Doña Beatrix
You’ve loved me for such a long time?—and your reserve—your silence?
Don Melchior
What could I hope? I silently tasted the sorrowful pleasure of an impossible passion—but my wound was so dear to me that I had no wish to be cured. Sometimes, there slid into my soul a vague and indefinable hope— Then I hastened to choke it back like a lying illusion, and even at this moment, don’t think that I wish to abuse a promise that you made in a moment of exaltation, and which granted me rights to your hand.
Doña Beatrix
Ah!—there’s an accent of truth in your words! But are you aware that another also pretends—?
Don Melchior
No, Señora! I will indeed know how to force him to retract—he who pretends to usurp your hand by the most odious imposture.
Doña Beatrix
Ah! Prove he is the sole imposter! Prove that you are the sole savior of the Queen!
Don Melchior
How to do it?
Doña Beatrix
Prove it, and then, whoever you may be, the heiress of a noble Castilian house will not be a perjurer—mProve it—and this hand that you wouldn’t want to owe to my pity, you will owe to my choice—to my love.
(aside)
Let’s go apprise the Queen of my discovery.
(She leaves.)
Don Melchior
Her hand! Her hand on that condition— And to fulfill it, to complete all my wishes—it’s nothing more than an obstacle that I meet on my path—! This infernal Don Melchior—! Ah, I’ll indeed know how to force him to admit he’s an imposter.
Don Melchior
What a crowd! Impossible to meet the lady of my thoughts. Never mind. My debut at court surpasses all my hopes. And now one lone man can thwart my plans—it’s Don Gaspar—but thanks to heaven and my butchering sword, he no longer exists!
Don Melchior (tapping him on the shoulder.)
You are mistaken, Don Melchior.
Don Melchior
Believing my eyes? Captain Gaspar! Is it to you or to your ghost that I have the honor of speaking?
Don Melchior
I am living—do you doubt it?
Don Melchior
Miraculous thing! You drowned in the Tagus and you resuscitated. I ground you in the dust and you resuscitate. Have you contracted the habit of being reborn from your ashes like the Phoenix?
Don Melchior
That annoys you, perhaps?
Don Melchior
Utterly—but I warn you I will no longer fight with you. I’ve given my proofs.
Don Melchior
I will indeed force you to—
Don Melchior
I’ve given my proof! You will not force me. I already fought you once, I already killed you once—be reasonable: that ought to suffice for you. Undoubtedly you possess some talisman, some relic—? Some oriental amulet? A blessed scapulary, an enchanted ring of Great Merlin? Or a tooth of Saint Christopher?
Don Melchior
You suspect my honesty?
Don Melchior
Well, no—but I intend to put it to the proof—I will no longer employ but a single weapon with you. You ask which? Sword, pistol, blunderbuss, crossbow, dagger, rapier, axe, or carbine. No—but persuasion— Confess that you are not the savior of the Queen!
Don Melchior
For goodness’s sake.
Don Melchior
Admit it—you will lose nothing by it—
Don Melchior
Just the hand of Doña Beatrix.
Don Melchior
I cede her to you—I have in sight something other than my lover—that is to say, your lover—
Don Melchior
Still.
Don Melchior
We are no longer rivals, Gaspar! Let’s be friends, Gaspar! Your hand, Gaspar— Let’s hug each other, Gaspar—
Don Melchior
What an original—
Don Melchior
I will protect you, Gaspar. I’m on such a fine path to arrive at a fortune. I am going to rise to a pinnacle—I will become minister, perhaps—I will topple Alberoni. But in the name of heaven allow me to proclaim myself the lone, the authentic savior of the Queen.
Count de San Lucas (enters)
Don Melchior, bad luck to you—I am myself charged with arresting you.
Don Melchior
O sudden reversal.
Count de San Lucas
The old law of Spain will be executed in all its rigor.
Don Melchior
I am not at my ease.
Count de San Lucas
The scaffold attends you.
Don Melchior
Yes, but I won’t attend it. I am escaping as quickly as possible. Great God! Alguazils— Oh—this way—yet more Alaguazils! Why this side—there, too—I’m done for. I am surrounded on all sides!
