Minor Sovereigns and Princes of Europe. LEIPZIG CITIZENS. WOMEN CAROLINE, PRINCESS OF WALES. The Duchess of York. THE DUCHESS OF RICHMOND. The Duchess of Beaufort. LADY H. DARYMPLE Lady de Lancey. LADY CHARLOTTE CAMPBELL. Lady Anne Hamilton. A YOUNG LADY AND HER MOTHER. MRS. DALBIAC, a Colonel's wife. MRS. PRESCOTT, a Captain's wife. Other English ladies of note and rank. Madame Grassini and other Ladies of the Opera. Madame Angiolini, a dancer. VILLAGE WOMEN. SOLDIERS' WIVES AND SWEETHEARTS. A SOLDIER'S DAUGHTER. .......... THE EMPRESS MARIE LOUISE. The Empress of Austria. MARIA CAROLINA of Naples. Queen Hortense. Laetitia, Madame Bonaparte. The Princess Pauline. THE DUCHESS OF MONTEBELLO. THE COUNTESS OF MONTESQUIOU. THE COUNTESS OF BRIGNOLE. Other Ladies-in-Waiting on Marie Louise. THE EX-EMPRESS JOSEPHINE. LADIES-IN-WAITING on Josephine. Another French Lady. FRENCH MARKET-WOMEN. A SPANISH LADY. French and Spanish Women of pleasure. Continental Citizens' Wives. Camp-followers. ACT FIRST SCENE I THE BANKS OF THE NIEMEN, NEAR KOWNO [The foreground is a hillock on a broken upland, seen in evening twilight. On the left, further back, are the dusky forests of Wilkowsky; on the right is the vague shine of a large river. Emerging from the wood below the eminence appears a shadowy amorphous thing in motion, the central or Imperial column of NAPOLEON'S Grand Army for the invasion of Russia, comprising the corps of OUDINOT, NEY, and DAVOUT, with the Imperial Guard. This, with the right and left columns, makes up the host of nearly half a million, all starting on their march to Moscow. While the rearmost regiments are arriving, NAPOLEON rides ahead with GENERAL HAXEL and one or two others to reconnoitre the river. NAPOLEON'S horse stumbles and throws him. He picks himself up before he can be helped.] SPIRIT OF THE YEARS [to Napoleon] The portent is an ill one, Emperor; An ancient Roman would retire thereat! NAPOLEON Whose voice was that, jarring upon my thought So insolently? HAXEL AND OTHERS Sire, we spoke no word. NAPOLEON Then, whoso spake, such portents I defy! [He remounts. When the reconnoitrers again came back to the foreground of the scene the huge array of columns is standing quite still, in circles of companies, the captain of each in the middle with a paper in his hand. He reads from it a proclamation. They quiver emotionally, like leaves stirred by the wind. NAPOLEON and his staff reascend the hillock, and his own words as repeated to the ranks reach his ears, while he himself delivers the same address to those about him. NAPOLEON