_Thekla._ Enough! no further preface, I entreat you. At once, out with it! Be it what it may, It is not possible that it should torture me 15 More than this introduction. What have you To say to me? Tell me the whole and briefly! _Countess._ You'll not be frightened-- _Thekla._ Name it, I entreat you. _Countess._ It lies within your power to do your father A weighty service-- _Thekla._ Lies within my power? 20 _Countess._ Max Piccolomini loves you. You can link him Indissolubly to your father. _Thekla._ I? What need of me for that? And is he not Already linked to him? _Countess._ He was. _Thekla._ And wherefore Should he not be so now--not be so always? 25 _Countess._ He cleaves to the Emperor too. _Thekla._ Not more than duty And honour may demand of him. _Countess._ We ask Proofs of his love, and not proofs of his honour. Duty and honour! Those are ambiguous words with many meanings. 30 You should interpret them for him: his love Should be the sole definer of his honour. _Thekla._ How? _Countess._ The Emperor or you must he renounce. _Thekla._ He will accompany my father gladly In his retirement. From himself you heard, 35 How much he wished to lay aside the sword. _Countess._ He must not lay the sword aside, we mean; He must unsheath it in your father's cause. _Thekla._ He'll spend with gladness and alacrity His life, his heart's blood in my father's cause, 40 If shame or injury be intended him. _Countess._ You will not understand me. Well, hear then! Your father has fallen off from the Emperor, And is about to join the enemy With the whole soldiery-- _Thekla._ Alas, my mother! 45 _Countess._ There needs a great example to draw on The army after him. The Piccolomini Possess the love and reverence of the troops; They govern all opinions, and wherever They lead the way, none hesitate to follow. 50 The son secures the father to our interests-- You've much in your hands at this moment. _Thekla._ Ah, My miserable mother! what a death-stroke Awaits thee!--No! She never will survive it. _Countess._ She will accommodate her soul to that 55 Which is and must be. I do know your mother. The far-off future weights upon her heart With torture of anxiety; but is it Unalterably, actually present, She soon resigns herself, and bears it calmly. 60