SCENE vii PART SECOND
Bonaparte say3 the fault is not with him, And so saysl Alexander. But we know The* Austrian knot began their severance, 'And tlfat the Polish question largens it. Nothing but time is needed for the clash. And if so be that Wellington but keep His foot in the Peninsula awhile, Between the pestle and the mortar-stone Of Russia and of Spain, Napoleon's brayed.
SPIRIT OF RUMOUR (to the Spirit of the Years)
Permit me now to join them and confirm, By what I bring from far, their forecasting ?
SPIRIT OF THE YEARS Til go. Thou knowest not greatly more than they.
The SPIRIT OF THE YEARS enters the apartment in the shape of a pale, hollow-eyed gentleman wearing an embroidered suit. At the same time re-enter the REGENT, LORDS MOIRA, YARMOUTH, KEITH, LADY HERTFORD, SHERIDAN, the DUKE OF BEDFORD, with many more notables. The band changes into the popular dance, " Down with the French," and the characters aforesaid look on at the cancers.
SPIRIT OF THE YEARS (to Perceval)
Yes, sir; your text is true. In closest touch
W&h European courts and cabinets,
The imminence of dire and deadly war
Betwixt these east and western emperies
Is lipped by special pathways to mine ear.
You may not see the impact: ere it come
The tomb-worm may caress thee (Perceval shrinks) ; but
believe
Before five more have joined the shot ten years Whose useless films infest the foggy Past, Traced thick with teachings glimpsed unheedingly^
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