Page:Wallenstein, a drama in 2 parts - Schiller (tr. Coleridge) (1800).djvu/96

74 But, gentle friend! I must entreat it of your condescension, You would be pleas'd to sink your eye, and favour With one short glance or two this poor stale world, Where even now much, and of much moment, Is on the eve of its completion.

Something, I can't but know, is going forward round me. I see it gath'ring, crowding, driving on, In wild uncustomary movements. Well, In due time, doubtless, it will reach even me. Where think you I have been, dear lady? Nay, No raillery. The turmoil of the camp, The spring-tide of acquaintance rolling in, The pointless jest, the empty conversation, Oppressed and stifled me. I gasp'd for air— I could not breathe—I was constrain'd to fly, To seek a silence out for my full heart; And a pure spot wherein to feel my happiness. No smiling, Countess! In the church was I. There is a cloister here to the heaven's gate, Thither I went, there found myself alone. Over the altar hung an holy mother; A wretched painting 'twas, yet 'twas the friend That