The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 03. Коллектив авторов

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СКАЧАТЬ style="font-size:15px;">      Lurking about with this Octavio.

      WALLENST.

      It happen'd with my knowledge and permission.

      ILLO.

      I know that secret messengers came to him

      From Gallas—

      WALLENSTEIN.

      That's not true.

      ILLO.

                         O thou art blind,

      With thy deep-seeing eyes!

      WALLENSTEIN.

                         Thou wilt not shake

      My faith for me—my faith, which founds itself

      On the profoundest science. If 'tis false,

      Then the whole science of the stars is false;

      For know, I have a pledge from Fate itself,

      That he is the most faithful of my friends.

      ILLO.

      Hast thou a pledge, that this pledge is not false?

      WALLENST.

      There exist moments in the life of man,

      When he is nearer the great Soul of the world

      Than is man's custom, and possesses freely

      The power of questioning his destiny:

      And such a moment 'twas, when in the night

      Before the action in the plains of Lützen,

      Leaning against a tree, thoughts crowding thoughts,

      I look'd out far upon the ominous plain.

      My whole life, past and future, in this moment

      Before my mind's eye glided in procession,

      And to the destiny of the next morning

      The spirit, fill'd with anxious presentiment,

      Did knit the most removed futurity.

      Then said I also to myself: "So many

      Dost thou command. They follow all thy stars

      And as on some great number set their All

      Upon thy single head, and only man

      The vessel of thy fortune. Yet a day

      Will come when Destiny shall once more scatter

      All these in many a several direction:

      Few be they who will stand out faithful to thee."

      I yearn'd to know which one was faithfullest

      Of all, this camp included. Great Destiny,

      Give me a sign! And he shall be the man,

      Who, on the approaching morning, comes the first

      To meet me with a token of his love.

      And thinking this, I fell into a slumber.

      Then midmost in the battle was I led

      In spirit. Great the pressure and the tumult!

      Then was my horse kil'd under me; I sank;

      And over me away, all unconcernedly,

      Drove horse and rider—and thus trod to pieces

      I lay, and panted like a dying man;

      Then seized me suddenly a savior arm;

      It was Octavio's—I awoke at once;

      'Twas broad day, and Octavio stood before me.

      "My brother," said he, "do not ride today

      The dapple, as you're wont; but mount the horse

      Which I have chosen for thee. Do it, brother!

      In love to me. A strong dream warn'd me so."

      It was the swiftness of his horse that snatch'd me

      From the hot pursuit of Bannier's dragoons.

      My cousin rode the dapple on that day,

      And never more saw I of horse or rider.

      ILLO.

      That was a chance.

      WALLENSTEIN (significantly).

                    There's no such thing as chance.

      [And what to us seems merest accident

      Springs from the deepest source of destiny.]

      In brief, 'tis sign'd and seal'd that this Octavio

      Is my good angel—and now no word more.

      [He is retiring.]

      TERZKY.

      This is my comfort—Max remains our hostage.

      ILLO.

      And he shall never stir from here alive.

      WALLENSTEIN (stops and turns himself round).

      Are ye not like the women who forever

      Only recur to their first word, although

      One had been talking reason by the hour!

      Know that the human being's thoughts and needs

      Are not like ocean billows, blindly moved.

      The inner world, his microcosmus, is

      The deep shaft out of which they spring eternally.

      They grow by certain laws, like the tree's fruit—

      No juggling chance can metamorphose them.

      Have I the human kernel first examined?

      Then I know, too, the future will and action.

      [Exeunt.]

      SCENE IV

      Chamber СКАЧАТЬ