by Thomas Hardy
ALL [fervidly]
We'll do our utmost, by the Holy Heaven!
NAPOLEON
Ah—what was that? [He pulls back the window-curtain.]
SEVERAL
It is our enemies,
Whose southern hosts are signalling to their north.
[A white rocket is beheld high in the air. It is followed by a
second, and a third. There is a pause, during which NAPOLEON and
the rest wait motionless. In a minute or two, from the opposite
side of the city, three coloured rockets are sent up, in evident
answer to the three white ones. NAPOLEON muses, and lets the
curtain drop.]
NAPOLEON
Yes, Schwarzenberg to Blucher.... It must be
To show that they are ready. So are we!
[He goes out without saying more. The marshals and other officers
withdraw. The room darkens and ends the scene.]
SCENE II
THE SAME. THE CITY AND THE BATTLEFIELD
[Leipzig is viewed in aerial perspective from a position above the
south suburbs, and reveals itself as standing in a plain, with
rivers and marshes on the west, north, and south of it, and higher
ground to the east and south-east.
At this date it is somewhat in she shape of the letter D, the
straight part of which is the river Pleisse. Except as to this
side it is surrounded by armies—the inner horseshoe of them
being the French defending the city; the outer horseshoe being
the Allies about to attack it.
Far over the city—as it were at the top of the D—at Lindenthal,
we see MARMONT stationed to meet BLUCHER when he arrives on that
side. To the right of him is NEY, and further off to the right,
on heights eastward, MACDONALD. Then round the curve towards the
south in order, AUGEREAU, LAURISTON [behind whom is NAPOLEON
himself and the reserve of Guards], VICTOR [at Wachau], and
PONIATOWSKI, near the Pleisse River at the bottom of the D. Near
him are the cavalry of KELLERMANN and MILHAUD, and in the same
direction MURAT with his, covering the great avenues of approach
on the south.
Outside all these stands SCHWARZENBERG'S army, of which, opposed
to MACDONALD and LAURISTON, are KLEINAU'S Austrians and ZIETEN'S
Prussians, covered on the flank by Cossacks under PLATOFF.
Opposed to VICTOR and PONIATOWSKI are MEERFELDT and Hesse-Homburg's
Austrians, WITTGENSTEIN'S Russians, KLEIST'S Prussians, GUILAY'S
Austrians, with LICHTENSTEIN'S and THIELMANN'S light troops: thus
reaching round across the Elster into the morass on our near left—
the lower point of the D.]
SEMICHORUS I OF RUMOURS [aerial music]
This is the combat of Napoleon's hope,
But not of his assurance! Shrunk in power
He broods beneath October's clammy cope,
While hemming hordes wax denser every hour.
SEMICHORUS II
He knows, he knows that though in equal fight
He stand s heretofore the matched of none,
A feeble skill is propped by numbers' might,
And now three hosts close round to crush out one!
DUMB SHOW
The Leipzig clocks imperturbably strike nine, and the battle which
is to decide the fate of Europe, and perhaps the world, begins with
three booms from the line of the allies. They are the signal for
a general cannonade of devastating intensity.
So massive is the contest that we soon fail to individualize the
combatants as beings, and can only observe them as amorphous drifts,
clouds, and waves of conscious atoms, surging and rolling together;
can only particularize them by race, tribe, and language.
Nationalities from the uttermost parts of Asia here meet those from
the Atlantic edge of Europe for the first and last time. By noon
the sound becomes a loud droning, uninterrupted and breve-like, as
from the pedal of an organ kept continuously down.
CHORUS OF RUMOURS
Now triple battle beats about the town,
And now contracts the huge elastic ring
Of fighting flesh, as those within go down,
Or spreads, as those without show faltering!
It becomes apparent that the French have a particular intention,
the Allies only a general one. That of the French is to break
through the enemy's centre and surround his right. To this end
NAPOLEON launches fresh columns, and simultaneously OUDINOT supports
VICTOR against EUGENE OF WURTEMBERG'S right, while on the other
side of him the cavalry of MILHAUD and KELLERMAN prepares to charge.
NAPOLEON'S combination is successful, and drives back EUGENE.
Meanwhile SCHWARZENBERG is stuck fast, useless in the marshes
between the Pleisse and the Elster.
By three o'clock the Allied centre, which has held out against the
assaults of the French right and left, is broken through by cavalry
under MURAT, LATOUR-MAUBOURG, and KELLERMANN.
The bells of Leipzig ring.
CHORUS OF THE PITIES
Those chimings, ill-advised and premature!
Who knows if such vast valour will endure?
The Austro-Russians are withdrawn from the marshes by SCHWARZENBERG.
But the French cavalry also get entangled in the swamps, and
simultaneously MARMONT is beaten at Mockern.
Meanwhile NEY, to the north of Leipzig, having heard the battle
raging southward, leaves his position to assist it. He has nearly
arrived when he hears BLUCHER attacking at the point he came from,
and sends back some of his divisions.
