Characters

• Urbain Grandier
• The Cardinal-Duke de Richlieu
• Maurizio
• Olivier de Sourdis
• Laubardemont
• L'Abbe Grillau
• The Bailiff
• Mignon
• Marshall de Schomberg
• Nogaret
• Barace
• A Priest
• A Police Officer (aka an Exempt)
• a Clerk of Court
• Two Men of the People
• A Monk
• Two Servants
• Two Sentinels
• A Jailor
• A Swiss Guard
• A Postilion
• Daniel (played by a female)
• Jeanne de Laubardemont
• Ursula de Sable
• The Countess
• Madame Grandier
• Bianca
• Women of the People.

PROLOGUE

Scene i

A large terrace with arcades surmounted by a gallery extending the length of the stage. To the left, a pavilion with a usable balcony. To the right, an entrance with a stairway of 8 or 10 steps going up to a higher floor. One gets to the terrace by a large stairway parallel to the other one which leans against the pavilion on the left. Through the arcades can be seen the city of Casal -- then the plain and above the plain, the snowy chain of the Alps.

A sentinel at the foot of the stairway; 3 or 4 house servants grouped on the terrace.

1ST SERVANT

It's him.

2ND SERVANT

Why no -- since he's in Mantua. How can you think it's he?

1ST SERVANT

Well, he's back from Mantua -- because he left Casal, do you think he'll never return?

WOMAN

I'm of Bartholomew's opinion. I think it's he.

1ST SERVANT

It's indeed he -- since he's riding the same horse which he had when he left 3 months ago.

WOMAN

Ah! Now, I recognize him. The Countess will be overjoyed.

1ST SERVANT

It's Miss Bianca who will be sad.

2ND SERVANT

Sad to see her brother?

1ST SERVANT

Shut up -- a man who makes a woman enter a convent when she'd prefer to marry -- is that what you call a brother?

WOMAN

Oh! I want to be first to announce this good news to the Countess.

1ST SERVANT

She's coming -- pay your court.

WOMAN

What are you doing? -- it's not your expense.

(calling)

Countess -- Madam Countess.

(The Countess at the top of the stairs. Then Maurizio coming up the stairs while his mother comes down.)

COUNTESS

My son?

WOMAN

Himself! Here -- he's coming up the stairs.

(The servants salute.)

COUNTESS

Is it you, my dear child?

MAURIZIO

Yes, mother.

(to servants)

That's fine, good day.

COUNTESS

Where are you coming from that you come to us without warning?

MAURIZIO

Because until a week ago, I was still unaware that I must come. His Highness, the Grand Duke, having learned that the French, led by the Cardinal, were marching on Casal, sent me to bring the news. My word, I didn't waste my time and I've come just in time to assist in the taking of the city. It is the most beautiful pearl in his Ducal crown, which he had lost and which he's just recovered. Whoever tells him first won't be badly received and I hope it will be me.

COUNTESS

So Casal's surrendered?

MAURIZIO

Yes -- the news is quite fresh and I saw the governor in person bring the keys to the Cardinal -- about a quarter of an hour ago.

COUNTESS

Would you have recognized a prince of the church in the costume His Eminence is wearing?

MAURIZIO

No, mother, but I recognize the Conqueror of Rochelle, of Pas de Suze, Privas, the First Minister of King Louis XIII even. As for the rest, assuredly this costume is more useful to him than the cloak of a cardinal.

In the job he's doing, a helmet is better than a fancy pin. Is it true that yesterday a Spanish bullet had the insolence to flatten itself on his Cuirass? I heard that repeated in the camp? They even added that, without a soldier from the regiment of Poitou who rescued Milord from an ambush His Eminence would have been the prisoner of the governor of Casal -- rather than the governor of Casal being the prisoner of His Eminence.

COUNTESS

In fact, there's been talk of nothing else all night -- they've looked for the soldier but without result.

MAURIZIO

The Devil -- there's someone who can be praised for his modesty -- but I'm not concerned -- he will be found.

COUNTESS

You are so well informed in all things that I won't ask you if you know that the Cardinal-Duke is doing us the honor of choosing this palace for his hotel.

MAURIZIO

And it's an honor that should have cost us our palace, if things had not turned out so. In any case, I presume that my good mother has not let the opportunity escape to speak to him of her son's vocation for diplomacy and her daughter's for the cloister.

COUNTESS

Yes, Maurizio, yes -- I have spoken to him about you -- and he's promised me to recommend you to the Duke of Mantua.

MAURIZIO

And what did he say about my sister?

COUNTESS

He understands that a great fortune is necessary to the heir to a great name while such a fortune is of no use to a young girl who is not called upon to play a great role in the world.

MAURIZIO

And you have obtained?

COUNTESS

A dispensation for Bianca. Tomorrow she will enter convent -- and in a month, she will make her profession.

MAURIZIO

And has he seen her?

COUNTESS

Bianca? No.

MAURIZIO

And where is she?

COUNTESS

In the pavilion.

MAURIZIO

This pavilion is very isolated, mother.

COUNTESS

I have the key to the door and the jalousy. No one can go down to the terrace except by this stairway that a watchman guards night and day -- and after the Ave Maria is sounded, no one can leave the house without an order or passport from the Cardinal.

MAURIZIO

Then I see you have foreseen everything -- oh -- oh -- what's that?

COUNTESS

The Cardinal is returning doubtless.

COUNTESS

It is he! See, Madam, what a warrior-like shape he has on horseback -- wouldn't you say he's a consummate knight? Sound the trumpets and wave the flags.

(They obey on the gallery. Fanfare.)

(Three men enter to relieve the sentinel on the stairway.)

NEW SENTINEL

The password?

SENTINEL

(standing down)

Paris and Piedmont.

NEW SENTINEL

That's fine.

WOMAN

Countess?

COUNTESS

What is it?

WOMAN

A French lady who reeks of nobility asks permission from the Countess to await the Cardinal on the terrace. She has a request to present to the Cardinal.

COUNTESS

Have her up.

WOMAN

Come, Madam.

(A veiled lady passes before the sentinel who looks at her attentively through her veil, salutes the Countess and goes to lean against one of the arcades. Servants come down the stairway, entering by the side door, and group around the terrace and the gallery. Some trumpets proceed the Cardinal. Men and instruments bear French arms. Then come the banners of the Cardinal on the same rung with the Banners of France. Then an officer appears bearing the keys to Casal, followed by the Cardinal, in armor, sword at his side; a page bears his helmet, it has a red skull cap, then comes Marshall Schomberg, the Marshall of the force, the Marshall of Marilhac, Olivier de Sourdis, Barace, Nogaret, and other gentleman and captains.)

SCHOMBERG

His Eminence wishes to see the soldier that yesterday came to his aid.

CARDINAL

Say -- who saved my life -- Marshall. Where is he?

SCHOMBERG

He's the one presenting arms to Your Excellency.

CARDINAL

Ah, ah, in fact -- I recognize him.

(to sentinel)

What's your name, sir?

SENTINEL

Urbain Grandier, Milord.

CARDINAL

Where were you born?

GRANDIER

In the town of Rovere, near Sable, in Lower Maine.

CARDINAL

What regiment do you belong to?

GRANDIER

The Regiment of Poitou.

CARDINAL

How long have you been a soldier?

GRANDIER

For three years.

CARDINAL

Is this the first time you've been under my orders?

GRANDIER

I was at the siege of LaRochelle, at the attack on Pas de Suze, at the taking of Privas.

CARDINAL

Why is it you are not yet an officer, being so brave?

GRANDIER

To be an officer, Milord, it's not enough to be brave, one must also be noble.

CARDINAL

And you are not?

GRANDIER

I've told the Marshall, I am a poor peasant.

CARDINAL

Can you read?

GRANDIER

(smiling)

Yes, Milord.

CARDINAL

Why are you smiling?

GRANDIER

I was wrong, Pride is one of the seven deadly sins.

CARDINAL

(turning to Schomberg)

What's he say, Marshall --

SCHOMBERG

He said, Milord, or rather he didn't say, but I am going to say it for him.

GRANDIER

Milord Marshall.

SCHOMBERG

Come on! No false, or rather stupid modesty, Grandier. Perhaps you'll never have a chance like this again. What this honest lad didn't tell you, Milord, is that being the nephew of a very wise man, named Claude Grandier, he studied astrology and alchemy under his uncle -- that having been raised at the Jesuit College of Bordeaux, he learned ancient languages so that he speaks Latin like Mathurin Regnier, and Greek like Conrad -- all that without counting English and German -- moreover, he's a painter, musician, mathematician -- what do I know?

CARDINAL

Oh! Oh! That's plenty of learning for one man.

(to Grandier)

Who is your Captain, my friend?

GRANDIER

Mr. Olivier de Sourdis.

CARDINAL

Nephew of Mr. d'Escoubleau de Sourdis, Archbishop of Bordeaux.

SCHOMBERG

Himself.

CARDINAL

Mr. Olivier de Sourdis is here?

OLIVIER

(coming forward)

Here I am, Milord.

CARDINAL

You know this man, Mr. de Sourdis?

OLIVIER

Yes, sir.

CARDINAL

For how long?

OLIVIER

As long as I've known myself.

CARDINAL

Are you from the same province?

OLIVIER

I am from la Fleche, Milord and we went to college together. I recruited him.

CARDINAL

What are you talking about?

OLIVIER

At college, he was the best of students. In the army he's one of our best soldiers.

CARDINAL

And is he as learned as they say?

OLIVIER

More, probably, Milord.

CARDINAL

Why, being so learned was he made a soldier instead of a clerk?

OLIVIER

(approaching the Cardinal)

I think the poor lad is in love with a daughter of the nobility, Milord, and he had hopes of making his way by the sword.

CARDINAL

Then he's a man that can be promoted.

OLIVIER

That would be just.

CARDINAL

You will answer to me for him.

OLIVIER

As for myself, Milord.

CARDINAL

That's fine --

(turning to a man in black who has taken notes)

You heard?

SECRETARY

You will hear from me, Grandier.

GRANDIER

I will humbly await the orders of Your Eminence.

(Olivier and the Secretary are 3 paces in the rear. In turning the Cardinal finds himself face to face with the Countess and Maurizio.)

CARDINAL

Oh, it's you, our gracious hostess?

COUNTESS

Does His Eminence permit me to present my son -- Count Maurizio dei Albizzio.

CARDINAL

You've already spoken to me of this young man, it seems to me?

COUNTESS

Yes, Milord and even His Eminence has deigned to promise me his high protection.

CARDINAL

You ardently love your son, Countess?

COUNTESS

Ardently, yes, Milord.

CARDINAL

You love him to the point of sacrificing his sister Bianca for him?

COUNTESS

To the point of sacrificing my life to him.

CARDINAL

You belong to Duke of Mantua, Count?

MAURIZIO

I am his private secretary, Milord.

CARDINAL

He sent you to Piedmont?

MAURIZIO

For news of Casal, yes, Milord.

CARDINAL

You wish to return to him with a powerful recommendation.

MAURIZIO

I should look on myself as a happy man if I had that of Your Eminence.

