CHARACTERS

Time: 1796

Place: Village of Schwarenbach in Switzerland (The Helvetian Republic)

A poor peasant cabana. Room with a cabinet shut with a partition. From this partition are suspended a little wooden clock, a scythe and a large knife. In the rear, a bed composed of a single straw pallet with a blanket on it. A lamp is paced on a table. It is night. The clock strikes eleven.

GERTRUDE

(alone)

Eleven o'clock already! And Kuntz isn't back yet! My God! When I think he left for Loueche at 6 in the morning and that he could have been back three hours ago! It's nothing to wait during the day, but at night, it seems to me the tension is double -- and then, at night, I'm afraid. This wretched lamp lights so poorly that I don't dare look around me.

(spinning)

When the body's eyes can't see anything, the soul's eyes think they see horrible things. It's that side over there I dare not look -- it's there, there in that place, that the old paralytic was used to staying in his armchair. It still seems to me I see him standing up with the knife in his breast. Ah! Anyway, what, need have I to look over there. It's useless. I spin. I look at my spinning wheel and my distaff. That's all that concerns me. Good, but I don't look, I listen. And it seems to me I've just heard a shiver. Let's sing -- so I won't hear anything.

(singing)

Why's your sword so red, Knight? -- Cause I killed a bear in its hovel!

Well, what's the matter then? Your hand is trembling -- from fear? Don't you hear midnight strike?

(singing)

Bad luck, bad luck.

Oh, the villainous song, the sad refrain. Why then, when I sing from sadness -- do I pick such a song? Ah, there's a rap on the windows. It's probably my husband. Is it you Kuntz? If it's you, why don't you rap on the door? Look, if it's you, answer? What are those two lights that I see shine through the square? Holy Virgin! These are the eyes of an owl! Go away bird of ill fortune, go away! Our life cannot be more miserable than it is. And unless you are coming to announce the death of Kuntz to me, I don't see what new disaster you can predict.

(trying to frighten the bird with her broom)

Go away! Go away! But no -- it looks at me fixedly. It clings to the window. Could it be the soul of my poor little Louise or that of her brother who comes to visit us? Well then, be welcome night traveller -- and I'm even going to open the window. Why now it flies off! They say that when owls fly off, they are saying to those who chase them away 'Come with me'. It's to cemeteries that the owls go to when they fly off. How mad I am to recall all these somber ideas -- look, chase them away -- one is the master of one's thoughts and if one thinks of sad things it because you want to. I need only sing a gay song for example!

(singing)

When the mover is stone broke
And his scythe is broken
From his belt he takes his stone
And wets it in the river
And zing and zang-zing
And zang to his scythe
And he sharpens it.

Lord Jesus -- this song is even worse than the other. Its the one Kuntz sang sharpening his scythe -- the day -- the day -- oh, the old paralytic -- who was in his armchair. Good God -- who knocks?

KUNTZ

Open, wife.

GERTRUDE

The Lord be praised! It's Kuntz. Come, come, my poor man, come.

KUNTZ

(entering)

Good evening wife.

GERTRUDE

How late you are.

KUNTZ

I am frozen to the bone -- put on a fire, Trude.

GERTRUDE

Fire? With what?

KUNTZ

That's right, we have no wood. Don't think of it any more. Rejoice wife.

GERTRUDE

About what should I rejoice?

KUNTZ

Because our fate is decided. There's nothing more troubling than not to know what it holds. I know it now -- and if you wish to read this paper, well you will know it, too.

GERTRUDE

You say this in a way that makes me shiver.

KUNTZ

Come on! Here, take the paper.

GERTRUDE

I don't dare.

KUNTZ

Take it I tell you! It's a love letter from the Bailiff.

GERTRUDE

(taking the paper and reading)

"As Kuntz Kuruth former soldier of the Helvetian Republic, former owner and actually innkeeper at the Hotel of Schwarenbach, has not, on the date this is subscribed paid to Jean Jugger, the sum of 500 pounds owing from a bill of exchange, the tribunal orders that, this evening before sundown, if the said sum is not paid to the aforesaid Jugger, he will be, tomorrow morning taken with his wife to the House of Detention at Loueche to work there until they have acquitted their debt by their work." Rudder, under Bailiff of the canton of Valais -- " My God, Lord! I suspected something fatal had happened to us seeing you were late to return.

KUNTZ

Oh, That's because I wanted to make a new effort. I knew it was useless -- but no matter! I wanted to have no reason to reproach myself. I wanted to be able to say "We're lost" and to add, "and lost without any resource!"

GERTRUDE

You have been to see him?

KUNTZ

To ask him for a delay.

GERTRUDE

And he refused?

KUNTZ

Truly, I don't know what the good God puts in the rich to replace the heart he gives to the poor. "Get out of here," he said to me. "My money or prison." His money! He had full sacks of it arrayed on shelves like grain in the display window of a grain seller. A man, listening to my prayers, seeing my tears, for I wept, instead of threatening me, instead of putting despair in my soul would have taken one of those sacks, put it in my hand and would have said, "Go in joy and happiness, poor wretch". But Jean Jugger is not a man!

GERTRUDE

Didn't you go to our old neighbors, the Millers -- they are good people.

KUNTZ

Done.

GERTRUDE

Perhaps they weren't at home.

KUNTZ

They were, they said to me, "May God assist you."

GERTRUDE

And our cousins?

KUNTZ

Oh - they didn't even send me to God -- they shut the door in my face.

GERTRUDE

Have they forgotten that one time they were seated at our table and we appeased their hunger?

KUNTZ

Bah! Dinner digested, dinner forgotten.

GERTRUDE

Then you bring nothing? Absolutely nothing?

KUNTZ

I bring half this bread which was given me by poor Henry -- he knows what hunger is which is why he gave it to me. That was all he could do this evening. Tomorrow we will be lodged and nourished at the expense of the Canton. Thanks, Jean Jugger.

GERTRUDE

So, you've tried everything?

KUNTZ

Everything.

GERTRUDE

And you say he had many sacks of money in his office?

KUNTZ

More than thirty, perhaps.

