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Faustine (to Marie) My child, seat yourself by me. (To Lothundiaz) Be seated.
Lothundiaz You are very kind, senora; but permit me to go and see that famous gallery, which is spoken of throughout Catalonia.
(Faustine bows assent and Lothundiaz leaves the room.)
SCENE FOURTEENTH
Faustine and Marie.
Faustine My child, I love you and have learned of the position in which you stand. Your father wishes you to marry my cousin Sarpi, while you are in love with Fontanares.
Marie And have been for five years, senora.
Faustine At sixteen one knows not what it is to love.
Marie What does that matter, if I love him?
Faustine With us, sweet girl, love is but self-devotion.
Marie I will devote myself to him, senora.
Faustine What! Would you give him up if that were for his interest?
Marie That would be to die, but yet my life is wholly his.
Faustine (aside as she rises from her seat) What strength in weakness and innocence! (Aloud) You have never left your father's house, you know nothing of the world nor of its hardships, which are terrible! A man often dies from having met with a woman who loves him too much, or one who loves him not at all; Fontanares may find himself in this situation. He has powerful enemies; his glory, which is all he lives for, is in their hands; you may disarm them.
Marie What must I do?
Faustine By marrying Sarpi, you will assure the triumph of your dear Fontanares; but no woman would counsel such a sacrifice; it must come, it will come from you. At first you must dissemble. Leave Barcelona for a time. Retire to a convent.
Marie And never see him again? Ah! If you knew—he passes every day at a certain hour under my windows, and that hour is all the day to me.
Faustine (aside) She stabs me to the heart! Oh! She shall be Countess Sarpi.
SCENE FIFTEENTH
The same persons and Fontanares.
Fontanares (to Faustine) Senora. (He kisses her hand.)
Marie (aside) What a pang I feel!
Fontanares Shall I live long enough to testify my gratitude to you? If I achieve anything, if I make a name, if I attain to happiness, it will be through you.
Faustine Why that is nothing! I merely tried to smooth the way for you. I feel such pity for men of talent in misfortune that you may ever count upon my help. Yes, I would go so far as to be the mere stepping-stone over which you might climb to your crown.
Marie (drawing Fontanares by his mantle) But I am here, I (he turns around), and you never saw me.
Fontanares Marie! I have not spoken to you for ten days! (To Faustine) Oh! senora, what an angel you are!
Marie (to Fontanares) Rather say a demon. (Aloud) The senora was advising me to retire to a convent.
Fontanares She!
Marie Yes.
Faustine Children that you are, that course were best.
Fontanares I trip up, it seems, on one snare after another, and kindness ever conceals a pitfall. (To Marie) But tell me who brought you here?
Marie My father!
Fontanares He! Is he blind? You, Marie, in this house!
Faustine Sir!
Fontanares To a convent indeed, that she might dominate her spirit, and torture her soul!
SCENE SIXTEENTH
The same persons and Lothundiaz.
Fontanares And it was you who brought this angel of purity to the house of a woman for whom Don Fregose is wasting his fortune and who accepts from him the most extravagant gifts without marrying him?
Faustine Sir!
Fontanares You came here, senora, widow of a cadet of the house of Brancadori, to whom you sacrificed the small fortune your father gave you; but here you have utterly changed—
Faustine What right have you to judge my actions?
Lothundiaz Keep silence, sir; the senora is a high born lady, who has doubled the value of my palace.
Fontanares She! Why she is a—
Faustine Silence!
Lothundiaz My daughter, this is your man of genius! Extreme in everything, but leaning rather to madness than good sense. Senor Mechination, the senora is the cousin and protector of Sarpi.
Fontanares Well, take your daughter away from the house of the Marchioness of Mondejar of Catalonia.
(Exeunt Lothundiaz and Marie.)
SCENE SEVENTEENTH
Faustine and Fontanares.
Fontanares So, senora, your generosity was merely a trick to serve the interests of Sarpi! We are quits then! And so farewell. (Exit.)
SCENE EIGHTEENTH
Faustine and Paquita.
Faustine How handsome he looked in his rage, Paquita!
Paquita Ah! senora, what will become of you if you love him in this way?
Faustine My child, I feel that I have never loved before, and in an instant I have been transformed as by a stroke of lightning. In one moment I have loved for all lost time! Perhaps I have set my foot upon the path which leads to an abyss. Send one of my servants to the house of Mathieu Magis, the Lombard.
(Exit Paquita.)
SCENE NINETEENTH
Faustine (alone) I already love him too much to trust my vengeance to the stiletto of Monipodio, for he has treated me with such contempt that I must bring him to believe that the greatest honor he could win would be to have me for his wife! I wish to see him groveling at my feet, or I will perish in the attempt to bring him there.
SCENE TWENTIETH
Faustine and Fregose.
Fregose What is this? I thought to find Fontanares here, happy in the possession of the ship you gained for him.
Faustine You have given it to him then, and I suppose hate him no longer. I thought the sacrifice would be above your strength, and wished to know if hate were stronger than obedience.
Fregose Ah! senora—
Faustine Could you take it back again?
Fregose Whether obedient or disobedient, I cannot displease you. Good heavens! Take back the ship! Why, it is crowded with artisans who are its masters.
Faustine You never know what I want, and what I do not want.
Fregose His death?
Faustine No, but his disgrace.
Fregose And in that I shall avenge myself for a whole month of anguish.
Faustine Take care to keep your hands off what is my prey. And first of all, Don Fregose, take back your pictures from my gallery. (Don Fregose shows astonishment). It is my will.
Fregose You refuse then to be marchioness of—
Faustine They shall be burned upon the public square or sold, and the price given to the poor.
Fregose Tell me, what is your reason for this?
Faustine I thirst for honor and you have ruined mine.
Fregose Accept my name and all will be well.
Faustine Leave me, I pray you.
Fregose The more power you have, the more you abuse it. (Exit.)
SCENE TWENTY-FIRST
Faustine (alone) So, so! I am nothing then but the viceroy's mistress! He might as well have said as much! But with the aid of Avaloros and Sarpi I intend to have a pretty revenge—one worthy of old Venice.
SCENE TWENTY-SECOND
Faustine and Mathieu Magis.
Mathieu Magis I am told the senora has need of my poor services.
Faustine Pray tell me, who are you?
Mathieu Magis Mathieu Magis, a poor Lombard of Milan, at your service.
Faustine You lend money?
Mathieu Magis I lend it on good security—diamonds or gold—a very poor business. Our losses are overwhelming, senora. And at present money seems actually to be asleep. The raising of maravedis is the hardest of farm-labor. One unfortunate deal carries off the profits of ten lucky strokes, for we risk a thousand doubloons in the hands of a prodigal for three hundred doubloons profit. The world is very unjust to us.
Faustine Are you a Jew?
Mathieu Magis In what sense do you mean?
Faustine In religion.
Mathieu Magis I am a Lombard and a Catholic, senora.
Faustine You disappoint me.
Mathieu Magis Senora would have wished—
Faustine I would have wished that you were in the clutches of the Inquisition.
Mathieu Magis Why so?
Faustine That I might be certain of your fidelity.
Mathieu Magis I keep many secrets in my strong box, senora.
Faustine If I had your fortune in my power—
Mathieu Magis You would have my soul.
Faustine (aside) The only way to gain this man's adherence is by appealing to his self-interest, that is plain. (Aloud) You lend—
Mathieu Magis At twenty per cent.
Faustine You don't understand what I mean. Listen; you are lending the use of your name to Senor Avaloros.
Mathieu Magis I know Senor Avaloros. He is a banker; we do some business together, but his name in the city stands too high and his credit in the Mediterranean is too sound for him to need the help of poor Mathieu Magis—
Faustine I see, Lombard, you are very cautious. If you wish to lend your name to promote an important business undertaking—
Mathieu Magis Is it smuggling?
Faustine What difference does it make? The question is, what would guarantee your absolute silence?
Mathieu Magis High profit.
Faustine (aside) This is a rare hunting dog. (Aloud) Very well, I am going to entrust you with a secret of life and death, for I purpose giving up to you a great man to devour.
Mathieu Magis My small business feeds on the great passions of life; (aside) where there is a fine woman, there is a fine profit.
Curtain to the Second Act.
ACT III
SCENE FIRST
(The stage setting is the interior of a stable. Overhead are piles of hay; along the walls are wheels, tubes, shafts, a long copper chimney, a huge boiler. To the left of the spectator the Madonna is sculptured on a pillar. To the right is a table strewn with paper and mathematical instruments. Above the table hangs on the wall a blackboard covered with figures; by the side of the table is a shelf on which are onions, a water crock and a loaf. To the right of the spectator is a wide door, and to the left, a door opening on the fields. A straw bed lies by the side of the pillar at the feet of the Madonna. It is night-time.)
Fontanares and Quinola.
(Fontanares, in a black robe girded by a leathern belt, works at his table. Quinola is checking the various parts of the machine.)
Quinola Though you wouldn't think it, senor, I also have been in love! Only when I have once understood the woman, I have always bade her good-bye. A full pot and bottle, ah! these never betray, and moreover, you grow fat on them. (He glances at his master.) Pshaw! He doesn't even hear me. There are three more pieces ready for the forge. (He opens the door.) Here is Monipodio!
