Kitabı oku: «The Piccolomini», sayfa 3

SCENE III

Enter the Countess TERZKY, leading in her hand the Princess THEKLA, richly adorned with brilliants.

COUNTESS, TEKLA, WALLENSTEIN, DUCHESS.

COUNTESS

 
   How sister? What, already upon business?
 

[Observing the countenance of the DUCHESS.

 
   And business of no pleasing kind I see,
   Ere he has gladdened at his child. The first
   Moment belongs to joy. Here, Friedland! father!
   This is thy daughter.
 

[THEKLA approaches with a shy and timid air, and bends herself as about to kiss his hand. He receives her in his arms, and remains standing for some time lost in the feeling of her presence.

WALLENSTEIN

 
   Yes! pure and lovely hath hope risen on me,
   I take her as the pledge of greater fortune.
 

DUCHESS

 
   'Twas but a little child when you departed
   To raise up that great army for the emperor
   And after, at the close of the campaign,
   When you returned home out of Pomerania,
   Your daughter was already in the convent,
   Wherein she has remained till now.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
                     The while
   We in the field here gave our cares and toils
   To make her great, and fight her a free way
   To the loftiest earthly good; lo! mother Nature
   Within the peaceful, silent convent walls,
   Has done her part, and out of her free grace
   Hath she bestowed on the beloved child
   The god-like; and now leads her thus adorned
   To meet her splendid fortune, and my hope.
 

DUCHESS (to THEKLA)

 
   Thou wouldst not now have recognized thy father,
   Wouldst thou, my child? She counted scarce eight years
   When last she saw your face.
 

THEKLA

 
                  O yes, yes, mother!
   At the first glance! My father has not altered.
   The form that stands before me falsifies
   No feature of the image that hath lived
   So long within me!
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
             The voice of my child!
 

[Then after a pause.

 
   I was indignant at my destiny,
   That it denied me a man-child, to be
   Heir of my name and of my prosperous fortune,
   And re-illume my soon-extinguished being
   In a proud line of princes.
   I wronged my destiny. Here upon this head,
   So lovely in its maiden bloom, will I
   Let fall the garland of a life of war,
   Nor deem it lost, if only I can wreath it,
   Transmuted to a regal ornament,
   Around these beauteous brows.
 

[He clasps her in his arms as PICCOLOMINI enters.

SCENE IV

Enter MAX. PICCOLOMINI, and some time after COUNT TERZKY, the others remaining as before.

COUNTESS

 
   There comes the Paladin who protected us.
 

WALLENSTEIN

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

MAX

 
                     My general —
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
   Till now it was the emperor who rewarded thee,
   I but the instrument. This day thou hast bound
   The father to thee, Max.! the fortunate father,
   And this debt Friedland's self must pay.
 

MAX

 
                        My prince!
   You made no common hurry to transfer it.
   I come with shame: yea, not without a pang!
   For scarce have I arrived here, scarce delivered
   The mother and the daughter to your arms,
   But there is brought to me from your equerry ⁶
   A splendid richly-plated hunting dress
   So to remunerate me for my troubles —
   Yes, yes, remunerate me, – since a trouble
   It must be, a mere office, not a favor
   Which I leaped forward to receive, and which
   I came with grateful heart to thank you for.
   No! 'twas not so intended, that my business
   Should be my highest best good fortune!
 

[TERZKY enters; and delivers letters to the DUKE, which he breaks open hurriedly.

COUNTESS (to MAX.)

 
   Remunerate your trouble! For his joy,
   He makes you recompense. 'Tis not unfitting
   For you, Count Piccolomini, to feel
   So tenderly – my brother it beseems
   To show himself forever great and princely.
 

THEKLA

 
   Then I too must have scruples of his love:
   For his munificent hands did ornament me
   Ere yet the father's heart had spoken to me.
 

MAX

 
   Yes; 'tis his nature ever to be giving
   And making happy.
 

[He grasps the hand of the DUCHESS with still increasing warmth.

 
             How my heart pours out
   Its all of thanks to him! O! how I seem
   To utter all things in the dear name – Friedland.
   While I shall live, so long will I remain
   The captive of this name: in it shall bloom
   My every fortune, every lovely hope.
   Inextricably as in some magic ring
   In this name hath my destiny charm-bound me!
 