GERTRUDE

It seems to me that when there are so many sacks of money at the home of someone who lives alone, the good God wouldn't notice if 2 or 3 disappeared.

KUNTZ

Yes, but precautions are taken.

GERTRUDE

Oh! You thought if it, too?

KUNTZ

I don't know what I thought -- I looked around me -- that's all.

GERTRUDE

And you saw?

KUNTZ

Bars on the windows -- bolts and locks on the doors -- rest assured, the prison in which they will put us tomorrow won't be better locked up than the office of Jean Jugger.

GERTRUDE

There's a man who is almost as rich as Jean Jugger who does not take such great precautions and he lives 3 leagues from here at Kanderthal -- it's Slouffly. He has so many cows he could pave the road from here to Loueche with his cheeses -- and money like hay! He lives alone -- by five o'clock in the evening, he's drunk. Couldn't you -- tonight -- without anyone knowing it? Why do you look at me like that, Kuntz? You frighten me.

KUNTZ

Woman! Shameless woman! I look at you, yes -- but you -- do you dare to look at me! Me, an old soldier for the Confederation, I, who was baptized and vowed to the Deity, I who know how to read and write and who know the history of William Tell and the Venhelrud -- I who, 13 years ago, secured a medal from the Grand Council of Berne for having taken a flag away from the enemy -- you dare advise me to steal!

GERTRUDE

You were speaking of the money of Jean Jugger!

KUNTZ

Oh! The money of Jean Jugger, it seems to me is another thing. The money of that wretch who has reduced us to poverty by the means he has taken against us -- it seems to me that his money, had I been able to take it, would have only been restitution.

GERTRUDE

Besides, I was not telling you to steal, you would have taken his money with the intention of returning it. We won't always be wretched. We won't always be cursed -- I always pray every Sunday I walk 10 leagues to go to Mass and return. We need but a glance from the good God.

KUNTZ

Tomorrow is the 24th of February and still you hope, woman! Eh! You know very well that since the 24th of February, 1788 -- that was 20 years ago -- the Lord no longer looks over us.

GERTRUDE

Hush! Don't speak of the 24th of February, that will bring us bad luck!

KUNTZ

And you, don't speak to me of stealing. The daughter of a pastor. Fie! Aren't you ashamed?

GERTRUDE

People say things like that when they are hungry. Hunger makes you crazy -- and, since yesterday I haven't eaten as you know very well.

KUNTZ

(breaking the bread in half)

Eat then.

GERTRUDE

I don't know how to do it -- I'm starving and I cannot eat. Your news, you see --

(holding her throat)

has taken me here -- well, what will you do?

KUNTZ

Oh! It's quite simple -- no one by name of Kuruth has ever been taken to prison -- and word of Kuntz! Wife, I will not be the first.

GERTRUDE

Why, in the end, what will you do? Speak -- do you plan to resist the law?

KUNTZ

Oh! No -- God save me from it! I will follow the bailiff without resistance but when we get to the turn of the road which leads from the glacier of Lamnern to Daubensee, the way is so narrow that all you have to do is close your eyes -- your foot will slip by itself.

GERTRUDE

Jesus! It's an abyss!

KUNTZ

Isn't it better to die than steal or go to prison?

GERTRUDE

No, no, Good Kuntz, it's better to live, believe me, to live and leave this house. Why be so attached to this wretched house? Is it because death entered twice before the hour it ought to have come? We are going to go, you see -- we'll reach another country -- France or Italy. Here the hearts of men are like ice or granite, like their mountains. Come, let's close the door on the Lord's curse -- perhaps it won't follow us anymore.

KUNTZ

To leave -- to go beg -- to cross the Alps in this season where, at each step avalanches roll or in each ravine a torrent flows and roars. That would be to give the Lord's curse a fine helping hand! No -- you've shared it with me for 20 years -- each day it whitened one of your hairs, each day it carved a wrinkle in your face -- let me expiate it alone -- As soon as you are free of me -- cursed as I am -- you can easily earn you bread -- Right, old boy, eh?

GERTRUDE

Oh! My God! To whom are you speaking?

KUNTZ

To the one I think I always see in his armchair -- there! There!

GERTRUDE

Shut up! Shut up! It's going to be midnight exactly. Don't say such things at such an hour -- rather take the Bible, there, on the chimney and read a chapter. They always say that it is a book which consoles.

KUNTZ

Haven't you tried that more than once already -- and uselessly?

GERTRUDE

It's so -- but I always hope.

KUNTZ

Well, so be it! Before doing anything else -- when you're cold, when you are hungry, and when you know it is useless to go to bed -- because you cannot sleep --

(getting upon a stool and taking the Bible)

Here it is.

GERTRUDE

A paper just fell.

KUNTZ

Pick it up.

GERTRUDE

There's something written on it.

KUNTZ

Let's see.

(reading)

"This 24th of February 1776, at midnight, Christopher Kuruth, my father, aged 74, died, by -- and then nothing except a large cross -- do you think it is large enough to cover the crime?

GERTRUDE

Oh, my God, my God! Everything seems to speak to us of that which we are trying to force ourselves not to speak.

KUNTZ

How many months is it today?

GERTRUDE

Why disturb ourselves? its' good when something happy happens to mark the days.

KUNTZ

Show me the order of the Court.

GERTRUDE

I don't know where it is.

KUNTZ

Here it is -- Loueche, this 23rd of February" All that's perfect. Everything is clear now.

(looking at the clock)

Tomorrow is the anniversary and in five minutes it will be tomorrow.

GERTRUDE

Alas!

