Complete Works of Thomas Hardy (Illustrated)

by Thomas Hardy

  Her gold it is that forms the weft of this

  Fair tapestry of armies marshalled here!

  Likewise of Russia's drawing steadily nigh.

  But they may see what these see, by and by.

  SPIRIT OF THE YEARS

  So let him speak, the while we clearly sight him

  Moved like a figure on a lantern-slide.

  Which, much amazing uninitiate eyes,

  The all-compelling crystal pane but drags

  Wither the showman wills.

  SPIRIT IRONIC

  And yet, my friend,

  The Will itself might smile at this collapse

  Of Austria's men-at-arms, so drolly done;

  Even as, in your phantasmagoric show,

  The deft manipulator of the slide

  Might smile at his own art.

  CHORUS OF THE YEARS [aerial music]

  Ah, no: ah, no!

  It is impassible as glacial snow.—

  Within the Great Unshaken

  These painted shapes awaken

  A lesser thrill than doth the gentle lave

  Of yonder bank by Danube's wandering wave

  Within the Schwarzwald heights that give it flow!

  SPIRIT OF THE PITIES

  But O, the intolerable antilogy

  Of making figments feel!

  SPIRIT IRONIC

  Logic's in that.

  It does not, I must own, quite play the game.

  CHORUS OF IRONIC SPIRITS [aerial music]

  And this day wins for Ulm a dingy fame,

  Which centuries shall not bleach from her name!

  [The procession of Austrians continues till the scene is hidden

  by haze.]

  SCENE VI

  LONDON. SPRING GARDENS

  [Before LORD MALMESBURY'S house, on a Sunday morning in the

  same autumn. Idlers pause and gather in the background.

  PITT enters, and meets LORD MULGRAVE.]

  MULGRAVE

  Good day, Pitt. Ay, these leaves that skim the ground

  With withered voices, hint that sunshine-time

  Is well-nigh past.—And so the game's begun

  Between him and the Austro-Russian force,

  As second movement in the faceabout

  From Boulogne shore, with which he has hocussed us?—

  What has been heard on't? Have they clashed as yet?

  PITT

  The Emperor Francis, partly at my instance,

  Has thrown the chief command on General Mack,

  A man most capable and far of sight.

  He centres by the Danube-bank at Ulm,

  A town well-walled, and firm for leaning on

  To intercept the French in their advance

  From the Black Forest toward the Russian troops

  Approaching from the east. If Bonaparte

  Sustain his marches at the break-neck speed

  That all report, they must have met ere now.

  —There is a rumour... quite impossible!...

  MULGRAVE

  You still have faith in Mack as strategist?

  There have been doubts of his far-sightedness.

  PITT [hastily]

  I know, I know.—I am calling here at Malmesbury's

  At somewhat an unceremonious time

  To ask his help to translate this Dutch print

  The post has brought. Malmesbury is great at Dutch,

  Learning it long at Leyden, years ago.

  [He draws a newspaper from his pocket, unfolds it, and glances

  it down.]

  There's news here unintelligible to me

  Upon the very matter! You'll come in?

  [They call at LORD MAMESBURY'S. He meets them in the hall, and

  welcomes them with an apprehensive look of foreknowledge.]

  PITT

  Pardon this early call. The packet's in,

  And wings me this unreadable Dutch paper,

  So, as the offices are closed to-day,

  I have brought it round to you.

  [Handling the paper.]

  What does it say?

  For God's sake, read it out. You know the tongue.

  MALMESBURY [with hesitation]

  I have glanced it through already—more than once—

  A copy having reached me, too, by now...

  We are in the presence of a great disaster!

  See here. It says that Mack, enjailed in Ulm

  By Bonaparte—from four side shutting round—

  Capitulated, and with all his force

  Laid down his arms before his conqueror!

  [PITT's face changes. A silence.]

  MULGRAVE

  Outrageous! Ignominy unparalleled!

