THE MUSKETEERS
Drama in a Prologue and Five Acts
by Alexandre Dumas père, 1845
Translated into English and adapted by Frank Morlock, 1992
Translation is Copyright © 1992 by Frank Morlock. Reproduction in any form is prohibited without explicit consent of Frank Morlock. Please contact frankmorlock@msn.com for licensing information.
For more information on this play, click here.
Table of Contents
Characters
PROLOGUE
The Inn of Pernes near Bethune. A door at the front to the right. A stairway in the back. At the left, a window and a door to the hotel.
(An unknown seated at a table. The host, hostess.)
INNKEEPER
What would you like?
UNKNOWN
Some bread and wine first, if you please -- for I haven't had anything since morning.
INNKEEPER
We'll give you that.
(Innkeeper opens the door to the cellar. The Hostess appears at the head of the stairs.)
HOSTESS
Eh! man!
INNKEEPER
What?
HOSTESS
The monk's mule.
INNKEEPER
(going down)
Good.
HOSTESS
Right away.
INNKEEPER
(from the depth of the cellar)
Ah, yes, right away. As though they paid well your Mendicant monks.
HOSTESS
This one pays -- he pays in gold even!
(Innkeeper reappears with a bottle in his hand.)
INNKEEPER
Bah! In that case it's another matter.
(he puts the bottle on the table and opens the window of the courtyard)
He! Pataud!
VOICE
What is it?
INNKEEPER
The mule for his Reverence -- right away.
UNKNOWN
You have a monk with you?
INNKEEPER
Yes.
UNKNOWN
Of what denomination?
INNKEEPER
Is there such a thing as an order of questioners?
UNKNOWN
I don't think so.
INNKEEPER
I'm angry -- this one would be surely.
UNKNOWN
He asks you many questions?
INNKEEPER
Lord God! He's done nothing but since he arrived. "How many people are there here in Bethune? Have you ever been in an Augustine convent?" They say one of his relatives lost something there. It's been a dozen years he's been looking for what he lost.
(Someone knocks at the window giving on the high way.)
VOICE
Hey, friend!
HOSTESS
Wait -- someone's knocking over there.
INNKEEPER
Some people on horseback. If they were Spanish--
HOSTESS
Oh! No -- since they speak French.
VOICE
Friend -- friend
(outside)
INNKEEPER
(opening)
What do you want, Brigadier?
BRIGADIER
Can you give me news of the Spanish army?
(He enters by the door at the left followed by some men.)
INNKEEPER
Ah -- damn -- all the world can tell you. The plunderers. You cannot go a hundred steps without meeting them.
BRIGADIER
Some partisans, yes -- but it is the regular army we are looking for.
(Mordaunt dressed in the robe of a monk appears at the top of the stairs, stops and listens.)
INNKEEPER
Ah! the army is another matter.
BRIGADIER
Listen. We've been sent by M. Le Prune. The Spanish Army has left its cantonments and we are not sure where it is. Fifty patrols are en route at this moment -- and there's a hundred pistoles to whoever can give exact news of the enemies' whereabouts.
UNKNOWN
I can give you that.
BRIGADIER
You?
UNKNOWN
Yes, me.
BRIGADIER
You know where the Spanish Army is?
UNKNOWN
I do. It crossed the Lys River yesterday.
BRIGADIER
Where?
UNKNOWN
Between Saint Venant and Aire.
BRIGADIER
By whom is it commanded?
UNKNOWN
By the Archduke in person.
BRIGADIER
How many men is it made up of?
UNKNOWN
Eighteen-thousand men.
BRIGADIER
And it's marching on?
UNKNOWN
On Lens.
BRIGADIER
How do you know these details?
UNKNOWN
I was returning from Hazebrouch to Bethune when the Spaniards captured me and forced me to serve as their guide. Three leagues from here, thanks to the darkness, I escaped.
BRIGADIER
And can we rely on the statements you have given?
UNKNOWN
As if you had seen them yourself, I tell you.
BRIGADIER
Your name?
UNKNOWN
Why?
BRIGADIER
To send you the promised reward, if your observations are exact.
UNKNOWN
Useless.
BRIGADIER
Why useless?
UNKNOWN
One speaks the truth for nothing -- One lies for money. I've spoken the truth -- you owe me nothing.
BRIGADIER
Still, my friend, since 100 pistoles have been promised by M. Le Prune.
UNKNOWN
If I've told the truth, you will send the hundred pistoles to the Cure of Bethune who will distribute them to the poor.
BRIGADIER
But we will drink a glass of wine together -- to the health of our general and to France.
UNKNOWN
Thanks!
BRIGADIER
Why that?
UNKNOWN
Because, you don't know me, and if one day, you should chance to know me, you might repent of having touched your glass to mine. Follow your route sir, and haste to bring the news I have given you to your general.
BRIGADIER
You are right. Your hand, my friend!
UNKNOWN
(recoiling)
It would be too much honor for me.
BRIGADIER
Singular personality
(to his men)
Come on -- En route!
(he leaves)
MORDAUNT
(aside)
Yes-singular personality. Yet, he lives in Bethune, as he said. Perhaps, through him, I will have some intelligence.
(Coming down and sitting at a table.)
HOSTESS
What do you want, my reverend?
MORDAUNT
A lamp -- that's all! I already asked for my mule.
HOSTESS
He's already coming.
MORDAUNT
Thanks.
(to Unknown)
You are from around here, Sir?
UNKNOWN
I am from Bethune.
MORDAUNT
Ah -- from Bethune -- and you lived in Bethune for a long time?
UNKNOWN
I was born here.
MORDAUNT
(to the Hostess who brings a lamp)
Thanks!
(he opens a geographic map -- to the unknown)
Sir, how far are we from Bethune to Lilliers?
UNKNOWN
Three leagues.
MORDAUNT
And from Bethune to Armentiers?
UNKNOWN
Seven.
MORDAUNT
Have you sometimes taken that route?
UNKNOWN
Often.
MORDAUNT
Is it very dangerous?
UNKNOWN
In what respect?
MORDAUNT
In respect that one can be assassinated?
UNKNOWN
At least it isn't in time of war -- as today, for example, the route is very secure.
MORDAUNT
Seven!
(aside)
I have indeed thought it -- it must be some special vengance. Ah, at my return, I will pass this way again -- I've spent enough time on the business of Mr. Cromwell so I can do a bit of my own --
(aloud)
Now sir, could you tell me --
(Enter De Winter and the Innkeeper.)
DE WINTER
(to Innkeeper)
Speak then, Master!
INNKEEPER
There, your Lordship!
MORDAUNT
(raising his head)
Oh! Oh!
DE WINTER
Where am I here if you please?
INNKEEPER
At Pernes, Sir.
MORDAUNT
(aside)
It's him. I didn't think he was in France.
DE WINTER
At Pernes between Lilliers and Saint-Pol then?
INNKEEPER
Exactly.
DE WINTER
That's fine.
INNKEEPER
Your Lordship desires that someone serve him supper?
DE WINTER
No -- I only want to get some information about the way --
MORDAUNT
(aside)
More I watch him, the more I hear him -- the more this face and voice --
INNKEEPER
Some information about the way -- at your service, sir.
DE WINTER
To go to Doulens -- which is the road one must take?
INNKEEPER
That to Paris.
DE WINTER
Then one has only to follow it to the right?
INNKEEPER
But this road is infested with Spanish partisans. I don't advise you to take it, or if you take it, go by day.
DE WINTER
Impossible -- I must continue on my way.
INNKEEPER
Then take the back road.
DE WINTER
But won't I get lost?
INNKEEPER
Ah -- damn -- at night.
DE WINTER
My friend, would you serve me as a guide.
HOSTESS
(approaching)
Oh no, sir!
(to her husband)
I really hope you won't accept.
DE WINTER
Why my good woman -- I will give a reward.
HOSTESS
No, sir, for all the gold in the world I won't let him go so someone can kill him.
DE WINTER
And who would do that?
HOSTESS
Who would do it? the Spanish Brigands, of course.
DE WINTER
My friend -- here are 20 pistoles for whoever will act as my guide.
INNKEEPER
If it were 40, sir, if it were a hundred, I would refuse. You see, there are things more precious in the world and that's life -- and to chance it at this hour in this country, in the midst of all these bandits, it's too play one's life on a roll of the dice.
DE WINTER
My friend, if money doesn't tempt you -- let me speak to you in the name of humanity -- in serving as my guide -- in aiding me to get to Paris as soon as possible, you will render an immense service to someone who is in danger of death.
UNKNOWN
(rising)
If it would be such a great service as you say, sir -- and you wish to accept me as your guide -- here I am.
DE WINTER
You.
UNKNOWN
Yes, me. Do you accept, sir?
DE WINTER
Certainly -- and in your turn, here -- my friend.
(wishing to give him a purse)
UNKNOWN
Pardon, sir, I said if there was a service to perform -- and not money to be gained.
DE WINTER
Then, sir --
UNKNOWN
Each makes his conditions -- these are mine.
DE WINTER
(aside)
This is singular. It seems to me I've seen this man before.
UNKNOWN
(aside)
I am not deceived. It is indeed him.
DE WINTER
(to Innkeeper)
Now, my friend, here's a guinea. Do exactly what I tell you to do.
INNKEEPER
Speak, sir.
DE WINTER
A man is waiting for me at Doulens at the Lis Courronne; but as I am late, it is possible that this man, having tired waiting for me -- pushes on to here.
INNKEEPER
How will I recognize him?
DE WINTER
Dressed as a lacky; thirty five to forty years of age -- hair and beard -- they were black. Silent like a stone; as to the rest -- he responds to the name of Grimaud.
INNKEEPER
And he will ask?
DE WINTER
He will ask for Lord de Winter.
UNKNOWN
(aside)
Indeed, it is him.
MORDAUNT
(aside)
Ah, my dear uncle, I would have thought you'd kept a stricter incognito.
INNKEEPER
What shall I say to him?
DE WINTER
I've gotten ahead of him and he will rejoin me. If he doesn't rejoin me, he will find me at Palais at my old lodging in the Palais Royale.
(to the Unknown)
Do you wish to come my friend?
UNKNOWN
Yes, sir, and it is not the first time that I served you as guide.
DE WINTER
How's that?
UNKNOWN
Recall the night of October 22.
DE WINTER
1636?
UNKNOWN
Yes -- recall the route from Bethune to Armentiers.
DE WINTER
Silence! Yes, I recognize you -- come-come--
(They leave by the left. The Innkeeper goes off to the right.)
MORDAUNT
(rising, aside)
The night of October 22 -- the road from Bethune to Armentiers. What a strange coincidence! The 22nd of October -- the day my mother died -- the road from Bethune to Armentiers -- the place where she disappeared. It's as if Chance is doing more for me than all the other calculation and research. Come on, I must follow this man.
(aloud)
My mule! My mule!
HOSTESS
You ask?
MORDAUNT
My mule is ready?
HOSTESS
She's waiting for you at the door.
MORDAUNT
Thanks. You are paid, right?
HOSTESS
Yes -- certainly. It only remains for me to ask your blessing.
MORDAUNT
(leaving)
God protect you!
