The Dynasts

Act Fifth

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SCENE I

ELBA. THE QUAY, PORTO FERRAJO

[Night descends upon a beautiful blue cove, enclosed on three sides

by mountains. The port lies towards the western (right-hand) horn

of the concave, behind it being the buildings of the town; their

long white walls and rows of windows rise tier above tier on the

steep incline at the back, and are intersected by narrow alleys

and flights of steps that lead up to forts on the summit.

Upon a rock between two of these forts stands the Palace of the

Mulini, NAPOLEONS'S residence in Ferrajo. Its windows command

the whole town and the port.]

CHORUS OF IRONIC SPIRITS (aerial music)

The Congress of Vienna sits,

And war becomes a war of wits,

Where every Power perpends withal

Its dues as large, its friends' as small;

Till Priests of Peace prepare once more

To fight as they have fought before!

In Paris there is discontent;

Medals are wrought that represent

One now unnamed. Men whisper, "He

Who once has been, again will be!"

DUMB SHOW

Under cover of the dusk there assembles in the bay a small flotilla

comprising a brig called _l'Inconstant_ and several lesser vessels.

SPIRIT OF RUMOUR

The guardian on behalf of the Allies

Absents himself from Elba. Slow surmise

Too vague to pen, too actual to ignore,

Have strained him hour by hour, and more and more.

He takes the sea to Florence, to declare

His doubts to Austria's ministrator there.

SPIRIT IRONIC

When he returns, Napoleon will be--where?

Boats put off from these ships to the quay, where are now discovered

to have silently gathered a body of grenadiers of the Old Guard. The

faces of DROUOT and CAMBRONNE are revealed by the occasional fleck of

a lantern to be in command of them. They are quietly taken aboard

the brig, and a number of men of different arms to the other vessels.

CHORUS OF RUMOURS (aerial music)

Napoleon is going,

And nought will prevent him;

He snatches the moment

Occasion has lent him!

And what is he going for,

Worn with war's labours?

--To reconquer Europe

With seven hundred sabres.

About eight o'clock we observe that the windows of the Palace of

the Mulini are lighted and open, and that two women sit at them:

the EMPEROR'S mother and the PRINCESS PAULINE. They wave adieux

to some one below, and in a short time a little open low-wheeled

carriage, drawn by the PRINCESS PAULINE'S two ponies, descends

from the house to the port. The crowd exclaims "The Emperor!"

NAPOLEON appears in his grey great-coat, and is much fatter than

when he left France. BERTRAND sits beside him.

He quickly alights and enters the waiting boat. It is a tense

moment. As the boat rows off the sailors sing the Marseillaise,

and the gathered inhabitants join in. When the boat reaches the

brig its sailors join in also, and shout "Paris or death!" Yet

the singing has a melancholy cadence. A gun fires as a signal

of departure. The night is warm and balmy for the season. Not

a breeze is there to stir a sail, and the ships are motionless.

CHORUS OF RUMOURS

Haste is salvation;

And still he stays waiting:

The calm plays the tyrant,

His venture belating!

Should the corvette return

With the anxious Scotch colonel,

Escape would be frustrate,

Retention eternal.

Four aching hours are spent thus. NAPOLEON remains silent on the

deck, looking at the town lights, whose reflections bore like augers

into the water of the bay. The sails hang flaccidly. Then a feeble

breeze, then a strong south wind, begins to belly the sails; and the

vessels move.

CHORUS OF RUMOURS

The south wind, the south wind,

The south wind will save him,

Embaying the frigate

Whose speed would enslave him;

Restoring the Empire

That fortune once gave him!

The moon rises and the ships silently disappear over the horizon

as it mounts higher into the sky.

SCENE II

VIENNA. THE IMPERIAL PALACE

[The fore-part of the scene is the interior of a dimly lit gallery

with an openwork screen or grille on one side of it that commands

a bird's-eye view of the grand saloon below. At present the screen

is curtained. Sounds of music and applause in the saloon ascend

into the gallery, and an irradiation from the same quarter shines

up through c****s in the curtains of the grille.

Enter the gallery MARIE LOUISE and the COUNTESS OF BRIGNOLE,

followed by the COUNT NEIPPERG, a handsome man of forty two with

a bandage over one eye.]

COUNTESS OF BRIGNOLE

Listen, your Majesty. You gather all

As well as if you moved amid them there,

And are advantaged with free scope to flit

The moment the scene palls.

MARIE LOUISE

Ah, my dear friend,

To put it so is flower-sweet of you;

But a fallen Empress, doomed to furtive peeps

At scenes her open presence would unhinge,

Reads not much interest in them! Yet, in truth,

'Twas gracious of my father to arrange

This glimpse-hole for my curiosity.

