VALDEZ

He is only curious to know who you are.

RODERICK

If his love were like mine, he would not permit you to come here.

VALDEZ

He loves me, as I love you.

RODERICK

Will he wish to know the details of this night?

VALDEZ

He will believe that it will please me if he asks about it, and I shall tell him everything except some circumstances which might humiliate him.

RODERICK (V.O.)

Tender Hegenheim.

RODERICK (V.O.)

Brilliant Langeac.

Roderick takes from his portfolio a little jacket of very fine transparent skin, eight inches long and closed at one end, and which by way of a pouch string at its open end, has a narrow pink ribbon.

He displays it to her, she looks at it, and laughs.

LANGEAC

I will put in on you myself.

She puts it on, out of shot.

LANGEAC

There you are, dressed by my hand. It is nearly the same thing; but despite the fineness and transparency of the skin, the little fellow pleases me less well in costume. It seems that this covering degrades him, or degrades me -- one of the other.

RODERICK

Both, my angel. It was Love who invented these little jackets: for he had to ally himself with Precaution.

Roderick making love to the Countess von Trotha. Enter the Count, in the uniform of a Colonel.

COUNT

I entered here, monsieur, at a bad moment for you; it seems that you love this lady.

RODERICK

Certainly, monseigneur, does not Your Excellency consider her worthy of love?

COUNT

Perfectly so; and what is more, I will tell you that I love her, and that I am not of a humor to put up with rivals.

RODERICK

Very well! Now that I know it, I will no longer love her.

COUNT

Then you yield to me.

RODERICK

On the instant. Everyone must yield to such a nobleman as you.

COUNT

Very well; but a man who yields takes to his legs.

RODERICK

That is a trifle strong.

COUNT

Take to your legs, low Irish dog. Roderick smiles at him.

RODERICK

Your Excellency has wantonly insulted me. That being so, I conclude that you hate me, Monseigneur, and that hence you would be glad to remove me from the number of the living. In this wish, I can and will satisfy Your Excellency.

Roderick's sword duel with the Count. Details to be worked out. INT. BILLIARD ROOM - NIGHT

Roderick watches the Chevalier play with a Prussian officer, Lieutenant Dascher.

RODERICK (V.O.)

It was my unrivaled skill with sword and pistol, and readiness to use them, that maintained the reputation of the firm.

Towards the end of the game, Dascher, seeing that he is losing, makes an unfair stroke, so obvious that the marker tells him so to his face.

Lieutenant Dascher, for whom the stroke wins the game, takes the money which is in the stake bag, and puts it in his pocket, paying no attention to the marker's adjurations, or to Roderick's.

Roderick, who is without his sword, reaches for a billiard cue and swings it at Dascher's face.

He wards off the blow with his arm, drawing his sword and runs at Roderick, who is unarmed.

The marker, a sturdy young man, catches Dascher around the waist and prevents murder.

DASCHER

I see that you are without your sword, but I believe you are a man of mettle. Will you give me satisfaction?

RODERICK

I shall be delighted; but you have lost and you must pay me the money before we meet, for, after all, you cannot pay me when you are dead.

ANOTHER OFFICER

I will undertake to pay you the 2 0 louis, but only tomorrow morning at the meeting.

On the field, there are six people waiting with Dascher, and his seconds. Dascher takes 20 louis from his pocket and hands them to Roderick, saying:

DASCHER

I may have been mistaken, but I mean to make you pay deadly for your brutality.

Roderick takes the money and puts it in his purse with the utmost calm, making no reply to the other's boasting.

RODERICK

(privately)

It is distasteful to kill a scoundrel -- that should be work for a hangman.

CHEVALIER

To risk one's life against such people is an imposition.

RODERICK

(laughs)

I risk nothing, for I am certain to kill him.

CHEVALIER

Certain?

RODERICK

Perfectly certain, because I shall make him tremble.

He takes his station between two trees, about four paces apart, and draws a pair of dueling pistols.

RODERICK

You have only to pace yourself at ten paces difference, and fire first. The space between these two trees is the place where I choose to walk back and forth. You may walk too, if you wish, when it is my turn to fire.

No one could have explained his intentions more clearly or spoken more calmly.

DASCHER

But we must decide who is to have the first shot.

RODERICK

There is no need of that. I never fire first; and, in any case, you have that right.

Dascher places himself at the specified distance.

Roderick walks slowly back and forth between the two trees without looking at him.

Dascher takes aim and fires, missing.

RODERICK

(with the greatest composure)

You missed me, sir. I was sure you would. Try again.

The others think he is mad, and had expected some kind of discussion between the parties, but not a bit of it.

Dascher takes careful aim and fires a second shot, again missing Roderick.

Without a word, but in a firm and confident manner, Roderick fires his first shot into the air.

Dascher looks amazed. Then, aiming at Dascher with his second pistol, he hits him in the center of the forehead and stretches him out dead on the ground.

Roderick and Chevalier traveling in their coach.

RODERICK (V.O.)

Thus is will be seen that our life, for all its splendor was one of extreme difficulty and danger, requiring high talents and courage for success, and sudden and unexpected departures.

They meet a four-wheel carriage, drawn by two horses, carrying a master and a servant.

The driver of the four-wheel carriage wants Roderick's driver to make way for him.

Roderick's driver protests that if he does, he will upset his master in the ditch, but the other insists.

Roderick addresses the master, a handsome young man, and asks him to order his driver to make way for him.

RODERICK

I am posting, monsieur, and furthermore I am a foreigner.

STRANGER

Monsieur, here in Saxony, the post has no special right, and if you are a foreigner, you must admit that you have no greater claim than mine, since I am in my own country.

At that, Roderick gets out and holding his drawn-sword tells the stranger to get out, or to make way for him.

The stranger replies, with a smile, that he has no sword and that, in any case, he will not fight for such a silly reason.

He tells Roderick to get back in his chaise, and he makes way for him.

Roderick and the Chevalier running a faro bank when an important lady suffers a huge loss.