CARDINAL

Take the keys of the city I have just reconquered for him -- and take them to him on my behalf. That is, I think, the best recommendation I can give you.

MAURIZIO

Oh -- Milord!

CARDINAL

That's not all. Listen here carefully. I want to have, from time to time, news of His Highness, who I love and greatly esteem. The interest I bear him is so great that I am indifferent to nothing which may happen to him, nothing which he does, nothing which he even thinks. I authorize you to write me directly, once a week, Count Maurizio.

MAURIZIO

Milord!

CARDINAL

Go, sir, your fortune is in your own hands from this moment.

OLIVIER

(who has heard)

Oh, poor Bianca -- that explains to me why he's condemned you.

MAURIZIO

(embracing the Countess)

Goodbye, mother, goodbye.

(low)

I commend my sister to you.

(Maurizio leaves.)

THE VEILED WOMAN

(advancing towards the Cardinal kneeling)

Milord.

CARDINAL

Who are you?

THE VEILED WOMAN

I am the daughter of one of your most devoted servants.

CARDINAL

What do you wish?

THE VEILED WOMAN

For Your Eminence to hear my confession.

CARDINAL

Why come to me, instead of all others?

THE VEILED WOMAN

Because my crime is so great that you alone, Milord, in virtue of the powers you hold at Rome, are great enough to absolve me.

CARDINAL

Follow me.

(The Cardinal leaves -- everyone follows him except Grandier, Olivier, Nogaret and Barace.)

OLIVIER

Nogaret! Barace.

NOGARET AND BARACE

We are here.

OLIVIER

You have told me that I could count on you?

NOGARET

And we repeat it.

OLIVIER

Good. Barace, go wait for me on the route to Cerisoles.

BARACE

With how many horses?

OLIVIER

With three, one for her -- one for me and one for my lackey.

BARACE

We are not to accompany you?

OLIVIER

I am making you run enough danger.

NOGARET

And what must I do?

OLIVIER

Go, find the silken ladder; assure yourself of its strength, and come rejoin me here.

BARACE

So -- I am to be down there with the horses.

OLIVIER

All saddled -- all bridled.

NOGARET

And I here, with the ladder.

NOGARET AND BARACE

But the watchman.

OLIVIER

It's Grandier -- I know him -- I am going to make him privy to my affair.

NOGARET AND BARACE

Fine.

OLIVIER

Go.

(The two young men leave.)

OLIVIER

(going to Grandier)

Urbain.

GRANDIER

My Captain.

OLIVIER

We are old friends, right?

GRANDIER

You mean, you've done me the honor of being friendly to me for a long while?

OLIVIER

You've sometimes spoken to me of your gratitude for the little services I've had the opportunity to render you.

GRANDIER

Ten times I've told you the day that you ask me for my life, my life will be yours.

OLIVIER

Well, if you think you owe me something, the time has come to acquit yourself towards me, and even more.

GRANDIER

I am listening.

OLIVIER

Grandier, you hold my joy, my happiness in your hands.

GRANDIER

Tell me what to do, sir.

OLIVIER

Listen Grandier, I'm in love. You know what it is to be in love? Well, I love Bianca the way you love Ursula.

GRANDIER

Then you love greatly and righteously, my Captain.

OLIVIER

If they were kidnapping Ursula what would you do?

GRANDIER

I would kill whoever took her from me.

OLIVIER

Yes -- but if you could not kill him? If the one who took her from you was her brother.

GRANDIER

Her brother?

OLIVIER

And if they kidnapped her to give her to God dispite herself?

GRANDIER

They are taking her from you by making her a nun?

OLIVIER

Yes.

GRANDIER

They are giving her to God, despite herself -- and she has a mother.

OLIVIER

Oh! It's this mother who is without pity, without bowels -- it's the mother who sacrifices her fortune to her son.

GRANDIER

Why don't you address yourself to the Cardinal, who has friendship for you, sir?

OLIVIER

Because the Cardinal's interests pass before his friendship -- because he had purchased the soul of the brother by promising him his sister will be a nun, because he needs a spy near the Duke of Mantua, and Maurizio dei Albizzio will be that spy -- on the condition they bury his sister alive -- his sister who, possesses the entire fortune being the child of the Count's first wife.

GRANDIER

And when will they take her to convent.

OLIVIER

Tomorrow.

GRANDIER

Does she love you, sir?

OLIVIER

As I love her, Urbain.

GRANDIER

So that she's determined to flee.

OLIVIER

She's only waiting for the signal.

GRANDIER

You must carry her off then.

OLIVIER

Oh -- my friend -- you will help me then?

GRANDIER

Have I not told you that my life was yours? After my guard, dispose of me, sir.

OLIVIER

No, no -- you don't need to leave your post -- on the contrary.

GRANDIER

How's that?

OLIVIER

She's there, in this pavilion, locked in her room, but I have the key to the jalousy which I had made from a wax imprint she tossed to me.

GRANDIER

(becoming serious)

Then, hurry to take her before the Ave Maria, my Captain.

OLIVIER

Before the Ave Maria?

GRANDIER

Yes.

OLIVIER

Impossible! The Ave Maria is going to sound in 10 minutes.

GRANDIER

Because after the Ave it will be more impossible still, sir.

OLIVIER

I don't understand. Explain yourself.

GRANDIER

She must come down from that window, right?

OLIVIER

Yes.

GRANDIER

She must leave by this stairway?

OLIVIER

Yes.

GRANDIER

Well, my Captain, after the last tone of the Ave Maria, no one can leave the castle without an order or passport from the Cardinal - -it's the order.

OLIVIER

But sure you are on guard until nine o'clock.

GRANDIER

(sadly)

Yes, my Captain, and it is precisely because it's I who am on guard that you cannot pass.

OLIVIER

Grandier?

GRANDIER

The order, my Captain.

OLIVIER

Grandier, your memory is very short and your devotion very scrupulous.

GRANDIER

You are an officer, sir -- and consequently, you know what an order is. Sir, pardon me.

OLIVIER

Well, as your officer, I order you to let me pass -- you hear?

GRANDIER

My Captain, I offered you my life. Kill me, I won't give the alarm, I won't cry out "Who goes there". I won't defend myself -- I advise you to kill me, for on my honor-- living, no -- I will not let you pass.

OLIVIER

Oh! My God! My God! When everything is ready, when I can touch happiness -- when it is here -- ! Grandier, in the name of heaven -- look, look, the Ave Maria is ringing.

GRANDIER

Be careful, someone is coming.

OLIVIER

What to do, my God, what to do?

GRANDIER

It's a woman -- her mother perhaps -- go away.

OLIVIER

(rushing down the step)

Oh! Grandier, Grandier! Won't you let yourself be softened.

(The Ave Maria rings slowly during the remainder of the scene. The veiled woman waits until Olivier goes off -- then she approaches Grandier and raises her veil.)

GRANDIER

(recoiling)

Jeanne de Laubardemont.

JEANNE

Ah, you recognized me, Grandier? That's a good omen.

GRANDIER

What do you want from me, Madam? And what are you doing in Italy?

JEANNE

I want to remind you that you loved me, Grandier -- and I've come to tell you that I still love you.

GRANDIER

Alas, Madam, that love of which you speak was the first love of my youth -- my youth has stolen away and taken its dreams along with it.

JEANNE

Grandier, since you left Bordeaux, and it's been more than 5 years since I lost sight of you, I've been convinced of one thing.

GRANDIER

Which is?

JEANNE

That you were ambitious.

GRANDIER

It's true.

JEANNE

Lacking nobility which blind heaven has refused you, you sought knowledge and riches.

GRANDIER

It's true.

JEANNE

The day you left the pen for the sword, you said, "In 3 years I will be dead or I will be Captain."

GRANDIER

Again, that's true.

JEANNE

Knowledgeable, you are more so than any other man in the world, rich you can be -- Captain, say a word and you shall be.

GRANDIER

I don't understand you, Madam.

JEANNE

Then I will repeat to you what I already told you. Grandier, I love you. Well, is there anything in this world which moves you? This is not the first time I've confessed this to you -- and I've seen you implore it on your knees.

GRANDIER

It's true, Madam, but when I implored this confession, I was almost a child. What do you want! When one is young he is ignored or forgotten. I had forgotten that you were rich, that you were noble, that you were named Jeanne de Laubardemont. It took only a word to recall me to reason. That word lit up my spirit, I understood my nothingness compared to your grandeur, and I did right to retire.

JEANNE

Well, hasn't complete reparation been granted, Grandier? You've forgotten, and I remember; you go away, I follow you. You no longer love me, I still love you. Yes, Grandier, as you say, I am rich, I am noble, I am named Jeanne de Laubardemont. Grandier, do you want me for your wife? I am free. I have the authorization to dispose of my hand and here's a commission in blank signed by the Cardinal, which makes my future husband a captain.

GRANDIER

It's a hundred times more than I deserve, Madam. God is my witness that my gratitude to you is profound but I cannot accept it.

JEANNE

You cannot accept it?

GRANDIER

No union is possible without mutual love.

JEANNE

Yes, I still love you, and you don't love me anymore?

GRANDIER

That's not my fault, Madam, something I cannot mention something terrible has passed between our two loves and killed mine.

JEANNE

So you no longer love me, Grandier?

GRANDIER

At least I cannot accept the honor you are doing me.

JEANNE

You no longer love me -- confess it openly.

GRANDIER

I will never hate you -- that's all I can promise you.

JEANNE

You don't love me any more -- say you no longer love me!

GRANDIER

I no longer love you.

JEANNE

(showing a paper to Grandier)

Let me pass, sir -- here's the Cardinal's order.

GRANDIER

Pass, Madam.

JEANNE

(one the second step)

Grandier, I am returning to France -- have you nothing to say to Ursula de Sable?

GRANDIER

I do! Tell her I am her humble servant, Madam, and that exiled or not, near or far, my last breathe will be for her.

JEANNE

(aside as she leaves)

Oh -- it was true then! He loves her! He loves her!

GRANDIER

(watching her leave)

Poor woman.

SCHOMBERG

(at the top of the steps)

Grandier.

GRANDIER

Marshall, sir?

SCHOMBERG

His Eminence, the Cardinal desires to speak to you.

GRANDIER

I cannot leave this post, Milord, I am on watch.

SCHOMBERG

Hey, somebody come take this post for Urbain Grandier for a little while! His Eminence doesn't like to be kept waiting.

GRANDIER

(low to Olivier who reappears)

Mr. de Sourdis -- do you understand?

OLIVIER

Oh, my friend, thanks! thanks!

(aloud)

Marshall, Sir, Urbain Grandier is free. I will take the rest of his watch.

SCHOMBERG

Who are you, sir?

OLIVIER

Olivier de Sourdis, Captain in the Poitou Regiment.

SCHOMBERG

Ah, yes! Thanks Captain de Sourdis -- come, Grandier.

GRANDIER

Good luck, my Captain.

OLIVIER

Oh! The brave heart!

(Grandier goes up, salutes Schomberg and follows him to the Cardinal's office.)

OLIVIER

And now, not an instant to lose.

(going to the balcony)

Bianca! Bianca!

