O vacillating Prussia! Had she moved, Had she but planted one foot firmly down, All this had been averted.--I must go. 'Tis sure, 'tis sure, I labour but in vain! [MALMESBURY accompanies him to the door, and PITT walks away disquietedly towards Whitehall, the other two regarding him as he goes.] MULGRAVE Too swiftly he declines to feebleness, And these things well might shake a stouter frame! MALMESBURY Of late the burden of all Europe's cares, Of hiring and maintaining half her troops, His single pair of shoulders has upborne, Thanks to the obstinacy of the King.-- His thin, strained face, his ready irritation, Are ominous signs. He may not be for long. MULGRAVE He alters fast, indeed,--as do events. MALMESBURY His labour's lost; and all our money gone! It looks as if this doughty coalition On which we have lavished so much pay and pains Would end in wreck. MULGRAVE All is not over yet; The gathering Russian forces are unbroke. MALMESBURY Well; we shall see. Should Boney vanquish these, And silence all resistance on that side, His move will then be backward to Boulogne, And so upon us. MULGRAVE Nelson to our defence! MALMESBURY Ay; where is Nelson? Faith, by this time He may be sodden; churned in Biscay swirls; Or blown to polar bears by boreal gales; Or sleeping amorously in some calm cave On the Canaries' or Atlantis' shore Upon the bosom of his Dido dear, For all that we know! Never a sound of him Since passing Portland one September day-- To make for Cadiz; so 'twas then believed. MULGRAVE He's staunch. He's watching, or I am much deceived. [MULGRAVE departs. MALMESBURY goes within. The scene shuts.] ACT FIFTH SCENE I OFF CAPE TRAFALGAR [A bird's eye view of the sea discloses itself. It is daybreak, and the broad face of the ocean is fringed on its eastern edge by the Cape and the Spanish shore. On the rolling surface immediately beneath the eye, ranged more or less in two parallel lines running north and south, one group from the twain standing off somewhat, are the vessels of the combined French and Spanish navies, whose canvases, as the sun edges upward, shine in its rays like satin. On the western horizon two columns of ships appear in full sail, small as moths to the aerial vision. They are bearing down towards the combined squadrons.] RECORDING ANGEL I [intoning from his book]