SEMICHORUS II
In conclaves no voice of reflection
Is heard,
King, Councillors, grudge circumspection
A word,
And victory is visioned, and seemings as facts are averred.
CHORUS
Yea, the soul of a nation distrest
Is aflame,
And heaving with eager unrest
In its aim
At supreme desperations to blazon the national name!
[Midnight strikes, lights are extinguished one by one, and the
scene disappears.]
SCENE IV
THE FIELD OF JENA
[Day has just dawned through a grey October haze. The French,
with their backs to the nebulous light, loom out and show
themselves to be already under arms; LANNES holding the centre,
NEY the right, SOULT the extreme right, and AUGEREAU the left.
The Imperial Guard and MURAT’S cavalry are drawn up on the
Landgrafenberg, behind the centre of the French position. In
a valley stretching along to the rear of this height flows
northward towards the Elbe the little river Saale, on which
the town of Jena stands.
On the irregular plateaux in front of the French lines, and almost
close to the latter, are the Prussians un TAUENZIEN; and away on
their right rear towards Weimar the bulk of the army under PRINCE
HOHENLOHE. The DUKE OF BRUNSWICK [father of the Princess of
Wales] is twelve miles off with his force at Auerstadt, in the
valley of the Ilm.
Enter NAPOLÉON, and men bearing torches who escort him. He moves
along the front of his troops, and is lost to view behind the
mist and surrounding objects. But his voice is audible.]
NAPOLÉON
Keep you good guard against their cavalry,
In past repute the formidablest known,
And such it may be now; so asks our heed.
Receive it, then, in square, unflinchingly.—
Remember, men, last year you captured Ulm,
So make no doubt that you will vanquish these!
SOLDIERS
Long live the Emperor! Advance, advance!
DUMB SHOW
Almost immediately glimpses reveal that LANNES’ corps is moving
forward, and amid an unbroken clatter of firelocks spreads out
further and wider upon the stretch of country in front of the
Landgrafenberg. The Prussians, surprised at discerning in the
fog such masses of the enemy close at hand, recede towards the
Ilm.
From PRINCE HOHENLOHE, who is with the body of the Prussians on
the Weimar road to the south, comes perspiring the bulk of the
infantry to rally the retreating regiments of TAUENZIEN, and he
hastens up himself with the cavalry and artillery. The action
is renewed between him and NEY as the clocks of Jena strike ten.
But AUGEREAU is seen coming to Ney’s assistance on one flank of
the Prussians, SOULT bearing down on the other, while NAPOLÉON
on the Landgrafenberg orders the Imperial Guard to advance. The
doomed Prussians are driven back, this time more decisively,
falling in great numbers and losing many as prisoners as they
reel down the sloping land towards the banks of the Ilm behind
them. GENERAL RUCHEL, in a last despairing effort to rally,
faces the French onset in person and alone. He receives a bullet
through the chest and falls dead.
The crisis of the struggle is reached, though the battle is not
over. NAPOLÉON, discerning from the Landgrafenberg that the
decisive moment has come, directs MURAT to sweep forward with all
his cavalry. It engages the shattered Prussians, surrounds them,
and cuts them down by thousands.
From behind the horizon, a dozen miles off, between the din of guns
in the visible battle, there can be heard an ominous roar, as of a
second invisible battle in progress there. Generals and other
officers look at each other and hazard conjectures between whiles,
the French with exultation, the Prussians gloomily.
HOHENLOHE
That means the Duke of Brunswick, I conceive,
Impacting on the enemy’s further force
Led by, they say, Davout and Bernadotte.
God grant his star less lurid rays then ours,
Or this too pregnant, hoarsely-groaning day
Shall, ere its loud delivery be done,
Have twinned disasters to the fatherland
That fifty years will fail to sepulchre!
Enter a straggler on horseback.
STRAGGLER
Prince, I have circuited by Auerstadt,
And bring ye dazzling tidings of the fight,
Which, if report by those who saw’t be true,
Has raged thereat from clammy day-dawn on,
And left us victors!