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 BLÜCHER 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 NAPOLÉON
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 morass on our near left—
the lower point of the D.]
SEMICHORUS I OF RUMOURS [aerial music]
This is the combat of Napoléon’s hope,
But not of his assurance! Shrunk in power
He broods beneath October’s clammy cope,
While hemming hordes wax denser every hour.
SEMICHORUS II
He knows, he knows that though in equal fight
He stand s heretofore the matched of none,
A feeble skill is propped by numbers’ might,
And now three hosts close round to crush out one!
DUMB SHOW
The Leipzig clocks imperturbably strike nine, and the battle which
is to decide the fate of Europe, and perhaps the world, begins with
three booms from the line of the allies. They are the signal for
a general cannonade of devastating intensity.
So massive is the contest that we soon fail to individualize the
combatants as beings, and can only observe them as amorphous drifts,
clouds, and waves of conscious atoms, surging and rolling together;
can only particularize them by race, tribe, and language.
Nationalities from the uttermost parts of Asia here meet those from
the Atlantic edge of Europe for the first and last time. By noon
the sound becomes a loud droning, uninterrupted and breve-like, as
from the pedal of an organ kept continuously down.
CHORUS OF RUMOURS
Now triple battle beats about the town,
And now contracts the huge elastic ring
Of fighting flesh, as those within go down,
Or spreads, as those without show faltering!
It becomes apparent that the French have a particular intention,
the Allies only a general one. That of the French is to break
through the enemy’s centre and surround his right. To this end
NAPOLÉON launches fresh columns, and simultaneously OUDINOT supports
VICTOR against EUGÈNE OF WURTEMBERG’S right, while on the other
side of him the cavalry of MILHAUD and KELLERMAN prepares to charge.
NAPOLÉON’S combination is successful, and drives back EUGÈNE.
Meanwhile SCHWARZENBERG is stuck fast, useless in the marshes
between the Pleisse and the Elster.
By three o’clock the Allied centre, which has held out against the
assaults of the French right and left, is broken through by cavalry
under MURAT, LATOUR-MAUBOURG, and KELLERMANN.
The bells of Leipzig ring.
CHORUS OF THE PITIES
Those chimings, ill-advised and premature!
Who knows if such vast valour will endure?
The Austro-Russians are withdrawn from the marshes by SCHWARZENBERG.
But the French cavalry also get entangled in the swamps, and
simultaneously MARMONT is beaten at Mockern.
Meanwhile NEY, to the north of Leipzig, having heard the battle
raging southward, leaves his position to assist it. He has nearly
arrived when he hears BLÜCHER attacking at the point he came from,
and sends back some of his divisions.
BERTRAND has kept open the west road to Lindenau and the Rhine, the
only French line of retreat.
Evening finds the battle a drawn one. With the nightfall three blank
shots reverberate hollowly.
SEMICHORUS I OF RUMOURS
They sound to say that, for this moaning night,
As Nature sleeps, so too shall sleep the fight;
Neither the victor.
SEMICHORUS II
But, for France and him,
Half-won is losing!
CHORUS
Yea, his hopes drop dim,
Since nothing less than victory to-day
Had saved a cause whose ruin is delay!
The night gets thicker and no more is seen.