg.