THE DYNASTS Acx i
STRAGGLER II
Your Highness, I rode straight from Hassenhausen, Across the stream of battle as it boiled Betwixt that village and the banks of Saale, And such the turmoil that no man could speak On what the issue was!
HOHENLOHE (to Straggler III)
Can you add aught ?
STRAGGLER III Nothing that's clear, your Highness.
HOHENLOHE
Man, your mien
Is that of one who knows, but will not say. Detain him here.
STRAGGLER III
The blackness of my news, Your Highness, darks my sense! ... I saw this
much:
The Duke of Brunswick, spurring on to head His charging grenadiers, received in the face A grape-shot stroke that gouged out half of it, Proclaiming then and there his life fordone.
HOHENLOHE
Fallen ? Brunswick! Reed in council, rock in fire . . , Ah, this he looked for. Many a time of late Has he, by some strange gift of foreknowing, Declared his fate was hovering in such wise!
STRAGGLER III
His aged form being borne beyond the strife, The gallant Moellendorf, in flushed despair,
200