Far better not disturb him; He'll soon enough awake! [They wait, muttering to one another in tones expressing weary indifference to issues. NAPOLEON sleeps heavily for a quarter of and hour, during which the moon rises over the field. At the end he starts up stares around him with astonishment.] NAPOLEON Am I awake? Or is this all a dream?--Ah, no. Too real!... And yet I have seen ere now a time like this. [The dictation is resumed. While it is in progress there can be heard between the words of NAPOLEON the persistent cries from the plain, rising and falling like those of a vast rookery far away, intermingled with the trampling of hoofs and the rumble of wheels. The bivouac fires of the engirdling enemy glow all around except for a small segment to the west--the track of retreat, still kept open by BERTRAND, and already taken by the baggage-waggons. The orders for its adoption by the entire army being completed, NAPOLEON bids adieu to his marshals, and rides with BERTHIER and CAULAINCOURT into Leipzig. Exeunt also the others.] SEMICHORUS I OF THE PITIES Now, as in the dream of one sick to death, There comes a narrowing room That pens him, body and limbs and breath, To wait a hideous doom, SEMICHORUS II So to Napoleon in the hush That holds the town and towers Through this dire night, a creeping crush Seems inborne with the hours. [The scene closes under a rimy mist, which makes a lurid cloud of the firelights.] SCENE V THE SAME. A STREET NEAR THE RANSTADT GATE [High old-fashioned houses form the street, along which, from the east of the city, is streaming a confusion of waggons, in hurried exit through the gate westward upon the highroad to Lindenau, Lutzen, and the Rhine. In front of an inn called the “Prussian Arms” are some attendants of NAPOLEON waiting with horses.] FIRST OFFICER He has just come from bidding the king and queen A long good-bye.... Is it that they will pay For his indulgence of their past ambition By sharing now his ruin? Much the king Did beg him to leave them to their lot, And shun the shame of capture needlessly. [He looks anxiously towards the door.] I would he'd haste! Each minute is of price. SECOND OFFICER The king will come to terms with the Allies. They will not hurt him. Though he has lost his all, His case is not like ours! [The cheers of the approaching enemy grow louder. NAPOLEON comes out from the “Prussian Arms,” haggard and in disordered attire. He is about to mount, but, perceiving the blocked state of the street, he hesitates.] NAPOLEON God, what a crowd! I shall more quickly gain the gate afoot. There is a byway somewhere, I suppose? [A citizen approaches out of the inn.] CITIZEN