The Death of Wallenstein

  Courage, friends! courage! we are still unvanquished;  I feel my footing firm; five regiments, Terzky,  Are still our own, and Butler's gallant troops;  And an host of sixteen thousand Swedes to-morrow.  I was not stronger when, nine years ago,  I marched forth, with glad heart and high of hope,  To conquer Germany for the emperor.

SCENE XIV

WALLENSTEIN, ILLO, TERZKY.

(To them enter NEUMANN, who leads TERZKY aside, and talks with him.)

TERZKY  What do they want?WALLENSTEIN            What now?TERZKY                  Ten cuirassiers  From Pappenheim request leave to address you  In the name of the regiment.WALLENSTEIN (hastily to NEUMANN)                 Let them enter.

[Exit NEUMANN.

                          This  May end in something. Mark you. They are still  Doubtful, and may be won.

SCENE XV

WALLENSTEIN, TERZKY, ILLO, ten CUIRASSIERS (led by an ANSPESSADE4, march up and arrange themselves, after the word of command, in one front before the DUKE, and make their obeisance. He takes his hat off, and immediately covers himself again).

ANSPESSADE  Halt! Front! Present!

WALLENSTEIN (after he has run through them with his eye, to the

ANSPESSADE)

I know thee well. Thou art out of Brueggen in Flanders:

Thy name is Mercy.

ANSPESSADE

Henry Mercy.

WALLENSTEIN. Thou were cut off on the march, surrounded by the Hessians, and didst fight thy way with an hundred and eighty men through their thousand.

ANSPESSADE. 'Twas even so, general!

WALLENSTEIN. What reward hadst thou for this gallant exploit?

ANSPESSADE. That which I asked for: the honor to serve in this corps.

WALLENSTEIN (turning to a second). Thou wert among the volunteers that seized and made booty of the Swedish battery at Altenburg.

SECOND CUIRASSIER. Yes, general!

WALLENSTEIN. I forget no one with whom I have exchanged words.

(A pause.) Who sends you?

ANSPESSADE. Your noble regiment, the cuirassiers of Piccolomini.

WALLENSTEIN. Why does not your colonel deliver in your request according to the custom of service?

ANSPESSADE. Because we would first know whom we serve.

WALLENSTEIN. Begin your address.

ANSPESSADE (giving the word of command). Shoulder your arms!

WALLENSTEIN (turning to a third). Thy name is Risbeck; Cologne is thy birthplace.

THIRD CUIRASSIER. Risbeck of Cologne.

WALLENSTEIN. It was thou that broughtest in the Swedish colonel Duebald, prisoner, in the camp at Nuremberg.

THIRD CUIRASSIER. It was not I, general.

WALLENSTRIN. Perfectly right! It was thy elder brother: thou hadst a younger brother, too: where did he stay?

THIRD CUIRASSIER. He is stationed at Olmutz, with the imperial army.

WALLENSTEIN (to the ANSPESSADE). Now then – begin.

ANSPESSADE  There came to hand a letter from the emperor  Commanding us —WALLENSTEIN (interrupting him)           Who chose you?ANSPESSADE                   Every company  Drew its own man by lot.WALLENSTEIN               Now! to the business.ANSPESSADE  There came to hand a letter from the emperor  Commanding us, collectively, from thee  All duties of obedience to withdraw,  Because thou wert an enemy and traitor.WALLENSTEIN  And what did you determine?ANSPESSADE                 All our comrades  At Braunau, Budweiss, Prague, and Olmutz, have  Obeyed already; and the regiments here,  Tiefenbach and Toscano, instantly  Did follow their example. But – but we  Do not believe that thou art an enemy  And traitor to thy country, hold it merely  For lie and trick, and a trumped-up Spanish story!

[With warmth.

