The room is hardly in order when the EMPEROR enters, equipped for the intended journey; and with him, his left arm being round her waist, walks MARIE LOUISE in a dressing-gown. On his right arm he carries the KING OF ROME, and in his hand a bundle of papers. COUNT BERTRAND and a few members of the household follow. Reaching the middle of the room, he kisses the child and embraces the EMPRESS, who is tearful, the child weeping likewise. NAPOLEON takes the papers to the fire, thrusts them in, and watches them consume; then burns other bundles brought by his attendants.] NAPOLEON [gloomily] Better to treat them thus; since no one knows What comes, or into whose hands he may fall! MARIE LOUISE I have an apprehension-unexplained-- That I shall never see you any more! NAPOLEON Dismiss such fears. You may as well as not. As things are doomed to be they will be, dear. If shadows must come, let them come as though The sun were due and you were trusting to it: 'Twill teach the world it wrongs in bringing them. [They embrace finally. Exeunt NAPOLEON, etc. Afterwards MARIE LOUISE and the child.] SPIRIT OF THE YEARS Her instinct forwardly is keen in cast, And yet how limited. True it may be They never more will meet; although--to use The bounded prophecy I am dowered with-- The screen that will maintain their severance Would pass her own believing; proving it No gaol-grille, no scath of scorching war, But this persuasion, pressing on her pulse To breed aloofness and a mind averse; Until his image in her soul will shape Dwarfed as a far Colossus on a plain, Or figure-head that smalls upon the main. [The lights are extinguished and the hall is left in darkness.] SCENE III THE SAME. THE APARTMENTS OF THE EMPRESS [A March morning, verging on seven o'clock, throws its cheerless stare into the private drawing-room of MARIE LOUISE, animating the gilt furniture to only a feeble shine. Two chamberlains of the palace are there in waiting. They look from the windows and yawn.] FIRST CHAMBERLAIN Here's a watering for spring hopes! Who would have supposed when the Emperor left, and appointed her Regent, that she and the Regency too would have to scurry after in so short a time! SECOND CHAMBERLAIN Was a course decided on last night? FIRST CHAMBERLAIN Yes. The Privy Council sat till long past midnight, debating the burning question whether she and the child should remain or not. Some were one way, some the other. She settled the matter by saying she would go. SECOND CHAMBERLAIN I thought it might come to that. I heard the alarm beating all night to assemble the National Guard; and I am told that some volunteers have marched out to support Marmot. But they are a mere handful: what can they do?