ACT I.
ACT I.
DUV. You resided in Spain until within the last few years, did you not?
PED. Yes; our family belonged to Ferdinand’s Court, but when His Majesty was overthrown, our fortunes all suffering in the downfall, my uncle removed to New Orleans.
DUV. Where your own overthrow was completed by Cupid. To be frank with you, you are perfectly eligible to my daughter’s hand;—I like you—but owing to her youth and the great wealth that will be hers, (she is my sole heir) I am constrained to caution. Personally, the weight of my authority will be in your favor, but in the meantime we must wait until you have money enough to raise you in worldly minds above the suspicion of fortune hunting.
PED. For your frankness, even though it wound me, I thank you. My only protest arises from suspense lest in the interim Bella should prefer another; even that she may prefer another now.
DUV. I have never had any trouble with women, no matter who the woman. All that is necessary is to coax them in the proper way, so as to make them think they are yielding through grace and not necessity.
PED. A rare art.
DUV. An easy one. I pledge you my word that Bella will wed as I dictate. (enter several legislators and politicians.)
1st POL. It is plain to see that the British have designs on this city.
1st LEG. They won’t amount to anything. (enter Beluche.)
DUV. They will amount to ruin, unless Lafitte be checked in time.
2nd POL. Confound it all, he must be.
DUV. He is not only a terror to the State, a growing paralysis upon its commerce, but a menace to the entire country; uncatchable, unrestrainable.
PED. The country’s trade with Spain has been well nigh ruined.
1st LEG. Yes and her neutrality laws put at naught.
DUV. Worse still; the entire respectability of the State is being debauched underhandedly into complicity with this Emperor of Barataria under penalty of being ruined.
2nd LEG. The Governor must be urged to act.
1st POL. He cannot remain unheedful of the petition we will send him.
DUV. To business! (exeunt.)
BEL. Ha! ha! Petition away, my gallants! The man who from public disgrace has been able to build himself into a power, a whole country fears because it cannot subdue, need have no apprehension arising from petitions. Jean Durand of the French army was a very different man from Jean Lafitte, Emperor of Barataria. “If he should ever have cause to hate the Spanish!” he promised me. The cause must have been grievous—a woman, of course—the cause is always a woman, though Jean has said nothing to me about it. However, she has made him a good hater. For that much I am beholden to her.—But I must see Lafitte about the Creole. I have suspicionsabout that ship. He has been away so many months, the men are becoming unruly. I had thought to find him here looking up old Darblee about hisprotege, Dominique. (enter Baptiste.) Has Master Dominique returned, Baptiste?
BAP. No sah, not jess ’zactly. I’ze lookin’ into dis week fo’ ’im.
BEL. Still got that little habit of looking into things?
BAP. Yes sah, an’ dat minds me. Does you know, marser, if dem bloodhounds bite hard?
BEL. Pretty hard.
BAP. Is dey any chance fo’ a man to git ’way fum em?
BEL. They have been known to swim a stream and find the scent on the other side. Don’t be foolhardy, Baptiste.
BAP. Who me?Iain’t got no idee o’ runnin’ ’way. Naw, sah. I jess want to fin’ out fo’ a fren o’ mine.
BEL. Isn’t Mr Darblee a kind master?
BAP. Dey ain no better. Ef dat daid man dint hanker roun’ ’ere so continuous—
BEL. What man?
BAP. Yo see dat mask over de door? Dat man’s sperrit dogs me all de time;—won’t even let anything stay whar I puts it. Dis very mornin’, I had done put marser Darblee’s slippers in de sun to air an’ wen I went to look fo’ ’em dey uz done gone. (wipes his forehead.)
BEL. A thief, perhaps.
BAP. Naw sah. Dey ain no body kin git in de co’t widout me seein’ ’em.
BEL. Mr. Darblee may not ask for the slippers. (exeunt; enter Darblee and Dominique.)
DOM. And here is the old home again!
DAR. And the old uncle to give you welcome.
DOM. Spain is a pretty far way off, eh uncle?
DAR. But with Lafitte!—You know, Dominique, I have served Lafitte for years and yet have never seen him.
DOM. You have no idea the wonderful man he is!
DAR. Yes?
DOM. Oh, a man to admire, copy, love; a man to spend your life with, if it were not for Bella. How is Bella? Have you seen her? Is she well?—(notices a bulge in Darblee’s pockets.) Whaton earth have you in your pockets?
