THE DYNASTS ACT i
From the Emperor As I expected!
A courier is admitted, who delivers a dispatch.
COURIER
Sir, for your own hand And yours alone.
DECR&S
Thanks. Be in waiting near. [The courier withdraws.
DscRfes reads:
*' I am resolved that no wild dream of Ind, And what we there might win ; or of the West, And bold re-conquest there of Surinam And other Dutch retreats along those coasts, Or British islands nigh, shall draw me now From piercing into England through Boulogne As lined in my first plan. If I do strike, I strike effectively ; to forge which feat There's but one way—planting a mortal wound In England's heart—the very English land— Whose insolent and cynical reply To my well-pleaded plaint on breach of faith Concerning Malta, as at Amiens pledged, Has lighted up anew such brands of ire As may bescorch the world.—Now to the case : Our naval forces can be all amassed Without the foe's foreknowledge or surmise, By these rules following; to whose text I ask Your gravest application; and, when conned, That steadfastly you stand by word and word, Making no question of one jot therein.
" First, then, let Villeneuve wait a favouring wind For process westward swift to Martinique,
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