Part 9
[Midnight at the quarters of FIELD-MARSHAL PRINCE KUTUZOF at Kresnowitz. An inner apartment is discovered, roughly adapted as a council-room. On a table with candles is unfolded a large map of Austerlitz and its environs.
The Generals are assembled in consultation round the table, WEIROTHER pointing to the map, LANGERON, BUXHOVDEN, and MILORADOVICH standing by, DOKHTOROF bending over the map, PRSCHEBISZEWSKY[13] indifferently walking up and down. KUTUZOF, old and weary, with a scarred face and only one eye, is seated in a chair at the head of the table, nodding, waking, and nodding again. Some officers of lower grade are in the background, and horses in waiting are heard hoofing and champing outside.
WEIROTHER speaks, referring to memoranda, snuffing the nearest candle, and moving it from place to place on the map as he proceeds importantly.]
WEIROTHER
Now here, our right, along the Olmutz Road Will march and oust our counterfacers there, Dislodge them from the Sainton Hill, and thence Advance direct to Brunn.--You heed me, sirs?-- The cavalry will occupy the plain: Our centre and main strength,--you follow me?-- Count Langeron, Dokhtorof, with Prschebiszewsky And Kollowrath--now on the Pratzen heights-- Will down and cross the Goldbach rivulet, Seize Tilnitz, Kobelnitz, and hamlets nigh, Turn the French right, move onward in their rear, Cross Schwarsa, hold the great Vienna road:-- So, with the nightfall, centre, right, and left, Will rendezvous beneath the walls of Brunn.
LANGERON [taking a pinch of snuff]
Good, General; very good!--if Bonaparte Will kindly stand and let you have your way. But what if he do not!--if he forestall These sound slow movements, mount the Pratzen hills When we descend, fall on OUR rear forthwith, While we go crying for HIS rear in vain?
KUTUZOF [waking up]
Ay, ay, Weirother; that's the question--eh?
WEIROTHER [impatiently]
If Bonaparte had meant to climb up there, Being one so spry and so determinate, He would have set about it ere this eve! He has not troops to do so, sirs, I say: His utmost strength is forty thousand men.
LANGERON
Then if so weak, how can so wise a brain Court ruin by abiding calmly here The impact of a force so large as ours? He may be mounting up this very hour! What think you, General Miloradovich?
MILORADOVICH
I? What's the use of thinking, when to-morrow Will tell us, with no need to think at all!
WEIROTHER
Pah! At this moment he retires apace. His fires are dark; all sounds have ceased that way Save voice of owl or mongrel wintering there. But, were he nigh, these movements I detail Would knock the bottom from his enterprize.
KUTUZOF [rising]
Well, well. Now this being ordered, set it going. One here shall make fair copies of the notes, And send them round. Colonel van Toll I ask To translate part.--Generals, it grows full late, And half-a-dozen hours of needed sleep Will aid us more than maps. We now disperse, And luck attend us all. Good-night. Good-night.
[The Generals and other officers go out severally.]
Such plans are--paper! Only to-morrow's light Reveals the true manoeuvre to my sight!
[He flaps out with his hand all the candles but one or two, slowly walks outside the house, and listens. On the high ground in the direction of the French lines are heard shouts, and a wide illumination grows and strengthens; but the hollows are still mantled in fog.]
Are these the signs of regiments out of heart, And beating backward from an enemy!
[He remains pondering. On the Pratzen heights immediately in front there begins a movement among the Russians, signifying that the plan which involves desertion of that vantage-ground is about to be put in force. Noises of drunken singing arise from the Russian lines at various points elsewhere.
The night shades involve the whole.]
## SCENE III
THE SAME. THE FRENCH POSITION
[Shortly before dawn on the morning of the 2nd of December. A white frost and fog still prevail in the low-lying areas; but overhead the sky is clear. A dead silence reigns.
NAPOLEON, on a grey horse, closely attended by BERTHIER, and surrounded by MARSHALS SOULT, LANNES, MURAT, and their aides-de camp, all cloaked, is discernible in the gloom riding down from the high ground before Bellowitz, on which they have bivouacked, to the village of Puntowitz on the Goldbach stream, quite near the front of the Russian position of the day before on the Pratzen crest. The Emperor and his companions come to a pause, look around and upward to the hills, and listen.]
NAPOLEON
Their bivouac fires, that lit the top last night, Are all extinct.
LANNES
And hark you, Sire; I catch A sound which, if I err not, means the thing We have hoped, and hoping, feared fate would not yield!
