The Dynasts: An Epic-Drama of the War with Napoleon Part 13

NAPOLEON

Dear Josephine, my queen, didst call my name?

JOSEPHINE

I spoke not, Sire.

NAPOLEON

Thou didst not, tender spouse; I know it. Such harsh utterance was not thine.

It was aggressive Fancy, working spells Upon a mind o'erwrought!

[The service closes. The clergy advance with the canopy to the foot of the throne, and the procession forms to return to the Palace.]

SPIRIT OF THE YEARS

Officious sprite, Thou art young, and dost not heed the Cause of things Which some of us have inkled to thee here; Else wouldst thou not have hailed the Emperor, Whose acts do but outshape Its governing.

SPIRIT OF THE PITIES

I feel, Sire, as I must! This tale of Will And Life's impulsion by Incognizance I cannot take!

SPIRIT OF THE YEARS

Let me then once again Show to thy sceptic eye the very streams And currents of this all-inhering Power, And bring conclusion to thy unbelief.

[The scene a.s.sumes the preternatural transparency before mentioned, and there is again beheld as it were the interior of a brain which seems to manifest the volitions of a Universal Will, of whose tissues the personages of the action form portion.]

SPIRIT OF THE PITIES

Enough. And yet for very sorriness I cannot own the weird phantasma real!

SPIRIT OF THE YEARS

Affection ever was illogical.

SPIRIT IRONIC [aside]

How should the Sprite own to such logic--a mere juvenile-- who only came into being in what the earthlings call their Tertiary Age!

[The scene changes. The exterior of the Cathedral takes the place of the interior, and the point of view recedes, the whole fabric smalling into distance and becoming like a rare, delicately carved alabaster ornament. The city itself sinks to miniature, the Alps show afar as a white corrugation, the Adriatic and the Gulf of Genoa appear on this and on that hand, with Italy between them, till clouds cover the panorama.]

ACT SECOND

SCENE I

THE DOCKYARD, GIBRALTAR

[The Rock is seen rising behind the town and the Alameda Gardens, and the English fleet rides at anchor in the Bay, across which the Spanish sh.o.r.e from Algeciras to Carnero Point shuts in the West.

Southward over the Strait is the African coast.]

SPIRIT OF THE YEARS

Our migratory Proskenion now presents An outlook on the storied Kalpe Rock, As preface to the vision of the Fleets Spanish and French, linked for fell purposings.

RECORDING ANGEL [reciting]

Their motions and manoeuvres, since the fame Of Bonaparte's enthronment at Milan Swept swift through Europe's dumbed communities, Have stretched the English mind to wide surmise.

Many well-based alarms [which strange report Much aggravates] as to the pondered blow, Flutter the public pulse; all points in turn-- Malta, Brazil, Wales, Ireland, British Ind-- Being held as feasible for force like theirs, Of lavish numbers and unrecking aim.

"Where, where is Nelson?" questions every tongue;-- "How views he so unparalleled a scheme?"

Their slow uncertain apprehensions ask.

"When Villeneuve puts to sea with all his force, What may he not achieve, if swift his course!"

SPIRIT OF THE YEARS

I'll call in Nelson, who has stepped ash.o.r.e For the first time these thrice twelvemonths and more, And with him one whose insight has alone Pierced the real project of Napoleon.

[Enter NELSON and COLLINGWOOD, who pace up and down.]

SPIRIT OF THE PITIES

Note Nelson's worn-out features. Much has he Suffered from ghoulish ghast anxiety!

NELSON

In short, dear Coll, the letter which you wrote me Had so much pith that I was fain to see you; For I am sure that you indeed divine The true intent and compa.s.s of a plot Which I have spelled in vain.

COLLINGWOOD