MAX.

We in the field here gave our cares and toils No! 'twas not so intended, that my business
To make her great, and fight her a free way Should be my highest best good-fortune!
To the loftiest earthly good ; lo! mother Nature [TERTSKY enters, and delivers letters to the DUKE,
Within the peaceful silent convent walls

which he breaks open hurryingly. Has done her part, and out of her free grace

COUNTESS (to Max.). Hath she bestow'd on the beloved child

Remunerate your trouble! For his joy The godlike; and now leads her thus adorn'd

He makes you recompense. 'Tis not unfitting
To meet her splendid fortune, and my hope.

For you, Count Piccolomini, to feel
DUCHESS (to THEKLA).

So tenderly—my brother it beseems
Thou wouldst not have recognized thy father, To show himself for ever great and princely.
Wouldst thou, my child ? She counted scarce eight

THEKLA.
years,

Then I too must have scruples of his love;
When last she saw your face.

For his munificent hands did ornament me
THEKLA.

Ere yet the father's heart had spoken to me.

O yes, yes, mother!
At the first glance !-My father is not alter'd. Yes; 'tis his nature ever to be giving
The form that stands before me falsifies

And making happy.
No feature of the image that hath lived

[He grasps the hand of the DUCHESS with still inSo long within me!

creasing warmth.
WALLENSTEIN.

How my heart pours out
The voice of my child!

Its all of thanks to him! 0! how I seem

[Then after a pause. To utter all things in the dear name Friedland. I was indignant at ' my destiny,

While I shall live, so long will I remain
That it denied me a man-child to be

The captive of this name : in it shall bloom
Heir of my name and of my prosperous fortune, My every fortune, every lovely hope.
And re-illume my soon extinguish'd being

Inextricably as in some magic ring
In a proud line of princes.

In this name hath my destiny charm-bound me! I wrong'd my destiny. Here upon this head, COUNTESS (who during this time has been anriousy So lovely in its maiden bloom, will I

watching the DUKE, and remarks that he is lost in Let fall the garland of a life of war,

thought over the letters). Nor deem it lost, if only I can wreath it,

My brother wishes us to leave him. Come. Transmitted to a regal ornament,

WALLENSTEIN (turns himself round quick, collects him Around these beauteous brows.

self, and speaks with cheerfulness to the DUCHESS), [He clasps her in his arms as PiccoLOMINI enters. Once more I bid thee welcome to the camp.

Thou art the hostess of this court. You, Mar.,
Will now again administer your old office,

While we perform the sovereign's business here.
SCENE IX.

[Max. PiccoLONINI offers the Duchess his arm; the

Countess accompanies the PRINCESS.
Enter Max. PiccoloMINI, and some time after Count
TERtsky, the others remaining as before.

TERTSKY (calling afler him).

Max., we depend on seeing you at the meeting.
COUNTESS.
There comes the Paladin who protected us.

SCENE X.
Max.! Welcome, ever welcome! Always wert thou
The morning-star of my best joys!

WALLENSTEIN, COUNT TERTSKY.

WALLENSTEIN (in deep thought to himself).
My General

She hath seen all things as they are—It is so,
And squares completely with my other notices.

They have determined finally in Vienna,
Till now it was the Emperor who rewarded thee,

Have given me my successor already; I but the instrument. This day thou hast bound

It is the king of Hungary, Ferdinand, The father to thee, Max.! the fortunate father,

The Emperor's delicate son! he's now their savior, And this debt Friedland's self must pay.

He's the new star that's rising now! Of us
MAX.

They think themselves already fairly rid,

My prince ! And as we were deceased, the heir already You made no common hurry to transfer it. Is entering on possession-Therefore-dispatch! I come with shame: yea, not without a pang !

[As he turns round he observes TERTSKY, and giões For scarce have I arrived here, scarce deliver'd

him a letter. The mother and the daughter to your arms,

Count Altringer will have himself excused, But there is brought to me from your equerry

And Galas too I like not this! A splendid richly-plated hunting-dress

TERTSKY. So to remunerate me for my troubles

And if Yes, yes, remunerate me! Since a trouble Thou loiterest longer, all will fall away, It must be, a mere office, not a favor

One following the other. Which I leapt forward to receive, and which

WALLENSTEIN. I came already with full heart to thank you for.

Altringer

WALLENSTEIN.

MAX.

WALLENSTEIN.

TERTSKY

TERTSKY.

