When he takes off his cap uncovering a forehead that still can redden. I was hungry and you offered me no bread. I am hungry! And behold I stand at your door! THE KING: Ask then, that we may know what you wish. TÊTE-D'OR: Examine me well and inspect me from every standpoint. Weigh me, measure me. Study each foot as you would with a horse, and put my teeth to the test. And considering everything, calculate If The buyable bulk of myself comprises the profit Winnowed out by your wisdom's sieve. SOMEONE: What does all this mean? ANOTHER: His voice is strange. It strikes the heart so that it vibrates like a plucked string and gives out notes. TÊTE-D'OR: Hear me, men that are here! Listen to me, O you that hear through the ear and the hole that pierces the skull! Up to this time, O grass, you have only heard the murmuring of yourself. Listen to the command, listen to the word that ordains, hearken to intelligence! I am the strength of the voice and the power of the living word! THE TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE: Then what do you ask? TÊTE-D'OR: I ask for everything. I ask you for everything that you may give it to me. That supreme power may be mine to do everything and to have everything. For who shall fix the limits of the intelligence and the place where it is stayed, and who shall set a bound to the power of its arm? Let nothing in the world escape me when I pronounce the sacred word! And as that burning king, the heart, Is throned in the midst of the lungs that envelop him, Receiving all the blood in himself and sending it out again through his gates, Even so it is that the contemplation of my intellect was made To establish itself on a royal seat, on the throne of the memory and the will. It is my wish To reign. _(Murmur. Exclamations. The sound of words whispered from one to another._ THE KING: Tête-d'or.... THE TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE: Let me! I will reply to him. _(The MAN OUT OF OFFICE makes an exclamation. The GO-BETWEEN seems disturbed and agitated and looks to left and right._ THE SCHOOLMASTER (_with a grimace_): This young man is utterly mad! THE HIGH PREFECT: Hmm! He has the army back of him. _(The TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE looks at them out of the corner of his eye._ THE TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE (_to_ TÊTE-D'OR): If I have rightly understood what you just said, young man, you are asking for absolute power. TÊTE-D'OR: Yes. You have understood rightly. _(Murmur._ THE TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE: You heard! It was not I who put the words in his mouth! Listen to me, young man, your success has destroyed your sense of proportion. Gently! You yourself have informed us of all that you imagine You have done (_very loudly_) for your native land, And that it was not done through any love you bore her, And thus you doubly spare us The trouble of thanking you. You have done it all Alone! I take you to witness, gentlemen! Alone! But science declares, young man, That no one can do anything alone.