SCENE SECOND
The same persons and Monipodio.
Quinola The last three pieces have come in. Bring the models and make duplicates of them, as a provision against accident.
(Monipodio beckons to Quinola from the passage; two men make their appearance.)
Monipodio Carry these away, boys, and not a sound! Vanish like spectres. This is worse than theft. (To Quinola) He is dead and buried in his work.
Quinola He suspects nothing as yet.
Monipodio Neither they nor any one else suspect us. Each piece is wrapped up like a jewel and hidden in a cellar. But we need thirty ducats.
Quinola Zounds!
Monipodio Thirty rascals built like those fellows eat as much as sixty ordinary men.
Quinola Quinola and Company have failed, and I am a fugitive!
Monipodio From protests?
Quinola Stupid! They want me bodily. Fortunately, I have two or three suits of old clothes which may serve to deliver Quinola from the clutches of the keenest sleuths, until I can make payment.
Monipodio Payment? That is folly.
Quinola Yes, I have kept a little nest-egg against our thirst. Put on that ragbag of the begging friar and go to Lothundiaz and have a talk with the duenna.
Monipodio Alas! Lopez has returned from Algeria so often that our dear duenna begins to suspect us.
Quinola I merely wish her to carry this letter to Senorita Marie Lothundiaz (handing a letter). It is a masterpiece of eloquence, inspired by that which inspires all masterpieces. See! We have been living for ten days on bread and water.
Monipodio And what could we look for? To eat ortolans? If our men had expected fine fare they would have struck long ago.
Quinola If love would only cash my note of hand, we might still get out of this hole.
(Exit Monipodio.)
SCENE THIRD
Quinola and Fontanares.
Quinola (rubbing an onion into his bread) This is the way we are told the Egyptian pyramid-builders were fed, but they must also have had the sauce which gives us an appetite, and that is faith. (Drinks water.) You don't appear to be hungry, senor? Take care that the machine in your head doesn't go wrong!
Fontanares I am nearing the final solution—
Quinola (whose sleeve splits up as he puts back the crock) And I have found one in the continuity of my sleeve. In this trade my clothes are becoming as uncertain as an unknown quantity in algebra.
Fontanares You are a fine fellow! Always merry, even in the depths of misfortune.
Quinola And why not, gadzooks! Fortune loves the merry almost as much as the merry love her.
SCENE FOURTH
The same persons and Mathieu Magis.
Quinola Ah! Here comes our dear Lombard; he looks at all these pieces of machinery as if they were already his lawful property.
Mathieu Magis I am your most humble servant, my dear Senor Fontanares.
Quinola This is he, polished, dry, cold as marble.
Fontanares Good-day, Senor Magis. (Cuts himself a piece of bread.)
Mathieu Magis You are a sublime hero, and as far as I am concerned, I wish you all sorts of good luck.
Fontanares And is this the reason why you try to bring upon me all sorts of bad luck?
Mathieu Magis You snap me up very sharply; you do wrong, you forget that in me there are two men.
Fontanares I have never seen the other.
Mathieu Magis I have a heart, away from my business.
Fontanares But you are never away from your business.
Mathieu Magis I am always filled with admiration at the sight of your struggle.
Fontanares Admiration is the passion which is the most easily exhausted. Moreover, you never make any loans on sentiment.
Mathieu Magis There are sentiments which bring profit, while others cause ruin. You are animated by faith; that is very fine, but it is ruinous. We made six months ago certain little agreements; you asked of me three thousand ducats for your experiments—
Quinola On the condition, that you were to receive five thousand in return.
Fontanares Well?
Mathieu Magis The payment was due two months ago.
Fontanares You demanded it by legal process two months ago, the very next day after it was due.
Mathieu Magis I did it without thought of annoying you, merely as a formality.
Fontanares And what do you want now?
Mathieu Magis You are to-day my debtor.
Fontanares Eight months gone already? It has passed like a dream! And I was proposing to myself this evening the solution of the problem how to introduce cold water, so as to dissolve the steam! Magis, my dear friend, assist me in this matter, be my protector, and give me a few days more?
Mathieu Magis As many as you desire.
Quinola Do you mean it? This is the first appearance of the other man. (To Fontanares) Senor, I shall make the gentleman my friend. (To Magis) I appeal to the two Magises and ask if they will give us the sight of a few doubloons!
Fontanares Ah! I begin to breathe freely.
Mathieu Magis That can easily be managed. I am to-day not merely your money-lender, I am money-lender and co-proprietor, and I wish to draw out my share in the property.
Quinola Double man, and triple dog!
Mathieu Magis Capital has nothing to do with faith—
Quinola Or with hope and charity; crowns are not Catholics.
Mathieu Magis When a man comes and asks us to discount a bill, we cannot say: "Wait a bit; we have a man of genius at work trying to find a gold mine in a garret or a stable!" No, indeed! Why in six months I could have doubled those ducats over again. Besides, senor, I have a small family.
Fontanares (to Quinola) That creature has a wife!
Quinola Yes, and if she brings forth young they will eat up Catalonia.
Mathieu Magis I have heavy expenses.
Fontanares You see how I live.
Mathieu Magis Ah! If I were rich, I would lend you (Quinola holds out his hands) the wherewith to live better.
Fontanares Wait fifteen days longer.
Mathieu Magis (aside) This cuts me to the heart. If the matter concerned only myself I would perhaps let it go, but I must earn what has been promised me, which is to be my daughter's dowry. (Aloud) Now really, I have a great regard for you, you please me immensely—
Quinola (aside) To think that it would be a crime to strangle him!
Fontanares You are of iron; I shall show myself as hard as steel.
Mathieu Magis What do you mean, senor?
Fontanares You shall help me, whether you would or not.
Mathieu Magis I will not! I want my capital! And would think nothing of seizing and selling all this iron work.
Fontanares You compel me to meet trick with trick. I was proceeding with my work honestly! Now, if necessary, following your example, I shall leave the straight path. I shall be of course accused, as if perfection could be expected of me. But I do not mind calumny. But to have this cup to drink is too much. You made a senseless contract with me, you now shall sign another, or you will see me dash my work to fragments, and keep my secret buried here. (He strikes his hand on his heart.)
Mathieu Magis Ah! senor, you will not do that. That would be theft, a piece of rascality of which a great man is incapable.
Fontanares You seize upon my integrity as a weapon by which you would insure the success of monstrous injustice.
Mathieu Magis Listen, I wish to have nothing to do with this matter, and if you will come to an understanding with Don Ramon, a most excellent man, I will yield all my rights to him.
Fontanares Don Ramon?
Quinola Yes, the philosopher whom all Barcelona sets up in opposition to you.
Fontanares After all, I have solved the last problem, and glory and fortune will attend the future current of my life.
Quinola Your words seem to indicate that there is still a part to be supplied in the machinery.
Fontanares A trifle—a matter of some hundred ducats.
Mathieu Magis Such a sum could not be raised from all that you have here, if it were sold by authority of government, counting the costs.
Quinola Carrion! Will you get out?
Mathieu Magis If you humor Don Ramon, he doubtless will be willing to give you the assistance of his credit. (Turns to Quinola) As for you, gallows-bird, if ever you fall into my hands, I will get even with you. (To Fontanares) Good-bye, man of genius. (Exit.)
SCENE FIFTH
Fontanares and Quinola.
Fontanares His words make me shudder.
Quinola And me also! The good ideas of a genius are always caught in the webs of such spiders as he.
Fontanares Well, if only we can get a hundred ducats more, from that time forth we shall have a golden life filled with the banquets of love. (He takes a drink of water.)
Quinola I quite believe you, but confess that blooming hope, that heavenly jade, has led us on pretty deep into the mire.
Fontanares Quinola!
Quinola I do not complain for myself, I was born to trouble. The question is, how are we to get the hundred ducats. You are in debt to the workmen, to the master locksmith Carpano, to Coppolus the dealer in iron, steel and copper, and to our landlord, who after taking us in, more from fear of Monipodio than from compassion, will end by turning us out of doors; we owe him for nine months' board and lodging.
Fontanares But the work is all but finished.
Quinola But what of the hundred ducats?
Fontanares How is it that you, usually so brave and merry, begin now to speak to me in such a dolorous tone?
Quinola It is because, as a means of remaining at your side, I shall be obliged to disappear.
Fontanares And why?
Quinola Why? Pray what are we to do about the sheriff? I have incurred, for you and for myself, trade debts to the amount of a hundred doubloons; and lo! these debts take, to my mind, the figure, face and feet of tipstaves!
Fontanares How much unhappiness is comprised in the term glory!
Quinola Come! Do not be downcast. Did you not tell me that your grandfather went, some fifty years ago, with Cortez, to Mexico; has he ever been heard of?
Fontanares Never.
Quinola Don't forget you have a grandfather! You will be enabled to continue your work, until you reach the day of your triumph.
Fontanares Do you wish to ruin me?
Quinola Do you wish to see me go to prison and your machine to the devil?
