Countess. What! you know not?
Does not your own heart tell you? O! then I
Will tell it you. Your father is a traitor,
[[760]] A frightful traitor to us—he has plotted
Against our General's life, has plunged us all [20]
In misery—and you're his son! 'Tis yours
To make the amends—Make you the son's fidelity
Outweigh the father's treason, that the name
Of Piccolomini be not a proverb
Of infamy, a common form of cursing [25]
To the posterity of Wallenstein.

Max. Where is that voice of truth which I dare follow?
It speaks no longer in my heart. We all
But utter what our passionate wishes dictate:
O that an angel would descend from Heaven, 30
And scoop for me the right, the uncorrupted,
With a pure hand from the pure Fount of Light. [His eyes glance on Thekla.
What other angel seek I? To this heart,
To this unerring heart, will I submit it,
Will ask thy love, which has the power to bless [35]
The happy man alone, averted ever
From the disquieted and guilty—canst thou
Still love me, if I stay? Say that thou canst,
And I am the Duke's——

Countess. Think, niece——

Max. Think nothing, Thekla!
Speak what thou feelest.

Countess. Think upon your father. [40]

Max. I did not question thee, as Friedland's daughter.
Thee, the beloved and the unerring god
Within thy heart, I question. What's at stake?
Not whether diadem of royalty
Be to be won or not—that might'st thou think on. [45]
Thy friend, and his soul's quiet, are at stake;
The fortune of a thousand gallant men,
Who will all follow me; shall I forswear
My oath and duty to the Emperor?
Say, shall I send into Octavio's camp 50
The parricidal ball? For when the ball
Has left its cannon, and is on its flight,
It is no longer a dead instrument!
It lives, a spirit passes into it,
[[761]] The avenging furies seize possession of it, [55]
And with sure malice guide it the worst way.

Thekla. O! Max——

Max. Nay, not precipitately either, Thekla.
I understand thee. To thy noble heart
The hardest duty might appear the highest.
The human, not the great part, would I act. 60
Ev'n from my childhood to this present hour,
Think what the Duke has done for me, how loved me,
And think too, how my father has repaid him.
O likewise the free lovely impulses
Of hospitality, the pious friend's 65
Faithful attachment, these too are a holy
Religion to the heart; and heavily
The shudderings of nature do avenge
Themselves on the barbarian that insults them.
Lay all upon the balance, all—then speak, 70
And let thy heart decide it.

Thekla. O, thy own
Hath long ago decided. Follow thou
Thy heart's first feeling——

Countess. Oh! ill-fated woman!