Complete Works of Thomas Hardy (Illustrated) (1072 page)

MARIE LOUISE
[agitated]

Gallant messieurs, I thank you heartily.

But by the Emperor's biddance I am bound.

He has vowed he'd liefer see me and my son

Blanched at the bottom of the smothering Seine

Than in the talons of the foes of France.—

To keep us sure from such, then, he ordained

Our swift withdrawal with the Ministers

Towards the Loire, if enemies advanced

In overmastering might.  They do advance;

Marshal Marmont and Mortier are repulsed,

And that has come whose hazard he foresaw.

All is arranged; the treasure is awheel,

And papers, seals, and cyphers packed therewith.

OFFICERS
[dubiously]

Yet to leave Paris is to court disaster!

MARIE LOUISE
[with petulance]

I shall do what I say!... I don't know what—

What SHALL I do!

[She bursts into tears and rushes into her bedroom, followed by

the young KING and some of her ladies.  There is a painful silence,

broken by sobbings and expostulations within.  Re-enter one of the

ladies.]

LADY

     She's sorely overthrown;

She flings herself upon the bed distraught.

She says, "My God, let them make up their minds

To one or other of these harrowing ills,

And force to't, and end my agony!"

[An official enters at the main door.]

OFFICIAL

I am sent here by the Minister of War

To her Imperial Majesty the Empress.

[Re-enter MARIE LOUISE and the KING OF ROME.]

Your Majesty, my mission is to say

Imperious need dictates your instant flight.

A vanward regiment of the Prussian packs

Has gained the shadow of the city walls.

MENEVAL

They are armed Europe's scouts!

[Enter CAMBACERES the Arch-Chancellor, COUNT BEAUHARNAIS, CORVISART

the physician, DE BAUSSET, DE CANISY the equerry, and others.]

CAMBACERES

     Your Majesty,

There's not a trice to lose.  The force well-nigh

Of all compacted Europe crowds on us,

And clamours at the walls!

BEAUHARNAIS

     If you stay longer,

You stay to fall into the Cossacks hands.

The people, too, are waxing masterful:

They think the lingering of your Majesty

Makes Paris more a peril for themselves

Than a defence for you.  To fight is fruitless,

And wanton waste of life.  You have nought to do

But go; and I, and all the Councillors,

Will follow you.

MARIE LOUISE

     Then I was right to say

That I would go!  Now go I surely will,

And let none try to hinder me again!

[She prepares to leave.]

KING OF ROME
[crying]

I will not go!  I like to live here best!

Don't go to Rambouillet, mamma; please don't.

It is a nasty place!  Let us stay here.

O Mamma 'Quiou, stay with me here; pray stay!

MARIE LOUISE
[to the Equerry]

Bring him down.

[Exit MARIE LOUISE in tears, followed by ladies-in-waiting and

others.]

DE CANISY

Come now, Monseigneur, come.

[He catches up the boy in his arms and prepares to follow the

Empress.]

KING OF ROME
[kicking]

No, no, no!  I don't want to go away from my house—I don't want to!

Now papa is away I am the master! 
[He clings to the door as the

equerry is bearing him through it.]

DE CANISY

But you must go.

[The child's fingers are pulled away.  Exit DE CANISY with the King

OF ROME, who is heard screaming as he is carried down the staircase.]

MADAME DE MONTESQUIOU

     I feel the child is right!

A premonition has enlightened him.

She ought to stay.  But, ah, the die is cast!

[MADAME DE MONTESQUIOU and the remainder of the party follow, and

the room is left empty.  Enter servants hastily.]

FIRST SERVANT

Sacred God, where are we to go to for grub and good lying to-night?

What are ill-used men to do?

SECOND SERVANT

I trudge like the rest.  All the true philosophers are gone, and the

middling true are going.  I made up my mind like the truest that ever

was as soon as I heard the general alarm beat.

THIRD SERVANT

I stay here.  No Allies are going to tickle our skins.  The storm

which roots—Dost know what a metaphor is, comrade?  I brim with

them at this historic time!

SECOND SERVANT

A weapon of war used by the Cossacks?

THIRD SERVANT

Your imagination will be your ruin some day, my man!  It happens to

be a weapon of wisdom used by me.  My metaphor is one may'st have

met with on the rare times when th'hast been in good society.  Here

it is: The storm which roots the pine spares the p—s—b—d.  Now

do you see?

FIRST AND SECOND SERVANTS

Good!  Your teaching, friend, is as sound as true religion!  We'll

not go.  Hearken to what's doing outside. 
[Carriages are heard

moving.  Servants go to the window and look down.]
  Lord, there's

the Duchess getting in.  Now the Mistress of the Wardrobe; now the

Ladies of the Palace; now the Prefects; now the Doctors.  What a

time it takes!  There are near a dozen berlines, as I am a patriot!

Those other carriages bear treasure.  How quiet the people are!  It

is like a funeral procession.  Not a tongue cheers her!

THIRD SERVANT

Now there will be a nice convenient time for a little good victuals

and drink, and likewise pickings, before the Allies arrive, thank

Mother Molly!

[From a distant part of the city bands are heard playing military

marches.  Guns next resound.  Another servant rushes in.]

FOURTH SERVANT

Montmartre is being stormed, and bombs are falling in the Chaussee

d'Antin!

[Exit fourth servant.]

THIRD SERVANT
[pulling something from his hat]

Then it is time for me to gird my armour on.

SECOND SERVANT

What hast there?

[Third servant holds up a crumpled white cockade and sticks it in

his hair.  The firing gets louder.]

FIRST AND SECOND SERVANTS

Hast got another?