HOSTESS
Pierre!
(calling)
Pierre -- come on, he just left. He won't be still until he's assassinated
(gunshots far off)
Ah, my God -- wait -- another fuselage -- Pierre P____!
(she opens the window)
Pataud!
VOICE
What?
HOSTESS
Have you seen your master?
VOICE
He's there in the garden.
HOSTESS
Ah -- just in time!
(she turns and perceives Grimaud)
Sir.
(Grimaud bows.)
HOSTESS
From where are you come?
(Grimaud points to the door.)
HOSTESS
By the door -- then you are on foot?
(Grimaud makes an affirmative sign.)
HOSTESS
Then what do you want?
(Grimaud makes a sign that he wants to drink.)
HOSTESS
I understand. You have the misfortune to be a mute, sir?
(Grimaud makes an affirmative sign.)
HOSTESS
Oh, poor dear man.
(The Innkeeper returns.)
HOSTESS
Speak, my friend, -- here's a fellow makes no noise -- he is mute.
INNKEEPER
Mute -- maybe it's our man. He resembles the description given to me.
(going to Grimaud)
Well sir! Are you looking for someone?
(Grimaud lifts his head.)
INNKEEPER
An Englishman
(same sign)
(pause)
Who is named Lord de Winter?
GRIMAUD
Yes.
HOSTESS
Alas! The mute can speak.
INNKEEPER
And your name?
GRIMAUD
Grimaud.
INNKEEPER
Well, Mr. Grimaud, the person who was waiting for you at Doulens.
GRIMAUD
Yes.
INNKEEPER
At the Courronne.
GRIMAUD
Yes.
INNKEEPER
Just left ten minutes ago with a guide -- and said to tell you to find him at Paris at his old lodgings in the Palais Royale.
GRIMAUD
Good!
INNKEEPER
Then, since your commission is finished, you will stay?
GRIMAUD
Yes.
INNKEEPER
Have you eaten?
GRIMAUD
No.
INNKEEPER
Then you will sup and sleep here?
GRIMAUD
Yes.
INNKEEPER
And will you leave?
GRIMAUD
Tomorrow.
INNKEEPER
Well -- here's one who isn't talkative.
(Someone knocks at the side door.)
HOSTESS
Who is there?
PATAUD
Open, open -- neighbors who bring a wounded man.
INNKEEPER
A wounded man!
UNKNOWN
It's I, it's I -- open!
HOSTESS
What, this brave men--?
INNKEEPER
Who accompanied the English Lord.
HOSTESS
Well -- was I right to say not to go?
INNKEEPER
A surgeon! A surgeon!
(to Grimaud)
Sir, you have a horse -- you must ride to St. Pol and return with a surgeon.
GRIMAUD
How many leagues?
INNKEEPER
A league and a half!
GRIMAUD
I'm going.
(he leaves)
HOSTESS
Poor brave man -- we must put him in a room.
UNKNOWN
Oh no, a mattress on this table. I suffer much.
INNKEEPER
(to wife)
Get a mattress.
(to Unknown)
What happened, sir?
UNKNOWN
Two hundred feet from here we were attacked by Spaniards, but happily nothing has happened to Lord de Winter.
(The Hostess throws a mattress from the top of the stairs.)
HOSTESS
There!
INNKEEPER
Fine -- lie on that -- a pillow -- a cushion. What can one do for you to ease you, sir?
UNKNOWN
Nothing. The wound is mortal.
INNKEEPER
Do you need anything?
UNKNOWN
Water, I'm thirsty!
INNKEEPER
Wait.
UNKNOWN
Thanks -- but can you go find me a priest?
(Mordaunt reappears at the door.)
HOSTESS
Ah, my reverend, come, come, it is the Lord you followed.
MORDAUNT
Here I am.
HOSTESS
(showing Mordaunt to the wounded man)
Sir.
UNKNOWN
By grace -- come quickly.
MORDAUNT
Let everyone leave us.
INNKEEPER
That's all right -- there a strange monk.
HOSTESS
Oh! You! You are a heretic.
(they leave)
MORDAUNT
I am here, speak!
UNKNOWN
You are very young.
MORDAUNT
People who wear my robe have no age.
UNKNOWN
Alas -- speak softly -- I have need of a friend in my last moments.
MORDAUNT
You are suffering a lot?
UNKNOWN
In the soul more than the body.
MORDAUNT
Speak, I am listening.
UNKNOWN
First, you musk know who I am.
MORDAUNT
Speak.
UNKNOWN
I am -- but I fear you will abandon me if you know who I am.
MORDAUNT
Have no fear.
UNKNOWN
I am the old executioner of Bethune.
MORDAUNT
The old executioner?
UNKNOWN
Oh -- but for the last ten years I haven't worked -- having a horror of myself -- for the last ten years I quit my job.
MORDAUNT
You are horrified of your work?
UNKNOWN
For the last 10 years, yes.
MORDAUNT
And before that?
UNKNOWN
Before that, I struck only in the name of law and justice. My condition let me sleep peacefully, sheltered as I was under justice and the law -- but after this terrible night where I served as the instrument of a private vengeance -- when I lifted with hate the sword on a creature of God -- since that night --
MORDAUNT
What did he say there?
UNKNOWN
I have tried to stifle this remorse by ten years of good works -- I have stripped the natural fury from those who shed blood, on every occasion I have exposed my life to save those who were in peril, and I have preserved alive humans, in exchange for those I have killed. That is not all. The wealth acquired in the exercise of my profession I have distributed to the poor. I come assiduously to churches, people who fled me are used to seeing me -- some even love me -- but it seems to me that God hasn't pardoned me -- for the memory of this murder pursues me without ceasing.
MORDAUNT
You have committed a murder?
UNKNOWN
So it seems to me. Each night to see the ghost of that woman rise up.
MORDAUNT
It was a woman?
UNKNOWN
Oh -- it was a cursed night.
MORDAUNT
What night was it?
UNKNOWN
The night of October 22, 1636.
MORDAUNT
(aside)
The same date he mentioned to Lord de Winter -- Ah! Justice of Heaven! If I can learn all --
(he passes his hand over his face)
And who was this woman you assassinated?
UNKNOWN
Assassinated! And you too, you speak like the voice that has run in my head -- assassinated -- Did I assassinate rather than execute her? Am I a murderer and not an officer of justice?
MORDAUNT
Continue, continue! I know nothing and I can say nothing. When you have finished your story, we shall see. And now, how was it done? Speak! Tell all! Omit nothing!
UNKNOWN
(turning on his pillow)
It was evening. I lived in a house in a remote street. A man who had the air of being a great lord, although he wore the simple uniform of a Musketeer -- knocked on my door and showed me an order signed "Richlieu". This order commanded obedience to the one who bore it.
MORDAUNT
The Order was indeed signed "Richlieu".
UNKNOWN
Yes, but I dare say it was intended to serve another end than the one to which it was put.
MORDAUNT
Continue!
UNKNOWN
I followed this man, reserving the right to resist the order if it was suspect. At the town gate four other cavaliers waited for us. We traveled five or six leagues, somberly, gloomily, silently without exchanging a word. A hundred feet from Armentiers a man hidden in a ditch rose up "Here it is" said he -- pointing by hand to a small isolated house -- at the window of which shone a light. We cut across country and directed ourselves toward the house -- There, other lackeys were stationed on the road. Each of them rose in his turn and joined us. The last, guarded the door. "Is she still there?" asked the man who brought me -- "Still," he replied.
MORDAUNT
What am I going to hear, My God?
UNKNOWN
Then we dismounted and left the horses to the lackeys. He struck me on the shoulder -- the same always -- and he showed me through the window pane by the light of a lamp, a woman resting her elbows on a table, and said to me "Here's the one that must be executed."
MORDAUNT
And you obeyed?
UNKNOWN
I was going to refuse when suddenly -- in looking at her more attentively, I recognized the woman in my turn.
MORDAUNT
You recognized her?
UNKNOWN
Yes -- As a young woman she had seduced and ruined my brother. One night both had vanished with sacred vessels from a church. I found my brother on a Gibbet. She, I had not seen again.
MORDAUNT
Continue!
UNKNOWN
Oh, I knew well I ought to pardon her -- It's the law of the evangelist -- It's the law of God. The man in me stifled the Christian, it seemed that my brother's voice cried out for vergence in my ear and I said, " It's all right, I will obey."
MORDAUNT
Continue!
UNKNOWN
Then the same one, always the same one, broke the window with a blow of his fist, the three others by the door. In seeing them she understood that she was lost -- she yelled out -- then pale and mute, as if in that one cry she had exhausted all her strength. She recoiled staggering to the point she was against the wall.
MORDAUNT
This is horrible!
UNKNOWN
Horrible, isn't it? But wait! Wait! Then they set up as accusers and each passed before her in his turn and reproached her. This one the assassination of his spouse, that one the poisoning of his mistress, and the other -- The other was me --The other the dishonor and the death of his brother -- There with a single voice, the same voice, a unanimous voice they pronounced the penalty of death, and I
MORDAUNT
And you?
UNKNOWN
And I who had condemned her with the others -- I, I -- I undertook to execute her.
MORDAUNT
(rising)
Wretch! And you committed this crime?
UNKNOWN
On my salvation, I believed it to be justice.
MORDAUNT
And neither prayers nor tears for without doubt she prayed and cried -- neither beauty nor youth for she was young and beautiful wasn't she? Nothing touched you?
UNKNOWN
Nothing! I believed she was the demon himself who had taken the form of that woman.
MORDAUNT
Ah -- no more doubt now.
(He rises and goes to push the bolt in the door.)
UNKNOWN
You are leaving me? You abandon me?
MORDAUNT
No, no, be easy -- I'm right here -- Now let us see -- reply -- but without hiding anything, without being silent. Think that the frankness of your admissions alone can bring on you the mercy of Heaven. These five men, these five wretches. These five assassins. Who were they?
UNKNOWN
I didn't know their names, I have never known. They wore the uniforms of musketeers. That's all I know.
MORDAUNT
All?
UNKNOWN
No -- one alone was dressed as a gentlemen -- but he wasn't French -- he was...
MORDAUNT
He was?
UNKNOWN
He was an Englishman.
MORDAUNT
His name.
UNKNOWN
I have forgotten his name!
MORDAUNT
You lie.
UNKNOWN
My God!
MORDAUNT
His name?
UNKNOWN
No, I cannot.
MORDAUNT
I am going to tell you his name -- His name is Lord De Winter.
UNKNOWN
What do you say?
MORDAUNT
I said his name's Lord De Winter and that he was just here -- I say that it was with him you left.
UNKNOWN
How do you know that?
MORDAUNT
Now -- the name of this woman?
UNKNOWN
I never knew it. They called her "Milady" that's all.
MORDAUNT
"Milady"! But sure she had seduced your father, since she was the cause of the death of your brother -- as you pretend -- since this young woman escaped with sacred vessels from a church you ought to know the name of that young...
UNKNOWN
Yes, that one -- I know it.
MORDAUNT
Her name?
UNKNOWN
It seems to me I am going to die.
MORDAUNT
Oh -- don't die without having told me her name.
UNKNOWN
We'll you pardon me?
