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Mademoiselle De Belle Isle-Alexandre Dumas · Plays Collection

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  Speaker 1: Act one of Mademoiselle de bell Ille by Alexandre Dumain,
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  Speaker 1: translated by Francis N. Campbell eighteen o nine to eighteen
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  Speaker 1: ninety three. This is the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
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  Speaker 1: are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: please visit LibriVox dot org. Domatis Personi five Gentlemen of
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  Speaker 1: the Court of Louis fifteenth.
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  Speaker 2: The Duke de Richelieu read by Thomas Peter, The Duke
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  Speaker 2: du Mont read by Craig Franklin.
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  Speaker 3: The Chevalier d'auvray read by Curt.
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  Speaker 4: The Chevalier d'Aubigny read by Jason in Panama.
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  Speaker 5: Charmelac read by Alan Mapstone.
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  Speaker 6: The Abbe do Rosane read by Todd.
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  Speaker 7: The Marchioness de Valcour read by Sonia.
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  Speaker 8: Gabriella de Bellill read by Devora Allen, Mariette wat Balalyagna.
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  Speaker 9: Footman read by Roder Moline.
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  Speaker 10: Servant read by Owen Cook.
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  Speaker 1: Narrator read by Sandra Schmidt. The scene is in the
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  Speaker 1: Palace of the Duke de Bourbon at Chantilly, near Paris.
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  Speaker 1: Act one, Scene one the Marchioness's dressing room. She is
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  Speaker 1: seated at her toilet. Oh, go on, go.
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  Speaker 7: On to the signature, not one of these letters, but
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  Speaker 7: I know it's contents by heart beforehand.
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  Speaker 11: Your ladyship is vastly indifferent this morning.
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  Speaker 7: Why canst thou not see that all these professions of
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  Speaker 7: devoted love and eternal constancy are not half so much
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  Speaker 7: address to any poor personal merit of mine as to
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  Speaker 7: my supposed in ruins with his grace, the Duke of Bourbon,
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  Speaker 7: Prime Minister of his Majesty Burne Child Burn Burn Mariette reading.
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  Speaker 11: Monsieur de nor Burn, Monsieur de Dora Burn, Monsieur d'ur.
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  Speaker 7: Mon Burn, burn Burn, Here's.
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  Speaker 11: Lots of love, all vanishing in smoke.
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  Speaker 7: Nothing from Monsieur de Richelieu.
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  Speaker 11: Nothing, Hey, you rarely, madam. Your ladyship must permit me
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  Speaker 11: to say that I feel quite anxious about you.
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  Speaker 7: Anxious and why pray.
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  Speaker 11: Why to tell you the truth? Madam? You appeared to
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  Speaker 11: me threatened with a serious attachment.
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  Speaker 1: What to the Duke de Richelieu.
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  Speaker 11: I'm in a fever about it. Take care, madam. People
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  Speaker 11: have died of love, I believe sure, Poor missus.
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  Speaker 7: Valence, the upholdstrous wife, I believe that kind of people
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  Speaker 7: do die of that sort of thing sometimes.
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  Speaker 11: Well, if I were your ladyship, I take some care, however.
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  Speaker 7: Pray what makes these suppose my case so dangerous?
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  Speaker 11: All the symptoms, madam, for instance, your Ladyship's anxiety when
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  Speaker 11: Monsieur de Rechelieu's letters don't arrive, your indifference to whole
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  Speaker 11: heaps of other folks, of pistles, a constancy of interest, which,
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  Speaker 11: as far as I can observe, has lasted three whole weeks.
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  Speaker 7: Three weeks, say, really, so long as that? I believe
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  Speaker 7: you have only been in my service so long?
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  Speaker 11: Just so long, my lady. But that's a perfect lover's eternity.
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  Speaker 11: And I really think your Ladyship's complaint has reached the
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  Speaker 11: highest pitch of danger. I only hope it ain't catching.
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  Speaker 7: I could astonished you much more were I to tell
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  Speaker 7: the Oh what, madam, how inquisitive you are a child?
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  Speaker 11: I hope your Ladyship will excuse me, But it is
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  Speaker 11: so long that I've had the pleasure of being astonished
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  Speaker 11: at anything, And to.
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  Speaker 10: A servant an ecclesiastic, the Abbe do Rosanne, desires to
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  Speaker 10: know when your ladyship would allow him an audience hey
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  Speaker 10: the abbey, do rosan.
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  Speaker 7: Oh, admit him? Admit him instantly? And do you, Mariette, leave.
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  Speaker 1: Me for the present? Exit Mariette, How many years.
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  Speaker 7: Have passed since I have seen him? How full of
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  Speaker 7: strange events those years have been? And now I, who
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  Speaker 7: have struggled for so long, unaided in this sea of difficulties, find,
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  Speaker 7: at the very moment of utter discouragement the friend, the counselor,
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  Speaker 7: the guide of my.
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  Speaker 1: Early youth, and her servant and Monsieur de Rosane, May.
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  Speaker 6: An obscure and humble individual of my grave calling, be
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  Speaker 6: permitted to trespass for a few moments, Madam, upon your
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  Speaker 6: time and attention.
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  Speaker 7: He does not know me. He actually does not know me.
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  Speaker 6: I am aware that my dress and manner must form
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  Speaker 6: a strange and discordant contrast to those of your usual solicitors, Madam,
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  Speaker 6: and that a poor country curate will probably commit more
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  Speaker 6: than one conventional sin. While addressing the brilliant Marchioness de Balcour,
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  Speaker 6: the presiding divinity of a gay court, the mistress of
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  Speaker 6: the Prime Minister of France.
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  Speaker 7: No, no, no, not from you, that title, which, however,
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  Speaker 7: in your eyes alone, probably degrades me. Is it possible,
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  Speaker 7: you have forgotten Elise de Varenes, you pupil at the
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  Speaker 7: convent of Saint Cyr, in those happy, happy days when
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  Speaker 7: you were my confessor and I had so little to confess.
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  Speaker 6: Good heavens, Mademoiselle de Varenz, the Duke of Bourbon's.
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  Speaker 7: Niece, therefore most certainly not his mistress. Even so, my
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  Speaker 7: dear dear abbe.
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  Speaker 6: But how when where oh sit down?
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  Speaker 7: Sit down and let me again pour my confession into
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  Speaker 7: your ear and receive the consolation of your sympathy, the
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  Speaker 7: benefit of your advice. You remember that just at the
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  Speaker 7: time when you were appointed to the distant mission.
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  Speaker 6: Whence I have only returned within these few days, after
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  Speaker 6: ten years absence from my native land.
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  Speaker 7: I, a child of scarce fourteen years, was betrothed to
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  Speaker 7: Monsieur de Foncac, himself only sixteen, now the too notorious
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  Speaker 7: Duke de Richelieu. I returned after the ceremony to my convent,
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  Speaker 7: my husband, to the superintendence of his tutor, under whose
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  Speaker 7: care he was to travel and finish his education till
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  Speaker 7: such time as we were considered old enough to fulfill
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  Speaker 7: the contract we had entered into.
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  Speaker 6: Tis a foolish custom, a foolish custom, and has spread
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  Speaker 6: more mischief and misery than virtue or happiness. I fear
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  Speaker 6: go on, my dear daughter.
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  Speaker 7: How the four years prescribed was spent by him, I
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  Speaker 7: know not, but alas can well imagine, by me, Father.
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  Speaker 7: They were spent in one blissful dream of the happiness
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  Speaker 7: that awaited me. The fair, youthful face and form of
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  Speaker 7: my boy husband perpetually flitted before my fancy, and every
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  Speaker 7: day told me that time was but maturing his graces
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  Speaker 7: and perfecting his mind. So passed those four long years
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  Speaker 7: to me in joyful anticipation of my future fate. Judge, oh, judge,
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  Speaker 7: of the bitterness of my disappointment, of the anguish, shame
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  Speaker 7: and indignation I felt when within a week of the
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  Speaker 7: time appointed for the solemnization of our marriage the realization
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  Speaker 7: of all those happy, happy visions.
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  Speaker 6: Go on, my dear child, No.
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  Speaker 7: At the bare recollection of the cruel insult my emotion
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  Speaker 7: chokes me even now within a week, I say, of
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  Speaker 7: the day when my husband should have claimed me, I
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  Speaker 7: received from him this letter. Here, it is here, it is.
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  Speaker 7: I have worn it like a hardening talisman against my heart.
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  Speaker 7: From that moment, and I sometimes think it has turned
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  Speaker 7: my very heart to stone.
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  Speaker 6: Roseanne reads, Mademoiselle, a contract entered into when we were
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  Speaker 6: both of us children and utterly unable to judge or
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  Speaker 6: choose for ourselves. Cannot I am persuaded appear binding in
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  Speaker 6: the eyes of a person of the excellent judgment I
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  Speaker 6: am told you possess. It is therefore, I am sure,
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  Speaker 6: as much for your satisfaction as my own, that I
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  Speaker 6: propose relieving you and myself from the absurd obligations which
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  Speaker 6: have been thrust upon us by others. Our divorce will
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  Speaker 6: be easily and speedily obtained. And I flatter myself, Mademoiselle,
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  Speaker 6: that this step will prove the sincerity with which I
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  Speaker 6: remain your very obedient, humble servant. Richelieu. Poor child, Poor child.
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  Speaker 7: Your eyes are filled with tears. You feel this bitter blow,
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  Speaker 7: this withering mortification for me. Oh, but years have passed
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  Speaker 7: since then, and I have led such a life, and
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  Speaker 7: lived among such people, and seen such things that my
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  Speaker 7: tears never come out of my heart. Now, and I
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  Speaker 7: laugh all day long at everything, for existence itself has
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  Speaker 7: become a jest and a mockery to me.
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  Speaker 6: This is terrible indeed, But how came this divorce not
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  Speaker 6: to take place?
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  Speaker 7: Because I fell mortally sick upon this very blow, and
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  Speaker 7: at one time of my illness was supposed dead. Monsieur
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  Speaker 7: de Richelieu was informed of the fortunate circumstance of my demise,
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  Speaker 7: and when I recovered, I hadn't the heart to have
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  Speaker 7: him undeceived. You see, my dear Abbe, dying was more
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  Speaker 7: convenient even than divorcing, and saved.
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  Speaker 1: A world of trouble.
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  Speaker 6: And since then, since.
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  Speaker 7: Then, become of age and inheriting an independent fortune, I
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  Speaker 7: determined to follow the course of this very man, my husband,
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  Speaker 7: for he is my husband still, and for now six
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  Speaker 7: years I have known all the details of a life
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  Speaker 7: whose reckless profligacy may have wearied heaven, but has not
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  Speaker 7: destroyed my love. You love this man, unless with all
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  Speaker 7: my soul there is no transformation, disguise, no assumption that
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  Speaker 7: I have not undergone to follow him in all the
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  Speaker 7: tortuous path where he deigns to walk. Disgusted, indignant, heartsick,
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  Speaker 7: spirit weary, I have been ready to die with grief
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  Speaker 7: and shame at his proceedings. Nevertheless, sometimes I have been
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  Speaker 7: the means of healing those wounds he had inflicted. Sometimes
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  Speaker 7: I have interposed between his fatal arts and women about
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  Speaker 7: to fall victims to them. I have spared him some crimes.
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  Speaker 7: I have, as far as I could, atoned for those
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  Speaker 7: I could not prevent. I have done some good to him.
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  Speaker 7: For him, Oh Father, I do not regret the agony
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  Speaker 7: I have suffered while thus struggling to reclaim my husband.
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  Speaker 6: Bless you, my dear dear child, and Heaven will bless
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  Speaker 6: you and will crown your efforts with success. But how
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  Speaker 6: in the name of wonder is that I find you
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  Speaker 6: here in your uncle's palace, and stranger than all under
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  Speaker 6: the title of his mistress.
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  Speaker 7: The singular life I was leading. The profuseness of my expenditure,
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  Speaker 7: my isolated position, and some poor remains of personal beauty,
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  Speaker 7: which all this sorrow had not destroyed, made me soon
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  Speaker 7: an object of curiosity and observation. I found my situation
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  Speaker 7: become every day more difficult than dangerous, and at length
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  Speaker 7: I had recourse to my uncle, who, in common with
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  Speaker 7: the world and my most affectionate husband, believed me dead.
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  Speaker 6: I see he received you and kept your secret exactly.
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  Speaker 7: But the world, not being prone to give men and
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  Speaker 7: women credit for perfectly disinterested friendship, and Paris being especially
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  Speaker 7: little favorable to platonic attachments, the natural inference became that
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  Speaker 7: I was the Duke's miss.
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  Speaker 6: The name you have assumed, Oh yes.
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  Speaker 7: I know, might belong to anybody or anything. Valecour Belcour
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  Speaker 7: to be sure, may stand for anything one pleases. But
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  Speaker 7: pray remember, Monsieur Lebby, that it is the very few
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  Speaker 7: people's business and nobody's interest here to trouble their heads
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  Speaker 7: about my calling.
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  Speaker 6: I am sorry you should have lent yourself to a
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  Speaker 6: situation involving such a scandal.
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  Speaker 7: Nevertheless, scandal, my dear Abbe. To be sure, you have
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  Speaker 7: been ten years in the colonies and may be pardoned
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  Speaker 7: your innocence. Why I am considered the most virtuous as
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  Speaker 7: well as the most charming of women my supposed protector,
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  Speaker 7: being prime Minister, I assure you not only all the
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  Speaker 7: nobles of the court, but all their wives are at
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  Speaker 7: my feet. And as for the churchmen, my levees are
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  Speaker 7: thronged with bishops, my assemblies with archbishops. And as for
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  Speaker 7: Cirie and Abbe, I beg your pardon, my dear friend,
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  Speaker 7: they positively cost me a fortune in wax lights. They
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  Speaker 7: make my rooms so dark with their black livery, the
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  Speaker 7: only grave thing about them. Believe me, and to be
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  Speaker 7: sure they do all they can by the liveliness, not
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  Speaker 7: to say, looseness of their conversation, to atone for the
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  Speaker 7: gloominess and stiffness of their costumes.
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  Speaker 6: And Monsieur de Richelieu still suspects nothing.
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  Speaker 7: He has become my most intimate friend, and now nothing
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  Speaker 7: loath brings me the confidence which formerly I was forced
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  Speaker 7: to surprise. This a curious position. Let me tell you
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  Speaker 7: that of a wife who is her husband's unknown confidante.
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  Speaker 6: It seems strange to me that he has never addressed
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  Speaker 6: you as a lover.
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  Speaker 7: Instinct depend upon it, he would, I have no doubt
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  Speaker 7: if I had not been his wife.
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  Speaker 6: How have you the heart to jest?
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  Speaker 7: I've positively no heart left for anything else besides in
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  Speaker 7: the life I lead, and assured observation will convince you
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  Speaker 7: of the fact. Laughing has often precisely the signification of
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  Speaker 7: tears and sighs when one's tired of the one one
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  Speaker 7: takes to the other, and it still means the same thing.
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  Speaker 7: And lips that have exhausted the relief of complaint will
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  Speaker 7: utter the pleasantest jests upon their own misery. It's only
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  Speaker 7: one way of easing one's heart, believe me, and the
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  Speaker 7: heart must be eased some way, you know, or break
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  Speaker 7: enter a servant.
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  Speaker 10: The Duke de Richieu wishes to be permitted the honor
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  Speaker 10: of waiting upon her ladyship. The Duke de Richelieu, his grace,
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  Speaker 10: has only this moment arrived from Paris, and wishes to
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  Speaker 10: know if her ladyship is visible.
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  Speaker 7: Oh, certainly admit him now, my dear abbe, will you
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  Speaker 7: stay and see how admirably I carry on this said farce?
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  Speaker 6: No, oh, indeed, for I am not as well bred
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  Speaker 6: as your ladyship, and would surely betray myself or you,
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  Speaker 6: or both of us.
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  Speaker 7: You have postponedo suit to the Duke de Beaubont's mistress
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  Speaker 7: in listening to Elise de Varens's story. Never mind, you
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  Speaker 7: are sure of my interest, and you have no idea
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  Speaker 7: how immense that is. Pray remain in the palace while
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  Speaker 7: you stay in chanty. I cannot afford to lose you again.
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  Speaker 7: It is too great a luxury to have a friend.
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  Speaker 6: And I shall ever be yours most devotedly.
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  Speaker 1: Exit entered the Duke to Richelieu.
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  Speaker 2: How charming of you to receive me so kindly, even
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  Speaker 2: in my boots.
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  Speaker 7: I am always charmed to see you, my dear Duke,
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  Speaker 7: whatever your costume. So you are just come from Paris.
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  Speaker 2: I arrived ten minutes ago. And what have you been
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  Speaker 2: doing here?
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  Speaker 4: Ah?
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  Speaker 7: Nothing worth being told?
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  Speaker 4: Did you?
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  Speaker 7: U has hunted a good deal, and I have received petitions.
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  Speaker 2: I envy the people that ask and receive favors from.
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  Speaker 7: You, Oh, my dear duke.
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  Speaker 1: A truth.
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  Speaker 7: I thought it was agreed that there was to be
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  Speaker 7: no superfluous gallantry between us.
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  Speaker 2: True, though I am sometimes vehemently tempted to break the
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  Speaker 2: compact and make violent love to you. You're such a
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  Speaker 2: capital friend that I verily believe I should lose by
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  Speaker 2: making you my mistress.
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  Speaker 7: Dear friend, you certainly would. That's the common cause of things.
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  Speaker 1: You know.
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  Speaker 2: I thought d'orvay was at Chantilly.
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  Speaker 7: So he is.
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  Speaker 2: I wonder what brings him here? Does he come officially
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  Speaker 2: as lieutenant of my Lord's marshals to bark.
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  Speaker 7: Some duel, not that I am aware of.
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  Speaker 2: Did he come alone?
• 17:54
  Speaker 7: Daumont came with him?
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  Speaker 2: No? Really, the dear dom homed and unshaved as usual.
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  Speaker 2: I suppose upon my soul he is the slovenliest nobleman
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  Speaker 2: in France.
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  Speaker 7: So Paris would not let you go. And the five
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  Speaker 7: days for which he went grew into a.
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  Speaker 2: Whole week well, and was not a week little enough
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  Speaker 2: to pay my court to our young king. After my
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  Speaker 2: two years dreary exile at Vienna.
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  Speaker 7: Oh yes, and then you know you had to see
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  Speaker 7: Madame de Villere, Madame de de Ras, Madame de ville Rois,
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  Speaker 7: Madame de Sabran, Madame de Mouchy, Mademoiselle de Charrole, Madame
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  Speaker 7: de Soubise, Madame de.
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  Speaker 2: Upon my life, It's true. I didn't think there were
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  Speaker 2: so many, But as so many duties compelled me to remain,
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: I did not doubt that if anything of importance took
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: place here, you would be good enough to write me
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  Speaker 2: a line. By the bye? Do you never write anybody?
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: He's curious enough that, in spite of delightful intimacy, I
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: haven't a line of your handwriting, I don't even know
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: it by sight.
• 19:07
  Speaker 7: That's rather an unadvised speech for a diplomatist. My Lord,
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  Speaker 7: can the favorite of a prime minister indulge in an
• 19:14
  Speaker 7: intimate correspondence, especially with such a one as Monsieur Richelieu.
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  Speaker 7: Handwriting is a dangerous thing in your grace's possessions sometimes we.
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  Speaker 2: Know, and how goes it with your faithful ador dar mon.
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  Speaker 7: Indeed, I don't know whether it's love of me, but
• 19:35
  Speaker 7: he certainly is half crazy.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, my dear lady, you wrong him by half. But
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: pray tell me who is the young officer on God
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  Speaker 2: downstairs this morning? A protegee of your ladyships of mine?
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  Speaker 2: Sir Ah, don't look cross. I didn't mean to be
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: rude or inquisitive, you know, m He's a devilish, handsome fellow,
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  Speaker 2: That's all.
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  Speaker 1: I believe.
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  Speaker 7: He has lately been promoted through the interest of the.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: Duke de Bourbon. What's his name, Dobini, I believe.
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  Speaker 2: Douinni d'Aubigny, good name, good family. People from Brittany, I think. Oh,
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  Speaker 2: but by the bye, my dear delightful marchioness. Talking of Brittany,
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: I'm distractedly in love.
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  Speaker 7: Indeed, what again, since when?
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  Speaker 2: Oh, since the day before yesterday? Now, just imagine the
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: loveliest creature.
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  Speaker 7: It isn't absolutely necessary that I should hear her personal description,
• 20:45
  Speaker 7: is it, my lord?
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  Speaker 2: Oh no, not if it bores you well. However, she's
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  Speaker 2: from Brittany, and you met her first at the archbishops
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: then at the King's.
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  Speaker 7: Oh I see some new la Valliere.
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  Speaker 2: Not a bit of it. You're quite mistaken. A gentlewoman
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  Speaker 2: of high family who has come to Paris to solicit
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: the freedom of her father and brothers, who are prisoners
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: in the Bastine. The archbishop referred her to the King,
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: and the King referred her to the Duc de Beaubon,
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: so that she came here this very morning, an hour
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: before I myself arrived. She is here, Yes, isn't it charming?
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  Speaker 4: Oh?
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: Very?
• 21:35
  Speaker 7: But what is to be the result of all this?
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: Pon my soul? That's more than I can tell. But
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: I have a notion that may turn out pleasantly.