Fontanares I do not.
Quinola Permit me then to bring about the return of this grandfather? He will be the first of his company to return from the West Indies.
SCENE SIXTH
The same persons and Monipodio.
Quinola How goes it?
Monipodio Your princess has received her letter.
Fontanares What kind of a man is this Don Ramon?
Monipodio He is an ass.
Quinola Is he envious?
Monipodio As three rejected play-writers. He makes himself out to be a wonderful man.
Quinola But does any one believe him?
Monipodio They look upon him as an oracle. He scribbles off his treatises, explaining that the snow is white because it falls from heaven, and he maintains, in contradiction to Galileo, that the earth does not move.
Quinola Do you not plainly see, senor, that I must rid you of this philosopher? (To Monipodio) You come with me; you must be my servant. (Exeunt.)
SCENE SEVENTH
Fontanares (alone) What brain, even though it be encased in bronze, could stand the strain of this search after money, while also making an inquiry into the most jealously guarded secrets of nature? How can the mind, engaged in such quests, have time for distrusting men, fighting them, and combining others against them? It is no easy thing to see at once what course had best be taken, in order to prevent Don Ramon from stealing my glory, and Don Ramons abound on every side. I at last dare to avow that my endurance is exhausted.
SCENE EIGHTH
Fontanares, Esteban, Girone and two workmen.
Esteban Can any of you tell me where a person named Fontanares is hiding himself?
Fontanares He is not hiding himself. I am he; he is merely meditating in silence. (Aside) Where is Quinola? He would know how to send them away satisfied. (Aloud) What do you want?
Esteban We want our money! We have been working without wages for three weeks; the laborer lives from day to day.
Fontanares Alas, my friends, I do not live at all!
Esteban You are alone; you can pinch your belly. But we have wives and children. At the present moment we have pawned everything.
Fontanares Have confidence in me.
Esteban Can we pay the baker with this confidence in you?
Fontanares I am a man of honor.
Girone Hark you! We also are men of honor.
Esteban Take the honor of each of us to the Lombard and you will see how much he will lend you on it.
Girone I am not a man of talent, not I, and no one will give me trust.
Esteban I am nothing but a villainous workman, but if my wife needs an iron pot, I pay for it, by heaven!
Fontanares I would like to know who it is has set you on me in this way?
Girone Set us on? Are we dogs?
Esteban The magistrates of Barcelona have given judgment in favor of Masters Coppolus and Carpano, and have granted them a lien on your inventions; pray tell us, where is our lien?
Girone I shan't go away from this place without my money.
Fontanares Can you find any money by staying here? However, here you may remain. Good-day. (He takes up his hat and cloak.)
Esteban No! You won't go out without paying us.
(The workmen prepare to bar the door.)
Girone There is a piece which I forged myself; I am going to keep it.
Fontanares What! You wretch! (He draws his sword.)
The Workmen You will not make us budge.
Fontanares (rushing upon them) Here is for you! (He stops short and throws away his sword.) Perhaps these fellows have been sent by Avaloros and Sarpi to push me to extremes. If they succeeded I might be accused of murder and thrown into prison for years. (He kneels down before the Madonna.) Oh, my God! Are genius and crime the same thing in Thy sight? What have I done to suffer such defeats, such insults and such outrages? Must I pay for my triumph in advance? (To the workmen) Every Spaniard is master in his own house.
Esteban You have no house. This place is the Golden Sun; the landlord has told us so.
Girone You haven't paid for your lodging; you pay for nothing.
Fontanares Remain where you are, my masters, I was wrong; I am in debt.
SCENE NINTH
The same persons, Coppolus and Carpano.
Coppolus Senor, I come to tell you that the magistrates of Barcelona have granted me a lien on your machine, and I shall take measures that no part of it leaves this place. My confrere, Carpano, your locksmith, shares my claim.
Fontanares What devil is blinding you? Without me, this machine is nothing but so much iron, steel, copper and wood; with me, it represents a fortune.
Coppolus We are not going to leave you.
(The two merchants make a movement as if to hem in Fontanares.)
Fontanares What friend embraces you so closely as a creditor? Well, well, I wish the devil would take back the great thought he gave me.
All The devil!
Fontanares Ah! I must keep watch upon my tongue or one word will throw me into the clutches of the Inquisition! No glory can recompense me for such sufferings as these!
Coppolus (to Carpano) Shall we have it sold?
Fontanares But to be worth anything, the machine must be finished, and one piece of it is wanting, of which the model is before you. (Coppolus and Carpano consult together.) Two hundred sequins more would be required for its completion.
SCENE TENTH
The same persons, Quinola (disguised as a fantastic old man), Monipodio (fancifully dressed), the landlord of the Golden Sun.
The Landlord of the Golden Sun (pointing to Fontanares) Senor, that is he.
Quinola And so you have lodged the grandson of General Fontanares in a stable! The republic of Venice will set him in a palace! My dear boy, let me embrace you. (He steps up to Fontanares.) The most noble republic has learned of your promises to the king of Spain, and I have left the arsenal at Venice, over which I preside, in order that—(aside to Fontanares) I am Quinola.
Fontanares Never was an ancestor restored to life more opportunely—
Quinola In what a miserable condition I find you!—Is this then the antechamber of glory!
Fontanares Misery is the crucible in which God tests our strength.
Quinola Who are these people?
Fontanares Creditors and workmen clamoring for their wages.
Quinola (to the landlord) Rascal of a landlord, is this the dwelling-place of my grandson?
The Landlord Certainly, your excellency.
Quinola I have some knowledge of the laws of Catalonia, and I shall send for the magistrate to put these rogues in prison. You may call down the bailiffs upon my grandson, but keep to your own houses, you blackguards! (He fumbles in his pocket.) Stay! Now go and drink my health. (He throws money among them.) Come to me later on and you shall be paid.
The Workmen Long live his excellency! (Exeunt.)
Quinola (to Fontanares) Our last doubloon! But it was a good bluff.
SCENE ELEVENTH
The same persons, without the host and the workmen.
Quinola (to the two tradesmen) As for you, my good fellows, you seem to be made of better stuff, and by the intervention of a little money we can come to a settlement.
Coppolus Yes, we shall then, your excellency, be at your service.
Quinola Do I see here, my son, that famous invention about which Venice is so excited? Where is the plan, the elevation, the section, the working drawings of the machine?
Coppolus (to Carpano) He knows all about it, but we must get further information before advancing anything.
Quinola You are an amazing man, my son! Like Columbus, you will yet have your day. (He kneels.) I thank God for the honor He had done our family. (To the merchants) Two hours from this I will pay you.
(Exeunt Coppolus and Carpano.)
SCENE TWELFTH
Quinola, Fontanares and Monipodio.
Fontanares What will be the result of this imposture?
Quinola You were tottering on the brink of an abyss, and I rescued you.
Monipodio It was well impersonated! But the Venetians have abundance of money, and in order to obtain three months' credit, we must throw dust into the eyes of the creditors, and this is the most expensive kind of dust.
Quinola Didn't I tell you that there was a treasure coming? Well it's here now.
Monipodio Coming of its own accord?
(Quinola assents with a nod.)
Fontanares His effrontery terrifies me.
SCENE THIRTEENTH
The same persons, Mathieu Magis and Don Ramon.
Mathieu Magis I have brought Don Ramon to you, for I wish to do nothing without his sanction.
Don Ramon (to Fontanares) Senor, I am delighted at this opportunity of sharing the work of so eminent a man of science. We two will be enabled to bring your invention to the highest perfection.
Quinola Senor knows mechanics, ballistics, mathematics, dioptrics, catoptrics, statistics?
Don Ramon Indeed I do. I have purchased many valuable treatises.
Quinola In Latin?
Don Ramon No, in Spanish.
Quinola No true philosopher, senor, writes in anything but Latin. There is a danger that science may be vulgarized. Do you know Latin?
Don Ramon Yes, senor.
Quinola So much the better for you.
Fontanares Senor, I respect the name which you have made; but I cannot accept your offer, because of the dangers attendant on my enterprise; I am risking my head in this work and yours is too precious to be exposed.
Don Ramon Do you think, senor, that you can afford to slight Don Ramon, the great scientific authority?
Quinola Don Ramon! The famous Don Ramon, who has expounded the causes of so many natural phenomena, which hitherto had been thought to happen without cause?
Don Ramon The very man.
Quinola I am Fontanaresi, director of the arsenal of the Venetian Republic, and grandfather of our inventor. My son, you may have full confidence in Don Ramon; a man of his position can have no designs upon you; let us tell him everything.
Don Ramon (aside) Ah! I am going to learn everything about the machine.
Fontanares (aside to Quinola) What is all this about?
Quinola (aside to Fontanares) Let me give him a lesson in mathematics; it will do him no good, and us no harm. (To Don Ramon) Will you come here? (He points out the parts of the machine) All this is meaningless; for philosophers, the great thing—
Don Ramon The great thing?
Quinola Is the problem itself! You know the reason why clouds mount upwards?
Don Ramon I believe it is because they are lighter than the air.
