Author: Unknown
Date: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Ninety-Three by Paul Meurice (1881; based on V. Hugo)

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Ninety-Three

‘93
by

Victor Hugo & Paul Meurice.

(1881)

from Victor Hugo’s Novel Quatre-vingt-treize.

translated and adapted by

Frank J. Morlock.

Translation is Copyright Š 2000 by Frank J. Morlock. Reproduction in any form is prohibited without explicit consent of Frank Morlock. Please contact frankmorlock@msn.com for licensing information.

Table of Contents:

Cast of Characters

Act I

Scene IThe Forest of Saudraie

Scene IIThe Carnichot

Scene IIINo Mercy

Scene IV

Scene VAfter the Massacre

Act II

Scene VIThe Cabaret of the Rue de Paon Scene VIIThe Taking of Dol

Act III

Scene VIIIThe Assault on La Tourgue Scene IXThe Three Children

Scene X

Act IV

Scene XI

Scene XIIThe Sun Also Rises

Cast of Characters:

Cimourdainformer chaplain to the Marquis de Lantenac, and the tutor of his nephew Gauvain; now a radical republican more extreme than Robespierre or Marat in his selfless egalitarianism.

Lantenacan eighty year old Marquis from Brittany who has returned from exile empowered as General in the King’s Guerrilla army.

Gauvainhis nephew, and former student of Cimourdain from whom he imbibed notions of liberty, equality and justice. Commander of the Expeditionary Forces sent by The Committee on Public Safety against the Chouans.

RadoubA Sergeant in the Red Bonnet Battalion sent against the Chouans.

Imanusnamed for his cruelty and inhumanity; a leader of the Chouans, devoted to Lantenac.

Le Caimanda beggar who lives in an underground hovel on the estates formerly belonging to Lantenac.

Danton

RobespierreThe Three Who Made The French Revolution.

Marat

Jean-Mathieua peasant who escapes the massacre at Herbe-en-Pail.

Guechampa Republican serving under Gauvain.

Bapaumean innkeeper in Paris, formerly a servant of the Marquis de Lantenac.

Halmaloa White, escorting Lantenac.

Lamanechea Corporal in the Red Bonnet Battalion, under Sergeant Radoub.

Parisiana soldier from Paris, serving in the Red Bonnet Battalin.

Chante-en-Hivera peasant on the side of the Whites Grand-FrancoeurA White leader of the Chouans.

A surgeon-Major

La Flechardea simple peasant woman whose husband has been killed during the fighting.

Houzarde(a vivandiere or sutler) attached to the Red Bonnet Battalion.

Dorotheaa former maid at Lantenac’s estate, La Tourgue, now Cimourdain’s housekeeper in Paris. The children of La Flecharde. (In France, played by young girl actresses.)

Rene-Jean7 years old.

Fat Alanaround five.

Georgettearound three.

ACT I

SCENE I

The Forest of Saudraie

Large treesthick woodsto the left a trench. RADOUB, LAMANECHE, PARISIAN, HOUZARDE (a squad of grenadiers enter, marching on the alert) PARISIAN: There are some brambles and thorns.

LAMANECHE: Commander Gauvain said “search that thicket for me.”

Everything commander Gauvain saysis done. But it isn’t easy.

RADOUB (in a low voice): Attentionkids! We are in the famous forest of la Saudraie. This is where all the uproar in La Vendée started. Be suspicious and watchful!

HOUZARDE (pointing to the thicket): Hush! Something breathed! There!

RADOUB (low to his men): Finger on the trigger!

(HOUZARDE advances stealthily towards the ditchseparates the branches and discovers LA FLECHARDE with her three children. LA FLECHARDE utters a scream.)

HOUZARDE (to Grenadiers): Stop! Don’t fire! (To LA FLECHARDE.) What are you doing here, you? Are you a mad woman to be there? A little more and you would have been exterminated. (To the soldiers who approach.) It’s a woman.

PARISIAN: Jove! We can clearly see that well enough.

LA FLECHARDE (trembling): Ah! Jesus!

HOUZARDE: Don’t be afraid! We are the Red Bonnet Battalion. The Battalion of the “ci-devant” Red Cross.

RADOUB (coming up): Let’s seewho are you, madame? (Considering herto the other soldiers.) She’s a poor womanWhat’s your name?

LA FLECHARDE: Michelle Flecharde.

RADOUB: These three urchins are yours?

LA FLECHARDE: Yes. The oldest is called Rene-Jean. This oneFat Alan.

The little girlGeorgette. Those are our names.

HOUZARDE: As for me, I’m called Houzarde. It’s a nickname but I prefer to call myself Houzarde than Miss Bicorneau like my mother.

FAT ALAN: I’m frightened.

RENE-JEAN: I’m hungry.

LA FLECHARDE: Oh, they are real hungry.

RADOUB: They’ll be given something to eat. But that’s not all there is to it. What are your political opinions? Do you hear what I say to you?

LA FLECHARDE: Yes, in the convent the sisters taught me to speak French.

They set fire to the village. I escaped with my children.

RADOUB: I ask you what are your political opinions?

LA FLECHARDE: I don’t know that.

RADOUB: Spies say that. They get shotspies do! Lookspeak. You are not a gypsy. What is your fatherland?

LA FLECHARDE: I don’t know.

RADOUB: What! You don’t know what your country is?

LA FLECHARDE: Ah, my countryIt’s the farmhold of Siscoignard in the Parish of Aze.

RADOUB: That’s not a fatherland.

LA FLECHARDE: It’s my country. Ah, I understand, sir. You are from France, as for me, I am from Brittany.

RADOUB: Well

LA FLECHARDE: It’s not the same country.

RADOUB: But it’s the same fatherland! Anyway go for Siscoignard! Is that where your family’s from?

LA FLECHARDE: Yes.

RADOUB: What do they do?

LA FLECHARDE: They are all dead. I have no one any more.

RADOUB: Do you have a house?

LA FLECHARDE: I had one. They burned it.

RADOUB: Who did that?

LA FLECHARDE: I don’t know. A battle.

RADOUB: And your husband? Where is he? What’s become of him?

LA FLECHARDE: He’s become nothing since they killed him.

RADOUB: When was that?

LA FLECHARDE: Three days ago.

RADOUB: Who did that?

LA FLECHARDE: I don’t know.

RADOUB: Whatyou don’t know who killed your husband?

LA FLECHARDE: No.

RADOUB: Was it a Blue? Was it a White?

LA FLECHARDE: It was a rifle shot.

RADOUB: Finally! You cannot tell us what side you are on?

LA FLECHARDE: I don’t know.

RADOUB: Are you a White? Are you a Blue? Who are you with?

LA FLECHARDE: I am with my children.

HOUZARDE: As for me, I haven’t had children. I haven’t had the time.

RADOUB: But your parents. Look, make us acquainted with your parents. As for me, my name’s Radoub. I’m a Sergeant. I am from the Rue du Cherche-Midi, my father and my mother being from there. I can speak of my parents. Tell us about yours. Who were your parents?

LA FLECHARDE: They were the Flechardes. That’s all.

RADOUB: Yes, the Flechardes are the Flechardes as the Radoubs are the Radoubs. But they had a situation. What was the situation of your parents?

What did they do? What are they doing? What kind of stuff did your Flechardes do?

LA FLECHARDE: They were laborers. My father was ill and could not work because he received a beating from the Lordour Lordwho gave him this beating. It was a blessing.

RADOUB: Huh?

LA FLECHARDE: Yes, because my father had taken a rabbitfor which he was sentenced to diebut the Lord was merciful and said, “Just gave him a hundred whacks with the stick.” And my father lived crippled.

RADOUB: And then?

LA FLECHARDE: My grandfather was a Huguenot. The Curé sent him to the galleys. I was quite little.

RADOUB: And then?

LA FLECHARDE: My husband’s father was a salt smuggler. The King hanged him.

RADOUB: And your husbandin those times, he fought. For whom?

LA FLECHARDE: For the King.

RADOUB: And then?

LA FLECHARDE: Hell! For his Lord.

RADOUB: And then?

LA FLECHARDE: Hell! For the Curé.

RADOUB: Holy Christ.

(LA FLECHARDE quails terrified and gets up.) HOUZARDE: Well, Sergeant. What’s all this? Does one swear before women?

RADOUB: It’s just thatall the sameit’s a real massacrefor an honest man to hear. Like seeing the Iroquois from Chinawho have their father-in-law crippled by the Lord. Their grandfather sent to the galleys by the priest and their father hung by the Kingand who battles for god’s sake! And who rise in revolt and are pulverized by the Lord, the priest, and the King?

HOUZARDE (laughing): Sergeant, we are not here at a meeting of the Pikes Club. No oratory!

RADOUB: Fair enough. And since your husband died, madam, what is it you do?

LA FLECHARDE: I take away my children.

RADOUB: Where do you take them?

LA FLECHARDE: With me.

RADOUB: Where do you sleep?

LA FLECHARDE: On the ground.

RADOUB: What do you eat?

LA FLECHARDE: Nothing.

RADOUB (with a grimace of suspicion): Nothing.

LA FLECHARDE: That is to say, berries, ripe blackberrieswhortelberries, fern shoots.

RADOUB: Yes. Might as well say nothing.

RENE-JEAN: I’m hungry.

RADOUB (pulling from his pocket a slice of bread and giving it to the mother): Here

(LA FLECHARDE breaks the bread and divides it among the children who eat quickly.)

RADOUB (to HOUZARDE): She didn’t keep any for herself.

LAMANECHE: That’s cause she’s not hungry.

RENE-JEAN: Something to drink.

FAT ALAN: To drink.

RADOUB: Is there no stream in this devilish forest?

HOUZARDE: Wait! (She takes the copper bottle which she carries in her belt beside her hand bell, turns the tap of the canteen in her bandolier, pours some drops in the goblet and gives it to RENE-JEAN.) RENE-JEAN (grimacing and spitting it out): Ah! Pouah!

HOUZARDE (looking at RADOUB with surprise): It’s still good.

RADOUB: It’s good stuff?

HOUZARDE: Yes, and the best. But these are peasants.

RADOUB: And as to this, madamyou are escaping?

LA FLECHARDE: I must. I run with all my strength and then I walk, and then I fall.

HOUZARDE: Poor village girl.

LA FLECHARDE: The people are fighting. I am completely surrounded by rifle shots. I don’t know what they intend. They killed my husband. That’s all I understand.

RADOUB (beating a tree trunk with his rifle butt; screaming with rage): What a beastly war! Sonofabitch!

RENE-JEAN (terrified): Oh!

FAT ALAN (also terrified): Mama!

RADOUB: Well! Are they cowards?The little girl is not afraid! Not her!

(Puts the strap of his rifle over his shoulder and takes the little girl in his arm.)

GEORGETTE (putting her little hands on his big mustaches and laughing): Hel-lo!

RADOUB: Hum! (Gives GEORGETTE to her mother; then to his comrades in a husky voice.): Comradesfrom all this I conclude that the Battalion’s going to become a fatherIs it agreed? We adopt these three children.

THE GRENADIERS: Yes! Yes! Long live the Republic.

RADOUB: It’s agreed. (Extending both hands above the mother and the three children.) These are the children of the Battalion of the Red Bonnet.

HOUZARDE (wildly embracing LA FLECHARDE): You are part of the family, mother.

RADOUB (to LA FLECHARDE): ComeCitizeness.

ALL: Long live the Republic!

BLACKOUT

SCENE II

The Carnichot

A wooded slope near Pontorson. A road running up the hill. On the hill, to the left a stone milestone, on which is placarded a large poster. To the right, a huge oak of which one can see only the trunk and the lower branches. Between the roots of the oak and hidden under ivy and creeper an opening to a sort of underground chamber.

(Enters LANTENAC with HALMALO)

HALMALO: Land! Thanks to God you landed here, Milordon the good earth of Brittany.

LANTENAC: Where are we?

HALMALO: At the mouth of Couesnon, Milord. You have Ardevon starboard and Herbe-en-Pail larboard.

LANTENAC: Good, I’m on my territory. And it’s also the region of my dear young heirthe vicomte Gauvaintoday Citizen Commander Gauvainleading his band of Sanculottes. The little nephew, against the great uncle!

Marvelous! We will annihilate ourselves en famille! As for you, Halmalo, you guided our boat in a masterful way in this rough sailing.

HALMALO: Milord.

LANTENAC: And it’s thanks to you that I am going to be able to put myself at the head of our brave peasants and open the region for the King.

Now Halmalo, we are going to separate. To be two is worth nothing. It’s necessary to be 1000 or alone. You remember what you have to do?

HALMALO: At my finger tips.

LANTENAC: You are to go find the leadersJean Chouan, Mousqueton, Sans-Regret You will see Mr. de Lescure, Mr. de La Rochejaquelain.

(Pulling a scarf of green silk from his pocket with a fleur de lys.) Here’s the scarf of command given me by the princes.

HALMALO (bending his knees): By the princes!

LANTENAC: You will show it to them. They know what it is. And you will add this on my part. It’s time to fight two wars at oncethe large and the smallwe will make more use of Chouannerie than Vendée. Ambushes everywhere and no quarter. War to the death against these bandits who call us brigands! You’ve understood me perfectly?

HALMALO: Yes. we must destroy everything with fire and sword.

LANTENAC: That’s it. (Pulling out a purse and a portfolio and giving them to HALMALO.) Here in this portfolio are 30,000 francs in assignates.

Something like 3 pounds 10 sous. But, look!here for your mission is this purse. 100 gold crowns. I am giving you all that I have.

HALMALO: But you, milord.

LANTENAC: I have no need of anything herenow leave, Halmalo.

HALMALO: Where will I see you again, Milord?

LANTENAC: Public uproar will tell you where I am. In any case, my headquarters will be our family dungeonthe tower of Gauvain the Tourgue.

You left the country young but you know La Tourgue?

HALMALO: Yes, I know la Tourgue! It has a large iron gate which separates the new building from the oldand which cannot be beat down with cannon. And the subterranean passage. I know it. Perhaps it’s no longer I alone who know it.

LANTENAC: What subterranean passage? I don’t know what you mean!

