Vautrin: A Drama in Five Acts

Buteux

Yes, we are rusting out!

Vautrin Thanks to me, the police have forgotten you! You owe your good luck to me alone! I have erased the brand from your foreheads. I am the head, whose ideas you, the arms, carry out.

Philosopher

We are satisfied.

Vautrin

You must all obey me blindly.

Lafouraille

Blindly.

Vautrin

Without a murmur.

Fil-de-Soie

Without a murmur.

Vautrin Or else let us break our compact, and be off with you! If I meet with ingratitude from you, to whom can I venture hereafter to do a service?

Philosopher

To no one, my emperor.

Lafouraille

I should rather say, our great teacher!

Buteux

I love you more than I love Adele.

Fil-de-Soie

We worship you.

Vautrin

If necessary, I shall even have to beat you.

Philosopher

We'll take it without a murmur.

Vautrin

To spit in your face; to bowl over your lives like a row of skittles.

Buteux

But I bowl over with a knife.

Vautrin

Very well – Kill me this instant.

Buteux It is no use being vexed with this man. Do you wish me to restore the opera-glass? I intended it for Adele!

All (surrounding Vautrin)

Would you abandon us, Vautrin?

Lafouraille

Vautrin! Our friend.

Philosopher

Mighty Vautrin!

Fil-de-Soie

Our old companion, deal with us as you will.

Vautrin Yes, and I can deal with you as I will. When I think what trouble you make, in your trinket-stealing, I feel inclined to send you back to the place I took you from. You are either above or below the level of society, dregs or foam; but I desire to make you enter into society. People used to hoot you as you went by. I wish them to bow to you; you were once the basest of mankind, I wish you to be more than honest men.

Philosopher

Is there such a class?

Buteux

There are those who are nothing at all.

Vautrin There are those who decide upon the honesty of others. You will never be honest burgesses, you must belong either to the wretched or the rich; you must therefore master one-half of the world! Take a bath of gold, and you will come forth from it virtuous!

Fil-de-Soie

To think, that, when I have need of nothing, I shall be a good prince!

Vautrin Of course. And you, Lafouraille, you can become Count of Saint Helena; and what would you like to be, Buteux?

Buteux I should like to be a philanthropist, for the philanthropist always becomes a millionaire.

Philosopher

And I, a banker.

Fil-de-Soie

He wishes to be a licensed professional.

Vautrin Show yourselves then, according as occasion demands it, blind and clear-sighted, adroit and clumsy, stupid and clever, like all those who make their fortune. Never judge me, and try to understand my meaning. You ask who Raoul de Frescas is? I will explain to you; he will soon have an income of twelve hundred thousand francs. He will be a prince. And I picked him up when he was begging on the high road, and ready to become a drummer-boy; in his twelfth year he had neither name nor family; he came from Sardinia, where he must have got into some trouble, for he was a fugitive from justice.

Buteux

Oh, now that we know his antecedents and his social position —

Vautrin

Be off to your lodge!

Buteux

Little Nini, daughter of Giroflee is there —

Vautrin

She may let a spy pass in.

Buteux She! She is a little cat to whom it is not necessary to point out the stool-pigeons.

Vautrin You may judge my power from what I am in process of doing for Raoul. Ought he not to be preferred before all? Raoul de Frescas is a young man who has remained pure as an angel in the midst of our mire-pit; he is our conscience; moreover, he is my creation; I am at once his father, his mother, and I desire to be his guiding providence. I, who can never know happiness, still delight in making other people happy. I breathe through his lips, I live in his life, his passions are my own; and it is impossible for me to know noble and pure emotions excepting in the heart of this being unsoiled by crime. You have your fancies, here I show you mine. In exchange for the blight which society has brought upon me, I give it a man of honor, and enter upon a struggle with destiny; do you wish to be of my party? Obey me.

All

In life, and death —

Vautrin (aside) So my savage beasts are once more brought to submission. (Aloud) Philosopher, try to put on the air, the face, the costume of an employe of the lost goods bureau, and take back to the embassy the plate borrowed by Lafouraille. (To Fil-de-Soie) You, Fil-de-Soie, must prepare a sumptuous dinner, as Monsieur de Frescas is to entertain a few friends. You will afterwards dress yourself as a respectable man, and assume the air of a lawyer. You will go to number six, Rue Oblin, ring seven times at the fourth-story door, and ask for Pere Giroflee. When they ask where you come from, you will answer from a seaport in Bohemia. They will let you in. I want certain letters and papers of the Duc de Christoval; here are the text and patterns. I want an absolute fac-simile, with the briefest possible delay. Lafouraille, you must go and insert a few lines in the newspapers, notifying the arrival of.. (He whispers into his ear.) This forms part of my plan. Now leave me.