--But I must write a letter ere I look;

You can amuse yourself with watching them.--

Count, bring me pen and paper. I am told

Madame de Montesquiou has been distressed

By some alarm; I write to ask its shape.

[NEIPPERG spreads writing materials on a table, and MARIE LOUISE

sits. While she writes he stays near her. MADAME DE BRIGNOLE

goes to the screen and parts the curtains.

The light of a thousand candles blazes up into her eyes from

below. The great hall is decorated in white and silver, enriched

by evergreens and flowers. At the end a stage is arranged, and

Tableaux Vivants are in progress thereon, representing the history

of the House of Austria, in which figure the most charming women

of the Court.

There are present as spectators nearly all the notables who have

assembled for the Congress, including the EMPEROR OF AUSTRIA

himself, has gay wife, who quite eclipses him, the EMPEROR

ALEXANDER, the KING OF PRUSSIA--still in the mourning he has

never abandoned since the death of QUEEN LUISA,--the KING

OF BAVARIA and his son, METTERNICH, TALLEYRAND, WELLINGTON,

NESSELRODE, HARDENBERG; and minor princes, ministers, and

officials of all nations.]

COUNTESS OF BRIGNOLE (suddenly from he grille)

Something has happened--so it seems, madame!

The Tableau gains no heed from them, and all

Turn murmuring together.

MARIE LOUISE

What may be?

[She rises with languid curiosity, and COUNT NEIPPERG adroitly

takes her hand and leads her forward. All three look down through

the grille.]

NEIPPERG

some strange news, certainly, your Majesty,

Is being discussed.--I'll run down and inquire.

MARIE LOUISE (playfully)

Nay--stay here. We shall learn soon enough.

NEIPPERG

Look at their faces now. Count Metternich

Stares at Prince Talleyrand--no muscle moving.

The King of Prussia blinks bewilderedly

Upon Lord Wellington.

MARIE LOUISE (concerned)

Yes; so it seems. . . .

They are thunderstruck. See, though the music beats,

The ladies of the Tableau leave their place,

And mingle with the rest, and quite forget

That they are in masquerade. The sovereigns show

By far the gravest mien. . . . I wonder, now,

If it has aught to do with me or mine?

Disasters mostly have to do with me!

COUNTESS OF BRIGNOLE

Those rude diplomists from England there,

At your Imperial father's consternation,

And Russia's, and the King of Prussia's gloom,

Shake shoulders with hid laughter! That they call

The English sense of humour, I infer,--

To see a jest in other people's troubles!

MARIE LOUISE (hiding her presages)

They ever take things thus phlegmatically:

The safe sea minimizes Continental scare

In their regard. I wish it did in mine!

But Wellington laughs not, as I discern.

NEIPPERG

Perhaps, though fun for the other English here,

It means new work for him. Ah--notice now

The music makes no more pretence to play!

Sovereigns and ministers have moved apart,

And talk, and leave the ladies quite aloof--

Even the Grand Duchesses and Empress, all--

Such mighty cogitations trance their minds!

MARIE LOUISE (with more anxiety)

Poor ladies; yea, they draw into the rear,

And whisper ominous words among themselves!

Count Neipperg--I must ask you now--go glean

What evil lowers. I am riddled through

With strange surmises and more strange alarms!

[The COUNTESS OF MONTESQUIOU enters.]

Ah--we shall learn it now. Well--what, madame?

COUNTESS OF MONTESQUIOU (breathlessly)

Your Majesty, the Emperor Napoleon

Has vanished from Elba! Wither flown,

And how, and why, nobody says or knows.

MARIE LOUISE (sinking into a chair)

My divination pencilled on my brain

Something not unlike that! The rigid mien

That mastered Wellington suggested it. . . .

Complicity will be ascribed to me,

Unwitting though I stand! . . . (A pause.)

He'll not succeed!

And my fair plans for Parma will be marred,

And my son's future fouled!--I must go hence,

And instantly declare to Metternich

That I know nought of this; and in his hands

Place me unquestioningly, with dumb assent

To serve the Allies. . . . Methinks that I was born

Under an evil-coloured star, whose ray

Darts death at joys!--Take me away, Count.--You (to the ladies)

Can stay and see the end.

[Exeunt MARIE LOUISE and NEIPPERG. MESDAMES DE MONTESQUIOU and

DE BRIGNOLE go to the grille and watch and listen.]

VOICE OF ALEXANDER (below)

I told you, Prince, that it would never last!

VOICE OF TALLEYRAND

Well, sire, you should have sent him to the Azores,

Or the Antilles, or best, Saint-Helena.

VOICE OF THE KING OF PRUSSIA

Instead, we send him but two days from France,

Give him an island as his own domain,

A military guard of large resource,

And millions for his purse!

ANOTHER VOICE

The immediate cause

Must be a negligence in watching him.

