Vautrin: A Drama in Five Acts

The Duchess

My whole fortune for his life!

Saint-Charles I am for you, madame. (Aside) I know all, and can choose which side I like.

SCENE NINTH. The same persons, the Duc de Montsorel and a footman

The Duke Ah, well you are getting your own way; there is talk of nothing else but the fortune and coming marriage of Monsieur de Frescas; but of course he can claim a family. (Whispers to the Duchesse de Montsorel) He has a mother. (Perceiving Saint-Charles) What! You here, chevalier, and with the duchess?

Saint-Charles (taking the duke aside) Your grace will approve of what I have done. (Aloud) You have been at the palace and I thought it necessary to warn the duchess of the danger which threatens her only son, the marquis; he is likely to be murdered.

The Duke

Murdered!

Saint-Charles

But your grace will listen to my advice —

The Duke Come into my study, my friend, and let us at once take steps to avert this catastrophe.

Saint-Charles (exchanging a look of intelligence with the duchess) I have strange things to tell your grace. (Aside) I am certainly going to take the duke's part.

SCENE TENTH. The Duchess, Mademoiselle de Vaudrey and Vautrin

Mademoiselle de Vaudrey

If Raoul is your son, how vile is the company he keeps.

The Duchess

An angel would purify hell itself.

(Vautrin half opens with caution a French casement that leads to the garden, where he has been listening to the preceding conversation.)

Vautrin (aside)

I know all. Two brothers cannot fight a duel. Ah, here is my duchess!

(Aloud) Ladies!

Mademoiselle de Vaudrey

A man! Help! Help!

The Duchess

It is he!

Vautrin (to the duchess)

Silence! Women can do nothing but cry out. (To Mademoiselle de

Vaudrey) Mademoiselle de Vaudrey, run to the chamber of the marquis.

Two infamous murderers are there; be quick, before they cut out his throat. But let the wretches be seized without making a disturbance.

(To the duchess) Stay where you are, madame.

The Duchess

Go, dear aunt; have no fear for me.

Vautrin (aside) My rascals will be vastly surprised. What will they think? This is the way I bring down judgment upon them.

(A noise is heard.)

SCENE ELEVENTH. The Duchess and Vautrin

The Duchess The whole house is in commotion! What will be said, when it is known that I am here?

Vautrin

Let us hope that the foundling will be saved.

The Duchess

But you are known here, and the duke is with —

Vautrin

The Chevalier de Saint-Charles. I am imperturbed; you will defend me.

The Duchess

I?

Vautrin

Yes, you. Or you will never again see your son, Fernand de Montsorel.

The Duchess

Raoul is undoubtedly my son then?

Vautrin He is – I hold in my possession complete proofs of your innocence, and – your son.

The Duchess

You! You shall not leave me until —

SCENE TWELFTH. The same persons and Mademoiselle de Vaudrey on one side of the stage, Saint-Charles on the other, and domestics

Mademoiselle de Vaudrey

Here he is! (To Vautrin) Begone! At once!

The Duchess (to Mademoiselle de Vaudrey)

You are ruining everything.

Saint-Charles (to the servants) Behold their ringleader and accomplice! Whatever he may say, seize him!

The Duchess (to the company)

I command you to leave me alone with this man.

Vautrin

What is it, chevalier?

Saint-Charles

You are a puzzle to me, baron.

Vautrin (whispering to the duchess) You behold in this man the murderer of the viscount whom you loved so well.

The Duchess

He the murderer?

Vautrin (to the duchess) Let him be closely watched, or he will slip through your fingers like money.

The Duchess

Joseph!

Vautrin (to Joseph)

What happened upstairs?

Joseph His lordship the marquis drew his sword, and being attacked from the rear, defended himself, and was twice slightly wounded. His grace the duke is with him now.

The Duchess (to her aunt)

Return to Albert's room, I implore you. (To Joseph, pointing out

Saint-Charles) I shall hold you responsible for this man's detention.

