Complete Works of Thomas Hardy (Illustrated) (1084 page)

D'Erlon's, Lobau's, and Reille's foot-cannoniers,

And horse-drawn ordnance too, on massy wheels,

To strike with cavalry where space appears.

SEMICHORUS II

The English front, to left, as flanking force,

Has Vandeleur's hussars, and Vivian's horse;

Next them pace Picton's rows along the crest;

The Hanoverian foot-folk; Wincke; Best;

Bylandt's brigade, set forward fencelessly,

Pack's northern clansmen, Kempt's tough infantry,

With gaiter, epaulet, spat, and {philibeg};

While Halkett, Ompteda, and Kielmansegge

Prolong the musters, near whose forward edge

Baring invests the Farm of Holy Hedge.

SEMICHORUS I

Maitland and Byng in Cooke's division range,

And round dun Hougomont's old lichened sides

A dense array of watching Guardsmen hides

Amid the peaceful produce of the grange,

Whose new-kerned apples, hairy gooseberries green,

And mint, and thyme, the ranks intrude between.—

Last, westward of the road that finds Nivelles,

Duplat draws up, and Adam parallel.

SEMICHORUS II

The second British line—embattled horse—

Holds the reverse slopes, screened, in ordered course;

Dornberg's, and Arentsschildt's, and Colquhoun-Grant's,

And left of them, behind where Alten plants

His regiments, come the "Household" Cavalry;

And nigh, in Picton's rear, the trumpets call

The "Union" brigade of Ponsonby.

Behind these the reserves.  In front of all,

Or interspaced, with slow-matched gunners manned,

Upthroated rows of threatful ordnance stand.

[The clock of Nivelles convent church strikes eleven in the

distance.  Shortly after, coils of starch-blue smoke burst into

being along the French lines, and the English batteries respond

promptly, in an ominous roar that can be heard at Antwerp.

A column from the French left, six thousand strong, advances on

the plantation in front of the chateau of Hougomont.  They are

played upon by the English ordnance; but they enter the wood,

and dislodge some battalions there.  The French approach the

buildings, but are stopped by a loop-holed wall with a mass of

English guards behind it.  A deadly fire bursts from these through

the loops and over the summit.

NAPOLEON orders a battery of howitzers to play upon the building.

Flames soon burst from it; but the foot-guards still hold the

courtyard.]

SCENE II

THE SAME.  THE FRENCH POSITION

[On a hillock near the farm of Rossomme a small table from the

farmhouse has been placed; maps are spread thereon, and a chair

is beside it.  NAPOLEON, SOULT, and other marshals are standing

round, their horses waiting at the base of the slope.

NAPOLEON looks through his glass at Hougomont.  His elevated face

makes itself distinct in the morning light as a gloomy resentful

countenance, blue-black where shaven, and stained with snuff, with

powderings of the same on the breast of his uniform.  His stumpy

figure, being just now thrown back, accentuates his stoutness.]

NAPOLEON

Let Reille be warned that these his surly sets

On Hougomont chateau, can scarce defray

Their mounting bill of blood.  They do not touch

The core of my intent—to pierce and roll

The centre upon the right of those opposed.

Thereon will turn the outcome of the day,

In which our odds are ninety to their ten!

SOULT

Yes—prove there time and promptitude enough

To call back Grouchy here.  Of his approach

I see no sign.

NAPOLEON
[roughly]

     Hours past he was bid come.

—But naught imports it!  We are enough without him.

You have been beaten by this Wellington,

And so you think him great.  But let me teach you

Wellington is no foe to reckon with.

His army, too, is poor.  This clash to-day

Is more serious for our seasoned files

Than breakfasting.

SOULT

Such is my earnest hope.

NAPOLEON

Observe that Wellington still labours on,

Stoutening his right behind Gomont chateau,

But leaves his left and centre as before—

Weaker, if anything.  He plays our game!

[WELLINGTON can, in fact, be seen detaching from his main line

several companies of Guards to check the aims of the French on

Hougomont.]

Let me re-word my tactics.  Ney leads off

By seizing Mont Saint-Jean.  Then d'Erlon stirs,

And heaves up his division from the left.

The second corps will move abreast of him

The sappers nearing to entrench themselves

Within the aforesaid farm.

[Enter an aide-de-camp.]

AIDE

     From Marshal Ney,

Sire, I bring hasty word that all is poised

To strike the vital stroke, and only waits

Your Majesty's command,

NAPOLEON

     Which he shall have

When I have scanned the hills for Grouchy's helms.

[NAPOLEON turns his glass to an upland four or five miles off on

the right, known as St. Lambert's Chapel Hill.  Gazing more and

more intently, he takes rapid pinches of snuff in excitement.

NEY'S columns meanwhile standing for the word to advance, eighty

guns being ranged in front of La Belle Alliance in support of them.]

I see a darkly crawling, slug-like shape

Embodying far out there,—troops seemingly—

Grouchy's van-guard.  What think you?

SOULT
[also examining closely]

     Verily troops;

And, maybe, Grouchy's.  But the air is hazed.

NAPOLEON

If troops at all, they are Grouchy's.  Why misgive,

And force on ills you fear!

ANOTHER MARSHAL

     It seems a wood.

Trees don bold outlines in their new-leafed pride.

ANOTHER MARSHAL

It is the creeping shadow from a cloud.

ANOTHER MARSHAL

It is a mass of stationary foot;

I can descry piled arms.

[NAPOLEON  sends off the order for NEY'S attack—the grand assault

on the English midst, including the farm of La Haye Sainte.  It

opens with a half-hour's thunderous discharge of artillery, which

ceases at length to let d'Erlon's infantry pass.

