The Piccolomini (play)

SCENE VII.

WALLENSTRIN, TERZKY, ILLO.-To them enter QUESTENBERG, OCTAVIO,

and MAX. PICCOLOMINI, BUTLER, ISOLANI, MARADAS, and three other

Generals. WALLENSTEIN Motions QUESTENBERG, who in consequence

takes the chair directly opposite to him; the others follow,

arranging themselves according to their rank. There reigns a

momentary silence.

WALLENSTEIN.

I have understood,

'Tis true, the sum and import, Questenberg,

Of your instructions. I have weighed them well,

And formed my final, absolute resolve;

Yet it seems fitting that the generals

Should hear the will of the emperor from your mouth.

May it please you then to open your commission

Before these noble chieftains?

QUESTENBERG.

I am ready

To obey you; but will first entreat your highness,

And all these noble chieftains, to consider,

The imperial dignity and sovereign right

Speaks from my mouth, and not my own presumption.

WALLENSTEIN.

We excuse all preface.

QUESTENBERG.

When his majesty

The emperor to his courageous armies

Presented in the person of Duke Friedland

A most experienced and renowned commander,

He did it in glad hope and confidence

To give thereby to the fortune of the war

A rapid and auspicious change. The onset

Was favorable to his royal wishes.

Bohemia was delivered from the Saxons,

The Swede's career of conquest checked! These lands

Began to draw breath freely, as Duke Friedland

From all the streams of Germany forced hither

The scattered armies of the enemy;

Hither invoked as round one magic circle

The Rhinegrave, Bernhard, Banner, Oxenstiern,

Yea, and the never-conquered king himself;

Here finally, before the eye of Nuernberg,

The fearful game of battle to decide.

WALLENSTEIN.

To the point, so please you.

QUESTENBERG.

A new spirit

At once proclaimed to us the new commander.

No longer strove blind rage with rage more blind;

But in the enlightened field of skill was shown

How fortitude can triumph over boldness,

And scientific art outweary courage.

In vain they tempt him to the fight. He only

Entrenches him still deeper in his hold,

As if to build an everlasting fortress.

At length grown desperate, now, the king resolves

To storm the camp and lead his wasted legions,

Who daily fall by famine and by plague,

To quicker deaths and hunger and disease.

Through lines of barricades behind whose fence

Death lurks within a thousand mouths of fire,

He yet unconquered strives to storm his way.

There was attack, and there resistance, such

As mortal eye had never seen before;

Repulsed at last, the king withdrew his troops

From this so murderous field, and not a foot

Of ground was gained by all that fearful slaughter.

WALLENSTEIN.

Pray spare us these recitals from gazettes,

Which we ourselves beheld with deepest horror.

QUESTENBERG.

In Nuernberg's camp the Swedish monarch left

His fame-in Luetzen's plains his life. But who

Stood not astounded, when victorious Friedland

After this day of triumph, this proud day,

Marched toward Bohemia with the speed of flight,

And vanished from the theatre of war?

While the young Weimar hero [7] forced his way

Into Franconia, to the Danube, like

Some delving winter-stream, which, where it rushes,

Makes its own channel; with such sudden speed

He marched, and now at once 'fore Regensburg

Stood to the affright of all good Catholic Christians.

Then did Bavaria's well-deserving prince

Entreat swift aidance in his extreme need;

The emperor sends seven horsemen to Duke Friedland,

Seven horsemen couriers sends he with the entreaty

He superadds his own, and supplicates

Where as the sovereign lord he can command.

In vain his supplication! At this moment

The duke hears only his old hate and grudge,

Barters the general good to gratify

Private revenge-and so falls Regensburg.

WALLENSTEIN.

Max., to what period of the war alludes he?

My recollection fails me here.

MAX.

He means

When we were in Silesia.

WALLENSTEIN.

Ay! is it so!

But what had we to do there?

MAX.

To beat out

The Swedes and Saxons from the province.

WALLENSTEIN.

True;

In that description which the minister gave,

I seemed to have forgotten the whole war.

[TO QUESTENBERG.

Well, but proceed a little.

QUESTENBERG.

We hoped upon the Oder to regain

What on the Danube shamefully was lost.

We looked for deeds of all-astounding grandeur

Upon a theatre of war, on which

A Friedland led in person to the field,

And the famed rival of the great Gustavus

Had but a Thurn and Arnheim to oppose him!

Yet the encounter of their mighty hosts

Served but to feast and entertain each other.

Our country groaned beneath the woes of war,

Yet naught but peace prevailed in Friedland's camp!

WALLENSTEIN.

Full many a bloody strife is fought in vain,

Because its youthful general needs a victory.

But 'tis the privilege of the old commander

To spare the costs of fighting useless battles

Merely to show that he knows how to conquer.

It would have little helped my fame to boast

Of conquest o'er an Arnheim; but far more

Would my forbearance have availed my country,

Had I succeeded to dissolve the alliance

Existing 'twixt the Saxon and the Swede.

QUESTENBERG.

