Dammit! Captain, I’d get myself killed like a dog for you, but—
LAGARDÈRE: But what—?
COCARDASSE: Each of us has his profession you know. And we cannot leave this place.
LAGARDÈRE: Because?
COCARDASSE: Because we are also waiting for someone.
LAGARDÈRE: And this someone is?
COCARDASSE: This someone is—Philippe de Nevers.
LAGARDÈRE: Nevers? You? A trap?
PASSEPOIL: But—
LAGARDÈRE: Peace, my wise guys! I forbid you—you understand me plainly enough—I forbid you to touch a hair on Nevers—because his life belongs to me, and if he must die it will be by my hand in honest battle, not by yours, bandits!
COCARDASSE: Captain!
LAGARDÈRE: Go!
PASSEPOIL: After all, if he wants to do our work—
COCARDASSE: (low) Very well. But we must keep an eye on Nevers. If this little Parisian fails, we won’t.
LAGARDÈRE: You understand me.
COCARDASSE: Yes, Captain.
LAGARDÈRE: No treachery! No ambush! Who’s against Nevers is against me. Be gone, wise guys, and don’t let one of you show himself here in the future, because I won’t honor that one with a sword blow—in place of my sword, I will whip his hang-dog face.
COCARDASSE: Sonofabitch, Captain! You are forgetting that we are soldiers.
LAGARDÈRE: You! Get out! Whoever kills for money is infamous, whoever uses a dagger rather than a rapier is a coward. Soldiers and braves, that’s what you were, and I knew you then, infamous and cowards, that’s what you are. I no longer know you. Leave!
(At Lagardère’s gesture, all bow and leave.)
PASSEPOIL: He’s very harsh.
COCARDASSE: (low) As for him, we will always know him.
(He leaves with Passepoil)
LAGARDÈRE: The wretches! Eight against one! Oh, that’s disgusting to the sword! Girl! (the hostess appears, Lagardère tosses a gold coin on the table) Close the shutters and put up the bars. Whatever you may hear in the moats of the castle tonight, you and your folks, sleep on both ears; they are affairs that do not concern you. Goodbye.
(he leaves)
C U R T A I N
PROLOGUE, SCENE 2
The moats of the castle connected by a ditch on the right and by a bridge that faces the audience and reaches the tower of the château from which a balcony projects underneath which is a small window; it’s there that stacks of hay are heaped up; a loaded cart is on the side. To the left, a stairway, at the back a large opening.
LAGARDÈRE: (getting his bearings before going into the moat) Ah, let’s try not to break our neck. (going down the stairway) It’s as dark as in an oven; we must fence carefully. It will be delightful. (testing the ground with his foot) What’s that? Grass. No solid ground. Perfect. Now, let’s orient ourselves. (groping at the low window) A window! Bravo! For a love adventure after a sword adventure here’s our entrance. Ah! the devil of a shutter. Someone’s coming down. I hear walking. Will it be Nevers already? He’s going to arrive very angry, this dear Duke. We have only to be quite ready.
(Gonzague and Peyrolles arrive wrapped in cloaks at the head of the bridge, and attempt to see into the distance.)
GONZAGUE: I don’t see anyone.
PEYROLLES: Indeed, Down there—near the window.
GONZAGUE: (stopping) Suppose he’s not one of us?
PEYROLLES: Impossible! I directed a sentinel be left here. It’s Staupitz. I recognize him. Staupitz.
LAGARDÈRE: Present.
PEYROLLES: (to Gonzague) You see! You can go down, Duke.
LAGAREDERRE: Ah, he’s a Duke!
GONZAGUE: To the devil with your manners! You might as well tell them my name.
LAGARDÈREE: I would really like to know it.
GONZAGUE: Will Philippe come?
PEYROLLES: Don’t you recall the very urgent letter sent him by Miss Blanche de Caylus? He will come to deliver himself into our hands; once we kill the father, we will seize the child.
LAGARDÈRE: They are lowering their voices. I cannot hear a thing.
GONZAGUE: No, it’s better to begin by capturing and making this child of Nevers vanish; the hour approaches. What sort of man is this Staupitz?
PEYROLLES: A determined rogue.
GONZAGUE: That can be relied on?
PEYROLLES: If well paid, yes.
GONZAGUE: Call him!
LAGARDÈRE: (aside) Could this be the leader of the assassins?
PEYROLLES: Staupitz!
LAGARDÈRE: Present!
PEYROLLES: Advance!
GONZAGUE: Would you like to earn fifty pistoles?
LAFARDERRE: What has to be done?
GONZAGUE: Stay at your post under this window and wait until nine o’clock strikes. Then you will rap at the shutter of this window which will open and you will say two words to the woman who opens: “I’m here.”
LAGARDÈRE: I’m here. (low) That’s Nevers’ motto.
GONZAGUE: As you don’t have the voice of the one she’s expecting, don’t speak.
LAGARDÈRE: I will make a sign to her that we are spied on.
GONZAGUE: Precisely. She will deliver to you a bundle that you will take in silence and carry straight away to the Inn of Adam’s Apple. In exchange you will have your fifty pistoles.
LAGARDÈRE: I am your man.
PEYROLLES: Hush! (in the distance the horn of an ox-cart is heard) That’s the first signal. Nevers is approaching. On the second he will enter the forest.
GONZAGUE:
