The Dynasts: An Epic-Drama of the War with Napoleon Part 39

VOICE OF NAPOLEON

Now let us up and ride the bivouacs round, And note positions ere the soldiers sleep.

--Omit not from to-morrow's home dispatch Direction that this blow of Trafalgar Be hushed in all the news-sheets sold in France, Or, if reported, let it be portrayed As a rash fight whereout we came not worst, But were so broken by the boisterous eve That England claims to be the conqueror.

[There emerge from the tent NAPOLEON and the marshals, who all mount the horses that are led up, and proceed through the frost and time towards the bivouacs. At the Emperor's approach to the nearest soldiery they spring up.]

SOLDIERS

The Emperor! He's here! The Emperor's here!

AN OLD GRENADIER [approaching Napoleon familiarly]

We'll bring thee Russian guns and flags galore.

To celebrate thy coronation-day!

[They gather into wisps the straw, hay, and other litter on which they have been lying, and kindling these at the dying fires, wave them as torches. This is repeated as each fire is reached, till the whole French position is one wide illumination. The most enthusiastic of the soldiers follow the Emperor in a throng as he progresses, and his whereabouts in the vast field is denoted by their cries.]

CHORUS OF PITIES [aerial music]

Strange suasive pull of personality!

CHORUS OF IRONIC SPIRITS

His projects they unknow, his grin unsee!

CHORUS OF THE PITIES

Their luckless hearts say blindly--He!

[The night-shades close over.]

SCENE II

THE SAME. THE RUSSIAN POSITION

[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 a.s.sembled 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!