Caught him out perfectly! He's afraid to appear before me again. (_Moves up and down excitedly while saying this; then sees Berthold, and points him out to the other three valets_). Oh, look at this imbecile watching me with his mouth wide open! (_Shakes him_). Don't you understand? Don't you see, idiot, how I treat them, how I play the fool with them, make them appear before me just as I wish? Miserable, frightened clowns that they are! And you (_addressing the valets_) are amazed that I tear off their ridiculous masks now, just as if it wasn't I who had made them mask themselves to satisfy this taste of mine for playing the madman! LANDOLPH--HAROLD--ORDULPH (_bewildered, looking at one another_). What? What does he say? What? HENRY IV. (_answers them imperiously_). Enough! enough! Let's stop it. I'm tired of it. (_Then as if the thought left him no peace_): By God! The impudence! To come here along with her lover!... And pretending to do it out of pity! So as not to infuriate a poor devil already out of the world, out of time, out of life! If it hadn't been supposed to be done out of pity, one can well imagine that fellow wouldn't have allowed it. Those people expect others to behave as they wish all the time. And of course, there's nothing arrogant in that! Oh, no! Oh, no! It's merely their way of thinking, of feeling, of seeing. Everybody has his own way of thinking; you fellows, too. Yours is that of a flock of sheep--miserable, feeble, uncertain.... But those others take advantage of this and make you accept their way of thinking; or, at least, they suppose they do; Because, after all, what do they succeed in imposing on you? Words, words which anyone can interpret in his own manner! That's the way public opinion is formed! And it's a bad look out for a man who finds himself labelled one day with one of these words which everyone repeats; for example "madman," or "imbecile." Don't you think is rather hard for a man to keep quiet, when he knows that there is a fellow going about trying to persuade everybody that he is as he sees him, than to fix him in other people's opinion as a "madman"--according to him? Now I am talking seriously! Before I hurt my head, falling from my horse.... (_stops suddenly, noticing the dismay of the four young men_). What's the matter with you? (_Imitates their amazed looks_). What? Am I, or am I not, mad? Oh, yes! I'm mad all right! (_He becomes terrible_). Well, then, by God, down on your knees, down on your knees! (_Makes them go down on their knees one by one_). I order you to go down on your knees before me! And touch the ground three times with your foreheads! Down, down! That's the way you've got to be before madmen! (_Then annoyed with their facile