LADY. And your happiness.
NAPOLEON. Happiness, little woman, is the most tedious thing in the
world to me. Should I be what I am if I cared for happiness? Anything
else?
LADY. Nothing-- (He interrupts her with an exclamation of satisfaction.
She proceeds quietly) except that you will cut a very foolish figure in
the eyes of France.
NAPOLEON (quickly). What? (The hand holding the paper involuntarily
drops. The lady looks at him enigmatically in tranquil silence. He
throws the letter down and breaks out into a torrent of scolding.) What
do you mean? Eh? Are you at your tricks again? Do you think I don't
know what these papers contain? I'll tell you. First, my information as
to Beaulieu's retreat. There are only two things he can
do--leatherbrained idiot that he is!--shut himself up in Mantua or
violate the neutrality of Venice by taking Peschiera. You are one of
old Leatherbrain's spies: he has discovered that he has been betrayed,
and has sent you to intercept the information at all hazards--as if
that could save him from ME, the old fool! The other papers are only my
usual correspondence from Paris, of which you know nothing.
LADY (prompt and businesslike). General: let us make a fair division.
Take the information your spies have sent you about the Austrian army;
and give me the Paris correspondence. That will content me.
NAPOLEON (his breath taken away by the coolness of the proposal). A
fair di-- (He gasps.) It seems to me, madame, that you have come to
regard my letters as your own property, of which I am trying to rob you.
LADY (earnestly). No: on my honor I ask for no letter of yours--not a
word that has been written by you or to you. That packet contains a
stolen letter: a letter written by a woman to a man--a man not her
husband--a letter that means disgrace, infamy--
NAPOLEON. A love letter?
LADY (bitter-sweetly). What else but a love letter could stir up so
much hate?
NAPOLEON. Why is it sent to me? To put the husband in my power, eh?
LADY. No, no: it can be of no use to you: I swear that it will cost you
nothing to give it to me. It has been sent to you out of sheer
malice--solely to injure the woman who wrote it.
NAPOLEON. Then why not send it to her husband instead of to me?
LADY (completely taken aback). Oh! (Sinking back into the chair.) I--I
don't know. (She breaks down.)
NAPOLEON. Aha! I thought so: a little romance to get the papers back.
(He throws the packet on the table and confronts her with cynical
goodhumor.) Per Bacco, little woman, I can't help admiring you. If I
could lie like that, it would save me a great deal of trouble.
LADY (wringing her hands). Oh, how I wish I really had told you some
lie! You would have believed me then. The truth is the one thing that
nobody will believe.
NAPOLEON (with coarse familiarity, treating her as if she were a
vivandiere). Capital! Capital! (He puts his hands behind him on the
table, and lifts himself on to it, sitting with his arms akimbo and his
legs wide apart.) Come: I am a true Corsican in my love for stories.
But I could tell them better than you if I set my mind to it. Next time
you are asked why a letter compromising a wife should not be sent to
her husband, answer simply that the husband would not read it. Do you
suppose, little innocent, that a man wants to be compelled by public
opinion to make a scene, to fight a duel, to break up his household, to
injure his career by a scandal, when he can avoid it all by taking care
not to know?
LADY (revolted). Suppose that packet contained a letter about your own
wife?
NAPOLEON (offended, coming off the table). You are impertinent, madame.
LADY (humbly). I beg your above suspicion.
NAPOLEON (with a deliberate assumption of superiority). You have
committed an indiscretion. I pardon you. In future, do not permit
yourself to introduce real persons in your romances.
LADY (politely ignoring a speech which is to her only a breach of good
manners, and rising to move towards the table). General: there really
is a woman's letter there. (Pointing to the packet.) Give it to me.
NAPOLEON (with brute conciseness, moving so as to prevent her getting
too near the letters). Why?
LADY. She is an old friend: we were at school together. She has written
to me imploring me to prevent the letter falling into your hands.
NAPOLEON. Why has it been sent to me?
LADY. Because it compromises the director Barras.
NAPOLEON (frowning, evidently startled). Barras! (Haughtily.) Take
care, madame. The director Barras is my attached personal friend.
LADY (nodding placidly). Yes. You became friends through your wife.
