THE DYNASTS ACT
MALMESBURYlwith hesitation)
I have glanced it through already—more than once
A copy having reached me, too, by now . . .
We are in the presence of a great disaster!
See here. It says that Mack, enjailed in Ulm
By Bonaparte—from four sides shutting round—
Capitulated, and with all his force
Laid down his arms before his conqueror!
PITT'S face changes. A silence. MULGRAVE
Outrageous! Ignominy unparalleled !
PITT
By God, my lord, these statements must be false! These foreign prints are trustless as Cheap Jack Dumfounding yokels at a country fair. I heed no word of it.—Impossible. What! Eighty thousand Austrians, nigh in touch With Russia's levies that Kutiizof leads, To lay down arms before the war's begun ? 'Tis too much!
MALMESBURY
But I fear it is too true! Note the assevered source of the report— One beyond thought of minters of mock tales. The writer adds that military wits Cry that the Little Corporal now makes war In a new way, using his soldiers' legs And not their arms, to bring him victory. Ha-ha! The quip must sting the Corporal's foes.
PITT (after a pause)
O vacillating Prussia! Had she moved, Had she but planted one foot firmly down,
102