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

Toward your Sovereign Lord and Emperor,

Beseems not us to expound or criticise.

The Swede is fighting for his good old cause,

With his good sword and conscience. This concurrence,

This opportunity, is in our favor,

And all advantages in war are lawful.

We take what offers without questioning;

And if all have its due and just proportions—

WALLENST.

Of what then are ye doubting? Of my will?

Or of my power? I pledged 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.

WRANGEL.

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 call'd an army forth, like a creation:

But yet—

WALLENSTEIN.

But yet?

WRANGEL.

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—

WALLENST.

What now? Out with it, friend!

WRANGEL.

To break their oaths.

WALLENST.

And he thinks so ? He judges like a Swede,

And like a Protestant. You Lutherans

Fight for your Bible. You are interested

About the cause; and with your hearts you follow

Your banners. Among you , whoe'er deserts

To the enemy hath broken covenant

With two Lords at one time. We've no such fancies.

WRANGEL.

Great God in Heaven! Have then the people here

No house and home, no fireside, no altar?

WALLENST.

I will explain that to you, how it stands:—

The Austrian has a country, ay, and loves it,

And has good cause to love it—but this army,

That calls itself the Imperial, this that houses

Here in Bohemia, this has none—no country;

This is an outcast of all foreign lands,

Unclaim'd by town or tribe, to whom belongs

Nothing except the universal sun.

And this Bohemian land for which we fight—

[Loves not the master whom the chance of war,

Not its own choice or will, hath given to it.

Men murmur at the oppression of their conscience,

And power hath only awed but not appeased them;

A glowing and avenging mem'ry lives

Of cruel deeds committed on these plains;

How can the son forget that here his father

Was hunted by the blood-hound to the mass?

A people thus oppress'd must still be feared,

Whether they suffer or avenge their wrongs.]

WRANGEL.

But then the Nobles and the Officers?

Such a desertion, such a felony,

It is without example, my Lord Duke,

In the world's history.

WALLENSTEIN.

Mine unconditionally—mine on all terms.

Not me, your own eyes you must trust.

[ He gives him the paper containing the written oath. WRANGEL reads it through, and, having read it, lays it on the table, remaining silent .]

Now comprehend you?

WRANGEL.

My Lord Duke, I will let the mask drop—yes!

I've full powers for a final settlement.

The Rhinegrave stands but four days' march from here

With fifteen thousand men, and only waits

For orders to proceed and join your army.

Those orders I give out, immediately

We're compromised.

WALLENSTEIN.

What asks the Chancellor?

WRANGEL ( considerately ).

Twelve regiments, every man a Swede—my head

The warranty—and all might prove at last

Only false play—

WALLENSTEIN ( starting ).

Sir Swede!

WRANGEL ( calmly proceeding ).

T' insist thereon, that he do formally,

Irrevocably break with the Emperor,

Else not a Swede is trusted to Duke Friedland.

WALLENST.

Come, brief, and open! What is the demand?

WRANGEL.

That he forthwith disarm the Spanish regiments

Attached to the Emp'ror, that he seize on Prague,

And to the Swedes give up that city, with

The strong pass Egra.

WALLENSTEIN.

Prague!—Egra's granted—but—but Prague!—'T won't do.

I give you every security

Which you may ask of me in common reason—

But Prague—Bohemia—these, Sir General,

I can myself protect.

WRANGEL.

But 'tis not the protection that is now

Our sole concern. We want security

That we shall not expend our men and money

All to no purpose.

WALLENSTEIN.

'Tis but reasonable.

WRANGEL.

And till we are indemnified, so long

Stays Prague in pledge.

WALLENSTEIN.

Then trust you us so little?

WRANGEL ( rising ).

The Swede, if he would treat well with the German,

Must keep a sharp look-out. We have been call'd

Over the Baltic, we have saved the empire

From ruin—with our best blood have we sealed

The liberty of faith and gospel truth.

But now already is the benefaction

No longer felt, the load alone is felt.

Ye look askance with evil eye upon us,

As foreigners, intruders in the empire,

And would fain send us, with some paltry sum

Of money, home again to our old forests.

No, no! my Lord Duke! no!—it never was

For Judas' pay, for chinking gold and silver,

That we did leave our King by the Great Stone[24]

No, not for gold and silver have there bled

So many of our Swedish Nobles—neither

Will we, with empty laurels for our payment,

Hoist sail for our own country. Citizens

Will we remain upon the soil, the which

Our Monarch conquer'd for himself, and died.

WALLENST.

Help to keep down the common enemy,

And the fair border land must needs be yours.

WRANGEL.

But when the common enemy lies vanquish'd,

Who knits together our new friendship then?

We know, Duke Friedland! though perhaps the Swede

Ought not to have known it, that you carry on

Secret negotiations with the Saxons.

Who is our warranty, that we are not

The sacrifices in those articles

Which 'tis thought needful to conceal from us?

WALLENSTEIN ( rises ).

Think you of something better, Gustave Wrangel!

Of Prague no more.

WRANGEL.

Here my commission ends.

WALLENST.

Surrender up to you my capital!

Far liever would I face about, and step

Back to my Emperor.

WRANGEL.

If time yet permits—

WALLENST.

That lies with me, even now, at any hour.

WRANGEL.

Some days ago, perhaps. Today, no longer;

No longer since Sesina's been a prisoner.

[WALLENSTEIN is struck, and silenced .]

My Lord Duke, hear me—We believe that you

At present do mean honorably by us.

Since yesterday we're sure of that—and now

This paper warrants for the troops, there's nothing