KUNTZ

Listen: Tonight returning from Loueche -- I mounted the defile of Gemmi which rises in a zigzag like a serpent. You know, I am a man, I fear nothing -- shame excepted -- anyway, I've been over the road more than a thousand times as often by day as by night. Well, climbing the wall of rock, which has no end -- I felt -- how can I tell you -- it wasn't fear at first -- it was a strange uneasiness. All my life appeared before me -- seeming to shrink in measure with the path as it rose. It seemed to me that when I arrived at the summit, I was going to find some abyss breaking the path and impossible to cross. You know in dreams one has sensations like that -- you are caught between two walls which constantly close in and which end by choking you in a stone kiss. Arriving at the top of the mountain, I looked at the valley. The valley was dark like my conscience. Then I took the path which led towards the east -- and suddenly face to face, in the midst of a lusterless fleecy cloud, I saw the glacier of Lamnern, crowned with frost. I had never noticed that it had this shape. It seemed like a gigantic old man sitting in his armchair -- you would have said it was seated then, as he was gloomy and blue. Then I remembered the day when I sharpened this scythe and when I threw the knife -- and I felt here --

(touches his knee)

-- something cold and sharp like the cut of an executioner's ax. Then I started to run -- and the faster I ran, the glacier seemed to grow behind me. I arrived this way at the Lake of Dauben -- it is icy like my blood. As for my life, it was almost consumed like the light of my lantern -- all my blood was in my heart, and my heart, nearly bursting, beat against the walls of my chest as does the pendulum of this clock -- suddenly, a screech owl, who seemed to come from here, attracted no doubt by the moving flame of my lantern, threw itself on it and extinguished it. Woman! Woman! I let my lantern fall and I ran away trembling like a child -- for the first time in my life.

GERTRUDE

Enough! Enough! Kuntz, you are making me die of ear! Listen, someone's knocking.

KUNTZ

It's the ghost of the old man returning.

GERTRUDE

No -- he's a traveller, I think. Shall I let him in?

KUNTZ

Eh! If it were the Devil himself, what more can happen to us than has happened to us -- ? Open.

(Karl enters, dressed as a traveller, all covered with snow, carrying a game pouch under his cape and a hunting knife -- In his left hand he holds a nearly extinguished lantern -- in his right -- a hobnailed stick.)

KARL

(from the door)

God protect you, friend.

KUNTZ

Friend or enemy -- enter.

KARL

(looking at both of them)

Would you indeed?

(He puts his hand on his heart like a man suffocating)

KUNTZ

What must we do? Speak.

KARL

Would you really grant me hospitality tonight?

KUNTZ

If you ask only a place to stay and a bed of straw, gladly, but if you ask more, you must go look elsewhere.

GERTRUDE

(excitedly)

As for me, I didn't eat my bread -- we can give it to this gentleman.

KARL

(aside)

Oh -- are they like that?

KUNTZ

(to his wife)

What's he murmuring so low?

GERTRUDE

Oh! Nothing that he couldn't say aloud probably -- look, he has a wise manner!

KUNTZ

He has the manner, but is he?

GERTRUDE

(taking the stranger's cloak)

How lucky you are, sir, not to have been buried by some avalanche! It was just in time that you arrived. There's your torch dying. Did you come by way of Loueche?

KARL

No, I'm coming from Kanderstoeg.

GERTRUDE

And you got to this place without a guide?

KUNTZ

Oh, I'm a native of the country and used to scaling the most steep Alps.

KUNTZ

A confederate? A fellow countryman, be doubly welcome!

KARL

Then -- your hand.

KUNTZ

Oh! My hand is dirty and quick to do evil -- if no curse weighs on you -- avoid it.

GERTRUDE

You are weary, dear sir. You are hungry. You are cold. Alas, we have neither drink nor a way to warm you up -- but we will suffer with you.

KARL

Oh! Don't worry about that! I have done my shopping at Loueche and my game bag is full. Here -- here's a roast, some paté and two bottles of wine. Moreover, this gourd is full of kirsch-water.

KUNTZ

You have the airs of a rich spendthrift, young man.

KARL

My word, life is long -- heavy sometimes -- one must render it easy and light. Come here, Mother Trude and sit near me.

GERTRUDE

How do you know my name, sir? No one mentioned it in front of you.

KARL

There are a lot of Trudes in these parts. I said that name as I would have said another -- did I, by chance, hit on it correctly?

KUNTZ

(aside)

This is a strange night bird!

KARL

Well -- what's wrong with you, my host? I drink to your health -- do me justice?

KUNTZ

It's not just that the master of the house that lives at the expense of those he receives.

KARL

Bah! Be easy -- what is offered with a good heart, God returns double.

GERTRUDE

You see this gentleman gives willingly -- drink a little wine, Kuntz, it will do you good. It's so long since you've had any.

KUNTZ

It's good! To a happy ending.

(drinking)

Ah!

GERTRUDE

The juice of grapes so long forgotten -- how it warms the heart, doesn't it? How good it is!

KARL

Eat. Here's some ham, sausage, a chicken. This will do you good.

GERTRUDE

A chicken? No, I won't eat any of it - -but you?

KARL

Me either.

KUNTZ

Or me -- I will stick to the wine, it warms you up.

KARL

Good mother Gertrude, lend me a knife, I lost mine on the road.

GERTRUDE

(to Kuntz)

There's no other in the house except this.

KUNTZ

Well -- give it -- what's the difference?

KARL

(looking at the knife)

Oh -- of -- this one -- Don't you have another?

GERTRUDE

No -- it's the only one we have.

KARL

(examining it)

Oh!

KUNTZ

(aside)

He is looking at the stain of blood!

GERTRUDE

What are you looking at?

KARL

There's some blood, isn't there?

KUNTZ

Who told you that was blood?

KARL

No one, but the blade appears red to me.

KUNTZ

Pour a drink, my guest -- the past is past -- to think of the past is folly.

KARL

You are right. Drink to the happiness of your son.

GERTRUDE

Of my son!

KUNTZ

Wife!

KARL

May you have another!

KUNTZ

Truly, sir, you seem to me to be a singular guest. With your hunting knife and your pistols at your belt you resemble a courser for a huntsman. Tell us -- how is it the night caught you in the mountains?

KARL

Tomorrow I intend to be in Loueche. It's because of that, before going on my way, I came to sleep here.

KUNTZ

You are going to Loueche?

KARL

Yes.

KUNTZ

(extending his hand)

Well -- shake -- tomorrow we will go together.

KARL

Your hand is cold like death!

