The Resources of Quinola | Page 8

courage. You are pale, and I must give to you a tinge of color; but I know how to do it.
(Scene curtain.)
SCENE TWELFTH
(Palace gallery as in first scene.)
The Duke of Olmedo, the Duke of Lerma, Fontanares and Quinola.
The Duke of Olmedo We have come just in time!
The Duke of Lerma You were not wounded then?
The Duke of Olmedo Who said I was? Would the favorite of the king ruin me? And should I be here, as you see me, if I were dead? (To Quinola) Stand close and hold me up.
Quinola (to Fontanares) This is a man worthy of your love.
Fontanares Who would not envy such a one? Yet how seldom is occasion given to show one's love.
Quinola Spare us, good sir, all this rigmarole about love, in the presence of the king; for the king, hark you--
A page The King!
Fontanares Come on, and let all our thoughts be for Marie!
Quinola (noticing that the Duke of Olmedo is fainting) How are you? (He puts a flask to his nostrils.)
SCENE THIRTEENTH
The same persons, the King, the Queen, the Captain of the Guards, the Grand Inquisitor, the Marchioness of Mondejar, the President of the Council of Castile and the whole court.
Philip II. (to the Captain of the Guards) Has our man arrived?
The Captain The Duke of Olmedo, whom I met on the palace steps, has at once obeyed the commands of the king.
The Duke of Olmedo (falling on one knee) Will the king deign to pardon a delay--unpardonable?
Philip II. (raising him by his wounded arm) I was told you were dying--(he glances at the marchioness)--of a wound received in a nocturnal attack.
The Duke of Olmedo Well, you see me here, sire, a sufficient answer.
The Marchioness (aside) He is rouged!
Philip II. (to the duke) Where is your prisoner?
The Duke of Olmedo (pointing to Fontanares) Yonder he stands.
Fontanares (kneeling) And ready, to the great glory of God, to do wonders which shall add splendor to the reign of the king, my master.
Philip II. Rise up and speak to me; what is this force miraculous which shall give to Spain the empire of the world?
Fontanares It is a force invincible, sire. It is steam; for, when water has become expanded in steam, it demands a much more extensive area than that which it occupies in its natural form; and in order to take that space it would blow up mountains. By my invention this force is confined; the machine is provided with wheels, which beat the sea and propel a vessel as swiftly as the wind, so that tempests cannot resist its course. Voyages can be made in safety and so swiftly that there is no limit to speed excepting in the revolution of the wheels. Human life is lengthened every time a moment is economized. Sire, Christopher Columbus gave to you a world three thousand leagues across the ocean; I will bring one to you at the port of Cadiz, and you shall claim, with the assistance of God, the dominion of the sea.
The Queen You do not seem to be astonished, sire?
Philip II. Astonishment is involuntary flattery, and kings may never flatter. (To Fontanares) What do you ask of me?
Fontanares That which Columbus asked, a ship and the presence of my king to witness the experiment.
Philip II. You shall have all--the king, the realm of Spain--the whole world. They tell me that you love a maid of Barcelona. I am about to cross the Pyrenees, to visit my possessions, Roussillon and Perpignan; you shall receive your vessel at Barcelona.
Fontanares In granting me this vessel, sire, you have done me justice; in giving it to me at Barcelona, you have bestowed a favor which, from a subject, makes me your slave.
Philip II. Yet be cautious; to lose a vessel of the state will be to risk your life, for so the law provides.
Fontanares I know it, and accept the risk.
Philip II. Well said, brave man! If you succeed in constructing this sailless, oarless vessel that shall face the wind as swiftly as if the wind were in its favor, I will create you--what is your name?
Fontanares Alfonso Fontanares.
Philip II. You shall be Don Alfonso Fontanares, Duke of--Neptunado, Grandee of Spain.
The Duke of Lerma Sire, the statutes concerning nobility--
Philip II. Silence! Duke of Lerma. It is the duty of the king to exalt the man of genius above all other men and thus to honor the ray of light which God has given to him.
The Grand Inquisitor Sire--
Philip II. What would you?
The Grand Inquisitor We did not imprison the man on the charge that he had commerce with the devil, nor because of his impiety, nor because he springs from a family suspected of heresy; but for the safety of monarchies. Printing has permitted clever men to communicate their thoughts to others and the result