• 21:45
  Speaker 7: You have forgotten one thing, however, the name of your
• 21:49
  Speaker 7: fair petitioner.
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: Mademoiselle de Bellille.
• 21:53
  Speaker 7: What the granddaughter of Fouquet the very same? But the
• 21:59
  Speaker 7: father is compromised in that Le Blanc business, and their
• 22:03
  Speaker 7: sons are accused of assassination.
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: Lord bless us, Yes, I know those things are said
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: about people in order to get them into the best you.
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: The accusations are even believed as long as they are
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: out of it, and when they are fairly trapped, they
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: are left there. The whole business is not only disbelieved,
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: but never thought about by anyone again. I'll tell you what,
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: my dear Marchioness. I don't know whether it is because
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: I have twice been in the bastille myself, but I
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: really have a most sincere commiseration for those people who
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: are sent there, particularly the second time enter a servant.
• 22:43
  Speaker 10: Mademoiselle de Bellis.
• 22:45
  Speaker 7: Why do you announce visitors without knowing whether I choose
• 22:48
  Speaker 7: to receive anyone.
• 22:50
  Speaker 10: Her ladyship had said this morning that.
• 22:54
  Speaker 7: Oh, yes, but I did not wish to see everybody
• 22:57
  Speaker 7: that came.
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: Now, my dear dear Marchioness, I beseech.
• 23:02
  Speaker 7: You, Oh, certainly I can refuse your grace nothing.
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: Admit the lady, you're a perfect angel.
• 23:11
  Speaker 7: My part in this business is a charming one, I must.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: Say, Mademoiselle de Bellille, and a Mademoiselle de Bellille, Madame,
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: pray approach Mademoiselle.
• 23:24
  Speaker 8: How kind of you, madame to receive me? Thus, upon
• 23:27
  Speaker 8: my first presenting myself at your door.
• 23:30
  Speaker 7: I do not deserve your acknowledgements, Mademoiselle. They adue to
• 23:34
  Speaker 7: his grace, the Duke de Richelieu.
• 23:37
  Speaker 8: The Duke de Richelieu.
• 23:39
  Speaker 7: He assured me that the business upon which you came
• 23:42
  Speaker 7: was most pressing and could not be postponed.
• 23:46
  Speaker 8: A thousand thanks then, first to his grace. I had
• 23:49
  Speaker 8: already been fortunate enough to find him on my way
• 23:51
  Speaker 8: to Versailles, whose gates were opened to me by his influence.
• 23:55
  Speaker 8: It seems that he is still my good angel at chantie.
• 23:58
  Speaker 8: But let me also thank you, Madame, whose gracious reception
• 24:01
  Speaker 8: augurs so well for my success.
• 24:04
  Speaker 7: You must now tell me in what I can be
• 24:07
  Speaker 7: useful to you.
• 24:08
  Speaker 8: My name has informed you who I am, and this
• 24:11
  Speaker 8: intrusion must explain how urgent is the favor I solicit.
• 24:15
  Speaker 8: My father, Madame, and my two brothers have now been
• 24:18
  Speaker 8: prisoners three years in the bastille. My father, the venerable
• 24:22
  Speaker 8: head of a noble house, accused of fraud, embezzlement, my
• 24:25
  Speaker 8: brothers gentlemen and soldiers, implicated in a charge of murder. Oh, Madame,
• 24:31
  Speaker 8: you must see yourself at once that these things cannot
• 24:33
  Speaker 8: be true. And yet for three long years have I
• 24:36
  Speaker 8: remained alone to console and support my mother, vainly hoping
• 24:40
  Speaker 8: that justice would at last be granted them. At length,
• 24:43
  Speaker 8: my mother died, and I found myself alone in the
• 24:46
  Speaker 8: wide world, on one hand a prison, on the other
• 24:50
  Speaker 8: a grave. Then, Madame, I set forth alone to seek
• 24:54
  Speaker 8: redress under the safeguard of my misfortunes.
• 24:57
  Speaker 7: And what was your intention to.
• 25:00
  Speaker 8: See the Archbishop de Fraus to throw myself at the
• 25:02
  Speaker 8: King's feet. Well, well, Madame, I have been denied redress
• 25:07
  Speaker 8: alike by both, By the Archbishop, because he said political
• 25:11
  Speaker 8: affairs in no way concerned him. By the King, who
• 25:15
  Speaker 8: engrossed by the pleasures of his age, is ignorant even
• 25:17
  Speaker 8: of the existence of those who are persecuted in his name.
• 25:21
  Speaker 8: At length, I was sent hither to present my petition
• 25:24
  Speaker 8: to the Duke de Bourbon, and I determined to appeal
• 25:26
  Speaker 8: to you, Madame, why because you are a woman. Because
• 25:31
  Speaker 8: terrified at my lonely and unprotected position, a stranger at
• 25:34
  Speaker 8: court and unused to all its observances, trembling at every
• 25:38
  Speaker 8: moment lest I should commit some imprudence or be guilty
• 25:41
  Speaker 8: of some breach of etiquette, I felt as if I
• 25:43
  Speaker 8: should be safe at once could I but appeal to
• 25:46
  Speaker 8: the feelings of a woman.
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: And you are very right, Madam. Her Ladyship will do
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: everything in her power for you. I dare be.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: Sworn servant announcing his grace the Duc d'Aumont, the Chevalier de Doot.
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: The devil take them both.
• 26:03
  Speaker 7: You see, Madame. In spite of the interest which I
• 26:06
  Speaker 7: cannot but feel for you, I am under the necessity
• 26:09
  Speaker 7: of receiving company some other time. We will resume this conversation.
• 26:15
  Speaker 8: Some other time. Oh Madame, Shall I ever find you again?
• 26:19
  Speaker 8: Thus gracious and condescending? Good Heavens, I have yet so
• 26:22
  Speaker 8: much to urge that would convince your mind and touch
• 26:24
  Speaker 8: your heart. Who can assure me that I shall be
• 26:27
  Speaker 8: permitted to see you even some other time, and that
• 26:29
  Speaker 8: before tomorrow the persecutors of my wretched family may not
• 26:32
  Speaker 8: have made me an enemy in her whom I implore
• 26:34
  Speaker 8: today as my redeeming angel.
• 26:37
  Speaker 7: Really, I am very much embarrassed. I should be too
• 26:40
  Speaker 7: happy to give you my undivided attention.
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: But well, my dear Marchioness, there is one way of
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: arranging this business. Retire to your own apartment with Mademoiselle,
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: and I will receive these.
• 26:53
  Speaker 7: Gentlemen, your grace is really too obliging. Pray do the
• 26:58
  Speaker 7: honors for me, and do you, mademoiselle, accompany me where
• 27:02
  Speaker 7: we shall be uninterrupted.
• 27:04
  Speaker 8: Heaven surely inspired me when I sought you, Madame, and
• 27:07
  Speaker 8: Heaven will reward you both. For my poor thanks are
• 27:10
  Speaker 8: all I have to.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: Offer exit with Madame de Valcour.
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: Nothing can be better. I released the father and the
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: brothers from best as a good action is never unrewarded.
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: I shall have my reward, or there is no such
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: thing as justice extant. Showing the gentlemen they come in.
• 27:34
  Speaker 12: Good morning, Duke, Good morning, ah.
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: My dear Chevalier. I have not seen you, I think,
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: since the day when the Count de Manoel of Bavaria
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: and myself were just going to cut each other's throats,
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: and you interfered and arrested me. Yes, faith arrested me,
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: and by order of our Lord's Marshals of France, here
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: is my hand. I owe you no grudge for it.
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: You're of a forgiving disposition, and I can understand your
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: owing me no grudge for saving you some ugly gash
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: or other. But the question is whether we shall forgive
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: you for being here tete a tete for the last
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: hour with the Marchioness, while we are not admitted even
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: to kiss the hem of her petticoat pray?
• 28:29
  Speaker 12: Has she delegated her powers to you? And are you
• 28:33
  Speaker 12: to treat with us instead of the fair lady?
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: Precisely I shall profit by my present dignity and give you,
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: d'amand a piece of advice. Well, what is it now,
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: my dear fellow. It please God to make you a
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: nobleman of the first family. It please the King to
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: create your duke and peer of the realm. The Duchess
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: of Oleon got your ribbon for you. Your wife had
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: you made captains, and the gods I installed you Knight
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: of Sailery, for by that same token I had to
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: kiss you at that August ceremony. Now, seeing that so
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: much has been done for you by others, do, my
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: dear fellow, shave your chin and do something for yourself?
• 29:19
  Speaker 12: What absurd stuff? This was the way we all wore
• 29:22
  Speaker 12: our beards during the regency, and it was thought charming.
• 29:26
  Speaker 12: Then we have not changed, but the women have got
• 29:30
  Speaker 12: some new freak in their heads about us. The devil
• 29:33
  Speaker 12: take old fashions. Everybody hasn't been blessed like you, with
• 29:38
  Speaker 12: the faculty of conforming to every whim of the hour.
• 29:43
  Speaker 12: Nobody but front sect could have become richer you. But
• 29:47
  Speaker 12: I think even you will be puzzled to follow the
• 29:49
  Speaker 12: prevailing fashion of the day, the improved morality of society,
• 29:54
  Speaker 12: as our philosophers.
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: Say, pray, my dear dauvray, Are our ladies really become
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: so so terribly virtuous as I am told they are?
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: It's incredible, but a most melancholy truth. Formerly, as you know,
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: the universal custom was that a woman had one confessor
• 30:13
  Speaker 3: and two lovers.
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: At a time.
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: Now would you believe it? They reversed the fashion and
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: they have only one lover and two chaplains. It's really
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: a frightful state of society.
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: Come nonsense, You always take gloomy views of things.
• 30:32
  Speaker 12: Upon my soul. It's true. He has it for the
• 30:35
  Speaker 12: best authority too, his own wife.
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: No, you mistake, Domo. I had it from yours, they'd
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: be sure to be true.
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: How unfortunate I am to be deprived of such authentic
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: sources of information, wretched widower?
• 30:55
  Speaker 12: You a widower? Why when were you married?
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: So long ago that I've almost forgotten it.
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: Where is your wife.
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: Hm, I don't exactly know, sweet creature, lovely woman died
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: in a convent before we could even be divorce. It's
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: a melancholy story. I'll tell it to you some other time.
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: Servant announcing the Chevalier d'Aubigny.
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: Ah, my young officer comes to pay is caught the
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: fair marchioness too, for my word. He's a good looking
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: chap and I suspect.
• 31:34
  Speaker 12: So you see that, as far as you are concerned,
• 31:37
  Speaker 12: the very occupation of your life's gone. The braid's taken
• 31:41
  Speaker 12: out of your mouth, that one may say. And I
• 31:43
  Speaker 12: hardly advise you to return to Vienna, or you may
• 31:46
  Speaker 12: depend upon it. There's nothing to be done here.
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: Speak for yourselves, gentlemen, Oh, we speak for all. That's
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: the point upon which I am not at allso certain.
• 32:00
  Speaker 12: My soul, richelu you have come back from Vienna a
• 32:03
  Speaker 12: more imputent Coxcombe than you went. The women there have
• 32:07
  Speaker 12: actually wrought that miracle upon you. You'd better go back there.
• 32:11
  Speaker 12: Pleave me. The game's up here And to.
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: Madame de Valcour with Roseanne followed by a servant carrying her.
• 32:18
  Speaker 7: Mass book A thousand pardons gentlemen, I have been unexpectedly
• 32:23
  Speaker 7: detained till now, and I really now must go to Mass. Tomorrow.
• 32:28
  Speaker 7: We have a ball at the palace, and shall be
• 32:30
  Speaker 7: happy to see you all.
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: Madam Madame de Valcour to Richelieu, come back in an hour.
• 32:39
  Speaker 7: I must speak with you.
• 32:41
  Speaker 3: I shall not fail, and does not your ladyship intend
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: receiving us tomorrow morning to console us in some degree
• 32:50
  Speaker 3: for our ill fortune?
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: To day.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: Impossible?
• 32:56
  Speaker 7: My dear Chevalier, I accompanied you to Paris tomorrow morning,
• 33:00
  Speaker 7: and she'll only return in time for the ball.
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: The Duc de Bebon is invited to Rambouiller to join
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: the King's hunt.
• 33:07
  Speaker 7: I understand, Oh, yes, he is in higher favor there
• 33:11
  Speaker 7: than ever. The archbishop's scale is light and threatens to
• 33:15
  Speaker 7: kick the beam, so that we are still king of friends.
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: We kiss the hand of your steel.
• 33:23
  Speaker 7: Come, monsieur Lebille, how do you think I carry it?
• 33:28
  Speaker 6: Most wonderfully?
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: They all kiss her hand. She curtsies and goes out.
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: Now just look there, what were we telling you, Rishleeu.
• 33:40
  Speaker 3: There goes Madame de Valcour de Mass, with her priest
• 33:43
  Speaker 3: on one side and her prayer book on the other.
• 33:47
  Speaker 3: I declare the women are possessed with a devil of devotion.
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: In spite of which come now a wager. What is it?
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: I'm in want of a thousand Louis l'aummo is too
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: misely to learn them. You are too prodigal to have them.
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: Now I will win five hundred from each of you
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: in a fair wager, with.
• 34:10
  Speaker 12: All by heart and mine.
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: You both insist that during my absence the women have
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: all become furiously virtuous.
• 34:20
  Speaker 12: It is our sincere and very sad opinion.
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: Very well, now, mind dumont, mind d'uvray, I bet aye
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: duc der chealeu, that I will obtain a private interview
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: of the very first maid, wife or widow that we
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: see either here or as we leave the palace, and
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: that within the next four and twenty hours.
• 34:46
  Speaker 3: Stop a bit, Let's be precise, if you please a
• 34:50
  Speaker 3: love meeting.
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: My dear fellow, I leave all other meetings to my
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: men of business. A you wrong, de roudin a rendezvous?
• 35:01
  Speaker 3: And where shall it take place?
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: Why in the lady's chamber if you like, at what
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: time midnight if that suits you?
• 35:12
  Speaker 3: And how shall the thing be proved?
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: Nothing easier in life. I'll throw a note out at
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: the window myself to you.
• 35:21
  Speaker 12: Done.
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: Done, Now you understand perfectly. A woman, the first maid wife,
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: a widow that we see either in the palace or
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: as we leieved. Oh. On one condition, however, the lady
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: must be handsome.
• 35:37
  Speaker 12: Oh certainly here look, look, look, gentlemen, here comes a
• 35:42
  Speaker 12: woman through the gallery.
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: Mademoiselle de Bellille passes through the back of the stage.
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: Mademoiselle de Bellier.
• 35:50
  Speaker 3: Aha, this doesn't look so promising, eh Rishly.
• 35:56
  Speaker 12: I'm afraid you don't feel so sure of our money, gentlemen.
• 36:00
  Speaker 3: I shall win it dependent a thousand louis.
• 36:04
  Speaker 4: Then Dobini coming forward one moment, gentlemen, I'll hold the
• 36:10
  Speaker 4: stakes if you please, you sir, with your Grace's permission.
• 36:17
  Speaker 12: And why may one ask, because.
• 36:20
  Speaker 4: Gentlemen, I have a small interest in this wager. Two
• 36:24
  Speaker 4: in three days I was to marry that lady whom
• 36:27
  Speaker 4: his Grace of Richelieu has undertaken to dishonor within the
• 36:30
  Speaker 4: four and twenty hours.
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: End of the first act, Act two of Mademoiselle de
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: Bellville by Alexandre Dumain, translated by Francis and Campbell eighteen
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: o nine to eighteen ninety three. This is a LibriVox recording.
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Act two,
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: Scene one, the same scene as in the first act.
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: Enter Madame de Valcour and Richelieu.
• 37:10
  Speaker 7: And you have laid such a wager. Even so, what madness.
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: I've no reputation for wisdom to.
• 37:18
  Speaker 7: Lose your wages lost? Depend upon it?
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: I have yet till tomorrow morning at eleven o'clock. It's
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: only now just five in the afternoon.
• 37:30
  Speaker 7: Who patted against you? Who held the stakes?
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: I'll tell you all that when I've won. Now you
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: must keep your promise? What promise to assist me in
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: my undertaking?
• 37:43
  Speaker 7: Good heavens, But if I could have conceived.
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: However, oh, no backing out?
• 37:53
  Speaker 7: I depend upon you, well you may do so.
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: It's very strange you say that in such an odd
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: sort of way.
• 38:04
  Speaker 7: Dear me, what sort of way of course?
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: I shall keep my word?
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: Well, good bye, I'm off to reconnoiter my ground.
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: Where does she lodge?
• 38:16
  Speaker 10: Have the sun?
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: A good house kept by a worthy old rascoon whose
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: forefathers have plundered ours time out of mind, and who
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: now shreads in his ancestors steps most conscientiously. I can
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: make him do anything I please.
• 38:34
  Speaker 7: You will be back soon, for the Duke de Beaubon
• 38:37
  Speaker 7: has dispatches for you this morning.
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: Oh yes, besides must tell you how the affair prospers.
• 38:45
  Speaker 7: Adieu exit, ah, how the affair prospers. I am glad
• 38:51
  Speaker 7: his Grace has so fairly taken me into his alliance.
• 38:54
  Speaker 7: On this occasion, however, depends upon me for assistance too,
• 39:00
  Speaker 7: as well as sympathy. At any rate, I can promise
• 39:04
  Speaker 7: him quite as much of the one as the other.
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: Enter Monsieur Drouzanne.
• 39:10
  Speaker 7: Well, what do you think of this wager?
• 39:14
  Speaker 6: I am petrified at such cold blooded prolificacy. Doubtless, Madam,
• 39:19
  Speaker 6: you were unable to restrain your just indignation and overwhelmed
• 39:23
  Speaker 6: his Grace with merited reproaches.
• 39:27
  Speaker 7: So far from any such thing, my dear Abbe, I
• 39:30
  Speaker 7: listened to him with the most cordial interest, and have
• 39:34
  Speaker 7: moreover promised to assist him with all my power.
• 39:39
  Speaker 6: Some indirectess may be pardoned in so difficult a situation
• 39:42
  Speaker 6: as yours. But then, of course you will warn this
• 39:46
  Speaker 6: interesting young lady no such thing.
• 39:50
  Speaker 7: She is far too interesting too. Innocent, too sacredly free
• 39:55
  Speaker 7: from knowledge or even suspicion of evil to be shocked
• 39:59
  Speaker 7: by any such revelations. No, she shall know none of
• 40:03
  Speaker 7: the dangers that surround her, and yet she shall escape
• 40:07
  Speaker 7: them all or with courage and cunning, shall have forsaken
• 40:12
  Speaker 7: me Forever. The Duke shall lose his wager, my dear abbe,
• 40:17
  Speaker 7: and that charming young creature shall never know of how
• 40:21
  Speaker 7: violent attempt she has been made the object. My spirit
• 40:25
  Speaker 7: is roused alike by the difficulty of my enterprise and
• 40:29
  Speaker 7: its interest. I promise you we shall obtain a glorious victory,
• 40:35
  Speaker 7: and my escape Grave's husband shall yet acknowledge that there
• 40:39
  Speaker 7: are women in the world who are true to themselves
• 40:42
  Speaker 7: and loyal to each other.
• 40:45
  Speaker 10: Mademoiselle de Belly.
• 40:47
  Speaker 7: Oh most fortunate, show her in.
• 40:52
  Speaker 6: I leave you, My dear madam. You wear an air
• 40:55
  Speaker 6: of triumph already that it makes me almost sure of
• 40:59
  Speaker 6: your success. Heavn't grant our hopes their full accomplishment.
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: Exit and to Mademoiselle de Ballille, come, my dear child.
• 41:10
  Speaker 8: Pardon this early intrusion, Madame, but my anxiety is uncontrollable.
• 41:15
  Speaker 8: Have you seen the Duc de Bourbon.
• 41:17
  Speaker 7: I have, but my application to him on your behalf
• 41:22
  Speaker 7: was far from successful. Oh, heavens, the Duke is strongly prejudiced.
• 41:27
  Speaker 7: I am sorry to say against your family.
• 41:31
  Speaker 8: Unfortunate that I am. Oh, Madame, would heaven but inspire
• 41:35
  Speaker 8: me with the power of convincing you.
• 41:37
  Speaker 7: I am convinced, my dear, already. But that is not
• 41:41
  Speaker 7: the question, Monsieur de Bourbon. You see, stay a moment,
• 41:46
  Speaker 7: an idea occurs to me. There is a person who
• 41:50
  Speaker 7: has the greatest influence over him, who, if he would
• 41:55
  Speaker 7: but take up your affair I am sure would succeed
• 41:59
  Speaker 7: in carrying it through triumphantly.
• 42:02
  Speaker 8: Oh who, where? How can I find this person? Tell
• 42:06
  Speaker 8: me that I may fly?
• 42:07
  Speaker 7: Oh you need not fly, child, He is here at Chanti.
• 42:13
  Speaker 7: But by the bye, what am I thinking of?
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: You know him? It is Monsieur de Richelieu.
• 42:20
  Speaker 8: Then, indeed I am sure of success. His goodness to
• 42:22
  Speaker 8: me at Versailles, and here Madame this morning. If you
• 42:25
  Speaker 8: remember the extreme kindness of his manner.
• 42:28
  Speaker 7: Oh yes, I remember. Well, your best way will be
• 42:32
  Speaker 7: too right to him.