Four huge columns of these, shouting defiantly, push forwards in

face of the reciprocal fire from the cannon of the English.  Their

effrontery carries them so near the Anglo-Allied lines that the

latter waver.  But PICTON brings up PACK'S brigade, before which

the French in turn recede, though they make an attempt in La Haye

Sainte, whence BARING'S Germans pour a resolute fire.

WELLINGTON, who is seen afar as one of a group standing by a

great elm, orders OMPTEDA to send assistance to BARING, as may

be gathered from the darting of aides to and fro between the

points, like house-flies dancing their quadrilles.

East of the great highway the right columns of D'ERLON'S corps

have climbed the slopes.  BYLANDT'S sorely exposed Dutch are

broken, and in their flight disorder the ranks of the English

Twenty-eighth, the Carabineers of the Ninety-fifth being also

dislodged from the sand-pit they occupied.]

NAPOLEON

All prospers marvellously!  Gomont is hemmed;

La Haye Sainte too; their centre jeopardized;

Travers and d'Erlon dominate the crest,

And further strength of foot is following close.

Their troops are raw; the flower of England's force

That fought in Spain, America now holds.—

[SIR TOMAS PICTON, seeing what is happening orders KEMPT'S

brigade forward.  It volleys murderously DONZELOT'S columns

of D'ERLON'S corps, and repulses them.  As they recede PICTON

is beheld shouting an order to charge.]

SPIRIT OF RUMOUR

I catch a voice that cautions Picton now

Against his rashness.  "What the hell care I,—

Is my curst carcase worth a moment's mind?—

Come on!" he answers.  Onwardly he goes!

[His tall, stern, saturnine figure with its bronzed complexion is

on nearer approach discerned heading the charge.  As he advances

to the slope between the cross-roads and the sand-pit, riding very

conspicuously, he falls dead, a bullet in his forehead.  His aide,

assisted by a soldier, drags the body beneath a tree and hastens

on.  KEMPT takes his command.

Next MARCOGNET is repulsed by PACK'S brigade.  D'ERLON'S infantry

and TRAVERS'S cuirassiers are charged by the Union Brigade of

Scotch Greys, Royal Dragoons, and Inniskillens, and cut down

everywhere, the brigade following them so furiously the LORD

UXBRIDGE tries in vain to recall it.  On its coming near the

French it is overwhelmed by MILHAUD'S cuirassiers, scarcely a

fifth of the brigade returning.

An aide enters to NAPOLEON from GENERAL DOMON.]

AIDE

The General, on a far reconnaissance,

Says, sire, there is no room for longer doubt

That those debouching on St. Lambert's Hill

Are Prussian files.

NAPOLEON

Then where is General Grouchy?

[Enter COLONEL MARBOT with a prisoner.]

Aha—a Prussian, too!  How comes he here?

MARBOT

Sire, my hussars have captured him near Lasnes—

A subaltern of the Silesian Horse.

A note from Bulow to Lord Wellington,

Announcing that a Prussian corps is close,

Was found on him.  He speaks our language, sire.

NAPOLEON
[to prisoner]

What force looms yonder on St. Lambert's Hill?

PRISONER

General Count Bulow's van, your Majesty.

[A thoughtful scowl crosses NAPOLEONS'S sallow face.]

NAPOLEON

Where, then, did your main army lie last night?

PRISONER

At Wavre.

NAPOLEON

But clashed it with no Frenchmen there?

PRISONER

With none.  We deemed they had marched on Plancenoit.

NAPOLEON
[shortly]

Take him away. 
[The prisoner is removed.]
  Has Grouchy's whereabouts

Been sought, to apprize him of this Prussian trend?

SOULT

Certainly, sire.  I sent a messenger.

NAPOLEON
[bitterly]

A messenger!  Had my poor Berthier been here

Six would have insufficed!  Now then: seek Ney;

Bid him to sling the valour of his braves

Fiercely on England ere Count Bulow come;

And advertize the succours on the hill

As Grouchy's. 
[Aside]
  This is my one battle-chance;

The Allies have many such! 
[To SOULT]
  If Bulow nears,

He cannot join in time to share the fight.

And if he could, 'tis but a corps the more....

This morning we had ninety chances ours,

We have threescore still.  If Grouchy but retrieve

His fault of absence, conquest comes with eve!

[The scene shifts.]

SCENE III

SAINT LAMBERT'S CHAPEL HILL

[A hill half-way between Wavre and the fields of Waterloo, five

miles to the north-east of the scene preceding.  The hill is

wooded, with some open land around.  To the left of the scene,

towards Waterloo, is a valley.]

DUMB SHOW

Marching columns in Prussian uniforms, coming from the direction of

Wavre, debouch upon the hill from the road through the wood.

They are the advance-guard and two brigades of Bulow's corps, that

have been joined there by BLUCHER.  The latter has just risen from

the bed to which he has been confined since the battle of Ligny,

two days back.  He still looks pale and shaken by the severe fall

and trampling he endured near the end of the action.

On the summit the troops halt, and a discussion between BLUCHER and

his staff ensues.

The cannonade in the direction of Waterloo is growing more and more

violent.  BLUCHER, after looking this way and that, decides to fall

upon the French right at Plancenoit as soon as he can get there,

which will not be yet.

Between this point and that the ground descends steeply to the

valley on the spectator's left, where there is a mud-bottomed

stream, the Lasne; the slope ascends no less abruptly on the other

side towards Plancenoit.  It is across this defile alone that the

Prussian army can proceed thither- a route of unusual difficulty

for artillery; where, moreover, the enemy is suspected of having