WALLENSTEIN.

ILLO.

WALLENSTEIN.

Is master of the Tyrol passes. I must forthwith Had you meant nothing further than to gull him Send some one to him, that he let not in

For the Emperor's service. The Spaniards on me from the Milanese.

WALLENSTEIN (after a pause, during which he -Well, and the old Sesin, that ancient trader

looks narrowly on TERTSKY). In contraband negotiations, he

And from whence dost thou know Has shown himself again of late. What brings he That I'm not gulling him for the Emperor's service ? From the Count Thur?

Whence knowest thou that I'm not gulling all of you? TERTSKY.

Dost thou know me so well? When made I thee The Count communicates, The intendant of my secret purposes ? He has found out the Swedish charcellor

I am not conscious that I ever open'd
At Halberstadt, where the convention's held, My inmost thoughts to thee. The Emperor, it is true,
Who says, you've tired him out, and that he'll have Hath dealt with me amiss; and if I would,
No further dealings with you.

I could repay him with usurious interest
WALLENSTEIN.'

For the evil he hath done me. It delights me
And why so ?

To know my power; but whether I shall use it,

Of that, I should have thought that thou couldst He says, you are never in earnest in your speeches;

speak
That you decoy the Swedes—to make fools of them; No wiselier than thy fellows.
Will league yourself with Saxony against them,
And at last make yourself a riddance of them

So hast thou always play'd thy game with us.
With a paltry sum of money.

[Enter ILLO. WALLENSTEIN.

So then, doubtless,
Yes, doubtless, this same modest Swede expects

SCENE XI.
That I shall yield him some fair German tmct
For his prey and booty, that ourselves at last

ILLO, WALLENSTEIN, TERTSKY.
On our own soil and native territory,
May be no longer our own lords and masters! How stand affairs without ? Are they prepared ?
An excellent scheme! No, no! They must be off,
OP, off! away! we want no such neighbors. You'll find them in the very mood you wish.

They know about the Emperor's requisitions,
TERTSKY.
Nay, yield them up that dot, that speck of land-

And are tumultuous.
goes not from your portion. If you win
The game, what matters it to you who pays it?

How hath Isolan

Declared himself?
WALLENSTEIN.

ILLO.
Of with them, off! Thou understand'st not this.

He's yours, both soul and body, Never shall it be said of me, I parcell'd

Since you built up again his Faro-bank.
My native land away, dismember'd Germany,
Betray'd it to a foreigner, in order
To come with stealthy tread, and filch away

And which way doth Kolatto bend ? Hast thou My own share of the plunder-Never! never!

Made sure of Tiefenbach and Deodate?
No foreiga power shall strike root in the empire,

What Piccolomini does, that they do too.
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!

You mean, then, I may venture somewhat with them?
I'll have their aid to cast and draw my nets,
But not a single fish of all the draught

-If you are assured of the Piccolomini.
Shall they come in for.

Not more assured of mine own self.
You will deal, however,
More fairly with the Saxons ? They lose patience

I would you trusted not so much to Octavio,
While you shift ground and make so many curves. The fox!
Say, to what purpose all these masks? Your friends
Are plunged in doubts, baffled, and led astray in you.

Thou teachest me to know my man?
There's Oxenstein, there's Arnheim-neither knows Sixteen campaigns I have made with that old warrior.
What he should think of your procrastinations, Besides, I have his horoscope :
And in the end I prove the liar; all

We both are born beneath like stars-in short, Passes through me. I have not even your hand

[With an air of mystery. writing.

To this belongs its own particular aspect,
WALLENSTEIN.

If therefore thou canst warrant me the rest
I never give my handwriting; thou knowegt it.

There is among them all but this one voice, But how can it be known that you're in eamest,

You must not lay down the command. I hear If the act follows not upon the word ?

They mean to send a deputation to you. You must yourself acknowledge, that in all

WALLENSTEIN. Your intercourses hitherto with the enemy,

If I'm in anght to bind myself to them, You might have done with safety all you have done, They tou must bind themselves to me.

WALLENSTEIN.

ILLO.

WALLENSTEIN.

ILLO.

WALLENSTEIN.

TERTIKY

TERTSKY.

And yet

WALLENSTEIN.

ILLO.

TERTSKY.

ILLO.

WALLENSTEIN.

WALLENSTEIN.

ILLO.

ILLO.

ILLO.

Of each man with the whole. He who to day Of course.

