Part 26
The sunset slants an ochreous shine Upon the English knapsacked line, Whose glistering bayonets incline As bends the hot pursuit across the plain; And tardily behind them goes Too many a mournful load of those Found wound-weak; while with stealthy crawl, As silence wraps the rear of all, Cloaked creatures of the starlight strip the slain.
## SCENE III
THE SAME. THE ROAD FROM THE TOWN
[With the going down of the sun the English army finds itself in complete possession of the mass of waggons and carriages distantly beheld from the rear--laden with pictures, treasure, flour, vegetables, furniture, finery, parrots, monkeys, and women--most of the male sojourners in the town having taken to their heels and disappeared across the fields.
The road is choked with these vehicles, the women they carry including wives, mistresses, actresses, dancers, nuns, and prostitutes, which struggle through droves of oxen, sheep, goats, horses, asses, and mules-- a Noah's-ark of living creatures in one vast procession.
There enters rapidly in front of this throng a carriage containing KING JOSEPH BONAPARTE and an attendant, followed by another vehicle with luggage.]
JOSEPH [inside carriage]
The bare unblinking truth hereon is this: The Englishry are a pursuing army, And we a flying brothel! See our men-- They leave their guns to save their mistresses!
[The carriage is fired upon from outside the scene. The KING leaps from the vehicle and mounts a horse.
Enter at full gallop from the left CAPTAIN WYNDHAM and a detachment of the Tenth Hussars in chase of the King's carriage; and from the right a troop of French dragoons, who engage with the hussars and hinder pursuit. Exit KING JOSEPH on horseback; afterwards the hussars and dragoons go out fighting.
The British infantry enter irregularly, led by a sergeant of the Eighty-seventh, mockingly carrying MARSHAL JOURDAN'S baton. The crowd recedes. The soldiers ransack the King's carriages, cut from their frames canvases by Murillo, Velasquez, and Zurbaran, and use them as package-wrappers, throwing the papers and archives into the road.
They next go to a waggon in the background, which contains a large chest. Some of the soldiers burst it with a crash. It is full of money, which rolls into the road. The soldiers begin scrambling, but are restored to order; and they march on.
Enter more companies of infantry, out of control of their officers, who are running behind. They see the dollars, and take up the scramble for them; next ransacking other waggons and abstracting therefrom uniforms, ladies raiment, jewels, plate, wines, and spirits.
Some array them in the finery, and one soldier puts on a diamond necklace; others load themselves with the money still lying about the road. It begins to rain, and a private who has lost his kit cuts a hole in the middle of a deframed old master, and, putting it over his head, wears it as a poncho.
Enter WELLINGTON and others, grimy and perspiring.]
FIRST OFFICER
The men are plundering in all directions!
WELLINGTON
Let 'em. They've striven long and gallantly. --What documents do I see lying there?
SECOND OFFICER [examining]
The archives of King Joseph's court, my lord; His correspondence, too, with Bonaparte.
WELLINGTON
We must examine it. It may have use.
[Another company of soldiers enters, dragging some equipages that have lost their horses by the traces being cut. The carriages contain ladies, who shriek and weep at finding themselves captives.]
What women bring they there?
THIRD OFFICER
Mixed sorts, my lord. The wives of many young French officers, The mistresses of more--in male attire. Yon elegant hussar is one, to wit; She so disguised is of a Spanish house,-- One of the general's loves.
WELLINGTON
Well, pack them off To-morrow to Pamplona, as you can; We've neither list nor leisure for their charms. By God, I never saw so many wh---s In all my life before!
[Exeunt WELLINGTON, officers, and infantry. A soldier enters with his arm round a lady in rich costume.]
SOLDIER
We must be married, my dear.
LADY [not knowing his language]
Anything, sir, if you'll spare my life!
SOLDIER
There's neither parson nor clerk here. But that don't matter--hey?
LADY
Anything, sir, if you'll spare my life!
SOLDIER
And if we've got to unmarry at cockcrow, why, so be it--hey?
LADY
Anything, sir, if you'll spare my life!
SOLDIER
A sensible 'ooman, whatever it is she says; that I can see by her pretty face. Come along then, my dear. There'll be no bones broke, and we'll take our lot with Christian resignation.
