Act Fifth
Scene I A Lower Hall in the Castle. The Women Servants Discovered, Gathered Together, While Without Children Are Playing Before One of the Ventilators of the Hall
An Old Servant
You will see, you will see, my daughters; it will be to-night.—Some one will come to tell us by and by….
Another Servant
They will not come to tell us…. They don’t know what they are doing any longer….
Third Servant
Let us wait here….
Fourth Servant
We shall know well enough when we must go up….
Fifth Servant
When the time is come, we shall go up of ourselves….
Sixth Servant
There is no longer a sound heard in the house….
Seventh Servant
We ought to make the children keep still, who are playing before the ventilator.
Eighth Servant
They will be still of themselves by and by.
Ninth Servant
The time has not yet come….
Enter an old Servant.
The Old Servant
No one can go in the room any longer. I have listened more than an hour…. You could hear the flies walk on the doors…. I heard nothing….
First Servant
Has she been left alone in the room?
The Old Servant
No, no; I think the room is full of people.
First Servant
They will come, they will come, by and by….
The Old Servant
Lord! Lord! It is not happiness that has come into the house…. One may not speak, but if I could say what I know…
Second Servant
It was you who found them before the gate?
The Old Servant
Why, yes! why, yes! it was I who found them. The porter says it was he who saw them first; but it was I who waked them. He was sleeping on his face and would not get up.—And now he comes saying, “It was I who saw them first.” Is that just?—See, I burned myself lighting a lamp to go down cellar.—Now what was I going to do down cellar?—I can’t remember any more what I was going to do down cellar.—At any rate I got up very early; it was not yet very light; I said to myself, I will go across the courtyard, and then I will open the gate. Good; I go down the stairs on tiptoe, and I open the gate as if it were an ordinary gate…. My God! My God! What do I see? Divine a little what I see!…
First Servant
They were before the gate?
The Old Servant
They were both stretched out before the gate!… Exactly like poor folk that are too hungry…. They were huddled together like little children who are afraid…. The little princess was nearly dead, and the great Golaud had still his sword in his side…. There was blood on the sill….
Second Servant
We ought to make the children keep still…. They are screaming with all their might before the ventilator….
Third Servant
You can’t hear yourself speak….
Fourth Servant
There is nothing to be done: I have tried already; they won’t keep still….
First Servant
It seems he is nearly cured?
The Old Servant
Who?
First Servant
The great Golaud.
Third Servant
Yes, yes; they have taken him to his wife’s room. I met them just now, in the corridor. They were holding him up as if he were drunk. He cannot yet walk alone.
The Old Servant
He could not kill himself; he is too big. But she is hardly wounded, and it is she who is going to die…. Can you understand that?
First Servant
You have seen the wound?
The Old Servant
As I see you, my daughter.—I saw everything, you understand…. I saw it before all the others…. A tiny little wound under her little left breast,—a little wound that wouldn’t kill a pigeon. Is it natural?
First Servant
Yes, yes; there is something underneath….
Second Servant
Yes; but she was delivered of her babe three days ago….
The Old Servant
Exactly!… She was delivered on her death-bed; is that a little sign?—And what a child! Have you seen it?—A wee little girl a beggar would not bring into the world…. A little wax figure that came much too soon;… a little wax figure that must live in lambs’ wool…. Yes, yes; it is not happiness that has come into the house….
First Servant
Yes, yes; it Is the hand of God that has been stirring….
Second Servant
Yes, yes; all that did not happen without reason….
Third Servant
It is as good lord Pélléas … where is he?—No one knows….
The Old Servant
Yes, yes; everybody knows…. But nobody dare speak of it…. One does not speak of this;… one does not speak of that;… one speaks no more of anything;… one no longer speaks truth…. But I know he was found at the bottom of Blind Man’s Spring;… but no one, no one could see him…. Well, well, we shall only know all that at the last day….
First Servant
I dare not sleep here any longer….
The Old Servant
Yes, yes; once ill-fortune is in the house, one keeps silence in vain….
Third Servant
Yes; it finds you all the same….
The Old Servant
Yes, yes; but we do not go where we would….
Fourth Servant
Yes, yes; we do not do what we would….
First Servant
They are afraid of us now….
Second Servant
They all keep silence….
Third Servant
They cast down their eyes in the corridors.
Fourth Servant
They do not speak any more except in a low voice.
Fifth Servant
You would think they had all done it together.
Sixth Servant
One doesn’t know what they have done….
Seventh Servant
What is to be done when the masters are afraid?… [A silence.
First Servant
I no longer hear the children screaming.
Second Servant
They are sitting down before the ventilator.
Third Servant
They are huddled against each other.
The Old Servant
I no longer hear anything in the house….
First Servant
You no longer even hear the children breathe….
The Old Servant
Come, come; it is time to go up…. [Exeunt in silence.