Wallenstein's Camp

DRAGOON (tears her away)  I tell you again, that it shan't be done.FIRST YAGER  The pipers are coming, lads! now for fun!SECOND YAGER (to Dragoon)  I shan't be far off, should you look for me.SERGEANT  Peace, my good fellows! – a kiss goes free.

SCENE VIII

Enter Miners, and play a waltz – at first slowly, and afterwards quicker. The first Yager dances with the girl, the Sutler-woman with the recruit. The girl springs away, and the Yager, pursuing her, seizes hold of a Capuchin Friar just entering.

CAPUCHIN  Hurrah! halloo! tol, lol, de rol, le!  The fun's at its height! I'll not be away!  Is't an army of Christians that join in such works?  Or are we all turned Anabaptists and Turks?  Is the Sabbath a day for this sport in the land,  As though the great God had the gout in his hand,  And thus couldn't smite in the midst of your band?  Say, is this a time for your revelling shouts,  For your banquetings, feasts, and holiday bouts?  Quid hic statis otiosi? declare  Why, folding your arms, stand ye lazily there?  While the furies of war on the Danube now fare  And Bavaria's bulwark is lying full low,  And Ratisbon's fast in the clutch of the foe.  Yet, the army lies here in Bohemia still,  And caring for naught, so their paunches they fill!  Bottles far rather than battles you'll get,  And your bills than your broad-swords more readily wet;  With the wenches, I ween, is your dearest concern,  And you'd rather roast oxen than Oxenstiern.  In sackcloth and ashes while Christendom's grieving,  No thought has the soldier his guzzle of leaving.  'Tis a time of misery, groans, and tears!  Portentous the face of the heavens appears!  And forth from the clouds behold blood-red,  The Lord's war-mantle is downward spread —  While the comet is thrust as a threatening rod,  From the window of heaven by the hand of God.  The world is but one vast house of woe,  The ark of the church stems a bloody flow,  The Holy Empire – God help the same!  Has wretchedly sunk to a hollow name.  The Rhine's gay stream has a gory gleam,  The cloister's nests are robbed by roysters;  The church-lands now are changed to lurch-lands;  Abbacies, and all other holy foundations  Now are but robber-sees – rogues' habitations.  And thus is each once-blest German state,  Deep sunk in the gloom of the desolate!  Whence comes all this? Oh, that will I tell —  It comes of your doings, of sin, and of hell;  Of the horrible, heathenish lives ye lead,  Soldiers and officers, all of a breed.  For sin is the magnet, on every hand,  That draws your steel throughout the land!  As the onion causes the tear to flow,  So vice must ever be followed by woe —  The W duly succeeds the V,  This is the order of A, B, C.  Ubi erit victoriae spes,  Si offenditur Deus? which says,  How, pray ye, shall victory e'er come to pass,  If thus you play truant from sermon and mass,  And do nothing but lazily loll o'er the glass?  The woman, we're told in the Testament,  Found the penny in search whereof she went.  Saul met with his father's asses again,  And Joseph his precious fraternal train,  But he, who 'mong soldiers shall hope to see  God's fear, or shame, or discipline – he  From his toil, beyond doubt, will baffled return,  Though a hundred lamps in the search he burn.  To the wilderness preacher, th' Evangelist says,  The soldiers, too, thronged to repent of their ways,  And had themselves christened in former days.  Quid faciemus nos? they said:  Toward Abraham's bosom what path must we tread?  Et ait illis, and, said he,  Neminem concutiatis;  From bother and wrongs leave your neighbors free.  Neque calumniam faciatis;  And deal nor in slander nor lies, d'ye see?  Contenti estote – content ye, pray,  Stipendiis vestris – with your pay —  And curse forever each evil way.  There is a command – thou shalt not utter  The name of the Lord thy God in vain;  But, where is it men most blasphemies mutter?  Why here, in Duke Friedland's headquarters, 'tie plain  If for every thunder, and every blast,  Which blazing ye from your tongue-points cast,  The bells were but rung, in the country round,  Not a bellman, I ween, would there soon be found;  And if for each and every unholy prayer  Which to vent from your jabbering jaws you dare,  From your noddles were plucked but the smallest hair,  Ev'ry crop would be smoothed ere the sun went down,  Though at morn 'twere as bushy as Absalom's crown.  Now, Joshua, methinks, was a soldier as well —  By the arm of King David the Philistine fell;  But where do we find it written, I pray,  That they ever blasphemed in this villanous way?  One would think ye need stretch your jaws no more,  To cry, "God help us!" than "Zounds!" to roar.  But, by the liquor that's poured in the cask, we know  With what it will bubble and overflow.  Again, it is written – thou shalt not steal,  And this you follow, i'faith! to the letter,  For open-faced robbery suits ye better.  The gripe of your vulture claws you fix  On all – and your wiles and rascally tricks  Make the gold unhid in our coffers now,  And the calf unsafe while yet in the cow —  Ye take both the egg and the hen, I vow.  Contenti estote – the preacher said;  Which means – be content with your army bread.  But how should the slaves not from duty swerve?  The mischief begins with the lord they serve,  Just like the members so is the head.  I should like to know who can tell me his creed.FIRST YAGER  Sir priest, 'gainst ourselves rail on as you will —  Of the general we warn you to breathe no ill.CAPUCHIN  Ne custodias gregem meam!  An Ahab is he, and a Jerobeam,  Who the people from faith's unerring way,  To the worship of idols would turn astray,TRUMPETER and RECRUIT  Let us not hear that again, we pray.CAPUCHIN  Such a Bramarbas, whose iron tooth  Would seize all the strongholds of earth forsooth!  Did he not boast, with ungodly tongue,  That Stralsund must needs to his grasp be wrung,  Though to heaven itself with a chain 'twere strung?TRUMPETER  Will none put a stop to his slanderous bawl?CAPUCHIN  A wizard he is! – and a sorcerer Saul! —  Holofernes! – a Jehu! – denying, we know,  Like St. Peter, his Master and Lord below;  And hence must he quail when the cock doth crow —BOTH YAGERS  Now, parson, prepare; for thy doom is nigh.CAPUCHIN  A fox more cunning than Herod, I trow —TRUMPETER and both YAGERS (pressing against him)  Silence, again, – if thou wouldst not die!CROATS (interfering.)  Stick to it, father; we'll shield you, ne'er fear;  The close of your preachment now let's hear.CAPUCHIN (still louder)  A Nebuchadnezzar in towering pride!  And a vile and heretic sinner beside!  He calls himself rightly the stone of a wall;  For faith! he's a stumbling-stone to us all.  And ne'er can the emperor have peace indeed,  Till of Friedland himself the land is freed.