The British Colonel Campbell should have seen

That apertures for flight were wired and barred

To such a cunning bird!

ANOTHER VOICE

By all report

He took the course direct to Naples Bay.

VOICES (of new arrivals)

He has made his way to France--so all tongues tell--

And landed there, at Cannes! (Excitement.)

COUNTESS OF BRIGNOLE

Do now but note

How cordial intercourse resolves itself

To sparks of sharp debate! The lesser guests

Are fain to steal unnoticed from a scene

Wherein they feel themselves as surplusage

Beside the official minds.--I catch a sign

The King of Prussia makes the English Duke;

They leave the room together.

COUNTESS OF MONTESQUIOU

Yes; wit wanes,

And all are going--Prince Talleyrand,

The Emperor Alexander, Metternich,

The Emperor Francis. . . . So much for the Congress!

Only a few blank nobodies remain,

And they seem terror-stricken. . . . Blackly ends

Such fair festivities. The red god War

Stalks Europe's plains anew!

[The curtain of the grille is dropped. MESDAMES DE MONTESQUIOU

and DE BRIGNOLE leave the gallery. The light is extinguished

there and the scene disappears.]

SCENE III

LA MURE, NEAR GRENOBLE

[A lonely road between a lake and some hills, two or three miles

outside the village of la Mure, is discovered. A battalion of

the Fifth French royalist regiment of the line under COMMANDANT

LESSARD, is drawn up in the middle of the road with a company of

sappers and miners, comprising altogether about eight hundred men.

Enter to them from the south a small detachment of lancers with

an aide-de-camp at their head. They ride up to within speaking

distance.]

LESSARD

They are from Bonaparte. Present your arms!

AIDE (calling)

We'd parley on Napoleon's behalf,

And fain would ask you join him.

LESSARD

Al parole

With rebel bands the Government forbids.

Come five steps further and we fire!

AIDE

To France,

And to posterity through fineless time,

Must you then answer for so foul a blow

Against the common weal!

[NAPOLEON'S aide-de-camp and the lancers turn about and ride

back out of sight. The royalist troops wait. Presently there

reappears from the same direction a small column of soldiery,

representing the whole of NAPOLEON'S little army shipped from

Elba. It is divided into an advance-guard under COLONEL MALLET,

and two bodies behind, a troop of Polish lancers under COLONEL

JERMANWSKI on the right side of the road, and some officers

without troops on the left, under MAJOR PACCONI.

NAPOLEON rides in the midst of the advance-guard, in the old

familiar "redingote grise," c****d hat, and tricolor cockade,

his well-known profile keen against the hills. He is attended

by GENERALS BERTRAND, DROUOT, and CAMBRONNE. When they get within

gun-shot of the royalists the men are halted. NAPOLEON dismounts

and steps forward.]

NAPOLEON

Direct the men

To lodge their weapons underneath the arm,

Points downward. I shall not require them here.

COLONEL MALLET

Sire, is it not a needless jeopardy

To meet them thus? The sentiments of these

We do not know, and the first trigger pressed

May end you.

NAPOLEON

I have thought it out, my friend,

And value not my life as in itself,

But as to France, severed from whose embrace]

I am dead already.

[He repeats the order, which is carried out. There is a breathless

silence, and people from the village gather round with tragic

expectations. NAPOLEON walks on alone towards the Fifth battalion,

Throwing open his great-coat and revealing his uniform and the

ribbon of the Legion of Honour. Raising his hand to his hat he

salutes.]

LESSARD

Present arms!

[The firelocks of the royalist battalion are levelled at NAPOLEON.]

NAPOLEON (still advancing)

Men of the Fifth,

See--here I am! . . . Old friends, do you not know me?

If there be one among you who would slay

His Chief of proud past years, let him come on

And do it now! (A pause.)

LESSARD (to his next officer)

They are death-white at his words!

They'll fire not on this man. And I am helpless.

SOLDIERS (suddenly)

Why yes! We know you, father. Glad to see ye!

The Emperor for ever! Ha! Huzza!

[They throw their arms upon the ground, and, rushing forward,

sink down and seize NAPOLEON'S knees and kiss his hands. Those

who cannot get near him wave their shakos and acclaim him

passionately. BERTRAND, DROUOT, and CAMBRONNE come up.]

NAPOLEON (privately)

All is accomplished, Bertrand! Ten days more,

And we are snug within the Tuileries.

[The soldiers tear out their white cockades and trample on them,

and disinter from the bottom of their knapsacks tricolors, which

they set up.

NAPOLEON'S own men now arrive, and fraternize with and embrace

the soldiers of the Fifth. When the emotion has subsided,

NAPOLEON forms the whole body into a square and addresses them.]

