He should never have been let come nearer than Ratisbon! The victory at Echmuhl was fatal for us. O Echmuhl, Echmuhl! I believe he will overtake us before we get to Buda. FIRST LADY-IN-WAITING If so, your Majesty, shall we be claimed as prisoners and marched to Paris? EMPRESS Undoubtedly. But I shouldn't much care. It would not be worse than this.... I feel sodden all through me, and frowzy, and broken! [She closes her eyes as if to doze.] MARIA LOUISA It is dreadful to see her suffer so! [Shutting the window.] If the roads were not so bad I should not mind. I almost wish we had stayed; though when he arrives the cannonade will be terrible. FIRST LADY-IN-WAITING I wonder if he will get into Vienna. Will his men knock down all the houses, madam? MARIA LOUISA If he do get in, I am sure his triumph will not be for long. My uncle the Archduke Charles is at his heels! I have been told many important prophecies about Bonaparte's end, which is fast nearing, it is asserted. It is he, they say, who is referred to in the Apocalypse. He is doomed to die this year at Cologne, in an inn called “The Red Crab.” I don't attach too much importance to all these predictions, but O, how glad I should be to see them come true! SECOND LADY-IN-WAITING So should we all, madam. What would become of his divorce-scheme then? MARIA LOUISA Perhaps there is nothing in that report. One can hardly believe such gossip. SECOND LADY-IN-WAITING But they say, your Imperial Highness, that he certainly has decided to sacrifice the Empress Josephine, and that at the meeting last October with the Emperor Alexander at Erfurt, it was even settled that he should marry as his second wife the Grand-Duchess Anne. MARIA LOUISA I am sure that the Empress her mother will never allow one of the house of Romanoff to marry with a bourgeois Corsican. I wouldn't if I were she! FIRST LADY-IN-WAITING Perhaps, your Highness, they are not so particular in Russia, where they are rather new themselves, as we in Austria, with your ancient dynasty, are in such matters. MARIA LOUISA Perhaps not. Though the Empress-mother is a pompous old thing, as I have been told by Prince Schwarzenberg, who was negotiating there last winter. My father says it would be a dreadful misfortune for our country if they were to marry. Though if we are to be exiled I don't see how anything of that sort can matter much.... I hope my father is safe! [An officer of the escort rides up to the carriage window, which is opened.] EMPRESS [unclosing her eyes] Any more misfortunes? OFFICER