Wallensteins Camp | Page 7

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