MORDAUNT
Her name, I tell you, her name!
UNKNOWN
Anne De Breuil.
MORDAUNT
(aside)
Ah -- my presentiments didn't deceive me!
UNKNOWN
Now, now, that you know her name -- pardon me, I am dying.
MORDAUNT
Me, pardon you? Pardon you. You know who I am?
UNKNOWN
Who are you then?
MORDAUNT
I am John Francis De Winter.
UNKNOWN
De Winter!
MORDAUNT
And this woman.
UNKNOWN
(rising)
This woman?
MORDAUNT
Well, this woman was my mother.
UNKNOWN
Your mother?
MORDAUNT
Yes, my mother, do you understand? My mother! Dead -- without my knowing either where or how.
UNKNOWN
Oh -- pardon me --! Pardon me!
MORDAUNT
Pardon you --? Pardon you? God perhaps -- I never will.
UNKNOWN
From pity.
MORDAUNT
No pity for he who had no pity. Die cursed, die desperate -- die and be damned.
(he strikes him with his poignard)
UNKNOWN
Help! Help!
VOICE
(outside)
Open! Open.
MORDAUNT
One Moment.
(he throws himself towards the window and jumps outside -- the Innkeeper and his wife and Grimaud enter the chamber precipitously)
GRIMAUD
What's wrong with him?
UNKNOWN
Help!
INNKEEPER
The Monk -- where is the monk?
UNKNOWN
He knifed me -- And it was justice -- The monk was her son.
GRIMAUD
What son?
UNKNOWN
(seeing Grimaud)
My God!
GRIMAUD
What?
UNKNOWN
You were one of the four lackeys of the four Lords that night.
GRIMAUD
Yes --
UNKNOWN
Well this monk is her son.
GRIMAUD
The son of Milady?
UNKNOWN
Take this dagger -- carry it to the four gentlemen and tell them what you know.
(he dies)
GRIMAUD
Ah. You are right -- not a moment to lose. The Comte de la Fere, The Comte de la Fere.
INNKEEPER
(stopping him)
Well -- and this man?
GRIMAUD
This man is dead.
(Curtain)
ACT I
Scene i
The chamber of D'Artagnan, at the Hotel de la Chevrette, of Mme. Turquenne, in Paris. At the right a door opening on a staircase, to the left center is an armoire closed by a curtain. Center, a large window.
MADELEINE
(alone)
(she holds a jerkin and brushes it)
Ah here's a jerkin of blue velour that I didn't know Mr. D'Artnagnan had. Without doubt it is with this that he makes his conquests, the ingrate. But what do I feel in his pockets? Some papers. Some will say that it's curiosity on my part, but after all, I have the right to be curious. Here's a love letter. I was sure of it.
(she unfolds a paper and reads it)
"Young turkey in mincemeat, stuffed carp, fried a la Mazarin, three bottles of wine from Anjou." This is already an infidelity. For the table of the Chevrette ought to suffice for a gallant man. But this infidelity I will still let pass.
(pulling out another letter)
(she reads)
"Sir, your adversary begins to enter convalescence. He has only three sword cuts which worry me, the others are healing into scars already." Ah! It's that Swiss sergeant who was installed in my hotel much against my will -- I can testify to that -- and whom. D'Artagnan found established in his chambers on his return from the Flanders campaign. He left after five sword blows -- poor dear man --
(folding a uniform)
Ah, D'Artagnan, you were amorous in those days. For you were jealous of the whole world especially the Swiss. Let's let that go.
This is the sacred doublet, the famous cassock of the musketeers, which we protect like a relic. Let's see if there isn't some relic in the pockets. Ah, ah papers tied with a favor. Ah traitor -- a blue favor. Let's begin with this little tightly folded letter; this incontestably ought to be from a woman, "My dear D'Artagnan" -- Her dear D'Artagnan" I confess that your memory pursued me even to my convent of Noisy Le See" Ah there's a letter, I hope -- It is frightful!
(hearing noise outside)
Ah, my God -- some uproar! It's him. Quickly, the uniforms, the doublets in this armoire -- Well -- Where did the Cassock go now -- Ah here it is! When he leaves I will put the letter back -- but this time although I've found the little cache I intend to know what it means.
(Enter D'Artagnan.)
D'ARTAGNAN
Ah, ah! Dear, Madame Turquenne, you're here.
MADELEINE
Yes Monsieur D'Artagnan, yes, you see I am picking up.
D'ARTAGNAN
How useless it is to say "I am picking up" The fact is Madeleine
(looking around him)
That you pick up -- often!
MADELEINE
Well it's the duty of a good wife and I am yours
(D'Artagnan look at her sideways)
Your housekeeper I mean -- Oh! I have no pretention to aspire to the hand of a lieutenant of the Musketeers.
D'ARTAGNAN
Fine, Madame -- I thought that your ideas of marriage carried off your wits.
MADELEINE
Alas, Monsieur D'Artagnan since you had such a categorical explanation with me! --
D'ARTAGNAN
My dear Madame Turquenne -- short reckonings make long long friends, besides I am not sure that the late Monsieur Turquenne is dead. I've seen husbands return just to hang their successor -- But this is no time to debate the existence or non-existence of your first spouse, my dear Madeleine -- it's time to find--
MADELEINE
What?
D'ARTAGNAN
Some ideas, many ideas, excellent ideas.
MADELEINE
Oh when you need them, you know where to find them.
D'ARTAGNAN
From you, right, my dear Madame Turquenne?
MADELEINE
No -- but behind my fagots.
D'ARTAGNAN
That's an old proverb of Athos'. There are more ideas in bottom of a simple bottle then in the head of 40 academicians.
MADELEINE
You need many ideas?
D'ARTAGNAN
I need two -- but of superior quality, you understand Madeleine? A bold, boiling energetic red seal. The other gay ingenious, fantastic green seal.
MADELEINE
Yes, with a slice of venison pie?
D'ARTAGNAN
That I've seen deeply in passing. It's extraordinary my dear Madeleine Turquenne how you read my heart.
(he folds her in his arms)
MADELEINE
(touching the pocket of his uniform) Wait? What have you here?
Some money?
D'ARTAGNAN
Indeed!
MADELEINE
You who always complain of lacking it?
D'ARTAGNAN
It's not mine. It's a deposit given me by the government.
MADELEINE
Oh! Deceiver that you are! I am sure that if I opened this secretary here --
D'ARTAGNAN
Madeleine, don't commit such an imprudence. It's a secretary to a secret which comes from a family and which has already slain three imprudent woman who had the boldness -- But dear Madame Turquenne, you have spoken to me of fagots I believe -- one mustn't mention this in conversation.
MADELEINE
Ah, you can boast of having a manner of making women do what you wish.
D'ARTAGNAN
It's the result of 15 years of study Madame Turquenne, that's the great advantage men have over woman -- it's that wine, the more one tastes it, the better one knows it, while with woman -- to the contrary.
MADELEINE
That's good, that's good -- I'll go get you two bottles.
D'ARTAGNAN
Go then, and shut the door.
(Exit Madeleine)
D'ARTAGNAN
(alone)
Huh! how this is set up. She has only one fault and that's never having enough of her own pockets. How she felt suddenly in mine the money of his Eminence. But -- fool hardy! The money of Mazarin. Leprous green Italian pedant! go! Hundred pistoles! I believed at first it was dubloons from Spain -- That would have been worth the trouble -- A hundred pistoles! "On account, Monsieur D'Artagnan" Cursed Mazarin. "Yes, my lieutenant, begin by breaking legs and arms -- exchange great blows of the sword, get a hole in your doublet with a pistol shot -- and I will give you 100 pistoles -- on account." And when is the accounting, contemptible wretch that you are! When I ask you for it, what? The least of things -- a commission as Baron for Porthos who is dying to have a title? He takes a parchment -- he writes names -- he engraves the title and returns it to me without signing it. "But, the signature" -- "On your return Monsieur D'Artagnan" -- "And if we don't return?" "Damnation, that's your concern. You'd better return." "And the Queen with her big nose -- her Austrian lip and her beautiful insolent hands" "Monsieur D'Artagnan -- Will be very devoted to Her Majesty." I will be devoted for a hundred pistoles to the King -- and yet -- yet -- what am I saying -- for the hundred pistoles or really twenty five for Athos, twenty five for Porthos and twenty five for Aramis.
(he laughs with pity)
It is true that if I don't find them -- yes, but I must find them -- they're worthy friends I have not seen for so many years. What a strange thing! One lives 3,4,5 years together, it seems we cannot live apart -- they say it, they repeat it, they believe it -- then comes a whirlwind which sends one to the south, the other to the north -- another to the east, another to the west. One loses sight of each other and all is finished hardly even a letter. Now let's not accuse each other, I received one from Athos -- it was in 1643 six months or thereabouts after the death of Cardinal Richelieu -- let's see where was that? It, it was at the siege of Besancon I recall I was cut off. What did he say to me then? Ah, that he was living on a small estate. Yes, but where? I was reading it when a blast of wind carried Athos' letter to the other side of town. I let the wind take the letter to the Spanish who didn't need it and who ought to send it back to me today when I need it -- Then let's think no more of Athos but of Porthos and Aramis. They too, wrote to me -- Where are their letters? Ah, probably in my best cassock
(he opens the Armoire)
Ah, -- Madeliene Straightened up. I'm very glad to know in what manner she straightens up -- I will make her my compliment -- Poor cassock! Here's one that's seen many adventures, and assisted at many battles -- Also, it's kept its scars -- here's the gap from a Biscayen who scorched my skin at the Bastion of Saint Gervais when our combat of heroic memory four against a hundred -- 25 to 1 -- just like his Eminence's pistoles. Here's a glorious scar -- By whose hand was it made? I don't recall -- It's singular that of all the most solid tissues which can be sewn up again -- the most easy is the human skin. This buff cassock is not good for anything -- and Monsieur D'Artagnan still values it. But for all that, I haven't found my letters -- Is it the devil, then? Those unfortunate hundred pistoles have bewitched me; they were in this pocket here -- the letters Ah! I believe, Madeleine who straightens up so well -- Madeleine. Madeleine!
(Madeleine enters.)
MADELEINE
Here I am, here I am -- I was going to the cellar.
D'ARTAGNAN
Fine -- tell me, Madeleine --
MADELEINE
(aside)
He's been in the suitcase.
(aloud)
Red label.
(aside)
He must have discovered something.
(aloud)
Green style label, look!
D'ARTAGNAN
Dear Madame Turquenne -- you overwhelm me -- But put the bottles on the table and come here.
MADELEINE
Oh -- What's that bag?
D'ARTAGNAN
Always government money -- Don't touch it -- it burns your fingers -- Besides -- we've got to talk.
MADELEINE
Well -- let's talk.
D'ARTAGNAN
Madeleine, my child -- we have been straightening up in the chamber of this good Monsieur D'Artagnan.
MADELEINE
So here we are!
(aloud)
But, yes -- as usual -- I cannot say no -- you found me busy at it --
D'ARTAGNAN
To pick up -- That is to say in straightening up -- we turned the pockets out --
MADELEINE
Me -- No, no, never--!