HALMALO: It was in the old daysin the time when La Tourgue was besieged, the people thereabouts could escape outby passing through an underground passage which ran into the forest.

LANTENAC: I think there’s a subterranean passage of that type at the Tour de Champeon but there’s nothing like it at La Tourgue.

HALMALO: Indeed, Milord. But I told you today it’s not just me who knows the secret. My father knew itand he showed it to me. I know the secret of entering and the secret of leaving.

LANTENAC: Evidently you are mistaken. If there was a secret I would know it.

HALMALO: Milord! I am sure of it. There’s a stone that turns.

LANTENAC: Ah! right! You peasants you believe in stones that turn and stones that sing.

HALMALO: But since I made it turnthe stone

LANTENAC: Let’s leave that. The sun’s setting. Leave now, leave quickly, Halmalo.

HALMALO (bowing deeply): May God protect you, Milord. (He leaves.) LANTENAC (alone): Now, let’s orient ourselves. Who holds this country?

Our people still, I hopeah, from up there I can see better in the distance. (Scaling the footpath.) A noise of steps! The Devil! I mustn’t be seen. (He hides.)

(LA FLECHARDE enters with GEORGETTE asleep in her arms. HOUZARDE, RENE-JEAN and FAT ALAN follow on foot.)

LA FLECHARDE: What do you call this farm we are living on?

HOUZARDE: Herbe-en-Pail.

LA FLECHARDE: Are we still far away?

HOUZARDE: A good quarter of an hour. You are tired, right, La Flecharde?

Let’s rest two or three minutes.

LA FLECHARDE: AhI’d really like that.

RENE-JEAN: Oh, yes, yes.

(All sit on the slope.)

HOUZARDE: Soyou persist in carrying Georgette. A real dead weight. Try to get me to walk that way!

LA FLECHARDE: She’s still so little!

HOUZARDE: Ah! So much the worse! The soup will be cold. Well, now, La Flecharde, you’ve seenthey are good lads in the battalionaccept my propositionbe the number two canteen keeper.

LA FLECHARDE: But I wouldn’t know how.

HOUZARDE: Eh! I will show you the job. It’s really very simple. You have your water-bottle and your bell. In the uproarin the platoon firing, as the cannons fire, in the tumultyou shoutWho wants a cup of water, guys?

It’s no more difficult than that. As for me, I pour for everybody, for Blues and Whitesalthough I am a Blue. And even a good Blue. But I give drinks to everybody. The wounded are thirsty. They all die without regard to their opinions. The folks who die have to shake hands. How stupid it is to fight! Come. Are you rested?

LA FLECHARDE (rising): Yes, let’s leave.

RENE-JEAN: Already!

HOUZARDE: You wish! It’s still because of him we are late. He has to talk to all the little peasant girls he meets. He’s acting the way men do, already. Say, why did you speak to that little girl in the village?

RENE-JEAN: Because she’s the one that I know.

HOUZARDE: What? You know her?

RENE-JEAN: Yes, cause she gave me some kisses this morning.

HOUZARDE: Here’s a good one! We’ve only been in this country for three days, he’s no bigger than my fist and lookoutyou’re already in love! Come onon the roadbad bunch.

(They get up and leave.)

LANTENAC (reappearing): I heard badly enough what these women were saying, but from what I could understand, the Republicans are already in the vicinity. Let’s look, let’s observe. (Goes up the path and looks in the distance.) The farm of Herbe-en-Pail must be over this way. Yes, it seems to me that I observe the big roof. What’s fluttering above it? It’s not a weathercock since it waves. Let’s go up again. (Going back up the hill.) Hopefully no one knows of my arrival and no one knows my name.

(Reaching the milestone.) A poster. (Reading.) “Republic of Franceone and indivisible”Yuck! “We, Prieur de la Marne, representing of the people on duty with the army at Cotes de Cherbourg order; The Former Marquis de Lantenac furtively landed on the coast of Granville is placed outside the law….” (Stopping.) This is odd. (Reading again.) “A price is placed on his head. The sum of 60,000 francs will be paid to whoever delivers him dead or alive. This sum will not be paid in assignatsbut in gold.

Granville June 2, 1793 Prieur de la Marne….” What I already knewa price on my head! There are two or three more lines in small characters, but there’s no longer enough daylight. I can’t make them out.

LE CAIMAND (emerging behind him): You’ve read it?

LANTENAC (turning): Huh?

LE CAIMAND: I am asking you if you’ve read it?

LANTENAC (haughtily): First of allwhere am I?

LE CAIMAND: You are in the fiefdom of Tanis and I am the beggar thereof and you are the lord.

LANTENAC: Me?

LE CAIMAND: Yes, you, Monsieur le Marquis de Lantenac.

LANTENAC (shiveringand after a silence): So be it. Deliver me.

LE CAIMAND: You were going to the Herbe-en-Pail farm, right?

LANTENAC: Yes.

LE CAIMAND: Don’t go there.

LANTENAC: Why?

LE CAIMAND: The Blues are there. There’s half a Battalion there.

LANTENAC: Republicans?

LE CAIMAND: ParisiansWait, you see what’s over the roof of the farm?

LANTENAC: That’s waving?

LE CAIMAND: Yes.

LANTENAC: It’s a flag?

LE CAIMAND: Tricolor.

LANTENAC: And how long have the Blues been there?

LE CAIMAND: The last three days.

LANTENAC: The inhabitants of the farm and hamletdid they resist?

LE CAIMAND: Nothey opened all the gates.

LANTENAC (in a threatening tone): Ah! (Almost to himself.) Where shall I go then?

LE CAIMAND: My place.

LANTENAC: Your place? Whose side are you on then? Are you a Republican?

Are you royalist?

LE CAIMAND: I am a poor man.

LANTENAC: And you will save me?

LE CAIMAND: Yes.

LANTENAC: Why?

LE CAIMAND: Because I said: Here’s someone more poor than me. I have the right to breathe, as for himhe has not. We are brothers, Milord. I ask for bread you ask for life. We are two beggars.

LANTENAC: You know then that a price has been put on my head?

LE CAIMAND (pointing to the post): I also read the poster.

LANTENAC: You know how to read.

LE CAIMAND: And write. Why would I be a brute?

LANTENAC: Then you know that a man who gives me up will earn 60,000
francs?

LE CAIMAND: I know it.

LANTENAC: Not in assignats.

LE CAIMAND: Yes, I knowin gold.

LANTENAC: You know that 60,000 francs is a fortune.

LE CAIMAND: Welland so what?

LANTENAC: And that someone who gives me up will make his fortune?

LE CAIMAND: That’s exactly what I thought. Seeing you I said to myself “When I think that someone who gives this man up will earn 60,000 francs and make his fortune. Let’s hurry to hide him.”

LANTENAC: I am ready to follow you. Where is your house?

LE CAIMAND: We are standing on it.

LANTENAC: What?

LE CAIMAND: My house is a kind of room that this big old oak allowed me to take with it. You see this dugout opening under the roots and covered with ivy? In the country we call this a “carnichot.” There’s room for two.

It’s obscure, low, hidden, invisible. It’s not pretty, but it’s safe. At the farm you’ll be shot. Here you can sleep. If you are hungry and thirsty I have chestnuts and fresh water. Tomorrow morning the Blues will be on the march and you can go where you choose.

LANTENAC: What’s your name?

LE CAIMAND: My name is Tellmarchand they call me Le Caimand.

LANTENAC: I know. Caimand is a local word.

LE CAIMAND: Which means beggar.

LANTENAC: You are from these parts?

LE CAIMAND: I’m 70 years old and I’ve never left.

LANTENAC: Still I don’t know you. Have I met you before?

LE CAIMAND: Often, since I am your beggar. I was the poor fellow at the foot of the road, by your chateau. I held out my handyou saw only the handand you threw it alms which I needed in the morning so as not to die of starvation at night. Some times one sou is life. I owe you life and I return it to you.

LANTENAC: It’s trueyou are saving me.

LE CAIMAND: Yes. I am saving you, Milord. (In a grave tone.) On one condition.

LANTENAC: What’s that?

LE CAIMAND: That you haven’t come here to do ill.

LANTENAC: I’ve come here to do good.

LE CAIMAND (pulling back the ivy hiding the entrance): Enter.

CURTAIN.

SCENE III

No Mercy

Same setting. Day.

LANTENAC (alone, emerging from the Carnichot and calling): Tellmarch!

Hey! Le Caimand! He must have left without awakening me. I was exhausted from those two days and two nights at sea! I slept too much. The sun is already high over the horizon. It must be at least 6 o’clock. Have the Blues left? Let’s have a look. (Climbs the hill and reaches the milestone.) Ah, those lines in small letters that I was unable to read yesterday evening. (Goes close and reads.) The identity of the former Marquis de Lantenac being proven, he will be immediately shot.

SignedChief of the Battalion, Commandant of the Expeditionary ColumnGauvain. Gauvain! Hey heyyou are alive nephewit’s you who are opening the attack, Citizen-Vicomte. The retort is mine.Is the Tricolor flag still on the farm? (Looking in the distance.) What is that great smoke down there? Is it a battle? Norather it’s a fire, a military actionthe Republicans in leaving have set fire to Herbe-en-Pail. I hear a rumble in the distance. Drumsthe wood is filling with the noise of steps and voices. This resembles a hunt. It’s evident they’re looking for someone. The Tricolor flag. They are the Blues.

VOICES off: Lantenac! Lantenac. The Marquis de Lantenac.

LANTENAC: It’s me. My name. It’s me they are looking for. Come, let’s die well. (He pulls off his hat and places a white cockade on it and then after putting his hat on.) (Calling.) This way! I am the man you are looking for. The Marquis de Lantenac. Lieutenant General of the King’s Army. (Opening his vest.) Finish! Take aim! Fire!

(The Vendéans in arms invade all parts of the wood.) ALL (falling to their knees): Long live Lantenac! Long Live Milord! Long live the general! (They throw their hats in the air, wave their sabres, put their bonnets on their sticks.)

LANTENAC: Vendéans!

GRAND-FRANCOEUR (a knee on the ground): We were indeed looking for you and we’ve found you. (Presenting LANTENAC his sword with the scarf.) Here’s the commander’s sword. These men are yours. I was their commander.

I am rising in grade. I am your soldieraccept our homage, Milord. Give us your orders, my General.

LANTENAC (he girds on the scarf, draws the sword, and waves the sword above his head): Rise! And long live the King!

ALL (rising): Long Live Lantenac! (The shout is repeated throughout the wood.)

LANTENAC: How is it you knew of my arrival?

GRAND-FRANCOEUR: From the poster of this Prieur de la Marne. We thought that you might be somewhere in these woods and we were looking for you.

LANTENAC: What about this flag?

GRAND-FRANCOEUR (wiping his feet on the Tricolor): This is the flag we just took from the Blues who were in the farm of Herbe-en-Pail. They weren’t watchful. The folks in the Hamlet had received them well. At daybreak we invaded the farm. The Blues were sleeping. They tried to defend themselves, but they were 500 and we were 2000. The business done, we set fire to the farm.

LANTENAC: Good! What were the Blues there?

GRAND-FRANCOEUR: A half battalion from Paris.

LANTENAC: What’s it called?

GRAND-FRANCOEUR: Milordit’s on the flag. Battalion of the Red Bonnets.

LANTENAC: Of ferocious beasts. And you tell me that the folks of Herbe-en-Pail received them well! You burned the farm, did you burn the village?

IMANUS: No, Milordwe didn’t burn it. I don’t know why.

LANTENAC: You didn’t burn itburn it. It’s you Imanus. You never stop at anything! I’m happy to see you.

IMANUS: There are some wounded amongst the Blues, Milord. What is to be done with them?

LANTENAC: Finish them.

IMANUS: Good! There are prisoners.

LANTENAC: Shoot them.

GRAND-FRANCOEUR: There are nearly eighty.

LANTENAC: Shoot them all.

GRAND-FRANCOEUR: There are two women.

LANTENAC: Also.

GRAND-FRANCOEUR: There are three children.

IMANUS (pushing three children before him): Here, Milord. There they are.

RENE-JEAN (joining his hands): Sir! Sir! I beg your pardon for my little brothers and my little sister.

FAT ALAN (on his knees): Sir! Don’t murder us!

GEORGETTE (on her knees): Don’t murder!

LANTENAC: Send the children to La Tourgue. We’ll see what to do with them.

SCENE IV

A curtain in the front of the stage lowers representing the hamlet of Herbe-en-Pail, a Breton village, laughing, peaceable, happy. An air of prosperity and abundance.

Groups leave the stableslarge carts filled with hay, prosperous farm yards well furnished. A large forest, green and bushy closes the horizon.

The orchestra is playing a clear and joyous melody, but the sounds change and become suddenly somber.

Behind the curtain, the echo of a terrible clamorshouts of women and children. The tocsin sounds desperately. LANTENAC’s men are setting fire to the village.

Then the heavy steps of a group being led. Two rolls of drums. Forty eight voices rise in song, sing the Marseillaise.

Allons enfants de la patrie!

Le jour de gloire est arrivé!

Contre nous de la tyrannie

L’étendard sanglant est levé.

(A volley is fired. Fifteen voices continue.) Entendez nous dans nos compagnes

Mugir ces féroces soldats?

Ils viennent jusque dans nos bras

Egorger nos fils

(Second volley. Four voices leftamong them La HOUZARDE.) Aux armes citoyens!

Formez vos battailons!

Marchons! Marchons!

(Third volley. All is quiet.)

(The orchestra plays again, plaintive and lugubrious.)

SCENE V

After the Massacre

Herbe-en-Pail torched and ruined. Night. Moonlight. The Hamlet finishes burning, huts staved in, frames burned and still red. In the middle a black heap vaguely outlined on one side by flames, on the other by the moon. The heap is a pile of bodies. All around, a great red pool. It’s bloodthe flame is reflected in it. One can distinguish uniforms, hats with tricolor cockades. All the soldiers have naked feet.

To the right two women are stretched out. LA FLECHARDE and HOUZARDE. To the left a fountain. In back under the moon, the wood appears, still green.

