WHITBREAD
Good God, then, what are we to understand?—
However, this denial is a gain,
And my misapprehension owes its birth
Entirely to that mystery of phrase
Which taints all rhetoric of the noble lord,
Well, what is urged for new aggression now,
To vamp up and replace the Bourbon line?
The wittiest man who ever sat here[21] said
That half our nation’s debt had been incurred
In efforts to suppress the Bourbon power,
The other half in efforts to restore it, [laughter]
And I must deprecate a further plunge
For ends so futile! Why, since Ministers
Craved peace with Bonaparte at Chatillon,
Should they refuse him peace and quiet now?
This brief amendment therefore I submit
To limit Ministers’ aggressiveness
And make self-safety all their chartering:
“We at the same time earnestly implore
That the Prince Regent graciously induce
Strenuous endeavours in the cause of peace,
So long as it be done consistently
With the due honour of the English crown.” [Cheers.]
CASTLEREAGH
The arguments of Members opposite
Posit conditions which experience proves
But figments of a dream;—that honesty,
Truth, and good faith in this same Bonaparte
May be assumed and can be acted on:
This of one who is loud to violate
Bonds the most sacred, treaties the most grave!...
It follows not that since this realm was won
To treat with Bonaparte at Chatillon,
It can treat now. And as for assassination,
The sentiments outspoken here to-night
Are much more like to urge to desperate deeds
Against the persons of our good Allies,
Than are, against Napoléon, statements signed
By the Vienna plenipotentiaries!
We are, in fine, too fully warranted
On moral grounds to strike at Bonaparte,
If we at any crisis reckon it
Expedient so to do. The Government
Will act throughout in concert with the Allies,
And Ministers are well within their rights
To claim that their responsibility
Be not disturbed by hackneyed forms of speech [“Oh, oh”]
Upon war’s horrors, and the bliss of peace,—
Which none denies! [Cheers.]
PONSONBY
I ask the noble lord,
If that his meaning and pronouncement be
Immediate war?
CASTLEREAGH
I have not phrased it so.
OPPOSITION CRIES
The question is unanswered!
[There are excited calls, and the House divides. The result is
announced as thirty-seven for WHITBREAD’S amendment, and against
it two hundred and twenty. The clock strikes twelve as the House
adjourns.]
SCENE VI
WESSEX. DURNOVER GREEN, CASTERBRIDGE
[On a patch of green grass on Durnover Hill, in the purlieus of
Casterbridge, a rough gallows has been erected, and an effigy of
Napoléon hung upon it. Under the effigy are faggots of brushwood.
It is the dusk of a spring evening, and a great crowd has gathered,
comprising male and female inhabitants of the Durnover suburb
and villagers from distances of many miles. Also are present
some of the county yeomanry in white leather breeches and scarlet,
volunteers in scarlet with green facings, and the REVEREND MR.
PALMER, vicar of the parish, leaning against the post of his
garden door, and smoking a clay pipe of preternatural length.
Also PRIVATE CANTLE from Egdon Heath, and SOLOMON LONGWAYS of
Casterbridge. The Durnover band, which includes a clarionet,
{serpent,} oboe, tambourine, cymbals, and drum, is playing “Lord
Wellington’s Hornpipe.”]
RUSTIC [wiping his face]
Says I, please God I’ll lose a quarter to zee he burned! And I left
Stourcastle at dree o’clock to a minute. And if I’d known that I
should be too late to zee the beginning on’t, I’d have lost a half
to be a bit sooner.
YEOMAN
Oh, you be soon enough good-now. He’s just going to be lighted.
RUSTIC
But shall I zee en die? I wanted to zee if he’d die hard,