Page:MU KPB 001 The Rhinegold & The Valkyrie - Illustrated by Artur Rackham.pdf/95

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The Rhinegold
Loge

The Plunder must pay for the pardon.

Throwing the Tarnhelm on to the heap.
Alberich
Accursed thief!
But patience! Cairn!
He who moulded the one
Makes me another;
Still mine is the might
That Mime obeys.
Loath indeed
Am I to leave

My cunning defence to the foe!

Nothing Alberich
Owns at all now;

Unbind, ye tyrants, his bonds!

Loge
To Wotan.
Ought I to free him?
Art thou content?
Wotan
A golden ring
Girdles thy finger:
Hearest, elf?

That also belongs to the hoard.

Alberich
Horrified.
The ring?
Wotan
The ring must also
Go to the ransom.
Alberich
Trembling.

My life—but the ring: not that!

Wotan
With greater violence.
The ring I covet;

For thy life I care not at all.

Alberich

But if my life I ransom
The ring I must also rescue;

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