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The Austro-Russians are withdrawn from the marshes by SCHWARZENBERG.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.
SCENE III
THE SAME, FROM THE TOWER OF THE PLEISSENBURG
[The tower commands a view of a great part of the battlefield.
Day has just dawned, and citizens, saucer-eyed from anxiety and
sleeplessness, are discover watching.]