Complete Works of Thomas Hardy (Illustrated)

Home > Fiction > Complete Works of Thomas Hardy (Illustrated) > Page 841
Complete Works of Thomas Hardy (Illustrated) Page 841

by Thomas Hardy

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 chinks 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 minist
ers 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," cocked 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 CAMB
RONNE 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

 

‹ Prev