The Piccolomini | Page 9

collect yourself.?And what of Eggenberg and Lichtenstein,?And of our other friends there?
DUCHESS (shaking her head).
I saw none.
WALLENSTEIN.?The ambassador from Spain, who once was wont?To plead so warmly for me?
DUCHESS.
Silent, silent!
WALLENSTEIN.?These suns then are eclipsed for us. Henceforward?Must we roll on, our own fire, our own light.
DUCHESS.?And were it--were it, my dear lord, in that?Which moved about the court in buzz and whisper,?But in the country let itself be heard?Aloud--in that which Father Lanormain?In sundry hints and----
WALLENSTEIN (eagerly).
Lanormain! what said he?
DUCHESS.?That you're accused of having daringly?O'erstepped the powers intrusted to you, charged?With traitorous contempt of the emperor?And his supreme behests. The proud Bavarian,?He and the Spaniards stand up your accusers--?That there's a storm collecting over you?Of far more fearful menace than the former one?Which whirled you headlong down at Regensburg.?And people talk, said he, of----Ah!
[Stifling extreme emotion.
WALLENSTEIN.
Proceed!
DUCHESS.?I cannot utter it!
WALLENSTEIN.
Proceed!
DUCHESS.
They talk----
WALLENSTEIN.?Well!
DUCHESS.
Of a second----
(catches her voice and hesitates.)
WALLENSTEIN.
Second----
DUCHESS.
Most disgraceful?Dismission.
WALLENSTEIN.
Talk they??[Strides across the chamber in vehement agitation.
Oh! they force, they thrust me?With violence, against my own will, onward!
DUCHESS (presses near him in entreaty).?Oh! if there yet be time, my husband, if?By giving way and by submission, this?Can be averted--my dear Lord, give way!?Win down your proud heart to it! Tell the heart,?It is your sovereign lord, your emperor,?Before whom you retreat. Oh! no longer?Low trickling malice blacken your good meaning?With abhorred venomous glosses. Stand you up?Shielded and helmed and weaponed with the truth,?And drive before you into uttermost shame?These slanderous liars! Few firm friends have we--?You know it! The swift growth of our good fortune?It hath but set us up a mark for hatred.?What are we, if the sovereign's grace and favor?Stand not before us!
SCENE III.
Enter the Countess TERZKY, leading in her hand the Princess THEKLA, richly adorned with brilliants.
COUNTESS, TEKLA, WALLENSTEIN, DUCHESS.
COUNTESS.?How sister? What, already upon business?
[Observing the countenance of the DUCHESS.?And business of no pleasing kind I see,?Ere he has gladdened at his child. The first?Moment belongs to joy. Here, Friedland! father!?This is thy daughter.
[THEKLA approaches with a shy and timid air, and bends herself as about to kiss his hand. He receives her in his arms, and remains standing for some time lost in the feeling of her presence.
WALLENSTEIN.?Yes! pure and lovely hath hope risen on me,?I take her as the pledge of greater fortune.
DUCHESS.?'Twas but a little child when you departed?To raise up that great army for the emperor?And after, at the close of the campaign,?When you returned home out of Pomerania,?Your daughter was already in the convent,?Wherein she has remained till now.
WALLENSTEIN.
The while?We in the field here gave our cares and toils?To make her great, and fight her a free way?To the loftiest earthly good; lo! mother Nature?Within the peaceful, silent convent walls,?Has done her part, and out of her free grace?Hath she bestowed on the beloved child?The god-like; and now leads her thus adorned?To meet her splendid fortune, and my hope.
DUCHESS (to THEKLA).?Thou wouldst not now have recognized thy father,?Wouldst thou, my child? She counted scarce eight years?When last she saw your face.
THEKLA.
O yes, yes, mother!?At the first glance! My father has not altered.?The form that stands before me falsifies?No feature of the image that hath lived?So long within me!
WALLENSTEIN.
The voice of my child!
[Then after a pause.?I was indignant at my destiny,?That it denied me a man-child, to be?Heir of my name and of my prosperous fortune,?And re-illume my soon-extinguished being?In a proud line of princes.?I wronged my destiny. Here upon this head,?So lovely in its maiden bloom, will I?Let fall the garland of a life of war,?Nor deem it lost, if only I can wreath it,?Transmuted to a regal ornament,?Around these beauteous brows.
[He clasps her in his arms as PICCOLOMINI enters.
SCENE IV.
Enter MAX. PICCOLOMINI, and some time after COUNT TERZKY, the others remaining as before.
COUNTESS.?There comes the Paladin who protected us.
WALLENSTEIN.?Max.! Welcome, ever welcome! Always wert thou?The morning star of my best joys!
MAX.
My general----
WALLENSTEIN.?Till now it was the emperor who rewarded thee,?I but the instrument. This day thou hast bound?The father to thee, Max.! the fortunate father,?And this debt Friedland's self must pay.
MAX.
My prince!?You made no common hurry to transfer it.?I come with shame: yea, not without a pang!?For scarce have I arrived here, scarce delivered?The mother and the daughter to your arms,?But there is brought to me from your equerry [6]?A splendid richly-plated hunting dress?So to remunerate me for my troubles--?Yes, yes, remunerate me,--since a trouble?It must be, a mere office, not a favor?Which I leaped forward to receive, and which?I came with grateful heart to thank you for.?No! 'twas not so intended, that my business?Should be my highest best good fortune!
[TERZKY enters; and delivers letters to the DUKE, which he breaks open hurriedly.
COUNTESS (to MAX.).?Remunerate your trouble! For his joy,?He makes you recompense. 'Tis not unfitting?For you, Count Piccolomini, to feel?So tenderly--my brother it beseems?To show himself forever great and princely.
THEKLA.?Then I too must