FRANCIS
I hear from thence appalling cannonades.
OFFICER
’Tis their, your Majesty. Now we shall see
If the French read that there the danger lies.
FRANCIS
I only pray that Bonaparte refrain
From spying danger there till all too late!
OFFICER [involuntarily, after a pause]
Ah, Heaven!
FRANCIS [turning sharply]
Well, well? What changes figure now?
OFFICER
They pierce our centre, sire! We are, despite,
Not centrally so weak as I supposed.
Well done, Bellegarde!
FRANCIS [glancing to the centre]
And what has he well done?
OFFICER
The French in fierce fume broke through Aderklaa;
But Bellegarde, pricking along the plain behind,
Has charged and driven them back disorderly.
The Archduke Charles bounds thither, as I shape,
In person to support him!
[The EMPEROR returns to his spyglass; and they and others watch in
silence, sometimes the right of their front, sometimes the centre.]
FRANCIS
It is so!
That the right attack of ours spells victory,
And Austria’s grand salvation!... [Times passes.] Turn your glass,
And closely scan Napoléon and his aides
Hand-galloping towards his centre-left
To strengthen it against the brave Bellegarde.
Does your eye reach him?—That white horse, alone
In front of those that move so rapidly.
OFFICER
It does, sire; though my glass can conjure not
So cunningly as yours.... that horse must be
The famed Euphrates—him the Persian king
Sent Bonaparte as gift.
[A silence. NAPOLÉON reaches a carriage that is moving across.
It bears MASSÉNA, who, having received a recent wound, in unable
to ride.]