Complete Works of Thomas Hardy (Illustrated) (1039 page)

ALEXANDER
[in a low voice, looking anxiously at her]

     Say not so.

You speak as all were lost.  Things are not thus!

Such desperation has unreason in it,

And bleeds the hearts that crave to comfort you.

NAPOLEON
[to the King]

I trust the treaty, further pondered, sire,

Has consolations?

KING
[curtly]

     I am a luckless man;

And muster strength to bear my lucklessness

Without vain hope of consolations now.

One thing, at least, I trust I have shown you, sire

That
I
provoked not this calamity!

At Anspach first my feud with you began—

Anspach, my Eden, violated and shamed

By blushless tramplings of your legions there!

NAPOLEON

It's rather late, methinks, to talk thus now.

KING
[with more choler]

Never too late for truth and plainspeaking!

NAPOLEON
[blandly]

To your ally, the Tsar, I must refer you.

He was it, and not I, who tempted you

To push for war, when Eylau must have shown

Your every profit to have lain in peace.—

He can indemn; yes, much or small; and may.

KING
[with a head-shake]

I would make up, would well make up, my mind

To half my kingdom's loss, could in such limb

But Magdeburg not lie.  Dear Magdeburg,

Place of my heart-hold; THAT I would retain!

NAPOLEON

Our words take not such pattern as is wont

To grace occasions of festivity.

[He turns brusquely from the King.  The banquet proceeds with a

more general conversation.  When finished a toast is proposed:

"The Freedom of the Seas," and drunk with enthusiasm.]

SPIRIT SINISTER

Another hit at England and her tubs!

I hear harsh echoes from her chalky chines.

SPIRIT OF THE PITIES

O heed not England now!  Still read the Queen.

One grieves to see her spend her pretty spells

Upon the man who has so injured her.

[They rise from table, and the folding-doors being opened they pass

into the adjoining room.

Here are now assembled MURAT, TALLEYRAND, KOURAKIN, KALKREUTH,

BERTHIER, BESSIERES, CAULAINCOURT, LABANOFF, BENNIGSEN, and others.

NAPOLEON having spoken a few words here and there resumes his

conversation with QUEEN LOUISA, and parenthetically offers snuff

to the COUNTESS VOSS, her lady-in-waiting.  TALLEYRAND, who has

observed NAPOLEON'S growing interest in the QUEEN, contrives to

get near him.]

TALLEYRAND
[in a whisper]

Sire, is it possible that you can bend

To let one woman's fairness filch from you

All the resplendent fortune that attends

The grandest victory of your grand career?

[The QUEEN'S quick eye observes and flashes at the whisper, and

she obtains a word with the minister.]

QUEEN
[sarcastically]

I should infer, dear Monsieur Talleyrand,

Only two persons in the world regret

My having come to Tilsit.

TALLEYRAND

     Madame, two?

Can any!—who may such sad rascals be?

QUEEN

You, and myself, Prince. 
[Gravely.]
  Yes! myself and you.

[TALLEYRAND'S face becomes impassive, and he does not reply.

Soon the QUEEN prepares to leave, and NAPOLEON rejoins her.]

NAPOLEON
[taking a rose from a vase]

Dear Queen, do pray accept this little token

As souvenir of me before you go?

[He offers her the rose, with his hand on his heart.  She

hesitates, but accepts it.]

QUEEN
[impulsively, with waiting tears]

Let Magdeburg come with it, sire!  O yes!

NAPOLEON
[with sudden frigidity]

It is for you to take what I can give.

And I give this—no more.

[She turns her head to hide her emotion, and withdraws.  NAPOLEON

steps up to her, and offers his arm.  She takes it silently, and

he perceives the tears on her cheeks.  They cross towards the ante-

room, away from the other guests.]

NAPOLEON
[softly]

Still weeping, dearest lady!  Why is this?

QUEEN
[seizing his hand and pressing it]

Your speeches darn the tearings of your sword!—

Between us two, as man and woman now,

Is't even possible you question why!

O why did not the Greatest of the Age—

Of future ages—of the ages past,

This one time win a woman's worship—yea,

For all her little life!

NAPOLEON
[gravely]

     Know you, my Fair

That I—ay, I—in this deserve your pity.—

Some force within me, baffling mine intent,

Harries me onward, whether I will or no.

My star, my star is what's to blame—not I.

It is unswervable!

QUEEN

     Then now, alas!

My duty's done as mother, wife, and queen.—

I'll say no more—but that my heart is broken!

[Exeunt NAPOLEON, QUEEN, and LADY-IN-WAITING.]

SPIRIT OF THE YEARS

He spoke thus at the Bridge of Lodi.  Strange,

He's of the few in Europe who discern

The working of the Will.

SPIRIT OF THE PITIES

          If that be so,

Better for Europe lacked he such discerning!

[NAPOLEON returns to the room and joins TALLEYRAND.]

NAPOLEON
[aside to his minister]

My God, it was touch-and-go that time, Talleyrand!  She was within

an ace of getting over me.  As she stepped into the carriage she

said in her pretty way, "O I have been cruelly deceived by you!"

And when she sank down inside, not knowing I heard, she burst into

sobs fit to move a statue.  The Devil take me if I hadn't a good

mind to stop the horses, jump in, give her a good kissing, and

agree to all she wanted.  Ha-ha, well; a miss is as good as a mile.

Had she come sooner with those sweet, beseeching blue eyes of hers,

who knows what might not have happened!  But she didn't come sooner,

and I have kept in my right mind.

