Читать книгу The Hunchback - Paul Feval - Страница 6

PROLOGUE, SCENE 2

The moats of the castle connected by a ditch on the right and by a bridge that faces the audience and reaches the tower of the château from which a balcony projects underneath which is a small window; it’s there that stacks of hay are heaped up; a loaded cart is on the side. To the left, a stairway, at the back a large opening.

LAGARDÈRE: (getting his bearings before going into the moat) Ah, let’s try not to break our neck. (going down the stairway) It’s as dark as in an oven; we must fence carefully. It will be delightful. (testing the ground with his foot) What’s that? Grass. No solid ground. Perfect. Now, let’s orient ourselves. (groping at the low window) A window! Bravo! For a love adventure after a sword adventure here’s our entrance. Ah! the devil of a shutter. Someone’s coming down. I hear walking. Will it be Nevers already? He’s going to arrive very angry, this dear Duke. We have only to be quite ready.

(Gonzague and Peyrolles arrive wrapped in cloaks at the head of the bridge, and attempt to see into the distance.)

GONZAGUE: I don’t see anyone.

PEYROLLES: Indeed, Down there—near the window.

GONZAGUE: (stopping) Suppose he’s not one of us?

PEYROLLES: Impossible! I directed a sentinel be left here. It’s Staupitz. I recognize him. Staupitz.

LAGARDÈRE: Present.

PEYROLLES: (to Gonzague) You see! You can go down, Duke.

LAGAREDERRE: Ah, he’s a Duke!

GONZAGUE: To the devil with your manners! You might as well tell them my name.

LAGARDÈREE: I would really like to know it.

GONZAGUE: Will Philippe come?

PEYROLLES: Don’t you recall the very urgent letter sent him by Miss Blanche de Caylus? He will come to deliver himself into our hands; once we kill the father, we will seize the child.

LAGARDÈRE: They are lowering their voices. I cannot hear a thing.

GONZAGUE: No, it’s better to begin by capturing and making this child of Nevers vanish; the hour approaches. What sort of man is this Staupitz?

PEYROLLES: A determined rogue.

GONZAGUE: That can be relied on?

PEYROLLES: If well paid, yes.

GONZAGUE: Call him!

LAGARDÈRE: (aside) Could this be the leader of the assassins?

PEYROLLES: Staupitz!

LAGARDÈRE: Present!

PEYROLLES: Advance!

GONZAGUE: Would you like to earn fifty pistoles?

LAFARDERRE: What has to be done?

GONZAGUE: Stay at your post under this window and wait until nine o’clock strikes. Then you will rap at the shutter of this window which will open and you will say two words to the woman who opens: “I’m here.”

LAGARDÈRE: I’m here. (low) That’s Nevers’ motto.

GONZAGUE: As you don’t have the voice of the one she’s expecting, don’t speak.

LAGARDÈRE: I will make a sign to her that we are spied on.

GONZAGUE: Precisely. She will deliver to you a bundle that you will take in silence and carry straight away to the Inn of Adam’s Apple. In exchange you will have your fifty pistoles.

LAGARDÈRE: I am your man.

PEYROLLES: Hush! (in the distance the horn of an ox-cart is heard) That’s the first signal. Nevers is approaching. On the second he will enter the forest.

GONZAGUE: Then my handsome cousin has no more than a quarter of an hour to live. Let’s separate ourselves.

PEYROLLES: (to Lagardère) Your companions?

LAGARDÈRE: Here. (pointing to the back of the moat)

GONZAGUE: You remember the password?

LAGARDÈRE: I am here.

GONZAGUE: Till later. We will go back in through the small postern.

(They go back into the castle)

LAGARDÈRE: (tossing the purse away) Ah! God will take me to task in my last moments for not putting my sword into the torsos of those wretches! What to do now? Some infamy is being plotted around here! Let’s go to the end. It’s no longer a question of a duel, of scaling a ladder for love. But I intend to know. Here’s the hour. Let’s do what the Duke told me. No one. Ah! They are waiting for the password—I am here!

BLANCHE: (opening the window) God be praised! (she offers him her hand through the window.) I cannot see anything. Philippe, where are you?

LAGARDÈRE: Here! Let’s be quick.

BLANCHE: I obey you, my Philippe. Here’s our treasure; it’s no longer safe with me.

LAGARDÈRE: (taking the bundle) Quick! Quick!