Vautrin (to Joseph)

So shall I.

Saint-Charles (to Vautrin)

I see the situation, you have got ahead of me.

Vautrin

I bear no malice towards you, my dear fellow.

Saint-Charles (to Joseph)

Take me before the duke.

(Exeunt.)

SCENE THIRTEENTH. Vautrin and the Duchess

Vautrin (aside)

He has a father, an ancestral family, a mother. What a climax! In whom shall I henceforth find an interest? Whom shall I be able to love?

After ten years of paternity, the loss is irreparable.

The Duchess (approaching Vautrin)

What is it?

Vautrin What is it? It is, that I can never give back to you your son, madame; it is, that I do not feel brave enough to survive his separation from me, nor his contempt for me. The loss of such as Raoul is irretrievable! My life has been bound up in his.

The Duchess But could he feel affection for you, you a criminal whom one could at any moment give up —

Vautrin To justice do you mean? I thought you would have been more tender. But you do not, I perceive, see the abyss in which I am dragging you, your son and the duke, and which all descend in company.

The Duchess

Oh! What have you made of my poor child?

Vautrin

A man of honor.

The Duchess

And he loves you?

Vautrin

He loves me still.

The Duchess But has that wretch spoken the truth in revealing what you are and whence you come?

Vautrin

Yes, madame.

The Duchess

And have you taken care of my son?

Vautrin Your son, our son – yes – have you not perceived that he is as pure as an angel?

The Duchess Ah, may you receive a blessing for what you have done! May the world pardon you! Oh God! (she kneels) The voice of a mother must reach Thee, forgive, forgive this man. (She looks at Vautrin.) My tears shall bathe his hands! Oh! grant that he may repent! (Turning to Vautrin) You belong to me; I will change you! But people are deceived, you are no criminal, and, whatever you are, all mothers will give you their absolution!

Vautrin

Come, it is time to restore her son to her.

The Duchess Did you still harbor the horrible thought of refusing him to his mother? But I have waited for him for two and twenty years.

Vautrin And I, have I not been for ten years his father? Raoul is my very soul! Let me endure anguish, let men heap shame upon me; if he is happy and crowned with honor, I shall see it and my life will once more be bright.

The Duchess

I am overwhelmed. He loves like a mother.

Vautrin The only tie that binds me to the world, to life, is this bright link, purer than gold.

The Duchess

And – without stain?

Vautrin Ah! People know themselves only in their virtues, and are austere for others alone. But in myself I see but infamy – in him the heart of honor. And yet was he found by me on the highroad from Toulon to Marseilles, the route of the convict. He was twelve years old, without bread, and in rags.

The Duchess

Bare-foot, it may be?

Vautrin

Yes. But beautiful, with curly hair —

The Duchess

It was thus you saw him?

Vautrin

Poor angel, he was crying. I took him with me.

The Duchess

And you brought him up?

Vautrin

I stole the means to do so.

The Duchess

I should, perhaps, myself have done the like.

Vautrin

I did more!

The Duchess

He must have suffered much.

Vautrin Never! I concealed from him the means I took to make his life happy and easy. I would not let him even suspect them – it would have blighted him. You may ennoble him by parchments, I have made him noble in heart.

The Duchess

And he was my son!

Vautrin Yes, a son full of nobility, of winning grace, of high instincts; he needed but to have the way made clear to him.

The Duchess (wringing the hand of Vautrin) You must needs be great indeed, who have so well performed a mother's task!

Vautrin And better than you mothers do! Often you love your babes amiss – Ah, you will spoil him for me even now! – He was of reckless courage; he wished to be a soldier, and the Emperor would have accepted him. I showed him the world and mankind under their true light – Yet now he is about to renounce me —

The Duchess

My son ungrateful?

Vautrin

NO, 'tis mine I speak of.

The Duchess

Oh! give him back to me this very instant!

Vautrin

I and those two men upstairs – are we not all liable to prosecution?

