life.
president
Else we shall know that you have been seized, and we will burst our way in, drag you from his guards.
michael
And kill him in the midst of them.
president
Michael, will you head us?
michael
Ay, I shall head you. See that your hand fails not, Vera Sabouroff.
vera
Fool, is it so hard a thing to kill one’s enemy?
prince pauls [E: paul]
[Aside.] This is the ninth conspiracy, I have been in in Russia. They always end in a “voyage en Siberie” for my friends and a new decoration for myself.
·112· michael
It is your last conspiracy, Prince.
president
At twelve o’clock, the bloody dagger.
vera
Ay, red with the blood of that false heart. I shall not forget it. [Standing in the middle of the stage.] To strangle whatever nature is in me, neither to love nor to be loved, neither to pity nor to be pitied. Ay! it is an oath, an oath. Methinks the spirit of Charlotte Corday has entered my soul now. I shall carve my name on the world, and be ranked among the great heroines. Ay! the spirit of Charlotte Corday beats in each petty vein, and nerves my woman’s hand to strike, as I have nerved my woman’s heart to hate. Though he laugh in his dreams, I shall not falter. Though he sleep peacefully, I shall not miss my blow. Be glad, my brother, in your stifled cell; be glad and laugh to-night. To-night this new-fledged Czar shall post with bloody feet to Hell, and greet his father there! This Czar! O traitor, liar, false to his oath, false to me! To play the patriot amongst us, and now to wear a crown; to sell us, like Judas, for thirty silver pieces, to betray us with a kiss! [With more passion.] O Liberty, O mighty mother of eternal time, ·113· thy robe is purple with the blood of those who have died for thee! Thy throne is the Calvary of the people, thy crown the crown of thorns. O crucified mother, the despot has driven a nail through thy right hand, and the tyrant through thy left! Thy feet are pierced with their iron. When thou wert athirst thou callest on the priests for water, and they gave thee bitter drink. They thrust a sword into thy side. They mocked thee in thine agony of age on age. Here, on thy altar, O Liberty, do I dedicate myself to thy service; do with me as thou wilt! [Brandishing dagger.] The end has come now, and by thy sacred wounds, O crucified mother, O Liberty, I swear that Russia shall be saved!
Act-Drop.
·115· Fourth Act.
SCENE—Antechamber of the Czar’s private room. Large window at the back, with drawn curtains over it.
Present—Prince Petrovitch, Baron Raff, Marquis de Poivrard, Count Rouvaloff.
prince petrovitch
He is beginning well, this young Czar.
baron raff
[Shrugs his shoulders.] All young Czars do begin well.
count r.
And end badly.
marq. de poiv.
Well, I have no right to complain. He has done me one good service, at any rate.
prince petrovitch
Cancelled your appointment to Archangel, I suppose?
·116· marq. de poiv.
Yes; my head wouldn’t have been safe there for an hour.
[Enter General Kotemkin.]
baron raff
Ah! General, any more news of our romantic Emperor?
gen. kotemkin
You are quite right to call him romantic, Baron; a week ago I found him amusing himself in a garret with a company of strolling players; to-day his whim is all the convicts in Siberia are to be recalled, and political prisoners, as he calls them, amnestied.
prince petrovitch
Political prisoners! Why, half of them are no better than common murderers!
count r.
And the other half much worse?
baron raff
Oh, you wrong them, surely, Count. Wholesale trade has always been more respectable than retail.
·117· count r.
But he is really too romantic. He objected yesterday to my having the monopoly of the salt tax. He said the people had a right to have cheap salt.
marq. de poiv.
Oh, that’s nothing; but he actually disapproved of a State banquet every night because there is a famine in the Southern provinces. [The young Czar enters unobserved, and overhears the rest.]
prince petrovitch
Quelle bétise! The more starvation there is among the people, the better. It teaches them self-denial, an excellent virtue, Baron, an excellent virtue.
baron raff
I have often heard so; I have often heard so.
gen. kotemkin
He talked of a Parliament, too, in Russia, and said the people should have deputies to represent them.
baron raff
As if there was not enough brawling in the streets already, but we must give the people a ·118· room to do it in. But, Messieurs, the worst is yet to come. He threatens a complete reform in the public service on the ground that the people are too heavily taxed.
marq. de poiv.
He can’t be serious there. What is the use of the people except to get money out of? But talking of taxes, my dear Baron, you must really let me have forty thousand roubles to-morrow? my wife says she must have a new diamond bracelet.
count r.
[Aside to Baron Raff.] Ah, to match the one Prince Paul gave her last week, I suppose.
prince petrovitch
I must have sixty thousand roubles at once, Baron. My son is overwhelmed with debts of honour which he can’t pay.
baron raff
What