KUNTZ

Death! Do you fear it? Then appearances lie.

KARL

No -- more than once it has threatened me closely -- I was a soldier.

GERTRUDE

You have seen death nearby, sir?

KARL

Yes, and I can even say that I've already been a little touched by it -- just as I touched your hand just now I was at the Tuilleries on August 10th.

GERTRUDE

My God! Perhaps you knew my son -- he was there, too.

KUNTZ

Shut up! Never speak of him.

KARL

(aside)

Oh -- the curse.

KUNTZ

Well -- what's the matter with you?

KARL

Me? Nothing -- I look around me -- everything is quite poor here -- just now you were speaking of need, of misery?

KARL

Bah! What interest do you have in all that?

GERTRUDE

It's true, sir -- we are very wretched!

KARL

How is it you have fallen so low? This inn of Schwarenbach passes for one of the best of Valais -- and even from the time of your father, Christopher Kuruth -- no better was known in the entire country.

KUNTZ

(to his wife)

Do you hear? He knows the name of our father!

GERTRUDE

Sir -- how is it you know?

KARL

Eh! Didn't I tell you, my dear fellow, country-man that I was from these parts? I heard all these things told when I was a child.

KUNTZ

What things?

KARL

Well, that you were a soldier -- a stalwart companion.

KUNTZ

Yes, yes -- and you know I don't listen to jesting --

KARL

You behaved bravely, I know that -- when you took your discharge the Council at Berne gave you a certificate and the Diet -- a medal. It was then you returned and that you received the Inn from the hands of your father, Christopher Kuruth.

KUNTZ

Another!

KARL

Let's drink to the peace of the soul of your father, Mr. Kuruth.

KUNTZ

That's all we need -- is this man from Satan that he knows everything?

GERTRUDE

Drink.

KUNTZ

No, sir -- It may seem strange that I refuse the toast you pledge -- it's singular, isn't it, that a son doesn't wish to drink to the peace of his father's soul? But it's not that I don't wish to -- it's that I don't dare -- the old man died cursing me.

KARL

Then let's leave the matter!

KUNTZ

No, no -- wait! Since you know so much, you may as well know everything. I am not as guilty as you may believe. Anyway, you shall judge for yourself.

GERTRUDE

Kuntz, my friend!

KUNTZ

Go on, go on, let me alone. I am on my way -- they say that the Catholics derive a great benefit from confession. I am going to confess myself to this gentleman who doesn't appear to me to be a such a bad devil.

GERTRUDE

(aside)

Oh! If I'd known that the wine would make him speak!

KUNTZ

Here's the thing then -- I got my discharge and I returned -- as you said -- I was 30 then. I was full of strength, and vigor -- I decided to take a wife to share my pleasures and my pains. I had left Trude a child, I found her a young woman -- grown and improved. She knew how to read and write. We soon loved each other. She was the daughter of a pastor from the County of Berne. These men of God only leave their children and their books after they die. As for me, relative to her, I was rich -- I could choose among the young rich girls of the neighborhood; but I loved Trude anyway, we were lovers before becoming husband and wife - and when one says A, it's necessary to say B -- we were married.

GERTRUDE

Alas, against the will of your father. It was this disobedience to his will which has brought on all our sorrows.

KUNTZ

Would it have been better to abandon you after you had given me all the riches you possessed? Your honor? No - and if my father had been a different man, he would have encouraged me in my good design -- instead of opposing it. But, no, my father was a bad man who quarrelled with me daily.

GERTRUDE

Sir, you must be told he was suffering greatly from the gout, poor old man -- he could not leave his armchair -- and, as in his youth he had been one of the most agile hunters of stags -- this inactivity made him hard on everyone.

KUNTZ

Good, good, you do well to say that, wife. She's got a heart of gold, you see. Poor creature! She suffered death and sorrows with the old man -- and all this without uttering a complaint, without letting out a sigh. He called her the priest's bastard! Sir, each time he said that word, my heart froze! Whoever insults your wife, if you love your wife, does you more harm that if he insulted you yourself. One day -- 28 years had gone by -- one day or rather one night, it was one in the morning -- it was in February -- the 24th -- I came back from a carnival at Loueche -- we'd been laughing, dancing and drinking -- so much so that I was a bit carried away. Trude had remained at home occupied with her housework. At nine o'clock, as was usual, she went to help the old man get to bed -- but he refused saying that when she helped him she made him sick. On the contrary, you must know that the poor creature took a thousand precautions. So it was that he was resting in his armchair, scolding, grumbling, telling his rosary of insults, as for her, she returned to our room where we slept -- there was a bed there then and she wept, kneeling at the foot of her bed. Outside, on the other side of the door, I already heard father's voice. I went in. The room was dark except for a ray of moonlight, which shone on the old man's chair. It was there, where it is now, except that father was in it, swearing, stomping with rage, cursing. I said nothing, only I suspected what had happened. I went into the room. Trude was weeping. My blood caught fire, seeing her tears. It was wrong, I know quite well, to feel rage against my father, but to see a weak creature one loved mistreated, to see her sighing endlessly, in tears -- see, you are of my opinion for, God pardon me, it seems you have tears in your eyes.

(The clock strikes one in the morning.)

GERTRUDE

(praying)

Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name.

KUNTZ

Yes, wife, pray, pray! I was boiling with rage. I should have stayed in that room. I went back. The old man was shouting, scolding, insulting, all the time -- as for me, I tried to laugh so as not to shout. The old man was getting more and more carried away. I looked at him and laughed. I took this scythe that you see there in one hand and this knife in the other, "The shrubs are getting high," I said, "it is time I sharpened my scythe." Dear papa has only to continue to scold, I will accompany him with music." Then while sharpening my scythe I whistled this song. That perhaps you also know as well, you who know everything.

When the mower has mowed well
And his iron blade is chipped
From his belt he takes his stone
He soaks it in the river
And zing and zang! and zing and zang.

I was singing so gaily, the old man began to foam with rage, to stamp his feet, to threaten. It became intolerable! "Bastard! Fallen woman! Strumpet! he shouted at my wife. Oh! This went right to my heart, I couldn't control myself any longer. This knife with which I sharpened my scythe, this instrument of perdition -- well! -- well! I threw it at him.

