Complete Works of Thomas Hardy (Illustrated)
Page 838
[Their shouts, which spread to the Carrousel without, are echoed
by the soldiers of the Guard assembled there. The EMPRESS is now
in tears, and the EMPEROR supports her.]
MARIE LOUISE
Such whole enthusiasm I have never known!—
Not even from the Landwehr of Vienna.
[Amid repeated protestations and farewells NAPOLEON, the EMPRESS,
the KING OF ROME, MADAME DE MONTESQUIOU, etc. go out in one
direction, and the officers of the National Guard in another.
The curtain falls for an interval.
When it rises again the apartment is in darkness, and its atmosphere
chilly. The January night-wind howls without. Two servants enter
hastily, and light candles and a fire. The hands of the clock are
pointing to three.
The room is hardly in order when the EMPEROR enters, equipped for
the intended journey; and with him, his left arm being round her
waist, walks MARIE LOUISE in a dressing-gown. On his right arm
he carries the KING OF ROME, and in his hand a bundle of papers.
COUNT BERTRAND and a few members of the household follow.
Reaching the middle of the room, he kisses the child and embraces
the EMPRESS, who is tearful, the child weeping likewise. NAPOLEON
takes the papers to the fire, thrusts them in, and watches them
consume; then burns other bundles brought by his attendants.]
NAPOLEON [gloomily]
Better to treat them thus; since no one knows
What comes, or into whose hands he may fall!
MARIE LOUISE
I have an apprehension-unexplained—
That I shall never see you any more!
NAPOLEON
Dismiss such fears. You may as well as not.
As things are doomed to be they will be, dear.
If shadows must come, let them come as though
The sun were due and you were trusting to it:
'Twill teach the world it wrongs in bringing them.
[They embrace finally. Exeunt NAPOLEON, etc. Afterwards MARIE
LOUISE and the child.]
SPIRIT OF THE YEARS
Her instinct forwardly is keen in cast,
And yet how limited. True it may be
They never more will meet; although—to use
The bounded prophecy I am dowered with—
The screen that will maintain their severance
Would pass her own believing; proving it
No gaol-grille, no scath of scorching war,
But this persuasion, pressing on her pulse
To breed aloofness and a mind averse;
Until his image in her soul will shape
Dwarfed as a far Colossus on a plain,
Or figure-head that smalls upon the main.
[The lights are extinguished and the hall is left in darkness.]
SCENE III
THE SAME. THE APARTMENTS OF THE EMPRESS
[A March morning, verging on seven o'clock, throws its cheerless
stare into the private drawing-room of MARIE LOUISE, animating
the gilt furniture to only a feeble shine. Two chamberlains of
the palace are there in waiting. They look from the windows and
yawn.]
FIRST CHAMBERLAIN
Here's a watering for spring hopes! Who would have supposed when
the Emperor left, and appointed her Regent, that she and the Regency
too would have to scurry after in so short a time!
SECOND CHAMBERLAIN
Was a course decided on last night?
FIRST CHAMBERLAIN
Yes. The Privy Council sat till long past midnight, debating the
burning question whether she and the child should remain or not.
Some were one way, some the other. She settled the matter by saying
she would go.
SECOND CHAMBERLAIN
I thought it might come to that. I heard the alarm beating all night
to assemble the National Guard; and I am told that some volunteers
have marched out to support Marmot. But they are a mere handful:
what can they do?
[A clatter of wheels and a champing and prancing of horses is
heard outside the palace. MENEVAL enters, and divers officers
of the household; then from her bedroom at the other end MARIE
LOUISE, in a travelling dress and hat, leading the KING OF ROME,
attired for travel likewise. She looks distracted and pale.
Next come the DUCHESS OF MONTEBELLO, lady of honour, the COUNTESS
DE MONTESQUIOU, ladies of the palace, and others, all in travelling
trim.]
KING OF ROME [plaintively]
Why are we doing these strange things, mamma,
And what did we get up so early for?
MARIE LOUISE
I cannot, dear, explain. So many events
Enlarge and make so many hours of one,
That it would be too hard to tell them now.
KING OF ROME
But you know why we a setting out like this?
Is it because we fear our enemies?
MARIE LOUISE
We are not sure that we are going yet.
I may be needful; but don't ask me here.
Some time I will tell you.
[She sits down irresolutely, and bestows recognitions on the
assembled officials with a preoccupied air.]
KING OF ROME [in a murmur]
I like being here best;
And I don't want to go I know not where!
MARIE LOUISE
Run, dear to Mamma 'Quiou and talk to her
[He goes across to MADAME DE MONTESQUIOU.]
I hear that women of the Royalist hope
[To the DUCHESS OF MONTEBELLO]
Have bent them busy in their private rooms
With working white cockades these several days.—
Yes—I must go!
DUCHESS OF MONTEBELLO
But why yet, Empress dear?
