TÊTE-D'OR: I am not hungry. And see how she is clothed against the chills of the night in this bleak place. Take my cloak also, young girl. _(He puts his cloak around her shoulders._ Forward! A CAPTAIN: Go before us, Cassius. --O herald, your armor mirrors the red disk of the sun, and you are all agleam! _(They go out._ _(The PRINCESS eats the bread._ THE DESERTER (_starting up from the thicket where he had been lying in wait_): Give me your bread! _(He throws himself upon her and snatches the bread away from her._ THE PRINCESS (_crying out_): Leave me a little of the bread! THE DESERTER: What's this? You speak my language? Wait! Wait a little! _(He stares at her long and attentively, then he begins to laugh._ A-a-a-h! _(He doffs his hat and awkwardly makes a pretence of bowing, in mockery. Then he stares at her chuckling without saying anything._ A-a-a-h! Oh, this is good! How does it happen that you are here? Don't pretend that you can't understand what I say. See, the red is creeping to your cheeks. Ah! Ah! Answer! Do you think I don't know you? Others perhaps might not recognise you, but I, I recognise you! THE PRINCESS: I think you do not know me. THE DESERTER: Ha! (_He wags his head and winks knowingly._) You are the daughter of the old King. THE PRINCESS: Since you know it, be ashamed! THE DESERTER: Ashamed? See if I am ashamed! Take that for yourself for your "ashamed"! _(He strikes her with all his strength. She falls to the ground, then, rising, she stands before him, motionless._ THE DESERTER: None of your fine airs with me! We are alone in this place, we two! You are my dog, I can kill you if I choose, One by one I can cut off your limbs with my knife if such should be my humor. Do you hear? Now it is my turn! Ah! Ah! So you do not recognise me? I had a place in the palace, in the kitchens! Eh? You didn't trouble your pretty head about the likes of me! It was I who seasoned the dishes to suit your gullet. And you thought of me no more than if I had been a rat, or a snake in the cranny of a wall. But I, I knew you well and I hated you, believe me! Oh! And here you are in my hands and I can do with you as I will. THE PRINCESS: What have I done? THE DESERTER: Why was your father, old scamp that he was, made king instead of me? If I had had education I should have been as good a king. What is the reason that some have more than others? Why is it that some have all they want, as much as they wish to drink and eat, and that others have nothing at all? Perhaps you think I can live on bricks, eh? I am a married man and I had children dependent on me, yet I had to work in the fields. I was not made for that sort of labor, I have my certificate. And these rascal landlords leave you nothing at all. And they took me away to the war! What has their war to do with me? Does one murder women when they are with child? Why have they taken me? Why are my children both of them lying dead?