The scene changes suddenly to the Place de Grève in Paris. The balcony becomes a scaffold, the table a guillotine. LUCIFER stands beside the guillotine. as an executioner. ADAM, as Danton, from the edge of the scaffold harangues a thronging CROWD. Drums sound and a ragged company of RECRUITS appears and forms a line around the scaffold. The sun shines brightly.
ADAM as if continuing Kepler’s speech
Freedom, equality, fraternity!
CROWD
And death to him who doth not these avow!
ADAM
So say I too. Two battle cries protect
Our sacred cause attacked on every hand,
The one we utter for the true of heart,
‘France is in peril!’ And they are awake!
But traitors hear the thunder of our cry
‘Tremble ye guilty!’ And they are destroyed.
Against us kings have risen; we have cast
The head of France’s King before their feet;
Against us priests have risen; we have snatched
Their lightning from their hands, and set again
Reason, oppressed of old, upon her throne.
But not in vain the second great call rings.
Which France has sent forth to all better men.
Eleven armies fight upon our bounds,
Unceasingly our valiant youth doth press
To fill the ranks of heroes that are slain.
Who sayeth madness and the lust of blood
Shall decimate the sons of sacred France?
If in the furnace boils the molten ore
The dross shall fall away, the gold remain.
And if we too shall drench our hands in blood
Let others deem us monsters; what care I?
If France be great and win her liberty.
THE RECRUITS
Arms! Give us only arms and generals!
ADAM
Good, good, ’tis nought save weapons that ye ask
While yet ye lack so many things beside.
Your garments are in rags, your feet are bare,
But with the bayonet all is to be won,
For ye shall conquer, yea, invincible
The people is! One of our generals,
Who, at the head of France’s soldiers let
Himself be vanquished, has paid - with his blood!
CROWD
The traitor!
ADAM
’Tis a true word that ye speak.
The people hath no other treasure than
The blood it sheds in lavish sacrifice
To save the nation. And that man who hath
The people’s sacred treasure in his charge,
And by it cannot overcome the world
He is a traitor.
An OFFICER steps forward from theRecruits.
OFFICER
Citizen, set me
In his place: I will wipe out this disgrace.
ADAM
Thy confidence, my friend, deserves all praise.
Yet on the field of battle thou must prove
That thou art able to make good thy words.
OFFICER
The pledge lies in my soul, and I, too, heve
A head worth more perchance, than that which fell.
ADAM
Who, if I ask for it, will vouch for thee?
OFFICER
What surety need I other than myself
Who hold my life as nothing, Citizen?
ADAM
Nay, speak not thus, youth thinks not on this wise.
OFFICER
Once more I ask thee, Citizen, send me.
ADAM
Have patience yet, and thou shalt reach thy goal.
OFFICER
I see thou dost not trust me. Thou shalt learn
To think of me more highly, Citizen.
Shoots himself through the head.
ADAM
My heart is sad. He should have met his death
By foeman’s bullet. Bear his body hence.
Farewell, we meet when victory is won.
The RECRUITS march away.
Ah, if I too might share your destiny!
But conflict, never glory is my lot;
No noble death on field of war is mine.
My foe lies ambushed deep and waits to spring
Unwarned on me and this beloved land.
CROWD
Point but thy finger at him and he dies!
ADAM
The man at whom my finger I could point
Is dead already.
CROWD
Nay, but Citizen,
What of the suspects? Since upon whom lies
Suspicion, he is guilty, for on him
The people’s condemnation weighs and they judge well.
Death to the aristocracy. On, on!
Forward and let us seek the prison cells,
The people shall judge and its sentence pass.
The people’s law is sacred, sovereign.
The CROWD begins to move towards the prison.
ADAM
The danger lies not there, the heavy bars,
The foetid air that stiftes mind and strength,
Are your allies; leave them to do their task.
But treachery lifts high its head and laughs,
And whets its knife where the Convention sits.
CROWD
On then to the Convention, since not yet
It hath been purged of traitors. Let us go
First to the prisons, after, we will seek
The Hall of the Convention, and ere then
Let every traitor’s name be known to us.
The CROWD departs with threatening cries. Meanwhile several SANS-CULOTTES drag a young MARQUIS and EVE as his sister in front of the scaffold.
