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many heads of heroes.

       Welcome, Count Isolani!

      Isolani. My noble brother,

       Even now am I arrived; it had been else my duty — 5

      Octavio. And Colonel Butler — trust me, I rejoice

       Thus to renew acquaintance with a man

       Whose worth and services I know and honour.

       See, see, my friend!

       There might we place at once before our eyes 10

       The sum of war’s whole trade and mystery —

      [To QUESTENBERG, presenting BUTLER and ISOLANI at the

       same time to him.

      These two the total sum — Strength and Dispatch.

      Questenberg (to Octavio). And lo! betwixt them both experienced

       Prudence!

      Octavio (presenting Questenberg to Butler and Isolani). The

       Chamberlain and War-commissioner Questenberg,

       The bearer of the Emperor’s behests, 15

       The long-tried friend and patron of all soldiers,

       We honour in this noble visitor.

      Illo. ‘Tis not the first time, noble Minister,

       You have shewn our camp this honour.

      Questenberg. Once before

       I stood before these colours. 20

      Illo. Perchance too you remember where that was.

       It was at Znäim in Moravia, where

       You did present yourself upon the part

       Of the Emperor, to supplicate our Duke

       That he would straight assume the chief command. 25

      Questenberg. To supplicate? Nay, noble General!

       So far extended neither my commission

       (At least to my own knowledge) nor my zeal.

      Illo. Well, well, then — to compel him, if you choose.

       I can remember me right well, Count Tilly 30

       Had suffered total rout upon the Lech.

       Bavaria lay all open to the enemy,

       Whom there was nothing to delay from pressing

       Onwards into the very heart of Austria.

       At that time you and Werdenberg appeared 35

       Before our General, storming him with prayers,

       And menacing the Emperor’s displeasure,

       Unless he took compassion on this wretchedness.

      Isolani. Yes, yes, ‘tis comprehensible enough,

       Wherefore with your commission of to-day 40

       You were not all too willing to remember

       Your former one.

      Questenberg. Why not, Count Isolan?

       No contradiction sure exists between them.

       It was the urgent business of that time 45

       To snatch Bavaria from her enemy’s hand;

       And my commission of to-day instructs me

       To free her from her good friends and protectors.

      Illo. A worthy office! After with our blood

       We have wrested this Bohemia from the Saxon, 50

       To be swept out of it is all our thanks,

       The sole reward of all our hard-won victories.

      Questenberg. Unless that wretched land be doomed to suffer

       Only a change of evils, it must be

       Freed from the scourge alike of friend and foe. 55

      Illo. What? ‘Twas a favourable year; the Boors

       Can answer fresh demands already.

      Questenberg. Nay,

       If you discourse of herds and meadow-grounds —

      Isolani. The war maintains the war. Are the Boors ruined,

       The Emperor gains so many more new soldiers. 60

      Questenberg. And is the poorer by even so many subjects.

      Isolani. Poh! We are all his subjects.

      Questenberg. Yet with a difference, General! The one fill

       With profitable industry the purse,

       The others are well skilled to empty it. 65

       The sword has made the Emperor poor; the plough

       Must reinvigorate his resources.

      Isolani. Sure!

       Times are not yet so bad. Methinks I see

      [Examining with his eye the dress and ornaments

       of QUESTENBERG.

      Good store of gold that still remains uncoined.

      Questenberg. Thank Heaven! that means have been found out to

       hide 70

       Some little from the fingers of the Croats.

      Illo. There! The Stawata and the Martinitz,

       On whom the Emperor heaps his gifts and graces,

       To the heart-burning of all good Bohemians —

       Those minions of court favour, those court harpies, 75

       Who fatten on the wrecks of citizens

       Driven from their house and home — who reap no harvests

       Save in the general calamity —

       Who now, with kingly pomp, insult and mock

       The desolation of their country — these, 80

       Let these, and such as these, support the war,

       The fatal war, which they alone enkindled!

      Butler. And those state-parasites, who have their feet

       So constantly beneath the Emperor’s table,

       Who cannot let a benefice fall, but they 85

       Snap at it with dog’s hunger — they, forsooth,

       Would pare the soldier’s bread, and cross his reckoning!

      Isolani. My life long will it anger me to think,

       How when I went to court seven years ago,

       To see about new horses for our regiment, 90

       How from one antechamber to another

       They dragged me on, and left me by the hour

       To kick my heels among a crowd of simpering

       Feast-fattened slaves, as if I had come thither

       A mendicant suitor for the crumbs of favour 95

       That fall beneath their tables. And, at last,

       Whom should they send me but a Capuchin!

       Straight I began to muster up my sins

       For absolution — but no such luck for me!

       This was the man, this Capuchin, with whom 100

       I was to treat concerning the army horses:

       And I was forced at last to quit the field,

       The business unaccomplished. Afterwards

       The Duke procured me in three days, what I

       Could not obtain in thirty at Vienna. 105

      Questenberg. Yes, yes!

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