Works of Honore De Balzac

by Honoré de Balzac

  Perfectly.

  Quinola (aside) This man is a driveling dotard. (Aloud) I have spoken to you in the language of genuine philosophy —

  Mathieu Magis (to Monipodio)

  Can you tell me who this remarkably learned man is?

  Monipodio He is a very great man, to whom I am indebted for my knowledge of ballistics; he is the director of the Venetian arsenal, and purposes this evening to make us a contribution on behalf of the republic.

  Mathieu Magis

  I must go and tell Senora Brancadori, she comes from Venice. (Exit.)

  SCENE FOURTEENTH

  The same persons, with the exception of Mathieu Magis. Lothundiaz and

  Marie.

  Marie

  Am I in time?

  Quinola (aside)

  Hurrah! Here comes our treasure.

  (Lothundiaz and Don Ramon exchange greetings and examine the pieces of machinery in the centre of the stage.)

  Fontanares

  What! Is Marie here?

  Marie My father brought me. Ah! my dear friend, your servant told me of your distress —

  Fontanares (to Quinola)

  You scoundrel!

  Quinola

  What, grandson!

  Marie

  And he brought all my agonies to an end.

  Fontanares

  Tell me, pray, what was it troubled you?

  Marie You cannot imagine the persecutions I have endured since your arrival, and especially since your quarrel with Madame Brancadori. What could I do against the authority of my father? It is absolute. While I remained at home, I doubted my power to help you; my heart was yours in spite of everything, but my bodily presence —

  Fontanares

  And so you are another martyr!

  Marie By delaying the day of your triumph, you have made my position intolerable. Alas! when I see you here, I perceive that you yourself at the same time have been enduring incredible hardships. In order that I might be with you for a moment, I have feigned an intention of vowing myself to God; this evening I enter a convent.

  Fontanares A convent? Is that the way they would separate us? These tortures make one curse the day of his birth. And you, Marie, you, who are the mainspring and the glory of my discovery, the star that protected my destiny, I have forced you to seek refuge in heaven! I cannot stand up against that. (He weeps.)

  Marie But by promising to enter a convent, I obtained my father’s permission to come here. I wish in bidding you farewell to bring you hope. Here are the savings of a young girl, of your sister, which I have kept against the day when all would forsake you.

  Fontanares

  And what care I for glory, for fortune, for life itself, without you?

  Marie Accept the gift which is all that the woman who intends to be your wife can and ought to offer. If I feel that you are unhappy and in distress, hope will forsake me in my retirement, and I shall die, uttering a last prayer for you!

  Quinola (to Marie) Let him play the proud man, we may save him in spite of himself. Do you know it is for this purpose that I am passing myself off as his grandfather?

  (Marie gives her purse to Quinola.)

  Lothundiaz (to Don Ramon)

  So you do not think much of him?

  Don Ramon Oh, no, he is an artisan, who knows nothing and who doubtless stole his secret in Italy.

  Lothundiaz I have always doubted him, and it seems I was right in refusing him my daughter in marriage.

  Don Ramon He would bring her to beggary. He has squandered five thousand sequins, and has gone into debt three thousand in eight months, without attaining any result! Ah! He is a contrast with his grandfather. There’s a philosopher of the first rank for you! Fontanares will have to work hard to catch up with him. (He points to Quinola.)

  Lothundiaz

  His grandfather?

  Quinola

  Yes, senor, my name of Fontanares was changed to that of Fontanaresi.

  Lothundiaz

  And you are Pablo Fontanaresi?

  Quinola

  Yes, Pablo himself.

  Lothundiaz

  And you are rich?

  Quinola

  Opulent.

  Lothundiaz That delights me, senor. I suppose that now you will pay me the two thousand sequins which you borrowed from my father?

  Quinola Certainly, if you can show me my signature, I am ready to pay the bond.

  Marie (after a conversation with Fontanares) You will accept this — will you not — as a means of securing your triumph, for is not our happiness staked on that?

  Fontanares To think that I am dragging down this pearl into the gulf which is yawning to receive me.

  (Quinola and Monipodio depart.)

  SCENE FIFTEENTH

  The same persons and Sarpi.

  Sarpi (to Lothundiaz)

  You here, Senor Lothundiaz? And your daughter too?

  Lothundiaz I promised that she should come her to say farewell on condition that she would not refuse to retire to a convent afterwards.

  Sarpi The assembly here is so numerous that I am not surprised, nor in the least offended, by your complaisance towards her.

