Your loose and heathenish lives, wherein

Both soldier and officer share the sin ?

Yes! Sin is the drag-net, or rather the magnet

That draws the sharp steel through the core of the land,

For Punishment follows what Sin has planned,

As tears must trickle when onions are smelled to-
And here is the rule you scholars are held to-
So long as you con Sin's A, B, C,

(Though the truth may P Q,*) R, (e) S, T,
Will fly from U wherever U be.

Si offenditur Deus, ubi erit

Victoria spes?-how can ye have spirit
To combat and conquer, if ye pass

Your hours in the pot-house, and sculk from Mass?
The woman the Gospel speaks of found

The penny again she had dropped on the ground;
Saul met with his father's asses anew,

And Joseph his penitent brethren too;

But reverence either for God or his Church,
Or the sense of shame, or the feeling of right,

No man among soldiers can find, though he light
A hundred candles to aid his search.

In Sacred Writ we are also apprized

That the soldiers were wont to throng and press
The preacher, John, in the Wilderness :
These men did penance and were baptized,
And sought a light from their holy guide:
Quid faciemus nos? they enquired,

What things shall we do? or, what are desired?
Et ait illis-to whom he replied

Thus: Neminem concutiatis,
That is, Do violence unto none;

Neque calumniam faciatis,

Nor yet calumniate any one;
Contenti estote-and never desire-
Stipendiis vestris-more than

your hire.

Accursed is every wicked hand!

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord

Thy God in vain-so saith the command;

Yet where were more blasphemies ever out-poured,
Where now is there more that shocks the ear,

Than in your Duke Friedland's head quarters here?
If at every Donner und Blitz bawl

ye

One bell were to ring from each steeple, the most
Of the bells would soon cease ringing at all,

For none would adventure the sexton's post;

And if for each of the evil wishes,

Each malison out of your mouths that issues,

There dropped from your heads but one little hair
Those heads, though like Absalom's poll in the morn,

Ere night arrived would be bald and bare.

By Joshua arms, as by ye, were borne ;

King David o'erthrew the giant Goliah;

But where is it written, or where will ye spy a
Page stating that either of these, or both,
Were foul-mouthed swearers? Pray, why could
As well say Lord spare us! as Kreuz Sackerlot?
Or would it be double your common lip-trouble
To mutter a prayer where ye splutter an oath ?
But, verily, out of the heart's abundance
The mouth ever speaketh in wordy redundance.

* Pique you.

ye

not

Again, it is written, Thou shalt not steal;
But this commandment ye do not break,
For ye openly plunder whatever ye take:
From your ferreting eyes it is hard to conceal
A pin'sworth of goods;-with your vulture-clutch
Ye pounce on the cow while the calf is within her;
Ye seize on the hen and egg both for your dinner ;
And ye ransack the till for your pockets: yea, such
Is the answer ye make to St. John's exhortations,
Contenti estote, Put up with your rations.

But how should I hope to give laud to the men,
If the Master himself is a reprobate? When
The head is unsound the members will suffer;
Now, what is his creed? Has it ever been known?

FIRST YAGER.

Sir Priest, you may handle us even yet rougher,
But, as to the General, let him alone!

CAPUCHIN.

Ne custodias gregem meam!
The Achab! the Jeroboam! we see him
Seducing the people away from the truth,
To the idols his hand sets up, forsooth!

TRUMPETER and RECRUIT.
Friar! take our advice, and don't tell us that twice!

CAPUCHIN.

Such a belswagger and mouthing dare-devil,
Who brags that he's able to capture and level
All castles and towns, and swears he'll obtain
Even Stralsund itself, although it were knitted
To Heaven's own vault with a brazen chain-

TRUMPETER.

Will nobody gag him? Shall this be permitted?

CAPUCHIN.

Such a wallower in sorcery—such a King Saul—

A Jehu-a Holofernes to all,

Who denies, like Peter, his Master and Lord,

And by whom the cock's crowing is therefore abhorred.*

BOTH YAGERS.

Another word, Priest, and your doom is sure!

CAPUCHIN.

Such a Herod-like fox and over-reacher

TRUMPETER and BOTH YAGERS, (closing round him.)

Be silent, or die!

THE CROATS, (interposing.)

Rattle on, old preacher !

Speak out like a man; you are quite secure.

CAPUCHIN, (at the pitch of his voice.)

Such a backslider and Nebuchadnezzar,

Such a saint-flouter and infidel-pleaser,

Is called, they say, WALLENSTEIN-that's to say Wallastone,
And a fit name it is, for he is unto all a stone—

A stone, too, of stumbling, and while, for our humbling,

The Kaiser shall thus vest his powers in Duke Friedland,

Bohemia from troubles will ne'er be a freed land.

(He gradually retreats while uttering the last words, the Croats, in the interim, keeping the soldiers at bay.)

SCENE IX. The same persons, the Capuchin excepted.

FIRST YAGER, (to the Serjeant-Major.)

Pray, tell me, what led the preacher to say

Wallenstein was said to shudder whenever he heard a cock crow.

That our General hated the crow of a cock?
Was't a tale of a tub? Did he mean but to mock?

SERJEANT-MAJOR.

To tell you the truth, he was no way astray;
Our leader is fearfully made, it appears,
And has got a most exquisite pair of ears:
He starts if the cat mew suddenly near him,

And when the cock crows, he shudders to hear him.

FIRST YAGER.

The lion, they say, has the same kind of dread.

SERJEANT-MAJOR.

Around him all things must be hushed, as the dead.
The guards upon duty have got that command,
For in silence alone can his projects be planned.

VOICES (from the tent, amid great uproar,)
Ha! whack him, the knave! lay on! don't cease!

THE PEASANT'S VOICE.

Help! mercy!

