The Death of Wallenstein. Friedrich von Schiller

two paths.

      SCENE V

      WALLENSTEIN and WRANGEL.

WALLENSTEIN (after having fixed a searching look on him)

        Your name is Wrangel?

WRANGEL

                    Gustave Wrangel, General

        Of the Sudermanian Blues.

WALLENSTEIN

                      It was a Wrangel

        Who injured me materially at Stralsund,

        And by his brave resistance was the cause

        Of the opposition which that seaport made.

WRANGEL

        It was the doing of the element

        With which you fought, my lord! and not my merit,

        The Baltic Neptune did assert his freedom:

        The sea and land, it seemed were not to serve

        One and the same.

WALLENSTEIN

        You plucked the admiral's hat from off my head.

WRANGEL

        I come to place a diadem thereon.

WALLENSTEIN (makes the motion for him to take a seat, and seats himself)

                 And where are your credentials

        Come you provided with full powers, sir general?

WRANGEL

        There are so many scruples yet to solve —

WALLENSTEIN (having read the credentials)

        An able letter! Ay – he is a prudent,

        Intelligent master whom you serve, sir general!

        The chancellor writes me that he but fulfils

        His late departed sovereign's own idea

        In helping me to the Bohemian crown.

WRANGEL

        He says the truth. Our great king, now in heaven,

        Did ever deem most highly of your grace's

        Pre-eminent sense and military genius;

        And always the commanding intellect,

        He said, should have command, and be the king.

WALLENSTEIN

        Yes, he might say it safely. General Wrangel,

      [Taking his hand affectionately.

        Come, fair and open. Trust me, I was always

        A Swede at heart. Eh! that did you experience

        Both in Silesia and at Nuremberg;

        I had you often in my power, and let you

        Always slip out by some back door or other.

        'Tis this for which the court can ne'er forgive me,

        Which drives me to this present step: and since

        Our interests so run in one direction,

        E'en let us have a thorough confidence

        Each in the other.

WRANGEL

                  Confidence will come

        Has each but only first security.

WALLENSTEIN

        The chancellor still, I see, does not quite trust me;

        And, I confess – the game does not lie wholly

        To my advantage. Without doubt he thinks,

        If I can play false with the emperor,

        Who 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.

WALLENSTEIN

        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 impelled

        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 —

WALLENSTEIN

        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 called 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 —

WALLENSTEIN

        What now? Out with it, friend?

WRANGEL

                         To break their oaths.

WALLENSTEIN

        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