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_ PART THIRD. ACT FIRST. SCENE XII.
[An antechamber to the EMPRESS MARIE LOUISE'S bedroom, at half-past eleven on a December night. The DUCHESS OF MONTEBELLO and another lady-in-waiting are discovered talking to the Empress.]
MARIE LOUISE
I have felt unapt for anything to-night,
And I will now retire.
[She goes into her child's room adjoining.]
DUCHESS OF MONTEBELLO
For some long while
There has come no letter from the Emperor,
And Paris brims with ghastly rumourings
About the far campaign. Not being beloved,
The town is over dull for her alone.
[Re-enter MARIE LOUISE.]
MARIE LOUISE
The King of Rome is sleeping in his cot
Sweetly and safe. Now, ladies, I am going.
[She withdraws. Her tiring-women pass through into her chamber. They presently return and go out. A manservant enters, and bars the window-shutters with numerous bolts. Exit manservant. The Duchess retires. The other lady-in-waiting rises to go into her bedroom, which adjoins that of the Empress.
Men's voices are suddenly heard in the corridor without. The lady-in-waiting pauses with parted lips. The voices grow louder. The lady-in-waiting screams.
MARIE LOUISE hastily re-enters in a dressing-gown thrown over her night-clothes.]
MARIE LOUISE
Great God, what altercation can that be?
I had just verged on sleep when it aroused me!
[A thumping is heard at the door.]
VOICE OF NAPOLEON (without)
Hola! Pray let me in! Unlock the door!
LADY-IN-WAITING
Heaven's mercy on us! What man may it be
At such and hour as this?
MARIE LOUISE
O it is he!
[The lady-in-waiting unlocks the door. NAPOLEON enters, scarcely recognizable, in a fur cloak and hood over his ears. He throws off the cloak and discloses himself to be in the shabbiest and muddiest attire. Marie Louise is agitated almost to fainting.]
SPIRIT IRONIC
Is it with fright or joy?
MARIE LOUISE
I scarce believe
What my sight tells me! Home, and in such garb!
[NAPOLEON embraces her.]
NAPOLEON
I have had great work in getting in, my dear!
They failed to recognize me at the gates,
Being sceptical at my poor hackney-coach
And poorer baggage. I had to show my face
In a fierce light ere they would let me pass,
And even then they doubted till I spoke.--
What think you, dear, of such a tramp-like spouse?
(He warms his hands at the fire.)
Ha--it is much more comfortable here
Than on the Russian plains!
MARIE LOUISE (timidly)
You have suffered there?--
Your face is thinner, and has line in it;
No marvel that they did not know you!
NAPOLEON
Yes:
Disasters many and swift have swooped on me!--
Since crossing--ugh!--the Beresina River
I have been compelled to come incognito;
Ay--as a fugitive and outlaw quite.
MARIE LOUISE
We'll thank Heaven, anyhow, that you are safe.
I had gone to bed, and everybody almost!
what, now, do require? Some food of course?
[The child in the adjoining chamber begins to cry, awakened by the loud tones of NAPOLEON.]
NAPOLEON
Ah--that's his little voice! I'll in and see him.
MARIE LOUISE
I'll come with you.
[NAPOLEON and the EMPRESS pass into the other room. The lady-in-waiting calls up yawning servants and gives orders. The servants go to execute them. Re-enter NAPOLEON and MARIE LOUISE. The lady-in-waiting goes out.]
NAPOLEON
I have said it, dear!
All the disasters summed in the bulletin
Shall be repaired.
MARIE LOUISE
And are they terrible?
NAPOLEON
Have you not read the last-sent bulletin,
Dear friend?
MARIE LOUISE
No recent bulletin has come.
NAPOLEON
Ah--I must have outstripped it on the way!
MARIE LOUISE
And where is the Grand Army?
NAPOLEON
Oh--that's gone.
MARIE LOUISE
Gone? But--gone where?
NAPOLEON
Gone all to nothing, dear.
MARIE LOUISE (incredulously)
But some six hundred thousand I saw pass
Through Dresden Russia-wards?
NAPOLEON (flinging himself into a chair)
Well, those men lie--
Or most of them--in layers of bleaching bones
'Twixt here and Moscow. . . . I have been subdued;
But by the elements; and them alone.
Not Russia, but God's sky has conquered me!
(With an appalled look she sits beside him.)
From the sublime to the ridiculous
There's but a step!--I have been saying it
All through the leagues of my long journey home--
And that step has been passed in this affair! . . .
Yes, briefly, it is quite ridiculous,
Whichever way you look at it.--Ha, ha!
MARIE LOUISE (simply)
But those six hundred thousand throbbing throats
That cheered me deaf at Dresden, marching east
So full of youth and spirits--all bleached bones--
Ridiculous? Can it be so, dear, to--
Their mothers say?
NAPOLEON (with a twitch of displeasure)
You scarcely understand.
I meant the enterprise, and not its stuff. . . .
I had no wish to fight, nor Alexander,
But circumstance impaled us each on each;
The Genius who outshapes my destinies
Did all the rest! Had I but hit success,
Imperial splendour would have worn a crown
Unmatched in long-scrolled Time! . . . Well, leave that now.--
What do they know about all this in Paris?
MARIE LOUSE
I cannot say. Black rumours fly and croak
Like ravens through the streets, but come to me
Thinned to the vague!--Occurrences in Spain
Breed much disquiet with these other things.
Marmont's defeat at Salamanca field
Ploughed deep into men's brows. The cafes say
Your troops must clear from Spain.
NAPOLEON
We'll see to that!
I'll find a way to do a better thing;
Though I must have another army first--
Three hundred thousand quite. Fishes as good
Swim in the sea as have come out of it.
But to begin, we must make sure of France,
Disclose ourselves to the good folk of Paris
In daily outing as a family group,
The type and model of domestic bliss
(Which, by the way, we are). And I intend,
Also, to gild the dome of the Invalides
In best gold leaf, and on a novel pattern.
MARIE LOUISE
To gild the dome, dear? Why?
NAPOLEON
To give them something
To think about. They'll take to it like children,
And argue in the cafes right and left
On its artistic points.--So they'll forget
The woes of Moscow.
[A chamberlain-in-waiting announces supper. MARIE LOUISE and NAPOLEON go out. The room darkens and the scene closes.] _
Read next: Part 3: Act 2: Scene 1. The Plain Of Vitoria
Read previous: Part 3: Act 1: Scene 11. The Open Country Between Smorgoni And Wilna
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