LE CAIMAND (alone, coming forward): Great God in heaven! What’s this?

Dead bodies. Are they really dead? Yes, not a cry, not a groan, not a sigh. This is horrible! Ah, the two women. Women now. (Leans over one of the women’s bodies.) A type of uniform, a broken canteen. She’s a sutler.

She’s got four bullets in the head. She’s dead. And the other onenone in the headwhere’s she wounded? Ah, in the shoulder. Arm’s broken. She’s not cold. Ah, I feel her heart beat. She’s not dead! She’s not dead! Help!

Help! Help! Is there no one here?

JEAN-MATHIEU (coming from a cellar opening): Its’ you, Le Caimand.

LE CAIMAND: Jean-Mathieu! You are here! Come close, look. (He shows him LA FLECHARDE.)

JEAN-MATHIEU: The poor creatureis she still alive?

LE CAIMAND: Yes.

JEAN-MATHIEU (pointing to HOUZARDE): And the other one?

LE CAIMAND: Dead.

JEAN-MATHIEU: Like all these here, right? I was there hidden. I saw this. They killed everybody. Everybody. And it was the wounded and the prisoners. This woman hereLa Flecharde as they called her. She had children. Three childrenall little! They took away the kids and after that they returned and shot the mother.

LE CAIMAND: Ah! Brigands! They are rightly called brigands. (He goes to the fountain to moisten LA FLECHARDE’s kerchief and returns to bathe her temples.)

JEAN-MATHIEU: Yes, they are terrible. They were in great strength. As for me, I was with the Blues like Peter Mathieu, my poor uncle, who they slaughtered also. Why, decidedly, the Whites are stronger, you see. And now I’ve had enough of the villages. I’m going to the cityto Dolto the home of my brother Louis Mathieu who is with the Whites.

LE CAIMAND: Listenshe spoke.

LA FLECHARDE (coming to): Georgette! Jean-Rene!Where are my children?

LE CAIMAND: How do you feel? Is your shoulder hurting you?

LA FLECHARDE: Where are my children?

LE CAIMAND: Don’t you have any other wounds than this?

LA FLECHARDE: Where are my children?

LE CAIMAND: Try to walk, will you? So I can dress your wound.

LA FLECHARDE: Yes, let’s walk. To find my children. My children. Come onAhI can’t do it.

LE CAIMAND: She’s falling down again.

JEAN-MATHIEU: Let’s make a stretcher and I will help you to bring her to your carnichot.

LE CAIMAND: That’s it. But tell me, Jean-Mathieu. Who was responsible for this massacre?

JEAN-MATHIEU: Eh! It’s that big old guy who ordered it.

LE CAIMAND: Who’s that? Do you know him?

JEAN-MATHIEU: Yes, since he’s the Marquis. Our Marquis.

LE CAIMAND: Marquis de Lantenac?

JEAN-MATHIEU: Yes, Marquis de Lantenac.

LE CAIMAND: If I’d known.

CURTAIN

ACT II

SCENE VI

The Cabaret of the Rue de Paon

A very simple back room. Door in the rear. A small side door. A chimney in a corner. A table, some straw chairs.

A waiter, standing on a footstool finishes lighting a hanging lamp.

BAPAUME (entering; to the waiter): You lit the lampgood! Bring a bottle of old red wine to Citizen Danton, and coffee to Citizen Marat. As for Citizen Robespierre, he never takes anything.

(The waiter leaves.)

DOROTHEA: Then you are expecting three tonight, Bapaume? Citizen Bapaume, I mean! Citizen Cimourdain sent me just now to find out. He wants to speak to Citizen Marat.

BAPAUME: Yes, all three have done me the honor of meeting tonight at the Café de la Rue de Paon. Citizen Danton is here alreadydoing his correspondence. Citizen Cimourdain can come, Dorothea, or Citizeness Dorothea.

DOROTHEA: Call me plain Dorothea, come on! Like the times when I called you Bapaume.

BAPAUME: And call me Bapaume still, Dorothea. Ah, it always pleases me to see you come back!

DOROTHEA: All the same, it’s curious, isn’t it? To find neighbors again, close by. You, master of a café, me housekeeper, after having been in a house together a while. How much time were we together in the service of the former Marquis de Lantenac?

BAPAUME: Six years, I think. A rough service! He was pretty hard, the old aristocrat!

DOROTHEA: Bah! The family château didn’t see him often. Never at la Tourguealways at Versailles!

BAPAUME: Yes, but he took me twice to Versailles, and I will tell you it wasn’t pleasant. You, by God, as housekeeper, you necessarily remained at la Tourgue with the good masters, the young Vicomte Gauvain and his preceptor, this same Citizen Cimourdain who in those times (Laughing.) was the Abbé Cimourdain.

DOROTHEA: Well, Bapaume, at this present time I still manage his householdhe’s still as austere and strict as before. Strict for himself, you understand, for me and for the others there’s not a better or sweeter man. And, before, you remember how the other priests avoided him and detested him because he was a philosopher and friend of humanityand Republicanmy word! Long before the Republic.

BAPAUME: It’s certain that he made his pupil the little lorda real man and a true Citizen and today, the vicomte Gauvain, officer by birth and quickly made Captain in ‘88, has bravely earned at sword point his rank of commander in the service of the Republic.

DOROTHEA: This good Cimourdain adored his pupil. He was a passion for himhe nursed him like a mother.

BAPAUME: That’s really quite true!

DOROTHEA: Oh, you weren’t yet at La Tourgue, Bapaume, when the child, an orphan, still very small, had this pernicious fever. The doctor had carefully ordered that he be watched over by different people in turn so as not to catch his illness. But Cimourdain wanted to watch over him aloneand day and night wouldn’t leave him for an instant. He caught his illness and he had no one to care for him like that, but he had saved the child.

BAPAUME: Oh, he is really still the same manonly his passion at present is the Revolution! His love is the People. Indeed I think he’s also caught a fever. Ah! He’s terrible like Lantenac in his way. He’s full of pity for those who suffer, but without pity for the ones who make them suffer.

DOROTHEA: Also he must see how popular he is! He makes the most furiousdo whatever he wants.

BAPAUME: Damn! He’s from the bishopric, and compared to the Bishopric, the Convention is cold water and the Commune is tepid. Marat fears him.

Hebert fears him.

(Enters the waiter carrying a plate with a cup of coffee and a bottle of wine, glasses. Coffee pot of white iron, etc.) BAPAUME: Ah, here are the Citizens.

DOROTHEA: I’m leaving.

BAPAUME: Go that way. Tell Citizen Cimourdain that all he has to do is come.

(DOROTHEA leaves.)

BAPAUME (to waiter): Place the coffee, there, on the table, and the wine on the chimney.

(The waiter obeys and leaves.)

ROBESPIERRE (talking as he enters): The situation in La Vendée is extreme, I tell you! (To BAPAUME.) Don’t allow anyone in, except from the Committee of Public Safety.

DANTON: Or from the Commune.

MARAT: Or from the Bishopric.

(BAPAUME bows and leaves.)

DANTON: Listen, there’s only one urgent matter. The Republic is in danger. I know only one thingto deliver France from the enemy.

ROBESPIERRE: The question is to know where the enemy is.

DANTON: He’s without, and I’ve already kicked him out twice.

ROBESPIERRE: He’s within and I am watching him.

DANTON: Robespierre, he’s at the frontier.

ROBESPIERRE: Danton, he is in Vendée.

MARAT: Calm downhe’s everywhereand if you don’t act, you are lost.

(All three set at the table.)

ROBESPIERRE: Danton, foreign war is nothing compared to civil war.

Foreign war is a scratch that one has at one’s elbowcivil war is an ulcer that eats you. (Showing some papers.) This moment from the west I received thesethe most alarming reports. La Vendée until today divided amongst several chiefs is at the moment reorganizing. Henceforth it’s going to have a single captain.

DANTON: A Major Ruffian.

ROBESPIERRE: It’s a man come ashore near Portorson. With him and by him the war of forests is organizing itself on a vast scale. Within a month they will have an army of brigands of 300,000 men. And on the day the peasant insurrection is complete, an English invasion is being readied.

DANTON: Robespierre, I grant you England is preparing on the Ocean, but Spainpreparing on the PyreneesItaly on the AlpsGermany on the Rhine.

Robespierre, the danger is encirclement and we are in it. Brunswick is increasing in numbers and advancing. He unfurls his German flag over all the French places he takes. And if we don’t put a stop to it, the Revolution will be made to the profit of Prussia. It will have had as its result the aggrandizement of Frederick the II’s little statewe’ll have killed the King of France, for the King of Prussia.

MARAT: Robespierre, Danton, you are seeking the threat far off when it is nearby. The danger is above your headsunder your feetit is in Paris.

It is in famine. They are forming lines at the doors of the Bakers. It is in this bunch of cafes, in this bunch of gambling dens, in this bunch of clubs they conspire! They conspire! They conspire! And while the aristocrats conspire, the patriots go barefoot. The horses of luxury which ought to be hitched to cannons on the frontier dazzle us in the streets.

Four pounds of bread is worth three francs twelve sous. Theatres are playing indecent playsand Robespierre will have Danton guillotined!

DANTON: Ah! Don’t you believe it!

ROBESPIERRE (impassive): Dangers press us on all sideswe’ll all find means of salvation.

DANTON (who comes and goes, agitated): And let’s say it! All means are good! All! All!all! When everything is at stake, I employ all means and where I fear everything, I brave everything. No half measures. No prudery in Revolution. Let us be Dreadful and Effective!

MARAT: Effective! To be effective, you must havehave above allUnity.

Suppress this right that each has, to pull his own way. Begin with the two of you. What’s needed is a Dictator, Robespierre! You know that I want a Dictator.

ROBESPIERRE: Yes, I know Marat. You or me.

MARAT: Me or you.

DANTON: A Dictatorship? (Coming and leaning with both hands on the table.) Put her there!

(They all look at each other. A moment of silence.) MARAT: Hold on. One last effort. Let’s put ourselves in agreement.

Aren’t we already in agreement against the Gironde? Let’s set up the dictatorship between ourselvesthe three of us. The three of us represent the Revolution. We are the three heads of Cerberus. Of these three headsone speaksthat’s you, Robespierrethe other roarsthat’s you, Danton.

DANTON: The third bitesthat’s you, Marat.

ROBESPIERRE: All three bite.

MARAT: Welldo you want us to agree? (New silence.) Ah! Marat offers peace… (Looking at ROBESPIERRE who bites his lips.) and they are silent.

(Looking at DANTON who shakes his head.) Danton is distrustful. He ought indeed to begin by rendering his accounts.

DANTON: My accounts!go demand them in the passes of the Argonne, in liberated Champagne, in conquered Belgiumof the armies where I have four times already offered my breast to grape shot. Go ask them of the sections of armed Parisof the overthrown throne, go ask them on the Place de la Revolution! If I’m not pure, I am strong. Hey, I am like the Ocean. I have my flux and reflux at low tide. You see my bottom at high tide, you see my waves.

MARAT: Your foam.

DANTON: My tempests.

MARAT: Ah! Danton! Ah, Robespierre. You don’t want to listen to me.

Well, I tell you, you are ruined. Your politics leads to impossibilities of going much further. You have no way out, and you are doing things which will close all gates before you, except that of the tomb.

DANTON (shrugging his shoulders): That’s our grandeur!

MARAT: You shrug your shoulders, Danton! Take care! Sometimes shrugging shoulders causes heads to fall off. And as for you, Robespierre, you are a moderate. You never express your opinion except by your silence, but that won’t be of any use to you. Go powder yourself, do your hair, brush yourselfplay the fopbe prim, curled, spruced upyou are dressing for the Place de la Greve.

ROBESPIERRE: Echo of Coblentz.

MARAT: Robespierre, I am not the echo of nothingness. I am the scream of everything. Ah, you are young, you are. How old are you, Danton? 34 years old. How old are you, Robespierre?33. Well, as for me, I’ve already lived. I am old human suffering. I’m 6000 years old.

DANTON: It’s true that for 6,000 years Cain has preserved his hatred like as the toad in the stone. The stone block breaks open Cain leaps among menand he’s Marat.

MARAT: Danton!

DANTON (crossing his arms): Well, what?

ROBESPIERRE: Marat, here’s my opinion. It’s the opinion of Anarcharsis Cloots. I sayneither Roland nor Marat.

MARAT: And as for me, I sayneither Danton, nor Robespierre. (Going to the door.) Goodbye, gentlemen!

(CIMOURDAIN enters.)

CIMOURDAIN: You’re wrong, Marat.

MARAT: Huh? It’s you Citizen Cimourdain.

CIMOURDAIN: I say that you are wrong, Marat. You are useful, but Robespierre and Danton are necessary. Why threaten them?

Unityunitycitizens. The people want there to be unity.

ROBESPIERRE: Citizen, how did you get in?

MARAT: He’s from the Bishopric!

DANTON: Yes, Citizen Cimourdain is not too many. By God, let’s explain the situation to him. I represent the Mountain. Robespierre represents the Committee on Public Safety. Marat represents the Commune, Cimourdain represents the Bishopric. He’s going to decide between us.

CIMOURDAIN (grave and simple): So be it. What’s it all about.

ROBESPIERRE: About La Vendée.

CIMOURDAIN: Oh! La Vendée! That’s the great threat. If the Revolution perishes it will die because of La Vendée.

ROBESPIERRE: You see!

CIMOURDAIN: Well, that’s wrong? What’s La Vendée doing?

ROBESPIERRE: This: it has a leader. It’s going to become dreadful.

CIMOURDAIN: Who is this chief, Citizen Robespierre?

ROBESPIERRE: It’s a former Marquis de Lantenac.

CIMOURDAIN: I knew him. I was priest in his home.

ROBESPIERRE: Priest?

CIMOURDAIN: Yes, preceptor of his little nephew. He’s an old man of pleasure. He must be terrible.

DANTON: Frightful! He burns villages, kills the wounded, massacres the prisoners, shoots women.

CIMOURDAIN: Women!

ROBESPIERRE: Yes, among others he had shot a mother of three children.

No one knows what has become of the children. Moreover, he’s a Captain. He knows war.

