Page:Wallenstein, a drama in 2 parts - Schiller (tr. Coleridge) (1800).djvu/89

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FIRST PART OF WALLENSTEIN.
3

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.

TERTSKY.

How? think you then

That they'll believe themselves bound by an oath,
Which we have trick'd them into by a juggle?

ILLO.

We shall have caught and cag'd 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 believ'd
Far more than their most holy affirmations.
Traitors they are, and must be; therefore wisely
Will make a virtue of necessity.

TERTSKY.

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 determin'd 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.

F 2
TERTSKY.