the
ARCHDUCHESS; and two ladies of the Austrian Court. Behind come
attendant carriages bearing servants and luggage.

The inmates remain for the most part silent, and appear to be in a
gloomy frame of mind. From time to time they glance at the moist
spring scenes which pass without in a perspective distorted by the
rain-drops that slide down the panes, and by the blurring effect
of the travellers' breathings. Of the four the one who keeps in
the best spirits is the ARCHDUCHESS, a fair, blue-eyed, full-
figured, round-lipped maiden.]

MARIA LOUISA

Whether the rain comes in or not I must open the window. Please
allow me. [She straightway opens it.]

EMPRESS [groaning]

Yes--open or shut it--I don't care. I am too ill to care for
anything! [The carriage jolts into a hole.] O woe! To think that
I am driven away from my husband's home in such a miserable
conveyance, along such a road, and in such weather as this. [Peal
of thunder.] There are his guns!

MARIA LOUISA

No, my dear one. It cannot be his guns. They told us when we
started that he was only half-way from Ratisbon hither, so that he
must be nearly a hundred miles off as yet; and a large army cannot
move fast.

EMPRESS

He should never have been let come nearer than Ratisbon! The victory
at Echmuhl was fatal for us. O Echmuhl, Echmuhl! I believe he will
overtake us before we get to Buda.

FIRST LADY-IN-WAITING

If so, your Majesty, shall we be claimed as prisoners and marched
to Paris?

EMPRESS

Undoubtedly. But I shouldn't much care. It would not be worse than
this.... I feel sodden all through me, and frowzy, and broken!
[She closes her eyes as if to doze.]

MARIA LOUISA

It is dreadful to see her suffer so! [Shutting the window.] If
the roads were not so bad I should not mind. I almost wish we had
stayed; though when he arrives the cannonade will be terrible.

FIRST LADY-IN-WAITING

I wonder if he will get into Vienna. Will his men knock down all
the houses, madam?

MARIA LOUISA

If he do get in, I am sure his triumph will not be for long. My
uncle the Archduke Charles is at his heels! I have been told many
important prophecies about Bonaparte's end, which is fast nearing,
it is asserted. It is he, they say, who is referred to in the
Apocalypse. He is doomed to die this year at Col