Complete Works of Thomas Hardy (Illustrated) (1024 page)

Well, well.—The order of our march from hence

I will advise.... My knock at George's door

With bland inquiries why his royal hand

Withheld due answer to my friendly lines,

And tossed the irksome business to his clerks,

Is thus perforce delayed.  But not for long.

Instead of crossing, thitherward I tour

By roundabout contrivance not less sure!

DARU

I'll bring the writing to your Majesty.

[NAPOLEON and DARU go out severally.]

CHORUS OF THE YEARS
[aerial music]

     Recording Angel, trace

This bold campaign his thought has spun apace—

One that bids fair for immortality

Among the earthlings—if immortal deeds

May be ascribed to so extemporary

     And transient a race!

It will be called, in rhetoric and rhyme,

     As son to sire succeeds,

A model for the tactics of all time;

"The Great Campaign of that so famed year Five,"

By millions of mankind not yet alive.

SCENE II

THE FRONTIERS OF UPPER AUSTRIA AND BAVARIA

[A view of the country from mid-air, at a point south of the

River Inn, which is seen as a silver thread, winding northward

between its junction with the Salza and the Danube, and forming

the boundaries of the two countries.  The Danube shows itself as

a crinkled satin riband, stretching from left to right in the

far background of the picture, the Inn discharging its waters

into the larger river.]

DUMB SHOW

A vast Austrian army creeps dully along the mid-distance, in

the detached masses and columns of a whitish cast.  The columns

insensibly draw nearer to each other, and are seen to be converging

from the east upon the banks of the Inn aforesaid.

A RECORDING ANGEL
[in recitative]

This movement as of molluscs on a leaf,

Which from our vantage here we scan afar,

Is one manoeuvred by the famous Mack

To countercheck Napoleon, still believed

To be intent on England from Boulogne,

And heedless of such rallies in his rear.

Mack's enterprise is now to cross Bavaria—

Beneath us stretched in ripening summer peace

As field unwonted for these ugly jars—

Outraged Bavaria, simmering in disquiet

At Munich down behind us, Isar-fringed,

And torn between his fair wife's hate of France

And his own itch to gird at Austrian bluff

For riding roughshod through his territory,

Wavers from this to that.  The while Time hastes

The eastward streaming of Napoleon's host,

As soon we see.

The silent insect-creep of the Austrian columns towards the banks of

the Inn continues to be seen till the view fades to nebulousness and

dissolves.

SCENE III

BOULOGNE.  THE ST. OMER ROAD

[It is morning at the end of August, and the road stretches out

of the town eastward.

The divisions of the "Army-for-England" are making preparations

to march.  Some portions are in marching order.  Bands strike

up, and the regiments start on their journey towards the Rhine

and Danube.  Bonaparte and his officers watch the movements from

an eminence.  The soldiers, as they pace along under their eagles

with beaming eyes, sing "Le Chant du Depart," and other martial

songs, shout "Vive l'Empereur!" and babble of repeating the days

of Italy, Egypt, Marengo, and Hohenlinden.]

NAPOLEON

Anon to England!

CHORUS OF INTELLIGENCES
[aerial music]

If Time's weird threads so weave!

[The scene as it lingers exhibits the gradual diminishing of

the troops along the roads through the undulating August

landscape, till each column is seen but as a train of dust;

and the disappearance of each marching mass over the eastern

horizon.]

ACT FOURTH

SCENE I

KING GEORGE'S WATERING-PLACE, SOUTH WESSEX

[A sunny day in autumn.  A room in the red-brick royal residence

know as Gloucester Lodge.

At a front triple-lighted window stands a telescope on a tripod.

Through the open middle sash is visible the crescent-curved

expanse of the Bay as a sheet of brilliant translucent green,

on which ride vessels of war at anchor.  On the left hand white

cliffs stretch away till they terminate in St. Aldhelm's Head,

and form a background to the level water-line on that side.  In

the centre are the open sea and blue sky.  A near headland rises

on the right, surmounted by a battery, over which appears the

remoter bald grey brow of the Isle of Slingers.

In the foreground yellow sands spread smoothly, whereon there

are sundry temporary erections for athletic sports; and closer

at hand runs an esplanade on which a fashionable crowd is

promenading.  Immediately outside the Lodge are companies of

soldiers, groups of officers, and sentries.

Within the room the KING and PITT are discovered.  The KING'S

eyes show traces of recent inflammation, and the Minister has

a wasted look.]

KING

Yes, yes; I grasp your reasons, Mr. Pitt,

And grant you audience gladly.  More than that,

Your visit to this shore is apt and timely,

And if it do but yield you needful rest

From fierce debate, and other strains of office

Which you and I in common have to bear,

'Twill be well earned.  The bathing is unmatched

Elsewhere in Europe,—see its mark on me!—

The air like liquid life.—But of this matter:

What argue these late movements seen abroad?

What of the country now the session's past;

What of the country, eh? and of the war?

PITT

The thoughts I have laid before your Majesty

Would make for this, in sum:—

That Mr. Fox, Lord Grenville, and their friends,

Be straightway asked to join.  With Melville gone,

With Sidmouth, and with Buckinghamshire too,

The steerage of affairs has stood of late

Somewhat provisional, as you, sir, know,

With stop-gap functions thrust on offices

Which common weal can tolerate but awhile.

