Complete Works of Thomas Hardy (Illustrated)

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Complete Works of Thomas Hardy (Illustrated) Page 826

by Thomas Hardy


  [The winter day has gloomed to a stormful evening, and the road

  outside the first line of defence forms the foreground of the stage.

  Enter in the dusk from the hills to the north of the entrenchment,

  near Calandrix, a group of horsemen, which includes MASSENA in

  command of the French forces, FOY, LOISON, and other officers of

  his staff.

  They ride forward in the twilight and tempest, and reconnoitre,

  till they see against the sky the ramparts blocking the road they

  pursue. They halt silently. MASSENA, puzzled, endeavours with his

  glass to make out the obstacle.]

  MASSENA

  Something stands here to peril our advance,

  Or even prevent it!

  FOY

  These are the English lines—

  Their outer horns and tusks—whereof I spoke,

  Constructed by Lord Wellington of late

  To keep his foothold firm in Portugal.

  MASSENA

  Thrusts he his burly, bossed disfigurements

  So far to north as this? I had pictured me

  The lay much nearer Lisbon. Little strange

  Lord Wellington rode placid at Busaco

  With this behind his back! Well, it is hard

  But that we turn them somewhere, I assume?

  They scarce can close up every southward gap

  Between the Tagus and the Atlantic Sea.

  FOY

  I hold they can, and do; although, no doubt,

  By searching we shall spy some raggedness

  Which customed skill may force.

  MASSENA

  Plain 'tis, no less,

  We may heap corpses vainly hereabout,

  And crack good bones in waste. By human power

  This passes mounting! What say you's behind?

  LOISON

  Another line exactly like the first,

  But more matured. Behind its back a third.

  MASSENA

  How long have these prim ponderosities

  Been rearing up their foreheads to the moon?

  LOISON

  Some months in all. I know not quite how long.

  They are Lord Wellington's select device,

  And, like him, heavy, slow, laborious, sure.

  MASSENA

  May he enjoy their sureness. He deserves to.

  I had no inkling of such barriers here.

  A good road runs along their front, it seems,

  Which offers us advantage.... What a night!

  [The tempest cries dismally about the earthworks above them, as

  the reconnoitrers linger in the slight shelter the lower ground

  affords. They are about to turn back.

  Enter from the cross-road to the right JUNOT and some more

  officers. They come up at a signal that the others are those

  they lately parted from.]

  JUNOT

  We have ridden along as far as Calandrix,

  Favoured therein by this disordered night,

  Which tongues its language to the disguise of ours;

  And find amid the vale an open route

  That, well manoeuvred, may be practicable.

  MASSENA

  I'll look now at it, while the weather aids.

  If it may serve our end when all's prepared

  So good. If not, some other to the west.

  [Exeunt MASSENA, JUNOT, LOISON, FOY, and the rest by the paved

  crossway to the right.

  The wind continues to prevail as the spot is left desolate, the

  darkness increases, rain descends more heavily, and the scene is

  blotted out.]

  SCENE III

  PARIS. THE TUILERIES

  [The anteroom to the EMPRESS MARIE LOUISE'S bed-chamber, in which

  are discovered NAPOLEON in his dressing-gown, the DUCHESS OF

  MONTEBELLO, and other ladies-in-waiting. CORVISART the first

  physician, and the second physician BOURDIER.

  The time is before dawn. The EMPEROR walks up and down, throws

  himself on a sofa, or stands at the window. A cry of anguish comes

  occasionally from within.

  NAPOLEON opens the door and speaks into the bed-chamber.]

  NAPOLEON

  How now, Dubois?

  VOICE OF DUBOIS THE ACCOUCHEUR [nervously]

  Less well, sire, than I hoped;

  I fear no skill can save them both.

  NAPOLEON [agitated]

  Good god!

  [Exit CORVISART into the bed-room. Enter DUBOIS.]

  DUBOIS [with hesitation]

  Which life is to be saved? The Empress, sire,

  Lies in great jeopardy. I have not known

  In my long years of many-featured practice

  An instance in a thousand fall out so.

  NAPOLEON

  Then save the mother, pray! Think but of her;

  It is her privilege, and my command.—

  Don't lose you head, Dubois, at this tight time:

  Your furthest skill can work but what it may.

  Fancy that you are merely standing by

  A shop-wife's couch, say, in the Rue Saint Denis;

  Show the aplomb and phlegm that you would show

  Did such a bed receive your ministry.

  [Exit DUBOIS.]

  VOICE OF MARIE LOUISE [within]

  O pray, pray don't! Those ugly things terrify me! Why should I be

  tortured even if I am but a means to an end! Let me die! It was

  cruel of him to bring this upon me!

  [Exit NAPOLEON impatiently to the bed-room.]

  VOICE OF MADAME DE MONTESQUIOU [within]

  Keep up your spirits, madame! I have been through it myself and I

  assure you there is no danger to you. It is going on all right, and

  I am holding you.

  VOICE OF NAPOLEON [within]

  Heaven above! Why did you not deep those cursed sugar-tongs out of

  her sight? How is she going to get through it if you frighten her

  like this?

