Scene VI
The same. The King. The King enters slowly, passes through the crowd of Courtiers, without lifting his head, stops at front of stage, and stands for several instants absorbed and silent. The Courtiers retire to the back of the hall
THE KING.
All things move on from bad to worse. Yes, all!
[To Courtiers, nodding his head.
God keep you, gentlemen!
[He throws himself into a large armchair and sighs profoundly.
I have slept ill!
[To Duke de Bellegarde.
My lord!
DUKE DE BELLEGARDE (advancing with three profound salutations).
The time for sleeping, sire, is past.
THE KING (eagerly).
True, Duke! The State is rushing to destruction
With giant strides!
DUKE DE BELLEGARDE.
’Tis guided by a hand
Both strong and wise.
THE KING.
He bears a heavy burden,
Our good lord cardinal!
DUKE DE BELLEGARDE.
Sire!
THE KING.
He is old.
I ought to spare him, but I have enough
To do with living, without reigning!
DUKE DE BELLEGARDE.
Sire,
The Cardinal’s not old!
THE KING.
Pray, tell me frankly—
No one is watching or is listening here—
What do you think of him?
DUKE DE BELLEGARDE.
Of whom, sire?
THE KING.
Him!
DUKE DE BELLEGARDE.
His Eminence?
THE KING.
Of course!
DUKE DE BELLEGARDE.
My dazzled eyes
Can hardly fix themselves—
THE KING.
Is that your frankness?
There is no cardinal here, nor red, nor gray!
No spies! Speak! Why are you afraid? The King
Wants your opinion of the Cardinal.
DUKE DE BELLEGARDE.
Entirely frank, sire?
THE KING.
Yes, entirely frank.
DUKE DE BELLEGARDE (boldly).
Well, then, I think him a great man!
THE KING.
If needful
You would proclaim it on the house-tops? Good!
Can you not understand? The State, mark me,
Is suffering, because he does it all
And I am nothing!
DUKE DE BELLEGARDE.
Ah!
THE KING.
Rules he not war
And peace, finances, states? Makes he not laws,
Edicts, mandates, and ordinances too?
Through treachery he broke the Catholic league;
He strikes the house of Austria—friendly
To me—to which the Queen belongs.
DUKE DE BELLEGARDE.
Ah, sire,
He lets you keep a vivary within
The Louvre. You have your share.
THE KING.
Then he intrigues
With Denmark.
DUKE DE BELLEGARDE.
But he let you fix the marc
Among the jewelers.
THE KING (whose ill-humor increases).
He fights with Rome!
DUKE DE BELLEGARDE.
He let you issue an edict, alone,
By which a citizen was not allowed
To eat more than a crown’s worth at a tavern,
E’en though he wished to.
THE KING.
All the treaties he
Concludes in secret.
DUKE DE BELLEGARDE.
Yes; but then you have
Your hunting mansion at Planchette.
THE KING.
All—all!
He does it all! All with petitions rush
To him! I’m but a shadow to the French!
Is there a single one who comes to me
For help?
DUKE DE BELLEGARDE.
Those who have the king’s evil come.
[The anger of The King increases.
THE KING.
He means to give my order to his brother!
I will not have it! I rebel.
DUKE DE BELLEGARDE.
But, sire—
THE KING.
I am disgusted with his people!
DUKE DE BELLEGARDE.
Sire!
THE KING.
His niece, Combalet, leads a model life.
DUKE DE BELLEGARDE.
’Tis slander, sire!
THE KING.
Two hundred foot-guards!
DUKE DE BELLEGARDE.
But
Only a hundred horse-guards!
THE KING.
What a shame!
DUKE DE BELLEGARDE.
He saves France, sire.
THE KING.
Does he? He damns my soul!
With one arm fights the heathen, with the other
He signs a compact with the Huguenots.
[Whispering to Duke de Bellegarde.
Then, if I dared to count upon my hand
The heads—the heads that fall for him at Grève!
All friends of mine! His purple robes are made
Of their hearts’ blood! ’Tis he who forces me
To wear eternal mourning.
DUKE DE BELLEGARDE.
Treats he his own
More kindly? Did he spare Saint Preuil?
THE KING.
He has
A bitter tenderness, they say, for those
He loves. He must love me tremendously!
[Abruptly, after a pause, folding his arms.
He has exiled my mother!
DUKE DE BELLEGARDE.
But he thinks
He does your will. He’s faithful. He is firm
And sure.
THE KING.
I hate him! He is in my way.
He crushes me! I am not master here—
Not free! And yet I might be something. Ah,
When he walks o’er me with such heavy tread,
Does he not fear to rouse a slumbering king?
For trembling near me, be it ne’er so high,
His fortune vacillates with every breath
I draw, and all would crumble at a word,
Did I wish loud, what I wish in my heart!
[A pause.
That man makes good men bad, and bad men vile!
The kingdom, like the king, already sick,
Grows worse. Without is cardinal, within
Is cardinal; no king is anywhere!
He torments Austria, lets any one
Capture my vessels in Gascony’s Bay.
Allies me with Gustavus Adolphus!
What more? I do not know. He’s everywhere:
As if he were soul of the king, he fills
My kingdom, and my family, and me.
I am much to be pitied. [Going to window.
Always rain.
DUKE DE BELLEGARDE.
Your Majesty is suffering?
THE KING.
I am bored.
[A pause.
I am the first in France and yet the last!
I’d change my lot to lead a poacher’s life—
To hunt all day; to have no cares to fret
The pleasures of the chase; to sleep ’neath trees;
To laugh at the King’s officers, to sing
During the storm; to live as freely in the woods
As birds live in the air. The peasant in
His hut, at least, is master and is king;
But with that scarlet man forever there,
Forever stern and cold, and speaking thus,
“This must be your good pleasure, sire!” Oh, outrage!
This man conceals me from my people’s gaze.
As with young children, he hides me beneath
His robe; and when a passer-by asks, “Who
Is that behind the Cardinal?” they say,
“The King!” Then there are new lists every day.
Last week the Huguenots; the duelists
To-day! He wants their heads. Such a great crime—
A duel! But the heads; what does he do
With them?
[Duke de Bellegarde stamps his foot. Enter Marquis de Nangis and Marion.