[During the last passages which he pronounces in an elevated

     voice, he has been gradually retreating, the Croats keeping     the other soldiers off.

SCENE IX

The above, without the Capuchin.

FIRST YAGER (to the Sergeant)  But, tell us, what meant he about chanticleer;  Whose crowing the general dares to hear?  No doubt it was uttered in spite and scorn.SERGEANT  Listen – 'Tis not so untrue as it appears;  For Friedland was rather mysteriously born,  And is 'specially troubled with ticklish ears;  He can never suffer the mew of a cat;  And when the cock crows he starts thereat.FIRST YAGER  He's one and the same with the lion in that.SERGEANT  Mouse-still must all around him creep,  Strict watch in this the sentinels keep,  For he ponders on matters most grave and deep.

[Voices in the tent. A tumult.

  Seize the rascal! Lay on! lay on!PEASANT'S VOICE  Help! – mercy – help!OTHERS            Peace! peace! begone!FIRST YAGER  Deuce take me, but yonder the swords are out!SECOND YAGER  Then I must be off, and see what 'tis about.

[Yagers enter the tent.

SUTLER-WOMAN (comes forward)  A scandalous villain! – a scurvy thief!TRUMPETER  Good hostess, the cause of this clamorous grief?SUTLER-WOMAN  A cut-purse! a scoundrel! the-villain I call.  That the like in my tent should ever befall!  I'm disgraced and undone with the officers all.SERGEANT  Well, coz, what is it?SUTLER-WOMAN              Why, what should it be?  But a peasant they've taken just now with me —  A rogue with false dice, to favor his play.TRUMPETER  See I they're bringing the boor and his son this way.