COUNTESS (who during this time has been anxiously watching the DUKE, and remarks that he is lost in thought over the letters)

 
   My brother wishes us to leave him. Come.
 

WALLENSTEIN (turns himself round quick, collects himself, and speaks with cheerfulness to the DUCHESS)

 
   Once more I bid thee welcome to the camp,
   Thou art the hostess of this court. You, Max.,
   Will now again administer your old office,
   While we perform the sovereign's business here.
 

[MAX. PICCOLOMINI offers the DUCHESS his arm; the COUNTESS accompanies the PRINCESS.

TERZKY (calling after him)

 
   Max., we depend on seeing you at the meeting.
 

SCENE V

WALLENSTEIN, COUNT TERZKY.

WALLENSTEIN (in deep thought, to himself)

 
   She has seen all things as they are – it is so,
   And squares completely with my other notices,
   They have determined finally in Vienna,
   Have given me my successor already;
   It is the King of Hungary, Ferdinand,
   The emperor's delicate son! he's now their savior,
   He's the new star that's rising now! Of us
   They think themselves already fairly rid,
   And as we were deceased, the heir already
   Is entering on possession – Therefore – despatch!
 

[As he turns round he observes TERZKY, and gives him a letter.

 
   Count Altringer will have himself excused,
   And Gallas too – I like not this!
 

TERZKY

 
                    And if
   Thou loiterest longer, all will fall away,
   One following the other.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
                Altringer
   Is master of the Tyrol passes. I must forthwith
   Send some one to him, that he let not in
   The Spaniards on me from the Milanese.
   – Well, and the old Sesin, that ancient trader
   In contraband negotiations, he
   Has shown himself again of late. What brings he
   From the Count Thur?
 

TERZKY

 
              The count communicates
   He has found out the Swedish chancellor
   At Halberstadt, where the convention's held,
   Who says, you've tired him out, and that he'll have
   No further dealings with you.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
                   And why so?
 

TERZKY

 
   He says, you are never in earnest in your speeches;
   That you decoy the Swedes – to make fools of them;
   Will league yourself with Saxony against them,
   And at last make yourself a riddance of them
   With a paltry sum of money.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
                  So then, doubtless,
   Yes, doubtless, this same modest Swede expects
   That I shall yield him some fair German tract
   For his prey and booty, that ourselves at last
   On our own soil and native territory
   May be no longer our own lords and masters!
   An excellent scheme! No, no! They must be off,
   Off, off! away! we want no such neighbors.
 

TERZKY

 
   Nay, yield them up that dot, that speck of land —
   It goes not from your portion. If you win
   The game, what matters it to you who pays it?
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
   Off with them, off! Thou understand'st not this.
   Never shall it be said of me, I parcelled
   My native land away, dismembered Germany,
   Betrayed it to a foreigner, in order
   To come with stealthy tread, and filch away
   My own share of the plunder – Never! never!
   No foreign power shall strike root in the empire,
   And least of all these Goths! these hungry wolves!
   Who send such envious, hot, and greedy glances
   Toward the rich blessings of our German lands!
   I'll have their aid to cast and draw my nets,
   But not a single fish of all the draught
   Shall they come in for.
 

TERZKY

 
                You will deal, however,
   More fairly with the Saxons? they lose patience
   While you shift round and make so many curves.
   Say, to what purpose all these masks? Your friends
   Are plunged in doubts, baffled, and led astray in you.
   There's Oxenstiern, there's Arnheim – neither knows
   What he should think of your procrastinations,
   And in the end I prove the liar; all
   Passes through me. I've not even your handwriting.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
   I never give handwriting; and thou knowest it.
 

TERZKY

 
   But how can it be known that you are in earnest,
   If the act follows not upon the word?
   You must yourself acknowledge, that in all
   Your intercourses hitherto with the enemy,
   You might have done with safety all you have done.
   Had you meant nothing further than to gull him
   For the emperor's service.
 

