Джон Стейнбек - Cup of Gold [Золотая чаша]

"Then the Autumn came. One day she said, 'They are ready to take me away, but I will not go.' The next day she did not come to me. In the night I went to her window and she threw a little note to me, 'I am imprisoned. They have whipped me.'

"I went home. What else could I do? I could not fight them, the stout soldiers who guarded her. Very late that night there was a pounding on the door and cries, 'Where is a doctor to be had? Quick! The little princess has poisoned herself.' "

Henry lifted his eyes. The King was smiling ironically. John Evelyn drummed the table with his fingers.

"Yes?" said the King. "Yes?" He chuckled.

"Ah, I am old-old," Henry moaned. "It is a lie. She was a pleasant child, the daughter of a cottager."

He staggered to his feet and moved toward the door. Shame was burning in his face.

"Captain Morgan, you forget yourself. "

"I-forget-myself? "

"There are certain little courtesies. Custom demands that you render them to our person. "

"I plead pardon, Sire. I plead your permission to leave. I–I am ill." He bowed himself from the room.

The King was smiling through his wine.

"How is it, John, that such a great soldier can be such a great fool? "

Said John Evelyn, "How could it be otherwise? If great men were not fools, the world would have been destroyed long ago. How could it be otherwise? Folly and distorted vision are the foundations of greatness. "

"You mean that my vision is distorted? "

"No, I do not mean that. "

"Then you imply-"

"I wish to go on with Henry Morgan. He has a knack for piracy which makes him great. Immediately you imagine him as a great ruler. You make him Lieutenant-Governor. In this you are like the multitude.

You believe that if a man do one thing magnificently, he should be able to do all things equally well. If a man be eminently successful in creating an endless line of mechanical doodads of some excellence, you conceive him capable of leading armies or maintaining governments. You think that because you are a good king you should be as good a lover-or vice-versa."

"Vice-versa? "

"That is a humorous alternative, Sire. It is a conversational trick to gain a smile-no more. "

"I see. But Morgan and his folly- "

"Of course he is a fool, Sire, else he would be turning soil in Wales or burrowing in the mines. He wanted something, and he was idiot enough to think he could get it. Because of his idiocy he did get it-part of it. You remember the princess. "

The King was smiling again.

"I have never known any man to tell the truth to or about a woman. Why is that, John? "

"Perhaps, Sire, if you would explain the tiny scratch I see under your right eye, you could understand.

Now the scratch was not there last night, and it has the distinct look of- "

"Yes-yes-a clumsy servant. Let us speak of Morgan. You have a way, John, of being secretly insulting. Sometimes you are not even conscious of your insults. It is a thing to put down if you are to be around courts for any length of time."

Sir Henry Morgan sat on the Judge's Bench at Port Royal. Before him, on the floor, lay a slab of white sunlight like a blinding tomb. Throughout the room an orchestra of flies sang their symphony of boredom. The droning voices of counsel were only louder instruments against the humming obbligato.

Court officials went about sleepily, and the cases moved on.

"It was the fifteenth of the month, my lord. Williamson went to the Cartwright property for the purpose of determining- determining to his own satisfaction, my lord, whether the tree stood as described. It was while he was there-"

The case sang to its monotonous conclusion. Sir Henry, behind his broad table, stirred sleepily. Now the guards brought in a sullen vagrant, clothed in rags of old sail.

"Charged with stealing four biscuits and a mirror from So-and-So, my lord."

"The proof?"

"He was detected, my lord."

"Did you, or did you not, steal four biscuits and a mirror?"

The prisoner's face became even more sullen.

"I told 'em."

"My lord," the guard prompted.

"My lord."

"Why did you steal these articles?"

"I wan'ed 'em."

"Say my lord."

"My lord."

"What did you want with them?"

"I wan'ed the biscuits for to eat."

"My lord."

"My lord."

"And the mirror?"

"I wan'ed the mirror for to look at myself in."

"My lord."

"My lord. "

They led the man to his imprisonment. Now the guards brought in a thin, pasty woman.

"Charged with harlotry and incontinence, my lord. "

"Incontinence is illegal," said Sir Henry irritatedly, "but since when have we been punishing people for harlotry? "

"My lord, the nature of this woman-The public health demands-We thought the case would be understood. "

"Ah! I see. She must be locked up. Take her away quickly. "

The woman began to cry sulkily.

Sir Henry rested his forehead on his hands. He did not look up at the next prisoners.

"Charged with piracy on the high seas, my lord; with disturbing the King's peace; with an act of war against a friendly nation. "

Sir Henry glanced quickly at the prisoners. One was a rotund little man with eyes of terror, and the other a lean, grizzled fellow whose one arm was gone.

"What is the proof against the prisoners? "

"Five witnesses, my lord. "

"So? Make your plea! "

The tall man had put his good arm about the shoulders of his companion.

"We plead guilty, my lord. "

"You plead guilty?" Sir Henry cried in amazement. "But no pirate pleads guilty. It is a case unprecedented. "

"We plead guilty, my lord. "

"But why? "

"Fifty people saw us in action, my lord. Why should we take up your time in denying what fifty people will swear to? No, we are resigned, my lord. We are content, both with the recent action and with our lives." The wiry arm squeezed about the small round tub of a buccaneer.

Henry sat very silently for a time. But finally he raised his tired eyes. "I sentence you to be hanged. "

"Hanged, my lord? "

"Hanged by the neck until you are dead. "

"You are changed, sir."

Sir Henry started forward and closely scrutinized the prisoners. Then his lips smiled. "Yes," he said quietly, "I am changed. The Henry Morgan you knew is not the Sir Henry Morgan who sentences you to death. I do not kill ferociously any more, but coldly, and because I have to." Sir Henry raised his voice.

"Let the court be cleared, but guard the doors! I wish to speak privately with the prisoners."

When they were alone he began: "I know well that I am changed, but tell me what is the change you see."

The Burgundians looked at each other. "You speak, Emil."

"You are changed, sir, in this way. Once you knew what you were doing. You were sure of yourself."

"That is so," broke in the other. "You do not know-you are not sure of yourself any more. Once you were one man. It is possible to trust one man. But now you are several men. If we should trust one of you, we should be in fear of the others."

Sir Henry laughed. "That is more or less true. It is not my fault, but it is true. Civilization will split up a character, and he who refuses to split goes under."

"We have forgotten about civilization, thanks to our Mother," Antoine muttered fiercely.

"What a pity to hang you."

"But is it so necessary to hang us, sir? Could we not escape or be pardoned?"

"No, you must be hanged. I am sorry, but it must be so. Such is my duty."

"But duty to your friends, sir-to the men who bore arms with you, who mixed their blood with yours-"

"Listen, Other Burgundian; there are two kinds of duty, and you would know that if you remembered your France. You mentioned one species, and it is the weaker kind. The other, the giant duty-that which will not be overlooked-might be called the duty of appearances. I do not hang you because you are pirates, but because I am expected to hang pirates. I am sorry for you. I would like to send you to your cells with saws in your pockets, but I cannot. As long as I do what is expected of me, I shall remain the Judge. When I change, for whatever motive, I may myself be hanged."