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 ilas 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 Therla). Thou wouldst not have recognized thy father, wouldst thou, my child She counted scarce eight years, When last she saw your face. ther L.A. 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, [he clasps her in his arms as Piccolomini enters. SCENE i x. Enter Max. Piccolomini, and some time after count Teatsky, the others remaining as before. countess. There comes the Paladin who protected us. wal, Lenstein. 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 ther, 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 one! Since a trouble It must be, a mere office, not a favour Which I leapt forward to receive, and which I came already with full heart to thank you for. - No! 't was not so intended, that my business 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 saviour, 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 Teatsky, and 9 fors him a letter. Count Altringer will have himself excused, And Galas too—I like not this! tentsky. And if wal, Lansrri N. -- 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 negociations, he Has shown himself again of late. What brings he From the Count Thur ! teatsky. The Count communicates, He has found out the Swedish chancellor At Halberstadt, where the convention 's held, Who says, you've tired him out, and that he'll have No further dealings with you. wallenstein. And why so? tentsky. He says, you are never in earnest in your speeches; That you decoy the Swedes—to make fools of them; Will league yourself with Saxony against them, And at last make yourself a riddance of them With a paltry sum of money. wat, lenstein. So then, doubtless, Yes, doubtless, this same modest Swede expects That I shall yield him some fair German tract For his prey and booty, that ourselves at last On our own soil and native territory, May be no longer our own lords and masters! An excellent scheme ! No, no! They must be off, Off, off! away! we want no such neighbours. Tearsky. Nay, yield them up that dot, that speck of land— It goes not from your portion. If you win The game, what matters it to you who pays it? walleNstein, 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 Sball they come-in for. Teatsky. 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 wai, i.e.Nst El N. I never give my hand-writing; thou knowest it. But how can it be known that you're in earnest, Passes through me. I have not even your hand-writing. Had you meant nothing further than to gull him Tertsky. So hast thou always played thy game with us. [Enter Illo. SCEN E Xi. Illo, WAllenstein, Teatsky. wall ENSTein. How stand affairs without? Are they prepared? * LL0. You'll find them in the very mood you wish. They know about the Emperor's requisitions, And are tumultuous. wallenster N. How hath Isolan Declared himself? It, Lo. He's your's, both soul and body, Since you built up again his Faro-bank. wAllenstein. And which way doth Kolatio bend? Hast thou Made sure of Tiefenbach and Deodate? I LLO. What Piccolomini does, that they do too. wAllenstein. You mean, then, I may venture somewhat with them? illo. —If you are assured of the Piccolomini. wal, LENstein. Not more assured of mine own self. TERTsky. And yet I would you trusted not so much to Octavio, The fox! Their words of honour they must give, their oaths, Of each man with the whole. He, who to-day SCENE xii. WALLENstein, Tearsky, Illo.—To them enter Questexn Eng, Ocravio, and MAx. Piccolomini, Burlem, IsoLAN1, MARADAs, and three other Generals. WAllenstein 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 Of your instructions, Questenberg; have weighed them, And formed my final, absolute resolve: Yet it seems fitting, that the Generals Should hear the will of the Emperor from your mouth. May't please you then to open your commission Before these noble Chieftains? Quest ENBERG. 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. QUEST EN Beag. 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 eye of Nurnberg, The fearful game of battle to decide. wallenstein. May't please you, to the point. Qurstenberg. In Nurnberg'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 Regenspurt; 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 s where as the sovereign lord he can command. In vain his supplication At this moment The Duke hears only his old hate and grudge, Barters the general good to gratify Private revenge—and so falls Regenspurg. walleNstein. Max., to what period of the war alludes he? My recollection fails me here? MAx. He means When we were in Silesia. wallenstein. Ay! is it so : But what had we to do there? MAx. To beat out The Swedes and Saxons from the province. wallenstein. True; In that description which the Minister gave I seemed to have forgotten the whole war. (To Quest ENBERG.) Well, but proceed a little. QUEST ENBERG. Yes; at length 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 a spectacle, Oh! that the good folks of Vienna never, No, never can forgive me! Queste NBERG. So Silesia Was freed, and all things loudly called 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. walt. enstein. 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 circumstances of necessity ? 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, Nothing is given him. And compell'd to seize Already a full year. WALL rinstein. And "t is the hire That constitutes the hireling's name and duties, The soldier's pay is the soldier's covenant." Questenberg. Ah! this is a far other tone from that, In which the Duke spoke eight, nine years ago. wal. Lenstein. 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, Een 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 11 What? I was offer'd up to their complaints, Dismiss'd, degraded ! Quest ENBERG. 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 * The original is not translatable into English; —-Und sein Sold Muss dem Soldaten werden, darnach heisster. It might perhaps bave 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. That without pretexts of delay the army wallenstein (raising his voice, as all, but Illo, had remained silent, and seemingly scrupulous). Count Piccolomini! what has he deserved? Max. Piccolomini (after a long pause). According to the letter of the law, Death. Isolani. Death. but lea. Death, by the laws of war. [Questenbeng rises from his seat, Wallexsreis follows; all the rest rise. wallenstein. To this the law condemns him, and not I. And if I show him favour, "t will arise From the reverence that I owe my Emperor. QUEST ENBERG. If so, I can say nothing further—here! wallenstein. 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. If I stand warranter of the event, |