Complete Works of Thomas Hardy (Illustrated) (1070 page)

SCENE V

THE SAME.  A STREET NEAR THE RANSTADT GATE

[High old-fashioned houses form the street, along which, from the

east of the city, is streaming a confusion of waggons, in hurried

exit through the gate westward upon the highroad to Lindenau,

Lutzen, and the Rhine.

In front of an inn called the "Prussian Arms" are some attendants

of NAPOLEON waiting with horses.]

FIRST OFFICER

He has just come from bidding the king and queen

A long good-bye.... Is it that they will pay

For his indulgence of their past ambition

By sharing now his ruin?  Much the king

Did beg him to leave them to their lot,

And shun the shame of capture needlessly.

 
[He looks anxiously towards the door.]

I would he'd haste!  Each minute is of price.

SECOND OFFICER

The king will come to terms with the Allies.

They will not hurt him.  Though he has lost his all,

His case is not like ours!

[The cheers of the approaching enemy grow louder.  NAPOLEON comes

out from the "Prussian Arms," haggard and in disordered attire.

He is about to mount, but, perceiving the blocked state of the

street, he hesitates.]

NAPOLEON

     God, what a crowd!

I shall more quickly gain the gate afoot.

There is a byway somewhere, I suppose?

[A citizen approaches out of the inn.]

CITIZEN

This alley, sire, will speed you to the gate;

I shall be honoured much to point the way.

NAPOLEON

Then do, good friend. 
[To attendants]
  Bring on the horses there;

I if arrive soonest I will wait for you.

[The citizen shows NAPOLEON the way into the alley.]

CITIZEN

A garden's at the end, your Majesty,

Through which you pass.  Beyond there is a door

That opens to the Elster bank unbalked.

[NAPOLEON disappears into the alley.  His attendants plunge amid

the traffic with the horses, and thread their way down the street.

Another citizen comes from the door of the inn and greets the

first.]

FIRST CITIZEN

He's gone!

SECOND CITIZEN

I'll see if he succeed.

[He re-enters the inn and soon appears at an upper window.]

FIRST CITIZEN
[from below]

You see him?

SECOND CITIZEN
[gazing]

He is already at the garden-end;

Now he has passed out to the river-brim,

And plods along it toward the Ranstadt Gate....

He finds no horses for him!... And the crowd

Thrusts him about, none recognizing him.

Ah—now the horses do arrive.  He mounts,

And hurries through the arch.... Again I see him—

Now he's upon the causeway in the marsh;

Now rides across the bridge of Lindenau...

And now, among the troops that choke the road

I lose all sight of him.

[A third citizen enters from the direction NAPOLEON has taken.]

THIRD CITIZEN
[breathlessly]

     I have seen him go!

And while he passed the gate I stood i' the crowd

So close I could have touched him!  Few discerned

In one so soiled the erst Arch-Emperor!—

In the lax mood of him who has lost all

He stood inert there, idly singing thin:

"Malbrough s'en va-t-en guerre!"—until his suite

Came up with horses.

SECOND CITIZEN
[still gazing afar]

     Poniatowski's Poles

Wearily walk the level causeway now;

Also, meseems, Macdonald's corps and Reynier's.

The frail-framed, new-built bridge has broken down:

They've but the old to cross by.

FIRST CITIZEN

     Feeble foresight!

They should have had a dozen.

SECOND CITIZEN

     All the corps—

Macdonald's, Poniatowski's, Reynier's—all—

Confusedly block the entrance to the bridge.

And—verily Blucher's troops are through the town,

And are debouching from the Ranstadt Gate

Upon the Frenchmen's rear!

[A thunderous report stops his words, echoing through the city from

the direction in which he is gazing, and rattling all the windows.

A hoarse chorus of cries becomes audible immediately after.]

FIRST, THIRD, ETC., CITIZENS

Ach, Heaven!—what's that?

SECOND CITIZEN

The bridge of Lindenau has been upblown!

SEMICHORUS I OF THE PITIES
[aerial music]

There leaps to the sky and earthen wave,

     And stones, and men, as though

Some rebel churchyard crew updrave

     Their sepulchres from below.

SEMICHORUS II

To Heaven is blown Bridge Lindenau;

     Wrecked regiments reel therefrom;

And rank and file in masses plough

     The sullen Elster-Strom.

SEMICHORUS I

A gulf is Lindenau; and dead

     Are fifties, hundreds, tens;

And every current ripples red

     With marshals' blood and men's.

SEMICHORUS II

The smart Macdonald swims therein,

     And barely wins the verge;

Bold Poniatowski plunges in

     Never to re-emerge!

FIRST CITIZEN

Are not the French across as yet, God save them?

SECOND CITIZEN
[still gazing above]

Nor Reynier's corps, Macdonald's, Lauriston's,

Nor yet the Poles.... And Blucher's troops approach,

And all the French this side are prisoners.

—Now for our handling by the Prussian host;

Scant courtesy for our king!

[Other citizens appear beside him at the window, and further

conversation continues entirely above.]

CHORUS OF IRONIC SPIRITS

The Battle of the Nations now is closing,

   And all is lost to One, to many gained;

The old dynastic routine reimposing,

   The new dynastic structure unsustained.

Now every neighbouring realm is France's warder,

   And smirking satisfaction will be feigned:

The which is seemlier?—so-called ancient order,

   Or that the hot-breath'd war-horse ramp unreined?

[The October night thickens and curtains the scene.]

