Vautrin: A Drama in Five Acts Part 2

Joseph Between ourselves, I believe she doesn't love her son.

Vautrin I am obliged to draw this word from your throat, as if it were the cork in a bottle of Bordeaux. There is, I perceive, some mystery in this house. Here is a mother, a d.u.c.h.esse de Montsorel, who does not love her son, her only son! Who is her confessor?

Joseph She keeps her religious observances a profound secret.

Vautrin Good--I shall soon know everything. Secrets are like young girls, the more you conceal them, the sooner they are discovered. I will send two of my rascals to the Church of St. Thomas Aquinas. They won't work out their salvation in that way, but they'll work out something else.-- Good-bye.

SCENE SIXTH.

Joseph (alone) He is an old friend--and that is the worst nuisance in the world. He will make me lose my place. Ah, if I were not afraid of being poisoned like a dog by Jacques Collin, who is quite capable of the act, I would tell all to the duke; but in this vile world, every man for himself, and I am not going to pay another man's debt. Let the duke settle with Jacques; I am going to bed. What noise is that? The d.u.c.h.ess is getting up. What does she want? I must listen. (He goes out, leaving the door slightly ajar.)

SCENE SEVENTH.

The d.u.c.h.esse de Montsorel (alone) Where can I hide the certificate of my son's birth? (She reads) "Valencia. . . . July, 1793." An unlucky town for me! Fernand was actually born seven months after my marriage, by one of those fatalities that give ground for shameful accusations! I shall ask my aunt to carry the certificate in her pocket, until I can deposit it in some place of safety. The duke would ransack my rooms for it, and the whole police are at his service. Government refuses nothing to a man high in favor. If Joseph saw me going to Mademoiselle de Vaudrey's apartments at this hour, the whole house would hear of it. Ah--I am alone in the world, alone with all against me, a prisoner in my own house!

SCENE EIGHTH.

The d.u.c.h.esse de Montsorel and Mademoiselle de Vaudrey.

The d.u.c.h.ess I see that you find it is impossible to sleep as I do.

Mademoiselle de Vaudrey Louise, my child, I only rose to rid you of a dream, the awakening from which will be deplorable. I consider it my duty to distract you from your insane fancies. The more I think of what you told me the more is my sympathy aroused. But I am compelled to tell you the truth, cruel as it is; beyond doubt the duke has placed Fernand in some compromising situation, so as to make it impossible for him to retrieve his position in the world to which you belong. The young man you saw cannot be your son.

The d.u.c.h.ess Ah, you never knew Fernand! But I knew him, and in whatever place he is, his life has an influence on mine. I have seen him a thousand times--

Mademoiselle de Vaudrey In your dreams!

The d.u.c.h.ess Fernand has the blood of the Montsorels and the Vaudreys in his veins.

The place to which he was born he is able to take; everything gives way before him wherever he appears. If he became a soldier, he is to-day a colonel. My son is proud, he is handsome, people like him! I am sure he is beloved. Do not contradict me, dear aunt; Fernand still lives; if not, then the duke has broken faith, and I know he values too highly the virtues of his race to disgrace them.

Mademoiselle de Vaudrey But are not honor and a husband's vengeance dearer to him than his faith as a gentleman?

The d.u.c.h.ess Ah! You make me shudder.

Mademoiselle de Vaudrey You know very well, Louise, that pride of race is hereditary with the Montsorels, as it is with the Montemarts.

The d.u.c.h.ess I know it too well! The doubt cast upon his child's legitimacy has almost crazed him.

Mademoiselle de Vaudrey You are wrong there. The duke has a warm heart, and a cool head; in all matters that concern the sentiments on which they live, men of that temper act promptly in carrying out their ideas.

The d.u.c.h.ess But, dear aunt, do you know at what price he has granted me the life of Fernand? Haven't I paid dearly for the a.s.surance that his days were not to be shortened? If I had persisted in maintaining my innocence I should have brought certain death upon him; I have sacrificed my good name to save my son. Any mother would have done as much. You were taking care of my property here; I was alone in a foreign land, and was the prey of ill-health, fever, and with none to counsel me, and I lost my head; for since that time it has constantly occurred to me that the duke would never have carried out his threats. In making the sacrifice I did, I knew that Fernand would be poor and dest.i.tute, without a name, and dwelling in an unknown land; but I knew also that his life would be safe, and that some day I should recover him, even if I had to search the whole world over! I felt so cheerful as I came in that I forgot to give you the certificate of Fernand's birth, which the Spanish amba.s.sador's wife has at last obtained for me; carry it about with you until you can place it in the hands of your confessor.

Mademoiselle de Vaudrey The duke must certainly have learnt the measures you have taken in this matter, and woe be to your son! Since his return he has been very busy, and is still busy about something.