NAPOLEON
My God, it surely is the tramp of horse And jolt of cannon downward from the hill Toward our right here, by the swampy lakes That face Davout? Thus, as I sketched, they work!
MURAT
Yes! They already move upon Tilnitz.
NAPOLEON
Leave them alone! Nor stick nor stone we'll stir To interrupt them. Nought that we can scheme Will help us like their own stark sightlessness!-- Let them get down to those white lowlands there, And so far plunge in the level that no skill, When sudden vision flashes on their fault, Can help them, though despair-stung, to regain The key to mastery held at yestereve!
Meantime move onward these divisions here Under the fog's kind shroud; descend the slope, And cross the stream below the Russian lines: There halt concealed, till I send down the word.
[NAPOLEON and his staff retire to the hill south-east of Bellowitz and the day dawns pallidly.]
'Tis good to get above that rimy cloak And into cleaner air. It chilled me through.
[When they reach the summit they are over the fog: and suddenly the sun breaks forth to the left of Pratzen, illuminating the ash-hued face of NAPOLEON and the faces of those around him. All eyes are turned first to the sun, and thence to look for the dense masses of men that had occupied the upland the night before.]
MURAT
I see them not. The plateau seems deserted!
NAPOLEON
Gone; verily!--Ah, how much will you bid, An hour hence, for the coign abandoned now! The battle's ours.--It was, then, their rash march Downwards to Tilnitz and the Goldbach swamps Before dawn, that we heard.--No hurry, Lannes! Enjoy this sun, that rests its chubby jowl Upon the plain, and thrusts its bristling beard Across the lowlands' fleecy counterpane, Peering beneath our broadest hat-brims' shade.... Soult, how long hence to win the Pratzen top?
SOULT
Some twenty minutes or less, your Majesty: Our troops down there, still mantled by the mist, Are half upon the way.
NAPOLEON
Good! Set forthwith Vandamme and Saint Hilaire to mount the slopes---
[Firing begins in the marsh to the right by Tilnitz and the pools, though the thick air yet hides the operations.]
O, there you are, blind boozy Buxhovden! Achieve your worst. Davout will hold you firm.
[The head of and aide-de-camp rises through the fog on that side, and he hastens up to NAPOLEON and his companions, to whom the officer announces what has happened. DAVOUT rides off, disappearing legs first into the white stratum that covers the attack.]
Lannes and Murat, you have concern enough Here on the left, with Prince Bagration And all the Austro-Russian cavalry. Haste off. The victory promising to-day Will, like a thunder-clap, conclude the war!
[The Marshals with their aides gallop away towards their respective divisions. Soon the two divisions under SOULT are seen ascending in close column the inclines of the Pratzen height. Thereupon the heads of the Russian centre columns disclose themselves, breaking the sky-line of the summit from the other side, in a desperate attempt to regain the position vacated by the Russian left. A fierce struggle develops there between SOULT'S divisions and these, who, despite their tardy attempt to recover the lost post of dominance, are pressed by the French off the slopes into the lowland.]
SEMICHORUS I OF THE PITIES [aerial music]
O Great Necessitator, heed us now! If it indeed must be That this day Austria smoke with slaughtery, Quicken the issue as Thou knowest how; And dull their lodgment in a flesh that galls!
SEMICHORUS II
If it be in the future human story To lift this man to yet intenser glory, Let the exploit be done With the least sting, or none, To those, his kind, at whose expense such pitch is won!
SPIRIT OF THE YEARS
Again ye deprecate the World-Soul's way That I so long have told? Then note anew [Since ye forget] the ordered potencies, Nerves, sinews, trajects, eddies, ducts of It The Eternal Urger, pressing change on change.
[At once, as earlier, a preternatural clearness possesses the atmosphere of the battle-field, in which the scene becomes anatomized and the living masses of humanity transparent. The controlling Immanent Will appears therein, as a brain-like network of currents and ejections, twitching, interpenetrating, entangling, and thrusting hither and thither the human forms.]
SEMICHORUS I OF IRONIC SPIRITS [aerial music]
O Innocents, can ye forget That things to be were shaped and set Ere mortals and this planet met?
SEMICHORUS II
Stand ye apostrophizing That Which, working all, works but thereat Like some sublime fermenting-vat.
SEMICHORUS I
Heaving throughout its vast content With strenuously transmutive bent Though of its aim insentient?--
SEMICHORUS II
Could ye have seen Its early deeds Ye would not cry, as one who pleads For quarter, when a Europe bleeds!
