Dup. At last I am called to court! I thought his majesty would soon or late have need of my experience in throat-cutting.
Mir. But, my dear Dupin, it is not in your capacity of throat-cutter that we introduce you. These towns that have given aid to the Liberals must be punished without the Emperor’s knowledge. You will make an example of them?
Dup. Will I? Hear him, Marshal! Will I?
Mir. But not a word to the Emperor!
Dup. Softish, eh?
Mir. His spongy heart is filled with water of compassion. Touch it anywhere it pours!
Baz. I ’m not going to throw away the lives of any more Frenchmen just to give him a chance to play at clemency! An emperor should be a sort of vitalized stone, capable of action but incapable of impression.
Dup. Then I ’m the man for emperor! I ’ve always suspected my qualifications for the part. By the lord, I ’ve made women who were hungry enough to eat their own children watch my soldiers throw bread into the sea! And when I was with the French and English in old Chinee—well, they ’ve called me the ‘Tigre’ since then. You ’ve heard about that! (Struts and sings)
I ’m the tigre of the East,
Got my claws in old Pekin
When the yellow kids we fleeced
And held up the mandarin!O we caught him by the queue,
As he from our captains flew,
That quaking little, shaking little mandarin.
And we dragged him out to view
By that most convenient queue,
When we sacked the summer palace at Pekin!
My friends, if you will excuse me, there are several dozens of ladies in the ball room waiting for a dance with the costume par excellence of the evening. I am not always sure of a welcome for my face, but my costume is never in doubt. Ah, sweet woman! you can please me twice. I can dance with you—and I can kill you! When the Emperor asks for me I shall not decline an introduction,—though he was not born an emperor and I was born Dupin! (Exit)