Soldiers, I came with these few faithful ones

To save you from the Bourbons,--treasons, tricks,

Ancient abuses, feudal tyranny--

From which I once of old delivered you.

The Bourbon throne is illegitimate

Because not founded on the nation's will,

But propped up for the profit of a few.

Comrades, is this not so?

A GRENADIER

Yes, verily, sire.

You are the Angel of the Lord to us;

We'll march with you to death or victory! (Shouts.)

[At this moment a howling dog crosses in front of them with a

cockade tied to its tail. The soldiery of both sides laugh

loudly.

NAPOLEON forms both bodies of troops into one column. Peasantry

run up with buckets of sour wine and a single glass; NAPOLEON

takes his turn with the rank and file in drinking from it. He

bids the whole column follow him to Grenoble and Paris. Exeunt

soldiers headed by NAPOLEON. The scene shuts.]

SCENE IV

SCHONBRUNN

[The gardens of the Palace. Fountains and statuary are seen

around, and the Gloriette colonnade rising against the sky on

a hill behind.

The ex-EMPRESS MARIE LOUISE is discovered walking up and down.

Accompanying her is the KING OF ROME--now a blue-eye, fair-haired

child--in the charge of the COUNTESS OF MONTESQUIOU. Close by is

COUNT NEIPPERG, and at a little distance MENEVAL, her attendant

and Napoleon's adherent.

The EMPEROR FRANCIS and METTERNICH enter at the other end of the

parterre.]

MARIE LOUISE (with a start)

Here are the Emperor and Prince Metternich.

Wrote you as I directed?

NEIPPERG

Promptly so.

I said your Majesty had not part

In this mad move of your Imperial spouse,

And made yourself a ward of the Allies;

Adding, that you had vowed irrevocably

To enter France no more.

MARIE LOUISE

Your worthy zeal

Has been a trifle swift. My meaning stretched

Not quite so far as that. . . . And yet--and yet

It matters little. Nothing matters much!

[The EMPEROR and METTERNICH come forward. NEIPPERG retires.]

FRANCIS

My daughter, you did not a whit too soon

Voice your repudiation. Have you seen

What the allies have papered Europe with?

MARIE LOUISE

I have seen nothing.

FRANCIS

Please you read it, Prince.

METTERNICH (taking out a paper)

"The Powers assembled at the Congress here

Owe it to their own troths and dignities,

And to the furtherance of social order,

To make a solemn Declaration, thus:

By breaking the convention as to Elba,

Napoleon Bonaparte forthwith destroys

His only legal title to exist,

And as a consequence has hurled himself

Beyond the pale of civil intercourse.

Disturber of the tranquillity of the world,

There can be neither peace nor truce with him,

And public vengeance is his self-sought doom.--

Signed by the Plenipotentiaries."

MARIE LOUISE (pale)

O God,

How terrible! . . . What shall---(she begins weeping.)

KING OF ROME

Is it papa

They want to hurt like that, dear Mamma 'Quiou?

Then 'twas no good my praying for him so;

And I can see that I am not going to be

A King much longer!

COUNTESS OF MONTESQUIOU (retiring with the child)

Pray for him, Monseigneur,

Morning and evening just the same! They plan

To take you off from me. But don't forget--

Do as I say!

KING OF ROME

Yes, Mamma 'Quiou, I will!--

But why have I no pages now? And why

Does my mamma the Empress weep so much?

COUNTESS OF MONTESQUIOU

We'll talk elsewhere.

[MONTESQUIOU and the KING OF ROME withdraw to back.]

FRANCIS

At least, then, you agree

Not to attempt to follow Paris-ward

Your conscience-lacking husband, and create

More troubles in the State?--Remember this,

I sacrifice my every man and horse

Ere he Rule France again.

MARIE LOUISE

I am pledged already

To hold by the Allies; let that suffice!

METTERNICH

For the clear good of all, your Majesty,

And for your safety and the King of Rome's,

It most befits that your Imperial father

Should have sole charge of the young king henceforth,

While these convulsions rage. That this is so

You will see, I think, in view of being installed

As Parma's Duchess, and take steps therefor.

MARIE LOUISE (coldly)

I understand the terms to be as follows:

Parma is mine--my very own possession,--

And as a counterquit, the guardianship

Is ceded to my father of my son,

And I keep out of France.

METTERNICH

And likewise this:

All missives that your Majesty receives

Under Napoleon's hand, you tender straight

The Austrian Cabinet, the seals unbroke;

With those received already.

FRANCIS

You discern

How vastly to the welfare of your son

This course must tend? Duchess of Parma throned

You shine a wealthy woman, to endow

Your son with fortune and large landed fee.

MARIE LOUISE (bitterly)

I must have Parma: and those being the terms

Perforce accept! I weary of the strain

Of statecraft and political embroil:

I long for private quiet! . . . And now wish

To say no more at all.

