SCENE XIV.

To these enter ILLO from the inner room. He has in his hand the golden service-cup, and is extremely distempered with drinking: GOETZ and BUTLER follow him, endeavouring to keep him back.

ILLO.

What do you want? Let me go.

GOETZ and BUTLER.

Drink no more, Illo! For heaven's sake, drink no

more.

ILLO (goes up to OCTAVIO, and shakes him cordially by the hand, and then drinks).

Octavio! I bring this to you! Let all grudge be drowned in this friendly bowl! I know well enough, ye never loved me-Devil take me!—and I never loved you!-I am always even with people in that way!-Let what's past be past-that is, you understand-forgotten! I esteem you infinitely. (Embracing him repeatedly). You have not a dearer friend on earth than I-but that you know. The fellow that cries rogue to you calls me villain-and I'll strangle him!-my dear friend!

TERTSKY (whispering to him).

Art in thy senses? For heaven's sake, Illo, think where you are!

Softly, softly! 'T was but a word or two. MAX. (having read the paper gives it back).

Illo, good night!

MAX.

ILLO.

No! You come not off so! The Duke shall learn who are his friends. (All collect round ILLO and MAX.)

What

MAX.

|ILLO (stammering with rage and fury, loses all command over himself, and presents the paper to MAX. with one hand, and his sword in the other).

OCTAVIO TERTSKY, BUTLER (all together). Down with the sword!

ILLO.

This is the thanks the Duke gets for his partiality to Italians and foreigners.-Us Bohemians he holds for little better than dullards-nothing pleases him but what's outlandish.

TERTSKY (in extreme embarrassment, to the Commanders, who at ILLO's words give a sudden start, as preparing to resent them).

It is the wine that speaks, and not his reason. Attend not to him, I entreat you.

ISOLANI (with a bitter laugh).

Wine invents nothing: it only tattles.

ILLO.

to Count TERTsky).

OCTAVIO.

GOETZ.

Why, I seemed to think so too.

ISOLANI.

What do I care for that? Where there stand other names, mine can stand too.

TIEFENBACH.

Before supper there was a certain proviso therein, or short clause concerning our duties to the Emperor.

BUTLER (to one of the commanders).

For shame, for shame! Bethink you. What is the main business here? The question now is, whether we shall keep our General, or let him retire. One must not take these things too nicely and over-scrupulously. ISOLANI (to one of the Generals). Did the Duke make any of these provisos when he gave you your regiment?

TERTSKY (to GOetz). Or when he gave you the office of which brings you in yearly a thousand pistoles!

ILLO.

army-purveyancer,

What thou hadst sanction'd, should not, it might seem,
Have come amiss to me. But 't is my nature-
Thou know'st that in such matters I must follow
My own light, not another's.

OCTAVIO (goes up to him and embraces him).
Follow it,

O follow it still further, my best son!
To-night, dear boy! it hath more faithfully
Guided thee than the example of thy father.

MAX.

Declare thyself less darkly.

OCTAVIO.

I will do so.
For after what has taken place this night,
There must remain no secrets 'twixt us two.
[Both seat themselves.

Max. Piccolomini! what thinkest thou of
The oath that was sent round for signatures?

MAX.

I hold it for a thing of harmless import,

The deeper cause thou hast to hate this light,
The more impatient cause have I, my son,
To force it on thee. To the innocence

And wisdom of thy heart I could have trusted thee
With calm assurance-but I see the net
Preparing and it is thy heart itself
Alarms me for thine innocence-that secret,
[Fixing his
eye steadfastly on his son's face.

Which thou concealest, forces mine from me. [MAX. attempts to answer, but hesitates, and casts his to the ground embarrassed. eyes

From which thou hearest it at this present moment, Doth warrant thee that it is no Priest's legend.

MAX.

How mere a maniac they supposed the Duke;
What, he can meditate?-the Duke?-can dream
That he can lure away full thirty thousand
Tried troops and true, all honourable soldiers,
More than a thousand noblemen among them,
From oaths, from duty, from their honour lure them,
And make them all unanimous to do

A deed that brands them scoundrels?

OCTAVIO.

Such a deed,

With such a front of infamy, the Duke
No ways desires-what he requires of us
Bears a far gentler appellation. Nothing
He wishes, but to give the Empire peace.
And so, because the Emperor hates this peace,
Therefore the Duke-the Duke will force him to it.
All parts of the Empire will he pacify,
And for his trouble will retain in payment
(What he has already in his gripe)-Bohemia!

