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_ PART FIRST. ACT FOURTH. SCENE VI.
[Before LORD MALMESBURY'S house, on a Sunday morning in the same autumn. Idlers pause and gather in the background.
PITT enters, and meets LORD MULGRAVE.]
MULGRAVE
Good day, Pitt. Ay, these leaves that skim the ground
With withered voices, hint that sunshine-time
Is well-nigh past.--And so the game's begun
Between him and the Austro-Russian force,
As second movement in the faceabout
From Boulogne shore, with which he has hocussed us?--
What has been heard on't? Have they clashed as yet?
PITT
The Emperor Francis, partly at my instance,
Has thrown the chief command on General Mack,
A man most capable and far of sight.
He centres by the Danube-bank at Ulm,
A town well-walled, and firm for leaning on
To intercept the French in their advance
From the Black Forest toward the Russian troops
Approaching from the east. If Bonaparte
Sustain his marches at the break-neck speed
That all report, they must have met ere now.
--There is a rumour . . . quite impossible! . . .
MULGRAVE
You still have faith in Mack as strategist?
There have been doubts of his far-sightedness.
PITT (hastily)
I know, I know.--I am calling here at Malmesbury's
At somewhat an unceremonious time
To ask his help to translate this Dutch print
The post has brought. Malmesbury is great at Dutch,
Learning it long at Leyden, years ago.
[He draws a newspaper from his pocket, unfolds it, and glances it down.]
There's news here unintelligible to me
Upon the very matter! You'll come in?
[They call at LORD MAMESBURY'S. He meets them in the hall, and welcomes them with an apprehensive look of foreknowledge.]
PITT
Pardon this early call. The packet's in,
And wings me this unreadable Dutch paper,
So, as the offices are closed to-day,
I have brought it round to you.
(Handling the paper.)
What does it say?
For God's sake, read it out. You know the tongue.
MALMESBURY (with hesitation)
I have glanced it through already--more than once--
A copy having reached me, too, by now . . .
We are in the presence of a great disaster!
See here. It says that Mack, enjailed in Ulm
By Bonaparte--from four side shutting round--
Capitulated, and with all his force
Laid down his arms before his conqueror!
[PITT's face changes. A silence.]
MULGRAVE
Outrageous! Ignominy unparalleled!
PITT
By God, my lord, these statement must be false!
These foreign prints are trustless as Cheap Jack
Dumfounding yokels at a country fair.
I heed no word of it.--Impossible.
What! Eighty thousand Austrians, nigh in touch
With Russia's levies that Kutuzof leads,
To lay down arms before the war's begun?
'Tis too much!
MALMESBURY
But I fear it is too true!
Note the assevered source of the report--
One beyond thought of minters of mock tales.
The writer adds that military wits
Cry that the little Corporal now makes war
In a new way, using his soldiers' legs
And not their arms, to bring him victory.
Ha-ha! The quip must sting the Corporal's foes.
PITT (after a pause)
O vacillating Prussia! Had she moved,
Had she but planted one foot firmly down,
All this had been averted.--I must go.
'Tis sure, 'tis sure, I labour but in vain!
[MALMESBURY accompanies him to the door, and PITT walks away isquietedly towards Whitehall, the other two regarding him as he goes.]
MULGRAVE
Too swiftly he declines to feebleness,
And these things well might shake a stouter frame!
MALMESBURY
Of late the burden of all Europe's cares,
Of hiring and maintaining half her troops,
His single pair of shoulders has upborne,
Thanks to the obstinacy of the King.--
His thin, strained face, his ready irritation,
Are ominous signs. He may not be for long.
MULGRAVE
He alters fast, indeed,--as do events.
MALMESBURY
His labour's lost; and all our money gone!
It looks as if this doughty coalition
On which we have lavished so much pay and pains
Would end in wreck.
MULGRAVE
All is not over yet;
The gathering Russian forces are unbroke.
MALMESBURY
Well; we shall see. Should Boney vanquish these,
And silence all resistance on that side,
His move will then be backward to Boulogne,
And so upon us.
MULGRAVE
Nelson to our defence!
MALMESBURY
Ay; where is Nelson? Faith, by this time
He may be sodden; churned in Biscay swirls;
Or blown to polar bears by boreal gales;
Or sleeping amorously in some calm cave
On the Canaries' or Atlantis' shore
Upon the bosom of his Dido dear,
For all that we know! Never a sound of him
Since passing Portland one September day--
To make for Cadiz; so 'twas then believed.
MULGRAVE
He's staunch. He's watching, or I am much deceived.
[MULGRAVE departs. MALMESBURY goes within. The scene shuts.] _
Read next: Part 1: Act 5: Scene 1. Off Cape Trafalgar
Read previous: Part 1: Act 4: Scene 5. The Same. The Michaelsberg
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