  Thyself shall tell us what thy purpose is,  For we have found thee still sincere and true  No mouth shall interpose itself betwixt  The gallant general and the gallant troops.WALLENSTEIN  Therein I recognize my Pappenheimers.ANSPESSADE  And this proposal makes thy regiment to thee:  Is it thy purpose merely to preserve  In thine own hands this military sceptre,  Which so becomes thee, which the emperor  Made over to thee by a covenant!  Is it thy purpose merely to remain  Supreme commander of the Austrian armies?  We will stand by thee, general! and guarantee  Thy honest rights against all opposition.  And should it chance, that all the other regiments  Turn from thee, by ourselves we will stand forth  Thy faithful soldiers, and, as is our duty,  Far rather let ourselves be cut to pieces  Than suffer thee to fall. But if it be  As the emperor's letter says, if it be true,  That thou in traitorous wise wilt lead us over  To the enemy, which God in heaven forbid!  Then we too will forsake thee, and obey  That letter —WALLENSTEIN          Hear me, children!ANSPESSADE                    Yes, or no,  There needs no other answer.WALLENSTEIN                 Yield attention.  You're men of sense, examine for yourselves;  Ye think, and do not follow with the herd:  And therefore have I always shown you honor  Above all others, suffered you to reason;  Have treated you as free men, and my orders  Were but the echoes of your prior suffrage.ANSPESSADE  Most fair and noble has thy conduct been  To us, my general! With thy confidence  Thou has honored us, and shown us grace and favor  Beyond all other regiments; and thou seest  We follow not the common herd. We will  Stand by thee faithfully. Speak but one word —  Thy word shall satisfy us that it is not  A treason which thou meditatest – that  Thou meanest not to lead the army over  To the enemy; nor e'er betray thy country.WALLENSTEIN  Me, me are they betraying. The emperor  Hath sacrificed me to my enemies,  And I must fall, unless my gallant troops  Will rescue me. See! I confide in you.  And be your hearts my stronghold! At this breast  The aim is taken, at this hoary head.  This is your Spanish gratitude, this is our  Requital for that murderous fight at Luetzen!  For this we threw the naked breast against  The halbert, made for this the frozen earth  Our bed, and the hard stone our pillow! never stream  Too rapid for us, nor wood too impervious;  With cheerful spirit we pursued that Mansfeldt  Through all the turns and windings of his flight:  Yea, our whole life was but one restless march:  And homeless, as the stirring wind, we travelled  O'er the war-wasted earth. And now, even now,  That we have well-nigh finished the hard toil,  The unthankful, the curse-laden toil of weapons,  With faithful indefatigable arm  Have rolled the heavy war-load up the hill,  Behold! this boy of the emperor's bears away  The honors of the peace, an easy prize!  He'll weave, forsooth, into his flaxen locks  The olive branch, the hard-earned ornament  Of this gray head, grown gray beneath the helmet.ANSPESSADE  That shall he not, while we can hinder it!  No one, but thou, who has conducted it  With fame, shall end this war, this frightful war.  Thou leadest us out to the bloody field  Of death; thou and no other shalt conduct us home,  Rejoicing, to the lovely plains of peace —  Shalt share with us the fruits of the long toil.WALLENSTEIN  What! Think you then at length in late old age  To enjoy the fruits of toil? Believe it not.  Never, no never, will you see the end  Of the contest! you and me, and all of us,  This war will swallow up! War, war, not peace,  Is Austria's wish; and therefore, because I  Endeavored after peace, therefore I fall.  For what cares Austria how long the war  Wears out the armies and lays waste the world!  She will but wax and grow amid the ruin  And still win new domains.

[The CUIRASSIERS express agitation by their gestures.

                Ye're moved – I see  A noble rage flash from your eyes, ye warriors!  Oh, that my spirit might possess you now  Daring as once it led you to the battle  Ye would stand by me with your veteran arms,  Protect me in my rights; and this is noble!  But think not that you can accomplish it,  Your scanty number! to no purpose will you  Have sacrificed you for your general.

[Confidentially.