Quinola Not at all! They are heavy as well as light, for the water that is in them ends by falling as flat as a fool. I don't like water, do you?
Don Ramon I have a great respect for it.
Quinola I see that we are made for each other. The clouds rise to such a height, because they are vapor, and are also attracted by the force of the cold upper air.
Don Ramon That may be true. I will write a treatise on the subject.
Quinola My grandson states this in the formula R plus O. And as there is much water in the air, we simply say O plus O, which is a new binomial.
Don Ramon A new binomial!
Quinola Yes, an X, if you like it better.
Don Ramon X, ah yes, I understand!
Fontanares (aside) What a donkey!
Quinola The rest is a mere trifle. The tube receives the water which by some means or other, has been changed to cloud. This cloud is bound to rise and the resulting force is immense.
Don Ramon Immense, why immense?
Quinola Immense—in that it is natural, since man—pay particular attention to this—does not create force—
Don Ramon Very good, then how—?
Quinola He borrows it from nature; to invent, is to borrow. Then—by means of certain pistons—for in mechanics—you know—
Don Ramon Yes, senor, I know mechanics.
Quinola Very good! The method of applying a force is child's play, a trifle, a matter of detail, as in the turnspit—
Don Ramon Ah! He employs the turnspit then?
Quinola There are two here, and the force is such that it raises the mountains, which skip like rams—as was predicted by King David.
Don Ramon Senor, you are perfectly right, the clouds, that is, the water—
Quinola Water, senor? Why! It is the world. Without water, you could not—That is plain. Well now! This is the point on which my grandson's invention is based; water will subdue water. X equals O plus O, that is the complete formula.
Don Ramon (aside) The terms he employs are incomprehensible.
Quinola Do you understand me?
Don Ramon Perfectly.
Quinola (aside) This man is a driveling dotard. (Aloud) I have spoken to you in the language of genuine philosophy—
Mathieu Magis (to Monipodio) Can you tell me who this remarkably learned man is?
Monipodio He is a very great man, to whom I am indebted for my knowledge of ballistics; he is the director of the Venetian arsenal, and purposes this evening to make us a contribution on behalf of the republic.
Mathieu Magis I must go and tell Senora Brancadori, she comes from Venice. (Exit.)
SCENE FOURTEENTH
The same persons, with the exception of Mathieu Magis. Lothundiaz and Marie.
Marie Am I in time?
Quinola (aside) Hurrah! Here comes our treasure.
(Lothundiaz and Don Ramon exchange greetings and examine the pieces of machinery in the centre of the stage.)
Fontanares What! Is Marie here?
Marie My father brought me. Ah! my dear friend, your servant told me of your distress—
Fontanares (to Quinola) You scoundrel!
Quinola What, grandson!
Marie And he brought all my agonies to an end.
Fontanares Tell me, pray, what was it troubled you?
Marie You cannot imagine the persecutions I have endured since your arrival, and especially since your quarrel with Madame Brancadori. What could I do against the authority of my father? It is absolute. While I remained at home, I doubted my power to help you; my heart was yours in spite of everything, but my bodily presence—
Fontanares And so you are another martyr!
Marie By delaying the day of your triumph, you have made my position intolerable. Alas! when I see you here, I perceive that you yourself at the same time have been enduring incredible hardships. In order that I might be with you for a moment, I have feigned an intention of vowing myself to God; this evening I enter a convent.
Fontanares A convent? Is that the way they would separate us? These tortures make one curse the day of his birth. And you, Marie, you, who are the mainspring and the glory of my discovery, the star that protected my destiny, I have forced you to seek refuge in heaven! I cannot stand up against that. (He weeps.)
Marie But by promising to enter a convent, I obtained my father's permission to come here. I wish in bidding you farewell to bring you hope. Here are the savings of a young girl, of your sister, which I have kept against the day when all would forsake you.
Fontanares And what care I for glory, for fortune, for life itself, without you?
Marie Accept the gift which is all that the woman who intends to be your wife can and ought to offer. If I feel that you are unhappy and in distress, hope will forsake me in my retirement, and I shall die, uttering a last prayer for you!
Quinola (to Marie) Let him play the proud man, we may save him in spite of himself. Do you know it is for this purpose that I am passing myself off as his grandfather?
(Marie gives her purse to Quinola.)
Lothundiaz (to Don Ramon) So you do not think much of him?
Don Ramon Oh, no, he is an artisan, who knows nothing and who doubtless stole his secret in Italy.
Lothundiaz I have always doubted him, and it seems I was right in refusing him my daughter in marriage.
Don Ramon He would bring her to beggary. He has squandered five thousand sequins, and has gone into debt three thousand in eight months, without attaining any result! Ah! He is a contrast with his grandfather. There's a philosopher of the first rank for you! Fontanares will have to work hard to catch up with him. (He points to Quinola.)
Lothundiaz His grandfather?
Quinola Yes, senor, my name of Fontanares was changed to that of Fontanaresi.
Lothundiaz And you are Pablo Fontanaresi?
Quinola Yes, Pablo himself.
Lothundiaz And you are rich?
Quinola Opulent.
Lothundiaz That delights me, senor. I suppose that now you will pay me the two thousand sequins which you borrowed from my father?
Quinola Certainly, if you can show me my signature, I am ready to pay the bond.
Marie (after a conversation with Fontanares) You will accept this—will you not—as a means of securing your triumph, for is not our happiness staked on that?
Fontanares To think that I am dragging down this pearl into the gulf which is yawning to receive me.
(Quinola and Monipodio depart.)
SCENE FIFTEENTH
The same persons and Sarpi.
Sarpi (to Lothundiaz) You here, Senor Lothundiaz? And your daughter too?
Lothundiaz I promised that she should come her to say farewell on condition that she would not refuse to retire to a convent afterwards.
Sarpi The assembly here is so numerous that I am not surprised, nor in the least offended, by your complaisance towards her.
Fontanares Ah! Here comes the fiercest of my persecutors. How are you, senor; are you come to put my constancy to a fresh test?
Sarpi I represent the viceroy of Catalonia, senor, and I have a right to your respectful treatment. (To Don Ramon) Are you satisfied with him?
Don Ramon If he takes my advice, we are sure of success.
Sarpi The viceroy has great hopes from your learned co-operation.
Fontanares Surely I am dreaming! Is it possible they are raising up a rival to me?
Sarpi No! senor; but a guide who is able to save you from failure.
Fontanares Who told you I needed one?
Marie O Alfonso! But suppose that Don Ramon could insure your success?
Fontanares Ah! Even she has lost confidence in me!
Marie They say he is so learned!
Lothundiaz Presumptuous man! He thinks that he knows more than all the learned in the world.
Sarpi I was induced to come here on account of a question which has been raised and has filled the viceroy with anxiety; you have had in your possession for nearly ten months a ship belonging to the state, and you must now render an account of the loan.
Fontanares The king fixed no term for the time of my experiments.
Sarpi The administration of Catalonia has the right to demand an account, and we have received a decree of the ministers to this effect. (Fontanares appears thunderstruck.) Oh! you can take your time; we do not wish to embarrass a man like you. Nor are we inclined to think that you wish to elude the stipulation with regard to your life by keeping the ship for an indefinite period.
Marie His life?
Fontanares Yes, I am staking my life in these experiments.
Marie And yet, you refuse my help?
Fontanares In three months, Count Sarpi, I shall have completed, without the counsel of another, the work I am engaged upon. You will then see one of the greatest spectacles that a man can produce for his age to witness.
Sarpi Here, then, is a bond to that effect; sign it.
(Fontanares signs it.)
Marie Farewell, my friend! If you are vanquished in this struggle I believe that I shall love you more than ever!
Lothundiaz Come, my daughter; the man is mad.
Don Ramon Young man! be sure to read my treatises.
Sarpi Farewell, future grandee of Spain.
(Exeunt all except Fontanares.)
SCENE SIXTEENTH
Fontanares (alone in the front of the stage) While Marie is in a convent the sunlight cannot warm me. I am bearing up a world, yet fear I am no Titian. No, I shall never succeed; all is against me. And this work which cost me three years of thought and ten months of toil will never cleave the ocean! But now, I am heavy with sleep. (He lies down on the straw.)
SCENE SEVENTEENTH
Fontanares (asleep), Quinola and Monipodio (entering by the Postern).
Quinola Diamonds! Pearls and gold! We are saved.
Monipodio Don't forget. The Brancadori is from Venice.
Quinola Then I'd better be getting back there. Send me the landlord; I wish to re-establish our credit.
Monipodio He is here.
SCENE EIGHTEENTH
The same persons and the Landlord of the Golden Sun.
Quinola What is this, senor, Landlord of the Golden Sun? You don't seem to have much confidence in the star of my grandson?
The Landlord A hostelry, senor, is not a banking house.
Quinola No, but you should not, for charity's sake, have refused him bread. The most noble republic of Venice sent me to bring him to that city, but he is too fond of Spain! I return, as I arrived, secretly. I have nothing with me that I can dispose of excepting this diamond. A month from this time I will remit to you through the bank. Will you arrange with my grandson's servant for the sale of this jewel?
