in to open rebellion. Max
Piccolomini, coming late to the banquet from the interview with
Thekla, refuses to sign the pledge, not because he sees through the
deception, but because he is in no mood for business. Before morning
his father summons him, thinking Max has refused to sign because he
scented the intended treason, and reveals to him the whole
situation--the plots of the officers, Wallenstein's dangerous
negotiations with enemies of the Emperor, and his own commission to
take command and save whatever he can of loyal troops. Max is
thunder-truck. He can believe neither Wallenstein's purpose of
treason nor his father's duplicity in dealing behind the back of his
great commander. He refuses to follow his father's orders and leaves
him with the avowed intention of going to Wallenstein and calling upon
him to clear himself of the calumnious charges of the court. At this
point begins the action of _Wallenstein's Death_.

In all of his later dramas excepting _William Tell_, Schiller
endeavored to introduce a factor which is called "the dramatic guilt,"
a circumstance, usually in the character of the hero but sometimes in
his environment, which makes the tragic outcome inevitable and yet
leaves room in the breast of the reader or spectator for sympathy with
the hero in his fate. In the case of Wallenstein this "guilt" is the
dalliance with the love of power and the possibility of rebellion, not
a deliberate intention to commit treason. In the close of his
treatment of Wallenstein in The Thirty Years' War Schiller says: "No
one of his actions justifies us in considering him convicted of
treason. * * * Thus Wallenstein fell, not because he was a rebel, but
he rebelled because he fell."

The circumstances are urged that Wallenstein was a prince of the
Empire, and had as such the right to negotiate with foreign powers;
that his delegated authority from the Emperor gave him the right to do
so in the Emperor's name; that the Emperor had not kept faith with
Wallenstein, and had thus justified him in at least frightening the
court; that self preservation seemed to indicate rebellion as the only
recourse; that Wallenstein's belief in his destiny and the fatuous
devotion of his army led him to reckless action; and finally that he
did not originally intend to commit actual treason.

Thus prepared, the reader can easily sympathize with Wallenstein in
his downfall; this sympathy is entirely won by the admirable courage
with whi