Читать книгу The Piccolomini - Фридрих Шиллер, Friedrich von Schiller - Страница 5

   What have I not been forced to hear, Octavio!

   What sentiments! what fierce, uncurbed defiance!

   And were this spirit universal —

                     Hm!

   You're now acquainted with three-fourths of the army.

   Where must we seek, then, for a second host

   To have the custody of this? That Illo

   Thinks worse, I fear me, than he speaks. And then

   This Butler, too – he cannot even conceal

   The passionate workings of his ill intentions.

   Quickness of temper – irritated pride;

   'Twas nothing more. I cannot give up Butler.

   I know a spell that will soon dispossess

   The evil spirit in him.

               Friend, friend!

   O! this is worse, far worse, than we had suffered

   Ourselves to dream of at Vienna. There

   We saw it only with a courtier's eyes,

   Eyes dazzled by the splendor of the throne.

   We had not seen 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 prostrate.

                 Now you see yourself

   Of what a perilous kind the office is,

   Which you deliver to me from the court.

   The least suspicion of the general

   Costs me my freedom and my life, and would

   But hasten his most desperate enterprise.

   Where was our reason sleeping when we trusted

   This madman with the sword, and placed such power

   In such a hand? I tell you, he'll refuse,

   Flatly refuse to obey the imperial orders.

   Friend, he can do it, and what he can, he will.

   And then the impunity of his defiance —

   Oh! what a proclamation of our weakness!

   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 dominions —

   This is no doubtful token of the nearness

   Of some eruption.

            How shall we hold footing

   Beneath this tempest, which collects itself

   And threats us from all quarters? The enemy

   Of the empire on our borders, now already

   The master of the Danube, and still farther,

   And farther still, extending every hour!

   In our interior the alarum-bells

   Of insurrection – peasantry in arms —

   All orders discontented – and the army,

   Just in the moment of our expectation

   Of aidance from it – lo! this very army

   Seduced, run wild, lost to all discipline,

   Loosened, and rent asunder from the state

   And from their sovereign, the blind instrument

   Of the most daring of mankind, a weapon

   Of fearful power, which at his will he wields.

   Nay, nay, friend! let us not despair too soon

   Men's words are even bolder than their deeds;

   And many a resolute, who now appears

   Made up to all extremes, will, on a sudden,

   Find in his breast a heart he wot not of,

   Let but a single honest man speak out

   The true name of his crime! Remember, too,

   We stand not yet so wholly unprotected.

   Counts Altringer and Gallas have maintained

   Their little army faithful to its duty,

   And daily it becomes more numerous.

   Nor can he take us by surprise; you know

   I hold him all encompassed by my listeners.

   What'er he does, is mine, even while 'tis doing —

   No step so small, but instantly I hear it;

   Yea, his own mouth discloses it.

                    'Tis quite

   Incomprehensible, that he detects not

   The foe so near!

            Beware, you do not think,

   That I, by lying arts, and complaisant

   Hypocrisy, have sulked into his graces,

   Or with the substance of smooth professions

   Nourish his all-confiding friendship! No —

   Compelled alike by prudence, and that duty

   Which we all owe our country and our sovereign,

   To hide my genuine feelings from him, yet

   Ne'er have I duped him with base counterfeits!

   It is the visible ordinance of heaven.

   I know not what it is that so attracts

   And links him both to me and to my son.

   Comrades and friends we always were – long habit,

   Adventurous deeds performed in company,

   And all those many and various incidents

   Which stores a soldier'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 rose on me, and his confidence

   Shot out into sudden growth. It was the morning

   Before the memorable fight at Luetzen.

   Urged by an ugly dream, I sought him out,

   To press him to accept another charger.

   At a distance from the tents, beneath a tree,

   I found him in a sleep. When I had waked him

   And had related all my bodings to him,

   Long time he stared upon me, like a man

   Astounded: thereon fell upon my neck,

   And manifested to me an emotion

   That far outstripped the worth of that small service.

   Since then his confidence has followed me

   With the same pace that mine has fled from him.

   You lead your son into the secret?

                     No!

   What! and not warn him either, what bad hands

   His lot has placed him in?

                 I must perforce

   Leave him in wardship to his innocence.

   His young and open soul – dissimulation

   Is foreign to its habits! Ignorance

   Alone can keep alive the cheerful air,

   The unembarrassed sense and light free spirit,

   That makes the duke secure.

   My honored friend! most highly do I deem

   Of Colonel Piccolomini – yet – if —

   Reflect a little —

             I must venture it.

   Hush! There he comes!