SCENE VI

THE PYRENEES.  NEAR THE RIVER NIVELLE

[Evening.  The dining-room of WELLINGTON'S quarters.  The table is

laid for dinner.  The battle of the Nivelle has just been fought.

Enter WELLINGTON, HILL, BERESFORD, STEWART, HOPE, CLINTON, COLBORNE,

COLE, KEMPT [with a bound-up wound]
, and other officers.

WELLINGTON

It is strange that they did not hold their grand position more

tenaciously against us to-day.  By God, I don't quite see why we

should have beaten them!

COLBORNE

My impression is that they had the stiffness taken out of them by

something they had just heard of.  Anyhow, startling news of some

kind was received by those of the Eighty-eighth we took in the

signal-redoubt after I summoned the Commandant.

WELLINGTON

Oh, what news?

COLBORNE

I cannot say, my lord,  I only know that the latest number of the

Imperial Gazette
was seen in the hands of some of them before the

capture.  They had been reading the contents, and were cast down.

WELLINGTON

That's interesting.  I wonder what the news could have been?

HILL

Something about Boney's army in Saxony would be most probable.

Though I question if there's time yet for much to have been

decided there.

BERESFORD

Well, I wouldn't say that.  A hell of a lot of things may have

happened there by this time.

COLBORNE

It was tantalizing, but they were just able to destroy the paper

before we could prevent them.

WELLINGTON

Did you question them?

COLBORNE

Oh yes.  But they stayed sulking at being taken, and would tell us

nothing, pretending that they knew nothing.  Whether much were going

on, they said, or little, between the army of the Emperor and the

army of the Allies, it was none of their business to relate it; so

they kept a gloomy silence for the most part.

WELLINGTON

They will cheer up a bit and be more communicative when they have had

some dinner.

COLE

They are dining here, my lord?

WELLINGTON

I sent them an invitation an hour ago, which they have accepted.

I could do no less, poor devils.  They'll be here in a few minutes.

See that they have plenty of Madeira to whet their whistles with.

It well screw them up into a better key, and they'll not be so

reserved.

[The conversation on the day's battle becomes general.  Enter as

guests French officers of the Eighty-eighth regiment now prisoners

on parole.  They are welcomed by WELLINGTON and the staff, and all

sit down to dinner.

For some time the meal proceeds almost in silence; but wine is

passed freely, and both French and English officers become

talkative and merry.

WELLINGTON [to the French Commandant]

More cozy this, sir, than—I'll warrant me—

You found it in that damned redoubt to-day?

COMMANDANT

The devil if 'tis not, monseigneur, sure!

WELLINGTON

So 'tis for us who were outside, by God!

COMMANDANT
[gloomily]

No; we were not at ease!  Alas, my lord,

'Twas more than flesh and blood could do, to fight

After such paralyzing tidings came.

More life may trickle out of men through thought

Than through a gaping wound.

WELLINGTON

     Your reference

Bears on the news from Saxony, I infer?

SECOND FRENCH OFFICER

Yes: on the Emperor's ruinous defeat

At Leipzig city—brought to our startled heed

By one of the
Gazettes
just now arrived.

[All the English officers stop speaking, and listen eagerly.]

WELLINGTON

Where are the Emperor's headquarters now?

COMMANDANT

My lord, there are no headquarters.

WELLINGTON

No headquarters?

COMMANDANT

There are no French headquarters now, my lord,

For there is no French army!  France's fame

Is fouled.  And how, then, could we fight to-day

With our hearts in our shoes!

WELLINGTON

     Why, that bears out

What I but lately said; it was not like

The brave men who have faced and foiled me here

So many a long year past, to give away

A stubborn station quite so readily.

BERESFORD

And what, messieurs, ensued at Leipzig then?

SEVERAL FRENCH OFFICERS

Why, sirs, should we conceal it?  Thereupon

Part of our army took the Lutzen road;

Behind a blown-up bridge.  Those in advance

Arrived at Lutzen with the Emperor—

The scene of our once famous victory!

In such sad sort retreat was hurried on,

Erfurt was gained with Blucher hot at heel.

To cross the Rhine seemed then our only hope;

Alas, the Austrians and the Bavarians

Faced us in Hanau Forest, led by Wrede,

And dead-blocked our escape.

WELLINGTON

Ha.  Did they though?

SECOND FRENCH OFFICER

But if brave hearts were ever desperate,

Sir, we were desperate then!  We pierced them through,

Our loss unrecking.  So by Frankfurt's walls

We fared to Mainz, and there recrossed the Rhine.

A funeral procession, so we seemed,

Upon the long bridge that had rung so oft

To our victorious feet!... What since has coursed

We know not, gentlemen.  But this we know,

That Germany echoes no French footfall!

AN ENGLISH OFFICER

One sees not why it should.

SECOND FRENCH OFFICER

We'll leave it so.

[Conversation on the Leipzig disaster continues till the dinner

ends  The French prisoners courteously take their leave and go

out.]

WELLINGTON

Very good set of fellows.  I could wish

They all were mine!...Well, well; there was no crime

In trying to ascertain these fat events:

They would have sounded soon from other tongues.

HILL

It looks like the first scene of act the last

For our and all men's foe!

WELLINGTON

     I count to meet

The Allies upon the cobble-stones of Paris

Before another half-year's suns have shone.

—But there's some work for us to do here yet:

The dawn must find us fording the Nivelle!

[Exeunt WELLINGTON and officers.  The room darkens.]

ACT FOURTH

SCENE I

THE UPPER RHINE

[The view is from a vague altitude over the beautiful country