O'erstepped the powers entrusted to you, charged
With traitorous contempt of the Emperor

And his supreme behests. The proud Bavarian,
He and the Spaniards stand up your accusers-
That there's a storm collecting over you

Of far more fearful menace than that former one
Which whirled you headlong down at Regensburg.
And people talk, said he, ofAh !-

Talk they?

WALLENSTEIN.

[Strides across the chamber in vehement agitation.

O! they force, they thrust me

With violence, against my own will, onward!

DUCHESS (presses near to him, in entreaty).

O! if there yet be time, my husband! if
By giving way and by submission, this
Can be averted-my dear lord, give way!
Win down your proud heart to it! Tell that heart,
It is your sovereign lord, your Emperor
Before whom you retreat. O let no longer
Low tricking malice blacken your good meaning
With abhorred venomous glosses. Stand you up
Shielded and helm'd and weapon'd with the truth
And drive before you into uttermost shame
These slanderous liars! Few firm friends have we-
You know it!-The swift growth of our good fortune
It hath but set us up, a mark for hatred.

What are we, if the sovereign's grace and favour
Stand not before us!

SCENE VIII.

Enter the Countess TERTSKY, leading in her hand the Princess THEKLA, richly adorned with brilliants.

COUNTESS, THEKLA, WALLENSTEIN, DUCHESS.

COUNTESS.

How, sister? What already upon business,

[observing the countenance of the Duchess.

And business of no pleasing kind I see,

Ere he has gladdened at his child. The first Moment belongs to joy. Here, Friedland! father! This is thy daughter.

(Thekla approaches with a shy and timid air, and bends herself as about to kiss his hand. He receives her in his arms, and remains standing for some time lost in the feeling of her presence).

WALLENSTEIN.

Yes! pure and lovely hath hope risen on me :
I take her as the pledge of greater fortune.

DUCHESS.

'Twas but a little child when you departed

To raise up that great ariny for the Emperor:

And after, at the close of the campaign,

When you returned home out of Pomerania,
Your daughter was already in the convent,
Wherein she has remain'd till now.

WALLENSTEIN.

The while

We in the field here gave our cares and toils
To make her great, and fight her a free way
To the loftiest earthly good; lo! mother Nature
Within the peaceful silent convent walls

Has done her part, and out of her free grace
Hath she bestowed on the beloved child

The godlike; and now leads her thus adorned
To meet her splendid fortune, and my hope.
DUCHESS (to Thekla).

Thou wouldst not have recognized thy father, child? She counted scarce eight

Wouldst thou, my

years,

When last she saw your face.

THEKLA.

O yes, yes, mother!

At the first glance !-My father is not altered.

The form, that stands before me, falsifies

No feature of the image that hath lived
So long within me!

WALLENSTEIN.

The voice of my child!

[then after a pause.

I was indignant at my destiny

That it denied me a man-child to be

Heir of my name and of my prosperous fortune,

And re-illume my soon extinguished being

In a proud line of princes.

I wronged my destiny.
So lovely in its maiden bloom will I

Here upon this head

Let fall the garland of a life of war,

Nor deem it lost, if only I can wreath it
Transmitted to a regal ornament,

Around these beauteous brows.

[He clasps her in his arms as Piccolomini enters.

SCENE IX.

Enter MAX. PICCOLOMINI, and some time after Count TERTSKY, the others remaining as before.

COUNTESS.

There comes the Paladin who protected us.

WALLENSTEIN.

Max.! Welcome, ever welcome! Always wert thou

The morning star of my best joys!