WALLENSTEIN (after a pause, during which he looks narrowly on TERZKY)

 
                And from whence dost thou know
   That I'm not gulling him for the emperor's service?
   Whence knowest thou that I'm not gulling all of you?
   Dost thou know me so well? When made I thee
   The intendant of my secret purposes?
   I am not conscious that I ever opened
   My inmost thoughts to thee. The emperor, it is true,
   Hath dealt with me amiss; and if I would
   I could repay him with usurious interest
   For the evil he hath done me. It delights me
   To know my power; but whether I shall use it,
   Of that I should have thought that thou couldst speak
   No wiser than thy fellows.
 

TERZKY

 
   So hast thou always played thy game with us.
 

[Enter ILLO.

SCENE VI

ILLO, WALLENSTEIN, TERZKY.

WALLENSTEIN

 
   How stand affairs without? Are they prepared?
 

ILLO

 
   You'll find them in the very mood you wish.
   They know about the emperor's requisition,
   And are tumultuous.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
              How hath Isolani
   declared himself?
 

ILLO

 
             He's yours, both soul and body,
   Since you built up again his faro-bank.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
   And which way doth Kolatto bend? Hast thou
   Made sure of Tiefenbach and Deodati?
 

ILLO

 
   What Piccolomini does that they do too.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
   You mean, then, I may venture somewhat with them?
 

ILLO

 
   If you are assured of the Piccolomini.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
   Not more assured of mine own self.
 

TERZKY

 
                     And yet
   I would you trusted not so much to Octavio,
   The fox!
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
        Thou teachest me to know my man?
   Sixteen campaigns I have made with that old warrior.
   Besides, I have his horoscope;
   We both are born beneath like stars – in short,
 

[With an air of mystery.

 
   To this belongs its own peculiar aspect,
   If therefore thou canst warrant me the rest —
 

ILLO

 
   There is among them all but this one voice,
   You must not lay down the command. I hear
   They mean to send a deputation to you.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
   If I'm in aught to bind myself to them
   They too must bind themselves to me.
 

ILLO

 
                      Of course.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
   Their words of honor they must give, their oaths,
   Give them in writing to me, promising
   Devotion to my service unconditional.
 

ILLO

 
   Why not?
 

TERZKY

 
        Devotion unconditional?
   The exception of their duties towards Austria
   They'll always place among the premises.
   With this reserve —
 

WALLENSTEIN (shaking his head)

 
              All unconditional;
   No premises, no reserves.
 

ILLO

 
                 A thought has struck me.
   Does not Count Terzky give us a set banquet
   This evening?
 

TERZKY

 
          Yes; and all the generals
   Have been invited.
 

ILLO (to WALLENSTEIN)

 
             Say, will you here fully
   Commission me to use my own discretion?
   I'll gain for you the generals' word of honor,
   Even as you wish.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
             Gain me their signatures!
   How you come by them that is your concern.
 

ILLO

 
   And if I bring it to you in black on white,
   That all the leaders who are present here
   Give themselves up to you, without condition;
   Say, will you then – then will you show yourself
   In earnest, and with some decisive action
   Try your fortune.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
            Get but the signatures!
 

ILLO

 
   Think what thou dost, thou canst not execute
   The emperor's orders, nor reduce thine army,
   Nor send the regiments to the Spaniards' aid,
   Unless thou wouldst resign thy power forever.
   Think on the other hand – thou canst not spurn
   The emperor's high commands and solemn orders,
   Nor longer temporize, nor seek evasion,
   Wouldst thou avoid a rupture with the court.
   Resolve then! Wilt thou now by one bold act
   Anticipate their ends, or, doubting still,
   Await the extremity?
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
              There's time before
   The extremity arrives.
 

ILLO

 
               Seize, seize the hour,
   Ere it slips from you. Seldom comes the moment
   In life, which is indeed sublime and weighty.
   To make a great decision possible,
   O! many things, all transient and all rapid,
   Must meet at once: and, haply, they thus met
   May by that confluence be enforced to pause
   Time long-enough for wisdom, though too short,
   Far, far too short a time for doubt and scruple!
   This is that moment. See, our army chieftains,
   Our best, our noblest, are assembled round you,
   Their king-like leader! On your nod they wait.
   The single threads, which here your prosperous fortune
   Hath woven together in one potent web
   Instinct with destiny, O! let them not
   Unravel of themselves. If you permit
   These chiefs to separate, so unanimous
   Bring you them not a second time together.
   'Tis the high tide that heaves the stranded ship,
   And every individual's spirit waxes
   In the great stream of multitudes. Behold
   They are still here, here still! But soon the war
   Bursts them once more asunder, and in small
   Particular anxieties and interests
   Scatters their spirit, and the sympathy
   Of each man with the whole. He who to-day
   Forgets himself, forced onward with the stream,
   Will become sober, seeing but himself.
   Feel only his own weakness, and with speed
   Will face about, and march on in the old
   High road of duty, the old broad-trodden road,
   And seek but to make shelter in good plight.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
   The time is not yet come.
 