KARL

Ah!

KUNTZ

Then I had a terrible vision! The older man who had not been able to stand for over a year, let out a shout, and stood straight up cursing me -- ! And it seemed to me I saw the handle of the knife embedded in his breast. But no, when I returned the next morning, I have to tell you that the old man's shout saved me and I wandered all night pursued by this vision -- when I returned the next morning, the old man was lying in his bed -- and Trude told me that he had died by being struck by apoplexy! Right wife, isn't that true? Right? Why speak up -- say that it is true!

GERTRUDE

Yes, yes, dead of apoplexy! There is nothing astonishing in that, sir -- he was 74 years old!

KUNTZ

Ah! You are pale! Yo don't believe what the woman said! Then I was right to tell you that this hand was cursed.

KARL

Never mind! Let us not despair. Down there, beyond the stars, all curses are blotted out they say --

GERTRUDE

Do you understand, Kuntz?

KUNTZ

I believe you -- or rather, yes -- I want to believe you -- anyway old papa was a man of evil temper -- he pushed me to the limit -- I only threw the knife at him, I didn't kill him, I'm sure of it. He died because he was old -- very old I don't know any more than I saw or heard -- This knife handle was a vision-- this curse was a dream. They say that when a dying father curses his son. The hand which threw the curse leaves the tomb -- I've passed by my father's tomb more than a hundred times and I've always seen the shrubbery but I've never seen his hand.

KARL

Horrible! Horrible!

KUNTZ

What -- that's not all.

GERTRUDE

Kuntz, Kuntz, my friend.

KUNTZ

Ah, my word, since he wants to know let him know everything. Well, since the paternal curse we've had some misfortune. We continue to love each other tenderly, but for all that we feel ourselves going pale or shivering, it seems that a ghost slides incessantly between us. Six months after the death of the old man, Trude bore a son! He bore the signs of Cain -- a bloody scar on his left arm, you understand, poor woman -- she had been wounded in spirit -- and the child was born cursed like his father -- also, our second misfortune came from him -- still I pardon him.

KARL

Oh! You pardon him.

KUNTZ

Yes, because he is dead.

KARL

Dead?

KUNTZ

Thank God! Come on, don't you cry! Wasn't it a blessing that he died? Five years after giving birth to this boy, Trude had a girl -- an adorable child, soft and sweet like an Angel --

(Karl rises)

Well, what's wrong? Are you looking for something?

KARL

Nothing -- but I can't stay for a long while in the same place.

KUNTZ

Well, that's like our Karl -- they said that he was pursued by the Devil -- it was the curse.

KARL

It's very cold here, don't you think?

KUNTZ

In short -- it was 8 years after father's death -- it was in February -- the 24th as always! The little girl was 3 and the boy seven and a half. This same knife was on the ground. The two children were playing by the door. Their mother had just cut the throat of a chicken.

GERTRUDE

(praying)

I believe in God, All powerful father -- creator of the Heaven and the Earth --

KUNTZ

The little boy had seen the chicken strangled. "Come," said he to his sister, "We are going to play a game in the kitchen, I will be the cook, you will be the chicken." At the same instant, I saw him grab the knife, I wanted to throw myself on him -- but it was too late. The little girl was already on the ground, bathed in her own blood -- her brother had just cut the vein, as they say. Ah! You weep -- you are a brave heart. But I wept a lot, too.

KARL

And it was then you placed on your son the curse that your father had placed on you, right?

KUNTZ

You understand? He was a child -- his age protected him. I had to do the justice the law could not do. Yes, I cursed him!

KARL

And, afterwards, didn't you take off this curse?

KUNTZ

Didn't you say that, down there, above the stars, there are no curses?

KARL

And if he isn't dead -- if he returns, this pardon --

KUNTZ

Bad luck to him -- or I'll take back the pardon the instant I see him.

GERTRUDE

Heavens! What are you saying, Kuntz, is not the word of a man or a Christian! If I thought he was still alive, if I knew where he was, I wouldn't wait until he returned, I'd go to find him.

KARL

Then you really cried when he fled?

GERTRUDE

I am still crying.

KUNTZ

You know that he fled?

KARL

I presume it.

KUNTZ

(low)

Wife! Wife! I already told you that this huntsman knows many things -- take care!

KARL

Well then, suppose this son were to return -- ?

KUNTZ

Didn't you understand what I told you? That he was dead and had been killed on the 10th of August? No -- by all the devils in Hell, he won't return! Now, your turn!

KARL

What do you mean -- my turn?

KUNTZ

Yes -- I've told you my life. Tell me yours. How is it that you are running about the mountains at night?

KARL

Ah! The story of my life is very sad, too.

KUNTZ

You are my comrade, then.

KARL

I too, as a child, like your son, I too, in a fatal moment committed a murder.

GERTRUDE

A murder! He still has a good appearance my God!

KUNTZ

Oh! Oh! Comrade, how did this happen to you? To you? Speak!

KARL

Let's not reopen this wound in my heart, I beg you. Know only that like your poor Karl, I took flight. I entered the band of a Swiss regiment. Then when I got bigger, from a musician, I became a soldier. The regiment entered the service of the King of France and we went to Paris. I too was at the Tuilleries on the night of August 10th.

GERTRUDE

Oh! Then you must have known my Karl?

KUNTZ

Enough!

KARL

We had just arrived after a month and there were four thousand of us Swiss at the Tuilleries on the night of August 10th. I didn't know your son.

GERTRUDE

(aside)

Last hope, goodbye!

KARL

I had the good fortune to save a great Lord. I made him flee by a secret door -- In his turn, he didn't want me to leave him. He brought me to his sister's home where we both disguised ourselves -- then we left France and we embarked for Santo Domingo. He had saved 100,000 francs -- it was all that was left of his fortune.

KUNTZ

Then you crossed the seas to visit the New World?

GERTRUDE

Are there luckier men than this one?