  VOICE OF DUBOIS [within]

  If you will pardon me, your Majesty,

  I must implore you not to interfere!

  I'll not be scapegoat for the consequence

  If, sire, you do! Better for her sake far

  Would you withdraw. The sight of your concern

  But agitates and weakens her endurance.

  I will inform you all, and call you back

  If things should worsen here.

  [Re-enter NAPOLEON from the bed-chamber. He half shuts the door,

  and remains close to it listening, pale and nervous.]

  BOURDIER

  I ask you, sire,

  To harass yourself less with this event,

  Which may amend anon: I much regret

  The honoured mother of your Majesty,

  And sister too, should both have left ere now,

  Whose solace would have bridged these anxious hours.

  NAPOLEON [absently]

  As we were not expecting it so soon

  I begged they would sit up no longer here....

  She ought to get along; she has help enough

  With that half-dozen of them at hand within—

  Skilled Madame Blaise the nurse, and two besides,

  Madame de Montesquiou and Madame Ballant—-

  DUBOIS [speaking through the doorway]

  Past is the question, sire, of which to save!

  The child is dead; the while her Majesty

  Is getting through it well.

  NAPOLEON

  Praise Heaven for that!

  I'll not grieve overmuch about the child....

  Never shall She go through this strain again

  To lay down a dynastic line for me.

  DUCHESS OF MONTEBELLO [aside to the second lady]

  He only says that n
ow. In cold blood it would be far otherwise.

  That's how men are.

  VOICE OF MADAME BLAISE [within]

  Doctor, the child's alive! [The cry of an infant is heard.]

  VOICE OF DUBOIS [calling from within]

  Sire, both are saved.

  [NAPOLEON rushes into the chamber, and is heard kissing MARIE

  LOUISE.]

  VOICE OF MADAME BLAISE [within]

  A vigorous boy, your Imperial Majesty. The brandy and hot napkins

  brought him to.

  DUCHESS OF MONTEBELLO

  It is as I expected. A healthy young woman of her build had every

  chance of doing well, despite the doctors.

  [An interval.]

  NAPOLEON [re-entering radiantly]

  We have achieved a healthy heir, good dames,

  And in the feat the Empress was most brave,

  Although she suffered much—so much, indeed,

  That I would sooner father no more sons

  Than have so fair a fruit-tree undergo

  Another wrenching of such magnitude.

  [He walks to the window, pulls aside the curtains, and looks out.

  It is a joyful spring morning. The Tuileries' gardens are thronged

  with an immense crowd, kept at a little distance off the Palace by

  a cord. The windows of the neighbouring houses are full of gazers,

  and the streets are thronged with halting carriages, their inmates

  awaiting the event.]

  SPIRIT OF THE YEARS [whispering to Napoleon]

  At this high hour there broods a woman nigh,

  Ay, here in Paris, with her child and thine,

  Who might have played this part with truer eye

  To thee and to thy contemplated line!

  NAPOLEON [soliloquizing]

  Strange that just now there flashes on my soul

  That little one I loved in Warsaw days,

  Marie Walewska, and my boy by her!—

  She was shown faithless by a foul intrigue

  Till fate sealed up her opportunity....

  But what's one woman's fortune more or less

  Beside the schemes of kings!—Ah, there's the new!

  [A gun is heard from the Invalides.]

  CROWD [excitedly]

  One!

  [Another report of the gun, and another, succeed.]

  Two! Three! Four!

  [The firing and counting proceed to twenty-one, when there is great

  suspense. The gun fires again, and the excitement is doubled.]

  Twenty-two! A boy!

  [The remainder of the counting up to a hundred-and-one is drowned

  in the huzzas. Bells begin ringing, and from the Champ de Mars a

  balloon ascends, from which the tidings are scattered in hand-bills

  as it floats away from France.

  Enter the PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE, CAMBACERES, BERTHIER, LEBRUN,

  and other officers of state. NAPOLEON turns from the window.]

  CAMBACERES

  Unstinted gratulations and goodwill

  We bring to your Imperial Majesty,

  While still resounds the superflux of joy

  With which your people welcome this live star

  Upon the horizon of history!

  PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE

  All blessings at their goodliest will grace

  The advent of this New Messiah, sire,

  Of fairer prospects than the former one,

  Whose coming at so apt an hour endues

  The widening glory of your high exploits

  With permanence, and flings the dimness far

  That cloaked the future of our chronicle!

  NAPOLEON

  My thanks; though, gentlemen, upon my soul

  You might have drawn the line at the Messiah.

  But I excuse you.—Yes, the boy has come;

  He took some coaxing, but he's here at last.—

  And what news brings the morning from without?

  I know of none but this the Empress now

  Trumps to the world from the adjoining room.

  PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE

  Nothing in Europe, sire, that can compare

  In magnitude therewith to more effect

  Than with an eagle some frail finch or wren.

  To wit: the ban on English trade prevailing,

  Subjects our merchant-houses to such strain

  That many of the best see bankruptcy

  Like a grim ghost ahead. Next week, they say

  In secret here, six of the largest close.