D'ARTAGNAN
Madeleine, dear friend among the qualities which make you precious in my eyes, there is one which I wish you would find a way to get rid of. You are horribly jealous and you know, Madeleine, a great prophet said, or if he didn't say it, should have said, "Jealousy causes women to go into drawers, tables and pockets of breeches" you understand, Madeleine?
MADELEINE
Oh, one doesn't make that kind of reproach to me.
D'ARTAGNAN
Never mind -- the moral is never lost -- listen then -- my dear Madeleine -- if as you are always saying you want the best for me -- God's blood -- don't make me the most unhappy of men!
MADELEINE
I don't know what to say.
D'ARTAGNAN
They were in my pocket, Madeleine -- in this pocket, here -- three letters. Do you understand quite well? The pocket does not have a hole in it. They were wrapped in blue ribbon.
MADELEINE
Ah -- I see -- That was very gallant.
D'ARTAGNAN
My little Madeleine, you see that I am very calm, very charming and that I haven't been the least violent -- let's do things politely -- admit to me that in folding my old clothes, this packet of letters fell out -- right? And you put it back -- let's see -- give it to me -- damnation!
MADELEINE
You know, Mr. D'Artagnan, that I don't do my lodger's clothes washing.
D'ARTAGNAN
By God! Madeleine. I am not angry -- no, no, no -- I don't wish to be the least angry -- but if someone doesn't find the address for me of Athos, Porthos, and Aramis -- especially Porthos, and Aramis -- especially Porthos -- I will strangle everyone in the entire hotel.
MADELEINE
Don't shout so, Mr. D'Artagnan.
D'ARTAGNAN
The address of Porthos, God's blood -- damnation -- Zounds!
MADELEINE
People will think we are fighting! Wait -- someone's coming.
D'ARTAGNAN
(listening)
Oh My God! That step -- three hundred pounds of weight --
(they come slowly)
I was stupid enough to believe that Providence was helping me. I thought it was the step of Porthos --
(a knock)
If I didn't know my worthy friend was on his estate, I don't know where, I would say that was Porthos' fist.
MADELEINE
Eh! But he's going to break down my door, this gentleman.
PORTHOS
(outside)
Well -- doesn't one open the door for his friend anymore?
D'ARTAGNAN
It's Porthos' voice. Here's a coincidence!
(opens the door, Porthos enters with Mousqueton)
Porthos -- in flesh and blood! Ah, dear friend!
(he jumps on his neck)
PORTHOS
With my faithful Mousqueton -- as you see -- don't you recognize me?
D'ARTAGNAN
Indeed. But I thank chance.
PORTHOS
Chance?
D'ARTAGNAN
Yes.
PORTHOS
It isn't chance that brought me here but your letter.
D'ARTAGNAN
Huh? My letter?
PORTHOS
Without doubt.
(giving him the letter)
It is indeed to me "To Monsieur du Vallon de Bracieux de Pierrefonds."
D'ARTAGNAN
Ah - de Pierrefonds -- that's it. That's the name of the chateau. I recall it now. Never mind. It's not I who wrote you.
PORTHOS
Huh?
(reading)
Find yourself on the 20th of October 1648 at the Hotel de la Chevette, Madame Turquenne, at Paris -- where your old friend D'Artagnan lives who will be entranced to see you." That's what it says.
D'ARTAGNAN
Yes -- but it wasn't written by me -- that's all I can tell you.
MADELEINE
This is a letter that fell from one of Monsieur's old clothes.
PORTHOS
It's possible!
(seeing Madeleine)
But I ask your pardon, Madam -- I didn't have the honor of seeing you.
D'ARTAGNAN
My dear Porthos, I present to you Madame Madeleine Turquenne -- the most careful hotelkeeper in France and Navarre. A woman who never lets the papers of her tenants lie about untidily -- but speak no more of that. You are here, Porthos. That's the thing. Why you came is of little importance -- it will clear itself up -- My dear, Madame Turquenne -- Monsieur Porthos is going to have dinner with me.
MADELEINE
Then two red labels and two green labels -- Let's go get them.
D'ARTAGNAN
Go ahead.
(Madeleine goes out)
D'ARTAGNAN
And now, dear friend, while waiting for the reinforcements Madeleine is going to procure for us -- let's speak a word about these two bottles.
PORTHOS
Yes, willingly.
D'ARTAGNAN
God's blood -- How well you look dear Porthos.
PORTHOS
Yes -- my health is fine.
(sighs)
D'ARTAGNAN
And still strong?
PORTHOS
More than ever. Do you know that at my chateau I have a library?
D'ARTAGNAN
Bah! You must be rich, my dear Porthos, that you allow yourself such useless expenditures?
PORTHOS
It came as part of the chateau which I bought completely furnished.
D'ARTAGNAN
Good -- but what has this library in common with your strength?
PORTHOS
Listen -- in the library, there is a book.
D'ARTAGNAN
What -- only a single book in your library?
PORTHOS
Not at all -- wait -- Mousqueton -- how many books are there in my library?
MOUSQUETON
Six thousand, sir.
PORTHOS
There are six thousand books.
(he sighs again)
D'ARTAGNAN
Wonderful!
PORTHOS
Well, amongst those six thousand books, there was a very interesting treatise on the 12 labors of Hercules. The exploits of Theseus and the feats of Milon of Croton. Well, - down there to distract me, I did all that Milon of Croton had done.
D'ARTAGNAN
You have slaughtered a bull with a single blow of your fist?
PORTHOS
Yes.
D'ARTAGNAN
You carried it on your shoulders 500 paces?
PORTHOS
Six hundred.
D'ARTAGNAN
And you ate it in one day.
PORTHOS
Almost -- there's only one thing I have been unable to do.
D'ARTAGNAN
What?
PORTHOS
It is stated in the book that Milon encircled his face with a rope, and that by inflating his muscles, he broke the cord.
D'ARTAGNAN
Ah -- it's because your strength is not in your head Porthos.
PORTHOS
No, it is in my arms.
D'ARTAGNAN
Hang it! How happy you are Porthos! Rich, well dressed and good!
PORTHOS
Yes, I am happy.
(he signs for the 3rd time)
D'ARTAGNAN
Porthos, there's the third sigh that you've uttered.
PORTHOS
You think so?
D'ARTAGNAN
Wait, my friend -- they reveal that something torments you.
PORTHOS
Really?
D'ARTAGNAN
Do you have problems in your family?
PORTHOS
I don't have any family.
D'ARTAGNAN
Are you having trouble living with Madame du Vallon.
PORTHOS
She died almost 3 years ago.
D'ARTAGNAN
Ah -- she's dead?
PORTHOS
Yes -- right Mousqueton?
MOUSQUETON
Almost two years ago, yes, sir.
D'ARTAGNAN
But then, dear boy, why are you sighing?
PORTHOS
Listen, D'Artagnan -- I'm in need of something.
D'ARTAGNAN
What the devil can you lack? You have chateaux, fields, lands -- woods, mountains, you are rich, you're a widower, you're strong as Milon of Croton and you don't have to worry about being eaten one day by lions.
PORTHOS
It's true -- I have all that, but I am ambitious.
D'ARTAGNAN
You, ambitious, Porthos?
PORTHOS
Yes -- all the world has something except me. You are a chevalier so is Aramis -- Athos is a Count.
D'ARTAGNAN
And you want to be Baron?
PORTHOS
Ah.
D'ARTAGNAN
(drawing the commission)
Stretch out your arm, Porthos.
PORTHOS
To do what?
D'ARTAGNAN
To stretch -- again -- well?
PORTHOS
A commission with French seals.
D'ARTAGNAN
Read!
PORTHOS
"Royal ordnance which awards the title of Baron to M. de Vallon.
D'ARTAGNAN
Baron -- it's written.
PORTHOS
Ah, yes, but it is not signed.
D'ARTAGNAN
One cannot have everything at the same time. First, the commission. You will receive the signature later.
PORTHOS
And what must one do to get this signature?
D'ARTAGNAN
Ah - damnation! Quit your chateau -- get back in harness, run adventures -- and, as before, -- leave some of our skin on the way.
PORTHOS
The Devil! Then it's war you propose to me?
D'ARTAGNAN
Have you followed politics, dear friend?
PORTHOS
Me? To do what?
D'ARTAGNAN
Are you for the Prince or for Mazarin?
PORTHOS
Me? I'm for whoever makes me Baron.
D'ARTAGNAN
Good response, Porthos' -- and are you disposed to follow me?
PORTHOS
To the end of the world.
D'ARTAGNAN
Well, while waiting, go to your hotel and put on your leather and armor.
PORTHOS
Ten minutes -- ten minutes, that's all -- I ask only ten minutes of you.
D'ARTAGNAN
Do you have a good horse?
PORTHOS
I have four -- right, Mousqueton?
MOUSQUETON
Yes sir -- Bayard, Roland, Joyeuse and LaRochelle.
D'ARTAGNAN
In that case, don't lost time. Perhaps we'll leave today.
PORTHOS
Bah!
D'ARTAGNAN
I will come get you, my boy, when you are ready.
PORTHOS
As you will find us! Where are we going to?
D'ARTAGNAN
I don't know where.
PORTHOS
But if you don't know where we are going, we will undoubtedly get lost.
D'ARTAGNAN
Take it easy! Cardinal Mazarin will send us a guide.
PORTHOS
God! And when we return, I will be a Baron.
D'ARTAGNAN
That's agreed. Go equip yourself.
PORTHOS
Are you coming, Mouseton?
MOUSQUETON
Yes, monsieur le baron.
PORTHOS
(softening)
Ah! There's a word I will never forget in my life.
D'ARTAGNAN
(astonished -- aside)
Mousqueton?
(Porthos leaves)
D'ARTAGNAN
(stopping Mousqueton)
Pardon me dear Mousqueton, but haven't you had the misfortune to lose a syllable of your name? How the devil did that accident happen to you?
MOUSQUETON
Sir -- since from a lackey, I have been raised to the position of steward to monsignor -- I have taken this last name which is more worthy -- and which serves to make me respected by my subordinates.
D'ARTAGNAN
I understand. You and your master have each your ambition. He to lengthen his name, you to shorten yours. Go, Monsieur Mousqueton.
(Mousqueton leaves)
D'ARTAGNAN
(alone)
Decidedly it isn't as difficult as some people think to lead men. Study their interests, flatter their self love, goad them firmly, and shake hands. They will go where you wish. Look, here's Porthos engaged for the account of the Cardinal -- it's always like that. Yes, but he isn't enough. We need Athos and Aramis -- Oh! How they are going to need us these poor friends! It's true that Athos is a little old -- he was always our elder -- and then he drank horribly -- he will be completely besotted. It's irritating that so noble a nature, such a powerful intellect, such a noble lord, a man who spends money like heaven makes hail, and who takes his sword in his hand with an air truly royal... Well this noble gentleman, with proud eye, -- this handsome cavalier, so brilliant under arms, that one is always astonished that he holds s simple sword and not a baton of command. Well -- he will be transformed into some old twisted old man -- red-nosed, eyes weeping -- oh! What a frightful thing is wine
(drinking)
when it is bad.
(Enter Madeleine)
MADELEINE
M. le Comte de la Fere
D'ARTAGNAN
Who is this Comte de la Fere?