• 42:34
  Speaker 8: How very fortunate I have had the very same idea myself.
• 42:38
  Speaker 8: You advise me to write to him, Madame, and I
• 42:40
  Speaker 8: have already.
• 42:41
  Speaker 7: Done so, bless me. Have you sent the letter?
• 42:45
  Speaker 8: Oh no, Madame, I have brought it to you to
• 42:48
  Speaker 8: request you to look at it, to ask you whether
• 42:50
  Speaker 8: you think it proper that I should solicit an interview
• 42:53
  Speaker 8: with Monsieur de Richelieu.
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: Madame de Valcour sighed, charming creature.
• 42:59
  Speaker 7: I am in love with my own arrival. Aloud, certainly,
• 43:04
  Speaker 7: my dear child, the sacredness of your motive shields you
• 43:08
  Speaker 7: from all ill interpretation.
• 43:11
  Speaker 8: I thought it might do so, Madame.
• 43:13
  Speaker 7: Besides, you may, if you please appoint him here in
• 43:18
  Speaker 7: this very apartment.
• 43:20
  Speaker 8: Oh, if you would, but permit it? Where can I
• 43:23
  Speaker 8: send to him?
• 43:24
  Speaker 4: Oh?
• 43:24
  Speaker 8: Madame, how kind, how good, how considerate you are?
• 43:29
  Speaker 7: But bless me, How came I not to think of
• 43:31
  Speaker 7: it before? How inconsiderate I have been? You are alone
• 43:36
  Speaker 7: at CHANTI I think you told.
• 43:38
  Speaker 8: Me, Alas, Madame, quite alone.
• 43:42
  Speaker 7: Staying at an hotel alone? Why, my dear, that is
• 43:45
  Speaker 7: in itself a most objectionable situation for a young woman
• 43:49
  Speaker 7: of family. You cannot possibly stay alone in a hotel.
• 43:54
  Speaker 8: Alas, Madame, I know nobody at CHANTI.
• 43:57
  Speaker 7: Forgetful except myself. Now when I undertake a business my dear,
• 44:03
  Speaker 7: it is my principle to see through and that successfully too.
• 44:09
  Speaker 7: I have pledged myself to your cause, and I am
• 44:12
  Speaker 7: determined to gain it for you. And as the first
• 44:16
  Speaker 7: step in the matter, we will besiege Monsieur de Beaubont.
• 44:20
  Speaker 7: I will introduce the enemy into the citadel you shall
• 44:25
  Speaker 7: lodge here.
• 44:27
  Speaker 8: What have I done to deserve so much kindness? I
• 44:30
  Speaker 8: who trembled at the bare thought of demanding your protection?
• 44:33
  Speaker 8: But indeed, my dear Madame, I cannot put you to
• 44:36
  Speaker 8: so much.
• 44:37
  Speaker 7: Inconvenience, Ah, in convenience, nonsense, child, You shall have these
• 44:44
  Speaker 7: two rooms and the small library adjoining. I shall simply
• 44:47
  Speaker 7: install myself in the suite of apartments beyond. That's all,
• 44:52
  Speaker 7: and we shall be next door to each other and
• 44:55
  Speaker 7: excellent neighbors.
• 44:56
  Speaker 8: I am sure, oh, Madame, Good heavens, if you could
• 45:00
  Speaker 8: but know what balm your kindness pours into my heart. Oh,
• 45:03
  Speaker 8: I feel so sure, so sure that if you but
• 45:06
  Speaker 8: will it, all things will turn out fortunately for me.
• 45:09
  Speaker 7: I hope I have made a good beginning, and when
• 45:13
  Speaker 7: we are once fairly leagued and side by side, it
• 45:16
  Speaker 7: shall go hard, my fair petitioner, if we do not
• 45:20
  Speaker 7: repair all past misfortunes and prevent all future ones. But
• 45:26
  Speaker 7: let us lose no time. Return to your hotel and
• 45:29
  Speaker 7: have all your things brought here immediately, she rings. Mariette
• 45:34
  Speaker 7: enters see if one of the carriages is ready. Go
• 45:38
  Speaker 7: with Mademoiselle to her lodging, and remain to assist her.
• 45:42
  Speaker 7: In the meantime, My dear, I shall send you a
• 45:45
  Speaker 7: note to the Duke.
• 45:46
  Speaker 8: How can I thank you?
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: Attempts to kiss her hand?
• 45:50
  Speaker 7: Nonsense?
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: What are you about? Kisses her forehead?
• 45:55
  Speaker 7: You will find me here when you come back.
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: Exhamed Mademoiselle de Bellille and Mariette.
• 46:02
  Speaker 7: Upon my word, I know nothing half so imprudent as
• 46:06
  Speaker 7: a young girl's gratitude. By simply changing two words in
• 46:10
  Speaker 7: this letter, Monsieur Richelieu, with the excellent opinion he has
• 46:15
  Speaker 7: of himself, would presently discover what certainly was never meant
• 46:21
  Speaker 7: in it. My dear husband, you were gallantly complaining just
• 46:26
  Speaker 7: now that you did not know my handwriting. So much
• 46:31
  Speaker 7: the better, for we shall very probably have a long
• 46:34
  Speaker 7: correspondence together under cover of Mademoiselle de Bellille. I shall
• 46:40
  Speaker 7: go and rewrite this dangerous epistle forthwith exit.
• 46:46
  Speaker 2: Enter Richelieu might heaven keeper is either stupid what's worse, honest,
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure that he understood me, or he is
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: an accomplished assumer of innocence. If I only knew her room,
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: there might be some condemned door. The greatest conveniences in
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: life are those same condemned doors. By the bye, I
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: wonder if our gay marchioness knows anything of the past
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: behind the tapestry that Monsieur de Beaubont so ingeniously contrived
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: for himself years ago in this very room. Let's see,
• 47:25
  Speaker 2: let's see. The Marchioness is a very strange woman hereabouts
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: I think it was. And though they acknowledged favorite of
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: the Prime Minister or hereabouts, or and a woman of
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: decided talent, she does not seem to take half the
• 47:42
  Speaker 2: advantage of her admirable position that she might, and many
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: women would. For instance, this secret door, where the devil
• 47:51
  Speaker 2: is it?
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: Enter Madame de Valcour.
• 47:55
  Speaker 7: Oh, my dear duke, what are you about with my
• 47:58
  Speaker 7: poor old tapestry?
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: Richelieu aside, I wonder now if she does know the door.
• 48:06
  Speaker 2: She looks so confoundedly unconscious, allowed nothing, oh nothing, I
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: was admiring this part of the work. Go belone, magnificent.
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: But my dear Marchioness, I am in high spirits.
• 48:24
  Speaker 7: Well come, I will put you in still better you,
• 48:28
  Speaker 7: ma'am Mademoiselle de Bellille, has just left me. She had
• 48:32
  Speaker 7: been looking everywhere for you and not finding you, requested
• 48:36
  Speaker 7: me to give you this note.
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: Good gracious, who amaze me? What does she want?
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: I rather think an interview with you?
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: How very lucky I was about to ask one with her?
• 48:51
  Speaker 7: You see, good fortune flies.
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: To meet you.
• 48:55
  Speaker 2: And to whom am I indebted for this happy chance?
• 48:58
  Speaker 4: Oh?
• 48:58
  Speaker 7: To your own merit, of course in the first place.
• 49:02
  Speaker 7: Then I rather think she has been told that you
• 49:05
  Speaker 7: had great influence with Monsieur de Beaurbon, and she wants
• 49:08
  Speaker 7: you to employ it in her behalf.
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: Too happy upon my life to do anything for her.
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: And do you know I have spoken to him about
• 49:17
  Speaker 2: the business already, but I found him very ill disposed
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: about it.
• 49:21
  Speaker 7: Will you excuse me one moment. I am going to
• 49:24
  Speaker 7: give this room up to a friend and must have
• 49:27
  Speaker 7: some measures taken about it.
• 49:29
  Speaker 2: Don't mind me, my dear Marchioness.
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: Exit Madame de Valcour, and.
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: Now let's see what Mademoiselle de Bellille has to say
• 49:37
  Speaker 2: to me, reads, would is grace sa duc de Richelieu
• 49:43
  Speaker 2: have the condescension to bestow upon Mademoiselle de Bellille at
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: his earliest convenience, the favor of a few moments conversations.
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: The favor will be mine, my charming creature, upon my soul.
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: These rustic beauties have the love simplicity of style. Mademoiselle
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: de Belly ventures to hope that she has not reckoned
• 50:05
  Speaker 2: in vain upon his gracious kind protection, in return for
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: which she promises him boundless gratitude. It's a bargain, my
• 50:14
  Speaker 2: charming petitioner. You shall have my protection and I are
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: boundless gratitude. Let's see. Let's see somehow. This note is
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: written in a remarkably clear and steady hand. Hm hmm.
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: There's something in Madame de Villecour's manner too, in all
• 50:36
  Speaker 2: this business, which seems to me rather suspicious. Stop a
• 50:40
  Speaker 2: bit ricially, my friend, don't be taken in if you
• 50:42
  Speaker 2: can help it. The marchioness gave me this note. Let
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: us make sure that Mademoiselle Belli really wrote it. Yes,
• 50:50
  Speaker 2: she is, Why damn it? The girl sees with a
• 50:54
  Speaker 2: trembling out sight of me and.
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: Some Mademoiselle de Bellille.
• 50:59
  Speaker 8: Pardon me, my Lord, but I cannot command the emotion
• 51:02
  Speaker 8: which your presence excites in me.
• 51:04
  Speaker 2: And how may I interpret this emotion?
• 51:06
  Speaker 8: Madam tis most natural and easily to be accounted for,
• 51:09
  Speaker 8: my Lord. I cannot look upon you without thinking that
• 51:12
  Speaker 8: you are perhaps the man destined to end all my misfortunes.
• 51:16
  Speaker 8: Can it be chance alone that seems to have brought
• 51:18
  Speaker 8: you back from Vienna, as it were on purpose to
• 51:21
  Speaker 8: assist me, first at Versailles and now at CHANTI the
• 51:25
  Speaker 8: unfortunate are apt to be superstitious, my Lord, and perhaps
• 51:28
  Speaker 8: you yourself were not exempt from some slight belief in presentiments.
• 51:32
  Speaker 2: I believe in them firmly, and have done so, particularly
• 51:36
  Speaker 2: for the last three days, and shall be cruelly disappointed
• 51:39
  Speaker 2: if mine do not prove true.
• 51:42
  Speaker 8: The Marchioness was good enough, I believe, to deliver a
• 51:45
  Speaker 8: note to your grace, which.
• 51:47
  Speaker 2: She informed me was from you. I am infinitely obliged
• 51:51
  Speaker 2: to Madame de villecour, for, of course, she suggested to
• 51:54
  Speaker 2: you the idea of applying to me.
• 51:56
  Speaker 8: No, my Lord Duke, I will be candid with you.
• 51:59
  Speaker 8: I had thought of addressing your Grace before I spoke
• 52:01
  Speaker 8: to her. You must blame yourself for my importunity. I
• 52:05
  Speaker 8: could not believe that you would refuse to fulfill hopes
• 52:08
  Speaker 8: which your own gracious condescension excited. Ah, my Lord, you
• 52:12
  Speaker 8: are all powerful here. You know the object of my entreaties,
• 52:15
  Speaker 8: the freedom of my father and my brothers, the salvation
• 52:18
  Speaker 8: of a noble family, is in your hands.
• 52:21
  Speaker 2: No exertion shall be wanting on my part. Believe it, Madam,
• 52:24
  Speaker 2: in order that your filly of devotion may find its
• 52:27
  Speaker 2: just reward. But you mistake. I am not all powerful here,
• 52:32
  Speaker 2: and what you demand depends upon a higher will than mine.
• 52:36
  Speaker 2: I can but be the mediator between beauty and power.
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: But give me a written memorial of your petition. Write
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: it yourself, even as you speak with the same enchanting
• 52:46
  Speaker 2: eloquence of feeling the same irresistible soul, and I will
• 52:51
  Speaker 2: present it myself to the Duc de beaubon this very day.
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: Enter footman.
• 52:56
  Speaker 9: The dispatches which, as Grace was waiting for, are.
• 53:01
  Speaker 2: A thousand pardons. I must leave you for an instant.
• 53:05
  Speaker 2: Here is everything necessary for writing. Sit down and drop
• 53:09
  Speaker 2: your petition. In three minutes, I will return for it.
• 53:13
  Speaker 8: How shall I ever think you as I ought.
• 53:16
  Speaker 2: By allowing me the title of your friend?
• 53:19
  Speaker 8: Oh, my lord Duke, right.
• 53:21
  Speaker 2: My dear madam right? The devils in it if I
• 53:24
  Speaker 2: don't find out so whether she wrote that note or.
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: Not, Examed Duke and footman.
• 53:32
  Speaker 8: Good heavens, How deceived have I been in my notion
• 53:35
  Speaker 8: of the court. How was I warned that I should
• 53:37
  Speaker 8: meet with nothing but envy, malice and wickedness. I have
• 53:41
  Speaker 8: only yet applied to two persons, and one is as
• 53:43
  Speaker 8: a dear friend and the other as a brother to me.
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: Enter, Madame de Valcour. What are you doing?
• 53:50
  Speaker 7: Child?
• 53:51
  Speaker 4: Oh?
• 53:52
  Speaker 8: Is it you?
• 53:53
  Speaker 4: You see?
• 53:53
  Speaker 8: I am making out a memorial to the Prime Minister,
• 53:56
  Speaker 8: by the direction of Monsieur de Richelieu, who is coming
• 53:58
  Speaker 8: back for it immediately and has undertaken to present it himself.
• 54:02
  Speaker 7: Madame de Valcour aside, Oh, he suspects something.
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: I see aloud.
• 54:11
  Speaker 7: Let me see, my dear, how you said about it?
• 54:14
  Speaker 2: Oh?
• 54:15
  Speaker 7: This will never do. There are certain forms of expression
• 54:19
  Speaker 7: usual in these sort of petitions. Here, get up, I'll
• 54:24
  Speaker 7: do it for you.
• 54:26
  Speaker 8: Are you not afraid, madam, that the Duke de Bourbon
• 54:28
  Speaker 8: may recognize your hand?
• 54:31
  Speaker 7: Well, child, suppose he does. Do you think that is
• 54:34
  Speaker 7: likely to injure your cause? Come give me your place now.
• 54:39
  Speaker 7: What are your father's names, Charles Louis Auguste Fouquet, his
• 54:45
  Speaker 7: titles Duke of Gisaure, Marquis of bellil, Earl Vernon and Anderlis.
• 54:51
  Speaker 7: What is your brother's range?
• 54:53
  Speaker 8: When is captain and the other lieutenant in the King's service?
• 54:57
  Speaker 7: How long have they been in confinement?
• 54:59
  Speaker 8: My father over three years, my brothers for the last
• 55:02
  Speaker 8: fifteen months.
• 55:04
  Speaker 7: Very good, We will set all these poor prisoners free.
• 55:08
  Speaker 7: Depend upon it.
• 55:10
  Speaker 8: Oh, madam, God, grant you may speak true.
• 55:13
  Speaker 7: Now, my dear, there is your petition properly drawn up.
• 55:18
  Speaker 11: Enter Mariette, Mademoiselle de belle Eelle's bedchamber is entirely ready, Madam,
• 55:23
  Speaker 11: whenever she chooses to take possession of it.
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: Very well, Exit, Enter Richelieu.
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: He stops at the door together humph.
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: The Duke sits down and reads.
• 55:39
  Speaker 2: A thousand pardons. I am afraid I have kept you waiting.
• 55:44
  Speaker 8: No excuse, is my lord pray? The petition is but
• 55:47
  Speaker 8: this moment finished, and now if you will take charge
• 55:50
  Speaker 8: of it.
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: Certainly aside looking at it.
• 55:54
  Speaker 2: The same handwriting the note was from her aloud. I hope, Madame,
• 56:00
  Speaker 2: you will permit me to come and inform you to
• 56:02
  Speaker 2: day of the success suppetition meets with.
• 56:05
  Speaker 8: You must ask the Marchioness, Sir. It is her permission
• 56:08
  Speaker 8: you must obtain, since she has been good enough to
• 56:10
  Speaker 8: give me a lodging in the palace as long as
• 56:12
  Speaker 8: I remain in CHANTI she actually has had the goodness
• 56:15
  Speaker 8: to give up her own apartment to me.
• 56:18
  Speaker 2: Ah really, indeed, so, Marchioness the friend you were expectings.
• 56:26
  Speaker 7: Mademoiselle de Bellille, my dear duke, you must perceive, I
• 56:30
  Speaker 7: am sure at once yourself, how extremely improper and even
• 56:34
  Speaker 7: imprudent it was for a young lady in her position,
• 56:38
  Speaker 7: alone and unprotected to remain at a hotel.
• 56:41
  Speaker 2: Oh, certainly, certainly, And you are quite right, my dear lady,
• 56:46
  Speaker 2: And it really is very kind and considerate of you.
• 56:50
  Speaker 2: But I hope I may be permitted, nevertheless, to inform
• 56:53
  Speaker 2: Mademoiselle Bellille of the fate of my attempts in her favor.
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: Bless me.
• 56:57
  Speaker 7: Of course, she is at home here, and I hope
• 57:01
  Speaker 7: will feel herself so and receive you whenever she thinks proper.
• 57:06
  Speaker 2: Then Madam, I entreat that favor.
• 57:08
  Speaker 8: Once more of you come when you will, Sir, your
• 57:12
  Speaker 8: grace will ever be looked for as a friend and
• 57:14
  Speaker 8: welcomed as a benefactor.
• 57:16
  Speaker 2: I may not be able to see the Duc de
• 57:17
  Speaker 2: Beaubont till rather late.
• 57:19
  Speaker 8: I have watched through many a night of tears and terror.
• 57:23
  Speaker 8: Believe me, it will cost me little to watch for
• 57:25
  Speaker 8: once in hope and happy expectation this.
• 57:28
  Speaker 2: Evening, then, Madam, I shall wait.
• 57:29
  Speaker 8: Upon you this evening, Sir, I shall look for you
• 57:32
  Speaker 8: most anxiously.
• 57:34
  Speaker 2: It is possible that what I may have to repeat
• 57:36
  Speaker 2: you would be better confided to yourself alone.
• 57:39
  Speaker 8: My Lord Duke, I will take care to be alone.
• 57:42
  Speaker 2: Huh, you are too charming.
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: Mademoiselle de Bellille goes into the bedroom. Madame de Valcour sighed.
• 57:52
  Speaker 7: I wonder how many wives would have said quietly through
• 57:55
  Speaker 7: such an assignation. I positively cannot but admire my own
• 58:00
  Speaker 7: heroism and self command. A modern fine lady is your
• 58:05
  Speaker 7: only stoic.
• 58:07
  Speaker 2: So so, Marchioness, this is the way you keep the
• 58:11
  Speaker 2: promise you made me a remaining new t in this business.
• 58:14
  Speaker 2: You defeat my very first.
• 58:15
  Speaker 7: Plan, ah, a plan founded on the rescality of a
• 58:21
  Speaker 7: tavern keeper. Fi it really was too easy and would
• 58:25
  Speaker 7: have disgraced your generalship. Here now dis quite another matter.
• 58:31
  Speaker 7: There can be neither surprise nor treachery, and your grace
• 58:34
  Speaker 7: will be compelled to obtain, for it will be impossible
• 58:38
  Speaker 7: to steal the lady's favor. Nor have I the slightest
• 58:42
  Speaker 7: doubt in the world of you obtaining it, my dear Duke.
• 58:47
  Speaker 2: Nor I either to tell you the truth, my dear Marchioness,
• 58:51
  Speaker 2: provided only that your ladyship will fight fairly as.
• 58:53
  Speaker 7: I do, and pray what do you demand as fear
• 59:00
  Speaker 7: fighting of me?
• 59:02
  Speaker 2: That you will keep my secret in the first place,
• 59:06
  Speaker 2: that at ten o'clock you will leave Mademoiselle de Bellille,
• 59:10
  Speaker 2: and that in short from ten o'clock till midnight, Mademoiselle
• 59:15
  Speaker 2: de Bellille will be left entirely alone for me.
• 59:19
  Speaker 7: She most certainly will, for I am going to Paris
• 59:22
  Speaker 7: this evening myself, and shall therefore be entirely out of
• 59:26
  Speaker 7: the way of interfering with any of your plans. But
• 59:30
  Speaker 7: I must now if you please state two conditions in disagreement.
• 59:36
  Speaker 2: Nothing can be fairer.
• 59:38
  Speaker 7: You will employ no servant of the palace in the
• 59:41
  Speaker 7: business you will have recourse to no drugs or opiates,
• 59:46
  Speaker 7: As it is whispered, you have done more than once
• 59:50
  Speaker 7: on such occasions, my Lord Duke, and these points acceeded
• 59:54
  Speaker 7: to on your part, I leave your grace an open
• 59:57
  Speaker 7: field and my best wish aside for your defeat, which
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 7: I will take care to make certain.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 2: You have my word to all this, and I wish
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 2: your ladyship a pleasant drive to court.
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 7: You still persist in your plan, then, though I have
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 7: passed over to the enemy.
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 2: I think more desperate battles have been won, and.
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 7: Against better generals, no doubt, by.
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 2: No means I do not say that for in you,
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 2: my dear Marchioness. I am perfectly aware that I have
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 2: to encounter youth combined with experience.
