There lives the man who can dishonor me!
This ignominy blood alone can cleanse!
Duke Friedland, thou or I--Into my own hands
Fortune delivers me--The dearest thing a man has is himself.



SCENE IX


_A Gothic and gloomy Apartment at the_ DUCHESS FRIEDLAND'S.
THEKLA _on a seat, pale, her eyes closed. The_ DUCHESS _and_
LADY NEUBRUNN _busied about her_. WALLENSTEIN _and the_
COUNTESS _in conversation_.

WALLENST.

How knew she it so soon?

COUNTESS.

She seems to have
Foreboded some misfortune. The report
Of an engagement, in the which had fallen
A colonel of the Imperial army, frighten'd her.
I saw it instantly. She flew to meet
The Swedish courier, and with sudden questioning
Soon wrested from him the disastrous secret.
Too late we missed her, hasten'd after her,
We found her lying in his arms, all pale