"Then the Grand Duke, who took on this occasion
The Austrian Emperor's place as Sponsor: then
Queen Hortense, and the Imperial Godmother;
Lastly, the King of Rome, borne by Her Grace,
The Duchess of Montesquieu. His Majesty,
Whose healthy mien the crowd observed with joy,
Wore a great silver mantle, lined with ermine,
Whose train His Grace the Duke of Valmy bore.
Princes--"

THE DUKE.

Omit the Princes.

HARTMANN.

[_Turning over a page._]

"Kings--"

THE DUKE.

Omit
The Kings. The end, sir; read the end--

HARTMANN.

[_Turning over several pages._]

"And when--"

THE DUKE.

I cannot hear you. Louder.

DOCTOR MALFATTI.

[_To_ WAGNER.]

The last agony.

HARTMANN.

[_Raising his voice._]

"And when the Herald thrice within the choir
Had cried 'Long live the King of Rome!' before
They handed back the baby to its nurse,
The Emperor gently took it from--"

[_He hesitates, with a glance at_ MARIA LOUISA.]

THE DUKE.

[_With infinite nobility and placing his hand with tender
forgiveness on the head of_ MARIA LOUISA, _who is kneeling
at his side._]

The Empress!

HARTMANN.

"And raised it to receive the acclamation.
The loud--"

THE DUKE.

[_Whose head drops._]

Mamma!

MARIA LOUISA.

[_Throwing herself across his body._]

Francois!

THE DUKE.

[_Opening his eyes._]

Napoleon!

[_He sinks back._]

HARTMANN.

"The loud _Te Deum_ filled the sanctuary.
And all that night, throughout the realm of France,
With equal pomp, solemnity, and joy--"

DOCTOR MALFATTI.

[_Putting his hand on the_ GENERAL'S _arm._]

Dead!

[_Silence. The_ GENERAL _closes the book._]

METTERNICH.

Clothe him in his Austrian uniform.

CURTAIN.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of L'Aiglon, by Edmond Rostand

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK L'AIGLON ***

***** This file should be named 30012.txt or 30012.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/0/1/30012/

Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was
produced from scanned images of public domain material
fro