LITMIR.BIZ

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eye ne'er absent from the far-off mark,

      Step tracing step, each step a politic progress;

      And out of all they'll fabricate a charge

      So specious that I must myself stand dumb.

      I am caught in my own net, and only force,

      Nought but a sudden rent, can liberate me.

      [Pauses again.]

      How else! since that the heart's unbias'd instinct

      Impell'd me to the daring deed, which now

      Necessity, self-preservation, orders.

      Stern is the on-look of Necessity,

      Not without shudder may a human hand

      Grasp the mysterious urn of destiny.

      My deed was mine, remaining in my bosom:

      Once suffer'd to escape from its safe corner

      Within the heart, its nursery and birth-place,

      Sent forth into the Foreign, it belongs

      Forever to those sly malicious powers

      Whom never art of man conciliated.

      [Paces in agitation through the chamber, then pauses, and after the pause breaks out again into audible soliloquy.]

      What is thy enterprise? thy aim? thy object?

      Hast honestly confess'd it to thyself?

      Power seated on a quiet throne thou'dst shake,

      Power on an ancient consecrated throne,

      Strong in possession, founded in all custom;

      Power by a thousand tough and stringy roots

      Fix'd to the people's pious nursery-faith.

      This, this will be no strife of strength with strength.

      That fear'd I not. I brave each combatant,

      Whom I can look on, fixing eye to eye,

      Who, full himself of courage, kindles courage

      In me too. 'Tis a foe invisible

      The which I fear—a fearful enemy,

      Which in the human heart opposes me,

      By its coward fear alone made fearful to me.

      Not that, which full of life, instinct with power,

      Makes known its present being; that is not

      The true, the perilously formidable.

      O no! it is the common, the quite common,

      The thing of an eternal yesterday.

      What ever was, and evermore returns,

      Sterling tomorrow, for today 'twas sterling!

      For of the wholly common is man made,

      And custom is his nurse! Woe then to them

      Who lay irreverent hands upon his old

      House furniture, the dear inheritance

      From his forefathers! For time consecrates;

      And what is gray with age becomes religion.

      Be in possession, and thou hast the right,

      And sacred will the many guard it for thee!

      [To the PAGE who here enters.]

      The Swedish officer?—Well, let him enter.

      [The PAGE exit, WALLENSTEIN fixes his eye in deep thought on the door.]

      Yet is it pure—as yet!—the crime has come

      Not o'er this threshold yet—so slender is

      The boundary that divideth life's two paths.

      SCENE V

      WALLENSTEIN and WRANGEL

      WALLENSTEIN (after having fixed a searching look on him).

      Your name is Wrangel?

      WRANGEL.

                      Gustave Wrangel, General

      Of the Sudermanian Blues.

      WALLENSTEIN.

                         It was a Wrangel

      Who injured me materially at Stralsund,

      And by his brave resistance was the cause

      Of the opposition which that sea-port made.

      WRANGEL.

      It was the doing of the element

      With which you fought, my Lord! and not my merit.

      The Baltic Neptune did assert his freedom:

      The sea and land, it seem'd, were not to serve

      One and the same.

      [WALLENST.

      You pluck'd the Admiral's hat from off my head.

      WRANGEL.

      I come to place a diadem thereon.]

      WALLENSTEIN (makes the motion for him to take a seat, and seats himself).

                          And where are your credentials?

      Come you provided with full powers, Sir General?

      WRANGEL.

      There are so many scruples yet to solve—

      WALLENSTEIN (having read the credentials).

      An able letter!—Ay—he is a prudent

      Intelligent master whom you serve, Sir General!

      The Chancellor writes me, that he but fulfils

      His late departed Sovereign's own idea

      In helping me to the Bohemian crown.

      WRANGEL.

      He says the truth. Our great King, now in heaven,

      Did ever deem most highly of your Grace's

      Preëminent sense and military genius;

      And always the commanding Intellect,

      He said, should have command, and be the King.

      WALLENST.

      Yes, he might say it safely.—General Wrangel,

      [Taking his hand affectionately.]

      Come, fair and open. Trust me, I was always

      A Swede at heart. Eh! that did you experience

      Both in Silesia and at Nuremberg;

      I had you often in my power, and let you

      Always slip out by some back door or other.

      'Tis this for which the Court can ne'er forgive me,

      Which drives me to this present step: and since

      Our interests so run in one direction,

      E'en let us have a thorough confidence

      Each in the other.

      WRANGEL.

                  Confidence will come

      Has each but only first security.

      WALLENST.

      The Chancellor still, I see, does not quite trust me;

      And, I confess—the game does not lie wholly

      To my advantage.

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