The Dynasts: An Epic-Drama of the War with Napoleon Part 161

VOICE OF ALEXANDER [below]

I told you, Prince, that it would never last!

VOICE OF TALLEYRAND

Well, sire, you should have sent him to the Azores, Or the Antilles, or best, Saint-Helena.

VOICE OF THE KING OF PRUSSIA

Instead, we send him but two days from France, Give him an island as his own domain, A military guard of large resource, And millions for his purse!

ANOTHER VOICE

The immediate cause Must be a negligence in watching him.

The British Colonel Campbell should have seen That apertures for flight were wired and barred To such a cunning bird!

ANOTHER VOICE

By all report He took the course direct to Naples Bay.

VOICES [of new arrivals]

He has made his way to France--so all tongues tell-- And landed there, at Cannes! [Excitement.]

COUNTESS OF BRIGNOLE

Do now but note How cordial intercourse resolves itself To sparks of sharp debate! The lesser guests Are fain to steal unnoticed from a scene Wherein they feel themselves as surplusage Beside the official minds.--I catch a sign The King of Prussia makes the English Duke; They leave the room together.

COUNTESS OF MONTESQUIOU

Yes; wit wanes, And all are going--Prince Talleyrand, The Emperor Alexander, Metternich, The Emperor Francis.... So much for the Congress!

Only a few blank n.o.bodies remain, And they seem terror-stricken.... Blackly ends Such fair festivities. The red G.o.d War Stalks Europe's plains anew!

[The curtain of the grille is dropped. MESDAMES DE MONTESQUIOU and DE BRIGNOLE leave the gallery. The light is extinguished there and the scene disappears.]

SCENE III

LA MURE, NEAR GREn.o.bLE

[A lonely road between a lake and some hills, two or three miles outside the village of la Mure, is discovered. A battalion of the Fifth French royalist regiment of the line under COMMANDANT LESSARD, is drawn up in the middle of the road with a company of sappers and miners, comprising altogether about eight hundred men.

Enter to them from the south a small detachment of lancers with an aide-de-camp at their head. They ride up to within speaking distance.]

LESSARD

They are from Bonaparte. Present your arms!

AIDE [calling]

We'd parley on Napoleon's behalf, And fain would ask you join him.

LESSARD

Al parole With rebel bands the Government forbids.

Come five steps further and we fire!

AIDE

To France, And to posterity through fineless time, Must you then answer for so foul a blow Against the common weal!

[NAPOLEON'S aide-de-camp and the lancers turn about and ride back out of sight. The royalist troops wait. Presently there reappears from the same direction a small column of soldiery, representing the whole of NAPOLEON'S little army s.h.i.+pped from Elba. It is divided into an advance-guard under COLONEL MALLET, and two bodies behind, a troop of Polish lancers under COLONEL JERMANWSKI on the right side of the road, and some officers without troops on the left, under MAJOR PACCONI.

NAPOLEON rides in the midst of the advance-guard, in the old familiar "redingote grise," c.o.c.ked hat, and tricolor c.o.c.kade, his well-known profile keen against the hills. He is attended by GENERALS BERTRAND, DROUOT, and CAMBRONNE. When they get within gun-shot of the royalists the men are halted. NAPOLEON dismounts and steps forward.]

NAPOLEON

Direct the men To lodge their weapons underneath the arm, Points downward. I shall not require them here.

COLONEL MALLET

Sire, is it not a needless jeopardy To meet them thus? The sentiments of these We do not know, and the first trigger pressed May end you.

NAPOLEON

I have thought it out, my friend, And value not my life as in itself, But as to France, severed from whose embrace]

I am dead already.

[He repeats the order, which is carried out. There is a breathless silence, and people from the village gather round with tragic expectations. NAPOLEON walks on alone towards the Fifth battalion, Throwing open his great-coat and revealing his uniform and the ribbon of the Legion of Honour. Raising his hand to his hat he salutes.]

LESSARD