[Looks at the Castle] That Castle seems very much like any other castle, I think; it looks rather rugged at this distance, but it has an air! It is not deserted, evidently. There is movement within. I can smell the odours of the kitchen; yes, and I can hear the rattling of dishes. They are expecting their master, no doubt. But I am their master! [Looks at the trees apprehensively] No, they do not move! Courage, Dominique! Forward! One gains nothing without assurance. [Springs up, but his legs are turned into the trunk of a tree, covered with bark, which spreads upward over his body] Ah! Oh! [Arriving at his arms, the bark covers them also and they turn into branches, covered with leaves; the head remains intact] Master! My master! Come to me, master! I — [He is completely metamorphosed into a tree]
SCENE II.
THE TREES: He is caught! Another one!
DOMINIQUE [changed into a plum-tree]: Help! help!
TREES: Impossible!
DOMINIQUE: Who spoke?
TREES: An oak — an elm — a linden — a spruce — an ebony-tree!
DOMINIQUE: This is a joke!
TREES: YOU speak very well yourself. We were all men once!
TREES: All! All!
A LINDEN: We have had adventures like yours, and now our only amusement is to talk among ourselves. But when a being of a superior order arrives, we become as silent as ordinary trees.
DOMINIQUE: Who is speaking to me at present?
A LINDEN: A linden.
DOMINIQUE: And I — what am I, then?
A LINDEN: You are too far away; I cannot see you distinctly.
DOMINIQUE: I feel myself — stupid! I should not be surprised if I were a plum-tree!
TREES: You are right! You are a wild plum-tree!
DOMINIQUE: What a shame that I am forced to stand here all by myself, like an exile; I can't even give you a shake of the branch!
AN ELM: Imitate us! resign yourself!
DOMINIQUE: But I shall be bored to death here, — I, who set out in search of a wife! When spring comes and I find myself full of nests, I shall be in a frightful position! It will be as bad as the tortures of Tantalus! You haven't any nice climbing plant that would come and cling to me awhile, have you?
TREES: NO!
DOMINIQUE: Not even a pretty little weed, or a vine — some wild vine? That would suit me! Come, now! I would give her back to you!
TREES: Plum-tree, you are most immoral!
(Chorus of Breezes among the Trees)
Awake, woodland trees!
Tremble in the breeze!
And, hidden from the night,
Take kisses soft and light!
Give us love!
Give us song,
O pines and holly!
Let us glide,
Let us dance
In sport and folly!
Now with joyous sighs,
We come from azure skies;
A leafy tree we capture,
Embracing it with rapture!
Tender songs
Of pretty birds
Fill the air;
Within the nests,
Each fond pair rests,
Free from care!
(Towards the end of the chorus the Trees lower their voices more and more, and leaning against each other, whisper):
TREES: A man! A man! A man! DOMINIQUE: It is my master, my friends, my —
SCENE III.
PAUL [enters, overcome with fatigue]: I shall never find it, then, this infernal castle of the Gnomes! And Dominique has disappeared! There never was such an idiot as that boy! I should have forbidden him to stir a step away from me, since I have lost two hours in searching for him. [Stops in front of the green lane, amazed] Ah, at last! [Dominique shakes his branches to attract Paul's attention] Here I am at last at the end of all my wanderings and all my fatigues! Thanks, good Fairy, for sustaining my courage through so many perils, where others before me have faltered! [A burst of laughter çomes from the Castle] That was surely laughter. But all the windows are closed — what was it, then? Pshaw! the emotion of finding myself here has made me tremble like a woman at the cry of some bird or a wild beast. But where can Dominique be? [Dominique shakes his leaves],I have done more than my duty in seeking him throughout this forest. He has been a regular nuisance, besides, on this journey, and I am too good to him! I have no doubt he has fallen into some trap, where, in spite of my warnings, his curiosity or his folly has led him. [Dominique shakes his branches harder] Well, forward! In such an enterprise, the existence of one man is nothing, since the welfare of all mankind is concerned!
(Suddenly there is a great burst of laughter and a sound of many voices. All the doors and windows of the Castle are opened violently. Twelve windows are seen, and in each sits a Gnome. On a balcony sits the King, crowned, with a sceptre in his hand. From each door springs a Gnome, laughing, shouting, and jumping about. The trees lean over, trembling violently. Paul, astonished, stands facing the Castle)
SCENE IV.
KlNG [speaks from the balcony, in a high and nasal tone]: Ah, my sensible young master! O heart exempt from all corruption! You, who abandon your servant and yet believe yourself called upon to save the human race, — you have tripped twice in two minutes, through egoism and through pride! Now you belong to us!
PAUL [disdainfully]: I?
KING: Behold that tree! It is your servant himself! PAUL: Ye gods!
