Page:Wallenstein, a drama in 2 parts - Schiller (tr. Coleridge) (1800).djvu/313

GORDON.
I have enjoy'd from him
No grace or favour. I could almost doubt,
If ever in his greatness he once thought on
An old friend of his youth. For still my office
Kept me at distance from him; and when first
He to this citadel appointed me,
He was sincere and serious in his duty.
I do not then abuse his confidence,
If I preserve my fealty in that
Which to my fealty was first deliver'd.

BUTLER.
Say, then, will you fulfil th' attainder on him?

GORDON. (pauses reflecting—then as in deep dejection.)
If it be so—if all be as you say—
If he've betray'd the Emperor, his master,
Have sold the troops, have purpos'd to deliver
The strong holds of the country to the enemy—
Yea, truly!—there is no redemption for him!—
Yet it is hard, that me the lot should destine
To be the instrument of his perdition;
For we were pages at the court of Bergau
At the same period; but I was the senior.

BUTLER.
I have heard so———

GORDON.
'Tis full thirty years since then.
A youth who scarce had seen his twentieth year
Was Wallenstein, when he and I were friends:

Yet