  No! let us tread securely, seek for friends;  The Swedes have proffered us assistance, let us  Wear for a while the appearance of good-will,  And use them for your profit, till we both  Carry the fate of Europe in our hands,  And from our camp to the glad jubilant world  Lead peace forth with the garland on her head!ANSPESSADE  'Tis then but mere appearances which thou  Dost put on with the Swede! Thou'lt not betray  The emperor? Wilt not turn us into Swedes?  This is the only thing which we desire  To learn from thee.WALLENSTEIN             What care I for the Swedes?  I hate them as I hate the pit of hell,  And under Providence I trust right soon  To chase them to their homes across their Baltic.  My cares are only for the whole: I have  A heart – it bleeds within me for the miseries  And piteous groanings of my fellow-Germans.  Ye are but common men, but yet ye think  With minds not common; ye appear to me  Worthy before all others, that I whisper thee  A little word or two in confidence!  See now! already for full fifteen years,  The war-torch has continued burning, yet  No rest, no pause of conflict. Swede and German,  Papist and Lutheran! neither will give way  To the other; every hand's against the other.  Each one is party and no one a judge.  Where shall this end? Where's he that will unravel  This tangle, ever tangling more and more  It must be cut asunder.  I feel that I am the man of destiny,  And trust, with your assistance, to accomplish it.

SCENE XVI

To these enter BUTLER.

BUTLER (passionately)  General! this is not right!WALLENSTEIN                 What is not right?BUTLER  It must needs injure us with all honest men.WALLENSTEIN  But what?BUTLER        It is an open proclamation  Of insurrection.WALLENSTEIN           Well, well – but what is it?BUTLER  Count Terzky's regiments tear the imperial eagle  From off his banners, and instead of it  Have reared aloft their arms.ANSPESSADE (abruptly to the CUIRASSIERS)                  Right about! March!WALLENSTEIN  Cursed be this counsel, and accursed who gave it!

[To the CUIRASSIERS, who are retiring.

  Halt, children, halt! There's some mistake in this;  Hark! I will punish it severely. Stop  They do not hear. (To ILLO). Go after them, assure them,  And bring them back to me, cost what it may.

[ILLO hurries out.

  This hurls us headlong. Butler! Butler!  You are my evil genius, wherefore must you  Announce it in their presence? It was all  In a fair way. They were half won! those madmen  With their improvident over-readiness —  A cruel game is Fortune playing with me.  The zeal of friends it is that razes me,  And not the hate of enemies.

SCENE XVII

To these enter the DUCHESS, who rushes into the chamber;

THEKLA and the COUNTESS follow her.

DUCHESS                O Albrecht!  What hast thou done?WALLENSTEIN             And now comes this beside.COUNTESS  Forgive me, brother! It was not in my power —  They know all.DUCHESS          What hast thou done?COUNTESS (to TERZKY)  Is there no hope? Is all lost utterly?TERZKY  All lost. No hope. Prague in the emperor's hands,  The soldiery have taken their oaths anew.COUNTESS  That lurking hypocrite, Octavio!  Count Max. is off too.TERZKY              Where can he be? He's  Gone over to the emperor with his father.

[THEKLA rushes out into the arms of her mother, hiding her face in her bosom.

DUCHESS (enfolding her in her arms)  Unhappy child! and more unhappy mother!WALLENSTEIN (aside to TERZKY)  Quick! Let a carriage stand in readiness  In the court behind the palace. Scherfenberg,  Be their attendant; he is faithful to us.  To Egra he'll conduct them, and we follow.

[To ILLO, who returns.

  Thou hast not brought them back?ILLO                 Hear'st thou the uproar?  The whole corps of the Pappenheimers is  Drawn out: the younger Piccolomini,  Their colonel, they require: for they affirm,  That he is in the palace here, a prisoner;  And if thou dost not instantly deliver him,  They will find means to free him with the sword.

[All stand amazed.

TERZKY  What shall we make of this?WALLENSTEIN                 Said I not so?  O my prophetic heart! he is still here.  He has not betrayed me – he could not betray me.  I never doubted of it.COUNTESS              If he be  Still here, then all goes well; for I know what

[Embracing THEKLA.

  Will keep him here forever.TERZKY                 It can't be.  His father has betrayed us, is gone over  To the emperor – the son could not have ventured  To stay behind.THEKLA (her eye fixed on the door)           There he is!

