Thou too hast lost a most affectionate godmother
In the Empress. O that stern unbending man!
In this unhappy marriage what have I
Not suffer'd, not endured? For even as if
I had been link'd on to some wheel of fire
That restless, ceaseless, whirls impetuous onward,
I have pass'd a life of frights and horrors with him,
And ever to the brink of some abyss
With dizzy headlong violence he whirls me.
Nay, do not weep, my child! Let not my sufferings
Presignify unhappiness to thee,
Nor blacken with their shade the fate that waits thee.
There lives no second Friedland: thou, my child,
Hast not to fear thy mother's destiny.
O let us supplicate him, dearest mother!
Quick! quick! here's no abiding-place for us.
Here every coming hour broods into life
Some new affrightful monster.
WALLENSTEIN, ILLO, COUNTESS, DUCHESS, THEKLA.
WALLENSTEIN.
All quiet in the camp?
Thou wilt share
An easier, calmer lot, my child! We too,
I and thy father, witness'd happy days.
Still think I with delight of those first years,
When he was making progress with glad effort,
When his ambition was a genial fire,
Not that consuming flame which now it is.
The Emperor loved him, trusted him: and all
He undertook could not but be successful.
But since that ill-starr'd day at Regensburg,
Which plunged him headlong from his dignity,
A gloomy uncompanionable spirit,
Unsteady and suspicious, has possess'd him.
His quiet mind forsook him, and no longer
Did he yield up himself in joy and faith
To his old luck, and individual power;
But thenceforth turn'd his heart and best affections
All to those cloudy sciences, which never
Have yet made happy him who follow'd them.
It is all quiet.
WALLENSTEIN.
In a few hours may couriers come from Prague With tidings, that this capital is ours.
Then we may drop the mask, and to the troops
Assembled in this town make known the measure
And its result together. In such cases
Example does the whole. Whoever is foremost
Still leads the herd. An imitative creature
Is man. The troops at Prague conceive no other,
Than that the Pilsen army has gone through
The forms of homage to us; and in Pilsen
They shall swear fealty to us, because
The example has been given them by Prague.
Butler, you tell me, has declared himself?
At his own bidding, unsolicited,
He came to offer you himself and regiment.
I find we must not give implicit credence
To every warning voice that makes itself
Be listen'd to in the heart. To hold us back,
Oft does the lying Spirit counterfeit
The voice of Truth and inward Revelation,
Scattering false oracles. And thus have I
To entreat forgiveness, for that secretly
I've wrong'd this honorable gallant man,
This Butler: for a feeling, of the which
I am not master (fear I would not call it),
Creeps o'er me instantly, with sense of shuddering,
At his approach, and stops love's joyous motion.
And this same man, against whom I am warn'd,
This honest man is he, who reaches to me
The first pledge of my fortune.
Or die in the attempt to place it there.
I hazard all-all! and for this alone,
To lift her into greatness
Yea, in this moment, in the which we are speaking-
[He recollects himself.
And I must now, like a soft-hearted father,
Couple together in good peasant-fashion
The pair, that chance to suit each other's liking-
And I must do it now, even now, when I
Am stretching out the wreath that is to twine
My full accomplish'd work-no! she is the jewel,
Which I have treasured long, my last, my noblest,
And 'tis my purpose not to let her from me
For less than a king's sceptre.
O my husband! You're ever building, building to the clouds, Still building higher, and still higher building, And ne'er reflect, that the poor narrow basis Cannot sustain the giddy tottering column.
WALLENSTEIN (to the COUNTESS.) Have you announced the place of residence Which I have destined for her?
To them enter COUNT TERTSKY.
What ails him? What an image of affright! He looks as he had seen a ghost.
TERTSKY (leading WALLENSTEIN aside). Is it thy command that all the Croats
They are off! This night
The Jägers likewise-all the villages
In the whole round are empty.
Him thou hast sent away. Yes, surely.
DUCHESS (casting a look of terror on the DUKE and the Go, hear his business.
Let Tiefenbach leave guard without delay,
And Tertsky's grenadiers relieve him.
Hast thou heard aught of Butler ?
He will be here himself immediately.
Butler remains unshaken.
[ILLO erit. WALLENSTEIN is following him.
Let him not leave thee, sister! go, detain him!
There's some misfortune.
DUCHESS (clinging to him).
It should have been kept secret from the army,
Till fortune had decided for us at Prague.
O that thou hadst believed me! Yester-evening
Did we conjure thee not to let that skulker,
That fox, Octavio, pass the gates of Pilsen.
Thou gavest him thy own horses to flee from thee
The old tune still! Now, once for all, no more
Of this suspicion-it is doting folly.
Thou didst confide in Isolani too;
And lo! he was the first that did desert thee.
It was but yesterday I rescued him
Gracious Heaven! what is it? From abject wretchedness. Let that go by;
I never reckon'd yet on gratitude.
And wherein doth he wrong in going from me?
He follows still the god whom all his life
He has worshipp'd at the gaming-table. With
My fortune, and my seeming destiny,
He made the bond, and broke it not with me.
I am but the ship in which his hopes were stow'd,
And with the which well-pleased and confident
He traversed the open sea; now he beholds it
In eminent jeopardy among the coast-rocks,
And hurries to preserve his wares. As light
As the free bird from the hospitable twig
Where it had nested, he flies off from me:
No human tie is snapp'd betwixt us two.
Yea, he deserves to find himself deceived
Who seeks a heart in the unthinking man.
Like shadows on a stream, the forms of life
Impress their characters on the smooth forehead,
TERTSKY (leads the COUNTESS aside, and drawing her Naught sinks into the bosom's silent depth :
Tiefenbach's corps make threat'ning movements; only Tiefenbach's soldiers, when I gave the orders
In their own quarters, and let no one enter.
Does Piccolomini appear among them?
We are seeking him: he is nowhere to be met with.
What did the Aid-de-Camp deliver to you?
My regiments had dispatch'd him; yet once more
They swear fidelity to thee, and wait
The shout for onset, all prepared, and eager.
But whence arose this larum in the camp?
To go off guard-Mutinous villains!
They refused obedience to them
Fire on them instantly! Give out the order.
Gently! what cause did they assign?
They said, had right to issue orders but
Lieutenant-General Piccolomini.
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