BIANCA

Is it you, Olivier?

OLIVIER

Yes, yes, it's me.

BIANCA

My God -- the moment has come.

OLIVIER

Not only has it come, but we still haven't a moment to lose.

BIANCA

You know that I am locked in.

OLIVIER

Let down a ribbon through the bars of your jalousy.

BIANCA

Wait.

OLIVIER

In the name of heaven, hurry.

BIANCA

Here's the ribbon.

OLIVIER

(attaching the key to the ribbon)

Here's the key.

BIANCA

Someone!

OLIVIER

Don't be afraid, it's a friend.

BIANCA

Then I can open?

OLIVIER

Yes.

(to Nogaret who enters)

Have you the ladder?

NOGARET

Here it is.

OLIVIER

(throwing the ladder to Bianca)

Tie the attachments to the balcony, Bianca and think that it is your life, that is to say more than my life you are risking.

(Nogaret fixes the ladder to the terrace. Bianca attaches the other end to the balcony. Olivier goes up.)

BIANCA

Before God, it's my husband who elopes with me, isn't it?

OLIVIER

(extending his hand)

Before God, it's your husband that you follow -- Bianca, come, come!

(The moment she touches the ground, Grandier appears.)

BIANCA

Here I am!

NOGARET

Some one!

OLIVIER

Take her away, Nogaret, take her. If need be, I'll die here.

BIANCA

Olivier! Olivier!

(Nogaret pulls her off.)

OLIVIER

(rushing before Grandier)

Mr. de Sourdis! Mr. de Sourdis! I am captain. I have 100,000 pounds to raise a company -- six months liberty before returning to the colors. Oh, Mr. de Sourdis, be as happy as I am -- that's all I wish you.

(He rushes past the steps.)

SERGEANT

(entering with two men)

Our Captain, on watch in place of Urbain Grandier?

OLIVIER

Yes, sir, His Eminence called Urbain Grandier and with the authorization of Mr. de Schomberg. I took his place for a moment, as you see.

NEW SENTINEL

The word of order, my Captain?

OLIVIER

Paris and Piedmont.

NEW SENTINEL

The Countersign?

OLIVIER

Don't let any one leave without an order or passport from the Cardinal Duke -- good watch, gentlemen.

(He rushes down the stairway and disappears while the Sergeant and the soldiers continue on their way and disappear under the arcade.)

(curtain)

Scene ii

A room in the birthplace of Grandier in the village of Rovere.

L'ABBE GRILLAU

I don't know, but it seems to me, while they went on the grand highway to meet our dear Urbain, it seems to me I am a little sleepy. It's astonishing! I always have that feeling when I read my breviary.

GRANDIER

(putting his head through the window)

Better not say that before Milord the Archbishop, Papa Grillau.

L'ABBE GRILLAU

Heavens! Grandier! It's you, my child, it's you, my Urbain.

GRANDIER

(entering through the door)

Yes, my good and dear instructor, it's me, your student.

L'ABBE GRILLAU

Oh, my student, here's a student who rises a little above his master.

GRANDIER

Not on the side of the heart, at least. Tell me, my friend, nothing bad has happened, why are you alone?

L'ABBE GRILLAU

Eh, no, rest assured! Doesn't god watch over good people?

GRANDIER

Then my mother and my brother are well?

L'ABBE GRILLAU

Marvelously, they went to meet you.

GRANDIER

They went, you say? My rascally Daniel is here then?

L'ABBE GRILLAU

Eh! Certainly, your mother had no sooner received your letter, then, as she doesn't know how to read, the poor dear woman ran to my home so I could read it to her, and I no sooner had read it to her, then she made me write to your brother to run here so the feast would be complete. Oh, he didn't have to be asked twice and he arrived the day before yesterday, your rascally Daniel as you call him.

GRANDIER

So well that they all went to meet me.

L'ABBE GRILLAU

Yes.

GRANDIER

On the great highway?

L'ABBE GRILLAU

Certainly.

GRANDIER

Oh, that's my fault.

L'ABBE GRILLAU

Yours?

GRANDIER

Yes, father, mine. I forgot to tell them one thing, it's that there are memories of youth, mysteries of childhood which run through life from childhood and youth, when one is in a great city like Paris, there is no fatherland, there is a street, that's all -- but in a village it's another matter -- Virgil said it father 'O fortunatas numinum!

L'ABBE GRILLAU

Come on, there you go speaking Latin; you know very well that I didn't know what I was teaching you, so that what you know, I no longer know.

GRANDIER

You are right, father.

L'ABBE GRILLAU

Never mind! What did that pagan Virgil say -- look, explain it to me in French, my child.

GRANDIER

What he said? He said: "Very happy are those born in the country, if they would recognize their luck." I was born in the country, and I recognize my luck.

L'ABBE GRILLAU

And you are happy then?

GRANDIER

Oh, yes, indeed happy.

L'ABBE GRILLAU

What you said explains Virgil to me, only it doesn't tell me why you didn't meet your mother.

GRANDIER

Why? Listen carefully -- because in returning, father, I found, intersecting the road a path, familiar in my childhood, it seemed to me as if my beautiful youth, all crowned with flowers, was waiting for me on this path, making me a sign to follow. Then I left the great highway, the way which leads to cities to follow this hedge of hawthorns and elder trees which leads to graveyards: its there my father and my uncle sleep, my two masters before you. It's the least one can do to visit the dead before the living, and to greet them first, since they left so long ago.

L'ABBE GRILLAU

Dear Grandier! Wise as a magi, and with a heart good and pure like a child's.

GRANDIER

It's because my heart has not awakened. It's been 20 years since I played on that path, that I gathered flowers at the foot of the hedge, that I sought insects under the plants or gold or emeralds. Well, for me it was yesterday, there isn't a flower that I don't recognize, not a clump of grass that I don't know by heart, and what I am going to say is going to appear strange to you: not only did I recognize all of that, but it seemed to me that all that had eyes to see me, a voice, a soul to greet me -- so much so that when I passed, if I turned about and I listened, I saw the grass and the flowers bow towards each other and I heard them speak in the language of plants and flowers, "You know, sir -- it's him."

L'ABBE GRILLAU

You see, when you say things like that to me, Urbain, I regret you are not a cure, a monk or even a priest. Ah, the beautiful sermons you would compose -- ! and how well you would speak of the Good God.

GRANDIER

Oh! The Good God has no need of me to speak his praise, father. When he made the world he filled it with his divinity and everything speaks of his power in creation from the shoot of grass sprouting from the earth up to the sun which makes it flower.

L'ABBE GRILLAU

Grandier, my good friend, when I am near you, I feel like the sprout, and you the sun. I love God as I am able, and you as you know.

GRANDIER

And who tells you, father, that the humility of your heart is not more agreeable than the pride of my wit? You envy my science, well, I, Urbain the wise, as you call me, I lean on you, I repose and I feel myself better. Oh, this is so true, my friend -- that instead of running after my mother, after my brother, and you know how I love them! This is so true that I remain here near you for I want to tell you things I have not said to the greatest wise men. I want to make a confession to you that I still haven't made to archbishop nor to cardinals.

L'ABBE GRILLAU

A confession to me, Urbain?

GRANDIER

Yes, more even than a confession -- a case of conscience.

L'ABBE GRILLAU

Urbain, sometimes they said, not only were you a Savant, they even said you were a sorcerer. Have you seen the devil, by chance?

GRANDIER

No, I haven't seen him -- but perhaps I've given him a hold over me. An English poet that you don't know, father, says that the souls of the Melancholy are easily damned. Suppose I were on the route to damnation!

L'ABBE GRILLAU

Oh -- Oh, since your trip to Italy? Damn -- they say the Italian women are very beautiful.

GRANDIER

I don't know about the Italian women, father for my heart remained in France, and eyes without heart are only a vain rumor which do not retain the memory. No -- it was much before this that I doubted.

L'ABBE GRILLAU

You doubt, Urbain! You doubt! And what do you doubt?

GRANDIER

Oh - rest assured -- in myself.

L'ABBE GRILLAU

And what form has this doubt taken?

GRANDIER

On the subject of a power which was given me.

L'ABBE GRILLAU

To you?

GRANDIER

But such a power -- so great a power, so strange -- especially that it can only come from heaven or hell, from God or from the Demon!

L'ABBE GRILLAU

Explain yourself, my child.

GRANDIER

I am going to tell you, father, this will be my complete explanation. You know my brother is 10 years younger than I am. You even know how much I love him. Also, when he was still a child and when I heard him cry, I went to him right away. Alas, with the child as with the man, there is always suffering at the bottom of the tears. Only the passerby sees the tears and is not disturbed by the suffering, in such a way that if a child is crying, they say -- "He's naughty," if it's a man, they say, "He's weak." But I know the contrary, when Daniel wept, I went to him and as I had read in Plato a chapter titled "The Strength of the Will", I took his hands and I looked at him fixedly with absolute will, constant and inflexible so that the sorrow calmed and the tears stopped.

Then all the faculties I had in me enveloped his weakness in their power and soon, really, like a Magi, I saw the sorrow calm and the tears dried up, then a smile rushed like a sweet ray on his face, then his eyes closed, then came sleep, a sleep so sweet, so charming, so peaceable, that it didn't seem like human sleep to me. One day then, this sleep appeared to me so full of ineffable beatitude, that I seemed to see the soul of the child behind his partially opened lips. Then I spoke to him as one speaks, not to sleep but to ecstasy. Father, he answered me.

L'ABBE GRILLAU

Completely asleep as he was?

GRANDIER

Yes, completely asleep -- but we are not yet at the strange, unheard of, miraculous thing -- it's that the material obstacles had disappeared and that from a distance through the walls, he saw as he slept.

L'ABBE GRILLAU

Grandier!

GRANDIER

Listen right to the end. I asked him -- it was the first question that came to mind -- I asked him where our mother was -- then, without leaving his place, without rising from the armchair in which he was seated, "Wait brother, I will find her." Then, his eyes still closed: "Ah," he continue, "wait I see her, wait, she's gathering boxwood for soup from the lake, then she will go get it blessed at the church. Heavens, it's not the Abbe Grillau who is blessing it, it's the Vicar -- ah -- there she is leaving the church -- she's stopping to talk with my Uncle Claude -- he's giving her a little gold cross and she's leaving him -- she's coming -- open the door, brother." I run to the door, my mother was on the sill. She'd been gathering boxwood for soup from the lake, she'd been to the church to have it blessed, it was the vicar who blessed it and not you. Fifty paces from here she met my Uncle Claude -- and she held in her hand the little gold cross he had given her -- which she still wears at her neck.

L'ABBE GRILLAU

You are sure of what you say there, Grandier?

GRANDIER

Twenty times I retested it, and he's never mistaken.

L'ABBE GRILLAU

Have you spoken to him about this?

GRANDIER

To Daniel? No -- you alone. God and you know about this.

L'ABBE GRILLAU

Now, Urbain, isn't it your brother and not you who does this? I've heard tell there are children and old folks -- who have double vision -- and I explain it this way -- children are near the cradle and old folks are near the tomb -- infants and old folks are near God who is the beginning and end of all things.

