Complete Works of Thomas Hardy (Illustrated) (1079 page)

The advance through dense woods by narrow paths takes time.  The

head of the middles and main column forces back some outposts, and

reaches Charleroi, driving out the Prussian general ZIETEN.  It

seizes the bridge over the Sambre and blows up the gates of the

town.

The point of observation now descends close to the scene.

In the midst comes the EMPEROR with the Sappers of the Guard,

the Marines, and the Young Guard.  The clatter brings the scared

inhabitants to their doors and windows.  Cheers arise from some

of them as NAPOLEON passes up the steep street.  Just beyond the

town, in front of the Bellevue Inn, he dismounts.  A chair is

brought out, in which he sits and surveys the whole valley of the

Sambre.  The troops march past cheering him, and drums roll and

bugles blow.  Soon the EMPEROR is found to be asleep.

When the rattle of their passing ceases the silence wakes him.  His

listless eye falls upon a half-defaced poster on a wall opposite—

the Declaration of the Allies.

NAPOLEON
[reading]

"... Bonaparte destroys the only legal title on which his existence

depended.... He has deprived himself of the protection of the law,

and has manifested to the Universe that there can be neither peace

nor truce with him.  The Powers consequently declare that Napoleon

Bonaparte has placed himself without the pale of civil and social

relations, and that as an enemy and disturber of the tranquillity

of the world he has rendered himself liable to public vengeance."

His flesh quivers, and he turns with a start, as if fancying that

some one may be about to stab him in the back.  Then he rises,

mounts, and rides on.

Meanwhile the right column crosses the Sambre without difficulty

at Chatelet, a little lower down; the left column at Marchienne a

little higher up; and the three limbs combine into one vast army.

As the curtain of the mist is falling, the point of vision soars

again, and there is afforded a brief glimpse of what is doing far

away on the other side.  From all parts of Europe long and sinister

black files are crawling hitherward in serpentine lines, like

slowworms through grass.  They are the advancing armies of the

Allies.  The Dumb Show ends.

SCENE II

A BALLROOM IN BRUSSELS

[It is a June midnight at the DUKE AND DUCHESS OF RICHMOND'S.  A

band of stringed instruments shows in the background.  The room

is crowded with a brilliant assemblage of more than two hundred

of the distinguished people sojourning in the city on account of

the war and other reasons, and of local personages of State and

fashion.  The ball has opened with "The White Cockade."

Among those discovered present either dancing or looking on are

the DUKE and DUCHESS as host and hostess, their son and eldest

daughter, the Duchess's brother, the DUKE OF WELLINGTON, the

PRINCE OF ORANGE, the DUKE OF BRUNSWICK, BARON VAN CAPELLEN the

Belgian Secretary of State, the DUKE OF ARENBERG, the MAYOR OF

BRUSSELS, the DUKE AND DUCHESS OF BEAUFORT, GENERAL ALAVA, GENERAL

OUDENARDE, LORD HILL, LORD AND LADY CONYNGHAM, SIR HENRY AND LADY

SUSAN CLINTON, SIR H. AND LADY HAMILTON DALRYMPLE, SIR WILLIAM AND

LADY DE LANCEY, LORD UXBRIDGE, SIR JOHN BYNG, LORD PORTARLINGTON,

LORD EDWARD SOMERSET, LORD HAY, COLONEL ABERCROMBY, SIR HUSSEY

VIVIAN, SIR A. GORDON, SIR W. PONSONBY, SIR DENIS PACK, SIR JAMES

KEMPT, SIR THOMAS PICTON, GENERAL MAITLAND, COLONEL CAMERON, many

other officers, English, Hanoverian, Dutch and Belgian ladies

English and foreign, and Scotch reel-dancers from Highland

regiments.

The "Hungarian Waltz" having also been danced, the hostess calls

up the Highland soldiers to show the foreign guests what a Scotch

reel is like.  The men put their hands on their hips and tread it

out briskly.  While they stand aside and rest "The Hanoverian

Dance" is called.

