SCENE FIRST
(The stage setting represents a public square. In the centre stands a
sheriff's officer on an auctioneer's block, around the base of which
are the various pieces for the machine. A crowd is gathered on each
side of the platform. To the left of the spectator are grouped
together Coppolus, Carpano, the landlord of the Golden Sun, Esteban,
Girone, Mathieu Magis, Don Ramon and Lothundiaz. To the right are
Fontanares and Monipodio; Quinola conceals himself in a cloak behind
Monipodio.)
Fontanares, Monipodio, Quinola, Coppolus, the landlord of the Golden
Sun, Esteban, Girone, Mathieu Magis, Don Ramon, Lothundiaz, Sheriff's
Officer, a crowd of people.
Sheriff's Officer
Gentlemen, show a little more warmth. Here we have a boiler, big
enough to cook a dinner for a regiment of the guards.
The Landlord
Four maravedis.
Sheriff's Office
Do I hear more? Come and look at it, examine it!
Mathieu Magis
Six maravedis.
Quinola (to Fontanares)
Senor, they will not fetch a hundred ducats.
Fontanares
We must try to be resigned.
Quinola
Resignation seems to me to be the fourth theological virtue omitted
from the list out of consideration for women!
Monipodio
Hold your tongue! Justice is on your track and you would have been
arrested before this if they had not taken you for one of my people.
Sheriff's Officer
This is the last lot, gentlemen. Going, going--no further bid? Gone!
It is knocked down to Senor Mathieu Magis for ten ducats, six
maravedis.
Lothundiaz (to Don Ramon)
What do you think of that? Thus ends the sublime invention of our
great man! He was right, by heaven, when he promised us a rare
spectacle!
Coppolus
You can laugh; he does not owe you anything.
Esteban
It is we poor devils who have to pay for his folly.
Lothundiaz
Did you get nothing, Master Coppolus? And what of my daughter's
diamonds, which the great man's servant put into the machine?
Mathieu Magis
Why, they were seized in my house.
Lothundiaz
And are not the thieves in the hand of justice? I would like best of
all to see Quinola, that cursed pilferer of jewels, in durance.
Quinola (aside)
Oh, my young life, what lessons are you receiving! My antecedents have
ruined me.
Lothundiaz
But if they catch him, his goose will soon be cooked, and I shall have
the pleasure of seeing him dangling from the gallows, and giving the
benediction with his feet.
Fontanares (to Quinola)
Our calamity stirs this dullard's wit.
Quinola
You mean his brutality.
Don Ramon
I sincerely regret this disaster. This young artisan had at last
listened to my advice, and we were on the point of realizing the
promises made by him to the king; but he blindly forfeited his
opportunity; I mean to ask pardon for him at the court, for I shall
tell the king how useful he will be to me.
Coppolus
Here is an example of generosity extremely rare in the conduct of one
learned man towards another.
Lothundiaz
You are an honor to Catalonia!
Fontanares (coming forward)
I have endured with tranquillity the agony of seeing a piece of
workmanship, which entitles me to eternal glory, sold as so much old
junk--(murmurs among the people). But this passes all endurance. Don
Ramon, if you have, I do not say understood, but even guessed, at the
use of all these fragments of machinery, displaced and scattered as
they are, you ought to have bought them even at the sacrifice of your
whole fortune.
Don Ramon
Young man, I respect your misfortunes; but you know that your
apparatus could not possibly go, and that my experience had become
necessary to you.
Fontanares
The most terrible among all the horrors of destitution is that it
gives ground for calumny and the triumph of fools!
Lothundiaz
Is it not disgraceful for a man in your position thus to undertake to
insult a philosopher whose reputation is established? Where would I be
if I had given you my daughter? You would have led me a fine dance
down to beggary; for you have already wasted, for absolutely no
purpose, ten thousand sequins! Really this grandee of Spain seems
particularly small in his grandeur to-day.
Fontanares
You make me pity you.
Lothundiaz
That is possible, but you do not make me envy you; your life is at the
mercy of the tribunal.
Don Ramon
Let him alone; don't you see that he is crazy?
Fontanares
Not quite crazy enough, senor, to believe that O plus O is a binomial.
SCENE SECOND
The same persons, Don Fregose, Faustine, Avaloros and Sarpi.