SCENE X

Soldiers dragging in the peasant, bound.

FIRST YAGER  He must hang!SHARPSHOOTERS and DRAGOONS         To the provost, come on!SERGEANT  'Tis the latest order that forth has gone.SUTLER-WOMAN  In an hour I hope to behold him swinging!SERGEANT  Bad work bad wages will needs be bringing.FIRST ARQUEBUSIER (to the others)  This comes of their desperation. We  First ruin them out and out, d'ye see;  Which tempts them to steal, as it seems to me.TRUMPETER  How now! the rascal's cause would you plead?  The cur! the devil is in you indeed!FIRST ARQUEBUSIER  The boor is a man – as a body may say.FIRST YAGER (to the Trumpeter)  Let 'em go! they're of Tiefenbach's corps, the railers,  A glorious train of glovers and tailors!  At Brieg, in garrison, long they lay;  What should they know about camps, I pray?

SCENE XI

The above. – Cuirassiers.

FIRST CUIRASSIER  Peace! what's amiss with the boor, may I crave?FIRST SHARPSHOOTER  He has cheated at play, the cozening knave!FIRST CUIRASSIER  But say, has he cheated you, man, of aught?FIRST SHARPHOOTER  Just cleaned me out – and not left me a groat.FIRST CUIRASSIER  And can you, who've the rank of a Friedland man,  So shamefully cast yourself away,  As to try your luck with the boor at play?  Let him run off, so that run he can.

[The peasant escapes, the others throng together.

