I owe him in compensation for so much
suffering!

Curtain to the Third Act.

ACT IV

SCENE FIRST

(The stage setting represents a public square. In the centre stands a
sheriff's officer on an auctioneer's block, around the base of which
are the various pieces for the machine. A crowd is gathered on each
side of the platform. To the left of the spectator are grouped
together Coppolus, Carpano, the landlord of the Golden Sun, Esteban,
Girone, Mathieu Magis, Don Ramon and Lothundiaz. To the right are
Fontanares and Monipodio; Quinola conceals himself in a cloak behind
Monipodio.)

Fontanares, Monipodio, Quinola, Coppolus, the landlord of the Golden
Sun, Esteban, Girone, Mathieu Magis, Don Ramon, Lothundiaz, Sheriff's
Officer, a crowd of people.

Sheriff's Officer
Gentlemen, show a little more warmth. Here we have a boiler, big
enough to cook a dinner for a regiment of the guards.

The Landlord
Four maravedis.

Sheriff's Office
Do I hear more? Come and look at it, examine it!

Mathieu Magis
Six maravedis.

Quinola (to Fontanares)
Senor, they will not fetch a hundred ducats.

Fontanares
We must try to be resigned.

Quinola
Resignation seems to me to be the fourth theological virtue omitted
from the list out of consideration for women!

Monipodio
Hold your tongue! Justice is on your track and you would have been
arrested before this if they had not taken you for one of my people.

Sheriff's Officer
This is the last lot, gentlemen. Going, going--no further bid? Gone!
It is knocked down to Senor Mathieu Magis for ten ducats, six
maravedis.

Lothundiaz (to Don Ramon)
What do you think of that? Thus ends the sublime invention of our
great man! He was right, by heaven, when he promised us a rare
spectacle!

Coppolus
You can laugh; he does not owe you anything.

Esteban
It is we poor devils who have to pay for his folly.

Lothundiaz
Did you get nothing, Master Coppolus? And what of my daughter's
diamonds, which the great man's servant put into the machine?

Mathieu Magis
Why, they were seized in my house.

Lothundiaz
And are not the thieves in the hand of justice? I would like best of
all to see Quinola, that cursed pilferer of jewels, in durance.

Quinola (aside)
Oh, my young life, what lessons are you receiving! My antecedents have
ruined me.

Lothundiaz
But if they catch him, his goose will soon be cooked, and I sha