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;
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 honor
That ancient love, which so remorselessly
He mangled.  They are now past by, those hours
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. (calmly).

Thou wilt proceed with me, as thou hast power. 
Thou know’st, I neither brave nor fear thy rage. 
What has detain’d 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
Laid waste forever—­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, irreconcilable,
Fierce element, incapable of compact,
Thy heart’s wild impulse only dost thou follow.[28]

WALLENST.

Thou art describing thy own father’s heart. 
The adder!  O, the charms of hell o’erpowered me;
He dwelt within me, to my inmost soul
Still to and fro he pass’d, suspected never
On the wide ocean, in the starry heaven
Did mine eyes seek the enemy, whom I
In my heart’s heart had folded!  Had I been
To Ferdinand what Octavio was to me,
War had I ne’er denounced against him.  No,
I never could have done it.  The Emperor was
My austere master only, not my friend. 
There was already war ’twixt him and me
When he deliver’d the Commander’s Staff
Into my hands; for there’s a natural,
Unceasing war ’twixt cunning and suspicion;
Peace exists only betwixt confidence
And faith.  Who poisons confidence, he murders
The future generations.

MAX.

                              I will not
Defend my father.  Woe is me, I cannot! 
Hard deeds and luckless have ta’en place; one crime
Drags after it the other in close link. 
But we are innocent:  how have we fallen
Into this circle of mishap and guilt? 
To whom have we been faithless?  Wherefore must
The evil deeds and guilt reciprocal
Of our two fathers twine like serpents round us? 
                Why must our fathers’
Unconquerable hate rend us asunder,
Who love each other?

WALLENSTEIN.