FIRST ARQUEBUSIER  He makes short work – is of resolute mood —  And that with such fellows as these is good.  Who is he? not of Bohemia, that's clear.SUTLER-WOMAN  He's a Walloon – and respect, I trow,  Is due to the Pappenheim cuirassier!FIRST DRAGOON (joining)  Young Piccolomini leads them now,  Whom they chose as colonel, of their own free might,  When Pappenheim fell in Luetzen's fight.FIRST ARQUEBUSIER  Durst they, indeed, presume so far?FIRST DRAGOON  This regiment is something above the rest.  It has ever been foremost through the war,  And may manage its laws, as it pleases best;  Besides, 'tis by Friedland himself caressed.  FIRST CUIRASSIER (to the Second.)  Is't so in truth, man? Who averred it?SECOND CUIRASSIER  From the lips of the colonel himself I heard it.FIRST CUIRASSIER  The devil! we're not their dogs, I weep!FIRST YAGER  How now, what's wrong? You're swollen with spleen!SECOND YAGER  Is it anything, comrades, may us concern?FIRST CUIRASSIER  'Tis what none need be wondrous glad to learn.         The Soldiers press round him.  To the Netherlands they would lend us now —  Cuirassiers, Yagers, and Shooters away,  Eight thousand in all must march, they say.SUTLER-WOMAN  What! What! again the old wandering way —  I got back from Flanders but yesterday!SECOND CUIRASSIER (to the Dragoons)  You of Butler's corps must tramp with the rest.FIRST CUIRASSIER  And we, the Walloons, must doubtless be gone.SUTLER-WOMAN  Why, of all our squadrons these are the best.FIRST CUIRASSIER  To march where that Milanese fellow leads on.FIRST YAGER  The infant? that's queer enough in its way.SECOND YAGER  The priest – then, egad! there's the devil to pay.FIRST CUIRASSIER  Shall we then leave the Friedlander's train,  Who so nobly his soldiers doth entertain —  And drag to the field with this fellow from Spain!  A niggard whom we in our souls disdain!  That'll never go down – I'm off, I swear.TRUMPETER  Why, what the devil should we do there?  We sold our blood to the emperor – ne'er  For this Spanish red hat a drop we'll spare!SECOND YAGER  On the Friedlander's word and credit alone  We ranged ourselves in the trooper line,  And, but for our love to Wallenstein,  Ferdinand ne'er had our service known.FIRST DRAGOON  Was it not Friedland that formed our force?  His fortune shall still be the star of our course.SERGEANT  Silence, good comrades, to me give ear —  Talking does little to help us here.  Much farther in this I can see than you all,  And a trap has been laid in which we're to fall;FIRST YAGER  List to the order-book! hush – be still!SERGEANT  But first, Cousin Gustel, I pray thee fill  A glass of Melneck, as my stomach's but weak  When I've tossed it off, my mind I'll speak.SUTLER-WOMAN  Take it, good sergeant. I quake for fear —  Think you that mischief is hidden here?SERGEANT  Look ye, my friends, 'tis fit and clear  That each should consider what's most near.  But as the general says, say I,  One should always the whole of a case descry.  We call ourselves all the Friedlander's troops;  The burgher, on whom we're billeted, stoops  Our wants to supply, and cooks our soups.  His ox, or his horse, the peasant must chain  To our baggage-car, and may grumble in vain.  Just let a lance-corp'ral, with seven good men,  Tow'rd a village from far but come within ken,  You're sure he'll be prince of the place, and may  Cut what capers he will, with unquestioned sway.  Why, zounds! lads, they heartily hate us all —  And would rather the devil should give them a call,  Than our yellow collars. And why don't they fall  On us fairly at once and get rid of our lumber?  They're more than our match in point of number,  And carry the cudgel as we do the sword.  Why can we laugh them to scorn? By my word  Because we make up here a terrible horde.FIRST YAGER  Ay, ay, in the mass lies the spell of our might,  And the Friedlander judged the matter aright,  When, some eight or nine years ago, he brought  The emperor's army together. They thought  Twelve thousand enough for the general. In vain,  Said he, such a force I can never maintain.  Sixty thousand I'll bring ye into the plain,  And they, I'll be sworn, won't of hunger die,  And thus were we Wallenstein's men, say I.SERGEANT  For example, cut one of my fingers off,  This little one here from my right hand doff.  Is the taking my finger then all you've done?  No, no, to the devil my hand is gone!  'Tis a stump – no more – and use has none.  The eight thousand horse they wish to disband  May be but a finger of our army's hand.  But when they're once gone may we understand  We are but one-fifth the less? Oh, no —  By the Lord, the whole to the devil will go!  