Forgets himself, forced onward with the stream,

Will become sober, seeing but himself,
Their words of honor they must give, their oaths, Feel only his own weakness, and with speed
Give them in writing to me, promising

Will face about, and march on in the old
Devotion to my service unconditional.

High road of duty, the old broad trodden road, ILLO.

And seek but to make shelter in good plight.
Why not?

WALLENSTEIN.
TERTSKY

The time is not yet come.
Devotion unconditional ?
The exception of their duties towards Austria

TERTSKY.
They'll always place among the premises.

So you say always. With this reserve

But when will it be time?
WALLENSTEIN (shaking his head).
All unconditional !

When I shall say it.
No premises, no reserves.

You'll wait upon the stars, and on their hours, thought has struck me.

Till the earthly hour escapes you. O, believe me, Does not Count Tertsky give us a set banquet

In your own bosom are your destiny's stars.
This evening?

Confidence in yourself, prompt resolution,
TERTSKY.

This is your Venus! and the soul malignant,
Yes; and all the Generals

The only one that harmeth you, is Doubt.
Have been invited.

WALLENSTEIN.
ILLO (to WALLENSTEIN).
Say, will you here fully

Thou speakest as thou understand'st. How oft Commission me to use my own discretion?

And many a time I've told thee, Jupiter, I'll gain for you the Generals' words of honor,

That lustrous god, was setting at thy birth.

Thy visual power subdues no mysteries;
Even as you wish.

Mole-eyed, thou mayest but burrow in the earth,
WALLENSTEIN.
Gain me their signatures!

Blind as that subterrestrial, who with wan,
How you come by them, that is your concern.

Lead-color'd shine lighted thee into life.
The common, the terrestrial, thou mayest see,

With serviceable cunning knit together
And if I bring it to you, black on white,

The nearest with the nearest; and therein That all the leaders who are present here

I trust thee and believe thee! but whate'er Give themselves up to you, without condition;

Full of mysterious import Nature weaves Say, will you then—then will you show yourself

And fashions in the depths—the spirit's ladder, In earnest, and with some decisive action Make trial of your luck ?

That from this gross and visible world of dust

Even to the starry world, with thousand rounds, WALLENSTEIN.

Builds itself up; on which the unseen powers The signatures !

Move up and down on heavenly ministries
Gain me the signatures.

The circles in the circles, that approach
ILLO.

The central sun with ever-narrowing orbit-
Seize, seize the hour,

These see the glance alone, the unsealed eye,
Ere it slips from you. Seldom comes the moment Of Jupiter's glad children born in lustre.
In life, which is indeed sublime and weighty.

[He walks across the chamber, then returns, and To make a great decision possible,

standing still, proceeds. 0! many things, all transient and all rapid,

The heavenly constellations make not merely Must meet at once : and, haply, they thus met

The day and nights, summer and spring, not merely May by that confluence be enforced to pause

Signify to the husbandman the seasons
Time long enough for wisdom, though too short,
Far, far too short a time for doubt and scruple !

Of sowing and of harvest. Human action,

That is the seed too of contingencies, This is that moment. See, our army chieftains,

Strew'd on the dark land of futurity
Our best, our noblest, are assembled around you,

In hopes to reconcile the powers of fate.
Their king-like leader! On your nod they wait.
The single threads, which here your prosperous for- To watch the stars, select their proper hours,

Whence it behoves us to seek out the seed-time, tune

And trace with searching eye the heavenly houses, Hath woven together in one potent web

Whether the enemy of growth and thriving
Instinct with destiny, 0 let them not

Hide himself not, malignant, in his corner.
Unravel of themselves. If you permit
These chiefs to separate, so unanimous

Therefore permit me my own time. Meanwhile

Do you your part. As yet I cannot say
Bring you them not a second time together.

What I shall do-only, give way I will not.
Tis the high tide that heaves the stranded ship,
And every individual's spirit waxes

Depose me too they shall not. On these points

You may rely.
In the great stream of multitudes. Behold
They are still here, here still ! But soon the war

PAGE (entering)
Bursts them once more asunder, and in small

My Lords, the Generals. Particular anxieties and interests

WALLENSTEIN. Scatters their spirit, and the sympathy

Let them come in.

WALLENSTEIN.

MAX

WALLENSTEIN.

In vain his supplication! At this moment
SCENE XII.