GRANDIER

I would say, as you do, father, if Daniel was the sole person on whom I had tried my power.

L'ABBE GRILLAU

You've tried it on others beside him?

GRANDIER

Listen -- this is where I really fear to have fallen into sin -- this is where I tremble to see the finger of an evil spirit.

L'ABBE GRILLAU

Speak.

GRANDIER

Six years later, I was in Bordeaux, I was getting out of college. I fell in love with a young girl, I cannot say her name -- now, you understand why, she was of the nobility. Despite the difference in our situations she encouraged my love. Yes, in the midst of our happy hours which were nonetheless chaste, father, it sometimes happened that sudden sorrows passed over her face -- which she forced herself to hide from me, but which despite her efforts, were as visible to me as the shadows of clouds running over wheat. Twenty times, I asked her what was wrong and why she was suddenly becoming so somber -- but she always refused to reply to me.

One morning after having left her, left her late at night and pressed by useless questions, I received a letter from her forbidding me to see her again. I read and reread this letter, and having the instinct and perhaps the pride of a lover, I thought I recognized a certain hesitation in the style, a shade of trembling in the handwriting, I concluded that this letter had been imposed on her that this letter, written by her was dictated by another. The same evening, I should have returned to her for a few days had passed without our seeing each other -- she lived in an isolated house near the river. Night came. I hid myself in the alder trees and willows which soaked their branches in the water.

At ten o'clock, I saw a man enter her house who only left at midnight. It seemed to me I had never seen this man, who anyway hid himself in a great cloak. The window of room of the one I loved gave on a garden where we had often strolled together. I climbed over the wall of this garden. The window was open -- but the curtains were drawn. I climbed the length of the trellis and reached the balcony. She was seated before a table her head in her hands -- at the noise I made climbing over the balustrade, she raised her face. I was going to be surprised scaling a window like a thief. She was going to call out, scream, perhaps -- I extended my arm towards her, and without touching her, without saying a word, solely through power of will gushing from all my pores, I stopped her. She remained with her view fixed, immobile like a statue. Then I recognized this strange sleep I had already studied in my brother. But instead of being calm and sweet as Daniel was, her sleep was agitated, panting, almost convulsive. I wanted to know if she would also speak -- and I questioned her. First, she obstinately kept silent, but to my order, she yielded. Ah, why didn't she remain quiet! My conscience would not be charged today with such a terrible secret. Father, I wasn't mistaken, the letter I had received had been dictated. She had written it despite herself, obeying a power stronger than hers. This man I had seen leaving her house was her lover -- and this --

(lowering his voice)

incestuous lover was her father!

L'ABBE GRILLAU

My God!

GRANDIER

Hush! Did I say it? At least I didn't name the person, right?

L'ABBE GRILLAU

And you haven't seen her since that time?

GRANDIER

At least I've never sought to see her.

L'ABBE GRILLAU

You are right, Grandier, there's something strange in such a work. Where does it come from? I am as ignorant as you. Did you have some blessed object on you when you had these experiences?

GRANDIER

The last time, I had this holy medal on my throat, given me by my mother on the day of my departure.

L'ABBE GRILLAU

Then it's no evil spirit in you, since this blessed medal would have been more powerful than such a spirit.

GRANDIER

What is it, then?

L'ABBE GRILLAU

Listen, Grandier, do you still want to clear up your doubts?

GRANDIER

Oh, yes father, I wish to.

L'ABBE GRILLAU

Well, let's attempt it today -- the sooner the better -- I don't have the pretention to be a holy man, but I am an honest man who defies Satan, Beelzebub, Astorath and all the infamous legion -- you will show me this power on your brother, at the same time I will say an act of faith. If there's some devil at the bottom of all this, however well hidden he may be, he'll have to betray himself.

GRANDIER

Hush! I hear some noise.

DANIEL

(entering)

Mother! Mother! It doesn't surprise me we didn't see Grandier come. He's here.

GRANDIER

Daniel, dear child!

DANIEL

(running)

Hello, hello, brother. Oh! I embraced him first.

MME. GRANDIER

(entering)

What are you saying here? Grandier here? But how did you pass, my child. Jesus, my God! It's true. Here he is.

(hanging on his neck)

Oh! My God! My God!

DANIEL

I loan him to you -- you'll give him back? Ah, it was you who kept him to yourself, Father Grillau? You're going to catch it for confiscating the soldiers of the king to your profit.

(opening the Abbe's Breviary)

Te Deum Landamus.

GRANDIER

What are you doing, rascal?

DANIEL

Heavens! He is returned, I am chanting the Te Deum.

GRANDIER

Yes, returned and quite happy, mother for I didn't tell you everything in my letter. You see how egotistical I am. I delayed eight hours to share my happiness with you -- I wanted you to learn it from me.

MME. GRANDIER

Oh -- whatever you do is well done, go on, tell us now, since you are here.

GRANDIER

Mother, I'm a captain.

MME. GRANDIER

You've succeeded? And who made you captain, my God?

GRANDIER

The Cardinal.

DANIEL

What? You are captain? Captain like Mr. de Sourdis? You are going to have embroidered clothes like him?

GRANDIER

I have a hundred thousand pounds to raise a company.

MME. GRANDIER

And who gave you this hundred thousand pounds?

GRANDIER

The Cardinal.

DANIEL

Long live the Cardinal.

GRANDIER

That is not all.

MME. GRANDIER

What do you mean, that's not all?

GRANDIER

No, I've kept the best part of last, mother.

MME. GRANDIER

Tell us quickly then!

GRANDIER

Six months leave, mother, six months to spend near you.

MME. GRANDIER

And who gave you that?

GRANDIER

The Cardinal.

MME. GRANDIER

Saintly man!

DANIEL

(shouting at the top of his voice)

Long live the Cardinal.

(singing and causing the Abbe Grillau to turn)

Tra-la-la-Tra-la-la.

GRANDIER

Why what are you doing?

DANIEL

Heavens! When I'm happy, I dance. That's my way of praising God.

MME. GRANDIER

(looking around her)

Ah! Grandier, my child, how poor you are going to find this house now.

GRANDIER

Poor mother! Poor house where you gave an example of all your virtues, the house where you were a chaste, spouse, good mother! Poor chapel, church, temple, mother! If all this gold they gave me was mine, I would encase the sill that your foot blessed with gold.

MME. GRANDIER

All the same, you see, my child, I've made it as beautiful as possible, this poor house! Here are the beautiful flowers that you love, the beautiful materials you sent me from Italy. I wanted it to smile at you, since it was going to see you again.

GRANDIER

Yes, here indeed are my flowers and my materials, but it seems to me they lack one thing.

MME. GRANDIER

Yes, that beautiful Madonna you sent me from de Suze, where you had it copied, you said during your garrison there. Heaven, here she is -- what did you expect I would do with this gold brocade if not make a veil for her.

(She discovers the Madonna.)

GRANDIER

Ah!

DANIEL

Grandier, don't you think your Madonna de Suze resembles a bit, even a great deal, Miss de Sable?

GRANDIER

Hush, child, let's not laugh about holy things. Mother, you believe what I've told you, don't you? Well, no indeed, there remains one last joy to reveal to you -- but first, tell me -- how's her health?

MME. GRANDIER

Isn't one's health always good when one is happy?

GRANDIER

Is she happy?

MME. GRANDIER

Almost as happy as I.

GRANDIER

Has it been a long time since you saw her?

MME. GRANDIER

Last Sunday at Mass.

DANIEL

And I, yesterday morning, with her father.

GRANDIER

Is she still beautiful?

MME. GRANDIER

Like an angel.

GRANDIER

Mother, she loves me, she is free, she's waiting for me.

MME. GRANDIER

She is even more my daughter than you are my son, for you only told me this today, she told me a month ago. But where am I -- I am forgetting you've made a long journey, that you are hot, thirsty, hungry perhaps -- I am forgetting you want to see her again -- come Daniel, come help me.

GRANDIER

(in response to a glance from the Abbey)

No, mother, allow me to keep him.

MME. GRANDIER

Well, at least give me a hug.

GRANDIER

Oh, yes -- never enough, mother.

(Mme. Grandier leaves.)

DANIEL

Oh, I know quite well why you are keeping me. Go on! I know quite well of whom you wish to speak!

GRANDIER

Ah, you know that, do you?

DANIEL

You want me to talk about Miss de Sable, you keep me, cause I told you I met her yesterday.

GRANDIER

Well, yes -- what did she say to you, dear child?

DANIEL

She asked me news of you, she told me I resemble you, and she kissed me on the face.

GRANDIER

(embracing him at the same time)

Is that all?

DANIEL

Then she showed me her flowers, her birds, the Chateau, the park -- and she said to me, "You know all that is his?"

GRANDIER

Dear Ursula! Then she still loves me?

DANIEL

Oh that? She didn't tell me that, no. But I saw it.

GRANDIER

Then you know the park?

DANIEL

Yes.

GRANDIER

The Castle.

DANIEL

Yes.

GRANDIER

The apartment.

DANIEL

Yes.

GRANDIER

Consequently, you can tell me where she is at the moment.

DANIEL

Me?

GRANDIER

Yes -- what she'd going.

DANIEL

How can you expect me to tell you that?

GRANDIER

What she thinks even.

DANIEL

Ah, really, why I am not a sorcerer! I have good eyes, it's true, but still, I cannot see here to Sable!

GRANDIER

Ah, if you really wanted to --

DANIEL

What do you mean? If you really wanted to, I could see a place far from here?

GRANDIER

Yes.

DANIEL

Oh!

GRANDIER

And you could tell me what Ursula is doing.

DANIEL

Come on, you are mocking me, brother.

GRANDIER

No -- give me your hands.

DANIEL

Here they are.

GRANDIER

Look at me.

DANIEL

I am looking at you.

GRANDIER

That's right.

DANIEL

Oh! Grandier -- I recall -- Grandier, it's like when I was a child, and when I wept, you consoled me and made me go to sleep. Ah --

(Closing his eyes.)

GRANDIER

Here, father -- see how he sleeps.

GRANDIER

My word, it's true.

(The face of the child, animated and smiling as it was -- becomes calm.)

GRANDIER

Daniel!

DANIEL

(with a voice or tone difference from that he had when he was awake)

Brother?

GRANDIER

Dream what I want.

DANIEL

Yes, since I read it in your thoughts. You want me to give you news of Miss de Sable, don't you?

GRANDIER

Yes, do you see?

DANIEL

Open my eyes, brother?

GRANDIER

Wait.

(He passes his hand in front of the boy's eyes which become fixed as in an ecstasy.)

DANIEL

I see.

GRANDIER

Look -- do you see Ursula?

DANIEL

No -- not yet -- I'm looking for her.

GRANDIER

Do you think you will find her?

DANIEL

Certainly! I am going to go everywhere I was with her yesterday. Ah -- first of all -- there -- I am in the park.

GRANDIER

Is she there?

DANIEL

No, she isn't.

GRANDIER

Go into the house, then.

DANIEL

That's what I am doing -- I am going up the steps -- oh, my God!

