Page:Wallenstein, a drama in 2 parts - Schiller (tr. Coleridge) (1800).djvu/157

 We too have been in action—he but grasps His evil fate, most evil, most mysterious!

O nothing rash, my fire! By all that's good Let me invoke thee-—no precipitation!

With light tread stole he on his evil way, And light of tread hath Vengeance stole on after him. Unseen she stands already, dark behind him— But one step more—he shudders in her grasp! —Thou hast seen Questenberg with me. As yet Thou know'st but his ostensible commission— He brought with him a private one, my son! And that was for me only.

May I know it?

Max! (A pause.) In this disclosure place I in thy hands The Empire's welfare and thy father's life. Dear to thy inmost heart is Wallenstein: A powerful tie of love, of veneration, Hath knit thee to him from thy earliest youth. Thou nourishest the wish—O let me still Anticipate thy loitering confidence! The hope thou nourishest to knit thyself Yet closer to him Rh