DAR. (pulling out a pair of slippers.) I bought them for you and wore them once to see if they were comfortable. This morning I found them in the broiling sun, put there to air by Baptiste. Fortunately I was in time to save the coloring.
DOM. Baptiste would seem to have opinions of your feet. Thank you, uncle. They are beautiful.
DAR. Have you had anyecrevissegumbo since you left home?
DOM. No indeed; nothing so good. (he puts the slippers on a chair and walks to the right of mask door to take a look at the old place.)
DAR. I wonder whether Baptiste has ordered thoseecrevisses? (exit L; enter Baptiste dusting Darblee’s hat; he sees the slippers; puts the hat down and takes the slippers up.) Baptiste.
BAP. Lordy! I done forgot ’bout demecrevisses!
DAR. (without.) Baptiste!
BAP. Yes sah. (Dominique re-enters just as Baptiste hides the slippers in some out of the way place; Baptiste exits.)
DOM. It seems safest to follow uncle’s example if I would have my slippers. (puts them in his pockets; deep sailor pockets, that make no bulges; enter Darblee.)
DAR. Tell me about that shipwreck.
DOM. It was purely imaginary.
DAR. What!
DOM. I dared not say I had not been shipwrecked when Lizbette said I had. Bella would have had no further faith in me.
DAR. Nonsense.
DOM. Of course.
DAR. You don’t mean—
DOM. Yes I do—every time I think of the day I chanced to speak of that old voo-doo to Bella.—How about Baptiste? Is he still as much troubled by ghosts as ever?
DAR. I suppose so. He’s flightier than ever. (enter Bella.)
DOM. (catching both her hands.) At last!
BELLA. I received your note just in time. (exit Darblee.) I told father I wished to go to confession, so he accompanied me to the Church. I must get back before he returns. And oh, what do you think?
DOM. I love you.
BELLA. A most delightful thing has happened.
DOM. You love me.
BELLA. Be serious. Our love seems more hopeless than ever.
DOM. What!
BELLA. I said seems. There is a suitor for my hand whom father insists that I shall marry and father himself is more inveterate than ever against the men he calls pirates.
DOM. But you?
BELLA. Oh, I am glad that the suitor has come because otherwise I would never have been easy in my mind. I would always have been expecting trouble.
DOM. Bella,—
BELLA. Lizbettesaidthere would be an obstacle more serious than all the others—even than the shipwreck.
DOM. Lizbette be—
BELLA. Dominique!
DOM. But I protest—
BELLA. Now listen. Didn’t you yourself tell me about Lizbette’s wonderful prediction long ago?
DOM. A coincidence.
BELLA. (reprovingly.) Ah!
DOM. And I furthermore declare that I never was shipwrecked.
BELLA. (claps her hands.) Ha, ha! Lizbettesaidyou would tell stories and get others to tell stories in order to shake my faith in her!
DOM. What is this suitor’s name?
BELLA. I can’t tell you.
DOM. I shall see your father.
BELLA. I won’t have it. Why, father might kill you, he is so wrought up over the doings of the pirates.
DOM. Bah!—That’s a singular locket you have on.
BELLA. Yes, isn’t it? A serpent’s head.
DOM. (examining it.) Containing the miniature of a young man. This is the reason of your quiescence. Will you let me have this locket?
BELLA. No, I will not.
DOM. And you will not tell me your suitor’s name. Very well.I swear to you that I will find the man whose picture you wear.
BELLA. (laughs.) You cannot. You can only trust me.
DOM. I never thought you cruel before. (turns from her.)
BELLA. I am not. (Dominique keeps away.) Dominique—Nick—
DOM. (coming to her.) Bella—(enter Darblee.)
DAR. I have just discovered that Mr. Duval is in the next room. (exit.)
BELLA. I must go.
DOM. I will accompany you.
BELLA. No, you mustn’t.
DOM. I may at least follow you with my eyes till you enter the Church. (exeunt; enter Baptiste; he goes to the place in which he had stowed his slippers; looks; finds them gone; exit quickly and apprehensively; enter Dominique.) I have never seen my prospective father-in-law, so I’ll try to get a glimpse of him. (listens to some one approaching) Baptiste,—“hanted,” as usual, I’ll bet. (he takes up Darblee’s hat, puts it on the mask head and goes himself into the niche; Baptiste enters.)