GRANDIER

What?

DANIEL

Why you would say something unusual is happening at the Chateau.

GRANDIER

And what is happening? Let's see -- look.

DANIEL

The servants are running about, weeping -- the chapel bells are ringing.

GRANDIER

Oh! Daniel, you are mistaken -- look, listen carefully?

DANIEL

Oh -- I'm not mistaken.

GRANDIER

But Ursula -- do you see her?

DANIEL

No, no, I don't see her.

GRANDIER

Neither in the park nor in the Chateau? Why where is she then?

DANIEL

Wait, wait, I am going to follow them.

GRANDIER

Who?

DANIEL

The priests.

GRANDIER

The priests?

DANIEL

Yes, they are entering the Chateau.

GRANDIER

What are they going to do there?

DANIEL

Wait, wait! They are going up the stairway. They are opening a door -- its' the door of her chamber -- ah, poor Urbain! I see her, I see her.

GRANDIER

My God! My God! What's happening to her? What's she doing?

DANIEL

She's rising in her bed, she wants to speak, she's falling back -- she's dying, she's dead!

GRANDIER

(rushing out of the room)

Oh! Ursula! Ursula!

MME. GRANDIER

(running in)

Who's calling? Who's shouting! I heard Urbain's voice.

(noticing Daniel collapsed in Father Grillau's arms)

Daniel, my child, Daniel!

DANIEL

(waking up)

What's going on?

GRANDIER

Take this child away, take him -- and I will tell you -- everything.

(blackout)

Scene iii

A chamber in the Chateau de Sable Mortuary room. Ursula is lying pale and motionless on her bed. She has the crown of virgins, a crucifix on her breast, the children of the choir and the Deacons surround her bed. The servants of the house are on their knees in the room! The scene shift occurs on the singing of the De Profundis.

PRIEST

From the depths of the abyss, arms convulsed by sadness, I cried to the sublime Master "Pity on us, pity, Lord."

(Religious music.)

PRIEST

(returning)

Pity for the ephemeral child whose soft limpid eye is shut on its mother's breast knowing nothing, not even you.

Pity for the old folks who doubt under the bending weight of years, and who towards, the end of their way, have forgotten even you.

(Religious music. Urbain Grandier appears and falls on his knees among the servants.)

PRIEST

(starting up again after having seen Urbain)

Pity especially for the hermit who follows the sad path, the last who remains on earth, Lord, he is the most wretched.

(Religious music. The priests throw holy water on the dead woman and go off. The servants leave one after another.)

(Urbain approaches the foot of the bed.)

GRANDIER

It was to live with you, chaste child, pure virgin, that I wanted to conquer the honors and riches of the earth, and now, rushing to receive the crown of angels, you've gone to wait for me in heaven. Henceforth it is to heaven that I must offer my vows, it's in heaven I am going to rejoin you. Goodbye to the joys of this world, goodbye to all the baubles, to all the symbols of ambition. The realm of heaven is to the poor body, to the humble spirit -- the realm of heaven is for those who pray, and not those who fight, to those who bend not, those who struggle.

(Madam Grandier and Daniel enter at this point.)

GRANDIER

Then away with the floating plume.

(throwing away his felt hat)

The clashing arms.

(throwing away his sword)

The symbols of command.

(throwing away his scarf)

Ursula, before this altar, where the mysterious sacrifice of death has just been accomplished, your fiance renounces, not life, but the world. God alone, who gives life can dispose of it -- and the only suicide worthy of the Christian -- is the monastery. Ursula, from the moment you breathed your last sigh, Captain Grandier has ceased to exist to make way for the monk, Urbain. To him solitude, to him prayer, to him haircloth. Damn Daniel, pardon, mother! Something more powerful than you has torn me from you.

(Mme. Grandier and Daniel lean against and support each other.)

MME. GRANDIER

My child.

DANIEL

Grandier!

GRANDIER

Daniel, mother! Goodbye.

(tearing himself from their arms, and going to fall that the feet of the dead girl)

Yours, Ursula, yours in this world and the next.

MME. GRANDIER

(raising her arms to heaven)

So be it!

(blackout, curtain)

ACT I

Scene iv

The Church of Loudon

MIGNON

Damn, you understand Count, it's a serious thing to take the veil, especially since the nun is a foreigner -- and one wants to act properly.

MAURIZIO

Eh, my dear sir, you are in proper order, here's your license, here's the donation of six thousand Roman schillings given by the countess Albizzio to your convent, or rather to the Urseline convent of which you are the director. Moreover, here is for you the reversion of the curate of St. Pierre de Loudon -- with a benefice of 3,000 pounds, to make you patient. As to the rest, the thing is very simple, my God. My sister, still a minor was kidnapped from her maternal home by a French officer, who after we had found her place of retreat with the Urselines of Loudon, abandoned her and ran from Italy for his pleasure. Anyway, it seems to me that Bianca won't resist you, right?

MIGNON

No, Count, now that she knows Mr. de Sourdis no longer loves her. On the contrary, she seems no longer patient to wait for the event which previously she dreaded so much.

MAURIZIO

And, tell me, once taken the vows are as indissoluble in France as they are in Italy, right?

MIGNON

Yes, Count.

MAURIZIO

Oh! It's that you have a devil of a parliament.

MIGNON

It cannot interfere with ecclesiastical affairs.

MAURIZIO

So that, when and if she learns -- as one must assume everything, when she learns we have deceived her regarding Mr de Sourdis, that he still loves her.

MIGNON

Mr de Sourdis still loves your sister?

MAURIZIO

Eh! My God! Who told you that? I suppose that's all. How do expect me to know in France, what he's doing in Italy? They wrote me he's going to marry the richest heiress in Turin -- I believe it, and you must believe it, too, until you have proof to the contrary.

MAURIZIO

I believe it, Count.

MAURIZIO

So that, were she to learn we are mistaken, and that consequently we had deceived her -- once her vows are taken --

MIGNON

There's no way back -- no, Count, there's no example --

MAURIZIO

Thanks much -- that's enough. She's unaware I am here, right?

MIGNON

She believes you are in Mantua. And as even yesterday, we gave her a letter from you which is supposed to come from Italy.

MAURIZIO

Good. I am there, behind this pillar -- no one knows me except you, the Superior and your Vicar, Barre -- I shall not appear unless it is absolutely necessary. Ah -- some one is opening -- don't waste time, eh?

MIGNON

(returning)

The Count can rest easy. All the required orders have been given -- and all precautions have been taken so there will be no delay.

(He goes off.)

MAURIZIO

Fine! That man is an ambitious subaltern who will do anything to obtain the daughter of a great family for the convent he directs. With what pleasure and pride he enumerated all his penitents! Does he, by chance, think I would have put my sister in a convent that was not noble?

BAILIFF

(approaching the Count)

You are a stranger, sir?

MAURIZIO

Yes, sir. I desire to assist in her taking the veil.

BAILIFF

And while waiting, you are looking over our church?

MAURIZIO

Yes, sir.

BAILIFF

Oh! It's a magnificent church! How do you find it?

MAURIZIO

Not bad.

BAILIFF

What do you mean, not bad?

MAURIZIO

Doubtless for a small town.

BAILIFF

Oh! Oh! Loudon is not precisely a little town, sir, anyway. It has a bailiwick -- I am the bailiff.

MAURIZIO

I am your servant, sir.

(He moves away.)

BAILIFF

It is I who am yours -- I was saying there's a bailiwick, an abbey, an Urseline convent, where we count the most considerable names in our province -- a young lady from Fasili -- a cousin of the Cardinal-Duke, two ladies from Barbenis, of the house of Nogaret, a young miss from Barace, a --

(noticing that he's speaking by himself)

Well -- he's quite polite -- this gentleman!

(going to Urbain's mother, who is kneeling by a chair)

Ah -- there you are, Mme. Grandier!

MME. GRANDIER

Sir, sir.

BAILIFF

Is Urbain giving a sermon?

MME. GRANDIER

No, sir.

BAILIFF

Heavens! And why's that? Still, for God's sake, it's his affair. Good, here I am swearing in the church! But as it is in praise of a Saint, the good God will pardon me, for your son is a saint -- at least all our women say so.

DANIEL

(entering)

They don't say as much of you, Bailiff.

BAILIFF

Of me? What are they saying of me?

DANIEL

Oh! I'd gladly repeat it to you but I dare not in a church.

BAILIFF

Have you seen this little wise guy?

DANIEL

Hug me, mama.

(Mme. Grandier hugs him.)

BAILIFF

It is true, Mme. Grandier, that your son hasn't seen you or his brother since he took his vows?

MME. GRANDIER

You know, what a great sorrow determined Grandier to become a priest. The chains which attached him to the world were not loosened, they were broken, and if we had seen him in the course of the first year, he told us he feared the sight of us would only raise his sorrows above his resignation.

BAILIFF

And when a year has gone by he will make his profession?

MME. GRANDIER

Today it is exactly a year. Daniel and I, indeed hope to embrace him today.

DANIEL

Oh, don't worry dear mother -- I will enter the monastery. I am a man -- no one will pay attention to me, and once he's hugged me he'll have to embrace you.

MME. GRANDIER

I know I am in his heart as he is in mine, and I am patient, my child.

BAILIFF

You know your son has not wasted his time? After only a year in orders here he is superior of a convent.

DANIEL

Heavens! He was already captain of his company -- it seems to me the first was worth more -- but, wait, Monsieur le Bailiff.

BAILIFF

What?

DANIEL

There's your wife who can't find a place to sit here.

BAILIFF

Oh! Bah! Bah! Bah!

DANIEL

No -- word of honor, I think she needs you. Ah, if it was Simone, the dressmaker, you wouldn't have to be asked twice.

BAILIFF

Well, you shut up, little wise guy! Well, you shut up!

(He runs to his wife.)

DANIEL

(approaching his mother)

Mother.

MME. GRANDIER

Child, you are preventing me from praying.

DANIEL

I want to tell you something -- do you know what?

MME. GRANDIER

What?

DANIEL

Mr. de Sourdis is in France.

MME. GRANDIER

In France, but they said he was going to marry in Italy?

DANIEL

Well, no -- he is in France! He is in Paris -- he's not going to get married. It seems he still loves Miss Bianca, he went back to Italy looking for her; then they deceived the poor girl by telling her Mr. de Sourdis was in love with someone else -- so now she's going to take vows which she will probably repent all her life.

MME. GRANDIER

And who told you this?

DANIEL

Oh, my God -- one of my friends to whom Mr. de Sourdis has always been very good -- and as Mr. de Sourdis doesn't trust anyone but him, first of all, because he thinks that as he is a child, no one will watch him -- he sent him a letter begging him to pass this letter to Miss Bianca before she takes her vows.

MME. GRANDIER

And has he passed this letter Mr. de Sourdis sent him?

DANIEL

No, not yet, mama --

MME. GRANDIER

Why?

DANIEL

Damn, mama -- he's afraid of doing evil and as you are a saintly woman, and can give only good advice, he begged me to consult you.

