Barrie, J M - Half Hours
Page 11
through. EMPEROR. My Chancellor, that is a hideous
phrase. CHANCELLOR. I ask your pardon, sire. It
came, somehow, pat to my lips. OFFICER. Your Imperial Majesty, the time
passes will it please you to sign ? CHANCELLOR. Buonaparte would have acted
quickly.
EMPEROR. Buonaparte! CHANCELLOR. The paper, sire.
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EMPEROR. Leave it now with me. Return in an hour and you shall have it signed.
OFFICER (warningly). The least delay
CHANCELLOR. Over-much reflection
EMPEROR. I wish to be alone.
(They retire respectfully y but anxious. He is left alone in thought.)
EMPEROR. Even a King's life is but a day, and in his day the sun is only at its zenith once. This is my zenith; others will come to Germany, but not to me. The world pivots on me to-night. They said Buonaparte! coupling me with him. To dim Napoleon ! Paris in three weeks say four to cover any chance miscalcula tion. Russia on her back in six, with Poland snapping at her; and then after a breathing space we reach The Day ! We sweep the English Channel, changing its name as we embark, and cross by way of Calais, which will have fallen easily into our hands. The British Fleet de stroyed for that is part of the plan, Dover to London is a week of leisured
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marching, and London itself, unfortified and panic-stricken, falls in a day. Vse Victis ! I'll leave conquered Britain some balls to play with, so that there shall be no uprising. Next I carve America in great mouthfuls for my colonists, for now I stride the seas. It's all so docketed I feel it's as good as done before I set forth to do it. Dictator of the World! And all for pacific ends, for once the whole is mine we come at last to the great desid eratum, a universal peace. Rulers over all! God in the heavens, I upon the earth we two ! (Raising his eyes threat eningly) And there are still the Zeppelins ! I'll sign.
(The Spirit of Culture appears a noble female figure in white robes.)
EMPEROR. Who's that?
CULTURE. A friend. I am Culture, who has so long hovered, well-pleased, over happy Germany.
EMPEROR (who gives her royal honour). A friend indeed a consort ! I would hear
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you say, Queen, that I have done some things for you.
CULTURE. You have done much for me. I have held my head higher since you were added to the roll of Sovereigns. I may have smiled at you at times, as when you seemed to think that you were the two of us in one; but as Kings go, you have been a worthy King.
EMPEROR. It was all done for you.
CULTURE. So for long I thought. I looked upon Germany's golden granaries, plucked from ground once barren, its busy mills and furnaces, its outstretching commerce and teeming peoples and noble seats of learning, all mellowing in the sun; and I heard you say they were dedicated to me, and I was proud. You have honoured me, my Emperor, and now I am here to be abased by you. All the sweet gar ments you have robed me in tear them off me, and send me naked out of Ger many.
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EMPEROR. You would not have me sign ?
CULTURE. I warn you first to know your self, you who have gloated in a looking- glass too long.
EMPEROR. I sign that Germany may be greater still. To spread your banner far ther: thus I make the whole world cul tured.
CULTURE. My banner needs no such spread ing. It has ever been your weakness to think that I have no other home save here in Germany. I have many homes, and the fairest is in France.
EMPEROR. If that were true, Germany would care less for you.
CULTURE. If that is true, I have never had a home in Germany. I am no single nation's servant, no single race's queen. I am not of German make. My banner is already in every land on which you would place your heel. I'll not have you say it is for me you fight. Find some other reason.
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EMPEROR. The jealousies of nations
CULTURE. All are guilty there. Jealousy, not love of money, is the root of all evil. That was a misprint. Yet I know of nothing those others want that is yours to give, save Peace. What do you want of them? Bites out of each, and when they refuse to be dismembered you cry "The blood be on their head, they force me into war."
EMPEROR. Germany must expand. That is her divine mission. I have it from on high.
CULTURE. Your system of espionage is known to be tolerably complete.
EMPEROR. All Germany is with me. I hold in leash the mightiest machine for war the world has forged.
