[METTERNICH _rings_--_a_ LACKEY _appears._] METTERNICH. [_To the_ LACKEY.] Take these soldiers; throw them all away. [_To the_ DUKE.] I'll send you new ones. THE DUKE. I'll not have your new ones! If I'm a child, my toys shall be a giant's! METTERNICH. What gadfly--what Imperial bee has stung you? THE DUKE. As irony is little to my liking-- THE LACKEY. [_Aside to the_ DUKE.] Silence, my Lord! I'll paint 'em over again. METTERNICH. Well, Highness? THE DUKE. Nothing. Just a fit of temper. Forgive me. [_Aside._] I've a friend; I can be patient. METTERNICH. I came to bring your friend-- THE DUKE. My friend? METTERNICH. Yes; Marshal Marmont. THE DUKE. Oh! Marmont! METTERNICH. [_With a look at_ PROKESCH.] He's among the few I like to see about you-- PROKESCH. [_Mutters._] I should hope so! METTERNICH. He's here. THE DUKE. Why, let him come! [METTERNICH _goes out. The_ DUKE _throws himself wildly on the couch._] My father! Glory! The Eagles! The Imperial throne! The purple! [_Suddenly calm, he offers his hand to_ MARMONT, _who enters with_ METTERNICH.] Ah, Marshal Marmont! How are _you_ to-day? MARMONT. My Lord--! METTERNICH. [_Anxious to get_ PROKESCH _away._] Come, Prokesch, come and see how well The Duke is lodged. [_He takes him by the arm and leads him off._] THE DUKE. [_After a pause._] You've told me all you know About my Father's youth? MARMONT. I have. THE DUKE. We'll sum it up You'd call him great? MARMONT. Oh, very. THE DUKE. But 'twas you Who helped-- MARMONT. I helped him to avoid-- THE DUKE. Disaster? MARMONT. Well, he believed so stoutly-- THE DUKE. In his star? MARMONT. We perfectly agree in our conclusions. THE DUKE. And I suppose he was, as we were saying-- MARMONT. He was a General of some importance; Yet it were hardly fair to call him-- THE DUKE. Wretch! MARMONT. What? THE DUKE. Now I've learnt whatever you could teach me, Whatever memories of him you had, All that, in spite of you, was splendid in you. I cast you off: a useless sponge! MARMONT. My Lord! THE DUKE. Duke of Ragusa, you betrayed him! You! Ah, yes, I know, when you beheld your comrade Climbing the throne you all said, "Why not I?" But you, whom even in the ranks he loved, And loved so well his men grew discontented, Created Marshal at the age of thirty-- MARMONT. No; thirty-five. THE DUKE.