MME. GRANDIER

Tell him to give it to her, my child. If it is true, they are deceiving this young girl, if it is true they are forcing a vocation on her by lying to her, it would be a crime to keep her unaware that Mr. de Sourdis still loves her.

DANIEL

That's fine. Now he'll have a quiet conscience.

(Commotion in the church. All the assistants take their places. The organ can be heard behind the chorus. The nuns sing Salve Regina. All the bells sound. Bianca enters leaning on the shoulder of one nun, sustained by another and followed by the Abbess. On each side of the abbess, Mignon and Barace. A large group of nuns.)

ASSISTANTS

(standing on chairs)

Ah -- there she is! There she is! You know she's an Italian. Oh, how pale she is! Damn, they say she's being forced, the poor girl. If it was me, I would say no. That would get you a long way! They cannot force you. No, no, no -- but since her lover has abandoned her -- on the contrary, and that's why she's going to be a nun! Ah, poor child.

SWISS

Silence.

DANIEL

(sliding near Bianca)

Take this letter.

(putting it in her hand)

Take it.

(Bianca takes it mechanically and keep it in her folded hands. The singing and organ music cease.)

MIGNON

Come, my child -- you must remove all these worldly pomps -- nothing must remain on you, as nothing must remain in you which belongs to this world and therefore to the Demon.

BIANCA

(holding out her hands as they remove her bracelets and lace, then her neck so they can remove her necklace and her head so they can remove her veil.)

Do it, my sister.

(Everything is removed from the novice as the organ sounds and the nuns chant.)

DANIEL

(low, approaching Bianca)

Read it!

MIGNON

What's your name, my daughter?

BIANCA

Bianca dei Albizzio.

MIGNON

What do you request?

BIANCA

That the church receive me in its bosom.

DANIEL

Read it!

MIGNON

Do you promise to answer truly?

BIANCA

I promise.

DANIEL

Will you read it -- it's from him!

MIGNON

(pointing to Daniel)

Take away that child who's messing up the ceremony.

BIANCA

From him.

(looking at the letter)

This letter! His writing! My God!

MIGNON

What's wrong with you, my daughter?

BIANCA

Nothing! I ask a moment to meditate.

(going to the foot of the cross)

Pardon me, my God, if a profane thought just entered my heart at the moment I was going to belong to you -- but didn't a voice just murmur in my ear, "It's from him?"

ABBESS

It seems to me someone gave her a letter.

MIGNON

Go to her, sister, and beg her --

ABBESS

I am Jeanne de Laubardemont, I am the Superior of the Convent of the Urselines. I don't beg, I order or I take --

MIGNON

Then I am going myself.

(He approaches Bianca, who has read the letter from de Sourdis -- she watches him to come to her.)

MAURIZIO

(aside)

What's going on?

MME. GRANDIER

Did they give her the letter, Daniel?

DANIEL

Yes, mother, they gave her the letter.

BIANCA

(to Mignon looking him in the face)

Father -- you are a man of God, and as such you cannot lie -- right? Everything they've told me is true?

MIGNON

What subject are you asking me about?

BIANCA

Is it true that Mr. de Sourdis has forgotten me, isn't it?

MIGNON

My daughter.

BIANCA

Is he in Italy?

MIGNON

My daughter!

BIANCA

And that he's going to get married in Turin? All this is really true -- for in the face of God, you wouldn't dare to lie -- reply to me -- that all this is true.

MIGNON

My daughter --

TWO NUNS

(returning to Bianca)

They are waiting for you, my sister.

BIANCA

That's fine, I am here -- continue to question me -- father -- I am ready to respond.

MIGNON

(starting over)

Bianca dei Albizzio -- do you promise to tell the truth?

BIANCA

(in a voice almost threatening)

I promise!

MIGNON

Is it, by your own free will you are here?

BIANCA

(in a loud voice)

No! It's because they lied to me.

(Commotion in the assembly)

CONFUSED VOICES

She said no! She said no! She said they lied to her.

BAILIFF

(to his wife)

Did you hear that, Madame?

WOMAN

Yes, she said no. They deceived her, poor girl.

MIGNON

Do be quiet!

(to Bianca in a low voice)

Reflect on what you said, my child.

(aloud)

Do you vow poverty, obedience and celibacy?

BIANCA

(in a strong voice)

No!

MIGNON

My daughter -- pull yourself together and listen to me -- you didn't understand me.

BIANCA

Oh, yes, I did! You asked me if I promised God poverty, obedience and celibacy -- I understood you and I answer -- no, no, no -- I promise nothing.

ABBESS

(laughing)

Good! Yet one more soul which is ruined.

(Murmur and tumult)

NUNS

Sister, sister!

PRIEST

Daughter --

BIANCA

Yes, this is a great scandal, I know it, but it falls back on the heads of those who deceived me. I call on you all who hear me -- to all those of you who have loved even once in their lives. They told me the man I loved no longer loved me, they told me he had left France for fear of seeing me again, they told me he was in Italy, that he was going to marry another woman, and little by little, sorrow by sorrow, despair by despair -- they prostrated me at the feet of God. I thought I had lost everything on earth and I asked heaven to give me faith instead of love. But they lied, he still loves me, he is in France. He's coming back. He tells me to keep myself for him, he tells me not to take vows, he tells me.

(They force her to her knees and try to put a veil over her head but she tears it off and in so doing, her hair falls, a nun approaches her with scissors. Bianca hesitates an instant, then says.)

BIANCA

Help! Help!

(Then she escapes from those around her and comes to the front of the stage, shouting).

BIANCA

No! No! No! I don't want them to cut my hair! I don't wish it. No! No! No! I don't wish it!

(Tumult, great noise.)

OLIVIER

Bianca! Bianca!

BIANCA

It's him! It's his voice. Let me pass.

OLIVIER

(in the church)

Bianca -- is there still time? Oh, I will fight for you against the entire world, even God.

(drawing his sword)

MAURIZIO

Sword in its scabbard, sir, if you don't want your hand cut off for having drawn a sword in a church.

OLIVIER

Maurizio! Here!

BIANCA

My brother in France!

MAURIZIO

I am the brother of this young girl and I represent all her family -- who vow her to God through my voice, and here is an order from the Cardinal Duke which orders completion of the ceremony not withstanding any opposition.

(to the soldiers who are in the church)

Do your duty.

OLIVIER

Oh! Nogaret! Barace, help me! If there is to be force, we must take her away.

BIANCA

(going to embrace the cross)

My God, my God, my only hope is in you!

GRANDIER

(appearing and putting his hand on Bianca)

Who wishes to give God a spouse in spite of herself and in spite of him?

ALL

(recording)

Urbain Grandier! Urbain Grandier!

(Tumult!)

BIANCA

Oh -- be my support, my upholder, my savior.

GRANDIER

Let Mr. de Sourdis pass.

(The guards hesitate)

MAURIZIO

I speak in the name of the Cardinal Duke -- take care!

GRANDIER

And I, I speak in the name of God -- let Mr. de Sourdis pass.

(The ranks of the soldiers open.)

OLIVIER

Grandier, my friend!

GRANDIER

(putting Bianca in de Sourdis' hands)

Daughter, you would have made a bad nun -- God prefers that you be an honest woman. Go!

ABBESS

(aside, watching Grandier)

The man is too handsome to be an earthly creature. He must be an angel or a demon!

(blackout)

Scene v

Grandier's cell. The cell of a painter, musician and savant -- as well as of a monk. The portrait of the Virgin seen at Urbain's home and which is none other than the portrait of Ursula de Sable. A bright ray of daylight penetrates the cell through the window covered with flowers.

GRANDIER

(seated and giving a letter to a monk)

This letter, you see, my brother, is for Mr. Escoubleau de Sourdis, Archbishop of Bordeaux. I have given him an account of my conduct in this affair. I've told him of the most minute details which have occurred in the Convent of the Ursulines. I told him that this forced taking of the veil was a sacrilege -- it is important that this letter arrive as soon as possible. I may be forestalled by some enemy. The messenger shall not stop en route as time is absolutely essential, and will go directly to the Archbishop. Go, my brother.

(The monk bows and leaves.)

GRANDIER

My mother was there, Daniel was also there. My arms opened, despite myself to hug them to my heart. Poor Grandier, you are still weak! O, my God! Why are you confusing the love I bear them with the memory of another love? No, I won't see them yet -- I would talk to them of her -- and it's quite enough to speak of her to you, my God, who made her an angel and have her seated by your side. She knew them, she loved them, if I see them again, it's as if I saw her -- she -- oh, no, I won't see them -- not yet at least.

MONK

Your commission is carried out, reverend father and the messenger is going to leave this very instant.

GRANDIER

Did you return only to tell me that?

MONK

I returned to tell you that the Bailiff asked to speak to you, reverend, sir.

GRANDIER

The Bailiff.

MONK

He says he has an important commission to discharge to you.

BAILIFF

(at the door)

Do I disturb you, reverend?

GRANDIER

Not at all.

BAILIFF

In that case, I will return another day.

GRANDIER

Come in, I beg you.

BAILIFF

Ah, here I am in the sanctum sanctorium. It's here you write the beautiful sermons that you recite from the pulpit, it's here you compose that beautiful music that they sing us in greeting, it's here again that you paint those beautiful pictures which foreigners visiting our churches think we get from Venice, Florence, and Rome.

GRANDIER

Sir, I have not only left the world, I brought with me into this solitude a faithful friend and assiduous companion.

BAILIFF

The fact is you have the right to preach to others. From my bed chamber, I see the window of your cell -- well, whenever I wake up at night, if I look this way, your lamp is burning. Don't you ever sleep?

GRANDIER

I sleep a little at least.

BAILIFF

In a way that you are busy -- ceaselessly?

GRANDIER

Time is a serpent which kills those who do not know how to employ it, and which caresses those who put it to profit.

BAILIFF

And you don't think such occupations are a little profane?

GRANDIER

No, sir -- for I believe that the Lord is present in all things, and you know, he who believes, sees. Me, I see God everywhere. The problem I ask of science, that is God. The medley I look for in music, that's God. The beautiful ideal that I dream of in painting, that's God. All which is great and good comes from God and returns to God. But you have, you say, an important communication for me, sir?

BAILIFF

Ah, first off -- I wish to congratulate you on what you did today in church regarding that poor girl they wanted to make into a nun despite herself.

GRANDIER

Then you don't blame me for coming to her aid?

BAILIFF

Oh, no -- quite the contrary, nor do our women. Ah, if you could listen at every door, I am sure there is not now, except perhaps at the Convent of the Ursulines, a single gossip in all of Loudon who doesn't sing your praises. Ah, take care, if this continues, I think you'll draw on yourself yet more than you can imagine.

GRANDIER

So you find I did what I ought to do?

BAILIFF

Yes, yes, yes -- although there's a certain danger in it. You know the thing could turn out badly for you?

GRANDIER

Ah! Ah! You think of my disobedience, or rather my opposition to the orders of the Cardinal?

BAILIFF

No, I don't greatly fear big enemies, I only fear little ones. The Cardinal has too much to do to occupy himself with you -- but watch out for Mignon, the Director of our Devotees from whom you took a dowry of 6,000 shillings -- watch out for Barre, his vicar -- they have time to spare, those two, and if they employ it to cause you mischief, it won't astonish me.

