BUTLER. You know not. Ask not! Wherefore should it happen, [Passionately grasping GORDON's hand. I am dishonor'd if the Duke escape us. GORDON. O! to save such a man BUTLER. What! GORDON. It is worth A sacrifice.-Come, friend! Be noble-minded! BUTLER (with a cold and haughty air). This Duke-and I am but of mean importance. So that the man of princely rank be saved? GORDON. I am endeavoring to move a rock. ACT IV. SCENE I. SCENE-Butler's Chamber. BUTLER, MAJOR, and GERALDIN. BUTLER. Find me twelve strong Dragoons, arm them with pikes, For there must be no firing Conceal them somewhere near the banquet-room, GERALDIN. They'll be here anon. [Exit GERALDIN BUTLER. Here's no room for delay. The citizens SCENE II. BUTLER, CAPTAIN DEVEREUX, and MACDONALD MACDONALD. Here we are, General. [Exit GORDON. DEVEREUX. The worse man of the two. What, though the world Why, yes! in his name you administer'd Is ignorant of my purposed treason, yet One man does know it, and can prove it too High-minded Piccolomini ! There lives the man who can dishonor me! This ignominy blood alone can cleanse! Duke Friedland, thou or I-Into my own hands Fortuno delivers me-The dearest thing a man has is himself. (The curtain drops.) Our oath. MACDONALD. And followed him yourself to Egra. BUTLER. I did it the more surely to destroy him. DEVEREUX. So then! MACDONALD. An alter'd case! The Duke presented thee this good warm coat, Safe against shot, and stab and flash! Hard frozen, DEVEREUX. In Inglestadt there was just such another: Hear what I'll do. MACDONALD. DEVEREUX. Well? MACDONALD. In the cloister here There's a Dominican, my countryman. One of his strongest blessings. That's probatum! BUTLER. So do, Macdonald! But now go and select from out the regiment Twenty or thirty able-bodied fellows, And let them take the oaths to the Emperor. Then when strikes eleven, when the first rounds Are pass'd, conduct them silently as may be To the house-I will myself be not far off. DEVEREUX. But how do we get through Hartschier and Gordon, That stand on guard there in the inner chamber! BUTLER. I have made myself acquainted with the place. DEVEREUX. And thou, a needy wight, hast pangs of conscience And when we are there, by what means shall we gain The Duke's bed-chamber, without his alarming BUTLER. THEKLA (looking around her). WALLENSTEIN (steps to her, raising her up in his arms). The attendants fill the right wing; he hates bustle, See, there's thy loving mother. Thou art in And lodges in the left wing quite alone. DEVEREUX. Were it well over-hey, Macdonald? I MACDONALD. And I too. T is too great a personage. BUTLER. In plenty, honor, splendor-You may safely DEVEREUX. If the business BUTLER. Set your hearts quite at ease. Ye save for Ferdinand DEVEREUX. And 'tis his purpose to dethrone the Emperor? BUTLER. Yes-Yes-to rob him of his Crown and Life. DEVEREUX. And he must fall by the executioner's hands, BUTLER. It were his certain destiny. DEVEREUX. Well! Well! Come then, Macdonald, he shall not SCENE III. SCENE-A Gothic and gloomy Apartment at the DUCHESS FRIEDLAND'S. THEKLA on a seat, pale, her eyes closed. The DUCHESS and LADY NEUBRUNN busied about her. WALLENSTEIN and the COUNTESS in conversation. WALLENSTEIN. How knew she it so soon? COUNTESS. She seems to have Foreboded some misfortune. The report A colonel of the Imperial army, frighten'd her. I saw it instantly. She flew to meet The Swedish courier, and with sudden questioning, Hush! Wherefore wouldst thou speak with him, my I sank into his arms; and that has shamed me. WALLENSTEIN. I see she is in the right, and am inclined (LADY NEUBRUNN goes to call him). DUCHESS. But I, thy mother, will be present— THEKLA. "T were More pleasing to me, if alone I saw him: Trust me, I shall behave myself the more Collectedly. WALLENSTEIN. Permit her her own will. Leave her alone with him: for there are sorrows, Where of necessity the soul must be Its own support. A strong heart will rely On its own strength alone. In her own bosom, COUNTESS (detaining him). Where art thou going? I heard Tertsky say WALLENSTEIN. (Going. We, lay, expecting no attack, at Neustadt, Scarce had we mounted, ere the Pappenheimers, [THEKLA betrays agitation in her gestures. The Officer pauses till she makes a sign to him to proceed. CAPTAIN. Both in van and flanks With our whole cavalry we now received them; These walls breathe on me, like a church-yard vault. Back to the trenches drove them, where the foot I cannot tell you, brother, how this place Stretch'd out a solid ridge of pikes to meet them. [THEKLA, as giddy, grasps a chair. Known by his plume, And his long hair, gave signal for the trenches; Himself leapt first, the regiment all plunged after. His charger, by a halbert gored, rear'd up, Flung him with violence off, and over him The horses, now no longer to be curb'd,————— [THEKLA who has accompanied the last speech with all the marks of increasing agony, trembles through her whole frame, and is falling. The LADY NEUBRUNN runs to her, and receives her in her arms. [Exeunt DUCHESS and COUNTESS. My dearest lady NEUBRUNN. |