CIMOURDAIN: Indeed he was in the war with Hannoverand the soldiers said Richelieu on top, Lantenac underneath. And how long has he been in Vendée?

ROBESPIERRE: For three weeks.

CIMOURDAIN: He must be outlawed.

ROBESPIERRE: That’s done.

CIMOURDAIN: A price must be put on his head.

ROBESPIERRE: That’s done.

CIMOURDAIN: You must offer a lot of money to whoever delivers him.

ROBESPIERRE: That’s done.

CIMOURDAIN: And the head deliveredthis head which is the head of the insurrectionit must be cut off.

ROBESPIERRE: That will be done.

CIMOURDAIN (wagging his head): By whom?

ROBESPIERRE: By you.

CIMOURDAIN: By me.

ROBESPIERRE: Yes. You will be delegated by the Committee on Public Safetywith full powers.

CIMOURDAIN: I accept. Yes, I accept. Terrible versus Terrible. Lantenac is ferocious. I will be. War to the death with that man. I will deliver him to the Republic.

DANTON: Fine!

CIMOURDAIN: To whom will I be attached?

ROBESPIERRE: To the Commander of the Expeditionary Force sent against Lantenac. Only I warn youhe’s a noble.

CIMOURDAIN: Double responsibility then. When a priest is charged with watching over a noble, the priest must be inflexible.

ROBESPIERRE: Surely!

CIMOURDAIN: And inexorable.

DANTON: That’s well said, Citizen Cimourdain. Your business is with a young man. It appears he has great military talents. He’s come from the Army of the Rhine where he showed admirable willingness and bravery. He’s doing a superior job leading the expeditionary force. For two weeks he’s held the Old Marquis de Lantenac in check. He puts the sword at the enemy’s heels, he presses him, he fights him. He will end by driving him into the sea and pounding him down. Lantenac has that trickery of an old general and he has the audacity of a young captain.

CIMOURDAIN: This young man seems to me to have great qualities.

MARAT: But he has one defect.

CIMOURDAIN: Which is?

MARAT: Clemency. He’s firm in combat and lax after. He’s indulgent, he pardonsshows mercysaves women and the daughters of aristocrats, releases prisoners and sets priests at liberty.

CIMOURDAIN: Grave fault!

MARAT: Crime!

DANTON: Sometimes.

ROBESPIERRE: Often.

MARAT: Almost always.

CIMOURDAIN: When one has an affair with enemies of the country, always.

MARAT: So, Citizen Cimourdain, if a Republican chief flinches, you will cut his head off.

CIMOURDAIN: In 24 hours.

ROBESPIERRE: Well, I am of the opinion of Robespierrewe must send Citizen Cimourdain as Commissar, delegated by the Committee of Public Safety to the Commandant of the Expeditionary Column. What’s he called, anyway, this commandant?

ROBESPIERRE: His name’s Gauvain.

CIMOURDAIN: Gauvain! The Vicomte Gauvain?

ROBESPIERRE: Yes, and he is, I think, actually the nephew of Lantenac?

CIMOURDAIN: Indeed.

ROBESPIERRE: And is this the young man whose preceptor you were?

CIMOURDAIN: It’s him.

(A silence.)

MARAT (eye fixed on CIMOURDAIN): Well, Citizen Cimourdain, on the conditions detailed by yourself, do you accept the mission of Commissar delegated to Commander Gauvain?

DANTON: Is it agreed?

CIMOURDAIN: It’s agreed.

ROBESPIERRE: Your powers are unlimited. You can make Gauvain General or send him to the guillotine.

DANTON: You will have your commission in three hours.

ROBESPIERRE: When will you leave?

CIMOURDAIN: I will leave in four hours.

BLACKOUT

SCENEVII

The Taking of Dol

DolA square at the entry to the village, crossed by a street which opens in the midst of the stage and continues to the left. Another route crosses the whole stage at the back. To the right a gate vaulted by stone giving on an interior court.

At rise, firing can be heard, and cannon fire in the city. The clamor and noise of a battle.

LANTENAC is standing, his left foot placed on a low stool. CHANTE-EN-HIVER
is busy wrapping the leg in bandages. IMANUS runs in.

IMANUS: Milord! Milord! Has the enemy agreed to this 15 minute truce?

LANTENAC (bitterly): Hey! I don’t know yet. Our envoy hasn’t returned.

(To CHANTE-EN-HIVER) Look, this dressing?is it finished? I don’t feel the wound you are making so much fuss about.

CHANTE-EN-HIVER: Milord was losing all his blood, he would have felt it soon.

IMANUS: Milord, if the firing isn’t suspended at least for a quarter of an hour, I won’t answer any longer for our guys. You know their ways.

They’ve installed themselves in the square of Dol as it were their home.

The sudden attack by this Gauvain has surprised them. There are some of their women who scream among the wounded. They can’t go bring them back under fire and then

LANTENAC: Hey! Why’d they mix their women up in this?

IMANUS: Brutes. As for me, I know only God and King in the world.

Outside, God and King, nothing exists! Nothing! But these creatures cling to their wives! And they threaten to flee if the firing continues.

LANTENAC: You must threaten those who threaten that.

IMANUS: Better than that! I broke the head of one of them.

LANTENAC: Anyway, is Gauvain refusing this truce?

IMANUS: Oh, perhaps then they will be exasperated.

LANTENAC: Then let them be exasperated right away. He will refuse it.

(Bugle in the distance to which another bugle replies.) IMANUS: Hold onhe’s granting it.

(Enters GRAND-FRANCOEUR)

GRAND-FRANCOEUR: You hear, Milord? The quarter hour truce is agreed to.

LANTENAC: Day of God! Yes, I hear.

IMANUS: I’m running. (He leaves.)

LANTENAC (to CHANTE-EN-HIVER): It’s finally done.

CHANTE-EN-HIVER: Yes, Milord.

LANTENAC: Thanks! Go. (CHANTE-EN-HIVER withdraws.) Certainly, I hearAhthese peasants! What do they expect a Captain to do with such motley bands that are like water in his hands? It’s not an army, it’s a crowd.

GRAND-FRANCOEUR: Of heroes, still.

LANTENAC: Of heroesso be it. Of soldiers, no. They obey out of friendship. They assemble at the first shout and they disperse at the first puff of smoke.

GRAND-FRANCOEUR: You are suffering from your leg, Milord.

LANTENAC: Do I think of it? I am thinking of this Gauvain. We are occupying Dol with 6,000 mean. He’s attacking us with 1,500. We stupidly ask him to suspend the fighting, he grants this respite. All this worries me. Could he be expecting reinforcements?

GRAND-FRANCOEUR: Where would he get reinforcements from? The Corps from Lechelle is more than two leagues away.

LANTENAC: I am uneasy, I tell you. This renegade has foresight in audacity. Is there no risk he’s diverting us from?

GRAND-FRANCOEUR: From where? Dol has really only one street. Our entrenchments bar the city and we have cannon everywhere.

LANTENAC: Where are the inhabitants of Dol?

GRAND-FRANCOEUR (laughing): They are very terrified, Milord. They are barricaded in their houses and crouching in their cellars. Therewhere our people are noteverything is deserted.

(JEAN-MATHIEU appears with a basket and bottles under his arm.) LANTENAC (to JEAN-MATHIEU): Where are you going? Who are you?

JEAN-MATHIEU: Milord, I’m returning there, to my brother’s homewho sent me, because I am very brave, to sell some cider and eau de vie to your men.

LANTENAC: You are for the good cause then?

JEAN-MATHIEU: Oh surely! You are four against one! I came express to Dol to be a Royalist. (Shouting.) Long live the King!

LANTENAC: That’s fine! That’s fine! You’re from the town. You’ve seen our positions. Are we occupying all the entrances well?

JEAN-MATHIEU: Oh! Yes, yeswe are the strongest and we will have the victory.

LANTENAC: Come, Grand-Francoeur, I want to see for myself.

(They leave.)

JEAN-MATHIEU: First of all when they shoot so well, one always has the victory.

LA FLECHARDE (entering): No one is in the streets and I don’t hear the battle any more.

JEAN-MATHIEU (noticing her): La Flecharde! What! It’s you!

LA FLECHARDE: You know my name! Who are you?

JEAN-MATHIEU: Mathieu, Jean-Mathieu from Herbe-en-Pail.

LA FLECHARDE: From Herbe-en-Pail. Ah, then you know my children. Where are my children? Speakwhere are my children?

JEAN-MATHIEU: As for me, I don’t know. Why are you here?

LA FLECHARDE: Eh! I’m seeking my children, you can plainly see.

JEAN-MATHIEU: But they’re fighting.

LA FLECHARDE: Oh, yes. That’s what attracted me. Because it was there that they took my children. Where they were fighting and shooting. And it’s there that I will find them again. And I hear war some place, shooting, I go there.

JEAN-MATHIEU: But your children are not here and they cannot be here.

LA FLECHARDE: Ah! Then goodbye.

JEAN-MATHIEU: Where are you going? You seem worn out. Are you cured of your wound at least?

LA FLECHARDE: Yes. Le Caimand, I think, cured me. Where am I going? To find my children, I told you. Oh, I will find them again. For that I march. I’ve already marched days and nights. I’m going, I’m going, I’m going. I follow the pavement there, or the ruts of wagons, or the footpaths in the woods, from village to village, from farm to farm, I am going. Often they kick me out. When I cannot go in the houses, I go into the woods.

JEAN-MATHIEU: An obsession, I know, but how are you able to live?

LA FLECHARDE: I don’t know anything about that. I beg. I eat grass. I sleep in the bushes, in plain air, sometimes in the rain. What’s the matter?

JEAN-MATHIEU: But you will perish! You are mad!

LA FLECHARDE: NoI am not a mad woman. I am a mother. I have lost my children, I’m searching for them, that’s all. As for you, have you never had children?

JEAN-MATHIEU: No.

LA FLECHARDE: As for me, that’s all I have. Without my children, what am I? (As she’s looking around her.) Why do I no longer have my children? Why aren’t they here? When they’re not here I’m like an invalid. I don’t know what’s wrong with meeverything. (Taking her head in her hands.) What’s happening? For some time now it’s been a whirlwind. I can’t understand.

They killed my husbandthey shot me. That’s all the same. I don’t understand.

JEAN-MATHIEU (to himself, touching her face): She’s an innocent.

LA FLECHARDE: Anyway, that’s not allyou haven’t see my children.

JEAN-MATHIEU: No.

LA FLECHARDE: And you haven’t heard them spoken of?

JEAN-MATHIEU: No.

LA FLECHARDE: Goodbye.

JEAN-MATHIEU: Wait a bit, La Flecharde! Hold on!

LA FLECHARDE (coming back, excitedly): You know something?

JEAN-MATHIEU: It’s coming back to meyesterday I heard one of Lantenac’s men. He was talking about three children.

LA FLECHARDE: Where is this man? Where are they?

JEAN-MATHIEU: La Flechardego to La Tourgue.

LA FLECHARDE: I’ll find my children there?

JEAN-MATHIEU: Perhaps indeed yes.

LA FLECHARDE: You say

JEAN-MATHIEU: La Tourgue.

LA FLECHARDE: What’s La Tourgue? Is it a village? A castle? A farm?

JEAN-MATHIEU: La Tourgueit’s the Gauvain tower, the castle of the Lantenac family.

LA FLECHARDE: Is it far?

JEAN-MATHIEU: It’s not close.

LA FLECHARDE: Which way?

JEAN-MATHIEU: By way of Fougeres.

LA FLECHARDE: How does one get there?

JEAN-MATHIEU: The road to the right leaving Dol. Always keep to the way the sun is setting as you go.

LA FLECHARDE: Thanks. Goodbye. I’m on my way.

JEAN-MATHIEU: Waitfirst you have to turn to the left. I am going to put you on your way.

LA FLECHARDE: Come! come! come!

(They leave.)

(GAUVAIN enters through the stone gate at the right, followed by GUECHAMP
and PARISIAN.)

GAUVAIN: I lived in Dol. I know the passages of the houses and the interior courts. See Guechamp, here we are in the other side of the entrenchments and we have the enemy from the rear.

GUECHAMP: Yes, but where we’ve been able to slip three men through we need to pass 500.

GAUVAIN: Hold on! How many drums have you got?

GUECHAMP: Nine.

GAUVAIN: Keep twogive me seven. And you will send me here what remains of the Red Bonnet Battalion. (To PARISIAN.) Corporal, you’ve observed the torturous road we’ve followedcan you guide your men through it?

PARISIAN: Being from the fauburg Marceau, my Commandant, I know how to wind through a skein of narrow lanes.

GAUVAIN (looking at his watch): We have no more than 5 minutes. Be quick about it.

(PARISIAN leaves.)

GAUVAIN: You’ve grasped my idea now. Make this horde of peasants believe they are taken in the rear by a new army. Our lads are alert, clever. Fear is unknownbut not panic. Mass your column, load weapons, ready the attack. I will make all the uproar I can with my handful of men. When they see themselves caught between two fires

GUECHAMP: It’s understood, my Commandant.

GAUVAIN (going with him to the stone gate): Let us go first so that we make all our show.

(GUECHAMP leaves.)

JEAN-MATHIEU (returning): Here I am, Milord, to assist at the triumph of the good cause. (Noticing GAUVAIN.) A Blue!

GAUVAIN (turning): What good cause?

JEAN-MATHIEU (stammering): The cause, Milordthe cause, Citizen. The cause of the Republic, by Godof the great Republic!

GAUVAIN: Are you really sure? Who are you?

JEAN-MATHIEU: I amI amI am one of the victims of the massacre at Herbe-en-Pail!

GAUVAIN (pushing him into a corner): Stay there then! And not a wordnot a gesture.

JEAN-MATHIEU: I’m not afraid!

(Enter RADOUB, PARISIAN, LAMANECHE, nine grenadiers and 7 drummers.) GAUVAIN: I asked for the whole Battalion of the Red Bonnets.

RADOUB: My Commandant, here it is.

GAUVAIN: You’re only a dozen.

