Page:Wallenstein, a drama in 2 parts - Schiller (tr. Coleridge) (1800).djvu/37

Rh Friend, friend! O! this is worse, far worse, than we had suffer'd 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 plac'd such power In such a hand? I tell you, he'll refuse, Flatly refuse, t'obey the imperial orders. Friend, he can do't, and what he can, he will. And then th'impunity of his defiance— O! what a proclamation of our weakness!