To leftward of the distant din Reille meantime has been driven in By Graham's measure overmastering might.-- Henceforward, masses of the foe Withdraw, and, firing as they go, Pass rightwise from the cockpit out of sight. CHORUS The sunset slants an ochreous shine Upon the English knapsacked line, Whose glistering bayonets incline As bends the hot pursuit across the plain; And tardily behind them goes Too many a mournful load of those Found wound-weak; while with stealthy crawl, As silence wraps the rear of all, Cloaked creatures of the starlight strip the slain. SCENE III THE SAME. THE ROAD FROM THE TOWN [With the going down of the sun the English army finds itself in complete possession of the mass of waggons and carriages distantly beheld from the rear--laden with pictures, treasure, flour, vegetables, furniture, finery, parrots, monkeys, and women--most of the male sojourners in the town having taken to their heels and disappeared across the fields. The road is choked with these vehicles, the women they carry including wives, mistresses, actresses, dancers, nuns, and prostitutes, which struggle through droves of oxen, sheep, goats, horses, asses, and mules-- a Noah's-ark of living creatures in one vast procession. There enters rapidly in front of this throng a carriage containing KING JOSEPH BONAPARTE and an attendant, followed by another vehicle with luggage.] JOSEPH [inside carriage] The bare unblinking truth hereon is this: The Englishry are a pursuing army, And we a flying brothel! See our men-- They leave their guns to save their mistresses! [The carriage is fired upon from outside the scene. The KING leaps from the vehicle and mounts a horse. Enter at full gallop from the left CAPTAIN WYNDHAM and a detachment of the Tenth Hussars in chase of the King's carriage; and from the right a troop of French dragoons, who engage with the hussars and hinder pursuit. Exit KING JOSEPH on horseback; afterwards the hussars and dragoons go out fighting. The British infantry enter irregularly, led by a sergeant of the Eighty-seventh, mockingly carrying MARSHAL JOURDAN'S baton. The crowd recedes. The soldiers ransack the King's carriages, cut from their frames canvases by Murillo, Velasquez, and Zurbaran, and use them as package-wrappers, throwing the papers and archives into the road. They next go to a waggon in the background, which contains a large chest. Some of the soldiers burst it with a crash. It is full of money, which rolls into the road. The soldiers begin scrambling, but are restored to order; and they march on.