[MENEVAL, who has heard her latter remarks, turns sadly away.]

FRANCIS

There's nought to say;

All is in train to work straightforwardly.

[FRANCIS and METTERNICH depart. MARIE LOUISE retires towards the

child and the COUNTESS OF MONTESQUIOU at the back of the parterre,

where they are joined by NEIPPERG.

Enter in front DE MONTROND, a secret emissary of NAPOLEON, disguised

as a florist examining the gardens. MENEVAL recognizes him and

comes forward.]

MENEVAL

Why are you here, de Montrond? All is hopeless!

DE MONTROND

Wherefore? The offer of the Regency

I come empowered to make, and will conduct her

Safely to Strassburg with her little son,

If she shrink not to breech her as a man,

And tiptoe from a postern unperceived?

MENEVAL

Though such quaint gear would mould her to a youth

Fair as Adonis on a hunting morn,

Yet she'll refuse! A German prudery

Sits on her still; more, kneaded by her arts

There's no will left to her. I conjured her

To hold aloof, sign nothing. But in vain.

DE MONTROND (looking towards Marie Louise)

I fain would put it to her privately!

MENEVAL

A thing impossible. No word to her

Without a word to him you see with her,

Neipperg to wit. She grows indifferent

To dreams as Regent; visioning a future

Wherein her son and self are two of three

But where the third is not Napoleon.

DE MONTROND (In sad surprise)

I may as well go hence then as I came,

And kneel to Heaven for one thing--that success

Attend Napoleon in the coming throes!

MENEVAL

I'll walk with you for safety to the gate,

Though I am as the Emperor's man suspect,

And any day may be dismissed. If so

I go to Paris.

[Exeunt MENEVAL and DE MONTROND.]

SPIRIT IRONIC

Had he but persevered, and biassed her

To slip the breeches on, and hie away,

Who knows but that the map of France had shaped

And it will never now!

[There enters from the other side of the gardens MARIA CAROLINA,

ex-Queen of Naples, and grandmother of Marie Louise. The latter,

dismissing MONTESQUIOU and the child, comes forward.]

MARIA CAROLINA

I have crossed from Hetzendorf to kill an hour;

Why art so pensive, dear?

MARIE LOUISE

Ah, why! My lines

Rule ruggedly. You doubtless have perused

This vicious cry against the Emperor?

He's outlawed--to be caught alive or dead,

Like any noisome beast!

MARIA CAROLINA

Nought have I heard,

My child. But these vile tricks, to pluck you from

Your nuptial plightage and your rightful glory

Make me belch oaths!--You shall not join your husband

Do they assert? My God, I know one thing,

Outlawed or no, I'd knot my sheets forthwith,

Were I but you, and steal to him in disguise,

Let come what would come! Marriage is for life.

MARIE LOUISE

Mostly; not always: not with Josephine;

And, maybe, not with me. But, that apart,

I could do nothing so outrageous.

Too many things, dear grand-dame, you forget.

A puppet I, by force inflexible,

Was bid to wed Napoleon at a nod,--

The man acclaimed to me from cradle-days

As the incarnate of all evil things,

The Antichrist himself.--I kissed the cup,

Gulped down the inevitable, and married him;

But none the less I saw myself therein

The lamb whose innocent flesh was dressed to grace

The altar of dynastic ritual!--

Hence Elba flung no duty-call to me,

Neither does Paris now.

MARIA CAROLINA

I do perceive

They have worked on you to much effect already!

Go, join your Count; he waits you, dear.--Well, well;

The way the wind blows needs no c**k to tell!

[Exeunt severally QUEEN MARIA CAROLINA and MARIE LOUISE with

NEIPPERG. The sun sets over the gardens and the scene fades.]

SCENE V

LONDON. THE OLD HOUSE OF COMMONS

[The interior of the Chamber appears as in Scene III., Act I.,

Part I., except that the windows are not open and the trees

without are not yet green.

Among the Members discovered in their places are, of ministers

and their supporters, LORD CASTLEREAGH the Foreign Secretary,

VANSITTART Chancellor of the Exchequer, BATHURST, PALMERSTON

the War Secretary, ROSE, PONSONBY, ARBUTHNOT, LUSHINGTON, GARROW

the Attorney General, SHEPHERD, LONG, PLUNKETT, BANKES; and among

those of the Opposition SIR FRANCIS BURDETT, WHITBREAD, TIERNEY,

ABERCROMBY, DUNDAS, BRAND, DUNCANNON, LAMBTON, HEATHCOTE, SIR

SAMUEL ROMILLY, G. WALPOLE, RIDLEY, OSBORNE, and HORNER.

Much interest in the debate is apparent, and the galleries are

full. LORD CASTLEREAGH rises.]

