Works of Honore De Balzac

by Honoré de Balzac

  Avaloros

  Is the queen of our lives really ill?

  Paquita

  She is melancholy.

  Avaloros

  Is thought, then, a malady?

  Paquita

  Yes, and you therefore can be sure of good health.

  Sarpi Say to my dear cousin that Senor Avaloros and I are awaiting her good pleasure.

  Avaloros Stay; here are two ducats if you will say that I am sometimes pensive —

  Paquita I will say that your tastes are expensive. But I must go and induce the senora to dress herself. (Exit.)

  SCENE SECOND

  Avaloros and Sarpi.

  Sarpi

  Poor viceroy! He is the youngster.

  Avaloros While your little cousin is making a fool of him, you are displaying all the activity of a statesman and clearing the way for the king’s conquest of French Navarre. If I had a daughter I would give her to you. Old Lothundiaz is no fool.

  Sarpi How fine it would be to be founder of a mighty house; to win a name in the history of the country; to be a second Cardinal Granville or Duke of Alva!

  Avaloros Yes! It would be a very fine thing. I also think of making a name. The emperor made the Fuggers princes of Babenhausen; the title cost them a million ducats in gold. For my part, I would like to be a nobleman at a cheaper rate.

  Sarpi

  You! How could you accomplish it?

  Avaloros

  This fellow Fontanares holds the future of commerce in his own hands.

  Sarpi And is it possible that you who cling so persistently to the actual have any faith in him?

  Avaloros Since the invention of gunpowder, of printing and the discovery of the new world I have become credulous. If any one were to tell me that a man had discovered the means to receive the news from Paris in ten minutes, or that water contained fire, or that there are still new Indies to discover, or that it is possible to travel through the air, I would not contradict it, and I would give —

  Sarpi

  Your money?

  Avaloros

  No; my attention to the enterprise.

  Sarpi

  If the vessel is made to move in the manner proposed, you would like

  then to be to Fontanares what Amerigo Vespucci was to Christopher

  Columbus.

  Avaloros

  Have I not here in my pocket enough to pay for six men of genius?

  Sarpi

  But how would you manage the matter?

  Avaloros By means of money; money is the great secret. With money to lose, time is gained; and with time to spend, everything is possible; by this means a good business may be made a bad one, and while those who control it are in despair the whole profit may be carried off by you. Money, — that is the true method. Money furnishes the satisfaction of desire, as well as of need. In a man of genius, there is always a child full of unpractical fancies; you deal with the man and you come sooner or later on the child; the child will become your debtor, and the man of genius will go to prison.

  Sarpi

  And how do you stand with him now?

  Avaloros He does not trust my offers; that is, his servant does not. I shall negotiate with the servant.

  Sarpi I understand you; I am ordered to send all the ships of Barcelona to the coasts of France; and, through the prudence of the enemies which Fontanares made at Valladolid, this order is absolute and subsequent to the king’s letter.

  Avaloros

  What do you want to get out of the deal?

  Sarpi The functions of the Grand Master of Naval Construction — these I wish to be mine.

  Avaloros

  But what is your ultimate object?

  Sarpi

  Glory.

  Avaloros

  You rascally trickster!

  Sarpi

  Your greedy extortioner!

  Avaloros Let us hunt together; it will be time enough to quarrel when we come to the division of the prey. Give me your hand. (Aside) I am the stronger, and I control the viceroy through the Brancadori.

  Sarpi (aside) We have fattened him sufficiently, let us kill him; I know how to destroy him.

  Avaloros We must gain over this Quinola to our interests, and I have sent for him to hold a conference with the Brancadori.

  SCENE THIRD

  The same persons and Quinola.

  Quinola I hang between two thieves. But these thieves are powdered over with virtue and tricked out with fine manners. And they would like to hang the rest of us!

  Sarpi You rogue, while you are waiting for your master to propel the galleys by new methods, you ought to be rowing in them yourself.

