The Death of Wallenstein by Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller
page 21 of 268 (07%)
page 21 of 268 (07%)
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I will explain that to you, how it stands:
The Austrian has a country, ay, and loves it, And has good cause to love it--but this army That calls itself the imperial, this that houses Here in Bohemia, this has none--no country; This is an outcast of all foreign lands, Unclaimed by town or tribe, to whom belongs Nothing except the universal sun. And this Bohemian land for which we fight Loves not the master whom the chance of war, Not its own choice or will, hath given to it. Men murmur at the oppression of their conscience, And power hath only awed but not appeased them. A glowing and avenging memory lives Of cruel deeds committed on these plains; How can the son forget that here his father Was hunted by the bloodhound to the mass? A people thus oppressed must still be feared, Whether they suffer or avenge their wrongs. WRANGEL. But then the nobles and the officers? Such a desertion, such a felony, It is without example, my lord duke, In the world's history. WALLENSTEIN. They are all mine-- Mine unconditionally--mine on all terms. Not me, your own eyes you must trust. |
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