Part 12
The Universal-empire plot Demands the rule of that wave-walled spot; And peace with England cometh not!
THE SCENE REOPENS
[A lurid gloom now envelops the Platz and city; and Bonaparte is heard as from the Palace:
VOICE OF NAPOLEON
These monstrous violations being in train Of law and national integrities By English arrogance in things marine, [Which dares to capture simple merchant-craft, In honest quest of harmless merchandize, For crime of kinship to a hostile power] Our vast, effectual, and majestic strokes In this unmatched campaign, enable me To bar from commerce with the Continent All keels of English frame. Hence I decree:--
SPIRIT OF RUMOUR
This outlines his renowned “Berlin Decree.” Maybe he meditates its scheme in sleep, Or hints it to his suite, or syllables it While shaping, to his scribes.
VOICE OF NAPOLEON
All England's ports to suffer strict blockade; All traffic with that land to cease forthwith; All natives of her isles, wherever met, To be detained as windfalls of the war. All chattels of her make, material, mould, To be good prize wherever pounced upon: And never a bottom hailing from her shores But shall be barred from every haven here. This for her monstrous harms to human rights, And shameless sauciness to neighbour powers!
SPIRIT SINISTER
I spell herein that our excellently high-coloured drama is not played out yet!
SPIRIT OF THE YEARS
Nor will it be for many a month of moans, And summer shocks, and winter-whitened bones.
[The night gets darker, and the Palace outlines are lost.]
## SCENE VII
TILSIT AND THE RIVER NIEMEN
[The scene is viewed from the windows of BONAPARTE'S temporary quarters. Some sub-officers of his suite are looking out upon it.
It is the day after midsummer, about one o'clock. A multitude of soldiery and spectators lines each bank of the broad river which, stealing slowly north-west, bears almost exactly in its midst a moored raft of bonded timber. On this as a floor stands a gorgeous pavilion of draped woodwork, having at each side, facing the respective banks of the stream, a round-headed doorway richly festooned. The cumbersome erection acquires from the current a rhythmical movement, as if it were breathing, and the breeze now and then produces a shiver on the face of the stream.]
DUMB SHOW
On the south-west or Prussian side rides the EMPEROR NAPOLEON in uniform, attended by the GRAND DUKE OF BERG, the PRINCE OF NEUFCHATEL, MARSHAL BESSIERES, DUROC Marshal of the Palace, and CAULAINCOURT Master of the Horse. The EMPEROR looks well, but is growing fat. They embark on an ornamental barge in front of them, which immediately puts off. It is now apparent to the watchers that a precisely similar enactment has simultaneously taken place on the opposite or Russian bank, the chief figure being the EMPEROR ALEXANDER--a graceful, flexible man of thirty, with a courteous manner and good-natured face. He has come out from an inn on that side accompanied by the GRAND DUKE CONSTANTINE, GENERAL BENNIGSEN, GENERAL OUWAROFF, PRINCE LABANOFF, and ADJUTANT- GENERAL COUNT LIEVEN.
The two barges draw towards the raft, reaching the opposite sides of it about the same time, amidst discharges of cannon. Each Emperor enters the door that faces him, and meeting in the centre of the pavilion they formally embrace each other. They retire together to the screened interior, the suite of each remaining in the outer half of the pavilion.
More than an hour passes while they are thus invisible. The French officers who have observed the scene from the lodging of NAPOLEON walk about idly, and ever and anon go curiously to the windows, again to watch the raft.
CHORUS OF THE YEARS [aerial music]
The prelude to this smooth scene--mark well!--were the shocks whereof the times gave token Vaguely to us ere last year's snows shut over Lithuanian pine and pool, Which we told at the fall of the faded leaf, when the pride of Prussia was bruised and broken, And the Man of Adventure sat in the seat of the Man of Method and rigid Rule.
SEMICHORUS I OF THE PITIES
Snows incarnadined were thine, O Eylau, field of the wide white spaces, And frozen lakes, and frozen limbs, and blood iced hard as it left the veins: Steel-cased squadrons swathed in cloud-drift, plunging to doom through pathless places, And forty thousand dead and near dead, strewing the early-lighted plains. Friedland to these adds its tale of victims, its midnight marches and hot collisions, Its plunge, at his word, on the enemy hooped by the bended river and famed Mill stream, As he shatters the moves of the loose-knit nations to curb his exploitful soul's ambitions, And their great Confederacy dissolves like the diorama of a dream.
DUMB SHOW [continues]
NAPOLEON and ALEXANDER emerge from their seclusion, and each is beheld talking to the suite of his companion apparently in flattering compliment. An effusive parting, which signifies itself to be but temporary, is followed by their return to the river shores amid the cheers of the spectators.
NAPOLEON and his marshals arrive at the door of his quarters and enter, and pass out of sight to other rooms than that of the foreground in which the observers are loitering. Dumb show ends.
[A murmured conversation grows audible, carried on by two persons in the crowd beneath the open windows. Their dress being the native one, and their tongue unfamiliar, they seem to the officers to be merely inhabitants gossiping; and their voices continue unheeded.]
