Deeming himself omnipotent With the Kings of the Christian continent, To warden the waves was his further bent. SEMICHORUS II But the weaving Will from eternity, [Hemming them in by a circling sea] Evolved the fleet of the Englishry. SEMICHORUS I The wane of his armaments ill-advised, At Trafalgar, to a force despised, Was a wound which never has cicatrized. SEMICHORUS II This, O this is the cramp that grips! And freezes the Emperor's finger-tips From signing a peace with the Land of Ships. CHORUS The Universal-empire plot Demands the rule of that wave-walled spot; And peace with England cometh not! THE SCENE REOPENS [A lurid gloom now envelops the Platz and city; and Bonaparte is heard as from the Palace: VOICE OF NAPOLEON These monstrous violations being in train Of law and national integrities By English arrogance in things marine, [Which dares to capture simple merchant-craft, In honest quest of harmless merchandize, For crime of kinship to a hostile power] Our vast, effectual, and majestic strokes In this unmatched campaign, enable me To bar from commerce with the Continent All keels of English frame. Hence I decree:-- SPIRIT OF RUMOUR This outlines his renowned “Berlin Decree.” Maybe he meditates its scheme in sleep, Or hints it to his suite, or syllables it While shaping, to his scribes. VOICE OF NAPOLEON All England's ports to suffer strict blockade; All traffic with that land to cease forthwith; All natives of her isles, wherever met, To be detained as windfalls of the war. All chattels of her make, material, mould, To be good prize wherever pounced upon: And never a bottom hailing from her shores But shall be barred from every haven here. This for her monstrous harms to human rights, And shameless sauciness to neighbour powers! SPIRIT SINISTER I spell herein that our excellently high-coloured drama is not played out yet! SPIRIT OF THE YEARS Nor will it be for many a month of moans, And summer shocks, and winter-whitened bones. [The night gets darker, and the Palace outlines are lost.] SCENE VII TILSIT AND THE RIVER NIEMEN [The scene is viewed from the windows of BONAPARTE'S temporary quarters. Some sub-officers of his suite are looking out upon it.