Barry Lyndon Page #14

INT. CHEVALIER'S ROOM - DAY

Action as per description in letter.

CHEVALIER (V.O.)

As I lay in my bed two and a half

hours after your departure, in comes

your ex-captain, Galgenstein.

CAPTAIN GALGENSTEIN

(in his imperious

Dutch manner)

Roderick! Are you there?

No answer.

CAPTAIN GALGENSTEIN

The rogue is gone out.

Action as per voice over.

CHEVALIER (V.O.)

Straightaway he makes for the red

box where I keep my love letters, my

glass eye which I used to wear, my

two sets of Paris teeth, and my

other private matters that you know

of. He first tries a bunch of keys,

but none of them fit the English

lock. Then he takes out of his

pocket a chisel and hammer, and

falls to work like a professional

burglar, actually bursting open the

little box! Now was my time to act!

I advance towards him armed with an

immense water-jug. I come

noiselessly up to him just as he has

broken the box, and, with all my

might, I deal him such a blow over

the head as smashes the water-jug to

bits, and sends the captain with a

snort lifeless to the ground. Then

I ring all the bells in the house;

and shout, and swear, and scream,

"Thieves! -- Thieves! -- Landlord!

-- Murder! -- Fire!" until the whole

household comes tumbling up the

stairs.

CHEVALIER:

Where is my servant? Who dares to

rob me in open day? Look at the

villain whom I find in the act of

breaking my chest open! Send for

the police, send for his Excellency

the Austrian Minister! All Europe

shall know of this insult!

LANDLORD:

Dear heaven! We saw you go away

three hours ago.

CHEVALIER:

Me! Why, man, I have been in bed

all morning. I am ill -- I have

taken physic -- I have not left the

house this morning! Where is that

scoundrel, Lazlo? But, stop! Where

are my clothes and wig?

CHAMBERMAID:

I have it -- I have it! Lazlo is

off in your honor's dress.

CHEVALIER:

And my money -- my money! Where is

my purse with forty-eight frederics

in it? But we have one of the

villains left, Officers, seize him.

LANDLORD:

(more and more

astonished)

It's the young Herr Galgenstein.

CHEVALIER:

What! A gentleman breaking open my

trunk with hammer and chisel --

impossible!

CHEVALIER (V.O.)

Herr Galgenstein was returning to

life by this time, with a swelling

on his skull as big as a saucepan;

and the officers carried him off,

and, to make a long story short,

poor Galgenstein is now on his way

to Spandau; and his uncle, the

Minister of Police Galgenstein, has

brought me five hundred louis, with

a humble request that I would leave

Berlin forthwith, and hush up this

painful matter.

INT. GERMAN PALACE - BALLROOM - NIGHT

Roderick, the Chevalier and the Duke of Wurttemberg.

RODERICK (V.O.)

The Chevalier de Belle Fast was in

particularly good order with the

Duke of Wurttemberg, whose court

was, at this period, the most

brilliant in all Europe.

The Duke of Wurttemberg chatting with ballet dancers, who

will perform at the party.

RODERICK (V.O.)

He spent fabulous sums on the

ballets and operas. All the

ballerinas were pretty, and they all

boasted that they had all at least

once made their amorous sovereign

happy.

Roderick and the Chevalier kissing hands, hobnobbing with

the nobility, and dancing minuets.

RODERICK (V.O.)

There was not a party of the

nobility to which the two Irish

gentlemen were not invited, and

admired, nor where we did not make

the brave, the high-born and the

beautiful talk to us. There was no

man in Europe more gay in spirits,

more splendid in personal

accomplishment, than young Roderick

James.

EXT. GERMAN STREET - DAWN

Roderick and the Chevalier in a comfortable coach, on

their way home to bed, pass troops marching out on early

parade.

INT. COACH - DAWN

Roderick sinks back into the comfortable cushion and

yawns.

RODERICK (V.O.)

What a delightful life did we now

lead! I knew I was born a

gentleman, from the kindly way in

which I took to the business, as

business certainly it is.

INT. BEDROOM - GERMANY - DAY

Roderick in a tub, being washed by a servant.

RODERICK (V.O.)

For though it seems all pleasure,

yet I assure any low-bred persons

who may chance to read this, that

we, their betters, have to work as

well as they; though I did not rise

until noon, yet had I not been up at

play until long past midnight?

INT. ANOTHER BEDROOM - GERMANY - DAY

His hair being done.

RODERICK (V.O.)

I came into it at once, and as if I

had never done anything else all my

life. I had a gentleman to wait

upon me, a French friseur to dress

my hair of a morning.

INT. DINING ROOM - NIGHT

A candle-lit supper.

RODERICK (V.O.)

I knew the taste of chocolate as by

intuition almost, and could

distinguish between the right

Spanish and the French before I had

been a week in my new position.

INSERTS - JEWELRY

Action and cuts as voice over.

RODERICK (V.O.)

I had rings on my fingers, watches

in both my fobs, trinkets, and

snuff-boxes, of all sorts, and each

outvying the other in elegance.

INT. RECEPTION ROOM - GERMANY - DAY

As described.

RODERICK (V.O.)

I had the finest natural taste for

lace and china of any man I ever

knew.

EXT. STABLES - GERMANY - DAY

Buying horses.

RODERICK (V.O.)

I could judge a horse as well as any

dealer in Germany. I could not

spell, but I could speak German and

French cleverly.

INT. DRESSING ROOM - GERMANY - DAY

Roderick being fitted for clothes.

RODERICK (V.O.)

I had at least twelve suits of

clothes; three richly embroidered

with gold, two laced with silver;

one of French grey, silver-laced and

lined with chinchilla. I had damask

morning robes, to which a peacock's

tail is as sober as a Quaker's drab

skirt.

INT. ORANGERY - DAY

Action as voice over.

RODERICK (V.O.)

I took lessons on the guitar, and

sang French catches exquisitely.

Where, in fact, was there a more

accomplished gentleman than Roderick

James?

INT. GAMING ROOM - GERMANY - NIGHT

Action as per voice over.

RODERICK (V.O.)

How have we had the best blood, and

the brightest eyes, too, of Europe

throbbing round the table as I and

the Chevalier have held the cards

and the bank against some terrible

player, who was matching some

thousands out of his millions

against our all which was there on

the baize!

INT. GAMING ROOM - GERMANY - NIGHT

Roderick dealing a faro bank.

RODERICK (V.O.)

Our principles were: play grandly,

honorably. Be not, of course, cast

down at losing; but, above all, be

not eager at winning, as mean souls

are.

INT. GAMING ROOM - GERMANY - NIGHT

Action as voice over.

RODERICK (V.O.)

When the Duke of Courland brought

fourteen lackeys each with bags of

florins, and challenged our bank to

play against the sealed bags, what

did we ask?

CHEVALIER:

Sir, we have but eighty thousand

florins in bank, or two hundred

thousand at three months; if your

highness' bags do not contain more

than eight thousand, we will meet

you.

Playing.

RODERICK (V.O.)

And we did, and after eleven hours

play, in which our bank was at one

time reduced to two hundred and

three ducats, we won seventeen

thousand florins off him.

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