  PITT

  By God, my lord, these statement must be false!

  These foreign prints are trustless as Cheap Jack

  Dumfounding yokels at a country fair.

  I heed no word of it.—Impossible.

  What! Eighty thousand Austrians, nigh in touch

  With Russia's levies that Kutuzof leads,

  To lay down arms before the war's begun?

  'Tis too much!

  MALMESBURY

  But I fear it is too true!

  Note the assevered source of the report—

  One beyond thought of minters of mock tales.

  The writer adds that military wits

  Cry that the little Corporal now makes war

  In a new way, using his soldiers' legs

  And not their arms, to bring him victory.

  Ha-ha! The quip must sting the Corporal's foes.

  PITT [after a pause]

  O vacillating Prussia! Had she moved,

  Had she but planted one foot firmly down,

  All this had been averted.—I must go.

  'Tis sure, 'tis sure, I labour but in vain!

  [MALMESBURY accompanies him to the door, and PITT walks away

  disquietedly towards Whitehall, the other two regarding him

  as he goes.]

  MULGRAVE

  Too swiftly he declines to feebleness,

  And these things well might shake a stouter frame!

  MALMESBURY

  Of late the burden of all Europe's cares,

  Of hiring and maintaining half her troops,

  His single pair of shoulders has upborne,

  Thanks to the obstinacy of the King.—

  His thin, strained face, his ready irritation,

  Are ominous signs. He may not be for long.

  MULGRAVE

  He alters fast, indeed,—as do events.

  MALMESBURY

  His labour's lost; and all our money gone!

  It looks as if this doughty coalition

  On which we have lavished so much pay and pains

  Would end in wreck.

  MULGRAVE

  All is not over yet;

  The gathering Russian forces are unbroke.

  MALMESBURY

  Well; we shall see. Should Boney vanquish these,

  And silence all resistance on that side,

  His move will then be backward to Boulogne,

  And so upon us.

  MULGRAVE

  Nelson to our defence!

  MALMESBURY

  Ay; where is Nelson? Faith, by this time

  He may be sodden; churned in Biscay swirls;

  Or blown to polar bears by boreal gales;

  Or sleeping amorously in some calm cave

  On the Canaries' or Atlantis' shore

  Upon the bosom of his Dido dear,

  For all that we know! Never a sound of him

  Since passing Portland one September day—

  To make for Cadiz; so 'twas then believed.

  MULGRAVE

  He's staunch. He's watching, or I am much deceived.

  [MULGRAVE departs. MALMESBURY goes within. The scene shuts.]

  ACT FIFTH

  SCENE I

  OFF CAPE TRAFALGAR

 
[A bird's eye view of the sea discloses itself. It is daybreak,

  and the broad face of the ocean is fringed on its eastern edge

  by the Cape and the Spanish shore. On the rolling surface

  immediately beneath the eye, ranged more or less in two parallel

  lines running north and south, one group from the twain standing

  off somewhat, are the vessels of the combined French and Spanish

  navies, whose canvases, as the sun edges upward, shine in its

  rays like satin.

  On the western horizon two columns of ships appear in full sail,

  small as moths to the aerial vision. They are bearing down

  towards the combined squadrons.]

  RECORDING ANGEL I [intoning from his book]

  At last Villeneuve accepts the sea and fate,

  Despite the Cadiz council called of late,

  Whereat his stoutest captains—men the first

  To do all mortals durst—

  Willing to sail, and bleed, and bear the worst,

  Short of cold suicide, did yet opine

  That plunging mid those teeth of treble line

  In jaws of oaken wood

  Held open by the English navarchy

  With suasive breadth and artful modesty,

  Would smack of purposeless foolhardihood.

  RECORDING ANGEL II

  But word came, writ in mandatory mood,

  To put from Cadiz, gain Toulon, and straight

  At a said sign on Italy operate.