KARL

Yes, when they are not cursed -- but any way, it's the same in the New World as the old. My companion, I won't say my master, for he treated me as a friend bought plantations and made a fortune. Alas, without me the worthy man would perhaps still be living. I had yellow fever and he caught it, caring for me. I recovered and he did not. Why didn't death carry me off -- I who am guilty of murder! It seems to me that I was the one belonging to death -- but no, I lived -- and I inherited. His will made me his universal heir. I sold his plantations, collected my fortune and embarked for Europe.

KUNTZ

Why return to Europe? It seems to me that if I could separate myself from it I would be very happy.

KARL

Yes, you perhaps -- having have nothing which ties you to the world, but I have a father and a mother, you see! Two thousand leagues from here, it always seemed to me I could hear the noise of our storms and see the snowy peaks of our mountains. A voice which rose from the depths of our lake, from the breast of our glaciers, from the surface of our prairies seemed to call me 'Come! Come! -- why come on! The bells of our herds sound miraculously to my ear, each tinkling, murmuring, "Peace waits for you down there, we announce peace to you -- come where peace awaits you." A star seemed to trace my path from the New World to the old. Then, I deceive myself perhaps, it seemed to me that the blessing of my parents was on the other side of the ocean. Finally, I came as a repentant and faithful son -- I bring something to enrich them -- and the pardon they had refused my tears, well, when tomorrow my gold arrives, perhaps they will grant that pardon to my gold!

GERTRUDE

Oh, I will answer for your mother. Your mother will pardon you, rest assured. And here's the father who will tell you what he would do if he were to see our poor Karl again --

KUNTZ

Wife, I already told you not to mention that name.

KARL

You are very hard, Mr. Kuntz.

KUNTZ

Why not? - what's the good of speaking the dead? Look, let's finish it. You came to us to ask for hospitality, right?

KARL

Yes.

KUNTZ

I told you that I have only this room to offer you for a chamber and a box of straw for a bed. Here's the room -- I am going to find a box of straw.

KARL

Yes, go!

KUNTZ

(aside)

I won't take back my words. I won't unsay or retract my words. It's a strange traveller I've received tonight.

(He goes out. Karl follows Kuntz with his eyes.)

KARL

Mother Trude -- you are not like your husband. You still love your son, right?

GERTRUDE

Oh, yes! Poor child!

KARL

Well, listen -- to you -- I want to confess to you what I didn't wish to tell him. I knew Karl.

GERTRUDE

You knew Karl? You knew my child?

KARL

Yes, we fought together, side by side, on that famous day -- the 10th of August.

GERTRUDE

And you saw him fall?

KARL

He is alive!

GERTRUDE

My child's alive! You can assure me of this? Swear it to me on the Evangelist?

KARL

On the Evangelist I swear to you.

GERTRUDE

And I will see him again? My poor eyes which have wept so much will see my child again?

KARL

Yes.

GERTRUDE

Sir -- oh! My God! Excuse me -- pardon -- Oh! Let me embrace you -- you who bring me news of my son.

KARL

Oh -- very willingly.

KUNTZ

(at the door)

Here's the straw.

GERTRUDE

Well, throw it in the room there.

KUNTZ

Bring the lamp over here -- so I can see.

GERTRUDE

(low to Karl)

Wait for me, I will be back. You will tell me more about my poor Karl.

(Karl alone, Gertrude and Kuntz in the closet room.)

KARL

Ah -- if I could, through my mother, through my mother who has not cursed me -- if I could raise the paternal curse.

GERTRUDE

(returning)

You were saying my son --

KARL

He'd already be home -- near you -- if he didn't feel that his father would never pardon him unless he was dead.

GERTRUDE

It's true. And yet, if Kuntz saw him again --

KARL

You think so?

GERTRUDE

I hope.

KARL

Well, listen, I confide to you the cause of poor Karl. Pray for him - -implore -- try to lift the curse which weighs on him -- the curse alone forbids him to cross this door.

GERTRUDE

Oh, yes, I will do all I can -- but there's the man returning -- silence!

KUNTZ

(entering)

Let's go -- good night, guest. I've just arranged your bedding for you.

KARL

Good night. Would you be kind enough to wake me in the morning at the break of day?

KUNTZ

Oh! Rest assured -- if it's not me who wakes you, it will be the police.

KARL

The police! What do you mean?

GERTRUDE

Alas! Yes, my good sir. We are condemned to prison.

KARL

You? You?

GERTRUDE

Yes, the two of us.

KARL

What have you done, Great God?

KUNTZ

For lack of money, we forgot to pay a bill of exchange.

KARL

Ah! Thank God -- the crime is not great!

KUNTZ

Great enough for us to be locked up for the rest of our days.

KARL

(aside)

Oh! I've arrived in time to save them and then tomorrow when I've saved them, they indeed must pardon me.

(aloud)

Never mind! Try to wake me before the others come.

KUNTZ

Ah! Ah! It appears you don't wish to have anything to do with lady justice? Good. Each knows his reasons to flee or to look for people.

GERTRUDE

Until then, at least, sleep in peace.

(She lights the lantern for Karl and gives it to him.)

KUNTZ

And make the sign of the cross for fear of evil.

KARL

Good night, my hosts, till tomorrow!

KUNTZ

That is to say until today, for it's been the 24th of February for 2 hours already.

KARL

Let us hope this one will cause the others to be forgotten.

(He goes into the closet room.)

KUNTZ

Yes, let us hope! In fact, why not hope until the very last moment? Satan hoped indeed, but he is still cursed for eternity.

GERTRUDE

Look, don't speak of cursing -- for the last two hours we've heard only that wretched word in the house.

KUNTZ

Well, what are you doing?

(She comes from the partition.)

GERTRUDE

I am putting the knife back into place.

KARL

(in the closet)

Here I am returned under the roof where I first saw the light of day. Break my traveller's hiking stick. I am at the end of my race.

KUNTZ

Well -- there you are listening -- watching. Fie! - to spy on our guest.

GERTRUDE

He's taking off his belt -- he puts it on his bolster. It appears to be well lined.

