SCENE ii PART FIRST
Coaxing the English after. Join him there
Gravina, Missiessy, and Ganteaume;
Which junction once effected all our keels—
Now nigh to sixty sail—regain the Manche,
While the pursuers linger in the West
At hopeless fault.—Having hoodwinked them thus,
Our boats skim over, disembark the army,
And in the twinkling of a patriot's eye
All London will be ours.
" In strictest secrecy carve this to .shape— Let never an admiral or captain scent Save Villeneuve and Ganteaume ; and pen each charge With your own quill. The surelier to outwit them I start for Italy; and there, as 'twere Engrossed in fetes and Coronation rites, Abide till, at the need, I reach Boulogne, And head the enterprize.—NAPOLEON."
DECR£S reflects, and turns to write.
SPIRIT or THE PITIES More ills ? How is Decres ordained to move ?
SPIRIT OF THE YEARS
He buckles to the work. First to Villeneuve,
His onetime comrade and his boyhoodJs friend,
Now lingering at Toulon, he jots swift lines,
Then duly to Ganteaume.—They are sealed forthwith,
And superscribed: " Break not till on the main''
Boisterous singing is heard in the street.
SPIRIT OF THE PITIES
/ hear confused and simmering sounds without, Like those which thrill the hives at even/all When swarming pends.
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