SEMICHORUS I
Ere ye, young Pities, had upgrown From out the deeps where mortals moan Against a ruling not their own,
SEMICHORUS II
He of the Years beheld, and we, Creation's prentice artistry Express in forms that now unbe
SEMICHORUS I
Tentative dreams from day to day; Mangle its types, re-knead the clay In some more palpitating way;
SEMICHORUS II
Beheld the rarest wrecked amain, Whole nigh-perfected species slain By those that scarce could boast a brain;
SEMICHORUS I
Saw ravage, growth, diminish, add, Here peoples sane, there peoples mad, In choiceless throws of good and bad;
SEMICHORUS II
Heard laughters at the ruthless dooms Which tortured to the eternal glooms Quick, quivering hearts in hecatombs.
CHORUS
Us Ancients, then, it ill befits To quake when Slaughter's spectre flits Athwart this field of Austerlitz!
SHADE OF THE EARTH
Pain not their young compassions by such lore, But hold you mute, and read the battle yonder: The moment marks the day's catastrophe.
## SCENE IV
THE SAME. THE RUSSIAN POSITION
[It is about noon, and the vital spectacle is now near the village of Tilnitz. The fog has dispersed, and the sun shines clearly, though without warmth, the ice on the pools gleaming under its radiance.
GENERAL BUXHOVDEN and his aides-de-camp have reined up, and remain at pause on a hillock. The General watches through a glass his battalions, which are still disputing the village. Suddenly approach down the track from the upland of Pratzen large companies of Russian infantry helter-skelter. COUNT LANGERON is beheld to be retreating with them; and soon, pale and agitated, he hastens up to GENERAL BUXHOVDEN, whose face is flushed.]
LANGERON
While they are upon us you stay idle here! Prschebiszewsky's column is distraught and rent, And more than half my own made captive! Yea, Kreznowitz carried, and Sokolnitz hemmed: The enemy's whole strength will stound you soon!
BUXHOVDEN
You seem to see the enemy everywhere.
LANGERON
You cannot see them, be they here or no!
BUXHOVDEN
I only wait Prschebiszewsky's nearing corps To join Dokhtorof's to them. Here they come.
[SOULT, supported by BERNADOTTE and OUDINOT, having cleared and secured the Pratzen height, his battalions are perceived descending from it on this side, behind DOKHTOROF'S division, so placing the latter between themselves and the pools.]
LANGERON
You cannot tell the Frenchmen from ourselves! These are the victors.--Ah--Dokhtorof--lost!
[DOKHTOROF'S troops are seen to be retreating towards the water. The watchers stand in painful tenseness.]
BUXHOVDEN
Dokhtorof tell to save him as he may! We, Count, must gather up our shaken flesh And hurry them by the road through Austerlitz.
[BUXHOVDEN'S regiments and the remains of LANGERON'S are rallied and collected, and they retreat by way of the hamlet of Aujezd. As they go over the summit of a hill BUXHOVDEN looks back. LANGERON'S columns, which were behind his own, have been cut off by VANDAMME'S division coming down from the Pratzen plateau. This and some detachments from DOKHTOROF'S column rush towards the Satschan lake and endeavour to cross it on the ice. It cracks beneath their weight. At the same moment NAPOLEON and his brilliant staff appear on the top of the Pratzen.
The Emperor watches the scene with a vulpine smile; and directs a battery near at hand to fire down upon the ice on which the Russians are crossing. A ghastly crash and splashing follows the discharge, the shining surface breaking into pieces like a mirror, which fly in all directions. Two thousand fugitives are engulfed, and their groans of despair reach the ears of the watchers like ironical huzzas.
A general flight of the Russian army from wing to wing is now disclosed, involving in its current the EMPEROR ALEXANDER and the EMPEROR FRANCIS, with the reserve, who are seen towards Austerlitz endeavouring to rally their troops in vain. They are swept along by the disordered soldiery.]
## SCENE V
THE SAME. NEAR THE WINDMILL OF PALENY
[The mill is about seven miles to the southward, between French advanced posts and the Austrians.
A bivouac fire is burning. NAPOLEON, in grey overcoat and beaver hat turned up front to back, rides to the spot with BERTHIER, SAVARY, and his aides, and alights. He walks to and fro complacently, meditating or talking to BERTHIER. Two groups of officers, one from each army, stand in the background on their respective sides.]
NAPOLEON
What's this of Alexander? Weep, did he, Like his old namesake, but for meaner cause? Ha, ha!
BERTHIER
Word goes, you Majesty, that Colonel Toll, One of Field-Marshal Price Kutuzof's staff, In the retreating swirl of overthrow, Found Alexander seated on a stone, Beneath a leafless roadside apple-tree, Out here by Goding on the Holitsch way; His coal-black uniform and snowy plume Unmarked, his face disconsolate, his grey eyes Mourning in tears the fate of his brave array-- All flying southward, save the steadfast slain.
