nterprise.

Faustine
What modesty!

Fontanares
Is this meant for a joke?

All
Long live Don Ramon!

Coppolus
In the name of the merchants of Catalonia, Don Ramon, we have come to
beg your acceptance of this silver crown, a token of their gratitude
for a discovery which is likely to prove a new source of prosperity to
them.

All
Long live Don Ramon!

Don Ramon
It is with the keenest pleasure that I see that commerce recognizes
the future developments of steam navigation.

Fontanares
Let my laborers come forth! You, the children of the people, whose
hands have completed my work, bear witness for me! It was from me only
that you received the models. Say now, whether it was Don Ramon or I
who originated the new power which the sea has felt to-day?

Esteban
By my faith, you would have been in a pretty fix without Don Ramon!

Mathieu Magis
It was two years ago, in the course of a conversation with Don Ramon,
that he begged me to furnish funds for this experiment.

Fontanares (to Fregose)
My lord, what strange delusion has fallen upon the people and
burgesses of Barcelona? I arrive here in the midst of the acclamations
with which Don Ramon is being greeted. Yes, I arrive bearing the
traces of the vigils and sweat of this great enterprise, and I find
you contentedly sanctioning the most shameful act of robbery that can
be perpetrated in the face of heaven and earth. (Murmurs from the
crowd.) Alone and unprotected I have risked my life on this
enterprise. I was the first who pledged its accomplishment to the
king, and unaided I have kept my pledge, and yet here in my place I
find Don Ramon--an ignoramus.

(More crowd murmurs.)

Don Fregose
An old soldier knows very little about scientific matters and must
accept plain facts. All Catalonia conceded to Don Ramon the priority
in this invention, and everybody here declares that without him you
would have accomplished nothing. It is my duty to inform his majesty,
the king, of these circumstances.

Fontanares
The priority! Where are the proofs of this?

The Grand Inquisitor
They are as follows: In his treatise on the casting of cannons Don
Ramon speaks of a certain invention called Thunder, made by Leonardo
da Vinci, your master, and says that it might be applied to the
navigation of a ship.

Don Ramon
Ah! young man, acknowledge that you had read my treatises!

Fontanares (aside)
I would sacrifice all my glory for one hour of vengeance!