The Resources Of Quinola Part 12

SCENE NINETEENTH

Fontanares, Quinola and Monipodio.

Monipodio Come to the Golden Sun. I know the host; you will get credit there.

Quinola The battle is beginning even earlier than I had expected.

Fontanares Where shall I obtain money?

Quinola We can't borrow it, but we can buy it. How much do you need?

Fontanares Two thousand doubloons in gold.

Quinola I have been trying to make an estimate of the treasury I intended to draw upon; it is not plump enough for that.

Monipodio Well, now, I have found a purse.

Quinola Forget nothing in your estimate; you will require, sir, iron, copper, steel, wood, all of which the merchants can supply. I have an idea! I will found the house of Quinola and Company; if they don't prosper you shall.

Fontanares Ah! what would have become of me without you?

Monipodio You would have been the prey of Avaloros.

Fontanares To work, then! The inventor must prove the salvation of the lover.

(Exeunt.)

Curtain to the First Act.

ACT II

SCENE FIRST

(A room in the palace of Senora Brancadori.)

Avaloros, Sarpi and Paquita.

Avaloros Is the queen of our lives really ill?

Paquita She is melancholy.

Avaloros Is thought, then, a malady?

Paquita Yes, and you therefore can be sure of good health.

Sarpi Say to my dear cousin that Senor Avaloros and I are awaiting her good pleasure.

Avaloros Stay; here are two ducats if you will say that I am sometimes pensive--

Paquita I will say that your tastes are expensive. But I must go and induce the senora to dress herself. (Exit.)

SCENE SECOND

Avaloros and Sarpi.

Sarpi Poor viceroy! He is the youngster.

Avaloros While your little cousin is making a fool of him, you are displaying all the activity of a statesman and clearing the way for the king's conquest of French Navarre. If I had a daughter I would give her to you. Old Lothundiaz is no fool.

Sarpi How fine it would be to be founder of a mighty house; to win a name in the history of the country; to be a second Cardinal Granville or Duke of Alva!

Avaloros Yes! It would be a very fine thing. I also think of making a name. The emperor made the Fuggers princes of Babenhausen; the t.i.tle cost them a million ducats in gold. For my part, I would like to be a n.o.bleman at a cheaper rate.

Sarpi You! How could you accomplish it?

Avaloros This fellow Fontanares holds the future of commerce in his own hands.

Sarpi And is it possible that you who cling so persistently to the actual have any faith in him?

Avaloros Since the invention of gunpowder, of printing and the discovery of the new world I have become credulous. If any one were to tell me that a man had discovered the means to receive the news from Paris in ten minutes, or that water contained fire, or that there are still new Indies to discover, or that it is possible to travel through the air, I would not contradict it, and I would give--

Sarpi Your money?

Avaloros No; my attention to the enterprise.

Sarpi If the vessel is made to move in the manner proposed, you would like then to be to Fontanares what Amerigo Vespucci was to Christopher Columbus.

Avaloros Have I not here in my pocket enough to pay for six men of genius?

Sarpi But how would you manage the matter?

Avaloros By means of money; money is the great secret. With money to lose, time is gained; and with time to spend, everything is possible; by this means a good business may be made a bad one, and while those who control it are in despair the whole profit may be carried off by you.

Money,--that is the true method. Money furnishes the satisfaction of desire, as well as of need. In a man of genius, there is always a child full of unpractical fancies; you deal with the man and you come sooner or later on the child; the child will become your debtor, and the man of genius will go to prison.

Sarpi And how do you stand with him now?

Avaloros He does not trust my offers; that is, his servant does not. I shall negotiate with the servant.

Sarpi I understand you; I am ordered to send all the s.h.i.+ps of Barcelona to the coasts of France; and, through the prudence of the enemies which Fontanares made at Valladolid, this order is absolute and subsequent to the king's letter.