“To warrant such! Enough. Our comfort is, the crime of further strife lies not with France.” SPIRIT OF THE PITIES Alas! what prayer will save the struggling lands, Whose lives are ninepins to these bowling hands? CHORUS OF RUMOURS France secretly with--Russia plights her troth! Britain, that lonely isle, is slurred by both. SPIRIT SINISTER It is as neat as an uncovered check at chess! You may now mark Fox's blank countenance at finding himself thus rewarded for the good turn done to Bonaparte, and at the extraordinary conduct of his chilly friend the Muscovite. SPIRIT OF THE PITIES His hand so trembles it can scarce retain The quill wherewith he lets Lord Yarmouth know Reserve is no more needed! SPIRIT IRONIC Now enters another character of this remarkable little piece--Lord Lauderdale--and again the messengers fly! SPIRIT OF THE PITIES But what strange figure, pale and noiseless, comes, By us perceived, unrecognized by those, Into the very closet and retreat Of England's Minister? SPIRIT OF THE YEARS The Tipstaff he Of the Will, the Many-masked, my good friend Death.-- The statesman's feeble form you may perceive Now hustled into the Invisible, And the unfinished game of Dynasties Left to proceed without him! SPIRIT OF THE PITIES Here, then, ends My hope for Europe's reason-wrought repose! He was the friend of peace--did his great best To shed her balms upon humanity; And now he's gone! No substitute remains. SPIRIT IRONIC Ay; the remainder of the episode is frankly farcical. Negotiations are again affected; but finally you discern Lauderdale applying for passports; and the English Parliament declares to the nation that peace with France cannot be made. RUMOURS [concluding] I The smouldering dudgeon of the Prussian king, meanwhile, upon the horizon's rim afar II Bursts into running flame, that all his signs of friendliness were met by moves for war. I Attend and hear, for hear ye faintly may, his manifesto made at Erfurt town, II That to arms only dares he now confide the safety and the honour of his crown! SPIRIT OF THE YEARS Draw down the curtain, then, and overscreen This too-protracted verbal fencing-scene; And let us turn to clanging foot and horse, Ordnance, and all the enginry of Force! [Clouds close over the perspective.] SCENE III THE STREETS OF BERLIN [It is afternoon, and the thoroughfares are crowded with citizens in an excited and anxious mood. A central path is left open for some expected arrival.