TERZKY

 
                 So you say always.
   But when will it be time?
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
                 When I shall say it.
 

ILLO

 
   You'll wait upon the stars, and on their hours,
   Till the earthly hour escapes you. Oh, believe me,
   In your own bosom are your destiny's stars.
   Confidence in yourself, prompt resolution,
   This is your Venus! and the sole malignant,
   The only one that harmeth you is doubt.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
   Thou speakest as thou understandest. How oft
   And many a time I've told thee Jupiter,
   That lustrous god, was setting at thy birth.
   Thy visual power subdues no mysteries;
   Mole-eyed thou mayest but burrow in the earth,
   Blind as the subterrestrial, who with wan
   Lead-colored shine lighted thee into life.
   The common, the terrestrial, thou mayest see,
   With serviceable cunning knit together,
   The nearest with the nearest; and therein
   I trust thee and believe thee! but whate'er
   Full of mysterious import Nature weaves,
   And fashions in the depths – the spirit's ladder,
   That from this gross and visible world of dust,
   Even to the starry world, with thousand rounds,
   Builds itself up; on which the unseen powers
   Move up and down on heavenly ministries —
   The circles in the circles, that approach
   The central sun with ever-narrowing orbit —
   These see the glance alone, the unsealed eye,
   Of Jupiter's glad children born in lustre.
 

[He walks across the chamber, then returns, and standing still, proceeds.

 
   The heavenly constellations make not merely
   The day and nights, summer and spring, not merely
   Signify to the husbandman the seasons
   Of sowing and of harvest. Human action,
   That is the seed, too, of contingencies,
   Strewed on the dark land of futurity
   In hopes to reconcile the powers of fate
   Whence it behoves us to seek out the seed-time,
   To watch the stars, select their proper hours,
   And trace with searching eye the heavenly houses,
   Whether the enemy of growth and thriving
   Hide himself not, malignant, in his corner.
   Therefore permit me my own time. Meanwhile
   Do you your part. As yet I cannot say
   What I shall do – only, give way I will not,
   Depose me, too, they shall not. On these points
   You may rely.
 

PAGE (entering)

 
          My lords, the generals.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
   Let them come in.
 

TERZKY

 
            Shall all the chiefs be present?
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
   'Twere needless. Both the Piccolomini
   Maradas, Butler, Forgoetsch, Deodati,
   Karaffa, Isolani – these may come.
 

[TERZKY goes out with the PAGE.

WALLENSTEIN (to ILLO)

 
   Hast thou taken heed that Questenberg was watched?
   Had he no means of secret intercourse?
 

ILLO

 
   I have watched him closely – and he spoke with none
   But with Octavio.
 

SCENE VII

WALLENSTRIN, TERZKY, ILLO. – To them enter QUESTENBERG, OCTAVIO, and MAX. PICCOLOMINI, BUTLER, ISOLANI, MARADAS, and three other Generals. WALLENSTEIN Motions QUESTENBERG, who in consequence takes the chair directly opposite to him; the others follow, arranging themselves according to their rank. There reigns a momentary silence.

WALLENSTEIN

 
               I have understood,
   'Tis true, the sum and import, Questenberg,
   Of your instructions. I have weighed them well,
   And formed my final, absolute resolve;
   Yet it seems fitting that the generals
   Should hear the will of the emperor from your mouth.
   May it please you then to open your commission
   Before these noble chieftains?
 

QUESTENBERG

 
                   I am ready
   To obey you; but will first entreat your highness,
   And all these noble chieftains, to consider,
   The imperial dignity and sovereign right
   Speaks from my mouth, and not my own presumption.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
   We excuse all preface.
 