The Duke hears only his old hate and grudge,

Barters the general good to gratify WALLENSTEIN, TERTSKY, ILLO.—To them enter QUES- Private revenge and so falls Regenspurg: TENBERG, OCTAVIO and Max. PICCOLOMINI, BUT

WALLENSTEIN. LER, ISOLANI, MARADAS, and three other Generals

. Mar., to what period of the war alludes he ? WALLENSTEIN motions QUESTENBERG, who in consequence takes the chair directly opposite to him; the My recollection fails me here! whers follow, arranging themselves according to

MAX. their rank. There reigns a momentary silence.

He means

When we were in Silesia.
WALLENSTEIN.
I have inderstood, 't is true, the sum and import
of your instructions, Questenberg; have weigh'd

Ay! is it 80 ?
them,

But what had we to do there?
And form'd my final, absolute resolve:
Yet it seems fitting, that the Generals

To beat out
Should hear the will of the Emperor from your mouth. The Swedes and Saxons from the province.
May't please you then to open your commission
Before these noble Chieftains ?

True;
QUESTENBERG

In that description which the Minister gave

I am ready
To obey you ; but will first entreat your Highness,

I seem'd to have forgotten the whole war.

[To QUESTENBERG. And all these noble Chiesains, to consider,

Well

, but proceed a little. The Imperial dignity and sovereign right Speaks from my mouth, and not my own presumption.

QUESTENBERG.

Yes; at length
WALLENSTEIN.

Beside the river Oder did the Duke
We excuse all preface.

Assert his ancient fame. Upon the fields
QUESTENBERG.

Of Steinau did the Swedes lay down their arms,
When his Majesty

Subdued without a blow. And here, with others, The Emperor to his courageous armies

The righteousness of Heaven to his avenger
Presented in the person of Duke Friedland Deliver'd that long-practised stirrer-up
A most experienced and renown'd commander, of insurrection, that curse-laden torch
He did it in glad hope and confidence

And kindler of this war, Matthias Thur.
To give thereby to the fortune of the war But he had fallen into magnanimous hands ;
A rapid and auspicious change. The onset Instead of punishment he found reward,
Was favorable to his royal wishes.

And with rich presents did the Duke dismiss
Bohemia was deliver'd from the Saxons,

The arch-foe of his Emperor.
The Swede's career of conquest check’d! These lands
Began to draw breath freely, as Duke Friedland

WALLENSTEIN (laughs).

I know,
From all the streams of Germany forced hither
The scatter'd armies of the enemy ;

I know you had already in Vienna

Your windows and balconies all forestallid
Hither invoked as round one magic circle
The Rhinegrave, Bernhard, Banner, Oxenstein,

To see him on the executioner's cart.
Yes, and that never-conquer'd King himself;

I might have lost the battle, lost it too Here finally, before the eye of Nürnberg,

With infamy, and still retain'd your graces

But, to have cheated them of n spectacle,
The fearful game of battle to decide.

Oh! that the good folks of Vienna never,
WALLENSTEIN.

No, never can forgive me!
May't please you, to the point.

QUESTENBERG.

So Silesia In Nürnberg's camp the Swedish monarch left

Was freed, and all things loudly call’d the Duke His fame-in Lützen's plains his life. But who

Into Bavaria, now press'd hard on all sides.
Stood not astounded, when victorious Friedland
After this day of triumph, this proud day,

And he did put his troops in motion : slowly,
March'd toward Bohemia with the speed of flight,

Quite at his ease, and by the longest road

He traverses Bohemia ; but ere ever And vanish'd from the theatre of war;

He hath once seen the enemy, faces round, While the young Weimar hero forced his way

Breaks up the march, and takes to winter-quarters. Into Franconia, to the Danube, like Some delving winter-stream, which, where it rushes, Makes its own channel; with such sudden speed The troops were pitiably destitute He march'd, and now at once 'fore Regenspurg Of every necessary, every comfort. Stood to the affright of all good Catholic Christians. The winter came. What thinks his Majesty Then did Bavaria's well-deserving Prince

His troops are made of? A n't we men ? subjected
Entreat swift aidance in his extreme need; Like other men to wet, and cold, and all
The Emperor sends seven horsemen to Duke Fried. The circumstances of necessity ?
land,

O miserable lot of the poor soldier!
Seven horsemen couriers sends he with the entreaty: Wherever he comes in, all flee before him,
He superadds his own, and supplicates

And when he goes away, the general curse Where as the sovereign lord he can command. Follows him on his route. All must be seized,

QUESTENBERG.

