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Piccolomini just left you?

      WALLENSTEIN.

      Where is Wrangel?

      TERZKY.

      He is already gone.

      WALLENSTEIN.

      In such a hurry?

      TERZKY.

      It is as if the earth had swallow'd him.

      He had scarce left thee when I went to seek him.

      I wish'd some words with him—but he was gone.

      How, when, and where, could no one tell me. Nay,

      I half believe it was the devil himself;

      A human creature could not so at once

      Have vanish'd.

      ILLO (enters).

                       Is it true that thou wilt send

      Octavio?

      TERZKY.

      How, Octavio! Whither send him?

      WALLENST.

      He goes to Frauenburg, and will lead hither

      The Spanish and Italian regiments.

      ILLO.

                         No!

      Nay, Heaven forbid!

      WALLENSTEIN.

      And why should Heaven forbid?

      ILLO.

      Him!—that deceiver! Wouldst thou trust to him

      The soldiery? Him wilt thou let slip from thee,

      Now in the very instant that decides us—

      TERZKY.

      Thou wilt not do this—No! I pray thee, no!

      WALLENST.

      Ye are whimsical.

      ILLO.

                   O but for this time, Duke,

      Yield to our warning! Let him not depart.

      WALLENST.

      And why should I not trust him only this time,

      Who have always trusted him? What, then, has happen'd

      That I should lose my good opinion of him?

      In complaisance to your whims, not my own,

      I must, forsooth, give up a rooted judgment.

      Think not I am a woman. Having trusted him

      E'en till today, today too will I trust him.

      TERZKY.

      Must it be he—he only? Send another.

      WALLENST.

      It must be he whom I myself have chosen;

      He is well fitted for the business. Therefore

      I gave it him.

      ILLO.

                             Because he's an Italian—

      Therefore is he well fitted for the business!

      WALLENST.

      I know you love them not—nor sire nor son—

      Because that I esteem them, love them—visibly

      Esteem them, love them more than you and others.

      E'en as they merit. Therefore are they eye-blights,

      Thorns in your foot-path. But your jealousies,

      In what affect they me or my concerns?

      Are they the worse to me because you hate them?

      Love or hate one another as you will,

      I leave to each man his own moods and likings;

      Yet know the worth of each of you to me.

      ILLO.

      Von Questenberg, while he was here, was always

      Lurking about with this Octavio.

      WALLENST.

      It happen'd with my knowledge and permission.

      ILLO.

      I know that secret messengers came to him

      From Gallas—

      WALLENSTEIN.

      That's not true.

      ILLO.

                         O thou art blind,

      With thy deep-seeing eyes!

      WALLENSTEIN.

                         Thou wilt not shake

      My faith for me—my faith, which founds itself

      On the profoundest science. If 'tis false,

      Then the whole science of the stars is false;

      For know, I have a pledge from Fate itself,

      That he is the most faithful of my friends.

      ILLO.

      Hast thou a pledge, that this pledge is not false?

      WALLENST.

      There exist moments in the life of man,

      When he is nearer the great Soul of the world

      Than is man's custom, and possesses freely

      The power of questioning his destiny:

      And such a moment 'twas, when in the night

      Before the action in the plains of Lützen,

      Leaning against a tree, thoughts crowding thoughts,

      I look'd out far upon the ominous plain.

      My whole life, past and future, in this moment

      Before my mind's eye glided in procession,

      And to the destiny of the next morning

      The spirit, fill'd with anxious presentiment,

      Did knit the most removed futurity.

      Then said I also to myself: "So many

      Dost thou command. They follow all thy stars

      And as on some great number set their All

      Upon thy single head, and only man

      The vessel of thy fortune. Yet a day

      Will come when Destiny shall once more scatter

      All these in many a several direction:

      Few be they who will stand out faithful to thee."

      I yearn'd to know which one was faithfullest

      Of all, this camp included. Great Destiny,

      Give me a sign! And he shall be the man,

      Who, on the approaching morning, comes the first

      To meet me with a token of his love.

      And thinking this, I fell into a slumber.

      Then midmost in the battle was I led

      In spirit. Great the pressure and the tumult!

      Then

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