The Death of Wallenstein

ACT III

SCENE I

A chamber in the house of the Duchess of Friedland.

COUNTESS TERZKY, THEKLA, LADY NEUBRUNN (the two latter sit at the same table at work).

COUNTESS (watching them from the opposite side)

 
  So you have nothing to ask me – nothing?
  I have been waiting for a word from you.
  And could you then endure in all this time
  Not once to speak his name?
 

[THEKLA remaining silent, the COUNTESS rises and advances to her.

 
                 Why, how comes this?
  Perhaps I am already grown superfluous,
  And other ways exist, besides through me
  Confess it to me, Thekla: have you seen him?
 

THEKLA

 
  To-day and yesterday I have not seen him.
 

COUNTESS

 
  And not heard from him, either? Come, be open.
 

THEKLA

 
  No Syllable.
 

COUNTESS

 
         And still you are so calm?
 

THEKLA

 
  I am.
 

COUNTESS

 
      May it please you, leave us, Lady Neubrunn.
 

[Exit LADY NEUBRUNN.

SCENE II

The COUNTESS, THEKLA.

COUNTESS

 
  It does not please me, princess, that he holds
  Himself so still, exactly at this time.
 

THEKLA

 
  Exactly at this time?
 

COUNTESS

 
              He now knows all
  'Twere now the moment to declare himself.
 

THEKLA

 
  If I'm to understand you, speak less darkly.
 

COUNTESS

 
  'Twas for that purpose that I bade her leave us.
  Thekla, you are no more a child. Your heart
  Is no more in nonage: for you love,
  And boldness dwells with love – that you have proved
  Your nature moulds itself upon your father's
  More than your mother's spirit. Therefore may you
  Hear what were too much for her fortitude.
 

THEKLA

 
  Enough: no further preface, I entreat you.
  At once, out with it! Be it what it may,
  It is not possible that it should torture me
  More than this introduction. What have you
  To say to me? Tell me the whole, and briefly!
 

COUNTESS

 
  You'll not be frightened —
 

THEKLA

 
                Name it, I entreat you.
 

COUNTESS

 
  Lies within my power to do your father
  A weighty service —
 

THEKLA

 
             Lies within my power.
 

COUNTESS

 
  Max. Piccolomini loves you. You can link him
  Indissolubly to your father.
 

THEKLA

 
                  I?
  What need of me for that? And is he not
  Already linked to him?
 

COUNTESS

 
              He was.
 

THEKLA

 
                   And wherefore
  Should he not be so now – not be so always?
 

COUNTESS

 
  He cleaves to the emperor too.
 

THEKLA

 
                  Not more than duty
  And honor may demand of him.
 

COUNTESS

 
                  We ask
  Proofs of his love, and not proofs of his honor.
  Duty and honor!
  Those are ambiguous words with many meanings.
  You should interpret them for him: his love
  Should be the sole definer of his honor.
 

THEKLA

 
  How?
 

COUNTESS

 
  The emperor or you must he renounce.
 

THEKLA

 
  He will accompany my father gladly
  In his retirement. From himself you heard,
  How much he wished to lay aside the sword.
 

COUNTESS

 
  He must not lay the sword aside, we mean;
  He must unsheath it in your father's cause.
 

THEKLA

 
  He'll spend with gladness and alacrity
  His life, his heart's blood in my father's cause,
  If shame or injury be intended him.
 

COUNTESS

 
  You will not understand me. Well, hear then:
  Your father has fallen off from the emperor,
  And is about to join the enemy
  With the whole soldiery —
 

THEKLA

 
                Alas, my mother!
 

COUNTESS

 
  There needs a great example to draw on
  The army after him. The Piccolomini
  Possess the love and reverence of the troops;
  They govern all opinions, and wherever
  They lead the way, none hesitate to follow.
  The son secures the father to our interests —
  You've much in your hands at this moment.
 

THEKLA

 
                        Ah,
  My miserable mother! what a death-stroke
  Awaits thee! No! she never will survive it.
 

COUNTESS

 
  She will accommodate her soul to that
  Which is and must be. I do know your mother:
  The far-off future weighs upon her heart
  With torture of anxiety; but is it
  Unalterably, actually present,
  She soon resigns herself, and bears it calmly.
 