Lafouraille

Well, are you satisfied?

Vautrin

Yes.

Philosopher

You want nothing more of us?

Vautrin

Nothing.

Fil-de-Soie

There will be no more rebellion; every one will be good.

Buteux Let your mind rest easy; we are going to be not only polite, but honest.

Vautrin That is right, boys; a little integrity, a great deal of address, and you will be respected.

(Exeunt all except Vautrin.)

SCENE FOURTH

Vautrin (alone) In order to lead them it is only necessary to let them think they have an honorable future. They have no future, no prospects! Pshaw! If generals took their soldiers seriously, not a cannon would be fired! In a few days, following upon years of subterranean labors, I shall have won for Raoul a commanding position; it must be made sure to him. Lafouraille and Philosopher will be necessary to me in the country where I am to give him a family. Ah, this love! It has put out of the question the life I had destined him to. I wished to win for him a solitary glory, to see him conquering for me and under my direction, the world which I am forbidden to enter. Raoul is not only the child of my intellect and of my malice, he is also my instrument of revenge. These fellows of mine cannot understand these sentiments; they are happy; they have never fallen, not they! They were born criminals. But I have attempted to raise myself. Yet though a man can raise himself in the eyes of God, he can never do so in the eyes of the world. People tell you to repent, and then refuse to pardon. Men possess in their dealings with each other the instincts of savage animals. Once wounded, one is down-trodden by his fellows. Moreover, to ask the protection of a world whose laws you have trampled under foot is like returning to a house which you have burnt and whose roof would fall and crush you. I have well polished and perfected the magnetic instrument of my domination. Raoul was brave, he would have sacrificed his life, like a fool; I had to make him cold and domineering, and to dispel from his mind, one by one, his exalted ideas of life; to render him suspicious and tricky as – an old bill-broker, while all the while he knew not who I was. And at this moment love has broken down the whole scaffolding. He should have been great; now, he can only be happy. I shall therefore retire to live in a corner at the height of his prosperity; his happiness will have been my work. For two days I have been asking myself whether it would not be better that the Princesse d'Arjos should die of some ailment – say brain fever. It's singular how many plans a woman can upset!

SCENE FIFTH. Vautrin and Lafouraille

Vautrin

What is the matter? Cannot I be alone one moment? Did I call?

Lafouraille

We are likely to feel the claws of justice scratch our shoulders.

Vautrin

What new blunder have you committed?

Lafouraille The fact is little Nini has admitted a well-dressed gentleman who asks to see you. Buteux is whistling the air, There's No Place Like Home, so it must be a sleuth.

Vautrin Nothing of the kind, I know who it is; tell him to wait. Everybody in arms! Vautrin must then vanish; I will be the Baron de Vieux-Chene. Speak in a German account, fool him well, until I can play the master stroke. (Exit.)

SCENE SIXTH. Lafouraille and Saint-Charles

Lafouraille (speaking with a German accent)

M. de Frescas is not at home, sir, and his steward, the Baron de

Vieux-Chene, is engaged with an architect, who is to build a grand house for my master.

Saint-Charles

I beg your pardon, my dear sir, you said —

Lafouraille

I said Baron de Vieux-Chene.

Saint-Charles

Baron!

Lafouraille

Yes! Yes!

Saint-Charles

He is a baron?

Lafouraille

Baron de Vieux-Chene.

Saint-Charles

You are a German.

Lafouraille

Not I! Not I! I am an Alsatian, a very different thing.

Saint-Charles (aside)

This man has certainly an accent too decidedly German to be a

Parisian.

Lafouraille (aside)

I know this man well. Here's a go!

Saint-Charles

If the baron is busy, I will wait.

Lafouraille (aside) Ah! Blondet, my beauty, you can disguise your face, but not your voice; if you get out of our clutches now, you will be a wonder. (Aloud) What shall I tell the baron brings you here? (He makes as if to go out.)