FIRST ENGLISH SPY[14] [below]
Did you get much for me to send on?
SECOND ENGLISH SPY
Much; and startling, too. “Why are we at war?” says Napoleon when they met.--“Ah--why!” said t'other.--“Well,” said Boney, “I am fighting you only as an ally of the English, and you are simply serving them, and not yourself, in fighting me.”--“In that case,” says Alexander, “we shall soon be friends, for I owe her as great a grudge as you.”
FIRST SPY
Dammy, go that length, did they!
SECOND SPY
Then they plunged into the old story about English selfishness, and greed, and duplicity. But the climax related to Spain, and it amounted to this: they agreed that the Bourbons of the Spanish throne should be made to abdicate, and Bonaparte's relations set up as sovereigns instead of them.
FIRST SPY
Somebody must ride like hell to let our Cabinet know!
SECOND SPY
I have written it down in cipher, not to trust to memory, and to guard against accidents.--They also agree that France should have the Pope's dominions, Malta, and Egypt; that Napoleon's brother Joseph should have Sicily as well as Naples, and that they would
## partition the Ottoman Empire between them.
FIRST SPY
Cutting up Europe like a plum-pudding. Par nobile fratrum!
SECOND SPY
Then they worthy pair came to poor Prussia, whom Alexander, they say, was anxious about, as he is under engagements to her. It seems that Napoleon agrees to restore to the King as many of his states as will cover Alexander's promise, so that the Tsar may feel free to strike out in this new line with his new friend.
FIRST SPY
Surely this is but surmise?
SECOND SPY
Not at all. One of the suite overheard, and I got round him. There was much more, which I did not learn. But they are going to soothe and flatter the unfortunate King and Queen by asking them to a banquet here.
FIRST SPY
Such a spirited woman will never come!
SECOND SPY
We shall see. Whom necessity compels needs must: and she has gone through an Iliad of woes!
FIRST SPY
It is this Spanish business that will stagger England, by God! And now to let her know it.
FRENCH SUBALTERN [looking out above]
What are those townspeople talking about so earnestly, I wonder? The lingo of this place has an accent akin to English.
SECOND SUBALTERN
No doubt because the races are both Teutonic.
[The spies observe that they are noticed, and disappear in the crowd. The curtain drops.]
## SCENE VIII
THE SAME
[The midsummer sun is low, and a long table in the aforeshown apartment is laid out for a dinner, among the decorations being bunches of the season's roses.
At the vacant end of the room [divided from the dining end by folding-doors, now open] there are discovered the EMPEROR NAPOLEON, the GRAND-DUKE CONSTANTINE, PRINCE HENRY OF PRUSSIA, the PRINCE ROYAL OF BAVARIA, the GRAND DUKE OF BERG, and attendant officers.
Enter the TSAR ALEXANDER. NAPOLEON welcomes him, and the twain move apart from the rest. BONAPARTE placing a chair for his visitor and flinging himself down on another.]
NAPOLEON
The comforts I can offer are not great, Nor is the accommodation more than scant That falls to me for hospitality; But, as it is, accept.
ALEXANDER
It serves well. And to unbrace the bandages of state Is as clear air to incense-stifled souls. What of the Queen?
NAPOLEON
She's coming with the King. We have some quarter-hour to spare or more Before their Majesties are timed for us.
ALEXANDER
Good. I would speak of them. That she should show here After the late events, betokens much! Abasement in so proud a woman's heart [His voice grows tremulous.] Is not without a dash of painfulness. And I beseech you, sire, that you hold out Some soothing hope for her?
NAPOLEON
I have, already!-- Now, sire, to those affairs we entered on: Strong friendship, grown secure, bids me repeat That you have been much duped by your allies.
[ALEXANDER shows mortification.]
Prussia's a shuffler, England a self-seeker, Nobility has shone in you alone. Your error grew of over-generous dreams, And misbeliefs by dullard ministers. By treating personally we speed affairs More in an hour than they in blundering months. Between us two, henceforth, must stand no third. There's peril in it, while England's mean ambition Still works to get us skewered by the ears; And in this view your chiefs-of-staff concur.
ALEXANDER
The judgment of my officers I share.
NAPOLEON
To recapitulate. Nothing can greaten you Like this alliance. Providence has flung My good friend Sultan Selim from his throne, Leaving me free in dealings with the Porte; And I discern the hour as one to end A rule that Time no longer lets cohere. If I abstain, its spoils will go to swell The power of this same England, our annoy; That country which enchains the trade of towns With such bold reach as to monopolize, Among the rest, the whole of Petersburg's-- Ay!--through her purse, friend, as the lender there!-- Shutting that purse, she may incite to--what? Muscovy's fall, its ruler's murdering. Her fleet at any minute can encoop Yours in the Baltic; in the Black Sea, too; And keep you snug as minnows in a glass!
Hence we, fast-fellowed by our mutual foes, Seaward the British, Germany by land, And having compassed, for our common good, The Turkish Empire's due partitioning, As comrades can conjunctly rule the world To its own gain and our eternal fame!
