Complete Works of Thomas Hardy (Illustrated)

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Complete Works of Thomas Hardy (Illustrated) Page 813

by Thomas Hardy

Much; and startling, too. "Why are we at war?" says Napoleon when

  they met.—"Ah—why!" said t'other.—"Well," said Boney, "I am

  fighting you only as an ally of the English, and you are simply

  serving them, and not yourself, in fighting me."—"In that case,"

  says Alexander, "we shall soon be friends, for I owe her as great

  a grudge as you."

  FIRST SPY

  Dammy, go that length, did they!

  SECOND SPY

  Then they plunged into the old story about English selfishness,

  and greed, and duplicity. But the climax related to Spain, and

  it amounted to this: they agreed that the Bourbons of the Spanish

  throne should be made to abdicate, and Bonaparte's relations set

  up as sovereigns instead of them.

  FIRST SPY

  Somebody must ride like hell to let our Cabinet know!

  SECOND SPY

  I have written it down in cipher, not to trust to memory, and to

  guard against accidents.—They also agree that France should have

  the Pope's dominions, Malta, and Egypt; that Napoleon's brother

  Joseph should have Sicily as well as Naples, and that they would

  partition the Ottoman Empire between them.

  FIRST SPY

  Cutting up Europe like a plum-pudding. Par nobile fratrum!

  SECOND SPY

  Then they worthy pair came to poor Prussia, whom Alexander, they

  say, was anxious about, as he is under engagements to her. It

  seems that Napoleon agrees to restore to the King as many of his

  states as will cover Alexander's promise, so that the Tsar may

  feel free to strike out in this new line with his new friend.

  FIRST SPY

  Surely this is but surmise?

  SECOND SPY

  Not at all. One of the suite overheard, and I got round him. There

  was much more, which I did not learn. But they are going to soothe

  and flatter the unfortunate King and Queen by asking them to a banquet

  here.

  FIRST SPY

  Such a spirited woman will never come!

  SECOND SPY

  We shall see. Whom necessity compels needs must: and she has gone

  through an Iliad of woes!

  FIRST SPY

  It is this Spanish business that will stagger England, by God! And

  now to let her know it.

  FRENCH SUBALTERN [looking out above]

  What are those townspeople talking about so earnestly, I wonder? The

  lingo of this place has an accent akin to English.

  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 NAPOLEON,

  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. NAPOLEON welcomes him, and the twain

  move apart from the rest. BONAPARTE placing a chair for his

  visitor and flinging himself down on another.]

  NAPOLEON

  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?

  NAPOLEON

  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?

  NAPOLEON

  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.

  NAPOLEON

  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!

  ALEXANDER [stirred and flushed]

  I see vast prospects opened!—yet, in truth,

  Ere you, sire, broached these themes, their outlines loomed

  Not seldom in my own imaginings;

  But with less clear a vision than endows

  So great a captain, statesman, philosoph,

  As centre in yourself; whom had I known

  Sooner by some few years, months, even weeks,

  I had been spared full many a fault of rule.

  —Now as to Austria. Should we call her in?

  NAPOLEON

  Two in a bed I have slept, but never three.

  ALEXANDER

  Ha-ha! Delightful. And, then nextly, Spain?

  NAPOLEON

  I lighted on some letters at Berlin,

  Wherein King Carlos offered to attack me.

  A Bourbon, minded thus, so near as Spain,

  Is dangerous stuff. He must be seen to soon!...

  A draft, then, of our treaty being penned,

  We will peruse it later. If King George

  Will not, upon the terms there offered him,

  Conclude a ready peace, he can be forced.

  Trumpet yourself as France's firm al
ly,

  And Austria will fain to do the same:

  England, left nude to such joint harassment,

  Must shiver—fall.

  ALEXANDER [with naive enthusiasm]

  It is a great alliance!

  NAPOLEON

  Would it were one in blood as well as brain—

  Of family hopes, and sweet domestic bliss!

  ALEXANDER

  Ah—is it to my sister you refer?

  NAPOLEON

  The launching of a lineal progeny

  Has been much pressed upon me, much, of late,

  For reasons which I will not dwell on now.

  Staid counsellors, my brother Joseph, too,

  Urge that I loose the Empress by divorce,

  And re-wive promptly for the country's good.

