! There's some mistake in this;
Hark! I will punish it severely. Stop
They do not hear. (To ILLO). Go after them, assure them,
And bring them back to me, cost what it may.

[ILLO hurries out.

This hurls us headlong. Butler! Butler!
You are my evil genius, wherefore must you
Announce it in their presence? It was all
In a fair way. They were half won! those madmen
With their improvident over-readiness--
A cruel game is Fortune playing with me.
The zeal of friends it is that razes me,
And not the hate of enemies.

SCENE XVII.

To these enter the DUCHESS, who rushes into the chamber;
THEKLA and the COUNTESS follow her.

DUCHESS.
O Albrecht!
What hast thou done?

WALLENSTEIN.
And now comes this beside.

COUNTESS.
Forgive me, brother! It was not in my power--
They know all.

DUCHESS.
What hast thou done?

COUNTESS (to TERZKY).
Is there no hope? Is all lost utterly?

TERZKY.
All lost. No hope. Prague in the emperor's hands,
The soldiery have taken their oaths anew.

COUNTESS.
That lurking hypocrite, Octavio!
Count Max. is off too.

TERZKY.
Where can he be? He's
Gone over to the emperor with his father.

[THEKLA rushes out into the arms of her mother, hiding her face
in her bosom.

DUCHESS (enfolding her in her arms).
Unhappy child! and more unhappy mother!

WALLENSTEIN (aside to TERZKY).
Quick! Let a carriage stand in readiness
In the court behind the palace. Scherfenberg,
Be their attendant; he is faithful to us.
To Egra he'll conduct them, and we follow.
[To ILLO, who returns.
Thou hast not brought them back?

ILLO.
Hear'st thou the uproar?
The whole corps of the Pappenheimers is
Drawn out: the younger Piccolomini,
Their colonel, they require: for they affirm,
That he is in the palace here, a prisoner;
And if thou dost not instantly deliver him,
They will find means to free him with the sword.

[All stand amazed.

TERZKY.
What shall we make of this?

WALLENSTEIN.
Said I not so?
O my prophetic heart! he is still here.
He has not betrayed me--he could not betray me.
I never doubted of it.

COUNTESS.
If he be
Still here, then all goes well; for I know what
[Embracing THEKLA.
Will keep him here forever.

TERZKY.
It can't be.
His father has betrayed us, is gone over
To the emperor--the son could not have ventured
To stay behind.

THEKLA (her e