The Princess Of Bagdad - LightNovelsOnl.com
You're reading novel online at LightNovelsOnl.com. Please use the follow button to get notifications about your favorite novels and its latest chapters so you can come back anytime and won't miss anything.
LIONNETTE.
I am going too far. I shall send you some toys, you may be sure.
RAOUL.
I like better going with you.
LIONNETTE.
Impossible, I tell you. Go now; let me pa.s.s.
RAOUL.
No!
LIONNETTE.
You must, my child.
NOURVADY (_very agitated and very impatient during this scene, walks from right to left to see if any one is coming._)
Some one is coming.
LIONNETTE (_a little more harshly_).
Now, now, let me go.
RAOUL.
No. (_He puts himself in front of his mother._)
NOURVADY (_taking the child by the arm, and throwing him far from him_).
Leave us alone, then!
(_The child totters, falls, and remains motionless._ LIONNETTE _stops, looks with stupor on what has pa.s.sed, recoils, covers her face with her hands, utters a piercing cry, and rushes at_ NOURVADY, _whom she seizes by the throat as if to strangle him_.)
LIONNETTE.
Miserable wretch!
NOURVADY (_whom she has struck on the shoulder, who feels himself getting exhausted, but who will not defend himself, with a feeble voice_).
You are hurting me.
LIONNETTE (_releasing him_).
Go away; go away! I shall strangle you. I shall kill you. My child! My child!
(_She utters several cries, and throws herself in despair upon the child._)
RICHARD (_who has entered during this scene, to_ NOURVADY).
Go away, sir, go away, in the name of heaven! Enough of such misfortunes, without that.
(_He makes_ NOURVADY _go away_.)
RAOUL (_half raising himself up_).
There is nothing the matter ... Mamma.... Nothing, I a.s.sure you.
(LIONNETTE _on her knees, with_ RAOUL'S _head on her breast, kissing him with rapture, sobbing without power to stop herself_).
RICHARD (_near her_).
Saved! You are saved!
LIONNETTE (_with sobs, tremulously accentuating every word_).
Yes, yes, yes, saved! (_To_ RICHARD.) Ah! I was mad.... I was mad....
But when that man laid his hand on my child, it is awful what took possession of me! I do not know how it was I did not kill him. What is the use of a man struggling with a mother? For I am a mother. I am....
Oh! I felt it truly, from my heart, that that could never be. Richard, you guessed rightly; yes. Right-minded people guess rightly!... They want my father's letters; very well, they shall have them. You shall sell everything; you shall pay--you must give that man back his money;--there will be an end to it all. Go, and find my husband.
(RICHARD _goes away_.) I want to see him before I die, for I am going to die, I feel it.
(_She lets her head fall upon the couch, and half loses consciousness._)
RAOUL (_jumping upon the couch, taking his mother's head in his arms, and kissing it._)
Mamma, mamma, mamma ... do not die, I beseech you.
LIONNETTE (_recovering consciousness_).
No, no, I shall live, for I love you!...
(_She covers him with kisses, and does not see_ JOHN, _who enters with_ RICHARD, _who is showing him the scene_. JOHN _starts back, comprehending nothing yet_. G.o.dLER _and_ TReVELe _look on and rejoin_ JOHN, _who cannot take his eyes off the picture of the mother and her child_. RICHARD _touches_ LIONNETTE'S _shoulder, who turns round and sees_ JOHN.)
SCENE V.
LIONNETTE, JOHN, RAOUL, RICHARD, G.o.dLER, TReVELe.
LIONNETTE _to_ JOHN (_running to him and falling on her knees_).
Do not leave me any more. I will explain all to you. I understand, I see it all clearly now! I am innocent, I swear to you! I swear to you! I swear to you! We will live modestly in some quiet place, wherever you like. What difference does that make now that my child has awakened my soul in me?
(_She throws herself again on her son's neck_).
JOHN (_in the hands of_ G.o.dLER _and_ TReVELe).