SCENE XVIII

To these enter MAX. PICCOLOMINI.

MAX  Yes, here he is! I can endure no longer  To creep on tiptoe round this house, and lurk  In ambush for a favorable moment:  This loitering, this suspense exceeds my powers.

[Advancing to THEKLA, who has thrown herself into her mother's arms.

  Turn not thine eyes away. O look upon me!  Confess it freely before all. Fear no one.  Let who will hear that we both love each other.  Wherefore continue to conceal it? Secrecy  Is for the happy – misery, hopeless misery,  Needeth no veil! Beneath a thousand suns  It dares act openly.

[He observes the COUNTESS looking on THEKLA with expressions of triumph.

             No, lady! No!  Expect not, hope it not. I am not come  To stay: to bid farewell, farewell forever.  For this I come! 'Tis over! I must leave thee!  Thekla, I must – must leave thee! Yet thy hatred  Let me not take with me. I pray thee, grant me  One look of sympathy, only one look.  Say that thou dost not hate me. Say it to me, Thekla!

[Grasps her hand.

  O God! I cannot leave this spot – I cannot!  Cannot let go this hand. O tell me, Thekla!  That thou dost suffer with me, art convinced  That I cannot act otherwise.

[THEKLA, avoiding his look, points with her hand to her father.

     MAX. turns round to the DUKE, whom he had not till then perceived.  Thou here? It was not thou whom here I sought.  I trusted never more to have beheld thee,  My business is with her alone. Here will I  Receive a full acquittal from this heart;  For any other I am no more concerned.WALLENSTEIN  Think'st thou that, fool-like, I shall let thee go,  And act the mock-magnanimous with thee?  Thy father is become a villain to me;  I hold thee for his son, and nothing more  Nor to no purpose shalt thou have been given  Into my power. Think not, that I will honor  That ancient love, which so remorselessly  He mangled. They are now passed by, those hours  Of friendship and forgiveness. Hate and vengeance  Succeed – 'tis now their turn – I too can throw  All feelings of the man aside – can prove  Myself as much a monster as thy father!MAX (calmly)  Thou wilt proceed with me as thou hast power.  Thou knowest I neither brave nor fear thy rage.  What has detained me here, that too thou knowest.

[Taking THEKLA by the hand.

