Iso.

My noble brother,

Even now am I arrived; it had been else my

duty

Oct. And Colonel Butler-trust me I re

joice

Thus to renew acquaintance with a man

Whose worth and services I know and honour. See, see, my friend!

There might we place at once before our eyes The sum of war's whole trade and mystery[TO QUESTENBERG, presenting BUTLER and ISOLANI at the same time to him.

These two the total sum-STRENGTH and Dis

PATCH.

Ques. [to OCTAVIO.] And lo! betwixt them both experienced PRUDENCE!

Oct. [presenting QUESTENBERG to BUTLER and ISOLANI.] The Chamberlain and War-commissioner Questenberg,

The bearer of the Emperor's behests,

The long-tried friend and patron of all soldiers, We honour in this noble visitor.

[Universal silence.

Illo. [moving towards QUESTENBERG.] "Tis not the first time, noble Minister,

You have shown.our camp this honour.

Ques.

I stood before these colours.

Once before

Illo. Perchance, too, you remember where that

was.

It was at Znaim * in Moravia, where You did present yourself on the part

Of the Emperor, to supplicate our Duke

That he would straight assume the chief command.
Ques. To supplicate? Nay, noble General!
So far extended neither my commission
(At least to my own knowledge) nor my zeal.
Illo. Well, well, then-to compel him, if you
choose.

I can remember me right well, Count Tilly
Had suffered total rout upon the Lech.
Bavaria lay all open to the enemy,

Whom there was nothing to delay from pressing
Onwards into the very heart of Austria.

At that time you and Werdenberg appeared
Before our General, storming him with prayers,
And menacing the Emperor's displeasure,
Unless he took compassion on this wretchedness.
Iso. [steps up to them.] Yes, yes, 'tis compre-
hensible enough,

Wherefore, with your commission of to-day,
You were not all too willing to remember
Your former one.

Ques.

Why not, Count Isolan?

No contradiction sure exists between them.

It was the urgent business of that time

To snatch Bavaria from her enemy's hand;

* A town not far from the Mine-mountains, on the high road from Vienna to Prague.

And my commission of to-day instructs me
To free her from her good friends and protectors.
Illo. A worthy office! After with our blood
We have wrested this Bohemia from the Saxon,
To be swept out of it is all our thanks,

The sole reward of all our hard-won victories. Ques. Unless that wretched land be doomed to suffer

Only a change of evils, it must be

Freed from the scourge alike of friend and foe. Illo. What? 'twas a favourable year; the boors Can answer fresh demands already.

Ques.

Nay,

If you discourse of herds and meadow-groundsIso. The war maintains the war. Are the

boors ruined,

The Emperor gains so many more new soldiers. Ques. And is the poorer by even so many sub

jects.

Iso. Poh! we are all his subjects.

[one fill

Ques. Yet with a difference, General! The

With profitable industry the purse,

The others are well skilled to empty it.

The sword has made the Emperor poor: the plow Must re-invigorate his resources.

Iso.

Sure!

Times are not yet so bad. Methinks I see

[Examining with his eye the dress and ornaments of QUESTENBERG.

Good store of gold that still remains uncoined.

Ques. Thank Heaven! that means have been found out to hide

Some little from the fingers of the Croats.

Illo. There! the Slawata and the Martinitz, On whom the Emperor heaps his gifts and graces, To the heart-burning of all good Bohemians— Those minions of court favour, those court harpies, Who fatten on the wrecks of citizens

Driven from their house and home-who reap no harvests

Save in the general calamity—

Who now, with kingly pomp, insult and mock
The desolation of their country—these,

Let these, and such as these, support the war,
The fatal war, which they alone enkindled!
But. And those state-parasites, who have their
feet

So constantly beneath the Emperor's table,
Who cannot let a benefice fall, but they
Snap at it with dog's hunger-they, forsooth,
Would pare the soldier's bread, and cross his
reckoning!

Iso. My life long will it anger me to think,
How when I went to court seven years ago,
To see about new horses for our regiment,
How from one antechamber to another
They dragged me on, and left me by the hour
To kick my heels among a crowd of simpering
Feast-fattened slaves, as if I had come thither
A mendicant suitor for the crumbs of favour

That fall beneath their tables. And, at last,
Whom should they send me but a Capuchin!
Straight I began to muster up my sins
For absolution-but no such luck for me!
This was the man, this Capuchin, with whom
I was to treat concerning the army horses:
And I was forced at last to quit the field,
The business unaccomplished. Afterwards
The Duke procured me in three days, what I
Could not obtain in thirty at Vienna.

Ques. Yes, yes! your travelling bills soon
found their way to us:

Too well I know we have still accounts to settle.
Illo. War is a violent trade: one cannot always
Finish one's work by soft means: every trifle
Must not be blackened into sacrilege.

If we should wait till you, in solemn council,
With due deliberation had selected

The smallest out of four-and twenty evils,
I'faith we should wait long.—

"Dash! and through with it!"-That's the better

watch-word.

[nature

Then after, come what may come. 'Tis man's
To make the best of a bad thing once past.

A bitter and perplexed "what shall I do?"
Is worse to man than worst necessity.

Ques. Ay, doubtless, it is true: the Duke does

spare us

The troublesome task of choosing.

But.

Yes, the Duke