THEKLA

 
  O my foreboding bosom! Even now,
  E'en now 'tis here, that icy hand of horror!
  And my young hope lies shuddering in its grasp;
  I knew it well – no sooner had I entered,
  An heavy ominous presentiment
  Revealed to me that spirits of death were hovering
  Over my happy fortune. But why, think I
  First of myself? My mother! O my mother!
 

COUNTESS

 
  Calm yourself! Break not out in vain lamenting!
  Preserve you for your father the firm friend,
  And for yourself the lover, all will yet
  Prove good and fortunate.
 

THEKLA

 
                Prove good! What good?
  Must we not part; part ne'er to meet again?
 

COUNTESS

 
  He parts not from you! He cannot part from you.
 

THEKLA

 
  Alas, for his sore anguish! It will rend
  His heart asunder.
 

COUNTESS

 
            If indeed he loves you.
  His resolution will be speedily taken.
 

THEKLA

 
  His resolution will be speedily taken —
  Oh, do not doubt of that! A resolution!
  Does there remain one to be taken?
 

COUNTESS

 
                     Hush!
  Collect yourself! I hear your mother coming.
 

THERLA

 
  How shall I bear to see her?
 

COUNTESS

 
                 Collect yourself.
 

SCENE III

To them enter the DUCHESS.

DUCHESS (to the COUNTESS)

 
  Who was here, sister? I heard some one talking,
  And passionately, too.
 

COUNTESS

 
              Nay! there was no one.
 

DUCHESS

 
  I am growing so timorous, every trifling noise
  Scatters my spirits, and announces to me
  The footstep of some messenger of evil.
  And you can tell me, sister, what the event is?
  Will he agree to do the emperor's pleasure,
  And send the horse regiments to the cardinal?
  Tell me, has he dismissed von Questenberg
  With a favorable answer?
 

COUNTESS

 
               No, he has not.
 

DUCHESS

 
  Alas! then all is lost! I see it coming,
  The worst that can come! Yes, they will depose him;
  The accursed business of the Regensburg diet
  Will all be acted o'er again!
 

COUNTESS

 
                  No! never!
  Make your heart easy, sister, as to that.
 

[THEKLA, in extreme agitation, throws herself upon her mother, and enfolds her in her arms, weeping.

DUCHESS

 
               Yes, my poor child!
  Thou too hast lost a most affectionate godmother
  In the empress. Oh, that stern, unbending man!
  In this unhappy marriage what have I
  Not suffered, not endured? For even as if
  I had been linked on to some wheel of fire
  That restless, ceaseless, whirls impetuous onward,
  I have passed a life of frights and horrors with him,
  And ever to the brink of some abyss
  With dizzy headlong violence he bears me.
  Nay, do not weep, my child. Let not my sufferings
  Presignify unhappiness to thee,
  Nor blacken with their shade the fate that waits thee.
  There lives no second Friedland; thou, my child,
  Hast not to fear thy mother's destiny.
 

THEELA

 
  Oh, let us supplicate him, dearest mother!
  Quick! quick! here's no abiding-place for us.
  Here every coming hour broods into life
  Some new affrightful monster.
 

DUCHESS

 
                  Thou wilt share
  An easier, calmer lot, my child! We, too,
  I and thy father, witnessed happy days.
  Still think I with delight of those first years,
  When he was making progress with glad effort,
  When his ambition was a genial fire,
  Not that consuming flame which now it is.
  The emperor loved him, trusted him; and all
  He undertook could not but be successful.
  But since that ill-starred day at Regensburg,
  Which plunged him headlong from his dignity,
  A gloomy, uncompanionable spirit,
  Unsteady and suspicious, has possessed him.
  His quiet mind forsook him, and no longer
  Did he yield up himself in joy and faith
  To his old luck and individual power;
  But thenceforth turned his heart and best affections
  All to those cloudy sciences which never
  Have yet made happy him who followed them.
 

COUNTESS

 
  You see it, sister! as your eyes permit you,
  But surely this is not the conversation
  To pass the time in which we are waiting for him.
  You know he will be soon here. Would you have him
  Find her in this condition?
 

DUCHESS

 
                 Come, my child!
  Come, wipe away thy tears, and show thy father
  A cheerful countenance. See, the tie-knot here
  Is off; this hair must not hang so dishevelled.
  Come, dearest! dry thy tears up. They deform
  Thy gentle eye. Well, now – what was I saying?
  Yes, in good truth, this Piccolomini
  Is a most noble and deserving gentleman.
 