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: Madame de Valcour aside, Oh, that would be bitter if
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: it were true. Allowed farewell till tomorrow evening. Then Madame
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: de Valcour curtsies to him and goes out.
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 2: She does not know the secret door. That's quite clear,
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 2: and I have nothing to do but rummage certain reminiscences
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 2: to find my way to it. Once more, how droll
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 2: now that a clever woman should live as she has
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 2: done close to such an inestimable contrivance, and be none
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 2: the better for it. The marchioness is a handsome woman,
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 2: a very handsome woman. In fact, the wager sighed, she
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 2: is a devilish deal better worth besieging than even this
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 2: pretty girl. She pretends to be a prude, too, and
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 2: that's always a rare sport. Faith I have thinks she
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 2: must be something of the kind never to have discovered this.
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 4: Ha.
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 2: Here it is, and now, more fastening than a few
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 2: minutes perseverance will suffice to make away with excellent faith.
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 2: And now, my two fair antagonists, I think your defeat
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 2: will certainly lay down in your horoscope. For upon my soul,
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 2: I don't see how you can avoid it it exit.
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: Enter Madame de Valcour and Mademoiselle de Bellille.
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 7: My dear child, I have been thinking very seriously of
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 7: the tedious cause of solicitation, which I am afraid you
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 7: will be compelled to resort to in this sad business.
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 8: Oh madame, my patience shall be proof against everything.
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 7: Poor thing, how much this courageous resignation touches me? Is
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 7: it long since you have seen your old father?
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 8: Last three years? Not once since he was thrown into prison.
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 7: Three years, and you have never demanded permission to be
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 7: admitted to him.
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 8: Oh, Madame, I have besought, entreated, supplicated in vain, in vain.
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 8: Can you conceive such cruelty to refuse a child admission
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 8: to her wretched father's prison? All those whom I wearied
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 8: with my prayers doubtless had no children, or they must
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 8: have felt for me.
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: Hmm.
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 7: You would rejoice to see your father once again, Oh, heavens,
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 7: And if any one procured you that happiness, they might
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 7: depend upon your secrecy.
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 8: Good God, what are you saying? What hope do you
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 8: venture to suggest?
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 4: What I?
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 8: I might behold my father once again, enter when he
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 8: least expected at his prison door, at the very moment,
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 8: perhaps when he was thinking of me far away, I
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 8: might throw myself in his arms, crying out, Father, it
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 8: is I, dear, dear father, it is your child, your Gabrielle.
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 8: Oh speak, speak for pity's sake. On my knees, I
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 8: implore you, what shall I do to obtain this joy?
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 8: This blessing?
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 7: Madame de valcour raising her listen, take heed that we
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 7: are dealing now with matters of the utmost weight and danger.
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 7: The governor of the Bastille is my devoted friend, and
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 7: I can give you a letter for him.
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 8: A letter, yes, yes, And with that letter.
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 7: You shall see your father again. It will take you
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 7: less than two hours and a half to go to Paris.
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 7: He will set off at ten. He will arrive at
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 7: a little after midnight. You will remain till three in
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 7: the morning with Monsieur de Bellille, and you will be
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 7: back here before any one in the palace is stirring
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 7: what to day to night.
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 8: This very night I shall see my father, whom I
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 8: have not seen for three whole years. Oh, Heaven, support me.
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 8: I feel as if the sudden shock of happiness would
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 8: drive me mad.
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 7: But now attend and mark me all. This can only
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 7: be on one most solemn condition. Remember what I am
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 7: doing for you. I take upon myself to open to
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 7: you a state prison which uncloses its gates at the
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 7: voice of the Prime Minister or the King's signet alone.
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 7: I have done this for no human being but yourself.
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 7: Monsieur de Bourbon must remain ignorant of it. Jealous as
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 7: he is of his authority, he would never forgive my
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 7: assumption of it in such a matter Monsieur de Belliel's
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 7: imprisonment is of the strictest, the severest kind. His liberty hereafter,
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 7: perhaps his life depends upon your secrecy, Greek God, his life, yes,
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 7: his life. Therefore, swear to me now that as long
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 7: as Monsieur de Beaubon remains Prime Minister, you will confide
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 7: to no soul alive that you have seen your father,
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 7: that you have this night even left the palace sink.
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 7: Take time reflect before you engage yourself.
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 8: Madame, I swear by everything most holy, by my father's life,
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 8: and by my own soul, that never, while Monsieur de
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 8: Boubon remains Prime Minister, shall any living creature know that
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 8: I have seen my father, or even left the palace
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 8: this night.
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 7: Enough, hold yourself ready to go. At a moment's warning,
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 7: I shall immediately order a carriage to be brought round
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 7: for you, and at six o'clock in the morning you
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 7: must be back by the little Poston gate of the park.
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 8: How have I deserved this goodness?
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 7: I sincerely feel for you, pity and admire you, my
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 7: dear child. In a few moments, all will be prepared
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 7: and I will come myself for you.
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: Exit.
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 8: I shall see him again to night, this very night,
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 8: my father, my dear dear.
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: Father servant, announcing Monsieur le chevallier d'aubignyi d'Aubigny.
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 8: And for the first time in my life I have
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 8: a secret that I may not share with him.
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: Show him in enter d'aubigni.
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 4: Dear Henry, what good fortune has befallen you, Gabrielle, you
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 4: look beaming with joy.
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 8: My heart is full of hope, Henry, for since my
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 8: arrival here all things seem to combine to favor and
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 8: forward my wishes. Oh, we shall save my father, We
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 8: shall save my brothers, and the happiness of our love
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 8: will be made perfect by their freedom. Thank Heaven by
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 8: your cheerfulness instead of accusing it by your despondency. As
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 8: for me, I can tell you no more, but I pray,
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 8: I believe, and I hope.
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 4: Tis sad that when you are so full of happy confidence,
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 4: I should be chilled with cold misgivings. You look at
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 4: everything through the medium of hope, and I through that
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 4: of fear. You speak of all these fortunate circumstances which
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 4: you say impart this cheerful faith to you in me,
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 4: they awaken nothing but suspicion and mistrust. You think them
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 4: ordered by a beneficent providence. I tremble lest they should
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 4: be the result of evil human machinations. It may be
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 4: morbid feeling an infirmity, but Gabrielle, tis an infirmity as
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 4: painful and as pitiable. Believe me as a real misfortune.
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 8: Henry, you are ungrateful to Providence just now too? Above all?
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 4: And what has Providence done for you now? Gabrielle, tell
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 4: me that God knows. I desire nothing half so much
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 4: as to hope on Whom do you place your dependents
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 4: for happier days and brighter prospects on?
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 8: Madame de valcourp in the first place, whose kindness and
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 8: tenderness towards me are more those of a sister even
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 8: than a friend. Why you see yourself that she has
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 8: not allowed me to remain at a hotel. A mother
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 8: could hardly be more anxiously careful of her daughter.
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 4: I cannot help it, Gabrielle. These painful impressions are not
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 4: always to be controlled even by reason. Have you mentioned
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 4: our engagement to Madame de valcour No?
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 8: Is it not a secret?
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 4: True? True? But tell me have you seen no one
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 4: but the marchioness to day.
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 8: Oh, yes, Henry, I have a person on whose influence
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 8: I reckon even more than Madame de Valcoux.
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 4: May I know the name of this person?
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 8: Of course, that is no secret.
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 4: Tis the Duke de Richelieu, The Duke de Richelieu.
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 8: What is the matter, good, gracious the.
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 4: Duke de Richelieu. And so you have seen him to day?
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 8: Why he has hardly left the palace all day?
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 4: And what was he doing here? Pray?
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 8: I believe he was engaged in particular business with Monsieur
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 8: de Bourbon.
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 4: Are you to see him again?
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 8: Yes, I expect him to bring me some account of
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 8: a measure he intended taking about my petition.
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 4: Gabrielle, heavens you terrify me. Do you know this man
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 4: to whom you have ventured to address yourself?
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 8: I know him as everybody knows him. Who does not
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 8: know the Duke de Richelieu.
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 4: And knowing him, can you hope that the protection he
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 4: is now granting you is disinterested?
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 8: Henry? Perhaps I am to blame, but I must confess
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 8: I cannot thus see nothing but evil in what appears unmixed.
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: Good.
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 8: Monsieur de Richelieu has hitherto dealt by me as a
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 8: sincere friend, should he assume any other manner towards me.
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 8: I presume that you have sufficient confidence in me to
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 8: feel assured that all powerful as his Grace's interest is,
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 8: I shall relinquish all claim to it from the moment
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 8: that I perceive it might compromise my honor or a
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 8: name which I am about to exchange for yours.
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 4: Your innocence, Gabrielle, blinds you to this man's real character.
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 4: The whitest virtue has been blackened, but breathed on by
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 4: his love. No fame survives unstained his contaminating touch, his
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 4: evil determination. Once taken, he leaves no means unattempted to
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 4: obtain his object, And some of the means that he
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 4: has dared to use might have cost dear to men
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 4: less powerful than that wicked man. Gabrielle, you see my agony,
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 4: Have pity on me?
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 8: What must I do?
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: Speak?
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 8: Speak Henry anything everything you wish.
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 4: Promise me not to receive the Duke here this evening.
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 8: I promise you not to meet.
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 4: Him anywhere else. I promise you, Gabrielle, I depend on
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 4: your word, Henry.
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 8: You are right to do so.
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 4: If you were to break it. You do not know.
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 4: You cannot conceive the misery that would fall upon us
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 4: both how I cannot explain myself. But you have promised me.
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 4: You do promise me that you will not see the
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 4: Duke de Richelieu tonight, do you not?
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 8: I have promised it. I do promise it. Are you satisfied?
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 4: Yes?
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 8: Then Henry, leave me?
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 4: So soon? It is late, tis hardly ten o'clock.
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 8: I have some letters to write. I am weary. And besides,
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 8: is it fitting for my sake that you should stay later?
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: Here?
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 4: You were to have received the Duke de Richelieu if
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 4: he had come.
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 8: The Duke de Richelieu is a stranger, an indifferent person.
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 8: I do not love the Duke de Richelieu, and I
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 8: do love you.
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 4: Henry, you love me, and you dismiss me. Thus, when
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 4: without the slightest impropriety, I might remain with you an hour?
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 4: Yet an hour.
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 8: It's impossible, Henry leave me. I beseech you, you beseech me
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 8: to go away?
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 4: Good God, what is going on? What is the matter?
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 4: What has happened?
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 8: Nothing is going on, Nothing has happened. Nothing is the matter?
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 4: Is it? Then?
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 8: So very very strange that, after traveling all night and
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 8: a day of anxiety and fatigue, I should wish to
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 8: take some repose. Can it be possible that you are jealous? Henry?
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 4: Why?
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 8: Of whom?
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 1: Of what?
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 8: I never saw you? Thus before?
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 4: There?
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 5: There?
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 8: There, it is actually striking. Ten o'clock.
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 4: I leave you, madame, madame ah, that was cruel.
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 8: You find me hopeful, happy, and as you are not
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 8: used to see me. Thus my unaccustomed cheerfulness alarms you,
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 8: and you would fain make me sad again, sad as
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 8: you have always seen me. Tis easily done. Believe me,
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 8: one word, one tone from you, one look of doubt
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 8: or of distress. See, Henry, I am as sad as
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 8: you could wish to make me. Are you satisfied?
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 4: Pardon, Gabrielle, Pardon? I love you so that I dare
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 4: not believe my own happiness. I dread lest anything should
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 4: come between us, should disunite us. Forgive me. I am going.
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 8: I am wrong Tomorrow, Henry?
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 4: At what time tomorrow?
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 8: Will you see me as early as you like? At
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 8: eight o'clock?
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 4: Good night? Good night? You will not see the duke. No, no,
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 4: go in peace, farewell exit.
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 8: He is gone at length how hard to send him
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 8: thus away without telling him what made me so happy?
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: Madame, Madame, enter, Madame de valcour.
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 7: Now then here is the letter. The horses are too,
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 7: the carriage is at the door.
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 8: Which way must I go?
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 7: Follow? Mariette, Remember the most profound secrecy, and farewell, my
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 7: dear child.
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 8: Heaven bless and reward you runs out.
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 7: Tis something to have saved that gentle and innocy and
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 7: creature from even a knowledge of the foul machinations by
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 7: which she was threatened. She is gone at length a
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 7: quarter after ten. It was high time. I am sure
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 7: my husband must be already on his way. Hither let
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 7: us take all due precautions against his entrance.
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: Rings A servant enters.
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 7: Fasten the shutters of that window. And yet he does
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 7: not care for this girl. I know he does not,
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 7: But like a wanton child seizing a butterfly and throwing
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 7: it the next moment from him, maimed and defaced, he
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 7: pursues this wager for the sole gratification of his senseless vaniity,
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 7: careless alike of her present feelings or her future fate
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 7: to servant. Do you see anyone in the street.
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 10: Yes, my lady, A man wrapped in a cloak, hum.
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 7: A cloak in June, it must be he fasten the windo.
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 7: Though Mademoiselle de Bellille is very nervous. You will sit
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 7: up all night in the ante room, and you will
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 7: admit nobody till to morrow morning.
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: Servant goes out.
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 7: Very good for further security, let us bowl the doors.
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 7: There are the chimneys, to be sure, but they are
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 7: grated at the top.
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: Servant speaking through the door.
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 10: The Duc de Vicia is coming up the great staircase.
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: My lady, say that nobody is up listening, Servant without.
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 10: Yes, your grace, everybody is retired.
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 7: Excellent, he retires too. We shall no doubt soon hears
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 7: something at that window. Now, my dear husband, I have
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 7: kept faith with you, and you have nothing to complain of.
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 7: I have not betrayed you. To Mademoiselle de Bellille. I
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 7: left her at ten o'clock, and from ten o'clock till
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 7: midnight she will most certainly be alone on the King's Highway,
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 7: tis true, But then it is your business to follow
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 7: and find her there. But hark, what noise was that
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 7: from behind the tapestry footsteps the opening of a door.
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 7: Heavens there is a secret entrance to the chamber, and he.
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: Knows it blows out the candles, and told Richelieu.
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 2: When one door is shut in your face, the only
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 2: way is to come and buy some other.
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: Madame de valcour asided.
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 7: What shall I do? What will become of me? If
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 7: I call for help? The house will be roused? Was
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 7: ever woman who was ever wife? In so strange a position,
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 7: I have but one cause to be silent.
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: At least he.
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 7: Is my husband.
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 2: What a capital thing is a good memory him? The
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 2: private staircase and the secret door don't seem to have
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 2: been much used lately. They're confoundedly dirty and out of repair. However,
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 2: here we are safe and sound. All is dark, and
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 2: still nothing could be better. I have taken the precaution
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 2: of writing my note beforehand. As I came by, passed
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 2: a fellow wrapped in a cloak, looking close under the wall.
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 2: No doubt, my friend d'Aubigny, clock strikes half past ten.
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 2: He is at his post, and I at mine, and
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 2: out to fulfill the conditions of our.
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: Wager, opens windows softly.
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 2: Hello you sir in the cloak there looky, have the
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 2: kindness to step this way if you please there, that'll do.
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 2: If you should happen to be acquainted with the Chevalier Douigny,
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 2: have the goodness to deliver this noteing from the Duc
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 2: de Richelieux.
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: There it is, throw a note from window and closes shutters, and.
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 2: Met the Marchioness's carriage on the way. She is off
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 2: to Paris. Mademoiselle Bellille is by this time alone, So
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 2: now or never?
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: End of the second act, Act three of Mademoiselle de
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: Bellille by Alexandre Duma, translated by Francis An Campbell eighteen
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 1: o nine to eighteen ninety three. This is a LibriVox recording.
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Act three,
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 1: Scene one, the same scene as in the previous acts,
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: d'Aubigny and the Footman.
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 9: But bless me, sir, tis only seven o'clock and not
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 9: a soul in the house is up.
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 4: Pierre, never mind, I tell you, I will go in.
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 4: I will speak to Mademoiselle de Bellille as soon as
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 4: she rises.
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: Footman goes out.
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 4: Can he be here still? I watched till daybreak? But
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 4: I have not seen him. Come, Gracious God, it seems
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 4: like all a dream, a hideous dream. But no tis
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 4: all but too true. Here is the very chamber where
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 4: I left her yesterday, the window out of which he
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 4: threw his infernal boast, the street where I received it.
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 4: Merciful heavens, Can I believe my own senses, Gabrielle deceive
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 4: me thus infamously? Oh? No, no, no it is It
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 4: must be impossible.
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: And to Mademoiselle de Ballille.
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 8: Dear Henry, I heard your voice and made haste.
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 4: To come to you so early up.
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 8: You said last night that you would come early.
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 4: True. But how comes it that last night you were
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 4: so anxious to have me gone, and that this morning
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 4: you are so eager to receive me?
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 8: So you have not forgotten that yet, Henry.
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 4: No one cannot always banish painful impressions at will. And
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 4: that idea has tormented me throughout the night.
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 8: Tormented you? What idea?
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 4: Oh? Why? The recollection of that excessive fatigue of yours
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 4: which made you so earnestly desire my absence?
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 11: You answer me.
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 8: Very strangely this morning, Henry, you seem troubled, displeased. What
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 8: is it dearest, what ails you tell me?
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 4: Nothing? Nothing? I cannot address the same remark to you.
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 4: Your face wears an expression of joy, of happiness. Perhaps
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 4: you have fresh reasons for hope this morning.
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 8: Oh yes, if dreams may be supposed to auger anything,
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 8: mine have presented me happiness. This night I dreamt that
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 8: a beneficent spirit wore me on his wings to the
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 8: gates of the bastille, which flew open before me. I
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 8: beheld my father. He pressed me on his heart, he
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 8: folded me in his arms, He reined kisses on my head.
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 8: He spoke to me of you, dearest Henry, of our
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 8: marriage so long, so sadly deferred. And he comforted himself
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 8: in his captivity with the thought that I should soon
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 8: have in you a friend and a protector. Oh you see,
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 8: dear love, twas a wonderful dream, and one that, even
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 8: now awake as I am, fills my mind with the
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 8: happiest hopes.
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 4: I too had a dream last night, but a less
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 4: happy one than yours. Gabrielle.
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 8: Is it that that makes you so sad this morning?
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 4: Perhaps for I dreamt that yesterday I had no sooner
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 4: left you than in spite of your solemn promise to
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 4: me you did receive the Duke de Richelieu. Here, what
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 4: do you mean nothing? You have told me your dream,
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 4: and I am telling you mine. That's all. Well?
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 8: What then?
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 4: It seemed to me, still in my dream, that I
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 4: was standing in the street opposite to that window, when
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 4: the window was thrown open, and a man appeared on
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 4: the balcony and threw out to me a note, but
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 4: stranger than all, and which causes my dream to leave
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 4: even a deeper impression of reality than yours. Perhaps is
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 4: that on waking that note, that very note was in
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 4: my hand, Gabrielle, And here it is, and here it is.
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: Read it, Mademoiselle de Bellille reads.
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 8: It is eleven at night. I am in Mademoiselle de
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 8: Bellille's apartment. I will tell you tomorrow at what hour
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 8: I left it. Duke j Richelieu, what does that mean?
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 4: It means, Madame, that Monsieur de Richelieu yesterday morning, as
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 4: you passed through the gallery, laid an infamous wager, which
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 4: he has won.
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 8: I don't understand you.
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 4: Then I will make myself understood. You promised not to
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 4: receive Monsieur de Richelieu. You did receive him. He came
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 4: last night after I had left you. Monsieur de Richelieu
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 4: was with you in this room. Monsieur de Richelieu opened
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 4: that window, and out of that window through this note.
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 4: Now do you understand.
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 8: What are you talking about?
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 4: What you know quite as well as I do. Only
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 4: what you did not know is that I was aware
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 4: of all that. I was there under that window till
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 4: break of day, waiting to see him come out. For
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 4: your honor, is yet too dear for me to leave
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 4: such a secret in the possession of another man besides myself. Ah,
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 4: That was why you were so agitated and confused yes
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 4: esterday evening. That was why you were so anxious, so earnest,
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 4: to have me gone. That was why you wished so
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 4: very particularly to be left alone alone. I have passed
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 4: the whole night wandering round the palace. For if I
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 4: could but have found a door, a window open, any
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 4: avenue that might have led to you, I would have
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 4: murdered you both, Yes, both you and your lover with you,
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 4: though you had dragged yourself on your knees at my
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 4: very feet for mercy, you must be.
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 8: Mad to utter such things to me, I received, Monsieur
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 8: de Richelieu. After you had left me, Monsieur de Richelieu
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 8: passed the night here? Why can I believe my ears
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 8: my eyes? Are you the chevalier d'Aubigny am i, mademoiselle
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 8: de Bellieux. Is it you, you Henry, who speak thus to me?
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 8: You're betrothed to me, who in three days shall bear
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 8: your name. I can't believe my senses.
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 4: I could not believe my senses. I thought my very
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 4: eyes deceived me. Yes, Gabrielle, Yes, such was my deep
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 4: reliance on your truth that I should have disbelieved my
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 4: eyes and doubted still. But this paper, this paper is
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 4: no illusion, Gabrielle. How will you account for this?
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 8: What can I say to you? I can't account for
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 8: it even to myself. Someone must have entered this apartment without.
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 4: My knowing it, without your knowing it. A man can
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 4: have entered this room without your hearing him. Which way?