MADELEINE
Hell -- I don't know -- a handsome lord.
D'ARTAGNAN
Young.
MADELEINE
Thirty-five to forty.
D'ARTAGNAN
Bold manners?
MADELEINE
The air of a King.
ATHOS
(outside)
Well -- dear D'Artagnan, are you visible?
D'ARTAGNAN
Ah! My God! That was his voice. Bring him in, Madeleine.
(Enter Athos)
D'ARTAGNAN
Athos, my friend.
ATHOS
D'Artagnan, my dear son, didn't you want to see me?
(they embrace)
D'ARTAGNAN
Oh, dear friend yes, -- but the name de la Fere -- which I never heard you use --
ATHOS
It's my ancestors name which I've taken back. But if I've changed my name -- I haven't changed my heart -- or you either, right?
D'ARTAGNAN
Athos, I was thinking of you this very day. This very day I asked your address of Porthos.
ATHOS
Has he come too?
D'ARTAGNAN
Yes -- do you know what must happen?
ATHOS
Continue, D'Artagnan -- you say you asked my address from Porthos.
D'ARTAGNAN
Yes -- I wanted to see you again.
ATHOS
In fact, poor friend, it's been a long while since we saw each other.
D'ARTAGNAN
Now I think of it, I have offered you nothing. Here's this little burgundy wine which you and Grimaud so rudely drank in the cellar of the hostler at Beauvais. Where is the Brave Grimaud? I hope he is still in your service.
ATHOS
Yes, my friend, but at the moment, he's traveling.
D'ARTAGNAN
Drink then.
ATHOS
Thanks D'Artagnan. I no longer drink -- at least I drink nothing else than water.
D'ARTAGNAN
You, Athos, become a drinker of water? Impossible! You, the most intrepid drinker of all Monsieur Trevilles musketeers.
ATHOS
Did you find I drank like everybody, my friend?
D'ARTAGNAN
No, it's true! You had at first a way of breaking the neck of a bottle which was all your own, and then you didn't drink like others. The eye of a drinker shines when he carries the cup to his mouth -- your eye said nothing -- but never was silence so eloquent. It seemed to murmur "Enter liquor and chase away cares."
ATHOS
In fact, that's the way it was, my friend.
D'ARTAGNAN
And the cause of these cares?
ATHOS
She doesn't exist any longer, my friend.
D'ARTAGNAN
So much the worse!
ATHOS
So much the worse?
D'ARTAGNAN
Yes, I'm going to propose a distraction to you.
ATHOS
What?
D'ARTAGNAN
It would be to take up our old life again. Let's see Athos, if real advantages wait for you -- wouldn't it be easy to start over in my company and that of our friend Porthos -- the exploits of our youth?
ATHOS
So -- you're making me a proposition?
D'ARTAGNAN
Neat and clear.
ATHOS
To enter a campaign?
D'ARTAGNAN
Yes.
ATHOS
On whose behalf -- against whom?
D'ARTAGNAN
Ah! the Devil -- you are pressing.
ATHOS
And very precise. Listen, D'Artagnan, there's only one cause in which a man like myself can be useful -- it's that of the King.
D'ARTAGNAN
Exactly.
ATHOS
Yes, but listen -- if by cause of the King, you mean to say that of Cardinal Mazarin -- we will cease to listen to each other.
D'ARTAGNAN
The Devil. That's what tangles me up.
ATHOS
Let's not play to the end D'Artagnan. Your hesitation and detours tell me enough on whose part you come -- this cause -- in effect -- one cannot admit it aloud -- and when one recruits for it, it is with lowered and embarrassed voice.
D'ARTAGNAN
Ah, my dear Athos.
ATHOS
Eh, my dear D'Artagnan. You know I don't speak of you for you are the pearl of brave men -- loyal and bold. I speak of that Italian miser and intriguer, of this vulgar blob who strives to coiffeur his head with a crown which he has stolen from the queen -- of this rogue who calls his role, the role of the King, and who counsels to put the princes of the blood in prison, not daring to kill them as would the Great Richeleiu, of this skinflint who weighs his gold crowns -- and who hides the parings from fear although he cheats; losing them the next day at play; of a clown now who mistreats the queen while counseling her reassuringly -- and who is going in about six weeks to bring us to a civil war -- to protect his pensions. If he's the master you propose to me -- thanks so much!
D'ARTAGNAN
You are speaking out at your ease, my dear friend -- you are happy, it appears in your golden mediocrity. Porthos has fifty or 60,000 pounds rent perhaps. Aramis must have 15 Duchesses who dispute over Aramis of Noisy le See as they fought over Aramis the Musketeer; he's still a sort of spoilt child. But me -- am I in this world? I wore my buff and armor for more than 20 years -- stuck in this insufficient grade, without advancing, without going back -- without living. In a word, I am dead. Well, when it's a question for me to succeed a little, to go from lieutenant to captain. You will see me say "It's a rogue, a skinflint, a bad master," By God, dear friend, I know him as well as you -- But find me a better or make me independently wealthy.
ATHOS
Well, that's what we thought, Aramis and I my friend -- and that's why I wrote to Porthos and Aramis to come here today.
D'ARTAGNAN
Ah -- now I understand this coincidence.
ATHOS
You haven't seen them already?
D'ARTAGNAN
Porthos, yes -- Aramis no.
ATHOS
It's strange! Aramis is the closest of the three. Aramis has only three or four leagues from his convent at Noissy le See to Paris.
D'ARTAGNAN
What do you expect, my dear! Aramis always has some penance to perform and with a vocation like his, one doesn't leave his convent so easily.
ATHOS
Well, you deceive yourself my friend. Aramis has become a musketeer again and more musketeer than ever. He drinks, talks boisterously, compromises ladies -- fights once a month and is called only the Cavalier d'Herbaly -- still he is late -- well, my friend, I suspect that he followed some skirt who made him lose the road to the Rue Tiquetoune.
(Enter Aramis)
ARAMIS
Ah, my good friends, an adorable adventure -- Bonjour count, bonjour dear D'Artagnan.
D'ARTAGNAN
Dear Aramis, here you are then.
ARAMIS
In person. Conceive a charming women I just met in church.
D'ARTAGNAN
And whom you followed.
ARAMIS
Right to her carriage.
D'ARTAGNAN
And from her carriage.
ARAMIS
Right to the door of a magnificent hotel -- an adorable person who reminded me of poor Marie Michon.
D'ARTAGNAN
Bad subject!
ATHOS
You see him! Always the same!
ARAMIS
Less hypocritical. For before I admit it, my friends, I was a real hypocrite.
(Enter Porthos armed for war.)
PORTHOS
It's really true!
ARAMIS
Ah, it's you Porthos! Bonsoir.
PORTHOS
But is it a surprise?
D'ARTAGNAN
Yes, my dear Porthos, a surprise arranged by Athos and the most agreeable as you see.
PORTHOS
(pressing Aramis to his breast)
Ah, dear Aramis, let me press you to my heart dear friend.
ARAMIS
(choked)
Eh! say rather, it's not your heart that you're pressing me to, it's your armor.
ATHOS
(giving his hand to Porthos)
Are you leaving for the crusades my dear du Vallon?
PORTHOS
My word, I don't know -- I only know I'm leaving -- that's all.
D'ARTAGNAN
Hush! They are not with us.
PORTHOS
Bah!
ARAMIS
(low to Athos)
Have you spoken to them of the Prince and of the voyage that DeWinter has made to Paris?
ATHOS
(low)
Useless, they are for Mazarin.
ARAMIS
(low)
We can act without them.
PORTHOS
(low to D'Artagnan)
What are we doing then?
D'ARTAGNAN
(low)
We will leave without them.
MADELEINE
(who all this while has put the cover on the table)
Gentlemen, the table is ready.
D'ARTAGNAN
Then let's profit from the wealth god sends us -- it's true wisdom, is it not, Aramis? To table, Gentlemen, to table.
PORTHOS
That's much better reasoned for I am dying of hunger.
ATHOS
(sitting)
And what is this napkin?
D'ARTAGNAN
Don't you recognize it, Athos?
ARAMIS
It's from the Fort of Saint Gervais.
PORTHOS
On which the other Cardinal had embroidered the Arms of France on the sides where it was pierced by 3 balls.
ATHOS
Why this napkin to me, friend?
D'ARTAGNAN
Because you were the greatest, the most noble, and the most brave of all, always!
ATHOS
Then gentlemen, by this flag, the only one which we ought to follow in the civil discords which are certainly going to sprout, and which will perhaps separate us, let us swear to each other to be good seconds in duels to be devoted friends in grave affairs -- and joyous companions in pleasure.
D'ARTAGNAN
Oh -- quite willingly.
ATHOS
And if ever fate makes us find ourselves in opposed camps -- each time we meet in battle at the sole word "musketeer" let us put our sword in our left hand and hold each other with our right -- right in the midst of carnage.
ARAMIS
Yes, by God, yes!
PORTHOS
Oh, that was well said, Athos, and how eloquent you always are -- I have tears in my eyes -- word of honor.
ATHOS
(with a somber air)
And cannot there be another pact between us besides one of friendship. Isn't there a pact of blood?
D'ARTAGNAN
You mean to say Milady?
ATHOS
And you -- you think of her D'Artagnan?
D'ARTAGNAN
Hold, Athos, you are terrible with your glance. Well, yes, gentlemen -- I ask you, in thinking of that terrible night in Armentiers, of this man enveloped in a red cloak --who was the executioner, of this nocturnal execution, of this river which seemed to run in waves of blood -- and of that voice which cried in the midst of the night "Let the justice of God take place." Haven't you sometimes felt moments of terror which resembled?
ATHOS
Remorse? Right? I complete your thought. D'Artagnan have you experienced remorse? You?
D'ARTAGNAN
No -- I have no remorse because if we had let her live she would, without a doubt, have continued her work of destruction. But one thing which always astonished me my friend -- do you want me to say it?
ATHOS
Speak!
D'ARTAGNAN
It was that you -- you the only one of us to whom that woman had done nothing -- the only one who had no complaint against her -- it was you, you Athos, so good, who was able to prepare for this expedition to Amentiers, who found the executioner, who conducted us to the cottage, and it was you who, as the envoy of divine justice pronounced sentence on her. And when I myself, my body shivering, my voice hesitating, my eyes in tears -- when I was ready to pardon her -- it was you who said "Strike!"
ATHOS
This has always astonished you? Right?
D'ARTAGNAN
Yes, I admit it. If you hadn't spoken, I would have kept silent. But you were open with me from the first. Then I told you what I thought -- Excuse me, Athos, if this can in some way wound you.
ATHOS
Friend, let me tell you an episode of my life that I have never told anyone. That will perhaps explain to you all --
ARAMIS
Speak dear friend.
ATHOS
I do not recommend your discretion when you have heard what I am going to tell you -- you will judge the thing terrible enough. I believe, if not to forget it, at least to bury it in this depths of your heart.
D'ARTAGNAN
We are listening to you, Athos.
