Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

QUESTENBERG (walking up and down in evident

difquiet).

Friend, friend!

O! this is worse, far worse, than we had fuffer'd

Ourselves to dream of at Vienna. There
We faw it only with the courtier's eyes,

Eyes dazzled by the fplendor of the throne.
We had not feen the War-chief, the Commander,
The man all-powerful in his camp. Here, here,
'Tis quite another thing.

Here is no Emperor more-the Duke is Emperor.
Alas, my
friend alas, my noble friend!

This walk which you have ta'en me through the

camp

Strikes my hopes proftrate.

OCTAVIO.

Now you see yourself

Of what a perilous kind the office is,

Which

you deliver to me from the Court. The leaft fufpicion of the General

Cofts me my freedom and my life, and would
But haften his moft defperate enterprise.

QUESTENBERG.

Where was our reafon fleeping when we trusted
This madman with the fword, and plac'd fuch

power

In fuch a hand? I tell you, he'll refuse,
Flatly refufe, t'obey the Imperial orders.
Friend, he can do't, and what he can, he will. ́
And then th' impunity of his defiance--
O! what a proclamation of our weakness !

OCTAVIO.

OCTAVIO.

D'ye think too, he has brought his wife and daughter

Without a purpose hither? Here in camp!
And at the very point of time, in which
We're arming for the war? That he has taken
These, the last pledges of his loyalty,
Away from out the Emperor's domains-
This is no doubtful token of the nearness
Of fome eruption!

QUESTENBERG.

How shall we hold footing

Beneath this tempeft, which collects itself
And threats us from all quarters? Th' enemy
Of th' empire on our borders, now already
The master of the Danube, and still farther,
And farther ftill, extending every hour!
In our interior the alarum-bells
Of infurrection-peafantry in arms-
All orders difcontented-and the army,
Juft in the moment of our expectation
Of aidance from it-lo! this very aríny
Seduc'd, run wild, loft to all discipline,
Loofen'd, and rent afunder from the ftate
And from their fov'reign, the blind instrument
Of the most daring of mankind, a weapon
Of fearful power, which at his will he wields!

OCTAVIO.

Nay, nay, friend! let us not despair too soon.
Men's words are ever bolder than their deeds:
And many a refolute, who now appears

Made

Made up to all extremes, will, on a fudden,
Find in his breast a heart he wot not of,
Let but a fingle honest man speak out
The true name of his crime! Remember too,
We stand not yet fo wholly unprotected.
Counts Altringer and Galas have maintain'd
Their little army faithful to it's duty,
And daily it becomes more numerous.
Nor can he take us by furprize: you know,
I hold him all encompafs'd by my lift'ners.
Whate'er he does, is mine, even while 'tis doing-
No step so small, but inftantly I hear it;
Yea, his own mouth discloses it.

QUESTENBERG.

'Tis quite

Incomprehenfible, that he detects not

The foe fo near !

OCTAVIO.

Beware, you do not think,

That I by lying arts, and complaifant
Hypocrify, have skulk'd into his graces;
Or with the fuftenance of fmooth profeffions
Nourish his all-confiding friendship! No-
Compell'd alike by prudence, and that duty
Which we all owe our country, and our fovereign,
To hide my genuine feelings from him, yet
Ne'er have I dup'd him with base counterfeits !

QUESTENBERG.

It is the vifible ordinance of heaven.

C

OCTAVIO.

OCTAVIO.

I know not what it is that fo attracts

And links him both to me and to my fon.
Comrades and friends we always were-long habit,
Adventurous deeds perform'd in company,
And all thofe many and various incidents.
Which store a foldier's memory with affections,
Had bound us long and early to each other
Yet I can name the day, when all at once
His heart rofe on me, and his confidence
Shot out in fudden growth. It was the morning
Before the memorable fight at Lützner.
Urg'd by an ugly dream, I fought him out,
To prefs him to accept another charger.
At distance from the tents, beneath a tree,

I found him in a fleep. When I had wak'd him,
And had related all my bodings to him,
Long time he star'd upon me, like a man
Aftounded; thereon fell upon my neck,
And manifefted to me an emotion

That far outstripp'd the worth of that small service.
Since then his confidence has follow'd me

With the fame pace that mine has fled from him.

QUESTENBERG.

You lead your fon into the fecret ?

OCTAVIO.

No!

QUESTENBERG.

What? and not warn him either what bad hands

His lot has plac'd him in?

5

OCTAVIO

OCTAVIO.

I must perforce

Leave him in wardship to his innocence.
His young and open foul-diffimulation
Is foreign to it's habits! Ignorance
Alone can keep alive the cheerful air,
The unembarrass'd sense and light free spirit,
That make the Duke fecure.

QUESTENBERG. (anxiously)

My honour'd friend! most highly do I deem
Of Colonel Piccolomini-yet-if-

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Ha! there he is himfelf. Welcome, my father! (He embraces his father. As he turns round, he obferves Queftenberg, and draws back with a cold and referved air.)

You are engag'd, I fee. I'll not disturb you.

[blocks in formation]
« ForrigeFortsæt »