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is my sovereign, I can do the like

      With the enemy, and that the one too were

      Sooner to be forgiven me than the other.

      Is not this your opinion, too, Sir General?

      WRANGEL.

      I have here a duty merely, no opinion.

      WALLENST.

      The Emperor hath urged me to the uttermost:

      I can no longer honorably serve him;

      For my security, in self-defence,

      I take this hard step, which my conscience blames.

      WRANGEL.

      That I believe. So far would no one go

      Who was not forced to it.

      [After a pause.]

                                What may have impell'd

      Your princely Highness in this wise to act

      Toward your Sovereign Lord and Emperor,

      Beseems not us to expound or criticise.

      The Swede is fighting for his good old cause,

      With his good sword and conscience. This concurrence,

      This opportunity, is in our favor,

      And all advantages in war are lawful.

      We take what offers without questioning;

      And if all have its due and just proportions—

      WALLENST.

      Of what then are ye doubting? Of my will?

      Or of my power? I pledged me to the Chancellor,

      Would he trust me with sixteen thousand men,

      That I would instantly go over to them

      With eighteen thousand of the Emperor's troops.

      WRANGEL.

      Your Grace is known to be a mighty war-chief,

      To be a second Attila and Pyrrhus.

      'Tis talked of still with fresh astonishment,

      How some years past, beyond all human faith,

      You call'd an army forth, like a creation:

      But yet—

      WALLENSTEIN.

      But yet?

      WRANGEL.

               But still the Chancellor thinks

      It might yet be an easier thing from nothing

      To call forth sixty thousand men of battle,

      Than to persuade one sixtieth part of them—

      WALLENST.

      What now? Out with it, friend!

      WRANGEL.

      To break their oaths.

      WALLENST.

      And he thinks so? He judges like a Swede,

      And like a Protestant. You Lutherans

      Fight for your Bible. You are interested

      About the cause; and with your hearts you follow

      Your banners. Among you, whoe'er deserts

      To the enemy hath broken covenant

      With two Lords at one time. We've no such fancies.

      WRANGEL.

      Great God in Heaven! Have then the people here

      No house and home, no fireside, no altar?

      WALLENST.

      I will explain that to you, how it stands:—

      The Austrian has a country, ay, and loves it,

      And has good cause to love it—but this army,

      That calls itself the Imperial, this that houses

      Here in Bohemia, this has none—no country;

      This is an outcast of all foreign lands,

      Unclaim'd by town or tribe, to whom belongs

      Nothing except the universal sun.

      And this Bohemian land for which we fight—

      [Loves not the master whom the chance of war,

      Not its own choice or will, hath given to it.

      Men murmur at the oppression of their conscience,

      And power hath only awed but not appeased them;

      A glowing and avenging mem'ry lives

      Of cruel deeds committed on these plains;

      How can the son forget that here his father

      Was hunted by the blood-hound to the mass?

      A people thus oppress'd must still be feared,

      Whether they suffer or avenge their wrongs.]

      WRANGEL.

      But then the Nobles and the Officers?

      Such a desertion, such a felony,

      It is without example, my Lord Duke,

      In the world's history.

      WALLENSTEIN.

                              They are all mine—

      Mine unconditionally—mine on all terms.

      Not me, your own eyes you must trust.

      [He gives him the paper containing the written oath. WRANGEL reads it through, and, having read it, lays it on the table, remaining silent.]

                                  So then?

      Now comprehend you?

      WRANGEL.

                     Comprehend who can!

      My Lord Duke, I will let the mask drop—yes!

      I've full powers for a final settlement.

      The Rhinegrave stands but four days' march from here

      With fifteen thousand men, and only waits

      For orders to proceed and join your army.

      Those orders I give out, immediately

      We're compromised.

      WALLENSTEIN.

      What asks the Chancellor?

      WRANGEL (considerately).

      Twelve regiments, every man a Swede—my head

      The warranty—and all might prove at last

      Only false play—

      WALLENSTEIN (starting).

      Sir Swede!

      WRANGEL (calmly proceeding).

                           Am therefore forced

      T' insist thereon, that he do formally,

      Irrevocably break with the Emperor,

      Else not a Swede is trusted to Duke Friedland.

      WALLENST.

      Come, brief, and open! What is the demand?

      WRANGEL.

      That

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