BAP. Imus’a made a mistake ’bout dem slippers, (goes to places; looks; falls more and more into bewilderment and consternation.)
DAR. (calling without.) Baptiste.
BAP. Yes sah.
DAR. Bring me my hat.
BAP. Yes sah. (turns to get the hat; gone! his hand goes to his forehead.)
DAR. (angrily.) Baptiste!
BAP. Yes sah. (begins a nervous, fumbling search.)
DOM. (behind the mask, in a hollow voice.) Baptiste—(Baptiste looks up and as he does so, the hat flies out to him; he yells and exits running; enter Darblee, angry, just as Dominique comes forth laughing.)
DAR. Where is he?
DOM. Don’t be angry, uncle. It’s my fault that he didn’t obey you. You haven’t any time for anger any way. Isn’t Bella pretty?
DAR. Very. Tell me about Lafitte.
DOM. Eyes like stormy skies. A word, a question, and all along the cloud of eye-lashes, a lightning flash of challenge!
DAR. So intolerant?
DOM. So right.
DAR. But still—
DOM. She has a right to resent suspicion.
DAR. She! I speak of Lafitte.
DOM. Your pardon. I spoke of Bella.
DAR. (coaxingly.) Lafitte—
DOM. (lapsing into seriousness.) I’ll tell you an impression I received more clearly than ever during this last voyage. I think Lafitte is looking for somebody—that he has some implacable purpose—and that when he finds the person or persons he seeks, there will be a relentless day of reckoning for all.
DAR. You think so?
DOM. (nods his head.) All along the coasts of Spain and France he would take his dog and be gone for days together.
DAR. But that—
DOM. May mean nothing. I think differently. (looking at his watch.) Heavens! I shall not be able to see my future father-in-law to-day. I must rejoin my ship.
DAR. You will be back to dinner?
DOM. Yes.Au revoir.(exeunt; Bella enters just as Duval, Pedro and the others enter.)
DUV. (in high feather.) Well, that’s done!
1st LEG. And well done. The petition cannot fail to carry weight.
DUV. Five hundred dollars reward for Lafitte’s head should bring about results.
BELLA. (advancing timidly.) It is blood money.
DUV. What of it?
BELLA. Pirates are men.
PED. (smilingly and yet on the alert.) Does Miss Bella know any of them?
DUV. (angrily, to Bella.) I will tell you this much: that if ever the nosing Britishers get into New Orleans, it will be by the aid of the pirates. This is no time to compromise with banditti.
PED. (indulgently, protectingly and probingly.) Miss Bella spoke in ignorance. She can have no sympathy for pirates. (Duval and others discuss in pantomime at back.)
BELLA. (impulsively.) She can have—
PED. (in Bella’s pause; watchfully.) A lover. (bows.)
BELLA. (recovering herself; trivially.) A lover! I promised myself many before I left school. Have you ever been in love,Mr. d’Acosta?
PED. Cruel one!
BELLA. Have you any woman relative whom you remember and love?
PED. Yes. I have an only sister whom I love and who is very devoted to me.
BELLA. Here?
PED. Yes: but immediately upon the arrival of our family here, she entered a convent and is now on the point of taking the veil.
BELLA. Oh, why?
PED. An obstacle in love.
BELLA. Did you try to help her?
PED. I did all I could towards forwarding her marriage.
BELLA. I’d like to know her.
PED. I fear you cannot. She will only see her uncle and myself.
BELLA. Poor girl!—Father is going. (exeunt; enter Manuel.)
MAN. (looking after Pedro angrily.) Confound it! Unconcerned about me now altogether,—has richer prospects in view.—I knew she wouldn’t get tired of it. Instead she’s going to take the veil. Curse me for a fool! Fortune played in my hands directly six years ago and I was soft-hearted and squeamish enough to be melted by a pair of pleading eyes and a half promise of yes, if Ferdinand should succeed. (rings bell.) I’ll have the Marquis, at all events, safely out of the way. (enter Darblee.)
DAR. Good morning, Don Manuel.
MAN. Good morning. I wish to engage a room for a business meeting between Lafitte and the Spanish merchants.
DAR. (eagerly; curiously.) You know?—
MAN. (sternly.) To-day, at two o’clock.
DAR. (relapsing into business.) The best?
MAN. Certainly.
DAR. It shall be ready. (exit.)
