Read Ebook: Wallenstein's Camp: A Play by Schiller Friedrich

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Ebook has 189 lines and 9424 words, and 4 pages

SUTLER-WOMAN. In an hour I hope to behold him swinging!

SERGEANT. Bad work bad wages will needs be bringing.

FIRST ARQUEBUSIER . This comes of their desperation. We First ruin them out and out, d'ye see; Which tempts them to steal, as it seems to me.

TRUMPETER. How now! the rascal's cause would you plead? The cur! the devil is in you indeed!

FIRST ARQUEBUSIER. The boor is a man--as a body may say.

FIRST YAGER . Let 'em go! they're of Tiefenbach's corps, the railers, A glorious train of glovers and tailors! At Brieg, in garrison, long they lay; What should they know about camps, I pray?

The above.--Cuirassiers.

FIRST CUIRASSIER. Peace! what's amiss with the boor, may I crave?

FIRST SHARPSHOOTER. He has cheated at play, the cozening knave!

FIRST CUIRASSIER. But say, has he cheated you, man, of aught?

FIRST SHARPHOOTER. Just cleaned me out--and not left me a groat.

FIRST CUIRASSIER. And can you, who've the rank of a Friedland man, So shamefully cast yourself away, As to try your luck with the boor at play? Let him run off, so that run he can.

FIRST ARQUEBUSIER. He makes short work--is of resolute mood-- And that with such fellows as these is good. Who is he? not of Bohemia, that's clear.

SUTLER-WOMAN. He's a Walloon--and respect, I trow, Is due to the Pappenheim cuirassier!

FIRST DRAGOON . Young Piccolomini leads them now, Whom they chose as colonel, of their own free might, When Pappenheim fell in Luetzen's fight.

FIRST ARQUEBUSIER. Durst they, indeed, presume so far?

FIRST DRAGOON. This regiment is something above the rest. It has ever been foremost through the war, And may manage its laws, as it pleases best; Besides, 'tis by Friedland himself caressed.

FIRST CUIRASSIER Is't so in truth, man? Who averred it?

SECOND CUIRASSIER. From the lips of the colonel himself I heard it.

FIRST CUIRASSIER. The devil! we're not their dogs, I weep!

FIRST YAGER. How now, what's wrong? You're swollen with spleen!

SECOND YAGER. Is it anything, comrades, may us concern?

FIRST CUIRASSIER. 'Tis what none need be wondrous glad to learn.

The Soldiers press round him.

To the Netherlands they would lend us now-- Cuirassiers, Yagers, and Shooters away, Eight thousand in all must march, they say.

SUTLER-WOMAN. What! What! again the old wandering way-- I got back from Flanders but yesterday!

SECOND CUIRASSIER . You of Butler's corps must tramp with the rest.

FIRST CUIRASSIER. And we, the Walloons, must doubtless be gone.

SUTLER-WOMAN. Why, of all our squadrons these are the best.

FIRST CUIRASSIER. To march where that Milanese fellow leads on.

FIRST YAGER. The infant? that's queer enough in its way.

SECOND YAGER. The priest--then, egad! there's the devil to pay.

FIRST CUIRASSIER. Shall we then leave the Friedlander's train, Who so nobly his soldiers doth entertain-- And drag to the field with this fellow from Spain! A niggard whom we in our souls disdain! That'll never go down--I'm off, I swear.

TRUMPETER. Why, what the devil should we do there? We sold our blood to the emperor--ne'er For this Spanish red hat a drop we'll spare!

SECOND YAGER. On the Friedlander's word and credit alone We ranged ourselves in the trooper line, And, but for our love to Wallenstein, Ferdinand ne'er had our service known.

FIRST DRAGOON. Was it not Friedland that formed our force? His fortune shall still be the star of our course.

SERGEANT. Silence, good comrades, to me give ear-- Talking does little to help us here. Much farther in this I can see than you all, And a trap has been laid in which we're to fall;

FIRST YAGER. List to the order-book! hush--be still!

SERGEANT. But first, Cousin Gustel, I pray thee fill A glass of Melneck, as my stomach's but weak When I've tossed it off, my mind I'll speak.

SUTLER-WOMAN. Take it, good sergeant. I quake for fear-- Think you that mischief is hidden here?

DRAGOON. From distant Erin came I here.

SERGEANT . You're a Walloon, my friend, that's clear, And you, an Italian, as all may hear.

FIRST CUIRASSIER. Who I may be, faith! I never could say; In my infant years they stole me away.

SERGEANT. And you, from what far land may you be?

FIRST ARQUEBUSIER. I come from Buchau--on the Feder Sea.

SERGEANT. Neighbor, and you?

SECOND ARQUEBUSIER. I am a Swiss.

SERGEANT . And Yager, let's hear where your country is?

SECOND YAGER. Up above Wismar my fathers dwell.

SERGEANT . And he's from Eger--and I as well: And now, my comrades, I ask you whether, Would any one think, when looking at us, That we, from the North and South, had thus Been hitherward drifted and blown together? Do we not seem as hewn from one mass? Stand we not close against the foe As though we were glued or moulded so? Like mill-work don't we move, d'ye think! 'Mong ourselves in the nick, at a word or wink. Who has thus cast us here all as one, Now to be severed again by none? Who? why, no other than Wallenstein!

FIRST YAGER. In my life it ne'er was a thought of mine Whether we suited each other or not, I let myself go with the rest of the lot.

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