ATHOS
Listen, I was 25 years old, I was count -- I was the first in my province over which my ancestors had reigned almost like Kings, I had a princely fortune -- all the dreams of love -- of happiness of glory which a 25 year old has. As to the rest -- free entirely in my person, in my name -- in my fortune. One day I met in one of my villages a young girl of 16 years. Beautiful as love itself and as angels once were. Despite the naivete of her age in her burned an ardent spirit -- she didn't please, she intoxicated. She lived with her brother, a young melancholy and somber man -- both had come into the country in the past six months. They came from no one knew where, but seeing them, she so pretty, he so pious, no one thought to ask them where they came from. I was lord of the country. I could have seduced her or kidnapped her at my discretion. Unfortunately, I was an honest man and I married her.
D'ARTAGNAN
Then you loved her --?
ATHOS
Listen! I brought her to my chateau. I made her the first lady in the Duchy. Oh, one must be fair to her -- she held her position perfectly.
D'ARTAGNAN
Well?
ATHOS
Well, one day we were hunting. Her horse frightened by the sight of a post, jumped. She fell unconscious. We were alone -- I hurried to help her -- and as she was suffocating in her clothes. I split them with my knife -- guess what she had on her shoulder -- D'Artagnan? A fleur de lys - she was branded!
D'ARTAGNAN
Horrible -- what did you say to her Athos?
ATHOS
The pure truth. My dear boy, the angel was a demon, the beautiful and naive young girl had stolen the sacred vessels from the church with her pretended brother, who was none other than her lover -- I learned all this later. The brother having been taken and condemned.
D'ARTAGNAN
But she -- what did you do with her?
ATHOS
Oh her -- I was, as you have said -- a great Lord, D'Artagnan, I had over my lands the right of judge -- I finished loosening the clothes from the Countess -- I took a rope and hung her from a tree.
D'ARTAGNAN
A murder.
ATHOS
Not at all, unfortunately. For while I went off at a gallop from this fatal place and cursed country, someone without doubt came and saved her. She left France then, went to England where she married a lord and she had a child -- then the Duke died and she returned to France, put her self in the service of Richelieu, cut the Queen's laces at a Ball, assassinated the Duke of Buckingham through Felton -- and pardon me, dear D'Artagnan -- to reopen this wound in your heart -- poisoned the woman you adored, the charming Constance Bonacieux at the Augustine Convent.
D'ARTAGNAN
Thus it was she?
ATHOS
Even so! All the evil that has been done to us came to us through her. Once she escaped me to commit these murders. This time, I swore she would not escape me again -- and that she had run the course of her crimes. That's why I went to find the executioner of Bethune. That's why I brought you all to the cottage where she was hidden. That's why I pronounced the sentence -- that's why, when you hesitated, Porthos, when you trembled Aramis, when you wept - D'Artagnan, that's why I said - "Strike".
D'ARTAGNAN
'Sblood, now I understand everything.
PORTHOS
And I too.
ARAMIS
Bah! She was only an infamous person. Let's think no more of her.
D'ARTAGNAN
Happily from this event there remains not a trace.
ATHOS
She had a son with this Lord de Winter, brother of the one we knew.
D'ARTAGNAN
I know that well - since at the moment of her death you cried, "She didn't even think of her son."
ARAMIS
Eh! Who knows what has become of him? Kill the serpent, kill the brood. Do you think that De Winter our companion -- who led us to the accomplishment of this act of justice would be amused to greet her son? Besides, if her son exists he was in England, and hardly knew his mother. Then all was done in silence, in the night each of us has an interest in protecting the secret. This son knows nothing and can know nothing.
(They sit down.)
PORTHOS
Bah! The child is dead or the devil take me, or he might stir up trouble in this cursed England -- let's eat.
MADELEINE
(entering)
The envoy of his Eminence.
ATHOS
What's wrong?
D'ARTAGNAN
Nothing!
ARAMIS
If it is a woman, dear friend, we will leave you.
D'ARTAGNAN
Not at all, gentlemen, it's a man.
PORTHOS
Well -- if it's a man let him enter and come to dinner.
D'ARTAGNAN
Not at all. He would doubtless be bad company for Athos and for Aramis. He's an envoy from the Cardinal -- some wretch like himself; he has only a word to say to me. Stay there -- and don't be upset if we speak low.
PORTHOS
Doubtless -- but get rid of him promptly, the devil! It is true we were eating.
The three friends move to a corner.
(Enter Mordaunt dressed as a Puritan. Madeliene alone can see and hear him.)
MORDAUNT
Monsieur le Chevalier d'Artagnan.
D'ARTAGNAN
That's me, sir.
MORDAUNT
Lieutenant to the musketeers of His Majesty -- company of M. de Treville?
D'ARTAGNAN
That's me.
MADELEINE
Aren't you expecting something, sir?
D'ARTAGNAN
Yes -- a message from His Eminence -- which must be sent to me by a trusted man.
MORDAUNT
(giving him a letter)
Here is the message, sir. It is I who am the messenger.
D'ARTAGNAN
(reading)
"Do what the bearer tells you and as for the dispatch which he brings you. Don't open it until you are out to sea.
MADELEINE
(aside)
Damn! Out to sea! Here I am a widow again.
MORDAUNT
You have read it?
D'ARTAGNAN
Yes.
MORDAUNT
You are ready to obey the orders His Eminence transmits to you by my voice?
D'ARTAGNAN
Without doubt -- Am I not in his service?
MORDAUNT
Then equip yourself for war -- and be with the friends you have promised the Cardinal to attach to his service next Tuesday at 8:00 o'clock in the evening in the Dyke at Boulogne.
MADELEINE
(aside)
At the Dyke at Boulogne -- it seems it is to England that they're going.
D'ARTAGNAN
Tuesday, you say, sir? And today is Saturday. Five days. Marvelous, I'll be there.
MORDAUNT
On Tuesday, eight o'clock in the evening at Boulogne, and remember, if you are not there at the day and time mentioned, I don't have the authority to wait for you a minute longer.
D'ARTAGNAN
It's needless to recommend timeliness to a soldier.
MORDAUNT
Good day, sir.
D'ARTAGNAN
Till we meet again.
(Mordaunt leaves making a slight bow to the three friends.)
MADELEINE
To us too, now.
D'ARTAGNAN
You were listening to us?
MADELEINE
Me? Oh for heaven's sake -- it appears that you are going to leave France?
D'ARTAGNAN
It's probable, Madame Turquenne.
MADELEINE
And that you are going to England?
D'ARTAGNAN
It's possible, dear friend.
MADELEINE
Well, I am going to profit from that to give you a recommendation.
D'ARTAGNAN
A recommendation.
MADELEINE
Yes, my sister runs the hostel "Home of the Stags" on the place of the Parliament -- if you go there --
D'ARTAGNAN
She'll have my business.
MADELEINE
It's agreed.
D'ARTAGNAN
Certainly.
MADELEINE
Thanks.
(She leaves.)
PORTHOS
Now we can eat --
ATHOS
Didn't I tell you that Mazarin was a villainous man?
D'ARTAGNAN
Well--
ATHOS
Even his envoys are villainous men. What! Three gentlemen in the corner and he gave us a bow that hardly sufficed for one.
D'ARTAGNAN
Gentlemen, you must pardon him. I believe he's a Puritan.
ATHOS
He's come from England?
D'ARTAGNAN
I suspect so.
ATHOS
Then he might be an envoy from Cromwell?
D'ARTAGNAN
Perhaps.
ATHOS
In that case, he'll never see me again, your envoy.
PORTHOS
Nor me.
ARAMIS
Nor me.
ATHOS
And what's his name, this gentleman?
D'ARTAGNAN
I don't know.
PORTHOS
Gentlemen, let's eat.
GRIMAUD
(outside)
Number fifteen -- door on the left?
MADELEINE
Yes.
GRIMAUD
(outside)
Fine!
D'ARTAGNAN
No 15, door on the left -- that's here.
ATHOS
It's Grimaud's voice.
D'ARTAGNAN
Does he speak now?
ARAMIS
Oh yes, on great occasions.
(Grimaud enters hurriedly.)
ATHOS
Oh! Gentlemen -- something has happened. Grimaud -- why this pallor -- why this agitation?
GRIMAUD
Gentlemen -- Milady de Winter had a child. The child is grown to a man. The tigress had a baby -- the tiger is started -- he's coming towards you -- take care!
D'ARTAGNAN
What do you mean to say?
ATHOS
What are you saying?
GRIMAUD
I say, Monsieur Le Comte -- that the son of Milady has left England -- that he is in France, that he's coming to Paris if he's not already here.
ARAMIS
The Devil, are you sure?
PORTHOS
Well -- after all, when he comes to Paris, we have seen many others -- there. Let him come!
D'ARTAGNAN
And besides, he's a child.
GRIMAUD
A child gentlemen! You know what this child did? Disguised as a monk, he learned from the executioner of Bethune the complete story of his mother which he was unaware of -- then after confessing him, for absolution he planted dagger in his heart -- it's still red and wet!
ARAMIS
Have you seen him?
GRIMAUD
Yes.
D'ARTAGNAN
Do you know his name?
GRIMAUD
I don't know it.
ATHOS
(rising)
I know it. His name is the Avenger.
(Curtain)
Scene ii
A salon at de Winter's in the place Royale.
DE WINTER
You were saying, Count.
ATHOS
I say that Grimaud arrived as he expired; that he brought us the still smoking dagger.
DE WINTER
Then he knows everything.
ATHOS
Everything except our names.
DE WINTER
But how? Why did he leave England?
ATHOS
He was still in England?
DE WINTER
Eh, yes.
ATHOS
What was he doing there?
DE WINTER
He was one of the most ardent followers of Oliver Cromwell.
ATHOS
Why did he rally to that cause? His father and his mother were Catholic, I believe.
DE WINTER
The King, on my request, declared him a bastard, despoiled him of his rights and forbade him to use the name DeWinter -- His hate for Charles I has pushed him to Cromwell.
ATHOS
And what's he call himself now?
DE WINTER
Mordaunt.
ATHOS
Fine, I'll remember it. Providence has warned us, we will be on our guard. But, let's return to the affair which brought you to Paris, my Lord.
DE WINTER
Two words first. You still have as friends Messieurs Porthos and Aramis?
ATHOS
And D'Artagnan, milord. We are still as before, four friends devoted to each other. Only, when it's a question of being partisans we are only two; Aramis and me.
DE WINTER
I recognize you well in that. You have adopted the side of the Princes -- the great cause -- it was the only one agreeable with your noble and generous character. I won't hide from you that I came to France in this hope.
ATHOS
Are we then of some concern in your voyage?
DE WINTER
Yes, Count, I have need of you both -- you have forewarned Monsieur Aramis?
ATHOS
Wait, he's here.
(Enter Aramis.)
DE WINTER
Goodday, Chevalier -- you came just at the right time. I was going to ask the Count's permission to present you both to the Queen of England.
ATHOS
To the Queen of England?
ATHOS
To Madame Henriette de France. Pardon, milord, I don't know Her Majesty except from her misfortunes there and her exile here.
DE WINTER
But I know you and I have promised her this very morning to bring you to her.
ATHOS
At this house?
DE WINTER
No, at the Carmelites -- are you ready gentlemen?
