Complete Works of Thomas Hardy (Illustrated)

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Complete Works of Thomas Hardy (Illustrated) Page 850

by Thomas Hardy


  With seventy pounds of luggage on their loins,

  That the dim Prussian masses seen afar

  Are Grouchy's three-and-thirty thousand, come

  To clinch a victory.

  SPIRIT OF THE PITIES

  But Ney demurs!

  SPIRIT IRONIC

  Ney holds indignantly that such a feint

  Is not war-worthy. Says Napoleon then,

  Snuffing anew, with sour sardonic scowl,

  That he is choiceless.

  SPIRIT SINISTER

  Excellent Emperor!

  He tops all human greatness; in that he

  To lesser grounds of greatness adds the prime,

  Of being without a conscience.

  [LA BEDOYERE and orderlies start on their mission. The false

  intelligence is seen to spread, by the excited motion of the

  columns, and the soldiers can be heard shouting as their spirits

  revive.

  WELLINGTON is beginning to discern the features of the coming

  onset, when COLONEL FRASER rides up.]

  FRASER

  We have just learnt from a deserting captain,

  One of the carabineers who charged of late,

  That an assault which dwarfs all instances—

  The whole Imperial Guard in welded weight—

  Is shortly to be made.

  WELLINGTON

  For your smart speed

  My thanks. My observation is confirmed.

  We'll hasten now along the battle-line [to Staff],

  As swiftest means for giving orders out

  Whereby to combat this.

  [The speaker, accompanied by HILL, UXBRIDGE, and others—all now

  looking as worn and besmirched as the men in the ranks—proceed

  along the lines, and dispose the brigades to meet the threatened

  shock. The infantry are brought out of the shelter they have

  recently sought, the cavalry stationed in the rear, and the

  batteries of artillery hitherto kept in reserve are moved to the

  front.

  The last Act of the battle begins.

  There is a preliminary attack by DONZELOT'S columns, combined

  with swarms of sharpshooters, to the disadvantage of the English

  and their Allies. WELLINGTON has scanned it closely. FITZROY

  SOMERSET, his military secretary, comes up.]

  WELLINGTON

  What casualty has thrown its shade among

  The regiments of Nassau, to shake them so?

  SOMERSET

  The Prince of Orange has been badly struck—

  A bullet through his shoulder—so they tell;

  And Kielmansegge has shown some signs of stress.

  Kincaird's tried line wanes leaner and more lean—

  Whittled to a weak skein of skirmishers;

  The Twenty-seventh lie dead.

  WELLINGTON

  Ah yes—I know!

  [While they watch developments a cannon-shot passes and knocks

  SOMERSET'S right arm to a mash. He is assisted to the rear.

  NEY and FRIANT now lead forward the last and most desperate

  assault of the day, in charges of the Old and Middle Guard,

  the attack by DONZELOT and ALLIX further east still continuing as

  a support. It is about a quarter-past eight, and the midsummer

  evening is fine after the wet night and morning, the sun approaching

  its setting in a sky of gorgeous colours.

  The picked and toughened Guard, many of whom stood in the ranks

  at Austerlitz and Wagram, have been drawn up in three or four

  echelons, the foremost of which now advances up the slopes to

  the Allies' position. The others follow at intervals, the

  drummers beating the "pas de charge."]

  CHORUS OF RUMOURS [aerial music]

  Twice thirty throats of couchant cannonry—

  Ranked in a hollow curve, to close their blaze

  Upon the advancing files—wait silently

  Like to black bulls at gaze.

  The Guard approaches nearer and more near:

  To touch-hole moves each match of smoky sheen:

  The ordnance roars: the van-ranks disappear

  As if wiped off the scene.

  The aged Friant falls as it resounds;

  Ney's charger drops—his fifth on this sore day—

  Its rider from the quivering body bounds

  And forward foots his way.

  The cloven columns tread the English height,

  Seize guns, repulse battalions rank by rank,

  While horse and foot artillery heavily bite

  Into their front and flank.

