Wallensteins Camp | Page 7

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.