Queen Margot: A Play in Five Acts. Александр Дюма
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me carefully.
COCONNAS
By god, I believe I do! I am listening attentively.
MAUREVAL
Hush! Wait!
(He indicates a noise above his head. At the same moment, the room on the first floor lights up. La Môle enters with La Hurière.)
COCONNAS
It’s nothing; it’s my companion who’s setting in.
LA HURIÈRE
(above)
Here’s your room.
LA MÔLE
(above)
Marvelous! Don’t forget to waken me at midnight.
LA HURIÈRE
Be easy!
MAUREVAL
Listen, the hour is striking—listen.
(The clock strikes, they count.)
COCONNAS
Eleven o’clock.
MAUREVAL
Fine! La Hurière is shutting the door. He’s coming down. Come, master, come!
LA HURIÈRE
(returning)
We are alone. Let’s have a seat.
MAUREVAL
Everything is carefully shut up?
LA HURIÈRE
Yes—and Gregory is standing guard outside. Are you there, Gregory?
GREGORY
(in the street)
Yes, master.
LA HURIÈRE
(to Coconnas)
Sir, are you a good Catholic?
COCONNAS
By God, since the day of my baptism, I have boasted so.
MAUREVAL
Sir, are you devoted to the King?
COCONNAS
Body and soul.
MAUREVAL
Then you are going to follow us.
COCONNAS
So be it! But, I warn you that at midnight, I have business at the Louvre.
MAUREVAL
That’s exactly where we are going.
COCONNAS
I have a meeting with the Duke de Guise.
MAUREVAL
We do, too.
COCONNAS
I have a password.
MAUREVAL
We do, too.
COCONNAS
A personal sign of recognition.
MAUREVAL
We do, too. And wait, this will spare you the trouble of making a cross on paper.
(He pulls from his pocket three white crosses, giving one to La Hurière, the other to Coconnas and keeping the third for himself.)
COCONNAS
Oh, oh—this rendezvous, this word of the day—this rallying sign—is it for everybody?
MAUREVAL
Yes, sir—that is to say—for all good Catholics.
COCONNAS
There’s a feast at the Louvre then.
LA HURIÈRE
Yes, and that’s why I polish my helmet, I sharpen my sword and my knives—Gregory—come help me.
COCONNAS
(eyes starting)
Wait a moment! This feast it—is—?
MAUREVAL
You’ve been quite a while to figure it out, sir, and it’s to be seen that you are not as tired as we are of the insolence of these heretics.
COCONNAS
But doubtless you have large numbers and powerful allies?
MAUREVAL
(escorting him to the window)
Do you see that troop passing silently in the shadow?
COCONNAS
Yes.
MAUREVAL
Well, the men who form that troop have, you can see, like La Hurière, you and I, a cross on their hats.
COCONNAS
Well?
MAUREVAL
Well—those men are Swiss from the smaller countries—loyal friends of the King. You see that other troop.
COCONNAS
The horsemen?
MAUREVAL
Do you recognize their leader?
COCONNAS
How can you expect me to do that? I’ve only been in town since five o’clock this afternoon.
MAUREVAL
Well, he’s the one you have a meeting with at midnight at the Louvre. See, he’s going there to wait for you.
COCONNAS
Duke de Guise.
MAUREVAL
Himself.
COCONNAS
But what are those other men doing who are going silently from door to door?
MAUREVAL
They are placing a red cross on the homes of the Huguenots and a white cross on those of the Catholics. In other times, we leave it to God to recognize his own, today we are more farsighted and we will spare Him the trouble.
COCONNAS
But they are going to kill them all then?
MAUREVAL
All.
COCONNAS
By order of the King.
MAUREVAL
By order of the King and the Duke de Guise.
COCONNAS
When?
MAUREVAL
When you hear the first clock, striking from Saint Germain l’Auxerrois.
COCONNAS
(explosively)
Ah! That will be very funny.
MAUREVAL
Silence! Now, it is useless to tell you, if you have some particular enemy—if he’s not already a convert to the Huguenots—he will pass in the number.
(La Hurière during this conversation has armed himself from head to foot.)
MAUREVAL
Let’s get going now.
LA HURIÈRE
Wait! Before putting ourselves on campaign status, let’s assure ourselves of our own lodgers—as they say in wartime. I don’t want my wife and children strangled while I am out. There’s a Huguenot here.
COCONNAS