ILLO.

No! 
Nay, Heaven forbid!

WALLENSTEIN.

And why should Heaven forbid?

ILLO.

Him!—­that deceiver!  Wouldst thou trust to him
The soldiery?  Him wilt thou let slip from thee,
Now in the very instant that decides us—­

TERZKY.

Thou wilt not do this—­No!  I pray thee, no!

WALLENST.

Ye are whimsical.

ILLO.

O but for this time, Duke,
Yield to our warning!  Let him not depart.

WALLENST.

And why should I not trust him only this time,
Who have always trusted him?  What, then, has happen’d
That I should lose my good opinion of him? 
In complaisance to your whims, not my own,
I must, forsooth, give up a rooted judgment. 
Think not I am a woman.  Having trusted him
E’en till today, today too will I trust him.

TERZKY.

Must it be he—­he only?  Send another.

WALLENST.

It must be he whom I myself have chosen;
He is well fitted for the business.  Therefore
I gave it him.

ILLO.

Because he’s an Italian—­
Therefore is he well fitted for the business!

WALLENST.

I know you love them not—­nor sire nor son—­
Because that I esteem them, love them—­visibly
Esteem them, love them more than you and others. 
E’en as they merit.  Therefore are they eye-blights,
Thorns in your foot-path.  But your jealousies,
In what affect they me or my concerns? 
Are they the worse to me because you hate them? 
Love or hate one another as you will,
I leave to each man his own moods and likings;
Yet know the worth of each of you to me.

ILLO.

Von Questenberg, while he was here, was always
Lurking about with this Octavio.

WALLENST.

It happen’d with my knowledge and permission.

ILLO.

I know that secret messengers came to him
From Gallas—­

WALLENSTEIN.

That’s not true.

ILLO.

O thou art blind,
With thy deep-seeing eyes!

WALLENSTEIN.

Thou wilt not shake
My faith for me—­my faith, which founds itself
On the profoundest science.  If ’tis false,
Then the whole science of the stars is false;
For know, I have a pledge from Fate itself,
That he is the most faithful of my friends.

ILLO.

Hast thou a pledge, that this pledge is not false?

WALLENST.

There exist moments in the life of man,
When he is nearer the great Soul of the world
Than is man’s custom, and possesses freely
The power of questioning his destiny: 
And such a moment ’twas, when in the night
Before the action in the plains of Luetzen,
Leaning against a tree, thoughts crowding thoughts,
I look’d out far upon the ominous plain. 
My whole life, past and future, in this moment