THE DYNASTS ACT rv
SCENE III
ULM. WITHIN THE CITY
The interior of the Austrian headquarters on the following morning. A tempest raging without.
GENERAL MACK, haggard and anxious, the ARCHDUKE FERDINAND, PRINCE SCHWARZENBERG, GENERAL JELLACHICH, GENERALS RIESC, BIBERACH, and other field officers discovered, seated at a table with a map spread out before them. A wood fire blazes between tall andirons in a yawning fireplace, At every more than usually boisterous gust of wind the smoke flaps into the room.'
MACK
The accursed cunning of our adversary
Confounds all codes of honourable war,
Which ever have held as granted that the track
Of armies bearing hither from the Rhine—
Whether in peace or strenuous invasion—
Should pierce the Schwarzwald, and through Mem-
mingen,
And meet us in our front. But he must wind And corkscrew meanly round, where foot of man Can scarce find pathway, stealing up to us Thiefwise, by our back door! Nevertheless, If English war-fleets be abreast Boulogne, As these deserters tell, and ripe to land there, It destines Bonaparte to pack him back Across the Rhine again. WeVe but to wait, And see him go.
ARCHDUKE But who shall say if these bright tales be true ?
MACK
Even then, small matter, your Imperial Highness ; The Russians near us daily, and must soon—
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