THE KING: Ah, you are kinder than your sister is! Show me the bed. [SALTABADIL _takes the lamp and leads him upstairs._ SALTABADIL: This way. MAGUELONNE (_in the darkness_): Poor, poor young man! [SALTABADIL _returns with the lamp. He sits at the table in silence; his sister watches him._ MAGUELONNE (_fiercely_): You must not kill him! SALTABADIL: Twenty golden crowns! Look, here are ten of them! The rest I get At midnight. Pest! There is no time to lose. Quick, sew this sack! My client will return In a few minutes. [_Terrified by his look, she takes up the sack and begins to mend it. There is again a silence, and in the sinister and momentary radiance of the lightning the figure of_ BLANCHE _is seen approaching the inn. She is dressed in a man's clothes, and booted and spurred._ BLANCHE: Terrible work to do! I cannot go. Father, I cannot! Oh, this horrible dream! Let me awake from it ere I go mad. This dream, this horrible dream! [_Seeing the light from the window, she totters up to the hole in the wall and looks in again._ God! it is true! There they are! There!--the man with murderous looks, The girl with shameless eyes! Where is the king? [_Her cries are drowned in the thunder._ MAGUELONNE: Brother! SALTABADIL: Yes. MAGUELONNE: Do not kill him. SALTABADIL: Ten more crowns! MAGUELONNE: He is worth more than that. Handsome and young, And noble too, I'll take my oath on it. Besides, he loves me. SALTABADIL: Get on with the sack. MAGUELONNE: You only want the money. Take and kill The little hunchback when he comes with it. BLANCHE: My father! SALTABADIL (_angrily_): What! Am I a common thief? Kill my own client? I will have you know, My sister, that I am an honest man. I do the work I'm paid for. [_Drawing his dagger, he goes towards the stairs._ MAGUELONNE (_barring the way_): Stop, I say! Or I will go and rouse him. BLANCHE: Good, brave girl! SALTABADIL: Well, let us make a bargain, Maguelonne. If anyone comes knocking at our inn By midnight, he shall go into the sack. My client only wants to fling some corpse Into the river, and on this wild night He will not see what he is throwing in. MAGUELONNE: It is just on the hour. No one will come. Cannot you ram this faggot in the sack? SALTABADIL: Who would take that for a limp body? No! Either a traveller or the man upstairs. That is all! Will you take the chance? MAGUELONNE (_weeping_): I must. BLANCHE: Oh, God, I cannot! No! I am too young. He does not love me.