MAN. The Spanish merchants lost no time in instructing me to engage a room when they received word that Lafitte would see them at last, and listen to their plea for compromise. It doesn’t matter that I sent the message. And the Marquis,who isn’t a merchant, is as excited as any of them, because of his friends. He’ll attend the meeting, no fear, and I shall have put that much more time between him and any message from the convent.—Confound it all, why doesn’t that fellow come? (enter a stranger.) Ah, I was just beginning to think you late.
STRAN. I could only get this. (showing a rusty priest’s robe.)
MAN. So much the better. You’ll look more genuine in rusty clothes. A priest should be economical. Now you understand that you are to ask for Miss d’Acosta; that you are sent to bring her to the bed-side of her dying uncle.
STRAN. I understand all.
MAN. Once out of the convent, you will drive to the little green cottage immediately above the city, near the Jesuit plantation, where I will meet you.
STRAN. Very well.
MAN. Be aboutitnow. (exeunt severally; almost immediately, re-enter Stranger.)
STRAN. It’s very well and good to say be about it, but I need a few drinks to brace me up. (rings bell; enter Darblee.)
DAR. Good-morning.
STRAN. Let me have a good drink of whiskey. (Darblee pours out a drink; Stranger drains it; experiments with his spine to see if he’s braced; looks gloomy.) Let me have a good drink of whiskey.
DAR. You’ve just had one.
STRAN. Let me have a good drink of whiskey.
DAR. When you’ve paid for the first.
STRAN. Paid! Don Manuel d’Acosta authorizes my demand. (Darblee shakes his head.) What’s more, I’m a priest.—Don’t you believe me? (enter two roysterers.) Gentlemen! Gentlemen! Here’s a state of affairs. I call upon you to compel thisbourgeoisto respect the credit of gentlemen,—to serve us drinks and as many as we want!
1st ROY. Drinks!
2nd ROY. Come, host. Drinks!
DAR. I do not dispense them for the pleasure of beholding inebriates.
1st ROY. What!
2nd ROY. Inebriates!
STRAN. Down with him! (they set upon Darblee and throw him.)
1st ROY. We’ll show you who’s an inebriate. Hold him! (1st Roysterer seizes a bottle; Stranger and 2nd Roysterer fasten themselves on Darblee’s arms; 1st Roysterer puts bottle to Darblee’s face.)
DAR. By heaven, he’ll punch my eye out!
1st ROY. (wavering in drunkenness.) It’s what I think myself. I can’t find his damned mouth!
STRAN. Unstop the bottle! (1st Roysterer unstops the bottle; pours contents into Darblee’s face, aiming all the time for his mouth. Darblee kicks, sputters and squirms.)
DAR. Help! (enter Lafitte; he knocks the Stranger aside, scatters the Roysterers and laughingly picks up Darblee.)
LAF. (laughing.) What is it? A secret society function?
DAR. High noon robbery and assault. That’s what it is;—a demand for drinks without pay. (wipes his face.)
2nd ROY. (to Lafitte.) Who are you?
STRAN. You think because you take us unaware—
LAF. How about now? (draws; exeunt Roysterers.)
DAR. (pointing to Stranger and laying a cautious hand on Lafitte’s arm.) He’s a priest.
LAF. Then he should be attending to his business rather than brawling about drinks. (Stranger turns off swaggeringly and exits, singing Mon Coeur a Toi; Lafitte starts; turns to Darblee.) A priest, did you say?—Then he’d some excuse for wanting drinks. He has no love to keep his heart warm, no hate to make it hot. I’ll pay for the drinks. (goes to door; calls.) Friend! (signs to Stranger to return; enter Stranger.) It is a chilly day. Will you have a drink with us? (Stranger bows awkwardly.) Come host, your best. (laying money on table.) Is it long since you joined the priesthood? (they drink.)
STRAN. (nervously; gloomily.) Not very. (holding out his glass.) Let me have a good drink of whiskey. (Lafitte lays money on table; Darblee pours out a drink.)
LAF. Have you far to go to-day?
STRAN. (tipsily.) To the little green cottage immediately above the city. Let me have a good drink of whiskey. (Lafitte lays money on table; Darblee pours out drink and exits.) I must be going.
LAF. Do you walk?
STRAN. No, sir! Drive. Come (hic) with me?
LAF. (laughing.) To the little green cottage?
STRAN. Near the Jesuit plantation. I (hic) remember.
LAF. I congratulate you. Good luck.