  See, duke! All – all would I have owed to thee,  Would have received from thy paternal hand  The lot of blessed spirits. That hast thou  Laid waste forever – that concerns not thee.  Indifferent thou tramplest in the dust  Their happiness who most are thine. The god  Whom thou dost serve is no benignant deity,  Like as the blind, irreconcilable,  Fierce element, incapable of compact.  Thy heart's wild impulse only dost thou follow.5WALLENSTEIN  Thou art describing thy own father's heart.  The adder! Oh, the charms of hell o'erpowered me  He dwelt within me, to my inmost soul  Still to and fro he passed, suspected never.  On the wide ocean, in the starry heaven  Did mine eyes seek the enemy, whom I  In my heart's heart had folded! Had I been  To Ferdinand what Octavio was to me,  War had I ne'er denounced against him.  No, I never could have done it. The emperor was  My austere master only, not my friend.  There was already war 'twixt him and me  When he delivered the commander's staff  Into my hands; for there's a natural  Unceasing war twixt cunning and suspicion;  Peace exists only betwixt confidence  And faith. Who poisons confidence, he murders  The future generations.MAX               I will not  Defend my father. Woe is me, I cannot!  Hard deeds and luckless have taken place; one crime  Drags after it the other in close link.  But we are innocent: how have we fallen  Into this circle of mishap and guilt?  To whom have we been faithless? Wherefore must  The evil deeds and guilt reciprocal  Of our two fathers twine like serpents round us?                Why must our fathers'  Unconquerable hate rend us asunder,  Who love each other?WALLENSTEIN             Max., remain with me.  Go you not from me, Max.! Hark! I will tell thee —  How when at Prague, our winter quarters, thou  Wert brought into my tent a tender boy,  Not yet accustomed to the German winters;  Thy hand was frozen to the heavy colors;  Thou wouldst not let them go.  At that time did I take thee in my arms,  And with my mantle did I cover thee;  I was thy nurse, no woman could have been  A kinder to thee; I was not ashamed  To do for thee all little offices,  However strange to me; I tended thee  Till life returned; and when thine eyes first opened,  I had thee in my arms. Since then, when have  Altered my feelings toward thee? Many thousands  Have I made rich, presented them with lands;  Rewarded them with dignities and honors;  Thee have I loved: my heart, my self, I gave  To thee; They all were aliens: thou wert  Our child and inmate.6 Max.! Thou canst not leave me;  It cannot be; I may not, will not think  That Max. can leave me.MAX               Oh, my God!WALLENSTEIN                     I have  Held and sustained thee from thy tottering childhood.  What holy bond is there of natural love,  What human tie that does not knit thee to me?  I love thee, Max.! What did thy father for thee,  Which I too have not done, to the height of duty?  Go hence, forsake me, serve thy emperor;  He will reward thee with a pretty chain  Of gold; with his ram's fleece will he reward thee;  For that the friend, the father of thy youth,  For that the holiest feeling of humanity,  Was nothing worth to thee.MAX                O God! how can I  Do otherwise. Am I not forced to do it,  My oath – my duty – my honor —WALLENSTEIN                 How? Thy duty?  Duty to whom? Who art thou? Max.! bethink thee  What duties may'st thou have? If I am acting  A criminal part toward the emperor,  It is my crime, not thine. Dost thou belong  To thine own self? Art thou thine own commander?  Stand'st thou, like me, a freeman in the world,  That in thy actions thou shouldst plead free agency?  On me thou art planted, I am thy emperor;  To obey me, to belong to me, this is  Thy honor, this a law of nature to thee!  And if the planet on the which thou livest  And hast thy dwelling, from its orbit starts.  It is not in thy choice, whether or no  Thou'lt follow it. Unfelt it whirls thee onward  Together with his ring, and all his moons.  With little guilt steppest thou into this contest;  Thee will the world not censure, it will praise thee,  For that thou held'st thy friend more worth to thee  Than names and influences more removed  For justice is the virtue of the ruler,  Affection and fidelity the subject's.  Not every one doth it beseem to question  The far-off high Arcturus. Most securely  Wilt thou pursue the nearest duty: let  The pilot fix his eye upon the pole-star.

SCENE XIX

To these enter NEUMANN.

WALLENSTEIN  What now?NEUMANN        The Pappenheimers are dismounted,  And are advancing now on foot, determined  With sword in hand to storm the house, and free  The count, their colonel.WALLENSTEIN (to TERZKY)                Have the cannon planted.  I will receive them with chain-shot.

[Exit TERZKY.

  Prescribe to me with sword in hand! Go, Neumann!  'Tis my command that they retreat this moment,  And in their ranks in silence wait my pleasure.

[NEUMANN exit. ILLO steps to the window.

COUNTESS  Let him go, I entreat thee, let him go.ILLO (at the window)  Hell and perdition!WALLENSTEIN             What is it?ILLO  They scale the council-house, the roof's uncovered,  They level at this house the cannon —MAX                      MadmenILLO  They are making preparations now to fire on us.DUCHESS and COUNTESS  Merciful heaven!MAX. (to WALLENSTEIN)           Let me go to them!WALLENSTEIN                     Not a step!MAX. (pointing to THEKLA and the DUCHESS)  But their life! Thine!WALLENSTEIN              What tidings bringest thou, Terzky?

SCENE XX

To these TERZKY returning.

