emperature
To pause inactive while await me means
Of desperate cure for these so desperate ills!

[The ARCHDUKE FERDINAND goes out. A troubled, silence follows,
during which the gusts call into the chimney, and raindrops spit
on the fire.]

SCHWARZENBERG

The Archduke bears him shrewdly in this course.
We may as well look matters in the face,
And that we are cooped and cornered is most clear;
Clear it is, too, that but a miracle
Can work to loose us! I have stoutly held
That this man's three years' ostentatious scheme
To fling his army on the tempting shores
Of our Allies the English was a--well--
Scarce other than a trick of thimble-rig
To still us into false security.

JELLACHICH

Well, I know nothing. None needs list to me,
But, on the whole, to southward seems the course
For lunging, all in force, immediately.

[Another pause.]

SPIRIT SINISTER

The Will throws Mack again into agitation:
Ho-ho--what he'll do now!

SPIRIT OF THE PITIES

Nay, hard one, nay;
The clouds weep for him!

SPIRIT SINISTER

If he must;
And it's good antic at a vacant time!

[MACK goes restlessly to the door, and is heard pacing about
the vestibule, and questioning the aides and other officers
gathered there.]

A GENERAL

He wavers like this smoke-wreath that inclines
Or north, or south, as the storm-currents rule!

MACK [returning]

Bring that deserter hither once again.

[A French soldier is brought in, blindfolded and guarded. The
bandage is removed.]

Well, tell us what he says.

AN OFFICER [after speaking to the prisoner in French]

He still repeats
That the whole body of the British strength
Is even now descending on Boulogne,
And that self-preservation must, if need,
Clear us from Bonaparte ere many days,
Who momently is moving.

MACK

Still retain him.

[He walks to the fire, and stands looking into it. The soldier
is taken out.]

JELLACHICH [bending over the map in argument with RIESC]

I much prefer our self-won information;
And if we have Marshal Soult at Landsberg here,
[Which seems to be truth, despite this man,]
And Dupont hard upon us at Albeck,
With Ney not far from Gunzburg; somewhere here,
Or further down the river, lurking Lannes,
Our game's to dra