LEIPZIG. NAPOLÉON’S QUARTERS IN THE REUDNITZ SUBURB [The sitting-room of a private mansion. Evening. A large stove- fire and candles burning. The October wind is heard without, and the leaded panes of the old windows shake mournfully.]

SEMICHORUS I OF IRONIC SPIRITS [aerial music] We come; and learn as Time’s disordered dear sands run That Castlereagh’s diplomacy has wiled, waxed, won. The beacons flash the fevered news to eyes keen bent That Austria’s formal words of war are shaped, sealed, sent.

SEMICHORUS II So; Poland’s three despoilers primed by Bull’s gross pay To stem Napoléon’s might, he waits the weird dark day; His proffered peace declined with scorn, in fell force then They front him, with yet ten-score thousand more massed men. [At the back of the room CAULAINCOURT, DUKE OF VICENZA, and JOUANNE, one of Napoléon’s confidential secretaries, are unpacking and laying out the Emperor’s maps and papers. In the foreground BERTHIER, MURAT, LAURISTON, and several officers of Napoléon’s suite, are holding a desultory conversation while they await his entry. Their countenances are overcast.]

MURAT At least, the scheme of marching on Berlin Is now abandoned.

LAURISTON Not without high words: He yielded and gave order prompt for Leipzig But coldness and reserve have marked his mood Towards us ever since.

BERTHIER The march hereto He has looked on as a retrogressive one, And that, he ever holds, is courting woe. To counsel it was doubtless full of risk, And heaped us with responsibilities; —Yet ’twas your missive, sire, that settled it [to MURAT]. How stirred he was! “To Leipzig, or Berlin?” He kept repeating, as he drew and drew Fantastic figures on the foolscap sheet,— “The one spells ruin—t’other spells success, And which is which?”

MURAT [stiffly] What better could I do? So far were the Allies from sheering off As he supposed, that they had moved in march Full fanfare hither! I was duty-bound To let him know.

LAURISTON Assuming victory here, If he should let the advantage slip him by As on the Dresden day, he wrecks us all! ’Twas damnable—to ride back from the fight Inside a coach, as though we had not won!

CAULAINCOURT [from the back] The Emperor was ill: I have ground for knowing. [NAPOLÉON enters.]

NAPOLÉON [buoyantly] Comrades, the outlook promises us well!

MURAT [dryly] Right glad are we you tongue such tidings, sire. To us the stars have visaged differently; To wit: we muster outside Leipzig here Levies one hundred and ninety thousand strong. The enemy has mustered, OUTSIDE US, Three hundred and fifty thousand—if not more.

NAPOLÉON All that is needful is to conquer them! We are concentred here: they lie a-spread, Which shrinks them to two-hundred-thousand power:— Though that the urgency of victory Is absolute, I admit.

MURAT Yea; otherwise The issue will be worse than Moscow, sire! [MARMONT, DUKE OF RAGUSA [Wellington’s adversary in Spain], is announced, and enters.]

NAPOLÉON Ah, Marmont; bring you in particulars?

MARMONT Some sappers I have taken captive, sire, Say the Allies will be at stroke with us The morning next to to-morrow’s.—I am come, Now, from the steeple-top of Liebenthal, Where I beheld the enemy’s fires bespot The horizon round with raging eyes of flame:— My vanward posts, too, have been driven in, And I need succours—thrice ten thousand, say.

NAPOLÉON [coldly] The enemy vexes not your vanward posts; You are mistaken.—Now, however, go; Cross Leipzig, and remain as the reserve.— Well, gentlemen, my hope herein is this: The first day to annihilate Schwarzenberg, The second Blücher. So shall we slip the toils They are all madding to enmesh us in.

BERTHIER Few are our infantry to fence with theirs!

NAPOLÉON [cheerfully] We’ll range them in two lines instead of three, And so we shall look stronger by one-third.

BERTHIER [incredulously] Can they be thus deceived, sire?

NAPOLÉON Can they? Yes! With all my practice I can err in numbers At least one-quarter; why not they one-third? Anyhow, ’tis worth trying at a pinch.... [AUGEREAU is suddenly announced.] Good! I’ve not seen him yet since he arrived. [Enter AUGEREAU. Here you are then at last, old Augereau! You have been looked for long.—But you are no more The Augereau of Castiglione days!

AUGEREAU Nay, sire! I still should be the Augereau Of glorious Castiglione, could you give The boys of Italy back again to me!

NAPOLÉON Well, let it drop.... Only I notice round me An atmosphere of scopeless apathy Wherein I do not share.

AUGEREAU There are reasons, sire, Good reasons for despondence! As I came I learnt, past question, that Bavaria Swerves on the very pivot of desertion. This adds some threescore thousand to our foes.

NAPOLÉON [irritated] That consummation long has threatened us!... Would that you showed the steeled fidelity You used to show! Except me, all are slack! [To Murat] Why, even you yourself, my brother-in-law, Have been inclining to abandon me!

MURAT [vehemently] I, sire? It is not so. I stand and swear The grievous imputation is untrue. You should know better than believe these things, And well remember I have enemies Who ever wait to slander me to you!

NAPOLÉON [more calmly] Ah yes, yes. That is so.—And yet—and yet You have deigned to weigh the feasibility Of treating me as Austria has done!... But I forgive you. You are a worthy man; You feel real friendship for me. You are brave. Yet I was wrong to make a king of you. If I had been content to draw the line At vice-king, as with young Eugène, no more, As he has laboured you’d have laboured, too! But as full monarch, you have foraged rather For your own pot than mine! [MURAT and the marshal are silent, and look at each other with troubled countenances. NAPOLÉON goes to the table at the back, and bends over the charts with CAULAINCOURT, dictating desultory notes to the secretaries.]

SPIRIT IRONIC A seer might say This savours of a sad Last-Supper talk ’Twixt his disciples and this Christ of war! [Enter an attendant.]

ATTENDANT The Saxon King and Queen and the Princess Enter the city gates, your Majesty. They seek the shelter of the civic walls Against the risk of capture by Allies.

NAPOLÉON Ah, so? My friend Augustus, is he near? I will be prompt to meet him when he comes, And safely quarter him. [He returns to the map.] [An interval. The clock strikes midnight. The EMPEROR rises abruptly, sighs, and comes forward.] I now retire, Comrades. Good-night, good-night. Remember well All must prepare to grip with gory death In the now voidless battle. It will be A great one and a critical; one, in brief, That will seal France’s fate, and yours, and mine!

ALL [fervidly] We’ll do our utmost, by the Holy Heaven!

NAPOLÉON 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 NAPOLÉON 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. NAPOLÉON muses, and lets the curtain drop.]

NAPOLÉON Yes, Schwarzenberg to Blücher.... 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.]