[When they reach the summit they are over the fog: and suddenly the sun breaks forth to the left of Pratzen, illuminating the ash-hued face of NAPOLEON and the faces of those around him. All eyes are turned first to the sun, and thence to look for the dense masses of men that had occupied the upland the night before.] MURAT I see them not. The plateau seems deserted! NAPOLEON Gone; verily!--Ah, how much will you bid, An hour hence, for the coign abandoned now! The battle's ours.--It was, then, their rash march Downwards to Tilnitz and the Goldbach swamps Before dawn, that we heard.--No hurry, Lannes! Enjoy this sun, that rests its chubby jowl Upon the plain, and thrusts its bristling beard Across the lowlands' fleecy counterpane, Peering beneath our broadest hat-brims' shade.... Soult, how long hence to win the Pratzen top? SOULT Some twenty minutes or less, your Majesty: Our troops down there, still mantled by the mist, Are half upon the way. NAPOLEON Good! Set forthwith Vandamme and Saint Hilaire to mount the slopes--- [Firing begins in the marsh to the right by Tilnitz and the pools, though the thick air yet hides the operations.] O, there you are, blind boozy Buxhovden! Achieve your worst. Davout will hold you firm. [The head of and aide-de-camp rises through the fog on that side, and he hastens up to NAPOLEON and his companions, to whom the officer announces what has happened. DAVOUT rides off, disappearing legs first into the white stratum that covers the attack.] Lannes and Murat, you have concern enough Here on the left, with Prince Bagration And all the Austro-Russian cavalry. Haste off. The victory promising to-day Will, like a thunder-clap, conclude the war! [The Marshals with their aides gallop away towards their respective divisions. Soon the two divisions under SOULT are seen ascending in close column the inclines of the Pratzen height. Thereupon the heads of the Russian centre columns disclose themselves, breaking the sky-line of the summit from the other side, in a desperate attempt to regain the position vacated by the Russian left. A fierce struggle develops there between SOULT'S divisions and these, who, despite their tardy attempt to recover the lost post of dominance, are pressed by the French off the slopes into the lowland.] SEMICHORUS I OF THE PITIES [aerial music] O Great Necessitator, heed us now! If it indeed must be That this day Austria smoke with slaughtery, Quicken the issue as Thou knowest how; And dull their lodgment in a flesh that galls! SEMICHORUS II If it be in the future human story To lift this man to yet intenser glory, Let the exploit be done With the least sting, or none, To those, his kind, at whose expense such pitch is won!