________________________________________________
_ PART SECOND. ACT FOURTH. SCENE VII.
[The rooms are lighted with candles in brass chandeliers, and a dance is in full movement to the strains of a string-band. A signal is given, shortly after the clock has struck eleven, by MR. FORTH, Master of Ceremonies.]
FORTH
His Royal Highness comes, though somewhat late,
But never too late for welcome! (Applause.) Dancers, stand,
That we may do fit homage to the Prince
Who soon may shine our country's gracious king.
[After a brief stillness a commotion is heard at the door, the band strikes up the National air, and the PRINCE enters, accompanied by the rest of the visitors from the Pavilion. The guests who have been temporarily absent now crowd in, till there is hardly space to stand.]
PRINCE OF WALES (wiping his face and whispering to Sheridan)
What shall I say to fit their feeling here?
Damn me, that other speech has stumped me quite!
SHERIDAN (whispering)
If heat be evidence of loy---
PRINCE OF WALES
If what?
SHERIDAN
If heat be evidence of loyalty,
Et caetera--something quaint like that might please 'em.
PRINCE OF WALES (to the company)
If heat be evidence of loyalty,
This room affords it truly without question;
If heat be not, then its accompaniment
Most surely 'tis to-night. The news I bring,
Good ladies, friends, and gentlemen, perchance
You have divined already? That our arms--
Engaged to thwart Napoleon's tyranny
Over the jaunty, jocund land of Spain
Even to the highest apex of our strength--
Are rayed with victory! (Cheers.) Lengthy was the strife
And fierce, and hot; and sore the suffering;
But proudly we endured it; and shall hear,
No doubt, of its far consequence
Ere many days. I'll read the details sent. (Cheers.)
[He reads again from the dispatch amid more cheering, the ball-room guests crowding round. When he has done he answers questions; then continuing:
Meanwhile our interest is, if possible,
As keenly waked elsewhere. Into the Scheldt
Some forty thousand bayonets and swords,
And twoscore ships o' the line, with frigates, sloops,
And gunboats sixty more, make headway now,
Bleaching the waters with their bellying sails;
Or maybe they already anchor there,
And that level ooze of Walcheren shore
Ring with the voices of that landing host
In every twang of British dialect,
Clamorous to loosen fettered Europe's chain! (Cheers.)
A NOBLE LORD (aside to Sheridan)
Prinny's outpouring tastes suspiciously like your brew, Sheridan. I'll be damned if it is his own concoction. How d'ye sell it a gallon?
SHERIDAN
I don't deal that way nowadays. I give the recipe, and charge a duty on the gauging. It is more artistic, and saves trouble.
[The company proceed to the supper-rooms, and the ball-room sinks into solitude.]
SPIRIT OF THE PITIES
So they pass on. Let be!--But what is this--
A moan?--all frailly floating from the east
To usward, even from the forenamed isle? . . .
Would I had not broke nescience, to inspect
A world so ill-contrived!
SPIRIT OF THE YEARS
But since thou hast
We'll hasten to the isle; and thou'lt behold--
Such as it is--the scene its coasts enfold. _
Read next: Part 2: Act 4: Scene 8. Walcheren
Read previous: Part 2: Act 4: Scene 6. Brighton. The Royal Pavilion
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