BERTRAND has kept open the west road to Lindenau and the Rhine, the
only French line of retreat.
Evening finds the battle a drawn one. With the nightfall three blank
shots reverberate hollowly.
SEMICHORUS I OF RUMOURS
They sound to say that, for this moaning night,
As Nature sleeps, so too shall sleep the fight;
Neither the victor.
SEMICHORUS II
But, for France and him,
Half-won is losing!
CHORUS
Yea, his hopes drop dim,
Since nothing less than victory to-day
Had saved a cause whose ruin is delay!
The night gets thicker and no more is seen.
SCENE III
THE SAME, FROM THE TOWER OF THE PLEISSENBURG
[The tower commands a view of a great part of the battlefield.
Day has just dawned, and citizens, saucer-eyed from anxiety and
sleeplessness, are discover watching.]
FIRST CITIZEN
The wind increased at midnight while I watched,
With flapping showers, and clouds that combed the moon,
Till dawn began outheaving this huge day,
Pallidly—as if scared by its own issue;
This day that the Allies with bonded might
Have vowed to deal their felling finite blow.
SECOND CITIZEN
So must it be! They have welded close the coop
Wherein our luckless Frenchmen are enjailed
With such compression that their front has shrunk
From five miles' farness to but half as far.—
Men say Napoleon made resolve last night
To marshal a retreat. If so, his way
Is by the Bridge of Lindenau.
[They look across in the cold east light at the long
straight
causeway from the Ranstadt Gate at the north-west corner of the
town, and the Lindenau bridge over the Elster beyond.]
FIRST CITIZEN
Last night I saw, like wolf-packs, hosts appear
Upon the Dresden road; and then, anon,
The already stout arrays of Schwarzenberg
Grew stoutened more. I witnessed clearly, too,
Just before dark, the bands of Bernadotte
Come, hemming in the north more thoroughly.
The horizon glowered with a thousand fires
As the unyielding circle shut around.
[As it grows light they scan and define the armies.]
THIRD CITIZEN
Those lying there, 'twixt Connewitz and Dolitz,
Are the right wing of horse Murat commands.
Next, Poniatowski, Victor, and the rest.
Out here, Napoleon's centre at Probstheida,
Where he has bivouacked. Those round this way
Are his left wing with Ney, that face the north
Between Paunsdorf and Gohlis.—Thus, you see
They are skilfully sconced within the villages,
With cannon ranged in front. And every copse,
Dingle, and grove is packed with riflemen.
[The heavy sky begins to clear with the full arrival of the
morning. The sun bursts out, and the previously dark and gloomy
masses glitter in the rays. It is now seven o'clock, and with the
shining of the sun, the battle is resumed.
The army of Bohemia to the south and east, in three great columns,
marches concentrically upon NAPOLEON'S new and much-contracted line
—the first column of thirty-five thousand under BENNIGSEN; the
second, the central, forty-five thousand under BARCLAY DE TOLLY;
the third, twenty-five thousand under the PRINCE OF HESSE-HOMBURG.
An interval of suspense.]
FIRST CITIZEN
Ah, see! The French bend, falter, and fall back.
[Another interval. Then a huge rumble of artillery resounds from
the north.]
SEMICHORUS OF RUMOURS [aerial music]
Now Blucher has arrived; and now falls to!
Marmont withdraws before him. Bernadotte
Touching Bennigsen, joins attack with him,
And Ney must needs recede. This serves as sign
To Schwarzenberg to bear upon Probstheida—
Napoleon's keystone and dependence here.
But for long whiles he fails to win his will,
The chief being nigh—outmatching might with skill.
SEMICHORUS II
Ney meanwhile, stung still sharplier, still withdraws
Nearer the town, and met by new mischance,
Finds him forsaken by his Saxon wing—
Fair files of thrice twelve thousand footmanry.
But rallying those still true with signs and calls,
He warely closes up his remnant to the walls.
SEMICHORUS I
Around Probstheida still the conflict rolls
Under Napoleon's eye surpassingly.
Like sedge before the scythe the sections fall
And bayonets slant and reek. Each cannon-blaze
Makes the air thick with human limbs; while keen
Contests rage hand to hand. Throats shout "advance,"
And forms walm, wallow, and slack suddenly.
Hot ordnance split and shiver and rebound,
And firelocks fouled and flintless overstrew the ground.
SEMICHORUS II
At length the Allies, daring tumultuously,
Find them inside Probstheida. There is fixed
Napoleon's cardinal and centre hold.
But need to loose it grows his gloomy fear
As night begins to brown and treacherous mists appear.
CHORUS
Then, on the three fronts of this reaching field,
A furious, far, and final cannonade
Burns from two thousand mouths and shakes the plain,
And hastens the sure end! Towards the west
Bertrand keeps open the retreating-way,
Along which wambling waggons since the noon
Have crept in closening file. Dusk draws around;
The marching remnants drowse amid their talk,
And worn and harrowed horses slumber as the walk.
