WALLENSTEIN.
87
Are you content to take the consequences,
If thro' our fault he escape to the enemy.
If thro' our fault he escape to the enemy.
GORDON.
I?—Gracious God!
I?—Gracious God!
BUTLER.
Take it on yourself.
Come of it what it may, on you I lay it.
Take it on yourself.
Come of it what it may, on you I lay it.
GORDON.
O God in heaven!
O God in heaven!
BUTLER.
Can you advise aught else
Wherewith to execute the Emperor's purpose?
Say if you can. For I desire his fall,
Not his destruction.
Can you advise aught else
Wherewith to execute the Emperor's purpose?
Say if you can. For I desire his fall,
Not his destruction.
GORDON.
Merciful heaven! what must be
I see as clear as you. Yet still the heart
Within my bosom beats with other feelings!
Merciful heaven! what must be
I see as clear as you. Yet still the heart
Within my bosom beats with other feelings!
BUTLER.
Mine is of harder stuff! Necessity
In her rough school hath steel'd me. And this Illo,
And Tertsky likewise, they must not survive him.
Mine is of harder stuff! Necessity
In her rough school hath steel'd me. And this Illo,
And Tertsky likewise, they must not survive him.
GORDON.
I feel no pang for these. Their own bad heart
Impell'd them, not the influence of the stars.
'Twas they who strew'd the seeds of evil passions
In his calm breast, and with officious villainy
Water'd and nurs'd the pois'nous plants. May they
Receive their earnests to the uttermost mite!
I feel no pang for these. Their own bad heart
Impell'd them, not the influence of the stars.
'Twas they who strew'd the seeds of evil passions
In his calm breast, and with officious villainy
Water'd and nurs'd the pois'nous plants. May they
Receive their earnests to the uttermost mite!
BUT-
