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SCENE III

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To them enter the DUCHESS.

Duchess (to the Countess). Who was here, sister? I heard some one

talking,

And passionately too.

Countess. Nay! There was no one.

Duchess. I am grown so timorous, every trifling noise

Scatters my spirits, and announces to me

The footstep of some messenger of evil. 5

And can you tell me, sister, what the event is?

Will he agree to do the Emperor’s pleasure,

And send the horse-regiments to the Cardinal?

Tell me, has he dismissed Von Questenberg

With a favourable answer?

Countess. No, he has not. 10

Duchess. Alas! then all is lost! I see it coming,

The worst that can come! Yes, they will depose him;

The accurséd business of the Regenspurg diet

Will all be acted o’er again!

Countess. No! never!

Make your heart easy, sister, as to that. 15

[THEKLA throws herself upon her mother, and enfolds her

in her arms, weeping.

Duchess. Yes, my poor child!

Thou too hast lost a most affectionate godmother

In the Empress. O that stern unbending man!

In this unhappy marriage what have I

Not suffered, not endured. For ev’n as if 20

I had been linked on to some wheel of fire

That restless, ceaseless, whirls impetuous onward,

I have passed a life of frights and horrors with him,

And ever to the brink of some abyss

With dizzy headlong violence he whirls me. 25

Nay, do not weep, my child! Let not my sufferings

Presignify unhappiness to thee,

Nor blacken with their shade the fate that waits thee.

There lives no second Friedland: thou, my child,

Hast not to fear thy mother’s destiny. 30

Thekla. O let us supplicate him, dearest mother!

Quick! quick! here’s no abiding-place for us.

Here every coming hour broods into life

Some new affrightful monster.

Duchess. Thou wilt share

An easier, calmer lot, my child! We too, 35

I and thy father, witnessed happy days.

Still think I with delight of those first years,

When he was making progress with glad effort,

When his ambition was a genial fire,

Not that consuming flame which now it is. 40

The Emperor loved him, trusted him: and all

He undertook could not but be successful.

But since that ill-starred day at Regenspurg,

Which plunged him headlong from his dignity,

A gloomy uncompanionable spirit, 45

Unsteady and suspicious, has possessed him.

His quiet mind forsook him, and no longer

Did he yield up himself in joy and faith

To his old luck, and individual power;

But thenceforth turned his heart and best affections 50

All to those cloudy sciences, which never

Have yet made happy him who followed them.

Countess. You see it, sister! as your eyes permit you.

But surely this is not the conversation

To pass the time in which we are waiting for him. 55

You know he will be soon here. Would you have him

Find her in this condition?

Duchess. Come, my child!

Come, wipe away thy tears, and shew thy father

A cheerful countenance. See, the tie-knot here

Is off — this hair must not hang so dishevelled. 60

Come, dearest! dry thy tears up. They deform

Thy gentle eye — well now — what was I saying?

Yes, in good truth, this Piccolomini

Is a most noble and deserving gentleman.

Countess. That is he, sister!

Thekla (to the Countess). Aunt, you will excuse me? 65

[Is going.

Countess. But whither? See, your father comes.

Thekla. I cannot see him now.

Countess. Nay, but bethink you.

Thekla. Believe me, I cannot sustain his presence.

Countess. But he will miss you, will ask after you.

Duchess. What now? Why is she going? 70

Countess. She’s not well.

Duchess. What ails then my beloved child?

[Both follow the PRINCESS, and endeavour to detain her.

During this WALLENSTEIN appears, engaged in

conversation with ILLO.

[Between 14, 15] [THEKLA, in extreme agitation, throws herself, &c.

1800, 1828, 1829.

spirits). 1800, 1828, 1829.

[Before 72] Duchess (anxiously). 1800, 1828, 1829.

The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Illustrated Edition)

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