NAPOLEON. Again! Have I not forbidden you to speak of my wife? (She
keeps looking curiously at him, taking no account of the rebuke. More
and more irritated, he drops his haughty manner, of which he is himself
somewhat impatient, and says suspiciously, lowering his voice) Who is
this woman with whom you sympathize so deeply?
LADY. Oh, General! How could I tell you that?
NAPOLEON (ill-humoredly, beginning to walk about again in angry
perplexity). Ay, ay: stand by one another. You are all the same, you
women.
LADY (indignantly). We are not all the same, any more than you are. Do
you think that if _I_ loved another man, I should pretend to go on
loving my husband, or be afraid to tell him or all the world? But this
woman is not made that way. She governs men by cheating them; and (with
disdain) they like it, and let her govern them. (She sits down again,
with her back to him.)
NAPOLEON (not attending to her). Barras, Barras I-- (Turning very
threateningly to her, his face darkening.) Take care, take care: do you
hear? You may go too far.
LADY (innocently turning her face to him). What's the matter?
NAPOLEON. What are you hinting at? Who is this woman?
LADY (meeting his angry searching gaze with tranquil indifference as
she sits looking up at him with her right arm resting lightly along the
back of her chair, and one knee crossed over the other). A vain, silly,
extravagant creature, with a very able and ambitious husband who knows
her through and through--knows that she has lied to him about her age,
her income, her social position, about everything that silly women lie
about--knows that she is incapable of fidelity to any principle or any
person; and yet could not help loving her--could not help his man's
instinct to make use of her for his own advancement with Barras.
NAPOLEON (in a stealthy, coldly furious whisper). This is your revenge,
you she cat, for having had to give me the letters.
LADY. Nonsense! Or do you mean that YOU are that sort of man?
NAPOLEON (exasperated, clasps his hands behind him, his fingers
twitching, and says, as he walks irritably away from her to the
fireplace). This woman will drive me out of my senses. (To her.) Begone.
LADY (seated immovably). Not without that letter.
NAPOLEON. Begone, I tell you. (Walking from the fireplace to the
vineyard and back to the table.) You shall have no letter. I don't like
you. You're a detestable woman, and as ugly as Satan. I don't choose to
be pestered by strange women. Be off. (He turns his back on her. In
quiet amusement, she leans her cheek on her hand and laughs at him. He
turns again, angrily mocking her.) Ha! ha! ha! What are you laughing at?
LADY. At you, General. I have often seen persons of your sex getting
into a pet and behaving like children; but I never saw a really great
man do it before.
NAPOLEON (brutally, flinging the words in her face). Pooh: flattery!
flattery! coarse, impudent flattery!
LADY (springing up with a bright flush in her cheeks). Oh, you are too
bad. Keep your letters. Read the story of your own dishonor in them;
and much good may they do you. Good-bye. (She goes indignantly towards
the inner door.)
NAPOLEON. My own--! Stop. Come back. Come back, I order you. (She
proudly disregards his savagely peremptory tone and continues on her
way to the door. He rushes at her; seizes her by the wrist; and drags
her back.) Now, what do you mean? Explain. Explain, I tell you,
or--(Threatening her. She looks at him with unflinching defiance.)
Rrrr! you obstinate devil, you. Why can't you answer a civil question?
LADY (deeply offended by his violence). Why do you ask me? You have the
explanation.
NAPOLEON. Where?
LADY (pointing to the letters on the table). There. You have only to
read it. (He snatches the packet up, hesitates; looks at her
suspiciously; and throws it down again.)
NAPOLEON. You seem to have forgotten your solicitude for the honor of
your old friend.
LADY. She runs no risk now: she does not quite understand her husband.
NAPOLEON. I am to read the letter, then? (He stretches out his hand as
if to take up the packet again, with his eye on her.)
LADY. I do not see how you can very well avoid doing so now. (He
instantly withdraws his hand.) Oh, don't be afraid. You will find many
interesting things in it.
NAPOLEON. For instance?
LADY. For instance, a duel--with Barras, a domestic scene, a broken
household, a public scandal, a checked career, all sorts of things.
