eturns with a map, which he spreads out on the table. WELLINGTON
scans it closely.]

Napoleon has befooled me,
By God he has,--gained four-and-twenty hours'
Good march upon me!

RICHMOND

What do you mean to do?

WELLINGTON

I have bidden the army concentrate in strength
At Quatre-Bras. But we shan't stop him there;
So I must fight him HERE. [He marks Waterloo with his thumbnail.]
Well, now I have sped,
All necessary orders I may sup,
And then must say good-bye. [To Brunswick.] This very day
There will be fighting, Duke. You are fit to start?

BRUNSWICK [coming forward]

I leave almost this moment.--Yes, your Grace--
And I sheath not my sword till I have avenged
My father's death. I have sworn it!

WELLINGTON

My good friend,
Something too solemn knells beneath your words.
Take cheerful views of the affair in hand,
And fall to't with _sang froid_!

BRUNSWICK

But I have sworn!
Adieu. The rendezvous is Quatre-Bras?

WELLINGTON

Just so. The order is unchanged. Adieu;
But only till a later hour to-day;
I see it is one o'clock.

[WELLINGTON and RICHMOND go out of the alcove and join the
hostess, BRUNSWICK'S black figure being left there alone. He
bends over the map for a few seconds.]

SPIRIT OF THE YEARS

O Brunswick, Duke of Deathwounds! Even as he
For whom thou wear'st that filial weedery
Was waylaid by my tipstaff nine years since,
So thou this day shalt feel his fendless tap,
And join thy sire!

BRUNSWICK [starting up]

I am stirred by inner words,
As 'twere my father's angel calling me,--
That prelude to our death my lineage know!

[He stands in a reverie for a moment; then, bidding adieu to the
DUCHESS OF RICHMOND and her daughter, goes slowly out of the
ballroom by a side-door.]

DUCHESS

The Duke of Brunswick bore him gravely here.
His sable shape has stuck me all the eve
As one of those romantic presences
We hear of--seldom see.

WELLINGTON [phlegmatically]

Romantic,--well,
It may be so. Times often, ever since
The Late Duke's death, his mood has tinged him thus.
He is of those brave men who danger see,
And seeing front it,--not of those, less brave
But counted more, who face it sightlessly.

YOUNG OFFICER [to part