inundated with blood; we know not how to conjure down the fire when its raging tongues are licking everywhere. We are afraid!
But do not rely on our weakness and fear. The disguised man of the time, who was bold of heart as ready with his tongue, and who knows the great word and has to utter it, is perhaps even now near you. It may be that he is masked in servile livery, or even in a harlequin's dress, and ye do not forbode that he who, perhaps, servilely draws off your boots, or who by his jokes tickles your diaphragm, is to be your destroyer. Do you not often feel a strange shudder when these servile forms fawn round you with an almost ironic humility, and it suddenly occurs to you, "This is perhaps a snare, and this wretch, who behaves so absolutely, so idiotically slavish,[1] is perhaps a secret Brutus"? Have you not sometimes by night dreams which warn you against the smallest winding worms whom you have perchance seen crawling in the daytime?[2] Be not afraid, I am only
- ↑ In German—"Dieser, Elende der sich so absolutistisch, so viehisch gehorsam gebärdet." Instead of dieser Elende, there is in the original draft "this obscure Jarke." The sentence concludes with the words "a secret Brutus who disguises himself, and who will put an end to the kingdom."—Translator.
- ↑ The following lines form the conclusion of the sentence in the original draft:—
"Is it true what people tell in Saxony, that the King dreamed
