Friedrich Wilhelm von Wallenstein

“ Thy heart, say rather—'twas thy heart, my child!
THEKLA.
Faith hath no voice but the heart's impulses.
I am all his! His Present—his alone,
Is this new life, which lives in me? He hath
A right to his own creature. What was I
Ere his fair love infus'd a soul into me?
COUNTESS.
Thou would'st oppose thy father, then, should he
Have otherwise determin'd with thy person?
(Thekla remains silent. The Countess continues.)
Thou mean'st to force him to thy liking?—Child,
His name is Friedland.
THEKLA.
My name too is Friedland.
He shall have found a genuine daughter in me. ”

“ The purport was, that Wallenstein, notwithstanding his superiority, was willing to agree to a cessation of arms for six weeks. "He was come," he said, "to conclude a lasting peace with the Swedes, and with the princes of the empire, to pay the soldiers, and to satisfy every one. All this was in his power; and if the Austrian court hesitated to confirm his agreement, he would unite with the allies, and (as he privately whispered to Arnheim) hunt the Emperor to the devil." At the second conference, he expressed himself still more plainly to Count Thurn. ”

“ For carrying on the war along the Rhine, he was entirely dependent upon the princes of the Catholic League and their army under Tilly.
Wallenstein now came forward and offered to supply the Emperor with a powerful imperial army which should not cost him a penny. This offer, coming from a mere private gentleman, sounded absurd; and for a time Wallenstein was put aside with contemptuous laughter. At last the Emperor told him, if he thought he could raise as many as ten thousand men, to go ahead. "If I have only ten thousand," said Wallenstein, "we must accept what people choose to give us. ”

“ To this proud subject of his, fresh from his dalliances with his enemies, the emperor now appealed for help. Wallenstein agreed to raise an army, provided his control of it should be absolute. Ferdinand was constrained to grant all that his old general demanded. Wallenstein now raised his standard, to which rallied the adventurers not only of Germany, but of all Europe as well. The array was a vast and heterogeneous host, bound together by no bonds of patriotism, loyalty, or convictions, but by the spell and prestige of the name of Wallenstein. ”

“ There serve here many foreigners in th' 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.)
MAX. PICCOLOMINI.
Forbid it, Heaven, that it should come to this!
Our troops will swell in dreadful fermentation—
The Emperor is abus'd—it cannot be.
ISOLANI.
It cannot be; all goes to instant wreck.
WALLENSTEIN.
Thou hast said truly, faithful Isolani! ”

“ In brief, 'tis sign'd and seal'd that this Octavio
Is my good angel—and now no word more.
(He is retiring.)
TERTSKY.
This is my comfort—Max. remains our hostage.
ILLO.
And he shall never stir from here alive.
WALLENSTEIN. (stops, and turns himself round)
Are ye not like the women, who for ever
Only recur to their first word, altho'
One had been talking reason by the hour?
Know, that the human being's thoughts and deeds
Are not, like ocean billows, blindly mov'd.
The inner world, his microcosmus, is
The deep shaft, out of which they spring eternally. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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
Thro' Germany into the Netherlands.
That he may march secure and unimpeded,
'Tis th' 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 Lamormain!
Eight thousand horse! Yes, yes! 'Tis as it should be!
I see it coming.
QUESTENBERG.
⁠There is nothing coming. ”

“ It is unwise to risk certainty for uncertainty. The enemy will avail themselves of your personal influence, while the opportunity lasts; but you will ever be regarded with suspicion, and they will always be fearful lest you should treat them as you have done the Emperor. Return, then, to your allegiance, while there is yet time."—"And how is that to be done?" said Wallenstein, interrupting him: "You have 40,000 men-at-arms," rejoined he, (meaning ducats, which were stamped with the figure of an armed man,) "take them with you, and go straight to the Imperial Court ”

“ With fifteen thousand men, and only waits
For orders to proceed and join your army.
Those orders I give out, immediately
We're compromis'd.
WALLENSTEIN.
What asks the Chancellor?
WRANGLE. (considerately.)
Twelve Regiments, every man a Swede—my head
The warranty—and all might prove at last
Only false play———
WALLENSTEIN. (starting.)
Sir Swede!
WRANGLE. (calmly proceeding.)
Am therefore forc'd
T' insist thereon, that he do formally,
Irrevocably break with th' Emperor,
Else not a Swede is trusted to Duke Friedland.
WALLENSTEIN.
Come, brief, and open! What is the demand? ”

“ Nay, yield them up that dot, that speck of land—
It goes not from your portion. If you win
The game, what matters it to you who pays it?
WALLENSTEIN.
Off with them, off! Thou understand'st not this.
Never shall it be said of me, I parcell'd
My native land away, dismember'd Germany,
Betray'd it to a foreigner, in order
To come with stealthy tread, and filch away
My own share of the plunder.—Never! never!—
No foreign power shall strike root in the empire,
And least of all, these Goths! these hunger-wolves! ”

“ SCENE XIII. A spacious room in the Duke of Friedland's palace. WALLENSTEIN (in armor) . Thou hast gained thy point, Octavio! Once more am I Almost as friendless as at Regensburg. There I had nothing left me but myself; But what one man can do you have now experience. The twigs have you hewed off, and here I stand A leafless trunk. But in the sap within Lives the creating power, and a new world May sprout forth from it. Once already have I Proved myself worth an army to you—I alone! Before the Swedish strength your troops had melted; Beside the Lech sank Tilly, your last hope ”

