SCENE iv PART FIRST
LANGERON You cannot see them, be they here or no !
BUXHOVDEN
I only wait Prschebiszewsky's nearing corps To join Dokhtorof s to them. Here they come.
SOULT, supported by BERNADOTTE and OUDINOT, having cleared and secured the Pratzen height, his battalions are perceived descending from it on this side, behind DoKHT6ROF's division, so placing the latter between themselves and the pools.
LANGERON
You cannot tell the Frenchmen from ourselves ! These are the victors. — Ah — Dokhtorof — lost !
troops are seen to be retreating towards the water. The watchers stand in painful tenseness.
BUXHOVDEN
Dokht6rof tell to save him as he may ! We, Count, must gather up our shaken flesh And hurry them by the road through Austerlitz.
BuxHC)VDENJs regiments and the remains of LANGERON'S are rallied and collected, and they retreat by way of the hamlet of Aujezd. As they go over the summit of a hill BUXHOVDEN looks back. LANGERON'S columns, which were behind his own, have been cut off, by VANDAMME'S division coming down from the Pratzen plateau. This and some detachments from DOTCHTOROF'S column rush towards the Satschan lake and endeavour to cross it on the ice. It cracks beneath their weight At the same moment NAPOLEON and his brilliant staff appear on the top of the Pratzen.
The Emperor watches the scene with a vulpine smile; and directs a battery near at hand to fire down upon the ice on which the Russians are crossing. A ghastly crash and splashing follows the discharge, the shining surface breaking into pieces like a mirror, which fly in all directions. Two thousand fugitives are engulfed, and their groans of despair reach the ears of the watchers like ironical huzzas,
A general flight of the Russian army from wing -to wing is now disclosed, involving in its current the EMPEROR ALEXANDER and the
153