GRANDIER

Is this the communication you wished to make me, sir? In that case, I think you from the depths of my heart for being concerned about me.

BAILIFF

No, that's not it yet. I come, as you are not only a saintly man, but also a learned doctor, Monsieur Grandier -- I came to share with you certain rumors that have begun to run about the town and to ask you if you believe in their reality.

GRANDIER

Ah, you wish to speak of these apparitions seen lately in certain parts of the old Chateau of Loudon.

BAILIFF

Yes, and that despite the proximity to our convent of the Ursulines.

GRANDIER

You attach importance to the gossip of old women, sir? You are very good.

BAILIFF

Eh! Eh! Very intelligent and in no way timid men have assured me, reverend, that passing the day near an opening giving on the cellar of the convent they heard something like groanings, something like wailings, something like prayers, while others passing the night near the cloister, told me they have seen -- oh. seen with their own eyes! Large white shapes crossing the terrace, and making threatening gestures with their veils to the curious.

GRANDIER

Threatening gestures with their veils aren't very dangerous signs, sir.

BAILIFF

Then you don't believe in apparitions?

DANIEL

(passing through the window and going to hide behind the curtain)

Well, if you don't believe it, brother, I am going to convince you.

BAILIFF

It seems to met that even in the holy books -- ah, you don't believe it?

GRANDIER

I don't say that, sir. I believe in all the facts contained in the Old and New Testaments and even some which have been reported in the lives of the pagans. Then, I see, in the Bible, that the ghost of Samuel, evoked by the Witch of Endor, appeared to Saul. I see in the Gospels, that Christ appeared to Magdelena. Moreover, I see in Plutarch, that at Sardis, the spectre of Caesar appeared to Brutus, and announced to him his second apparition at Phillipi would be his defeat and his death. I would then do ill. I, poor soldier of yesterday, poor monk of today, to struggle against such authorities and I believe in these apparitions: the first two as articles of faith, the third as a historic fact. But I believe that so to trouble the usual order of nature, I think that -- for the dead once abed in their tombs to leave -- I think that it's necessary that God, that is to say, the supreme unity, the supreme power, the supreme intelligence -- must have powerful motives.

This motive was powerful at the time of Saul, since it affected the life and happiness of a nation, so the shade of Samuel came to contest the madness of its King. This motive was powerful in regard to Magdelena, since it was a question, though the means of one of the holy women who had assisted at his death, of proclaiming the resurrection of Christ. This motive was powerful -- vis-a-vis Brutus, since it was advice given to the murderer by the victim, that political murder is infamous and odious equally with other murders, but even useless. These are the apparitions, I believe in, sir, and that because they have a great end of humanity, of faith or of doctrine, but as to apparitions whose end is to scare of the curious from an air hole or a quarry, or the ruins of an old castle, no -- in these I confess to you, I believe very little or not at all.

BAILIFF

My dear Grandier, you speak like a book, and even I will say there are many books that don't speak like you. But, if these apparitions are confirmed in my capacity of bailiff, I have certain responsibilities to my fellow citizens -- what should I do?

GRANDIER

You will come find me one evening, sir. I will remove this palm from the wall, which was brought me from Jerusalem and which, when it was attached to its shaft, shaded the divine tomb of our Lord. And, this blessed bough in hand, I myself will go, confident in the purity of my heart and in the assistance of God to assure myself of the truth.

BAILIFF

Reverend, you are greatly courageous and a great spirit, there is in you, at the same time, a soldier and a monk.

GRANDIER

There's a Christian, sir, and that's all.

BAILIFF

Well, it's agreed, I'll be on the look out for apparitions. I will watch for Returners and if they arise anew, I will come to find you and we will make the expedition together.

GRANDIER

It's a bargain, sir.

BAILIFF

Till we meet again, father, till we meet again.

(Exit Bailiff. Daniel appears.)

DANIEL

Ah -- finally, he's gone. He's not bad. Is that bailiff a gossip?

GRANDIER

Daniel!

DANIEL

Yes, Daniel, Daniel, who has to come through the window because his brother shuts the door on him, and I think, God pardon me after having shut the door on him, shuts his arms.

GRANDIER

Oh, no, no! Come, my child, come!

(He extends his arms, Daniel rushes to him. Urbain presses him to his heart, then breaks into tears, and sits on a chair while Daniel remains standing, enveloped in his arms.)

DANIEL

Poor brother, wouldn't it have been better to do this a long while ago? Today, perhaps the wound will scar.

GRANDIER

My dear child, it will without cease, and the wound will always bleed, only it will bleed inside, and no one will see it bleed, except God, who has taken Ursula from me, and you, who knew her.

DANIEL

Oh, I told mama, it was for this reason you wouldn't see us.

GRANDIER

I've been wrong. It would have been better to weep. When too many tears are stored up in the heart, they choke those who do not shed them. Oh, it's true, my child that God wants me to weep for her, right?

DANIEL

I weep for her a lot -- I who she didn't love the way she loved you, I who she only loved as a child and like a brother. So, you flee from yourself, whereas I remain.

GRANDIER

Would you want me after having just given myself entirely to God to offer the spectacle of my sorrow to men? Oh! It's the last feeling of pride which drags me -- and indeed I am well punished for it, for I don't even know where she sleeps her last sleep -- for through the tears I shed for her death I cannot even see her tomb.

DANIEL

She is in the de Sable cemetery, Brother and they've planted large trees on her tomb that can be seen from the fountain on the highway.

GRANDIER

And what is the shape of her sepulchre? Has she, at least, the flowers that she loved? They were white roses, jasmine, violets. Who takes care of all this? Who watches over the death of she who watched over the life of all?

DANIEL

Alas, I don't know how to tell you any more, brother, I have indeed like the others, gone from the church to the cemetery, but reaching the gate, thinking they were going to shut her in a somber cave or put her in a moist ditch, thinking I was going to hear screeching of the rusty hinges of a sepulchral gate, or the echo on the bier that first clump of earth which separates life from eternity, oh! oh! I cried so much brother that my mother said to me, "Let's not go much further, my child," and then she led me away for she was weeping as much as I was, poor mother, go!

GRANDIER

And you never returned alone? And you never returned by yourself?

DANIEL

To the de Sable cemetery? No, never, never!

GRANDIER

Oh, I must know where she reposes, I must know her tomb. We are going to go there together, right my dear Daniel?

DANIEL

Where's that?

GRANDIER

To the de Sable cemetery.

(taking his hands and looking at him)

DANIEL

Oh, with you I will go wherever you wish, brother.

GRANDIER

Come, there.

DANIEL

(shutting his eyes)

Ah!

GRANDIER

Are you there?

DANIEL

Yes, wait -- I think we are at the gate, but I cannot see very clearly.

(Grandier passes his hands before the child's eyes: his eyes open.)

GRANDIER

Do you see better?

DANIEL

Yes.

GRANDIER

Then lead me.

DANIEL

Ah -- how sad it is, the cemetery, all the leaves are falling from the trees, like souls stealing away -- all the flowers fading like dying candles.

GRANDIER

Ursula! Ursula!

DANIEL

Take care, brother! They say to strike the stone of a tomb brings bad luck. Take care and follow this little guide. It's down there, you see -- by those four cypresses. Why didn't they plant other trees, not cypresses? Birds never rest in cypresses -- and she, she loved the singing of birds.

GRANDIER

Ursula! Ursula!

DANIEL

We are there! Heavens, it's below this balustrade. There are four tombs in this little enclosure. That's not her -- that's her mother. That's not her either -- that's her brother -- who was the same age as me, you know? And they called him Didier. Hello Didier -- ah, ah, here's hers.

GRANDIER

Ursula! Ursula!

DANIEL

It's a great marble slab with a sculpted cross. Wait, I am going to read the inscription on the tomb. "Here rests the very highborn and very powerful Miss Ursula de Sable, Countess de Rovere. Born May 1, 1610, and returned to God, June 15, 1629.

GRANDIER

Holy Virgin, pray for me!

DANIEL

Oh -- brother, oh! How strange this is?

GRANDIER

What?

DANIEL

I see under the stone as if there were no stone. I see in the vault as if it were lit.

GRANDIER

Well?

DANIEL

Well, there's a bier, but it is empty.

GRANDIER

What are you saying?

DANIEL

I say, I say, I say -- there is no cadaver in the coffin.

GRANDIER

My God!

DANIEL

(looking around)

No! No! No!

GRANDIER

Why, then they must have removed her to put her in another sepulchre.

DANIEL

Wait, yes, I see them. It's a woman and two men. They are taking the cadaver and they're carrying it away.

GRANDIER

Where is this?

DANIEL

I am following them. Rest easy. They are putting her in a carriage. The carriage is leaving. She's entering Loudon. They are taking her out of the Convent of the Ursulines. It's at night. The woman has a key to the gate. She's opening it. She's indicating the cellars of the convent. Ah, now we are in the midst of tombs again. She's placing Ursula in a vault shut with a grill. She's lighting a lamp. She's putting bread and water near the body. She's leaving. Wait! Wait! My God! Ursula is waking up, it seems to me -- yes, I see her -- she's on her knees, she's praying -- she's not dead!

GRANDIER

Ursula isn't dead?

DANIEL

Why, no -- since I tell you she's praying -- since I tell you I see her.

GRANDIER

Oh! You are sure? You are sure?

DANIEL

I see her.

GRANDIER

And can you lead me to her?

DANIEL

Yes, yes, certainly, if you don't wake me up.

GRANDIER

Ah! Come! Come!

DANIEL

Follow me!

(They leave.)

(curtain)

Scene vi

The sepulchral vault of the convent of the Ursulines. A large stairway. In the foreground an in-pace, isolated by a grill. The in-pace is to the spectator's left. A lamp lights it as with a strange daylight.

(Ursula is seated on straw. Before her Jeanne de Laubardemont, leaving the gate of the in pace.)

URSULA

But, still madam, you ought to have pity on me some day and tell me what crime I have committed to live here enchained in a dungeon in the center of the earth? And for how long I don't know, for I've stopped counting days and nights which are confused in an eternal obscurity for me.

JEANNE

Aren't you dead and resting in the place of the dead -- isn't it the tomb?

URSULA

Oh! The dead -- the dead at least sleep while waiting for the eternal resurrection, while for me deliverance -- is death, is death!

JEANNE

Why wait for the death you implore? Why not go before it? Haven't you there, within your reach that which will rid you of life when life becomes a burden for you.

URSULA

Poison, isn't it? Why, instead of the narcotic they gave me, and which made me pass for dead, tell me why didn't they give me poison which would kill me right off?

JEANNE

Because she who wishes to avenge herself on you has no desire to commit a useless crime. Why kill you when she can let you live? In reality, aren't you dead? And do you think a real tomb can be any more deep and heavy than this prison which encloses you?

URSULA

I've understood only one word of what you've told me. That person who wishes to be avenged on me. That person is you, isn't it madam?

JEANNE

It is I -- you said it.

