Is master of the Tyrol passes. I must forthwith Send some one to him, that he let not in The Spaniards on me from the Milanese. -Well, and the old Sesin, that ancient trader In contraband negotiations, he
Had you meant nothing further than to gull him For the Emperor's service.
WALLENSTEIN (after a pause, during which he looks narrowly on TERTSKY).
And from whence dost thou know
Has shown himself again of late. What brings he That I'm not gulling him for the Emperor's service? From the Count Thur?
Off with them, off! Thou understand'st not this. Never shall it be said of me, I parcell'd My native land away, dismember'd Germany, Betray'd it to a foreigner, in order
l'o come with stealthy tread, and filch away My own share of the plunder-Never! never!- No foreign power shall strike root in the empire, And least of all, these Goths! these hunger-wolves! Who send such envious, hot and greedy glances Towards the rich blessings of our German lands! I'll have their aid to cast and draw my nets, But not a single fish of all the draught Shall they come in for.
You will deal, however, More fairly with the Saxons? They lose patience While you shift ground and make so many curves. Say, to what purpose all these masks? Your friends Are plunged in doubts, baffled, and led astray in you. There's Oxenstein, there's Arnheim-neither knows What he should think of your procrastinations, And in the end I prove the liar; all
Passes through me. I have not even your handwriting.
I never give my handwriting; thou knowest it.
But how can it be known that you're in earnest, If the act follows not upon the word? You must yourself acknowledge, that in all Your intercourses hitherto with the enemy,
Whence knowest thou that I'm not gulling all of you?
Dost thou know me so well? When made I thee The intendant of my secret purposes?
I am not conscious that I ever open'd
My inmost thoughts to thee. The Emperor, it is true. Hath dealt with me amiss; and if I would,
I could repay him with usurious interest For the evil he hath done me. It delights me
To know my power; but whether I shall use it, Of that, I should have thought that thou couldst speak
No wiselier than thy fellows.
And which way doth Kolatto bend? Hast thou Made sure of Tiefenbach and Deodate?
What Piccolomini docs, that they do too.
You mean, then, I may venture somewhat with them?
-If you are assured of the Piccolomini.
Not more assured of mine own self. TERTSKY.
I would you trusted not so much to Octavio, The fox!
Thou teachest me to know my man? Sixteen campaigns I have made with that old warrior Besides, I have his horoscope:
We both are born beneath like stars-in short, [With an air of mystery To this belongs its own particular aspect, If therefore thou canst warrant me the rest-
There is among them all but this one voice, You must not lay down the command. I hear They mean to send a deputation to you.
If I'm in aught to bind myself to them,
You might have done with safety all you have done, They too must bind themselves to me.
ILLO (to WALLENSTEIN).
Say, will you here fully Commission me to use my own discretion? I'll gain for you the Generals' words of honor, Even as you wish.
Gain me their signatures! How you come by them, that is your concern.
And if I bring it to you, black on white, That all the leaders who are present here Give themselves up to you, without condition; Say, will you then-then will you show yourself In earnest, and with some decisive action Make trial of your luck?
Seize, seize the hour, Seldom comes the moment In life, which is indeed sublime and weighty. To make a great decision possible,
O! many things, all transient and all rapid, Must meet at once: and, haply, they thus met May by that confluence be enforced to pause Time long enough for wisdom, though too short, Far, far too short a time for doubt and scruple! This is that moment. See, our army chieftains, Our best, our noblest, are assembled around you, Their king-like leader! On your nod they wait. The single threads, which here your prosperous
Hath woven together in one potent web Instinct with destiny, O let them not Unravel of themselves. If you permit These chiefs to separate, so unanimous Bring you them not a second time together. Tis the high tide that heaves the stranded ship, And every individual's spirit waxes In the great stream of multitudes. Behold They are still here, here still! But soon the war Bursts them once more asunder, and in small Particular anxieties and interests Scatters their spirit, and the sympathy
Thou speakest as thou understand'st. How oft And many a time I've told thee, Jupiter, That lustrous god, was setting at thy birth. Thy visual power subdues no mysteries; Mole-eyed, thou mayest but burrow in the earth, Blind as that subterrestrial, who with wan, Lead-color'd shine lighted thee into life. The common, the terrestrial, thou mayest sce, With serviceable cunning knit together The nearest with the nearest; and therein I trust thee and believe thee! but whate'er Full of mysterious import Nature weaves And fashions in the depths-the spirit's ladder, That from this gross and visible world of dust Even to the starry world, with thousand rounds, Builds itself up; on which the unseen powers Move up and down on heavenly ministries- The circles in the circles, that approach The central sun with ever-narrowing orbit- These see the glance alone, the unsealed eye, Of Jupiter's glad children born in lustre.