ATHOS
At your orders, milord.
(Enter Tomy.)
DE WINTER
What do you want Tomy?
TOMY
Her Majesty's Valet de chambre asks to deliver a letter from his august mistress to your Lordship.
DE WINTER
Enter, Parry, enter -- what news from Her Majesty?
(Enter Parry.)
PARRY
Sound of body, but very sad of heart, milord.
DE WINTER
You are charged with something for me?
PARRY
This letter, milord.
DE WINTER
(breaks the seal -- opens the letter and reads)
"Milord, I fear, if you come to find me at the Louvre or the Carmelites, you will be followed or that we will be overheard. I think it better to come to you. Since the step I am taking is against royal custom, the less likely we will be spied on. Wait for me there rather than coming to me. I will be there almost as soon as my messenger -- Yours affectionately, Henriette". Fine, Parry, I will wait for your mistress.
TOMY
Milord permits me a single word?
DE WINTER
Speak.
TOMY
I've questioned Mr. Parry -- and this man who -- this morning followed him here.
DE WINTER
Well?
TOMY
He is still at the corner of the street. Mr. Parry saw him and recognized him at the signal I gave him.
DE WINTER
And you know who this man is perhaps?
TOMY
He's turned from my sight.
DE WINTER
Well, I will be careful -- go -- thanks Parry!
Exit Parry.
ATHOS
This letter upsets your plans, milord?
DE WINTER
No, Count.
ATHOS
It seems to annoy you.
DE WINTER
She astonishes me, that's all -- because of the great honor she is doing me.
PARRY
(opening to door)
Milord.
DE WINTER
Is it the person who did me the honor of writing to me?
PARRY
Exactly -- her coach is stopped at the door.
DE WINTER
Go receive her, Parry, go.
ARAMIS
A woman?
DE WINTER
No, a queen.
ATHOS
Her Majesty; Madame Henriette.
DE WINTER
Yes, gentlemen.
ATHOS
Then we will retire, milord.
DE WINTER
(raising a tapestry)
Not at all -- on the contrary, stay here and listen to what is said between Her Majesty and me -- you will be free to show yourselves or remain hidden -- if you show yourselves it means you accept. If you remain hidden, it means you refuse.
ARAMIS
But milord, we don't understand.
DE WINTER
You will understand later -- go in -- go in.
(They step behind the tapestry which De Winter causes to fall.)
Enter the Queen dressed in black.
DE WINTER
Open both doors, Tomy --
(Tomy opens and bows.)
QUEEN
(lifting her veil)
Ah -- milord -- it is really you! I feared I had misread. I feared that this letter bearing your name had deceived me -- you come on the King's behalf, milord? Speak quickly -- what have you to tell me?
DE WINTER
I have to give this message to Your Majesty.
(falling to his knees and presenting the queen with a gold box)
QUEEN
(opening the box and extracting a letter)
Milord, you have brought me things I haven't seen for a long time -- gold, a letter, and a devoted friend.
DE WINTER
Your Majesty overwhelms me.
QUEEN
And now let's see what is in this precious letter -- Ah it's in the handwriting and even bears the signature of my Charles.
(reading)
"Madam -- and dear spouse -- here everything is on the edge. All of my resources are concentrated in the camp at Newcastle, from which I've written you. I await the army of my rebel subjects with the aid of my brave Scotch. I am going to struggle one last time against them. If I win, I prolong the struggle. If I lose, I lose everything. In this last case, I have only to reach the coast of France. But would you want to receive an unfortunate King bringing such a funereal example to a country already disturbed by civil discords? The bearer of these presents whom you know as one of my oldest and most faithful friends"
(she interrupts and offers her hand to the Lord DeWinter)
Oh yes, milord
(continuing)
"The bearer of these presents will tell you Madam what I cannot confide to the risks of an accident. He will explain to you what step I expect of you and I charge him also with my blessing for my dear children who are in France and of all the sentiments of my heart for you, madam, my dear spouse. Charles -- still King." God permit that our two children -- the Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Glocester who are in London are well -- Ah my God! Let him not be King, let him be vanquished, exiled, proscribed, but let him live! Let my children renounce the throne of their father -- but let them live. Oh, tell me, milord is the position of the King indeed hopeless?
DE WINTER
More hopeless than he himself believes, Madam.
QUEEN
And what does he expect of me in this extremity? Let's see -- speak quickly.
DE WINTER
That Your Majesty ask help from Mazarin -- or at least a refuge in France.
QUEEN
Alas, Milord, do you think that I waited for this letter to do what I could over here?
DE WINTER
Well?
QUEEN
Well -- aid -- asylum -- money -- Mazarin has refused me everything.
DE WINTER
What! He has refused asylum to King Charles? The brother in law of King Louis XIII and the uncle of King Louis XIV?
QUEEN
Alas, I disturb and tire him very much. My presence and that of my daughter -- a much stronger reason than that of the King -- Milord, listen -- it's sad and very shameful to tell, but we spent winter at the Louvre -- Henriette and I -- without money, without linen, almost without bread -- staying often hidden in bed much of the day because there was no heat -- so that we were almost dead -- both of us from hunger and misery without the charity that the parliament wished to provides us.
DE WINTER
Horror! The daughter of Henry the IV dying of hunger in this country where her father saw to it that the least peasant had more than was necessary. Why, didn't you address yourself first to us, Madam? He had split his fortune with you madam -- he had put all that he possessed at the foot of his queen.
QUEEN
You see, indeed, DeWinter that I can do only one thing -- that's return to England with you.
DE WINTER
To do what, madam?
QUEEN
To die with the King since I cannot save him.
DE WINTER
Ah, madame, that is especially what the King fears -- and he begs you, and if need be, orders you not to do that.
QUEEN
Milord -- the King speaks from a heart that is kind, from a heart that loves. Is he unaware that the worst sorrow is uncertainty? One can get used to a misfortune one can see face to face. Once it is known, one can find resources to resist it. But a vague misfortune, distant, indefinite, untouchable, unknown -- there's no other remedy but prayer. And I have prayed so much, milord without anything having changed in the King's fate or in mine that I begin to despair. Milord, if the King in the extremity which he finds himself wishes to distance himself from me -- then it is because the King does not love me.
DE WINTER
Oh, madame, you know yourself that such an accusation is unjust. No, the King fears danger no more than hard work.
QUEEN
Dangers -- hard work -- am I not used to them? Didn't I alone, under the pretext of taking my daughter to Holland -- solicit arms, money, and aid from William of Orange? On my return wasn't I caught in a terrible storm, as if, against our unfortunate cause, not only the wrath of men but of God was unleashed? In the midst of this tempest did I leave the bridge of the boat? To all the representations of the captain and the crew that I encouraged by my presence -- did I reply to anything except by saying there was no example in history of a queen being drowned -- then after having lost two vessels and one to whom I gave aid being pushed back to the shores of Holland -- did I hesitate at the first favorable wind to put to sea again? This time, God willing -- I was allowed to persevere. But, hardly landed, the house in which I was taking refuge was surrounded, attacked. You know it, my Lord because it was you who came to rescue me. Where did you find me milord? Speak! At the breach: the cannon had just made this house crumble -- in the midst of fire, wounded, dead, all bloody with the blood of my defenders and my own -- for a splinter of wood had wounded me. In seeing you, milord -- did I think of myself? For when it became necessary for me to dress like a man to get to him, did I hesitate? Three days and three nights you saw me at your side. Did I sigh even once? Did I make a complaint? Did I ask for more for myself than the least of your officers? No, hard work, privations, dangers -- all are forgotten when I saw my husband and king again. A full year I passed with him -- in the mountains, in the camp, almost always under a tent, very rarely in a house. Of a palace -- alas! It's been a long time since a palace was for us! Who forced me to leave him? Only the will of God and love for my child. I left to be a mother. I don't fear death, I was afraid of killing my poor Henriette. I spoke to you of misery milord. But at this moment am I not the most miserable of women? Here at least I have the Louvre destitute as it is, offered to me. What did I have at Exeter? A simple cottage! The Convent of the Carmelites even more somber. My poor child spends the day on a pallet, without a mattress or blanket. It was then I received a messenger from the Queen, my sister -- this messenger brought me two hundred thousand pounds. Did I keep a pistole for myself? No, to the last shilling, I sent it all to Charles because he's everything to me -- you see. Then when he made me leave him to return to France -- oh! Milord! You were there! You saw my sorrow -- my tears, my despair! And when you come to me to say that his position is yet more desperate, that he no longer believes in himself, that his liberty is menaced -- his life perhaps! You speak to me of dangers and difficulties -- to me whose reign has been a long difficulty and whose life has been a long danger? Ah, milord! If the King tells you to say that, he lacks memory; and if you oppose what I say, you, milord -- you lack pity!
DE WINTER
It is exactly because he recalls all you have suffered that the King wishes you to stay in France -- it is exactly, pardon me the word because I have pity for my queen, that I cannot wish her to go to England.
QUEEN
Well let's not speak of it anymore, milord. I don't wish to place you between the respect you owe your Queen and the obedience you owe your King. Speak of yourself -- speak of him -- have you no other end, in coming to France than what you have discussed with me?
DE WINTER
Indeed, Madam.
QUEEN
Well -- speak -- we'll see.
DE WINTER
Once in France, I knew four gentlemen.
QUEEN
(very sad)
Four gentlemen! And that's the aid that you count on to bring to a King on the point of losing his throne?
DE WINTER
Ah, if I had had only these four, I would answer for many things, Madam. Haven't you heard tell of four gentlemen who once sustained Anne of Austria against Cardinal Richelieu.
QUEEN
Yes, it's a tradition in the court.
DE WINTER
Of four gentlemen who crisscrossed France, despite all ambushes shedding their blood during the route they followed to go to England to find the famous string of diamonds which almost cost Anne of Austria her throne?
QUEEN
Yes.
DE WINTER
These four gentlemen, if I told you all they had done, Madame, you would think I was recounting a chapter from Ariosto or that I was reading you a Canto from Tasso. But alas, of these four valiant men, I learned this morning, there remain only two.
QUEEN
The two others are dead?
DE WINTER
Much worse than that! The two others are with Cardinal Mazarin!
QUEEN
And the two who remain?
DE WINTER
The two who remain, madame, I don't yet know if they are able to leave Paris or even if -- being free, they wouldn't be frightened of the dangers which threaten such an enterprise, and if they will consent to follow me to England.
(Athos and Aramis come from behind the drapery.)
ATHOS
Milord, tell Her Majesty that for such a worthy cause, we would go to the very ends of the earth.
QUEEN
Oh! My God! These gentlemen overhead us.
DE WINTER
And you see, madam, that you can say anything before them.
QUEEN
Thanks, gentlemen. Thanks! Milord, the names of these brave gentlemen that I may hold them religiously in my memory.
DE WINTER
Monsieur le Comte de la Fere and Monsieur le Chevalier d'Herblay.
QUEEN
Gentlemen in the past I had surrounding me, counts, armies, treasuries. At a sign of my hand, all this was employed in my service. Today, look around me -- to accomplish a design on which depends the health of a realm and the life of a King -- I have only Lord de Winter, a friend of twenty years and you gentlemen -- whom I have known only for twenty seconds.
