The Dynasts. Томас Харди

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СКАЧАТЬ obscures the prospect, and cloaks its

       bleared lights and fires.

      SCENE III

       ULM. WITHIN THE CITY

       [The interior of the Austrian headquarters on the following

       morning. A tempest raging without.

       GENERAL MACK, haggard and anxious, the ARCHDUKE FERDINAND, PRINCE

       SCHWARZENBERG, GENERAL JELLACHICH, GENERALS RIESC, BIBERBACH, and

       other field officers discovered, seated at a table with a map

       spread out before them. A wood fire blazes between tall andirons

       in a yawning fireplace. At every more than usually boisterous

       gust of wind the smoke flaps into the room.]

      MACK

       The accursed cunning of our adversary

       Confounds all codes of honourable war,

       Which ever have held as granted that the track

       Of armies bearing hither from the Rhine—

       Whether in peace or strenuous invasion—

       Should pierce the Schwarzwald, and through Memmingen,

       And meet us in our front. But he must wind

       And corkscrew meanly round, where foot of man

       Can scarce find pathway, stealing up to us

       Thiefwise, by out back door! Nevertheless,

       If English war-fleets be abreast Boulogne,

       As these deserters tell, and ripe to land there,

       It destines Bonaparte to pack him back

       Across the Rhine again. We've but to wait,

       And see him go.

      ARCHDUKE

       But who shall say if these bright tales be true?

      MACK

       Even then, small matter, your Imperial Highness;

       The Russians near us daily, and must soon—

       Ay, far within the eight days I have named—

       Be operating to untie this knot,

       If we hold on.

      ARCHDUKE

       Conjectures these—no more;

       I stomach not such waiting. Neither hope

       Has kernel in it. I and my cavalry

       With caution, when the shadow fall to-night,

       Can bore some hole in this engirdlement;

       Outpass the gate north-east; join General Werneck,

       And somehow cut our way Bohemia-wards:

       Well worth the hazard, in our straitened case!

      MACK [firmly]

       The body of our force stays here with me.

       And I am much surprised, your Highness, much,

       You mark not how destructive 'tis to part!

       If we wait on, for certain we should wait

       In our full strength, compacted, undispersed

       By such partition as your Highness plans.

      SCHWARZENBERG

       There's truth in urging we should not divide,

       But weld more closely.—Yet why stay at all?

       Methinks there's but one sure salvation left,

       To wit, that we conjunctly march herefrom,

       And with much circumspection, towards the Tyrol.

       The subtle often rack their wits in vain—

       Assay whole magazines of strategy—

       To shun ill loomings deemed insuperable,

       When simple souls by stumbling up to them

       Find the grim shapes but air. But let use grant

       That the investing French so ring us in

       As to leave not a span for such exploit;

       Then go we—throw ourselves upon their steel,

       And batter through, or die!—

       What say you, Generals? Speak your minds, I pray.

      JELLACHICH

       I favour marching out—the Tyrol way.

      RIESC

       Bohemia best! The route thereto is open.

      ARCHDUKE

       My course is chosen. O this black campaign,

       Which Pitt's alarmed dispatches pricked us to,

       All unforseeing! Any risk for me

       Rather than court humiliation here!

       [MACK has risen during the latter remarks, walked to the

       window, and looked out at the rain. He returns with an air

       of embarrassment.]

      MACK [to Archduke]

       It is my privilege firmly to submit

       That your Imperial Highness undertake

       No venturous vaulting into risks unknown.—

       Assume that you, Sire, as you have proposed,

       With your light regiments and the cavalry,

       Detach yourself from us, to scoop a way

       By circuits northwards through the Rauhe Alps

       And Herdenheim, into Bohemia:

       Reports all point that you will be attacked,

       Enveloped, borne on to capitulate.

       What worse can happen here?—

       Remember, Sire, the Emperor deputes me,

       Should СКАЧАТЬ