  It nulls the power of a flesh-built frame

  To live within that zone of missiles. Back

  The Old Guard, staggering, climbs to whence it came.

  The fallen define its track.

  [The second echelon of the Imperial Guard has come up to the

  assault. Its columns have borne upon HALKETT'S right. HALKETT,

  desperate to keep his wavering men firm, himself seizes and

  waves the flag of the Thirty-third, in which act he falls wounded.

  But the men rally. Meanwhile the Fifty-second, covered by the

  Seventy-first, has advanced across the front, and charges the

  Imperial Guard on the flank.

  The third echelon next arrives at the English lines and squares;

  rushes through the very focus of their fire, and seeing nothing

  more in front, raises a shout.

  IMPERIAL GUARD

  The Emperor! It's victory!

  WELLINGTON

  Stand up, Guards!

  Form line upon the front face of the square!

  [Two thousand of MAITLAND'S Guards, hidden in the hollow roadway,

  thereupon spring up, form as ordered, and reveal themselves as a

  fence of leveled firelocks four deep. The flints click in a

  multitude, the pans flash, and volley after volley is poured into

  the bear-skinned figures of the massed French, who kill COLONEL

  D'OYLEY in returning fire.]

  WELLINGTON

  Now drive the fellows in! Go on; go on!

  You'll do it now!

  [COLBORNE converges on the French guard with the Fifty-second, and

  The former splits into two as the climax comes. ADAM, MAITLAND,

  and COLBORNE pursue their advantage. The Imperial columns are

  broken, and their confusion is increased by grape-shot from

  BOLTON'S battery.]

  Campbell, this order next:

  Vivian's hussars are to support, and bear

  Against the cavalry towards Belle Alliance.

  Go—let him know.

  [Sir C. CAMPBELL departs with the order. Soon VIVIAN'S and

  VANDELEUR'S light horse are seen advancing, and in due time the

  French cavalry are rolled back.

  WELLINGTON goes in the direction of the hussars with UXBRIDGE. A

  cannon-shot hisses past.]

  UXBRIDGE [starting]

  I have lost my leg, by God!

  WELLINGTON

  By God, and have you! Ay—the wind o' the shot

  Blew past the withers of my Copenhagen

  Like the foul sweeping of a witch's broom.—

  Aha—they are giving way!

  [While UXBRIDGE is being helped to the rear, WELLINGTON makes a

  sign to SALTOUN, Colonel of the First Footguards.]

  SALTOUN [shouting]

  Boys, now's your time;

  Forward and win!

  FRENCH VOICES

  The Guard gives way—we are beaten!

  [They recede down the hill, carrying confusion into NAPOLEON'S

  centre just as the Prussians press forward at a right angle from

  the other side of the field. N
APOLEON is seen standing in the

  hollow beyond La Haye Sainte, alone, except for the presence of

  COUNT FLAHAULT, his aide-de-camp. His lips move with sudden

  exclamation.

  SPIRIT OF THE YEARS

  He says "Now all is lost! The clocks of the world

  Strike my last empery-hour."

  [Towards La Haye Sainte the French of DONZELOT and ALLIX, who

  are fighting KEMPT, PACK, KRUSE, and LAMBERT, seeing what has

  happened to the Old and Middle Guard, lose heart and recede

  likewise; so that the whole French line rolls back like a tide.

  Simultaneously the Prussians are pressing forward at Papelotte

  and La Haye. The retreat of the French grows into a panic.]

  FRENCH VOICES [despairingly]

  We are betrayed!

  [WELLINGTON rides at a gallop to the most salient point of the

  English position, halts, and waves his hat as a signal to all

  the army. The sign is answered by a cheer along the length of

  the line.]

  WELLINGTON

  No cheering yet, my lads; but bear ahead,

  Before the inflamed face of the west out there

  Dons blackness. So you'll round your victory!

  [The few aides that are left unhurt dart hither and thither with

  this message, and the whole English host and it allies advance

  in an ordered mass down the hill except some of the artillery,

  who cannot get their wheels over the bank of corpses in front.

