HILL [joining Wellington]
The French artillery-fire
To the right still renders regiments restive there
That have to stand. The long exposure galls them.
WELLINGTON
They must be stayed as our poor means afford.
I have to bend attention steadfastly
Upon the centre here. The game just now
Goes all against us; and if staunchness fail
But for one moment with these thinning foot,
Defeat succeeds!
[The battle continues to sway hither and thither with concussions,
wounds, smoke, the fumes of gunpowder, and the steam from the hot
viscera of grape-torn horses and men. One side of a Hanoverian
square is blown away; the three remaining sides form themselves
into a triangle. So many of his aides are cut down that it is
difficult for WELLINGTON to get reports of what is happening
afar. It begins to be discovered at the front that a regiment of
hussars, and others without ammunition, have deserted, and that
some officers in the rear, honestly concluding the battle to be
lost, are riding quietly off to Brussels. Those who are left
unwounded of WELLINGTON’S staff show gloomy misgivings at such
signs, despite their own firmness.]
SPIRIT SINISTER
One needs must be a ghost
To move here in the midst ’twixt host and host!
Their balls scream brisk and breezy tunes through me
As I were an organ-stop. It’s merry so;
What damage mortal flesh must undergo!
[A Prussian officer enters to MÜFFLING, who has again rejoined
the DUKE’S suite. MÜFFLING hastens forward to WELLINGTON.]
MÜFFLING
Blücher has just begun to operate;
But owing to Gneisenau’s stolid stagnancy
The body of our army looms not yet!
As Zieten’s corps still plod behind Smohain
Their coming must be late. Blücher’s attack
Strikes the remote right rear of the enemy,
Somewhere by Plancenoit.
WELLINGTON
A timely blow;
But would that Zieten sped! Well, better late
Than never. We’ll still stand.
[The point of observation shifts.]
SCENE VIII
THE SAME. LATER
[NEY’S long attacks on the centre with cavalry having failed,
those left of the squadrons and their infantry-supports fall
back pell-mell in broken groups across the depression between
the armies.
Meanwhile BÜLOW, having engaged LOBAU’S Sixth Corps, carries
Plancenoit.
The artillery-fire between the French and the English continues.
An officer of the Third Foot-guards comes up to WELLINGTON and
those of his suite that survive.]
OFFICER
Our Colonel Canning—coming I know not whence—
WELLINGTON
I lately sent him with important words
To the remoter lines.
OFFICER
As he returned
A grape-shot struck him in the breast; he fell,
At once a dead man. General Halkett, too,
Has had his cheek shot through, but still keeps going.