NAPOLEON. Hm! (He looks at her, takes up the packet and looks at it,
pursing his lips and balancing it in his hand; looks at her again;
passes the packet into his left hand and puts it behind his back,
raising his right to scratch the back of his head as he turns and goes
up to the edge of the vineyard, where he stands for a moment looking
out into the vines, deep in thought. The Lady watches him in silence,
somewhat slightingly. Suddenly he turns and comes back again, full of
force and decision.) I grant your request, madame. Your courage and
resolution deserve to succeed. Take the letters for which you have
fought so well; and remember henceforth that you found the vile, vulgar
Corsican adventurer as generous to the vanquished after the battle as
he was resolute in the face of the enemy before it. (He offers her the
packet.)
LADY (without taking it, looking hard at him). What are you at now, I
wonder? (He dashes the packet furiously to the floor.) Aha! I've
spoiled that attitude, I think. (She makes him a pretty mocking
curtsey.)
NAPOLEON (snatching it up again). Will you take the letters and begone
(advancing and thrusting them upon her)?
LADY (escaping round the table). No: I don't want letters.
NAPOLEON. Ten minutes ago, nothing else would satisfy you.
LADY (keeping the table carefully between them). Ten minutes ago you
had not insulted me past all bearing.
NAPOLEON. I-- (swallowing his spleen) I apologize.
LADY (coolly). Thanks. (With forced politeness he offers her the packet
across the table. She retreats a step out of its reach and says) But
don't you want to know whether the Austrians are at Mantua or Peschiera?
NAPOLEON. I have already told you that I can conquer my enemies without
the aid of spies, madame.
LADY. And the letter! don't you want to read that?
NAPOLEON. You have said that it is not addressed to me. I am not in the
habit of reading other people's letters. (He again offers the packet.)
LADY. In that case there can be no objection to your keeping it. All I
wanted was to prevent your reading it. (Cheerfully.) Good afternoon,
General. (She turns coolly towards the inner door.)
NAPOLEON (furiously flinging the packet on the couch). Heaven grant me
patience! (He goes up determinedly and places himself before the door.)
Have you any sense of personal danger? Or are you one of those women
who like to be beaten black and blue?
LADY. Thank you, General: I have no doubt the sensation is very
voluptuous; but I had rather not. I simply want to go home: that's all.
I was wicked enough to steal your despatches; but you have got them
back; and you have forgiven me, because (delicately reproducing his
rhetorical cadence) you are as generous to the vanquished after the
battle as you are resolute in the face of the enemy before it. Won't
you say good-bye to me? (She offers her hand sweetly.)
NAPOLEON (repulsing the advance with a gesture of concentrated rage,
and opening the door to call fiercely). Giuseppe! (Louder.) Giuseppe!
(He bangs the door to, and comes to the middle of the room. The lady
goes a little way into the vineyard to avoid him.)
GIUSEPPE (appearing at the door). Excellency?
NAPOLEON. Where is that fool?
GIUSEPPE. He has had a good dinner, according to your instructions,
excellency, and is now doing me the honor to gamble with me to pass the
time.
NAPOLEON. Send him here. Bring him here. Come with him. (Giuseppe, with
unruffled readiness, hurries off. Napoleon turns curtly to the lady,
saying) I must trouble you to remain some moments longer, madame. (He
comes to the couch. She comes from the vineyard down the opposite side
of the room to the sideboard, and posts herself there, leaning against
it, watching him. He takes the packet from the couch and deliberately
buttons it carefully into his breast pocket, looking at her meanwhile
with an expression which suggests that she will soon find out the
meaning of his proceedings, and will not like it. Nothing more is said
until the lieutenant arrives followed by Giuseppe, who stands modestly
in attendance at the table. The lieutenant, without cap, sword or
gloves, and much improved in temper and spirits by his meal, chooses
the Lady's side of the room, and waits, much at his ease, for Napoleon
to begin.)
NAPOLEON. Lieutenant.
LIEUTENANT (encouragingly). General.
NAPOLEON. I cannot persuade this lady to give me much information; but
there can be no doubt that the man who tricked you out of your charge
was, as she admitted to you, her brother.
LIEUTENANT (triumphantly). What did I tell you, General! What did I
tell you!
NAPOLEON. You must find that man. Your honor is at stake; and the fate
of the campaign, the destiny of France, of Europe, of humanity,
perhaps, may depend on the information those despatches contain.
LIEUTENANT. Yes, I suppose they really are rather serious (as if this
had hardly occurred to him before).
