poses me,
By its coward fear alone made fearful to me.
Not that, which full of life, instinct with power,
Makes known its present being; that is not
The true, the perilously formidable.
O no! it is the common, the quite common,
The thing of an eternal yesterday.
What ever was, and evermore returns,
Sterling tomorrow, for today 'twas sterling!
For of the wholly common is man made,
And custom is his nurse! Woe then to them
Who lay irreverent hands upon his old
House furniture, the dear inheritance
From his forefathers! For time consecrates;
And what is gray with age becomes religion.
Be in possession, and thou hast the right,
And sacred will the many guard it for thee!

[_To the_ PAGE _who here enters_.]

The Swedish officer?--Well, let him enter.

[_The_ PAGE _exit_, WALLENSTEIN _fixes his eye in deep
thought on the door_.]

Yet is it pure--as yet!--the crime has come
Not o'er this threshold yet--so slender is
The boundary that divideth life's two paths.

SCENE V

WALLENSTEIN _and_ WRANGEL

WALLENSTEIN (_after having fixed a searching look on him_).

Your name is Wrangel?

WRANGEL.

Gustave Wrangel, General
Of the Sudermanian Blues.

WALLENSTEIN.

It was a Wrangel
Who injured me materially at Stralsund,
And by his brave resistance was the cause
Of the opposition which that sea-port made.

WRANGEL.

It was the doing of the element
With which you fought, my Lord! and not my merit.
The Baltic Neptune did assert his freedom:
The sea and land, it seem'd, were not to serve
One and the same.

[WALLENST.

You pluck'd the Admiral's hat from off my head.

WRANGEL.

I come to place a diadem thereon.]

WALLENSTEIN (_makes the motion for him to take a seat, and
seats himself_).

And where are your credentials?
Come you provided with full powers, Sir General?

WRANGEL.

There are so many scruples yet to solve--

WALLENSTEIN (_having read the credentials_).

An able letter!--Ay--he is a prudent
Intelligent master whom you serve, Sir General!
The Chancellor writes me, that he but fulfils
His late departed Sovereign's own idea
In helping me to the Bohemian crown.

WRANGEL.

He says the truth. Our great King, now in heaven,
Did ever deem most highly of your Grace's
Preeminent sense and military genius;
And always the commanding Intellect,
He said, should have command, and be the King.

WALLENST.

Yes, he