COUNTESS

 
  That is he, sister!
 

THEKLA (to the COUNTESS, with marks of great oppression of spirits)

 
             Aunt, you will excuse me?
                (Is going).
 

COUNTESS

 
  But, whither? See, your father comes!
 

THEKLA

 
  I cannot see him now.
 

COUNTESS

 
              Nay, but bethink you.
 

THEKLA

 
  Believe me, I cannot sustain his presence.
 

COUNTESS

 
  But he will miss you, will ask after you.
 

DUCHESS

 
  What, now? Why is she going?
 

COUNTESS

 
                  She's not well.
 

DUCHESS (anxiously)

 
  What ails, then, my beloved child?
 

[Both follow the PRINCESS, and endeavor to detain her. During this WALLENSTEIN appears, engaged in conversation with ILLO.

SCENE IV

WALLENSTEIN, ILLO, COUNTESS, DUCHESS, THEKLA.

WALLENSTEIN

 
  All quiet in the camp?
 

ILLO

 
              It is all quiet.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
  In a few hours may couriers come from Prague
  With tidings that this capital is ours.
  Then we may drop the mask, and to the troops
  Assembled in this town make known the measure
  And its result together. In such cases
  Example does the whole. Whoever is foremost
  Still leads the herd. An imitative creature
  Is man. The troops at Prague conceive no other,
  Than that the Pilsen army has gone through
  The forms of homage to us; and in Pilsen
  They shall swear fealty to us, because
  The example has been given them by Prague.
  Butler, you tell me, has declared himself?
 

ILLO

 
  At his own bidding, unsolicited,
  He came to offer you himself and regiment.
 

WALLENSTEIN,

 
  I find we must not give implicit credence
  To every warning voice that makes itself
  Be listened to in the heart. To hold us back,
  Oft does the lying spirit counterfeit
  The voice of truth and inward revelation,
  Scattering false oracles. And thus have I
  To entreat forgiveness for that secretly.
  I've wronged this honorable gallant man,
  This Butler: for a feeling of the which
  I am not master (fear I would not call it),
  Creeps o'er me instantly, with sense of shuddering,
  At his approach, and stops love's joyous motion.
  And this same man, against whom I am warned,
  This honest man is he who reaches to me
  The first pledge of my fortune.
 

ILLO

 
                   And doubt not
  That his example will win over to you
  The best men in the army.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
                Go and send
  Isolani hither. Send him immediately.
  He is under recent obligations to me:
  With him will I commence the trial. Go.
 

[Exit ILLO.

WALLENSTEIN (turns himself round to the females)

 
  Lo, there's the mother with the darling daughter.
  For once we'll have an interval of rest —
  Come! my heart yearns to live a cloudless hour
  In the beloved circle of my family.
 

COUNTESS

 
  'Tis long since we've been thus together, brother.
 

WALLENSTEIN (to the COUNTESS, aside)

 
  Can she sustain the news? Is she prepared?
 

COUNTESS

 
  Not yet.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
       Come here, my sweet girl! Seat thee by me,
  For there is a good spirit on thy lips.
  Thy mother praised to me thy ready skill;
  She says a voice of melody dwells in thee,
  Which doth enchant the soul. Now such a voice
  Will drive away from me the evil demon
  That beats his black wings close above my head.
 

DUCHESS

 
  Where is thy lute, my daughter? Let thy father
  Hear some small trial of thy skill.
 

THEKLA

 
                     My mother
  I —
 

DUCHESS

 
  Trembling? Come, collect thyself. Go, cheer
  Thy father.
 

THEKLA

 
         O my mother! I – I cannot.
 

COUNTESS

 
  How, what is that, niece?
 

THEKLA (to the COUNTESS)

 
  O spare me – sing – now – in this sore anxiety,
  Of the overburdened soul – to sing to him
  Who is thrusting, even now, my mother headlong
  Into her grave.
 

DUCHESS

 
           How, Thekla! Humorsome!
  What! shall thy father have expressed a wish
  In vain?
 

COUNTESS

 
       Here is the lute.
 

THEKLA

 
                 My God! how can I —
 

[The orchestra plays. During the ritornello THEKLA expresses in her gestures and countenance the struggle of her feelings; and at the moment that she should begin to sing, contracts herself together, as one shuddering, throws the instrument down, and retires abruptly.

