FREDERICK [hearing the door open, and turning around]. Who's there?

AMELIA. You must be hungry and thirsty, I fear.

FREDERICK. Oh, no! neither.

AMELIA. Here is a bottle of wine, and something to eat. [Places the
basket on the table.] I have often heard my father say, that wine is
quite a cordial to the heart.

FREDERICK. A thousand thanks, dear stranger. Ah! could I prevail on
you to have it sent to my mother, who is on her death-bed, under the
roof of an honest peasant, called Hubert! Take it hence, my kind
benefactress, and save my mother.

AMELIA. But first assure me that you did not intend to murder my
father.

FREDERICK. Your father! heaven forbid.--I meant but to preserve her
life, who gave me mine.--Murder your father! No, no--I hope not.

AMELIA. And I thought not--Or, if you had murdered any one, you had
better have killed the Count; nobody would have missed him.

FREDERICK. Who, may I enquire, were those gentlemen, whom I hoped to
frighten into charity?

AMELIA. Ay, if you only intended to frighten them, the Count was the
very person for your purpose. But you caught hold of the other