CASTLEREAGH

At never a moment in my stressed career,

Amid no memory-moving urgencies,

Have I, sir, felt so gravely set on me

The sudden, vast responsibility

That I feel now. Few things conceivable

Could more momentous to the future be

Than what may spring from counsel here to-night

On means to meet the plot unparalleled

In full fierce play elsewhere. Sir, this being so,

And seeing how the events of these last days

Menace the toil of twenty anxious years,

And peril all that period's patient aim,

No auguring mind can doubt that deeds which root

In steadiest purpose only, will effect

Deliverance from a world-calamity

As dark as any in the vaults of Time.

Now, what we notice front and foremost is

That this convulsion speaks not, pictures not

The heart of France. It comes of artifice--

From the unique and sinister influence

Of a smart army-gamester--upon men

Who have shared his own excitements, spoils, and crimes.--

This man, who calls himself most impiously

The Emperor of France by Grace of God,

Has, in the scale of human character,

Dropt down so low, that he has set at nought

All pledges, stipulations, guarantees,

And stepped upon the only pedestal

On which he cares to stand--his lawless will.

Indeed, it is a fact scarce credible

That so mysteriously in his own breast

Did this adventurer lock the scheme he planned,

That his companion Bertrand, chief in trust,

Was unapprised thereof until the hour

In which the order to embark was given!

I think the House will readily discern

That the wise, wary trackway to be trod

By our own country in the crisis reached,

Must lie 'twixt two alternatives,--of war

In concert with the Continental Powers,

Or of an armed and cautionary course

Sufficing for the present phase of things.

Whatever differences of view prevail

On the so serious and impending question--

Whether in point of prudent reckoning

'Twere better let the power set up exist,

Or promptly at the outset deal with it--

Still, to all eyes it is imperative

That some mode of safeguardance be devised;

And if I cannot range before the House,

At this stage, all the reachings of the case,

I will, if needful, on some future day

Poise these nice matters on their merits here.

Meanwhile I have to move:

That an address unto His Royal Highness

Be humbly offered for his gracious message,

And to assure him that his faithful Commons

Are fully roused to the dark hazardries

To which the life and equanimity

Of Europe are exposed by deeds in France,

In contravention of the plighted pacts

At Paris in the course of yester-year.

That, in a cause of such wide-waked concern,

It doth afford us real relief to know

That concert with His Majesty's Allies

Is being effected with no loss of time--

Such concert as will thoroughly provide

For Europe's full and long security. (Cheers.)

That we, with zeal, will speed such help to him

So to augment his force by sea and land

As shall empower him to set afoot

Swift measures meet for its accomplishing. (Cheers.)

BURDETT

It seems to me almost impossible,

Weighing the language of the noble lord,

To catch its counsel,--whether peace of war. (Hear, hear.)

If I translate his words to signify

The high expediency of watch and ward,

That we may not be taken unawares,

I own concurrence; but if he propose

Too plunge this realm into a sea of blood

To reinstate the Bourbon line in France,

I should but poorly do my duty here

Did I not lift my voice protestingly

Against so ruinous an enterprise!

Sir, I am old enough to call to mind

The first fierce frenzies for the selfsame end,

The fruit of which was to endow this man,

The object of your apprehension now,

With such a might as could not be withstood

By all of banded Europe, till he roamed

And wrecked it wantonly on Russian plains.

Shall, then, another score of scourging years

Distract this land to make a Bourbon king?

Wrongly has Bonaparte's late course been called

A rude incursion on the soil of France.--

Who ever knew a sole and single man

Invade a nation thirty million strong,

And gain in some few days full sovereignty

Against the nation's will!--The truth is this:

The nation longed for him, and has obtained him. . . .

I have beheld the agonies of war

Through many a weary season; seen enough

To make me hold that scarcely any goal

Is worth the reaching by so red a road.

No man can doubt that this Napoleon stands

As Emperor of France by Frenchmen's wills.

Let the French settle, then, their own affairs;

I say we shall have nought to apprehend!--

Much as I might advance in proof of this,

I'll dwell not thereon now. I am satisfied

To give the general reasons which, in brief,

Balk my concurrence in the Address proposed. (Cheers.)

PONSONBY

My words will be but few, for the Address

Constrains me to support it as it stands.

So far from being the primary step to war,

Its sense and substance is, in my regard,

To leave the House to guidance by events

On the grave question of hostilities.

The statements of the noble lord, I hold,

Have not been candidly interpreted

By grafting on to them a headstrong will,

As does the honourable baronet,

To rob the French of Buonaparte's rule,

And force them back to Bourbon monarchism.

That our free land, at this abnormal time,

Should put her in a pose of wariness,

No unwarped mind can doubt. Must war revive,

Let it be quickly waged; and quickly, too,

Reach its effective end: though 'tis my hope,

My ardent hope, that peace may be preserved.