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 4: Who admitted him? The doors are carefully watched even now.
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 4: It was with difficulty that I obtained entrance, Oh, Gabrielle, Gabrielle,
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 4: I will account for this. I will tell you what
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 4: has happened. Your love for your father has made you
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 4: forget your love for me. You saw before you two men,
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 4: one of whom had in his power your father's liberty.
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 4: The other had nothing but his own life to offer you.
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 4: The man of influence sold his protection to you at
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 4: a certain price. Sir Gabrielle, I accuse you of nothing.
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 4: You are not. You cannot be guilty. I only say
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 4: that you did not dare refuse the Duke the meeting
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 4: he solicited. I say, I only say that you did
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 4: consent to receive him. Perhaps, and in some moment, when
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 4: you may have left the room, he wrote this note
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 4: and threw it from the window. That's all, Gabrielle, that's all.
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 4: Confess that, say it was so, Say so, and I
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 4: forgive you.
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 8: Thank you for that word, Henry, thank you for these
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 8: suggestions of your love. For I see that you love
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 8: me so much that you are striving to deceive yourself.
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 8: But I cannot confess what you require of me. If
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 8: after the sacred promise that I gave you, I had
• 1:26:56
  Speaker 8: consented to see Monsieur de Richelieu, I should be infamous.
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 8: But believe me, he solicited no meeting, I granted him none.
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 8: I have not seen him. I tell you so again,
• 1:27:07
  Speaker 8: and I have the simplest means in my power of
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 8: proving what I say, what means. This note is from
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 8: the Duke, you say, he.
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 4: Threw it to me from the window himself.
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 8: I shall send immediately for Monsieur de Richelieu. You will
• 1:27:21
  Speaker 8: conceal yourself there. I shall receive him here. You will
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 8: not lose a single syllable of what passes between us.
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 8: And if Monsieur de Richelieu has seen my face since
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 8: yesterday evening at eight o'clock, then why then, Henry, you
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 8: shall think of me as vilely as you please.
• 1:27:36
  Speaker 4: Oh dearest, I had not dared to ask this much
• 1:27:40
  Speaker 4: of you, But since you offer it, I accept the
• 1:27:43
  Speaker 4: means of clearing up this infamous mystery which baffles me.
• 1:27:47
  Speaker 8: Calm yourself. The mystery shall be cleared up. Believe me only, Henry,
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 8: remember not a motion, not a word that might betray
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 8: your concealment.
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 4: Oh fear me not, madman. No, No, I am convinced.
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 4: I do not doubt THEE. No tis impossible with that
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 4: angelic voice, those lovely eyes. No, no, you cannot tell
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 4: a falsehood. I believe THEE. Dearest, dearest, you.
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 8: Will believe me better still when I shall have sent
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 8: for the Duke.
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 1: Servant announces the Duc de Richieu Tis heaven sends him
• 1:28:26
  Speaker 1: at this moment.
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 8: Show him in, and do you enter that chamber? And
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 8: above all remember your promise, Henry, to be silent.
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 4: Your hand, Gabrielle my hand you deserve, Give me your hand.
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: He kisses her hand and goes into her room. Rochelieu enters.
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 8: You come upon a wish, my lord Duke, Hail to
• 1:28:48
  Speaker 8: my fairest.
• 1:28:50
  Speaker 2: I came, indeed, but almost without a hope of being admitted.
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 8: Thus early, Sir, I was about.
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: To send for you, Rochelieu, attempting to kiss her hand.
• 1:29:00
  Speaker 2: Ah, you are too too gracious.
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 8: My lord Duke.
• 1:29:05
  Speaker 2: Fair lady, I have a most.
• 1:29:08
  Speaker 8: Serious explanation to demand of you, an explanation, sir, in
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 8: which my honor is deeply concerned.
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 2: Your honor, madam, and who dares attack it. I am
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 2: here to defend both it and you. Speak. Therefore, I
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 2: entreat you.
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 8: The question is of a certain wager, which I understand,
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 8: your grace lady yesterday.
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 2: Bless me, Madam, since the truth must be told, I
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 2: own it. There was such a wager, But believe me,
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 2: I was devoted to you long before any such question arose.
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 2: From the first moment of beholding you, I felt that
• 1:29:46
  Speaker 2: my heart was no longer my own. I followed you
• 1:29:50
  Speaker 2: from Paris to Versailles, from Versailles to Chantilly. You you
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 2: alone drew me hither. I swear it. This was proposed
• 1:30:00
  Speaker 2: to me by two other escapegraces, like myself. You were
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 2: not the object of it. Believe me, your name was
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 2: not even uttered in the agreement. The first woman who
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 2: passed was a person concerned in the bet. You were
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 2: that person. My honor was engaged in the winning of
• 1:30:18
  Speaker 2: my wager. It so happened that my love too was
• 1:30:23
  Speaker 2: most deeply interested in its success. This, Madam, is the truth.
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 2: If I have sinned against you, believe me the crime
• 1:30:33
  Speaker 2: was not premeditated. And pardon me, my lord Duke.
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 8: I pardon you hard though it be, and you, yourself,
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 8: I think, must acknowledge it to be so. When one
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 8: has lost rank, station fortune, when from the wreck of
• 1:30:47
  Speaker 8: all one has rescued nothing but a stainless reputation, confess it, sir,
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 8: tis a cruel thing to see that reputation, which should
• 1:30:54
  Speaker 8: be respected as a holy possession, bandied from hand to
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 8: hand by dissolute idlers, who unable to attack it, dare
• 1:31:00
  Speaker 8: thus attempt to trifle it away. Nevertheless, my Lord Duke,
• 1:31:04
  Speaker 8: in favor of all that you have done for me,
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 8: though now I know the source of that kindness which
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 8: I had supposed disinterested, pure and noble, I pardon you
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 8: this cruel and insulting wager, but upon one condition, however,
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 8: that you will explain to me how last night this
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 8: note was thrown from that window between ten and eleven o'clock.
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 8: Read it, sir, read it?
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 2: That were useless? I know its contents, You know them.
• 1:31:29
  Speaker 2: Why is not the handwriting mine? If I were inclined
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 2: to deny it? The signature is there at the bottom.
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 8: You wrote this note.
• 1:31:38
  Speaker 2: I acknowledge it.
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 8: You threw it from that window.
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 2: Even so, and to whom, my dear madam, how the
• 1:31:45
  Speaker 2: deuce should I know? To the person who was waiting
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 2: for it?
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 8: I presume you were here last night, here in this chamber,
• 1:31:52
  Speaker 8: most certainly, But you were here without me?
• 1:31:55
  Speaker 2: What?
• 1:31:57
  Speaker 4: What?
• 1:31:57
  Speaker 2: Without you?
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 8: Do you dare to say that you were here with me?
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 2: Why? Most indubitably with me?
• 1:32:05
  Speaker 8: Of course, my Lord Duke, tis a lie, a lie,
• 1:32:10
  Speaker 8: an infamous lie, my.
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 2: Dear madam, What a woman uses that sort of language
• 1:32:15
  Speaker 2: to a man, he has nothing for it but to
• 1:32:17
  Speaker 2: leave her presence.
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 8: You shall not, sir, my lord, what because your name
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 8: is Richelieu, because you are a thrice noble duke and
• 1:32:24
  Speaker 8: peer of the realm. Do you think, sir, that it
• 1:32:26
  Speaker 8: shall be permitted you, for the sake of a pitiful
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 8: wager in which you fancy your honor compromised, to libel
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 8: a woman, And when that woman has lost everything in
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 8: this world but the love of an honest man whom
• 1:32:36
  Speaker 8: she loves, to make her by your vile calumnies forfeit
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 8: that best, most precious treasure, Sir, Sir, I appeal to
• 1:32:43
  Speaker 8: your ancient name, to your noble station, to your honor,
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 8: my lord duke, which is disgracefully losing its way. I
• 1:32:49
  Speaker 8: appeal to you, sir, and you will retract what you
• 1:32:52
  Speaker 8: have said. You will do me right. You will bear
• 1:32:54
  Speaker 8: witness to the truth, the truth. Yes, my lord, here
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 8: before me, whom you have so deeply injured, and you
• 1:32:59
  Speaker 8: will have to take the less to do me this
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 8: tardy justice, because I am but a poor, helpless, defenseless
• 1:33:04
  Speaker 8: woman who claim it at your hands.
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 2: Upon my soul. You almost persuade me that I am
• 1:33:09
  Speaker 2: in the wrong. I suppose I ought to have pretended
• 1:33:13
  Speaker 2: to lose my wager. Come, what can I do? Shall
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 2: I write to the chevalier? I can tell him you
• 1:33:20
  Speaker 2: know that I found the doors all shut here last night,
• 1:33:24
  Speaker 2: and that therefore, of course the note I threw out
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 2: of the window means nothing at all. Shall I tell
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 2: him that I have lost my bed? In short, what
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 2: shall I do say or write? For God forbid that
• 1:33:37
  Speaker 2: my absurd vanity should be the means of breaking off
• 1:33:39
  Speaker 2: a match on which you say your happiness depends. I
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 2: would rather sacrifice my own, certainly, I owe you no less,
• 1:33:48
  Speaker 2: my Lord Duke.
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 8: The wickedness of what you are now saying passes all belief.
• 1:33:52
  Speaker 8: Tis fiendish. No, sir, No, No, I ask no letter,
• 1:33:56
  Speaker 8: I want no writing. What I demand, what I insist
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 8: upon is a confession now here, this very instant, that
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 8: every word you have uttered hitherto is false, and that
• 1:34:05
  Speaker 8: in uttering them you have despised truth, disregarded your name,
• 1:34:08
  Speaker 8: and disgraced your honor. You shall confess, sir, that all
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 8: you have said was a slander, a base, cowardly slander.
• 1:34:15
  Speaker 8: I cannot stop to choose my words I speak, those
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 8: that my indignation prompts me with. You shall confess this, sir,
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 8: And though I dare not promise then that you will
• 1:34:22
  Speaker 8: escape my contempt, you may at all events rest assured
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 8: of my forgiveness.
• 1:34:26
  Speaker 2: Pretiuld you whispering now, why the devil couldn't you make
• 1:34:30
  Speaker 2: me understand all this time that we were overheard, that
• 1:34:34
  Speaker 2: someone was concealed.
• 1:34:36
  Speaker 8: No one is concealed, sir, No one overhears us. There
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 8: is no one here but myself. Answer then to me.
• 1:34:42
  Speaker 8: I demand it.
• 1:34:44
  Speaker 2: Then, I if indeed no one is here but you,
• 1:34:48
  Speaker 2: If indeed I am to reply to you alone, I
• 1:34:53
  Speaker 2: will confess that I thought myself pretty well versed in
• 1:34:56
  Speaker 2: the arts of your most subtle sex, instead of which wish,
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 2: I find myself a mere tyro in the science. Every
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 2: day they teach me something new to me. Every day
• 1:35:09
  Speaker 2: thing I can learn nothing fresh upon that subject. Moreover,
• 1:35:14
  Speaker 2: I must further confess that to you was reserved the
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 2: honor of giving me the most complete lesson in this
• 1:35:20
  Speaker 2: kind that I have yet received in all my life.
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 8: Enough, my Lord Duke, leave me.
• 1:35:26
  Speaker 2: I obey, Madam, not without a hope, however, that when
• 1:35:30
  Speaker 2: I present myself again this evening, which I shall do
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 2: at the same hour when you condescended to receive me yesterday,
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 2: I may be more welcome than I have appeared this morning.
• 1:35:41
  Speaker 1: Exit, Great God, is it possible, Dobini coming from her room?
• 1:35:48
  Speaker 4: Well, Madame, oh, oh, oh, I have obeyed you. I
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 4: concealed myself, I listened, I heard, and in spite of
• 1:35:59
  Speaker 4: it all I kept my word and did not appear.
• 1:36:03
  Speaker 4: I hope you are satisfied, Henry.
• 1:36:07
  Speaker 1: Dolbini going leave me?
• 1:36:11
  Speaker 8: Henry hear me. Yes, you were right to fear and
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 8: warn me yesterday. Yes, yes, your forebodings were all but
• 1:36:16
  Speaker 8: too true. Yes, some fatality seems to conspire against us,
• 1:36:20
  Speaker 8: both both, for it strikes you as well as me, Henry.
• 1:36:24
  Speaker 8: But oh, you shall not leave me. Thus there is
• 1:36:26
  Speaker 8: some horrible machination in all this, an invisible hatred proceeding
• 1:36:31
  Speaker 8: from I know not whence seems to unfold and stifle me, Henry.
• 1:36:35
  Speaker 8: It cannot be that at once suddenly my voice has
• 1:36:37
  Speaker 8: lost its power over your heart.
• 1:36:39
  Speaker 11: Henry.
• 1:36:40
  Speaker 8: You cannot cannot believe it possible that in one hour,
• 1:36:43
  Speaker 8: I have forgotten the principles of a whole life, Henry.
• 1:36:46
  Speaker 8: It is impossible that in a single day I should
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 8: have become lost and infamous. Good God, Why if someone
• 1:36:52
  Speaker 8: were to come and swear to me that you had
• 1:36:53
  Speaker 8: committed a crime or a cowardice, fled in battle, or
• 1:36:56
  Speaker 8: murdered in secret. No, no, no, Henry, I should not.
• 1:36:59
  Speaker 8: I would not. I would not believe it.
• 1:37:02
  Speaker 4: To the purpose, Madame. The Duke, it seems, was here
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 4: last night.
• 1:37:07
  Speaker 8: I don't deny it.
• 1:37:08
  Speaker 4: From this room he passed into the next apartment.
• 1:37:12
  Speaker 8: He may have done so.
• 1:37:13
  Speaker 4: Oh, you confess it, do you? At last?
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 7: Yes?
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 8: I confess that, but you do not know. You cannot know.
• 1:37:22
  Speaker 4: Then I must infer that you were not in this room,
• 1:37:25
  Speaker 4: then you passed the night elsewhere. It seems, Henry, I.
• 1:37:30
  Speaker 8: Have taken a terrible oath. I can tell you nothing, Henry,
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 8: I have sworn.
• 1:37:35
  Speaker 4: Merciful Heavens. Is there no one who to save us
• 1:37:39
  Speaker 4: both from madness? Can relieve you from this cursed oath?
• 1:37:44
  Speaker 8: Yes, yes, you are right. Heaven inspired you with the thought. Oh, yes,
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 8: when she sees of what horror I am accused, she
• 1:37:51
  Speaker 8: will surely let me tell you all, and then you
• 1:37:53
  Speaker 8: will see.
• 1:37:54
  Speaker 11: You will know.
• 1:37:55
  Speaker 1: Rings Mariette Entos.
• 1:37:58
  Speaker 8: Madame de Valcour. The marchioness, where is she?
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 4: Pray?
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 8: Inform her that I wish to speak with her instantly,
• 1:38:04
  Speaker 8: and that I entreat her to come without a moment's delay.
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 8: Go go, Her ladyship went.
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 11: To Paris this morning with a Duke de Bourbon, and
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 11: will only return in time for the bull this evening.
• 1:38:15
  Speaker 8: Exit Why then, it is a fatality, a horrible fatality. Henry,
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 8: wait till this evening, this evening, you.
• 1:38:23
  Speaker 1: Shall know all he's going. She stops him.
• 1:38:26
  Speaker 8: Henry, do not leave me, Henry, I swear to you
• 1:38:30
  Speaker 8: you are right.
• 1:38:31
  Speaker 4: It is a fatality. Yesterday at noon you leave your
• 1:38:34
  Speaker 4: hotel to come and reside in the palace. Yesterday evening
• 1:38:38
  Speaker 4: I came, and for the first time my presence disturbs
• 1:38:42
  Speaker 4: and troubles you, and you desire me to leave you.
• 1:38:46
  Speaker 4: You solemnly swear to me that you will not receive
• 1:38:49
  Speaker 4: the Duke. As my feet leave the threshold he enters
• 1:38:52
  Speaker 4: your apartment. For the last hour, you have been denying
• 1:38:56
  Speaker 4: that he came at all, and now you confess not
• 1:38:59
  Speaker 4: only that he came, but that it is possible that
• 1:39:02
  Speaker 4: he may have remained here till three o'clock in the morning.
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 4: You say you were not in this chamber, and you
• 1:39:09
  Speaker 4: cannot tell me where you were. You are bound by
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 4: an oath you have sworn, a sacred pledge compels you
• 1:39:16
  Speaker 4: to silence one person. However, can remit this oath one
• 1:39:21
  Speaker 4: person only? And that person has left? Chantilly, Oh, you
• 1:39:26
  Speaker 4: are right. It is a fatality, no doubt, A strange fatality,
• 1:39:32
  Speaker 4: so strange indeed that it passes all belief. And I
• 1:39:36
  Speaker 4: declare to you, madame, that I do not believe it.
• 1:39:41
  Speaker 8: What can I say to you, Henry? Yes, every proof
• 1:39:44
  Speaker 8: is against me. Yes, if my life were at stake,
• 1:39:47
  Speaker 8: my life would be forfeited, as I fear my honor will.
• 1:39:50
  Speaker 8: But were my head this moment on the block, I
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 8: would not break my oath. You must act according to
• 1:39:54
  Speaker 8: your conviction. Henry, go, I detain you no longer.
• 1:39:58
  Speaker 1: Falls into a chair. Dobini goes towards door.
• 1:40:02
  Speaker 4: Hear me, Gabrielle, I know that that man has mysterious
• 1:40:07
  Speaker 4: and inscrutable means of accomplishing his vile purposes. Confess then
• 1:40:12
  Speaker 4: he gave you some potion, some narcotic, some accursed poisoned draft.
• 1:40:19
  Speaker 4: Confess it he entered here while you were still under
• 1:40:22
  Speaker 4: its influence and you did not awake till too late.
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 4: Say this, Confess this, and my love for you shall
• 1:40:29
  Speaker 4: be the same as ever, and you shall still be
• 1:40:32
  Speaker 4: mine mine when I have murdered that villain. Oh, Gabrielle,
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 4: confess this, For even this is better. I can understand,
• 1:40:40
  Speaker 4: I can believe, I can forgive this. But tell me
• 1:40:44
  Speaker 4: no more of unaccountable absences and incredible oaths. Oh heavens,
• 1:40:49
  Speaker 4: See how I love you, See how I cling to
• 1:40:52
  Speaker 4: my trust in you. The way I offer you is easy.
• 1:40:56
  Speaker 4: I give you myself a ready excuse. If you have
• 1:41:01
  Speaker 4: deceived me. If you are really guilty, take in pity,
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 4: take advantage of the pretext my very love has given you.
• 1:41:10
  Speaker 4: Say say he resorted to stratagem to violence. Say he
• 1:41:16
  Speaker 4: alone is guilty. My vengeance shall fall on him alone.
• 1:41:21
  Speaker 4: In the name of God. Have mercy on me and
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 4: say something that I can believe, that I can imagine true,
• 1:41:29
  Speaker 4: unless you would have me go mad here at your
• 1:41:32
  Speaker 4: feet and die, cursing you and Heaven in the name
• 1:41:37
  Speaker 4: of God upon my knees, Gabrielle, I implore you to speak, Speak,
• 1:41:44
  Speaker 4: Have mercy on me. Speak.
• 1:41:47
  Speaker 8: I cannot utter an untruth even for you Henry. I
• 1:41:51
  Speaker 8: have not seen the Duc de Richelieu since yesterday evening
• 1:41:54
  Speaker 8: at eight o'clock.
• 1:41:55
  Speaker 4: This is too much, and now my course is clear.
• 1:42:00
  Speaker 4: I implore you leave me, Madame, leave me, Henry, Henry,
• 1:42:06
  Speaker 4: have mercy for the last time. Will you confess the
• 1:42:10
  Speaker 4: truth I have done so, then Heaven may forgive you,
• 1:42:16
  Speaker 4: But I never.
• 1:42:18
  Speaker 1: Will, rushes out Mademoiselle de Berrille, falling on her knees.
• 1:42:23
  Speaker 8: Oh, God, have pity on me.
• 1:42:27
  Speaker 1: End of the third act, Act four of Mademoiselle de
• 1:42:36
  Speaker 1: Berrille by Alexandro Dumin, translated by Francis N. Campbell eighteen
• 1:42:42
  Speaker 1: o nine to eighteen ninety three. This is a LibriVox recording.
• 1:42:46
  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 1:42:49
  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Act four,
• 1:42:55
  Speaker 1: Scene one, an apartment of state in the palace at
• 1:42:58
  Speaker 1: Chantille d'au mont d'ouvre. Chamillerc and other gentlemen at the
• 1:43:03
  Speaker 1: gaming table on the right of the stage, two others
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 1: playing at dice on the left. Madame de Valcour and
• 1:43:10
  Speaker 1: Richelieu walking about.
• 1:43:13
  Speaker 2: Upon my honor. I don't understand this business, the least
• 1:43:16
  Speaker 2: in the world myself. She maintained to me that she
• 1:43:20
  Speaker 2: did not know what I meant, with a most miraculous assurance.
• 1:43:25
  Speaker 7: But how did you get into the room? Do explain
• 1:43:28
  Speaker 7: that to me?