A SANS-CULOTTE
Once more we bring two young aristocrats.
This haughty face, this linen fair and white
Are proof enough that they are guilty both.
ADAM
A noble pair. Come up and speak with me.
THE SANS-CULOTTE
We will go seek our comrades, where is work
Awaiting us; where traitors death awaits.
The SANS-CULOTTES go away with the remainder of the CROWD. The youth and girl move nearer to ADAM. Only a few guards remain standing near the scaffold.
ADAM
I know not why my heart is drawn to you,
But I will save you, though I risk my life.
THE MARQUIS
No, Danton, thou thy country dost betray
If we be guilty and thou sparest us;
But if we be not, thy vain clemency
We do reject.
ADAM
Who speaks to Danton thus?
THE MARQUIS
I am a Marquis…
ADAM
Hold, dost thou not know
There is no rank save that of Citizen?
THE MARQUIS
I had not heard my Sovereign had annulled
The titles of nobility.
ADAM
Rash youth, no more!
Enter our ranks and fame awaiteth thee.
THE MARQUIS
The King doth not permit me, Citizen,
To join the army of an alien force.
ADAM
Then, thou wilt die.
THE MARQUIS
And there will be one more
Of my long line who died to serve his King.
ADAM
Why dost thou rush so wildly upon death?
THE MARQUIS
And dost thou deem this lofty privilege
Befits you only, people’s men, forsooth?
ADAM
Dost thou defy me? I too challenge thee.
Who shall prove stronger? I will save thee yet
Despite thyself, and for this deed of mine
Posterity more sober, in whose heart
The fires of passion are but embers cold,
Shall give me thanks. Guards, lead this young man hence
And bring him to my lodging. Guard him well.
Some of the armed Guards escort the Marquis away.
EVE
Be strong, my brother.
MARQUIS
Sister, God keep thee.
Departs.
EVE
Here is a head no worse than Roland had.
ADAM
Such bitter words come ill from tender lips.
EVE
The scaffold softer words do not befit.
ADAM
This dreadful scaffold is become my world;
When thou didst set thy foot on it, there came
A ray from heaven bringing holiness.
EVE
The priests mock not upon its way to death
The beast with garlands decked for sacrifice.
ADAM
Know that I am myself the sacrifice.
And even though men envy me my power,
No happiness is mine, I scorn life, death;
And gaze upon my kingly throne from which
Men’s heads fall, day by day beside me there,
And wait until for me, too, come the turn.
Amid the bloodshed, solitude torments
My heart that feels how good it were to love.
O woman, if thou couldst me for one day
Teach this heaven’s wisdom, I would bow my head
Upon the morrow, ’neath the axe, content.
EVE
In this dread world thou dost yet yearn for love?
Doth not thy conscience weigh upon thy soul?
ADAM
Conscience! It is the privilege
Belonging to the multitude. The man
Of destiny hath no time to look back.
When stayed the tempest in its headlong flight
Because the frail rose trembled in its path?
And who would, in rash folly, judgment pass
On him who lives before the nation’s eye?
Who sees that hidden thread, that, on life’s stage,
Brings on a Brutus or a Catiline?
And do men think of him whose fame spreads far,
That he is man no longer, but a god,
And hath no feeling for the hundred cares
That daily fill life of all mankind?
Nay, those who sit on thrones have hearts to beat.
If Caesar could have loved, perchance his love
Had known him but a man, and had no thought
That all the world should tremble at his nod.
And if I speak the truth, then tell me why
Thou couldst not love. Art thou not woman then
And I a man? They say the heart doth hate
Or love as man is destined at his birth.
I feel this heart of mine is kin to thine.
Ah, lady, canst thou not this understand?
EVE
And if I could, it would avail me nought.
Another god than He whom in my heart
I worship is thy guide. And never thus
Can we, the one the other understand.
ADAM
Ah, leave these outworn ideals of thine.
Why dost thou sacrifice to banished gods?
For woman, such an altar doth befit
As glows with youth eternal - ’tis the heart.
EVE
There may be martyrs of abandoned shrines.
O Danton, ’tis more noble to protect
A ruined faith with love and piety,
Than to salute the newly-risen powers:
And it beseemeth woman to protect.
