After [22] [All stand amazed. 1800, 1828, 1829.

Scene VI

To these enter Max Piccolomini.

Max. Yes! here he is! I can endure no longer
To creep on tiptoe round this house, and lurk
In ambush for a favourable moment.
This loitering, this suspense exceeds my powers. [Advancing to Thekla.
Turn not thine eyes away. O look upon me! 5
Confess it freely before all. Fear no one,
Let who will hear that we both love each other.
Wherefore continue to conceal it? Secrecy
Is for the happy—misery, hopeless misery,
Needeth no veil! Beneath a thousand suns [10]
It dares act openly.
[He observes the Countess looking on Thekla with expressions of triumph.
No, Lady! No!
Expect not, hope it not. I am not come
To stay: to bid farewell, farewell for ever.
For this I come! 'Tis over! I must leave thee!
Thekla, I must—must leave thee! Yet thy hatred 15
Let me not take with me. I pray thee, grant me
One look of sympathy, only one look.
Say that thou dost not hate me. Say it to me, Thekla! [Grasps her hand.
O God! I cannot leave this spot—I cannot!
Cannot let go this hand. O tell me, Thekla! 20
That thou dost suffer with me, art convinced
That I cannot act otherwise.

[Thekla, avoiding his look, points with her hand to her father. Max turns round to the Duke, whom he had not till then perceived.

Thou here? It was not thou, whom here I sought.
I trusted never more to have beheld thee.
My business is with her alone. Here will I 25
Receive a full acquittal from this heart—
For any other I am no more concerned.

Wallenstein. Think'st thou, that fool-like, I shall let thee go,
And act the mock-magnanimous with thee?
Thy father is become a villain to me; 30
[[753]] I hold thee for his son, and nothing more:
Nor to no purpose shalt thou have been given
Into my power. Think not, that I will honour
That ancient love, which so remorselessly
He mangled. They are now past by, those hours 35
Of friendship and forgiveness. Hate and vengeance
Succeed—'tis now their turn—I too can throw
All feelings of the man aside—can prove
Myself as much a monster as thy father!

Max. Thou wilt proceed with me, as thou hast power. [40]
Thou know'st, I neither brave nor fear thy rage.
What has detained me here, that too thou know'st. [Taking Thekla by the hand.
See, Duke! All—all would I have owed to thee,
Would have received from thy paternal hand
The lot of blessed spirits. This hast thou 45
Laid waste for ever—that concerns not thee.
Indifferent thou tramplest in the dust
Their happiness, who most are thine. The god
Whom thou dost serve, is no benignant deity.
Like as the blind irreconcileable 50
Fierce element, incapable of compact,
Thy heart's wild impulse only dost thou follow.[753:1]