Complete Works of Thomas Hardy (Illustrated) (1021 page)

One charmed, a needed purpose to fulfil!

NELSON

Ah, Coll.  Lead bullets are not all that wound....

I have a feeling here of dying fires,

A sense of strong and deep unworded censure,

Which, compassing about my private life,

Makes all my public service lustreless

In my own eyes.—I fear I am much condemned

For those dear Naples and Palermo days,

And her who was the sunshine of them all!...

He who is with himself dissatisfied,

Though all the world find satisfaction in him,

Is like a rainbow-coloured bird gone blind,

That gives delight it shares not.  Happiness?

It's the philosopher's stone no alchemy

Shall light on this world I am weary of.—

Smiling I'd pass to my long home to-morrow

Could I with honour, and my country's gain.

—But let's adjourn.  I waste your hours ashore

By such ill-timed confessions!

[They pass out of sight, and the scene closes.]

SCENE II.

OFF FERROL

[The French and Spanish combined squadrons.  On board the French

admiral's flag-ship.  VILLENEUVE is discovered in his cabin, writing

a letter.]

SPIRIT OF THE PITIES

He pens in fits, with pallid restlessness,

Like one who sees Misfortune walk the wave,

And can nor face nor flee it.

SPIRIT OF THE YEARS

          He indites

To his long friend the minister Decres

Words that go heavily!...

VILLENEUVE
[writing]

"I am made the arbiter in vast designs

Whereof I see black outcomes.  Do I this

Or do I that, success, that loves to jilt

Her anxious wooer for some careless blade,

Will not reward me.  For, if I must pen it,

Demoralized past prayer in the marine—

Bad masts, bad sails, bad officers, bad men;

We cling to naval technics long outworn,

And time and opportunity do not avail me

To take up new.  I have long suspected such,

But till I saw my helps, the Spanish ships,

I hoped somewhat.—Brest is my nominal port;

Yet if so, Calder will again attack—

Now reinforced by Nelson or Cornwallis—

And shatter my whole fleet.... Shall I admit

That my true inclination and desire

Is to make Cadiz straightway, and not Brest?

Alas! thereby I fail the Emperor;

But shame the navy less.—

           "Your friend, VILLENEUVE"

[GENERAL LAURISTON enters.]

LAURISTON

Admiral, my missive to the Emperor,

Which I shall speed by special courier

From Ferrol this near eve, runs thus and thus:—

"Gravina's ships, in Ferrol here at hand,

Embayed but by a temporary wind,

Are all we now await.  Combined with these

We sail herefrom to Brest; there promptly give

Cornwallis battle, and release Ganteaume;

Thence, all united, bearing Channelwards:

A step that sets in motion the first wheel

In the proud project of your Majesty

Now to be engined to the very close,

To wit: that a French fleet shall enter in

And hold the Channel four-and-twenty hours."—

Such clear assurance to the Emperor

That our intent is modelled on his will

I hasten to dispatch to him forthwith.

VILLENEUVE

Yes, Lauriston.  I sign to every word.

[Lauriston goes out.  VILLENEUVE remains at his table in reverie.]

SPIRIT OF THE YEARS

We may impress him under visible shapes

That seem to shed a silent circling doom;

He's such an one as can be so impressed,

And this much is among our privileges,

Well bounded as they be.—Let us draw near him.

[The Spirits of Years and of the Pities take the form of sea-birds,

which alight on the stern-balcony of VILLENEUVE's ship, immediately

outside his cabin window.  VILLENEUVE after a while looks up and

sees the birds watching him with large piercing eyes.]

VILLENEUVE

My apprehensions even outstep their cause,

As though some influence smote through yonder pane.

[He gazes listlessly, and resumes his broodings.]

—-Why dared I not disclose to him my thought,

As nightly worded by the whistling shrouds,

That Brest will never see our battled hulls

Helming to north in pomp of cannonry

To take the front in this red pilgrimage!

—-If so it were, now, that I'd screen my skin

From risks of bloody business in the brunt,

My acts could scarcely wear a difference.

Yet I would die to-morrow—not ungladly—

So far removed is carcase-care from me.

For no self do these apprehensions spring,

But for the cause.—Yes, rotten is our marine,

Which, while I know, the Emperor knows not,

And the pale secret chills!  Though some there be

Would beard contingencies and buffet all,

I'll not command a course so conscienceless.

Rather I'll stand, and face Napoleon's rage

When he shall learn what mean the ambiguous lines

That facts have forced from me.

SPIRIT OF THE PITIES
[to the Spirit of Years]

O Eldest-born of the Unconscious Cause—

If such thou beest, as I can fancy thee—

Why dost thou rack him thus?  Consistency

Might be preserved, and yet his doom remain.

His olden courage is without reproach;

Albeit his temper trends toward gaingiving!

SPIRIT OF THE YEARS

I say, as I have said long heretofore,

I know but narrow freedom.  Feel'st thou not

We are in Its hand, as he?—Here, as elsewhere,

We do but as we may; no further dare.

[The birds disappear, and the scene is lost behind sea-mist.]

SCENE III

THE CAMP AND HARBOUR OF BOULOGNE

[The English coast in the distance.  Near the Tour d'Ordre stands

a hut, with sentinels and aides outside; it is NAPOLEON's temporary

lodging when not at his headquarters at the Chateau of Pont-de-

Briques, two miles inland.]

DUMB SHOW

A courier arrives with dispatches, and enters the Emperor's quarters,

whence he emerges and goes on with other dispatches to the hut of

DECRES, lower down.  Immediately after, NAPOLEON comes out from his

hut with a paper in his hand, and musingly proceeds towards an

eminence commanding the Channel.