KING: Beneath the bark that hides him he still has his human feelings and his memory. You are about to become like him! PAUL [in a terrible tone, addressing the Gnomes that press around him]: Not while this sword —
KING: Draw it, then!
(Paul, who has his hand on his sword, is suddenly paralysed. His arms and legs preserve the attitude he took when last speaking. He becomes rigid and white, like a statue, and a ring shines on his marble hand)
KING [from the balcony, waves a golden sceptre]: Now we have made your shoulders solid enough to bear the destiny of the world! What do you say to it? Keep, as a spur to remorse, the memory of the past. Remain forever in your attitude of impotent menace. Your lidless eyes shall have the gift of seeing us, and your ears of hearing us, after you have been carried to our festal hall! Under your appearance of insensibility you shall live to suffer an eternal torture!
(All the Gnomes, joining hands, with great bursts of laughter and to the sound of infernal music, dance around the motionless statue)
NINTH TABLEAU. THE GREAT BANQUET.
Scene: An immense dining-hall. Many lamps are suspended from the ceiling by long chains, as in a church. At each side of the stage, at regular distances, are iron columns with Corinthian capitals, with heavy chains swinging between them, to which are suspended red hearts, as if for decoration. At the back, occupying the full width of the stage, a staircase with black steps leading to a gallery above, where the same arrangement of columns is repeated. These columns have no chains nor hearts, but have palm-leaves made of amethysts in their decorations, glimpses of the evening sky can be seen between them. table stands C., covered with golden dishes. The cloth is of purple, with a gold fringe. Twelve Gnomes of the first rank sit at the table, 0» each side. The King, a somewhat higher than those of the others, facing the audience, wears a crown ornamented with little diamond hearts. At R. I. E. Paul, as a marble statue, wearing the same costume as in the Eighth Tableau, preserves absolute immobility.
(Chorus of Gnomes celebrate their victory in a song, while little pages come forward on the gallery hearing dishes in their hands. They descend the steps and hand the dishes to the servants attending on the Gnomes. These servants place the dishes on the table, and as they pass before the statue, each makes an ironical salutation)
SCENE I.
FIRST GNOME [R. of King, looks at Paul]: Well, my heroic simpleton, how do you like your position now?
SECOND GNOME: Behold! now you are indeed above us!
THIRD GNOME: But always despising the little Gnomes!
ALL: Ha! Ha! Ha!
FOURTH GNOME: YOU wished to cha
nge the world, did you?
FIFTH GNOME: Change your attitude instead.
ALL: Ha! Ha! Ha!
SIXTH GNOME: Insult us to revenge yourself!
SEVENTH GNOME: Just to make us laugh!
ALL: Ha! Ha! Ha!
KING: Good! Amuse yourselves, worthy Gnomes, my faithful subjects! Let us feast royally to celebrate our victory over mankind! At present their hearts belong to us, and we have no need to be sparing of them. Our caves, our walls, our palaces, are bursting with them. Look around you! We procure them from every part of the world; there are some from Timbuctoo and many from Paris. We have the hearts of negroes and the hearts of duchesses; some that have palpitated from the effects of opium, under the Great Wall of China, and others that have grown a little rancid from being kept too long behind a London shop-counter!
(A long branch from a tree projects itself from the right and leans close to the statue)
Six GNOMES [L.]S Look! Look there!
KING: Ah, it is only that idiot who was changed into a plum-tree standing near the wall of the Castle. [A second branch appears]
FIRST GNOME: NOW there, are two branches! They surround the statue, they embrace it!
KING: Pure sentimentality! It bores me! Cut them off! [A servant cuts off the two branches with a single blow of the knife to each. A terrible cry is heard. The branches bleed against the base of the pedestal]
SECOND GNOME: Delicate and sensitive to a degree! For a plum-tree, it is rather funny!
GNOMES: Ha! Ha! Ha!
FIRST GNOME [looks at the statue]: He is not at all moved, the wretch!
SECOND GNOME: Defend yourself, then! Animate yourself!
THIRD GNOME: YOU, too, wished to take your little share of hearts, eh?
FOURTH GNOME: Did you think that we must give them to you?
FIFTH GNOME: I should like to throw one in your face!
SIXTH GNOME: I should like to make him eat them all!
KING: Yes, and drink their blood! [Throws the contents of his cup at the statue. The red liquid dries and clings here and there to its face and its draperies]
SEVENTH GNOME: Answer us, coward!
EIGHTH GNOME: DO you hear? We scoff at your folly, your illusions, your courage!
NINTH GNOME: And that immaculate heart, where is it?
TENTH GNOME: You met some other nice hearts, did you not?
ELEVENTH GNOME: And some that loved you well!
TWELFTH GNOME: All the way from queens to the wives of bankers!