STRAN. (going.) To the little green Jesuit (hic) immediately above the plantation city. (exit; enter Darblee.)
DAR. (bustling about.) Deplorable that I have such scant time in which to prepare. (confidentially and gleefully.) A great man is to be here in a little while—Jean Lafitte!
LAF. You don’t mean it!
DAR. I do and I can show you no greater appreciation of the service you rendered me than to ask you to stay and catch a glimpse of him.
LAF. Thanks.
DAR. I’ll wager you any money that the attacks on American vessels will cease now.
LAF. Why?
DAR. Because Lafitte has come home; because none of them is brave enough to cope against him; no, nor all of them put together.
LAF.Youare a follower of Lafitte?
DAR. (startled into consciousness.) I? You little know me. Powerful as Lafitte is and great and flattering as have been the advances he has made to me, I yet withstand him, humble though I seem.
LAF. Splendid!
DAR. And here are these royal Spanish merchants. For years they have been striving to at least compromise with him, and now to-day, mad with delight because they have at last received word from him that he will see them!
LAF. (starts.) Has he sent them that word?
DAR. Don Manuel d’Acosta has just a while ago engaged a room for the meeting.
LAF. Don Manuel d’Acosta! (aside) And I looking for them in Spain!
DAR. (anxiously.) You don’t think Lafitte will disappoint them?
LAF. (grimly.) No. I don’t think Lafitte will disappoint them. When do they expect him?
DAR. To-day at two o’clock. Don Manuel—
LAF. Do you know whether the Marquis d’Acosta live in New Orleans?
DAR. Yes, he does. A beautiful niece of his—
LAF. Ah!
DAR. Came here with him once long ago.
LAF. Here?
DAR. Right here, in this room.
LAF. Do you know where the Marquis lives?
DAR. (reflectively.) No—I don’t know the number.
LAF. Do you know the street?
DAR. (more reflectively.) No, I don’t, but I believe it must be somewhere in the Latin quarter.
LAF. Thanks. Good-by. (exit.)
DAR. A singular man, but not sharp enough to catch me napping. (enter several Spanish merchants.)
1st MER. It is long before the hour. (looks at his watch.)
2nd MER. What of it? There are many things to discuss. (enter Marquis d’Acosta and several merchants.)
MARQ. What, here already!
3d MER. Your watch is slow.
MARQ. (he and all look at their watches.) Half past one.
2nd MER. Twenty-five to two.
1st MER. We Spanish merchants have been so particularly warred upon that I had despaired of our ever getting at this man.
3d MER. My dear fellow, never despair. Show us the way, Darblee. (exeunt; led by Darblee; enter Mariana and several nuns.)
MOTHER AUGUSTUS. Is this the place?
MAR. Yes. (Mother Augustus motions to a man who rings the bell.)
M. AUG. (to Mariana.) You should give up that silver ring, Mariana, which seems to be so associated with worldly souvenirs.
MAR. This ring! Never. It is an amulet. At sight of it all faith is imperative, all beauty understood, all despondency a sin. (aside.) What is death? He loves me still. (enter Baptiste.)
M. AUG. Is the Marquis d’Acosta here?
BAP. Yes ma’am.
M. AUG. Say to him that Miss d’Acosta is here and wishes to see him.
BAP. Yes ma’am. (bows and exit.)
MAR. (to 1st Nun.) Will the preliminary of my taking the veil be at all binding?
1st NUN. No.
MAR. (earnestly and candidly.) I wish to remain with you, but my heart is not and can never be indifferent to the joys and hopes that made life dearest.
1st NUN. It need not be.
M. AUG. She should strive to make it so.
1st NUN. She is going to France, mother, where her young girlhood was spent. (Mother Augustus turns away.)
2d NUN. What a singular mask over that door!
MAR. I know all about that mask. I can’t explain the uncontrollable impulse that made me beg to know all about it and its hiding-place. Mr. Darblee finally, out of sheer courtesy, told me the secret, though up to that time no one but he and a nephew of his knew that there was a hiding-place connected with the mask at all.
1st NUN. How is it?
MAR. It seems very simple. The door beneath the mask is a sham one, the floor in the passage-way is high enough to permit one to look through the mask standing and a touch on a certain part of it opens a secret slide in the wall; an otherwise undiscoverable, impregnable hiding-place. It’s delightfully tricky! See. (she goes laughingly by a side door to the back of a door beneath the mask and looks through it.)