  Quinola The king, who justly appreciates my merits, well understands that he would lose too much by such an arrangement.

  Sarpi

  You shall be watched!

  Quinola

  That I can well believe, for I keep watch on myself.

  Avaloros (to Sarpi)

  You are rousing his suspicions, for he is an honest lad. (To Quinola)

  Come my good fellow, have you any idea of what is meant by wealth?

  Quinola

  No, for I have seen it from too great a distance.

  Avaloros

  Say, such a sum as two thousand golden doubloons?

  Quinola What? I do not know what you mean! You dazzle me. Is there such a sum? Two thousand doubloons! That means to be a land-holder, to own a house, a servant, a horse, a wife, an income; to be protected instead of being chased by the Holy Brotherhood! — What must I do to gain it?

  Avaloros You must assist me in obtaining a contract for the mutual advantage of your master and myself.

  Quinola I understand! To tangle him up. O my conscience, that is very fine! But, dear conscience, be silent for a while; let me forget you for a few days, and we will live comfortably together for the rest of my life.

  Avaloros (to Sarpi)

  We have him.

  Sarpi (to Avaloros)

  He is fooling us! If he were in earnest he would not talk thus.

  Quinola I suppose you won’t give me the two thousand doubloons in gold until after the treaty has been signed.

  Sarpi (with eagerness)

  You can have it before.

  Quinola

  You don’t mean it! (Holding out his hand) Give it me then.

  Avaloros As soon as you sign notes of hand for the amounts which have already matured.

  Quinola The Grand Turk himself never offered the bowstring with greater delicacy.

  Sarpi

  Has your master got his ship?

  Quinola Valladolid is at some distance from this, I admit; but we control in that city a pen which has the power of decreeing your disgrace.

  Sarpi

  I will grind you to powder.

  Quinola

  I will make myself so small that you can’t do it.

  Avaloros

  Ah! you scoundrel, what do you propose to do?

  Quinola

  To talk to you about the gold.

  SCENE FOURTH

  The same persons, Faustine and Paquita.

  Paquita

  Gentlemen, here is the senora. (Exit.)

  SCENE FIFTH

  The same persons, with the exception of Paquita.

  Quinola (approaching the Brancadori) Senora, my master talks of killing himself unless he can obtain the ship which Count Sarpi has refused for thirty days to give him; Senor Avaloros asks for his life while offering him his purse; do you understand? (Aside) A woman was our salvation at Valladolid; the women shall be our salvation at Barcelona. (Aloud) He is very despondent.

  Avaloros

  The wretched man seems daring enough.

  Quinola

  Daring without money is naturally amazing to you.

  Sarpi (to Quinola)

  Will you enter my service?

  Quinola

  I am too set in my ways to take a master.

  Faustine (aside)

  He is de
spondent! (Aloud) Why is it that men like you, Sarpi and

  Avaloros, for whom I have done so much, should persecute, instead of

  protecting, the poor man of genius who has so lately arrived among us?

  (Avaloros and Sarpi are confused.) I cry shame upon you! (To Quinola)

  You must explain to me exactly their schemes against your master.

  Sarpi (to Faustine)

  My dear cousin, it does to need much penetration to divine what malady

  it is under which you have labored since the arrival of this

  Fontanares.

  Avaloros (to Faustine) You owe me, senora, two thousand doubloons, and you will need to draw still further on my purse.

  Faustine

  I? What have I ever asked of you?

  Avaloros Nothing, but you never refuse anything which I am generous enough to offer you.

  Faustine

  Your monopoly of the wheat trade is a monstrous abuse.

  Avaloros

  Senora, I owe you a thousand doubloons.

  Faustine Write me at once a receipt for the two thousand doubloons, and a check for the like sum which I do not intend to pay you. (To Sarpi) After having put you in the position in which you now flourish, I warn you that your best policy is to keep my secret.

  Sarpi

  My obligations to you are too great to admit of my being ungrateful.

