Complete Works of Thomas Hardy (Illustrated) (1030 page)

And groan beneath the burden of my name!

SPIRIT OF THE YEARS

I'll speak.  His mood is ripe for such a parle.

[Sending a voice into VILLENEUVE'S ear.]

Thou dost divine the hour!

VILLENEUVE

     But those stern Nays,

That heretofore were audible to me

At each unhappy time I strove to pass?

SPIRIT OF THE YEARS

Have been annulled.  The Will grants exit freely;

Yea, It says "Now."  Therefore make now thy time.

SPIRIT OF THE PITIES

May his sad sunken soul merge into nought

Meekly and gently as a breeze at eve!

VILLENEUVE

From skies above me and the air around

Those callings which so long have circled me

At last do whisper "Now."  Now it shall be!

[He seals a letter, and addresses it to his wife; then takes a

dagger from his accoutrements that are hanging alongside, and,

lying down upon his back on the bed, stabs himself determinedly

in many places, leaving the weapon in the last wound.]

Ungrateful master; generous foes; Farewell!

[VILLENEUVE dies; and the scene darkens.]

SCENE VII

KING GEORGE'S WATERING-PLACE, SOUTH WESSEX

[The interior of the "Old Rooms" Inn.  Boatmen and burghers are

sitting on settles round the fire, smoking and drinking.

FIRST BURGHER

So they've brought him home at last, hey?  And he's to be solemnized

with a roaring funeral?

FIRST BOATMAN

Yes, thank God.... 'Tis better to lie dry than wet, if canst do it

without stinking on the road gravewards.  And they took care that he

shouldn't.

SECOND BOATMAN

'Tis to be at Paul's; so they say that know.  And the crew of the

"Victory" have to walk in front, and Captain Hardy is to carry his

stars and garters on a great velvet pincushion.

FIRST BURGHER

Where's the Captain now?

SECOND BOATMAN [nodding in the direction of Captain Hardy's house]

Down at home here biding with his own folk a bit.  I zid en walking

with them on the Esplanade yesterday.  He looks ten years older than

he did when he went.  Ay—he brought the galliant hero home!

SECOND BURGHER

Now how did they bring him home so that he could lie in state

afterwards to the naked eye!

FIRST BOATMAN

Well, as they always do,—in a cask of sperrits.

SECOND BURGHER

Really, now!

FIRST BOATMAN
[lowering his voice]

But what happened was this.  They were a long time coming, owing to

contrary winds, and the "Victory" being little more than a wreck.

And grog ran short, because they'd used near all they had to peckle

his body in.  So—they broached the Adm'l!

SECOND BURGHER

How?

FIRST BOATMAN

Well; the plain calendar of it is, that when he came to be unhooped,

it was found that the crew had drunk him dry.  What was the men to

do?  Broke down by the battle, and hardly able to keep afloat, 'twas

a most defendable thing, and it fairly saved their lives.  So he was

their salvation after death as he had been in the fight.  If he

could have knowed it, 'twould have pleased him down to the ground!

How 'a would have laughed through the spigot-hole: "Draw on, my

hearties!  Better I shrivel that you famish."  Ha-ha!

SECOND BURGHER

It may be defendable afloat; but it seems queer ashore.

FIRST BOATMAN

Well, that's as I had it from one that knows—Bob Loveday of

Overcombe—one of the "Victory" men that's going to walk in the

funeral.  However, let's touch a livelier string.  Peter Green,

strike up that new ballet that they've lately had prented here,

and were hawking about town last market-day.

SONG

THE NIGHT OF TRAFALGAR

I

In the wild October night-time, when the wind raved round the land,

And the Back-sea met the Front-sea, and our doors were blocked

with sand,

And we heard the drub of Dead-man's Bay, where bones of thousands are,

We knew not what the day had done for us at Trafalgar.

            
[All]
Had done,

     Had done,

             For us at Trafalgar!

II

"Pull hard, and make the Nothe, or down we go!" one says, says he.

We pulled; and bedtime brought the storm; but snug at home slept we.

Yet all the while our gallants after fighting through the day,

Were beating up and down the dark, sou'-west of Cadiz Bay.

     The dark,

     The dark,

             Sou'-west of Cadiz Bay!

III

The victors and the vanquished then the storm it tossed and tore,

As hard they strove, those worn-out men, upon that surly shore;

Dead Nelson and his half-dead crew, his foes from near and far,

Were rolled together on the deep that night at Trafalgar!

     The deep,

     The deep,

             That night at Trafalgar!

[The Cloud-curtain draws.]

CHORUS OF THE YEARS

Meanwhile the month moves on to counter-deeds

     Vast as the vainest needs,

And fiercely the predestined plot proceeds.

ACT SIXTH

SCENE I

THE FIELD OF AUSTERLITZ.  THE FRENCH POSITION

[The night is the 1st of December following, and the eve of the

battle.  The view is from the elevated position of the Emperor's

bivouac.  The air cuts keen and the sky glistens with stars, but

the lower levels are covered with a white fog stretching like a

sea, from which the heights protrude as dusky rocks.

To the left are discernible high and wooded hills.  In the front

mid-distance the plateau of Pratzen outstands, declining suddenly

on the right to a low flat country covered with marshes and pools

now mostly obscured.  On the plateau itself are seen innumerable

and varying lights, marking the bivouac of the centre divisions

of the Austro-Russian army.  Close to the foreground the fires of

the French are burning, surrounded by soldiery.  The invisible

presence of the countless thousand of massed humanity that compose

the two armies makes itself felt indefinably.

