THE DYNASTS ACT iv
SHERIDAN (singing sotto voce)
" Now foreign foemen die and fly, Dammy, well drink little England dry! "
The PRINCE reads the parts of the dispatch that describe the battle, amid intermittent cheers.
PRINCE OF WALES (continuing)
Such is the substance of the news received,
Which, after Wagram, strikes us genially
As sudden sunrise through befogged night shades!
SHERIDAN (privately)
Begad, that's good, sir! You are a poet born, while the rest of us are but made, and bad at that.
The health of the army in Spain is drunk with acclamations.
PRINCE OF WALES (continuing)
In this achievement we, alas! have lost Too many! Yet such blanks must ever be.— Mackenzie, Langworth, Beckett of the Guards, Have fallen of ours ; while of the enemy Generals Lapisse and Morlot are laid low.— Drink to their memories !
They drink in silence,
Other news, my friends, Received to-day is of like hopeful kind. The Great War-Expedition to the Scheldt (cheers) Which lately sailed, has found a favouring wind, And by this hour has touched its destined shores. The enterprise will soon be hot aglow, The invaders making first the Cadsand coast, And then descending swift on Walcheren Isle. But items of the next step are withheld Till later days, from obvious policy. (Cheers.)
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