SCENE VIII
THE SAME. THE INTERIOR OF THE KREMLIN
[A chamber containing a bed on which NAPOLÉON has been lying. It
is not yet daybreak, and the flapping light of the conflagration
without shines in at the narrow windows.
NAPOLÉON is discovered dressed, but in disorder and unshaven. He
is walking up and down the room in agitation. There are present
CAULAINCOURT, BESSIERES, and many of the marshals of his guard,
who stand in silent perplexity.]
NAPOLÉON [sitting down on the bed]
No: I’ll not go! It is themselves who have done it.
My God, they are Scythians and barbarians still!
[Enter MORTIER [just made Governor].]
MORTIER
Sire, there’s no means of fencing with the flames.
My creed is that these scurvy Muscovites
Knowing our men’s repute for recklessness,
Have fired the town, as if ’twere we had done it,
As by our own crazed act!
[GENERAL LARIBOISIERE, and aged man, enters and approaches
NAPOLÉON.]
LARIBOISIERE
The wind swells higher!
Will you permit one so high-summed in years,
One so devoted, sire, to speak his mind?
It is that your long lingering here entails
Much risk for you, your army, and ourselves,
In the embarrassment it throws on us
While taking steps to seek security,
By hindering venturous means.
[Enter MURAT, PRINCE EUGÈNE, and the PRINCE OF NEUFCHÂTEL.]
MURAT
There is no choice
But leaving, sire. Enormous bulks of powder
Lie housed beneath us; and outside these panes
A park of our artillery stands unscreened.
NAPOLÉON [saturninely]
What have I won I disincline to cede!
VOICE OF A GUARD [without]
The Kremlin is aflame!
[The look at each other. Two officers of NAPOLÉON’S guard and an
interpreter enter, with one of the Russian military police as a
prisoner.]
FIRST OFFICER
We have caught this man
Firing the Kremlin: yea, in the very act!
It is extinguished temporarily,
We know not for how long.
NAPOLÉON
Inquire of him
What devil set him on. [They inquire.]