RADOUB: There are only twelve remaining. But, my Commandant, count if you please. The 84 who were shot at Herbe-en-Pail. They also shot our two women and carried off our three children. And we intend to avenge the women and have back the children. And we shall have them, oh, we shall have them.

(Sound of trumpets.)

GAUVAIN: End of the truce. Listen up. (In a thunderous voice.) Two hundred men to the right. Two hundred men to the left. The rest to the center. Forward.

(The 12 men show themselves at the entrance to the street. The seven drummers beat the charge. Twelve shots are fired. At the same time one hears the distant firing and cannon. An immense uproar is raised. ‘Save yourselves if you can!’ The little troop of RADOUB’s rushes onto the square and reloads its weapons. In the background one sees the terrified Vendéans fleeing and running in disorder.) JEAN-MATHIEU: The Whites are escaping! Oh, the capons! Long live the Republic!

(IMANUS rushes in sabre in hand trying to stop the runaways. Attacked by the Blues he defends himself with the energy of desperation. He collapses before them in the little square. GAUVAIN advances towards him. IMANUS’

sabre is brokenhe seizes a pistol from his belt.) RADOUB: My Commandant, be careful! He’s not a man, that brigand, he’s a devil.

GAUVAIN: He’s a brave fellow.

PARISIAN: His pistol is loaded, watch out!

GAUVAIN: Oh, he’s wounded. (Putting his sword under his arm he goes to IMANUS.) Surrender!

IMANUS: No!

GAUVAIN: Come on! You are my prisoner now. What’s your name?

IMANUS: They call me Break-Blue, because I’ve exterminated many of your people. Imanus, because if I am not shot by you now, I will exterminate still more.

(CIMOURDAIN appears at the back.)

GAUVAIN (extending his hand): You’re a valiant man. Your hand.

IMANUS: Here it is. (He fires his pistol. CIMOURDAIN who has seen the motion, rushes in front of GAUVAIN. He’s hit and falls.) GAUVAIN: Wretch!

(They drag off IMANUS. A surgeon runs to CIMOURDAIN, knocked over unconscious.)

GAUVAIN: This man saved my life. Who is he?

PARISIAN: My Commandant, this man just entered the town. I saw him arrive. He came on horseback by way of Portorson.

GAUVAIN (to SURGEON): Well, major?

SURGEON-MAJOR: A violent contusion, nothing more. The ball struck on the cockade of the hat. (Showing the torn hat.) It dented his head without penetrating it.

GAUVAIN: Does he have some papers on him?

(The SURGEON pulls from CIMOURDAIN a paper that he delivers to GAUVAIN.) GAUVAIN (reading): “The Committee on Public Safety delegates with plenary powersattached to Citizen Gauvain, Commanding the Expeditionary force from Cotes, Citizen Cimourdain…” Cimourdain!

CIMOURDAIN (opening his eyes): Gauvain.

GAUVAIN (falling to his knees near the wounded man): Cimourdain! You!

It’s the second time you’ve saved my life.

CIMOURDAIN: I’ve been lucky.

GAUVAIN: My master!

CIMOURDAIN: Your father! (They embrace.) GAUVAIN: You’re wounded?

CIMOURDAIN: Nothing. A concussion. A dizziness, that’s all.

GAUVAIN: Still

CIMOURDAIN: Nothing, I tell you!Gauvain! My Gauvain! I’ve found you again! I left a child and I find a man. I find him triumphant, triumphing for the people. Let me look at you! Is he handsome! In Vendée, Gauvain is the point of support for the Revolution and it is I, Cimourdain, who gave this column to the Republic!

GAUVAIN: Yes, I am your student, the child of your spirit, the son of your thoughts.

CIMOURDAIN: And that’s not all! That’s not all! I have full power over your future. Another success like the one I’ve just seen, Gauvain, and I have only to say a word for the nation to confide an army to you. Ah, I’ve often thought of it. If the Revolution could only find a Captain who didn’t have the small ambition for power, but the great ambition for liberty, nothing would hold back the hand that would conquer the world.

And if you were that Captain, Gauvain! Oh, what a dream!

GAUVAIN: It’s you who will have brought it about, my master.

(In the back, IMANUS is led by a firing squad.) GAUVAIN: The prisoner! Where are you taking him?

LAMANECHE: My Commandant, he obstinately refuses to surrender. This is not a prisoner.

GAUVAIN: But he’s wounded. We are not Lantenac’swe don’t finish off the wounded.

IMANUS: I’m well enough to be shot.

GAUVAIN: Lead him to the ambulance. Treat him, cure him.

IMANUS: I want to die!

GAUVAIN: You will live. You wanted to kill me in the name of the King.

In the name of the Republic, I give you mercy.

IMANUS: I will avenge myself.

GAUVAIN: Ah, his fanaticism is truly barbaric, but his courage is truly French. (To the SURGEON.) Major, I commend him to you.

CIMOURDAIN (aside, with somber dejection): Indeed he is merciful!

GUECHAMP (running in): Your orders, my Commandant! The brigands have fled in every direction by all roads, carrying in their defeat the infuriated Lantenac. It appears their rallying point is at La Tourgue.

GAUVAIN: They are fleeingwellpursue them! To la Tourgue.

(Roll of Drums. The Republican column forms up rapidly in marching order.

All raise their hats and sabres intoning the song of Departure.) CURTAIN

ACT III

SCENE VIII

The Assault on La Tourgue

The trench before La Tourgue. To the right raised on a rock, La Tourgue, whose upper parts are lost in the mist. In a corner toward the center of the tower a breach in the wall can be made out. This breach stretches through the top of the wall in a crevice which rises in a zig-zag, up to a loophole whose bars have been knocked in by a cannon ball. Facing the breach and at the bottom of a slope, a pile of debris of all sorts, the opening of a covered gallery. To the left the height under which the covered ways have been built.

Bivouacked in the trench, RADOUB, LAMANECHE, PARISIAN and the nine other grenadiers from the Red Bonnet Battalion, formed in two groups seated on stones, having soup, dipping, one after the other, their spoons into the mess bowl.

PARISIAN (coming out of the covered way and taking his place at the mess): For a pretty breach, it’s a pretty breach! I just risked an eye entering the mine. Ah! The explosion drove a famous hole for you in this enormous wall of La Tourgue.

RADOUB: Yes, the Commandant gave a good punch to the big barrel. See it’s been cleared right to the loophole up there. And as the loophole was caved in by a cannon ball, that pretty crevice can be made into a second passage.

PARISIAN (looking at the crevice): Yes, if you had wings, but the breach is not yet well adapted.

RADOUB: At least we now have a door to enter the building and take back the little ones. When one thinks they are there not fifty paces from us, those little ones.

LAMANECHE: Sergeant, it appears the assault will be at 3 o’clock. Have you spoken to the Commandant about the place legitimately due to the battalion?

RADOUB: I’m going to speak to him.

LAMANECHE: Ah, you see comrades, we will have the children but it’s necessary to scorch our fingers a bit to get them.

RADOUB: Fingers up to the elbow. A piece of cake. Who has the canteen today? It’s you, Parisian. Go onpour. Ahour poor Houzarde! Where is she?

Yes, yes, old Tourgue will be rough going to approach in a short whileand of the 12 of us, more than 6 are at this moment swallowing our last swig!

(Raising his glass.) To the health of the nation.

ALL: To the health of the nation.

(CIMOURDAIN and GAUVAIN enter.)

LAMANECHE: The Commandant.

GAUVAIN: Don’t be disturbed, my friends. (To CIMOURDAIN.) Let’s wait here for Guechamp. He’s going to come report to us on the orders I’ve given for the assault.

CIMOURDAIN: You are sure of success, Gauvain?

GAUVAIN: Yes. We will lose many, but La Tourgue is ours.

CIMOURDAIN: We have Lantenac then?

GAUVAIN: He cannot escape us.

CIMOURDAIN: Finally! And when he’s in our power, what will we do with him?

GAUVAIN: You read my proclamation.

CIMOURDAIN: Yes,well?

GAUVAIN: He’ll be shot.

CIMOURDAIN: Clemency again. He ought to be guillotined.

GAUVAIN: As for me, I am for a military death.

CIMOURDAIN: And I am for Revolutionary justiceGauvain, in times like ours, let’s leave to justice its most fearsome form. You fail to recognize the awesome duties. You are a clever and lucky Captainin 10 days you’ve disposed and almost annihilated Lantenac’s bandsand are now holding here in La Tourgue the last debris. But you let Jean Treton escape, you released Joseph Bezieur, by saving those two men you gave two enemies to the Republic.

GAUVAIN: I intend to make it friends, surely and not give it enemies.

CIMOURDAIN: After the battle of Landean, you refused to shoot your 300
peasant prisoners.

GAUVAIN: Beauchamp was merciful to the Republican prisoners. I want it said that the Republic is merciful to Royalist prisoners.

CIMOURDAIN: But then you’ll be merciful to Lantenac?

GAUVAIN: No. The peasants are ignorant. Lantenac knows what he is doing.

CIMOURDAIN: But Lantenac is your relative.

GAUVAIN: France is the greater relative.

CIMOURDAIN: Lantenac is an old man.

GAUVAIN: Lantenac is a foreigner! Lantenac calls in the English.

Lantenac is an enemy of the Nation! The duel between him and me can only end in his death or mine.

CIMOURDAIN: Gauvain, remember this word.

GAUVAIN: It’s agreed.

(Enter GUECHAMP through the covered way.) GUECHAMP: My Commandant.

GAUVAIN: Ah! Guechamp! Well?

GUECHAMP: The assault column is ready my Commandant. Echeloned in the covered gallery, and divided into 3 corps according to your orders.

GAUVAIN: Fine! In the chosen place of attack we will engage only a small number of them at a time. Let’s gocome, Guechamp.

(A sound of a trumpet high on the tower.) GUECHAMP: It’s a trumpet call from the insurgents. They ask to make a communication.

GAUVAIN (to CIMOURDAIN): Shall we listen to them?

CIMOURDAIN: Yes, let’s find out what they want.

GUECHAMP (raising his sabre): Answer.

(The Republican trumpet sounds lower.)

(IMANUS comes out of the breach followed by two Vendéans.) IMANUS (standing at the entrance to the breach): Men who hear me? Do you know me? I am Imanus, your escaped prisoner.

CIMOURDAIN (to GAUVAIN): A wild beast that you set loose again!

IMANUS: I come to speak to you in the name of Milord the Marquis de Lantenac, Vicomte de Fontenay, Lord of Seven Forests, Prince Breton, my master. Hearwe are simple and pure people who live peacefully in our land. You came, you attacked us in our fields, and our wives and our children have been obliged to flee with naked feet into the forests while the warbler of winter sings again.

CIMOURDAIN (impatiently): Lookwhat have you to tell us?

IMANUS: Thisyou have made this breach and you are ready to give the assault. You are a horde and we are 1800. But as forces within, we are formidably entrenched and well provided with arms and munitions. You can penetrate no more than fifty at a timeyou will find us behind an impenetrable bunker and we will kill you in proportion as you enter.

RADOUB: We’ll have to see.

IMANUS: You will certainly end by exterminating all of us, but we will have begun by exterminating a great many of you and this will be a frightful massacre. That’s why first of all I am sent to tell you one thing.

CIMOURDAIN: Speak.

IMANUS: We hold in our hands three prisoners who are children.

RADOUB (in a low voice to PARISIAN): Our children, by God, our children!

IMANUS: These children have been adopted by one of your battalions, and they are yours. We offer to surrender these three children to you, on one condition.

CIMOURDAIN: What is that condition?

IMANUS: That we all be allowed to leave freely.

CIMOURDAIN: And if we refuse?

IMANUS: If you refuselisten carefullythe chatelet which adjoins La Tourgue has two floors. In the lower floor, I, Imanus, I who speak to youI put 6 tons of tar and 80 bundles of dry hay under the iron door which communicates between the chatelet and the tower. I’ve run a wick whose end is one of the tons of tar and the other end inside the tower. I will light it when it seems good to me.

LAMANECHE (to RADOUB): What do they intend?

IMANUS: In the upper floor I will place myself and the three children, and I will lock the iron door. If you refuse to let us leave, I will set fire to the wick and the three children will die.

CIMOURDAIN (to GAUVAIN): The wretches!

IMANUS: Now accept or refuse. If you accept we will leave. If you refuse the children die. I’ve spoken.

CIMOURDAIN: We refuse.

IMANUS: So be it. The children will burn.

RADOUB: Oh, the monsters.

CIMOURDAIN: Waitwe refuse your proposition but as for me, I have a proposition to make to you.

IMANUS: Speak.

GAUVAIN: What are you going to propose to them, my master?

CIMOURDAIN: Come, you are going to see. (He mounts on the roof of the gallery. GAUVAIN follows him.) In your turn, do you know me? I am Cimourdain, the envoy from the Republic.

IMANUS: You are Cimourdain, an old priest.

CIMOURDAIN: I am the delegate of the Committee on Public Safety.

IMANUS: You are a renegade.

CIMOURDAIN: Would you be satisfied to hold me in your power?

IMANUS: All of us who are here would give our heads to have yours.

CIMOURDAIN: Well, I am coming to deliver myself to you.

IMANUS (with a savage laugh): Come!

CIMOURDAIN: On one condition.

IMANUS: Which is?

CIMOURDAIN: You hate me and as for me, I love you. You are poor, misled men. I am your brother. You have wives and children. I am defending your wives and children against you yourselves. You said itthey’re going to go in to slaughter each other. Why spill so much blood when it’s needless?

Why kill many men when two will suffice.

IMANUS: Two.

CIMOURDAIN: Yes, two.

IMANUS: Who?

CIMOURDAIN: Lantenac and myself. Two men are two too many. Lantenac for usme for you. Here’s what I offer you and I assure you all your lives will be saved. Give us Lantenac and take me. Lantenac will be guillotined, and you will do with me what you please.

IMANUS: Youif we had youwe would burn you over a slow fire.

CIMOURDAIN: I consent to it.

GAUVAIN: I won’t suffer it.

CIMOURDAIN (looking at him with authority): I have full powers. (Raising his voice.) Wellyouthe condemned who are in that towerdo you accept?

