VINTIMILLE [coldly]. Monsieur le Gouverneur is not well. Conduct him to his apartments, and take care of him.
DE LAUNEY [struggling]. Traitors! Cowards! [They carry him off.]
VINTIMILLE [aside]. I was an idiot to get dragged into this! Nothing to do now. I must draw my next card with equanimity. [Aloud.] Monsieur de Flue?
DE FLUE. What is it?
VINTIMILLE. Let us draw up our capitulation papers.
DE FLUE. Papers? No, thanks, I'll have nothing to do with them. [He turns his back. VINTIMILLE writes, leaning against a cannon.]
A Swiss GUARD [to DE FLUE]. They will massacre us.
DE FLUE [phlegmatically]. Possibly. [He sits down on a drum and lights his pipe.]
THE SWISS GUARDS [wiping their faces]. Damned heat! Can't we have something to drink? [A Guard gets a pitcher of water, which is passed around. The Guards are together at the left, with their officer; they are indifferent and bored. The Pensioners, opposite, stand about the cannon where VINTIMILLE is writing. They watch with respect every movement he makes. BÉQUART holds the inkstand for him. VINTIMILLE reads in a low voice to BÉQUART what he has written, BÉQUART nodding approval. His comrades repeat the words among themselves, likewise nodding.]
DE LAUNEY [with mingled irony and approval]. The lamb has captured the wolf.