Wallensteins Camp | Page 9

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