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Now that a miracle of heaven had guarded

My secret purpose even to this hour,

And laid to sleep suspicion's piercing eyes,
Let me have lived to see that mine own son,
With frantic enterprise, annihilates

My toilsome labors and state policy.

Max. Ay-this state policy! O how I curse it!
You will some time, with your state policy,
Compel him to the measure: it may happen,
Because ye are determined that he is guilty,
Guilty ye'll make him. All retreat cut off,

You close up every outlet, hem him in

Narrower and narrower, till at length ye force him—
Yes, ye-ye force him, in his desperation,

To set fire to his prison. Father

Father!

That never can end well-it can not-will not!

And let it be decided as it may,

I see with boding heart the near approach

Of an ill-starred, unblest catastrophe.
For this great monarch-spirit, if he fall,
Will drag a world into the ruin with him.
And as a ship (that midway on the ocean
Takes fire) at once, and with a thunder-burst
Explodes, and with itself shoots out its crew
In smoke and ruin betwixt sea and heaven;
So will he, falling, draw down in his fall

All us, who're fixed and mortised to his fortune.
Deem of it what thou wilt; but pardon me,
That I must bear me on in my own way
All must remain pure betwixt him and me;
And, ere the daylight dawns, it must be known
Which I must lose-my father, or my friend.

[During his exit the curtain drops.

ACT IV.

SCENE I-A room fitted up for astrological labors, and provided with celestial charts, with globes, telescopes, quadrants, and other mathematical instruments-Seven colossal figures, representing the planets, each with a transparent star of a different color on its head, stand in a semicircle in the background, so that Mars and Saturn are nearest the eye.—The remainder of the Scene, and its disposition, is given in the Fourth Scene of the Second Act.—There must be a curtain over the figures, which may be dropped, and conceal them on occasions. [In the Fifth Scene of this Act it must be dropped; but in the Seventh Scene, it must be again drwn up wholly or in part.] Wallenstein at a black table, on which a Speculum Astrologicum is described with chalk.

through a window.

Seni is taking observations

Wal. All well-and now let it be ended, Seni.-Come, The dawn commences, and Mars rules the hour.

We must give o'er the operation. Come,

We know enough.

Seni.

Your Highness must permit me

Just to contemplate Venus. She's now rising:
Like as a sun, so shines she in the east.

Wal. She is at present in her perigee,

And shoots down now her strongest influences.

[Contemplating the figure on the table

Auspicious aspect! fateful in conjunction,
At length the mighty three corradiate;
And the two stars of blessing, Jupiter
And Venus, take between them the malignant
Slyly-malicious Mars, and thus compel
Into my service that old mischief-founder;
For long he viewed me hostilely, and ever
With beam oblique, or perpendicular,
Now in the Quartile, now in the Secundan,
Shot his red lightnings at my stars, disturbing
Their blessed influences and sweet aspects.
Now they have conquered the old enemy,
And bring him in the heavens a prisoner to me.

Seni. (who has come down from the window.) And in a corner house, your Highness-think of that!

That makes each influence of double strength.

Wal. And sun and moon, too, in the Sextile aspect,

The soft light with the veh'ment—so I love it.

Sol is the heart, Luna the head of heaven,

Bold be the plan, fiery the execution.

Seni. And both the mighty Lumina by no Maleficus affronted. Lo! Saturnus, Innocuous, powerless, in cadente Domo.

Wal. The empire of Saturnus is gone by:
Lord of the secret birth of things is he;
Within the lap of earth, and in the depths
Of the imagination dominates;

And his are all things that eschew the light.
The time is o'er of brooding and contrivance :
For Jupiter, the lustrous, lordeth now,
And the dark work, complete of preparation,
He draws by force into the realm of light.
Now must we hasten on to action, ere
The scheme, and most auspicious positure

Parts o'er my head, and takes once more its flight;

For the heavens journey still, and sojourn not.

[There are knocks at the door. There's some one knocking there. See who it is. Tertsky. (from without.) Open, and let me in. Wal. Ay-'tis Tertsky. What is there of such urgence? We are busy.

Ter. (from without.) Lay all aside at present, I entreat you. It suffers no delaying.

Wal.

Open, Seni!

[While Seni opens the doors for Tertsky, Wallenstein draws the curtain over the figures.

Ter. (enters.) Hast thou already heard it? He is taken. Galas has given him up to the Emperor.

[Seni draws off the black table and exit.

SCENE II-Wallenstein, Count Tertsky.

Wal. (to Tertsky.) Who has been taken ?-Who is given up? Ter. The man who knows our secrets, who knows every

Negotiation with the Swede and Saxon,

Through whose hands all and every thing has passed

Wal. (drawing back.) Nay, not Sesina?-Say, No! I entreat thee.

Ter. All on his road for Regenspurg to the Swede
He was plunged down upon by Galas' agent,
Who had been long in ambush, lurking for him.
There must have been found on him my whole packet
To Thur, to Kinsky, to Oxenstirn, to Arnheim:
All this is in their hands; they have now an insight
Into the whole-our measures, and our motives.

SCENE III. To them enters Illo.

Illo. (to Tertsky.) Has he heard it?
Ter. He has heard it.

Illo. (to Wallenstein.) Thinkest thou still
To make thy peace with the Emp'ror, to regain
His confidence?-E'en were it now thy wish
To abandon all thy plans, yet still they know

What thou hast wished; then forwards thou must press!
Retreat is now no longer in thy power.

Ter. They have documents against us, and in hands,
Which show beyond all power of contradiction-
Wal. Of my handwriting-no iota. Thee

I punish for thy lies.

Illo.

And thou believest,

That what this man, that what thy sister's husband,
Did in thy name, will not stand on thy reck'ning?
His word must pass for thy word with the Swede,

And not with those that hate thee at Vienna.

Ter. In writing thou gav'st nothing-But bethink thee,
How far thou venturedst by word of mouth
With this Sesina? And will he be silent?

If he can save himself by yielding up
Thy secret purposes, will he retain them?

Illo. Thyself dost not conceive it possible;
And since they now have evidence authentic
How far thou hast already gone, speak!—tell us,
What art thou waiting for? thou canst no longer

Keep thy command; and beyond hope of rescue
Thou'rt lost, if thou resign'st it.

Wal.

In the army

Lies my security. The army will not
Abandon me. Whatever they may know,

The power is mine, and they must gulp it down-
And substitute I caution for my fealty,

They must be satisfied, at least appear so.

Illo. The army, Duke, is thine now-for this moment-
'Tis thine but think with terror on the slow,
The quiet power of time. From open violence
The attachment of thy soldiery secures thee
To-day-to-morrow; but grant'st thou them a respite,
Unheard, unseen, they'll undermine that love
On which thou now dost feel so firm a footing,
With wily theft will draw away from thee

One after th' other

Wal.

'Tis a cursed accident!

Illo. O, I will call it a most blessed one,
If it work on thee as it ought to do,

Hurry thee on to action-to decision.
The Swedish General-

Wal.

What his commission is

Illo.

He's arrived! Know'st thou

To thee alone

Yes, yes,

Will he intrust the purpose of his coming.
Wal. A cursed, cursed accident!
Sesina knows too much, and won't be silent.
Ter. He's a Bohemian fugitive and rebel,

His neck is forfeit. Can he save himself

At thy cost, think you he will scruple it?

And if they put him to the torture, will he,

Will he, that dastardling, have strength enough

Wal. (lost in thought.) Their confidence is lost-irreparably!

And I may act what way I will, I shall
Be and remain forever in their thought

A traitor to my country. How sincerely
Soever I return back to my duty,

It will no longer help me

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