This alley, sire, will speed you to the gate; I shall be honoured much to point the way. NAPOLEON Then do, good friend. [To attendants] Bring on the horses there; I if arrive soonest I will wait for you. [The citizen shows NAPOLEON the way into the alley.] CITIZEN A garden's at the end, your Majesty, Through which you pass. Beyond there is a door That opens to the Elster bank unbalked. [NAPOLEON disappears into the alley. His attendants plunge amid the traffic with the horses, and thread their way down the street. Another citizen comes from the door of the inn and greets the first.] FIRST CITIZEN He's gone! SECOND CITIZEN I'll see if he succeed. [He re-enters the inn and soon appears at an upper window.] FIRST CITIZEN [from below] You see him? SECOND CITIZEN [gazing] He is already at the garden-end; Now he has passed out to the river-brim, And plods along it toward the Ranstadt Gate.... He finds no horses for him!... And the crowd Thrusts him about, none recognizing him. Ah--now the horses do arrive. He mounts, And hurries through the arch.... Again I see him-- Now he's upon the causeway in the marsh; Now rides across the bridge of Lindenau... And now, among the troops that choke the road I lose all sight of him. [A third citizen enters from the direction NAPOLEON has taken.] THIRD CITIZEN [breathlessly] I have seen him go! And while he passed the gate I stood i' the crowd So close I could have touched him! Few discerned In one so soiled the erst Arch-Emperor!-- In the lax mood of him who has lost all He stood inert there, idly singing thin: “Malbrough s'en va-t-en guerre!”--until his suite Came up with horses. SECOND CITIZEN [still gazing afar] Poniatowski's Poles Wearily walk the level causeway now; Also, meseems, Macdonald's corps and Reynier's. The frail-framed, new-built bridge has broken down: They've but the old to cross by. FIRST CITIZEN Feeble foresight! They should have had a dozen. SECOND CITIZEN All the corps-- Macdonald's, Poniatowski's, Reynier's--all-- Confusedly block the entrance to the bridge. And--verily Blücher's troops are through the town, And are debouching from the Ranstadt Gate Upon the Frenchmen's rear! [A thunderous report stops his words, echoing through the city from the direction in which he is gazing, and rattling all the windows. A hoarse chorus of cries becomes audible immediately after.] FIRST, THIRD, ETC., CITIZENS Ach, Heaven!--what's that? SECOND CITIZEN The bridge of Lindenau has been upblown! SEMICHORUS I OF THE PITIES [aerial music] There leaps to the sky and earthen wave, And stones, and men, as though Some rebel churchyard crew updrave Their sepulchres from below. SEMICHORUS II