ATHOS
It is enough, madame, if the lives of three men repurchase that of your Royal spouse. Now -- tell us what we must do?
QUEEN
(to Aramis)
But you sir, have you as the Comte de la Fere, compassion for so much misfortune?
ARAMIS
I, madam, from custom, always go where the Count goes. I do it, without asking him where he's going -- but when it's a question of serving Your Majesty, I am not with him, Madame, I precede him.
QUEEN
Well, gentlemen, then you intend to devote yourself to the service of a poor princess that the entire world has abandoned? That's what it's a question of doing. The King is alone in the midst of the Scotch whom he defies, although he is Scotch himself. I ask much, I ask too much, perhaps, although I have not the right to ask -- but still if you agree to serve this great cause of royalty in the person of King Charles -- be his friends, be his protectors, march to his side in prison, stand in front and behind him in his house -- where ambushes press on him more perilous than all the risks of war. And in exchange for all this sacrifice you make for me, I promise you not to reward you, this word would injure you, I am sure of it. -- Besides, it sits poorly for an exile who begs to speak of reward, but -- to love you as a sister would love you -- and to prefer you above all others except my children and my spouse.
ATHOS
Madam, when must we leave?
QUEEN
Then you agree? Ah, gentlemen, here is the first moment of hope I have known in the last five years. You understand it is not his throne, it is not his crown I commend to you it is the life of my Charles, of my spouse, of my King that I put between your hands.
ATHOS
Madame, all that two men who never retreat from danger can do -- expect it of us.
(The Queen gives her hand to the gentlemen who fall to their knees.)
QUEEN
Yet once more, oh! with all my soul thanks gentlemen.
DE WINTER
Does Your Majesty want me to accompany her back?
QUEEN
No -- you might be recognized.
ATHOS
But we, madame, do not run the same risk.
QUEEN
I have my carriage, gentlemen.
ATHOS
(bowing)
Then we will follow humbly, and from a distance, Your Majesty's carriage.
QUEEN
Goodbye Count, tell the King that my days are nothing but long miseries and my nights long insomnia -- that all my life is but an eternal prayer -- but when God reunites us, be it on Earth or in heaven -- all will be forgotten.
(She leaves, followed an instant later by Athos and Aramis.)
DE WINTER
(looking through the window)
Poor Queen.
(Mordaunt appears and stays on the sill of the door. De Winter leaves the window and perceives Mordaunt)
Who is there? What do you wish, sir?
MORDAUNT
Oh! Oh! Don't you by chance recognize me?
DE WINTER
Indeed, sir. And the proof is that I repeat to you in Paris what I told you in London -- your persecution tires me -- withdraw sir, or I will call my servants.
MORDAUNT
Ah -- my uncle!
DE WINTER
I am not your uncle. I don't know you.
MORDAUNT
Call your people, if you wish. You won't chase me out of Paris like you did out of London. As for denying that I am your nephew, think twice -- now I have learned certain things of which I was unaware a year ago.
DE WINTER
Eh! An what does it matter to me what you have learned?
MORDAUNT
Oh -- it matters a whole lot to you; I am sure of it, and you are going to be of my opinion soon. When I came to you the first time in London, it was to ask you what became of my inheritance. When I came to you the second time, it was to ask who had besmirched my name. And both times, I remember you drove me away. But this time, I came to ask you a question much more terrible than all those questions. I came to you, as God came to the first murderers -- and said, "Cain what have you don't to your brother?" Milord what have you done to your sister?
DE WINTER
To your mother?
MORDAUNT
Yes -- to my mother, milord.
DE WINTER
Find her where she's gone, unfortunate one, and ask Hell -- perhaps Hell will reply to you?
MORDAUNT
(advancing on De Winter).
I asked the Executioner of Bethune and the Executioner of Bethune told me -- Ah! You understand me now. With this word all is explained, with this key, the abyss opens. My mother inherited from her husband, you assassinated my mother. My name assured me paternal wealth -- you have taken my name from me -- I am no longer astonished that you don't know me. It is unseemly to recall one's nephew when one is his despoiler -- the man who impoverishes him -- when one is a murderer -- the man who made him an orphan.
DE WINTER
You wish to penetrate this horrible secret, sir? Well -- so be it -- know then who it was. This woman -- of whom you today ask me for an accounting -- this woman poisoned my brother -- and to inherit from me she tried to assassinate me in my turn. What do you say to that?
MORDAUNT
I say that she was my mother.
DE WINTER
She stabbed the unfortunate Duke of Buckingham through means of a man otherwise just and good -- what do you say to this crime of which I have proof?
MORDAUNT
She was my mother!
DE WINTER
Returned to France after the assassination, she poisoned a woman who loved one of her enemies in the convent at Bethune. This crime will persuade you of the justice of her chastisement. This crime I can prove.
MORDAUNT
She was my mother!
DE WINTER
Then, charged with murders, with debauchery odious to all, menacing still like a panther thirsty for blood, she fell under the blows of men she had made desperate, and who never caused her the least harm. She found, in default of natural judges, judges her hideous murders had evoked. And this executioner who told you everything, ought to tell you he thrilled with joy in avenging on her the suicide of his brother. Perverted daughter, adulterous spouse, unnatural sister, murderess, poisoner, execrable to all. To those who knew her, to all nations that had received her in their bosoms, she died cursed by heaven and earth. There you have this woman.
MORDAUNT
Silence sir! She was my mother! Her disorders I do not know. Her vices I do not know. Her crimes I do not know. She was my mother! So, I warn you, listen carefully to the words I am about to speak, and engrave them in your memory so that you will never forget them. This murder which has ravished me of everything, which was impoverished me, this murder which has corrupted me -- infuriated me -- made me implacable -- I will ask an accounting from your accomplices when I learn who they are -- of all my enemies in fact, without excepting even King Charles the First.
DE WINTER
Do you intend to assassinate me, sir? In that case, I truly recognize you as my nephew for you will truly be your mother's son.
MORDAUNT
No -- I won't kill you, at this time at least -- for without you, I cannot discover the others. But when I know the names of the four men from Armentiers, tremble sir, tremble for yourself and your accomplices! I have already stabbed without pity, without mercy one -- and he was the least culpable of you all.
(He leaves.)
DE WINTER
My God -- I thank you that he only knows me!
(Curtain)
Scene iii
The Dyke at Boulogne -- One sees at the right the house of a fisherman -- in the rear. The Brig "The Parliament". Also at anchor the Corvette "L'Eclair". To the left a stairway which leads to a lighthouse.
MORDAUNT
(walking on the Dyke and with him is Andre, the captain of the Brig)
Well -- Captain Andre?
ANDRE
No one yet, sir.
MORDAUNT
You have been to the hotel "The English Arms"?
ANDRE
Yes, sir.
MORDAUNT
And you asked if two gentlemen named Monsieur D'Artagnan and Du Valon had arrived from Paris?
ANDRE
No one has seen them yet.
MORDAUNT
Nor anyone who resembles them?
ANDRE
Three gentlemen arrived just as I was speaking to the hotel manager. I had a moment of hope but I was deceived. They went to the lodge at the Sword of Henry IV yet one of the three came in. The two others threw the bridles of their horses into the hands of their lackeys and asked the way to the port.
MORDAUNT
Let them remember well that I gave them just until 8 o'clock. I won't wait a minute more. At 8 o'clock, exactly, Captain Andre, you will sail.
ANDRE
Well, sir, I am at your orders.
(Enter Parry, approaching Andre.)
PARRY
Sir, aren't you the skipper of this ship?
ANDRE
Yes, sir.
PARRY
You are leaving this evening?
ANDRE
At 8 o'clock.
PARRY
Can you give passage to me and my sister?
ANDRE
(low to Mordaunt)
You hear?
MORDAUNT
(low)
Make sure she is his sister.
ANDRE
(to Parry)
But do you know our destination?
PARRY
Yes, you go to Newcastle and as Newcastle is the frontier of Scotland, we will have only the Tyne to cross to be in our country.
ANDRE
(to Mordaunt)
What's to be done?
MORDAUNT
See the woman, try to learn who she is what she wants and if necessary, I will see her myself.
ANDRE
Where is your sister?
PARRY
(pointing)
In this house. Shall I call her?
ANDRE
No -- don't disturb her. I am going to speak to her myself.
MORDAUNT
Go! Ah! Ah! I believe here are our men.
ANDRE
(looking)
No these are the two travelers who asked the way to the port at the hotel 'Sword of Henry the IV.
MORDAUNT
They came by the Paris route?
ANDRE
Yes.
MORDAUNT
I will perhaps get some news out of them. Go then! -- But you understand -- promise nothing until I've seen her myself.
ANDRE
Oh! Be easy!
(to Parry)
Come, sir.
(Parry & Andre go out.)
MORDAUNT
(alone)
No -- it's not them. But in truth, if I don't deceive myself, it's their two friends -- the same who were with them in the Chambers of Monsieur D'Artagnan when I went there. We won't meet them at first.
(Mordaunt in the foreground -- Athos and Aramis crossing on a sluice and stopping in the middle.)
ARAMIS
What do you think of this ship, Athos?
ATHOS
That it is sailing, too. But that it cannot be ours -- this is a brig and ours is a corvette; this one is in harbor and ours is waiting at sea. This one is called "The Parliament" and ours, De Winter, told us, is called L'Eclair.
MORDAUNT
De Winter! Did they pronounce the name De Winter?
ARAMIS
Hush! There's a man who seems to hear us.
ATHOS
He's wasting his time -- for we have said nothing, it seems to me -- which cannot be heard.
ARAMIS
Never mind -- speak of something else -- for now -- for that man is approaching us.
MORDAUNT
(waiting for Athos and Aramis to arrive)
Pardon, gentlemen, I am not deceived. I'm sure, I've had the honor of seeing you in Paris, I believe.
ATHOS
You sir? I don't recall on my count having had that honor.
ARAMIS
Nor I, sir.
MORDAUNT
At M. D'Artagnan's, about four days ago.
ATHOS
Ah -- it's true, sir. I recall perfectly. I pray you excuse this fault of memory.
ARAMIS
Very fine.
MORDAUNT
Could you tell me if M. D'Artagnan is still in Paris?
ATHOS
We left him three days ago at the Hotel de la Chevette.
MORDAUNT
And did he tell you nothing of preparing for a voyage?
ATHOS
No, sir.
MORDAUNT
Excuse me, gentlemen for disturbing you -- and receive my thanks for your compliance.
(He bows and leaves.)
ARAMIS
What do you say of that questioner?
ATHOS
A boring provincial.
ARAMIS
Or a spy who informs.
ATHOS
It's possible.
ARAMIS
And you have replied to him thus?
ATHOS
Nothing would authorize me to reply otherwise, he was polite towards us, and I was polite to him.
ARAMIS
No matter, in our position -- we must defy the whole world.
ATHOS
It's a little too soon for you to make this recommendation. You spoke the name "de Winter".
ARAMIS
Well?
ATHOS
Well -- it was at that name the young man stopped.
ARAMIS
You noticed that?
ATHOS
Perfectly.
ARAMIS
Reason the more then, when he spoke to