  Trumpets, drums, and bugles resound with the advance.

  The streams of French fugitives as they run are cut down and shot

  by their pursuers, whose clothes and contracted features are

  blackened by smoke and cartridge-biting, and soiled with loam

  and blood. Some French blow out their own brains as they fly.

  The sun drops below the horizon while the slaughter goes on.]

  SPIRIT OF THE PITIES

  Is this the last Esdraelon of a moil

  For mortal man's effacement?

  SPIRIT IRONIC

  Warfare, mere,

  Plied by the Managed for the Managers;

  To wit: by frenzied folks who profit nought

  For those who profit all!

  SPIRIT OF THE PITIES

  Between the jars

  Of these who live, I hear uplift and move

  The bones of those who placidly have lain

  Within the sacred garths of yon grey fanes—

  Nivelles, and Plancenoit, and Braine l'Alleud—

  Beneath the unmemoried mounds through deedless years

  Their dry jaws quake: "What Sabaoath is this,

  That shakes us in our unobtrusive shrouds,

  As though our tissues did not yet abhor

  The fevered feats of life?"

  SPIRIT IRONIC

  Mere fancy's feints!

  How know the coffined what comes after them,

  Even though it whirl them to the Pleiades?—

  Turn to the real.

  SPIRIT OF RUMOUR

  That hatless, smoke-smirched shape

  There in the vale, is still the living Ney,

  His sabre broken in his hand, his clothes

  Slitten with ploughing ball and bayonet,

  One epaulette shorn away. He calls out "Follow!"

  And a devoted handful follow him

  Once more into the carnage. Hear his voice.

  NEY [calling afar]

  My friends, see how a Marshal of France can die!

  SPIRIT OF THE PITIES

  Alas, not here in battle, something hints,

  But elsewhere!... Who's the sworded brother-chief

  Swept past him in the tumult?

  SPIRIT OF RUMOUR

  D'Erlon he.

  Ney cries to him:

  NEY

  Be sure of this, my friend,

  If we don't perish here at English hands,

  Nothing is left us but the halter-noose

  The Bourbons will provide!

  SPIRIT IRONIC

  A caustic wit,

  And apt, to those who deal in adumbrations!

  [The brave remnant of the Imperial Guard repulses for a time the

  English cavalry under Vivian, in which MAJOR HOWARD and LIEUTENANT

  GUNNING of the Tenth Hussars are shot. But the war-weary French

  cannot cope with the pursuing infantry, helped by grape-shot from

  the batteries.

  NAPOLEON endeavours to rally them. It is his last effort as a

  warrior; and the rally ends feebly.]

  NAPOLEON

  They are crushed! So it has ever been since Crecy!

  [He is thrown violently off his horse, and bids his page bring

  another, which he mounts, and is lost to sight.]

  SPIRIT OF RUMOUR

  He loses his last chance of dying well!

  [The three or four heroic battalions of the Old and Middle Guard

  fall back step by step, halting to reform in square when they

  get badly broken and shrunk. At last they are surrounded by the

  English Guards and other foot, who keep firing on them and smiting

  them to smaller and smaller numbers. GENERAL CAMBRONNE is inside

  the square.]

  COLONEL HUGH HALKETT [shouting]

  Surrender! And preserve those heroes' lives!

  CAMBRONNE [with exasperation]

  Mer-r-rde!... You've to deal with desperates, man, today:

  Life is a byword here!

  [Hollow laughter, as from people in hell, comes approvingly from

  the remains of the Old Guard. The English proceed with their

  massacre, the devoted band thins and thins, and a ball strikes

  CAMBRONNE, who falls, and is trampled over.]

  SPIRIT OF THE YEARS

  Observe that all wide sight and self-command

  Desert these throngs now driven to demonry

  By the Immanent Unrecking. Nought remains

  But vindictiveness here amid the strong,

  And there amid the weak an impotent rage.

  SPIRIT OF THE PITIES

  Why prompts the Will so senseless-shaped a doing?

