Navarre: Good morning!
Let’s go find Phillipe.
Fornac: Well, well. Long way from the
sewers, little rat. This time, the drinks
are on me. Where is Navarre?
Phillipe: Navarre? Navarre? Oh, yes,
yes, big man, black horse. I saw him riding
south, toward Aquila.
Guard: Then we ride north, sir.
Phillipe: It’s not polite to assume
that somebody is a liar when you’ve
only just met him.
Fornac: Yet you knew we would. We ride
south. Toward Aquila.
Phillipe: I told the truth, Lord! How
can I learn any moral lessons, when you
keep confusing me like this?
Navarre: Easy, you’ll be all right.
Get me a piece of cloth from my saddlebag!
Easy, don’t be afraid, it’s
all right, it’s all right. Thanks.
You’ll be all right. You will be
fine. You’ll live. Take her, find
help.
Phillipe: Me, sir?
Navarre: You’re the only one I
have.
Phillipe: But sir, the hawk is done for.
Navarre: Don’t you say that! Follow
this road. You’ll find a ruined
castle. There’s a monk named Imperious.
Give him the hawk. He will know what to
do.
Phillipe: Sir, I don’t think you
understand…
Navarre: Get on my horse!
Phillipe: You’re the only one who
can ride him.
Navarre: You will do as I tell you! Get
on my horse, now! Careful. And know this-
if you fail, I will follow you the length
of my days. And I will find you. Go. Come
on, go.
Phillipe: There it is, see? The castle.
We’ll be there soon. Ah! Well, well,
that’s gratitude for you! All right,
let this Imperious watch you die. I’ve
got my own life to look after!
Navarre: Please.
Phillipe: Hello! Hello up there! For
peace sake, hello!
Imperious: Hello, hello! What do you
want down there?
Phillipe: I was told to bring you this
bird. It’s been wounded.
Imperious: Oh, good shot! Bring her in,
we’ll dine together.
Phillipe: We can’t eat this bird.
Imperious: Oh, why not… Oh, God,
is it lent again already?!
Phillipe: This is no ordinary hawk, father.
It belongs to a man named Navarre.
Imperious: Mother of God! Bring her in,
bring her in!
Phillipe: Stay. Good bird.
Imperious: Up here, boy! Hurry. Hurry!
Here, up here. This way. Now, careful.
Walk on the left side. There. Gently,
gently. Now, leave us.
Phillipe: Can I help?
Imperious: Get out, boy. Don’t
be frightened. Navarre was right. I know
what to do. We must wait a little.
Now, then, where is it? Oh, yes, there…
Now, what we’re going to need? Some
tarragon, rosemary, wood for the fire…
It’s late. Time, I need time. Now,
there, that’s it…
Isabeau: Navarre, is he?..
Phillipe: He’s fine, he’s
just fine, my lady. There was a terrible
battle. Navarre fought like a lion. The
hawk… The hawk was struck. You know
that, don’t you?
Isabeau: Yes.
Phillipe: Are you flesh, or are you spirit?
Isabeau: I am sorrow.
Imperious: How?.. Now, get out. This
time, stay out!
Guard: Forgive me, Your Grace. Cezar
has arrived.
Phillipe: It’s him, isn’t
it? The wolf, somehow, it’s him.
Imperious: Drink, forget!
Phillipe: An hour ago you were drunk,
and you remembered.
Imperious: What do they call you, boy?
Phillipe: Phillipe Gaston.
Imperious: Her name is Isabeau D’Anjou.
Her father was the count D’Anjou,
an ill-tempered fellow. He found his death
slaying Saracens in Antioch. She came
to live, with her cousin I think it was,
in Aquila. I shall never forget the first
time I saw her. It was like looking at…
Phillipe: The face of love.
Imperious: Ah, you too? Well, I suppose
we were all in love with her in different
ways. Even His Grace, the Bishop, couldn’t
think of nothing else.
Phillipe: The Bishop loved her?!
Imperious: As near as that evil man could
come to it. His passion was a sort of
madness. He was a man possessed! But Isabeau
sensed his wickedness, and she shrank
from him. She sent back all his letters
and left his poems unread. Her heart was
already lost, you see. To the Captain
of the Guard.
Phillipe: Etienne Navarre!
Imperious: The Bishop knew nothing about
their love. But every day he saw it grow
stronger and deeper and richer. Until…
Phillipe: Until?
Imperious: They were betrayed. They shared
the same confessor, a weak, foolish priest.
On one day, on a drunken confession to
his superior, he committed a mortal sin.
He revealed the lovers’ secret vows
to the Bishop. The old fool didn’t
realize what he had done at first, or
the terrible revenge the Bishop would
exact. His Grace seemed to go mad, he
lost both his sanctity and his reason.
He swore, that if he could not have her,
no man would. So, Navarre and Isabeau
fled from Aquila. The Bishop followed,
ever more ardent, ever more persistent
than a hound. An evil man, a powerful
man, hated and feared; rejected even by
Rome itself. He called upon the powers
of darkness for the means to damn the
lovers. In his fury and frustration, he
struck a dreadful bargain…with the
Evil One. The dark powers of hell spat
up a terrible curse, and you have seen
it working. By day, Isabeau is the beautiful
bird you brought to me. And by night,
as you have already guessed, the voice
of the wolf that we hear is the cry of
Navarre. Poor dumb creatures, with no
memory of the half-life of their human
existence, never touching in the flesh.