We may soon gain good news; some messenger
Hie from the Emperor or King Joseph hither?
MARIE LOUISE
King Joseph I await. He's gone to eye
The outposts, with the Ministers of War,
To learn the scope and nearness of the Allies;
He should almost be back.
[A silence, till approaching feet are suddenly heard outside the
door.]
Ah, here he comes;
Now we shall know!
[Enter precipitately not Joseph but officers of the National Guard
and others.]
OFFICERS
Long live the Empress-regent!
Do not quit Paris, pray, your Majesty.
Remain, remain. We plight us to defend you!
MARIE LOUISE [agitated]
Gallant messieurs, I thank you heartily.
But by the Emperor's biddance I am bound.
He has vowed he'd liefer see me and my son
Blanched at the bottom of the smothering Seine
Than in the talons of the foes of France.—
To keep us sure from such, then, he ordained
Our swift withdrawal with the Ministers
Towards the Loire, if enemies advanced
In overmastering might. They do advance;
Marshal Marmont and Mortier are repulsed,
And that has come whose hazard he foresaw.
All is arranged; the treasure is awheel,
And papers, seals, and cyphers packed therewith.
OFFICERS [dubiously]
Yet to leave Paris is to court disaster!
MARIE LOUISE [with petulance]
I shall do what I say!... I don't know what—
What SHALL I do!
[She bursts into tear
s and rushes into her bedroom, followed by
the young KING and some of her ladies. There is a painful silence,
broken by sobbings and expostulations within. Re-enter one of the
ladies.]
LADY
She's sorely overthrown;
She flings herself upon the bed distraught.
She says, "My God, let them make up their minds
To one or other of these harrowing ills,
And force to't, and end my agony!"
[An official enters at the main door.]
OFFICIAL
I am sent here by the Minister of War
To her Imperial Majesty the Empress.
[Re-enter MARIE LOUISE and the KING OF ROME.]
Your Majesty, my mission is to say
Imperious need dictates your instant flight.
A vanward regiment of the Prussian packs
Has gained the shadow of the city walls.
MENEVAL
They are armed Europe's scouts!
[Enter CAMBACERES the Arch-Chancellor, COUNT BEAUHARNAIS, CORVISART
the physician, DE BAUSSET, DE CANISY the equerry, and others.]
CAMBACERES
Your Majesty,
There's not a trice to lose. The force well-nigh
Of all compacted Europe crowds on us,
And clamours at the walls!
BEAUHARNAIS
If you stay longer,
You stay to fall into the Cossacks hands.
The people, too, are waxing masterful:
They think the lingering of your Majesty
Makes Paris more a peril for themselves
Than a defence for you. To fight is fruitless,
And wanton waste of life. You have nought to do
But go; and I, and all the Councillors,
Will follow you.
MARIE LOUISE
Then I was right to say
That I would go! Now go I surely will,
And let none try to hinder me again!
[She prepares to leave.]
KING OF ROME [crying]
I will not go! I like to live here best!
Don't go to Rambouillet, mamma; please don't.
It is a nasty place! Let us stay here.
O Mamma 'Quiou, stay with me here; pray stay!
MARIE LOUISE [to the Equerry]
Bring him down.
[Exit MARIE LOUISE in tears, followed by ladies-in-waiting and
others.]
DE CANISY
Come now, Monseigneur, come.
[He catches up the boy in his arms and prepares to follow the
Empress.]
KING OF ROME [kicking]
No, no, no! I don't want to go away from my house—I don't want to!
Now papa is away I am the master! [He clings to the door as the
equerry is bearing him through it.]
DE CANISY
But you must go.
[The child's fingers are pulled away. Exit DE CANISY with the King
OF ROME, who is heard screaming as he is carried down the staircase.]
MADAME DE MONTESQUIOU
I feel the child is right!
A premonition has enlightened him.
She ought to stay. But, ah, the die is cast!
[MADAME DE MONTESQUIOU and the remainder of the party follow, and
the room is left empty. Enter servants hastily.]
FIRST SERVANT
Sacred God, where are we to go to for grub and good lying to-night?
What are ill-used men to do?
SECOND SERVANT
I trudge like the rest. All the true philosophers are gone, and the
middling true are going. I made up my mind like the truest that ever
was as soon as I heard the general alarm beat.
THIRD SERVANT
I stay here. No Allies are going to tickle our skins. The storm
which roots—Dost know what a metaphor is, comrade? I brim with
them at this historic time!
SECOND SERVANT
A weapon of war used by the Cossacks?
THIRD SERVANT
Your imagination will be your ruin some day, my man! It happens to
be a weapon of wisdom used by me. My metaphor is one may'st have
met with on the rare times when th'hast been in good society. Here
it is: The storm which roots the pine spares the p—s—b—d. Now
do you see?
