The Dynasts: An Epic-Drama of the War with Napoleon Part 140

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 Blucher.... 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 BLUCHER 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 mora.s.s on our near left-- the lower point of the D.]