KUNTZ

Who told you that?

GERTRUDE

Damn! -- you can hear the gold ring.

KUNTZ

I think the one it belonged to before belonging to him -- was mentally ill.

GERTRUDE

What do you mean?

KUNTZ

Nothing -- go to bed.

KARL

Here in this little closet my childhood was rocked and put to sleep by dreams of the Alps. Why has this thought escaped me?

GERTRUDE

He's talking all by himself.

KUNTZ

What's he say?

GERTRUDE

I don't hear well -- only, I think, it is a question of gold.

KUNTZ

(stomping his foot)

Go to bed, I tell you.

GERTRUDE

I am going -- don't put yourself in a rage. Why don't you come, too?

KUNTZ

Soon!

GERTRUDE

He gave us a good supper.

KUNTZ

Yes, like the one they give to a criminal before his execution.

GERTRUDE

Say -- father?

KUNTZ

What is it this time?

GERTRUDE

He spoke to us of our son.

KUNTZ

May God damn me, wife -- if you don't shut up -- if you come back to this subject again -- tonight -- I will flee this house.

GERTRUDE

My God! Kuntz, don't get so carried away -- still, if the poor child they told us was dead were still alive? If our poor Karl returned? This fellow was at the Tuileries on the 10th of August like Karl and he has come back.

KUNTZ

Wife! Word of a soldier, you will make me lose patience. Didn't you yourself read in the printed bulletin that not a single soldier survived in the whole battalion Karl was in. This stranger is lying when he said he was there. He's lying, or he's a coward -- if he was there, why didn't he die like the others? Karl return! It's as if you said my father was going to return to recommence threatening and shouting! No, no, no. None of those who pass the bridge of death return on its steps.

GERTRUDE

(going to bed)

All the same -- I really want to know who this stranger is --

KUNTZ

Some clown who will carefully avoid telling you.

GERTRUDE

He left his wine -- drink a bit, it will warm you up.

KUNTZ

(drinking)

To his prosperity!

GERTRUDE

So -- may it be!

KUNTZ

I too, I want to say -- so may it be! But since the cursed action, I cannot. Still, happily I don't have much longer to suffer. Tomorrow all will be finished.

GERTRUDE

(dreaming)

Alas, my God!

KUNTZ

What? Nothing -- she's dreaming and shivering even as she dreams. Truly this house is really cursed. I am sure it will bring misfortune to this huntsman for entering it. It would be relaxing now, a man who bought such good wine -- for others to drink -- for he hasn't drunk a drop. That's what it is to have gold! Well -- let him keep his gold -- I have his wine. It's not his wine that I need, it's his gold! Come on, indeed! What is this new demon that comes to tempt me?

GERTRUDE

(dreaming)

Why is your blade so red, my knight?

KUNTZ

Good! There she is singing in her sleep! It's enough to make you tremble, word of honor!

GERTRUDE

I've just killed a boor in his hole --

KUNTZ

This is frightening me. She's choking -- whatever bad dream torments her -- I've got to wake her.

GERTRUDE

Shiver! It is not from fear. Don't you hear midnight strike? Misfortune! Misfortune!

(Karl puts himself on his knees beside her as if to pray.)

KUNTZ

Trude! Trude! Wake up.

GERTRUDE

(waking)

What's the matter?

KUNTZ

You were singing in your sleep. It's not natural.

GERTRUDE

I was singing? My heart is now very distracted! What was I singing then?

KUNTZ

The song -- the parricide knight --, I'm freezing.

GERTRUDE

(rising)

Me, too.

KUNTZ

It's a fever -- I think this damned traveller has enchanted us. Ah, if I knew that -- Gold Thief!

GERTRUDE

Why do you call this good young man a gold thief?

KUNTZ

You don't believe that he inherited that money belt you saw him place under his bolster? Yes, as one inherits in war, robbing the dead (clock strikes three). How that clock goes on -- you'd say it's in a rush to see the police appear. I'm cold! Make some fire.

GERTRUDE

Do I have wood?

KUNTZ

Bah! use the handle of the scythe -- tomorrow we will have no more need of you, instrument of bad luck and for a long while you've deserved the fire.

GERTRUDE

It makes me shiver every time I touch it.

KUNTZ

Wait! Heavens!

(he breaks the handle)

There's some wood -- some dry wood -- some dead wood.

KARL

In truth, the prayer did some good! It's a last grace of the Lord who has always allowed me to pray. Ah, here I am - light in spirit, heart calm. Come on -- two or three good hours of sleep will give me some courage. There must be a hook --

(He tries to hang his cloak, the hook falls and the cloak with it.)

KUNTZ

Huh! Something just fell. he's not asleep yet?

(He approach the partition.)

KARL

This nail cannot support the weight of my clothes. It's true they are now longer and heavier than when I left the house.

(He takes his stick and uses it like a hammer to bang in the nail. The shock causes the knife to fall on the other side of the partition.)

GERTRUDE

Ah!

KUNTZ

Well, so what! The knife just fell that's all.

GERTRUDE

The knife.

KUNTZ

Yes.

(after a silence)

An idea, wife!

GERTRUDE

I doubt it will be good from the way you say it.

KUNTZ

Hasn't this man confessed he is a murderer?

GERTRUDE

No -- no!

KUNTZ

Yes, I tell you , that he confessed to having committed a murder. In that case, everyone can arrest an assassin and turn him over to the hands of justice. Did you hear how he said, "Wake me before the police come." I am very sure if I said to him "Give me your gold or I will arrest you for murder!" I am very sure that he will give me his gold and be very happy to do so.

GERTRUDE

Oh! My God! My God! Why such ideas as these? Come warm up, since the fire is up.

KUNTZ

So, if I take it from him, he has nothing to say, since I can do worse and do not.

GERTRUDE

For the love of God, my good Kuntz.

KUNTZ

I could even kill him. No one could say anything. Murderers are outside the law.

GERTRUDE

Oh, by the wounds of Our Lord, shut up, man, shut up.

