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 repaid, 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 fortune 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

How oft

Thou speakest as thou understand'st.
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-colour'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 ministeries-
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,
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
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

Do

You

may rely.

SCENE XII.

Wallenstein, TerTSKY, ILLO.-To them enter QUESTENBERG, OCTAVIO, and MAX. PICCOLOMINI, BUTLER, IsoLANI, MARADAS, and three other Generals. WALLEN

STEIN motions QUESTENBERG, who in consequence 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, 't is true, the sum and import

Ay! is it so!

Yet it seems fitting, that the Generals

MAX.

To beat out

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 favourable to his royal wishes.
Bohemia was delivered 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
of Nürnberg,
The fearful game of battle to decide.

eye

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 marched, 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;

The Emperor sends seven horsemen to Duke Friedland,
Seven horsemen couriers sends he with the entreaty:
He superadds his own, and supplicates
Where as the sovereign lord he can command.

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 a spectacle,
Oh! that the good folks of Vienna never,
No, never can forgive me!

Yes! 't is 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
Honour'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 't was 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

1 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,

But a false or doubtful etymology is no more than a dull pun.

Placing my honour and my head in pledge,
Needs must I have full mastery in all

The means thereto. What render'd this Gustavus
Resistless, and unconquer'd upon earth?
This-that he was the monarch in his army!
A monarch, one who is indeed a monarch,
Was never yet subdued but by his equal.
But to the point! The best is yet to come.
Attend now, generals!

QUESTENBERG.

The Prince Cardinal

Begins his route at the approach of spring
From the Milanese; and leads a Spanish army
Through Germany into the Netherlands.
That he may march secure and unimpeded,

'Tis the Emperor's will you grant him a detachment Of eight horse-regiments from the army here.

WALLENSTEIN.

Yes, yes! I understand!-Eight regiments! Well,
Right well concerted, father Lamormain!

Eight thousand horse! Yes, yes! 'T is as it should be!
I see it coming.

QUESTENBERG.

There is nothing coming.

All stands in front: the counsel of state-prudence,

The dictate of necessity!-

WALLENSTEIN.

What then?

you

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
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!,

[Here there commences an agitation among
Generals, which increases continually.
noble officers' sakes!

It grieves me for

my

I see not yet, by what means they will come at
The moneys they have advanced, or how obtain
The recompence 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 wont to make nice scrutiny

After his pedigree or catechism.

This will be otherwise, i' the time to come.
Well-me no longer it concerns.

the

ILLO.

Attend! We frame a formal declaration,
Wherein we to the Duke consign ourselves
Collectively, to be and to remain

His both with life and limb, and not to spare
The last drop of our blood for him, provided
So doing we infringe no oath or duty,
We may be under to the Emperor.-Mark!
This reservation we expressly make

In a particular clause, and save the conscience.
Now hear! This formula so framed and worded
Will be presented to them for perusal
Before the banquet. No one will find in it
Cause of offence or scruple. Hear now further!
After the feast, when now the vap'ring wine
Opens the heart, and shuts the eyes, we let
A counterfeited paper, in the which
This one particular clause has been left out,
Go round for signatures.

TERTSKY.

How? think you then That they'll believe themselves bound by an oath, Which we had trick'd them into by a juggle?

ILLO.

We shall have caught and caged them! Let them then
Beat their wings bare against the wires, and rave
Loud as they may against our treachery;
At court their signatures will be believed
Far more than their most holy affirmations.
Traitors they are, and must be; therefore wisely
Will make a virtue of necessity.

TERTSKY.

Well, well, it shall content me; let but something
Be done, let only some decisive blow
Set us in motion.

ILLO.

Besides, 't is of subordinate importance
How, or how far, we may thereby propel
The generals. T is enough that we persuade
The Duke that they are his-Let him but act
In his determined mood, as if he had them,
And he will have them. Where he plunges in,
He makes a whirlpool, and all stream down to it.

TERTSKY.

His policy is such a labyrinth,
That many a time when I have thought myself
Close at his side, he 's gone at once, and left me
Ignorant of the ground where I was standing.
He lends the enemy his ear, permits me
To write to them, to Arnheim; to Sesina
Himself comes forward blank and undisguised;
Talks with us by the hour about his plans.
And when I think I have him-off at once--
He has slipp'd from me, and appears as if
He had no scheme, but to retain his place.

ILLO.

He give up his old plans! I'll tell you, friend!
His soul is occupied with nothing else,

Even in his sleep-They are his thoughts, his dreams,
That day by day he questions for this purpose
The motions of the planets--

TERTSKY.

Ay! you know This night, that is now coming, he with SENI Shuts himself up in the astrological tower To make joint observations-for I hear,

[Talking to herself, while she is advancing.
Here's no need of full powers and commissions-
My cloudy Duke! we understand each other-
And without words. What, could I not unriddle,
Wherefore the daughter should be sent for hither,
Why first he, and no other, should be chosen
To fetch her hither! This sham of betrothing her
To a bridegroom, when no one knows-No! no!——
This may blind others! I see through thee, Brother!
But it beseems thee not, to draw a card

At such a game. Not yet!-It all remains
Mutely deliver'd up to my finessing--
Well-thou shalt not have been deceived, Duke Fried-
land!

In her who is thy sister.-

SERVANT (enters).

The commanders!
TERTSKY (to the COUNTESS).

Take care you heat his fancy and affections

In Germany, after honourable addresses have been paid and formally accepted, the lovers are called Bride and Bridegroom, even though the marriage should not take place till years afterwards.