The Death of Wallenstein Part 2

The regiments, too, deny to march for Flanders Have sent me in a paper of remonstrance, And openly resist the imperial orders.

The first step to revolt's already taken.

ILLO.

Believe me, thou wilt find it far more easy To lead them over to the enemy Than to the Spaniard.

WALLENSTEIN.

I will hear, however, What the Swede has to say to me.

ILLO (eagerly to TERZKY).

Go, call him, He stands without the door in waiting.

WALLENSTEIN.

Stay!

Stay but a little. It hath taken me All by surprise; it came too quick upon me; 'Tis wholly novel that an accident, With its dark lords.h.i.+p, and blind agency, Should force me on with it.

ILLO.

First hear him only, And then weigh it.

[Exeunt TERZKY and ILLO.

SCENE IV.

WALLENSTEIN (in soliloquy).

Is it possible?

Is't so? I can no longer what I would?

No longer draw back at my liking? I Must do the deed, because I thought of it?

And fed this heart here with a dream?

Because I did not scowl temptation from my presence, Dallied with thoughts of possible fulfilment, Commenced no movement, left all time uncertain, And only kept the road, the access open?

By the great G.o.d of Heaven! it was not My serious meaning, it was ne'er resolved.

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 toward 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 pa.s.s, 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 pa.s.sion: 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 overflowing, Will they connect, and weave them all together Into one web of treason; all will be plan, 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, Naught but a sudden rent can liberate me.

[Pauses again.

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 may a human hand Grasp 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 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 it thy enterprise? thy aim? thy object?

Hast honestly confessed 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 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 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.

Whatever 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.

Yet, it is pure--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.

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

Your name is Wrangel?

WRANGEL.

Gustave Wrangel, General Of the Sudermanian Blues.

WALLENSTEIN.

It was a Wrangel Who injured me materially at Stralsund, And by his brave resistance was the cause Of the opposition which that seaport made.

WRANGEL.

It was the doing of the element With which you fought, my lord! and not my merit, The Baltic Neptune did a.s.sert his freedom: The sea and land, it seemed were not to serve One and the same.

WALLENSTEIN You plucked 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).

And where are your credentials Come you provided with full powers, sir general?

WRANGEL.

There are so many scruples yet to solve----

WALLENSTEIN (having read the credentials).