Chapter 100

_To these enter the COUNTESS TERTSKY, pale and disordered. Her utterance is slow and feeble, and unimpassioned._

_Octavio (meeting her)._ O Countess Tertsky! These are the results Of luckless unblest deeds.

_Countess._ They are the fruits Of your contrivances. The Duke is dead, My husband too is dead, the Duchess struggles In the pangs of death, my niece has disappeared. 5 This house of splendour, and of princely glory, Doth now stand desolated: the affrighted servants Rush forth through all its doors. I am the last Therein; I shut it up, and here deliver The keys.

_Octavio._ O Countess! my house too is desolate. 10

_Countess._ Who next is to be murdered? Who is next To be maltreated? Lo! The Duke is dead. The Emperor's vengeance may be pacified! Spare the old servants; let not their fidelity Be imputed to the faithful as a crime-- 15 The evil destiny surprised my brother Too suddenly; he could not think on them.

_Octavio._ Speak not of vengeance! Speak not of maltreatment! The Emperor is appeased; the heavy fault Hath heavily been expiated--nothing 20 Descended from the father to the daughter, Except his glory and his services. The Empress honours your adversity, Takes part in your afflictions, opens to you Her motherly arms! Therefore no farther fears! 25 Yield yourself up in hope and confidence To the Imperial Grace!

_Countess._ To the grace and mercy of a greater Master Do I yield up myself. Where shall the body Of the Duke have its place of final rest? 30 In the Chartreuse, which he himself did found, At Gitschin rests the Countess Wallenstein; And by her side, to whom he was indebted For his first fortunes, gratefully he wished He might sometime repose in death! O let him 35 Be buried there. And likewise, for my husband's Remains, I ask the like grace. The Emperor Is now proprietor of all our castles. This sure may well be granted us--one sepulchre Beside the sepulchres of our forefathers! 40

_Octavio._ Countess, you tremble, you turn pale!

_Countess._ You think More worthily of me, than to believe I would survive the downfall of my house. We did not hold ourselves too mean to grasp After a monarch's crown--the crown did fate 45 Deny, but not the feeling and the spirit That to the crown belong! We deem a Courageous death more worthy of our free station Than a dishonoured life.--I have taken poison.

_Octavio._ Help! Help! Support her!

_Countess._ Nay, it is too late. 50 In a few moments is my fate accomplished. [_Exit COUNTESS._

_Gordon._ O house of death and horrors!

[_An officer enters, and brings a letter with the great seal._

_Gordon (steps forward and meets him)._ What is this? It is the Imperial Seal.

[_He reads the Address, and delivers the letter to OCTAVIO with a look of reproach, and with an emphasis on the word._

To the Prince Piccolomini.

[_OCTAVIO, with his whole frame expressive of sudden anguish, raises his eyes to heaven._

(_The curtain drops._)

LINENOTES:

[10] _Octavio (with a deep anguish)._ O Countess! 1800, 1828, 1829.

[27] _Countess (with her eye raised to heaven)._ 1800, 1828, 1829.

[41] _Countess (reassembles all her powers, and speaks with energy and dignity)._ You think 1800, 1828, 1829.

[54] _Prince_ 1800, 1828, 1829.

The following mistranslations, which were noted in the _Westminster Review_, Art. 3, July 1850, are recorded in the Notes affixed to _The Dramatic Works_ of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1852, pp. 426-7.

THE PICCOLOMINI.