Welcome, Count Isolani!
Isolani. My noble brother,
Even now am I arrived; it had been else my duty — 5
Octavio. And Colonel Butler — trust me, I rejoice
Thus to renew acquaintance with a man
Whose worth and services I know and honour.
See, see, my friend!
There might we place at once before our eyes 10
The sum of war’s whole trade and mystery —
[To QUESTENBERG, presenting BUTLER and ISOLANI at the
same time to him.
These two the total sum — Strength and Dispatch.
Questenberg (to Octavio). And lo! betwixt them both experienced
Prudence!
Octavio (presenting Questenberg to Butler and Isolani). The
Chamberlain and War-commissioner Questenberg,
The bearer of the Emperor’s behests, 15
The long-tried friend and patron of all soldiers,
We honour in this noble visitor.
Illo. ‘Tis not the first time, noble Minister,
You have shewn our camp this honour.
Questenberg. Once before
I stood before these colours. 20
Illo. Perchance too you remember where that was.
It was at Znäim in Moravia, where
You did present yourself upon the part
Of the Emperor, to supplicate our Duke
That he would straight assume the chief command. 25
Questenberg. To supplicate? Nay, noble General!
So far extended neither my commission
(At least to my own knowledge) nor my zeal.
Illo. Well, well, then — to compel him, if you choose.
I can remember me right well, Count Tilly 30
Had suffered total rout upon the Lech.
Bavaria lay all open to the enemy,
Whom there was nothing to delay from pressing
Onwards into the very heart of Austria.
At that time you and Werdenberg appeared 35
Before our General, storming him with prayers,
And menacing the Emperor’s displeasure,
Unless he took compassion on this wretchedness.
Isolani. Yes, yes, ‘tis comprehensible enough,
Wherefore with your commission of to-day 40
You were not all too willing to remember
Your former one.
Questenberg. Why not, Count Isolan?
No contradiction sure exists between them.
It was the urgent business of that time 45
To snatch Bavaria from her enemy’s hand;
And my commission of to-day instructs me
To free her from her good friends and protectors.
Illo. A worthy office! After with our blood
We have wrested this Bohemia from the Saxon, 50
To be swept out of it is all our thanks,
The sole reward of all our hard-won victories.
Questenberg. Unless that wretched land be doomed to suffer
Only a change of evils, it must be
Freed from the scourge alike of friend and foe. 55
Illo. What? ‘Twas a favourable year; the Boors
Can answer fresh demands already.
Questenberg. Nay,
If you discourse of herds and meadow-grounds —
Isolani. The war maintains the war. Are the Boors ruined,
The Emperor gains so many more new soldiers. 60
Questenberg. And is the poorer by even so many subjects.
Isolani. Poh! We are all his subjects.
Questenberg. Yet with a difference, General! The one fill
With profitable industry the purse,
The others are well skilled to empty it. 65
The sword has made the Emperor poor; the plough
Must reinvigorate his resources.
Isolani. Sure!
Times are not yet so bad. Methinks I see
[Examining with his eye the dress and ornaments
of QUESTENBERG.
Good store of gold that still remains uncoined.
Questenberg. Thank Heaven! that means have been found out to
hide 70
Some little from the fingers of the Croats.
Illo. There! The Stawata and the Martinitz,
On whom the Emperor heaps his gifts and graces,
To the heart-burning of all good Bohemians —
Those minions of court favour, those court harpies, 75
Who fatten on the wrecks of citizens
Driven from their house and home — who reap no harvests
Save in the general calamity —
Who now, with kingly pomp, insult and mock
The desolation of their country — these, 80
Let these, and such as these, support the war,
The fatal war, which they alone enkindled!
Butler. And those state-parasites, who have their feet
So constantly beneath the Emperor’s table,
Who cannot let a benefice fall, but they 85
Snap at it with dog’s hunger — they, forsooth,
Would pare the soldier’s bread, and cross his reckoning!
Isolani. My life long will it anger me to think,
How when I went to court seven years ago,
To see about new horses for our regiment, 90
How from one antechamber to another
They dragged me on, and left me by the hour
To kick my heels among a crowd of simpering
Feast-fattened slaves, as if I had come thither
A mendicant suitor for the crumbs of favour 95
That fall beneath their tables. And, at last,
Whom should they send me but a Capuchin!
Straight I began to muster up my sins
For absolution — but no such luck for me!
This was the man, this Capuchin, with whom 100
I was to treat concerning the army horses:
And I was forced at last to quit the field,
The business unaccomplished. Afterwards
The Duke procured me in three days, what I
Could not obtain in thirty at Vienna. 105
Questenberg. Yes, yes!