PRESIDENT. The more entertaining will be the exhibition. Away with her!
FERDINAND. I will pledge the honor of an officer"s sword for her. Do you still insist?
PRESIDENT. Your sword is already familiar with disgrace. Away! away!
You know my will.
FERDINAND (wrests LOUISA from the officer and holds her with one arm, with the other points his sword at her bosom.) Father, rather than tamely see my wife branded with infamy I will plunge this sword into her bosom. Do you still insist?
PRESIDENT. Do it, if the point be sharp enough!
FERDINAND (releases LOUISA, and looks wildly towards heaven). Be thou witness, Almighty G.o.d, that I have left no human means untried to save her! Forgive me now if I have recourse to h.e.l.lish means. While you are leading her to the pillory (speaking loudly in the PRESIDENT"S ear), I will publish throughout the town a pleasant history of how a president"s chair may be gained! [Exit.
PRESIDENT (as if thunder-struck). How? What said he? Ferdinand!
Release her instantly! (Rushes after his son.)
ACT III.
SCENE I.
Room at the President"s. Enter PRESIDENT and WORM.
PRESIDENT. That was an infernal piece of business!
WORM. Just what I feared, your excellency. Opposition may inflame the enthusiast, but never converts him.
PRESIDENT. I had placed my whole reliance upon the success of this attempt. I made no doubt but if the girl were once publicly disgraced, he would be obliged as an officer and a gentleman to resign her.
WORM. An admirable idea!--had you but succeeded in disgracing her.
PRESIDENT. And yet--when I reflect on the matter coolly--I ought not to have suffered myself to be overawed. It was a threat which he never could have meant seriously.
WORM. Be not too certain of that! There is no folly too gross for excited pa.s.sion! You say that the baron has always looked upon government with an eye of disapprobation. I can readily believe it. The principles which he brought with him from college are ill-suited to our atmosphere. What have the fantastic visions of personal n.o.bility and greatness of soul to do in court, where "tis the perfection of wisdom to be great and little by turns, as occasion demands? The baron is too young and too fiery to take pleasure in the slow and crooked paths of intrigue. That alone can give impulse to his ambition which seems glorious and romantic!
PRESIDENT (impatiently). But how will these sagacious remarks advance our affairs?
WORM. They will point out to your excellency where the wound lies, and so, perhaps, help you to find a remedy. Such a character--pardon the observation--ought never to have been made a confidant, or should never have been roused to enmity. He detests the means by which you have risen to power! Perhaps it is only the son that has. .h.i.therto sealed the lips of the betrayer! Give him but a fair opportunity for throwing off the bonds imposed upon him by nature! only convince him, by unrelenting opposition to his pa.s.sion, that you are no longer an affectionate father, and that moment the duties of a patriot will rush upon him with irresistible force! Nay, the high-wrought idea of offering so unparalleled a sacrifice at the shrine of justice might of itself alone have charms sufficient to reconcile him to the ruin of a parent!
PRESIDENT. Worm! Worm! To what a horrible abyss do you lead me!
WORM. Never fear, my lord, I will lead you back in safety! May I speak without restraint?
PRESIDENT (throwing himself into a seat). Freely, as felon with felon.
WORM. Forgive me, then. It seems to me that you have to ascribe all your influence as president to the courtly art of intrigue; why not resort to the same means for attaining your ends as a father? I well remember with what seeming frankness you invited your predecessor to a game at piquet, and caroused half the night with him over b.u.mpers of Burgundy; and yet it was the same night on which the great mine you had planned to annihilate him was to explode. Why did you make a public exhibition of enmity to the major? You should by no means have let it appear that you knew anything of his love affair. You should have made the girl the object of your attacks and have preserved the affection of your son; like the prudent general who does not engage the prime of the enemy"s force but creates disaffection among the ranks?
PRESIDENT. How could this have been effected?
WORM. In the simplest manner--even now the game is not entirely lost!
Forget for a time that you are a father. Do not contend against a pa.s.sion which opposition only renders more formidable. Leave me to hatch, from the heat of their own pa.s.sions, the basilisk which shall destroy them.