OTHER VOICES.

Peace! peace! for Heaven's sake, peace!

FIRST YAGER.

The devil! they've kicked up some dust!-what a clatter!

I'll have share of the fun.

SECOND YAGER.

(Both run into the tent.) SUTLERESS, (coming out of it.)

The robber! the wretch!

TRUMPETER.

How now, my good dame! why so wroth? what's the matter?

SUTLERESS.

And here he comes with his worthy heir.

SCENE X.-The Peasant enters, dragged along by troopers.

Ay! that line he shall read, ere an hour, in the noose !

SERJEANT-MAJOR.

Well, Frost and Fraud will have each a foul end.

FIRST HARQUEBUSSIER.

This is just the fair fruit of desperation ;

When a man is broke horse and foot he must chuse,
Without further ado, between theft and starvation.

TRUMPETER.

What the plague! Do you, then, stand up to excuse

The dog? You had best keep your tongue in your cheek.

FIRST HARQUEBUSSIER.

The peasant, at worst, is a man, so to speak.

FIRST YAGER, (to the Trumpeter.)

Poh! Tiefenbach's corps!-who'd mind what they tell us
First cousins of snobs and glove-patchers!-fellows

Shut up in Brieg garrison! Much they know
Of the way that matters in wartime go!

SCENE XI.-To these enter two Cuirassiers.

FIRST CUIRASSIER.

Peace! Why is the peasant here? What does this mean?

FIRST RIFLEMAN.

The scoundrel has bubbled the soldiers at play.

Shame!

FIRST CUIRASSIER.

You are a Friedlander, yet you throw dice
With a hobnail! I'm glad you were foiled by his cunning.
Perhaps you can match him, however, in running:

There! deuce take the hindmost !-they're off in a trice!

(The Peasant scampers off. The Riflemen follow, but return before the conclusion of the piece.)

FIRST HARQUEBUSSIER.

A man of decision, who knows how to come

To the point in a jiffey! Pray, where is he from?
He's not a Bohemian, I'd swear, somehow.

SUTLERESS.

No, no; a Walloon! The army reveres
The name of the Pappenheim Cuirassiers !

FIRST DRAGOON.

Young Piccolomini commands them now;
They elected him Colonel themselves the day
Of the bloody and bootless Lutzen affray,
When a musquet-ball laid Pappenheim flat.

FIRST HARQUEBUSSIER.

Were they never called over the coals for that?

FIRST DRAGOON.

Deuce a bit! They have always encountered the brunt
Of the fiercest shocks in the battle's front;

So they've got their own by-laws apart from all others,
And the Friedlander loves the whole regiment as brothers.
FIRST CUIRASSIER, (to the second.)

Are you certain? Who told you? Who spread the report?

SECOND CUIRASSIER.

Who told me ? The Colonel himself, in short.

FIRST CUIRASSIER.

What are we his dogs, that he treats us thus ?

FIRST YAGER.

What ails them? They seem to be splitting with spite.

SECOND YAGER.

Is there any thing, brothers, relating to us?

FIRST CUIRASSIER--
-(coming forward.)
O, enough; but not much that you'll hear with delight.
Here are we, eight thousand good cavaliers,

Sharpshooters, and Yagers, and Cuirassiers,

Who must troop to the Netherlands, now, it appears.

SECOND CUIRASSIER, (to the Dragoons.) You also must come with us, you Dragoons.

FIRST CUIRASSIER.

And we in the van, of course, the Walloons!
SUTLERESS.

Good lack then the flower of the army is lost.

FIRST CUIRASSIER.

We join that Milanese General's host.

FIRST YAGER.

The Cardinal Infant? That is curious!

SECOND YAGER.

The priest? 'Tis enough to set one furious!

FIRST CUIRASSIER.

Shall we thus be driven to that beggarly Flanders,
Away from Duke Friedland, the best of commanders?
Shall we march to the field for Spaniards ?—for those
Whom we hate from our hearts, and should rather oppose?
I'll be hanged if I do so! I'll first run away.

TRUMPETER.

Why, this is the devil! Admitting we may

Have disposed of our hides to the Kaiser, is that
A cause why we should fight for a Spanish Red Hat ?

But first of all, Gusty, I beg you will fill
Me a glass of Melnecker-my stomach is weak,
And the wine may give me some spirit to speak.
SUTLERESS, (filling the glass for him.)
Here, good Serjeant-major! You frighten one sadly :
I do hope your story won't turn out so badly!

SERJEANT-MAJOR.

Now, Sirs, though the truth is contested by none
That a man's first care should be Number One,
Yet still-as the General says-and 'tis true-
The Many should always be kept in view.
We, all of us here, are the Friedlander's troops-
Before us the burgher his door unlocks-

He gives us good beds, and suppers, and soups;
And the peasant must yoke his horse and his ox
To our baggage-waggons-he dares not refuse—
We can deal with his property just as we chuse.
Let a Lancepesade* with a handful of men
But quarter himself and his troop in a village,
He is despot and autocrat there and then,
And at will can range, and ravage, and pillage.
They like us not, therefore; they dread us-and would
As soon see the devil himself as see

Our curst yellow jackets. How, then, can it be
That they rush not down on us, fierce as a flood,

* A soldier who holds a rank midway between a private and a corporal. Lancepesade is now almost obsolete, but was in use among the English writers of the seventeenth century. It is derived from the Italian Lancia Spezzata a broken lance, (viz. a reduced officer;) and the French Anspessade—an inferior corporal-is a corruption of the term. Lancepesade is not to be confounded with Lance corporal-the latter being a full corporal, though he receives but the pay of a private. The word in the text is Gefreiter, i. e. an Exempt-a soldier who has the command of from four to seven men, and is exempt from mounting guard.