And ought not the duke to give us assurance of silence and release?

The Duchess

Those two men then are your agents? And you came —

Vautrin But for me, of the two, natural and lawful son, there would not, in a few hours, have survived but one child. And they might perchance both have fallen – each by the other's hand.

The Duchess

Ah! you are a providence of horror!

Vautrin

What would you have had me do?

SCENE FOURTEENTH. The same persons, the Duke, Lafouraille, Buteux, Saint-Charles, and all the domestics

The Duke (pointing to Vautrin) Seize him! (Pointing to Saint-Charles) And obey no one but this gentleman.

The Duchess But you owe to him the life of your Albert! It was he who gave the alarm.

The Duke

He!

Buteux (to Vautrin)

Ah! you have betrayed us! Why did you bring us here?

Saint-Charles (to the duke)

Does your grace hear them?

Lafouraille (to Buteux)

Cannot you keep silence? Have we any right to judge him?

Buteux

And yet he condemns us!

Vautrin (to the duke) I would inform your grace that these two men belong to me, and I claim possession of them.

Saint-Charles

Why, these are the domestics of Monsieur de Frescas!

Vautrin (to Saint-Charles)

Steward of the Langeacs, hold your tongue! (He points to Lafouraille)

This is Philip Boulard. (Lafouraille bows.) Will your grace kindly send every one out of the room?

The Duke

What! Do you dare give your orders in my house?

The Duchess

Ah! sir, he is master here.

The Duke

What! This wretch?

Vautrin If his grace the duke wishes to have an audience present we will proceed to talk of the son of Dona Mendes.

The Duke

Silence!

Vautrin

Whom you are passing off as the son of —

The Duke

Once more I say, silence!

Vautrin Your grace perceives, evidently, that there are too many people within hearing.

The Duke

All of you begone!

Vautrin (to the duke) Set a watch on every outlet from your house, and let no one leave it, excepting these two men. (To Saint-Charles) Do you remain here. (He draws a dagger and cuts the cords by which Lafouraille and Buteux are bound.) Take yourselves off by the postern; here is the key, and go to the house of mother Giroflee. (To Lafouraille) You must send Raoul to me.

Lafouraille (as he leaves the room)

Oh! our veritable emperor.

Vautrin

You shall receive money and passports.

Buteux (as he goes out)

After all, I shall have something for Adele!

The Duke

But how did you learn all these facts?

Vautrin (handing some documents to the duke)

These are what I took from your study.

The Duke These comprise my correspondence, and the letters of the duchess to the Viscount de Langeac.

Vautrin

Who was shot at Mortagne, October, 1792, through the kind efforts of

Charles Blondet, otherwise known as the Chevalier de Saint-Charles.

Saint-Charles

But your grace very well knows —

Vautrin It was he himself who gave me these papers, among which you will notice the death certificate of the viscount, which proves that he and her grace the duchess never met after the Tenth of August, for he had then left the Abbaye for the Vendee, accompanied by Boulard, who seized the moment to betray and murder him.

The Duke

And so Fernand —

Vautrin

The child sent to Sardinia is undoubtedly your son.

The Duke

And her grace the duchess —

Vautrin

Is innocent.

The Duke

My God! (He sinks back into an armchair.) What have I done?

The Duchess

What a horrible proof – his death! And the assassin stands before us.

Vautrin Monsieur le Duc de Montsorel, I have been a father to Fernand, and I have just saved your two sons, each from the sword of the other; you alone are the author of all this complication.

The Duchess Stop! I know him better than you do, and he suffers at this moment all that I have suffered during twenty years. In the name of mercy, where is my son?

The Duke

What, Raoul de Frescas?

Vautrin Fernand de Montsorel is on his way here. (To Saint-Charles) And what do you say about all this?

Saint-Charles

You are a hero; let me be your servant.

Vautrin

You are ambitious. Would you follow me?

Saint-Charles

Anywhere.

Vautrin

I can well believe it.