[The RUSSIAN EMPEROR, the KING OF PRUSSIA, and other guests advance

to bid adieu.  They depart severally.  When they are gone NAPOLEON

turns to TALLEYRAND.]

Adhere, then, to the treaty as it stands:

Change not therein a single article,

But write it fair forthwith.

[Exeunt NAPOLEON, TALLEYRAND, and other ministers and officers in

waiting.[

SHADE OF THE EARTH

Some surly voice afar I heard now

Of an enisled Britannic quality;

Wots any of the cause?

SPIRIT IRONIC

          Perchance I do!

Britain is roused, in her slow, stolid style,

By Bonaparte's pronouncement at Berlin

Against her cargoes, commerce, life itself;

And now from out her water citadel

Blows counterblasting "Orders."  Rumours tell.

RUMOUR I

"From havens of fierce France and her allies,

With poor or precious freight of merchandize

Whoso adventures, England pounds as prize!"

RUMOUR II

Thereat Napoleon names her, furiously,

Curst Oligarch, Arch-pirate of the sea,

Who shall lack room to live while liveth he!

CHORUS OF THE PITIES [aerial music]

And peoples are enmeshed in new calamity!

[Curtain of Evening Shades.]

ACT SECOND

SCENE I

THE PYRENEES AND VALLEYS ADJOINING

[The view is from upper air, immediately over the region that

lies between Bayonne on the north, Pampeluna on the south, and

San Sebastian on the west, including a portion of the Cantabrian

mountains.  The month is February, and snow covers not only the

peaks but the lower slopes.  The roads over the passes are well

beaten.]

DUMB SHOW

At various elevations multitudes of NAPOLEON'S soldiery, to the

number of about thirty thousand, are discerned in a creeping

progress across the frontier from the French to the Spanish side.

The thin long columns serpentine along the roads, but are sometimes

broken, while at others they disappear altogether behind vertical

rocks and overhanging woods.  The heavy guns and the whitey-brown

tilts of the baggage-waggons seem the largest objects in the

procession, which are dragged laboriously up the incline to the

watershed, their lumbering being audible as high as the clouds.

Simultaneously the river Bidassoa, in a valley to the west, is

being crossed by a train of artillery and another thirty thousand

men, all forming part of  the same systematic advance.

Along the great highway through Biscay the wondering native

carters draw their sheep-skinned ox-teams aside, to let the

regiments pass, and stray groups of peaceable field-workers

in Navarre look inquiringly at the marching and prancing

progress.

Time passes, and the various northern strongholds are approached

by these legions.  Their governors emerge at a summons, and when

seeming explanations have been given the unwelcome comers are

doubtfully admitted.

The chief places to which entrance is thus obtained are Pampeluna

and San Sebastian at the front of the scene, and far away towards

the shining horizon of the Mediterranean, Figueras, and Barcelona.

Dumb Show concludes as the mountain mists close over.

SCENE II

ARANJUEZ, NEAR MADRID.  A ROOM IN THE PALACE OF GODOY, THE "PRINCE

  OF PEACE"

[A private chamber is disclosed, richly furnished with paintings,

vases, mirrors, silk hangings, gilded lounges, and several lutes

of rare workmanship.  The hour is midnight, the room being lit

by screened candelabra.  In the centre at the back of the scene

is a large window heavily curtained.

GODOY and the QUEEN MARIA LUISA are dallying on a sofa.  THE

PRINCE OF PEACE is a fine handsome man in middle life, with

curled hair and a mien of easy good-nature.  The QUEEN is older,

but looks younger in the dim light, from the lavish use of

beautifying arts.  She has pronounced features, dark eyes, low

brows, black hair bound by a jewelled bandeau, and brought forward

in curls over her forehead and temples, long heavy ear-rings, an

open bodice, and sleeves puffed at the shoulders.  A cloak and

other mufflers lie on a chair beside her.]

GODOY

The life-guards still insist, Love, that the King

Shall not leave Aranjuez.

QUEEN

     Let them insist.

Whether we stay, or whether we depart,

Napoleon soon draws hither with his host!

GODOY

He says he comes pacifically.... But no!

QUEEN

Dearest, we must away to Andalusia,

Thence to America when time shall serve.

GODOY

I hold seven thousand men to cover us,

And ships in Cadiz port.  But then—the Prince

Flatly declines to go.  He lauds the French

As true deliverers.

QUEEN

     Go Fernando MUST!...

O my sweet friend, that we—our sole two selves—

Could but escape and leave the rest to fate,

And in a western bower dream out our days!—

For the King's glass can run but briefly now,

Shattered and shaken as his vigour is.—

But ah—your love burns not in singleness!

Why, dear, caress Josefa Tudo still?

She does not solve her soul in yours as I.

And why those others even more than her?...

How little own I in thee!

GODOY

     Such must be.

I cannot quite forsake them.  Don't forget

The same scope has been yours in former years.

QUEEN

Yes, Love; I know.  I yield!  You cannot leave them;

But if you ever would bethink yourself

How long I have been yours, how truly all

Those other pleasures were my desperate shifts

To soften sorrow at your absences,

You would be faithful to me!

GODOY

     True, my dear.—

Yet I do passably keep troth with you,

And fond you with fair regularity;—

A week beside you, and a week away.

Such is not schemed without some risk and strain.—

And you agreed Josefa should be mine,

And, too, Thereza without jealousy! 
[A noise is heard without.]

Ah, what means that?