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The Dynasts: An Epic Drama Of The War With Napoleon, a play by Thomas Hardy |
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Part 3 - Act 7 - Scene 8. The Same. Later |
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_ PART THIRD. ACT SEVENTH. SCENE VIII. [NEY'S long attacks on the centre with cavalry having failed, those left of the squadrons and their infantry-supports fall back pell-mell in broken groups across the depression between the armies. Meanwhile BULOW, having engaged LOBAU'S Sixth Corps, carries Plancenoit. The artillery-fire between the French and the English continues. An officer of the Third Foot-guards comes up to WELLINGTON and those of his suite that survive.]
Our Colonel Canning--coming I know not whence--
I lately sent him with important words
As he returned
And how proceeds De Lancey?
I am told
A noble fellow. [NAPOLEON can now be seen, across the valley, pushing forward a new scheme of some sort, urged to it obviously by the visible nearing of further Prussian corps. The EMPEROR is as critically situated as WELLINGTON, and his army is now formed in a right angle ("en potence"), the main front to the English, the lesser to as many of the Prussians as have yet arrived. His gestures show him to be giving instructions of desperate import to a general whom he has called up.]
He bids La Bedoyere to speed away
But Ney demurs!
Ney holds indignantly that such a feint
Excellent Emperor! [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.]
We have just learnt from a deserting captain,
For your smart speed [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.]
What casualty has thrown its shade among
The Prince of Orange has been badly struck--
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."]
Twice thirty throats of couchant cannonry-- The Guard approaches nearer and more near: The aged Friant falls as it resounds; The cloven columns tread the English height, It nulls the power of a flesh-built frame [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.
The Emperor! It's victory!
Stand up, Guards! [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.]
Now drive the fellows in! Go on; go on! [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: [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.]
I have lost my leg, by God!
By God, and have you! Ay--the wind o' the shot [While UXBRIDGE is being helped to the rear, WELLINGTON makes a sign to SALTOUN, Colonel of the First Footguards.]
Boys, now's your time;
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. NAPOLEON 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.
He says "Now all is lost! The clocks of the world [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.]
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.]
No cheering yet, my lads; but bear ahead, [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.]
Is this the last Esdraelon of a moil
Warfare, mere,
Between the jars
Mere fancy's feints!
That hatless, smoke-smirched shape
My friends, see how a Marshal of France can die!
Alas, not here in battle, something hints,
D'Erlon he.
Be sure of this, my friend,
A caustic wit, [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.]
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.]
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.]
Surrender! And preserve those heroes' lives!
Mer-r-rde! . . . You've to deal with desperates, man, today: [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.]
Observe that all wide sight and self-command
Why prompts the Will so senseless-shaped a doing?
I have told thee that It works unwittingly,
Of Its doings if It knew,
Since It knows not, what far sense
None; a fixed foresightless dream
Just so; an unconscious planning,
Are then, Love and Light Its aim--
Your knowings of the Unknowable declared, [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 degenerates 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.]
So hath the Urging Immanence used to-day [The scene us curtained by a night-mist.(25)]
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