• 1:43:30
  Speaker 2: Excuse me? That is a useful secret. But you don't
• 1:43:35
  Speaker 2: know the best of the story. Yet. The man who
• 1:43:38
  Speaker 2: batted against me, who held the stakes, the Chevalier d'Aubigny,
• 1:43:44
  Speaker 2: well was in three days to have married this very girl,
• 1:43:49
  Speaker 2: this Gabrielle de Bellille.
• 1:43:51
  Speaker 7: Good, gracious, you don't say so. And how has he
• 1:43:55
  Speaker 7: taken the business?
• 1:43:56
  Speaker 2: Why? I rather think he wrote clay and tragically to
• 1:44:01
  Speaker 2: the last degree. No, really, why he has called upon
• 1:44:06
  Speaker 2: me three times to day, leaving his name each time,
• 1:44:10
  Speaker 2: and the hour at which he called. Unluckily, I was
• 1:44:13
  Speaker 2: out hunting where by the bye I've done up a
• 1:44:17
  Speaker 2: capital horse. But as I came home it was informed
• 1:44:21
  Speaker 2: of the trouble the Chevalier had taken in my behalf.
• 1:44:24
  Speaker 2: I returned his civility. Of course. It was decreed, however,
• 1:44:28
  Speaker 2: that we were not to meet, for he was out
• 1:44:31
  Speaker 2: when I called on him. So I left my card
• 1:44:34
  Speaker 2: and wait further measures from him. And what news did
• 1:44:38
  Speaker 2: you bring us from Paris? My dear Marchioness, none whatever.
• 1:44:42
  Speaker 7: I hardly had time to alight before I came back again.
• 1:44:46
  Speaker 7: The Duke de Beauurbon arrived just in time to help
• 1:44:48
  Speaker 7: the King into his carriage, and his Majesty, with more
• 1:44:52
  Speaker 7: than his usual cordiality, even begged him not to be
• 1:44:55
  Speaker 7: late at supper, because after supper he wished him to
• 1:44:59
  Speaker 7: make one in his way. I think, really we are
• 1:45:02
  Speaker 7: in higher favor than ever.
• 1:45:04
  Speaker 2: Look sharp after our dear Bishop, that's all. If a
• 1:45:08
  Speaker 2: gust comes, it will be from his quarter. As for me,
• 1:45:13
  Speaker 2: the last time I saw him, he looked so devilish
• 1:45:15
  Speaker 2: sweet upon me that I have been terrified at it
• 1:45:18
  Speaker 2: ever since.
• 1:45:19
  Speaker 7: Ah, my dear Duke, you slander him. He is a
• 1:45:22
  Speaker 7: worthy man who looks with indifference on earthly greatness and
• 1:45:27
  Speaker 7: only a size for privacy and seclusion. Why you surely
• 1:45:31
  Speaker 7: have forgotten that on the death of the Regent, it
• 1:45:34
  Speaker 7: was he who presented the Duke de Bourbon to the king.
• 1:45:38
  Speaker 2: Hmm. Perhaps he thought if he presented himself the effect
• 1:45:42
  Speaker 2: might not be altogether so good.
• 1:45:45
  Speaker 7: I think you are mistaken, for you see yourself that
• 1:45:49
  Speaker 7: at the slightest difficulty or disagreement, the Bishop is always
• 1:45:53
  Speaker 7: ready to throw up his hand and forsake the game.
• 1:45:57
  Speaker 2: Yes, and by trying that experiment twice, he has ascertained
• 1:46:02
  Speaker 2: beyond a doubt that his royal pupil cannot endure his absence.
• 1:46:07
  Speaker 2: You say, his sighs for privacy and abhor's power, pomp
• 1:46:11
  Speaker 2: and station. Take my word for it. We shall yet
• 1:46:15
  Speaker 2: live to see him Cardinal and Prime Minister, don't you
• 1:46:18
  Speaker 2: think so?
• 1:46:19
  Speaker 12: Demon, Dear Philo, I have the vilest hand.
• 1:46:23
  Speaker 2: Never mind, you know the saying who loses that play
• 1:46:27
  Speaker 2: wins in love?
• 1:46:29
  Speaker 12: Maybe sue, But in spite of the proverbs, I'm unlucky
• 1:46:33
  Speaker 12: every way.
• 1:46:35
  Speaker 7: You must not say so. Just now, my dear Duke,
• 1:46:38
  Speaker 7: I was coming to ask you to dance with me
• 1:46:41
  Speaker 7: in the third quadrille.
• 1:46:43
  Speaker 12: The third that's a long way off.
• 1:46:46
  Speaker 7: Oh, I am engaged for the two first, Monsieur d Ray,
• 1:46:50
  Speaker 7: have the kindness to give your hand to the Duke
• 1:46:53
  Speaker 7: de Richelieu. I have a word to say to you here.
• 1:46:56
  Speaker 2: Da Fray, give me your cards. When you come back.
• 1:47:00
  Speaker 2: I promise you you shall find the more beaten into
• 1:47:02
  Speaker 2: good humor.
• 1:47:04
  Speaker 1: Sits down to play with Domo d'uvre walking about with
• 1:47:08
  Speaker 1: Madame de Valcour.
• 1:47:09
  Speaker 3: I wait your commands, Madam.
• 1:47:13
  Speaker 7: Presently, I do not wish to be overheard.
• 1:47:17
  Speaker 3: The devil a secret conference.
• 1:47:21
  Speaker 7: Cry Hold to your vain imaginations, for they are already
• 1:47:25
  Speaker 7: on a wrong scent. I assure you the matter is this.
• 1:47:30
  Speaker 7: If you should happen to see the Chevalier Dubinique come in,
• 1:47:33
  Speaker 7: that young lieutenant in the King's guard, you know, pray
• 1:47:37
  Speaker 7: keep your eye upon him, for I suspect something like
• 1:47:40
  Speaker 7: a duel is brewing between him and Monsieur Richerieu.
• 1:47:45
  Speaker 3: Richelieu, again, upon my soul. He gives me more trouble
• 1:47:49
  Speaker 3: than the whole French nobility put together. And what is
• 1:47:54
  Speaker 3: this duel about.
• 1:47:56
  Speaker 7: I'm not quite sure, but whatever is oi, it may
• 1:48:00
  Speaker 7: be this sue duty as lieutenant of my Lord High
• 1:48:03
  Speaker 7: Marshals of friends to prevent it. Sir, I have warned you,
• 1:48:08
  Speaker 7: and your business is to be.
• 1:48:09
  Speaker 1: On your guard.
• 1:48:11
  Speaker 7: And now be so good as to take me back
• 1:48:13
  Speaker 7: into the ballroom, Chevalier, for our secret conference is ended.
• 1:48:18
  Speaker 1: Richelieu showing a handful of money.
• 1:48:21
  Speaker 2: Here, Davray, I am doing a capital business for.
• 1:48:24
  Speaker 1: You, Douvrey, leading Madame de Valcour into the ballroom.
• 1:48:29
  Speaker 3: Very well, go on, with.
• 1:48:31
  Speaker 2: It, examed, I told you, du Mond, you oughtn't to
• 1:48:36
  Speaker 2: play against me. You're sure to be beaten.
• 1:48:40
  Speaker 12: Double dish gigs with all my heart.
• 1:48:44
  Speaker 1: Enter doubini doubinis from the door. At last, comes slowly
• 1:48:50
  Speaker 1: forward and stands opposite Richelieu.
• 1:48:53
  Speaker 2: Aha, Chevalier, So there you are.
• 1:48:56
  Speaker 4: At last, Yes, my Lord Duke. Can I say too
• 1:49:00
  Speaker 4: words to you.
• 1:49:01
  Speaker 2: The moment this deal is over? I am at your service.
• 1:49:04
  Speaker 4: I can wait.
• 1:49:06
  Speaker 2: That's well, send me over your money, Domo, thanks, Chemiller
• 1:49:12
  Speaker 2: take my place. It's a lucky.
• 1:49:14
  Speaker 1: One getting up now, Sir. Chamiac takes Richelieu's place.
• 1:49:21
  Speaker 4: I waited yesterday morning in the street till four o'clock
• 1:49:23
  Speaker 4: to see your grace.
• 1:49:25
  Speaker 2: Very possibly, Chevalier. I left the palace by the park gate.
• 1:49:30
  Speaker 4: I have done myself the honor of waiting upon your
• 1:49:32
  Speaker 4: grace three times today.
• 1:49:36
  Speaker 2: So I was informed, sir, to my great regret. But
• 1:49:39
  Speaker 2: I presume you are aware that as soon as I
• 1:49:41
  Speaker 2: returned from.
• 1:49:42
  Speaker 4: Hunting, yes, you were so good as to call at
• 1:49:45
  Speaker 4: my lodging.
• 1:49:46
  Speaker 1: They bow to each other.
• 1:49:48
  Speaker 4: I presume, my Lord Duke, that it is unnecessary for
• 1:49:51
  Speaker 4: me to state the motive of my importunity.
• 1:49:54
  Speaker 2: M I rather think of Chevalier. I have some idea
• 1:49:58
  Speaker 2: of it.
• 1:49:59
  Speaker 4: You understand stand, sir, of course, that when a man
• 1:50:02
  Speaker 4: has attacked the honor of a woman whose father and
• 1:50:04
  Speaker 4: brothers are prisoners in the bastille.
• 1:50:08
  Speaker 1: D'uvrey comes in at the back and approaches them by degrees.
• 1:50:12
  Speaker 2: He is answerable to a lover upon my honor. Nothing
• 1:50:16
  Speaker 2: can be more obvious, my dear Chevalier, and I am
• 1:50:19
  Speaker 2: entirely at your command.
• 1:50:21
  Speaker 4: I need not add that the real cause of our
• 1:50:24
  Speaker 4: encounter must not be known.
• 1:50:26
  Speaker 2: The cause shall be the last comet, or the warm weather,
• 1:50:29
  Speaker 2: or anything in short that may suit your fancy. Besides,
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 2: I have no doubt we shall find accommodating seconds.
• 1:50:39
  Speaker 4: My Lord Duke. Might it not be more accommodating to
• 1:50:41
  Speaker 4: have none at all?
• 1:50:43
  Speaker 2: Oh? Very well? You will take a walk, for instance,
• 1:50:46
  Speaker 2: in some place agreed upon between us. I shall happen
• 1:50:50
  Speaker 2: to be out at the same time, and chance to
• 1:50:52
  Speaker 2: ramble in the same direction, so that, in point of fact,
• 1:50:57
  Speaker 2: it would be an encounter.
• 1:50:58
  Speaker 4: And no doom your place, Sir.
• 1:51:01
  Speaker 2: The nearer the palace, the better.
• 1:51:04
  Speaker 4: The avenue which leads to the wood. Then, shoving your
• 1:51:08
  Speaker 4: grace's time, name your own. Now, my dear sir nine
• 1:51:12
  Speaker 4: in the morning.
• 1:51:14
  Speaker 2: Agreed the arms.
• 1:51:16
  Speaker 4: It is unnecessary to specify them. We are both gentlemen,
• 1:51:20
  Speaker 4: and a gentleman's weapon is his sword. We go out
• 1:51:23
  Speaker 4: as usual with our sword on and excite nobody's curiosity
• 1:51:27
  Speaker 4: or interference by so doing.
• 1:51:30
  Speaker 2: Excellent tomorrow then at nine o'clock in the avenue leading
• 1:51:34
  Speaker 2: to the wood, and with no weapons but our swords,
• 1:51:38
  Speaker 2: just so.
• 1:51:39
  Speaker 1: My Lord Duke Dovray, touching them on the shoulder with
• 1:51:43
  Speaker 1: a beton.
• 1:51:44
  Speaker 3: In the King's name stand. You are hereby ordered to
• 1:51:47
  Speaker 3: appear on the eighth day from the present before the
• 1:51:50
  Speaker 3: High Court of my Lord's Marshals of France.
• 1:51:54
  Speaker 13: So overheard, Douvray, the devil take you, my dear fellow
• 1:52:00
  Speaker 13: one really cannot have three words of comfortable difference in
• 1:52:02
  Speaker 13: peace and quiet now without conjuring up you and your
• 1:52:05
  Speaker 13: staff of office.
• 1:52:07
  Speaker 3: Gentlemen, both you Duke and you chevalier, take notice.
• 1:52:13
  Speaker 2: This is no jest.
• 1:52:14
  Speaker 3: You are officially warned, and from this moment your heads
• 1:52:18
  Speaker 3: are between the acts and the block.
• 1:52:22
  Speaker 2: How confoundedly pleasant.
• 1:52:25
  Speaker 3: Give me therefore your word of honor, both of you,
• 1:52:28
  Speaker 3: that until my Lord's Marshals have determined the case. There
• 1:52:32
  Speaker 3: should be neither dual nor hostile encounter of any sort
• 1:52:37
  Speaker 3: between you.
• 1:52:38
  Speaker 2: It's none of my business, Chevalier. Let Monsieur D'AUVIGNI give
• 1:52:42
  Speaker 2: you his word, and then you shall have mine. Otherwise
• 1:52:47
  Speaker 2: I must inform you that I am bound to follow
• 1:52:49
  Speaker 2: him if he pleases in this matter, even to the scaffold.
• 1:52:54
  Speaker 4: My Lord Duke, I would take your life, but I
• 1:52:57
  Speaker 4: would have taken it myself. Trials and judges are useless
• 1:53:01
  Speaker 4: in our case, Sir. The only judge between your grace
• 1:53:04
  Speaker 4: and me must be God. Monsieur d'Avray, I pledge my
• 1:53:09
  Speaker 4: word to you.
• 1:53:11
  Speaker 3: That neither dual nor encounter shall take place between.
• 1:53:15
  Speaker 4: You, upon the honor of a gentleman, upon the honor
• 1:53:18
  Speaker 4: of a peer.
• 1:53:20
  Speaker 3: Very good, gentlemen, of course, I rely upon your word.
• 1:53:25
  Speaker 1: Goes and looks over the card players servant entering a.
• 1:53:30
  Speaker 10: Courier this moment arrived from Paris, desires to speak with
• 1:53:33
  Speaker 10: the Duke de mort immediately on his majesty's business.
• 1:53:37
  Speaker 12: Daumont getting up, gentlemen, will you excuse me.
• 1:53:42
  Speaker 5: The king's service first? My Lord Duke.
• 1:53:45
  Speaker 1: Exit dument following the footman.
• 1:53:48
  Speaker 2: Really, Chevalier I'm in despair about this book.
• 1:53:53
  Speaker 4: Console yourself, my Lord Duke. I hope to find a
• 1:53:56
  Speaker 4: remedy for it. Yet, of course you are aware that
• 1:53:59
  Speaker 4: the matter could not blow over thus, and that I
• 1:54:01
  Speaker 4: should not have given my words so easily unless I
• 1:54:04
  Speaker 4: had found a better way of ending the whole business.
• 1:54:08
  Speaker 4: And did your grace really suppose that so short and
• 1:54:11
  Speaker 4: easy an explanation had already satisfied me. If so, Sir,
• 1:54:16
  Speaker 4: you have done me yet another injury to tell.
• 1:54:19
  Speaker 2: You the truth. Chevalier. I was a little surprised at
• 1:54:22
  Speaker 2: the readiness with which you acceded to Monsieur de Vray's proposal.
• 1:54:26
  Speaker 4: I should think your Grace might have understood it. However,
• 1:54:29
  Speaker 4: the cause of our duel, my lord, cannot be dragged
• 1:54:32
  Speaker 4: before a tribunal. Mademoiselle de Bellilee is already dishonored enough
• 1:54:36
  Speaker 4: without the public disgrace of such discussions. But believe me,
• 1:54:40
  Speaker 4: my Lord Duke, there are other ways of settling this quarrel.
• 1:54:44
  Speaker 2: Permit me to remind you, sir, that you have given
• 1:54:47
  Speaker 2: your word of honor.
• 1:54:49
  Speaker 4: Not to fight your grace, that's all. But the man
• 1:54:52
  Speaker 4: who means to be revenged of an insult the man
• 1:54:55
  Speaker 4: who has lost peace, happiness, everything in this life. The
• 1:55:00
  Speaker 4: a man who has sworn to kill his enemy or
• 1:55:03
  Speaker 4: be killed by him. That man, my Lord Duke, for one,
• 1:55:07
  Speaker 4: means that fails him has a thousand others ready at
• 1:55:10
  Speaker 4: his hand. All that he asks is to find an
• 1:55:14
  Speaker 4: adversary brave and loyal enough to allow that to the
• 1:55:18
  Speaker 4: man whom he has robbed of every hope, he has
• 1:55:21
  Speaker 4: no right to refuse any satisfaction.
• 1:55:25
  Speaker 2: I flatter myself, sir, that you were finding me precisely
• 1:55:28
  Speaker 2: such an adversary.
• 1:55:30
  Speaker 4: And therefore I gave my word for I reckoned upon
• 1:55:34
  Speaker 4: your grace's courage.
• 1:55:36
  Speaker 2: You were quite right, my dear sir, and the devil
• 1:55:39
  Speaker 2: take me if I back out from anything you propose.
• 1:55:42
  Speaker 4: Very good, sir, here are dice. He that has the
• 1:55:45
  Speaker 4: worst of three throws.
• 1:55:48
  Speaker 2: Well, then it's like a game at forfeits.
• 1:55:52
  Speaker 4: Shall blow his brains out, my Lord Duke, that's a
• 1:55:55
  Speaker 4: kind of duel. My Lord's marshals take no cognizance of.
• 1:56:03
  Speaker 2: Poor my soul. Do you know that's the most ingenious
• 1:56:06
  Speaker 2: contrivance of yours?
• 1:56:08
  Speaker 4: You hesitate, sir, My dear.
• 1:56:11
  Speaker 2: Fellow, it's the funniest notion I have ever heard of
• 1:56:14
  Speaker 2: in all my life.
• 1:56:16
  Speaker 4: Your Grace refuses then.
• 1:56:18
  Speaker 2: No, no, no, not precisely.
• 1:56:21
  Speaker 4: Have a care, my Lord Duke. This is the second
• 1:56:24
  Speaker 4: time that it has happened to your grace, What sir,
• 1:56:28
  Speaker 4: to be arrested in the most convenient manner at the
• 1:56:32
  Speaker 4: moment of receiving a challenge? Well, sir, so that it
• 1:56:36
  Speaker 4: might be almost supposed that Monsieur d'ovrey was in the
• 1:56:39
  Speaker 4: secret beforehand.
• 1:56:42
  Speaker 2: Oh that won't be supposed now, for I accept the.
• 1:56:46
  Speaker 4: Challenge, well said my Lord Duke. I looked for nothing
• 1:56:50
  Speaker 4: less from you.
• 1:56:52
  Speaker 2: Only, my good friend. I must beg for six hours
• 1:56:55
  Speaker 2: reprieve after the game, because you see, if one doesn't
• 1:56:59
  Speaker 2: happen to be a bast one has always a little
• 1:57:02
  Speaker 2: business to attend to in such cases before.
• 1:57:04
  Speaker 4: One six hours, So be it.
• 1:57:07
  Speaker 1: They sit down to the dice charm.
• 1:57:10
  Speaker 2: To have a thrill with you.
• 1:57:12
  Speaker 3: Oh Lord, what you're dicing together?
• 1:57:15
  Speaker 4: Now?
• 1:57:16
  Speaker 2: Yes? Dovrain, have you a mind to go half in
• 1:57:19
  Speaker 2: my stake?
• 1:57:21
  Speaker 9: Yes?
• 1:57:22
  Speaker 3: But where's your money?
• 1:57:25
  Speaker 4: We are playing on parole? Begin, my Lord Duke.
• 1:57:29
  Speaker 2: No excuse me, do you begin?
• 1:57:33
  Speaker 3: Shamiyak I bet fifty louis upon richelieu.
• 1:57:38
  Speaker 5: Very good. I'll take you.
• 1:57:41
  Speaker 4: Come, gentlemen, since your grace insists upon it.
• 1:57:45
  Speaker 1: Froze five, he shall you? Froze eight?
• 1:57:52
  Speaker 5: Come come, I want my revenge.
• 1:57:55
  Speaker 3: Are they going on with it?
• 1:57:57
  Speaker 2: Yes?
• 1:57:59
  Speaker 4: It's you to begin, my lord Duke.
• 1:58:01
  Speaker 2: I hope my beginning will bring you luck this.
• 1:58:03
  Speaker 1: Time FROs nine dobinis to Chamiac.
• 1:58:09
  Speaker 4: You have no chance, Monsieur de Chemiac. I am sorry.
• 1:58:13
  Speaker 4: You bet it on my side. Froze eleven.
• 1:58:17
  Speaker 2: That's better with doveray, do you mean to go on,
• 1:58:21
  Speaker 2: Monsieur Deubini.
• 1:58:22
  Speaker 3: Certainly, sir, the same bet Chamiac.
• 1:58:27
  Speaker 2: Seven seven nothing? Shall we stop now? Chevalier?
• 1:58:35
  Speaker 4: This is my answer?
• 1:58:36
  Speaker 1: Nine eleven dobinis rising.
• 1:58:41
  Speaker 4: My Lord Duke, you have won.
• 1:58:45
  Speaker 5: There are your fifty Louis douvray.
• 1:58:48
  Speaker 2: Chevalier. I do hope you are not in earnest.
• 1:58:52
  Speaker 4: And how dare you suppose any such thing, sir?
• 1:58:56
  Speaker 2: Because the thing's impossible.
• 1:58:58
  Speaker 4: If it had been impossible, sir, your grace would not
• 1:59:01
  Speaker 4: have agreed to it.
