Коллектив авторов - The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 03

I but amused myself with thinking of it.

The free-will tempted me, the power to do

Or not to do it—Was it criminal

To make the fancy minister to hope,

To fill the air with pretty toys of air,

And clutch fantastic sceptres moving t'ward me!

Was not the will kept free? Beheld I not

The road of duty close beside me—but

One little step, and once more I was in it!

Where am I? Whither have I been transported?

No road, no track behind me, but a wall

Impenetrable, insurmountable,

Rises obedient to the spells I muttered

And meant not—my own doings tower behind me.

[ Pauses and remains in deep thought. ]

A punishable man I seem; the guilt,

Try what I will, I cannot roll off from me;

The equivocal demeanor of my life

Bears witness on my prosecutor's party.

And even my purest acts from purest motives

Suspicion poisons with malicious gloss.

Were I that thing for which I pass, that traitor,

A goodly outside I had sure reserved,

Had drawn the coverings thick and double round me,

Been calm and chary of my utterance;

But being conscious of the innocence

Of my intent, my uncorrupted will,

I gave way to my humors, to my passion:

Bold were my words, because my deeds were not .

Now every planless measure, chance event,

The threat of rage, the vaunt of joy and triumph,

And all the May-games of a heart o'erflowing,

Will they connect, and weave them all together

Into one web of treason; all will be plain,

My eye ne'er absent from the far-off mark,

Step tracing step, each step a politic progress;

And out of all they'll fabricate a charge

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.

[ Pauses again. ]

How else! since that the heart's unbias'd instinct

Impell'd me to the daring deed, which now

Necessity, self-preservation, orders .

Stern is the on-look of Necessity,

Not without shudder may a human hand

Grasp the mysterious urn of destiny.

My deed was mine, remaining in my bosom:

Once suffer'd to escape from its safe corner

Within the heart, its nursery and birth-place,

Sent forth into the Foreign, it belongs

Forever 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 confess'd it to thyself?

Power seated on a quiet throne thou'dst shake,

Power on an ancient consecrated throne,

Strong in possession, founded in all custom;

Power by a thousand tough and stringy roots

Fix'd to the people's pious nursery-faith.

This, this will be no strife of strength with strength.

That fear'd I not. I brave each combatant,

Whom I can look on, fixing eye to eye,

Who, full himself of courage, kindles courage

In me too. 'Tis a foe invisible

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 tomorrow, for today '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 .]

Yet is it pure—as yet!—the crime has come

Not o'er this threshold yet—so slender is

The boundary that divideth life's two paths.

WALLENSTEIN and WRANGEL

WALLENSTEIN ( after having fixed a searching look on him ).

Your name is Wrangel?

WRANGEL.

Of the Sudermanian Blues.

WALLENSTEIN.

Who injured me materially at Stralsund,

And by his brave resistance was the cause

Of the opposition which that sea-port made.

WRANGEL.

It was the doing of the element

With which you fought, my Lord! and not my merit.

The Baltic Neptune did assert his freedom:

The sea and land, it seem'd, were not to serve

One and the same.

[WALLENST.

You pluck'd the Admiral's hat from off my head.

WRANGEL.

I come to place a diadem thereon.]

WALLENSTEIN ( makes the motion for him to take a seat, and seats himself ).

Come you provided with full powers, Sir General?

WRANGEL.

There are so many scruples yet to solve—

WALLENSTEIN ( 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.

WRANGEL.

He says the truth. Our great King, now in heaven,

Did ever deem most highly of your Grace's

Preëminent sense and military genius;

And always the commanding Intellect,

He said, should have command, and be the King.

WALLENST.

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. Eh! that did you experience

Both in Silesia and at Nuremberg;

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.

WRANGEL.

Has each but only first security.

WALLENST.

The Chancellor still, I see, does not quite trust me;

And, I confess—the game 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 the enemy, and that the one too were

Sooner to be forgiven me than the other .

Is not this your opinion, too, Sir General?

WRANGEL.

I have here a duty merely, no opinion.

WALLENST.

The Emperor hath urged me to the uttermost:

I can no longer honorably serve him;

For my security, in self-defence,

I take this hard step, which my conscience blames.

WRANGEL.

That I believe. So far would no one go

Who was not forced to it.

[ After a pause .]

Your princely Highness in this wise to act