No More Learning

ACT II

SCENE. --_The Hall of Government in the palace at Madrid, six months
after. The Privy Counsellors are sitting,--among them_
DON MANUEL ARIAS _and the_ COUNT OF CAMPOREAL.

DON MANUEL: How quickly he has climbed to supreme power!
General Secretary, Minister,
And now Duke of Olmedo!

CAMPOREAL: It is strange,
A cousin of that fallen president,
Don Sallust, could have won to such a height
Within six months!

DON MANUEL: The queen reigns over us
And he reigns, over her.

CAMPOREAL: That is not so.
Don Cesar never sees the queen alone.
I know it. I have had them watched by spies.
They shun each other. Do you know, he lives
By Tormez mansion, in a shuttered house,
With two black mutes to wait on him?

DON MANUEL: Two mutes!
He is, indeed, a terrible, strange man.
And now to business! We must re-arrange
Some of the taxes and monopolies.
We want a fair division.

[_All the_ COUNSELLORS _seat themselves. _

A COUNSELLOR: I must have
The salt monopoly.

CAMPOREAL: No; that is mine!
You have the tax upon the trade in slaves.
I'll change that for the arsenic, if you like.

[RUY BLAS _has entered at the beginning of the dispute:
after listening some time he comes forward_.

RUY BLAS: You vile, rapacious gang of quarrelling thieves!
What! Can you rob the dead? Here by the grave
Of the great empire that was Spain, you sit,
Like greedy vultures, preying on her corpse!
We were the conquerors of the world, but now
Our army dwindled to four thousand men
That never get their arms, their food, their pay,
Is but a mob of brigands, and they live
By pillaging their wretched countrymen.
Our hardy peasantry is crushed beneath
A load of taxes and monopolies,
But not a ducat of the revenue
Is spent on Spain. Bankrupt in wealth and power,
Dead to all sense of honour, justice, right,
She lies, while you, you foul hyenas, snarl
Over her stricken body.