DUCHESS

 
  My child! Oh, she is ill —
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
                 What ails the maiden?
  Say, is she often so?
 

COUNTESS

 
              Since then herself
  Has now betrayed it, I too must no longer
  Conceal it.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
         What?
 

COUNTESS

 
            She loves him!
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
                    Loves him? Whom?
 

COUNTESS

 
  Max. does she love! Max. Piccolomini!
  Hast thou never noticed it? Nor yet my sister?
 

DUCHESS

 
  Was it this that lay so heavy on her heart?
  God's blessing on thee, – my sweet child! Thou needest
  Never take shame upon thee for thy choice.
 

COUNTESS

 
  This journey, if 'twere not thy aim, ascribe it
  To thine own self. Thou shouldst have chosen another
  To have attended her.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
              And does he know it?
 

COUNTESS

 
  Yes, and he hopes to win her.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
                  Hopes to win her!
  Is the boy mad?
 

COUNTESS

 
           Well – hear it from themselves.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
  He thinks to carry off Duke Friedland's daughter!
  Ay? The thought pleases me.
  The young man has no groveling spirit.
 

COUNTESS

 
                       Since
  Such and such constant favor you have shown him —
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
  He chooses finally to be my heir.
  And true it is, I love the youth; yea, honor him.
  But must he therefore be my daughter's husband?
  Is it daughters only? Is it only children
  That we must show our favor by?
 

DUCHESS

 
  His noble disposition and his manners —
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
  Win him my heart, but not my daughter.
 

DUCHESS

 
                      Then
  His rank, his ancestors —
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
                Ancestors! What?
  He is a subject, and my son-in-law
  I will seek out upon the thrones of Europe.
 

DUCHESS

 
  O dearest Albrecht! Climb we not too high
  Lest we should fall too low.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
                 What! have I paid
  A price so heavy to ascend this eminence,
  And jut out high above the common herd,
  Only to close the mighty part I play
  In life's great drama with a common kinsman?
  Have I for this —
 

[Stops suddenly, repressing himself.

 
            She is the only thing
  That will remain behind of me on earth;
  And I will see a crown around her head,
  Or die in the attempt to place it there.
  I hazard all – all! and for this alone,
  To lift her into greatness.
  Yea, in this moment, in the which we are speaking
 

[He recollects himself.

 
  And I must now, like a soft-hearted father,
  Couple together in good peasant fashion
  The pair that chance to suit each other's liking —
  And I must do it now, even now, when I
  Am stretching out the wreath that is to twine
  My full accomplished work – no! she is the jewel,
  Which I have treasured long, my last, my noblest,
  And 'tis my purpose not to let her from me
  For less than a king's sceptre.
 

DUCHESS

 
                   O my husband!
  You're ever building, building to the clouds,
  Still building higher, and still higher building,
  And ne'er reflect, that the poor narrow basis
  Cannot sustain the giddy tottering column.
 

WALLENSTEIN (to the COUNTESS)

 
  Have you announced the place of residence
  Which I have destined for her?
 

COUNTESS

 
                  No! not yet,
  'Twere better you yourself disclosed it to her.
 

DUCHESS

 
  How? Do we not return to Carinthia then?
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
                        No.
 

DUCHESS

 
  And to no other of your lands or seats?
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
  You would not be secure there.
 

DUCHESS

 
                  Not secure.
  In the emperor's realms, beneath the emperor's
  Protection?
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
         Friedland's wife may be permitted
  No longer to hope that.
 

DUCHESS

 
               O God in heaven!
  And have you brought it even to this!
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
                      In Holland
  You'll find protection.
 

DUCHESS

 
               In a Lutheran country?
  What? And you send us into Lutheran countries?
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
  Duke Franz of Lauenburg conducts you thither.
 

DUCHESS

 
  Duke Franz of Lauenburg?
  The ally of Sweden, the emperor's enemy.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
  The emperor's enemies are mine no longer.
 

DUCHESS (casting a look of terror on the DUKE and the COUNTESS)

 
  Is it then true? It is. You are degraded
  Deposed from the command? O God in heaven!
 

COUNTESS (aside to the DUKE)

 
  Leave her in this belief. Thou seest she cannot
  Support the real truth.
 

SCENE V

To them enter COUNT TERZKY.

