THE DYNASTS ACT vi
WEIROTHER
Pah ! At this moment he retires apace. His fires are dark ; all sounds have ceased that way Save voice of owl or mongrel wintering there. But, were he nigh, these movements I detail Would knock the bottom from his enterprize.
KUTUZOF (rising)
Well, well. Now this being ordered, set it going. One here shall make fair copies of the notes, And send them round. Colonel von Toll I ask To translate part. — Generals, it grows full late, And half-a-dozen hours of needed sleep Will aid us more than maps. We now disperse, And luck attend us all. Good-night. 'Good-night.
The Generals and other officers go out severally.
Such plans are — paper ! Only to-morrow's light Reveals the true manoeuvre to my sight !
He flaps out with his hand all the candles but one or two, slowly walks outside the house, and listens. On the high ground in the direction of the French lines are heard shouts, and a wide illumination grows and strengthens ; but the hollows are still mantled in fog.
Are these the signs of regiments out of heart, And beating backward from an enemy !
[He remains pondering.
On the Pratzen heights immediately in front there begins a movement among the Russians, signifying that the plan which involves desertion of that vantage-ground is about to be put in force. Noises of drunken singing arise from the Russian lines at various points elsewhere.
KurtJZOF re-enters his quarters with a face of misgiving. The night shades involve the whole.1
d*K?tin? ^ scene> ^ writer> Hke others, has followed without question h fn? Langeron quoted by M. Thiers. But the singular soundness of
Sen Soml^^P^n m ^ consultatio^ « recorded, suggests that it may have been somewhat strengthened on paper at the expense of that of his companions
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