edestrians, haze the atmosphere.

SEMICHORUS II

Men, women, and their children fly,
And when the English over-high
Direct their death-bolts, on this billowy throng
Alight the too far-ranging balls,
Wringing out piteous shrieks and calls
From the pale mob, in monotones loud and long.

SEMICHORUS I

To leftward of the distant din
Reille meantime has been driven in
By Graham's measure overmastering might.--
Henceforward, masses of the foe
Withdraw, and, firing as they go,
Pass rightwise from the cockpit out of sight.

CHORUS

The sunset slants an ochreous shine
Upon the English knapsacked line,
Whose glistering bayonets incline
As bends the hot pursuit across the plain;
And tardily behind them goes
Too many a mournful load of those
Found wound-weak; while with stealthy crawl,
As silence wraps the rear of all,
Cloaked creatures of the starlight strip the slain.

SCENE III

THE SAME. THE ROAD FROM THE TOWN

[With the going down of the sun the English army finds itself in
complete possession of the mass of waggons and carriages distantly
beheld from the rear--laden with pictures, treasure, flour,
vegetables, furniture, finery, parrots, monkeys, and women--most
of the male sojourners in the town having taken to their heels
and disappeared across the fields.

The road is choked with these vehicles, the women they carry
including wives, mistresses, actresses, dancers, nuns, and
prostitutes, which struggle through droves of oxen, sheep, goats,
horses, asses, and mules-- a Noah's-ark of living creatures in
one vast procession.

There enters rapidly in front of this throng a carriage containing
KING JOSEPH BONAPARTE and an attendant, followed by another vehicle
with luggage.]

JOSEPH [inside carriage]

The bare unblinking truth hereon is this:
The Englishry are a pursuing army,
And we a flying brothel! See our men--
They leave their guns to save their mistresses!

[The carriage is fired upon from outside the scene. The KING leaps
from the vehicle and mounts a horse.

Enter at full gallop from the left CAPTAIN WYNDHAM and a detachment
of the Tenth Hussars in chase of the King's carr