Оценить:
 Рейтинг: 0

Wallenstein's Camp

Год написания книги
2017
<< 1 ... 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 ... 22 >>
На страницу:
16 из 22
Настройки чтения
Размер шрифта
Высота строк
Поля
The eight thousand horse they wish to disband
May be but a finger of our army's hand.
But when they're once gone may we understand
We are but one-fifth the less? Oh, no —
By the Lord, the whole to the devil will go!
All terror, respect, and awe will be over,
And the peasant will swell his crest once more;
And the Board of Vienna will order us where
Our troops must be quartered and how we must fare,
As of old in the days of their beggarly care.
Yes, and how long it will be who can say
Ere the general himself they may take away?
For they don't much like him at court I learn?
And then it's all up with the whole concern!
For who, to our pay, will be left to aid us?
And see that they keep the promise they made us?
Who has the energy – who the mind —
The flashing thought – and the fearless hand —
Together to bring, and thus fastly bind
The fragments that form our close-knit band.
For example, dragoon – just answer us now,
From which of the countries of earth art thou?

DRAGOON

From distant Erin came I here.
SERGEANT (to the two Cuirassiers).
You're a Walloon, my friend, that's clear,
And you, an Italian, as all may hear.

FIRST CUIRASSIER

Who I may be, faith! I never could say;
In my infant years they stole me away.

SERGEANT

And you, from what far land may you be?

FIRST ARQUEBUSIER

I come from Buchau – on the Feder Sea.

SERGEANT

Neighbor, and you?

SECOND ARQUEBUSIER

I am a Swiss.

SERGEANT (to the second Yager)

And Yager, let's hear where your country is?

SECOND YAGER

Up above Wismar my fathers dwell.

SERGEANT (pointing to the Trumpeter)

And he's from Eger – and I as well:
And now, my comrades, I ask you whether,
Would any one think, when looking at us,
That we, from the North and South, had thus
Been hitherward drifted and blown together?
Do we not seem as hewn from one mass?
Stand we not close against the foe
As though we were glued or moulded so?
Like mill-work don't we move, d'ye think!
'Mong ourselves in the nick, at a word or wink.
Who has thus cast us here all as one,
Now to be severed again by none?
Who? why, no other than Wallenstein!

FIRST YAGER

In my life it ne'er was a thought of mine
Whether we suited each other or not,
I let myself go with the rest of the lot.

FIRST CUIRASSIER

I quite agree in the sergeant's opinion —
They'd fain have an end of our camp dominion,
And trample the soldier down, that they
May govern alone in their own good way.
'Tis a conspiration – a plot, I say!

SUTLER-WOMAN

A conspiration – God help the day!
Then my customers won't have cash to pay.

SERGEANT

Why, faith, we shall all be bankrupts made;
The captains and generals, most of them, paid
The costs of the regiments with private cash,
And, wishing, 'bove all, to cut a dash,
<< 1 ... 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 ... 22 >>
На страницу:
16 из 22