QUESTENBERG

 
               When his majesty
   The emperor to his courageous armies
   Presented in the person of Duke Friedland
   A most experienced and renowned commander,
   He did it in glad hope and confidence
   To give thereby to the fortune of the war
   A rapid and auspicious change. The onset
   Was favorable to his royal wishes.
   Bohemia was delivered from the Saxons,
   The Swede's career of conquest checked! These lands
   Began to draw breath freely, as Duke Friedland
   From all the streams of Germany forced hither
   The scattered armies of the enemy;
   Hither invoked as round one magic circle
   The Rhinegrave, Bernhard, Banner, Oxenstiern,
   Yea, and the never-conquered king himself;
   Here finally, before the eye of Nuernberg,
   The fearful game of battle to decide.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
   To the point, so please you.
 

QUESTENBERG

 
                  A new spirit
   At once proclaimed to us the new commander.
   No longer strove blind rage with rage more blind;
   But in the enlightened field of skill was shown
   How fortitude can triumph over boldness,
   And scientific art outweary courage.
   In vain they tempt him to the fight. He only
   Entrenches him still deeper in his hold,
   As if to build an everlasting fortress.
   At length grown desperate, now, the king resolves
   To storm the camp and lead his wasted legions,
   Who daily fall by famine and by plague,
   To quicker deaths and hunger and disease.
   Through lines of barricades behind whose fence
   Death lurks within a thousand mouths of fire,
   He yet unconquered strives to storm his way.
   There was attack, and there resistance, such
   As mortal eye had never seen before;
   Repulsed at last, the king withdrew his troops
   From this so murderous field, and not a foot
   Of ground was gained by all that fearful slaughter.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
   Pray spare us these recitals from gazettes,
   Which we ourselves beheld with deepest horror.
 

QUESTENBERG

 
   In Nuernberg's camp the Swedish monarch left
   His fame – in Luetzen's plains his life. But who
   Stood not astounded, when victorious Friedland
   After this day of triumph, this proud day,
   Marched toward Bohemia with the speed of flight,
   And vanished from the theatre of war?
   While the young Weimar hero⁷ forced his way
   Into Franconia, to the Danube, like
   Some delving winter-stream, which, where it rushes,
   Makes its own channel; with such sudden speed
   He marched, and now at once 'fore Regensburg
   Stood to the affright of all good Catholic Christians.
   Then did Bavaria's well-deserving prince
   Entreat swift aidance in his extreme need;
   The emperor sends seven horsemen to Duke Friedland,
   Seven horsemen couriers sends he with the entreaty
   He superadds his own, and supplicates
   Where as the sovereign lord he can command.
   In vain his supplication! At this moment
   The duke hears only his old hate and grudge,
   Barters the general good to gratify
   Private revenge – and so falls Regensburg.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
   Max., to what period of the war alludes he?
   My recollection fails me here.
 

MAX

 
                   He means
   When we were in Silesia.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
                Ay! is it so!
   But what had we to do there?
 

MAX

 
                  To beat out
   The Swedes and Saxons from the province.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
                        True;
   In that description which the minister gave,
   I seemed to have forgotten the whole war.
 

[TO QUESTENBERG.

 
   Well, but proceed a little.
 

QUESTENBERG

 
   We hoped upon the Oder to regain
   What on the Danube shamefully was lost.
   We looked for deeds of all-astounding grandeur
   Upon a theatre of war, on which
   A Friedland led in person to the field,
   And the famed rival of the great Gustavus
   Had but a Thurn and Arnheim to oppose him!
   Yet the encounter of their mighty hosts
   Served but to feast and entertain each other.
   Our country groaned beneath the woes of war,
   Yet naught but peace prevailed in Friedland's camp!
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
   Full many a bloody strife is fought in vain,
   Because its youthful general needs a victory.
   But 'tis the privilege of the old commander
   To spare the costs of fighting useless battles
   Merely to show that he knows how to conquer.
   It would have little helped my fame to boast
   Of conquest o'er an Arnheim; but far more
   Would my forbearance have availed my country,
   Had I succeeded to dissolve the alliance
   Existing 'twixt the Saxon and the Swede.
 

