VERA:
Fool, is it so hard a thing to kill one's enemy?
PRINCE PAUL:
[(aside)] This is the ninth conspiracy I have been in in Russia. They always end in a voyage en Siberie for my friends and a new decoration for myself.
MICHAEL:
It is your last conspiracy, Prince.
PRESIDENT:
At twelve o clock, the bloody dagger.
VERA:
Ay, red with the blood of that false heart. I shall not forget it. [(Standing in middle of stage.)] To strangle whatever nature is in me, neither to love nor to be loved, neither to pity nor to be pitied. Ay! it is an oath, an oath. Methinks the spirit of Charlotte Corday has entered my soul now. I shall carve my name on the world, and be ranked among the great heroines. Ay! the spirit of Charlotte Corday beats in each petty vein, and nerves my woman's hand to strike, as I have nerved my woman's heart to hate. Though he laugh in his dreams I shall not ['alter. Though he sleep peacefully I shall not miss my blow. Be glad, my brother, in your stifled cell, be glad and laugh to-night. To-night this new-fledged Czar shall post with bloody feet to hell, and greet his father there! This Czar! O traitor, liar, false to his oath, false to me! To play the patriot among us, and now to wear a crown; to sell us, like Judas, for thirty silver pieces, to betray us with a kiss! [( With more passion.)] O Liberty, O mighty mother of eternal time, thy robe is purple with the blood of those who have died for thee! Thy throne is the Calvary of the people, thy crown the crown of thorns. O crucified mother, the despot has driven a nail through thy right hand, and the tyrant through thy left! Thy feet are pierced with their iron. When thou wert athirst thou calledst on the priests for water, and they gave thee bitter drink. They thrust a sword into thy side. They mocked thee in shine agony of age on age. Here, on thy altar, O Liberty, do I dedicate myself to thy service; do with me as thou wilt! [(Brandishing the dagger.)] The end has come now, and by thy sacred wounds, O crucified mother, O Liberty, I swear that Russia shall be saved!
ACT DROP
ACT FOUR
SCENE: Antechamber of the Czar's private room. Large windows at the back, with drawn curtains over it.
Present:---PRINCE PETROVITCH, BARON RAFF, MARQUIS DE POIVRARD, COUNT ROUVALOFF.
PRINCE PETROVITCH:
He is beginning well, this young Czar.
BARON RAFF:
[(shrugs his shoulders)] All young Czars do begin well.
COUNT ROUVALOFF:
And end badly.
MARQUIS DE POIVRARD:
Well, I have no right to complain. He as done me one good service, at any rate.
PRINCE PETROVITCH:
Cancelled your appointment to Archangel, I suppose?
MARQUIS DE POIVRARD:
Yes; my head wouldn't have been safe there for an hour.
Enter GENERAL KOTEMKIN.
BARON RAFF:
Ah! General, any more news of our romantic young Emperor?
GENERAL KOTEMKIN:
You are quite right to call him romantic, Baron, a week ago I found him amusing himself in a garret with a company of strolling players; to-day his whim is all the convicts in Siberia are to be recalled, and the political prisoners, as he calls them, amnestied.
PRINCE PETROVITCH:
Political prisoners! Why, half of them are no better than common murderers!
COUNT ROUVALOFF:
And the other half much worse?
BARON RAFF:
Oh, you wrong them, surely, Count. Wholesale trade has always been more respectable than retail.