[Exeunt soldier and lady. The crowd thins away as darkness closes in, and the growling of artillery ceases, though the wheels of the flying enemy are still heard in the distance. The fires kindled by the soldiers as they make their bivouacs blaze up in the gloom, and throw their glares a long way, revealing on the slopes of the hills many suffering ones who have not yet been carried in. The last victorious regiment comes up from the rear, fifing and drumming ere it reaches its resting-place the last bars of “The Downfall of Paris”:--
Transcriber's Note: There follows in musical notation four bars from that song in 2/4 time, key of C--
\\E EF G F\E EF G F\E EC D DB\C \\
## SCENE IV
A FETE AT VAUXHALL
[It is the Vitoria festival at Vauxhall. The orchestra of the renowned gardens exhibits a blaze of lamps and candles arranged in the shape of a temple, a great artificial sun glowing at the top, and under it in illuminated characters the words “Vitoria” and “Wellington.” The band is playing the new air “The Plains of Vitoria.”
All round the colonnade of the rotunda are to be read in the illumination the names of Peninsular victories, underneath them figuring the names of British and Spanish generals who led at those battles, surmounted by wreaths of laurel The avenues stretching away from the rotunda into the gardens charm the eyes with their mild multitudinous lights, while festoons of lamps hang from the trees elsewhere, and transparencies representing scenes from the war.
The gardens and saloons are crowded, among those present being the KING'S sons--the DUKES OF YORK, CLARENCE, KENT, and CAMBRIDGE-- Ambassadors, peers, and peeresses, and other persons of quality, English and foreign.
In the immediate foreground on the left hand is an alcove, the interior of which is in comparative obscurity. Two foreign attaches enter it and sit down.]
FIRST ATTACHE
Ah--now for the fireworks. They are under the direction of Colonel Congreve.
[At the end of an alley, purposely kept dark, fireworks are discharged.]
SECOND ATTACHE
Very good: very good.--This looks like the Duke of Sussex coming in, I think. Who the lady is with him I don't know.
[Enter the DUKE OF SUSSEX in a Highland dress, attended by several officers in like attire. He walks about the gardens with LADY CHARLOTTE CAMPBELL.]
FIRST ATTACHE
People have been paying a mighty price for tickets--as much as fifteen guineas has been offered, I hear. I had to walk up to the gates; the number of coaches struggling outside prevented my driving near. It was as bad as the battle of Vitoria itself.
SECOND ATTACHE
So Wellington is made Field-Marshal for his achievement.
FIRST ATTACHE
Yes. By the by, you have heard of the effect of the battle upon the Conference at Reichenbach?--that Austria is to join Russia and Prussia against France? So much for Napoleon's marriage! I wonder what he thinks of his respected father-in-law now.
SECOND ATTACHE
Of course, an enormous subsidy is paid to Francis by Great Britain for this face-about?
FIRST ATTACHE
Yes. As Bonaparte says, English guineas are at the bottom of everything!--Ah, here comes Caroline.
[The PRINCESS OF WALES arrives, attended by LADY ANNE HAMILTON and LADY GLENBERVIE. She is conducted forward by the DUKE OF GLOUCESTER and COLONEL ST. LEDGER, and wears a white satin train with a dark embroidered bodice, and a green wreath with diamonds.
Repeated hurrahs greet her from the crowd. She bows courteously.]
SECOND ATTACHE
The people are staunch for her still!... You heard, sir, what Austrian Francis said when he learnt of Vitoria?--“A warm climate seems to agree with my son-in-law no better than a cold one.”
FIRST ATTACHE
Ha-ha-ha! Marvellous it is how this loud victory Has couched the late blind Europe's Cabinets. Would I could spell precisely what was phrased 'Twixt Bonaparte and Metternich at Dresden-- Their final word, I ween, till God knows when!--
SECOND ATTACHE
I own to feeling it a sorry thing That Francis should take English money down To throw off Bonaparte. 'Tis sordid, mean! He is his daughter's husband after all.
FIRST ATTACHE
Ay; yes!... They say she knows not of it yet.
SECOND ATTACHE
Poor thing, I daresay it will harry her When all's revealed. But the inside o't is, Since Castlereagh's return to power last year Vienna, like Berlin and Petersburg, Has harboured England's secret emissaries, Primed, purse in hand, with the most lavish sums To knit the league to drag Napoleon down.... [More fireworks.] That's grand.--Here comes one Royal item more.
[The DUCHESS OF YORK enters, attended by her ladies and by the HON. B. CRAVEN and COLONEL BARCLAY. She is received with signals of respect.]
FIRST ATTACHE
She calls not favour forth as Caroline can!
SECOND ATTACHE
To end my words:--Though happy for this realm, Austria's desertion frankly is, by God, Rank treachery!
FIRST ATTACHE
Whatever it is, it means Two hundred thousand swords for the Allies, And enemies in batches for Napoleon Leaping from unknown lairs.--Yes, something tells me That this is the beginning of the end For Emperor Bonaparte!