NAPOLEON
Poor devil!--But he'll soon get over it-- Sooner than his employers oversea!-- Ha!--this well make friend Pitt and England writhe, And cloud somewhat their lustrous Trafalgar.
[An open carriage approaches from the direction of Holitsch, accompanied by a small escort of Hungarian guards. NAPOLEON walks forward to meet it as it draws up, and welcomes the Austrian Emperor, who alights. He is wearing a grey cloak over a white uniform, carries a light walking-cane, and is attended by PRINCE JOHN OF LICHTENSTEIN, SWARZENBERG, and others. His fresh-coloured face contrasts strangely with the bluish pallor of NAPOLEON'S; but it is now thin and anxious.
They formally embrace. BERTHIER, PRINCE JOHN, and the rest retire, and the two Emperors are left by themselves before the fire.]
NAPOLEON
Here on the roofless ground do I receive you-- My only mansion for these two months past!
FRANCIS
Your tenancy thereof has brought such fame That it must needs be one which charms you, Sire.
NAPOLEON
Good! Now this war. It has been forced on me Just at a crisis most inopportune, When all my energies and arms were bent On teaching England that her watery walls Are no defence against the wrath of France Aroused by breach of solemn covenants.
FRANCIS
I had no zeal for violating peace Till ominous events in Italy Revealed the gloomy truth that France aspires To conquest there, and undue sovereignty. Since when mine eyes have seen no sign outheld To signify a change of purposings.
NAPOLEON
Yet there were terms distinctly specified To General Giulay in November past, Whereon I'd gladly fling the sword aside. To wit: that hot armigerent jealousy Stir us no further on transalpine rule, I'd take the Isonzo River as our bounds.
FRANCIS
Roundly, that I cede all!--And how may stand Your views as to the Russian forces here?
NAPOLEON
You have all to lose by that alliance, Sire. Leave Russia. Let the Emperor Alexander Make his own terms; whereof the first must be That he retire from Austrian territory. I'll grant an armistice therefor. Anon I'll treat with him to weld a lasting peace, Based on some simple undertakings; chief, That Russian armies keep to the ports of his domain. Meanwhile to you I'll tender this good word: Keep Austria to herself. To Russia bound, You pay your own costs with your provinces, Alexander's likewise therewithal.
FRANCIS
I see as much, and long have seen it, Sire; And standing here the vanquished, let me own What happier issues might have left unsaid: Long, long I have lost the wish to bind myself To Russia's purposings and Russia's risks; Little do I count these alliances With Powers that have no substance seizable!
[As they converse they walk away.]
AN AUSTRIAN OFFICER
O strangest scene of an eventful life, This junction that I witness here to-day! An Emperor--in whose majestic veins Aeneas and the proud Caesarian line Claim yet to live; and, those scarce less renowned, The dauntless Hawks'-Hold Counts, of gallantry So great in fame one thousand years ago-- To bend with deference and manners mild In talk with this adventuring campaigner, Raised but by pikes above the common herd!
ANOTHER AUSTRIAN OFFICER
Ay! There be Satschan swamps and Pratzen heights In royal lines, as here at Austerlitz.
[The Emperors again draw near.]
FRANCIS
Then, to this armistice, which shall be called Immediately at all points, I agree; And pledge my word that my august ally Accept it likewise, and withdraw his force By daily measured march to his own realm.
NAPOLEON
For him I take your word. And pray believe That rank ambitions are your own, not mine; That though I have postured as your enemy, And likewise Alexander's, we are one In interests, have in all things common cause.
One country sows these mischiefs Europe through By her insidious chink of luring ore-- False-featured England, who, to aggrandize Her name, her influence, and her revenues, Schemes to impropriate the whole world's trade, And starves and bleeds the folk of other lands. Her rock-rimmed situation walls her off Like a slim selfish mollusk in its shell From the wide views and fair fraternities Which on the mainland we reciprocate, And quicks her quest for profit in our woes!
FRANCIS
I am not competent, your Majesty, To estimate that country's conscience now, Nor engage on my ally's behalf That English ships be shut from Russian trade. But joyful am I that in all things else My promise can be made; and that this day Our conference ends in friendship and esteem.
NAPOLEON
I will send Savary at to-morrow's blink And make all lucid to the Emperor. For us, I wholly can avow as mine The cordial spirit of your Majesty.
