Complete Works of Thomas Hardy (Illustrated) (1038 page)

exploitful soul's ambitions,

And their great Confederacy dissolves like the diorama of a dream.

DUMB SHOW
[continues]

NAPOLEON and ALEXANDER emerge from their seclusion, and each is

beheld talking to the suite of his companion apparently in

flattering compliment.  An effusive parting, which signifies

itself to be but temporary, is followed by their return to the

river shores amid the cheers of the spectators.

NAPOLEON and his marshals arrive at the door of his quarters and

enter, and pass out of sight to other rooms than that of the

foreground in which the observers are loitering.  Dumb show ends.

[A murmured conversation grows audible, carried on by two persons

in the crowd beneath the open windows.  Their dress being the

native one, and their tongue unfamiliar, they seem to the officers

to be merely inhabitants gossiping; and their voices continue

unheeded.]

FIRST ENGLISH SPY
[below]

Did you get much for me to send on?

SECOND ENGLISH SPY

Much; and startling, too.  "Why are we at war?" says Napoleon when

they met.—"Ah—why!" said t'other.—"Well," said Boney, "I am

fighting you only as an ally of the English, and you are simply

serving them, and not yourself, in fighting me."—"In that case,"

says Alexander, "we shall soon be friends, for I owe her as great

a grudge as you."

FIRST SPY

Dammy, go that length, did they!

SECOND SPY

Then they plunged into the old story about English selfishness,

and greed, and duplicity.  But the climax related to Spain, and

it amounted to this: they agreed that the Bourbons of the Spanish

throne should be made to abdicate, and Bonaparte's relations set

up as sovereigns instead of them.

FIRST SPY

Somebody must ride like hell to let our Cabinet know!

SECOND SPY

I have written it down in cipher, not to trust to memory, and to

guard against accidents.—They also agree that France should have

the Pope's dominions, Malta, and Egypt; that Napoleon's brother

Joseph should have Sicily as well as Naples, and that they would

partition the Ottoman Empire between them.

FIRST SPY

Cutting up Europe like a plum-pudding.  Par nobile fratrum!

SECOND SPY

Then they worthy pair came to poor Prussia, whom Alexander, they

say, was anxious about, as he is under engagements to her.  It

seems that Napoleon agrees to restore to the King as many of his

states as will cover Alexander's promise, so that the Tsar may

feel free to strike out in this new line with his new friend.

FIRST SPY

Surely this is but surmise?

SECOND SPY

Not at all.  One of the suite overheard, and I got round him.  There

was much more, which I did not learn.  But they are going to soothe

and flatter the unfortunate King and Queen by asking them to a banquet

here.

FIRST SPY

Such a spirited woman will never come!

SECOND SPY

We shall see.  Whom necessity compels needs must: and she has gone

through an Iliad of woes!

FIRST SPY

It is this Spanish business that will stagger England, by God!  And

now to let her know it.

FRENCH SUBALTERN
[looking out above]

What are those townspeople talking about so earnestly, I wonder?  The

lingo of this place has an accent akin to English.

SECOND SUBALTERN

No doubt because the races are both Teutonic.

[The spies observe that they are noticed, and disappear in the

crowd.  The curtain drops.]

SCENE VIII

THE SAME

[The midsummer sun is low, and a long table in the aforeshown

apartment is laid out for a dinner, among the decorations being

bunches of the season's roses.

At the vacant end of the room [divided from the dining end by

folding-doors, now open]
there are discovered the EMPEROR NAPOLEON,

the GRAND-DUKE CONSTANTINE, PRINCE HENRY OF PRUSSIA, the PRINCE

ROYAL OF BAVARIA, the GRAND DUKE OF BERG, and attendant officers.

Enter the TSAR ALEXANDER.  NAPOLEON welcomes him, and the twain

move apart from the rest.  BONAPARTE placing a chair for his

visitor and flinging himself down on another.]

NAPOLEON

The comforts I can offer are not great,

Nor is the accommodation more than scant

That falls to me for hospitality;

But, as it is, accept.

ALEXANDER

     It serves well.

And to unbrace the bandages of state

Is as clear air to incense-stifled souls.

What of the Queen?

NAPOLEON

     She's coming with the King.

We have some quarter-hour to spare or more

Before their Majesties are timed for us.

ALEXANDER

Good.  I would speak of them.  That she should show here

After the late events, betokens much!

Abasement in so proud a woman's heart 
[His voice grows tremulous.]

Is not without a dash of painfulness.

And I beseech you, sire, that you hold out

Some soothing hope for her?

NAPOLEON

     I have, already!—

Now, sire, to those affairs we entered on:

Strong friendship, grown secure, bids me repeat

That you have been much duped by your allies.

[ALEXANDER shows mortification.]

Prussia's a shuffler, England a self-seeker,

Nobility has shone in you alone.

Your error grew of over-generous dreams,

And misbeliefs by dullard ministers.

By treating personally we speed affairs

More in an hour than they in blundering months.

Between us two, henceforth, must stand no third.

There's peril in it, while England's mean ambition

Still works to get us skewered by the ears;

And in this view your chiefs-of-staff concur.

ALEXANDER

The judgment of my officers I share.

NAPOLEON

To recapitulate.  Nothing can greaten you

Like this alliance.  Providence has flung

My good friend Sultan Selim from his throne,

Leaving me free in dealings with the Porte;

And I discern the hour as one to end

A rule that Time no longer lets cohere.

If I abstain, its spoils will go to swell

The power of this same England, our annoy;

That country which enchains the trade of towns

With such bold reach as to monopolize,

Among the rest, the whole of Petersburg's—

Ay!—through her purse, friend, as the lender there!—

Shutting that purse, she may incite to—what?

