MARION (_seeing_ DIDIER _fighting_): Stop! Help! Help! Help! [_In answer to her cries the town guard arrive._ THE CAPTAIN OF THE GUARD: Down with your swords! What! Duelling beneath The edict of the king! You are dead men. [DIDIER _and_ SAVERNY _are disarmed and led away._ MARION: What has he done? [L'ANGELY _points to the edict: she reads it._ Oh, when I called for help Death came! Is there no way to rescue him? The king is kind at heart, he will forgive---- L'ANGELY: But Richelieu will not! He loves red blood, The scarlet cardinal, he loves red blood! MARION: You frighten me! Who are you? L'ANGELY: The king's fool. MARION: Ah, Didier! If a woman's feeble hand Can save you, mine shall do it! [_She departs_. L'ANGELY (_picking up the sword he lent to_ Didier): Ha! Ha! Ha! It was not I that played the fool to-night! ACT II SCENE--_A hall in the castle of Chambord._ KING LOUIS XIII., _a grey-haired, weak-minded man, is sitting, pale and sorrowful, in a chair of state._ L'ANGELY _stands beside him._ THE KING: Oh, it is miserable to be a king That lives but does not govern. Richelieu Is killing all my friends. I sometimes think He wants their blood to dye his scarlet robes. L'ANGELY: He works for France, sire---- THE KING: Yes, and for himself. I hate him. Never did a king of France Govern with so tyrannical a hand As he now does. A single word from me And all his pomp and splendour, all his power, Would vanish. But I cannot say the word; He will not let me. Come, amuse me, fool! L'ANGELY: Is not life, sire, a thing of bitterness? THE KING: It is. Man is a shadow. L'ANGELY: And a king The miserablest creature on this earth. THE KING: It gives me pleasure when you speak like that. I wish that I were dead. In all the world You are the only man I ever found Worth listening to. I often wonder why You care to live. What are you? A poor fool-- A puppet that I jerk to make me laugh. L'ANGELY: I live on out of curiosity. The puppet of the king, I sit and watch The antics of the puppet of the priest! THE KING: Yes, that is what I am. You speak the truth. Could Satan not become a cardinal, And take possession of my very soul? L'ANGELY: I think that's what has happened. THE KING: He loves blood, The cardinal! It was the Huguenots Yesterday that he wanted to behead, And now it is the duellists. Blood! Blood! He cannot live unless he lives in blood. [L'ANGELY _makes a sign._ MARION DE LORME _and the_ MARQUIS DE NANGIS _enter._ MARION: Pardon! THE KING: For whom?