IMANUS: You are not only a scoundrel you are mad! We have said our last word. We will surrender the three children here, and you will give us free exit and everybody’s life will be saved.

CIMOURDAIN: Everybody, yes, except Lantenac.

IMANUS: Us, hand over Milord to you? Never!

CIMOURDAIN: It’s our absolute condition.

IMANUS: Then begin! (Goes back into the breach with the two Vendéans.) CIMOURDAIN: Let’s begin! (He comes down from the roof with GAUVAIN.) GAUVAIN: But the children. We must first of all try to save these poor children. (To GUECHAMP.) Don’t we have ladders?

GUECHAMP: No, they are at Javene, six leagues away.

CIMOURDAIN: There was, in the case of fire, a safety ladder hung outside above the windows of the library.

GUECHAMP: They pulled it into the library.

GAUVAIN: Come! To rescue these poor little ones we can only count on our courage and our energy.

RADOUB (coming forward): Yes, and on this topic, my Commandant, we the men of the Red Bonnet Battalion have a request to ask you.

GAUVAIN: What is it?

RADOUB: To get us killed. Will you have that goodness?

GAUVAIN: But

RADOUB: My Commandant, after the affair at Dol you’ve protected us.

There are still 12 of us. That humiliates us.

GAUVAIN: You are the reserve.

RADOUB: We prefer to be the advance guard.

GAUVAIN: You are in the column. You march.

RADOUB: Behind. It’s the right of Paris to march in front. Actually, my Commandant, the children who are in that tower are oursoursthe children of the battalion. Their mother is dead and they have only us. The horrible face of Imanus. This thunder of God, man of the devil. You heard him. He threatened our children. Our children, our kids, my Commandant! When all the show’s over we don’t want any harm to come to them! We don’t want a single hair on their angelic little noggins harmed. Do you understand that, authority? We don’t want it. We want the brats to be savedor all of us killed. That’s our right, sonofabitch. Yes, all of us killedand now salute and respect.

GAUVAIN (giving his hand to RADOUB): You are brave men. You will be in the column of assault.

RADOUB (and his 12 men): Long live the Commandant!

GAUVAIN: I will divide you in two. Six in the avant-garde, so as to advance and six in the rear guard as no one will retreat.

RADOUB: And am I still in command of the twelve?

GAUVAIN: Sure.

RADOUB: Then, my Commandant, thanks! I am in the avant-garde.

GAUVAIN: And now, let’s march. (To CIMOURDAIN who follows him.) Cimourdain, where are you going? What are you doing?

CIMOURDAIN: To be near you.

GAUVAIN: But you are going to get yourself killed.

CIMOURDAIN: Well, as for you, what is it you are doing?

GAUVAIN: There. I am necessary, you are not.

CIMOURDAIN: Since you are there it’s necessary that I be there. Let’s go.

RADOUB (who has designated five men to follow him): Lamaneche! It’s understood, you will command the second batch.

LAMANECHE: So be it. But if only one should remain that one will come find us.

RADOUB: That’s agreed. (To his men.) Forward!

(RADOUB and his five men disappear into the covered way.) (The assault. GAUVAIN and CIMOURDAIN, then RADOUB and his men and behind them the troop rush on the slope as they emerge from the gallery and fire in the breach. GUECHAMP at the head of his soldiers of the second group holds himself ready to enter the gallery. Only the heavy sound of blows can be heard and shots and screams.)

LAMANECHE: Damn it all! It’s stupefying to grow moldy here, arms at your feet when your comrades are amusing themselves.

PARISIAN (rubbing his hands): Patience! It will soon be our turn and he dies best who dies last.

LAMANECHE (cupping his ear): Can’t hear a thing!

PARISIAN: By Goda cover of slime of a dozen feet thick to muffle it, but wait. I’m going to climb up there to hear and see. (Hoisting himself up to the roof on the left. Looking into the breach.) Ah! Screw it! We’ve already got a devilish lot wounded and crippled.

LAMANECHE: Without counting the dead. It’s their bastardly bunker.

PARISIAN: Their bunker?

LAMANECHE: He doesn’t know what a bunker is. Greenhorn! It’s a big wall they’ve built inside with openings for their cannons and rifles. From behind it they can pick us off peaceably and no way to reach them.

PARISIAN (leaving his observation post): Ah, decidedly, I think the first dance is over.

(RADOUB in disorder, hatless, emerges from the breach and arrives breathless.)

RADOUB: Battalions! There’s only seven of us.

PARISIAN: And you are coming to ask for the rest. Present! Are you coming?

RADOUB (reloading his pistols): Let me reload my pistols. Ahit’s hellish in there. How they fall! Suddenly the Commandant shouted ‘Assault the bunker! Is there a man of good will to scale the bunker?’ I answered‘me’. And upon that it’s the Commandant who ought to have been stupefied. I reached the exit.

LAMANECHE: To come get us.

RADOUB: No. I had my idea. (Looking at the crevice around the breach.) I thought of this crevice which rises up there to this disjointed loophole.

They can’t have anybody up there. If I could climb up there

PARISIAN: Come on Sergeant. You’re not a cat!

RADOUB (still examining the crevice): That’s to be determined.

PARISIAN: You cannot climb the long teeth of a saw!

LAMANECHE: Come! Come on!

RADOUB: I am following you. Go ahead.

LAMANECHE: Let’s go!

(LAMANECHE and his 5 men enter the covered way, emerge at the other end and rush through the breach. A second troop, GUECHAMP at their head, rushes behind them.)

RADOUB (continuing to study the crack): Yes, it’s all by itself! Damn!

Still it would be amusing to redo the put-on at Dol all by myself. But no, there’s nothing to get hold of hand or foot. Impossible.

(Enter LA FLECHARDE looking around her.) LA FLECHARDE: La Tourgue? Sure this must be it. La Tourgue.

RADOUB (noticing her): La Flecharde! YouGod it’s not possible! You’re alive!

LA FLECHARDE: Ahare my children dead?

RADOUB: Why no! no! They are not dead!

LA FLECHARDE: Well, then why don’t you want me to live? But if they are not dead, where are they? Where are they, tell me! It’s in there rightin that great tower? That’s the place, La Tourgue?

RADOUB: Yes, that’s La Tourgue. Yes, your children are there.

LA FLECHARDE: Ah, well, come, lead me. Come one, let’s go find them.

RADOUB: But, it’s thatit’s that they don’t want to give them up.

LA FLECHARDE: They don’t want to! Who is it doesn’t want to? I’d really like to see that! Oh, for goodness sake!

RADOUB: They arethey’re likeyou’d say, prisoners.

LA FLECHARDE: There, in prisonthose innocentswhy? What could they have done? Who is able to keep my children from me in prison?

RADOUB: Who? Eh, that Lantenac, the Royalists.

LA FLECHARDE: Ah, I understand. They thought I was shot, they don’t want to return them to you. But now, they will return them since I am alive.

Since I’ve got here, here I ammethe mother!

RADOUB: They won’t give them up to you any more than to us.

LA FLECHARDE (with a shout of indignation): Oh, then let’s take them back by force!

(Explosion in La Tourgue.)

RADOUB: That’s what we’re doing. We’re killing, we’re dying to have them back.

LA FLECHARDE: They are there you say? Behind that wall there? Let’s enter it. There’s an entrance there.

RADOUB: Not that way! You will be killed for nothing.

LA FLECHARDE: Eh!anotheris there indeed another?

RADOUB: Yes, there is. Up there, seethat pushed in loophole. But you have to be able to climb.

LA FLECHARDE: Well?

RADOUB: Which way?

LA FLECHARDE: And that big breach?

RADOUB: It’s pretty hard!

LA FLECHARDE: Why, no, it’s quite easy.

RADOUB (taking off his belts): You think so? Really?

LA FLECHARDE: If I were a man, I’d be up there already.

RADOUB (taking off his uniform): You think so?

LA FLECHARDE: Yes! Come! come! Let me show you.

(She takes him by the hand and leads him. He draws his sabre and carries it. Both climb the rock.)

RADOUB (at the foot of the tower): The Devil! To begin, how to reach the loophole.

LA FLECHARDE: And these big blocks!

RADOUB: Let’s go! Forward! (Puts his sabre between his teeth and begins to climb.)

LA FLECHARDE (guiding him): Good! Rest your foot thereand then here.

The stone which leans to the rightthat’s it! The hollow above ityou are there! Go! Go! Go! There’s no danger, I am here. You won’t fall, I’m watching you.

(RADOUB continues to climb.)

BLACKOUT

SCENE IX

The Three Children

Round hall in La Tourgue. In the back, two doors, the one on the left opening on a stairway which descends and the one on the right opening on the ascending stairway. To the right a secret door opening on a pivot, invisible in the thickness of the wall. On the same side is a window opening, a loophole whose bars have been blown in blocks the way to the window. To the left under an arch a large iron door. On the same side a large oak chest on which are placed weapons, rifles, blunderbuss &
pistols.

RENE-JEAN, FAT ALAN, and GEORGETTE enter furtively from the door at the back. RENE-JEAN pulls FAT ALAN by the hand, who in turn pulls GEORGETTE.

RENE-JEAN (casting an envious and bold glance around): It’s very bad to be curious my Fat Alan! They left our door open without paying attention and you wanted to leave to see how it is here. Well, and if they see you they will shoot you, that’s all.

FAT ALAN (terrified): No! Let’s get out of here! I want to go back!

RENE-JEAN (holding him): It’s very bad, my Fat Alan, to be a coward. Now we are soldiers, you know quite well! To be a soldier is not to be afraid, little peasant!

FAT ALAN (becoming restive): I am a soldier, tooand I’m not afraid!

RENE-JEAN: Then come have a look what’s behind this door. (Pointing to the door at back on the left. GEORGETTE who went to look out the loophole joins them and all three holding hands go on tiptoe to the door. RENE-JEAN
pushes the doorone can hear the shooting and shouts of combat. RENE-JEAN
and FAT ALAN, terrified, flee to the wall to the right of the loophole.) A battle!

FAT ALAN: Oh, boy, oh, boy!

GEORGETTE (who hasn’t budged): Bam! Bam! Bam!

RENE-JEAN (sliding furtively to the door by which they entered): Georgette! Come on! Come quick!

GEORGETTE: NoI don’t want to. Again bang, bang! Again!

(Noise on the stairway to the left.)

RENE-JEAN: They’re coming! Ah! My God! Let’s save the child! (He runs to GEORGETTE, takes her in his arms and carries her. All three leave by the door to the right.)

IMANUS (entering from the stairway to the left, bloody, staggering, leaning on his broken rifle as on a stick): I can’t take any more. And then the smoke, the heat! I’m suffering. I thought I was going to die.

DieI want to, but not before having done what I must do. The bunker’s holding but we have many dead, almost no ammunition. It’s the end, and I intend first to finish over here. (He opens the door to the right.) Come little ones! Come on! Come!

(RENE-JEAN, FAT ALAN and GEORGETTE enter. At the sight of IMANUS, FAT ALAN
and GEORGETTE run to the window at the right.) FAT ALAN: Ahthat man.

GEORGETTE: That man!

RENE-JEAN (trembling): What’s wrong with youlook? They don’t wish you any harm. Right, sir, you won’t do us any harm?

IMANUS (who has pulled out a large key and goes to open the door at the right): Go in there.

RENE-JEAN: There? Yes. (To FAT ALAN and GEORGETTE.) Come on! Let’s go!

FAT ALAN: No, I’m afraid.

RENE-JEAN: Come on will you. You are going to make the gentleman mad.

FAT ALAN: That man is evil.

GEORGETTE: Evil!

RENE-JEAN: Don’t get angry! They’re just little. That’s not the reason.

IMANUS: Are you going to get in there?

RENE-JEAN (pushing FAT ALAN and pulling GEORGETTE by the hand): Oh!

Comecome quick!

GEORGETTE (disengaging): No! That man! I’m afraid!

RENE-JEAN: Georgettebe obedient, miss.

GEORGETTE (crying): Mama!

RENE-JEAN (softly): Come on! Come! Come, my child! (Slowly and fearfully they pass in front of IMANUS. When they get near him, they run through the iron door. IMANUS locks it carefully on them and puts the key back in his pocket.)

IMANUS: There now, let’s look the situation over. (Leaning on the flagstone.) The wick of sulfur hasn’t been disturbed. It passes right under the iron door. In two minutes it will ignite the tar, conflagration will burst out. (At this moment at the loophole on the right, two hands grasp the pushed in bars from outside. The face of RADOUB appears, sword between his teeth. IMANUS notices him.) Oh! Who’s this? (He runs the length of the wall and arrives in time to meet RADOUB with his sabre between his teeth and one of his pistols in his belt. But before he can stop him, RADOUB has leaped through the window into the hall.) RADOUB: Imanus! Ah! Scoundrel! You cheat me of my arms! (IMANUS aims at him, RADOUB moves right and left to dodge the bullets.) Come on! Fire your little shot, my good fellow. My Englishman! (IMANUS fires. RADOUB quickly puts his hand to his ear which becomes all bloody.) Damn! My ear! Ah, you went for the head. That was presumptuous. As for me, the chest. It’s more sure. (He fires, IMANUS utters a scream, tries to raise his sabre, but falls. RADOUB leans over him.) Is he dead? (Feeling him.) It looks like.

Never mind! Now that I’ve done for you, hear my ultimatum. I’m not going to amuse myself over your massacre, evil hellion! Rise at your ease on the ground, fellow citizen of my heels. I scorn to finish you off. Ahthat’s fine all this, but, here I am disarmed. I had two shots to fire, you made me waste them, brute. (Putting his hand toward his injured ear.) Yii! You are really ahead of me to have confiscated a piece of ear. In fact, I prefer to have this at least than the other thing. It’s nothing except all ornament. Expire, villager. I pardon you Citizen without knowing it. The children? Where to find them? Above all, where is the bunker? (Goes to push open the door to the left at the back. One hears anew the shouts and rumors of war.) That’s better! It’s all the same, they shout long live the King. They are dying nobly. (Finding his sabre under his feet.) My sabre.

But you see, man of woodfor what I wanted to domy sabre or blazesit’s all the same thing. (He takes it up.) I take it back from friendliness.