  SPIRIT OF THE YEARS

  I have told thee that It works unwittingly,

  As one possessed, not judging.

  SEMICHORUS I OF IRONIC SPIRITS [aerial music]

  Of Its doings if It knew,

  What It does It would not do!

  SEMICHORUS II

  Since It knows not, what far sense

  Speeds Its spinnings in the Immense?

  SEMICHORUS I

  None; a fixed foresightless dream

  Is Its whole philosopheme.

  SEMICHORUS II

  Just so; an unconscious planning,

  Like a potter raptly panning!

  CHORUS

  Are then, Love and Light Its aim—

  Good Its glory, Bad Its blame?

  Nay; to alter evermore

  Things from what they were before.

  SPIRIT OF THE YEARS

  Your knowings of the Unknowable declared,

  Let the last pictures of the play be bared.

  [Enter, fighting, more English and Prussians against the French.

  NEY is caught by the throng and borne ahead. RULLIERE hides an

  eagle beneath his coat and follows Ney. NAPOLEON is involved

  none knows where in the crowd of fugitives.

  WELLINGTON and BLUCHER come severally to the view. They meet in

  the dusk and salute warmly. The Prussian bands strike up "God save

  the King" as the two shake hands. From his gestures of assent it

  can be seen that WELLINGTON accepts BLUCHER'S offer to pursue.

  The reds disappear from the sky, and the dusk grows deeper. The

  action of the battle degenerat
es to a hunt, and recedes further

  and further into the distance southward. When the tramplings

  and shouts of the combatants have dwindled, the lower sounds are

  noticeable that come from the wounded: hopeless appeals, cries

  for water, elaborate blasphemies, and impotent execrations of

  Heaven and hell. In the vast and dusky shambles black slouching

  shapes begin to move, the plunderers of the dead and dying.

  The night grows clear and beautiful, and the moon shines musingly

  down. But instead of the sweet smell of green herbs and dewy rye

  as at her last beaming upon these fields, there is now the stench

  of gunpowder and a muddy stew of crushed crops and gore.]

  SPIRIT OF THE YEARS

  So hath the Urging Immanence used to-day

  Its inadvertent might to field this fray:

  And Europe's wormy dynasties rerobe

  Themselves in their old gilt, to dazzle anew the globe!

  [The scene us curtained by a night-mist.[25]]

  SCENE IX

  THE WOOD OF BOSSU

  [It is midnight. NAPOLEON enters a glade of the wood, a solitary

  figure on a faded horse. The shadows of the boughs travel over

  his listless form as he moves along. The horse chooses its own

  path, comes to a standstill, and feeds. The tramp of BERTRAND,

  SOULT, DROUOT, and LOBAU'S horses, gone forward in hope to find

  a way of retreat, is heard receding over the hill.]

  NAPOLEON [to himself, languidly]

  Here should have been some troops of Gerard's corps,

  Left to protect the passage of the convoys,

  Yet they, too, fail.... I have nothing more to lose,

  But life!

  [Flocks of fugitive soldiers pass along the adjoining road without

  seeing him. NAPOLEON'S head droops lower and lower as he sits

  listless in the saddle, and he falls into a fitful sleep. The

  moon shines upon his face, which is drawn and waxen.]

  SPIRIT OF THE YEARS

  "Sic diis immortalibus placet,"—

  "Thus is it pleasing to the immortal gods,"

  As earthlings used to say. Thus, to this last,

  The Will in thee has moved thee, Bonaparte,

  As we say now.

  NAPOLEON [starting]

  Whose frigid tones are those,

  Breaking upon my lurid loneliness

  So brusquely?... Yet, 'tis true, I have ever know

  That such a Will I passively obeyed!

  [He drowses again.]

  SPIRIT IRONIC

  Nothing care I for these high-doctrined dreams,

  And shape the case in quite a common way,

  So I would ask, Ajaccian Bonaparte,

  Has all this been worth while?

  NAPOLEON

  O hideous hour,

 

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