[He walks across the chamber, then returns, and standing still, proceeds.
The heavenly constellations make not merely The day and nights, summer and spring, not merely Signify to the husbandman the seasons Of sowing and of harvest. Human action, That is the seed too of contingencies, Strew'd on the dark land of futurity In hopes to reconcile the powers of fate. Whence it behoves us to seek out the seed-time, for-To watch the stars, select their proper hours.
And trace with searching eye the heavenly houses Whether the enemy of growth and thriving Hide himself not, malignant, in his corner. Therefore permit me my own time. Meanwhile Do you your part. As yet I cannot say What I shall do-only, give way I will not. Depose me too they shall not. On these points You may rely.
PAGE (entering).
My Lords, the Generals.
WALLENSTEIN, TERTSKY, ILLO.-To them enter QUES- TENBERG, OCTAVIO and MAX. PICCOLOMINI, BUT-
In vain his supplication! At this moment The Duke hears only his old hate and grudge, Barters the general good to gratify Private revenge-and so falls Regenspurg.
LER, ISOLANI, MARADAS, and three other Generals. Max., to what period of the war alludes he?
WALLENSTEIN motions QUESTENBERG, who in con
sequence takes the chair directly opposite to him; the My recollection fails me here!
others follow, arranging themselves according to their rank. There reigns a momentary silence.
I have understood, 'tis true, the sum and import Of your instructions, Questenberg; have weigh'd
And form'd my final, absolute resolve: Yet it seems fitting, that the Generals
But what had we to do there?
Should hear the will of the Emperor from your mouth. The Swedes and Saxons from the province. May't please you then to open your commission Before these noble Chieftains?
When his Majesty The Emperor to his courageous armies Presented in the person of Duke Friedland A most experienced and renown'd commander, He did it in glad hope and confidence To give thereby to the fortune of the war A rapid and auspicious change. The onset Was favorable to his royal wishes. Bohemia was deliver'd from the Saxons,
The Swede's career of conquest check'd! These lands Began to draw breath freely, as Duke Friedland From all the streams of Germany forced hither The scatter'd armies of the enemy; Hither invoked as round one magic circle The Rhinegrave, Bernhard, Banner, Oxenstein, Yea, and that never-conquer'd King himself; Here finally, before the eye of Nürnberg, The fearful game of battle to decide.
May't please you, to the point.
In Nürnberg's camp the Swedish monarch left His fame-in Lützen's plains his life. Stood not astounded, when victorious Friedland After this day of triumph, this proud day, March'd toward Bohemia with the speed of flight, And vanish'd from the theatre of war; While the young Weimar hero forced his way Into Franconia, to the Danube, like
Some deling winter-stream, which, where it rushes, Makes its own channel; with such sudden speed He march'd, and now at once 'fore Regenspurg Stood to the affright of all good Catholic Christians. Then did Bavaria's well-deserving Prince Entreal swift a dance in his extreme need;
Beside the river Oder did the Duke Assert his ancient fame. Upon the fields Of Steinau did the Swedes lay down their arms, Subdued without a blow. And here, with others The righteousness of Heaven to his avenger Deliver'd that long-practised stirrer-up
Of insurrection, that curse-laden torch And kindler of this war, Matthias Thur. But he had fallen into magnanimous hands; Instead of punishment he found reward, And with rich presents did the Duke dismiss The arch-foe of his Emperor.
WALLENSTEIN (laughs). I know,
I know you had already in Vienna Your windows and balconies all forestall'd To see him on the executioner's cart.
I might have lost the battle, lost it too With infamy, and still retain'd your graces- But, to have cheated them of spectacle, Oh! that the good folks of Visuna never, No, never can forgive me!
So Silesia Was freed, and all things loudly call'd the Duke Into Bavaria, now press'd hard on all sides. And he did put his troops in motion: slowly, Quite at his ease, and by the longest road He traverses Bohemia; but ere ever He hath once seen the enemy, faces round, Breaks up the march, and takes to winter-quarters
The troops were pitiably destitute Of every necessary, every comfort. The winter came. What thinks his Majesty His troops are made of? An't we men? subjected Like other men to wet, and cold, and all
The Emperors nds seven horsemen to Duke Fried- The circumstances of necessity? lan 1.
Seven horsemen conriers sends he with the entreaty: He supera s s own, and supplicates Where as the sovereign lord he can command.
O miserable lot of the poor soldier! Wherever he comes in, all flee before him, And when he goes away, the general curse Follows him on his route. All must be seized.
