This vicious cry against the Emperor?
He's outlawed--to be caught alive or dead,
Like any noisome beast!

MARIA CAROLINA

Nought have I heard,
My child. But these vile tricks, to pluck you from
Your nuptial plightage and your rightful glory
Make me belch oaths!--You shall not join your husband
Do they assert? My God, I know one thing,
Outlawed or no, I'd knot my sheets forthwith,
Were I but you, and steal to him in disguise,
Let come what would come! Marriage is for life.

MARIE LOUISE

Mostly; not always: not with Josephine;
And, maybe, not with me. But, that apart,
I could do nothing so outrageous.
Too many things, dear grand-dame, you forget.
A puppet I, by force inflexible,
Was bid to wed Napoleon at a nod,--
The man acclaimed to me from cradle-days
As the incarnate of all evil things,
The Antichrist himself.--I kissed the cup,
Gulped down the inevitable, and married him;
But none the less I saw myself therein
The lamb whose innocent flesh was dressed to grace
The altar of dynastic ritual!--
Hence Elba flung no duty-call to me,
Neither does Paris now.

MARIA CAROLINA

I do perceive
They have worked on you to much effect already!
Go, join your Count; he waits you, dear.--Well, well;
The way the wind blows needs no cock to tell!

[Exeunt severally QUEEN MARIA CAROLINA and MARIE LOUISE with
NEIPPERG. The sun sets over the gardens and the scene fades.]

SCENE V

LONDON. THE OLD HOUSE OF COMMONS

[The interior of the Chamber appears as in Scene III., Act I.,
Part I., except that the windows are not open and the trees
without are not yet green.

Among the Members discovered in their places are, of ministers
and their supporters, LORD CASTLEREAGH the Foreign Secretary,
VANSITTART Chancellor of the Exchequer, BATHURST, PALMERSTON
the War Secretary, ROSE, PONSONBY, ARBUTHNOT, LUSHINGTON, GARROW
the Attorney General, SHEPHERD, LONG, PLUNKETT, BANKES; and among
those of the Opposition SIR FRANCIS BURDETT, WHITBREAD, TIERNEY,
ABERCROMBY, DUNDAS, BRAND, DUNCANNON, LAMBTON, HEATHCOTE, SIR
SAMUEL ROMILLY, G. WALPOLE, RIDLEY, OSBORNE, and HORNER.

Much interest in the debate is apparent, and the galleries are
full. LORD CASTLEREAGH rises.]

CASTLEREAGH

At never a moment in my stressed career,
Amid no memory-moving urgencies,
Have