WELLINGTON
And how proceeds De Lancey?
OFFICER
I am told
That he forbids the surgeons waste their time
On him, who well can wait till worse are eased.
WELLINGTON
A noble fellow.
[NAPOLÉON can now be seen, across the valley, pushing forward a
new scheme of some sort, urged to it obviously by the visible
nearing of further Prussian corps. The EMPEROR is as critically
situated as WELLINGTON, and his army is now formed in a right
angle [“en potence”], the main front to the English, the lesser
to as many of the Prussians as have yet arrived. His gestures
show him to be giving instructions of desperate import to a
general whom he has called up.]
SPIRIT IRONIC
He bids La Bedoyere to speed away
Along the whole sweep of the surging line,
And there announce to the breath-shotten bands
Who toil for a chimaera trustfully,
With seventy pounds of luggage on their loins,
That the dim Prussian masses seen afar
Are Grouchy’s three-and-thirty thousand, come
To clinch a victory.
SPIRIT OF THE PITIES
But Ney demurs!
SPIRIT IRONIC
Ney holds indignantly that such a feint
Is not war-worthy. Says Napoléon then,
Snuffing anew, with sour sardonic scowl,
That he is choiceless.
SPIRIT SINISTER
Excellent Emperor!
He tops all human greatness; in that he
To lesser grounds of greatness adds the prime,
Of being without a conscience.
[LA BEDOYERE and orderlies start on their mission. The false
intelligence is seen to spread, by the excited motion of the
columns, and the soldiers can be heard shouting as their spirits
revive.
WELLINGTON is beginning to discern the features of the coming
onset, when COLONEL FRASER rides up.]
FRASER
We have just learnt from a deserting captain,
One of the carabineers who charged of late,
That an assault which dwarfs all instances—
The whole Imperial Guard in welded weight—
Is shortly to be made.
WELLINGTON
For your smart speed
My thanks. My observation is confirmed.
We’ll hasten now along the battle-line [to Staff],
As swiftest means for giving orders out
Whereby to combat this.
[The speaker, accompanied by HILL, UXBRIDGE, and others—all now
looking as worn and besmirched as the men in the ranks—proceed
along the lines, and dispose the brigades to meet the threatened
shock. The infantry are brought out of the shelter they have
recently sought, the cavalry stationed in the rear, and the
batteries of artillery hitherto kept in reserve are moved to the
front.
The last Act of the battle begins.
There is a preliminary attack by DONZELOT’S columns, combined
with swarms of sharpshooters, to the disadvantage of the English
and their Allies. WELLINGTON has scanned it closely. FITZROY
SOMERSET, his military secretary, comes up.]
WELLINGTON
What casualty has thrown its shade among
The regiments of Nassau, to shake them so?