The Landlord Your people here, senor, shall be treated like princes of wealth.
Quinola You may go.
(Exit landlord.)
SCENE NINETEENTH
The same persons, excepting the landlord.
Quinola I must go and change my dress. (He looks at Fontanares) He sleeps; that noble heart has at last succumbed to its emotions; it is only we who know how to yield before misfortunes; our carelessness he cannot share. Have I not done well, in always obtaining a duplicate of that which he required? (To Monipodio) Here is the plan of the last piece; do you take charge of it.
(Exeunt.)
SCENE TWENTIETH
Fontanares (sleeping), Faustine and Mathieu Magis.
Mathieu Magis There he is!
Faustine To what a plight have I reduced him! From the depth of the wounds which I have thus inflicted upon myself, I realize the depth of my love! Oh! how much happiness do I owe him in compensation for so much suffering!
Curtain to the Third Act.
ACT IV
SCENE FIRST
(The stage setting represents a public square. In the centre stands a sheriff's officer on an auctioneer's block, around the base of which are the various pieces for the machine. A crowd is gathered on each side of the platform. To the left of the spectator are grouped together Coppolus, Carpano, the landlord of the Golden Sun, Esteban, Girone, Mathieu Magis, Don Ramon and Lothundiaz. To the right are Fontanares and Monipodio; Quinola conceals himself in a cloak behind Monipodio.)
Fontanares, Monipodio, Quinola, Coppolus, the landlord of the Golden Sun, Esteban, Girone, Mathieu Magis, Don Ramon, Lothundiaz, Sheriff's Officer, a crowd of people.
Sheriff's Officer Gentlemen, show a little more warmth. Here we have a boiler, big enough to cook a dinner for a regiment of the guards.
The Landlord Four maravedis.
Sheriff's Office Do I hear more? Come and look at it, examine it!
Mathieu Magis Six maravedis.
Quinola (to Fontanares) Senor, they will not fetch a hundred ducats.
Fontanares We must try to be resigned.
Quinola Resignation seems to me to be the fourth theological virtue omitted from the list out of consideration for women!
Monipodio Hold your tongue! Justice is on your track and you would have been arrested before this if they had not taken you for one of my people.
Sheriff's Officer This is the last lot, gentlemen. Going, going—no further bid? Gone! It is knocked down to Senor Mathieu Magis for ten ducats, six maravedis.
Lothundiaz (to Don Ramon) What do you think of that? Thus ends the sublime invention of our great man! He was right, by heaven, when he promised us a rare spectacle!
Coppolus You can laugh; he does not owe you anything.
Esteban It is we poor devils who have to pay for his folly.
Lothundiaz Did you get nothing, Master Coppolus? And what of my daughter's diamonds, which the great man's servant put into the machine?
Mathieu Magis Why, they were seized in my house.
Lothundiaz And are not the thieves in the hand of justice? I would like best of all to see Quinola, that cursed pilferer of jewels, in durance.
Quinola (aside) Oh, my young life, what lessons are you receiving! My antecedents have ruined me.
Lothundiaz But if they catch him, his goose will soon be cooked, and I shall have the pleasure of seeing him dangling from the gallows, and giving the benediction with his feet.
Fontanares (to Quinola) Our calamity stirs this dullard's wit.
Quinola You mean his brutality.
Don Ramon I sincerely regret this disaster. This young artisan had at last listened to my advice, and we were on the point of realizing the promises made by him to the king; but he blindly forfeited his opportunity; I mean to ask pardon for him at the court, for I shall tell the king how useful he will be to me.
Coppolus Here is an example of generosity extremely rare in the conduct of one learned man towards another.
Lothundiaz You are an honor to Catalonia!
Fontanares (coming forward) I have endured with tranquillity the agony of seeing a piece of workmanship, which entitles me to eternal glory, sold as so much old junk—(murmurs among the people). But this passes all endurance. Don Ramon, if you have, I do not say understood, but even guessed, at the use of all these fragments of machinery, displaced and scattered as they are, you ought to have bought them even at the sacrifice of your whole fortune.
Don Ramon Young man, I respect your misfortunes; but you know that your apparatus could not possibly go, and that my experience had become necessary to you.
Fontanares The most terrible among all the horrors of destitution is that it gives ground for calumny and the triumph of fools!
Lothundiaz Is it not disgraceful for a man in your position thus to undertake to insult a philosopher whose reputation is established? Where would I be if I had given you my daughter? You would have led me a fine dance down to beggary; for you have already wasted, for absolutely no purpose, ten thousand sequins! Really this grandee of Spain seems particularly small in his grandeur to-day.
Fontanares You make me pity you.
Lothundiaz That is possible, but you do not make me envy you; your life is at the mercy of the tribunal.
Don Ramon Let him alone; don't you see that he is crazy?
Fontanares Not quite crazy enough, senor, to believe that O plus O is a binomial.
SCENE SECOND
The same persons, Don Fregose, Faustine, Avaloros and Sarpi.
Sarpi We have come too late; the sale is over.
Don Fregose The king will regret the confidence he placed in a charlatan.
Fontanares A charlatan, my lord? In a few days, you may be able to cut my head off; kill me, but don't calumniate me; your position in the state is too high for you to descend so low.
Don Fregose Your audacity equals the extent of your downfall. Are you unaware that the magistrates of Barcelona look upon you as an accomplice of the thief who robbed Lothundiaz? The flight of your servant proves the crime, and the freedom you now enjoy is due to the intercessions of this lady. (Points to Faustine.)
Fontanares My servant, your excellency, might have been in early life a criminal, but since he has followed my fortune he has been an innocent man. I declare, on my honor, that he is guiltless of any such act as theft. The jewels which were seized at the moment he was engaged in selling them were the free gift of Marie Lothundiaz, from whom I had refused to accept them.
Faustine What pride he shows, even in adversity! Nothing can bend him.
Sarpi And how do you explain the resurrection of your grandfather, the pretended director of the Venetian arsenal? Unfortunately for you, the senora and myself were acquainted with the actual man.
Fontanares I caused my servant to put on this disguise in order that he might talk science and mathematics with Don Ramon. Senor Lothundiaz will tell you that the philosopher of Catalonia and Quinola perfectly understood each other.
Monipodio (to Quinola) He has ruined himself!
Don Ramon On this subject I appeal to my writings.
Faustine Do not be perturbed, Don Ramon; it is so natural for people of this kind, when they find themselves falling, to drag down other people with them!
Lothundiaz Such a disposition is detestable.
Fontanares Before I die I ought to speak the truth, senora, to those who have flung me into the abyss. (To Don Fregose) My lord, the king promised me the protection of his people at Barcelona, and here I have met with nothing but hatred! Oh, you grandees of the land, you rich, and all who have in your hands power and influence, why is it that you thus throw obstacles in the way of advancing thought? Is it the law of God that you should persecute and put to shame that which eventually you will be compelled to adore? Had I been pliant, abject and a flatterer, I might have succeeded! In me you have persecuted that which represents all that is noblest in man—His consciousness of his own power, the majesty of his labor, the heavenly inspiration which urges him to put his hand to enterprise, and—love, that spirit of human trust, which rekindles courage when it is on the point of expiring in the storm of mockery. Ah! If the good that you do is done amiss, you are always successful in the accomplishment of what is bad! But why should I proceed?—You are not worthy of my anger.
Faustine (aside) Oh! Another word and I must cry out that I adore him!
Don Fregose Sarpi, tell the police officers to advance and carry off the accomplice of Quinola.
(Applause and cries of "bravo!")
SCENE THIRD
The same persons and Marie Lothundiaz.
(At the moment the police officers seize Fontanares, Marie appears, in the habit of a novice, accompanied by a monk and two sisters.)
Marie Lothundiaz (to the viceroy) My lord, I have just learned that in my desire to save Fontanares from the rage of his enemies I have caused his ruin. But now an opportunity is given me to vindicate the truth, and I beg to declare that I myself put into the hands of Quinola the precious stones and the money I had treasured as my own. (Lothundiaz shows some excitement.) They belonged to me, father, and God grant that you may not have cause some day to mourn your own blindness.
Quinola (throwing off his cloak) Whew! I breathe freely at last!
Fontanares (bending his knee before Marie) Thanks, radiant and spotless creature, through whose love I still am kept close to that heaven from which I draw my faith and hope; you have saved my honor.
Marie And is not your honor also mine? Your glory is yet to come.
Fontanares Alas! my work is dismembered and dispersed, held in a hundred avaricious hands, who will not give it back excepting at the price it cost to fabricate. To recover it I should double the amount of my indebtedness and fail to complete the enterprise in time. All is over!
Faustine (to Marie) Only sacrifice yourself for him and he is saved.
Marie What say you, father? And you, Count Sarpi? (Aside) It will be my death! (Aloud) Will you consent, on condition I obey you, to give Fontanares all that is necessary for the success of his undertaking? (To Faustine) I shall devote myself to God, senora!
Faustine You are sublime, sweet angel. (Aside) And thus at last deliverance comes to me!
Fontanares Stay, Marie! I would choose the struggle and all its perils, I would choose death itself, rather than the loss of you from such a cause.
