BUTLER. You know not. Ask not! Wherefore should it happen. [Passionately grasping GORDON'S hand. I am dishonor'd if the Duke escape us. GORDON. O! to save such a man BUTLER. What! GORDON. It is worth A sacrifice.-Come, friend! Be noble-minded! BUTLER (with a cold and haughty air). This Duke-and I am but of mean importance. So that the man of princely rank be saved? GORDON, I am endeavoring to move a rock. ACT IV. SCENE I. SCENE-Butler's Chamber. BUTLER, MAJOR, and GERALDIN. BUTLER. Find me twelve strong Dragoons, arm them with pikes, For there must be no firing Conceal them somewhere near the banquet-room, GERALDIN. They'll be here anon. [Exit GERALDIN. BUTLER. Declare for him, a dizzy drunken spirit SCENE II. BUTLER, CAPTAIN DEVEREUX, and MACDONALD. MACDONALD. Here we are, General. [Exit GORDON. Thou hadst a mother, yet no human feelings. I cannot hinder you, but may some God Rescue him from you! DEVEREUX. What's to be the watch-word? BUTLER. Long live the Emperor ! BOTH (recoiling). How? BUTLER. Live the House of Austria! DEVEREUX. Have we not sworn fidelity to Friedland? MACDONALD. Have we not march'd to this place to protect him? BUTLER. Protect a traitor, and his country's enemy! DEVEREUX. Why, yes! in his name you administer'd Our oath. MACDONALD. And followed him yourself to Egra. BUTLER. I did it the more surely to destroy him. DEVEREUX. So then! MACDONALD. An alter'd case! As well as any other. What think you, Brother Macdonald? MACDONALD. Why, if he must fall, And will fall, and it can't be otherwise, One would not give place to this Pestalutz. DEVEREUX (after some reflection). When do you purpose he should fall? BUTLER. This night To-morrow will the Swedes be at our gates. DEVEREUX. You take upon you all the consequences' BUTLER. I take the whole upon me. DEVEREUX. And it is The Emperor's will, his express absolute will? For we have instances, that folks may like The murder, and yet hang the murderer. BUTLER. The manifesto says-alive or dead. Alive 't is not possible-you see it is not. DEVEREUX. What avails sword or dagger against him? Well, dead then! dead! But how can we come at him? He is not to be wounded-he is The town is fill'd with Tertsky's soldiery. There's a Dominican, my countryman. BUTLER. So do, Macdonald But now go and select from out the regiment Twenty or thirty able-bodied fellows, And let them take the oaths to the Emperor. DEVEREUX. But how do we get through Hartschier and Gordon That stand on guard there in the inner chamber? BUTLER. I have made myself acquainted with the place. DEVEREUX. And when we are there, by what means shall we gain The Duke's bed-chamber, without his alarming BUTLER. THEKLA (looking around her). WALLENSTEIN (steps to her, raising her up in his arms). The attendants fill the right wing; he hates bustle, See, there's thy loving mother. Thou art in And lodges in the left wing quite alone. DEVEREUX. Were it well over-hey, Macdonald? I MACDONALD. And I too. "T is too great a personage. BUTLER. In plenty, honor, splendor-You may safely DEVEREUX. If the business BUTLER. Set your hearts quite at ease. Ye save for Ferdinand DEVEREUX. And 'tis his purpose to dethrone the Emperor? BUTLER. Yes! Yes!-to rob him of his Crown and Life. DEVEREUX. And he must fall by the executioner's hands, BUTLER. It were his certain destiny. DEVEREUX. Well! Well! Come then, Macdonald, he shall not SCENE III. SCENE-A Gothic and gloomy Apartment at the DUCHESS FRIEDLAND'S. THEKLA on a seat, pale, her eyes closed. The DUCHESS and LADY NEUBRUNN busied about her. WALLENSTEIN and the COUNTESS in conversation. WALLENSTEIN. How knew she it so soon? COUNTESS. She seems to have Foreboded some misfortune. The report Of an engagement, in the which had fallen A colonel of the Imperial army, frighten'd her. I saw it instantly. She flew to meet The Swedish courier, and with sudden questioning, Hush! Wherefore wouldst thou speak with him, my I sank into his arms; and that has shamed me. WALLENSTEIN. I see she is in the right, and am inclined (LADY NEUBRUNN goes to call him). DUCHESS. But I, thy mother, will be present— THEKLA. "T were More pleasing to me, if alone I saw him: Trust me, I shall behave myself the more Collectedly. WALLENSTEIN. Permit her her own will. Leave her alone with him: for there are sorrows, Where of necessity the soul must be Its own support. A strong heart will rely On its own strength alone. In her own bosom, The strength to rise superior to this blow. COUNTESS (detaining him). Where art thou going? I heard Tertsky say WALLENSTEIN. (Going. That forces us to such sad omens. Heavy And sick within me is my heart— We, lay, expecting no attack, at Neustadt, [THEKLA betrays agitation in her gestures. The Officer pauses till she makes a sign to him to proceed. CAPTAIN. Both in van and flanks With our whole cavalry we now received them; These walls breathe on me, like a church-yard vault. Back to the trenches drove them, where the foot Stretch'd out a solid ridge of pikes to meet them. [THEKLA, as giddy, grasps a chair. [THEKLA who has accompanied the last speech with all the marks of increasing agony, trembles through her whole frame, and is falling. The LADY NEUBRUNN runs to her, and receives her in her arms. [Exeunt DUCHESS and COUNTESS. My dearest lady NEUBRUNN. |