SEMICHORUS II
The smart Macdonald swims therein,
And barely wins the verge;
Bold Poniatowski plunges in
Never to re-emerge!
FIRST CITIZEN
Are not the French across as yet, God save them?
SECOND CITIZEN [still gazing above]
Nor Reynier’s corps, Macdonald’s, Lauriston’s,
Nor yet the Poles.... And Blücher’s troops approach,
And all the French this side are prisoners.
—Now for our handling by the Prussian host;
Scant courtesy for our king!
[Other citizens appear beside him at the window, and further
conversation continues entirely above.]
CHORUS OF IRONIC SPIRITS
The Battle of the Nations now is closing,
And all is lost to One, to many gained;
The old dynastic routine reimposing,
The new dynastic structure unsustained.
Now every neighbouring realm is France’s warder,
And smirking satisfaction will be feigned:
The which is seemlier?—so-called ancient order,
Or that the hot-breath’d war-horse ramp unreined?
[The October night thickens and curtains the scene.]
SCENE VI
THE PYRENEES. NEAR THE RIVER NIVELLE
[Evening. The dining-room of WELLINGTON’S quarters. The table is
laid for dinner. The battle of the Nivelle has just been fought.
Enter WELLINGTON, HILL, BERESFORD, STEWART, HOPE, CLINTON, COLBORNE,
COLE, KEMPT [with a bound-up wound], and other officers.
WELLINGTON
It is strange that they did not hold their grand position more
tenaciously against us to-day. By God, I don’t quite see why we
should have beaten them!
COLBORNE
My impression is that they had the stiffness taken out of them by
something they had just heard of. Anyhow, startling news of some
kind was received by those of the Eighty-eighth we took in the
signal-redoubt after I summoned the Commandant.
WELLINGTON
Oh, what news?
COLBORNE
I cannot say, my lord, I only know that the latest number of the
Imperial Gazette was seen in the hands of some of them before the
capture. They had been reading the contents, and were cast down.