NAPOLÉON
There may be, in some suited time,
Some cleaner means of carrying out such work.
ROUSTAN
Sire, you refuse? Can you support vile life
A moment on such terms? Why then, I pray,
Dispatch me with the weapon, or dismiss me.
[He holds the sword to NAPOLÉON, who shakes his head.]
I live no longer under such disgrace!
[Exit ROUSTAN haughtily. NAPOLÉON vents a sardonic laugh, and
throws himself on a sofa, where he by and by falls asleep. The
door is softly opened. ROUSTAN and CONSTANT peep in.]
CONSTANT
To-night would be as good a time to go as any. He will sleep there
for hours. I have my few francs safe, and I deserve them; for I have
stuck to him honourably through fourteen trying years.
ROUSTAN
How many francs have you secured?
CONSTANT
Well—more than you can count in one breath, or even two.
ROUSTAN
Where?
CONSTANT
In a hollow tree in the Forest. And as for YOUR reward, you can
easily get the keys of that cabinet, where there are more than
enough francs to equal mine. He will not have them, and you may
as well take them as strangers.
ROUSTAN
It is not money that I want, but honour. I leave, because I can
no longer stay with self-respect.
CONSTANT
And I because there is no other such valet in the temperate zone,
and it is for the good of society that I should not be wasted here.
ROUSTAN
Well, as you propose going this evening I will go with you, to lend
a symmetry to the drama of our departure. Would that I had served
a more sensitive master! He sleeps there quite indifferent to the
dishonour of remaining alive!
[NAPOLÉON shows signs of waking. CONSTANT and ROUSTAN disappear.
NAPOLÉON slowly sits up.]