  Moreover that Villeneuve, arrived as planned,

  Would find Rosily in supreme command.—

  Gloomy Villeneuve grows rash, and, darkly brave,

  Leaps to meet war, storm, Nelson—even the grave.

  SEMICHORUS I OF THE YEARS [aerial music]

  Ere the concussion hurtle, draw abreast

  Of the sea.

  SEMICHORUS II

  Where Nelson's hulls are rising from the west,

  Silently.

  SEMICHORUS I

  Each linen wing outspread, each man and lad

  Sworn to be

  SEMICHORUS II

  Amid the vanmost, or for Death, or glad

  Victory!

  [The point of sight descends till it is near the deck of the

  "Bucentaure," the flag-ship of VILLENEUVE. Present thereupon

  are the ADMIRAL, his FLAG-CAPTAIN MAGENDIE, LIEUTENANT

  DAUDIGNON, other naval officers and seamen.]

  MAGENDIE

  All night we have read their signals in the air,

  Whereby the peering frigates of their van

  Have told them of our trend.

  VILLENEUVE

  The enemy

  Makes threat as though to throw him on our stern:

  Signal the fleet to wear; bid Gravina

  To come in from manoeuvring with his twelve,

  And range himself in line.

  [Officers murmur.]

  I say again

  Bid Gravina draw hither with his twelve,

  And signal all to wear!—and come upon

  The larboard tack with every bow anorth!—

  So we make Cadiz in the worst event.

  And patch our rags up there. As we head now

  Our only practicable thoroughfare

  Is through Gibraltar Strait—a fatal door!

  Signal to close the line and leave no gaps.

  Remember, too, what I have already told:

  Remind them of it now. They must not pause

  For signallings from me amid a strife

  Whose chaos may prevent my clear discernment,

  Or may forbid my signalling at all.

  The voice of honour then becomes the chief's;

  Listen they thereto, and set every stitch

  To heave them on into the fiercest fight.

  Now I will sum up all: heed well the charge;

  EACH CAPTAIN, PETTY OFFICER, AND MAN

  IS ONLY AT HIS POST WHEN UNDER FIRE.

  [The ships of the whole fleet turn their bows from south to

  north as directed, and close up in two parallel curved columns,

  the concave side of each column being towards the enemy, and

  the interspaces of the first column being, in general, opposite

  the hulls of the second.]

  AN OFFICER [straining his eyes towards the English fleet]

  How they skip on! Their overcrowded sail

  Bulge like blown bladders in a tripeman's shop

  The market-morning after slaughterday!

  PETTY OFFICER

  It's morning before slaughterday with us,

  I make so bold to bode!

  [The English Admiral is seen to be signalling to his fleet. The

  signal is: "ENGLAND EXPECTS EVERY MAN TO DO HIS DUTY." A loud

  cheering from all the English ships comes undulating on the wind

  when the signal is read.]

  VILLENEUVE

  They are signalling too—Well, business soon begins!

  You will reserve your fire. And be it known

  That we display no admirals' flags at all

  Until the action's past. 'Twill puzzle them,

  And work to our advantage when we close.—

  Yes, they are double-ranked, I think, like us;

  But we shall see anon.

  MAGENDIE

  The foremost one

  Makes for the "Santa Ana." In such case

  The "Fougueux" might assist her.

  VILLENEUVE

  Be it so—

  There's time enough.—Our ships will be in place,

  And ready to speak back in iron words

  When theirs cry Hail! in the same sort of voice.

  [They prepare to receive the northernmost column of the enemy's

  ships headed by the "Victory," trying the distance by an occasional

  single shot. During their suspense a discharge is heard southward,

  and turning they behold COLLINGWOOD at the head of his column in

  the "Royal Sovereign," just engaging with the Spanish "Santa Ana."

  Meanwhile the "Victory's" mizzen-topmast, with spars and a quantity

  of rigging, is seen to have fallen, her wheel to be shot away, and

  her deck encumbered with dead and wounded men.]

