Barry Lindon Read online

  Several cuts of playing and cheating to illustrate voice over.

  RODERICK (V.O.)

  Simplicity was our secret. Everything successful is simple. If, for instance, I wiped the dust off a chair with my napkin, it was to show that the enemy was strong in diamonds; if I pushed it, he had an ace, king; if I said, "Punch or wine, my lord?" hearts was meant. If "Wine or punch?" clubs. If I blew my nose, it was to indicate that there was another confederate employed by the adversary; and then, I warrant you, some pretty trials of skill would take place. The Prince of Turbingen, although so young, had a very great skill and cleverness with the cards in every way; and it was only from hearing Ritter von Brandenburg, who came with him, yawn three times when the Chevalier had the ace of trumps, that I knew we were Greek to Greek, as it were.

  The Prince loses a big hand, and, in a fury, throws down his cards. He stares at the table, then at the Chevalier.

  PRINCE

  Chevalier, though I cannot say how, I believe you have cheated me.

  CHEVALIER

  I deny your Grace's accusations, and beg you to say how you have been cheated?

  PRINCE

  (glaring at Roderick)

  I don't know.

  CHEVALIER

  Your Grace owes me seventy thousand frederics, which I have honorably won.

  PRINCE

  Chevalier, if you will have your money now, you must fight for it. If you will be patient, maybe I will pay you something another time.

  CHEVALIER

  Your Grace, if I am so tame as to take this, then I must give up an honorable and lucrative occupation.

  PRINCE

  I have said all there is to be said. I am at your disposal for whatever purposes you wish. Good night.

  He exits.

  EXT. GARDEN HOUSE - DAY

  Roderick, Captain Galgenstein and Minister Galgenstein.

  MINISTER GALGENSTEIN

  Was he cheated?

  RODERICK

  In so far as I can tell these things -- no. I believe the Chevalier won the money fairly.

  MINISTER GALGENSTEIN

  Hmm-mmmm.

  CAPTAIN GALGENSTEIN

  What are the Chevalier's intentions?

  RODERICK

  I am not sure. The Prince told him quite clearly that if he wished to have the money, he would have to fight for it.

  MINISTER GALGENSTEIN

  A meeting with the Prince of Turbingen is impossible.

  RODERICK

  The Prince left him only that choice.

  The Captain and the Minister walk a few steps away and speak in whispers.

  Then they return to Roderick.

  MINISTER GALGENSTEIN

  Will you be able to return here tomorrow without arousing suspicion?

  INT. CHEVALIER'S APARTMENTS - DAY

  CHEVALIER

  Tell them I intend to demand satisfaction from the Prince.

  RODERICK

  But they will prevent a meeting at whatever the cost.

  CHEVALIER

  Have no fear. It will come out well for me.

  RODERICK

  I believe they will deport you.

  CHEVALIER

  I have faced that problem before.

  RODERICK

  But, if they send you away, then what is to become of me?

  CHEVALIER

  (with a smile)

  Make your mind easy, you shall not be left behind, I warrant you. Do take a last look at your barracks, make your mind easy, say a farewell to your friends in Berlin. The dear souls, how they will weep when they hear you are out of the country, and, out of it, you shall go.

  RODERICK

  But how, sir?

  EXT. GARDEN HOUSE - BERLIN - DAY

  Roderick, Captain Galgenstein and Minister Galgenstein.

  MINISTER GALGENSTEIN

  The King has determined to send the Chevalier out of the country.

  RODERICK

  When is he to go?

  CAPTAIN GALGENSTEIN

  Has he sent the challenge yet?

  RODERICK

  Not yet, but I believe he intends to.

  MINISTER GALGENSTEIN

  Then this must be done tomorrow.

  RODERICK

  What is to be done?

  CAPTAIN GALGENSTEIN

  You say he drives after breakfast and before dinner. When he comes out to his carriage a couple of gendarmes will mount the box, and the coachman will get his orders to move on.

  RODERICK

  And his baggage?