All terror, respect, and awe will be over,  And the peasant will swell his crest once more;  And the Board of Vienna will order us where  Our troops must be quartered and how we must fare,  As of old in the days of their beggarly care.  Yes, and how long it will be who can say  Ere the general himself they may take away?  For they don't much like him at court I learn?  And then it's all up with the whole concern!  For who, to our pay, will be left to aid us?  And see that they keep the promise they made us?  Who has the energy – who the mind —  The flashing thought – and the fearless hand —  Together to bring, and thus fastly bind  The fragments that form our close-knit band.  For example, dragoon – just answer us now,  From which of the countries of earth art thou?DRAGOON  From distant Erin came I here.  SERGEANT (to the two Cuirassiers).  You're a Walloon, my friend, that's clear,  And you, an Italian, as all may hear.FIRST CUIRASSIER  Who I may be, faith! I never could say;  In my infant years they stole me away.SERGEANT  And you, from what far land may you be?FIRST ARQUEBUSIER  I come from Buchau – on the Feder Sea.SERGEANT  Neighbor, and you?SECOND ARQUEBUSIER            I am a Swiss.SERGEANT (to the second Yager)  And Yager, let's hear where your country is?SECOND YAGER  Up above Wismar my fathers dwell.SERGEANT (pointing to the Trumpeter)  And he's from Eger – and I as well:  And now, my comrades, I ask you whether,  Would any one think, when looking at us,  That we, from the North and South, had thus  Been hitherward drifted and blown together?  Do we not seem as hewn from one mass?  Stand we not close against the foe  As though we were glued or moulded so?  Like mill-work don't we move, d'ye think!  'Mong ourselves in the nick, at a word or wink.  Who has thus cast us here all as one,  Now to be severed again by none?  Who? why, no other than Wallenstein!FIRST YAGER  In my life it ne'er was a thought of mine  Whether we suited each other or not,  I let myself go with the rest of the lot.FIRST CUIRASSIER  I quite agree in the sergeant's opinion —  They'd fain have an end of our camp dominion,  And trample the soldier down, that they  May govern alone in their own good way.  'Tis a conspiration – a plot, I say!SUTLER-WOMAN  A conspiration – God help the day!  Then my customers won't have cash to pay.SERGEANT  Why, faith, we shall all be bankrupts made;  The captains and generals, most of them, paid  The costs of the regiments with private cash,  And, wishing, 'bove all, to cut a dash,  Went a little beyond their means – but thought,  No doubt, that they thus had a bargain bought.  Now they'll be cheated, sirs, one and all,  Should our chief, our head, the general fall.SUTLER-WOMAN  Oh, Heaven! this curse I never can brook  Why, half of the army stand in my book.  Two hundred dollars I've trusted madly  That Count Isolani who pays so badly.FIRST CUIRASSIER  Well, comrades, let's fix on what's to be done —  Of the ways to save us, I see but one;  If we hold together we need not fear;  So let us stand out as one man here;  And then they may order and send as they will,  Fast planted we'll stick in Bohemia still.  We'll never give in – no, nor march an inch,  We stand on our honor, and must not flinch.SECOND YAGER  We're not to be driven the country about,  Let 'em come here, and they'll find it out.FIRST ARQUEBUSIER  Good sirs, 'twere well to bethink ye still,  That such is the emperor's sovereign will.TRUMPETER  Oh, as to the emperor, we needn't be nice.FIRST ARQUEBUSIER  Let me not hear you say so twice.TRUMPETER  Why, 'tis even so – as I just have said.FIRST YAGER  True, man – I've always heard 'em say,  'Tis Friedland, alone, you've here to obey.SERGEANT  By our bargain with him it should be so,  Absolute power is his, you must know,  We've war, or peace, but as he may please,  Or gold or goods he has power to seize,  And hanging or pardon his will decrees.  Captains and colonels he makes – and he,  In short, by the imperial seal is free,  To hold all the marks of sovereignty.FIRST ARQUEBUSIER  The duke is high and of mighty will,  But yet must remain, for good or for ill,  Like us all, but the emperor's servant still.SERGEANT  Not like us all – I there disagree —  Friedland is quite independent and free,  The Bavarian is no more a prince than he  For, was I not by myself to see,  When on duty at Brandeis, how the emperor said,  He wished him to cover his princely head.FIRST ARQUEBUSIER  That was because of the Mecklenburgh land,  Which he held in pawn from the emperor's hand.FIRST YAGER (to the Sergeant)  In the emperor's presence, man! say you so?  That, beyond doubt, was a wonderful go!  SERGEANT (feels in his pocket).  If you question my word in what I have told,  I can give you something to grasp and hold.

