Wallenstein/The Death of Wallenstein/A1S09
SCENE IX.
To them enter the Countess.
COUNTESS.This suspense,This horrid fear—I can no longer bear it.For heaven's sake, tell me, what has taken place.
ILLO.The regiments are all falling off from us.
TERTSKY.Octavio Piccolomini is a traitor.
COUNTESS.O my foreboding! (rushes out of the room.)
TERTSKY.Hadst thou but believ'd me!Now seest thou how the stars have lied to thee.
WALLENSTEIN.The stars lie not; but we have here a workWrought counter to the stars and destiny.The science is still honest: this false heartForces a lie on the truth-telling heaven.On a divine law divination restsWhere nature deviates from that law, and stumblesOut of her limits, there all science errs.True, I did not suspect! Were it superstitionNever by such suspicion t' have affrontedThe human form, O may that time ne'er comeIn which I shame me of th' infirmity.The wildest savage drinks not with the victim, In whose breast he means to plunge the sword.This, this, Octavio, was no hero's deed:'Twas not thy prudence that did conquer mine;A bad heart triumph'd o'er an honest one.No shield receiv'd the assassin stroke; thou plungestThy weapon on an unprotected breast—Against such weapons I am but a child.