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_ PART THIRD. ACT SEVENTH. SCENE VI.
[NEY'S charge of cavalry against the opposite upland has been three times renewed without success. He collects the scattered squadrons to renew it a fourth time. The glittering host again ascends the confronting slopes over the bodies of those previously left there, and amid horses wandering about without riders, or crying as they lie with entrails trailing or limbs broken.]
NAPOLEON (starting up)
A horrible dream has gripped me--horrible!
I saw before me Lannes--just as he looked
That day at Aspern: mutilated, bleeding!
"What--blood again?" he said to me. "Still blood?"
[He further arouses himself, takes snuff vehemently, and looks through his glass.]
What time is it?--Ah, these assaults of Ney's!
They are a blunder; they've been enterprised
An hour too early! . . . There Lheritier goes
Onward with his division next Milhaud;
Now Kellermann must follow up with his.
So one mistake makes many. Yes; ay; yes!
SOULT
I fear that Ney has compromised us here
Just as at Jena; even worse!
NAPOLEON
No less
Must we support him now he is launched on it. . . .
The miracle is that he is still alive!
[NEY and his mass of cavalry again pass the English batteries and disappear amid the squares beyond.]
Their cannon are abandoned; and their squares
Again environed--see! I would to God
Murat could be here! Yet I disdained
His proffered service. . . . All my star asks now
Is to break some half-dozen of those blocks
Of English yonder. He was the man to do it.
[NEY and D'ERLON'S squadrons are seen emerging from the English squares in a disorganized state, the attack having failed like the previous ones. An aide-de-camp enters to NAPOLEON.]
AIDE
The Prussians have debouched on our right rear
From Paris-wood; and Losthin's infantry
Appear by Plancenoit; Hiller's to leftwards.
Two regiments of their horse protect their front,
And three light batteries.
[A haggard shade crosses NAPOLEON'S face.]
NAPOLEON
What then! That's not a startling force as yet.
A counter-stroke by Domon's cavalry
Must shatter them. Lobau must bring his foot
Up forward, heading for the Prussian front,
Unrecking losses by their cannonade.
[Exit aide. The din of battle continues. DOMON'S horse are soon seen advancing towards and attacking the Prussian hussars in front of the infantry; and he next attempts to silence the Prussian batteries playing on him by leading up his troops and cutting down the gunners. But he has to fall back upon the infantry of LOBAU. Enter another aide-de-camp.]
AIDE
These tiding I report, your Majesty:--
Von Ryssel's and von Hacke's Prussian foot
Have lately sallied from the Wood of Paris,
Bearing on us; no vast array as yet;
But twenty thousand loom not far behind
These vanward marchers!
NAPOLEON
Ah! They swarm thus thickly?
But be they hell's own legions we'll defy them!--
Lobau's men will stand firm.
[He looks in the direction of the English lines, where NEY'S cavalry-assaults still linger furiously on.]
But who rides hither,
Spotting the sky with clods in his high haste?
SOULT
It looks like Colonel Heymes--come from Ney.
NAPOLEON (sullenly)
And his face shows what clef his music's in!
[Enter COLONEL HEYMES, blood-stained, muddy, and breathless.]
HEYMES
The Prince of Moscow, sire, the Marshal Ney,
Bids me implore that infantry be sent
Immediately, to further his attack.
They cannot be dispensed with, save we fail!
NAPOLEON (furiously)
Infantry! Where the sacred God thinks he
I can find infantry for him! Forsooth,
Does he expect me to create them--eh?
Why sends he such a message, seeing well
How we are straitened here!
HEYMES
Such was the prayer
Of my commission, sire. And I say
That I myself have seen his strokes must waste
Without such backing.
NAPOLEON
Why?
HEYMES
Our cavalry
Lie stretched in swathes, fronting the furnace-throats
Of the English cannon as a breastwork built
Of reeking copses. Marshal Ney's third horse
Is shot. Besides the slain, Donop, Guyot,
Lheritier, Piquet, Travers, Delort, more,
Are vilely wounded. On the other hand
Wellington has sought refuge in a square,
Few of his generals are not killed or hit,
And all is tickle with him. But I see,
Likewise, that I can claim no reinforcement,
And will return and say so.
[Exit HEYMES]
NAPOLEON (to Soult, sadly)
Ney does win me!
I fain would strengthen him.--Within an ace
Of breaking down the English as he is,
'Twould write upon the sunset "Victory!"--
But whom may spare we from the right here now?
So single man!
[An interval.]
Life's curse begins, I see,
With helplessness! . . . All I can compass is
To send Durutte to fall on Papelotte,
And yet more strongly occupy La Haye,
To cut off Bulow's right from bearing up
And checking Ney's attack. Further than this
None but the Gods can scheme!
[SOULT hastily begins writing orders to that effect. The point of view shifts.] _
Read next: Part 3: Act 7: Scene 7. The Same. The English Position
Read previous: Part 3: Act 7: Scene 5. The Same. The Women's Camp Near Mont Saint-Jean
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