The Piccolomini: A Play

SCENE I.

      A Small Chamber.

      ILLO and TERZKY.

   TERZKY.
   Now for this evening's business! How intend you
   To manage with the generals at the banquet?

   ILLO.
   Attend! We frame a formal declaration,
   Wherein we to the duke consign ourselves
   Collectively, to be and to remain
   His, both with life and limb, and not to spare
   The last drop of our blood for him, provided,
   So doing we infringe no oath or duty
   We may be under to the emperor. Mark!
   This reservation we expressly make
   In a particular clause, and save the conscience.
   Now hear! this formula so framed and worded
   Will be presented to them for perusal
   Before the banquet. No one will find in it
   Cause of offence or scruple. Hear now further!
   After the feast, when now the vapering wine
   Opens the heart, and shuts the eyes, we let
   A counterfeited paper, in the which
   This one particular clause has been left out,
   Go round for signatures.

   TERZKY.
                How! think you then
   That they'll believe themselves bound by an oath,
   Which we have tricked them into by a juggle?

   ILLO.
   We shall have caught and caged them! Let them then
   Beat their wings bare against the wires, and rave
   Loud as they may against our treachery;
   At court their signatures will be believed
   Far more than their most holy affirmations.
   Traitors they are, and must be; therefore wisely
   Will make a virtue of necessity.

   TERZKY.
   Well, well, it shall content me: let but something
   Be done, let only some decisive blow
   Set us in motion.

   ILLO.
   Besides, 'tis of subordinate importance
   How, or how far, we may thereby propel
   The generals. 'Tis enough that we persuade
   The duke that they are his. Let him but act
   In his determined mood, as if he had them,
   And he will have them. Where he plunges in,
   He makes a whirlpool, and all stream down to it.

   TERZKY.
   His policy is such a labyrinth,
   That many a time when I have thought myself
   Close at his side, he's gone at once, and left me
   Ignorant of the ground where I was standing.
   He lends the enemy his ear, permits me
   To write to them, to Arnheim; to Sesina
   Himself comes forward blank and undisguised;
   Talks with us by the hour about his plans,
   And when I think I have him—off at once—
   He has slipped from me, and appears as if
   He had no scheme, but to retain his place.

   ILLO.
   He give up his old plans! I'll tell you, friend!
   His soul is occupied with nothing else,
   Even in his sleep—they are his thoughts, his dreams,
   That day by day he questions for this purpose
   The motions of the planets——

   TERZKY.
                  Ah! you know
   This night, that is now coming, he with Seni,
   Shuts himself up in the astrological tower
   To make joint observations—for I hear
   It is to be a night of weight and crisis;
   And something great, and of long expectation,
   Takes place in heaven.

   ILLO.
               O that it might take place
   On earth! The generals are full of zeal,
   And would with ease be led to anything
   Rather than lose their chief. Observe, too, that
   We have at last a fair excuse before us
   To form a close alliance 'gainst the court,
   Yet innocent its title, bearing simply
   That we support him only in command.
   But in the ardor of pursuit thou knowest
   Men soon forget the goal from which they started.
   The object I've in view is that the prince
   Shall either find them, or believe them ready
   For every hazard. Opportunity
   Will tempt him on. Be the great step once taken,
   Which at Vienna's court can ne'er be pardoned,
   The force of circumstances will lead him onward
   The farther still and farther. 'Tis the choice
   That makes him undecisive—come but need,
   And all his powers and wisdom will come with it.

   TERZKY.
   'Tis this alone the enemy awaits
   To change their chief and join their force with ours.

   ILLO.
   Come! be we bold and make despatch. The work
   In this next day or two must thrive and grow
   More than it has for years. And let but only
   Things first turn up auspicious here below—
   Mark what I say—the right stars, too, will show themselves.
   Come to the generals. All is in the glow,
   And must be beaten while 'tis malleable.

   TERZKY.
   Do you go thither, Illo? I must stay
   And wait here for the Countess Terzky. Know
   That we, too, are not idle. Break one string,
   A second is in readiness.

   ILLO.
                 Yes! yes!
   I saw your lady smile with such sly meaning.
   What's in the wind?

   TERZKY.
              A secret. Hush! she comes.

                      [Exit ILLO.