But I need my pistols. May the devil take you, animal! Ah, indeedwhat am I going to do? I am good for nothing here. (Noticing the weapons arranged on the chest.) Oh! Oh! oh! what’s that I see there? A blunderbuss, a hunting rifle, four double barreled pistols. And all loaded and primed.

Long live Paris. A dozen shots to fireforty balls to spit out. Here I am in numbers. I am going to discharge you on their backs like thunder. (As he speaks he puts the pistols in his belt, the rifle in a strap, places one blunderbuss on his left shoulder, and takes the others under his right arm.) Battalion! Attention to orders. Take your weapons. Load your weapons. Quick step, March.

(Singing.)

To arms Citizens

Form your battalions

(Rushes through the door at left. One hears almost immediately the formidable detonation of the blunderbuss and the shouts of the citizens.) IMANUS (coming to): Dead! He said that I was dead! (With a threatening laugh.) One moment! None of that! (Crawling to the wick.) First we avenge ourselves! Light the wick. Hey! I’ll die after that.

(GRAND-FRANCOEUR and CHANTE-EN-HIVER enter quickly the door at the back on the left.)

GRAND-FRANCOEUR: Milord? Where is Milord? Isn’t he coming?

LANTENAC (appearing in the doorway): He’s coming, but last, since it’s a retreat.

GRAND-FRANCOEUR: Milord. Come in, come in for mercy’s sake!

LANTENAC: Calm down! The Blues are below in darkness and smoke. They will have to take time to reconnoiter. We can breath. (Comes in.) But we won’t be able to breath more than five minutes by heaven! Close this door.

It will hold five minutes at least. How many are you?

GRAND-FRANCOEUR: With you, Milord, we are five.

IMANUS: We are six.

LANTENAC: Ah, it’s you, Imanus! You are all wounded it seems.

GRAND-FRANCOEUR: Yes, but not gravely. We can come and go.

IMANUS: As for me, mortally. All I can do now is dieand kill.

LANTENAC (looking at the chest): The arms in reserve. Where are they?

CHANTE-EN-HIVER: Carried off.

LANTENAC: Which of you has cartridges remaining?

GRAND-FRANCOEUR: No one.

LANTENAC: Gooddeath will be honorable.

GRAND-FRANCOEUR: Is there no exit?

LANTENAC (arms folded, motionless): None.

CHANT-EN-HIVER: Through the iron door and the chatelet?

LANTENAC: There, on the platform six cannons armedwicks lit. One cannon per man.

GRAND-FRANCOEUR (points to the door to the right at the back): If we were to climb up there?

LANTENAC: The stairway terminates on the platform. Your only resource would be to throw yourself from the top of the tower.

GRAND-FRANCOEUR: Then all is finished?

LANTENAC: Finished. We are in the tomb.

(A stone turns in the wall at the right and gives passage to HALMALO.) HALMALO: I told you so, Milord!

LANTENAC AND THE VENDEANS: Halmalo!

HALMALO: You see indeed stones that turnthey exist and you can leave this way! I got here in time, but act quickly. In five minutes you will be in the full forest.

GRAND-FRANCOEUR: Quick! Let’s leave, Milord! You first.

LANTENAC: No, you all go first.

GRAND-FRANCOEUR: But

LANTENAC: No combat of generosity! We don’t have time to be magnanimous.

You are wounded. I order you to live and to flee.

HALMALO (who tries vainly to turn the stone): And hurry! The stone is stuck now. I was able to open the passage, but can no longer close it. The enemy will see the open exit and can pursue us.

LANTENAC (with an imperious gesture): Quick! All into the stoneway.

(They all go in.) We’ll have to carry you, Imanus.

HALMALO: Oh, the stairway is too narrow. We cannot do it.

IMANUS: And I don’t wish it.

LANTENAC: I cannot abandon you.

IMANUS: Don’t concern yourself about me, Milord! Put yourself in safety.

You savednothing is lost. Go! Go!

LANTENAC: You wish it?

IMANUS: YesAh, just one word. Take this key, the key to the iron door.

Don’t let them find it on me. Take it away. (He gives LANTENAC the key.

They begin to beat on the door with axes and sticks.) HALMALO: Come! Come quick, Milord!

LANTENAC: Soon! (He pushes HALMALO before him and leaves by the secret door.)

IMANUS: No, not soon, Milord! For I am going to die. But before that

(He begins to strike a light. The blows on the door increase.) I must keep the word I gave for youyou forgot your threat, Milord. You must never threaten vainly. (Lights the tender then the lighter.) The Blues refused us free exittheir three kids are going to die. I avenge on their little ones our little Dauphin who is imprisoned in the Temple. (He puts the light to the wickthe fire takes the flame, spreads and runs under the iron door.)

IMANUS: That’s well! The door is giving in, but the wick is aflame.

(The door at the back caves in with a burst. The Republicans enter. RADOUB
in the lead, behind him, CIMOURDAIN, GAUVAIN, GUECHAMP, PARISIAN, sappers, soldiers.)

RADOUB: Come, they are all here. (Looking around.) Wellno one?

PARISIAN: No forces

RADOUB (noticing the open secret door): Ah, I understand. He left without paying the rent. There’s a gap through which they passed.

Damnation!

GAUVAIN: A secret door.

CIMOURDAIN: We must pursue them.

GAUVAIN: Useless. They reached the forest a long while ago.

CIMOURDAIN (despairing): Ah, when we had this Lantenac, he escapes us.

Gauvain, this is worse than a defeatit’s a misfortune.

RADOUB: That traitor really has escaped! All the same it’s a flight.

IMANUS: But from this point of view it’s a victory.

ALL (turning): Imanus.

RADOUB: You’ve resuscitated, have you? Oh what have you done there, savage?

IMANUS: You refused us life. I am taking the life of your kids. It’s the bargain.

RADOUB: He’s started a fire, the wretch!

CIMOURDAIN (to the sappers): Break down that door.

GAUVAIN: Impossible. That door there, I know it. To break it in you’d have to use a cannon.

IMANUS: More than one. (Sneering.)

RADOUB: Monster! And we can’t hang youyou’re dying.

IMANUS (standing up): Yes, but I am avenging. (Raising his hands to heavenfalls to his knees and expires.)

VOICES (shouting outside): Fire! Fire!

CURTAIN

SCENE X

The Chatelet adjoining La Tourgue. One glimpses under the branches several seats. The building stretches across the stage obliquely, occupying about a 3rd of the stage. It’s constructed in the style of Louis XIV, on a bridge of three arches, perched above a dried out ravine. Above the piles of the bridge, two floors, a low mezzanine and above it, a room with three windows. Table, windows in the roof. To the left hiding the base of La Tourgue, a thicket of impenetrable vegetation.

At rise, thick smoke, sparks and occasionally flames pour out of the mezzanine. Republican soldiers run this way and that, terrified.

LAMANECHE: A ladder! Isn’t there a ladder?

PARISIAN: No, there was a rescue ladder leaning on the wall outside. The brigands brought it in.

LAMANECHE: Then some water?

PARISIAN: There is no water. The stream is dried up.

LAMANECHE: Oh, why the children are going to burn.

PARISIAN: The sappers up there are trying to break down the iron door.

(LANTENAC and HALMALO appear in the thicket to the left.) HALMALO: Milord, on the left is the ravine, on the right the forest.

LANTENAC: And Liberty. That’s fine. Go ahead. Leave a certain distance between us. I will follow you in two minutes.

(HALMALO disappears into the shrubbery. CIMOURDAIN, GAUVAIN, RADOUB, GUECHAMP and soldiers enter.)

PARISIAN (going to RADOUB): Well, that door?

RADOUB: Hey, the bars of iron are breaking like match sticks.

GAUVAIN: An army powerless to save three children.

CIMOURDAIN: The wretcheswho made war on children!

LANTENAC (listening): What’s happening there?

LA FLECHARDE’s voice (off): Where are they? Where are they?

RADOUB: Ah! Good God! It’s the mother!

LA FLECHARDE (entering): My children! (Sees RADOUB.) I was looking for you. Did you find them? Where are they?

RADOUB: No, II haven’t found them.

LA FLECHARDE: You told me they were in La Tourgue.

RADOUB: They are no longer there.

LA FLECHARDE: Then where are they? Ah, my Godare they in this big house that is burning?

RADOUB: La Flecharde! Don’t stay here! Come! Come away!

LA FLECHARDE: You want me to go away? They are there!

RENE-JEAN (appearing at the window): Ah, help!

LA FLECHARDE (with a terrible scream): Ah Rene-Jean! There they are! My children! Why they’re going to burn! What’s it mean? Who put the children there? What’s this frightful house? Where are these monsters?

LANTENAC (to himself): The key to the iron door? Don’t I have that on me? (Pulls it from his pocket.) There it is.

RENE-JEAN and FAT ALAN (passing the window in panic with arms raised): Help!

LA FLECHARDE: Help! They are crying for help! Don’t you hear them? What!

Are you going to let these poor little ones die like that? No! I am mad!

It’s an impossible thing. Impossible!

LANTENAC (to himself, with passion): Heyyes! It’s an impossibility!

Come on. (He goes back into La Tourgue.) LA FLECHARDE (running to CIMOURDAIN): Ah you! You are the chief! Oh, mercy! Have pity on me! I beg you. I beg you.

CIMOURDAIN: I am suffering with you poor mother!

LA FLECHARDE: Yes, you are good, yes. Well, you have men there? There are plenty of them, thank God! Try something.

CIMOURDAIN (raising his arms in despair): Hey! What do you want, poor woman?

LA FLECHARDE: What do I want? Ah, I want my children in the end! I need my children! Or else kill me! Oh! The horrible fire! If I only dared to throw myself in it!

(LANTENAC appears in the window.)

ALL: Lantenac!

LA FLECHARDE: At last! Someone! (Screaming at LANTENAC.) They are my children!

(LANTENAC pushes from the window a ladder which he lets slide on the ledge and leaves it on the exterior wallalmost in the ravine. RADOUB and his soldiers run to secure it. They place it quickly and eight or ten men climb up. LANTENAC hands FAT ALAN out.)

LA FLECHARDE: Alan! My Alan!

(The first soldiers receive FAT ALAN and passes him to the second, who passes him to the third. Shouts of joy as the child reaches the mother.

The next is RENE-JEAN and GEORGETTE. The mother receives them with screams of joy, laughter, tears and mad kisses.) RADOUB: All are saved.

(LA FLECHARDE carries the three children uttering cries of joy.) SOLDIERS: Long live the Republic!

LANTENAC (halfway down the ladder): Long live the King!

RADOUB: You can go ahead and scream whatever you like and say any stupid thing you likeyou are the good God.

(LANTENAC reaches the foot of the ladder and takes several steps. All step aside and bow.)

CIMOURDAIN (placing his hand on LANTENAC’s shoulder): I arrest you.

LANTENAC (turning): I authorize you to do so.

CURTAIN

ACT IV

SCENE XI

A low ceilinged room in La Tourgue. Door right and left. A table is placed in front with two lit candles, paper, pens, writing materials. Behind the table, a bundle of tricolor flags, chairs and stools.

LAMANECHE and two soldiers are arranging the room.

LAMANECHE: Move the flag to the right a bit. Far enough. That’s fine.

Now the chairs for the three judges of the court martial.

PARISIAN: Who will the three judges be, Corporal?

LAMANECHE: Eh, first of all Citizen Cimourdain, the delegate from the Committee on Public Safety, who will preside. And then an officer and a Non-Commissioned officer. The officers won’t be Commandant Gauvain, because Citizen Cimourdain said he was too close a relative to be judge, so it will be Captain Guechamp. The Non-Commissioned officer will be Sergeant Radoub. And I will be the clerk.  In front of the table a stool for the accused.

PARISIAN: Is there anything more needed?

LAMANECHE: NoAhonly we must place on this table before the President these two posters. The decree of the Convention, placing the penalty of death on all insurgent leaders and whoever hides them or aids their escape, and the poster outlawing Lantenac himself.

PARISIAN: If he’s an outlaw it’s not worth the trouble to judge him.

LAMANECHE: Oh, without a doubt! The court martial will only establish the identity and apply the decree.

PARISIAN: That wretched Lantenac! He has no luck! He’s going to get his throat cut for the only good thing he’s done probably in his whole life.

LAMANECHE: Hell! The law is the law!

(Knocking at the door at the left.)

PARISIAN: Someone’s knocking.

LAMANECHE: Who’s there?

GAUVAIN (outside); It’s me. Gauvain.

LAMANECHE: The Commandant! (Pulling out his key and opening the door.) GAUVAIN: For what reason are you keeping this door locked?

PARISIAN: My Commandant, it’s because the door of the prisoner’s cell is locked you see, only by a bolt. For that reason Citizen Cimourdain ordered us to put a double lock on the guardroom door when entering or leaving.

GAUVAIN: That’s fine! Leave me.

PARISIAN: Shall I leave the door open, my Commandant?

GAUVAIN: No, close it from the outside. I will call you when I wish to leave.

(LAMANECHE and the two soldiers go out to the left.) GAUVAIN (alone): Come on! (Takes four or five steps toward the door at the right and stops.) Eh! Why do I still hesitate? Isn’t my decision made?

Lantenac now is no longer the enemy. He is the savior and I cannot, I ought not to let him be punished by death for his superb disinterestedness. Come on! (Again he goes to the door and starts to unbolt it and stops again.) But still, let’s not beat around the bush. I am going to take a terrifying responsibility. Cimourdain holds Lantenac.

The Republic holds the King’s man. The man of the past, the friend of the foreigner, the traitor to the nation. Lantenac living, La Vendée is reborn. And it’s II who can save him! Then that’s finegodo the work of the English, pass to the enemy, free Lantenac and betray France! No! No!

let’s get out of here, it’s not possible. (Turning to leave he stops at the table, pensive.) So, this man for three childrenhis? No. Of his family? Noof his castle? No. For three little peasants, three poor little children. The first comersthis gentleman, this prince, this old man escaped, free, conqueror. For his escape was a triumph, having renounced his revenge, forgotten his ideas, compromised his causeand we, what are we going to do? What? We are going to kill him. What a reward for heroism.