Yes! 'tis my fault, I know it: I myself Have spoilt the Emperor by indulging him. Nine years ago, during the Danish war, I raised him up a force, a mighty force, Forty or fifty thousand men, that cost him Of his own purse no doit. Through Saxony The fury goddess of the war march'd on, E'en to the surf-rocks of the Baltic, bearing The terrors of his name. That was a time! In the whole Imperial realm no name like mine Honor'd with festival and celebration- And Albrecht Wallenstein, it was the title Of the third jewel in his crown! But at the Diet, when the Princes met At Regensburg, there, there the whole broke out, There 't was laid open, there it was made known, Out of what money-bag I had paid the host. And what was now my thank, what had I now, That I, a faithful servant of the Sovereign, Had loaded on myself the people's curses, And let the Princes of the empire pay The expenses of this war, that aggrandizes The Emperor alone-What thanks had I? What? I was offer'd up to their complaints, Dismiss'd, degraded !
But your Highness knows What little freedom he possess'd of action In that disastrous Diet.
I had that which could have procured him freedom. No! since 'twas proved so inauspicious to me To serve the Emperor at the empire's cost, I have been taught far other trains of thinking Of the empire, and the diet of the empire. From the Emperor, doubtless, I received this staff, But now I hold it as the empire's general- For the common weal, the universal interest, And no more for that one man's aggrandizement! But to the point. What is it that's desired of me?
First, his Imperial Majesty hath will'd
The original is not translatable into English; -Und sein Sold
Muss dem Soldaten werden, darnach heisst er.
It might perhaps have been thus rendered:
And that for which he sold his services, The soldier must receive.
I accepted the command but on conditions: And this the first, that to the diminution
Of my authority no human being,
Not even the Emperor's self, should be entitled To do aught, or to say aught, with the army
But a false or doubtful etymology is no more than a dull pun. If I stand warranter of the event,
What, my Lord Envoy? May I not be suffer'd To understand, that folks are tired of seeing The sword's hilt in my grasp: and that your court Snatch eagerly at this pretence, and use The Spanish title, to drain off my forces, To lead into the empire a new army Unsubjected to my control? To throw me Plumply aside,-I am still too powerful for you To venture that. My stipulation runs, That all the Imperial forces shall obey me Where'er the German is the native language. Of Spanish troops and of Prince Cardinals
That take their route, as visitors, through the empire, There stands no syllable in my stipulation. No syllable! And so the politic court Steals in a tiptoe, and creeps round behind it; First makes me weaker, then to be dispensed with, Till it dares strike at length a bolder blow And make short work with me.
What need of all these crooked ways, Lord Envoy? Straight forward, man! His compact with me pinches The Emperor. He would that I moved off!— Well!-I will gratify him!
Forbid it Heaven, that it should come to this! Our troops will swell in dreadful fermentation- The Emperor is abused-it cannot be.
It cannot be; all goes to instant wreck.
Thou hast said truly, faithful Isolani! What we with toil and foresight have built up Will go to wreck-all go to instant wreck. What then? another chieftain is soon found, Another army likewise (who dares doubt it?) Will flock from all sides to the Emperor,
At the first beat of his recruiting drum.
[During this speech, ISOLANI, TERTSKY, ILLO, and MARADAS talk confusedly with great agitation.
MAX. PICCOLOMINI (busily and passionately going from one to another, and soothing them. Hear, my commander! Hear me, generals! Let me conjure you, Duke! Determine nothing, Till we have met and represented to you Our joint remonstrances.-Nay, calmer! Friends! I hope all may be yet set right again.
Due audience from your wisdom, my Lord Envoy! You will be cautious how you show yourself In public for some hours to come-or hardly Will that gold key protect you from maltreatment. [Commotions heard from without.
Where's he who means to rob us of our general? TIEFENBACH (at the same time).
What are we forced to hear? That thou wilt leave us? We will live with thee, we will die with thee. WALLENSTEIN (with stateliness, and pointing to II.LO).
KOLATTO (at the same time).
[Here there commences an agitation among the There! the Feld-Marshal knows our will. [Exit.
Generals, which increases continually.
It grieves me for my noble officers' sakes!
I see not yet, by what means they will come at The moneys they have advanced, or how obtain The recompense their services demand.
Still a new leader brings new claimants forward,
And prior merit superannuates quickly. There serve here many foreigners in the army, And were the man in all else brave and gallant, I was not went to make nice scrutiny
After his pedigree or catechism.
This will be otherwise, i' the time to come. Well-me no longer it concerns. [He seats himself.
[While all are going off the Stage, the curtain drops.
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