WHITBREAD

Were it that I could think, as does my friend,

That ambiguity of sentiment

Informed the utterance of the noble lord

(As oft does ambiguity of word),

I might with satisfied and sure resolve

Vote straight for the Address. But eyeing well

The flimsy web there woven to entrap

The credence of my honourable friends,

I must with all my energy contest

The wisdom of a new and hot crusade

For fixing who shall fill the throne of France.

Already are the seeds of mischief sown:

The Declaration at Vienna, signed

Against Napoleon, is, in my regard,

Abhorrent, and our country's character

Defaced by our subscription to its terms!

If words have any meaning it incites

To sheer assassination; it proclaims

That any meeting Bonaparte may slay him;

And, whatso language the Allies now hold,

In that outburst, at least, was war declared.

The noble lord to-night would second it,

Would seem to urge that we full arm, then wait

For just as long, no longer, than would serve

The preparations of the other Powers,

And then--pounce down on France!

CASTLEREAGH

No, no! Not so.

WHITBREAD

Good God, then, what are we to understand?--

However, this denial is a gain,

And my misapprehension owes its birth

Entirely to that mystery of phrase

Which taints all rhetoric of the noble lord,

Well, what is urged for new aggression now,

To vamp up and replace the Bourbon line?

The wittiest man who ever sat here(21) said

That half our nation's debt had been incurred

In efforts to suppress the Bourbon power,

The other half in efforts to restore it, (laughter)

And I must deprecate a further plunge

For ends so futile! Why, since Ministers

Craved peace with Bonaparte at Chatillon,

Should they refuse him peace and quiet now?

This brief amendment therefore I submit

To limit Ministers' aggressiveness

And make self-safety all their chartering:

"We at the same time earnestly implore

That the Prince Regent graciously induce

Strenuous endeavours in the cause of peace,

So long as it be done consistently

With the due honour of the English crown." (Cheers.)

CASTLEREAGH

The arguments of Members opposite

Posit conditions which experience proves

But figments of a dream;--that honesty,

Truth, and good faith in this same Bonaparte

May be assumed and can be acted on:

This of one who is loud to violate

Bonds the most sacred, treaties the most grave! . . .

It follows not that since this realm was won

To treat with Bonaparte at Chatillon,

It can treat now. And as for assassination,

The sentiments outspoken here to-night

Are much more like to urge to desperate deeds

Against the persons of our good Allies,

Than are, against Napoleon, statements signed

By the Vienna plenipotentiaries!

We are, in fine, too fully warranted

On moral grounds to strike at Bonaparte,

If we at any crisis reckon it

Expedient so to do. The Government

Will act throughout in concert with the Allies,

And Ministers are well within their rights

To claim that their responsibility

Be not disturbed by hackneyed forms of speech ("Oh, oh")

Upon war's horrors, and the bliss of peace,--

Which none denies! (Cheers.)

PONSONBY

I ask the noble lord,

If that his meaning and pronouncement be

Immediate war?

CASTLEREAGH

I have not phrased it so.

OPPOSITION CRIES

The question is unanswered!

[There are excited calls, and the House divides. The result is

announced as thirty-seven for WHITBREAD'S amendment, and against

it two hundred and twenty. The clock strikes twelve as the House

adjourns.]

SCENE VI

WESSEX. DURNOVER GREEN, CASTERBRIDGE

[On a patch of green grass on Durnover Hill, in the purlieus of

Casterbridge, a rough gallows has been erected, and an effigy of

Napoleon hung upon it. Under the effigy are faggots of brushwood.

It is the dusk of a spring evening, and a great crowd has gathered,

comprising male and female inhabitants of the Durnover suburb

and villagers from distances of many miles. Also are present

some of the county yeomanry in white leather breeches and scarlet,

volunteers in scarlet with green facings, and the REVEREND MR.

PALMER, vicar of the parish, leaning against the post of his

garden door, and smoking a clay pipe of preternatural length.

Also PRIVATE CANTLE from Egdon Heath, and SOLOMON LONGWAYS of

Casterbridge. The Durnover band, which includes a clarionet,

{serpent,} oboe, tambourine, cymbals, and drum, is playing "Lord

Wellington's Hornpipe."]

RUSTIC (wiping his face)

Says I, please God I'll lose a quarter to zee he burned! And I left

Stourcastle at dree o'clock to a minute. And if I'd known that I

should be too late to zee the beginning on't, I'd have lost a half

to be a bit sooner.

YEOMAN

Oh, you be soon enough good-now. He's just going to be lighted.

RUSTIC

But shall I zee en die? I wanted to zee if he'd die hard,

YEOMAN

Why, you don't suppose that Boney himself is to be burned here?