  NAPOLEON

  It shall not be! Our burst of natal joy

  Must not be sullied by so mean a thing:

  Aid shall be rendered. Much as we may suffer,

  England must suffer more, and I am content.

  What has come in from Spain and Portugal?

  BERTHIER

  Vaguely-voiced rumours, sire, but nothing more,

  Which travel countries quick as earthquake thrills,

  No mortal knowing how.

  NAPOLEON

  Of Massena?

  BERTHIER

  Yea. He retreats for prudence' sake, it seems,

  Before Lord Wellington. Dispatches soon

  Must reach your Majesty, explaining all.

  NAPOLEON

  Ever retreating! Why declines he so

  From all his olden prowess? Why, again,

  Did he give battle at Busaco lately,

  When Lisbon could be marched on without strain?

  Why has he dallied by the Tagus bank

  And shunned the obvious course? I gave him Ney,

  Soult, and Junot, and eighty thousand men,

  And he does nothing. Really it might seem

  As though we meant to let this Wellington

  Be even with us there!

  BERTHIER

  His mighty forts

  At Torres Vedras hamper Massena,

  And quite preclude advance.

  NAPOLEON

  O well—no matter:

  Why should I linger on these haps of war

  Now that I have a son!

  [Exeunt NAPOLEON by one door and by another the PRESIDENT OF THE

  SENATE, CAMBACERES, LEBRUN, BERTHIER, and officials.]

  CHORUS OF IRONIC SPIRITS [aerial music]

  The Will Itself is slave to him,

  And holds it blissful to obey!—

  He said, "Go to; it is my whim

  "To bed a bride without delay,

  Who shall unite my dull new name

  With one that shone in Caesar's day.

  "She must conceive—you hear my claim?—

  And bear a son—no daughter, mind—

  Who shall hand on my form and fame

  "To future times as I have designed;

  And at the birth throughout the land

  Must cannon roar and alp-horns wind!"

  The Will grew conscious at command,

  And ordered issue as he planned.

  [The interior of the Palace is veiled.]

  SCENE IV

  SPAIN. ALBUERA

  [The dawn of a mid-May day in the same spring shows the village

  of Albuera with the country around it, as viewed from the summit

  of a line of hills on which the English and their allies are ranged

  under Beresford. The landscape swept by the eye includes to the

  right foreground a hill loftier than any, and somewhat detached

  from the range. The green slopes behind and around this hill are

  untrodden—though in a few hours to be the sanguinary scene of the

  most murderous struggle of the whole war.

  The village itself lies to the left foreground, with its stream

  flowing behind it in the distance on the right. A creeping brook

  at the bottom of the heights held by the English joins the stream

  by the village. Behind the stream so
me of the French forces are

  visible. Away behind these stretches a great wood several miles

  in area, out of which the Albuera stream emerges, and behind the

  furthest verge of the wood the morning sky lightens momently. The

  birds in the wood, unaware that this day is to be different from

  every other day they have known there, are heard singing their

  overtures with their usual serenity.]

  DUMB SHOW

  As objects grow more distinct it can be perceived that some strategic

  dispositions of the night are being completed by the French forces,

  which the evening before lay in the woodland to the front of the

  English army. They have emerged during the darkness, and large

  sections of them—infantry, cuirassiers, and artillery—have crept

  round to BERESFORD'S right without his suspecting the movement, where

  they lie hidden by the great hill aforesaid, though not more than

  half-a-mile from his right wing.

  SPIRIT OF THE YEARS

  A hot ado goes forward here to-day,

  If I may read the Immanent Intent

  From signs and tokens blent

  With weird unrest along the firmament

  Of causal coils in passionate display.

  —Look narrowly, and what you witness say.

  SPIRIT OF THE PITIES

  I see red smears upon the sickly dawn,

  And seeming drops of gore. On earth below

  Are men—unnatural and mechanic-drawn—

  Mixt nationalities in row and row,

  Wheeling them to and fro

  In moves dissociate from their souls' demand,

  For dynasts' ends that few even understand!

  SPIRIT OF THE YEARS

  Speak more materially, and less in dream.

  SPIRIT OF RUMOUR

  I'll do it.... The stir of strife grows well defined

  Around the hamlet and the church thereby:

  Till, from the wood, the ponderous columns wind,

  Guided by Godinot, with Werle nigh.

  They bear upon the vill. But the gruff guns

  Of Dickson's Portuguese

  Punch spectral vistas through the maze of these!...

  More Frenchmen press, and roaring antiphons

  Of cannonry contuse the roofs and walls and trees.

  SPIRIT OF THE PITIES

  Wrecked are the ancient bridge, the green spring plot,

  the blooming fruit-tree, the fair flower-knot!

  SPIRIT OF RUMOUR

  Yet the true mischief to the English might

  Is meant to fall not there. Look to the right,

  And read the shaping scheme by yon hill-side,

  Where cannon, foot, and brisk dragoons you see,

  With Werle and Latour-Maubourg to guide,

  Waiting to breast the hill-brow bloodily.

 

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