But you did not succeed, and so commenced

The fearful strife anew. And here at length,

Beside the river Oder did the duke

Assert his ancient fame. Upon the fields

Of Steinau did the Swedes lay down their arms,

Subdued without a blow. And here, with others,

The righteousness of heaven to his avenger

Delivered that long-practised stirrer-up

Of insurrection, that curse-laden torch

And kindler of this war, Matthias Thurn.

But he had fallen into magnanimous hands

Instead of punishment he found reward,

And with rich presents did the duke dismiss

The arch-foe of his emperor.

WALLENSTEIN (laughs).

I know,

I know you had already in Vienna

Your windows and your balconies forestalled

To see him on the executioner's cart.

I might have lost the battle, lost it too

With infamy, and still retained your graces-

But, to have cheated them of a spectacle,

Oh! that the good folks of Vienna never,

No, never can forgive me!

QUESTENBERG.

So Silesia

Was freed, and all things loudly called the duke

Into Bavaria, now pressed hard on all sides.

And he did put his troops in motion: slowly,

Quite at his ease, and by the longest road

He traverses Bohemia; but ere ever

He hath once seen the enemy, faces round,

Breaks up the march, and takes to winter-quarters.

WALLENSTEIN.

The troops were pitiably destitute

Of every necessary, every comfort,

The winter came. What thinks his majesty

His troops are made of? Aren't we men; subjected

Like other men to wet, and cold, and all

The circumstances of necessity?

Oh, miserable lot of the poor soldier!

Wherever he comes in all flee before him,

And when he goes away the general curse

Follows him on his route. All must be seized.

Nothing is given him. And compelled to seize

From every man he's every man's abhorrence.

Behold, here stand my generals. Karaffa!

Count Deodati! Butler! Tell this man

How long the soldier's pay is in arrears.

BUTLER.

Already a full year.

WALLENSTEIN.

And 'tis the hire

That constitutes the hireling's name and duties,

The soldier's pay is the soldier's covenant. [8]

QUESTENBERG.

Ah! this is a far other tone from that

In which the duke spoke eight, nine years ago.

WALLENSTEIN.

Yes! 'tis my fault, I know it: I myself

Have spoilt the emperor by indulging him.

Nine years ago, during the Danish war,

I raised him up a force, a mighty force,

Forty or fifty thousand men, that cost him

Of his own purse no doit. Through Saxony

The fury goddess of the war marched on,

E'en to the surf-rocks of the Baltic, bearing

The terrors of his name. That was a time!

In the whole imperial realm no name like mine

Honored with festival and celebration-

And Albrecht Wallenstein, it was the title

Of the third jewel in his crown!

But at the Diet, when the princes met

At Regensburg, there, there the whole broke out,

There 'twas laid open, there it was made known

Out of what money-bag I had paid the host,

And what were now my thanks, what had I now

That I, a faithful servant of the sovereign,

Had loaded on myself the people's curses,

And let the princes of the empire pay

The expenses of this war that aggrandizes

The emperor alone. What thanks had I?

What? I was offered up to their complaint

Dismissed, degraded!

QUESTENBERG.

But your highness knows

What little freedom he possessed of action

In that disastrous Diet.

WALLENSTEIN.

Death and hell!

I had that which could have procured him freedom

No! since 'twas proved so inauspicious to me

To serve the emperor at the empire's cost,

I have been taught far other trains of thinking

Of the empire and the Diet of the empire.

From the emperor, doubtless, I received this staff,

But now I hold it as the empire's general,-

For the common weal, the universal interest,

And no more for that one man's aggrandizement!

But to the point. What is it that's desired of me?

QUESTENBERG.

First, his imperial majesty hath willed

That without pretexts of delay the army

Evacuate Bohemia.

WALLENSTEIN.

In this season?

And to what quarter wills the emperor

That we direct our course?

QUESTENBERG.

To the enemy.

His majesty resolves, that Regensburg

Be purified from the enemy ere Easter,

That Lutheranism may be no longer preached

In that cathedral, nor heretical

Defilement desecrate the celebration

Of that pure festival.

WALLENSTEIN.

My generals,

Can this be realized?

ILLO.

'Tis not possible.

BUTLER.

It can't be realized.

QUESTENBERG.

The emperor

Already hath commanded Colonel Suys

To advance towards Bavaria.

WALLENSTEIN.

What did Suys?

QUESTENBERG.

That which his duty prompted. He advanced.

WALLENSTEIN.

What! he advanced? And I, his general,

Had given him orders, peremptory orders

Not to desert his station! Stands it thus

With my authority? Is this the obedience

Due to my office, which being thrown aside,

No war can be conducted? Chieftains, speak

You be the judges, generals. What deserves

That officer who, of his oath neglectful,

Is guilty of contempt of orders?

ILLO.

Death.

WALLENSTEIN (raising his voice, as all but ILLO had remained silent

and seemingly scrupulous).

Count Piccolomini! what has he deserved?

MAX. PICCOLOMINI (after a long pause).

According to the letter of the law,

Death.