Enter LIEUTENANT WEBSTER, A.D.C. to the PRINCE OF ORANGE.  The

Prince goes apart with him and receives a dispatch.  After reading

it he speaks to WELLINGTON, and the two, accompanied by the DUKE

OF RICHMOND, retire into an alcove with serious faces.  WEBSTER,

in passing back across the ballroom, exchanges a hasty word with

two of three of the guests known to him, a young officer among

them, and goes out.

YOUNG OFFICER [to partner]

The French have passed the Sambre at Charleroi!

PARTNER

What—does it mean the Bonaparte indeed

Is bearing down upon us?

YOUNG OFFICER

     That is so.

The one who spoke to me in passing out

Is Aide to the Prince of Orange, bringing him

Dispatches from Rebecque, his chief of Staff,

Now at the front, not far from Braine le Comte;

He says that Ney, leading the French van-guard,

Has burst on Quatre-Bras.

PARTNER

     O horrid time!

Will you, then, have to go and face him there?

YOUNG OFFICER

I shall, of  course, sweet.  Promptly too, no doubt.

       
[He gazes about the room.]

See—the news spreads; the dance is paralyzed.

They are all whispering round. 
[The band stops.]
  Here comes

one more,

He's the attache from the Prussian force

At our headquarters.

[Enter GENERAL MUFFLING.  He looks prepossessed, and goes straight

to WELLINGTON and RICHMOND in the alcove, who by this time have

been joined by the DUKE OF BRUNSWICK.]

SEVERAL GUESTS
[at back of room]

     Yes, you see, it's true!

The army will prepare to march at once.

PICTON
[to another general]

I am damn glad we are to be off.  Pottering about her pinned to

petticoat tails—it does one no good, but blasted harm!

ANOTHER GUEST

The ball cannot go on, can it?  Didn't the Duke know the French

were so near?  If he did, how could he let us run risks so coolly?

LADY HAMILTON DALRYMPLE
[to partner]

A deep concern weights those responsible

Who gather in the alcove.  Wellington

Affects a cheerfulness in outward port,

But cannot rout his real anxiety!

[The DUCHESS OF RICHMOND goes to her husband.]

DUCHESS

Ought I to stop the ball?  It hardly seems right to let it continue

if all be true.

RICHMOND

I have put that very question to Wellington, my dear.  He says that

we need not hurry off the guests.  The men have to assemble some

time before the officers, who can stay on here a little longer

without inconvenience; and he would prefer that they should, not to

create a panic in the city, where the friends and spies of Napoleon

are all agog for some such thing, which they would instantly

communicate to him to take advantage of.

DUCHESS

Is it safe to stay on?  Should we not be thinking about getting the

children away?

RICHMOND

There's no hurry at all, even if Bonaparte were really sure to

enter.  But he's never going to set foot in Brussels—don't you

imagine it for a moment.

DUCHESS
[anxiously]

I hope not.  But I wish we had never brought them here!

RICHMOND

It is too late, my dear, to wish that now.  Don't be flurried; make

the people go on dancing.

[The DUCHESS returns to her guests. The DUKE rejoins WELLINGTON,

BRUNSWICK, MUFFLING, and the PRINCE OF ORANGE in the alcove.]

WELLINGTON

We need not be astride till five o'clock

If all the men are marshalled well ahead.

The Brussels citizens must not suppose

They stand in serious peril... He, I think,

Directs his main attack mistakenly;

It should gave been through Mons, not Charleroi.

MUFFLING

The Austrian armies, and the Russian too,

Will show nowhere in this.  The thing that's done,

Be it a historied feat or nine days' fizz,

Will be done long before they join us here.

WELLINGTON

Yes, faith; and 'tis pity.  But, by God,

Blucher, I think, and I can make a shift

To do the business without troubling 'em!

Though I've an infamous army, that's the truth,—

Weak, and but ill-equipped,—and what's as bad,

A damned unpractised staff!