[Showing a coin.

  Whose image and stamp d'ye here behold?SUTLER-WOMAN  Oh! that is a Wallenstein's, sure!SERGEANT-MAJOR  Well, there, you have it – what doubt can rest  Is he not prince, just as good as the best?  Coins he not money like Ferdinand?  Hath he not his own subjects and land?  Is he not called your highness, I pray?  And why should he not have his soldiers in?FIRST ARQUEBUSIER  That no one has ever meant to gainsay;  But we're still at the emperor's beck and call,  For his majesty 'tis who pays us all.TRUMPETER  In your teeth I deny it – and will again —  His majesty 'tis who pays us not,  For this forty weeks, say, what have we got  But a promise to pay, believed in vain?FIRST ARQUEBUSIER  What then! 'tis kept in safe hands, I suppose.FIRST CUIRASSIER  Peace, good sirs, will you come to blows?  Have you a quarrel and squabble to know  If the emperor be our master or no?  'Tis because of our rank, as his soldiers brave,  That we scorn the lot of the herded slave;  And will not be driven from place to place,  As priest or puppies our path may trace.  And, tell me, is't not the sovereign's gain,  If the soldiers their dignity will maintain?  Who but his soldiers give him the state  Of a mighty, wide-ruling potentate?  Make and preserve for him, far and near,  The voice which Christendom quakes to hear?  Well enough they may his yoke-chain bear,  Who feast on his favors, and daily share,  In golden chambers, his sumptuous fare.  We – we of his splendors have no part,  Naught but hard wearying toil and care,  And the pride that lives in a soldier's heart.SECOND YAGER  All great tyrants and kings have shown  Their wit, as I take it, in what they've done;  They've trampled all others with stern command,  But the soldier they've led with a gentle hand.FIRST CUIRASSIER  The soldier his worth must understand;  Whoe'er doesn't nobly drive the trade,  'Twere best from the business far he'd stayed.  If I cheerily set my life on a throw,  Something still better than life I'll know;  Or I'll stand to be slain for the paltry pelf,  As the Croat still does – and scorn myself.BOTH PAGERS  Yes – honor is dearer than life itself.FIRST CUIRASSIER  The sword is no plough, nor delving tool,  He, who would till with it, is but a fool.  For us, neither grass nor grain doth grow,  Houseless the soldier is doomed to go,  A changeful wanderer over the earth,  Ne'er knowing the warmth of a home-lit hearth.  The city glances – he halts – not there —  Nor in village meadows, so green and fair;  The vintage and harvest wreath are twined  He sees, but must leave them far behind.  Then, tell me, what hath the soldier left,  If he's once of his self-esteem bereft?  Something he must have his own to call,  Or on slaughter and burnings at once he'll fall.FIRST ARQUEBUSIER  God knows, 'tis a wretched life to live!FIRST CUIRASSIER  Yet one, which I, for no other would give,  Look ye – far round in the world I've been,  And all of its different service seen.  The Venetian Republic – the Kings of Spain  And Naples I've served, and served in vain.  Fortune still frowned – and merchant and knight,  Craftsmen and Jesuit, have met my sight;  Yet, of all their jackets, not one have I known  To please me like this steel coat of my own.FIRST ARQUEBUSIER  Well – that now is what I can scarcely say.FIRST CUIRASSIER  In the world, a man who would make his way,  Must plague and bestir himself night and day.  To honor and place if he choose the road,  He must bend his back to the golden load.  And if home-delights should his fancy please,  With children and grandchildren round his knees,  Let him follow an honest trade in peace.  I've no taste for this kind of life – not I!  Free will I live, and as freely die.  No man's spoiler nor heir will I be —  But, throned on my nag, I will smile to see  The coil of the crowd that is under me.FIRST YAGER  Bravo! – that's as I've always done.FIRST ARQUEBUSIER  In truth, sirs, it may be far better fun  To trample thus over your neighbor's crown.FIRST CUIRASSIER  Comrade, the times are bad of late —  The sword and the scales live separate.  But do not then blame that I've preferred,  Of the two, to lean, as I have, to the sword.  For mercy in war I will yield to none,  Though I never will stoop to be drummed upon.FIRST ARQUEBUSIER  Who but the soldier the blame should bear  That the laboring poor so hardly fare?  The war with its plagues, which all have blasted  Now sixteen years in the land hath lasted.FIRST CUIRASSIER  Why, brother, the blessed God above  Can't have from us all an equal love.  One prays for the sun, at which t'other will fret  One is for dry weather-t'other for wet.  What you, now, regard as with misery rife,  Is to me the unclouded sun of life.  If 'tis at the cost of the burgher and boor,  I really am sorry that they must endure;  But how can I help it? Here, you must know,  'Tis just like a cavalry charge 'gainst the foe:  The steeds loud snorting, and on they go!  Whoever may lie in the mid-career —  Be it my brother or son so dear,  Should his dying groan my heart divide,  Yet over his body I needs must ride,  Nor pitying stop to drag him aside.FIRST YAGER  True – who ever asks how another may bide?FIRST CUIRASSIER  Thus, my lads, 'tis my counsel, while  On the soldier Dame Fortune deigns to smile,  That we with both hands her bounty clasp,  For it may not be much longer left to our grasp.  Peace will be coming some over-night,  And then there's an end of our martial might.  The soldier unhorsed, and fresh mounted to boor,  Ere you can think it 'twill be as before.  As yet we're together firm bound in the land,  The hilt is yet fast in the soldier's hand.  But let 'em divide us, and soon we shall find,  Short commons is all that remains behind.FIRST YAGER  No, no, by the Lord! That won't do for me.  Come, come, lads, let's all now, as one, agree.SECOND YAGER  Yes, let us resolve on what 'tis to be.FIRST ARQUEBUSIER (To the Sutler-woman, drawing out his leather purse)  Hostess, tell us how high you've scored.SUTLER-WOMAN  Oh, 'tis unworthy a single word.

[They settle.