ISOLANI.

Death.

BUTLER.

Death, by the laws of war.

[QUESTENBERG rises from his seat, WALLENSTEIN follows, all

the rest rise.

WALLENSTEIN.

To this the law condemns him, and not I.

And if I show him favor, 'twill arise

From the reverence that I owe my emperor.

QUESTENBERG.

If so, I can say nothing further-here!

WALLENSTEIN.

I accepted the command but on conditions!

And this the first, that to the diminution

Of my authority no human being,

Not even the emperor's self, should be entitled

To do aught, or to say aught, with the army.

If I stand warranter of the event,

Placing my honor and my head in pledge,

Needs must I have full mastery in all

The means thereto. What rendered this Gustavus

Resistless, and unconquered upon earth?

This-that he was the monarch in his army!

A monarch, one who is indeed a monarch,

Was never yet subdued but by his equal.

But to the point! The best is yet to come,

Attend now, generals!

QUESTENBERG.

The Prince Cardinal

Begins his route at the approach of spring

From the Milanese; and leads a Spanish army

Through Germany into the Netherlands.

That he may march secure and unimpeded,

'Tis the emperor's will you grant him a detachment

Of eight horse-regiments from the army here.

WALLENSTEIN.

Yes, yes! I understand! Eight regiments! Well,

Right well concerted, Father Lanormain!

Eight thousand horse! Yes, yes! 'tis as it should be

I see it coming.

QUESTENBERG.

There is nothing coming.

All stands in front: the counsel of state-prudence,

The dictate of necessity!

WALLENSTEIN.

What then?

What, my lord envoy? May I not be suffered

To understand that folks are tired of seeing

The sword's hilt in my grasp, and that your court

Snatch eagerly at this pretence, and use

The Spanish title, and drain off my forces,

To lead into the empire a new army

Unsubjected to my control? To throw me

Plumply aside,-I am still too powerful for you

To venture that. My stipulation runs,

That all the imperial forces shall obey me

Where'er the German is the native language.

Of Spanish troops and of prince cardinals,

That take their route as visitors, through the empire,

There stands no syllable in my stipulation.

No syllable! And so the politic court

Steals in on tiptoe, and creeps round behind it;

First makes me weaker, then to be dispensed with,

Till it dares strike at length a bolder blow,

And make short work with me.

What need of all these crooked ways, lord envoy?

Straightforward, man! his compact with me pinches

The emperor. He would that I moved off!

Well! I will gratify him!

[Here there commences an agitation among the generals,

which increases continually.

It grieves me for my noble officers' sakes;

I see not yet by what means they will come at

The moneys they have advanced, or how obtain

The recompense their services demand.

Still a new leader brings new claimants forward,

And prior merit superannuates quickly.

There serve here many foreigners in the army,

And were the man in all else brave and gallant,

I was not wont to make nice scrutiny

After his pedigree or catechism.

This will be otherwise i' the time to come.

Well; me no longer it concerns.

[He seats himself.

Forbid it, Heaven, that it should come to this!

Our troops will swell in dreadful fermentation-

The emperor is abused-it cannot be.

ISOLANI.

It cannot be; all goes to instant wreck.

WALLENSTEIN.

Thou hast said truly, faithful Isolani!

What we with toil and foresight have built up

Will go to wreck-all go to instant wreck.

What then? Another chieftain is soon found,

Another army likewise (who dares doubt it?)

Will flock from all sides to the emperor,

At the first beat of his recruiting drum.

[During this speech, ISOLANI, TERZKY, ILLO, and MARADAS talk

confusedly with great agitation.

MAX. PICCOLOMINI (busily and passionately going from one to another,

and soothing them).

Hear, my commander' Hear me, generals!

Let me conjure you, duke! Determine nothing,

Till we have met and represented to you

Our joint remonstrances! Nay, calmer! Friends!

I hope all may yet be set right again.

TERZKY.

Away! let us away! in the antechamber

Find we the others.

[They go.

BUTLER (to QUESTENBERG).

If good counsel gain

Due audience from your wisdom, my lord envoy,

You will be cautious how you show yourself

In public for some hours to come-or hardly

Will that gold key protect you from maltreatment.

[Commotions heard from without.

WALLENSTEIN.

A salutary counsel-Thou, Octavio!

Wilt answer for the safety of our guest.

Farewell, von Questenberg!

[QUESTENBURG is about to speak.

Nay, not a word.

Not one word more of that detested subject!

You have performed your duty. We know now

To separate the office from the man.

[AS QUESTENBERG is going off with OCTAVIO, GOETZ, TIEFENBACH,

KOLATTO, press in, several other generals following them.

GOETZ.

Where's he who means to rob us of our general?

TIEFENBACH (at the same time).

What are we forced to bear? That thou wilt leave us?

KOLATTO (at the same time).

We will live with thee, we will die with thee.

WALLENSTEIN (with stateliness, and pointing to ILLO).

There! the field-marshal knows our will.

[Exit.

[While all are going off the stage, the curtain drops.

ACT III.