  CAPTAIN GALGENSTEIN

  Oh! That will be sent after him. I have a fancy to look into that red box which contains his papers, you say; and at noon, after parade, shall be at the inn. You will not say a word to any one there regarding the affair, and will wait for me at the Chevalier's rooms until my arrival. We must force that box. You are a clumsy hound, or you would have got the key long ago.

  EXT. CHEVALIER'S APARTMENTS - DAY

  Action as per voice over.

  RODERICK (V.O.)

  At ten o'clock the next morning, the carriage of the Chevalier de Belle Fast drew up as usual at the door of his hotel, and the Chevalier came down the stairs in his usual stately manner.

  Looking around and not finding his servant to open the door.

  CHEVALIER

  Where is my rascal, Lazlo?

  PRUSSIAN OFFICER

  (standing by the carriage)

  I will let down the steps for your honor.

  No sooner does the Chevalier enter than the officer jumps in after him, another mounts the box by the coachman, and the latter begins to drive.

  CHEVALIER

  Good gracious! What is this?

  PRUSSIAN OFFICER

  (touching his hat)

  You are going to drive to the frontier.

  CHEVALIER

  It is shameful -- infamous! I insist upon being put down at the Austrian ambassador's house.

  PRUSSIAN OFFICER

  I have orders to gag your honor if you cry out, and to give you this purse containing ten thousand frederics if you do not.

  CHEVALIER

  Ten thousand? But the scoundrel owes me seventy thousand.

  PRUSSIAN OFFICER

  Your honor must lower his voice.

  CHEVALIER

  (whispering)

  All Europe shall hear of this!

  PRUSSIAN OFFICER

  As you please.

  Both lapse into silence.

  EXT. ROAD - DAY

  The coach drives by. Suddenly -- "boom," the alarm cannon begins to roar.

  INT. COACH - DAY

  PRUSSIAN OFFICER

  Do not be alarmed. The alarm cannon only signals a deserter.

  Chevalier nods.

  EXT. ROAD - DAY

  The coach drives by and action as described.

  RODERICK (V.O.)

  Hearing the sound of the alarm cannon, the common people came out along the road, with fowling-pieces and pitch-forks, in hopes to catch the truant. The gendarmes looked very anxious to be on the lookout for him too. The price of a deserter was fifty crowns to those who brought him in.

  EXT. SAXON CUSTOM-HOUSE - DAY

  The black and white barriers came in view at last hard by Bruck, and opposite them the green and yellow of Saxony. The Saxon custom-house officers came out.

  CHEVALIER

  I have no luggage.

  PRUSSIAN OFFICER

  The gentleman has nothing contraband.

  The Prussian officers, grinning, hand the Chevalier the purse and take their leave of their prisoner with much respect.

  The Chevalier de Belle Fast gives them three frederic a­piece.

  CHEVALIER

  Gentlemen, I wish you a good day. Will you please go to the house from whence we set out this morning, and tell my man there to send my baggage on to Three Kings at Dresden?

  RODERICK (V.O.)

  Then ordering fresh horses, the Chevalier set off on his journey for
that capital. I need not tell you that I was the Chevalier.

  INT. ROOM - HOTEL DES TROIS COURONNES - DAY

  Roderick reading a letter over his breakfast in bed.

  CHEVALIER (V.O.)

  From the Chevalier de Belle Fast to Roderick James, Esquire, Gentilhomme Anglais. At the Hotel des trois Couronnes, Dresden, Saxe. My dear Roderick -- This comes to you by a sure hand, no other than Mr. Lumpit, of the English mission, who is acquainted, as all Berlin will be directly, with our wonderful story. They only know half as yet; they only know that a deserter went off in my clothes, and all are in admiration of your cleverness and valor.

  INT. CHEVALIER'S ROOM - DAY

  Action as per description in letter.

  CHEVALIER (V.O.)

  As I lay in my bed two and a half hours after your departure, in comes your ex-captain, Galgenstein.

  CAPTAIN GALGENSTEIN

  (in his imperious Dutch manner)

  Roderick! Are you there? No answer.