Marie Rather than glory? (To the viceroy) My lord, you will cause my gems to be restored to Quinola. I return to my convent with a happy mind; either I am his, or I must live for God alone.
Lothundiaz I believe he is a sorcerer.
Quinola This young maiden restores to me my love for womankind.
Faustine (to Sarpi, the viceroy and Avaloros) Can we not conquer him, in spite of all?
Avaloros I shall try it.
Sarpi (to Faustine) All is not lost. (To Lothundiaz) Take your daughter home; she will soon be obedient to you.
Lothundiaz God grant it! Come my daughter. (Exeunt.)
SCENE FOURTH
Faustine, Fregose, Avaloros, Fontanares, Quinola and Monipodio.
Avaloros I have studied you well, young man, and you have a great heart—a heart firm as steel. Steel will always be the master of gold. Let us frankly form a copartnership; I will pay your debts, buy up all that has been sold, give you and Quinola five thousand ducats, and, at my instance, the viceroy will be willing to forget your freedom with him.
Fontanares If, in my distress, I have ever failed in respect towards you, senor, I beg you will pardon me.
Don Fregose That is quite sufficient, senor. Don Fregose does not easily take offence.
Faustine You have done well, my lord.
Avaloros Thus you see, young man, that tempest is succeeded by calm, and at present all things smile upon you. The next thing for us to do is to unite, you and I, in fulfilling your promises to the king.
Fontanares I care not for fortune excepting for one reason; shall I be enabled to wed Marie Lothundiaz?
Don Fregose Is she the only woman in the world you love?
Fontanares The only one.
(Faustine and Avaloros talk together.)
Don Fregose You never told me that before. Henceforth, you may count on me, young man; I am your steadfast ally. (Exit.)
Monipodio They are coming to terms; we are ruined. I shall take myself off to France with the duplicate machine. (Exit.)
SCENE FIFTH
Quinola, Fontanares, Faustine and Avaloros.
Faustine (to Fontanares) Come, now; I also bear no malice, and you must come to the banquet I am giving.
Fontanares Senora, your first kindness concealed treachery.
Faustine Like all those lofty dreamers, who enrich humanity with their inventions, you know neither women, nor the world.
Fontanares (aside) I have scarcely eight days left. (To Quinola) I am going to make use of her.
Quinola Do so, as you make use of me.
Fontanares I will come to your house, senora.
Faustine I must thank Quinola for that. (She offers a purse to Quinola.) Take this. (To Fontanares) Till we meet again!
(Exeunt Faustine and Avaloros.)
SCENE SIXTH
Fontanares and Quinola.
Fontanares That woman is treacherous as the sun in winter. Unhappy am I that I sought her, for she has taught me to lose faith. Is it possible that there are virtues which it is for our advantage to discard?
Quinola How is it possible, senor, to distrust a woman who sets in gold her slightest words! She loves you; that's the secret. Is your heart so very small that it cannot harbor two affections?
Fontanares Nonsense! Marie has given me hope, her words have fired my soul. Yes, I shall succeed.
Quinola (aside) Where is Monipodio? (Aloud) A reconciliation, senor, is very easy with a woman who yields so easily as Senora Brancadori.
Fontanares Quinola!
Quinola Senor, you make me desperate! Would you oppose the perfidy of a useful love with the loyalty of a love that is blind? I need the influence of Senora Brancadori in order to get rid of Monipodio, whose intentions cause me anxiety. If only I can obtain this influence I will guarantee you success, and you shall then marry your Marie.
Fontanares By what means?
Quinola My dear senor, by mounting on the shoulders of a man who sees a long distance, as you do, any one can see farther still. You are an inventor, very good; but I am inventive. You saved me from—I needn't say what! I, in turn, will deliver you from the talons of envy and from the clutches of cupidity. Here is gold for us; come dress yourself, make yourself fine, take courage; you are on the eve of triumph. But above all things, behave graciously towards Senora Brancadori.
Fontanares You must at least tell me, how are you going to effect this?
Quinola No, senor, if you knew my secret, all would be ruined; you are a man of talent, and a man of talent is always simple as a child.
(Exeunt.)
SCENE SEVENTH
(The setting represents the drawing-room in Senora Brancadori's palace.)
Faustine (alone) The hour is come, to which all my efforts for the last fourteen months have been looking for fulfillment. In a few moments Fontanares will see that Marie is forever lost to him. Avaloros, Sarpi and I have lulled the genius to forgetfulness, and have brought the man up to the very day when his experiment was to have taken place, so that he stands helpless and destitute. Oh! how totally is he in my power, just as I had wished! But does a person ever change from contempt to love? No, never. Little does he know that for a twelvemonth I have been his adversary, and the misfortune is, that when he does know he will hate me! But hatred is not the opposite of love, it is merely the obverse of the golden coin. I shall tell him everything; I shall make him hate me.
SCENE EIGHTH
Faustine and Paquita.
Paquita Senora, your orders have been most exactly carried out by Monipodio. Senorita Lothundiaz has just been informed by her duenna, of the peril which threatens Senor Fontanares this evening.
Faustine Sarpi must be here by this time. Tell him I wish to speak to him.
(Exit Paquita.)
SCENE NINTH
Faustine (alone) We must baffle the plans of Monipodio. Quinola fears he has received the order to get rid of Fontanares; it is too bad that there should be ground for such a fear.
SCENE TENTH
Faustine and Don Fregose.
Faustine Your arrival is timely, senor, I wish to ask a favor of you.
Don Fregose Say, rather, that you wish to confer one on me.
Faustine Monipodio must disappear from Barcelona—yea, and from Catalonia, within two hours; send him to Africa.
Don Fregose What has he done to you?
Faustine Nothing.
Don Fregose Well, what is your reason.
Faustine Simply because—You understand?
Don Fregose Your wish shall be obeyed. (He writes.)
SCENE ELEVENTH
The same persons and Sarpi.
Faustine Have you made the necessary preparations, cousin, for your immediate marriage with Marie Lothundiaz?
Sarpi I have, and her good father has taken care that the contract should be ready.
Faustine That is well! Send word to the convent of the Dominicans. The rich heiress will freely consent to be wedded to you at midnight; she will accept any conditions, when she sees (whispering to Sarpi) Fontanares in the hands of justice.
Sarpi I quite understand, and the only thing now is to have him arrested. My good fortune seems invincible! And—I owe it all to you. (Aside) What instrument is there more powerful than the hatred of a woman!
Don Fregose Sarpi, see that this order is strictly carried out and with no delay.
(Exit Sarpi.)
SCENE TWELFTH
The same persons excepting Sarpi.
Don Fregose And what of your own marriage?
Faustine My lord, I can think of nothing at present except the coming banquet; you shall have my answer this evening. (Fontanares appears.) (Aside) Oh, there he comes! (To Fregose) If you love me, leave me a while.
Don Fregose Alone with him?
Faustine Yes, so I desire.
Don Fregose After all he loves no one but his Marie Lothundiaz. (Exit.)
SCENE THIRTEENTH
Faustine and Fontanares.
Fontanares The palace of the king of Spain is not more splendid than yours, senora, and you here display all the pomp of royalty.
Faustine Listen to me, dear Fontanares.
Fontanares Dear! Ah! senora, you have taught me to distrust such words as that!
Faustine She, whom you have so cruelly insulted, will now reveal herself to you. A terrible disaster threatens you. Sarpi has persistently worked against you and in doing so has carried out the orders of an irresistible power, and this banquet will be for you, unless I intervene, the scene of a Judas' kiss. I have been told, in confidence, that on your departure from this house, perhaps without these very walls, you will be arrested, flung into prison, and your trial will begin—never to end. Is it possible that you can put into proper condition in one night the vessel which otherwise will be forfeited to you? As regards your work, you know how impossible it is to begin it over again. I wish to save you, you and your glory, you and your fortune.
Fontanares You save me? And how?
Faustine Avalores has placed at my disposal one of his ships, Monipodio has given me his best smugglers for a cruise; let us start for Venice. The republic will make you a patrician and will give you ten times as much gold as Spain has promised. (Aside) Why is it they do not arrive?
Fontanares And what of Marie? If we are to take her with us, I will believe in you.
Faustine Your thoughts are of her at the very moment when the choice between life and death is to be made. If you delay, we may be lost.
Fontanares We? Senora?
SCENE FOURTEENTH
The same persons. Guards rush in at every door. A magistrate appears. Sarpi.
Sarpi Do your duty!
The Magistrate (to Fontanares) In the name of the king, I arrest you.
Fontanares The hour of death has come at last! Yet happily I carry my secret with me to God, and love shall be my winding sheet.
SCENE FIFTEENTH
The same persons, Marie and Lothundiaz.
Marie I was not, then, deceived; you have fallen into the hands of your enemies! And what is left to me, dearest Alfonso, but to die for you —and yet, by what a frightful death! O beloved! Heaven is jealous of a perfect love, and thus would teach us by those cruel disasters, which we call the chances of life, that there is no true happiness save in the presence of God. What! You here?
Sarpi Senorita!
