SCENE v PART FIRST
SEMICHORUS I OF THE YEARS (aerial music)
We carry out ? Nay, but should we Ordain what bloodshed is to be !
SEMICHORUS II
The Immanent, that urgeth all, Rules what may or may not befall!
SEMICHORUS I
Ere systemed suns were globed and lit The slaughters of the race were writ,
SEMICHORUS II
And wasting wars, by land and sea, Fixed, like all else, immutably !
SPIRIT SINISTER
Well; be it so. My argument is that War makes rattling good history ; but Peace is poor reading. So I back Bonaparte for the reason that he will give pleasure to posterity.
SPIRIT OF THE PITIES
Gross hypocrite /
CHORUS OF THE YEARS
We comprehend him not.
The day breaks over the heathery upland, on which the beacon is still burning. The morning reveals the white surface of a highway which, coming from the royal watering-place beyond the hills, stretches towards the outskirts of the heath and passes away eastward.
DUMB SHOW
Moving figures and vehicles dot the surface of the road, all progressing in one direction, away from the coast. In the foreground the shapes appear as those of civilians, mostly on foot, but many in gigs and tradesmen's carts and on horseback. When they reach an