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 pa.s.s 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 pa.s.s 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 G.o.d"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 pa.s.sed 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 circ.u.mstance 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!