BLANCHE: Ah, I thought my heart was stronger.

LAGARDÈRE: Courage! Courage! (after having passed the child to Lagardère Blanche offers him a book) What’s this?

BLANCHE: My book of hours; I’ve placed in it a hidden fold with your arms, and in this fold pages torn from the registry of Chaplain Don Bernard. (sound of a horn) A signal—. Save yourself, save yourself. (quickly pulling Lagardère’s hand and pulling it to her lips) I love you! (she shuts the grill and disappears.)

LAGARDÈRE: What the devil is this? Ah, triple fool! What kind of adventure have I got myself into? Come on—make a good face over a bad hand! Sonofabitch! One can give him by the thousands to all the Light Cavalry. I wager a thousand pistoles and from the devil—that not a single one would guess what I’m holding in my arms at this moment. Ah, what a white and rosy child he is! How he sleeps. Ah, my word, he’s very cute.You are cute, Miss or Mister—but very embarrassing. Fight then, with this in my arms. If I leave, Nevers will come and they’ll kill him. I don’t want him killed. No—by a thousand devils, I don’t want it. Ah, yet another signal. That one’s just been given quite near us. And despite what I said the assassins are following him and watching him, no question. Which direction is he coming from?

NEVERS: ( descending the stairs) Two torch bearers wouldn’t be bad here.

LAGARDÈRE: Someone—it’s Nevers. Yes, it’s him. Over here, Duke.

NEVERS: (unsheathing) You are Lagardère: To work, Chevalier, I’m in a hurry. Just touch swords with me so that I know where you are.

LAGARDÈRE: Not before you’ve listened to me.

NEVERS: (groping towards him) Some further insult against Miss de Caylus?

LAGARDÈRE: No, by Jove! I was unaware. Be very careful.

NEVERS: There has to be blood.

LAGARDÈRE: Listen to me.

NEVERS: No, no—

LAGARDÈRE: Ah, devil from Hell! Is it necessary to crack your skull to prevent you from killing your child?

NEVERS: My child! My daughter?

LAGARDÈRE: Ah, it’s a girl! Eh, by Jove, here she is.

NEVERS: My daughter, in your arms!

LAGARDÈRE: Softly—you are going to wake her up.

NEVERS: At least tell me—

LAGARDÈRE: Devil of a man—he won’t even let me speak.Here he is trying to force me to tell him stories! Look, hold this for me, daddy. Gently, very gently. There, there—enough hugs, papa We are already two old friends, the little one and me. Let’s put her down—first of all these bundles of hay. (placing the child on the hay)

NEVERS: Ah, Chevalier!

LAGARD: (with nobility) Now, I will answer for her on my life, Duke, I expiate, as much as is in me, a double insult—to you first of all who are honesty itself! and to her mother who is a noble wife.

NEVERS: You’ve seen Miss de Caylus?

LAGARDÈRE: I’ve seen Madame de Nevers.

NEVERS: Where’s that?

LAGARDÈRE: At this window.

NEVERS: And it was she who confided to you?

LAGARDÈRE: This treasure? Yes, thinking she was giving it to yourself. Oh, don’t try to understand. Strange things are happening here, Duke, and since you are in a mood to fight, By Jove you will soon have a joyous heart.

NEVERS: An attack?

LAGARDÈRE: An assassination! Ordered by a man I don’t know but who’s called Milord, and who calls himself your cousin.

NEVERS: Gonzague! A friend, almost a brother!. Ah, Chevalier, it’s not possible!

LAGARDÈRE: (polishes his sword) I don’t know if that is possible—but I know quite well what this is. And, as I don’t think you are in the mood to flee before assassins—

NEVERS: No, by Jove! I will await them if only to know who the bandit is that’s paying them

LAGARDÈRE: (to his sword) You hear, my beauty. Ah, that’s enough of escapades! Praise God, Miss. Let’s try to distinguish ourselves and to be led by a noble girl—

NEVERS: You are going to fight for me?

LAGARDÈRE: A bit for you. Immensely for the little one.

NEVERS: Ah, Lagardère, I didn’t know you; you are a great heart.

LAGARDÈRE: As for me, I’m a fool! But, Bah! The child has transformed me, turned me inside out. I think I’m going to be good and well behaved now—Hush! (he listens)

NEVERS: What is it?

LGARDERRE: They are crawling up there.