Sarpi
We have come too late; the sale is over.
Don Fregose
The king will regret the confidence he placed in a charlatan.
Fontanares
A charlatan, my lord? In a few days, you may be able to cut my head
off; kill me, but don't calumniate me; your position in the state is
too high for you to descend so low.
Don Fregose
Your audacity equals the extent of your downfall. Are you unaware that
the magistrates of Barcelona look upon you as an accomplice of the
thief who robbed Lothundiaz? The flight of your servant proves the
crime, and the freedom you now enjoy is due to the intercessions of
this lady. (Points to Faustine.)
Fontanares
My servant, your excellency, might have been in early life a criminal,
but since he has followed my fortune he has been an innocent man. I
declare, on my honor, that he is guiltless of any such act as theft.
The jewels which were seized at the moment he was engaged in selling
them were the free gift of Marie Lothundiaz, from whom I had refused
to accept them.
Faustine
What pride he shows, even in adversity! Nothing can bend him.
Sarpi
And how do you explain the resurrection of your grandfather, the
pretended director of the Venetian arsenal? Unfortunately for you, the
senora and myself were acquainted with the actual man.
Fontanares
I caused my servant to put on this disguise in order that he might
talk science and mathematics with Don Ramon. Senor Lothundiaz will
tell you that the philosopher of Catalonia and Quinola perfectly
understood each other.
Monipodio (to Quinola)
He has ruined himself!
Don Ramon
On this subject I appeal to my writings.
Faustine
Do not be perturbed, Don Ramon; it is so natural for people of this
kind, when they find themselves falling, to drag down other people
with them!
Lothundiaz
Such a disposition is detestable.
Fontanares
Before I die I ought to speak the truth, senora, to those who have
flung me into the abyss. (To Don Fregose) My lord, the king promised
me the protection of his people at Barcelona, and here I have met with
nothing but hatred! Oh, you grandees of the land, you rich, and all
who have in your hands power and influence, why is it that you thus
throw obstacles in the way of advancing thought? Is it the law of God
that you should persecute and put to shame that which eventually you
will be compelled to adore? Had I been pliant, abject and a flatterer,
I might have succeeded! In me you have persecuted that which
represents all that is noblest in man--His consciousness of his own
power, the majesty of his labor, the heavenly inspiration which urges
him to put his hand to enterprise, and--love, that spirit of human
trust, which rekindles courage when it is on the point of expiring in
the storm of mockery. Ah! If the good that you do is done amiss, you
are always successful in the accomplishment of what is bad! But why
should I proceed?--You are not worthy of my anger.
Faustine (aside)
Oh! Another word and I must cry out that I adore him!
Don Fregose
Sarpi, tell the police officers to advance and carry off the
accomplice of Quinola.
(Applause and cries of "bravo!")
SCENE THIRD
The same persons and Marie Lothundiaz.
(At the moment the police officers seize Fontanares, Marie appears, in
the habit of a novice, accompanied by a monk and two sisters.)
Marie Lothundiaz (to the viceroy)
My lord, I have just learned that in my desire to save Fontanares from
the rage of his enemies I have caused his ruin. But now an opportunity
is given me to vindicate the truth, and I beg to declare that I myself
put into the hands of Quinola the precious stones and the money I had
treasured as my own. (Lothundiaz shows some excitement.) They belonged
to me, father, and God grant that you may not have cause some day to
mourn your own blindness.
Quinola (throwing off his cloak)
Whew! I breathe freely at last!
Fontanares (bending his knee before Marie)
Thanks, radiant and spotless creature, through whose love I still am
kept close to that heaven from which I draw my faith and hope; you
have saved my honor.
Marie
And is not your honor also mine? Your glory is yet to come.
Fontanares
Alas! my work is dismembered and dispersed, held in a hundred
avaricious hands, who will not give it back excepting at the price it
cost to fabricate. To recover it I should double the amount of my
indebtedness and fail to complete the enterprise in time. All is over!
Faustine (to Marie)
Only sacrifice yourself for him and he is saved.
Marie
What say you, father? And you, Count Sarpi? (Aside) It will be my
death! (Aloud) Will you consent, on condition I obey you, to give
Fontanares all that is necessary for the success of his undertaking?
(To Faustine) I shall devote myself to God, senora!
