Clara monologue (Act 5) — Egmont

Thinkest thou I am a child, or frantic? What avails perchance?--With no vain hope canst thou hide from me this dreadful certainty... Ye shall hear me and ye will: for I see it, ye are overwhelmed, ye cannot hearken to the voice of your own hearts. Through the present peril cast but one glance into the past,--the recent past. Send your thoughts forward into the future. Could ye live, would ye live, were he to perish? With him expires the last breath of freedom. What was he not to you? For whose sake did he expose himself to the direst perils? His blood flowed, his wounds were healed for you alone. The mighty spirit, that upheld you all, a dungeon now confines, while the horrors of secret murder are hovering around. Perhaps he thinks of you--perhaps he hopes in you,--he who has been accustomed only to grant favours to others and to fulfil their prayers.