M. AUG. Mariana! Come down. (enter Mariana.) You should be ashamed of yourself to be such a child.
MAR. I can tell you the story of the mask. It is the mask of a dead pirate’s head. He was killed long ago for some atrocity or other and his mask placed in this room by the Governor’s order as a warning to the pirates who were in the habit of congregating in this place. The superstition obtained that when any of the pirates are in danger the spirit of the murdered man sends some human ear into his mask to baffle the plotters.
3d NUN. Is that believed now?
MAR. Yes, by many. A generation or two ago, however, the house passed into the hands of Mr. Darblee’s father, who of course, made it orderly and respectable. He had an addition built and being possessed by love of the mysterious and unexpected, had the secret slide put in the wall.
2d NUN. It sounds like some of the stories about Lafitte?
MAR. (shuddering.) Ah, not that name! I have a dread of that man.
1st NUN. They say that he is terrible, but that he has always the honor of his word.
MAR. (with sweeping contempt.) The honor of his word! A thief honorable! A leader in lawlessness, cruelty, shamelessness!
3d NUN. I hope we may be spared.
2d NUN. Oh, the pirates! There are no safeguards against the dangers that beset an ocean voyage.
M. AUG. There is one safeguard all sufficient,—the Almighty. (enter Marquis.)
MARQ. Mariana,—your pardon, ladies, for having kept you waiting, but the occasion admitted of no neglect.
M. AUG. We have just come from your house where they told us you were here. We have been notified that our ship sails almost immediately. Mariana will barely have time to take the veil.
MARQ. As trustee of her fortune, I have decided to see it safely with her in France,—the two chests; one of gold and one of jewels.
MAR. Oh, thank you, uncle for coming with us! Is Pedro here?
MARQ. No, he is not.
MAR. I so wished to tell him good-by. (enter Manuel, baffled, enraged, desperate.)
MAN. Mariana!
MAR. Mother Augustus, my cousin, Don d’Acosta. (Manuel bows.)
MAN. How happens it that you are leaving so soon?
MAR. That the Captain knows better than I do.
MAN. There has been no sudden good wind that he should thus hasten the time for sailing by twenty-four hours. (breaking from his angry sense of defeat into wild pleading.) And you?... Don’t go Mariana. Is there nothing I can say?
MAR. Yes. Tell me about Pedro.
MAN. I have no time for Pedro,—for anyone but yourself and myself. (enter Pedro.)
MAR. There he is now! Pedro. (goes to him.)
PED. (suave; affectionate; regretful.) Well,—is it good-by?
MAR. You’ll come to see me sometime.
PED. When I acquire means enough to travel on.
MAR. Oh, I wish—
M. AUG. We must be leaving.
MAR. Come to the Church, Pedro,—just across the way—and see me take the veil.
PED. I’ll be there.Au revoir.(the Marquis, the nuns and Mariana exeunt; Pedro looks at Manuel who has sunk desperately into a chair goes up to him and slaps him on the back.) Brace up, old man!
MAN. (intolerably; shaking Pedro’s hand off.) Ah!
PED. If you were not so huffy, I’d tell you a secret.
MAN. You are married, I suppose.
PED. Far from it,—and cannot be without your services.
MAN. Tell me the secret.
PED. I have a plan by which I can get command of a pirate ship at a moment’s notice. There is one now, the Creole, lying at anchor, ready to sail at a word of command. (they look at each other, then Pedro offers his hand; Manuel takes it.)
MAN. (rings bell.) I’ll join you immediately. (exit Pedro; enter Darblee.) Has Lafitte come yet?
DAR. He has not.
MAN. I’ll be back in a moment.
DAR. Very well. (exeunt severally; enter Lafitte.)
LAF. No trace of the house. (re-enter Darblee.) Is Don Manuel d’Acosta here?
DAR. He has gone, but he will be back immediately. (music heard; Lafitte walks about.)
LAF. What is that music?
DAR. Some ceremony in the Church, I suppose. (Lafitte walks to window as a little band of black-robed nuns file out silently from the Church; they disappear and music ceases.)
LAF. I am going into the smoking-room. Notify me so soon as Don Manuel returns.
DAR. Very well. (exeunt; enter Baptiste, followed by Lizbette.)
