The Piccolomini | Page 4

crowd of simpering?Feast-fattened slaves, as if I had come thither?A mendicant suitor for the crumbs of favor?That fell beneath their tables. And, at last,?Whom should they send me but a Capuchin!?Straight I began to muster up my sins?For absolution--but no such luck for me!?This was the man, this Capuchin, with whom?I was to treat concerning the army horses!?And I was forced at last to quit the field,?The business unaccomplished. Afterwards?The duke procured me in three days what I?Could not obtain in thirty at Vienna.
QUESTENBERG.?Yes, yes! your travelling bills soon found their way to us! Too well I know we have still accounts to settle.
ILLO.?War is violent trade; one cannot always?Finish one's work by soft means; every trifle?Must not be blackened into sacrilege.?If we should wait till you, in solemn council,?With due deliberation had selected?The smallest out of four-and-twenty evils,?I' faith we should wait long--?"Dash! and through with it!" That's the better watchword.?Then after come what may come. 'Tis man's nature?To make the best of a bad thing once past.?A bitter and perplexed "what shall I do?"?Is worse to man than worst necessity.
QUESTENBERG.?Ay, doubtless, it is true; the duke does spare us?The troublesome task of choosing.
BUTLER.
Yes, the duke?Cares with a father's feelings for his troops;?But how the emperor feels for us, we see.
QUESTENBERG.?His cares and feelings all ranks share alike,?Nor will he offer one up to another.
ISOLANI.?And therefore thrusts he us into the deserts?As beasts of prey, that so he may preserve?His dear sheep fattening in his fields at home.
QUESTENBERG (with a sneer).?Count! this comparison you make, not I.
ILLO.?Why, were we all the court supposes us?'Twere dangerous, sure, to give us liberty.
QUESTENBERG (gravely).?You have taken liberty--it was not given you,?And therefore it becomes an urgent duty?To rein it in with the curbs.
ILLO.?Expect to find a restive steed in us.
QUESTENBERG.?A better rider may be found to rule it.
ILLO.?He only brooks the rider who has tamed him.
QUESTENBERG.?Ay, tame him once, and then a child may lead him.
ILLO.?The child, we know, is found for him already.
QUESTENBERG.?Be duty, sir, your study, not a name.
BUTLER (who has stood aside with PICCOLOMINI, but with visible interest
in the conversation, advances).?Sir president, the emperor has in Germany?A splendid host assembled; in this kingdom?Full twenty thousand soldiers are cantoned,?With sixteen thousand in Silesia;?Ten regiments are posted on the Weser,?The Rhine, and Maine; in Swabia there are six,?And in Bavaria twelve, to face the Swedes;?Without including in the account the garrisons?Who on the frontiers hold the fortresses.?This vast and mighty host is all obedient?To Friedland's captains; and its brave commanders,?Bred in one school, and nurtured with one milk,?Are all excited by one heart and soul;?They are as strangers on the soil they tread,?The service is their only house and home.?No zeal inspires then for their country's cause,?For thousands like myself were born abroad;?Nor care they for the emperor, for one half?Deserting other service fled to ours,?Indifferent what their banner, whether 'twere,?The Double Eagle, Lily, or the Lion.?Yet one sole man can rein this fiery host?By equal rule, by equal love and fear;?Blending the many-nationed whole in one;?And like the lightning's fires securely led?Down the conducting rod, e'en thus his power?Rules all the mass, from guarded post to post,?From where the sentry hears the Baltic roar,?Or views the fertile vales of the Adige,?E'en to the body-guard, who holds his watch?Within the precincts of the imperial palace!
QUESTENBERG.?What's the short meaning of this long harangue?
BUTLER.?That the respect, the love, the confidence,?Which makes us willing subjects of Duke Friedland,?Are not to be transferred to the first comer?That Austria's court may please to send to us.?We have not yet so readily forgotten?How the command came into Friedland's hands.?Was it, forsooth, the emperor's majesty?That gave the army ready to his hand,?And only sought a leader for it? No.?The army then had no existence. He,?Friedland, it was who called it into being,?And gave it to his sovereign--but receiving?No army at his hand; nor did the emperor?Give Wallenstein to us as general. No,?It was from Wallenstein we first received?The emperor as our master and our sovereign;?And he, he only, binds us to our banners!
OCTAVIO (interposing and addressing QUESTENBERG).?My noble friend,?This is no more than a remembrancing?That you are now in camp, and among warriors;?The soldier's boldness constitutes his freedom.?Could he act daringly, unless he dared?Talk even so? One runs into the other.?The boldness of this worthy officer,
[Pointing to BUTLER.?Which now is but mistaken in its mark,?Preserved, when naught but boldness could preserve it,?To the emperor, his capital city, Prague,?In a most formidable mutiny?Of the whole garrison. [Military music at a distance.
Hah! here they come!
ILLO.?The sentries are saluting them: this signal?Announces the arrival of the duchess.
OCTAVIO (to QUESTENBERG).?Then my son Max., too, has returned. 'Twas he?Fetched and attended them from Caernthen hither.
ISOLANI (to ILLO).?Shall we not go in company to greet them?
ILLO.?Well, let us go--Ho! Colonel Butler, come.
[To OCTAVIO.?You'll not