Illo. What? 'twas a favourable year; the Boors Can answer fresh demands already.

Ques.

Nay,

If you discourse of herds and meadow-grounds-Iso. The war maintains the war. Are the Boors

ruined,

The Emperor gains so many more new soldiers. Ques. And is the poorer by even so many subjects.

Iso. Poh! We are all his subjects.

Ques. Yet with a difference, General! The one fill With profitable industry the purse,

The others are well skilled to empty it.

The sword has made the Emperor poor; the plough Must reinvigorate his resources.

Iso.

Sure!

Times are not yet so bad. Methinks I see

[Examining with his eye the dress and ornaments of Questenberg.

Good store of gold that still remains uncoined. Ques. Thank Heaven! that means have been found out to hide

Some little from the fingers of the Croats.

Illo. There! The Stawata and the Martinitz, On whom the Emperor heaps his gifts and graces, To the heart-burning of all good Bohemians--Those minions of court favour, those court harpies, Who fatten on the wrecks of citizens

Driven from their house and home---who reap no

harvests

Save in the general calamity--

Who now, with kingly pomp, insult and mock
The desolation of their country---these,
Let these, and such as these, support the war,
The fatal war, which they alone enkindled!
But. And those state-parasites, who have their
feet

So constantly beneath the Emperor's table,
Who cannot let a benefice fall, but they
Snap at it with dog's hunger---they, forsooth,
Would pare the soldier's bread, and cross his
reckoning!

Iso. My life long will it anger me to think,
How when I went to court seven years ago,
To see about new horses for our regiment,
How from one antichamber to another
They dragged me on, and left me by the hour
To kick my heels among a crowd of simpering
Feast-fattened slaves, as if I had come thither
A mendicant suitor for the crumbs of favour
That fall beneath their tables. And, at last,
Whom should they send me but a Capuchin!
Straight I began to muster up my sins
For absolution---but no such luck for me!
This was the man, this Capuchin, with whom
I was to treat concerning the army horses:
And I was forced at last to quit the field,
The business unaccomplished. Afterwards
The Duke procured me in three days, what I
Could not obtain in thirty at Vienna.

Ques. Yes, yes! your travelling bills soon found

their way to us:

Too well I know we have still accounts to settle.

Illo. War is a violent trade: one cannot always Finish one's work by soft means; every trifle Must not be blackened into sacrilege.

If we should wait till you, in solemn council,
With due deliberation had selected

The smallest out of four-and-twenty evils,
I'faith we should wait long.---

“Dash! and through with it !"---That's the better watch-word.

Then after come what may come. 'Tis man's nature
To make the best of a bad thing once past.

A bitter and perplexed" what shall I do?"
Is worse to man than worst necessity.

Ques. Ay, doubtless, it is true: the Duke does

spare us

The troublesome task of choosing.

Yes, the Duke

But. Cares with a father's feelings for his troops; But how the Emperor feels for us, we see. Ques. His cares and feelings all ranks share alike,

Nor will he offer one up to another.

Iso. And therefore thrusts he us into the deserts As beasts of prey, that so he may preserve His dear sheep fattening in his fields at home. Ques. Count, this comparison you make, not I. But. Why, were we all the Court supposes us,

"Twere dangerous, sure, to give us liberty.

Ques. You have taken liberty---it was not given

you.

And therefore it becomes an urgent duty

To rein it in with curbs.

Oct.

My noble friend,

This is no more than a remembrancing

That you are now in camp, and among warriors.
The soldier's boldness constitutes his freedom.
Could he act daringly, unless he dared
Talk even so? One runs into the other.
The boldness of this worthy officer,

[pointing to Butler.

Which now has but mistaken in its mark,

Preserved, when nought but boldness could pre

serve it,

To the Emperor his capital city, Prague,

In a most formidable mutiny

Of the whole garrison.

[Military music at a distance.

Hah! here they come!

Illo. The sentries are saluting them: this signal Announces the arrival of the Duchess.

Oct. Then my son Max. too has returned.

"Twas he

Fetched and attended them from Carnthen hither.

Iso. (to Illo.) Shall we not go in company to greet them?

Illo. Well, let us go.---Ho! Colonel Butler, [to Octavio.

come.

You'll not forget, that yet ere noon we meet The noble Envoy at the General's palace. [Exeunt all but Questenberg and Octavio.

SCENE III.

Questenberg and Octavio.

Ques. What have I not been forced to hear,
Octavio !

What sentiments ! what fierce, uncurbed defiance !
And were this spirit universal---

Oct.

Hm!

You are now acquainted with three-fourths of the

army.

Ques. Where must we seek then for a second

host

To have the custody of this? That Illo

Thinks worse, I fear me, than he speaks. And then
This Butler, too,—he cannot even conceal
The passionate workings of his ill intentions.
Oct. Quickness of temper---irritated pride;
'Twas nothing more. I cannot give up Butler.
I know a spell that will soon dispossess

The evil spirit in him.

Ques.

Friend, friend!

0 ! this is worse, far worse, than we had suffered Ourselves to dream of at Vienna. There

We saw it only with a courtier's eyes,
Eyes dazzled by the splendour of the throne.