WALLENSTEIN.

ILLO.

BUTLER.

WALLENSTEIN.

Nothing is given him. And compellid to seize That without pretexts of delay the army
From every man, he's every man's abhorrence. Evacuate Bohemia.
Behold, here stand my Generals. Karaffa!

WALLENSTEIN.
Count Deodate! Butler! Tell this man

In this season ? How long the soldiers' pay is in arrears.

And to what quarter wills the Emperor

That we direct our course?
BUTLER.
Already a full year.

QUESTENBERG.

To the enemy.
WALLENSTEIN.

His Majesty resolves, that Regensburg
And 't is the hire
That constitutes the hireling's name and duties,

Be purified from the enemy ere Easter,
The soldier's pay is the soldier's covenant.*

That Lutheranism may be no longer preach'd

In that cathedral, nor heretical
QUESTENBERG.

Defilement desecrate the celebration
Ah! this is a far other tone from that,

Of that pure festival.
In which the Duke spoke eight, nine years ago.

WALLENSTEIN.
WALLENSTEIN.

My generals,
Yes! 'tis my fault, I know it: I myself

Can this be realized ?
Have spoilt the Emperor by indulging him.'
Nine years ago, during the Danish war,

'Tis not possible.
I raised him up a force, a mighty force,
Forty or fifty thousand men, that cost him

It can't be realized. Of his own purse no doit. Through Saxony

QUESTENBERG.
The fury goddess of the war march'd on,

The Emperor
E'en to the surf-rocks of the Baltic, bearing Already hath commanded Colonel Suys
The terrors of his name. That was a time! To advance toward Bavaria.
In the whole Imperial realm no name like mine
Honor'd with festival and celebration-

What did Suys ? And Albrecht Wallenstein, it was the title

QUESTENBERG.
Of the third jewel in his crown!
But at the Diet, when the Princes met

That which his duty prompted. He advanced ! At Regensburg, there, there the whole broke out,

WALLENSTEIN.
There 't was laid open, there it was made known, What! he advanced ? And I, his general,
Out of what money-bag I had paid the host. Had given him orders, peremptory orders,
And what was now my thank, what had I now, Not to desert his station! Stands it thus
That I, a faithful servant of the Sovereign,

With my authority ? Is this the obedience
Had loaded on myself the people's curses,

Due to my office, which being thrown aside, And let the Princes of the empire pay

No war can be conducted ? Chieftains, speak. The expenses of this war, that aggrandizes You be the judges, generals! What deserves The Emperor alone-What thanks had I ?

That officer, who of his oath neglectful
What? I was offer'd up to their complaints, Is guilty of contempt of orders ?
Dismiss'd, degraded !
QUESTENBERG.

Death.
But your Highness knows WALLENSTEIN (raising his voice, as all, but ILLO, had
What little freedom he possess'd of action

remained silent, and seemingly scrupulous). In that disastrous Diet.

Count Piccolomini! what has he deserved ?
WALLENSTEIN.

MAX. PICCOLOMINI (after a long pause).
Death and hell!

According to the letter of the law,
I had that which could have procured him freedom. Death.
No! since 't was proved so inauspicious to me

ISOLANI.
To serve the Emperor at the empire's cost,

Death.
I have been taught far other trains of thinking
Of the empire, and the diet of the empire.

Death, by the laws of war.
From the Emperor, doubtless, I received this staff,
But now I hold it as the empire's general-

[QUESTENBERG rises from his seat, WALLENSTEIN For the common weal, the universal interest,

follows ; all the rest rise. And no more for that one man's aggrandizement!

WALLENSTEIN. But to the point. What is it that's desired of me?

To this the law condemns him, and not I.

And if I show him favor, 't will arise
QUESTENBERG.

From the reverence that I owe my Emperor. First, his Imperial Majesty hath will'd

QUESTENBERG.

If so, I can say nothing further-here! * The original is not translatable into English; -Und sein Sold

I accepted the command but on conditions: Muss der Soldaten werden, darnach heisst er.

And this the first, that to the diminution
It might perhaps have been thus rendered :

Of my authority no human being,
And that for which he sold his services,

Not even the Emperor's self, should be entitled
The soldier must receive.

To do aught, or to say aught, with the army. But a false or doubtful etymology is no more than a dull pun. If I stand warranter of the event,

ILLO.

BUTLER.

WALLENSTEIN.