  Faustine (aside) He means just the contrary, and he will make the viceroy furious with me.

  (Exit Sarpi.)

  SCENE SIXTH

  The same persons, with the exception of Sarpi.

  Avaloros

  Here they are, senora. (Handing her the receipt and the check.)

  Faustine

  Very good.

  Avaloros

  We shall be friends?

  Faustine

  Your monopoly of the wheat trade is perfectly legal.

  Avaloros

  Ah! senora.

  Quinola (aside)

  That is what is called doing business.

  Avaloros

  Senora, you are a noble creature, and I am —

  Quinola (aside)

  A regular swindler.

  Faustine (offering the check to Quinola)

  Here, Quinola, this is for the expenses of your master’s machine.

  Avaloros (to Faustine) Don’t give it to him, senora, he may keep it for himself, and for other reasons you should be prudent; you should wait —

  Quinola (aside)

  I pass from the torrid to the arctic zone; what a gamble is life!

  Faustine You are right. (Aside) Better that I should hold in a balance the fortune of Fontanares. (To Avaloros) If you wish to keep your monopoly hold your tongue.

  Avaloros There is nothing keeps a secret better than capital. (Aside) These women are disinterested until the day they fall in love. I must try to defeat her; she is beginning to cost me too much. (Exit.)

  SCENE SEVENTH

  Faustine and Quinola.

  Faustine

  Did you not tell me he was despondent?

  Quinola

  Everything is against him.

  Faustine

  But he knows how to wrestle with difficulties.

  Quinola We have been for two years half drowned in difficulties; sometimes we have gone to the bottom and the gravel was pretty hard.

  Faustine

  But what force of character, what genius he has!

  Quinola

  You see, there, senora, the effects of love.

  Faustine

  And with whom is he in love now?

  Quinola

  Still the same — Marie Lothundiaz.

  Faustine

  A doll!

  Quinola

  Yes, nothing but a doll.

  Faustine

  Men of talent are all like that.

  Quinola

  Colossal creatures with feet of clay!

  Faustine They clothe with their own illusions the creature that entangles them; they love their own creation; they are egotists!

  Quinola (aside) Just like the women! (Aloud) Listen, senora, I wish that by some honest means we could bury this doll in the depths of the — that is — of a convent.

  Faustine

  You seem to me to be a fine fellow.

  Quinola

  I love my master.

  Faustine

  Do you think that he has noticed me?

  Quinola

  Not yet.

  Faustine

  Speak to him of me.

  Quinola But then, he would speak to me by breaking a stick across my back. You see, senora, that girl —

  Faustine

  That girl ought to be forever lost to him.

  Quinola

  But he would die, senora.

  Faustine

  He must be very much in love with her.

  Quinola Ah! that is not my fault! All the way here from Valladolid I have a thousand times argued the point, that a man like he ought to adore women, but never to love an individual woman! Never —

  Faustine You are a pretty worthless rascal! Go and tell Lothundiaz to come and speak with me and to bring his daughter with him. (Aside) She shall be put in a convent.

  Quinola (aside) She is the enemy. She loves me so much that she can’t help doing us a great deal of harm. (Exit.)

  SCENE EIGHTH

  Faustine and Fregose.

  Fregose While you expect the master, you spend your time in corrupting the servant.

  Faustine

  Can a woman ever lose her habit of seduction?

  Fregose

  Senora, you are ungenerous; I should think that a patrician lady of

  Venice would know how to spare the feelings of an old soldier.

  Faustine Come, my lord, you presume more upon your white hair than a young man would presume upon his fairest locks, and you find in them a stronger argument than in — (She laughs). Let me have no more of this petulance.

  Fregose How can I be otherwise than vexed when you compromise yourself thus, you, whom I wish to be my wife? Is it nothing to have a chance of bearing one of the noblest of names?

  Faustine

  Do you think it is too noble for a Brancadori?