• 1:59:03
  Speaker 2: Yes, but if I had lost.
• 1:59:06
  Speaker 4: If you had lost, my Lord Duke, you would have
• 1:59:08
  Speaker 4: kept your word as I shall keep mine.
• 1:59:12
  Speaker 2: For God's sake.
• 1:59:13
  Speaker 4: It is just morning, three o'clock at nine, your grace,
• 1:59:18
  Speaker 4: I shall pay you.
• 1:59:20
  Speaker 1: Exit Richelieu, following him.
• 1:59:23
  Speaker 2: Sir, sir, you will do no such thing, or you
• 1:59:28
  Speaker 2: are stock staring mad.
• 1:59:30
  Speaker 1: The rest of the characters go off gradually into the ballroom.
• 1:59:34
  Speaker 1: Chelieu remains in front of the stage, walking about in
• 1:59:37
  Speaker 1: great agitation.
• 1:59:39
  Speaker 2: He'll do it, Oh, he'll do it, as he says it.
• 1:59:42
  Speaker 2: There are certain men one need only look at once
• 1:59:45
  Speaker 2: to know what stuff they are made of. Sir, know
• 1:59:49
  Speaker 2: we to prevent this horrid absurdity. To think that he'll
• 1:59:53
  Speaker 2: go quietly home to his lodgings and there alone in
• 1:59:58
  Speaker 2: cold blood God's life. It's worse than a murder youth
• 2:00:04
  Speaker 2: courage my fine name, and in six hours to have
• 2:00:07
  Speaker 2: his brains blown out by a pistol shot, and all
• 2:00:12
  Speaker 2: for that infernal wage of mind that I wish to
• 2:00:15
  Speaker 2: God I'd lost a hundred times over more, particularly as
• 2:00:19
  Speaker 2: devil take me if I know in the least how
• 2:00:21
  Speaker 2: I want it. After all, if that fellow shoots himself,
• 2:00:26
  Speaker 2: he'll haunt me all my life. If I was only
• 2:00:30
  Speaker 2: at Paris, I might get a little to cashier and
• 2:00:33
  Speaker 2: clap him into the best. To you, he would be
• 2:00:36
  Speaker 2: safe enough there, unless he hung himself up to the
• 2:00:39
  Speaker 2: window bars. But here there's nothing to be done. Upon
• 2:00:44
  Speaker 2: my soul, I shall go distracted.
• 2:00:48
  Speaker 1: Dumont coming down, and.
• 2:00:50
  Speaker 12: Upon my soul I shall go distracted.
• 2:00:53
  Speaker 2: You what about?
• 2:00:56
  Speaker 12: Why about? What's happening to me?
• 2:00:59
  Speaker 2: Is something happening to you too? Why you seemed quite
• 2:01:03
  Speaker 2: upset agitated? My dear fellow. What's the matter?
• 2:01:09
  Speaker 12: Have you heard the news from peris no complete change
• 2:01:14
  Speaker 12: of ministry? The Bishop of Frazier at the head of
• 2:01:17
  Speaker 12: the cabinet, the bishop bishop.
• 2:01:21
  Speaker 2: Ah there there there, I said, so told the marchioness
• 2:01:27
  Speaker 2: saw not half an hour ago, and she pooh pooed
• 2:01:30
  Speaker 2: at it in the grandest style. What becomes of Monsieur
• 2:01:34
  Speaker 2: de Bobo werested? Arrested, A prince of the blood royal arrested. Nevertheless,
• 2:01:42
  Speaker 2: But this is not all? What something else?
• 2:01:47
  Speaker 12: I have received a letter from the King ordering the
• 2:01:51
  Speaker 12: marchioness to her estate there to remain banished, in fact till.
• 2:01:56
  Speaker 2: Further neoti is why do they write that to you?
• 2:02:00
  Speaker 12: Because as captain of the King's guard I am to
• 2:02:04
  Speaker 12: have the honor of escorting her.
• 2:02:05
  Speaker 2: Tiddle, Oh lord, poor d'arment, what wilt thou do.
• 2:02:12
  Speaker 12: I must do as I am commended.
• 2:02:14
  Speaker 2: I take it is any a lay granted, not a minute.
• 2:02:18
  Speaker 12: The express is not to return to Paris till he
• 2:02:21
  Speaker 12: has seen a swarf.
• 2:02:23
  Speaker 2: Here, Darmond, here comes the Marchioness to fetch you to
• 2:02:26
  Speaker 2: dance with her.
• 2:02:28
  Speaker 12: I wish I was a hundred feet under ground.
• 2:02:31
  Speaker 1: Madame de Valcour, entering, what are you about?
• 2:02:35
  Speaker 7: Durmant?
• 2:02:35
  Speaker 1: I am waiting for you.
• 2:02:37
  Speaker 2: Poor fellow. The question is not what he is doing,
• 2:02:41
  Speaker 2: but what he will do for I show your ladyship.
• 2:02:47
  Speaker 2: His mind is, by no mean is made up.
• 2:02:50
  Speaker 12: What do you mean, madam? Pray forgive me. I am
• 2:02:54
  Speaker 12: most unfortunate. I am in despair.
• 2:02:58
  Speaker 1: Bless us.
• 2:02:59
  Speaker 7: What's what's the matter with you?
• 2:03:02
  Speaker 2: My dear Marchioness? Let what will happen depend upon me
• 2:03:06
  Speaker 2: as your devoted friend, and use all my influence and interest. If, however,
• 2:03:12
  Speaker 2: they are not going to the devil with your own.
• 2:03:15
  Speaker 7: My influence lost my interest? What are you both talking about?
• 2:03:20
  Speaker 1: Are you both?
• 2:03:21
  Speaker 12: Mad maidam? The King may not be disobeyed.
• 2:03:26
  Speaker 7: Who thinks of disobeying his majesty?
• 2:03:30
  Speaker 2: Why he does del Mont dos if he only knew how?
• 2:03:36
  Speaker 2: But he has compelled to execute the orders he has
• 2:03:38
  Speaker 2: just received from.
• 2:03:39
  Speaker 7: Court, and what are they? For Heaven's sake you.
• 2:03:43
  Speaker 12: Speak, Do not alarm you yourself, madam. This loss of
• 2:03:47
  Speaker 12: favor is probably only temporary loss of favor.
• 2:03:53
  Speaker 7: You will be the death of me, both of you,
• 2:03:55
  Speaker 7: with your preparations. Come. I'm no coward. Speak out at once,
• 2:04:01
  Speaker 7: do and let me know what is the matter.
• 2:04:05
  Speaker 1: Enter chevalier d'uvrey, douvrey too, Richelieu.
• 2:04:09
  Speaker 3: I beg your pardon, my dear duke, but I must
• 2:04:12
  Speaker 3: trouble you for your sword.
• 2:04:14
  Speaker 1: Hello douvray, showing a letter the king.
• 2:04:19
  Speaker 3: Sign manual prisoner, You must go immediately to Paris to
• 2:04:24
  Speaker 3: give an account of yourself to the new powers that be.
• 2:04:28
  Speaker 7: Oh, for pity's sake, will nobody have the charity to
• 2:04:32
  Speaker 7: tell me what all this means?
• 2:04:35
  Speaker 2: Why, my dear marchioness. It means that you're pious, humble,
• 2:04:40
  Speaker 2: self denying, meek and all unworldly. Bishop is at the
• 2:04:44
  Speaker 2: head of the government, d'un mont is at this moment
• 2:04:48
  Speaker 2: in his pocket in order to escort you into banishment,
• 2:04:52
  Speaker 2: and that the Duc de Bibon is arrested.
• 2:04:55
  Speaker 3: Good God, my uncle, your uncle, your uncle uncle.
• 2:05:01
  Speaker 7: Oh gentlemen, for Heaven's sake, lose no time in useless exclamations.
• 2:05:06
  Speaker 7: What is to be done? But can't I see my uncle?
• 2:05:10
  Speaker 2: Of what use for that? Since he is arrested.
• 2:05:13
  Speaker 7: If I wrote to the king.
• 2:05:14
  Speaker 2: Your letter will be read by the bishop to the
• 2:05:17
  Speaker 2: Queen that indeed.
• 2:05:19
  Speaker 7: Oh yes, she surely cannot have forgotten that I was
• 2:05:23
  Speaker 7: the means of bringing her out of banishment to place
• 2:05:26
  Speaker 7: her on the foremost thrown of Europe. But who on
• 2:05:29
  Speaker 7: earth will give my letter to her?
• 2:05:33
  Speaker 2: I will, my dear Marchioness, depend upon me.
• 2:05:36
  Speaker 7: Oh, your grace stands by me in my need? Daumont
• 2:05:40
  Speaker 7: give me that pennant ink? My head spins round. I
• 2:05:44
  Speaker 7: scarce know what I am writing.
• 2:05:47
  Speaker 1: Writes the dancers gradually return it shall use snatching the
• 2:05:51
  Speaker 1: paper from her?
• 2:05:53
  Speaker 2: Stop, stop, stop a bit? Is this your handwriting, madam?
• 2:05:58
  Speaker 7: Did not you see me write it? What do you mean?
• 2:06:01
  Speaker 2: What do I mean? Why that? If this is your handwriting, madam,
• 2:06:09
  Speaker 2: this note in this petition or your handwriting also and
• 2:06:14
  Speaker 2: not Mademoiselle de bellyer Is. And if so, who was
• 2:06:18
  Speaker 2: it that received me last night in a chamber where
• 2:06:21
  Speaker 2: I thought she was Sir nay Madam the truth. The
• 2:06:26
  Speaker 2: truth lives as well as fortunes, are in every minute
• 2:06:31
  Speaker 2: that we waste. Now, who was in that room.
• 2:06:34
  Speaker 1: Last night, Madame de Valcour, rising myself, you.
• 2:06:40
  Speaker 7: You Grace's humble servant, and your wife his wife, his wife,
• 2:06:47
  Speaker 7: my wife, your wife.
• 2:06:50
  Speaker 2: Then I have lost my waiter. That Mademoiselle de Bellielle
• 2:06:53
  Speaker 2: was not in the room, then d'auvigny need not blow
• 2:06:57
  Speaker 2: his brains out. Ah, My dear dear madam, pray excuse me,
• 2:07:05
  Speaker 2: but indeed I am so overjoyed at having lost that
• 2:07:08
  Speaker 2: cursed wager that I protest. I am not half as
• 2:07:11
  Speaker 2: much shocked by this news as might have been expected.
• 2:07:14
  Speaker 2: Don't mont dorry. I owe you each five hundred louis
• 2:07:20
  Speaker 2: for God, Madam, I am more oblige your ladyship for
• 2:07:23
  Speaker 2: being my wife than words can express. But come, come, come,
• 2:07:28
  Speaker 2: let us waste no time in useless exclamations. Since you
• 2:07:32
  Speaker 2: are my wife, Madam, give me your hand and to
• 2:07:35
  Speaker 2: peris instantly to throw ourselves at the King's feet, for
• 2:07:39
  Speaker 2: unless I can be back here in less than six hours,
• 2:07:42
  Speaker 2: the bravest young fellow in France will have blown his
• 2:07:44
  Speaker 2: brains out.
• 2:07:46
  Speaker 7: Good God, what do.
• 2:07:47
  Speaker 2: You mean excellent company. Strange accidents you see have occurred
• 2:07:52
  Speaker 2: to us, some of us have fallen into disgrace, and
• 2:07:56
  Speaker 2: summon to matrimony tis little more than three in the morning.
• 2:08:01
  Speaker 2: I shall be back here in six hours if horses
• 2:08:04
  Speaker 2: legs me to it, and hope to find the ballroom
• 2:08:06
  Speaker 2: not yet empty and the supper room still fall Come, come, madam,
• 2:08:12
  Speaker 2: my dear Marchioness Duchess. I mean reserve our further particulars
• 2:08:17
  Speaker 2: for the road. For I tell you, if that young
• 2:08:20
  Speaker 2: man's death is to light at my door, I will
• 2:08:23
  Speaker 2: never forgive you, or myself, or any human being that
• 2:08:27
  Speaker 2: has been concerned in so terrible a chest.
• 2:08:32
  Speaker 1: End of the fourth act, Act five of Mademoiselle de
• 2:08:41
  Speaker 1: Bellille by Alexandre Dumin, translated by Francis N. Campbell eighteen
• 2:08:46
  Speaker 1: o nine to eighteen ninety three. This is a LibriVox recording.
• 2:08:51
  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 2:08:54
  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Act five,
• 2:09:00
  Speaker 1: seene one Mademoiselle de Berrille's room, Mademoiselle de Berille and
• 2:09:04
  Speaker 1: a footman.
• 2:09:06
  Speaker 8: You are sure you remember who I mean, Monsieur d'Aubigny,
• 2:09:09
  Speaker 8: the young officer who called here yesterday in the day before.
• 2:09:12
  Speaker 9: I know perfectly who you mean, Madame.
• 2:09:15
  Speaker 1: Mademoiselle de Berille sealing a Letta.
• 2:09:19
  Speaker 8: Well, you must find him immediately. It is quite early
• 2:09:21
  Speaker 8: yet hardly seven o'clock. He will certainly not have left
• 2:09:25
  Speaker 8: his lodging. Give him this note and bring him with
• 2:09:27
  Speaker 8: you hither directly. I must speak to him immediately before
• 2:09:31
  Speaker 8: you go. Send Mariette to me.
• 2:09:33
  Speaker 9: Mariette left the palace last night with her ladyship.
• 2:09:38
  Speaker 8: The marchioness left the palace.
• 2:09:39
  Speaker 9: You say last night, Madame, her ladyship went away with
• 2:09:44
  Speaker 9: the Duc de Rachelieu before the ball was over.
• 2:09:47
  Speaker 8: But she will come back. She is coming back to day.
• 2:09:51
  Speaker 9: I do not know, madame, but if you please, I
• 2:09:54
  Speaker 9: can inquire.
• 2:09:55
  Speaker 8: Yes, pray do, But first of all take that letter,
• 2:09:58
  Speaker 8: for it.
• 2:09:58
  Speaker 1: Is immediate servant.
• 2:10:01
  Speaker 8: What can be happening yesterday she sent me word that
• 2:10:04
  Speaker 8: she could not receive me. This morning she has left
• 2:10:07
  Speaker 8: the palace. Not a word from daubenis. I cannot conceive
• 2:10:10
  Speaker 8: what is going on?
• 2:10:12
  Speaker 1: Doubini in the anpty room.
• 2:10:14
  Speaker 4: Can I see Mademoiselle de Bellille.
• 2:10:17
  Speaker 8: Oh, yes, Henry, come in come in. I had just
• 2:10:20
  Speaker 8: written to you. I was expecting you every moment, and
• 2:10:22
  Speaker 8: yet almost feared that you would not come.
• 2:10:25
  Speaker 4: It is an unforeseen circumstance, indeed, that brings.
• 2:10:28
  Speaker 8: Me, no matter what, you are most welcome. Oh, I
• 2:10:32
  Speaker 8: am so glad to see you again.
• 2:10:34
  Speaker 4: I have come to ask a service of you.
• 2:10:37
  Speaker 8: A service of me.
• 2:10:39
  Speaker 4: Oh, speak, Gabrielle. I have no one in the world
• 2:10:42
  Speaker 4: but you. My mother died in giving me birth. My
• 2:10:45
  Speaker 4: father fell at the Battle of de Nane. I have
• 2:10:48
  Speaker 4: no relations, no friends, no friends. I do not know therefore,
• 2:10:54
  Speaker 4: to whom I can confide a trust of some importance
• 2:10:57
  Speaker 4: unless you will take charge of it for me? What
• 2:11:00
  Speaker 4: trust papers that concern my fortune and estate?
• 2:11:05
  Speaker 8: And why do you not keep them in your own possession?
• 2:11:08
  Speaker 4: Because I am going away, Gabrielle.
• 2:11:11
  Speaker 8: Away.
• 2:11:12
  Speaker 4: Yes, I am going to leave you. And when absence
• 2:11:16
  Speaker 4: once begins, God alone can tell how long it lasts. Henry,
• 2:11:21
  Speaker 4: I do not wish to alarm you, but who can
• 2:11:24
  Speaker 4: foresee what time may have in store for him? Assuredly,
• 2:11:27
  Speaker 4: had anyone foretold me of the events of the last
• 2:11:30
  Speaker 4: three days, I had not credited them. But I must
• 2:11:33
  Speaker 4: endeavor to be no more surprised by misfortune. I shall
• 2:11:37
  Speaker 4: not therefore escape from it, I know, but it shall
• 2:11:41
  Speaker 4: henceforth find me prepared for it, expecting it.
• 2:11:46
  Speaker 8: I have not interrupted you, Henry, though every word you
• 2:11:49
  Speaker 8: have uttered has been a dagger to my heart. Go On, then,
• 2:11:52
  Speaker 8: since you do not fear to wound me, go on,
• 2:11:55
  Speaker 8: I listen to you most attentively.
• 2:11:57
  Speaker 4: Oh, believe me. It costs me much to give you
• 2:11:59
  Speaker 4: a moment's pain. But what I have to say is
• 2:12:03
  Speaker 4: most important, and once said, it will be said forever.
• 2:12:07
  Speaker 4: Go On the hour of parting has brought with its
• 2:12:10
  Speaker 4: solemn thoughts of the countless chances of this weary life.
• 2:12:15
  Speaker 4: Perhaps perhaps I shall see you no more again, and
• 2:12:19
  Speaker 4: I cannot leave you without entreating your forgiveness for my
• 2:12:22
  Speaker 4: intemperate angry yesterday, alas one cannot calmly tear from one's
• 2:12:28
  Speaker 4: heart a hope that had been its life's blood for
• 2:12:31
  Speaker 4: four years. For I have loved you thus long longer longer.
• 2:12:37
  Speaker 4: I cannot remember when I loved you not. But I
• 2:12:40
  Speaker 4: have feared that if I did not return, if if,
• 2:12:45
  Speaker 4: in short, if I were to die without seeing you
• 2:12:47
  Speaker 4: once again, you might imagine that I had died with
• 2:12:51
  Speaker 4: a heart embittered against you, and this might have caused
• 2:12:54
  Speaker 4: you anguish and remorse. Therefore, Gabrielle, I am come to
• 2:12:58
  Speaker 4: bid you farewell, no longer alas as a lover leaving
• 2:13:03
  Speaker 4: his betrothed, but as a brother parting from a sister.
• 2:13:08
  Speaker 8: Oh, you are pitiless, pitiless, and you will surely rue
• 2:13:12
  Speaker 8: one day the torture you are inflicting on me now.
• 2:13:14
  Speaker 4: And yet tis but the desire that your happiness, if
• 2:13:19
  Speaker 4: you can yet be happy, may not be disturbed by
• 2:13:22
  Speaker 4: thoughts of my despair that prompts me at this moment.
• 2:13:26
  Speaker 4: Had it been better to leave you in the belief
• 2:13:28
  Speaker 4: that I hated and cursed you, when in truth I
• 2:13:31
  Speaker 4: had forgiven you, forgiven me, Yes, forgiven you. And it
• 2:13:37
  Speaker 4: is but very lately that my heart has found the
• 2:13:39
  Speaker 4: strength to do so. But Heaven has taken pity on me.
• 2:13:44
  Speaker 4: The best part of this night I have passed within
• 2:13:46
  Speaker 4: the sacred walls of a church. For we may, and
• 2:13:49
  Speaker 4: alas do, forget God in our senseless hours of joy
• 2:13:53
  Speaker 4: and happy hope. But when joy and happiness are torn
• 2:13:57
  Speaker 4: from us forever, God still remains to us, And then, yes,
• 2:14:02
  Speaker 4: then we remember him, we seek him. I had forgotten him,
• 2:14:07
  Speaker 4: for my heart was filled with but one thought, and
• 2:14:10
  Speaker 4: that was you you. But last night, in the bitter
• 2:14:15
  Speaker 4: anguish of my soul, I thought on him, or rather
• 2:14:19
  Speaker 4: he mercifully thought on me. I spent two hours prostrate
• 2:14:24
  Speaker 4: before the altar, weeping and praying, Oh, Gabrielle, gabriel God,
• 2:14:30
  Speaker 4: grant that you may never feel such desperate need of prayers,
• 2:14:35
  Speaker 4: of tears and of his holy sanctuary.
• 2:14:38
  Speaker 1: He is mad, no.
• 2:14:41
  Speaker 4: No longer mad. I was mad, but I have recovered
• 2:14:45
  Speaker 4: my senses. For from that church I turned home calm
• 2:14:49
  Speaker 4: and resigned, at least, if not consoled. Since then, I
• 2:14:54
  Speaker 4: have put all in order for my departure, and I
• 2:14:57
  Speaker 4: have come to confide these papers to you. If I return,
• 2:15:01
  Speaker 4: you shall give them back to me. If I do
• 2:15:03
  Speaker 4: not return, then open them and let me beseech you
• 2:15:07
  Speaker 4: to fulfill the last entreaties that you will find him them.
• 2:15:10
  Speaker 4: And now, farewell, Gabrielle.
• 2:15:14
  Speaker 8: Good heavens, where is Madame de valecour?
• 2:15:17
  Speaker 4: Will you not say farewell?