RUSTIC

What--not Boney that's to be burned?

A WOMAN

Why, bless the poor man, no! This is only a mommet they've made of

him, that's got neither chine nor chitlings. His innerds be only a

lock of straw from Bridle's barton.

LONGWAYS

He's made, neighbour, of a' old cast jacket and breeches from our

barracks here. Likeways Grammer Pawle gave us Cap'n Meggs's old

Zunday shirt that she'd saved for tinder-box linnit; and Keeper

Tricksey of Mellstock emptied his powder-horn into a barm-bladder,

to make his heart wi'.

RUSTIC (vehemently)

Then there's no honesty left in Wessex folk nowadays at all! "Boney's

going to be burned on Durnover Green to-night,"-- that was what I

thought, to be sure I did, that he'd been catched sailing from his

islant and landed at Budmouth and brought to Casterbridge Jail, the

natural retreat of malefactors!--False deceivers--making me lose a

quarter who can ill afford it; and all for nothing!

LONGWAYS

'Tisn't a mo'sel o' good for thee to cry out against Wessex folk, when

'twas all thy own stunpoll ignorance.

[The VICAR OF DURNOVER removes his pipe and spits perpendicularly.]

VICAR

My dear misguided man, you don't imagine that we should be so inhuman

in this Christian country as to burn a fellow creature alive?

RUSTIC

Faith, I won't say I didn't! Durnover folk have never had the

highest of Christian character, come to that. And I didn't know

but that even a pa'son might backslide to such things in these gory

times--I won't say on a Zunday, but on a week-night like this--when

we think what a blasphemious rascal he is, and that there's not a

more charnel-minded villain towards womenfolk in the whole world.

[The effigy has by this time been kindled, and they watch it burn,

the flames making the faces of the crowd brass-bright, and lighting

the grey tower of Durnover Church hard by.]

WOMAN (singing)

Bayonets and firelocks!

I wouldn't my mammy should know't

But I've been kissed in a sentry-box,

Wrapped up in a soldier's coat!

PRIVATE CANTLE

Talk of backsliding to burn Boney, I can backslide to anything

when my blood is up, or rise to anything, thank God for't! Why,

I shouldn't mind fighting Boney single-handed, if so be I had

the choice o' weapons, and fresh Rainbarrow flints in my flint-box,

and could get at him downhill. Yes, I'm a dangerous hand with a

pistol now and then! . . . Hark, what's that? (A horn is heard

eastward on the London Road.) Ah, here comes the mail. Now we may

learn something. Nothing boldens my nerves like news of slaughter!

[Enter mail-coach and steaming horses. It halts for a minute while

the wheel is skidded and the horses stale.]

SEVERAL

What was the latest news from abroad, guard, when you left

Piccadilly White-Horse-Cellar!

GUARD

You have heard, I suppose, that he's given up to public vengeance,

by Gover'ment orders? Anybody may take his life in any way, fair

or foul, and no questions asked. But Marshal Ney, who was sent to

fight him, flung his arms round his neck and joined him with all

his men. Next, the telegraph from Plymouth sends news landed there

by _The Sparrow_, that he has reached Paris, and King Louis has

fled. But the air got hazy before the telegraph had finished, and

the name of the place he had fled to couldn't be made out.

[The VICAR OF DURNOVER blows a cloud of smoke, and again spits

perpendicularly.]

VICAR

Well, I'm d--- Dear me--dear me! The Lord's will be done.

GUARD

And there are to be four armies sent against him--English, Proosian,

Austrian, and Roosian: the first two under Wellington and Blucher.

And just as we left London a show was opened of Boney on horseback

as large as life, hung up with his head downwards. Admission one

shilling; children half-price. A truly patriot spectacle!--Not that

yours here is bad for a simple country-place.

[The coach drives on down the hill, and the crowd reflectively

watches the burning.]

WOMAN (singing)

I

My Love's gone a-fighting

Where war-trumpets call,

The wrongs o' men righting

Wi' carbine and ball,

And sabre for smiting,

And charger, and all

II

Of whom does he think there

Where war-trumpets call?

To whom does he drink there,

Wi' carbine and ball

On battle's red brink there,

And charger, and all?

III

Her, whose voice he hears humming

Where war-trumpets call,

"I wait, Love, thy coming

Wi' carbine and ball,

And bandsmen a-drumming

Thee, charger and all!"

[The flames reach the powder in the effigy, which is blown to

rags. The band marches off playing "When War's Alarms," the

crowd disperses, the vicar stands musing and smoking at his

garden door till the fire goes out and darkness curtains the

scene.]

In the 1600s, Balthasar Gracian, a jesuit priest wrote 300 aphorisms on living life called "The Art of Worldly Wisdom." Join our newsletter below and read them all, one at a time.