The Princess of Bagdad: A Play In Three Acts

Lionnette (a little more harshly)

Now, now, let me go.

Raoul

No. (He puts himself in front of his mother.)

Nourvady (taking the child by the arm, and throwing him far from him)

Leave us alone, then!

(The child totters, falls, and remains motionless. Lionnette stops, looks with stupor on what has passed, recoils, covers her face with her hands, utters a piercing cry, and rushes at Nourvady, whom she seizes by the throat as if to strangle him.)

Lionnette

Miserable wretch!

Nourvady (whom she has struck on the shoulder, who feels himself getting exhausted, but who will not defend himself, with a feeble voice).

You are hurting me.

Lionnette (releasing him)

Go away; go away! I shall strangle you. I shall kill you. My child! My child!

(She utters several cries, and throws herself in despair upon the child.)

Richard (who has entered during this scene, to Nourvady)

Go away, sir, go away, in the name of heaven! Enough of such misfortunes, without that.

(He makes Nourvady go away.)

Raoul (half raising himself up)

There is nothing the matter … Mamma… Nothing, I assure you.

(Lionnette on her knees, with Raoul's head on her breast, kissing him with rapture, sobbing without power to stop herself).

Richard (near her)

Saved! You are saved!

Lionnette (with sobs, tremulously accentuating every word)

Yes, yes, yes, saved! (To Richard.) Ah! I was mad… I was mad… But when that man laid his hand on my child, it is awful what took possession of me! I do not know how it was I did not kill him. What is the use of a man struggling with a mother? For I am a mother. I am… Oh! I felt it truly, from my heart, that that could never be. Richard, you guessed rightly; yes. Right-minded people guess rightly!.. They want my father's letters; very well, they shall have them. You shall sell everything; you shall pay – you must give that man back his money; – there will be an end to it all. Go, and find my husband. (Richard goes away.) I want to see him before I die, for I am going to die, I feel it.

(She lets her head fall upon the couch, and half loses consciousness.)

Raoul (jumping upon the couch, taking his mother's head in his arms, and kissing it.)

Mamma, mamma, mamma … do not die, I beseech you.

Lionnette (recovering consciousness)

No, no, I shall live, for I love you!..

(She covers him with kisses, and does not see John, who enters with Richard, who is showing him the scene. John starts back, comprehending nothing yet. Godler and Trévelé look on and rejoin John, who cannot take his eyes off the picture of the mother and her child. Richard touches Lionnette's shoulder, who turns round and sees John.)

Scene V

LIONNETTE, JOHN, RAOUL, RICHARD, GODLER, TRÉVELÉ

Lionnette to John (running to him and falling on her knees)

Do not leave me any more. I will explain all to you. I understand, I see it all clearly now! I am innocent, I swear to you! I swear to you! I swear to you! We will live modestly in some quiet place, wherever you like. What difference does that make now that my child has awakened my soul in me?

(She throws herself again on her son's neck).

John (in the hands of Godler and Trévelé)

My friends, my friends, I am losing my senses!

Godler

You can, indeed, boast of having a true woman as a wife!

Trévelé (touching him)

Go and kneel at her feet.

(Lionnette is sitting on the couch, supporting her son's head on her knees, and her head thrown back, in an attitude of weariness and contentment. John throws himself on his knees before her, and kisses the hand she has free. She holds out the other to Richard.)

Lionnette (to Richard)

It was just in time.

Richard

Yes, the cry of a child! that is sufficient. When all is nearly lost, God's way is all-powerful.

John

I believe in you, and I love you.

Lionnette (with a long sigh of joy)

Ah! how happy I am!