  Fontanares Ah! Here comes the fiercest of my persecutors. How are you, senor; are you come to put my constancy to a fresh test?

  Sarpi I represent the viceroy of Catalonia, senor, and I have a right to your respectful treatment. (To Don Ramon) Are you satisfied with him?

  Don Ramon

  If he takes my advice, we are sure of success.

  Sarpi

  The viceroy has great hopes from your learned co-operation.

  Fontanares Surely I am dreaming! Is it possible they are raising up a rival to me?

  Sarpi

  No! senor; but a guide who is able to save you from failure.

  Fontanares

  Who told you I needed one?

  Marie

  O Alfonso! But suppose that Don Ramon could insure your success?

  Fontanares

  Ah! Even she has lost confidence in me!

  Marie

  They say he is so learned!

  Lothundiaz Presumptuous man! He thinks that he knows more than all the learned in the world.

  Sarpi I was induced to come here on account of a question which has been raised and has filled the viceroy with anxiety; you have had in your possession for nearly ten months a ship belonging to the state, and you must now render an account of the loan.

  Fontanares

  The king fixed no term for the time of my experiments.

  Sarpi The administration of Catalonia has the right to demand an account, and we have received a decree of the ministers to this effect. (Fontanares appears thunderstruck.) Oh! you can take your time; we do not wish to embarrass a man like you. Nor are we inclined to think that you wish to elude the stipulation with regard to your life by keeping the ship for an indefinite period.

  Marie

  His life?

  Fontanares

  Yes, I am staking my life in these experiments.

  Marie

  And yet, you refuse my help?

  Fontanares In three months, Count Sarpi, I shall have completed, without the counsel of another, the work I am engaged upon. You will then see one of the greatest spectacles that a man can produce for his age to witness.

  Sarpi

  Here, then, is a bond to that effect; sign it.

  (Fontanares signs it.)

  Marie Farewell, my friend! If you are vanquished in this struggle I believe that I shall love you more than ever!

  Lothundiaz

  Come, my daughter; the man is mad.

  Don Ramon

  Young man! be sure to read my treatises.

  Sarpi

  Farewell, future grandee of Spain.

  (Exeunt all except Fontanares.)

  SCENE SIXTEENTH

  Fontanares (alone in the front of the stage) While Marie is in a convent the sunlight cannot warm me. I am bearing up a world, yet fear I am no Titian. N
o, I shall never succeed; all is against me. And this work which cost me three years of thought and ten months of toil will never cleave the ocean! But now, I am heavy with sleep. (He lies down on the straw.)

  SCENE SEVENTEENTH

  Fontanares (asleep), Quinola and Monipodio (entering by the Postern).

  Quinola

  Diamonds! Pearls and gold! We are saved.

  Monipodio

  Don’t forget. The Brancadori is from Venice.

  Quinola Then I’d better be getting back there. Send me the landlord; I wish to re-establish our credit.

  Monipodio

  He is here.

  SCENE EIGHTEENTH

  The same persons and the Landlord of the Golden Sun.

  Quinola What is this, senor, Landlord of the Golden Sun? You don’t seem to have much confidence in the star of my grandson?

  The Landlord

  A hostelry, senor, is not a banking house.

  Quinola No, but you should not, for charity’s sake, have refused him bread. The most noble republic of Venice sent me to bring him to that city, but he is too fond of Spain! I return, as I arrived, secretly. I have nothing with me that I can dispose of excepting this diamond. A month from this time I will remit to you through the bank. Will you arrange with my grandson’s servant for the sale of this jewel?

  The Landlord

  Your people here, senor, shall be treated like princes of wealth.

  Quinola

  You may go.

  (Exit landlord.)

  SCENE NINETEENTH

  The same persons, excepting the landlord.

  Quinola I must go and change my dress. (He looks at Fontanares) He sleeps; that noble heart has at last succumbed to its emotions; it is only we who know how to yield before misfortunes; our carelessness he cannot share. Have I not done well, in always obtaining a duplicate of that which he required? (To Monipodio) Here is the plan of the last piece; do you take charge of it.

  (Exeunt.)

  SCENE TWENTIETH

  Fontanares (sleeping), Faustine and Mathieu Magis.

  Mathieu Magis

  There he is!

  Faustine To what a plight have I reduced him! From the depth of the wounds which I have thus inflicted upon myself, I realize the depth of my love! Oh! how much happiness do I owe him in compensation for so much suffering!

  Curtain to the Third Act.

  ACT IV

  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 fol
lowed 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.)