SCENE VII.

Wallenstein, Tertsky.

Wal. (stepping to the window.) What now, then?

Ter. There are strange movements among all

the troops,

And no one knows the cause.

Mysteriously,

With gloomy silentness, the several corps

Marshal themselves, each under its own banners. Tiefenbach's corps makes threatening movements; only

The Pappenheimers still remain aloof

In their own quarters, and let no one enter.
Wal. Does Piccolomini appear among them?
Ter. We are seeking him: he is no where to
be met with.

Wal. What did the Aid-de-Camp deliver to
you?

Ter. My regiments had dispatched him; yet

once more

They swear fidelity to thee, and wait

The shout for onset, all prepared, and eager.
Wal. But whence arose this larum in the
camp?

It should have been kept secret from the army,
Till fortune had decided for us at Prague.

Ter. 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 gav'st him thy own horses to flee from thee.
Wal. The old tune still! Now, once for all, no

more

Of this suspicion---it is doting folly.

Ter. Thou didst confide in Isolani too;
And lo! he was the first that did desert thee.
Wal. It was but yesterday I rescued him
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 worshipped 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 stowed,
And with the which well-pleased and confident
He traversed the open sea; now he beholds it
In imminent 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 snapped 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,
Nought sinks into the bosom's silent depth :
Quick sensibility of pain and pleasure

Moves the light fluids lightly; but no soul
Warmeth the inner frame.

Illo. They refused obedience to them.

Ter. Fire on them instantly! Give out the

order.

Wal. Gently! what cause did they assign?

Illo.

They said, had right to issue orders but

Lieutenant-General Piccolomini.

Wal. What? How is that?

No other,

Illo. He takes that office on him by commission, Under sign-manual of the Emperor.

Ter. From the Emperor-hear'st thou, Duke?
Illo.
At his incitement

The Generals made that stealthy flight--

Ter.

Duke! hearest thou?

Illo. Caraffa too, and Montecuculi,

Are missing, with six other Generals,
All whom he had induced to follow him.
This plot he has long had in writing by him
From the Emperor; but 'twas finally concluded
With all the detail of the operation

Some days ago with the Envoy Questenberg.
[Wallenstein sinks down into a chair and
covers his face.

Ter. O hadst thou but believed me!

Coun.

SCENE IX.

To them enter the Countess.

This suspense,

This horrid fear---I can no longer bear it.

For heaven's sake, tell me, what has taken place. Illo. The regiments are all falling off from us. Ter. Octavio Piccolomini is a traitor.

Coun.

O my foreboding!

Ter.

(rushes out of the room.) Hadst thou but believed me!

Now seest thou how the stars have lied to thee.

Wal. The stars lie not; but we have here a

work

Wrought counter to the stars and destiny.

The science is still honest: this false heart

Forces a lie on the truth-telling heaven.

On a divine law divination rests;

Where nature deviates from that law, and stumbles
Out of her limits, there all science errs.
True, I did not suspect! Were it superstition
Never by such suspicion t' have affronted
The human form, O may that time ne'er come
In which I shame me of the infirmity.
The wildest savage drinks not with the victim,
Into whose breast he means to plunge the sword.
This, this, Octavio, was no hero's deed:
'Twas not thy prudence that did conquer mine;
A bad heart triumphed o'er an honest one.

No shield received the assassin stroke; thou plungest

Thy weapon on an unprotected breast---
Against such weapons I am but a child.

SCENE X.

To these enter Butler.

Ter. (meeting him.) O look there! Butler ! Here we've still a friend!

Wal. (meets him with outspread arms, and em

braces him with warmth.) Come to my

heart, old comrade!

Not the sun

Looks out upon us more revivingly

In the earliest month of spring,

Than a friend's countenance in such an hour.

But. My General: I come--