The tent of NAPOLEON rises nearest at hand, with sentinel and

other military figures looming around, and saddled horses held

by attendants.  The accents of the Emperor are audible, through

the canvas from inside, dictating a proclamation.]

VOICE OF NAPOLEON

"Soldiers, the hordes of Muscovy now face you,

To mend the Austrian overthrow at Ulm!

But how so?  Are not these the self-same bands

You met and swept aside at Hollabrunn,

And whose retreating forms, dismayed to flight,

Your feet pursued along the trackways here?

"Our own position, massed and menacing,

Is rich in chance for opportune attack;

For, say they march to cross and turn our right—

A course almost at their need—their stretching flank

Will offer us, from points now prearranged—-"

VOICE OF A MARSHAL

Shows it, your Majesty, the wariness

That marks your usual far-eye policy,

To openly announce your tactics thus

Some twelve hours ere their form can actualize?

THE VOICE OF NAPOLEON

The zest such knowledge will impart to all

Is worth the risk of leakages. 
[To Secretary]

Write on.

[Dictation resumed]

"Soldiers, your sections I myself shall lead;

But ease your minds who would expostulate

Against my undue rashness.  If your zeal

Sow hot confusion in the hostile files

As your old manner is, and in our rush

We mingle with our foes, I'll use fit care.

Nevertheless, should issues stand at pause

But for a wink-while, that time you will eye

Your Emperor the foremost in the shock,

Taking his risk with every ranksman here.

For victory, men, must be no thing surmised,

As that which may or may not beam on us,

Like noontide sunshine on a dubious morn;

It must be sure!—The honour and the fame

Of France's gay and gallant infantry—

So dear, so cherished all the Empire through—

Binds us to compass it!

     Maintain the ranks;

Let none be thinned by impulse or excuse

Of bearing back the wounded: and, in fine,

Be every one in this conviction firm:—

That 'tis our sacred bond to overthrow

These hirelings of a country not their own:

Yea, England's hirelings, they!—a realm stiff-steeled

In deathless hatred of our land and lives.

"The campaign closes with this victory;

And we return to find our standards joined

By vast young armies forming now in France.

Forthwith resistless, Peace establish we,

Worthy of you, the nation, and of me!"

      "NAPOLEON."

             
[To his Marshals]

So shall we prostrate these paid slaves of hers—

England's, I mean—the root of all the war.

VOICE OF MURAT

The further details sent of Trafalgar

Are not assuring.

VOICE OF LANNES

What may the details be?

VOICE OF NAPOLEON
[moodily]

We learn that six-and-twenty ships of war,

During the fight and after, struck their flags,

And that the tigerish gale throughout the night

Gave fearful finish to the English rage.

By luck their Nelson's gone, but gone withal

Are twenty thousand prisoners, taken off

To gnaw their finger-nails in British hulks.

Of our vast squadrons of the summer-time

But rags and splintered remnants now remain.—

Thuswise Villeneuve, poor craven, quitted him!

And England puffed to yet more bombastry.

—Well, well; I can't be everywhere.  No matter;

A victory's brewing here as counterpoise!

These water-rats may paddle in their salt slush,

And welcome.  'Tis not long they'll have the lead.

Ships can be wrecked by land!

ANOTHER VOICE

     And how by land,

Your Majesty, if one may query such?

VOICE OF NAPOLEON
[sardonically]

I'll bid all states of Europe shut their ports

To England's arrogant bottoms, slowly starve

Her bloated revenues and monstrous trade,

Till all her hulls lie sodden in their docks,

And her grey island eyes in vain shall seek

One jack of hers upon the ocean plains!

VOICE OF SOULT

A few more master-strokes, your Majesty,

Must be dealt hereabout to compass such!

VOICE OF NAPOLEON

God, yes!—Even here Pitt's guineas are the foes:

'Tis all a duel 'twixt this Pitt and me;

And, more than Russia's host, and Austria's flower,

I everywhere to-night around me feel

As from an unseen monster haunting nigh

His country's hostile breath!—But come: to choke it

By our to-morrow's feats, which now, in brief,

I recapitulate.—First Soult will move

To forward the grand project of the day:

Namely: ascend in echelon, right to front,

With Vandamme's men, and those of Saint Hilaire:

Legrand's division somewhere further back—

Nearly whereat I place my finger here—

To be there reinforced by tirailleurs:

Lannes to the left here, on the Olmutz road,

Supported by Murat's whole cavalry.

While in reserve, here, are the grenadiers

Of Oudinot, the corps of Bernadotte,

Rivaud, Drouet, and the Imperial Guard.

MARSHAL'S VOICES

Even as we understood, Sire, and have ordered.

Nought lags but day, to light our victory!

VOICE OF NAPOLEON

Now let us up and ride the bivouacs round,

And note positions ere the soldiers sleep.

—Omit not from to-morrow's home dispatch

Direction that this blow of Trafalgar

Be hushed in all the news-sheets sold in France,

Or, if reported, let it be portrayed

As a rash fight whereout we came not worst,

But were so broken by the boisterous eve

That England claims to be the conqueror.

[There emerge from the tent NAPOLEON and the marshals, who all

mount the horses that are led up, and proceed through the frost

and time towards the bivouacs.  At the Emperor's approach to the

nearest soldiery they spring up.]

SOLDIERS

The Emperor!  He's here!  The Emperor's here!

AN OLD GRENADIER
[approaching Napoleon familiarly]

We'll bring thee Russian guns and flags galore.

To celebrate thy coronation-day!

[They gather into wisps the straw, hay, and other litter on which

they have been lying, and kindling these at the dying fires, wave