  CAPTAIN GALGENSTEIN

  The rogue is gone out.

  Action as per voice over.

  CHEVALIER (V.O.)

  Straightaway he makes for the red box where I keep my love letters, my glass eye which I used to wear, my two sets of Paris teeth, and my other private matters that you know of. He first tries a bunch of keys, but none of them fit the English lock. Then he takes out of his pocket a chisel and hammer, and falls to work like a professional burglar, actually bursting open the little box! Now was my time to act! I advance towards him armed with an immense water-jug. I come noiselessly up to him just as he has broken the box, and, with all my might, I deal him such a blow over the head as smashes the water-jug to bits, and sends the captain with a snort lifeless to the ground. Then I ring all the bells in the house; and shout, and swear, and scream, "Thieves! -- Thieves! -- Landlord! -- Murder! -- Fire!" until the whole household comes tumbling up the stairs.

  CHEVALIER

  Where is my servant? Who dares to rob me in open day? Look at the villain whom I find in the act of breaking my chest open! Send for the police, send for his Excellency the Austrian Minister! All Europe shall know of this insult!

  LANDLORD

  Dear heaven! We saw you go away three hours ago.

  CHEVALIER

  Me! Why, man, I have been in bed all morning. I am ill -- I have taken physic -- I have not left the house this morning! Where is that scoundrel, Lazlo? But, stop! Where are my clothes and wig?

  CHAMBERMAID

  I have it -- I have it! Lazlo is off in your honor's dress.

  CHEVALIER

  And my money -- my money! Where is my purse with forty-eight frederics in it? But we have one of the villains left, Officers, seize him.

  LANDLORD

  (more and more astonished)

  It's the young Herr Galgenstein.

  CHEVALIER

  What! A gentleman breaking open my trunk with hammer and chisel -­impossible!

  CHEVALIER (V.O.)

  Herr Galgenstein was returning to life by this time, with a swelling on his skull as big as a saucepan; and the officers carried him off, and, to make a long story short, poor Galgenstein is now on his way to Spandau; and his uncle, the Minister of Police Galgenstein, has brought me five hundred louis, with a humble request that I would leave Berlin forthwith, and hush up this painful matter.

  INT. GERMAN PALACE - BALLROOM - NIGHT

  Roderick, the Chevalier and the Duke of Wurttemberg.

  RODERICK (V.O.)

  The Chevalier de Belle Fast was in particularly good order with the Duke of Wurttemberg, whose court was, at this period, the most brilliant in all Europe.

  The Duke of Wurttemberg chatting with ballet dancers, who will perform at the party.

  RODERICK (V.O.)

  He spent fabulous sums on the ballets and operas. All the ballerinas were pretty, and they all boasted that they had all at least once made their amorous sovereign happy.

  Roderick and the Chevalier kissing hands, hobnobbing with the nobility, and dancing minuets.

  RODERICK (V.O.)

  There was not a party of the nobility to which the two Irish gentlemen were not invited, and admired, nor where we did not make the brave, the high-born and the beautiful talk to us. There was no man in Europe more gay in spirits, more splendid in personal accomplishment, than young Roderick James.

  EXT. GERMAN STREET - DAWN

  Roderick and the Chevalier in a comfortable coach, on their way home to bed, pass troops marching out on early parade.

  INT. COACH - DAWN

  Roderick sinks back into the comfortable cushion and yawns.

  RODERICK (V.O.)

  What a delightful life did we now lead! I knew I was born a gentleman, from the kindly way in which I took to the business, as business certainly it is.

  INT. BEDROOM - GERMANY - DAY

  Roderick in a tub, being washed by a servant.

  RODERICK (V.O.)

  For though it seems all pleasure, yet I assure any low-bred persons who may chance to read this, that we, their betters, have to work as well as they; though I did not rise until noon, yet had I not been up at play until long past midnight?

  INT. ANOTHER BEDROOM - GERMANY - DAY

  His hair being done.

