Page:Wallenstein, a drama in 2 parts - Schiller (tr. Coleridge) (1800).djvu/215

WALLENSTEIN.
That's not true.

ILLO.
O thou art blind
With thy deep-seeing eyes.

WALLENSTEIN.
Thou wilt not (hake
My faith for me—my faith, which founds itself
On the profoundest science. If 'tis false,
Then the whole science of the stars is false.
For know, I have a pledge from Fate itself,
That he is the most faithful of my friends.

ILLO.
Hast thou a pledge, that this pledge is not false?

WALLENSTEIN.
There exist moments in the life of man,
When he is nearer the great Soul of the world
Than is man's custom, and possesses freely
The power of questioning his destiny:
And such a moment 'twas, when in the night
Before the action in the plains of Lützen,
Leaning against a tree, thoughts crowding thoughts,
I look'd out far upon the ominous plain.
My whole life, past and future, in this moment
Before my mind's eye glided in procession,
And to the destiny of the next morning
The spirit, fill'd with anxious presentiment,
Did knit the most remov'd futurity.
Then said I also to myself, "So many
Dost thou command. They follow all thy stars,
And as on some great number set their All

Upon