[The PRINCESS OF WALES prepares to leave. An English diplomatist joins the attaches in the alcove. The PRINCESS and her ladies go out.]
DIPLOMATIST
I saw you over here, and I came round. Cursed hot and crowded, isn't it?
SECOND ATTACHE
What is the Princess leaving so soon for?
DIPLOMATIST
Oh, she has not been received in the Royal box by the other members of the Royal Family, and it has offended her, though she was told beforehand that she could not be. Poor devil! Nobody invited her here. She came unasked, and she has gone unserved.
FIRST ATTACHE
We shall have to go unserved likewise, I fancy. The scramble at the buffets is terrible.
DIPLOMATIST
And the road from here to Marsh Gate is impassable. Some ladies have been sitting in their coaches for hours outside the hedge there. We shall not get home till noon to-morrow.
A VOICE [from the back]
Take care of your watches! Pickpockets!
FIRST ATTACHE
Good. That relieves the monotony a little.
[Excitement in the throng. When it has subsided the band strikes up a country dance, and stewards with white ribbons and laurel leaves are seen bustling about.]
SECOND ATTACHE
Let us go and look at the dancing. It is “Voulez-vous danser”--no, it is not,--it is “Enrico”--two ladies between two gentlemen.
[They go from the alcove.]
SPIRIT OF THE YEARS
From this phantasmagoria let us roam To the chief wheel and capstan of the show, Distant afar. I pray you closely read What I reveal--wherein each feature bulks In measure with its value humanly.
[The beholder finds himself, as it were, caught up on high, and while the Vauxhall scene still dimly twinkles below, he gazes southward towards Central Europe--the contorted and attenuated ecorche of the Continent appearing as in an earlier scene, but now obscure under the summer stars.]
Three cities loom out large: Vienna there, Dresden, which holds Napoleon, over here, And Leipzig, whither we shall shortly wing, Out yonderwards. 'Twixt Dresden and Vienna What thing do you discern?
SPIRIT OF THE PITIES
Something broad-faced, Flat-folded, parchment-pale, and in its shape Rectangular; but moving like a cloud The Dresden way.
SPIRIT OF THE YEARS
Yet gaze more closely on it.
SPIRIT OF THE PITIES
The object takes a letter's lineaments Though swollen to mainsail measure,--magically, I gather from your words; and on its face Are three vast seals, red--signifying blood Must I suppose? It moves on Dresden town, And dwarfs the city as it passes by.-- You say Napoleon's there?
SPIRIT OF THE YEARS
The document, Sized to its big importance, as I told, Bears in it formal declaration, signed, Of war by Francis with his late-linked son, The Emperor of France. Now let us go To Leipzig city, and await the blow.
[A chaotic gloom ensues, accompanied by a rushing like that of a mighty wind.]
ACT THIRD
## SCENE I
LEIPZIG. NAPOLEON'S QUARTERS IN THE REUDNITZ SUBURB
[The sitting-room of a private mansion. Evening. A large stove- fire and candles burning. The October wind is heard without, and the leaded panes of the old windows shake mournfully.]
SEMICHORUS I OF IRONIC SPIRITS [aerial music]
We come; and learn as Time's disordered dear sands run That Castlereagh's diplomacy has wiled, waxed, won. The beacons flash the fevered news to eyes keen bent That Austria's formal words of war are shaped, sealed, sent.
SEMICHORUS II
So; Poland's three despoilers primed by Bull's gross pay To stem Napoleon's might, he waits the weird dark day; His proffered peace declined with scorn, in fell force then They front him, with yet ten-score thousand more massed men.
[At the back of the room CAULAINCOURT, DUKE OF VICENZA, and JOUANNE, one of Napoleon's confidential secretaries, are unpacking and laying out the Emperor's maps and papers. In the foreground BERTHIER, MURAT, LAURISTON, and several officers of Napoleon's suite, are holding a desultory conversation while they await his entry. Their countenances are overcast.]
MURAT
At least, the scheme of marching on Berlin Is now abandoned.
LAURISTON
Not without high words: He yielded and gave order prompt for Leipzig But coldness and reserve have marked his mood Towards us ever since.
BERTHIER
The march hereto He has looked on as a retrogressive one, And that, he ever holds, is courting woe. To counsel it was doubtless full of risk, And heaped us with responsibilities; --Yet 'twas your missive, sire, that settled it [to MURAT]. How stirred he was! “To Leipzig, or Berlin?” He kept repeating, as he drew and drew Fantastic figures on the foolscap sheet,-- “The one spells ruin--t'other spells success, And which is which?”
