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How far thou hast already gone, speak !-tell us,
What art thou waiting for? Thou canst no longer
Keep thy command; and beyond hope of rescue
Thou'rt lost, if thou resign'st it.

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Lies my security. The army will not

Abandon me. Whatever they may know,

The power is mine, and they must gulp it down-
And substitute I caution for my fealty;

They must be satisfied, at least appear so.

Illo. The army, Duke, is thine now-for this moment-
'Tis thine but think with terror on the slow,
The quiet power of time. From open vi'lence
The attachment of thy soldiery secures thee
To-day-to-morrow; but grant'st thou them a respite,
Unheard, unseen, they'll undermine that love

On which thou now dost feel so firm a footing,
With wily theft will draw away from thee

One after th' other

Wal.

'Tis a cursed accident!

Illo. O I will call it a most blessed one,

If it work on thee as it ought to do,
Hurry thee on to action-to decision-
The Swedish General-

Wal.

He's arriv'd!-Know'st thou

To thee alone

What his commission is

Illo.

Will he intrust the purpose of his coming.
Wal. A cursed, cursed accident!-Yes, yes,
Sesina knows too much, and won't be silent.

Ter. He's a Bohemian fugitive and rebel,
His neck is forfeit. Can he save himself
At thy cost, think you he will scruple it?
And if they put him to the torture, will he,

Will he, that dastardling, have strength enough—

Wal. (lost in thought) Their confidence is lost—irre.

parably!

And I may act what way I will, I shall

Be and remain for ever in their thought
A traitor to my country. How sincerely
Soever I return back to my duty,

It will no longer help me

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That it will do! Not thy fidelity,

Thy weakness will be deem'd the sole occasion-
Wal. (pacing up and down with extreme agitation)
What! I must realize it now in earnest,

Because I toy'd too freely with the thought?

Accursed he who dallies with a devil!

And must I-I must realize it now

Now, while I have the power, it must take place?

Illo. Now-now-ere they can ward and parry it!

Wal. (looking at the paper of signatures) I have the General's words—a written promise!

Max. Piccolomini stands not here-how's that?

Ter. It was -he fancied

Illo.

Mere self-willedness.

There needed no such thing 'twixt him and you.

Wal. He is quite right-there needeth no such thing. The regiments, too, deny to march for Flanders

Have sent me in a paper of remonstrance,

And openly resist the imperial orders.

The first step to revolt 's already taken.

Illo. Believe me, thou wilt find it far more easy To lead them over to the enemy

Than to the Spaniard.

Wal.

I will hear, however,

What the Swede has to say to me.

Illo. (eagerly to Tertsky)

Go, call him!

He stands without the door in waiting.

Wal.

Stay!

Stay yet a little. It hath taken me

All by surprise,-it came to quick upon me;
'Tis wholly novel, that an accident,

With its dark lordship, and blind agency,
Should force me on with it.

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Is't so? I can no longer what I would?
No longer draw back at my liking? I
Must do the deed, because I thought of it,
And fed this heart here with a dream? Because
I did not scowl temptation from my presence,
Dallied with thoughts of possible fulfilment,
Commenced no movement, left all time uncertain,
And only kept the road, the access open?
By the great God of Heaven! It was not
My serious meaning, it was ne'er resolve.
I but amus'd myself with thinking of it.
The free-will tempted me, the power to do
Or not to do it.-Was it criminal

To make the fancy minister to hope,

To fill the air with pretty toys of air,

And clutch fantastic sceptres moving t'ward me?
Was not the will kept free? Beheld I not

The road of duty close beside me-but

One little step, and once more I was in it!
Where am I? Whither have I been transported?
No road, no track behind me, but a wall,
Impenetrable, insurmountable,

Rises obedient to the spells I mutter'd

And meant not-my own doings tower behind me. (Pauses and remains in deep thought.)

A punishable man I seem, the guilt,

Try what I will, I cannot roll off from me;
The equivocal demeanour of my life
Bears witness on my prosecutor's party;

And even my purest acts from purest motives

Suspicion poisons with malicious gloss.

Were I that thing, for which I pass, that traitor,

A goodly outside I had sure reserv'd,

Had drawn the cov'rings thick and double round me,
Been calm and chary of my utterance.
But being conscious of the innocence
Of my intent, my uncorrupted will,

I gave way to my humours, to my passion :
Bold were my words, because my deeds were not.
Now every planless measure, chance event,
The threat of rage, the vaunt of joy and triumph,
And all the May-games of a heart o'erflowing,
Will they connect, and weave them all together
Into one web of treason; all will be plan,
My eye ne'er absent from the far-off mark,
Step tracing step, each step a politic progress;
And out of all they'll fabricate a charge
So specious, that I must myself stand dumb.
I am caught in my own net, and only force,
Naught but a sudden rent can liberate me.
(Pauses again.)

How else! since that the heart's unbias'd instinet

Impell'd me to the daring deed, which now
Necessity, self-preservation, orders.
Stern is the on-look of necessity,

Not without shudder may a human hand
Grasp the mysterious urn of destiny.
My deed was mine, remaining in my bosom.
Once suffer'd to escape from it's safe corner
Within the heart, it's nursery and birth-place,
Sent forth into the foreign, it belongs

For ever to those sly malicious powers
Whom never art of man conciliated.

(Paces in agitation through the chamber, then
pauses, and, after the pause, breaks out again
into audible soliloquy.)

What is thy enterprise? thy aim? thy object?
Hast honestly confess'd it to thyself?

Power seated on a quiet throne thou'dst shake,
Power on an ancient consecrated throne,

Strong in possession, founded in old custom;
Power by a thousand tough and stringy roots

Fix'd to the people's pious nursery-faith.

This, this will be no strife of strength with strength.
That fear'd I not. I brave each combatant,

Whom I can look on, fixing eye to eye,

Who full himself of courage kindles courage
In me too. "Tis a foe invisible

The which I fear-a fearful enemy,

Which in the human heart opposes me,

By it's coward fear alone made fearful to me.
Not that, which full of life, instinct with pow'r,
Makes known its present being, that is not
The true, the perilously formidable.

O no! it is the common, the quite common,
The thing of an eternal yesterday,

Y

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