  Fregose

  Yet, you would prefer stooping to a Fontanares!

  Faustine But what if he could raise himself as high as to a Brancadori? That would be a proof of love indeed! Besides, as you know from your own experience, love never reasons.

  Fregose

  Ah! You acknowledge that!

  Faustine Your friendship to me is so great that you have been the first to learn my secret.

  Fregose Senora! Yes, love is madness! I have surrendered to you more than myself! Alas, I wish I had the world to offer you. You evidently are not aware that your picture gallery alone cost me almost all my fortune.

  Faustine

  Paquita!

  Fregose

  And that I would surrender to you even my honor.

  SCENE NINTH

  The same persons and Paquita.

  Faustine (to Paquita) Tell my steward that the pictures of my gallery must immediately be carried to the house of Don Fregose.

  Fregose

  Paquita, do not deliver that order.

  Faustine The other day, they tell me, the Queen Catherine de Medici sent an order to Diana of Poitiers to deliver up what jewels she had received from Henry II.; Diana sent them back melted into an ingot. Paquita, fetch the jeweler.

  Fregose

  You will do nothing of the kind, but leave the room.

  (Exit Paquita.)

  SCENE TENTH

  The same persons, with the exception of Paquita.

  Faustine As I am not yet the Marchioness of Fregose, how dare you give your orders in my house?

  Fregose

  I am quite aware of the fact that here it is my duty to receive them.

  But is my whole fortune worth one word from you? Forgive an impulse of
/>   despair.

  Faustine One ought to be a gentleman, even in despair; and in your despair you treat Faustine as a courtesan. Ah! you wish to be adored, but the vilest Venetian woman would tell you that this costs dear.

  Fregose

  I have deserved this terrible outburst.

  Faustine You say you love me. Love me? Love is self-devotion without the hope of recompense. Love is the wish to live in the light of a sun which the lover trembles to approach. Do not deck out your egotism in the lustre of genuine love. A married woman, Laura de Nova, said to Petrarch, “You are mine, without hope — live on without love.” But when Italy crowned the poet she crowned also his sublime love, and centuries to come shall echo with admiration to the names of Laura and Petrarch.

  Fregose There are very many poets whom I dislike, but the man you mention is the object of my abomination. To the end of the world women will throw him in the face of those lovers whom they wish to keep without taking.

  Faustine

  You are called general, but you are nothing but a soldier.

  Fregose

  Indeed, and how then shall I imitate this cursed Petrarch?

  Faustine If you say you love me, you will ward off from a man of genius — (Don Fregose starts) — yes, there are such — the martyrdom which his inferiors are preparing for him. Show yourself great, assist him! I know it will give you pain, but assist him; then I shall believe you love me, and you will become more illustrious, in my sight at least, by this act of generosity than by your capture of Mantua.

  Fregose Here, in your presence, I feel capable of anything, but you cannot dream of the tempest which will fall upon my head, if I obey your word.

  Faustine

  Ah! you shrink from obeying me!

  Fregose

  Protect him, admire him, if you like; but do not love him!

  Faustine The ship given him by the king has been held back; you can restore it to him, in a moment.

  Fregose

  And I will send him to give you the thanks.

  Faustine

  Do it! And learn how much I love you.

  (Exit Don Fregose.)

  SCENE ELEVENTH

  Faustine (alone)

  And yet so many women wish that they were men.

  SCENE TWELFTH

  Faustine, Paquita, Lothundiaz and Marie.

  Paquita

  Senora, here are Senor Lothundiaz and his daughter. (Exit.)

  SCENE THIRTEENTH

  The same persons, excepting Paquita.

  Lothundiaz

  Ah! senora, you have turned my palace into a kingdom!

  Faustine (to Marie)

  My child, seat yourself by me. (To Lothundiaz) Be seated.

  Lothundiaz You are very kind, senora; but permit me to go and see that famous gallery, which is spoken of throughout Catalonia.