Saint-Charles Stay a moment, my friend; you speak German, I speak French, we may misunderstand one another. (Puts a purse into his hand.) There can be no mistake with this for an interpreter.

Lafouraille

No, sir.

Saint-Charles

That is merely on account.

Lafouraille (aside) Yes, on account of my eighty thousand francs. (Aloud) And do you wish me to shadow my master?

Saint-Charles No, my friend, I merely ask for some information, which cannot compromise you.

Lafouraille

In good German we call that spying.

Saint-Charles

But no – that is not it – it is —

Lafouraille

To shadow him. And what shall I say to his lordship the baron?

Saint-Charles

Announce the Chevalier de Saint-Charles.

Lafouraille We understand each other. I will induce him to see you. But do not offer money to the steward; he is more honest than the rest of us. (He gives a sly wink.)

Saint-Charles

That means he will cost more.

Lafouraille

Yes, sir. (Exit.)

SCENE SEVENTH

Saint-Charles (alone) A bad beginning! Ten louis thrown away. To shadow him indeed! It is too stupid not to have a spice of wit in it, this habit of calling things by their right name, at the outset. If the pretended steward, for there is no steward here, if the baron is as clever as his footman, I shall have nothing to base my information on, excepting what they conceal from me. This room is very fine. There is neither portrait of the king, nor emblem of royalty here. Well, it is plain they do not frame their opinions. Is the furniture suggestive of anything? No. It is too new to have been even paid for. But for the air which the porter whistled, doubtless a signal, I should be inclined to believe in the De Frescas people.

SCENE EIGHTH. Saint-Charles, Vautrin and Lafouraille. (Vautrin wears a bright maroon coat, of old-fashioned cut, with large heavy buttons; his breeches are black silk, as are his stockings. His shoes have gold buckles, his waistcoat is flowered, he wears two watch-chains, his cravat belongs to the time of the Revolution; his wig is white, his face old, keen, withered, dissipated looking. He speaks low, and his voice is cracked.)

Vautrin (to Lafouraille) Very good; you may go. (Exit Lafouraille. Aside) Now for the tug of war, Monsieur Blondet. (Aloud) I am at your service, sir.

Saint-Charles (aside) A worn out fox is still dangerous. (Aloud) Excuse me, baron, for disturbing you, while yet unknown to you.

Vautrin

I can guess what your business is.

Saint-Charles (aside)

Indeed?

Vautrin You are an architect, and have a proposal to make to me; but I have already received most excellent offers.

Saint-Charles

Excuse me, your Dutchman must have mispronounced my name. I am the

Chevalier de Saint-Charles.

Vautrin (raising his spectacles)

Let me see – we are old acquaintances. You were at the Congress of

Vienna, and then bore the name of Count of Gorcum – a fine name!

Saint-Charles (aside)

Go choke yourself, old man! (Aloud) So you were there also?

Vautrin I should think so! And I am glad to have come upon you again. You were a deuced clever fellow, you know. How you fooled them all!

Saint-Charles (aside) We'll stick to Vienna, then. (Aloud) Ah, baron! I recall you perfectly now; you also steered your bark pretty cleverly there.

Vautrin Of course I did, and what women we had there! Yes, indeed! And have you still your fair Italian?

Saint-Charles

Did you know her? She was a woman of such tact.

Vautrin My dear fellow, wasn't she, though? She actually wanted to find out who I was.

Saint-Charles

And did she find out?

Vautrin Well, my dear friend, I know you will be glad to hear it, she discovered nothing.

Saint-Charles Come, baron, since we are speaking freely to each other to-day, I for my part must confess that your admirable Pole —

Vautrin

You also had the pleasure?

Saint-Charles

On my honor, yes!

Vautrin (laughing)

Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

Saint Charles (laughing)

Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

Vautrin

We can safely laugh now, for I suppose you left her there?

Saint-Charles Immediately, as you did. I see that we are both come to throw away our money in Paris, and we have done well; but it seems to me, baron, that you have accepted a very secondary position, though one which attracts notice.

Vautrin Ah! thank you, chevalier. I hope, however, we may still be friends for many a day.

Saint-Charles

Forever, I hope.

Vautrin You can be extremely useful to me, I can be of immense service to you, we understand each other! Let me know what your present business is, and I will tell you mine.