Only the anguish of a split second at
sunrise and sunset, when they can almost
touch… but not.
Phillipe: …always together…eternally
apart…
Imperious: As long as the sun rises and
sets, as long as there is day and night,
and for as long as they both shall live.
You have stumbled onto a tragic story,
Phillipe Gaston. And now, whether you
like it or not, you are lost in it, with
the rest of us.
Bishop: Useless, all of them.
Cezar: My traps are full. I can’t
kill every wolf that lives. Since the
plague there are more wolves then men.
Bishop: …And there is a woman.
Cezar: Your Grace?
Bishop: A beautiful woman. With alabaster
skin, and the eyes of a dove. She travels
by night, only by night. Her sun is the
moon. And her name is… Isabeau.
Find her, and you find the wolf. The wolf
I want. The wolf who… loves her.
A black wolf.
Cezar: Isabeau.
Phillipe: Don’t, don’t. You
might start bleeding again.
Isabeau: Tell me your name.
Phillipe: Most people call me Phillipe
"The Mouse".
Isabeau: You travel with him, don’t
you?
Phillipe: Yes. "You must save this
hawk", he said. "For she is
my life, my last and best reason for living".
And then he said, "one day we will
know such happiness, as two people dream
of, but never do".
Isabeau: He said that?
Phillipe: I swear it on my life.
Does she know?
Imperious: What?
Phillipe: That you are the priest that
betrayed them.
Imperious: The Lord has declared an end
to it at last. He has given me the knowledge
to undo what I have done. After two years,
he has brought us back together again.
Phillipe: Make yourself clear, if you
can.
Imperious: I have found a way to break
the curse, and a time for Navarre to confront
the Bishop and to begin his own true life
again.
Phillipe: He intends to confront the
Bishop, to kill him with the sword of
his ancestors.
Imperious: No, he mustn’t do that!
He can’t! If he kills the Bishop,
the curse can never be broken!
Look after Isabeau, boy! Go, quickly!
Guard: Open up the door, in the name
of His Holiness the Bishop of Aquila!
Imperious: Ah, away with you! This is
a house of God, not a brothel!
Guard: I said, open up, in the name of
the Bishop!
Imperious: I’ve met the Bishop,
you blasphemous lout! And you look nothing
like him!
Guard: Break it in!
Guard: Yes, sir.
Phillipe: Left side, left side.
Guard: Come on!
Phillipe: My lady, my lady. Come with
me.
Isabeau: What is it?
Phillipe: Don’t talk, come with
me.
Imperious: Sorry! I am a monk, not an
architect!
Guard: Move it in here!
Phillipe: In here, my lady.
Imperious: This way, my son, straight
to the big main doors. And don’t
forget… walk on the left side.
Phillipe: Careful… Go back, back
inside.
Isabeau: Phillipe, it’s me they’re
after!
Phillipe: Don’t flatter yourself.
Isabeau: Hold me! I’m slipping!
Phillipe: No!!!
Guard: You! Where is the woman?
Phillipe: She flew away!
Guard: Where is she?!
Phillipe: God’s truth, she flew
away! It always pays to say the truth,
my Lord. Thank you. I see that now.
Navarre: I thought you might have been
dead, old man. There were times I wanted
to kill you myself. But I’m very
grateful… for this.
Imperious: It is I who should be grateful
to have the chance to redeem myself, and
to save you and Isabeau. Because the Lord
has told me, how the curse may be broken.
Navarre: You have betrayed us once, I
warn you.
Imperious: Three days hence, the Bishop
will hear confessions from the clergy
in the cathedral in Aquila. All you have
to do is to confront him, both of you,
as man and woman, in the flesh, and the
curse will be confounded, broken. And
both of you will be free!
Navarre: Impossible.
Imperious: As long as there is night
and day, no. But three days hence, in
Aquila, there will be a day without a
night, and a night without a day.
Navarre: Go back inside, old man, go
back to your drink.
Imperious: You think that I’m drunk?!
I swear to you, God has shown me! He has
forgiven me!
Navarre: He hasn’t forgiven you.
He’s made you mad.
Phillipe: Sir, sir! It’s all right.
Sir, sir! How’s your shoulder?
Navarre: I’m in your debt.
Phillipe: Me? Sir, no, no, not at all.
She wanted me to deliver a message. To
say, that she still has hope, faith in
you.
Navarre: You’re free to go.
Phillipe: I know that, sir.
Navarre: Do as you like.
Phillipe: Yes, sir. And you and Ladyhawke
will be going on to Aquila?
Navarre: Ladyhawke? Yes.
Phillipe: Well, it just so happens, I’m
headed in that general direction myself.
Navarre: Really? Than you better grab
your things, I’m leaving.
Phillipe: Right.
Navarre: Ladyhawke.
Phillipe: Imperious, I’m leaving
with the Captain, follow us.
But if the old man is right about breaking
the curse, if you and Isabeau could face
the Bishop together as man and woman…
Navarre: You will not mention this again.
Not to me and not to her. Understood? |
Spain.