Faustine
You are sublime, sweet angel. (Aside) And thus at last deliverance
comes to me!
Fontanares
Stay, Marie! I would choose the struggle and all its perils, I would
choose death itself, rather than the loss of you from such a cause.
Marie
Rather than glory? (To the viceroy) My lord, you will cause my gems to
be restored to Quinola. I return to my convent with a happy mind;
either I am his, or I must live for God alone.
Lothundiaz
I believe he is a sorcerer.
Quinola
This young maiden restores to me my love for womankind.
Faustine (to Sarpi, the viceroy and Avaloros)
Can we not conquer him, in spite of all?
Avaloros
I shall try it.
Sarpi (to Faustine)
All is not lost. (To Lothundiaz) Take your daughter home; she will
soon be obedient to you.
Lothundiaz
God grant it! Come my daughter. (Exeunt.)
SCENE FOURTH
Faustine, Fregose, Avaloros, Fontanares, Quinola and Monipodio.
Avaloros
I have studied you well, young man, and you have a great heart--a
heart firm as steel. Steel will always be the master of gold. Let us
frankly form a copartnership; I will pay your debts, buy up all that
has been sold, give you and Quinola five thousand ducats, and, at my
instance, the viceroy will be willing to forget your freedom with him.
Fontanares
If, in my distress, I have ever failed in respect towards you, senor,
I beg you will pardon me.
Don Fregose
That is quite sufficient, senor. Don Fregose does not easily take
offence.
Faustine
You have done well, my lord.
Avaloros
Thus you see, young man, that tempest is succeeded by calm, and at
present all things smile upon you. The next thing for us to do is to
unite, you and I, in fulfilling your promises to the king.
Fontanares
I care not for fortune excepting for one reason; shall I be enabled to
wed Marie Lothundiaz?
Don Fregose
Is she the only woman in the world you love?
Fontanares
The only one.
(Faustine and Avaloros talk together.)
Don Fregose
You never told me that before. Henceforth, you may count on me, young
man; I am your steadfast ally. (Exit.)
Monipodio
They are coming to terms; we are ruined. I shall take myself off to
France with the duplicate machine. (Exit.)
SCENE FIFTH
Quinola, Fontanares, Faustine and Avaloros.
Faustine (to Fontanares)
Come, now; I also bear no malice, and you must come to the banquet I
am giving.
Fontanares
Senora, your first kindness concealed treachery.
Faustine
Like all those lofty dreamers, who enrich humanity with their
inventions, you know neither women, nor the world.
Fontanares (aside)
I have scarcely eight days left. (To Quinola) I am going to make use
of her.
Quinola
Do so, as you make use of me.
Fontanares
I will come to your house, senora.
Faustine
I must thank Quinola for that. (She offers a purse to Quinola.) Take
this. (To Fontanares) Till we meet again!
(Exeunt Faustine and Avaloros.)
SCENE SIXTH
Fontanares and Quinola.
Fontanares
That woman is treacherous as the sun in winter. Unhappy am I that I
sought her, for she has taught me to lose faith. Is it possible that
there are virtues which it is for our advantage to discard?
Quinola
How is it possible, senor, to distrust a woman who sets in gold her
slightest words! She loves you; that's the secret. Is your heart so
very small that it cannot harbor two affections?
Fontanares
Nonsense! Marie has given me hope, her words have fired my soul. Yes,
I shall succeed.
Quinola (aside)
Where is Monipodio? (Aloud) A reconciliation, senor, is very easy with
a woman who yields so easily as Senora Brancadori.
Fontanares
Quinola!
Quinola
Senor, you make me desperate! Would you oppose the perfidy of a useful
love with the loyalty of a love that is blind? I need the influence of
Senora Brancadori in order to get rid of Monipodio, whose intentions
cause me anxiety. If only I can obtain this influence I will guarantee
you success, and you shall then marry your Marie.
Fontanares
By what means?
Quinola
My dear senor, by mounting on the shoulders of a man who sees a long
distance, as you do, any one can see farther still. You are an
inventor, very good; but I am inventive. You saved me from--I needn't
say what! I, in turn, will deliver you from the talons of envy and
from the clutches of cupidity. Here is gold for us; come dress
yourself, make yourself fine, take courage; you are on the eve of
triumph. But above all things, behave graciously towards Senora
Brancadori.