Saint-Charles Ah! what a master mind you obtain in me, and what a loss to the government!

Vautrin

Go; and wait for me at the bureau of passports.

(Exit Saint-Charles.)

SCENE FIFTEENTH. The same persons, the Duchesse de Christoval, Inez and Mademoiselle de Vaudrey

Mademoiselle de Vaudrey

Here they are!

The Duchesse de Christoval My daughter, madame, has received a letter from Monsieur Raoul, in which this noble young man declares that he would rather give up Inez, than deceive us; he has related his whole life's history. He is to fight a duel with your son to-morrow, and as Inez is the involuntary cause of this duel we are come to prevent it; for it is now entirely without ground or reason.

The Duchesse de Montsorel

There will be no duel, madame.

Inez

He will live then!

The Duchesse de Montsorel

And you shall marry the Marquis de Montsorel, my child.

SCENE SIXTEENTH. The same persons, Raoul and Lafouraille. (The last named does not tarry.)

Raoul (to Vautrin)

What! Would you imprison me to prevent my fighting a duel?

The Duke

With your brother?

Raoul

My brother?

The Duke

Yes.

The Duchesse de Montsorel

You are, then, really my child! (She embrace Raoul.) Ladies, this is

Fernand de Montsorel, my son, the —

The Duke (taking Raoul by the hand, and interrupting his wife) The eldest son, who was carried off from us in childhood. Albert is now no more than Comte de Montsorel.

Raoul

For three days I have been in a dream! You, my mother! You, sir —

The Duke

Your father – yes!

Raoul

Among the very people who asked me to name my family —

Vautrin

Your family has been found.

Raoul

And – are you still to have a place in my life?

Vautrin (to the Duchesse de Montsorel) What shall I say to you? (to Raoul) Remember, my lord marquis, that I have, in advance, absolved you from all charge of ingratitude. (To the duchess) The child will forget me; will the mother also?

The Duchesse de Montsorel

Never.

The Duke

But what are the misfortunes that plunged you into so dark an abyss?

Vautrin

Can any one explain misfortune?

The Duchesse de Montsorel

Dear husband, is it not in your power to obtain his pardon?

The Duke

The sentences under which he has served are irreversible.

Vautrin That word reconciles me to you, it is a statesman's word. Your grace should explain that transportation is the last expedient to which you can resort in overcoming us.

Raoul

Monsieur —

Vautrin

You are wrong; I am not even monsieur at present.

Inez I think I understand that you are an outlaw, that my friend owes you a vast debt, and cannot discharge it. Beyond the sea, I have extensive lands, which require a man's energy for their right administration; you shall go and exercise there your talents, and become —

Vautrin Rich, under a new name? Child, can you not realize that in this world there are pitiless necessities? Yes, I could acquire a fortune, but who will give me the opportunity? (To the duke) The king could at your grace's intercession grant me a pardon, but who then would take my hand in his?

Raoul

I would!

Vautrin Ah! It was this I waited for before taking leave. You now have a mother. Farewell!

SCENE SEVENTEENTH. The same persons, a police officer, guards and servants

(The window casements are flung open; and an officer enters; at the back of the stage are gendarmes.)

The officer (to the duke) In the name of the king, of the law, I arrest Jacques Collin, convicted of having broken —

(All persons present fling themselves between the armed force and

Jacques, in order to give him opportunity for escaping.)

The Duke

Gentlemen, I take upon myself —

Vautrin In your grace's house the justice of the king must have free course. The matter lies between these gentlemen and me. (To the officer) I will follow you. (To the duchess) It was Joseph who brought the police; he is one of us; discharge him.

Raoul

Are we separated forever?

Vautrin You will marry very shortly. Within a year, on a day of christening, scan carefully the faces of the poor at the church door; one will be there who wishes to be certain of your happiness. Till then, adieu. (To the officer) It is time for us to be moving.

Final Curtain

1

A play never enacted or printed.

2

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