NEUBRUNN.

In the dark night-time?

THEKLA.

Darkness will conceal us.

NEUBRUNN.

This rough tempestuous night

THEKLA.

Had he a soft bed

Under the hoofs of his war-horses?

NEUBRUNN.

Heaven!

And then the many posts of the enemy!—

THEKLA.

They are human beings. Misery travels free

Through the whole earth.

NEUBRUNN.

The journey's weary length—

THEKLA.

The pilgrim, travelling to a distant shrine

Of hope and healing, doth not count the leagues.

THEKLA.

In a despairing woman, a poor fugitive,

Will no one seek the daughter of Duke Friedland. NEUBRUNN.

And where procure we horses for our flight?

THEKLA.

My equerry procures them. Go and fetch him.

NEUBRUNN.

Dares he, without the knowledge of his lord?

THEKLA.

He will. Go, only go. Delay no longer.

NEUBRUNN.

Dear lady! and your mother?

THEKLA.

Oh! my mother!

NEUBRUNN,

So much as she has suffered too already;

Your tender mother-Ah! how ill prepared

What can be thought, already has been thought.

NEUBRUNN.

And being there, what purpose you to do?

THEKLA.

There a Divinity will prompt my soul.
NEUBRUNN.

Your heart, dear lady, is disquieted!
And this is not the way that leads to quiet.
THEKLA.

To a deep quiet, such as he has found.
It draws me on, I know not what to name it,
Resistless does it draw me to his grave.

There will my heart be eased, my tears will flow.
O hasten, make no further questioning!

There is no rest for me till I have left

These walls-they fall in on me-A dim power Drives me from hence-Oh mercy! What a feeling! What pale and hollow forms are those! They fill, They crowd the place! I have no longer room here! Mercy! Still more! More still! The hideous swarm! They press on me; they chase me from these walls— Those hollow, bodiless forms of living men!

NEUBRUNN.

You frighten me so, lady, that no longer

I dare stay here myself. I go and call
Rosenberg instantly.

[Exit Lady Neubrunn.

SCENE VI.

THEKLA.

His spirit 'tis that calls me: 'tis the troop
Of his true followers, who offered up

Themselves to avenge his death: and they accuse me
Of an ignoble loitering-they would not

Forsake their leader even in his death-they died for him!

To die beneath the hoofs of trampling steeds

That is the lot of heroes upon earth!

(The curtain drops.)

[Exit Thekla.*

* The soliloquy of Thekla consists in the original of six and twenty lines, twenty of which are in rhymes of irregular recurrence. I thought it prudent to abridge it. Indeed the whole scene between Thekla and Lady Neubrunn might, perhaps, have been omitted without injury to the play.

ACT V.-SCENE I.

SCENE-A Saloon, terminated by a gallery which extends far into the back-ground.

WALLENSTEIN. (sitting at a table.)
THE SWEDISH CAPTAIN. (standing before him.)
WALLENSTEIN.

Commend me to your lord. I sympathize
In his good fortune; and if you have seen me
Deficient in the expressions of that joy,
Which such a victory might well demand,
Attribute it to no lack of good will,

For henceforth are our fortunes one. Farewell,

And for your trouble take my thanks. To-morrow
The citadel shall be surrendered to you

[The Swedish Captain retires, Wallenstein sits lost in thought, his eyes fixed vacantly, and his head sustained by his hand. The COUNTESS TERTSKY enters, stands before him awhile, unobserved by him; at length he starts, sees her, and recollects himself.