PAUL [immovable, repeats slowly]: Jeanne! Jeanne! Jeanne!
(The Gnomes, startled, spring from their chairs)
KING: Ah! Curse him!
(Jeanne appears, in the dress of a milkmaid, beside the pedestal of the statue. She climbs up and clasps Paul in her arms)
GNOMES: Look! Look!
KING: Hither! my grooms, soldiers, executioners, everyone! Come hither! Help!
(Gnomes rush on from all sides. The statue has gradually changed to lifelike hues, while the pedestal is lowered until Paul and Jeanne are on a level with the stage)
PAUL [holds Jeanne on his left arm and draws his sword]: Wretches, you are vanquished!
(A broad flash of lightning pierces the sky at the hack; thunder rolls; the Gnomes utter a loud cry, and they and the table disappear through a trap-door. Lights go down. The suspended hearts glow like little red lamps; the columns at the rear turn half' way around, and the staircase appears as a heap of ruins)
SCENE II.
PAUL: IS it you? Is it indeed you? And have you pardoned me?
JEANNE: Monsieur Paul!
PAUL: Oh, do not speak to me like that any more! Lift your head, you who I have come to my aid before and have now delivered me, sweet angel of my life, my poor misunderstood love! And I, like a blind fool, sought others! How ungrateful I was for the past, how blind towards the future! I allowed myself to be led away by vain illusions, all the more irresistible because I found that each one of these unexpected monsters, in order to confuse me, assumed something of your ways, your image. But you, all the time, were far away!
JEANNE: Not so far as you think!
PAUL: What!
JEANNE: I, too, was blind.
PAUL: What do you mean?
JEANNE: DO you remember that Parisian coquette who disgusted you with her silly ways and her foolish talk?
PAUL [laughs]: Yes!
JEANNE [naively]: That was I!
PAUL: But —
JEANNE: DO you remember the stupid little bourgeoise in that hideous village?
PAUL: Don't speak to me of that little idiot!
JEANNE [piteously]: That was I!
PAUL: Impossible!
JEANNE: Have you forgotten that queen of infinite splendour, who, with a single gesture, caused men to die?
PAUL: Enough! Do not go on!
JEANNE [hides her face in her hands]: That, too, was I!
PAUL [recoils]: You!
JEANNE [throws her arms around his neck]: Yes, I! I did all that to find you again, to please you, to make you love me! I dare say it to you now! My love was so strong that, in order to reach you, I have passed through all the madness and the cruelty of the world. And as you never have understood this love, as you never have even perceived it — although it only increased at every repulse — to-day, in order to save you, I have descended from heaven!
PAUL: From heaven!
JEANNE: Ah, yes, you did not know? Listen! I died! Yes, the Gnomes deceived me! The Fairies have brought me to life only to save you. You must follow me now. Your hour has struck! Come! Come!
PAUL: Oh, yes, I believe you! I knew well what destiny was promised to me. In spite of all obstacles, I never have doubted it. And just now, while enclosed within the marble, I suffered untold impatience and anguish. Let us go! Lead me! The Gnomes are vanquished, let us leave the earth!
JEANNE: I shall take you to a land where the sky is always blue, where the flowers, like love, are eternal and immeasurable. There, my beloved, the storms never come; we shall have all space to hold our hearts; and our eyes, ever gazing upon each other, will have the brightness and steadfastness of the stars!
PAUL [embraces Jeanne]: Ah, delight of my soul, already the eternity of our happiness begins!
SCENE III.
(The Queen of the Fairies, who, during the latter fart of this dialogue, has descended at the back, now comes forward and steps between Paul and Jeanne)
QUEEN: NO, not yet!
PAUL [indignant]: Thou, the Queen of the Fairies!
But thou didst promise me —
QUEEN: Hast thou forgotten our agreement? Thou hast accomplished only half of thy duty. The second half is more difficult, perhaps. [Points to Jeanne] Before attaining to the felicity of your perpetual union, you must give back to mankind the hearts liberated by your bravery.
PAUL: But how can I do it by myself?
QUEEN [smiles]: Oh, we shall be there! The Fairies shall aid thee. Thou hast to concern thyself only with those persons that are known to thee.
Try to convince them! Make them take back their hearts! In order that thou mayst become immortal, first perform the act of a god!
[Paul hides his face in his hands. Chorus of joyous voices is heard without]
PAUL [raises his face]: Those voices?
QUEEN: They come from the trees of the enchanted forest — the liberated beings who are now returning to their human forms.
SCENE IV.
(Enter Dominique R. with a bird's nest on his head. Instead of arms he has two branches covered with fruit. His arms stand out horizontally)
JEANNE [moved]: My brother! To see him like that!
Complete Works of Gustave Flaubert Page 433