All seems well, the troops are devoted to
me, and will fight against whomsoever I bid them. By lavish gifts
and favours I have attached all my generals firmly to me, and soon
this ungrateful emperor shall feel how rash and foolish he has been
to insult the man to whom alone he owes it that he was not long
ago a fugitive and an exile, with the Swedes victorious masters of
his capital and kingdom.
"Have not I alone saved him? Did not I at my own cost raise an
army and stand between him and the victorious Gustavus? Have not
I alone of all his generals checked the triumphant progress of the
invaders? And yet he evades all his promises, he procrastinates
and falters. Not one step does he take to give me the sovereignty
of Bohemia which he so solemnly promised me, and seems to think
that it is honour and reward enough for me to have spent my treasure
and blood in his service. But my turn is at hand, and when the
hand which saved his throne shall cast him from it he will learn
how rash he has been to have deceived and slighted me. And you say
that the stars last night all pointed to a favourable conjunction,
and that the time for striking the great blow is at hand?"
"Nothing could be better," the astrologer said; "Jupiter, your own
planet, and Mars are in the ascendant. Saturn is still too near
them to encourage instant action, but he will shortly remove to
another house and then your time will have come.
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