  Princesses even have been named for me!—

  However this, to-day, is premature,

  And 'twixt ourselves alone....

  The Queen of Prussia must ere long be here:

  Berthier escorts her. And the King, too, comes.

  She's one whom you admire?

  ALEXANDER [reddening ingenuously]

  Yes.... Formerly

  I had—did feel that some faint fascination

  Vaguely adorned her form. And, to be plain,

  Certain reports have been calumnious,

  And wronged an honest woman.

  NAPOLEON

  As I knew!

  But she is wearing thready: why, her years

  Must be full one-and-thirty, if she's one.

  ALEXANDER [quickly]

  No, sire. She's twenty-nine. If traits teach more

  It means that cruel memory gnaws at her

  As fair inciter to that fatal war

  Which broke her to the dust!... I do confess

  [Since now we speak on't] that this sacrifice

  Prussia is doomed to, still disquiets me.

  Unhappy King! When I recall the oaths

  Sworn him upon great Frederick's sepulchre,

  And—and my promises to his sad Queen,

  It pricks me that his realm and revenues

  Should be stript down to the mere half they were!

  NAPOLEON [cooly]

  Believe me, 'tis but my regard for you

  Which lets me leave him that! Far easier 'twere

  To leave him none at all.

  [He rises and goes to the window.]

  But here they are.

  No; it's the Queen alone, with Berthier

  As I directed. Then the King will follow.

  ALEXANDER

  Let me, sire, urge your courtesy to bestow

  Some gentle words on her?

  NAPOLEON

  Ay, ay; I will.

  [Enter QUEEN LOUISA OF PRUSSIA on the arm of BERTHIER. She

  appears in majestic garments and with a smile on her lips, so

  that her still great beauty is impressive. But her eyes bear

  traces of tears. She accepts NAPOLEON'S attentions with the

  stormily sad air of a wounded beauty. Whilst she is being

  received the KING arrives. He is a plain, shy, honest-faced,

  awkward man, with a wrecked and solitary look. His manner to

  NAPOLEON is, nevertheless, dignified, and even stiff.

  The company move into the inner half of the room, where the

  tables are, and the folding-doors being shut, they seat themselves

  at dinner, the QUEEN taking a place between NAPOLEON and ALEXANDER.]

  NAPOLEON

  Madame, I love magnificent attire;

  But in the present instance can but note

  That each bright knot and jewel less adorns

  The brighter wearer than the wearer it!

  QUEEN [with a sigh]

  You praise one, sire, whom now the wanton world

  Has learnt to cease from praising! But such words

  From such a quarter are of worth no less.

  NAPOLEON

  Of worth as candour, madame; not as gauge.

  Your reach in rarity outsoars my scope.

  Yet, do you know, a troop of my hussars,

  That last October day, nigh captured you?

  QUEEN

  Nay! Never a single Frenchman did I see.

  NAPOLEON

  Not less it was that you exposed yourself,

  And should have been protected. But at Weimar,

  Had you but sought me, 'twould have bettered you.

  QUEEN

  I had no zeal to meet you, sire, alas!

  NAPOLEON [after a silence]

  And how at Memel do you sport with time?

  QUEEN

  Sport? I!—I pore on musty chronicles,

  And muse on usurpations long forgot,

  And other historied dramas of high wrong!

  NAPOLEON

  Why con not annals of your own rich age?

  They treasure acts well fit for pondering.

  QUEEN

  I am reminded too much of my age

  By having had to live in it. May Heaven

  Defend me now, and my wan ghost anon,

  From conning it again!

  NAPOLEON

  Alas, alas!

  Too grievous, this, for one who is yet a queen!

  QUEEN

  No; I have cause for vials more of grief.—

  Prussia was blind in blazoning her power

  Against the Mage of Earth!...

  The embers of great Frederick's deeds inflamed her:

  His glories swelled her to her ruining.

  Too well has she been punished! [Emotion stops her.]

  ALEXANDER [in a low voice, looking anxiously at her]

  Say not so.

  You speak as all were lost. Things are not thus!

  Such desperation has unreason in it,

  And bleeds the hearts that crave to comfort you.

  NAPOLEON [to the King]

  I trust the treaty, further pondered, sire,

  Has consolations?