Respond to an act of magnanimity with an act of savagery! Put this down to the Revolution! How diminishing for the Republic! Ah, the idea of such an abasement is even more intolerable. (Walking toward the door indecisively.) Let’s see a bit what he will say. (Pulling the bolt, and opening the door.) Come.

LANTENAC (in his cell): What is it? What do you want from me? Goodness, it’s you! Hello sir. It’s many bad years since I’ve had the good fortune to meet you. You do me the mercy to come see me. I thank you. I was beginning to get bored. Your friends are wasting their timeestablishing identity, court martialsthese affectations are time consuming. I would go to work more quickly. Anyway! It seems tomorrow I will make the acquaintance of your Guillotine. And while waiting you are favoring me with a little friendly visit. Marvelous! I am at home. I beg you have the goodness to be seated. (He sits, GAUVAIN remains standing, listening gravely and in silence.) Vicomte, perhaps you no longer know what a gentleman is. Wellbehold oneit’s me. Look at it. He’s oddhe believes in traditionhe believes in his forefathers, he believes in loyalty, in duties towards his Prince, in respect toward old lawsto virtueto justicethat will make you shoot him with pleasure. But noblesyou don’t want to have them any moreright. Well, don’t worryyou won’t have them anymore. Put on your mourning. You will have no more paladins, nor more heroes. Goodnight to ancient splendor. Find me one from Assas now! You will no longer have those proud military days. Where plumes pass like meteors. You are a people finished. You will no longer have Agnadel, Rocroy, Denain, La Marsaille, Fontenoy. You will no longer have Marignan with Francis the First, you will no longer have Bouvines with Phillipppe-Augustus. Go! Go! Do it! Be new men! Become small. (Rising.) But leave us large. Kill the King. Kill the nobles, beat down men, massacre. It’s all you’ll ever know how to do. You are traitors and cowards incapable of devotion and sacrifice. I’ve spoken. Now guillotine me, Vicomte. I have the honor of being your very humbleI tell you your truths. It’s really all the same to me. I am dead.

GAUVAIN (taking off his Commandant’s cloak and placing it over the shoulders of LANTENAC): You are free.

LANTENAC: Well, what is it you’re doing?

GAUVAIN (goes to rap on the door on the left): Open for me! Take care to lock the door behind me.

(He pulls the hood over LANTENAC’s face and points to the open door.

LANTENAC looks at him stupefied. Passes by him, stops and turns, looking at him again, then raising his hand and clapping his finger against his chin.)

LANTENAC: My word! (He leaves. The door is carefully locked behind him.) GAUVAIN (near the door): He’s leaving with a calm, proud step. Before the Commander’s hood the soldiers will make way for him doubtless. Yes, I hear the sentinel presenting arms to him. He’s outside. In the night in less than a minute he will reach the forest. That’s done! That’s well. His condemnation would have been an irreparable act. His deliverance is a guilty act that can be redeemed by a great example. (Outside the drums beat. “Present Arms” can be heard.) Ah! Cimourdain. The court martial.

Just in time.

(He quickly enters the cell. CIMOURDAIN, GUECHAMP, RADOUB, LAMANECHE enter from the left and take their seats at the table. CIMOURDAIN in the middle, GUECHAMP to his right, RADOUB to his left. LAMANECHE sits on the stool.

PARISIAN and eight soldiers sabres at their sides, rifles on their shoulders are arranged in the room. Others, without arms are jammed in the door at the left.)

CIMOURDAIN: Open the cell and bring in the prisoner. (A soldier goes to open the cell door, but before he can get there the door opens and GAUVAIN
appears in the doorway.) Gauvain! I am asking for the prisoner.

GAUVAIN: It’s me.

CIMOURDAIN: You? But Lantenac?

GAUVAIN: He is free.

CIMOURDAIN: Free! Escaped? (Going bewildered to GAUVAIN.) GAUVAIN: Escaped.

CIMOURDAIN (with a trembling in his voice): Indeed, this is his chateauhe knows the exits. The dungeon perhaps communicates with some exit. I ought to have thought of it. He must have found a way to fleehe had no need for anyone’s help for that.

GAUVAIN: He had help.

CIMOURDAIN: To escape?

GAUVAIN: To escape.

CIMOURDAIN: Who helped him?

GAUVAIN: I did.

CIMOURDAIN: Youyou are dreaming.

(He runs into the cell and returns, pale, head lowered as if crushed.) GAUVAIN: I opened this cell. I was alone with the prisoner. I took off my cloak, I put it over his shoulders. I pulled the hood down over his facehe left in my place and I remained in his

CIMOURDAIN (in a tone of heartbreaking reproach): You didn’t do that!

GAUVAIN: I did it.

CIMOURDAIN (in a heavy voice): Then you deserve

GAUVAIN: Death.

(Annihilated, CIMOURDAIN, head bowed, passes slowly in front of GAUVAINstops a moment, overwhelmed. Then holding up his head goes to sit at the table as Judge.)

CIMOURDAIN (hardening his voice): Let the accused sit down! (GAUVAIN
sits on a stool in front of the table.) (To two solders.) Draw your swords. (They execute the order.) Accusedrespond. (GAUVAIN rises.) Your name and rank?

GAUVAIN: Gauvain, Commander in Chief of the Expeditionary Force des Cotes du Nord.

CIMOURDAIN: Are you a relative or connection of the escaped man?

GAUVAIN: I am his grand nephew.

CIMOURDAIN: You know the decree of the convention?

GAUVAIN: I saw the decree on your table.

CIMOURDAIN: What have you to say about this decree?

GAUVAIN: That I countersigned it, that I ordered it executed, and that it was I who made this poster at the bottom of which is my name.

CIMOURDAIN: What have you to say in your defense?

GAUVAIN: Just this. A good action, seen by all present, hid from me a hundred criminal actions. On the one side, an old man, children on the otherall this is placed between me and duty. I forgot the burnings, the prisoners massacred, the women shotI forgot France delivered to England.

I set at liberty the murderer of the country. I am guilty. In speaking thus I seem to speak against myself. It’s an error, I am speaking for myself. When a guilty man recognizes his fault he saves the only thing worth being saved, his honor.

CIMOURDAIN: Is that all that you have to say for your defense?

GAUVAIN: I add that being Chief, I must be an example, and that in your turn, being judges, you must be.

CIMOURDAIN: What examples do you ask for?

GAUVAIN: My death.

CIMOURDAIN: You find it just?

GAUVAIN: And necessary.

CIMOURDAIN: Sit down. (GAUVAIN sits down.) It’s going to proceed to a vote. The sentencing will be given by a simple majority. Each judge will issue his opinion in his turn, in a loud voice, in the presence of the accusedjustice having nothing to hide. The first judge has the floor.

Speak Captain Guechamp.

GUECHAMP (eyes lowered, fixed on the placard): The law is precise. As the result of a fit of pity the nation is placed in danger. Pity can assume the proportions of a crime. Commandant Gauvain has caused the escape of the Rebel Lantenac. Gauvain is guilty. I vote for death.

CIMOURDAIN (to LAMANECHE): Write, clerk.

GAUVAIN: Guechamp, you’ve voted correctly and I thank you.

CIMOURDAIN: The second judge has the floor. Speak Sergeant Radoub.

RADOUB (rising): If that’s so, then guillotine me! For here I give my most sacred word. I would have done just what the old man did and after that what my Commandant did. When I saw that individual of eighty throw himself in the fire to pull out those three bratsI said “Old boy, you are a brave fellow!” And when I learned that it was my Commandant who saved the old man from the beastly guillotine, I say “My Commandant, you ought to be my general and you are a real man!” Ah, indeedwhat’s it going to be with imbeciles now! Is it for things like that we won the battle of Jemmapes, the battle of Valmy, the battle of Fleurus and the battle of Wattignies then we must say so. What! Here’s Commandant Gauvain who for the last three months ruled all these Royalist donkeys, and who saved the Republic with his sabre blows, and who did the thing at Dol where he played a clever trickwhen you’ve got that man, you try not to have him!

And instead of making him your general you want to cut his throat? Then go to the devil. I no longer know what it’s about. Ah, indeed! Lookdid you want this old man to let the kids be burned alive? Does my Commandant have to let the head of the old man be cut off after that? A conjectureif the kids had been killed, the Red Bonnet Battalion would have been dishonored.

Is that what you wanted? I reserve my way of looking at it. I don’t like things that have the inconvenience of making you not know where you are.

Why the devil are we killing ourselves? Why are we killing our chief? None of that, Lisette! I want my chief. I need my chief! I like him better today than yesterday. Send him to the guillotine. Why you make me laugh.

All thiswe want none of it. I’ve listened. Let them say what they likefirst of allnot possible. (He sits down.) CIMOURDAIN: You vote for the accused to be absolved?

RADOUB: I vote they make him premier of the Republic.

CIMOURDAIN: I ask you if you vote for him to be acquittedyes or no?

RADOUB: I vote for them to cut off my head in his place.

CIMOURDAIN: Acquitted. Write, clerk.

LAMANECHE: One voice for death, one voice for acquittal. Even.

(Silence.)

CIMOURDAIN (rising in a voice grave and slow): Accused, Gauvain, the case is heard. (GAUVAIN rises.) In the name of the Republic, the Court Martiala majority of two voices against onecondemns you to the pain of death. (Muffled noises amongst those present.) Gauvain, you will be executed tomorrow at sun rise.

GAUVAIN (saluting): I thank the court.

CIMOURDAIN: The session is closed.

(RADOUB tries to speak to CIMOURDAIN, then to GAUVAIN, he can only make gestures, the words stuck in his throat. He speaks low to LAMANECHE.) RADOUB: Get me out of here! I’m going to be sick! (LAMANECHE helps him off. Then CIMOURDAIN leaves, mournful, almost a ghost walking. The soldiers follow CIMOURDAIN out. GAUVAIN is left alone. He goes to sit on a stool.)

GAUVAIN: Poor Cimourdain! What a torture and suffering for that great head.

(CIMOURDAIN enters quietly without his insignia of office. He approaches GAUVAIN, who absorbed in his thoughts has neither seen nor heard him. He kneels softly raising GAUVAIN’s hand and placing his lips on it.) GAUVAIN: It’s you, my master.

CIMOURDAIN: Gauvain.

GAUVAIN: I was thinking about you. (Resting his hand on CIMOURDAIN’s shoulder.) This scar on your face is the trace of the bullet you received for me. Again today, you were in the męlče at my side, because of me. I exist for you. Without you, I wouldn’t have grown. I was only a lord, you made me a Citizen. I was only a Citizen, you made me a leader. I thank you. It’s you who created me.

CIMOURDAIN: Gauvain! (GAUVAIN raises him and he sits on a stool near him.) It’s terrible, Gauvain, this year we are going through.

GAUVAIN: It’s still more amazing, my master. Its visible work is grim, its invisible work is sublime.

CIMOURDAIN (with an uneasy look toward GAUVAIN): Then you forgive it?

GAUVAIN: It compensates for strictness in justice, by its grandeur in devotion.

CIMOURDAIN: You forgive it, my Gauvain!

GAUVAIN: I admire it. But let’s leave the present moment, will you?

Let’s talk of other things.

CIMOURDAIN: Of what do you wish to talk?

GAUVAIN: Let’s talkof the future.

CIMOURDAIN: Oh! Yes, that’s itof the future. What does the passing moment matter? What matters our life that passes with it. We suffer, we dieit’s all okay, isn’t it? Because those who come after us will triumph and shine. You are right, my son. Always go forward! Let’s look on the bright side of the dawn, of birth. (Putting his arm around his neck.) Let’s talk of the Future!

BLACKOUT

SCENE XII

The Sun Also Rises

To the left, La Tourgue of which this time one sees the upper part. The platform raised half the height of the stage. The lower gate is lost under it. The crevice of the ravine separates it from the main stage. To the right, a little below La Tourgue, the plateau on which is erected the scaffold, that hides the wooded broken ground. In the center between La Tourgue and the plateau, a roadway climbing into the ravine. In this empty space one sees the sun rise.

On the platform, on an arm chair draped in flags, is CIMOURDAIN dressed as a civil delegate, hat with tricolor plumes, sabre at his side, pistols in his belt. In the foreground, GUECHAMP, sabre in hand, to the right RADOUB, PARISIAN, LAMANECHE, and the four remaining men of the Red Bonnet Battalion. In the middle LA FLECHARDE and the three children.

The troop stands in line at parade rest. A cortčge emerges from the road.

At their head drums draped in crepe, beating a funeral march. Then a platoon with arms lowered, then GAUVAIN in shirt sleeves, his uniform buttoned at this neck and passed over his shoulders, sword at his side.

Another squad follows. When GAUVAIN passes GUECHAMP raises his sabre and the troop presents arms.

LA FLECHARDE and the children on their knees hold out their hands to GAUVAIN. He blows them a kiss.

As he turns down the road the sun rises behind him and puts him in a glory. He turns toward CIMOURDAIN and with a smile, waves his hand to him in a gesture of goodbye. CIMOURDAIN raises his hat and salutes him. When he disappears, the soldiers break ranks tossing away their rifles, some go to their knees. All extend their arms towards the platform.

ALL (shouting): Mercy! Mercy!

LA FLECHARDE (and the three children on their knees): Mercy!

GUECHAMP: Mercy! Listen! See! An army! An army weeping.

RADOUB: Do they receive any reinforcements for that? Here I am!

PARISIAN (at the height of the road): He’s on the scaffold! Mercy!

ALL (shouting): Mercy!

CIMOURDAIN (with a low sinister voice): By the majesty of the law

Voice of GAUVAIN: Long live Humanity.

(A muffled blow is heard. A clamor arises.) CIMOURDAIN (in a low voice): Wait for me. (He seizes one of his pistols, points it to his heart and fires. He falls over backward.) RADOUB: He’s killed himself. Both of them dead together.

LA FLECHARDE (on her knees, pulling her children to her breast): Ah, this is horrible!

RADOUB (taking off his hat): But splendid all the same!!

CURTAIN

THE END

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