MURAT [stiffly]
What better could I do? So far were the Allies from sheering off As he supposed, that they had moved in march Full fanfare hither! I was duty-bound To let him know.
LAURISTON
Assuming victory here, If he should let the advantage slip him by As on the Dresden day, he wrecks us all! 'Twas damnable--to ride back from the fight Inside a coach, as though we had not won!
CAULAINCOURT [from the back]
The Emperor was ill: I have ground for knowing.
[NAPOLEON enters.]
NAPOLEON [buoyantly]
Comrades, the outlook promises us well!
MURAT [dryly]
Right glad are we you tongue such tidings, sire. To us the stars have visaged differently; To wit: we muster outside Leipzig here Levies one hundred and ninety thousand strong. The enemy has mustered, OUTSIDE US, Three hundred and fifty thousand--if not more.
NAPOLEON
All that is needful is to conquer them! We are concentred here: they lie a-spread, Which shrinks them to two-hundred-thousand power:-- Though that the urgency of victory Is absolute, I admit.
MURAT
Yea; otherwise The issue will be worse than Moscow, sire!
[MARMONT, DUKE OF RAGUSA [Wellington's adversary in Spain], is announced, and enters.]
NAPOLEON
Ah, Marmont; bring you in particulars?
MARMONT
Some sappers I have taken captive, sire, Say the Allies will be at stroke with us The morning next to to-morrow's.--I am come, Now, from the steeple-top of Liebenthal, Where I beheld the enemy's fires bespot The horizon round with raging eyes of flame:-- My vanward posts, too, have been driven in, And I need succours--thrice ten thousand, say.
NAPOLEON [coldly]
The enemy vexes not your vanward posts; You are mistaken.--Now, however, go; Cross Leipzig, and remain as the reserve.-- Well, gentlemen, my hope herein is this: The first day to annihilate Schwarzenberg, The second Blücher. So shall we slip the toils They are all madding to enmesh us in.
BERTHIER
Few are our infantry to fence with theirs!
NAPOLEON [cheerfully]
We'll range them in two lines instead of three, And so we shall look stronger by one-third.
BERTHIER [incredulously]
Can they be thus deceived, sire?
NAPOLEON
Can they? Yes! With all my practice I can err in numbers At least one-quarter; why not they one-third? Anyhow, 'tis worth trying at a pinch....
[AUGEREAU is suddenly announced.]
Good! I've not seen him yet since he arrived.
[Enter AUGEREAU.
Here you are then at last, old Augereau! You have been looked for long.--But you are no more The Augereau of Castiglione days!
AUGEREAU
Nay, sire! I still should be the Augereau Of glorious Castiglione, could you give The boys of Italy back again to me!
NAPOLEON
Well, let it drop.... Only I notice round me An atmosphere of scopeless apathy Wherein I do not share.
AUGEREAU
There are reasons, sire, Good reasons for despondence! As I came I learnt, past question, that Bavaria Swerves on the very pivot of desertion. This adds some threescore thousand to our foes.
NAPOLEON [irritated]
That consummation long has threatened us!... Would that you showed the steeled fidelity You used to show! Except me, all are slack! [To Murat] Why, even you yourself, my brother-in-law, Have been inclining to abandon me!
MURAT [vehemently]
I, sire? It is not so. I stand and swear The grievous imputation is untrue. You should know better than believe these things, And well remember I have enemies Who ever wait to slander me to you!
NAPOLEON [more calmly]
Ah yes, yes. That is so.--And yet--and yet You have deigned to weigh the feasibility Of treating me as Austria has done!... But I forgive you. You are a worthy man; You feel real friendship for me. You are brave. Yet I was wrong to make a king of you. If I had been content to draw the line At vice-king, as with young Eugene, no more, As he has laboured you'd have laboured, too! But as full monarch, you have foraged rather For your own pot than mine!
[MURAT and the marshal are silent, and look at each other with troubled countenances. NAPOLEON goes to the table at the back, and bends over the charts with CAULAINCOURT, dictating desultory notes to the secretaries.]
SPIRIT IRONIC
A seer might say This savours of a sad Last-Supper talk 'Twixt his disciples and this Christ of war!
[Enter an attendant.]
ATTENDANT
The Saxon King and Queen and the Princess Enter the city gates, your Majesty. They seek the shelter of the civic walls Against the risk of capture by Allies.
NAPOLEON
Ah, so? My friend Augustus, is he near? I will be prompt to meet him when he comes, And safely quarter him. [He returns to the map.]
[An interval. The clock strikes midnight. The EMPEROR rises abruptly, sighs, and comes forward.]