COUNTESS

 
                  Terzky!
  What ails him? What an image of affright!
  He looks as he had seen a ghost.
 

TERZKY (leading WALLENSTEIN aside)

 
  Is it thy command that all the Croats —
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
                       Mine!
 

TERZKY

 
  We are betrayed.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
           What?
 

TERZKY

 
               They are off! This night
  The Jaegers likewise – all the villages
  In the whole round are empty.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
                  Isolani!
 

TERZKY

 
  Him thou hast sent away. Yes, surely.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
                       I?
 

TERZKY

 
  No? Hast thou not sent him off? Nor Deodati?
  They are vanished, both of them.
 

SCENE VI

To them enter ILLO.

ILLO

 
  Has Terzky told thee?
 

TERZKY

 
              He knows all.
 

ILLO

 
                     And likewise
  That Esterhatzy, Goetz, Maradas, Kaunitz,
  Kolatto, Palfi, have forsaken thee.
 

TERZKY

 
  Damnation!
 

WALLENSTEIN (winks at them)

 
  Hush!
 

COUNTESS (who has been watching them anxiously from the distance and now advances to them)

 
  Terzky! Heaven! What is it? What has happened?
 

WALLENSTEIN (scarcely suppressing his emotions)

 
  Nothing! let us be gone!
 

TERZKY (following him)

 
               Theresa, it is nothing.
 

COUNTESS (holding him back)

 
  Nothing? Do I not see that all the life-blood
  Has left your cheeks – look you not like a ghost?
  That even my brother but affects a calmness?
 

PAGE (enters)

 
  An aide-de-camp inquires for the Count Terzky.
 

[TERZKY follows the PAGE.

WALLENSTEIN

 
  Go, hear his business.
 

[To ILLO.

 
              This could not have happened
  So unsuspected without mutiny.
  Who was on guard at the gates?
 

ILLO

 
                  'Twas Tiefenbach.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
  Let Tiefenbach leave guard without delay,
  And Terzky's grenadiers relieve him.
 

[ILLO is going.

 
                     Stop!
  Hast thou heard aught of Butler?
 

ILLO

 
                   Him I met
  He will be here himself immediately.
  Butler remains unshaken,
 

[ILLO exit. WALLENSTEIN is following him.

COUNTESS

 
  Let him not leave thee, sister! go, detain him!
  There's some misfortune.
 

DUCHESS (clinging to him)

 
               Gracious Heaven! What is it?
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
  Be tranquil! leave me, sister! dearest wife!
  We are in camp, and this is naught unusual;
  Here storm and sunshine follow one another
  With rapid interchanges. These fierce spirits
  Champ the curb angrily, and never yet
  Did quiet bless the temples of the leader;
  If I am to stay go you. The plaints of women
  Ill suit the scene where men must act.
 

[He is going: TERZKY returns.

TERZKY

 
  Remain here. From this window must we see it.
 

WALLENSTEIN (to the COUNTESS)

 
  Sister, retire!
 

COUNTESS

 
           No – never!
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
                 'Tis my will.
 

TERZKY (leads the COUNTESS aside, and drawing her attention to the DUCHESS)

 
  Theresa!
 

DUCHESS

 
       Sister, come! since he commands it.
 

SCENE VII

WALLENSTEIN, TERZKY.

WALLENSTEIN (stepping to the window)

 
  What now, then?
 

TERZKY

 
  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 make threatening movements; only
  The Pappenheimers still remain aloof
  In their own quarters and let no one enter.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
  Does Piccolomini appear among them?
 

TERZKY

 
  We are seeking him: he is nowhere to be met with.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
  What did the aide-de-camp deliver to you?
 

TERZKY

 
  My regiments had despatched him; yet once more
  They swear fidelity to thee, and wait
  The shout for onset, all prepared, and eager.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
  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.
 

TERZKY

 
  Oh, 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 gavest him thy own horses to flee from thee.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
  The old tune still! Now, once for all, no more
  Of this suspicion – it is doting folly.
 

TERZKY

 
  Thou didst confide in Isolani too;
  And lo! he was the first that did desert thee.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
  It was but yesterday I rescued him
  From abject wretchedness. Let that go by;
  I never reckoned 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 eminent 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,
  Naught 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.
 

TERZKY

 
               Yet, would I rather
  Trust the smooth brow than that deep furrowed one.