  VILLENEUVE

  'Tis well! But see; their course is undelayed,

  And still they near in clenched audacity!

  DAUDIGNON

  Which aim deft Lucas o' the "Redoubtable"

  Most gallantly bestirs him to outscheme.—

  See, how he strains, that on his timbers fall

  Blows that were destined for his Admiral!

  [During this the French ship "Redoubtable" is moving forward

  to interpose itself between the approaching "Victory" and the

  "Bucentaure."]

  VILLENEUVE

  Now comes it! The "Santisima Trinidad,"

  The old "Redoubtable's" hard sides, and ours,

  Will take the touse of this bombastic blow.

  Your grapnels and your boarding-hatchets—ready!

  We'll dash our eagle on the English deck,

  And swear to fetch it!

  CREW

  Ay! We swear. Huzza

  Long live the Emperor!

  [But the "Victory" suddenly swerves to the rear of the "Bucentaure,"

  and crossing her stern-waters, discharges a broadside into her and

  the "Redoubtable" endwise, wrapping the scene in folds of smoke.

  The point of view changes.]

  SCENE II

  THE SAME. THE QUARTER-DECK OF THE "VICTORY"

  [The van of each division of the English fleet has drawn to the

  windward side of the combined fleets of the enemy, and broken

  their order, the "Victory" being now parallel to and alongside

  the "Redoubtable," the "Temeraire" taking up a station on the

 
; other side of that ship. The "Bucentaure" and the "Santisima

  Trinidad" become jammed together a little way ahead. A smoke

  and din of cannonading prevail, amid which the studding-sail

  booms are shot away.

  NELSON, HARDY, BLACKWOOD, SECRETARY SCOTT, LIEUTENANT PASCO,

  BURKE the Purser, CAPTAIN ADAIR of the Marines, and other

  officers are on or near the quarter-deck.]

  NELSON

  See, there, that noble fellow Collingwood,

  How straight he helms his ship into the fire!—

  Now you'll haste back to yours [to BLACKWOOD].

  —We must henceforth

  Trust to the Great Disposer of events,

  And justice of our cause!...

  [BLACKWOOD leaves. The battle grows hotter. A double-headed shot

  cuts down seven or eight marines on the "Victory's" poop.]

  Captain Adair, part those marines of yours,

  And hasten to disperse them round the ship.—

  Your place is down below, Burke, not up here;

  Ah, yes; like David you would see the battle!

  [A heavy discharge of musket-shot comes from the tops of the

  "Santisima Trinidad. ADAIR and PASCO fall. Another swathe

  of Marines is mowed down by chain-shot.]

  SCOTT

  My lord, I use to you the utmost prayers

  That I have privilege to shape in words:

  Remove your stars and orders, I would beg;

  That shot was aimed at you.

  NELSON

  They were awarded to me as an honour,

  And shall I do despite to those who prize me,

  And slight their gifts? No, I will die with them,

  If die I must.

  [He walks up and down with HARDY.]

  HARDY

  At least let's put you on

  Your old greatcoat, my lord—[the air is keen.].—

  'Twill cover all. So while you still retain

  Your dignities, you baulk these deadly aims

  NELSON

  Thank 'ee, good friend. But no,—I haven't time,

  I do assure you—not a trice to spare,

  As you well will see.

  [A few minutes later SCOTT falls dead, a bullet having pierced

  his skull. Immediately after a shot passes between the Admiral

  and the Captain, tearing the instep of Hardy's shoe, and striking

  away the buckle. They shake off the dust and splinters it has

  scattered over them. NELSON glances round, and perceives what

  has happened to his secretary.]

  NELSON

  Poor Scott, too, carried off! Warm work this, Hardy;

  Too warm to go on long.

  HARDY

  I think so, too;

  Their lower ports are blocked against our hull,

  And our charge now is less. Each knock so near