[In the darkness of the distance spread cries from the maimed
animals and the wounded men. Multitudes of the latter contrive to
crawl into the city, until the streets are full of them. Their
voices are heard calling.]
SECOND CITIZEN
They cry for water! Let us go down,
And do what mercy may.
[Exeunt citizens from the tower.]
SPIRIT OF THE PITIES
A fire is lit
Near to the Thonberg wind-wheel. Can it be
Napoleon tarries yet? Let us go see.
[The distant firelight becomes clearer and closer.]
SCENE IV
THE SAME. AT THE THONBERG WINDMILL
[By the newly lighted fire NAPOLEON is seen walking up and down,
much agitated and worn. With him are MURAT, BERTHIER, AUGEREAU,
VICTOR, and other marshals of corps that have been engaged in this
part of the field—all perspiring, muddy, and fatigued.]
NAPOLEON
Baseness so gross I had not guessed of them!—
The thirty thousand false Bavarians
I looked on losing not unplacidly;
But these troth-swearing sober Saxonry
I reckoned staunch by virtue of their king!
Thirty-five thousand and gone! It magnifies
A failure into a catastrophe....
Murat, we must retreat precipitately,
And not as hope had dreamed! Begin it then
This very hour.—Berthier, write out the orders.—
Let me sit down.
[A chair is brought out from the mill. NAPOLEON sinks into it, and
BERTHIER, stooping over the fire, begins writing to the Emperor's
dictation, the marshals looking with gloomy faces at the flaming
logs.
NAPOLEON has hardly dictated a line when he stops short. BERTHIER
turns round and finds that he has dropt asleep.]
MURAT [sullenly]
Far better not disturb him;
He'll soon enough awake!
[They wait, muttering to one another in tones expressing weary
indifference to issues. NAPOLEON sleeps heavily for a quarter of
and hour, during which the moon rises over the field. At the end
he starts up stares around him with astonishment.]
NAPOLEON
Am I awake?
Or is this all a dream?—Ah, no. Too real!...
And yet I have seen ere now a time like this.
[The dictation is resumed. While it is in progress there can be
heard between the words of NAPOLEON the persistent cries from the
plain, rising and falling like those of a vast rookery far away,
intermingled with the trampling of hoofs and the rumble of wheels.
The bivouac fires of the engirdling enemy glow all around except
for a small segment to the west—the track of retreat, still kept
open by BERTRAND, and already taken by the baggage-waggons.
The orders for its adoption by the entire army being completed,
NAPOLEON bids adieu to his marshals, and rides with BERTHIER and
CAULAINCOURT into Leipzig. Exeunt also the others.]
SEMICHORUS I OF THE PITIES
Now, as in the dream of one sick to death,
There comes a narrowing room
That pens him, body and limbs and breath,
To wait a hideous doom,
So to Napoleon in the hush
That holds the town and towers
Through this dire night, a creeping crush
Seems inborne with the hours.
[The scene closes under a rimy mist, which makes a lurid cloud of
the firelights.]
SCENE V
THE SAME. A STREET NEAR THE RANSTADT GATE
[High old-fashioned houses form the street, along which, from the
east of the city, is streaming a confusion of waggons, in hurried
exit through the gate westward upon the highroad to Lindenau,
Lutzen, and the Rhine.
In front of an inn called the "Prussian Arms" are some attendants
of NAPOLEON waiting with horses.]
FIRST OFFICER
He has just come from bidding the king and queen
A long good-bye.... Is it that they will pay
For his indulgence of their past ambition
By sharing now his ruin? Much the king
Did beg him to leave them to their lot,
And shun the shame of capture needlessly.
[He looks anxiously towards the door.]
I would he'd haste! Each minute is of price.
SECOND OFFICER
The king will come to terms with the Allies.
They will not hurt him. Though he has lost his all,
His case is not like ours!
[The cheers of the approaching enemy grow louder. NAPOLEON comes
out from the "Prussian Arms," haggard and in disordered attire.
He is about to mount, but, perceiving the blocked state of the
street, he hesitates.]
NAPOLEON
God, what a crowd!
I shall more quickly gain the gate afoot.
There is a byway somewhere, I suppose?
[A citizen approaches out of the inn.]
CITIZEN
This alley, sire, will speed you to the gate;
I shall be honoured much to point the way.
NAPOLEON
Then do, good friend. [To attendants] Bring on the horses there;
I if arrive soonest I will wait for you.
[The citizen shows NAPOLEON the way into the alley.]
CITIZEN
A garden's at the end, your Majesty,
Through which you pass. Beyond there is a door
That opens to the Elster bank unbalked.
[NAPOLEON disappears into the alley. His attendants plunge amid
the traffic with the horses, and thread their way down the street.
Another citizen comes from the door of the inn and greets the
first.]
FIRST CITIZEN
He's gone!