Saint-Charles (aside)

I should like to know whether he is being set on me, or I on him.

Vautrin (aside)

It is going to be a somewhat slow business.

Saint-Charles

I will tell you.

Vautrin

I am attention!

Saint-Charles

Baron, between ourselves, I admire you immensely.

Vautrin

What a compliment from a man like you!

Saint-Charles Not at all! To create a De Frescas in the face of all Paris shows an inventive genius which transcends by a thousand points that of our countesses at the Congress. You are angling for the dowry with rare nerve.

Vautrin

I angling for a dowry?

Saint-Charles But, my dear friend, you would be found out, unless I your friend had been the man chosen to watch you, for I am appointed your shadower by a very high authority. Permit me also to ask how can you dare to interfere with the family of Montsorel in their pursuit of an heiress?

Vautrin To think that I innocently believed you came to propose we should work in company, and speculate, both of us, with the money of Monsieur de Frescas, of which I have entire control – and here you talk to me of something entirely different! Frescas, my good friend, is one of the legal titles of this young man, who has seven in all. Stringent reasons prevent him from revealing the name of his family, which I know, for the next twenty-four hours. Their property is vast, I have seen their estate, from which I am just returned. I do not mind being taken by you for a rogue, for there is no disgrace in the vast sums at stake; but to be taken for an imbecile, capable of dancing attendance on a sham nobleman, and so silly as to defy the Montsorels on behalf of a counterfeit – Really, my friend, it would seem that you have never been to Vienna! We are not in the same class!

Saint-Charles Do not grow angry, worthy steward! Let us leave off entangling ourselves in a web of lies more or less agreeable; you cannot expect to make me swallow any more of them. Our cash box is better furnished than yours, therefore come over to us. Your young man is as much Frescas as I am chevalier and you baron. You picked him up on the frontier of Italy; he was then a vagabond, to-day he is an adventurer, and that's the whole truth of it.

Vautrin You are right. We must leave off entangling ourselves in the web of falsehoods more or less agreeable; we must speak the truth.

Saint-Charles

I will pay you for it.

Vautrin I will give it you for nothing. You are an infamous cur, my friend. Your name is Charles Blondet; you were steward in the household of De Langeac; twice have you bought the betrayal of the viscount, and never have you paid the money – it is shameful! You owe eighty thousand francs to one of my footmen. You caused the viscount to be shot at Mortagne in order that you might appropriate the property entrusted to you by the family. If the Duc de Montsorel, who sent you here, knew who you are, ha! ha! He would make you settle some old accounts! Take off your moustache, your whiskers, your wig, your sham decorations and your badges of foreign orders. (He tears off from him his wig, his whiskers and decorations.) Good day, you rascal! How did you manage to eat up a fortune so cleverly won? It was colossal; how did you lose it?

Saint-Charles

Through ill-luck.

Vautrin

I understand… What are you going to do now?

Saint-Charles Whoever you are, stop there; I surrender, I haven't a chance left! You are either the devil or Jacques Collin!

Vautrin

I am and wish to be nothing but the Baron de Vieux-Chene to you.

Listen to my ultimatum. I can cause you to be buried this instant in one of my cellars, and no one will inquire for you.

Saint-Charles

I know it.

Vautrin

It would be prudent to do so. But are you willing to do for me in

Montsorel's house, what Montsorel sent you to do here?

Saint-Charles

I accept the offer; but what are the profits?

Vautrin

All you can take.

Saint-Charles

From either party?

Vautrin Certainly! You will send me by the person who accompanies you back all the deeds that relate to the De Langeac family; they must still be in your possession. In case Monsieur de Frescas marries Mademoiselle de Christoval, you cannot be their steward, but you shall receive a hundred thousand francs. You are dealing with exacting masters. Walk straight, and they will not betray you.

Saint-Charles

It is a bargain!

Vautrin I will not ratify it until I have the documents in hand. Until then, be careful! (He rings; all the household come in.) Attend Monsieur le Chevalier home, with all the respect due his high rank. (To Saint-Charles, pointing out to him Philosopher) This man will accompany you. (To Philosopher) Do not leave him.

Saint-Charles (aside) Once I get safe and sound out of their clutches, I will come down heavy on this nest of thieves.

Vautrin

Monsieur le Chevalier, I am yours to command!