FIRST AND SECOND SERVANTS
Good! Your teaching, friend, is as sound as true religion! We'll
not go. Hearken to what's doing outside. [Carriages are heard
moving. Servants go to the window and look down.] Lord, there's
the Duchess getting in. Now the Mistress of the Wardrobe; now the
Ladies of the Palace; now the Prefects; now the Doctors. What a
time it takes! There are near a dozen berlines, as I am a patriot!
Those other carriages bear treasure. How quiet the people are! It
is like a funeral procession. Not a tongue cheers her!
THIRD SERVANT
Now there will be a nice convenient time for a little good victuals
and drink, and likewise pickings, before the Allies arrive, thank
Mother Molly!
[From a distant part of the city bands are heard playing military
marches. Guns next resound. Another servant rushes in.]
FOURTH SERVANT
Montmartre is being stormed, and bombs are falling in the Chaussee
d'Antin!
[Exit fourth servant.]
THIRD SERVANT [pulling something from his hat]
Then it is time for me to gird my armour on.
SECOND SERVANT
What hast there?
[Third servant holds up a crumpled white cockade and sticks it in
his hair. The firing gets louder.]
FIRST AND SECOND SERVANTS
Hast got another?
THIRD SERVANT [pulling out more]
Ay—here they are; at a price.
[The others purchase cockades of third servant. A military march
is again heard. Re-enter fourth servant.]
FOURTH SERVANT
The city has capitulated! The Allied sovereigns, so it is said,
will enter in grand procession to-morrow: the Prussian cavalry
first, then the Austrian foot, then the Russian and Prussian foot,
then the Russian horse and artillery. And to cap all, the people
of Paris are glad of the change. They have put a rope round the
neck of the statue of Napoleon on the column of the Grand Army, and
are amusing themselves with twitching it and crying "Strangle the
Tyrant!"
SECOND SERVANT
Well, well! There's rich colours in this kaleidoscopic world!
THIRD SERVANT
And there's comedy in all things—when they don't concern you.
Another glorious time among the many we've had since eighty-nine.
We have put our armour on none too soon. The Bourbons for ever!
[He leaves, followed by first and second servants.]
FOURTH SERVANT
My faith, I think I'll turn Englishman in my older years, where
there's not these trying changes in the Constitution!
[Follows the others. The Allies military march waxes louder as
the scene shuts.]
SCENE IV
FONTAINEBLEAU. A ROOM IN THE PALACE
[NAPOLEON is discovered walking impatiently up and down, and
glancing at the clock every few minutes. Enter NEY.]
NAPOLEON [without a greeting]
Well—the result? Ah, but your looks display
A leaden dawning to the light you bring!
What—not a regency? What—not the Empress
To hold it in trusteeship for my son?
NEY
Sire
, things like revolutions turn back,
But go straight on. Imperial governance
Is coffined for your family and yourself!
It is declared that military repose,
And France's well-doing, demand of you
Your abdication—unconditioned, sheer.
This verdict of the sovereigns cannot change,
And I have pushed on hot to let you know.
NAPOLEON [with repression]
I am obliged to you. You have told me promptly!—
This was to be expected. I had learnt
Of Marmont's late defection, and the Sixth's;
The consequence I easily inferred.
NEY
The Paris folk are flaked with white cockades;
Tricolors choke the kennels. Rapturously
They clamour for the Bourbons and for peace.
NAPOLEON [tartly]
I can draw inferences without assistance!
NEY [persisting]
They see the brooks of blood that have flowed forth;
They feel their own bereavements; so their mood
Asked no deep reasoning for its geniture.
NAPOLEON
I have no remarks to make on that just now.
I'll think the matter over. You shall know
By noon to-morrow my definitive.
NEY [turning to go]
I trust my saying what had to be said
Has not affronted you?
NAPOLEON [bitterly]
No; but your haste
In doing it has galled me, and has shown me
A heart that heaves no longer in my cause!
The skilled coquetting of the Government
Has nearly won you from old fellowship!...
Well; till to-morrow, marshal, then Adieu.
[Ney goes. Enter CAULAINCOURT and MACDONALD.]
Ney has got here before you; and, I deem,
Has truly told me all?
CAULAINCOURT
We thought at first
We should have had success. But fate said No;
And abdication, making no reserves,
Is, sire, we are convinced, with all respect,
The only road, if you care not to risk
The Empress; loss of every dignity,
And magnified misfortunes thrown on France.
NAPOLEON
I have heard it all; and don't agree with you.
My assets are not quite so beggarly
That I must close in such a shameful bond!
What—do you rate as naught that I am yet
Full fifty thousand strong, with Augereau,
And Soult, and Suchet true, and many more?
I still may know to play the Imperial game
As well as Alexander and his friends!
So—you will see. Where are my maps?—eh, where?
I'll trace campaigns to come! Where's my paper, ink,
To schedule all my generals and my means!