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The Dynasts: An Epic Drama Of The War With Napoleon, a play by Thomas Hardy |
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Part 3 - Act 7 - Scene 4. The Field Of Waterloo. The English Position |
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_ PART THIRD. ACT SEVENTH. SCENE IV. [WELLINGTON, on Copenhagen, is again under the elm-tree behind La Haye Sainte. Both horse and rider are covered with mud-splashes, but the weather having grown finer the DUKE has taken off his cloak. UXBRIDGE, FITZROY SOMERSET, CLINTON, ALTEN, COLVILLE, DE LANCEY, HERVEY, GORDON, and other of his staff officers and aides are near him; there being also present GENERALS MUFFLING, HUGEL, and ALAVA; also TYLER, PICTON'S aide. The roar of battle continues.]
I am grieved at losing Picton; more than grieved.
Before he left for this campaign he said, [Enter another aide-de-camp.]
Sir William Ponsonby, my lords, has fallen.
Ah--so it comes!
We have not seen him latterly, your Grace.
By God, I hope I haven't lost him, too?
Lord Hill's bay charger, being shot dead, your Grace,
Praise Fate for thinking better of that frown! [It is now nearing four o'clock. La Haye Sainte is devastated by the second attack of NEY. The farm has been enveloped by DONZELOT'S division, its garrison, the King's German Legion, having fought till all ammunition was exhausted. The gates are forced open, and in the retreat of the late defenders to the main Allied line they are nearly all cut or shot down.]
O Farm of sad vicissitudes and strange!
Despite their fierce advantage here, I swear
I had hoped that Blucher would be here ere this. [The staff turn their glasses on the French position.]
What movement can it be they contemplate?
A shock of cavalry on the hottest scale, [The Brunswickers advance to support MAITLAND'S Guards, and the MITCHELL and ADAM Brigades establish themselves above Hougomont, which is still in flames. NEY, in continuation of the plan of throwing his whole force on the British centre before the advent of the Prussians, now intensifies his onslaught with the cavalry. Terrific discharges of artillery initiate it to clear the ground. A heavy round- shot dashes through the tree over the heads of WELLINGTON and his generals, and boughs and leaves come flying down on them.]
Good practice that! I vow they did not fire [The order is carried out. NEY'S cavalry attack now matures. MILHAUD'S cuirassiers in twenty-four squadrons advance down the opposite decline, followed and supported by seven squadrons of chasseurs under DESNOETTES. They disappear for a minute in the hollow between the armies.]
Ah--now we have got their long-brewed plot explained!
That this was rigged for some picked time to-day
We have just heard that Ney embarked on it
It may be so: he's rash. And yet I doubt. [A dull reverberation of the tread of innumerable hoofs comes from behind the hill, and the foremost troops rise into view.]
Behold the gorgeous coming of those horse, [WELLINGTON directs his glass to an officer in a rich uniform with many decorations on his breast, who rides near the front of the approaching squadrons. The DUKE'S face expresses admiration.]
It's Marshal Ney himself who heads the charge.
And when that matchless chief
To his shame.
Be mute, and let spin on [As NEY'S cavalry ascends the English position the swish of the horses' breasts through the standing corn can be heard, and the reverberation of hoofs increases in strength. The English gunners stand with their portfires ready, which are seen glowing luridly in the daylight. There is comparative silence.]
Now, captains, are you loaded?
Yes, my lord.
Point carefully, and wait till their whole height Shows above the ridge. [When the squadrons rise in full view, within sixty yards of the cannon-mouths, the batteries fire, with a concussion that shakes the hill itself. Their shot punch holes through the front ranks of the cuirassiers, and horse and riders fall in heaps. But they are not stopped, hardly checked, galloping up to the mouths of the guns, passing between the pieces, and plunging among the Allied infantry behind the ridge, who, with the advance of the horsemen, have sprung up from their prone position and formed into squares.]
Ney guides the fore-front of the carabineers
Hero of heroes, too, [The cuirassiers and lancers surge round the English and Allied squares like waves, striking furiously on them and well-nigh breaking them. They stand in dogged silence amid the French cheers.]
Hard pounding this, my men! I truly trust
Hip-hip-hip-hurrah!
However firmly they may stand, in faith,
Good. It is time! I think he well be late, [MUFFLING goes. Enter an aide, breathless.]
Your Grace, the Ninety-fifth are patience-spent
Not yet. They shall have at 'em later on. [Exit aide. The Allied squares stand like little red-brick castles, independent of each other, and motionless except at the dry hurried command "Close up!" repeated every now and then as they are slowly thinned. On the other hand, under their firing and bayonets a disorder becomes apparent among the charging horse, on whose cuirasses the bullets snap like stones on window-panes. At this the Allied cavalry waiting in the rear advance; and by degrees they deliver the squares from their enemies, who are withdrawn to their own position to prepare for a still more strenuous assault. The point of view shifts.] _ |
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