NAPOLÉON [shortly]
Take him away. [The prisoner is removed.] Has Grouchy’s whereabouts
Been sought, to apprize him of this Prussian trend?
SOULT
Certainly, sire. I sent a messenger.
NAPOLÉON [bitterly]
A messenger! Had my poor Berthier been here
Six would have insufficed! Now then: seek Ney;
Bid him to sling the valour of his braves
Fiercely on England ere Count Bülow come;
And advertize the succours on the hill
As Grouchy’s. [Aside] This is my one battle-chance;
The Allies have many such! [To SOULT] If Bülow nears,
He cannot join in time to share the fight.
And if he could, ’tis but a corps the more....
This morning we had ninety chances ours,
We have threescore still. If Grouchy but retrieve
His fault of absence, conquest comes with eve!
[The scene shifts.]
SCENE III
SAINT LAMBERT’S CHAPEL HILL
[A hill half-way between Wavre and the fields of Waterloo, five
miles to the north-east of the scene preceding. The hill is
wooded, with some open land around. To the left of the scene,
towards Waterloo, is a valley.]
DUMB SHOW
Marching columns in Prussian uniforms, coming from the direction of
Wavre, debouch upon the hill from the road through the wood.
They are the advance-guard and two brigades of Bülow’s corps, that
have been joined there by BLÜCHER. The latter has just risen from
the bed to which he has been confined since the battle of Ligny,
two days back. He still looks pale and shaken by the severe fall
and trampling he endured near the end of the action.
On the summit the troops halt, and a discussion between BLÜCHER and
his staff ensues.
The cannonade in the direction of Waterloo is growing more and more
violent. BLÜCHER, after looking this way and that, decides to fall
upon the French right at Plancenoit as soon as he can get there,
which will not be yet.
Between this point and that the ground descends steeply to the
valley on the spectator’s left, where there is a mud-bottomed
stream, the Lasne; the slope ascends no less abruptly on the other
side towards Plancenoit. It is across this defile alone that the
Prussian army can proceed thither- a route of unusual difficulty
for artillery; where, moreover, the enemy is suspected of having
placed a strong outpost during the night to intercept such an
approach.
A figure goes forward—that of MAJOR FALKENHAUSEN, who is sent to
reconnoitre, and they wait a tedious time, the firing at Waterloo
growing more tremendous. FALKENHAUSEN comes back with the welcome
news that no outpost is there.
There now remains only the difficulty of the defile itself; and the
attempt is made. BLÜCHER is descried riding hither and thither as
the guns drag heavily down the slope into the muddy bottom of the
valley. Here the wheels get stuck, and the men already tired by
marching since five in the morning, seem inclined to leave the guns
where they are. But the thunder from Waterloo still goes on, BLÜCHER
exhorts his men by words and eager gestures, and they do at length
get the guns across, though with much loss of time.
The advance-guard now reaches some thick trees called the Wood of
Paris. It is followed by the LOSTHIN and HILLER divisions of foot,
and in due course by the remainder of the two brigades. Here they
halt, and await the arrival of the main body of BÜLOW’S corps, and
the third corps under THIELEMANN.
The scene shifts.
SCENE IV
THE FIELD OF WATERLOO. THE ENGLISH POSITION
[WELLINGTON, on Copenhagen, is again under the elm-tree behind La
Haye Sainte. Both horse and rider are covered with mud-splashes,
but the weather having grown finer the DUKE has taken off his cloak.
UXBRIDGE, FITZROY SOMERSET, CLINTON, ALTEN, COLVILLE, DE LANCEY,
HERVEY, GORDON, and other of his staff officers and aides are
near him; there being also present GENERALS MÜFFLING, HUGEL, and
ALAVA; also TYLER, PICTON’S aide. The roar of battle continues.]
WELLINGTON
I am grieved at losing Picton; more than grieved.
He was as grim a devil as ever lived,
And roughish-mouthed withal. But never a man
More stout in fight, more stoical in blame!
TYLER
Before he left for this campaign he said,
“When you shall hear of MY death, mark my words,
You’ll hear of a bloody day!” and, on my soul,
’Tis true.
[Enter another aide-de-camp.]