Yes, my poor child! Thou too hast lost a most affectionate godmother In the Empress. O that stern unbending man! In this unhappy marriage what have I Not suffer'd, not endured? For even as if I had been link'd on to some wheel of fire That restless, ceaseless, whirls impetuous onward, I have pass'd a life of frights and horrors with him, And ever to the brink of some abyss With dizzy headlong violence he bears me. Nay, do not weep, my child. Let not my sufferings Presignify unhappiness to thee, Nor blacken with their shade the fate that waits thee. There lives no second Friedland: thou, my child, Hast not to fear thy mother's destiny. THEKLA. O let us supplicate him, dearest mother! Quick! quick! here's no abiding place for us. Here every coming hour broods into life Some new affrightful monster. DUCHESS. Thou wilt share An easier, calmer lot, my child! We too, I and thy father, witnessed happy days. Still think I with delight of those first years, When he was making progress with glad effort, When his ambition was a genial fire, Not that consuming flame which now it is. The Emperor loved him, trusted him: and all He undertook could not but be successful. But since that ill-starr'd day at Regensburg, Which plunged him headlong from his dignity, A gloomy uncompanionable spirit, Unsteady and suspicious, has possess'd him. His quiet mind forsook him, and no longer Did he yield up himself in joy and faith To his old luck and individual power; But thenceforth turn'd his heart and best affections All to those cloudy sciences, which never Have yet made happy him who follow'd them. COUNTESS. You see it, sister, as your eyes permit you, But surely this is not the conversation To pass the time in which we are waiting for him. You know he will be soon here. Would you have him Find _her_ in this condition? DUCHESS. Come, my child! Come wipe away thy tears, and show thy father A cheerful countenance. See, the tie-knot here Is off--this hair must not hang so dishevell'd. Come, dearest! dry thy tears up. They deform Thy gentle eye.--Well now--what was I saying? Yes, in good truth, this Piccolomini Is a most noble and deserving gentleman. COUNTESS. That is he, sister! THEKLA (_to the_ COUNTESS, _with marks of great oppression of spirits_). Aunt, you will excuse me? [_Is going_.] COUNTESS. But whither? See, your father comes. THEKLA. I cannot see him now. COUNTESS. Nay, but bethink you. THEKLA. Believe me, I cannot sustain his presence. COUNTESS. But he will miss you, will ask after you. DUCHESS. What now? Why is she going? COUNTESS. She's not well. DUCHESS (_anxiously_). What ails then my beloved child? [_Both follow the_ PRINCESS, _and endeavor to detain her. During this_ WALLENSTEIN _appears, engaged in conversation with_ ILLO.] SCENE IV