QUESTENBERG

 
   But you did not succeed, and so commenced
   The fearful strife anew. And here at length,
   Beside the river Oder did the duke
   Assert his ancient fame. Upon the fields
   Of Steinau did the Swedes lay down their arms,
   Subdued without a blow. And here, with others,
   The righteousness of heaven to his avenger
   Delivered that long-practised stirrer-up
   Of insurrection, that curse-laden torch
   And kindler of this war, Matthias Thurn.
   But he had fallen into magnanimous hands
   Instead of punishment he found reward,
   And with rich presents did the duke dismiss
   The arch-foe of his emperor.
 

WALLENSTEIN (laughs)

 
                  I know,
   I know you had already in Vienna
   Your windows and your balconies forestalled
   To see him on the executioner's cart.
   I might have lost the battle, lost it too
   With infamy, and still retained your graces —
   But, to have cheated them of a spectacle,
   Oh! that the good folks of Vienna never,
   No, never can forgive me!
 

QUESTENBERG

 
                 So Silesia
   Was freed, and all things loudly called the duke
   Into Bavaria, now pressed hard on all sides.
   And he did put his troops in motion: slowly,
   Quite at his ease, and by the longest road
   He traverses Bohemia; but ere ever
   He hath once seen the enemy, faces round,
   Breaks up the march, and takes to winter-quarters.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
   The troops were pitiably destitute
   Of every necessary, every comfort,
   The winter came. What thinks his majesty
   His troops are made of? Aren't we men; subjected
   Like other men to wet, and cold, and all
   The circumstances of necessity?
   Oh, miserable lot of the poor soldier!
   Wherever he comes in all flee before him,
   And when he goes away the general curse
   Follows him on his route. All must be seized.
   Nothing is given him. And compelled to seize
   From every man he's every man's abhorrence.
   Behold, here stand my generals. Karaffa!
   Count Deodati! Butler! Tell this man
   How long the soldier's pay is in arrears.
 

BUTLER

 
   Already a full year.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
              And 'tis the hire
   That constitutes the hireling's name and duties,
   The soldier's pay is the soldier's covenant.⁸
 

QUESTENBERG

 
   Ah! this is a far other tone from that
   In which the duke spoke eight, nine years ago.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
   Yes! 'tis my fault, I know it: I myself
   Have spoilt the emperor by indulging him.
   Nine years ago, during the Danish war,
   I raised him up a force, a mighty force,
   Forty or fifty thousand men, that cost him
   Of his own purse no doit. Through Saxony
   The fury goddess of the war marched on,
   E'en to the surf-rocks of the Baltic, bearing
   The terrors of his name. That was a time!
   In the whole imperial realm no name like mine
   Honored with festival and celebration —
   And Albrecht Wallenstein, it was the title
   Of the third jewel in his crown!
   But at the Diet, when the princes met
   At Regensburg, there, there the whole broke out,
   There 'twas laid open, there it was made known
   Out of what money-bag I had paid the host,
   And what were now my thanks, what had I now
   That I, a faithful servant of the sovereign,
   Had loaded on myself the people's curses,
   And let the princes of the empire pay
   The expenses of this war that aggrandizes
   The emperor alone. What thanks had I?
   What? I was offered up to their complaint
   Dismissed, degraded!
 

QUESTENBERG

 
              But your highness knows
   What little freedom he possessed of action
   In that disastrous Diet.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
                Death and hell!
   I had that which could have procured him freedom
   No! since 'twas proved so inauspicious to me
   To serve the emperor at the empire's cost,
   I have been taught far other trains of thinking
   Of the empire and the Diet of the empire.
   From the emperor, doubtless, I received this staff,
   But now I hold it as the empire's general, —
   For the common weal, the universal interest,
   And no more for that one man's aggrandizement!
   But to the point. What is it that's desired of me?
 

QUESTENBERG

 
   First, his imperial majesty hath willed
   That without pretexts of delay the army
   Evacuate Bohemia.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
             In this season?
   And to what quarter wills the emperor
   That we direct our course?
 

QUESTENBERG

 
                 To the enemy.
   His majesty resolves, that Regensburg
   Be purified from the enemy ere Easter,
   That Lutheranism may be no longer preached
   In that cathedral, nor heretical
   Defilement desecrate the celebration
   Of that pure festival.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
               My generals,
   Can this be realized?
 