Lothundiaz My daughter!
Marie For one moment you have left me free, for the last time in my life! I shall keep my promise, you must not be unfaithful to yours. O sublime discoverer, you will have to discharge the obligations that belong to greatness, and to fight the battle of your lawful ambition! This struggle will be the great interest of your life; while the Countess Sarpi will die by inches and in obscurity, imprisoned in the four walls of her house. And now let me remind you, father, and you, count, that it was clearly agreed, as the condition of my obedience, that Senor Fontanares should be granted by the viceroy of Catalonia a further extension of time, for the completion of his experiment.
Fontanares Marie, how can I live without you?
Marie How could you live in the hands of your executioner?
Fontanares Farewell! I am ready to die.
Marie Did you not make a solemn promise to the King of Spain, yes, to all the world? (Speaks low to Fontanares) Oh! seize your triumph; after that we can die!
Fontanares I will accept, if only you refuse to be his.
Marie Father, fulfill your promise.
Faustine I have triumphed.
Lothundiaz (in a low voice to Fontanares) You contemptible seducer! (Aloud) Here I give you ten thousand sequins. (In a low voice) Atrocious wretch! (Aloud) My daughter's income for one year. (In a low voice) May the plague choke you! (Aloud) Upon the presentation of this check, Senor Avaloros will count out to you ten thousand sequins.
Fontanares But does the viceroy consent to this arrangement?
Sarpi You have publicly accused the viceroy of Catalonia of belying the promises of the king; here is his answer: (he draws forth a document) By this ordinance, he puts a stay on the lawsuits of all your creditors, and grants you a year to complete your experiment.
Fontanares I am ready to do so.
Lothundiaz He has made up his mind! Come, my daughter; they are expecting us at the Dominican convent, and the viceroy has promised to honor us with his presence at the ceremony.
Marie So soon?
(Exeunt the whole party.)
Faustine (to Paquita) Run, Paquita, and bring me word when the ceremony is ended, and they are man and wife.
SCENE SIXTEENTH
Faustine and Fontanares.
Faustine (aside) There he stands, like a man pausing on the brink of a precipice to which tigers have pursued him. (Aloud) Why are you not as great as your creative thought? Is there but one woman in the world?
Fontanares What! Do you think that a man can pluck from his heart a love like mine, as easily as he draws the sword from his scabbard?
Faustine I can well conceive that a woman should love you and do you service. But, according to your idea, love is self-abdication. All that the greatest men have ever wished for: glory, honor, fortune, and more than that, a triumphant dominion which genius alone can establish —this you have gained, conquering a world as Caesar, Lucullus and Luther conquered before you! And yet, you have put between yourself and this splendid existence an obstacle, which is none other than a love worthy of some student of Alcala. By birth you are a giant, and of your own will you are dwindling into a dwarf. But a man of genius can always find, among women, one woman especially created for him. And such a woman, while in the eyes of men she is a queen, for him is but a servant, adapting herself with marvelous suppleness to the chances of life, cheerful in suffering and as far-sighted in misfortune as in prosperity; above all, indulgent to his caprices and knowing well the world and its perilous changes; in a word, capable of occupying a seat in his triumphal car after having helped it up the steepest grades—
Fontanares You have drawn her portrait.
Faustine Whose?
Fontanares Marie's!
Faustine What! Did that child have skill to protect you? Did she divine the person and presence of her rival? And was she, who had suffered you to be overcome, worthy of possessing you for her own—she—the child who has permitted herself to be drawn, step by step, to the altar where at this moment she bestows herself upon another? If it had been I, ere this I should have lain dead at your feet! And on whom has she bestowed herself? On your deadliest enemy, who had accepted the command to secure the shipwreck of your hopes.
Fontanares How could I be false to that inextinguishable love, which has thrice come to my succor, which has eventually saved me, which, having no sacrifice but itself to offer on the altar of misfortune, accomplishes the immolation with one hand, and, with the other, offers to me in this (he shows the letter) the restoration of my honor, the esteem of my king, the admiration of the universe.
(Enter Paquita, who makes a sign to Faustine, then goes out.)
Faustine (aside) Ah! Sarpi has now his countess. (To Fontanares) Your life, your glory, your fortune, your honor, are at last in my hands alone! Marie no longer stands between us!
Fontanares Us! Us!
Faustine Contradict me not, Alfonso! I have conquered all that is yours; do not refuse me your heart! You will never gain a love more devoted, more submissive, more full of sympathy than mine; for at last you shall become the great man that you deserve to be.
Fontanares Your audacity astounds me. (He shows the letter.) With a sum of money guaranteed me here I am once more the sole arbiter of my destiny. When the king sees the character and the results of my work, he will cancel that marriage, which has been obtained by violence. And my love for Marie is such that I can wait till then.
Faustine Fontanares, if I love you distractedly, it is perhaps because of that delightful simplicity, which is the badge of genius—
Fontanares (aside) Her smile freezes me to the heart.
Faustine That gold you speak of—is it already in your possession?
Fontanares It is here.
Faustine And would I have let them give that to you, if I thought you would ever receive it? To-morrow you will find all your creditors standing between you and the possession of that sum, which you owe to them. What can you accomplish without gold? Your struggle will begin over again! But your work, O great, but simple man, has not been dispersed in fragments; it is all mine; my instrument, Mathieu Magis, has acquired possession of it. I hold it at my feet, in my palace. I am the only one who would not rob you either of your glory, or of your fortune, for what would this be, but to rob myself?
Fontanares It is you, then, cursed Venetian woman!
Faustine Yes—since the moment you insulted me, upon this spot, I have directed everything; it is at my bidding that Magis, and Sarpi, and your creditors, and the landlord of the Golden Sun, and the workmen have acted! But ah! How great a love underlay this simulated hatred. Tell me, have you never been roused from your slumber by a falling teardrop, the pearl of my repentance, while I was gazing at you with admiration—you—the martyr that I worshiped?
Fontanares No! you are not a woman—
Faustine Ah! There is more than woman, in a woman who loves as I do.
Fontanares And, as you are not a woman, I could kill you.
Faustine What of that, provided it were your hand that did it? (Aside) He hates me!
Fontanares I am seeking for—
Faustine Is it anything I can find for you?
Fontanares —A punishment great enough for your crime.
Faustine Can there be any punishment which a woman who loves can feel? Come, try me.
Fontanares You love me, Faustine. Am I all of life to you? Do you really make my grief your own?
Faustine One pang of yours becomes a thousand pangs to me!
Fontanares If then I die, you will die also. 'Tis plain, therefore, although your life is not worthy to be set against the love that I have lost, my course is taken.
Faustine Ah!
Fontanares With crossed arms I will await the day of my arrest. At the same stroke the soul of Marie and my soul shall rise to heaven.
Faustine (flinging herself at the feet of Fontanares) O Alfonso! Here, at your feet, I will remain till you have promised me—
Fontanares Leave me, shameless courtesan! (He spurns her.)
Faustine You have spoken this openly and in public; but remember, men oftentimes insult that which they are destined eventually to adore.
SCENE SEVENTEENTH
The same persons and Don Fregose.
Don Fregose Silence! Wretched journeyman! I refrain from transfixing your heart with my sword, only because I intend you to pay more dearly for this insult.
Faustine Don Fregose! I love this man; whether he makes of me his slave or his wife, my love shall be the aegis of his life.
Fontanares Am I to be the victim of fresh persecutions, my lord? I am overwhelmed with joy. Deal me a thousand blows; they will be multiplied a thousand fold, she says, in her heart. I am ready!
SCENE EIGHTEENTH
The same persons and Quinola.
Quinola Sir!
Fontanares And you also have betrayed me; you!
Quinola Off goes Monipodio, wafted towards Africa with recommendations on his hands and feet.
Fontanares What of that?
Quinola Under the pretext of robbing you, I have concealed in a cellar a second machine, for I took care that two should be made, while we only paid for one.
Fontanares Thus it is that a true friend renders despair impossible. (He embraces Quinola.) (To Fregose) My lord, write to the king and build, overlooking the harbor, an amphitheatre for two hundred thousand spectators; in ten days I will fulfill my promise, and Spain shall behold a ship propelled by steam in the face of wind and waves. I will wait until there is a storm that I may show how I can prevail against it.
Faustine (to Quinola) You have manufactured a machine—
Quinola No, I have manufactured two, as a provision against ill-luck.
Faustine What devils have you called in to assist you?
Quinola The three children of Job: Silence, Patience and Perseverance.
(Exeunt Fontanares and Quinola.)
SCENE NINETEENTH
Faustine and Don Fregose.
Don Fregose (aside) She is hateful, and yet I do not cease to love her.
Faustine I must have my revenge. Will you assist me?
Don Fregose Yes, and we will yet succeed in bringing him to ruin.
Faustine Ah! you love me in spite of all, don't you?
Curtain to the Fourth Act.
