SCENE vii PART SECOND
SEMICHORUS II
Friedland to these adds its tale of victims, its midnight
marches and hot collisions', Its plunge, at his word, on the enemy hooped by the
bended river and famed Mill stream, As he shatters the moves of the loose-knit nations to curb
his exploitful sou? s ambitions, And their great Confederacy dissolves like the diorama
of a dream.
DUMB SHOW (continues)
NAPOLEON and ALEXANDER emerge from their seclusion, and each is beheld talking to the suite of his companion apparently in flattering compliment An effusive parting, which signifies itself to be but temporary, is followed by their return to the river shores amid the •cheers of the spectators.
NAPOLEON and his marshals arrive at the door of his quarters and enter, and pass out of sight to other rooms than that of the foreground in which the observers are loitering. Dumb show ends.
A murmured conversation grows audible, carried on by two persons in the crowd beneath the open windows where the French officers are gathered. Their dress being the native one, and their tongue unfamiliar, they seem to the officers to be merely inhabitants gossiping; and their voices continue unheeded.
FIRST ENGLISH Spy1 (below) Did you get much for me to send on ?
SECOND ENGLISH Spy1
S have got hold of the substance of their parley. Surely no truce in European annals ever led to so odd an interview. They were like a belle and her beau, by God! But, queerly enough, one of Alexander's staff said to him as he reached the raft: " Sire, let me humbly ask you not to forget your father's fate!" Grim—Eh?
1 It has been conjectured of late that these adventurous spirits were Sir Robert Wilson and, possibly, Lord Hutchinson, present there at imminent risk of their lives.
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