The Resources of Quinola: A Comedy in a Prologue and Five Acts

Fontanares Let my laborers come forth! You, the children of the people, whose hands have completed my work, bear witness for me! It was from me only that you received the models. Say now, whether it was Don Ramon or I who originated the new power which the sea has felt to-day?

Esteban

By my faith, you would have been in a pretty fix without Don Ramon!

Mathieu Magis It was two years ago, in the course of a conversation with Don Ramon, that he begged me to furnish funds for this experiment.

Fontanares (to Fregose) My lord, what strange delusion has fallen upon the people and burgesses of Barcelona? I arrive here in the midst of the acclamations with which Don Ramon is being greeted. Yes, I arrive bearing the traces of the vigils and sweat of this great enterprise, and I find you contentedly sanctioning the most shameful act of robbery that can be perpetrated in the face of heaven and earth. (Murmurs from the crowd.) Alone and unprotected I have risked my life on this enterprise. I was the first who pledged its accomplishment to the king, and unaided I have kept my pledge, and yet here in my place I find Don Ramon – an ignoramus.

(More crowd murmurs.)

Don Fregose An old soldier knows very little about scientific matters and must accept plain facts. All Catalonia conceded to Don Ramon the priority in this invention, and everybody here declares that without him you would have accomplished nothing. It is my duty to inform his majesty, the king, of these circumstances.

Fontanares

The priority! Where are the proofs of this?

The Grand Inquisitor They are as follows: In his treatise on the casting of cannons Don Ramon speaks of a certain invention called Thunder, made by Leonardo da Vinci, your master, and says that it might be applied to the navigation of a ship.

Don Ramon

Ah! young man, acknowledge that you had read my treatises!

Fontanares (aside)

I would sacrifice all my glory for one hour of vengeance!

SCENE FOURTH

The same persons and Quinola.

Quinola (aside to Fontanares)

Senor, the fruit was too fair, and a worm has been found in it!

Fontanares

What do you mean?

Quinola Hell has belched back upon us, I know not how – Monipodio, all on fire for revenge; he is on board the ship with a band of devils, and swears to scuttle it, unless you guarantee him ten thousand sequins.

Fontanares (kneels) Thanks, thanks for that. O ocean, whom I once longed to subdue, thou art the sole protector that is left to me; thou shalt keep my secret to eternity! (To Quinola) See that Monipodio steers for the open sea and there scuttles the ship.

Quinola What is this? Do I understand you aright? Which of us two has lost his head?

Fontanares

Do as I bid you.

Quinola

But, my dear master —

Fontanares

My life and yours are equally at stake.

Quinola

Obey, without understanding why? For the first time I'll risk it.

(Exit.)

SCENE FIFTH

The same persons, with the exception of Quinola.

Fontanares (to Don Fregose) My lord! Putting aside the question of priority, which can easily be decided, may I be permitted to withdraw my name from this debate, begging of you to accept the statement which is here drawn up and contains the justification before the king our master?

Don Ramon

You acknowledge then my claim?

Fontanares I will acknowledge anything you like, even to the point that O plus O is a binomial!

Don Fregose (after consulting with the Grand Inquisitor) Your demand is perfectly legitimate; we will forward a copy of your statement, preserving here the original.

Fontanares I have, then, escaped with my life. Let me ask all of you here present, if you look upon Don Ramon as the real inventor of the vessel which has been propelled by steam before the eyes of two hundred thousand Spaniards?

All

We do.

(Quinola makes his appearance.)

Fontanares Very good. Don Ramon has accomplished this prodigy. Don Ramon can begin his work again. (A loud explosion is heard.) The prodigy is no longer in existence. The employment of such a force is not without danger, and the danger which Don Ramon had not foreseen, has manifested itself, at the very moment while Don Ramon was receiving your congratulations! (Cries in the distance; everybody rushes to the balcony and gazes seaward.) I am avenged!

Don Fregose

What will the king say?

The Grand Inquisitor France is all ablaze, the low countries in revolt, Calvin is stirring up all Europe; the king has too much business on his hands to worry himself about the loss of a ship. This new invention and the Reformation would have been too much at one time for the world! Now for some years the rapacity of maritime peoples has been checked.

(Exeunt omnes.)

SCENE SIXTH

Quinola, Fontanares and Faustine.

Faustine

Alfonso, I have done you much wrong.

Fontanares Marie is dead, senora; I do not know the meaning of the words right and wrong, nowadays.

Quinola

There is a man for you.

Faustine

Forgive me, and I will devote myself to your future.

Fontanares Forgiveness! That word has been erased from my heart. There are situations in which the heart either breaks or turns to bronze. I am scarcely twenty-five years old, but to-day you have changed me into a man of fifty. You have lost to me one world, now you owe me another —

Quinola

Let us turn our attention to politics.

Faustine

And is not my love, Alfonso, worth a world?

Fontanares Yes, for you are a magnificent instrument of ruin and devastation. Yet it will be by means of you that I shall crush all those who have been an obstacle in my pathway; I take you, not for my wife, but for my slave, and you shall serve me.

Faustine

Serve you blindly.

Fontanares But without hope that there will be any return – need I say of what? All here (he strikes his hand upon his heart) is of bronze. You have taught me what this world is made of. O world of self-interest, of trickery, of policy and of perfidy, I defy you to the combat!

Quinola

Senor?

Fontanares

What is it?

Quinola

Am I in it with you?

Fontanares You? You are the only one who has still a place in my heart. We three will stand together; we will go —

Faustine

Where?

Fontanares

We will go to France.

Faustine Let us start at once; I know these Spaniards, and they are sure to plot your death.

Quinola The resources of Quinola are at the bottom of the sea. Be kind enough to excuse his faults; he will doubtless do better at Paris. Verily, I believe that hell is paved with good inventions.

Final Curtain