There’s a feast at the Louvre then.
LA HURIÈRE
Yes, and that’s why I polish my helmet, I sharpen my sword and my knives—Gregory—come help me.
COCONNAS
(eyes starting)
Wait a moment! This feast it—is—?
MAUREVAL
You’ve been quite a while to figure it out, sir, and it’s to be seen that you are not as tired as we are of the insolence of these heretics.
COCONNAS
But doubtless you have large numbers and powerful allies?
MAUREVAL
(escorting him to the window)
Do you see that troop passing silently in the shadow?
COCONNAS
Yes.
MAUREVAL
Well, the men who form that troop have, you can see, like La Hurière, you and I, a cross on their hats.
COCONNAS
Well?
MAUREVAL
Well—those men are Swiss from the smaller countries—loyal friends of the King. You see that other troop.
COCONNAS
The horsemen?
MAUREVAL
Do you recognize their leader?
COCONNAS
How can you expect me to do that? I’ve only been in town since five o’clock this afternoon.
MAUREVAL
Well, he’s the one you have a meeting with at midnight at the Louvre. See, he’s going there to wait for you.
COCONNAS
Duke de Guise.
MAUREVAL
Himself.
COCONNAS
But what are those other men doing who are going silently from door to door?
MAUREVAL
They are placing a red cross on the homes of the Huguenots and a white cross on those of the Catholics. In other times, we leave it to God to recognize his own, today we are more farsighted and we will spare Him the trouble.
COCONNAS
But they are going to kill them all then?
MAUREVAL
All.
COCONNAS
By order of the King.
MAUREVAL
By order of the King and the Duke de Guise.
COCONNAS
When?
MAUREVAL
When you hear the first clock, striking from Saint Germain l’Auxerrois.
COCONNAS
(explosively)
Ah! That will be very funny.
MAUREVAL
Silence! Now, it is useless to tell you, if you have some particular enemy—if he’s not already a convert to the Huguenots—he will pass in the number.
(La Hurière during this conversation has armed himself from head to foot.)
MAUREVAL
Let’s get going now.
LA HURIÈRE
Wait! Before putting ourselves on campaign status, let’s assure ourselves of our own lodgers—as they say in wartime. I don’t want my wife and children strangled while I am out. There’s a Huguenot here.
COCONNAS
De La Môle?
LA HURIÈRE
Yes, that’s the freethinker. He’s already in the wolf’s mouth.
COCONNAS
What! You are going to attack your guest?
LA HURIÈRE
It was with him in mind that I sharpened my rapier.
COCONNAS
While he’s sleeping?
LA HURIÈRE
All the more reason!
COCONNAS
Oh! Oh!
LA HURIÈRE
You are saying!
COCONNAS
I say it’s hard. de La Môle supped with me, and I don’t know if I ought.
MAUREVAL
Yes, but de La Môle is a heretic, he is condemned, and if we don’t kill him, others will kill him.
COCONNAS
That’s true, but it doesn’t seem to me to be a satisfactory reason.
MAUREVAL
Come, come, hurry up, gentleman, hurry up. A shot, a hammer blow, rapier thrust, a hit with a fire iron, however you wish—but let’s finish it.
LA HURIÈRE
I’ll go to his room and in a twinkle.
COCONNAS
Wait! I’ll go with you.
LA HURIÈRE
What for?
COCONNAS
By God, I’m curious to see it done.
(He goes upstairs behind La Hurière.)
MAUREVAL
And I will wait for you.