BAP. (pointing to the mask.) Dar tis. Cyarnt yo conjure de sperrit o’ dat daid man ’let me ’lone?Icyarn warn no pirates. I dunno wat t’warn ’em ’bout. En ef I did, who dat gwine b’lieve a old nigger like me anyway?
LIZ. (contemptuously.) Yo skeert. Yo know sperrits need ’sistance z’well ez people.
BAP. Lordy!
LIZ. Ee’s in de bricks dar, bodaciously confined, en das wy ee callin’. Ee’s cole; likely got de ague.
BAP. Lordy!
LIZ. Might be a little hot red pepper tea ud ease ’im immejite.
BAP. But I cyarn get a cup o tea troo dat dar solid brick on iron. Dey ain no place dar whar eecouldbe.
LIZ. (stolidly.) Dey’s a place. Gimme a long straw. (Baptiste gets one from a broom; Lizbette makes passes over the wall with her eyes shut and her body swaying; finally in sliding her hand over the wall, stops with her finger on a spot; opens her eyes and inserts the straw.) Yo see dat? (throwing the straw.) Am it broke? (pulls out the straw unbroken.)
BAP. Lordy!
LIZ. Tellmedey ain no place dar.
BAP. But cyarn get a cup o tea troo dat pin-point of a hole.
LIZ. Yo cyarninjectit troo dar, cyarn yo?
BAP. Lordy!
LIZ. Ee kin catch it. (she puts her eye to the hole; sways her arms.) Yes sah.... I’ze gwine leave yo in good charge.... (sways more and more.) Yes sah.... Ee’s ’ere.... (almost collapsing.) Comin’, sah! (straightens herself.) Git dar, Baptiste.
BAP. (horror stricken.) Who me?
LIZ. Ee wants yo.
BAP. Lordy!
LIZ. (contemptuously.) Ah! (bolstering him up.) Put yo eye to dat hole.
BAP. Stay by me.
LIZ. Go ’head. (Baptiste puts his eye to the hole.)
BAP. I doan see nuttin.
LIZ. Yo better look out!
DAR. (without.) Baptiste.
LIZ. What I tell yo! (Baptiste struggles to get away; Lizbette holds him tightly.) Keep firm, man! (enter Darblee.)
DAR. Baptiste! (Baptiste falls to the floor.) Lizbette! I won’t have you turning that crazy man of mine crazier. Get out, both of you! (exeunt Lizbette and Baptiste; enter Lafitte.) I’m afraid you may be disappointed in seeing Lafitte. (looking at his watch.) He’s late.
LAF. And Don Manuel?
DAR. Has not yet returned.—I suppose Lafitte will be here though. I never could understand that long absence of his. It must have due to a love affair.
LAF. You’d better keep a quiet tongue. Lafitte is not a man to endure prying into his private affairs.
DAR. (laughs.) One would think I need instructions. (enter Baptiste.)
LAF. Do you know Lafitte?
DAR. Intimately. Many a time he has begged me to go with him. “Darblee,” he would, “I need you.”
LAF. You would make my dog blush.
DAR. Many a time, in this very room, with tears in his eyes, he has upbraided me for my obduracy.
BAP. Dat ee have, sah!
DAR.Iam not afraid of Lafitte. I will tell him to his face that he can’t overawe me.
BAP. ’Deed ee cyarnt. Pesky what trash! (enter Beluche.)
BEL. Lafitte—
DAR. (In consternation.) What!
BAP. (staggered.) Lordy!
BEL. I have a suspicion that the Creole is going to attack the American vessel which sailed a little while ago.
LAF. Where is the Creole?
BEL. She’s just cleared the wharf. (Darblee ostentatiously brings a chair up behind Lafitte.)
LAF. (looking at his watch.) How much start have they on us?
BEL. Enough to count very seriously. There is a storm coming,too. The wind will shift in less than three hours. (Baptiste is bringing a chair for Beluche when Darblee intercepts him, takes the chair from him, kicks him.)
DAR. Get out! (looking after him angrily.) Son of Satan! (exit Baptiste; Darblee ostentatiously brings chair up behind Beluche.)
LAF. There is no time to lose. Come.
BEL. It is a question whether the chances justify pursuit.
LAF. What!
BEL. The Pride is at Barataria.
LAF. What of it? Is not an American vessel in danger? Shall I not accept a challenge from my own men? (exit, followed by Beluche.)
DAR. (center.) Whew! (falls into chair; enter Baptiste.) Let me have a good drink of whisky!
CURTAIN.