ALEXANDER [stirred and flushed]
I see vast prospects opened!--yet, in truth, Ere you, sire, broached these themes, their outlines loomed Not seldom in my own imaginings; But with less clear a vision than endows So great a captain, statesman, philosoph, As centre in yourself; whom had I known Sooner by some few years, months, even weeks, I had been spared full many a fault of rule. --Now as to Austria. Should we call her in?
NAPOLEON
Two in a bed I have slept, but never three.
ALEXANDER
Ha-ha! Delightful. And, then nextly, Spain?
NAPOLEON
I lighted on some letters at Berlin, Wherein King Carlos offered to attack me. A Bourbon, minded thus, so near as Spain, Is dangerous stuff. He must be seen to soon!... A draft, then, of our treaty being penned, We will peruse it later. If King George Will not, upon the terms there offered him, Conclude a ready peace, he can be forced. Trumpet yourself as France's firm ally, And Austria will fain to do the same: England, left nude to such joint harassment, Must shiver--fall.
ALEXANDER [with naive enthusiasm]
It is a great alliance!
NAPOLEON
Would it were one in blood as well as brain-- Of family hopes, and sweet domestic bliss!
ALEXANDER
Ah--is it to my sister you refer?
NAPOLEON
The launching of a lineal progeny Has been much pressed upon me, much, of late, For reasons which I will not dwell on now. Staid counsellors, my brother Joseph, too, Urge that I loose the Empress by divorce, And re-wive promptly for the country's good. Princesses even have been named for me!-- However this, to-day, is premature, And 'twixt ourselves alone....
The Queen of Prussia must ere long be here: Berthier escorts her. And the King, too, comes. She's one whom you admire?
ALEXANDER [reddening ingenuously]
Yes.... Formerly I had--did feel that some faint fascination Vaguely adorned her form. And, to be plain, Certain reports have been calumnious, And wronged an honest woman.
NAPOLEON
As I knew! But she is wearing thready: why, her years Must be full one-and-thirty, if she's one.
ALEXANDER [quickly]
No, sire. She's twenty-nine. If traits teach more It means that cruel memory gnaws at her As fair inciter to that fatal war Which broke her to the dust!... I do confess [Since now we speak on't] that this sacrifice Prussia is doomed to, still disquiets me. Unhappy King! When I recall the oaths Sworn him upon great Frederick's sepulchre, And--and my promises to his sad Queen, It pricks me that his realm and revenues Should be stript down to the mere half they were!
NAPOLEON [cooly]
Believe me, 'tis but my regard for you Which lets me leave him that! Far easier 'twere To leave him none at all.
[He rises and goes to the window.]
But here they are. No; it's the Queen alone, with Berthier As I directed. Then the King will follow.
ALEXANDER
Let me, sire, urge your courtesy to bestow Some gentle words on her?
NAPOLEON
Ay, ay; I will.
[Enter QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA on the arm of BERTHIER. She appears in majestic garments and with a smile on her lips, so that her still great beauty is impressive. But her eyes bear traces of tears. She accepts NAPOLEON'S attentions with the stormily sad air of a wounded beauty. Whilst she is being received the KING arrives. He is a plain, shy, honest-faced, awkward man, with a wrecked and solitary look. His manner to NAPOLEON is, nevertheless, dignified, and even stiff.
The company move into the inner half of the room, where the tables are, and the folding-doors being shut, they seat themselves at dinner, the QUEEN taking a place between NAPOLEON and ALEXANDER.]
NAPOLEON
Madame, I love magnificent attire; But in the present instance can but note That each bright knot and jewel less adorns The brighter wearer than the wearer it!
QUEEN [with a sigh]
You praise one, sire, whom now the wanton world Has learnt to cease from praising! But such words From such a quarter are of worth no less.
NAPOLEON
Of worth as candour, madame; not as gauge. Your reach in rarity outsoars my scope. Yet, do you know, a troop of my hussars, That last October day, nigh captured you?
QUEEN
Nay! Never a single Frenchman did I see.
NAPOLEON
Not less it was that you exposed yourself, And should have been protected. But at Weimar, Had you but sought me, 'twould have bettered you.
QUEEN
I had no zeal to meet you, sire, alas!
NAPOLEON [after a silence]
And how at Memel do you sport with time?
QUEEN
Sport? I!--I pore on musty chronicles, And muse on usurpations long forgot, And other historied dramas of high wrong!
NAPOLEON
Why con not annals of your own rich age? They treasure acts well fit for pondering.
QUEEN
I am reminded too much of my age By having had to live in it. May Heaven Defend me now, and my wan ghost anon, From conning it again!
NAPOLEON
Alas, alas! Too grievous, this, for one who is yet a queen!
QUEEN
No; I have cause for vials more of grief.-- Prussia was blind in blazoning her power Against the Mage of Earth!... The embers of great Frederick's deeds inflamed her: His glories swelled her to her ruining. Too well has she been punished! [Emotion stops her.]
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.[15]
[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.