ТОП просматриваемых книг сайта:
The Resources of Quinola: A Comedy in a Prologue and Five Acts. Honore de Balzac
Читать онлайн.Название The Resources of Quinola: A Comedy in a Prologue and Five Acts
Год выпуска 0
isbn
Автор произведения Honore de Balzac
Жанр Зарубежная классика
Издательство Public Domain
By what means is it propelled?
The Grand Inquisitor
The wind fills the sails.
Fontanares
Did the devil reveal this method of navigation to the first sailor?
The Grand Inquisitor
Do you know who he was?
Fontanares He was, perhaps, the founder of some long forgotten power that ruled the sea – at any rate, the means that I employ are not less natural than his. I have seen a certain force in nature, a force controllable by man. For the wind is God's creature, and man is not its master, but the wind propels the ships of man, while my force is in the ship itself.
The Grand Inquisitor (aside) This man may prove a dangerous fellow. (Aloud) And you refuse to tell us what it is?
Fontanares I will tell the king, in presence of the court; for, after that, no one will be able to rob me of my glory and the fortune that it brings.
The Grand Inquisitor You call yourself an inventor, and yet you think of nothing but fortune! You are too ambitious to be a man of genius.
Fontanares Father, I am so profoundly disgusted by the jealousy of the vulgar, by the avarice of the great, by the behavior of sham philosophers, that – but for my love for Marie – I would give back that which chance has bestowed upon me.
The Grand Inquisitor
Chance?
Fontanares I am wrong. I would give back to God the thought which God has sent to me.
The Grand Inquisitor God did not send it to you that it might be hidden, and we have the right to force you to divulge it. (To his familiar) Bid them prepare the rack.
Fontanares
I was expecting it.
SCENE ELEVENTH
The Grand Inquisitor, Fontanares, Quinola and the Duke of Olmedo.
Quinola
It isn't a very healthy thing, this torture.
Fontanares
Quinola! And in what a livery!
Quinola
The livery of success, for you are to be freed.
Fontanares
Free? And to pass from hell to heaven in an instant?
The Duke of Olmedo
As martyrs do.
The Grand Inquisitor
Sir, do you dare to say such words in this place!
The Duke of Olmedo I am charged by the king to take out of your custody this man, and will answer for him to the Holy Inquisition.
The Grand Inquisitor
What a mistake!
Quinola
Ah! you would like to boil him in your cauldrons of oil! Many thanks!
His cauldrons are going to carry us 'round the world – like this. (He twirls his hat.)
Fontanares
Embrace me, my friend, and tell me how —
The Duke of Olmedo
Say not a word here —
Quinola
Yes (he points to the Inquisitor), for here the walls have ears. Come.
And you (speaking to the duke) take courage. You are pale, and I must give to you a tinge of color; but I know how to do it.
(Scene curtain.)
SCENE TWELFTH
(Palace gallery as in first scene.)
The Duke of Olmedo, the Duke of Lerma, Fontanares and Quinola.
The Duke of Olmedo
We have come just in time!
The Duke of Lerma
You were not wounded then?
The Duke of Olmedo Who said I was? Would the favorite of the king ruin me? And should I be here, as you see me, if I were dead? (To Quinola) Stand close and hold me up.
Quinola (to Fontanares)
This is a man worthy of your love.
Fontanares Who would not envy such a one? Yet how seldom is occasion given to show one's love.
Quinola Spare us, good sir, all this rigmarole about love, in the presence of the king; for the king, hark you —
A page
The King!
Fontanares
Come on, and let all our thoughts be for Marie!
Quinola (noticing that the Duke of Olmedo is fainting)
How are you? (He puts a flask to his nostrils.)
SCENE THIRTEENTH
The same persons, the King, the Queen, the Captain of the Guards, the
Grand Inquisitor, the Marchioness of Mondejar, the President of the
Council of Castile and the whole court.
Philip II. (to the Captain of the Guards)
Has our man arrived?
The Captain The Duke of Olmedo, whom I met on the palace steps, has at once obeyed the commands of the king.
The Duke of Olmedo (falling on one knee)
Will the king deign to pardon a delay – unpardonable?
Philip II. (raising him by his wounded arm) I was told you were dying – (he glances at the marchioness) – of a wound received in a nocturnal attack.
The Duke of Olmedo
Well, you see me here, sire, a sufficient answer.
The Marchioness (aside)
He is rouged!
Philip II. (to the duke)
Where is your prisoner?
The Duke of Olmedo (pointing to Fontanares)
Yonder he stands.
Fontanares (kneeling) And ready, to the great glory of God, to do wonders which shall add splendor to the reign of the king, my master.
Philip II. Rise up and speak to me; what is this force miraculous which shall give to Spain the empire of the world?
Fontanares It is a force invincible, sire. It is steam; for, when water has become expanded in steam, it demands a much more extensive area than that which it occupies in its natural form; and in order to take that space it would blow up mountains. By my invention this force is confined; the machine is provided with wheels, which beat the sea and propel a vessel as swiftly as the wind, so that tempests cannot resist its course. Voyages can be made in safety and so swiftly that there is no limit to speed excepting in the revolution of the wheels. Human life is lengthened every time a moment is economized. Sire, Christopher Columbus gave to you a world three thousand leagues across the ocean; I will bring one to you at the port of Cadiz, and you shall claim, with the assistance of God, the dominion of the sea.
The Queen
You do not seem to be astonished, sire?
Philip II.
Astonishment is involuntary flattery, and kings may never flatter. (To
Fontanares) What do you ask of me?
Fontanares That which Columbus asked, a ship and the presence of my king to witness the experiment.
Philip II. You shall have all – the king, the realm of Spain – the whole world. They tell me that you love a maid of Barcelona. I am about to cross the Pyrenees, to visit my possessions, Roussillon and Perpignan; you shall receive your vessel at Barcelona.
Fontanares In granting me this vessel,