And why? because thou hadst existed only
For the Emperor.  To the Emperor alone
Clung Friedland in that storm which gather’d round him
At Regensburg in the Diet—­and he dropp’d thee! 
He let thee fall! he let thee fall a victim
To the Bavarian, to that insolent! 
Deposed, stript bare of all thy dignity
And power, amid the taunting of thy foes,
Thou wert let drop into obscurity.—­
Say not the restoration of thy honor
Has made atonement for that first injustice. 
No honest good-will was it that replaced thee;
The law of hard necessity replaced thee,
Which they had fain opposed, but that they could not.

WALLENST.

Not to their good wishes, that is certain,
Nor yet to his affection I’m indebted
For this high office:  and if I abuse it,
I shall therein abuse no confidence.

COUNTESS.

Affection! confidence!—­they needed thee. 
Necessity, impetuous remonstrant! 
Who not with empty names, or shows of proxy,
Is served, who’ll have the thing and not the symbol,
Ever seeks out the greatest and the best,
And at the rudder places him, e’en though
She had been forced to take him from the rabble—­
She, this Necessity, it was that placed thee
In this high office; it was she that gave thee
Thy letters patent of inauguration. 
For, to the uttermost moment that they can,
This race still help themselves at cheapest rate
With slavish souls, with puppets!  At the approach
Of extreme peril, when a hollow image
Is found a hollow image and no more,
Then falls the power into the mighty hands
Of Nature, of the spirit giant-born,
Who listens only to himself, knows nothing
Of stipulations, duties, reverences,
And, like the emancipated force of fire,
Unmaster’d scorches, ere it reaches them,
Their fine-spun webs, their artificial policy.

WALLENST.

’Tis true! they saw me always as I am—­
Always!  I did not cheat them in the bargain. 
I never held it worth my pains to hide
The bold all-grasping habit of my soul.

COUNTESS.

Nay rather—­thou hast ever shown thyself
A formidable man, without restraint;
Hast exercised the full prerogatives
Of thy impetuous nature, which had been
Once granted to thee.  Therefore, Duke, not thou
Who hast still remained consistent with thyself;
But they are in the wrong, who fearing thee,
Intrusted such a power in hand they fear’d. 
For, by the laws of Spirit, in the right
Is every individual character
That acts in strict consistence with itself. 
Self-contradiction is the only wrong. 
Wert thou another being, then, when thou
Eight years ago pursuedst thy march with fire,
And sword, and desolation, through the Circles
Of Germany, the universal scourge,
Didst mock all ordinances of the empire,
The fearful rights of strength alone exertedst,