SCENE TIII PART SECOND
SPIRIT OF THE PITIES
to see the thin and headless ghost &f the yet earlier Austrian, here, too, queen, Walking beside the bride, with frail attempts To pluck her by the arm !
SPIRIT OF THE YEARS
Nay, think not so.
No trump unseals earths sepulchres to-day : We are the only phantoms now abroad On this mud-moulded ball! Through sixteen years She has decayed in a back-garden yonder, Dust all the showance time retains of her, Senseless of hustlings in her former house, Lost to all count of crowns and bridalry— Even of her Austrian blood. No : what thou seest Springs of thy quavering fancy, stirred to dreams By yon tart phantoms phrase.
MARIE LOUISE (sadly to Napol6on)
I know not why,
I love not this day's doings half so well As our quaint meeting-time at Compiegne. ^V clammy air creeps round me, as from vaults Peopled with looming spectres, chilling me And angering you withal !
NAPOLEON
O, it is nought
To trouble you : merely, my cherished one, Those devils of Italian Cardinals ! — Now I'll be bright as ever — you must, too.
MARIE LOUISE I'll try.
Reaching the entrance to the Salon-Carre amid strains of the EMPEROR and EMPRESS are received and incensed by the1*
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