The d.u.c.h.ess If I shake off the disgrace with which he has tried to cover me, if I give up shedding tears in silence, be a.s.sured that nothing can bend me from my purpose. I am no longer in Spain or England, at the mercy of a diplomat crafty as a tiger, who during the whole time of our emigration was reading the thoughts of my heart's inmost recesses, and with invisible spies surrounding my life as by a network of steel; turning my secrets into jailers, and keeping me prisoner in the most horrible of prisons, an open house! I am in France, I have found you once more, I hold my place at court, I can speak my mind there; I shall learn what has become of the Vicomte de Langeac, I should prove that since the Tenth of August[*] we have never met, I shall inform the king of the crime committed by a father against a son who is the heir of two n.o.ble houses. I am a woman, I am d.u.c.h.esse de Montsorel, I am a mother! We are rich, we have a virtuous priest for an adviser; right is on our side, and if I have demanded the certificate of my son's birth--

[*] A noteworthy date in French history, August 10, 1792; the day of the storming of the Tuileries.--J. W. M.

SCENE NINTH.

The same persons, and the Duc de Montsorel (who enters as the d.u.c.h.ess p.r.o.nounces the last sentence).

The Duke It is only for the purpose of handing it to me.

The d.u.c.h.ess Since when have you ventured to enter my apartment without previously sending me word and asking my leave?

The Duke Since you broke the agreement we made. You swore to take no steps to find this--your son. This was the sole condition on which I promised to let him live.

The d.u.c.h.ess And is it not much more honorable to violate such an oath, than to remain faithful to all others?

The Duke We are henceforth both of us released from our engagements.

The d.u.c.h.ess Have you, up to the present day, respected yours?

The Duke I have, madame.

The d.u.c.h.ess Listen to him, aunt, and bear witness to this declaration.

Mademoiselle de Vaudrey But has it never occurred to you, my dear sir, that Louise is innocent?

The Duke Of course you think so, Mademoiselle de Vaudrey. And what would not I give to share your opinion! The d.u.c.h.ess has had twenty years in which to prove to me her innocence.

The d.u.c.h.ess For twenty years you have wrung my heart without pity and without intermission.

The Duke Madame, unless you hand me this certificate, your Fernand will have serious cause for alarm. As soon as you returned to France you secured the doc.u.ment, and are trying to employ it as a weapon against me. You desire to obtain for your son a fortune and a name which do not belong to him; to secure his admission into a family, whose race has up to my time been kept pure by wives of stainless reputation, a family which has never formed a single mesalliance--

The d.u.c.h.ess And which will be worthily represented by your son Albert.

The Duke Be careful what you say, for you waken in me terrible memories. And your last word shows me that you will not shrink from causing a scandal that will overwhelm all of us with shame. Shall we air in public courts past occurrences which will show that I am not free from reproach, while you are infamous? (He turns to Mademoiselle de Vaudrey) She cannot have told you everything, dear aunt? She was in love with Viscount Langeac; I knew it, and respected her love; I was so young! The viscount came to me; being without hope of inheriting a fortune, and the last representative of his house, he unselfishly offered to give up Louise de Vaudrey. I trusted in their mutual generosity, and accepted her as a pure woman from his hands. Ah! I would have given my life for her, and I have proved it! The wretched man performed prodigies of valor on the Tenth of August, and called down upon himself the rage of the mob; I put him under the protection of some of my people; he was, however, discovered and taken to the Abbaye. As soon as I learned his predicament, I gave into the hands of a certain Boulard all the money I had collected for our flight! I induced Boulard to join the Septembrists in order to save the viscount from death; I procured his escape! (To the d.u.c.h.ess) He paid me back well, did he not? I was young, madly in love, impetuous, yet I never crushed the boy! You have to-day made me the same requital for my pity, as your lover made for my trust in him. Well--things remain just as they were twenty years ago excepting that the time for pity is past. And I will repeat what I said to you then: Forget your son, and he shall live.

Mademoiselle de Vaudrey And shall her sufferings during those twenty years count for nothing?

The Duke A great crime calls for a great atonement.

The d.u.c.h.ess Ah--if you take my grief for a sign of remorse, I will again protest to you, I am innocent! No! Langeac never betrayed your confidence; it was not for his king alone he went to his death, and from the fatal day on which he bade me farewell and surrendered me to you, I have never seen him again.

The Duke You purchased the life of your son by making an exactly contrary declaration.

The d.u.c.h.ess Can a compact dictated by terror be looked upon as an avowal of guilt?

The Duke Do you intend to give that certificate of birth?

The d.u.c.h.ess It is no longer in my possession.

The Duke I will no longer answer then for your son's safety.

The d.u.c.h.ess Have you weighed well the consequences of this threat?