ACT I
SCENE I
The Forest of Saudraie
Large trees—thick woods—to 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 says—is done. But it isn't easy.
RADOUB (in a low voice): Attention—kids! 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 ditch—separates 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 see—who are you, madame? (Considering her—to the other soldiers.) She's a poor woman—What's your name?
LA FLECHARDE: Michelle Flecharde.
RADOUB: These three urchins are yours?
LA FLECHARDE: Yes. The oldest is called Rene-Jean. This one—Fat Alan. The little girl—Georgette. 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 shot—spies do! Look—speak—. 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 country—It'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: What—you 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 Lord—our Lord—who gave him this beating. It was a blessing.
RADOUB: Huh?
LA FLECHARDE: Yes, because my father had taken a rabbit—for which he was sentenced to die—but 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 husband—in 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 that—all the same—it's a real massacre—for an honest man to hear. Like seeing the Iroquois from China—who have their father-in-law crippled by the Lord. Their grandfather sent to the galleys by the priest and their father hung by the King—and 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 blackberries—whortelberries, 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, madam—you 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.): Comrades—from all this I conclude that the Battalion's going to become a father—Is 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): Come—Citizeness.
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, Milord—on 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 heir—the vicomte Gauvain—today Citizen Commander Gauvain—leading 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 leaders—Jean 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 once—the large and the small—we 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 here—now 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 dungeon—the 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 old—and 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 days—in the time when La Tourgue was besieged, the people thereabouts could escape out—by 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 it—and 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 turn—the 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 hope—ah, 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: Ah—I'd really like that.
RENE-JEAN: Oh, yes, yes.
(All sit on the slope.)
HOUZARDE: So—you 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 seen—they are good lads in the battalion—accept my proposition—be 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 uproar—in the platoon firing, as the cannons fire, in the tumult—you shout—Who wants a cup of water, guys? It's no more difficult than that. As for me, I pour for everybody, for Blues and Whites—although 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 lookout—you're already in love! Come on—on the road—bad 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 France—one 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 assignats—but in gold. Granville June 2, 1793 Prieur de la Marne...." What I already knew—a 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 all—where 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 (shivering—and 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: Parisians—Wait, 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 hamlet—did they resist?
LE CAIMAND: No—they 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 him—he 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 know—in gold.
LANTENAC: You know that 60,000 francs is a fortune.
LE CAIMAND: Well—and 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 Tellmarch—and 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 hand—you saw only the hand—and 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 true—you 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. Signed—Chief of the Battalion, Commandant of the Expeditionary Column—Gauvain. Gauvain! Hey hey—you are alive nephew—it'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? No—rather it's a fire, a military action—the Republicans in leaving have set fire to Herbe-en-Pail. I hear a rumble in the distance. Drums—the 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 soldier—accept 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: Milord—it'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, Milord—we didn't burn it. I don't know why.
LANTENAC: You didn't burn it—burn 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 stables—large 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 clamor—shouts 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 left—among 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 blood—the 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 one—none in the head—where'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 creature—is 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 here—La Flecharde as they called her. She had children. Three children—all 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 city—to Dol—to the home of my brother Louis Mathieu who is with the Whites.
LE CAIMAND: Listen—she 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 on—Ah—I 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 lamp—good! 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 already—doing 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 Tourgue—always 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 household—he'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 humanity—and Republican—my word! Long before the Republic.
BAPAUME: It's certain that he made his pupil the little lord—a 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 him—he 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 alone—and 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 man—only 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 furious—do 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 thing—to 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 down—he's everywhere—and 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 elbow—civil war is an ulcer that eats you. (Showing some papers.) This moment from the west I received these—the 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 Spain—preparing on the Pyrenees—Italy on the Alps—Germany 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 state—we'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 heads—under your feet—it 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 plays—and Robespierre will have Danton guillotined!
DANTON: Ah! Don't you believe it!
ROBESPIERRE (impassive): Dangers press us on all sides—we'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 have—have above all—Unity. 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 ourselves—the three of us. The three of us represent the Revolution. We are the three heads of Cerberus. Of these three heads—one speaks—that's you, Robespierre—the other roars—that's you, Danton.
DANTON: The third bites—that's you, Marat.
ROBESPIERRE: All three bite.
MARAT: Well—do 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 Belgium—of the armies where I have four times already offered my breast to grape shot. Go ask them of the sections of armed Paris—of 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 yourself—play the fop—be prim, curled, spruced up—you 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 men—and 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 say—neither Roland nor Marat.
MARAT: And as for me, I say—neither 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? Unity—unity—citizens. 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 Hannover—and 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 delivered—this head which is the head of the insurrection—it 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 Safety—with 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 you—he'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 pardons—shows mercy—saves 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 Robespierre—we 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
Dol—A 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 on—he'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 hear—Ah—these 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 heroes—so 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. There—where our people are not—everything 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 home—who 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, yes—we 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? Speak—where 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: No—I 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 me—everything. (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 husband—they 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 all—you haven't see my children.
JEAN-MATHIEU: No.
LA FLECHARDE: And you haven't heard them spoken of?
JEAN-MATHIEU: No.
LA FLECHARDE: Good-bye.
JEAN-MATHIEU: Wait a bit, La Flecharde! Hold on!
LA FLECHARDE (coming back, excitedly): You know something?
JEAN-MATHIEU: It's coming back to me—yesterday 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 Flecharde—go 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 Tourgue—it'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: Wait—first 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 two—give 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 followed—can 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 unknown—but 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, Milord—the cause, Citizen. The cause of the Republic, by God—of the great Republic!
GAUVAIN: Are you really sure? Who are you?
JEAN-MATHIEU: I am—I am—I am one of the victims of the massacre at Herbe-en-Pail!
GAUVAIN (pushing him into a corner): Stay there then! And not a word—not 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 broken—he 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 powers—attached 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's—we 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 fleeing—well—pursue 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 on—pour. Ah—our poor Houzarde! Where is she? Yes, yes, old Tourgue will be rough going to approach in a short while—and 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 justice—Gauvain, 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 Captain—in 10 days you've disposed and almost annihilated Lantenac's bands—and 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 go—come, 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. Hear—we 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): Look—what have you to tell us?
IMANUS: This—you 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 time—you 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 refuse—listen carefully—the chatelet which adjoins La Tourgue has two floors. In the lower floor, I, Imanus, I who speak to you—I 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: Wait—we 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 it—they'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 us—me 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: You—if we had you—we 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.) Well—you—the condemned who are in that tower—do 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 ours—ours—the 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 saved—or all of us killed. That's our right, sonofabitch. Yes, all of us killed—and 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 God—a 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. Ah—it'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! You—God it's not possible! You're alive!
LA FLECHARDE: Ah—are 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 right—in 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, i | 