  RODERICK (V.O.)

  I came into it at once, and as if I had never done anything else all my life. I had a gentleman to wait upon me, a French friseur to dress my hair of a morning.

  INT. DINING ROOM - NIGHT

  A candle-lit supper.

  RODERICK (V.O.)

  I knew the taste of chocolate as by intuition almost, and could distinguish between the right Spanish and the French before I had been a week in my new position.

  INSERTS - JEWELRY

  Action and cuts as voice over.

  RODERICK (V.O.)

  I had rings on my fingers, watches in both my fobs, trinkets, and snuff-boxes, of all sorts, and each outvying the other in elegance.

  INT. RECEPTION ROOM - GERMANY - DAY

  As described.

  RODERICK (V.O.)

  I had the finest natural taste for lace and china of any man I ever knew.

  EXT. STABLES - GERMANY - DAY

  Buying horses.

  RODERICK (V.O.)

  I could judge a horse as well as any dealer in Germany. I could not spell, but I could speak German and French cleverly.

  INT. DRESSING ROOM - GERMANY - DAY

  Roderick being fitted for clothes.

  RODERICK (V.O.)

  I had at least twelve suits of clothes; three richly embroidered with gold, two laced with silver; one of French grey, silver-laced and lined with chinchilla. I had damask morning robes, to which a peacock's tail is as sober as a Quaker's drab skirt.

  INT. ORANGERY - DAY

  Action as voice over.

  RODERICK (V.O.)

  I took lessons on the guitar, and sang French catches exquisitely. Where, in fact, was there a more accomplished gentleman than Roderick James?

  INT. GAMING ROOM - GERMANY - NIGHT

  Action as per voice over.

  RODERICK (V.O.)

  How have we had the best blood, and the brightest eyes, too, of Europe throbbing round the table as I and the Chevalier have held the cards and the bank against some terrible player, who was matching some thousands out of his millions against our all which was there on the baize!

  INT. GAMING ROOM - GERMANY - NIGHT

  Roderick dealing a faro bank.

  RODERICK (V.O.)

  Our principles were: play grandly, honorably. Be not, of course, cast down at losing; but, above all, be not eager at winning, as mean souls are.

  INT. GAMING ROOM - GERMANY - NIGHT

  Action as voice over.

  RODERICK (V.O.)

  When the Duke of Courland brought fourteen lackeys each with bags of florins, and challenged our bank to play against the sealed bags, what did we ask?

  CHEVALIER

  Sir, we have but eighty thousand florins in ban
k, or two hundred thousand at three months; if your highness' bags do not contain more than eight thousand, we will meet you.

  Playing.

  RODERICK (V.O.)

  And we did, and after eleven hours play, in which our bank was at one time reduced to two hundred and three ducats, we won seventeen thousand florins off him.

  Four crowned heads look on at the game, and an imperial princess, when Roderick turns up the ace of hearts, bursts into tears.

  INT. MASQUERADE BALL - NIGHT

  Roderick and a girl.

  RODERICK (V.O.)

  Nor need I mention my successes among the fairer portion of the creation. One of the most accomplished, the tallest, the most athletic, and the handsomest gentleman in Europe, as I was then, a young fellow of my figure could not fail of having advantages, which a person of my spirit knew very well how to us.

  INT. BOUDOIR - NIGHT

  Making love to a masked lady.

  RODERICK (V.O.)

  Charming Schuvaloff.

  INT. COACH - NIGHT

  RODERICK (V.O.)

  Black-eyed Sczortarska.

  INT. BOUDOIR - NIGHT

  RODERICK (V.O.)

  Dark Valdez.

  RODERICK

  Do you expect me to believe that your lover brought you here tonight?

  VALDEZ

  Yes. He brought me in his carriage, and he will call for me at midnight.

  RODERICK

  And he doesn't care about me?

  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.

  EXT. GARDEN - NIGHT

  RODERICK (V.O.)

  Tender Hegenheim.

  INT. BOUDOIR - NIGHT

  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.