KOLATTO. (at the fame time.)

We will live with thee, we will die with thee. WALLENSTEIN. (with fiateliness, and pointing to Illo.)

There! the Field-Marshal knows our will.

[Exit.

(While all are going off the ftage, the curtain drops.)

END OF ACT I.

F

ACT II.

Attend! We frame a formal declaration,

Wherein we to the Duke confign ourselves
Collectively, to be and to remain

His both with life and limb, and not to spare
The laft drop of our blood for him, provided
So doing we infringe no oath or duty,
We may be under to the Emp'ror.-Mark !
This reservation we exprefsly make

In a particular claufe, and fave the confcience.
Now hear! This formula fo fram'd and worded
Will be presented to them for perusal
Before the banquet. No one will find in it
Cause of offence or fcruple. Hear now further!
After the feaft, when now the vap'ring wine

Opens

Opens the heart, and shuts the eyes, we let
A counterfeited paper, in the which
This one particular claufe has been left out,
Go round for fignatures.

TERTSKY.

How? think you then

That they'll believe themselves bound by an oath, Which we had trick'd them into by a juggle?

ILLO.

We shall have caught and cag'd them! Let them then

Beat their wings bare against the wires, and rave
Loud as they may against our treachery,
At court their fignatures will be believ'd
Far more than their most holy affirmations.
Traitors they are, and muft be; therefore wifely
Will make a virtue of neceffity.

TERTSKY.

Well, well, it fhall content me; let but fomething Be done, let only fome decifive blow

Set us in motion.

ILLO.

Befides, 'tis of fubordinate importance
How, or how far, we may thereby propel
The generals. 'Tis enough that we perfuade
The Duke, that they are his-Let him but act
In his determin'd mood, as if he had them,
And he will have them. Where he plunges in,
He makes a whirlpool, and all ftream down to it.

TERTSKY.

His policy is fuch a labyrinth,

That many a time when I have thought myself
Close at his fide, he's gone at once, and left me
Ignorant of the ground where I was standing.
He lends the enemy his ear, permits me

To write to them, to Arnheim; tó Sefina
Himself comes forward blank and undisguis'd;
Talks with us by the hour about his plans,
And when I think I have him-off at once-
He has flipp'd from me, and appears as if
He had no fcheme, but to retain his place.

ILLO.

He give up his old plans! I'll tell you, friend!
His foul is occupied with nothing else,

Even in his fleep-They are his thoughts, his dreams

That day by day he queftions for this purpose
The motions of the planets-

TERTSKY.

Ay ! you know

This night, that is now coming, he with SENI
Shuts himfelf up in the aftrological tower
To make joint obfervations-for I hear,
It is to be a night of weight and crifis,
And fomething great, and of long expectation,
Is to make its proceffion in the heaven.

ILLO.

Come! be we bold and make dispatch. The work In this next day or two must thrive and grow

More

More than it has for years. And let but only
Things first turn up aufpicious here below-
Mark what I fay-the right ftars too will fhew
themselves.

Come, to the generals. All is in the glow,
And must be beaten while 'tis malleable.

TERTSKY.

Do you go thither, Illo. I must tay

And wait here for the Countess Tertfky. Know,
That we too are not idle. Break one string,
A fecond is in readiness.

ILLO,

Yes! Yes!

I faw your Lady fmile with fuch fly meaning,

What's in the wind?

TERTSKY.

A fecret. Huh! fhe comes.

[Exit Illo.

SCENE II.

(The Countess fteps out from a closet.)

COUNT and COUNTESS TERTSKY.

TERTSKY.

Well-is fhe coming-I can keep him back