Fontanares
You must at least tell me, how are you going to effect this?
Quinola
No, senor, if you knew my secret, all would be ruined; you are a man
of talent, and a man of talent is always simple as a child.
(Exeunt.)
SCENE SEVENTH
(The setting represents the drawing-room in Senora Brancadori's
palace.)
Faustine (alone)
The hour is come, to which all my efforts for the last fourteen months
have been looking for fulfillment. In a few moments Fontanares will
see that Marie is forever lost to him. Avaloros, Sarpi and I have
lulled the genius to forgetfulness, and have brought the man up to the
very day when his experiment was to have taken place, so that he
stands helpless and destitute. Oh! how totally is he in my power, just
as I had wished! But does a person ever change from contempt to love?
No, never. Little does he know that for a twelvemonth I have been his
adversary, and the misfortune is, that when he does know he will hate
me! But hatred is not the opposite of love, it is merely the obverse
of the golden coin. I shall tell him everything; I shall make him hate
me.
SCENE EIGHTH
Faustine and Paquita.
Paquita
Senora, your orders have been most exactly carried out by Monipodio.
Senorita Lothundiaz has just been informed by her duenna, of the peril
which threatens Senor Fontanares this evening.
Faustine
Sarpi must be here by this time. Tell him I wish to speak to him.
(Exit Paquita.)
SCENE NINTH
Faustine (alone)
We must baffle the plans of Monipodio. Quinola fears he has received
the order to get rid of Fontanares; it is too bad that there should be
ground for such a fear.
SCENE TENTH
Faustine and Don Fregose.
Faustine
Your arrival is timely, senor, I wish to ask a favor of you.
Don Fregose
Say, rather, that you wish to confer one on me.
Faustine
Monipodio must disappear from Barcelona--yea, and from Catalonia,
within two hours; send him to Africa.
Don Fregose
What has he done to you?
Faustine
Nothing.
Don Fregose
Well, what is your reason.
Faustine
Simply because--You understand?
Don Fregose
Your wish shall be obeyed. (He writes.)
SCENE ELEVENTH
The same persons and Sarpi.
Faustine
Have you made the necessary preparations, cousin, for your immediate
marriage with Marie Lothundiaz?
Sarpi
I have, and her good father has taken care that the contract should be
ready.
Faustine
That is well! Send word to the convent of the Dominicans. The rich
heiress will freely consent to be wedded to you at midnight; she will
accept any conditions, when she sees (whispering to Sarpi) Fontanares
in the hands of justice.
Sarpi
I quite understand, and the only thing now is to have him arrested. My
good fortune seems invincible! And--I owe it all to you. (Aside) What
instrument is there more powerful than the hatred of a woman!
Don Fregose
Sarpi, see that this order is strictly carried out and with no delay.
(Exit Sarpi.)
SCENE TWELFTH
The same persons excepting Sarpi.
Don Fregose
And what of your own marriage?
Faustine
My lord, I can think of nothing at present except the coming banquet;
you shall have my answer this evening. (Fontanares appears.) (Aside)
Oh, there he comes! (To Fregose) If you love me, leave me a while.
Don Fregose
Alone with him?
Faustine
Yes, so I desire.
Don Fregose
After all he loves no one but his Marie Lothundiaz. (Exit.)
SCENE THIRTEENTH
Faustine and Fontanares.
Fontanares
The palace of the king of Spain is not more splendid than yours,
senora, and you here display all the pomp of royalty.
Faustine
Listen to me, dear Fontanares.
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 ships, 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 God, 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 God. 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 document)
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 shipwreck 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!
Fontanares
Us! Us!
Faustine
Contradict me not, Alfonso! I have conquered all that is yours; do not
refuse me your heart! You will never gain a love more devoted, more
submissive, more full of sympathy than mine; for at last you shall
become the great man that you deserve to be.
Fontanares
Your audacity astounds me. (He shows the letter.) With a sum of money
guaranteed me here I am once more the sole arbiter of my destiny. When
the king sees the character and the results of my work, he will cancel
that marriage, which has been obtained by violence. And my love for
Marie is such that I can wait till then.
Faustine
Fontanares, if I love you distractedly, it is perhaps because of that
delightful simplicity, which is the badge of genius--
Fontanares (aside)
Her smile freezes me to the heart.