Muscovy's fall, its ruler's murdering.

Her fleet at any minute can encoop

Yours in the Baltic; in the Black Sea, too;

And keep you snug as minnows in a glass!

Hence we, fast-fellowed by our mutual foes,

Seaward the British, Germany by land,

And having compassed, for our common good,

The Turkish Empire's due partitioning,

As comrades can conjunctly rule the world

To its own gain and our eternal fame!

ALEXANDER
[stirred and flushed]

I see vast prospects opened!—yet, in truth,

Ere you, sire, broached these themes, their outlines loomed

Not seldom in my own imaginings;

But with less clear a vision than endows

So great a captain, statesman, philosoph,

As centre in yourself; whom had I known

Sooner by some few years, months, even weeks,

I had been spared full many a fault of rule.

—Now as to Austria.  Should we call her in?

NAPOLEON

Two in a bed I have slept, but never three.

ALEXANDER

Ha-ha!  Delightful.  And, then nextly, Spain?

NAPOLEON

I lighted on some letters at Berlin,

Wherein King Carlos offered to attack me.

A Bourbon, minded thus, so near as Spain,

Is dangerous stuff.  He must be seen to soon!...

A draft, then, of our treaty being penned,

We will peruse it later.  If King George

Will not, upon the terms there offered him,

Conclude a ready peace, he can be forced.

Trumpet yourself as France's firm ally,

And Austria will fain to do the same:

England, left nude to such joint harassment,

Must shiver—fall.

ALEXANDER
[with naive enthusiasm]

It is a great alliance!

NAPOLEON

Would it were one in blood as well as brain—

Of family hopes, and sweet domestic bliss!

ALEXANDER

Ah—is it to my sister you refer?

NAPOLEON

The launching of a lineal progeny

Has been much pressed upon me, much, of late,

For reasons which I will not dwell on now.

Staid counsellors, my brother Joseph, too,

Urge that I loose the Empress by divorce,

And re-wive promptly for the country's good.

Princesses even have been named for me!—

However this, to-day, is premature,

And 'twixt ourselves alone....

The Queen of Prussia must ere long be here:

Berthier escorts her.  And the King, too, comes.

She's one whom you admire?

ALEXANDER
[reddening ingenuously]

     Yes.... Formerly

I had—did feel that some faint fascination

Vaguely adorned her form.  And, to be plain,

Certain reports have been calumnious,

And wronged an honest woman.

NAPOLEON

     As I knew!

But she is wearing thready: why, her years

Must be full one-and-thirty, if she's one.

ALEXANDER
[quickly]

No, sire.  She's twenty-nine.  If traits teach more

It means that cruel memory gnaws at her

As fair inciter to that fatal war

Which broke her to the dust!... I do confess

[Since now we speak on't]
that this sacrifice

Prussia is doomed to, still disquiets me.

Unhappy King!  When I recall the oaths

Sworn him upon great Frederick's sepulchre,

And—and my promises to his sad Queen,

It pricks me that his realm and revenues

Should be stript down to the mere half they were!

NAPOLEON
[cooly]

Believe me, 'tis but my regard for you

Which lets me leave him that!  Far easier 'twere

To leave him none at all.

[He rises and goes to the window.]

     But here they are.

No; it's the Queen alone, with Berthier

As I directed.  Then the King will follow.

ALEXANDER

Let me, sire, urge your courtesy to bestow

Some gentle words on her?

NAPOLEON

Ay, ay; I will.

[Enter QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA on the arm of BERTHIER.  She

appears in majestic garments and with a smile on her lips, so

that her still great beauty is impressive.  But her eyes bear

traces of tears.  She accepts NAPOLEON'S attentions with the

stormily sad air of a wounded beauty.  Whilst she is being

received the KING arrives.  He is a plain, shy, honest-faced,

awkward man, with a wrecked and solitary look.  His manner to

NAPOLEON is, nevertheless, dignified, and even stiff.

The company move into the inner half of the room, where the

tables are, and the folding-doors being shut, they seat themselves

at dinner, the QUEEN taking a place between NAPOLEON and ALEXANDER.]

NAPOLEON

Madame, I love magnificent attire;

But in the present instance can but note

That each bright knot and jewel less adorns

The brighter wearer than the wearer it!

QUEEN
[with a sigh]

You praise one, sire, whom now the wanton world

Has learnt to cease from praising!  But such words

From such a quarter are of worth no less.

NAPOLEON

Of worth as candour, madame; not as gauge.

Your reach in rarity outsoars my scope.

Yet, do you know, a troop of my hussars,

That last October day, nigh captured you?

QUEEN

Nay!  Never a single Frenchman did I see.

NAPOLEON

Not less it was that you exposed yourself,

And should have been protected.  But at Weimar,

Had you but sought me, 'twould have bettered you.

QUEEN

I had no zeal to meet you, sire, alas!

NAPOLEON
[after a silence]

And how at Memel do you sport with time?

QUEEN

Sport?  I!—I pore on musty chronicles,

And muse on usurpations long forgot,

And other historied dramas of high wrong!

NAPOLEON

Why con not annals of your own rich age?

They treasure acts well fit for pondering.

QUEEN

I am reminded too much of my age

By having had to live in it.  May Heaven

Defend me now, and my wan ghost anon,

From conning it again!

NAPOLEON

     Alas, alas!

Too grievous, this, for one who is yet a queen!

QUEEN

No; I have cause for vials more of grief.—

Prussia was blind in blazoning her power

Against the Mage of Earth!...

The embers of great Frederick's deeds inflamed her:

His glories swelled her to her ruining.

Too well has she been punished! 
[Emotion stops her.]