So, for the weighty reasons I have urged,

I do repeat my most respectful hope

To win your Majesty's ungrudged assent

To what I have proposed.

KING

     But nothing, sure,

Has been more plain to all, dear Mr. Pitt,

Than that your own proved energy and scope

Is ample, without aid, to carry on

Our just crusade against the Corsican.

Why, then, go calling Fox and Grenville in?

Such helps we need not.  Pray you think upon't,

And speak to me again.—We've had alarms

Making us skip like crackers at our heels,

That Bonaparte had landed close hereby.

PITT

Such rumours come as regularly as harvest.

KING

And now he has left Boulogne with all his host?

Was it his object to invade at all,

Or was his vast assemblage there a blind?

PITT

Undoubtedly he meant invasion, sir,

Had fortune favoured.  He may try it yet.

And, as I said, could we but close with Fox—-

KING

But, but;—I ask, what is his object now?

Lord Nelson's Captain—Hardy—whose old home

Stands in a peaceful vale hard by us here—

Who came two weeks ago to see his friends,

I talked to in this room a lengthy while.

He says our navy still is in thick night

As to the aims by sea of Bonaparte

Now the Boulogne attempt has fizzled out,

And what he schemes afloat with Spain combined.

The "Victory" lay that fortnight at Spithead,

And Nelson since has gone aboard and sailed;

Yes, sailed again.  The "Royal Sovereign" follows,

And others her.  Nelson was hailed and cheered

To huskiness while leaving Southsea shore,

Gentle and simple wildly thronging round.

PITT

Ay, sir.  Young women hung upon his arm,

And old ones blessed, and stroked him with their hands.

KING

Ah—you have heard, of course.  God speed him, Pitt.

PITT

Amen, amen!

KING

     I read it as a thing

Of signal augury, and one which bodes

Heaven's confidence in me and in my line,

That I should rule as King in such an age!...

Well, well.—So this new march of Bonaparte's

Was unexpected, forced perchance on him?

PITT

It may be so, your Majesty; it may.

Last noon the Austrian ambassador,

Whom I consulted ere I posted down,

Assured me that his latest papers word

How General Mack and eighty thousand men

Have made good speed across Bavaria

To wait the French and give them check at Ulm,

That fortress-frontier-town, entrenched and walled,

A place long chosen as a vantage-point

Whereon to encounter them as they outwind

From the blind shades and baffling green defiles

Of the Black Forest, worn with wayfaring.

Here Mack will intercept his agile foe

Hasting to meet the Russians in Bohemia,

And cripple him, if not annihilate.

Thus now, sir, opens out this Great Alliance

Of Russia, Austria, England, whereto I

Have lent my earnest efforts through long months,

And the realm gives her money, ships, and men.—

It claps a muffler round the Cock's steel spurs,

And leaves me sanguine on his overthrow.

But, then,—this coalition of resources

Demands a strong and active Cabinet

To aid your Majesty's directive hand;

And thus I urge again the said additions—

These brilliant intellects of the other side

Who stand by Fox.  With us conjoined, they—-

KING

What, what, again—in face of my sound reasons!

Believe me, Pitt, you underrate yourself;

You do not need such aid.  The splendid feat

Of banding Europe in a righteous cause

That you have achieved, so soon to put to shame

This wicked bombardier of dynasties

That rule by right Divine, goes straight to prove

We had best continue as we have begun,

And call no partners to our management.

To fear dilemmas horning up ahead

Is not your wont.  Nay, nay, now, Mr. Pitt,

I must be firm.  And if you love your King

You'll goad him not so rashly to embrace

This Fox-Grenville faction and its friends.

Rather than Fox, why, give me civil war!

Hey, what?  But what besides?

PITT

I say besides, sir,... nothing!

[A silence.]

KING
[cheerfully]

The Chancellor's here, and many friends of mine: Lady Winchelsea,

Lord and Lady Chesterfield, Lady Bulkeley, General Garth, and Mr.

Phipps the oculist—not the least important to me.  He is a worthy

and a skilful man.  My eyes, he says, are as marvellously improved

in durability as I know them to be in power.  I have arranged to go

to-morrow with the Princesses, and the Dukes of Cumberland, Sussex,

and Cambridge
[who are also here]
for a ride on the Ridgeway, and

through the Camp on the downs.  You'll accompany us there?

PITT

I am honoured by your Majesty's commands.

[PITT looks resignedly out of the window.]

What curious structure do I see outside, sir?

KING

It's but a stage, a type of all the world.  The burgesses have

arranged it in my honour.  At six o'clock this evening there are

to be combats at single-stick to amuse the folk; four guineas

the prize for the man who breaks most heads.  Afterward there

is to be a grinning match through horse-collars—a very humorous

sport which I must stay here and witness; for I am interested in

whatever entertains my subjects.

PITT

Not one in all the land but knows it, sir.

KING

Now, Mr. Pitt, you must require repose;

Consult your own convenience then, I beg,

On when you leave.

PITT

I thank your Majesty.

[He departs as one whose purpose has failed, and the scene shuts.]

SCENE II

BEFORE THE CITY OF ULM

[A prospect of the city from the east, showing in the foreground

a low-lying marshy country bounded in mid-distance by the banks

of the Danube, which, bordered by poplars and willows, flows

across the picture from the left to the Elchingen Bridge near

the right of the scene, and is backed by irregular heights and