ACT V
SCENE FIRST
(The setting is the terrace of the town-hall of Barcelona, on each side of which are pavilions. The terrace looks on the sea and ends in a balcony in the centre of the stage; the open sea and the masts of vessels form the scenery. At the right of the spectator appear a large arm-chair and seats set before a table. The murmur of an immense crowd is heard. Leaning over the balcony Faustine gazes at the steamship. Lothundiaz stands on the left, in a condition of utter stupefaction; Don Fregose is seated on the right with his secretary, who is drawing up a formal account of the experiment. The Grand Inquisitor is stationed in the middle of the stage.)
Lothundiaz, the Grand Inquisitor and Don Fregose.
Don Fregose I am undone, ruined, disgraced! Even if I were to fall at the feet of the king, I should gain no pity from him.
Lothundiaz At what price have I purchased my patent of nobility! My son has been killed in an ambuscade in Flanders, and my daughter is dying; her husband, the governor of Roussillon, refused her permission to be present at the triumph of this devil of a Fontanares. How well she spoke when she said that I should repent of my willful blindness!
The Grand Inquisitor (to Don Fregose) The Holy Office has reminded the king of your past services; you will be sent as viceroy to Peru, where you will be able to repair your fortunes; but first finish your work here; let us crush this discoverer and check the progress of his dangerous innovation.
Don Fregose But how can we do so? The orders of the king must be obeyed, at least ostensibly.
The Grand Inquisitor We have taken such measures that obedience may be rendered both to the Holy Office and to the king. You have only to do as you are bidden. (To Lothundiaz) Count Lothundiaz, as the first municipal officer of Barcelona, you must offer to Don Ramon, in the name of the city, a crown of gold in honor of his discovery, whose result will secure to Spain the domination of the sea.
Lothundiaz (in astonishment) To Don Ramon!
The Grand Inquisitor and Don Fregose To Don Ramon.
Don Fregose You must address a eulogy to him.
Lothundiaz But—
The Grand Inquisitor It is the wish of the Holy Office that you do so.
Lothundiaz (kneeling) Pardon!
Don Fregose What is that the people are calling out?
(A cry is heard, "Long live Don Ramon!")
Lothundiaz Long live Don Ramon! Yes, indeed, and so much the better, for I shall be avenged for the wrong which I have done to myself.
SCENE SECOND
The same persons, Don Ramon, Mathieu Magis, the landlord of the Golden Sun, Coppolus, Carpano, Esteban, Girone, and all the people.
(All form a semicircle, in the centre of which is Don Ramon.)
The Grand Inquisitor In the name of the king of Spain, Castile and the Indies, I must express to you, Don Ramon, the congratulations of all upon the success of your mighty genius. (He leads him to the arm-chair.)
Don Ramon After all, he is but the hand, I am the head. The original idea is superior to the work of realizing it. (To the crowd) In such a moment as this, modesty would be an insult to the honors which I have attained through midnight vigils, and a man should openly show himself proud of his achievement.
Lothundiaz In the name of the city of Barcelona, Don Ramon, I have the honor to offer you this crown, due to your perseverance, as the author of an invention which will give you immortality.
SCENE THIRD
The same persons and Fontanares (his garments soiled with the work of his experiment).
Don Ramon I accept these honors, on condition that they be shared by the courageous artisan who has so well assisted me in my enterprise.
Faustine What modesty!
Fontanares Is this meant for a joke?
All Long live Don Ramon!
Coppolus In the name of the merchants of Catalonia, Don Ramon, we have come to beg your acceptance of this silver crown, a token of their gratitude for a discovery which is likely to prove a new source of prosperity to them.
All Long live Don Ramon!
Don Ramon It is with the keenest pleasure that I see that commerce recognizes the future developments of steam navigation.
Fontanares Let my laborers come forth! You, the children of the people, whose hands have completed my work, bear witness for me! It was from me only that you received the models. Say now, whether it was Don Ramon or I who originated the new power which the sea has felt to-day?
Esteban By my faith, you would have been in a pretty fix without Don Ramon!
Mathieu Magis It was two years ago, in the course of a conversation with Don Ramon, that he begged me to furnish funds for this experiment.
Fontanares (to Fregose) My lord, what strange delusion has fallen upon the people and burgesses of Barcelona? I arrive here in the midst of the acclamations with which Don Ramon is being greeted. Yes, I arrive bearing the traces of the vigils and sweat of this great enterprise, and I find you contentedly sanctioning the most shameful act of robbery that can be perpetrated in the face of heaven and earth. (Murmurs from the crowd.) Alone and unprotected I have risked my life on this enterprise. I was the first who pledged its accomplishment to the king, and unaided I have kept my pledge, and yet here in my place I find Don Ramon—an ignoramus.
(More crowd murmurs.)
Don Fregose An old soldier knows very little about scientific matters and must accept plain facts. All Catalonia conceded to Don Ramon the priority in this invention, and everybody here declares that without him you would have accomplished nothing. It is my duty to inform his majesty, the king, of these circumstances.
Fontanares The priority! Where are the proofs of this?
The Grand Inquisitor They are as follows: In his treatise on the casting of cannons Don Ramon speaks of a certain invention called Thunder, made by Leonardo da Vinci, your master, and says that it might be applied to the navigation of a ship.
Don Ramon Ah! young man, acknowledge that you had read my treatises!
Fontanares (aside) I would sacrifice all my glory for one hour of vengeance!
SCENE FOURTH
The same persons and Quinola.
Quinola (aside to Fontanares) Senor, the fruit was too fair, and a worm has been found in it!
Fontanares What do you mean?
Quinola Hell has belched back upon us, I know not how—Monipodio, all on fire for revenge; he is on board the ship with a band of devils, and swears to scuttle it, unless you guarantee him ten thousand sequins.
Fontanares (kneels) Thanks, thanks for that. O ocean, whom I once longed to subdue, thou art the sole protector that is left to me; thou shalt keep my secret to eternity! (To Quinola) See that Monipodio steers for the open sea and there scuttles the ship.
Quinola What is this? Do I understand you aright? Which of us two has lost his head?
Fontanares Do as I bid you.
Quinola But, my dear master—
Fontanares My life and yours are equally at stake.
Quinola Obey, without understanding why? For the first time I'll risk it. (Exit.)
SCENE FIFTH
The same persons, with the exception of Quinola.
Fontanares (to Don Fregose) My lord! Putting aside the question of priority, which can easily be decided, may I be permitted to withdraw my name from this debate, begging of you to accept the statement which is here drawn up and contains the justification before the king our master?
Don Ramon You acknowledge then my claim?
Fontanares I will acknowledge anything you like, even to the point that O plus O is a binomial!
Don Fregose (after consulting with the Grand Inquisitor) Your demand is perfectly legitimate; we will forward a copy of your statement, preserving here the original.
Fontanares I have, then, escaped with my life. Let me ask all of you here present, if you look upon Don Ramon as the real inventor of the vessel which has been propelled by steam before the eyes of two hundred thousand Spaniards?
All We do.
(Quinola makes his appearance.)
Fontanares Very good. Don Ramon has accomplished this prodigy. Don Ramon can begin his work again. (A loud explosion is heard.) The prodigy is no longer in existence. The employment of such a force is not without danger, and the danger which Don Ramon had not foreseen, has manifested itself, at the very moment while Don Ramon was receiving your congratulations! (Cries in the distance; everybody rushes to the balcony and gazes seaward.) I am avenged!
Don Fregose What will the king say?
The Grand Inquisitor France is all ablaze, the low countries in revolt, Calvin is stirring up all Europe; the king has too much business on his hands to worry himself about the loss of a ship. This new invention and the Reformation would have been too much at one time for the world! Now for some years the rapacity of maritime peoples has been checked.
(Exeunt omnes.)
SCENE SIXTH
Quinola, Fontanares and Faustine.
Faustine Alfonso, I have done you much wrong.
Fontanares Marie is dead, senora; I do not know the meaning of the words right and wrong, nowadays.
Quinola There is a man for you.
Faustine Forgive me, and I will devote myself to your future.
Fontanares Forgiveness! That word has been erased from my heart. There are situations in which the heart either breaks or turns to bronze. I am scarcely twenty-five years old, but to-day you have changed me into a man of fifty. You have lost to me one world, now you owe me another—
Quinola Let us turn our attention to politics.
Faustine And is not my love, Alfonso, worth a world?
Fontanares Yes, for you are a magnificent instrument of ruin and devastation. Yet it will be by means of you that I shall crush all those who have been an obstacle in my pathway; I take you, not for my wife, but for my slave, and you shall serve me.
Faustine Serve you blindly.
Fontanares But without hope that there will be any return—need I say of what? All here (he strikes his hand upon his heart) is of bronze. You have taught me what this world is made of. O world of self-interest, of trickery, of policy and of perfidy, I defy you to the combat!
Quinola Senor?
Fontanares What is it?
Quinola Am I in it with you?
Fontanares You? You are the only one who has still a place in my heart. We three will stand together; we will go—
Faustine Where?
Fontanares We will go to France.
Faustine Let us start at once; I know these Spaniards, and they are sure to plot your death.
Quinola The resources of Quinola are at the bottom of the sea. Be kind enough to excuse his faults; he will doubtless do better at Paris. Verily, I believe that hell is paved with good inventions.
Final Curtain.
THE END |
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