MAX.

Has he, Octavio, merited of us,

That we-that we should think so vilely of him?

OCTAVIO.

What we would think is not the question here,
The affair speaks for itself—and clearest proofs !
Hear me, my son-'t is not unknown to thee,
In what ill credit with the Court we stand.
But little dost thou know, or guess, what tricks,
What base intrigues, what lying artifices,
Have been employed-for this sole end-to sow
Mutiny in the camp! All bands are loosed-
Loosed all the bands, that link the officer
To his liege Emperor, all that bind the soldier
Affectionately to the citizen.

Lawless he stands, and threateningly beleaguers
The state he's bound to guard. To such a height
'T is swoln, that at this hour the Emperor
Before his armies-his own armies-trembles;
Yea, in his capital, his palace, fears
The traitors' poniards, and is meditating
To hurry off and hide his tender offspring--
Not from the Swedes, not from the Lutherans-
No! from his own troops hide and hurry them!

MAX.

Cease, cease! thou torturest, shatterest me.
That oft we tremble at an empty terror;
But the false phantasm brings a real misery.

OCTAVIO.

It is no phantasm. An intestine war,
Of all the most unnatural and cruel,
Will burst out into flames, if instantly
We do not fly and stifle it. The Generals
Are many of them long ago won over;
The subalterns are vacillating-whole
Regiments and garrisons are vacillating.
To foreigners our strongholds are entrusted;
To that suspected Schafgotch is the whole
Force of Silesia given up: to Tertsky
Five regiments, foot and horse-to Isolani,
To Illo, Kinsky, Butler, the best troops.

Likewise to both of us.

MAX.

I know

He makes no secret of it-needs make none-
That we're called hither for his sake-he owns it.
He needs our aidance to maintain himself-
He did so much for us; and 't is but fair
That we too should do somewhat now for him.
OCTAVIO.

And know'st thou what it is which we must do?
That Illo's drunken mood betray'd it to thee.
Bethink thyself-what hast thou heard, what seen?
The counterfeited paper-the omission
Of that particular clause, so full of meaning,
Does it not prove, that they would bind us down
To nothing good?

It grieves me

That I must dash to earth, that I must shatter
A faith so specious; but I may not spare thee!
For this is not a time for tenderness.

Thou must take measures, speedy ones-must act.
I therefore will confess to thee, that all
Which I've entrusted to thee now-that all
Which seems to thee so unbelievable,
That—yes, I will tell thee-(a pause)-Max.! I had it all
From his own mouth-from the Duke's mouth I had it.
MAX. (in excessive agitation).

No!-no!-never!

OCTAVIO.

Himself confided to me What I, 't is true, had long before discover'd By other means-himself confided to me, That 't was his settled plan to join the Swedes; And, at the head of the united armies, Compel the Emperor-

And thou hast been So treacherous? That looks not like my father! I trusted not thy words, when thou didst tell me Evil of him; much less can I now do it, That thou calumniatest thy own self.

OCTAVIO.

I did not thrust myself into his secresy.

MAX.

Uprightness merited his confidence.

OCTAVIO.

He was no longer worthy of sincerity.

MAX.

Dissimulation, sure, was still less worthy Of thee, Octavio!

OCTAVIO. Gave I him a cause To entertain a scruple of my honour?

MAX.

That he did not, evinced his confidence.

OCTAVIO.

Dear son, it is not always possible
Still to preserve the infant purity
Which the voice teaches in our inmost heart,
Still in alarum, for ever on the watch
Against the wiles of wicked men: e'en Virtue
Will sometimes bear away her outward robes
Soiled in the wrestle with Iniquity.
This is the curse of every evil deed,
That, propagating still, it brings forth evil.
I do not cheat my better soul with sophisms:
I but perform my orders; the Emperor
Prescribes my conduct to me.
Dearest boy,
Far better were it, doubtless, if we all
Obey'd the heart at all times; but so doing,
In this our present sojourn with bad men,
We must abandon many an honest object.
'T is now our call to serve the Emperor;

By what means he can best be served-the heart
May whisper what it will-this is our call!

As thou dost trust me, father, with his crime.

Nay, howsoever punishable were

Duke Friedland's purposes, yet still the steps Which he hath taken openly, permit

A mild construction. It is my intention

To leave this paper wholly uninforced

Till some act is committed which convicts him

gives it to him.