KUNTZ

All right, all right, that's okay. Let's not speak of it anymore. The gold of this thief would save us -- why it is written that we ought not to be saved? They say that the day the mother buys a cradle for her new-born God reserves his tomb. My tomb is the lake of Dauben.

GERTRUDE

Why you want to kill me!

KUNTZ

Damn, there is no other way. With this money salvation -- without it, death. What is the greater crime, Trude, theft or suicide?

GERTRUDE

Alas, my father always said that the greatest crime of all was suicide, because it is the only one for which there can be no repentance.

KUNTZ

There, it would be indeed good to commit it when the law itself is for me. Eh, doubtless the law. To take what has been stolen is permitted by the law. And you know the proverb, "Where one thief steals from another, the Devil only laughs."

GERTRUDE

(stopping him)

My man! My good Kuntz!

KUNTZ

Come on -- the matter is decided. I don't wish to go to prison and I don't wish to go to the lake. Eh, by God -- I'll be very fine -- when here -- practically in my hands --

GERTRUDE

Let it be as you wish. But I won't touch a single piece of this gold. I wash my hands of this gold.

KUNTZ

Good! Take it easy! I will take the thing on myself.

(steps on the knife)

What's that? Oh-Oh? It's you, my old comrade! In any case, I will take you with me!

GERTRUDE

Oh! You don't want to spill blood, do you?

KUNTZ

No, certainly, but an old soldier takes his precautions.

GERTRUDE

Kuntz you shan't go into the closet with that knife!

KUNTZ

Well -- so be it -- since you're so afraid of any harm befalling this bandit. Go in yourself. I will drink a cup in the meantime.

GERTRUDE

Me go in? To do what?

KUNTZ

You know where he put his belt and you have a lighter step than I.

GERTRUDE

Me? Oh, no! Never! Never!

KUNTZ

Then let me do it, then.

GERTRUDE

Listen, Kuntz, before you go in, I want to tell you something.

KUNTZ

Go ahead.

GERTRUDE

Even if this young man is a murderer, he ought to be sacred to us.

KUNTZ

And for what reason?

GERTRUDE

He was the bearer of good news.

KUNTZ

What news!

GERTRUDE

Father!

KUNTZ

Look -- speak!

GERTRUDE

Father -- our Karl is not dead! Father, our Karl is alive.

KUNTZ

And you call this good news? Oh -- if it were only on account of this news -- bearer of ill tidings.

GERTRUDE

Kuntz, I tell you one thing -- I don't prevent you from going into the traveller's, the thief's room to take his gold, but if you go in with that knife, I will scream, I will call, I will wake him!

KUNTZ

(raising the knife)

Oh! You want me to start with you then?

GERTRUDE

(falling to her knees)

No! No! I will be quiet, I will be quiet -- but content yourself with taking his belt.

KUNTZ

Well, let me alone, then. This is the way I see it, and I am going to do the job silently. When we have the belt, we will take the sum we need from it and then put the belt back in its place. Tomorrow he will leave without counting is money - -and leave the house without ever suspecting what happened.

GERTRUDE

Ah! Yes -- that way, that's much better.

KUNTZ

Take the lamp and come!

GERTRUDE

My God -- pardon us for what we are going to do!

KUNTZ

Come on, will you!

KARL

(dreaming)

Oh - father! Wretch! The curse! Always!

GERTRUDE

Kuntz.

KUNTZ

Yes, yes, I hear! What we intend to accomplish is against the commandments of God, and we will do better to give this all up -- Huh! Aren't you thinking like that?

GERTRUDE

Oh! Kuntz! Kuntz! It's our good angel which inspires this idea in you.

KUNTZ

Yes, by my faith, it would be better to die without crime.

(suddenly with a frightful shout)

Ah!

KUNTZ

Don't you see it?

GERTRUDE

No.

KUNTZ

There! There!

GERTRUDE

What?

KUNTZ

There -- in his armchair -- the old man!

GERTRUDE

(falling to her knees)

Mercy!

(She hides her head in her hands.)

KUNTZ

(with a kind of distraction)

Yes, yes, you give me the sign -- I see it clearly. The belt is under his head. Have you come back from down there to show it to me? Oh! My word! Since the dead are concerned about it.

(He goes into the closet.)

GERTRUDE

Kuntz.

KUNTZ

Shut up! Shut up!

(He approaches the bad threateningly. Karl wakes, starts while Kuntz tries to take his money-belt from him.)

KARL

Thief! Assassin.

KUNTZ

(stabbing him with his knife)

Assassin yourself! Yes, you! you! You said it!

KARL

I? I am your son -- and you've killed me.

GERTRUDE

(rushing to him)

My son.

(Kuntz recoils overwhelmed. Karl with a supreme effort rises and draws from his breast a paper which he presents to his father.)

KARL

Yes, your son -- I am he! Here! Read!

(Karl falls back into the arms of Gertrude. Kuntz seizes the paper and bends toward the lamp which is on the ground.)

KUNTZ

It's a passport.

(reading)

Karl Kuruth of Schwarenbach

(the paper slips from his hands)

Ah, wretch! Cursed! Cursed! You have killed your son!

GERTRUDE

(exposing Karl's left arm)

Yes, there, on his arm, he has the scar of the scythe! It's he! It's my son!

(rising before Kuntz)

Come, take my life, too, murderer of your own child!

KARL

(to Kuntz and Gertrude rising)

Listen, listen, both of you. Your, father has just pardoned you and you have expiated his curse.

KUNTZ

(throwing himself on his knees beside him)

But you? Do you pardon me?

KARL

Yes -- father!

KUNTZ

And God -- will he pardon me?

KARL

Let it be so!

(He falls back inanimate.)

GERTRUDE

Ah! He's dying! He's dying!

KUNTZ

(rising)

All is finished! The will of heaven has been accomplished. I myself will run to deliver myself to the hands of justice and denounce the murder. Then after the blow from the ax of the execution, then let God from whom nothing is hidden be my judge. It's the 24th of February again. Ah! The wretched day. Lord! Lord! Your mercy is infinite!

(Day begins to dawn. The door opens. Some police appear in the doorway.)

(Curtain)