CULTURE. I have seen your legions, and all are with you. Never was a lord more trusted. O Emperor, does that not make you pause ?
EMPEROR. France invades little Belgium.
CULTURE. Chivalrous France! Never. Em-
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peror, I leave you. One last word to you at the parting of the ways. France, Rus sia, Britain, these are great opponents, but it is not they will bring the pillars of Germany down. Beware of Belgium ! (She goes. He is left in two minds; he crosses to sign, flings down pen, strikes bell. CHANCELLOR and OFFICER re appear.}
CHANCELLOR. Your Imperial Majesty has signed ?
EMPEROR. Thus ! (He tears the paper.}
OFFICER. Sire!
EMPEROR. Say this to Russia, France, and Britain in my Imperial name: So long as they keep within their borders, I remain in mine.
OFFICER. But, sire
EMPEROR. You know as I do, that is all they ask for.
CHANCELLOR. You were the friend of Aus tria!
EMPEROR. I'll prove it. Tell her from me
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that Serbia has yielded on every point which doth become a nation, and that Austria may accept her terms.
CHANCELLOR. Nay, sire
EMPEROR. And so there will be no war.
OFFICER. Sire, we beg
EMPEROR. These are my commands.
(They have to go, chagrined but defer ential.)
EMPEROR. The decision lay with me, and I said, "There shall be peace"; that be my zenith !
(He goes back to the chair; he sleeps peacefully; in the distance a bell tolls the Angelus 9 and suddenly this is broken by one boom of a great gun, which reverberates and should be star tling. The Spirit of Culture returns, now with a wound in her breast. She surveys him sadly.)
CULTURE. Sleep on, unhappy King. (He grows restless.) Nay, better to wake, if even your dreams appal you."
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(He wakes, and for a moment he scarcely understands that he has been dream ing. The realisation is tragic to him.)
EMPEROR. You! You have come here to mock me.
CULTURE. Oh, no.
EMPEROR. I dreamt there was no war. In my dream they came to me and I forbade the war. I saw the Fatherland smiling and prosperous, as it was before the war.
CULTURE. It was you who made the war, O Emperor !
EMPEROR. Belgium?
CULTURE. There is no Belgium now, but over what was Belgium there rests a soft light as of a halo, and through it is a flam ing sword.
EMPEROR. I dreamt I had kept my plighted word to Belgium.
CULTURE. It was you, O Emperor, who broke your plighted word and laid waste the land. In the lust for victory you vio lated even the Laws of War which men con-
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trive so that when the sword is sheathed they may dare again face their Maker. Your way to Him is lighted now by smouldering spires and ashes that were once fair academic groves of mine. And you shall seek Him over roads cobbled with the moans of innocents.
EMPEROR. In my dream I thought England was grown degenerate and would not fight.
CULTURE. She fought you where Crecy was and Agincourt and Waterloo, with all their dead to help her. The dead be came quick in their ancient graves, stirred by the tread of the island feet, and they cried out: "How is England doing?" The living answered the dead upon their bugles with the "All's well." England, O Emperor, was grown degenerate, but you have made her great again.
EMPEROR
. France, Russia?
CULTURE. They are here, around your walls.
EMPEROR. My people?
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CULTURE. I see none marching, but men whose feet make no sound. Shades of your soldiers, who pass on and on in never-ending lines. EMPEROR. Do they curse me ? CULTURE. None. They all salute you as they pass. They have done your bidding. EMPEROR. The women curse me ? CULTURE. Not even the women. They, too, salute you. You were their father and could do no wrong. EMPEROR. And you ?
CULTURE. I have come with this gaping
wound in my breast, to bid you farewell.
EMPEROR. God cannot let my Germany be
utterly destroyed.
CULTURE. If God is with the Allies, Ger many will not be destroyed. Farewell. (She is going. She lifts a pistol from the table and puts it in his hand. She goes with shining eyes. The penny dip burns low. The great Emperor is lost in its shadows.)