URSULA

You avenge yourself on me! But in what way have I offended you? I never saw you before the day I awoke in this dungeon. I do not know you, and even today as you tell me that you are avenging yourself on me, I don't even know your name. no, madam, I repeat, you cannot avenge yourself on me -- since I've never done you any injury.

JEANNE

You've never done me any injury? Look at me -- I am still young, still beautiful, rich and of high birth -- nothing forced me to take vows -- and yet I wear this habit -- I am superior of a convent, and once a day I am condemned to descend to the depths of this vault to bring you light and food. Well, these vows, this habit, even this crime that I am committing by separating you from the world -- it's all your fault.

URSULA

If that is so, I ask your pardon -- and I will pray for you, but I repeat, I don't understand.

JEANNE

You don't understand! So you think the only injury one woman can do to another is in poison she pours her, or in a dagger blow she's truck her? To give you an idea of injury, you must see the drink which poisons or the iron which kills! And the jealousy that a rival must drink, and the love disdained with which she tears your heart. That you count as nothing. You haven't injured me? Well, what does it matter to me if the injury doesn't come from you if it comes to me through you?

URSULA

Ah, you knew Urbain. You loved him. I understand completely. If you knew him, where is he, madam? What's he doing? What's become of him?

JEANNE

What does it matter to you where he is, what he's doing, what's become of him, since you are separated from him forever?

URSULA

That is the sentence you have pronounced, Madam. But it's not yet ratified by the Lord. The Lord is good. The Lord is merciful, as deeply as you have buried me, his glance will fall on me, or my prayer will rise to him. One day He will deliver me.

JEANNE

Has He delivered you in the last two years?

URSULA

Perhaps I am condemned as a test and I have not yet suffered enough.

JEANNE

Dream of events which can get you out of here -- and tell me the ones you can rely on, let's see.

URSULA

Here, come closer and look at this drop of water, which falls every minute from the vault into this stone, and with such regularity that it helped me to tell the time -- well, it's beginning to pierce the stone.

JEANNE

Perhaps it's fallen this way for a thousand years every minute.

URSULA

Well, I shall apply my spirit to my chain -- I am young -- I was 19 years old when I was shut in here -- and perhaps if only with my tears, I shall wear it out like this drop of water has done to the stone -- and then --

JEANNE

And then you will find this grill shut, this door shut -- will you wear them out with your tears?

URSULA

Well, he too is suffering -- he too will look for me -- for his part.

JEANNE

First of all, he thinks you are dead -- and then, you know he's living, who told you he still loves you?

URSULA

Since you have taken vows, since you have taken the veil, since you descend to this dungeon once a day, you see quite clearly he hasn't stopped loving me.

JEANNE

So be it, suppose all that, Ursula, suppose your tears break your chain, suppose that Grandier still loves you, suppose that Grandier is searching for you, suppose he takes from me this key, which never leaves me, suppose you hear his step, suppose you hear his voice, suppose suddenly he appears through these bars --

URSULA

Oh, then, that day will repay me for all my troubles!

JEANNE

That day will be the most cruel and desperate of all your days, for in seeing him again, Ursula, the first sight of him will lose him to you forever.

URSULA

What do you mean?

JEANNE

Yes, Urbain still thinks of you, yes Urbain still loves you, he loves you more than you can imagine, more than you could dream, poor Urbain loves you, he loves you so much he's become a priest.

(She leaves.)

URSULA

(collapsing)

Oh! My God! My God! It's I who live and it's he who is dead! Poor Urbain, he loved me so much that he renounced this world the moment they told him I was no more? Oh! The Lord is my witness, Urbain, that in my most desperate, mortal hours, I never for a moment doubted your love. Urbain, you were there eternally near me, and I saw you, I heard you, and I said to myself, Oh, he must think I am dead since he hasn't yet found me." Oh, if I had a way to let him know that I am living, if I had a way to let him know where I am! My God, my God, advise me, inspire me, my God!

(Grandier appears at the rear as Ursula prays. Suddenly Ursula shivers.)

URSULA

Oh! What is this? I am so accustomed to the silence of this solitude, my ear knows all the noise of the water in the depths of these rocks, the noise of the wind under the vaults. That is neither the murmur of the water, nor the wailing of the wind -- it's the steps of two persons -- yes? Why two people? This woman always comes alone -- anyway, she left. Why would she return? My God! Pardon me, but it seems to be his step, it seems it is his step and that of Daniel -- oh, my heart, don't beat so hard, you will prevent me from hearing.

(Ursula (in the in-pace) Grandier and Daniel are on the other side of the bars.)

DANIEL

Come, my brother -- we are getting close.

GRANDIER

Getting close you say?

DANIEL

Yes - heavens, there.

(pointing his finger)

URSULA

Oh, my God! My God!

GRANDIER

But there's a grill which prevents us from reaching her.

URSULA

It's his voice! That's his voice!

DANIEL

Wait.

GRANDIER

What are you doing?

DANIEL

Wait, I tell you.

(touching the bars of the grill one after the other)

Pull this bar, brother, its eaten away with rust; it will give way.

GRANDIER

This one?

DANIEL

Yes.

GRANDIER

My God, give me the strength.

URSULA

It's him! It's Urbain.

(trying to break her chain)

Urbain, it's Ursula! Urbain, help me, help me, I am here.

GRANDIER

(pushing the bar)

Wait! Wait! Here I am!

(With a violent effort, Ursula breaks her chain and meanwhile, Grandier forces the bars; they rush into each others arms. Daniel sits motionless.)

GRANDIER and DANIEL

Ursula!

URSULA

Grandier! Ah, I knew indeed you would find me.

GRANDIER

(looking at his robe)

My God, my God, in seeing her again I've forgotten everything -- Ursula, pardon me.

URSULA

(falling to her knees)

Your blessing, father.

GRANDIER

Oh, yes, be blessed, angel from heaven, who, for me, has suffered like a martyr! Be blessed, you who god forbids me to love like a lover -- but permits me to love like a sister.

URSULA

Alas! Alas!

GRANDIER

Ursula, my sister, have pity on me, help my courage instead of weakening it. Ursula, the important thing, first of all to get you out of here. Where is the key to this grill?

URSULA

The woman who holds me prisoner wears it eternally above her neck and you cannot take it from her.

GRANDIER

Perhaps.

(calling)

Daniel!

DANIEL

(rising and coming)

Here I am.

URSULA

My God, what's wrong with him. I don't recognize either, his voice or his bearing -- you'd say he's dead.

GRANDIER

Don't be uneasy. Ursula. Daniel, the woman who was here just now, the woman who holds Ursula shut up here -- is she the same woman you saw opening the tomb?

DANIEL

Yes -- she's the same one.

GRANDIER

Do you know her?

DANIEL

Yes, I know her.

GRANDIER

What's her name?

DANIEL

Jeanne de Laubardemont!

GRANDIER

I suspected that. Does the key to this grill sometimes leave her?

DANIEL

Never!

GRANDIER

Where does she wear it?

DANIEL

Ursula told you -- around her neck.

GRANDIER

Is there a way to get it from her?

DANIEL

The one you are thinking of.

GRANDIER

You think I will succeed?

DANIEL

With God's help -- yes!

GRANDIER

Where can I find her at this moment?

DANIEL

In the cloister where she's giving a party for her nuns.

GRANDIER

Which way will get me there?

DANIEL

This way leads there.

GRANDIER

Ursula, in a half hour, you will be free or I will be dead.

URSULA

Lord, Lord, what is happening? Is what I see with my eyes truly real?

DANIEL

Fear nothing, sister -- God is with him.

(Grandier goes back through the opening and rapidly disappears while signalling to Ursula that he's going to return. Ursula follows him avidly with her eyes -- her hand passing between the bars of the grill.)

(blackout)

Scene vii

The Cloister of the Ursuline Convent. The foreground is lit, through the arcades can be seen the cypresses in the lit up gardens. The cloister, at the left is plunged in infinite darkness.

At the rise of the curtain, two nuns, dressed in white, covered by veils cross the stage. Nogaret enters and notices two nuns dressed in worldly costume. He gestures to Barace who approaches -- each of them takes the arm of a nun.

Jeanne de Laubardemont enters in her turn. The Lords straighten up and arrange themselves at her approach. She sits on a tomb, then they bring her an ancient type harp.

The ballet is danced.

The last step is danced by two Spaniards. It's a very fast bolero. At the moment when the lips of the two women touch, a change in the music signals the apparition of Grandier. Everyone flees. Jeanne wants to flee, too, but stays rooted to the steps of the tomb. Urbain approaches her with an imperious gesture. She takes the key from her neck and gives it to Urbain who slowly vanishes. Jeanne remains motionless.

(curtain)

ACT II

Scene viii

Urbain's cell.

(Grandier enters with Ursula hidden under the robe of a monk.)

GRANDIER

(from the door)

Come in, Ursula, Daniel, go find my mother without telling her the reason and bring her here. Come in, Ursula.

URSULA

(sitting)

Oh -- I cannot believe in your presence nor in my freedom. It seems to me that what has just happened is a sweet and beautiful dream which will vanish on waking up.

GRANDIER

Thank God, Ursula! For your deliverance is -- if not a dream, at least a miracle; it was God who revealed to me your existence hidden from the rest of the world, it was God who led me to your dungeon and I still hope it is God who permits me to bring you here.

(Going to the Madonna and drawing the curtains.)

URSULA

What are you doing, Urbain?

GRANDIER

Nothing.

URSULA

Yes, you're right, it's God who permits you to bring me here, for here, like down there, I will be dead to the rest of the world, but living for heaven and for you.

GRANDIER

Beware, Ursula, beware of letting yourself regain a hope which cannot be realized.

URSULA

What?

GRANDIER

What I think, I read through your words, what this habit you've just put on gives rise to, that your entry to this cell has confirmed.

URSULA

Urbain, my friend, hardly reunited, is it your intention to separate us?

GRANDIER

Ursula, the longer we wait, the greater the sorrow will be.

URSULA

But do you think this woman can reclaim me, pursue me?

GRANDIER

No, I don't think so, and in all probability she will keep silent, about what she has done and what I have seen.

URSULA

Can't you have me received as a novice, Urbain? -- can't I, hidden under this costume, escape the notice of the community?

GRANDIER

All that is possible, Ursula, yes, you can live here hidden from all eyes, and the solitude of the cloister is so profound, that you can leave earth and return to heaven without the earth suspecting you've been gone for an instant.

URSULA

Well, then?

GRANDIER

But where the eyes of man does not reach, God's glance penetrates. In the depths of this cell, under that dress, however, well you hide yourself, God will see you, Ursula.

URSULA

Well, what will he see, Urbain? Two pure and loving beings who will sing his praise in the profound gratitude of their hearts, who melt together their souls in the same prayers, eternal prayers that the first will have begun, and that the second will finish, who have no other desire than to become more pure through each other, to leave on earth, what belongs to earth, and each instant will see the creation of a feather in the wings which one day will carry us to God.

GRANDIER

Yes, Ursula, you see things this way, because you are an angel, because your feet hardly touch the dirt of the world. Never having failed, you think you are infallible, but I -- I who love you more than my will, beyond