NEVERS: Wait—it’s Charot, my page. Who ought to be waiting for me at the inn and who must have followed me. (the page is seen descending the stairway on the left.)

LAGARDÈRE: It’s him. This way, little fellow.

PAGE: You are surrounded, Milord, lost!

LAGARDÈRE: Bah! There are only eight of them.

PAGE: There are twenty. When they learned there are two of you, they added reinforcements.

LAGARDÈRE: Do you think you can slip out of here?

PAGE: Yes.

LAGARDÈRE: Run to the inn. Jump on my horse, and find my volunteers who are in the hamlet of Cernay. Tell them, “Lagardère is in danger.” Are you ready?

PAGE: Yes.

LAGARDÈRE: You are a brave little chap. (pointing to the stairway) Kill my horse, but get there, little one, get there. (The page vanishes)

NEVERS: (pointing) Watch out, Chevalier, I see a sword shining down there.

LAGARDÈRE: Do as I do, Duke, and quickly. ( he pulls the cart and aided by the Duke, they hastily improvise a barricade using bales of hay.)

NEVERS: Chevalier, henceforth between us it’s life and death; if I live all is common between us—if I live.

LAGARDÈRE: Bah! You won’t die—

NEVERS: If I die, my daughter needs a protector—

LAGARDÈRE: Well, on my place in paradise, I will be her protector.

NEVERS: My brother!

LAGARDÈRE: To our swords. Here they come.

(The assassins approach from two directions. Cocardasse and Passepoil from the breach at the right. Staupitz and the bullies from the rear. Still others by the left.)

LAGARDÈRE: I’ll watch over the child. Don’t show yourself too much.

STAUPITZ: There he is.

NEVERS: Yes, it’s me. I’m here.

STAUPITZ: Just Nevers?

LAGARDÈRE: Lagardère, also, my wise guys.

COCARDASSE: Sonofabitch! The Parisian is in it. Do like me, littler one, push, my pebble, push. (The circle is narrowed but they seem hesitant to strike the first blow.)

NEVERS: Well, cowardly assassins, you don’t dare to come forward.

LAGARDÈRE: They will need pikes to make a hole in our breasts.

STAUPITZ: Forward: (First skirmish. With the support of their fortifications they repulse the first assault.)

LAGARDÈRE: (pushing his sword.) Here’s for you, Staupitz; Yours, Saldagne. (wounding them both)

PASSEPOIL: He’s superb to watch from a distance.

COCARDASSE: Alert, the rest of you. We are going to have a real battle. Here are the King’s volunteers; I unbutton for them.

LAGARDÈRE: (calling) Help Lagardère, my braves, help Lagardère.

CARRIGUE: (in the distance) Here we are, Captain, here we are.

(He appears with his men and enters the moat through the breach)

NEVERS: Forward, Lagardère. Let’s charge.

LAGARDÈRE: Charge!

(They emerge from their fortification and charge in their turn. Gonzague, masked, sword in hand can be seen hanging back at the side.)

NEVERS: Clumsy bunch!

GONZAGUE: Neither Philippe nor this Lagardère must leave this place alive.

LAGARDÈRE: Victory! (he makes the bandits retreat)

FAENZA: Get Nevers!

NEVERS: I am here. (wounding him)

GONZAGUE: This has got to stop. (plunging his sword into Nevers’ back)

NEVERS: Ah, help me, Lagardère, help me!

LAGARDÈRE: Here I am. (with his redoubtable sword, he attacks Gonzague while while Carrigue and his volunteers protect him from Gonzague.) Assassin! I haven’t seen your face, but I will recognize you anywhere.

(Lagardère strikes him with his sword in the right hand, and the pain causes the sword to drop from Gonzague’s hand.)

NEVERS: (to Lagardère) Gonzague—my daughter. Brother, avenge me. Save her. (he falls)

LAGARDÈRE: (going to Nevers) Dead!

ALL: Dead!

LAGARDÈRE: (taking the child and pointing to the stairway at the left) Nevers is dead. Long live Nevers!

(he rapidly climbs the stairs to the bridge.)

GONZAGUE: Nevers’ daughter—a thousand pistoles to the one that captures her.

LAGARDÈRE: (reaching the head of the bridge) Come find her behind my sword. Your hand will bear my mark, and when the time comes, you won’t come to Lagardère, Lagardère will come to you.

C U R T A I N