SECOND SUBALTERN
No doubt because the races are both Teutonic.
[The spies observe that they are noticed, and disappear in the
crowd. The curtain drops.]
SCENE VIII
THE SAME
[The midsummer sun is low, and a long table in the aforeshown
apartment is laid out for a dinner, among the decorations being
bunches of the season’s roses.
At the vacant end of the room [divided from the dining end by
folding-doors, now open] there are discovered the EMPEROR NAPOLÉON,
the GRAND-DUKE CONSTANTINE, PRINCE HENRY OF PRUSSIA, the PRINCE
ROYAL OF BAVARIA, the GRAND DUKE OF BERG, and attendant officers.
Enter the TSAR ALEXANDER. NAPOLÉON welcomes him, and the twain
move apart from the rest. BONAPARTE placing a chair for his
visitor and flinging himself down on another.]
NAPOLÉON
The comforts I can offer are not great,
Nor is the accommodation more than scant
That falls to me for hospitality;
But, as it is, accept.
ALEXANDER
It serves well.
And to unbrace the bandages of state
Is as clear air to incense-stifled souls.
What of the Queen?
NAPOLÉON
She’s coming with the King.
We have some quarter-hour to spare or more
Before their Majesties are timed for us.
ALEXANDER
Good. I would speak of them. That she should show here
After the late events, betokens much!
Abasement in so proud a woman’s heart [His voice grows tremulous.]
Is not without a dash of painfulness.
And I beseech you, sire, that you hold out
Some soothing hope for her?
NAPOLÉON
I have, already!—
Now, sire, to those affairs we entered on:
Strong friendship, grown secure, bids me repeat
That you have been much duped by your allies.
[ALEXANDER shows mortification.]
Prussia’s a shuffler, England a self-seeker,
Nobility has shone in you alone.
Your error grew of over-generous dreams,
And misbeliefs by dullard ministers.
By treating personally we speed affairs
More in an hour than they in blundering months.
Between us two, henceforth, must stand no third.
There’s peril in it, while England’s mean ambition
Still works to get us skewered by the ears;
And in this view your chiefs-of-staff concur.
ALEXANDER
The judgment of my officers I share.
NAPOLÉON
To recapitulate. Nothing can greaten you
Like this alliance. Providence has flung
My good friend Sultan Selim from his throne,
Leaving me free in dealings with the Porte;
And I discern the hour as one to end
A rule that Time no longer lets cohere.
If I abstain, its spoils will go to swell
The power of this same England, our annoy;
That country which enchains the trade of towns
With such bold reach as to monopolize,
Among the rest, the whole of Petersburg’s—
Ay!—through her purse, friend, as the lender there!—
Shutting that purse, she may incite to—what?
Muscovy’s fall, its ruler’s murdering.
Her fleet at any minute can encoop
Yours in the Baltic; in the Black Sea, too;
And keep you snug as minnows in a glass!
Hence we, fast-fellowed by our mutual foes,
Seaward the British, Germany by land,
And having compassed, for our common good,
The Turkish Empire’s due partitioning,
As comrades can conjunctly rule the world
To its own gain and our eternal fame!