Faustine
That gold you speak of--is it already in your possession?
Fontanares
It is here.
Faustine
And would I have let them give that to you, if I thought you would
ever receive it? To-morrow you will find all your creditors standing
between you and the possession of that sum, which you owe to them.
What can you accomplish without gold? Your struggle will begin over
again! But your work, O great, but simple man, has not been dispersed
in fragments; it is all mine; my instrument, Mathieu Magis, has
acquired possession of it. I hold it at my feet, in my palace. I am
the only one who would not rob you either of your glory, or of your
fortune, for what would this be, but to rob myself?
Fontanares
It is you, then, cursed Venetian woman!
Faustine
Yes--since the moment you insulted me, upon this spot, I have directed
everything; it is at my bidding that Magis, and Sarpi, and your
creditors, and the landlord of the Golden Sun, and the workmen have
acted! But ah! How great a love underlay this simulated hatred. Tell
me, have you never been roused from your slumber by a falling
teardrop, the pearl of my repentance, while I was gazing at you with
admiration--you--the martyr that I worshiped?
Fontanares
No! you are not a woman--
Faustine
Ah! There is more than woman, in a woman who loves as I do.
Fontanares
And, as you are not a woman, I could kill you.
Faustine
What of that, provided it were your hand that did it? (Aside) He hates
me!
Fontanares
I am seeking for--
Faustine
Is it anything I can find for you?
Fontanares
--A punishment great enough for your crime.
Faustine
Can there be any punishment which a woman who loves can feel? Come,
try me.
Fontanares
You love me, Faustine. Am I all of life to you? Do you really make my
grief your own?
Faustine
One pang of yours becomes a thousand pangs to me!
Fontanares
If then I die, you will die also. 'Tis plain, therefore, although your
life is not worthy to be set against the love that I have lost, my
course is taken.
Faustine
Ah!
Fontanares
With crossed arms I will await the day of my arrest. At the same
stroke the soul of Marie and my soul shall rise to heaven.
Faustine (flinging herself at the feet of Fontanares)
O Alfonso! Here, at your feet, I will remain till you have promised
me--
Fontanares
Leave me, shameless courtesan! (He spurns her.)
Faustine
You have spoken this openly and in public; but remember, men
oftentimes insult that which they are destined eventually to adore.
SCENE SEVENTEENTH
The same persons and Don Fregose.
Don Fregose
Silence! Wretched journeyman! I refrain from transfixing your heart
with my sword, only because I intend you to pay more dearly for this
insult.
Faustine
Don Fregose! I love this man; whether he makes of me his slave or his
wife, my love shall be the aegis of his life.
Fontanares
Am I to be the victim of fresh persecutions, my lord? I am overwhelmed
with joy. Deal me a thousand blows; they will be multiplied a thousand
fold, she says, in her heart. I am ready!
SCENE EIGHTEENTH
The same persons and Quinola.
Quinola
Sir!
Fontanares
And you also have betrayed me; you!
Quinola
Off goes Monipodio, wafted towards Africa with recommendations on his
hands and feet.
Fontanares
What of that?
Quinola
Under the pretext of robbing you, I have concealed in a cellar a
second machine, for I took care that two should be made, while we only
paid for one.
Fontanares
Thus it is that a true friend renders despair impossible. (He embraces
Quinola.) (To Fregose) My lord, write to the king and build,
overlooking the harbor, an amphitheatre for two hundred thousand
spectators; in ten days I will fulfill my promise, and Spain shall
behold a ship propelled by steam in the face of wind and waves. I will
wait until there is a storm that I may show how I can prevail against
it.
Faustine (to Quinola)
You have manufactured a machine--
Quinola
No, I have manufactured two, as a provision against ill-luck.
Faustine
What devils have you called in to assist you?
Quinola
The three children of Job: Silence, Patience and Perseverance.
(Exeunt Fontanares and Quinola.)
SCENE NINETEENTH
Faustine and Don Fregose.
Don Fregose (aside)
She is hateful, and yet I do not cease to love her.
Faustine
I must have my revenge. Will you assist me?
Don Fregose
Yes, and we will yet succeed in bringing him to ruin.
Faustine
Ah! you love me in spite of all, don't you?
Curtain to the Fourth Act.