The Dynasts: An Epic-Drama of the War with Napoleon Part 23

It's but a stage, a type of all the world. The burgesses have arranged it in my honour. At six o'clock this evening there are to be combats at single-stick to amuse the folk; four guineas the prize for the man who breaks most heads. Afterward there is to be a grinning match through horse-collars--a very humorous sport which I must stay here and witness; for I am interested in whatever entertains my subjects.

PITT

Not one in all the land but knows it, sir.

KING

Now, Mr. Pitt, you must require repose; Consult your own convenience then, I beg, On when you leave.

PITT

I thank your Majesty.

[He departs as one whose purpose has failed, and the scene shuts.]

SCENE II

BEFORE THE CITY OF ULM

[A prospect of the city from the east, showing in the foreground a low-lying marshy country bounded in mid-distance by the banks of the Danube, which, bordered by poplars and willows, flows across the picture from the left to the Elchingen Bridge near the right of the scene, and is backed by irregular heights and terraces of espaliered vines. Between these and the river stands the city, crowded with old gabled houses and surrounded by walls, bastions, and a ditch, all the edifices being dominated by the nave and tower of the huge Gothic Munster.

On the most prominent of the heights at the back--the Michaelsberg --to the upper-right of the view, is encamped the ma.s.s of the Austrian army, amid half-finished entrenchments. Advanced posts of the same are seen south-east of the city, not far from the advanced corps of the French Grand-Army under SOULT, MARMONT, LANNES, NEY, and DUPONT, which occupy in a semicircle the whole breadth of the flat landscape in front, and extend across the river to higher ground on the right hand of the panorama.

Heavy mixed drifts of rain and snow are descending impartially on the French and on the Austrians, the downfall nearly blotting out the latter on the hills. A chill October wind wails across the country, and the poplars yield slantingly to the gusts.]

DUMB SHOW

Drenched peasants are busily at work, fortifying the heights of the Austrian position in the face of the enemy. Vague companies of Austrians above, and of the French below, hazy and indistinct in the thick atmosphere, come and go without apparent purpose near their respective lines.

Closer at hand NAPOLEON, in his familiar blue-grey overcoat, rides. .h.i.ther and thither with his marshals, haranguing familiarly the bodies of soldiery as he pa.s.ses them, and observing and pointing out the disposition of the Austrians to his companions.

Thicker sheets of rain fly across as the murk of evening increases, which at length entirely obscures the prospect, and cloaks its bleared lights and fires.

SCENE III

ULM. WITHIN THE CITY

[The interior of the Austrian headquarters on the following morning. A tempest raging without.

GENERAL MACK, haggard and anxious, the ARCHDUKE FERDINAND, PRINCE SCHWARZENBERG, GENERAL JELLACHICH, GENERALS RIESC, BIBERBACH, and other field officers discovered, seated at a table with a map spread out before them. A wood fire blazes between tall andirons in a yawning fireplace. At every more than usually boisterous gust of wind the smoke flaps into the room.]

MACK

The accursed cunning of our adversary Confounds all codes of honourable war, Which ever have held as granted that the track Of armies bearing hither from the Rhine-- Whether in peace or strenuous invasion-- Should pierce the Schwarzwald, and through Memmingen, And meet us in our front. But he must wind And corkscrew meanly round, where foot of man Can scarce find pathway, stealing up to us Thiefwise, by out back door! Nevertheless, If English war-fleets be abreast Boulogne, As these deserters tell, and ripe to land there, It destines Bonaparte to pack him back Across the Rhine again. We've but to wait, And see him go.

ARCHDUKE

But who shall say if these bright tales be true?

MACK

Even then, small matter, your Imperial Highness; The Russians near us daily, and must soon-- Ay, far within the eight days I have named-- Be operating to untie this knot, If we hold on.

ARCHDUKE

Conjectures these--no more; I stomach not such waiting. Neither hope Has kernel in it. I and my cavalry With caution, when the shadow fall to-night, Can bore some hole in this engirdlement; Outpa.s.s the gate north-east; join General Werneck, And somehow cut our way Bohemia-wards: Well worth the hazard, in our straitened case!

MACK [firmly]

The body of our force stays here with me.

And I am much surprised, your Highness, much, You mark not how destructive 'tis to part!

If we wait on, for certain we should wait In our full strength, compacted, undispersed By such part.i.tion as your Highness plans.

SCHWARZENBERG

There's truth in urging we should not divide, But weld more closely.--Yet why stay at all?

Methinks there's but one sure salvation left, To wit, that we conjunctly march herefrom, And with much circ.u.mspection, towards the Tyrol.

The subtle often rack their wits in vain-- a.s.say whole magazines of strategy-- To shun ill loomings deemed insuperable, When simple souls by stumbling up to them Find the grim shapes but air. But let use grant That the investing French so ring us in As to leave not a span for such exploit; Then go we--throw ourselves upon their steel, And batter through, or die!-- What say you, Generals? Speak your minds, I pray.

JELLACHICH

I favour marching out--the Tyrol way.

RIESC

Bohemia best! The route thereto is open.

ARCHDUKE

My course is chosen. O this black campaign, Which Pitt's alarmed dispatches p.r.i.c.ked us to, All unforseeing! Any risk for me Rather than court humiliation here!

[MACK has risen during the latter remarks, walked to the window, and looked out at the rain. He returns with an air of embarra.s.sment.]