MUFFLING

     We'll hope for luck.

Blucher concentrates certainly by now

Near Ligny, as he says in his dispatch.

Your Grace, I glean, will mass at Quatre-Bras?

WELLINGTON

Ay, now we are sure this move on Charleroi

Is no mere feint.  Though I had meant Nivelles.

Have ye a good map, Richmond, near at hand?

RICHMOND

In the next room there's one. 
[Exit RICHMOND.]

[WELLINGTON calls up various general officers and aides from

other parts of the room.  PICTON, UXBRIDGE, HILL, CLINTON, VIVIAN,

MAITLAND, PONSONBY, SOMERSET, and others join him in succession,

receive orders, and go out severally.]

PRINCE OF ORANGE

As my divisions seem to lie around

The probable point of impact, it behoves me

To start at once, Duke, for Genappe, I deem?

Being in Brussels, all for this damned ball,

The dispositions out there have, so far,

Been made by young Saxe Weimar and Perponcher,

On their own judgment quite.  I go, your Grace?

WELLINGTON

Yes, certainly.  'Tis now desirable.

Farewell!  Good luck, until we meet again,

The battle won!

[Exit PRINCE OF ORANGE, and shortly after, MUFFLING.  RICHMOND

returns with a map, which he spreads out on the table.  WELLINGTON

scans it closely.]

     Napoleon has befooled me,

By God he has,—gained four-and-twenty hours'

Good march upon me!

RICHMOND

What do you mean to do?

WELLINGTON

I have bidden the army concentrate in strength

At Quatre-Bras.  But we shan't stop him there;

So I must fight him HERE. 
[He marks Waterloo with his thumbnail.]

     Well, now I have sped,

All necessary orders I may sup,

And then must say good-bye. 
[To Brunswick.]
  This very day

There will be fighting, Duke.  You are fit to start?

BRUNSWICK
[coming forward]

I leave almost this moment.—Yes, your Grace—

And I sheath not my sword till I have avenged

My father's death.  I have sworn it!

WELLINGTON

     My good friend,

Something too solemn knells beneath your words.

Take cheerful views of the affair in hand,

And fall to't with
sang froid
!

BRUNSWICK

     But I have sworn!

Adieu.  The rendezvous is Quatre-Bras?

WELLINGTON

Just so.  The order is unchanged.  Adieu;

But only till a later hour to-day;

I see it is one o'clock.

[WELLINGTON and RICHMOND go out of the alcove and join the

hostess, BRUNSWICK'S black figure being left there alone.  He

bends over the map for a few seconds.]

SPIRIT OF THE YEARS

O Brunswick, Duke of Deathwounds!  Even as he

For whom thou wear'st that filial weedery

Was waylaid by my tipstaff nine years since,

So thou this day shalt feel his fendless tap,

And join thy sire!

BRUNSWICK
[starting up]

     I am stirred by inner words,

As 'twere my father's angel calling me,—

That prelude to our death my lineage know!

[He stands in a reverie for a moment; then, bidding adieu to the

DUCHESS OF RICHMOND and her daughter, goes slowly out of the

ballroom by a side-door.]

DUCHESS

The Duke of Brunswick bore him gravely here.

His sable shape has stuck me all the eve

As one of those romantic presences

We hear of—seldom see.

WELLINGTON
[phlegmatically]

     Romantic,—well,

It may be so.  Times often, ever since

The Late Duke's death, his mood has tinged him thus.

He is of those brave men who danger see,

And seeing front it,—not of those, less brave

But counted more, who face it sightlessly.

YOUNG OFFICER
[to partner]

The Generals slip away!  I, Love, must take

The cobbled highway soon.  Some hours ago

The French seized Charleroi; so they loom nigh.

PARTNER
[uneasily]

Which tells me that the hour you draw your sword

Looms nigh us likewise!

YOUNG OFFICER

     Some are saying here

We fight this very day.  Rumours all-shaped