[They retire towards the carriage of FRANCIS. BERTHIER, SAVARY, LICHTENSTEIN, and the suite of officers advance from the background, and with mutual gestures of courtesy and amicable leave-takings the two Emperors part company.]
CHORUS OF THE PITIES [aerial music]
Each for himself, his family, his heirs; For the wan weltering nations who concerns, who cares?
CHORUS OF IRONIC SPIRITS
A pertinent query, in truth!-- But spoil not the sport by your ruth: 'Tis enough to make half Yonder zodiac laugh When rulers begin to allude To their lack of ambition, And strong opposition To all but the general good!
SPIRIT OF THE YEARS
Hush levities. Events press: turn ye westward.
[A nebulous curtain draws slowly across.]
## SCENE VI
SHOCKERWICK HOUSE, NEAR BATH
[The interior of the Picture Gallery. Enter WILTSHIRE, the owner, and Pitt, who looks emaciated and walks feebly.]
WILTSHIRE [pointing to a portrait]
Now here you have the lady we discussed: A fine example of his manner, sir?
PITT
It is a fine example, sir, indeed,-- With that transparency amid the shades, And those thin blue-green-grayish leafages Behind the pillar in the background there, Which seem the leaves themselves.--Ah, this is Quin.
[Moving to another picture.]
WILTSHIRE
Yes, Quin. A man of varied parts, though rough And choleric at times. Yet, at his best, As Falstaff, never matched, they say. But I Had not the fate to see him in the flesh.
PITT
Churchill well carves him in his “Character”:-- “His eyes, in gloomy socket taught to roll, Proclaimed the sullen habit of his soul. In fancied scenes, as in Life's real plan, He could not for a moment sink the man: Nature, in spite of all his skill, crept in; Horatio, Dorax, Falstaff--stile 'twas Quin.” --He was at Bath when Gainsborough settled there In that house in the Circus which we know.-- I like the portrait much.--The brilliancy Of Gainsborough lies in this his double sway: Sovereign of landscape he; of portraiture Joint monarch with Sir Joshua.... Ah?--that's--hark! Is that the patter of horses's hoofs Along the road?
WILTSHIRE
I notice nothing, sir.
PITT
It is a gallop, growing quite distinct. And--can it be a messenger for me!
WILTSHIRE
I hope no ugly European news To stop the honour of this visit, sir!
[They listen. The gallop of the horse grows louder, and is checked at the door of the house. There is a hasty knocking, and a courier, splashed with mud from hard riding, is shown into the gallery. He presents a dispatch to PITT, who sits down and hurriedly opens it.]
PITT [to himself]
O heavy news indeed!... Disastrous; dire!
[He appears overcome as he sits, and covers his forehead with his hand.]
WILTSHIRE
I trust you are not ill, sir?
PITT [after some moments]
Could I have A little brandy, sir, quick brought to me?
WILTSHIRE
In one brief minute.
[Brandy is brought in, and PITT takes it.]
PITT
Now leave me, please, alone. I'll call anon. Is there a map of Europe handy here?
[WILTSHIRE fetches a map from the library, and spreads it before the minister. WILTSHIRE, courier, and servant go out.]
O God that I should live to see this day!
[He remains awhile in a profound reverie; then resumes the reading of the dispatch.]
“Defeated--the Allies--quite overthrown At Austerlitz--last week.”--Where's Austerlitz? --But what avails it where the place is now; What corpse is curious on the longitude And situation of his cemetery!... The Austrians and the Russians overcome, That vast adventuring army is set free To bend unhindered strength against our strand.... So do my plans through all these plodding years Announce them built in vain! His heel on Europe, monarchies in chains To France, I am as though I had never been!
[He gloomily ponders the dispatch and the map some minutes longer. At last he rises with difficulty, and rings the bell. A servant enters.]
Call up my carriage, please you, now at once; And tell your master I return to Bath This moment--I may want a little help In getting to the door here.
SERVANT
Sir, I will, And summon you my master instantly.
[He goes out and re-enters with WILTSHIRE. PITT is assisted from the room.]
PITT
Roll up that map. 'Twill not be needed now These ten years! Realms, laws, peoples, dynasties, Are churning to a pulp within the maw Of empire-making Lust and personal Gain!
[Exeunt PITT, WILTSHIRE, and the servant; and in a few minutes the carriage is heard driving off, and the scene closes.]
## SCENE VII
PARIS. A STREET LEADING TO THE TUILERIES
[It is night, and the dim oil lamps reveal a vast concourse of citizens of both sexes around the Palace gates and in the neighbouring thoroughfares.]