“ Wallenstein, Duke of Friedland, Generalissimo of the Imperial Forces in the Thirty-years War.
Duchess of Friedland, Wife of Wallenstein.
Thekla, her Daughter, Princess of Friedland.
The Countess Tertsky, Sister of the Duchess.
Lady Neubrunn.
Octavio Piccolomini, Lieutenant General.
Max. Piccolomini, his Son, Colonel of a Regiment of Cuirassiers.
Count Tertsky, the Commander of federal Regiments, and Brother-in-law of Wallenstein.
Illo, Field Marshal, Wallenstein's Confidant. ”

“ Ferdinand, to gain his aid, gave him uncontrolled authority over the army he should raise and all its operations.
Wallenstein began recruiting. He soon had forty thousand men. The Catholics grew braver when the reconciliation of Wallenstein and the Emperor became known. This, added to the suspicions of the allies, constrained Gustavus to cease his successful offensive for a cautious holding of what he already had.
Wallenstein marched into Bohemia, the Saxons offering no resistance, and took Prague. He then moved to Bavaria and joined the Elector. ”

“ Make you the son's fidelity Outweigh the father's treason, that the name Of Piccolomini be not a proverb Of infamy, a common form of cursing To the posterity of Wallenstein. MAX. Where is that voice of truth which I dare follow! It speaks no longer in my heart. We all But utter what our passionate wishes dictate: Oh that an angel would descend from heaven, And scoop for me the right, the uncorrupted, With a pure hand from the pure Fount of light. ”

“ Duke Friedland sentenc'd and condemned!
OCTAVIO.
Even so.
MAX. (throws down the paper) .
Oh, this is too much!—O unhappy error!
OCTAVIO.
Read on. Collect thyself.
MAX. (after he has read further, with a look
of affright and astonishment on his father) .
How!—what!—Thou!—thou!
OCTAVIO.
But for the present moment, till the King
Of Hungary may safely join the army,
Is the command assign'd to me.
MAX.
And think'st thou,
Dost thou believe, that thou wilt tear it from him?
Oh, never hope it!—Father! father! father!
An inauspicious office is enjoin'd thee. ”

“ Ruined churches, villages in ashes, harvests wilfully destroyed, families plundered, and murdered peasants, marked the progress of these barbarians, under whose scourge the whole of Thuringia, Vogtland, and Meissen, lay defenceless. Yet this was but the prelude to greater sufferings, with which Wallenstein himself, at the head of the main army, threatened Saxony. After having left behind him fearful monuments of his fury, in his march through Franconia and Thuringia, he arrived with his whole army in the Circle of Leipzig, and compelled the city, after a short resistance, to surrender. ”

“ The immense riches Wallenstein possessed, the universal reputation he enjoyed, the rapidity with which six years before he had assembled an army of 40,000 men, the little expense at which he had maintained this formidable force, the actions he had performed at its head, and lastly, the zeal and fidelity he had displayed for his master's honor, still lived in the Emperor's recollection and made Wallenstein seem to him the ablest instrument to restore the balance between the belligerent powers, to save Austria, and preserve the Catholic religion. ”

“ Wallenstein, in fact, though preeminent in power, both external and internal, of high intellect and commanding will, skilled in war and statesmanship beyond the best in Europe, the idol of sixty thousand fearless hearts, is not yet removed above our sympathy. ”

“ Cheap souls, to whom their honor, their good name
Is their poor saving, their last worthless Keep,
Which having stak'd and lost, they stake themselves
In the mad rage of gaming. Thou art rich,
And glorious; with an unpolluted heart
Thou canst make conquest of whate'er seems highest!
But he, who once hath acted infamy,
Does nothing more in this world.
WALLENSTEIN. (grasps his hand)
Calmly, Max!
Much that is great and excellent will we
Perform together yet. ”

“ Send me to Vienna; I'll make thy peace for thee with the emperor. He knows thee not. But I do know thee. He Shall see thee, duke! with my unclouded eye, And I bring back his confidence to thee. WALLENSTEIN. It is too late! Thou knowest not what has happened. MAX. Were it too late, and were things gone so far, That a crime only could prevent thy fall, Then—fall! fall honorably, even as thou stoodest, Lose the command. Go from the stage of war! Thou canst with splendor do it—do it too With innocence. Thou hast lived much for others, At length live thou for thy own self. I follow thee. ”

“ Few generals have surpassed him in the power of quickly organizing great masses of men and of inspiring them with confidence and enthusiasm. But it is as a statesman that Wallenstein is immortal. However much or little motives of personal aggrandisement influenced his schemes and his conduct, “Germany turns ever to Wallenstein as she turns to no other amongst the leaders of the Thirty Years' War. ... Such faithfulness is not without reason. ... Wallenstein's wildest schemes, impossible of execution by military violence, were always built upon the foundation of German unity. ”

“ 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
Of your instructions, Questenberg, have weigh'd them,
And form'd my final, absolute resolve;
Yet it seems fitting that the Generals
Should hear the will of th' Emperor from your mouth. ”

“ Not from the Swedes, not from the Lutherans—
No! from his own troops to hide and hurry them!
MAX.
Cease, cease! thou tortur'st, shatter'st me. I know
That oft we tremble at an empty terror;
But the false phantasm brings a real misery.
OCTAVIO.
It is no phantasm. An intestine war,
Of all the most unnatural and cruel,
Will burst out into flames, if instantly
We do not fly and stifle it. The Generals
Are many of them long ago won over;
The subalterns are vacillating—whole
Regiments and garrisons are vacillating.
To foreigners our strong holds are entrusted ”

“ Wallenstein saw nothing but an army, partly indifferent and partly exasperated against the court, accustomed, with a blind submission, to do homage to his great name, to bow to him as their legislator and judge, and with trembling reverence to follow his orders as the decrees of fate. In the extravagant flatteries which were paid to his omnipotence, in the bold abuse of the court government, in which a lawless soldiery indulged, and which the wild licence of the camp excused, he thought he read the sentiments of the army ”