NAPOLÉON [taking a rose from a vase]
Dear Queen, do pray accept this little token
As souvenir of me before you go?
[He offers her the rose, with his hand on his heart. She
hesitates, but accepts it.]
QUEEN [impulsively, with waiting tears]
Let Magdeburg come with it, sire! O yes!
NAPOLÉON [with sudden frigidity]
It is for you to take what I can give.
And I give this—no more.[15]
[She turns her head to hide her emotion, and withdraws. NAPOLÉON
steps up to her, and offers his arm. She takes it silently, and
he perceives the tears on her cheeks. They cross towards the ante-
room, away from the other guests.]
NAPOLÉON [softly]
Still weeping, dearest lady! Why is this?
QUEEN [seizing his hand and pressing it]
Your speeches darn the tearings of your sword!—
Between us two, as man and woman now,
Is’t even possible you question why!
O why did not the Greatest of the Age—
Of future ages—of the ages past,
This one time win a woman’s worship—yea,
For all her little life!
NAPOLÉON [gravely]
Know you, my Fair
That I—ay, I—in this deserve your pity.—
Some force within me, baffling mine intent,
Harries me onward, whether I will or no.
My star, my star is what’s to blame—not I.
It is unswervable!
QUEEN
Then now, alas!
My duty’s done as mother, wife, and queen.—
I’ll say no more—but that my heart is broken!
[Exeunt NAPOLÉON, QUEEN, and LADY-IN-WAITING.]
SPIRIT OF THE YEARS
He spoke thus at the Bridge of Lodi. Strange,
He’s of the few in Europe who discern
The working of the Will.
SPIRIT OF THE PITIES
If that be so,
Better for Europe lacked he such discerning!
[NAPOLÉON returns to the room and joins TALLEYRAND.]
NAPOLÉON [aside to his minister]
My God, it was touch-and-go that time, Talleyrand! She was within
an ace of getting over me. As she stepped into the carriage she
said in her pretty way, “O I have been cruelly deceived by you!”
And when she sank down inside, not knowing I heard, she burst into
sobs fit to move a statue. The Devil take me if I hadn’t a good
mind to stop the horses, jump in, give her a good kissing, and
agree to all she wanted. Ha-ha, well; a miss is as good as a mile.
Had she come sooner with those sweet, beseeching blue eyes of hers,
who knows what might not have happened! But she didn’t come sooner,
and I have kept in my right mind.
[The RUSSIAN EMPEROR, the KING OF PRUSSIA, and other guests advance
to bid adieu. They depart severally. When they are gone NAPOLÉON
turns to TALLEYRAND.]
Adhere, then, to the treaty as it stands:
Change not therein a single article,
But write it fair forthwith.
[Exeunt NAPOLÉON, TALLEYRAND, and other ministers and officers in
waiting.[