PRESIDENT. I am all attention.
WORM. Either my knowledge of human character is very small, or the major is as impetuous in jealousy as in love. Make him suspect the girl"s constancy,--whether probable or not does not signify. One grain of leaven will be enough to ferment the whole ma.s.s.
PRESIDENT. But where shall we find that grain?
WORM. Now, then, I come to the point. But first explain to me how much depends upon the major"s compliance. How far is it of consequence that the romance with the music-master"s daughter should be brought to a conclusion and the marriage with Lady Milford effected?
PRESIDENT. How can you ask me, Worm? If the match with Lady Milford is broken off I stand a fair chance of losing my whole influence; on the other hand, if I force the major"s consent, of losing my head.
WORM (with animation). Now have the kindness to listen to me. The major must be entangled in a web. Your whole power must be employed against his mistress. We must make her write a love-letter, address it to a third party, and contrive to drop it cleverly in the way of the major.
PRESIDENT. Absurd proposal! As if she would consent to sign her own death-warrant.
WORM. She must do so if you will but let me follow my own plan. I know her gentle heart thoroughly; she has but two vulnerable sides by which her conscience can be attacked; they are her father and the major. The latter is entirely out of the question; we must, therefore, make the most of the musician.
PRESIDENT. In what way?
WORM. From the description your excellency gave me of what pa.s.sed in his house nothing can be easier than to terrify the father with the threat of a criminal process. The person of his favorite, and of the keeper of the seals, is in some degree the representative of the duke himself, and he who offends the former is guilty of treason towards the latter. At any rate I will engage with these pretences to conjure up such a phantom as shall scare the poor devil out of his seven senses.
PRESIDENT. But recollect, Worm, the affair must not be carried so far as to become serious.
WORM. Nor shall it. It shall be carried no further than is necessary to frighten the family into our toils. The musician, therefore, must be quietly arrested. To make the necessity yet more urgent, we may also take possession of the mother;--and then we begin to talk of criminal process, of the scaffold, and of imprisonment for life, and make the daughter"s letter the sole condition of the parent"s release.
PRESIDENT. Excellent! Excellent! Now I begin to understand you!
WORM. Louisa loves her father--I might say even to adoration! The danger which threatens his life, or at least his freedom--the reproaches of her conscience for being the cause of his misfortunes--the impossibility of ever becoming the major"s wife--the confusion of her brain, which I take upon myself to produce--all these considerations make our plan certain of success. She must be caught in the snare.
PRESIDENT. But my son--will he not instantly get scent of it? Will it not make him yet more desperate?
WORM. Leave that to me, your excellency! The old folks shall not be set at liberty till they and their daughter have taken the most solemn oath to keep the whole transaction secret, and never to confess the deception.
PRESIDENT. An oath! Ridiculous! What restraint can an oath be?
WORM. None upon us, my lord, but the most binding upon people of their stamp. Observe, how dexterously by this measure we shall both reach the goal of our desires. The girl loses at once the affection of her lover, and her good name; the parents will lower their tone, and, thoroughly humbled by misfortune, will esteem it an act of mercy, if, by giving her my hand, I re-establish their daughter"s reputation.
PRESIDENT (shaking his head and smiling). Artful villain! I confess myself outdone--no devil could spin a finer snare! The scholar excels his master. The next question is, to whom must the letter be addressed-- with whom to accuse her of having an intrigue?
WORM. It must necessarily be some one who has all to gain or all to lose by your son"s decision in this affair.
PRESIDENT (after a moment"s reflection). I can think of no one but the marshal.
WORM (shrugs his shoulders). The marshal! He would certainly not be my choice were I Louisa Miller.
PRESIDENT. And why not? What a strange notion! A man who dresses in the height of fashion--who carries with him an atmosphere of eau de mille fleurs and musk--who can garnish every silly speech with a handful of ducats--could all this possibly fail to overcome the delicacy of a tradesman"s daughter? No, no, my good friend, jealousy is not quite so hard of belief. I shall send for the marshal immediately. (Rings.)