ILLO

 
               'Tis not possible.
 

BUTLER

 
   It can't be realized.
 

QUESTENBERG

 
               The emperor
   Already hath commanded Colonel Suys
   To advance towards Bavaria.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
                  What did Suys?
 

QUESTENBERG

 
   That which his duty prompted. He advanced.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
   What! he advanced? And I, his general,
   Had given him orders, peremptory orders
   Not to desert his station! Stands it thus
   With my authority? Is this the obedience
   Due to my office, which being thrown aside,
   No war can be conducted? Chieftains, speak
   You be the judges, generals. What deserves
   That officer who, of his oath neglectful,
   Is guilty of contempt of orders?
 

ILLO

 
                    Death.
 

WALLENSTEIN (raising his voice, as all but ILLO had remained silent

 
      and seemingly scrupulous).
   Count Piccolomini! what has he deserved?
 

MAX. PICCOLOMINI (after a long pause)

 
   According to the letter of the law,
   Death.
 

ISOLANI

 
       Death.
 

BUTLER

 
           Death, by the laws of war.
 

[QUESTENBERG rises from his seat, WALLENSTEIN follows, all the rest rise.

WALLENSTEIN

 
   To this the law condemns him, and not I.
   And if I show him favor, 'twill arise
   From the reverence that I owe my emperor.
 

QUESTENBERG

 
   If so, I can say nothing further – here!
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
   I accepted the command but on conditions!
   And this the first, that to the diminution
   Of my authority no human being,
   Not even the emperor's self, should be entitled
   To do aught, or to say aught, with the army.
   If I stand warranter of the event,
   Placing my honor and my head in pledge,
   Needs must I have full mastery in all
   The means thereto. What rendered this Gustavus
   Resistless, and unconquered upon earth?
   This – that he was the monarch in his army!
   A monarch, one who is indeed a monarch,
   Was never yet subdued but by his equal.
   But to the point! The best is yet to come,
   Attend now, generals!
 

QUESTENBERG

 
               The Prince Cardinal
   Begins his route at the approach of spring
   From the Milanese; and leads a Spanish army
   Through Germany into the Netherlands.
   That he may march secure and unimpeded,
   'Tis the emperor's will you grant him a detachment
   Of eight horse-regiments from the army here.
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
   Yes, yes! I understand! Eight regiments! Well,
   Right well concerted, Father Lanormain!
   Eight thousand horse! Yes, yes! 'tis as it should be
   I see it coming.
 

QUESTENBERG

 
            There is nothing coming.
   All stands in front: the counsel of state-prudence,
   The dictate of necessity!
 

WALLENSTEIN

 
                 What then?
   What, my lord envoy? May I not be suffered
   To understand that folks are tired of seeing
   The sword's hilt in my grasp, and that your court
   Snatch eagerly at this pretence, and use
   The Spanish title, and drain off my forces,
   To lead into the empire a new army
   Unsubjected to my control? To throw me
   Plumply aside, – I am still too powerful for you
   To venture that. My stipulation runs,
   That all the imperial forces shall obey me
   Where'er the German is the native language.
   Of Spanish troops and of prince cardinals,
   That take their route as visitors, through the empire,
   There stands no syllable in my stipulation.
   No syllable! And so the politic court
   Steals in on tiptoe, and creeps round behind it;
   First makes me weaker, then to be dispensed with,
   Till it dares strike at length a bolder blow,
   And make short work with me.
   What need of all these crooked ways, lord envoy?
   Straightforward, man! his compact with me pinches
   The emperor. He would that I moved off!
   Well! I will gratify him!
 

[Here there commences an agitation among the generals, which increases continually.

 
   It grieves me for my noble officers' sakes;
   I see not yet by what means they will come at
   The moneys they have advanced, or how obtain
   The recompense their services demand.
   Still a new leader brings new claimants forward,
   And prior merit superannuates quickly.
   There serve here many foreigners in the army,
   And were the man in all else brave and gallant,
   I was not wont to make nice scrutiny
   After his pedigree or catechism.
   This will be otherwise i' the time to come.
   Well; me no longer it concerns.
 

[He seats himself.