For Whom the Bell Tolls Page #5

France and my country before

we get armed and ready to fight.

Were you always a Republican?

And your father?

- Sure. He always voted Republican.

Did they shoot him for it?

No. They don't shoot you

for being a Republican in America.

Roberto was a professor.

He told me this afternoon.

Not a professor, Mara. An instructor.

That's the same thing.

He was a teacher in a college.

The professor has no beard.

He's a false professor.

Shut up!

What did you teach, Ingls?

Spanish.

That's how I got to know Spain.

No beard. He has no beard.

He's a false professor.

Stop it! - Wouldn't it

be easier to teach English?

Why shouldn't he teach Spanish?

Doesnt he speak it?

Yes, but in a way it is undignified

for a foreigner to teach Spanish.

I mean nothing against you, Ingls.

He doesn't teach it to Spaniards!

- I should hope not...

Let me finish, you mule!

He teaches Spanish to Americans.

Can't they speak Spanish?

- Mule! North Americans speak English!

No beard, no beard.

- Enough!

But he's got no beard. Beard...

No beard.

- He does have a beard.

You should know, girl.

Pay no attention, Ingls. He's drunk.

- I don't think he's so drunk.

Yes. Yes, I am drunk.

I doubt it.

Cowardly, yes!

You try to provoke me, Ingls?

No, you won't get rid of me that way.

I said cowardly, not drunk!

See? See, I don't provoke.

Signal to the woman

that you've failed.

Pilar had nothing to do with it.

You spoke to the girl as a coward.

I don't provoke.

See, woman? I teach the professor

I don't provoke.

I'll still be alive,

when you're all dead!

I'm not stupid.

I don't provoke.

I don't provoke.

To the Professor,

to the Seora commander,

and to all the illusioned ones.

That's silly.

It's a waste of good wine.

I don't provoke.

I am drunk.

The wise man gets drunk

to spend his time with fools.

Get out!

Yeah.

Yeah, I go.

I'll go to the horses.

They have more sense than men.

Tell them about the bridge, Professor,

and how to escape afterwards.

Who will lead your patriots

in the retreat? - Get out!

It's still falling, Ingls.

Let me go! I'll kill him!

- Give me that rifle!

Why didn't you kill him last night?

What do you think he'll do now?

- He will toss a bomb in here.

Give me your pistol. I'll shoot him.

- You want to blow us up?

What fools we are!

- Why didn't you kill him last night?

He's got to die now!

Pilar?

What do you say, Pilar?

Yes.

Whatever you will,

I'm for it now.

Then let all speak.

Andrs, what do you say?

Yes, kill him!

- Kill him.

Primitivo?

- Kill him.

Agustn?

- Do you need to ask? Kill him!

Fernando? - Dont forget, Ingls,

he's smart and he knows the mountains.

Who will lead our retreat

after the bridge? - El Sordo!

He knows the way. Pilar, tell him

that El Sordo will lead us.

Couldn't we hold him as a prisoner?

- Who would look after him?

He is right, Fernando.

It would take us all to watch him.

Why not sell him to the enemy?

- Shut up, Gypsy.

That's filthy!

- No worse than Pablo.

If you'd blind him,

he will be easy to handle.

Watch your tongue, Gypsy!

Didnt Pablo blind the civil guard

who was wounded?

Speak of blinding again

and you go with Pablo.

Pilar,

I haven't been allowed to finish yet.

Finish, then, finish!

I still maintain we need Pablo.

We should reason with him and point

out that his conduct... - Stop it!

Even here one man can make

a bureaucracy with his mouth!

You've voted to kill him.

Now have done with it!

Kill him when he returns.

- He must make the first move.

Why wait? Kill him! - In cold blood?

- You Ingleses are all cold.

Give me your gun! I'm burning!

Not in here. No shooting in here.

You'll see how cold my blood is

when that coward comes back!

Ugly. All of it's ugly!

Remember one thing, Ingls.

He wasn't always like this.

When the war broke out,

he wasn't the man you see now.

Brutal, yes,

but a leader without fear.

Without Pablo's help, the Nationalists

would have taken our town

the day the revolution began,

for many Nationalists lived there.

But Pablo organized the people,

and in the night

all suspects were dragged from their

beds and locked up in the city hall.

In the dark,

he surrounded the police barracks,

cut the telephone wires

and placed dynamite under the wall.

When morning came, he called on

the civil guards to surrender,

but they wouldn't.

So he blew the wall open.

But then there was a shout

for us to stop firing

and four civil guards

walked out with their hands up.

Pablo said, "Show us how to die,

you who have always done the killing."

"What are you going to do?",

the officer asked. "Shoot you."

Pablo passed behind them.

I can hear the pistol even now

and see the head of each man fall.

One held his head still

when the pistol touched it.

One shivered in his whole body

and his head was shaking.

Only one put his hands in front of his

eyes and he was the last one.

The hat fell from his head

and Pablo said, "Pilar, he's polite.

He takes off his hat

for a woman like you!"

A crowd was gathering

in the plaza before the city hall.

"Why is it done this way?",

they asked Pablo.

"To save bullets," he said,

"and to make all of you share in it."

I had picked up that hat

and a man said,

"Pilar, that's bad taste.

We're done with civil guards now."

Drunkards yelled,

as if at a bullfight,

"Let the bull out!

Pablo, let the bull out!"

And then everyone shouted,

"Here comes the first one!"

It was Don Perito Garca, the mayor.

He walked between the lines

and nothing happened.

He passed two men, four men,

eight men, and nothing happened.

From the roof someone shouted,

"What's the matter, coward?"

But nothing happened.

I was watching one man

who had a dispute with the mayor

about a piece of land,

and who hated him.

And it was this man

who first raised his flail.

Don Faustino Rivera

was known as an annoyer of girls.

He wanted to be known as a bullfighter

and went much with them and Gypsies.

But he was a coward

and was considered a joke.

But he was inspired by the example

of Don Garca and he stood there

looking handsome and brave,

and he made his face scornful.

Now the lines began to shout,

"Listen Don Faustino,

there are beautiful girls over

the cliff, why don't you chase them?"

It was then I knew

that the lines had become savage,

caused by the insult of Don Garca

and the cowardice of Don Faustino.

Don Guillermo wasn't a bad man. He was

only in politics because of his wife.

I heard her screaming, "Guillermo,

husband, wait. I'll go with you!"

He couldn't see her without his

glasses, but he looked up and waved.

And no one would hit him.

Then a drunkard yelled,

"Guillermo!"

"What bothers Pilar?", they asked me.

"I'm sick," I told them.

And they said, "Us too.

We'll take no further part in it."

But the worst was yet to come, Ingls,

when Pablo opened the city hall door

and let the mob in to kill the rest.

For yes, it was now a mob,

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