The Dynasts. Томас Харди

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СКАЧАТЬ brilliant intellects of the other side

       Who stand by Fox. With us conjoined, they—-

      KING

       What, what, again—in face of my sound reasons!

       Believe me, Pitt, you underrate yourself;

       You do not need such aid. The splendid feat

       Of banding Europe in a righteous cause

       That you have achieved, so soon to put to shame

       This wicked bombardier of dynasties

       That rule by right Divine, goes straight to prove

       We had best continue as we have begun,

       And call no partners to our management.

       To fear dilemmas horning up ahead

       Is not your wont. Nay, nay, now, Mr. Pitt,

       I must be firm. And if you love your King

       You'll goad him not so rashly to embrace

       This Fox-Grenville faction and its friends.

       Rather than Fox, why, give me civil war!

       Hey, what? But what besides?

      PITT

       I say besides, sir,... nothing!

       [A silence.]

      KING [cheerfully]

       The Chancellor's here, and many friends of mine: Lady Winchelsea,

       Lord and Lady Chesterfield, Lady Bulkeley, General Garth, and Mr.

       Phipps the oculist—not the least important to me. He is a worthy

       and a skilful man. My eyes, he says, are as marvellously improved

       in durability as I know them to be in power. I have arranged to go

       to-morrow with the Princesses, and the Dukes of Cumberland, Sussex,

       and Cambridge [who are also here] for a ride on the Ridgeway, and

       through the Camp on the downs. You'll accompany us there?

      PITT

       I am honoured by your Majesty's commands.

       [PITT looks resignedly out of the window.]

       What curious structure do I see outside, sir?

      KING

       It's but a stage, a type of all the world. The burgesses have

       arranged it in my honour. At six o'clock this evening there are

       to be combats at single-stick to amuse the folk; four guineas

       the prize for the man who breaks most heads. Afterward there

       is to be a grinning match through horse-collars—a very humorous

       sport which I must stay here and witness; for I am interested in

       whatever entertains my subjects.

      PITT

       Not one in all the land but knows it, sir.

      KING

       Now, Mr. Pitt, you must require repose;

       Consult your own convenience then, I beg,

       On when you leave.

       PITT

       I thank your Majesty.

       [He departs as one whose purpose has failed, and the scene shuts.]

      SCENE II

       BEFORE THE CITY OF ULM

       [A prospect of the city from the east, showing in the foreground

       a low-lying marshy country bounded in mid-distance by the banks

       of the Danube, which, bordered by poplars and willows, flows

       across the picture from the left to the Elchingen Bridge near

       the right of the scene, and is backed by irregular heights and

       terraces of espaliered vines. Between these and the river stands

       the city, crowded with old gabled houses and surrounded by walls,

       bastions, and a ditch, all the edifices being dominated by the

       nave and tower of the huge Gothic Munster.

       On the most prominent of the heights at the back—the Michaelsberg

       —to the upper-right of the view, is encamped the mass of the

       Austrian army, amid half-finished entrenchments. Advanced posts

       of the same are seen south-east of the city, not far from the

       advanced corps of the French Grand-Army under SOULT, MARMONT,

       LANNES, NEY, and DUPONT, which occupy in a semicircle the whole

       breadth of the flat landscape in front, and extend across the

       river to higher ground on the right hand of the panorama.

       Heavy mixed drifts of rain and snow are descending impartially

       on the French and on the Austrians, the downfall nearly blotting

       out the latter on the hills. A chill October wind wails across

       the country, and the poplars yield slantingly to the gusts.]

      DUMB SHOW

       Drenched peasants are busily at work, fortifying the heights of

       the Austrian position in the face of the enemy. Vague companies

       of Austrians above, and of the French below, hazy and indistinct

       in the thick atmosphere, come and go without apparent purpose

       near their respective lines.

       Closer at hand NAPOLEON, in his familiar blue-grey overcoat, rides

       hither and thither with his marshals, haranguing familiarly the

       bodies of soldiery as he passes them, and observing and pointing

       out the disposition of the Austrians to his companions.

       Thicker sheets of rain fly across as the murk of evening increases,

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