NAPOLEON (energetically). They are so serious, sir, that if you do not
recover them, you will be degraded in the presence of your regiment.
LIEUTENANT. Whew! The regiment won't like that, I can tell you.
NAPOLEON. Personally, I am sorry for you. I would willingly conceal the
affair if it were possible. But I shall be called to account for not
acting on the despatches. I shall have to prove to all the world that I
never received them, no matter what the consequences may be to you. I
am sorry; but you see that I cannot help myself.
LIEUTENANT (goodnaturedly). Oh, don't take it to heart, General: it's
really very good of you. Never mind what happens to me: I shall scrape
through somehow; and we'll beat the Austrians for you, despatches or no
despatches. I hope you won't insist on my starting off on a wild goose
chase after the fellow now. I haven't a notion where to look for him.
GIUSEPPE (deferentially). You forget, Lieutenant: he has your horse.
LIEUTENANT (starting). I forgot that. (Resolutely.) I'll go after him,
General: I'll find that horse if it's alive anywhere in Italy. And I
shan't forget the despatches: never fear. Giuseppe: go and saddle one
of those mangy old posthorses of yours, while I get my cap and sword
and things. Quick march. Off with you (bustling him).
GIUSEPPE. Instantly, Lieutenant, instantly. (He disappears in the
vineyard, where the light is now reddening with the sunset.)
LIEUTENANT (looking about him on his way to the inner door). By the
way, General, did I give you my sword or did I not? Oh, I remember now.
(Fretfully.) It's all that nonsense about putting a man under arrest:
one never knows where to find-- (Talks himself out of the room.)
LADY (still at the sideboard). What does all this mean, General?
NAPOLEON. He will not find your brother.
LADY. Of course not. There's no such person.
NAPOLEON. The despatches will be irrecoverably lost.
LADY. Nonsense! They are inside your coat.
NAPOLEON. You will find it hard, I think, to prove that wild statement.
(The Lady starts. He adds, with clinching emphasis) Those papers are
lost.
LADY (anxiously, advancing to the corner of the table). And that
unfortunate young man's career will be sacrificed.
NAPOLEON. HIS career! The fellow is not worth the gunpowder it would
cost to have him shot. (He turns contemptuously and goes to the hearth,
where he stands with his back to her.)
LADY (wistfully). You are very hard. Men and women are nothing to you
but things to be used, even if they are broken in the use.
NAPOLEON (turning on her). Which of us has broken this fellow--I or
you? Who tricked him out of the despatches? Did you think of his career
then?
LADY (naively concerned about him). Oh, I never thought of that. It was
brutal of me; but I couldn't help it, could I? How else could I have
got the papers? (Supplicating.) General: you will save him from
disgrace.
NAPOLEON (laughing sourly). Save him yourself, since you are so clever:
it was you who ruined him. (With savage intensity.) I HATE a bad
soldier.
He goes out determinedly through the vineyard. She follows him a few
steps with an appealing gesture, but is interrupted by the return of
the lieutenant, gloved and capped, with his sword on, ready for the
road. He is crossing to the outer door when she intercepts him.
LADY. Lieutenant.
LIEUTENANT (importantly). You mustn't delay me, you know. Duty, madame,
duty.
LADY (imploringly). Oh, sir, what are you going to do to my poor
brother?
LIEUTENANT. Are you very fond of him?
LADY. I should die if anything happened to him. You must spare him.
(The lieutenant shakes his head gloomily.) Yes, yes: you must: you
shall: he is not fit to die. Listen to me. If I tell you where to find
him--if I undertake to place him in your hands a prisoner, to be
delivered up by you to General Bonaparte--will you promise me on your
honor as an officer and a gentleman not to fight with him or treat him
unkindly in any way?
LIEUTENANT. But suppose he attacks me. He has my pistols.
LADY. He is too great a coward.
LIEUTENANT. I don't feel so sure about that. He's capable of anything.
LADY. If he attacks you, or resists you in any way, I release you from
your promise.
LIEUTENANT. My promise! I didn't mean to promise. Look here: you're as
bad as he is: you've taken an advantage of me through the better side
of my nature. What about my horse?
LADY. It is part of the bargain that you are to have your horse and
pistols back.
LIEUTENANT. Honor bright?