I now retire, Comrades. Good-night, good-night. Remember well All must prepare to grip with gory death In the now voidless battle. It will be A great one and a critical; one, in brief, That will seal France's fate, and yours, and mine!
ALL [fervidly]
We'll do our utmost, by the Holy Heaven!
NAPOLEON
Ah--what was that? [He pulls back the window-curtain.]
SEVERAL
It is our enemies, Whose southern hosts are signalling to their north.
[A white rocket is beheld high in the air. It is followed by a second, and a third. There is a pause, during which NAPOLEON and the rest wait motionless. In a minute or two, from the opposite side of the city, three coloured rockets are sent up, in evident answer to the three white ones. NAPOLEON muses, and lets the curtain drop.]
NAPOLEON
Yes, Schwarzenberg to Blücher.... It must be To show that they are ready. So are we!
[He goes out without saying more. The marshals and other officers withdraw. The room darkens and ends the scene.]
## SCENE II
THE SAME. THE CITY AND THE BATTLEFIELD
[Leipzig is viewed in aerial perspective from a position above the south suburbs, and reveals itself as standing in a plain, with rivers and marshes on the west, north, and south of it, and higher ground to the east and south-east.
At this date it is somewhat in she shape of the letter D, the straight part of which is the river Pleisse. Except as to this side it is surrounded by armies--the inner horseshoe of them being the French defending the city; the outer horseshoe being the Allies about to attack it.
Far over the city--as it were at the top of the D--at Lindenthal, we see MARMONT stationed to meet BLÜCHER when he arrives on that side. To the right of him is NEY, and further off to the right, on heights eastward, MACDONALD. Then round the curve towards the south in order, AUGEREAU, LAURISTON [behind whom is NAPOLEON himself and the reserve of Guards], VICTOR [at Wachau], and PONIATOWSKI, near the Pleisse River at the bottom of the D. Near him are the cavalry of KELLERMANN and MILHAUD, and in the same direction MURAT with his, covering the great avenues of approach on the south.
Outside all these stands SCHWARZENBERG'S army, of which, opposed to MACDONALD and LAURISTON, are KLEINAU'S Austrians and ZIETEN'S Prussians, covered on the flank by Cossacks under PLATOFF. Opposed to VICTOR and PONIATOWSKI are MEERFELDT and Hesse-Homburg's Austrians, WITTGENSTEIN'S Russians, KLEIST'S Prussians, GUILAY'S Austrians, with LICHTENSTEIN'S and THIELMANN'S light troops: thus reaching round across the Elster into the morass on our near left-- the lower point of the D.]
SEMICHORUS I OF RUMOURS [aerial music]
This is the combat of Napoleon's hope, But not of his assurance! Shrunk in power He broods beneath October's clammy cope, While hemming hordes wax denser every hour.
SEMICHORUS II
He knows, he knows that though in equal fight He stand s heretofore the matched of none, A feeble skill is propped by numbers' might, And now three hosts close round to crush out one!
DUMB SHOW
The Leipzig clocks imperturbably strike nine, and the battle which is to decide the fate of Europe, and perhaps the world, begins with three booms from the line of the allies. They are the signal for a general cannonade of devastating intensity.
So massive is the contest that we soon fail to individualize the combatants as beings, and can only observe them as amorphous drifts, clouds, and waves of conscious atoms, surging and rolling together; can only particularize them by race, tribe, and language. Nationalities from the uttermost parts of Asia here meet those from the Atlantic edge of Europe for the first and last time. By noon the sound becomes a loud droning, uninterrupted and breve-like, as from the pedal of an organ kept continuously down.
CHORUS OF RUMOURS
Now triple battle beats about the town, And now contracts the huge elastic ring Of fighting flesh, as those within go down, Or spreads, as those without show faltering!
It becomes apparent that the French have a particular intention, the Allies only a general one. That of the French is to break through the enemy's centre and surround his right. To this end NAPOLEON launches fresh columns, and simultaneously OUDINOT supports VICTOR against EUGENE OF WURTEMBERG'S right, while on the other side of him the cavalry of MILHAUD and KELLERMAN prepares to charge. NAPOLEON'S combination is successful, and drives back EUGENE. Meanwhile SCHWARZENBERG is stuck fast, useless in the marshes between the Pleisse and the Elster.
By three o'clock the Allied centre, which has held out against the assaults of the French right and left, is broken through by cavalry under MURAT, LATOUR-MAUBOURG, and KELLERMANN.
The bells of Leipzig ring.
CHORUS OF THE PITIES
Those chimings, ill-advised and premature! Who knows if such vast valour will endure?