The Resources Of Quinola Part 29

Fontanares Dear! Ah! senora, you have taught me to distrust such words as that!

Faustine She, whom you have so cruelly insulted, will now reveal herself to you. A terrible disaster threatens you. Sarpi has persistently worked against you and in doing so has carried out the orders of an irresistible power, and this banquet will be for you, unless I intervene, the scene of a Judas' kiss. I have been told, in confidence, that on your departure from this house, perhaps without these very walls, you will be arrested, flung into prison, and your trial will begin--never to end. Is it possible that you can put into proper condition in one night the vessel which otherwise will be forfeited to you? As regards your work, you know how impossible it is to begin it over again. I wish to save you, you and your glory, you and your fortune.

Fontanares You save me? And how?

Faustine Avalores has placed at my disposal one of his s.h.i.+ps, Monipodio has given me his best smugglers for a cruise; let us start for Venice. The republic will make you a patrician and will give you ten times as much gold as Spain has promised. (Aside) Why is it they do not arrive?

Fontanares And what of Marie? If we are to take her with us, I will believe in you.

Faustine Your thoughts are of her at the very moment when the choice between life and death is to be made. If you delay, we may be lost.

Fontanares We? Senora?

SCENE FOURTEENTH

The same persons. Guards rush in at every door. A magistrate appears.

Sarpi.

Sarpi Do your duty!

The Magistrate (to Fontanares) In the name of the king, I arrest you.

Fontanares The hour of death has come at last! Yet happily I carry my secret with me to G.o.d, and love shall be my winding sheet.

SCENE FIFTEENTH

The same persons, Marie and Lothundiaz.

Marie I was not, then, deceived; you have fallen into the hands of your enemies! And what is left to me, dearest Alfonso, but to die for you --and yet, by what a frightful death! O beloved! Heaven is jealous of a perfect love, and thus would teach us by those cruel disasters, which we call the chances of life, that there is no true happiness save in the presence of G.o.d. What! You here?

Sarpi Senorita!

Lothundiaz My daughter!

Marie For one moment you have left me free, for the last time in my life! I shall keep my promise, you must not be unfaithful to yours. O sublime discoverer, you will have to discharge the obligations that belong to greatness, and to fight the battle of your lawful ambition! This struggle will be the great interest of your life; while the Countess Sarpi will die by inches and in obscurity, imprisoned in the four walls of her house. And now let me remind you, father, and you, count, that it was clearly agreed, as the condition of my obedience, that Senor Fontanares should be granted by the viceroy of Catalonia a further extension of time, for the completion of his experiment.

Fontanares Marie, how can I live without you?

Marie How could you live in the hands of your executioner?

Fontanares Farewell! I am ready to die.

Marie Did you not make a solemn promise to the King of Spain, yes, to all the world? (Speaks low to Fontanares) Oh! seize your triumph; after that we can die!

Fontanares I will accept, if only you refuse to be his.

Marie Father, fulfill your promise.

Faustine I have triumphed.

Lothundiaz (in a low voice to Fontanares) You contemptible seducer! (Aloud) Here I give you ten thousand sequins. (In a low voice) Atrocious wretch! (Aloud) My daughter's income for one year. (In a low voice) May the plague choke you!

(Aloud) Upon the presentation of this check, Senor Avaloros will count out to you ten thousand sequins.

Fontanares But does the viceroy consent to this arrangement?

Sarpi You have publicly accused the viceroy of Catalonia of belying the promises of the king; here is his answer: (he draws forth a doc.u.ment) By this ordinance, he puts a stay on the lawsuits of all your creditors, and grants you a year to complete your experiment.

Fontanares I am ready to do so.

Lothundiaz He has made up his mind! Come, my daughter; they are expecting us at the Dominican convent, and the viceroy has promised to honor us with his presence at the ceremony.

Marie So soon?

(Exeunt the whole party.)

Faustine (to Paquita) Run, Paquita, and bring me word when the ceremony is ended, and they are man and wife.

SCENE SIXTEENTH

Faustine and Fontanares.

Faustine (aside) There he stands, like a man pausing on the brink of a precipice to which tigers have pursued him. (Aloud) Why are you not as great as your creative thought? Is there but one woman in the world?

Fontanares What! Do you think that a man can pluck from his heart a love like mine, as easily as he draws the sword from his scabbard?

Faustine I can well conceive that a woman should love you and do you service.

But, according to your idea, love is self-abdication. All that the greatest men have ever wished for: glory, honor, fortune, and more than that, a triumphant dominion which genius alone can establish --this you have gained, conquering a world as Caesar, Lucullus and Luther conquered before you! And yet, you have put between yourself and this splendid existence an obstacle, which is none other than a love worthy of some student of Alcala. By birth you are a giant, and of your own will you are dwindling into a dwarf. But a man of genius can always find, among women, one woman especially created for him.

And such a woman, while in the eyes of men she is a queen, for him is but a servant, adapting herself with marvelous suppleness to the chances of life, cheerful in suffering and as far-sighted in misfortune as in prosperity; above all, indulgent to his caprices and knowing well the world and its perilous changes; in a word, capable of occupying a seat in his triumphal car after having helped it up the steepest grades--

Fontanares You have drawn her portrait.

Faustine Whose?

Fontanares Marie's!

Faustine What! Did that child have skill to protect you? Did she divine the person and presence of her rival? And was she, who had suffered you to be overcome, worthy of possessing you for her own--she--the child who has permitted herself to be drawn, step by step, to the altar where at this moment she bestows herself upon another? If it had been I, ere this I should have lain dead at your feet! And on whom has she bestowed herself? On your deadliest enemy, who had accepted the command to secure the s.h.i.+pwreck of your hopes.

Fontanares How could I be false to that inextinguishable love, which has thrice come to my succor, which has eventually saved me, which, having no sacrifice but itself to offer on the altar of misfortune, accomplishes the immolation with one hand, and, with the other, offers to me in this (he shows the letter) the restoration of my honor, the esteem of my king, the admiration of the universe.

(Enter Paquita, who makes a sign to Faustine, then goes out.)

Faustine (aside) Ah! Sarpi has now his countess. (To Fontanares) Your life, your glory, your fortune, your honor, are at last in my hands alone! Marie no longer stands between us!