_Wolfstein_, being a professor of the capital crime, considers mere
larceny _infra dig_. A "second robber" must therefore be hired, and
_Ottocar_ has one already preserved in the castle dungeons, in the person
of a dumb prisoner. Dummy comes on, and the auditors at once recognise the
"brother" who was not murdered in the prologue. He steals the casket, and
_Ottocar_ steals off.

The duke and duchess next enter into a dialogue, the subject of which is
one _Wilhelm_, a young standard-bearer, who appears; and having said a few
words exits, that _Ida_, the duchess, might inform us, in a soliloquy,
what we have already shrewdly suspected, namely--that the ensign is her
son; another presentiment comes into one's mind, which one don't think it
fair to the author and his story to entertain till the proper time. A sort
of secret interview between the mother and son now takes place, which ends
by the imprisonment of the latter; why is not explained at the moment;
nor, indeed, till the next scene, when it is quite apparent; for if one
sees an impregnable castle, rigidly guarded by supernumeraries, with an
impassable river, bristling with _chevaux-de-frise_ it is impossible to
get over, and a moat that it would be death to cross, a prison-escape may
be surely calculated upon. In the present instance, this formulary is not
omitted, for _Wilhelm_ jumps into the river from a bridge which he has
contrived to reach. Though several shots are fired into the tank of water
that represents the Rhine, there is no hissing; on the contrary, the
second act ends amidst general applause; which indeed it deserves, for the
scenery is magnificent.

"The Ancient Arch in the Black Forest," is a sort of house of call for
witches, and it being seen during their merry-making, or holiday, is
rendered more picturesque by the _Devil's_ "Ha, ha!" The hospitable
_Zabaren_ entertains hundreds of witches, of all sorts and sizes, who