Speak not of vengeance! Speak not of maltreatment! The Emperor is appeased; the heavy fault Hath heavily been expiated--nothing Descended from the father to the daughter, Except his glory and his services. The Empress honors your adversity, Takes part in your afflictions, opens to you Her motherly arms! Therefore, no farther fears; Yield yourself up in hope and confidence To the Imperial Grace!
COUNTESS. _(with her eye raised to heaven_).
To the grace and mercy of a greater Master Do I yield up myself. Where shall the body Of the Duke have its place of final rest? In the Chartreuse, which he himself did found At Gitschin, rests the Countess Wallenstein; And by her side, to whom he was indebted For his first fortunes, gratefully he wish'd He might sometime repose in death! O let him Be buried there. And likewise, for my husband's Remains, I ask the like grace. The Emperor Is now the proprietor of all our castles. This sure may well be granted us--one sepulchre Beside the sepulchres of our forefathers!
COUNTESS _(re-assembles all her powers, and speaks with energy and dignity)_.
You think More worthily of me than to believe I would survive the downfall of my house. We did not hold ourselves too mean to grasp After a monarch's crown--the crown did fate Deny, but not the feeling and the spirit That to the crown belong! We deem a Courageous death more worthy of our free station Than a dishonor'd life.--I have taken poison.
Nay, it is too late, In a few moments is my fate accomplish'd.
[_An_ OFFICER _enters, and brings a letter with the great seal_. GORDON _steps forward and meets him._]
[_He reads the address, and delivers the letter to_ OCTAVIO _with a look of reproach, and with an emphasis on the word._]
[OCTAVIO, _with his whole frame expressive of sudden anguish, raises his eyes to heaven_.]
[Footnote 22: Thomas: The Life and Works of Schiller, p. 330.]
[Footnote 23: Permission The Macmillan Co., New York, and G. Bell & Sons, London.]
[Footnote 24: A great stone near Lützen, since called the Swede's Stone, the body of their great king having been found at the foot of it, after the battle in which he lost his life.]
[Footnote 25: Could I have hazarded such a Germanism as the use of the word after-world, for posterity--"Es spreche Welt und _Nachwelt_ meinen Namen" might have been rendered with more literal fidelity:--Let world and after-world speak out my name, etc.]