THIRD SERVANT
[pulling out more]

Ay—here they are; at a price.

[The others purchase cockades of third servant.  A military march

is again heard.  Re-enter fourth servant.]

FOURTH SERVANT

The city has capitulated!  The Allied sovereigns, so it is said,

will enter in grand procession to-morrow:  the Prussian cavalry

first, then the Austrian foot, then the Russian and Prussian foot,

then the Russian horse and artillery.  And to cap all, the people

of  Paris are glad of the change.  They have put a rope round the

neck of the statue of Napoleon on the column of the Grand Army, and

are amusing themselves with twitching it and crying "Strangle the

Tyrant!"

SECOND SERVANT

Well, well!  There's rich colours in this kaleidoscopic world!

THIRD SERVANT

And there's comedy in all things—when they don't concern you.

Another glorious time among the many we've had since eighty-nine.

We have put our armour on none too soon.  The Bourbons for ever!

[He leaves, followed by first and second servants.]

FOURTH SERVANT

My faith, I think I'll turn Englishman in my older years, where

there's not these trying changes in the Constitution!

[Follows the others.  The Allies military march waxes louder as

the scene shuts.]

SCENE IV

FONTAINEBLEAU.  A ROOM IN THE PALACE

[NAPOLEON is discovered walking impatiently up and down, and

glancing at the clock every few minutes.  Enter NEY.]

NAPOLEON
[without a greeting]

Well—the result?  Ah, but your looks display

A leaden dawning to the light you bring!

What—not a regency?  What—not the Empress

To hold it in trusteeship for my son?

NEY

Sire, things like revolutions turn back,

But go straight on.  Imperial governance

Is coffined for your family and yourself!

It is declared that military repose,

And France's well-doing, demand of you

Your abdication—unconditioned, sheer.

This verdict of the sovereigns cannot change,

And I have pushed on hot to let you know.

NAPOLEON
[with repression]

I am obliged to you.  You have told me promptly!—

This was to be expected.  I had learnt

Of Marmont's late defection, and the Sixth's;

The consequence I easily inferred.

NEY

The Paris folk are flaked with white cockades;

Tricolors choke the kennels.  Rapturously

They clamour for the Bourbons and for peace.

NAPOLEON
[tartly]

I can draw inferences without assistance!

NEY
[persisting]

They see the brooks of blood that have flowed forth;

They feel their own bereavements; so their mood

Asked no deep reasoning for its geniture.

NAPOLEON

I have no remarks to make on that just now.

I'll think the matter over.  You shall know

By noon to-morrow my definitive.

NEY
[turning to go]

I trust my saying what had to be said

Has not affronted you?

NAPOLEON
[bitterly]

     No; but your haste

In doing it has galled me, and has shown me

A heart that heaves no longer in my cause!

The skilled coquetting of the Government

Has nearly won you from old fellowship!...

Well; till to-morrow, marshal, then Adieu.

[Ney goes.  Enter CAULAINCOURT and MACDONALD.]

Ney has got here before you; and, I deem,

Has truly told me all?

CAULAINCOURT

     We thought at first

We should have had success.  But fate said No;

And abdication, making no reserves,

Is, sire, we are convinced, with all respect,

The only road, if you care not to risk

The Empress; loss of every dignity,

And magnified misfortunes thrown on France.

NAPOLEON

I have heard it all; and don't agree with you.

My assets are not quite so beggarly

That I must close in such a shameful bond!

What—do you rate as naught that I am yet

Full fifty thousand strong, with Augereau,

And Soult, and Suchet true, and many more?

I still may know to play the Imperial game

As well as Alexander and his friends!

So—you will see.  Where are my maps?—eh, where?

I'll trace campaigns to come!  Where's my paper, ink,

To schedule all my generals and my means!

CAULAINCOURT

Sire, you have not the generals you suppose.

MACDONALD

And if you had, the mere anatomy

Of a real army, sire, that's left to you,

Must yield the war.  A bad example tells.

NAPOLEON

Ah—from your manner it is worse, I see,

Than I cognize!... O Marmont, Marmont,—yours,

Yours was the bad sad lead!—I treated him

As if he were a son!—defended him,

Made him a marshal out of sheer affection,

Built, as 'twere rock, on his fidelity!

"Forsake who may," I said, "I still have him."

Child that I was, I looked for faith in friends!...

Then be it as you will.  Ney's manner shows

That even he inclines to Bourbonry.—

I faint to leave France thus—curtailed, pared down

From her late spacious borders.  Of the whole

This is the keenest sword that pierces me....

But all's too late: my course is closed, I see.

I'll do it—now.  Call in Bertrand and Ney;

Let them be witness to my finishing!

[In much agitation he goes to the writing-table and begins drawing

up a paper.  BERTRAND and NEY enter; and behind them are seen

through the doorway the faces of CONSTANT the valet, ROUSTAN the

Mameluke, and other servants.  All wait in silence till the EMPEROR

has done writing.  He turns in his seat without looking up.]

NAPOLEON
[reading]

"It having been declared by the Allies

That the prime obstacle to Europe's peace

Is France's empery by Napoleon,

This ruler, faithful to his oath of old,

Renounces for himself and for his heirs

The throne of France and that of Italy;

Because no sacrifice, even of his life,

Is he averse to make for France's gain."

—And hereto do I sign. 
[He turns to the table and signs.]

[The marshals, moved, rush forward and seize his hand.]

     Mark, marshals, here;

It is a conquering foe I covenant with,

And not the traitors at the Tuileries

Who call themselves the Government of France!

Caulaincourt, go to Paris as before,

Ney and Macdonald too, and hand in this

To Alexander, and to him alone.