ADAM
No man hath seen the heart of Danton melt,
And now if friend or enemy should see
That he whom fate hath driven with her lash
Like some fierce hurricane to cleanse the world,
Halts now upon on the scaffold, heart aflame
For a young girl, and eyes fill with tears,
He would predict that Danton’s fall was nigh,
And laugh, and men should be afraid no more
Yet still I beg of thee a ray of hope.
EVE
If, when thy soul, at peace beyond the grave,
Be cleansed from all the bloodshed of this age.
Perchance…
ADAM
Speak no more, maiden, speak no more!
I have no faith in life beyond the grave,
And fight despairingly against my fate.
The CROWD returns in a ferocious mood with bloodstained weapons and with several heads on pikes. Some of them press forward to the scaffold.
CROWD
Justice is done! How proud these nobles were.
A SANS-CULOTTE giving to Danton aring
This ring I give thee for the nation’s good.
There was one villain pressed it in my hand
When at this scoundrel’s throat I held my knife.
These aristocrats deem that we are thieves -
Dost thou live yet? Follow thy brother, girl!
He stabs Eve. She falls at the back of the scaffold.
ADAM covering his eyes
It is the end. Fate, who can vanquish thee?
CROWD
And now to the Convention. Lead us on -
Hast thou drawn up the list of traitors’ names?
The CROWD moves away from the scaffold. EVE, transformed as a ragged and furious woman of the people, comes forward from the rest and, with a dagger in one hand and a bloody head in the other, rushes towards Danton.
EVE
Danton, behold this plotter’s bloody head!
He would have killed thee: by my hand he died!
ADAM
If he could have my place here better filled,
Thou hast done ill, if not, thou has done right.
EVE
I have done right, and my reward I claim.
Danton, thou great man, pass a night with me!
ADAM
What sympathy could wake in such a breast?
What tenderness could in this tigress dwell?
EVE
Why, truly, thou, too, Citizen, it seems,
Art turned aristocrat, or else perchance
A fever makes thee talk like a romance.
Thou art a man, and I a woman young;
My admiration leads me here to thee!
ADAM aside
This makes me shudder, let mine eyes not see,
This dire delusion is unbearable.
And yet what wondrous likeness. One who deemed
He saw an angel, and then gazed once more
And knew that he that angel fallen saw,
He would have been as I. And yet the face,
The figure and the speech are like to hers.
Yea, all seem but the same, save that there lacks
A something that the tongue can never name,
Which changeth all to leering mockery.
The glory of that one withstood my lust,
From this one, loathsome, reek the fires of hell.
EVE
What dost thou murmur, Danton, to thyself?
ADAM
I count I shall not have as many nights
As there are traitors yet at liberty.
CROWD
To the Convention! Name the traitors! On!
Meanwhile ROBESPIERRE, SAINT-JUST and other members of the Convention appear with another CROWD and stand on a hastily constructed platform.
SAINT-JUST
How should he name them? He is chief of them.
The CROWD murmurs.
ADAM
Saint-Just, thou durst accuse me. Knowest thou
That I am strong?
SAINT-JUST
The People was thy strength
But it is wise and knows thee now and shall
Now the Convention’s sentence ratify.
ADAM
I own no other court to judge of me
Beside the People, and it is my friend.
Again a loud murmur runs through the CROWD.
SAINT-JUST
Thy friend is he who is thy country’s foe,
The sovereign People shall be now thy judge.
I charge thee traitor at the People’s court.
Thou hast misused the monies of the State,
Shown sympathy to the aristocrats,
And sought to rule as tyrant in this land.
ADAM
Saint-Just, beware, my words shall ruin thee,
Thy charge is false…
ROBESPIERRE
Why do ye let him speak?
Ye know his tongue is smooth as is a snake.
Arrest him, in the name of Liberty!
CROWD
Let us not hear him. No more! Death to him!
They surround him and arrest him.
ADAM
Then hear ye not, and I too will not hear
This idle charge. Let us not strive with words,
Nor have ye won the victory in deeds.
Thou hast forestalled me, Robespierre. This
Is all the matter. Boast thou nought of it.
I lay the weapon down myself. - Enough.
But now I summon thee before three months
To follow me upon this road.
Come, executioner. A giant dies.
He lays his head beneath the guillotine.