  KING [curtly]

  I am a luckless man;

  And muster strength to bear my lucklessness

  Without vain hope of consolations now.

  One thing, at least, I trust I have shown you, sire

  That I provoked not this calamity!

  At Anspach first my feud with you began—

  Anspach, my Eden, violated and shamed

  By blushless tramplings of your legions there!

  NAPOLEON

  It's rather late, methinks, to talk thus now.

  KING [with more choler]

  Never too late for truth and plainspeaking!

  NAPOLEON [blandly]

  To your ally, the Tsar, I must refer you.

  He was it, and not I, who tempted you

  To push for war, when Eylau must have shown

  Your every profit to have lain in peace.—

  He can indemn; yes, much or small; and may.

  KING [with a head-shake]

  I would make up, would well make up, my mind

  To half my kingdom's loss, could in such limb

  But Magdeburg not lie. Dear Magdeburg,

  Place of my heart-hold; THAT I would retain!

  NAPOLEON

  Our words take not such pattern as is wont

  To grace occasions of festivity.

  [He turns brusquely from the King. The banquet proceeds with a

  more general conversation. When finished a toast is proposed:

  "The Freedom of the Seas," and drunk with enthusiasm.]

  SPIRIT SINISTER

  Another hit at England and her tubs!

  I hear harsh echoes from her chalky chines.

  SPIRIT OF THE PITIES

  O heed not England now! Still read the Queen.

  One grieves to see her spend her pretty spells

  Upon the man who has so injured her.

  [They rise from table, and the folding-doors being opened they pass

  into the adjoinin
g room.

  Here are now assembled MURAT, TALLEYRAND, KOURAKIN, KALKREUTH,

  BERTHIER, BESSIERES, CAULAINCOURT, LABANOFF, BENNIGSEN, and others.

  NAPOLEON having spoken a few words here and there resumes his

  conversation with QUEEN LOUISA, and parenthetically offers snuff

  to the COUNTESS VOSS, her lady-in-waiting. TALLEYRAND, who has

  observed NAPOLEON'S growing interest in the QUEEN, contrives to

  get near him.]

  TALLEYRAND [in a whisper]

  Sire, is it possible that you can bend

  To let one woman's fairness filch from you

  All the resplendent fortune that attends

  The grandest victory of your grand career?

  [The QUEEN'S quick eye observes and flashes at the whisper, and

  she obtains a word with the minister.]

  QUEEN [sarcastically]

  I should infer, dear Monsieur Talleyrand,

  Only two persons in the world regret

  My having come to Tilsit.

  TALLEYRAND

  Madame, two?

  Can any!—who may such sad rascals be?

  QUEEN

  You, and myself, Prince. [Gravely.] Yes! myself and you.

  [TALLEYRAND'S face becomes impassive, and he does not reply.

  Soon the QUEEN prepares to leave, and NAPOLEON rejoins her.]

  NAPOLEON [taking a rose from a vase]

  Dear Queen, do pray accept this little token

  As souvenir of me before you go?

  [He offers her the rose, with his hand on his heart. She

  hesitates, but accepts it.]

  QUEEN [impulsively, with waiting tears]

  Let Magdeburg come with it, sire! O yes!

  NAPOLEON [with sudden frigidity]

  It is for you to take what I can give.

  And I give this—no more.

  [She turns her head to hide her emotion, and withdraws. NAPOLEON

  steps up to her, and offers his arm. She takes it silently, and

  he perceives the tears on her cheeks. They cross towards the ante-

  room, away from the other guests.]

  NAPOLEON [softly]

  Still weeping, dearest lady! Why is this?

  QUEEN [seizing his hand and pressing it]

  Your speeches darn the tearings of your sword!—

  Between us two, as man and woman now,

  Is't even possible you question why!

  O why did not the Greatest of the Age—

  Of future ages—of the ages past,

  This one time win a woman's worship—yea,

  For all her little life!

  NAPOLEON [gravely]

  Know you, my Fair

  That I—ay, I—in this deserve your pity.—

  Some force within me, baffling mine intent,

  Harries me onward, whether I will or no.

  My star, my star is what's to blame—not I.

  It is unswervable!

  QUEEN

  Then now, alas!

 

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