TERZKY  Message and greeting from our faithful regiments.  Their ardor may no longer be curbed in.  They entreat permission to commence the attack;  And if thou wouldst but give the word of onset  They could now charge the enemy in rear,  Into the city wedge them, and with ease  O'erpower them in the narrow streets.ILLO                      Oh come  Let not their ardor cool. The soldiery  Of Butler's corps stand by us faithfully;  We are the greater number. Let us charge them  And finish here in Pilsen the revolt.WALLENSTEIN  What? shall this town become a field of slaughter,  And brother-killing discord, fire-eyed,  Be let loose through its streets to roam and rage?  Shall the decision be delivered over  To deaf remorseless rage, that hears no leader?  Here is not room for battle, only for butchery.  Well, let it be! I have long thought of it,  So let it burst then!

[Turns to MAX.

              Well, how is it with thee?  Wilt thou attempt a heat with me. Away!  Thou art free to go. Oppose thyself to me,  Front against front, and lead them to the battle;  Thou'rt skilled in war, thou hast learned somewhat under me,  I need not be ashamed of my opponent,  And never hadst thou fairer opportunity  To pay me for thy schooling.COUNTESS                 Is it then,  Can it have come to this? What! Cousin, cousin!  Have you the heart?MAX  The regiments that are trusted to my care  I have pledged my troth to bring away from Pilsen  True to the emperor; and this promise will I  Make good, or perish. More than this no duty  Requires of me. I will not fight against thee,  Unless compelled; for though an enemy,  Thy head is holy to me still,

[Two reports of cannon. ILLO and TERZKY hurry to the window.

WALLENSTEIN  What's that?TERZBY         He falls.WALLENSTEIN               Falls! Who?ILLO                      Tiefenbach's corps  Discharged the ordnance.WALLENSTEIN               Upon whom?ILLO                     On – Neumann,  Your messenger.WALLENSTEIN (starting up)           Ha! Death and hell! I will —TERZKY  Expose thyself to their blind frenzy?DUCHESS and COUNTESS                      No!  For God's sake, no!ILLO             Not yet, my general!  Oh, hold him! hold him!WALLENSTEIN               Leave me —MAX                     Do it not;  Not yet! This rash and bloody deed has thrown them  Into a frenzy-fit – allow them time —WALLENSTEIN  Away! too long already have I loitered.  They are emboldened to these outrages,  Beholding not my face. They shall behold  My countenance, shall hear my voice —  Are they not my troops? Am I not their general,  And their long-feared commander! Let me see,  Whether indeed they do no longer know  That countenance which was their sun in battle!  From the balcony (mark!) I show myself  To these rebellious forces, and at once  Revolt is mounded, and the high-swollen current  Shrinks back into the old bed of obedience.

[Exit WALLENSTEIN; ILLO, TERZKY, and BUTLER follow.

SCENE XXI

COUNTESS, DUCHESS, MAX., and THEKLA.

COUNTESS (to the DUCHESS)  Let them but see him – there is hope still, sister.DUCHESS  Hope! I have none!MAX. (who during the last scene has been standing at a distance, in avisible struggle of feelings advances)             This can I not endure.  With most determined soul did I come hither;  My purposed action seemed unblamable  To my own conscience – and I must stand here  Like one abhorred, a hard, inhuman being:  Yea, loaded with the curse of all I love!  Must see all whom I love in this sore anguish,  Whom I with one word can make happy – O!  My heart revolts within me, and two voices  Make themselves audible within my bosom.  My soul's benighted; I no longer can  Distinguish the right track. Oh, well and truly  Didst thou say, father, I relied too much  On my own heart. My mind moves to and fro —  I know not what to do.COUNTESS              What! you know not?  Does not your own heart tell you? Oh! then I  Will tell it you. Your father is a traitor,  A frightful traitor to us – he has plotted  Against our general's life, has plunged us all  In misery – and you're his son! 'Tis yours  To make the amends. Make you the son's fidelity  Outweigh the father's treason, that the name  Of Piccolomini be not a proverb  Of infamy, a common form of cursing  To the posterity of Wallenstein.MAX  Where is that voice of truth which I dare follow!  It speaks no longer in my heart. We all  But utter what our passionate wishes dictate:  Oh that an angel would descend from heaven,  And scoop for me the right, the uncorrupted,  With a pure hand from the pure Fount of light.

[His eyes glance on THEKLA.