Vautrin: A Drama in Five Acts Part 14

Lafouraille M. Vautrin!

Vautrin Well?

Lafouraille Are you letting him go?

Vautrin Unless he considers himself at liberty, what can we hope to learn from him? I have given my instructions; he will be taught not to put ropes in the way of hangmen. When Philosopher brings for me the doc.u.ments which this fellow is to hand him, they will be given to me, wherever I happen to be.

Lafouraille But afterwards, will you spare his life?

Vautrin You are always a little premature, my dear. Have you forgotten how seriously the dead interfere with the peace of the living? Hus.h.!.+ I hear Raoul--leave us to ourselves.

SCENE TENTH.

Vautrin and Raoul de Frescas.

Raoul (soliloquizing) After a glimpse of heaven, still to remain on earth--such is my fate!

I am a lost man; Vautrin, an infernal yet a kindly genius, a man who knows everything, and seems able to do everything, a man as harsh to others as he is good to me, a man who is inexplicable except by a supposition of witchcraft, a maternal providence if I may so call him, is not after all the providence divine. (Vautrin enters wearing a plain black peruke, a blue coat, gray pantaloons, a black waistcoat, the costume of a stock-broker.) Oh! I know what love is; but I did not know what revenge was, until I felt I could not die before I had wreaked my vengeance on these two Montsorels.

Vautrin (aside) He is in trouble. (Aloud) Raoul, my son, what ails you?

Raoul Nothing ails me. Pray leave me.

Vautrin Do you again repulse me? You abuse the right you have to ill-treat a friend--What are you thinking about?

Raoul Nothing.

Vautrin Nothing? Come, sir, do you think that he who has taught you that English coldness, under the veil of which men of worth would conceal their feelings, was not aware of the transparency which belongs to this cuira.s.s of pride? Try concealment with others, but not with me.

Dissimulation is more than a blunder, for in friends.h.i.+p a blunder is a crime.

Raoul To game no more, to come home tipsy no more, to shun the menagerie of the opera, to become serious, to study, to desire a position in life, this you call dissimulation.

Vautrin You are as yet but a poor diplomatist. You will be a great one, when you can deceive me. Raoul, you have made the mistake which I have taken most pains to save you from. My son, why did you not take women for what they are, creatures of inconsequence, made to enslave without being their slave, like a sentimental shepherd? But instead, my Lovelace has been conquered by a Clarissa. Ah, young people will strike against these idols a great many times, before they discover them to be hollow!

Raoul Is this a sermon?

Vautrin What? Do you take me, who have trained your hand to the pistol, who have shown you how to draw the sword, have taught you not to dread the strongest laborer of the faubourg, who have done for your brains what I have done for your body, have set you above all men, and anointed you my king, do you take me for a dolt? Come, now, let us have a little more frankness.

Raoul Do you wish me to tell you what I was thinking?--But no, that would be to accuse my benefactor.

Vautrin Your benefactor! You insult me. Do you think I have devoted to you my life, my blood, shown myself ready to kill, to a.s.sa.s.sinate your enemy, in order that I may receive that exorbitant interest called grat.i.tude?

Have I become an usurer of this kind? There are some men who would hang the weight of a benefit around your heart like a cannon-ball attached to the feet of----, but let that pa.s.s! Such men I would crush as I would a worm, without thinking that I had committed homicide! No!

I have asked you to adopt me as your father, that my heart may be to you what heaven is to the angels, a s.p.a.ce where all is happiness and confidence; that you may tell me all your thoughts, even those which are evil. Speak, I shall understand everything, even an act of cowardice.

Raoul G.o.d and Satan must have conspired to cast this man of bronze.

Vautrin It is quite possible.

Raoul I will tell you all.

Vautrin Very good, my son; let us sit down.

Raoul You have been the cause to me of opprobrium and despair.

Vautrin Where? When? Blood of a man! Who has wounded you? Who has proved false to you? Tell me the place, name the people--the wrath of Vautrin shall descend upon them!

Raoul You can do nothing.

Vautrin Child, there are two kinds of men who can do anything.

Raoul And who are they?

Vautrin Kings, who are, or who ought to be, above the law; and--this will give you pain--criminals, who are below it.

Raoul But since you are not king--

Vautrin Well! I reign in the region below.

Raoul What horrible mockery is this, Vautrin?

Vautrin Did you not say that G.o.d and the devil hobn.o.bbed to cast me?

Raoul Heavens, sir, you make me shudder!

Vautrin Return to your seat! Calm yourself, my son. You must not be astonished at anything, if you wish to escape being an ordinary man.

Raoul Am I in the hands of a demon, or of an angel? You have brought me up without debauching the generous instincts I feel within me; you have enlightened without dazzling me; you have given me the experience of the old, without depriving me of the graces of youth; but it is not with impunity that you have whetted the edge of my intellect, expanded my view, roused my perspicacity. Tell me, what is the source of your wealth, is it an honorable one? Why do you forbid me to confess to you the sufferings of my childhood? Why have you given me the name of the village where you found me? Why do you prevent me from searching out my father and mother? Why do you bow me down under a load of falsehoods? An orphan may rouse the interest of people; an imposter, never. I live in a style which makes me a equal to the son of a duke or a peer; you have educated me well, without expense to the state; you have launched me into the empyrean of the world, and now they fling into my face the declaration, that there are no longer such people as De Frescas in existence. I have been asked who my family are, and you have forbidden me to answer. I am at once a great n.o.bleman and a pariah. I must swallow insults which would drive me to rend alive marquises and dukes; rage fills my heart; I should like to fight twenty duels, and to die. Do you wish me to suffer any further insults? No more secrets for me! Prometheus of h.e.l.l, either finish your work, or shatter it to pieces!

Vautrin Who could fail to respond with a glow of sympathy to this burst of youthful generosity? What flashes of courage blaze forth! It is inspiring to see sentiment at its full tide! You must be the son of a n.o.ble race. But, Raoul, let us come down to what I call plain reason.

Raoul Ah! At last!

Vautrin You ask me for an account of my guardians.h.i.+p. Here it is.

Raoul But have I any right to ask this? Could I live without you?

Vautrin Silence, you had nothing, I made you rich. You knew nothing, I have given you a good education. Oh! I have not yet done all for you. A father--all fathers give their life to their children, and as for me, happiness is a debt which I owe you. But is this really the cause of your gloom? There are here--in this casket (he points to a casket) a portrait, and certain letters. Often while reading the letters you sign as if--

Raoul Then you know all--?

Vautrin I know all.--Are you not touched to the heart?

Raoul To the heart.

Vautrin O fool! Love lives by treachery, friends.h.i.+p by confidence.--And you --you must seek happiness in your own way.

Raoul But have I the power? I will become a soldier, and--wherever the cannot oars, I will win a glorious name, or die.

Vautrin Indeed! Why should you? You talk nonsense.