[MURAT and the marshal are silent, and look at each other with troubled countenances. NAPOLEON goes to the table at the back, and bends over the charts with CAULAINCOURT, dictating desultory notes to the secretaries.] SPIRIT IRONIC A seer might say This savours of a sad Last-Supper talk 'Twixt his disciples and this Christ of war! [Enter an attendant.] ATTENDANT The Saxon King and Queen and the Princess Enter the city gates, your Majesty. They seek the shelter of the civic walls Against the risk of capture by Allies. NAPOLEON Ah, so? My friend Augustus, is he near? I will be prompt to meet him when he comes, And safely quarter him. [He returns to the map.] [An interval. The clock strikes midnight. The EMPEROR rises abruptly, sighs, and comes forward.] I now retire, Comrades. Good-night, good-night. Remember well All must prepare to grip with gory death In the now voidless battle. It will be A great one and a critical; one, in brief, That will seal France's fate, and yours, and mine! ALL [fervidly] We'll do our utmost, by the Holy Heaven! NAPOLEON Ah--what was that? [He pulls back the window-curtain.] SEVERAL It is our enemies, Whose southern hosts are signalling to their north. [A white rocket is beheld high in the air. It is followed by a second, and a third. There is a pause, during which NAPOLEON and the rest wait motionless. In a minute or two, from the opposite side of the city, three coloured rockets are sent up, in evident answer to the three white ones. NAPOLEON muses, and lets the curtain drop.] NAPOLEON Yes, Schwarzenberg to Blücher.... It must be To show that they are ready. So are we! [He goes out without saying more. The marshals and other officers withdraw. The room darkens and ends the scene.] SCENE II THE SAME. THE CITY AND THE BATTLEFIELD [Leipzig is viewed in aerial perspective from a position above the south suburbs, and reveals itself as standing in a plain, with rivers and marshes on the west, north, and south of it, and higher ground to the east and south-east. At this date it is somewhat in she shape of the letter D, the straight part of which is the river Pleisse. Except as to this side it is surrounded by armies--the inner horseshoe of them being the French defending the city; the outer horseshoe being the Allies about to attack it.