DECRÈS [as he withdraws]
The Emperor can be sanguine. Scarce can I.
His letters are more promising than mine.
Alas, alas, Villeneuve, my dear old friend,
Why do you pen me this at such a time!
[He retires reading VILLENEUVE’S letter. The Emperor walks up and
down till DARU, his private secretary, joins him.]
NAPOLÉON
Come quick, Daru; sit down upon the grass,
And write whilst I am in mind.
First to Villeneuve:—
“I trust, Vice-Admiral, that before this date
Your fleet has opened Brest, and gone. If not,
These lines will greet you there. But pause not, pray:
Waste not a moment dallying. Sail away:
Once bring my coupled squadrons Channelwards
And England’s soil is ours. All’s ready here,
The troops alert, and every store embarked.
Hold the nigh sea but four-and-twenty hours
And our vast end is gained.”
Now to Ganteaume:—
“My telegraphs will have made known to you
My object and desire to be but this,
That you forbid Villeneuve to lose an hour
In getting fit and putting forth to sea,
To profit by the fifty first-rate craft
Wherewith I now am bettered. Quickly weigh,
And steer you for the Channel with all your strength.
I count upon your well-known character,
Your enterprize, your vigour, to do this.
Sail hither, then; and we will be avenged
For centuries of despite and contumely.”
DARU
Shall a fair transcript, Sire, be made forthwith?
NAPOLÉON
This moment. And the courier will depart
And travel without pause.
[DARU goes to his office a little lower down, and the Emperor
lingers on the cliffs looking through his glass.
The point of view shifts across the Channel, the Boulogne cliffs
sinking behind the water-line.]
SCENE IV
SOUTH WESSEX. A RIDGE-LIKE DOWN NEAR THE COAST
[The down commands a wide view over the English Channel in front
of it, including the popular Royal watering-place, with the Isle
of Slingers and its roadstead, where men-of-war and frigates are
anchored. The hour is ten in the morning, and the July sun glows
upon a large military encampment round about the foreground, and
warms the stone field-walls that take the place of hedges here.
Artillery, cavalry, and infantry, English and Hanoverian, are
drawn up for review under the DUKE OF CUMBERLAND and officers
of the staff, forming a vast military array, which extends
three miles, and as far as the downs are visible.
In the centre by the Royal Standard appears KING GEORGE on
horseback, and his suite. In a coach drawn by six cream-
coloured Hanoverian horses, QUEEN CHARLOTTE sits with three
Princesses; in another carriage with four horses are two more
Princesses. There are also present with the Royal Party the
LORD CHANCELLOR, LORD MULGRAVE, COUNT MUNSTER, and many other
luminaries of fashion and influence.
The Review proceeds in dumb show; and the din of many bands
mingles with the cheers. The turf behind the saluting-point
is crowded with carriages and spectators on foot.]
A SPECTATOR
And you’ve come to the sight, like the King and myself? Well, one
fool makes many. What a mampus o’ folk it is here to-day! And what
a time we do live in, between wars and wassailings, the goblin o’
Boney, and King George in flesh and blood!
SECOND SPECTATOR
Yes. I wonder King George is let venture down on this coast, where
he might be snapped up in a moment like a minney by a her’n, so near
as we be to the field of Boney’s vagaries! Begad, he’s as like to
land here as anywhere. Gloucester Lodge could be surrounded, and
George and Charlotte carried off before he could put on his hat, or
she her red cloak and pattens!
THIRD SPECTATOR
’Twould be so such joke to kidnap ’em as you think. Look at the
frigates down there. Every night they are drawn up in a line
across the mouth of the Bay, almost touching each other; and
ashore a double line of sentinels, well primed with beer and
ammunition, one at the water’s edge and the other on the
Esplanade, stretch along the whole front. Then close to the
Lodge a guard is mounted after eight o’clock; there be pickets
on all the hills; at the Harbour mouth is a battery of twenty
four-pounders; and over-right ’em a dozen six-pounders, and
several howitzers. And next look at the size of the camp of
horse and foot up here.
FIRST SPECTATOR
Everybody however was fairly gallied this week when the King went
out yachting, meaning to be back for the theatre; and the eight or
nine o’clock came, and never a sign of him. I don’t know when ’a
did land; but ’twas said by all that it was a foolhardy pleasure
to take.