Count de San Lucas
Don’t be desolate, Melchior—you won’t be hanged.
Don Melchior
I breathe easy.
Count de San Lucas
The antiquity of your race is opposed to that. You will be decapitated.
Don Melchior
I am not breathing easy.
Head of the Alguazils
Deliver your sword to me, Don Melchior.
Don Melchior (coming forward)
It’s mine alone that you must take.
Don Melchior
Castilian honor. I recognize you in such an act.
Don Melchior
He’s not this cavalier who touched the Queen—it was I.
Don Melchior
Spaniard from the time of Charles V—I admire you too much to contradict you.
Don Melchior
It was I—and I am proving it by confessing to it at such a moment, before you gentlemen Alguazils, before you who hear me—to arrest me and punish me—
Queen (enters with Beatrix, Griselda, ladies, and gentlemen.)
The Queen too awaits you to reward you!
Don Melchior
The Queen.
Don Gaspar
Señora!
Queen
Fear nothing. It was a ruse, thanks to which we have finally discovered the truth. To you, Don Gaspar, all our benefits, all our gratitude. To you the hand of Doña Beatrix— As for you, Don Melchior—a perpetual prison—
Don Melchior
Pardon, Majesty— The desire to make myself illustrious— This need that great souls have—
Queen
Your boastfulness is the least of your crimes—but your audacity without name.
Don Melchior
Again, pardon, Majesty—I had only good intentions—I wanted to marry you—
Queen
You will go to the tower of Segovia—to meditate the worth of your words—
Don Melchior
O uncle—intercede for me.
Count de San Lucas
Leave me alone, sir—
Don Melchior
Unfortunate Don Melchior, abandoned by God and men—who will come to your aid?
Griselda
Me!
Don Melchior
I am then not abandoned by women?
Griselda
You entered my room through my window several minutes past midnight—an hour which always passes for very late. You owe me a dazzling reparation. I demand your hand.
Don Melchior
You demand my hand? Good Alguazils, drag me to the damp straw of dungeons.
Queen
Wait—Griselda’s right. The honor of my servant must not even be suspected. We will pardon you on one condition—you will give your hand to this young girl—I insist on it—I’ll take care of her dowry.
Don Melchior
Your Majesty orders, I obey. Long live the Queen!
All (music)
Long live the Queen—!
Queen
To the ball, gentlemen—
Don Melchior
; Unfortunate Don Melchior! After having made a declaration to the Queen of Spain, he sent his ring back to Beatrix d’Astorga; now he marries a simple maid. What a melancholy fate.
(Then looks at her carefully.)
Ah, bah! She might have been ugly.
(He wants to kiss her.)
Griselda (pushing him away)
Before marriage, look—but don’t touch.
C U R T A I N
ALTERNATIVE ENDING
BY FRANK J. MORLOCK
All leave at a sign from The Queen except Don Melchior, who sits with his head in his hands.
After a moment the Queen appears in the doorway.
Queen
Don Melchior?
Don Melchior
Majesty?
(He rises quickly.)
Queen
Do you recollect what you said to me last night?
Don Melchior
Majesty, I—
Queen
Answer—!
Don Melchior
Yes—Majesty.
Queen
Did you mean those honeyed words—?
Don Melchior
Majesty, I—
Queen
Answer—!
Don Melchior
Yes, Majesty.
Queen
Then you admit—you dare to admit—
Don Melchior
I’d rather not admit—but I must—
Queen
In that case, Don Melchior—say them again—
(She smiles.)
Say them again—
Don Melchior (kneels at her feet.)
Queen!
Queen
No man has ever spoken to me like that. Say it again—
(She touches his head as Don Melchior begins to babble of love.)
C U R T A I N
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR
Frank J. Morlock has written and translated many plays since retiring from the legal profession in 1992. His translations have also appeared on Project Gutenberg, the Alexandre Dumas Père web page, Literature in the Age of Napoléon, Infinite Artistries.com, and Munsey’s (formerly Blackmask). In 2006 he received an award from the North American Jules Verne Society for his translations of Verne’s plays. He lives and works in México.
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