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We in the field here gave our cares and toils
To make her great, and fight her a free way
To the loftiest earthly good; lo! mother Nature
Within the peaceful silent convent walls
Has done her part, and out of her free grace
Hath she bestow'd on the beloved child
The godlike; and now leads her thus adorn'd
To meet her splendid fortune, and my hope.
DUCHESS (to THEKLA).

Thou wouldst not have recognized thy father,
Wouldst thou, my child? She counted scarce eight!
years,

When last she saw your face.

THEKLA.

O yes, yes, mother!
At the first glance!-My father is not alter'd.
The form that stands before me falsifies
No feature of the image that hath lived
So long within me!

WALLENSTEIN.

The voice of my child!
[Then after a pause.

I was indignant at my destiny,
That it denied me a man-child to be
Heir of my name and of my prosperous fortune,
And re-illume my soon extinguish'd being
In a proud line of princes.

I wrong'd my destiny. Here upon this head,

So lovely in its maiden bloom, will I
Let fall the garland of a life of war,
Nor deem it lost, if only I can wreath it,
Transmitted to a regal ornament,
Around these beauteous brows.

No! 'twas not so intended, that my business
Should be my highest best good-fortune!

[TERTSKY eniers, and delivers letters to the DUKE
which he breaks open hurryingly.

COUNTESS (to MAX.).
Remunerate your trouble! For his joy
He makes you recompense. "Tis not unfitting
For you, Count Piccolomini, to feel
So tenderly-my brother it beseems
To show himself for ever great and princely.

THEKLA.

Then I too must have scruples of his love;
For his munificent hands did ornament me
Ere yet the father's heart had spoken to me.

MAX.

Yes; 'tis his nature ever to be giving
And making happy.

[He grasps the hand of the DUCHESS with still in
creasing warmth.

How my heart pours out
Its all of thanks to him! O! how I seem
To utter all things in the dear name Friedland.
While I shall live, so long will I remain
The captive of this name: in it shall bloom
My every fortune, every lovely hope.
Inextricably as in some magic ring

In this name hath my destiny charm-bound me!
COUNTESS (who during this time has been anxiously
watching the DUKE, and remarks that he is lost in
thought over the letters).

My brother wishes us to leave him. Come. WALLENSTEIN (turns himself round quick, collects himself, and speaks with cheerfulness to the DUCHESS).

[He clasps her in his arms as PICCOLOMINI enters. Once more I bid thee welcome to the camp.

SCENE IX.

Enter MAX. PICCOLOMINI, and some time after Count
TERTSKY, the others remaining as before.

COUNTESS.

There comes the Paladin who protected us.

WALLENSTEIN.

Max.! Welcome, ever welcome! Always wert thou
The morning-star of my best joys!

MAX.

My General

WALLENSTEIN.

Till now it was the Emperor who rewarded thee,
I but the instrument. This day thou hast bound
The father to thee, Max.! the fortunate father,
And this debt Friedland's self must pay.

MAX.

My prince!

You made no common hurry to transfer it.
I come with shame: yea, not without a pang!
For scarce have I arrived here, scarce deliver'd
The mother and the daughter to your arms,
But there is brought to me from your equerry
A splendid richly-plated hunting-dress
So to remunerate me for my troubles-
Yes, yes, remunerate me! Since a trouble
It must be, a mere office, not a favor
Which I leapt forward to receive, and which
I came already with full heart to thank you for.

Thou art the hostess of this court. You, Max.,
Will now again administer your old office,
While we perform the sovereign's business here.
[MAX. PICCOLOMINI offers the DUCHESS his arm; the
COUNTESS accompanies the PRINCESS.
TERTSKY (calling after him).
Max., we depend on seeing you at the meeting.

SCENE X.

WALLENSTEIN, COUNT TERTSKY.
WALLENSTEIN (in deep thought to himself).
She hath seen all things as they are-It is so,
And squares completely with my other notices.
They have determined finally in Vienna,
Have given me my successor already;

It is the king of Hungary, Ferdinand,

The Emperor's delicate son! he's now their savior
He's the new star that's rising now! Of us
They think themselves already fairly rid,
And as we were deceased, the heir already
Is entering on possession-Therefore-dispatch!
[As he turns round he observes TERTSKY, and gives
him a letter.

Count Altringer will have himself excused,
And Galas too-I like not this!

TERTSKY.

And if

Thou loiterest longer, all will fall away,
One following the other.

WALLENSTEIN.

Altringer

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

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Has shown himself again of late. What brings he That I'm not gulling him for the Emperor's service? From the Count Thur?

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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

To 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.

TERTSKY.

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.

WALLENSTEIN.

I never give my handwriting; thou knowest it.

TERTSKY.

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.

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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.

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Seize, seize the hour, Ere it slips from you. 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 for

tune

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

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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 see,
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.
To watch the stars, select their proper hours,
Whence it behoves us to seek out the seed-time,
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.

Let them come in.

SCENE XII.

WALLENSTEIN, TERTSKY, ILLO.-To them enter QUESTENBERG, OCTAVIO and MAX. PICCOLоmini, ButLER, ISOLANI, MARADAS, and three other Generals. WALLENSTEIN motions QUESTENBERG, who in con

sequence takes the chair directly opposite to him; the others follow, arranging themselves according to their rank. There reigns a momentary silence.

WALLENSTEIN.

I have understood, 'tis true, the sum and import
Of your instructions, Questenberg; have weigh'd

them,

And form'd my final, absolute resolve: Yet it seems fitting, that the Generals

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To beat out

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?

QUESTENBERG

I am ready

To obey you; but will first entreat your Highness,
And all these noble Chieftains, to consider,
The Imperial dignity and sovereign right

Speaks from my mouth, and not my own presumption.

WALLENSTEIN.

We excuse all preface.

QUESTENBERG.

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.

WALLENSTEIN.

May't please you, to the point.

QUESTENBERG.

In Nürnberg's camp the Swedish monarch left
His fame-in Lützen's plains his life. But who
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 delving 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
Entreat swift aidance in his extreme need;

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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 Vienna never,
No, never can forgive me!

QUESTENBERG.

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

WALLENSTEIN.

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 Emperor sends seven horsemen to Duke Fried- The circumstances of necessity?

land,

Seven horsemen couriers sends he with the entreaty:
He superadds his 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,

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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 !

QUESTENBERG.

But your Highness knows What little freedom he possess'd of action

In that disastrous Diet.

WALLENSTEIN.

Death and hell!

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?

QUESTENBERG.

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.

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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,

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