So specious, that I must myself stand dumb.
I am caught in my own net, and only force,
Nought but a sudden rent can liberate me.
How else! since that the heart's unbiased instinct
Impelled me to the daring deed, which now
Necessity, self-preservation, orders.
Stern is the on-look of Necessity,
Not without shudder many a human hand
Grasps the mysterious urn of destiny.
My deed was mine, remaining in my bosom,
Once suffered to escape from its safe corner
Within the heart, its nursery and birthplace,
Sent forth into the foreign, it belongs
For ever to those sly malicious powers.
Whom never art of man conciliated.
[Paces in agitation through the Chamber, then pauses,
and, after the pause, breaks out again into audible
soliloquy.
What is thy enterprise? thy aim? thy object?
Hast honestly confessed it to thyself?
Power seated on a quiet throne thou❜dst shake,
Power of an ancient consecrated throne,
Strong in possession, founded in old custom;
Power by a thousand tough and stringy roots
Fixed to the people's pious nursery-faith.
This, this will be no strife of strength with strength.
That feared I not. I brave each combatant,
Whom I can look on, fixing eye to eye,
Who, full himself of courage, kindles courage
The which I fear—a fearful enemy,
Which in the human heart opposes me,
By its coward fear alone made fearful to me.
Not that, which full of life, instinct with power,
Makes known its present being, that is not
The true, the perilously formidable.
O no! it is the common, the quite common,
The thing of an eternal yesterday,
What ever was, and evermore returns,
Sterling to-morrow, for to-day 'twas sterling!
For of the wholly common is man made,
And custom is his nurse! Woe then to them,
Who lay irreverent hands upon his old
House furniture, the dear inheritance
From his forefathers. For time consecrates;
And what is gray with age becomes religion.
Be in possession, and thou hast the right,
And sacred will the many guard it for thee!
[To the Page who here enters.
The Swedish officer?-Well, let him enter.
[The Page exit, WALLENSTEIN fixes his eye in deep
thought on the door.
-as yet!—the crime has come Not o'er this threshold yet-so slender is
The boundary that divideth life's two paths.
SCENE V.-WALLENSTEIN and WRANGEL.
Wal. [after having fixed a searching look on him.] Your name is Wrangel?
Of the Sudermanian Blues.
Wal.
It was a Wrangel
Who injured me materially at Stralsund,
And by his brave resistance was the cause
Of th' opposition which that seaport made.
Wran. It was the doing of the element
With which you fought, my lord, and not my
The Baltic Neptune did assert his freedom, The sea and land, it seemed, were not to serve One and the same.
Wal. [makes a motion for him to take a seat, and seats himself.] And where are your credentials?
Come you provided with full powers, Sir General? Wran. There are so many scruples yet to
Wal. [having read the credentials.] An able
letter!-Ay-he is a prudent,
Intelligent master, whom you serve, Sir General!
The Chancellor writes me, that he but fulfils
His late departed Sovereign's own idea
In helping me to the Bohemian crown.
Wran. He says the truth. Our great king,
now in heaven,
Did ever deem most highly of your Grace's
Preeminent sense and military genius;
And always the commanding Intellect,
He said, should have command, and be the king.
Wal. Yes, he might say it safely.-General
Wrangel, [Taking his hand affectionately.
Come, fair and open-Trust me, I was always
A Swede at heart. Ey! that did you experience
Both in Silesia and at Nuremburg;
I had you often in my power, and let you
Always slip out by some back door or other.
'Tis this for which the Court can ne'er forgive me,
Which drives me to this present step: and since
Our interests so run in one direction,
E'en let us have a thorough confidence
Each in the other.
Confidence will come,
Has each but only first security.
Wal. The Chancellor still, I see, does not quite
And, I confess the gain does not lie wholly
To my advantage.-Without doubt he thinks
If I can play false with the Emperor,
Who is my sovereign, I can do the like
With th' enemy, and that the one too were
Sooner to be forgiven me than the other.
Is not this your opinion too, Sir General?
Wran. I have here an office merely, no opinion.
Wal. The Emperor hath urged me to the
I can no longer honourably serve him.
For my security, in self-defence,
I take this hard step, which my conscience blames.
Wran. That I believe. So far would no one go
Who was not forced to it.
What may have impelled
Your princely Highness in this wise to act
Toward your Sovereign Lord and Emperor,
Beseems not us to expound or criticize.
The Swede is fighting for his good old cause,
With his good sword and conscience. This con-
This opportunity, is in our favour,
And all advantages in war are lawful.
We take what offers without questioning;
And if all have its due and just proportions-
Wal. Of what then are ye doubting? Of my
will?
Or of my power? I pledge me to the Chancellor,
Would he trust me with sixteen thousand men,
That I would instantly go over to them
With eighteen thousand of the Emperor's troops. Wran. Your Grace is known to be a mighty war-chief,
To be a second Attila and Pyrrhus.
"Tis talked of still with fresh astonishment, How some years past, beyond all human faith You called an army forth, like a creation;
But still the Chancellor thinks, It might yet be an easier thing from nothing To call forth sixty thousand men of battle, Than to persuade one sixtieth part of them—
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