Along the shore below are forming in a far-reaching line more

than a hundred thousand infantry.  On the downs in the rear of

the camps fifteen thousand cavalry are manoeuvring, their

accoutrements flashing in the sun like a school of mackerel.

The flotilla lies in and around the port, alive with moving

figures.

With his head forward and his hands behind him the Emperor surveys

these animated proceedings in detail, but more frequently turns his

face toward the telegraph on the cliff to the southwest, erected to

signal when VILLENEUVE and the combined squadrons shall be visible

on the west horizon.

He summons one of the aides, who descends to the hut of DECRES.

DECRES comes out from his hut, and hastens to join the Emperor.

Dumb show ends.

[NAPOLEON and DECRES advance to the foreground of the scene.]

NAPOLEON

Decres, this action with Sir Robert Calder

Three weeks ago, whereof we dimly heard,

And clear details of which I have just unsealed,

Is on the whole auspicious for our plan.

It seems that twenty of our ships and Spain's—

None over eighty-gunned, and some far less—

Engaged the English off Cape Finisterre

With fifteen vessels of a hundred each.

We coolly fought and orderly as they,

And, but for mist, we had closed with victory.

Two English were much mauled, some Spanish damaged,

And Calder then drew off with his two wrecks

And Spain's in tow, we giving chase forthwith.

Not overtaking him our admiral,

Having the coast clear for his purposes,

Entered Coruna, and found order there

To open the port of Brest and come on hither.

Thus hastes the moment when the double fleet

Of Villeneuve and of Ganteaume should appear.

[He looks again towards the telegraph.]

DECRES
[with hesitation]

And should they not appear, your Majesty?

NAPOLEON

Not?  But they will; and do it early, too!

There's nothing hinders them.  My God, they must,

For I have much before me when this stroke

At England's dealt.  I learn from Talleyrand

That Austrian preparations threaten hot,

While Russia's hostile schemes are ripening,

And shortly must be met.—My plan is fixed:

I am prepared for each alternative.

If Villeneuve come, I brave the British coast,

Convulse the land with fear
['tis even now

So far distraught, that generals cast about

To find new modes of warfare; yea, design

Carriages to transport their infantry!]
.—

Once on the English soil I hold it firm,

Descend on London, and the while my men

Salute the dome of Paul's I cut the knot

Of all Pitt's coalitions; setting free

From bondage to a cold manorial caste

A people who await it.

[They stand and regard the chalky cliffs of England, till NAPOLEON

resumes]
:

     Should it be

Even that my admirals fail to keep the tryst—

A thing scarce thinkable, when all's reviewed—

I strike this seaside camp, cross Germany,

With these two hundred thousand seasoned men,

And pause not till within Vienna's walls

I cry checkmate.  Next, Venice, too, being taken,

And Austria's other holdings down that way,

The Bourbons also driven from Italy,

I strike at Russia—each in turn, you note,

Ere they can act conjoined.

     Report to me

What has been scanned to-day upon the main,

And on your passage down request them there

To send Daru this way.

DECRES
[as he withdraws]

The Emperor can be sanguine.  Scarce can I.

His letters are more promising than mine.

Alas, alas, Villeneuve, my dear old friend,

Why do you pen me this at such a time!

[He retires reading VILLENEUVE'S letter.  The Emperor walks up and

down till DARU, his private secretary, joins him.]

NAPOLEON

Come quick, Daru; sit down upon the grass,

And write whilst I am in mind.

     First to Villeneuve:—

"I trust, Vice-Admiral, that before this date

Your fleet has opened Brest, and gone.  If not,

These lines will greet you there.  But pause not, pray:

Waste not a moment dallying.  Sail away:

Once bring my coupled squadrons Channelwards

And England's soil is ours.  All's ready here,

The troops alert, and every store embarked.

Hold the nigh sea but four-and-twenty hours

And our vast end is gained."

     Now to Ganteaume:—

"My telegraphs will have made known to you

My object and desire to be but this,

That you forbid Villeneuve to lose an hour

In getting fit and putting forth to sea,

To profit by the fifty first-rate craft

Wherewith I now am bettered.  Quickly weigh,

And steer you for the Channel with all your strength.

I count upon your well-known character,

Your enterprize, your vigour, to do this.

Sail hither, then; and we will be avenged

For centuries of despite and contumely."

DARU

Shall a fair transcript, Sire, be made forthwith?

NAPOLEON

This moment.  And the courier will depart

And travel without pause.

[DARU goes to his office a little lower down, and the Emperor

lingers on the cliffs looking through his glass.

The point of view shifts across the Channel, the Boulogne cliffs

sinking behind the water-line.]

SCENE IV

SOUTH WESSEX.  A RIDGE-LIKE DOWN NEAR THE COAST

[The down commands a wide view over the English Channel in front

of it, including the popular Royal watering-place, with the Isle

of Slingers and its roadstead, where men-of-war and frigates are

anchored.  The hour is ten in the morning, and the July sun glows

upon a large military encampment round about the foreground, and

warms the stone field-walls that take the place of hedges here.

Artillery, cavalry, and infantry, English and Hanoverian, are

drawn up for review under the DUKE OF CUMBERLAND and officers

of the staff, forming a vast military array, which extends

three miles, and as far as the downs are visible.

In the centre by the Royal Standard appears KING GEORGE on

horseback, and his suite.  In a coach drawn by six cream-

coloured Hanoverian horses, QUEEN CHARLOTTE sits with three