VIOLETTA. What are you going to do, Pompy, dear?
POMPDEBILE. Herald, issue a proclamation at once. Let it be known all over the Kingdom that I desire that the Knave be brought here dead or alive. Send the royal detectives and policemen in every direction.
CHANCELLOR. Excellent; just what I should have advised had Your
Majesty listened to me.
POMPDEBILE (in a rage). Be quiet. (Exit HERALD.) I never have a brilliant thought but you claim it. It is insufferable!
(The HERALDS can be heard in the distance.)
CHANCELLOR. I resign.
POMPDEBILE. Good. We accept your thirty-eighth resignation at once.
CHANCELLOR. You did me the honor to appoint me as your Chancellor, Your Majesty, yet never, never do you give me an opportunity to chancel. That is my only grievance. You must admit, Your Majesty, that as your advisers advise you, as your dressers dress you, as your hunters hunt, as your bakers bake, your Chancellor should be allowed to chancel. However, I will be just—as I have been with you so long; before I leave you, I will give you a month's notice.
POMPDEBILE. That isn't necessary.
CHANCELLOR (referring to the constitution hanging at his belt).
It's in the constitution.