Part 1 / Act 3 — SCENE III
Reading edition
BOULOGNE. THE ST. OMER ROAD [It is morning at the end of August, and the road stretches out of the town eastward. The divisions of the “Army-for-England” are making preparations to march. Some portions are in marching order. Bands strike up, and the regiments start on their journey towards the Rhine and Danube. Bonaparte and his officers watch the movements from an eminence. The soldiers, as they pace along under their eagles with beaming eyes, sing “Le Chant du Depart,” and other martial songs, shout “Vive l’Empereur!” and babble of repeating the days of Italy, Egypt, Marengo, and Hohenlinden.]
NAPOLÉON Anon to England!
CHORUS OF INTELLIGENCES [aerial music] If Time’s weird threads so weave! [The scene as it lingers exhibits the gradual diminishing of the troops along the roads through the undulating August landscape, till each column is seen but as a train of dust; and the disappearance of each marching mass over the eastern horizon.]