• 2:15:18
  Speaker 8: Gabrielle, Henry You shall not leave me. I must because
• 2:15:23
  Speaker 8: you believe me guilty. But listen, listen, I swear to
• 2:15:27
  Speaker 8: you by my mother's soul, by my father's promised freedom,
• 2:15:30
  Speaker 8: by your life, oh dearer a thousand times than my own,
• 2:15:33
  Speaker 8: that I am innocent.
• 2:15:35
  Speaker 4: I have heard those oaths before, And remember too, I
• 2:15:39
  Speaker 4: heard the Duke.
• 2:15:40
  Speaker 8: You heard him well, in spite of his assurance, which
• 2:15:43
  Speaker 8: surpassed belief, twas false, all false. He either lied with
• 2:15:47
  Speaker 8: wicked and determined purpose, or, like myself, was dupe of
• 2:15:50
  Speaker 8: some infamous stratagem. Oh hear me, Henry, well, Heaven forgive me.
• 2:15:56
  Speaker 8: I am committing a sin in speaking this, for I
• 2:15:58
  Speaker 8: have sworn. But but that night, when Monsieur de Richelieu
• 2:16:03
  Speaker 8: maintains that I received him here, I was not in
• 2:16:06
  Speaker 8: the palace.
• 2:16:07
  Speaker 4: You were not in the palace. No.
• 2:16:10
  Speaker 8: I left it at ten o'clock that night and only
• 2:16:13
  Speaker 8: returned to it at five the next morning.
• 2:16:15
  Speaker 4: But in the name of Heaven, where were you?
• 2:16:17
  Speaker 8: Then, that Madame de Valcoup alone can authorize me to
• 2:16:21
  Speaker 8: reveal I have already broken half my solemn promise in
• 2:16:24
  Speaker 8: telling you thus much. Remember that have mercy on me, Henry,
• 2:16:29
  Speaker 8: and urge me no further now, for I have suffered
• 2:16:31
  Speaker 8: such anguish since yesterday that only to keep you here
• 2:16:33
  Speaker 8: I might be tempted to utter all in spite of
• 2:16:35
  Speaker 8: a most sacred.
• 2:16:36
  Speaker 4: Oath absent from the palace the whole night.
• 2:16:40
  Speaker 6: Good God, I have said it.
• 2:16:43
  Speaker 8: Now, grant me but this, and if the expectation I
• 2:16:45
  Speaker 8: hold out to you prove false, then Henry kill me,
• 2:16:49
  Speaker 8: or worse worse a thousand times forsake and despise me forever.
• 2:16:53
  Speaker 8: Wait only wait till I can bring you to Madame
• 2:16:55
  Speaker 8: de Valcoup, and at her feet I will implore her
• 2:16:58
  Speaker 8: to tell you all and free me from these dreadful suspicions.
• 2:17:02
  Speaker 4: Madame de Valcour, Madame de Valcour, you know that you
• 2:17:06
  Speaker 4: will not see her again, that she is gone beyond
• 2:17:09
  Speaker 4: your reach. How Madame de Valcour is gone, gone, banished
• 2:17:15
  Speaker 4: to her estate, banished. The duc de Bourbon has involved
• 2:17:20
  Speaker 4: her in his ruin. But why do I dwell on
• 2:17:23
  Speaker 4: these circumstances which must be as well known to you
• 2:17:26
  Speaker 4: as to myself.
• 2:17:28
  Speaker 8: The Duke de Bourbon is no longer Prime Minister.
• 2:17:31
  Speaker 4: No Gabrielle and your father is free.
• 2:17:35
  Speaker 8: The Duke de Bourbon is no longer minister.
• 2:17:37
  Speaker 4: He resigned yesterday at noon?
• 2:17:40
  Speaker 8: True? True?
• 2:17:41
  Speaker 11: Is it true?
• 2:17:42
  Speaker 8: Henry speak?
• 2:17:43
  Speaker 4: Speak? What matters it?
• 2:17:46
  Speaker 8: Answer me? I say, upon your sacred honor. Is it
• 2:17:48
  Speaker 8: true that the Duke de Bourbon is no longer minister?
• 2:17:51
  Speaker 4: It is true, then I may.
• 2:17:53
  Speaker 8: Tell you all. Then I am freed from my oath.
• 2:17:56
  Speaker 8: Then then, oh, Henry, we are s that night. Oh
• 2:18:01
  Speaker 8: Heaven be praised, Oh Heaven be thanked, we are delivered.
• 2:18:04
  Speaker 8: I cannot speak. I am choking.
• 2:18:07
  Speaker 4: Good heavens speak speak for pity's sake.
• 2:18:11
  Speaker 8: That night, by favor of an order from Madame de Valcour,
• 2:18:14
  Speaker 8: and in her carriage, I left the palace that night,
• 2:18:17
  Speaker 8: in which unfortunate thou believed I had deceived thy love
• 2:18:20
  Speaker 8: and blasted all our hopes. That night I passed in
• 2:18:23
  Speaker 8: my father's arms, my father, whom I had not seen
• 2:18:27
  Speaker 8: for three wretched years of dreary imprisonment. If you doubt me, Henry,
• 2:18:31
  Speaker 8: he he, my father himself, shall swear to you on
• 2:18:33
  Speaker 8: his white hairs, that I speak the truth.
• 2:18:36
  Speaker 4: Be silent, All be silent.
• 2:18:39
  Speaker 8: This was the cause of my confusion. This was why,
• 2:18:43
  Speaker 8: for the first the only time in my life, I
• 2:18:45
  Speaker 8: urged you to leave me, without being able to assign
• 2:18:48
  Speaker 8: the real motive for my doing so. I had sworn
• 2:18:51
  Speaker 8: to the Marchioness who gave me that order, unknown to
• 2:18:53
  Speaker 8: Monsieur de Bourbon, that as long as he continued, Minister,
• 2:18:56
  Speaker 8: I would keep that secret, which, once known, might have
• 2:18:59
  Speaker 8: caused her ruin and the death of my father. Ten
• 2:19:02
  Speaker 8: minutes after you had left my room, I was gone
• 2:19:04
  Speaker 8: from it and had but just returned to it when
• 2:19:06
  Speaker 8: you came the next morning. Now now now tis you
• 2:19:10
  Speaker 8: who are the guilty one, and I the judge. For remember, oh, remember,
• 2:19:13
  Speaker 8: what withering words you have uttered to me, to your own, Gabrielle. Oh,
• 2:19:18
  Speaker 8: when you had left me in scorn and dreadful anger,
• 2:19:20
  Speaker 8: When I found myself alone, far from my father and
• 2:19:23
  Speaker 8: forsaken by you, I thought God had forsaken me too,
• 2:19:27
  Speaker 8: and that I had nothing left but.
• 2:19:28
  Speaker 4: To die, Gabrielle, Gabrielle.
• 2:19:32
  Speaker 8: Yes, to die, For since all means of justifying myself
• 2:19:36
  Speaker 8: seemed denied to me while living, perhaps you would have
• 2:19:38
  Speaker 8: believed my death then, Henry, you would have said, since
• 2:19:42
  Speaker 8: she has died because I left her. She loved me,
• 2:19:44
  Speaker 8: and if she loved me, she could not thus deceive me.
• 2:19:48
  Speaker 8: Now now, now will you forgive me? Or shall I
• 2:19:51
  Speaker 8: forgive you?
• 2:19:52
  Speaker 4: Oh?
• 2:19:52
  Speaker 8: No, no, neither let us forget the bitter past. The
• 2:19:56
  Speaker 8: future is all our own. The future in two blessed words. Yes,
• 2:20:00
  Speaker 8: I love you, dearest. Do you love me? Still?
• 2:20:04
  Speaker 4: Hush, hush, and yet tell me? For my benumbed senses
• 2:20:08
  Speaker 4: seem rushing back suddenly to life. Since you were not here,
• 2:20:12
  Speaker 4: since you were at Paris. Every word that villain uttered
• 2:20:16
  Speaker 4: was false. He lied, that duke, that base, that infamous troducer.
• 2:20:22
  Speaker 1: Looks at the clock.
• 2:20:23
  Speaker 4: Oh God, but half an hour to find him and
• 2:20:26
  Speaker 4: tear his heart out. Half an hour, one short half hour.
• 2:20:31
  Speaker 1: Rushes to the door. She stops him.
• 2:20:34
  Speaker 8: Henry, what means this? I stand here before you. I
• 2:20:37
  Speaker 8: tell you that I am innocent. I prove it to you.
• 2:20:40
  Speaker 8: I tell you again that I love you, almost dearly.
• 2:20:43
  Speaker 8: And instead of answering me, of thinking of me, you
• 2:20:46
  Speaker 8: speak of nothing but that man, forget his folly and
• 2:20:49
  Speaker 8: despise his calumnies. Let us think now of nothing but
• 2:20:52
  Speaker 8: my father's restored liberty. Let us return home again to Brittany.
• 2:20:56
  Speaker 4: To happiness, happiness, Gabrielle, happiness. Oh, it is now your
• 2:21:01
  Speaker 4: turn to hear a fatal secret.
• 2:21:04
  Speaker 8: What good?
• 2:21:05
  Speaker 1: Heavens?
• 2:21:07
  Speaker 4: No, No, leave me, let me go, Let me go,
• 2:21:10
  Speaker 4: Let me find him. I will find him before my
• 2:21:13
  Speaker 4: time expires.
• 2:21:15
  Speaker 8: Henry, you shall not leave this room. I know not
• 2:21:18
  Speaker 8: what you mean or what you seek to do, but
• 2:21:20
  Speaker 8: you shall only cross the threshold of this door over
• 2:21:22
  Speaker 8: my body, And if you attempt to force me from it,
• 2:21:24
  Speaker 8: I will raise the house with Christ for help.
• 2:21:27
  Speaker 4: To die now Thus, at such a moment, assassinated by
• 2:21:31
  Speaker 4: that villain impossible.
• 2:21:33
  Speaker 8: What horrible words are those?
• 2:21:35
  Speaker 4: Oh, Gabrielle, come to my arms once more, once more,
• 2:21:39
  Speaker 4: for the last last time, lay that dear head upon
• 2:21:42
  Speaker 4: my heart. So now tell me again again, Thou lovest
• 2:21:47
  Speaker 4: me angel, repeat it to me in this moment of despair, dolt, idiot,
• 2:21:54
  Speaker 4: that I was to doubt THEE. I should have doubted myself,
• 2:21:58
  Speaker 4: my eyes, everything but THEE. But stung with the thought
• 2:22:02
  Speaker 4: of thy treachery, racked with the bitter thought of having
• 2:22:05
  Speaker 4: THEE torn from me, I became mad alas if thou
• 2:22:10
  Speaker 4: hadst believed me perjured and forsworn, thou wouldst have died
• 2:22:14
  Speaker 4: forgiving me, because thou art a woman, an angel of
• 2:22:19
  Speaker 4: pity and forgiveness. But I hungered for vengeance. I thirsted
• 2:22:24
  Speaker 4: for thy betrayer's blood. I ought not, perhaps to tell
• 2:22:28
  Speaker 4: THEE this dreadful thing, but all strength and self command
• 2:22:32
  Speaker 4: have left me. I met him, challenged him. We were
• 2:22:36
  Speaker 4: to fight, Hey, we were arrested. We passed our word
• 2:22:41
  Speaker 4: of honor not to fight. No means remained of encountering him,
• 2:22:45
  Speaker 4: but dragging before a tribunal. The cause of our quarrel.
• 2:22:49
  Speaker 4: That cause was thy dishonor gabrielle thou wert lost, or
• 2:22:54
  Speaker 4: my injury unrequited. Then then dice lay at hand. The
• 2:22:59
  Speaker 4: devil prompted me, and I challenged him to play his
• 2:23:03
  Speaker 4: life against mine at hazard. He accepted, for he is brave.
• 2:23:07
  Speaker 4: We threw and I lost.
• 2:23:10
  Speaker 11: Huh, now I see it all.
• 2:23:12
  Speaker 8: Your return hither was but to leave me forever That
• 2:23:15
  Speaker 8: absence was death. You were to die for me, for me. Oh,
• 2:23:19
  Speaker 8: but you forget I am not guilty. You wanted to
• 2:23:22
  Speaker 8: die because you thought me guilty. You know now I
• 2:23:25
  Speaker 8: am not guilty. I love you still, I have loved you.
• 2:23:27
  Speaker 8: Ever die die, you die? Oh, my god, my god,
• 2:23:32
  Speaker 8: that fatal man? Why why did he ever cross my path?
• 2:23:36
  Speaker 4: Do you not see that I must murder him.
• 2:23:39
  Speaker 8: You shall not leave me, Henry, I will cling to you.
• 2:23:42
  Speaker 1: You shall not move.
• 2:23:44
  Speaker 4: And yet there is no other way. If he were dead.
• 2:23:48
  Speaker 4: No human being knows of what passed between us. None
• 2:23:52
  Speaker 4: know that, this very day, this very hour, in a
• 2:23:55
  Speaker 4: few short minutes, I had sworn to blow my brains out.
• 2:24:00
  Speaker 4: Oh Gabrielle, help me, Help me see whither my love
• 2:24:04
  Speaker 4: for THEE has led me. I speak the words of baseness,
• 2:24:07
  Speaker 4: I think the thoughts of cowardice. See see how I
• 2:24:11
  Speaker 4: love THEE? Since I can contemplate dishonor rather than thy loss.
• 2:24:17
  Speaker 8: Love, Yes, thou hast love, but no pity. Unclasp thy arms,
• 2:24:22
  Speaker 8: not on thy heart, but at thy feet is now
• 2:24:23
  Speaker 8: my place. Oh wert thou thus in anguish to cast
• 2:24:26
  Speaker 8: thyself down before me? Fame, honor, life, all all would
• 2:24:30
  Speaker 8: be thine, whilst thou canst see me. Thus, embrace thy
• 2:24:33
  Speaker 8: feet and give but half thy soul to love the
• 2:24:36
  Speaker 8: rest of pride and vengeance. How can I help THEE?
• 2:24:40
  Speaker 8: Let me go to that wicked cruel man. I will
• 2:24:42
  Speaker 8: implore him to spare THEE, to spare us both. Oh, Henry,
• 2:24:46
  Speaker 8: my heart is bursting, My senses are forsaking me. Have
• 2:24:49
  Speaker 8: mercy on me, Henry, Mercy, mercy.
• 2:24:52
  Speaker 4: Courage, beloved one, Oh Heaven, you tear my heart strings.
• 2:24:57
  Speaker 8: Courage to see THEE die, never but to die with
• 2:25:01
  Speaker 8: thee yes now this instant, since it must be so,
• 2:25:04
  Speaker 8: at least, at least together. Hush, hush, listen. Tis his voice,
• 2:25:11
  Speaker 8: tis the voice of the Duke.
• 2:25:12
  Speaker 4: Great God be thanked Thy justice leads him. Hither now, Gabrielle,
• 2:25:18
  Speaker 4: now do for me today what I did yesterday for you.
• 2:25:21
  Speaker 4: In into that room.
• 2:25:23
  Speaker 8: No, no, I will not leave you.
• 2:25:26
  Speaker 4: Then, by Heaven, I will murder him at your feet.
• 2:25:30
  Speaker 8: I will go, Henry, I will, but in the name
• 2:25:32
  Speaker 8: of Heaven.
• 2:25:33
  Speaker 4: Go go, go and leave me quick.
• 2:25:37
  Speaker 1: Mademoiselle de Bellille goes into the room. Is should you outside?
• 2:25:42
  Speaker 2: Go to the devil fellow? I tell you he is here,
• 2:25:45
  Speaker 2: and I must and will speak to him.
• 2:25:47
  Speaker 1: Rushes in Lubini seizes him at length.
• 2:25:51
  Speaker 4: You are in my grasp and you in mine, and.
• 2:25:55
  Speaker 2: A pretty fright I have had of it. Lest I
• 2:25:57
  Speaker 2: should come too.
• 2:25:58
  Speaker 4: Late, My Lord Duke, you have lied, my dear friend.
• 2:26:03
  Speaker 2: I know it, and I have galloped thirty miles without
• 2:26:07
  Speaker 2: drawing rein to tell you so. And I would have
• 2:26:10
  Speaker 2: told you so six hours ago, but that I was
• 2:26:13
  Speaker 2: arrested and carried to Paris, where fortunately a justification of
• 2:26:18
  Speaker 2: three words satisfied his Majesty and thank God I do
• 2:26:21
  Speaker 2: not arrive too late.
• 2:26:23
  Speaker 4: What is the.
• 2:26:24
  Speaker 1: Meaning, sir, Mademoiselle de Bellille comes forward.
• 2:26:29
  Speaker 2: The meaning, Sir, is this that if you do not
• 2:26:32
  Speaker 2: receive my heartfelt apologies, if you will not and cannot
• 2:26:36
  Speaker 2: forgive me, I never will forgive myself for this most
• 2:26:39
  Speaker 2: painful affair. I have been aught along the dupe of
• 2:26:44
  Speaker 2: this strangest accident, believing most firmly myself what I asserted
• 2:26:49
  Speaker 2: at the same time that it was utterly false the
• 2:26:53
  Speaker 2: cause of this strange mistake, and yourself the most innocent
• 2:26:57
  Speaker 2: accomplice of my delusion. This year, my wife, Madame de.
• 2:27:02
  Speaker 1: Richelieux, enter, Madame de Valcour and the abbey.
• 2:27:07
  Speaker 2: I acknowledge, Sir, that Mademoiselle de Belliell is the purest
• 2:27:11
  Speaker 2: angel that ever trod this earth in the shape of woman,
• 2:27:15
  Speaker 2: and I entreat permission to throw myself at her feet
• 2:27:18
  Speaker 2: and implore her pardon, for I have insulted her most
• 2:27:22
  Speaker 2: grossly and most undeservedly, and I repent having done so,
• 2:27:28
  Speaker 2: as a man should repent an unworthy and shameful action.
• 2:27:32
  Speaker 2: Are you satisfied, Chevalier? Is there yet any further apparation
• 2:27:36
  Speaker 2: that I can make?
• 2:27:37
  Speaker 8: Enough enough, my lord Duke. You have a noble heart, sir,
• 2:27:41
  Speaker 8: and you have proved it nobly.
• 2:27:43
  Speaker 1: Oh Madame, my dear chevalier.
• 2:27:46
  Speaker 7: When I tell you that I was in your Gabrielle's
• 2:27:49
  Speaker 7: chamber during her absence at Paris, this fatal mystery will
• 2:27:53
  Speaker 7: all be solved.
• 2:27:55
  Speaker 4: Oh, Heaven be praised for this respite from despair. My
• 2:27:59
  Speaker 4: Lord duke your hand. You are a brave and honorable man.
• 2:28:05
  Speaker 2: Halt, my dear fellow. It's evident you don't count modesty
• 2:28:09
  Speaker 2: among my virtues, and yet I have a little. But
• 2:28:13
  Speaker 2: here is the beacon whose light shall henceforth point to
• 2:28:18
  Speaker 2: every virtue that is wanting in my list.
• 2:28:21
  Speaker 6: Your grace's reformation is.
• 2:28:23
  Speaker 2: A miracle, my dear abbe. But it was wrought by two,
• 2:28:28
  Speaker 2: and here they are the paragon of maids and wives.
• 2:28:33
  Speaker 2: When now have all prepared in the chapel without loss
• 2:28:37
  Speaker 2: of time, for the solemnization of these two happy marriages. Two, yes, madam,
• 2:28:44
  Speaker 2: if you please, My own unworthiness has divorced me from
• 2:28:48
  Speaker 2: you hitherto far more effectually than death ever could have done.
• 2:28:53
  Speaker 2: The presumptuous folly of my youth rejected you in a
• 2:28:55
  Speaker 2: treasure of which my riper judgment owns the worth. Our
• 2:29:01
  Speaker 2: former union was devised by others and suggested by expediency.
• 2:29:06
  Speaker 2: Our present one is chosen by ourselves, and on one
• 2:29:10
  Speaker 2: side at least prompted by love, esteem and admiration.
• 2:29:17
  Speaker 7: Oh, my dear dear abbe, am I not well rewarded.
• 2:29:21
  Speaker 7: And as for your Grace's sentiments, I am willing to
• 2:29:24
  Speaker 7: believe they make up in vivacity what they want in duration.
• 2:29:29
  Speaker 7: Now as for me, my dear Duke, since we are
• 2:29:33
  Speaker 7: come to the closing chapter of confessions, though I may
• 2:29:36
  Speaker 7: have felt little admiration and less esteem for your conduct
• 2:29:41
  Speaker 7: during some periods of my acquaintance with you, I have
• 2:29:45
  Speaker 7: loved you with the most persevering patience every minute of
• 2:29:49
  Speaker 7: the last six years.
• 2:29:52
  Speaker 2: So now to marry, and then to brittany where, Mademoiselle,
• 2:29:56
  Speaker 2: your father, whom the change of ministry has liberated, will
• 2:29:59
  Speaker 2: meet you. And should the time which must elapse before
• 2:30:03
  Speaker 2: you are again in his arms prove tedious, we.
• 2:30:06
  Speaker 7: Will enliven it by carefully elucidating all the obscure effects
• 2:30:11
  Speaker 7: relative to.
• 2:30:13
  Speaker 4: The Duke's wager.
• 2:30:17
  Speaker 1: End of Act five. End of Mademoiselle de Bellille by
• 2:30:21
  Speaker 1: Alexandre Dumas, translated by Francis N. Campbell eighteen o nine
• 2:30:25
  Speaker 1: to eighteen ninety three.