SCENE NINTH. Vautrin and Lafouraille

Lafouraille

M. Vautrin!

Vautrin

Well?

Lafouraille

Are you letting him go?

Vautrin Unless he considers himself at liberty, what can we hope to learn from him? I have given my instructions; he will be taught not to put ropes in the way of hangmen. When Philosopher brings for me the documents which this fellow is to hand him, they will be given to me, wherever I happen to be.

Lafouraille

But afterwards, will you spare his life?

Vautrin You are always a little premature, my dear. Have you forgotten how seriously the dead interfere with the peace of the living? Hush! I hear Raoul – leave us to ourselves.

SCENE TENTH. Vautrin and Raoul de Frescas

Raoul (soliloquizing) After a glimpse of heaven, still to remain on earth – such is my fate! I am a lost man; Vautrin, an infernal yet a kindly genius, a man who knows everything, and seems able to do everything, a man as harsh to others as he is good to me, a man who is inexplicable except by a supposition of witchcraft, a maternal providence if I may so call him, is not after all the providence divine. (Vautrin enters wearing a plain black peruke, a blue coat, gray pantaloons, a black waistcoat, the costume of a stock-broker.) Oh! I know what love is; but I did not know what revenge was, until I felt I could not die before I had wreaked my vengeance on these two Montsorels.

Vautrin (aside)

He is in trouble. (Aloud) Raoul, my son, what ails you?

Raoul

Nothing ails me. Pray leave me.

Vautrin Do you again repulse me? You abuse the right you have to ill-treat a friend – What are you thinking about?

Raoul

Nothing.

Vautrin Nothing? Come, sir, do you think that he who has taught you that English coldness, under the veil of which men of worth would conceal their feelings, was not aware of the transparency which belongs to this cuirass of pride? Try concealment with others, but not with me. Dissimulation is more than a blunder, for in friendship a blunder is a crime.

Raoul To game no more, to come home tipsy no more, to shun the menagerie of the opera, to become serious, to study, to desire a position in life, this you call dissimulation.

Vautrin You are as yet but a poor diplomatist. You will be a great one, when you can deceive me. Raoul, you have made the mistake which I have taken most pains to save you from. My son, why did you not take women for what they are, creatures of inconsequence, made to enslave without being their slave, like a sentimental shepherd? But instead, my Lovelace has been conquered by a Clarissa. Ah, young people will strike against these idols a great many times, before they discover them to be hollow!

Raoul

Is this a sermon?

Vautrin What? Do you take me, who have trained your hand to the pistol, who have shown you how to draw the sword, have taught you not to dread the strongest laborer of the faubourg, who have done for your brains what I have done for your body, have set you above all men, and anointed you my king, do you take me for a dolt? Come, now, let us have a little more frankness.

Raoul Do you wish me to tell you what I was thinking? – But no, that would be to accuse my benefactor.

Vautrin Your benefactor! You insult me. Do you think I have devoted to you my life, my blood, shown myself ready to kill, to assassinate your enemy, in order that I may receive that exorbitant interest called gratitude? Have I become an usurer of this kind? There are some men who would hang the weight of a benefit around your heart like a cannon-ball attached to the feet of – , but let that pass! Such men I would crush as I would a worm, without thinking that I had committed homicide! No! I have asked you to adopt me as your father, that my heart may be to you what heaven is to the angels, a space where all is happiness and confidence; that you may tell me all your thoughts, even those which are evil. Speak, I shall understand everything, even an act of cowardice.

Raoul

God and Satan must have conspired to cast this man of bronze.

Vautrin

It is quite possible.

Raoul

I will tell you all.

Vautrin

Very good, my son; let us sit down.

Raoul

You have been the cause to me of opprobrium and despair.

Vautrin Where? When? Blood of a man! Who has wounded you? Who has proved false to you? Tell me the place, name the people – the wrath of Vautrin shall descend upon them!

Raoul

You can do nothing.

Vautrin

Child, there are two kinds of men who can do anything.

Raoul

And who are they?

Vautrin Kings, who are, or who ought to be, above the law; and – this will give you pain – criminals, who are below it.

Raoul

But since you are not king —

Vautrin

Well! I reign in the region below.

Raoul

What horrible mockery is this, Vautrin?

Vautrin

Did you not say that God and the devil hobnobbed to cast me?

Raoul

Heavens, sir, you make me shudder!