Rose of Versailles 3
[The first half of bunko volume 2]
Riyoko Ikeda
Shuueisha
Translated by Emily Horner emily@obliviousgirl.net
November 2000
Forbidden Love
Eh...for some reason I forgot to format this with {} to indicate people's
thoughts, and didn't realize it until it would be too much work to go back
and put them in. You can probably figure out for yourselves what's spoken
and what's unspoken in the first 50 pages.
Oscar : It's been four years, hasn't it? I didn't recognize you at
first.
Hans Axel : Rumors about you have spread as far as Sweden. I heard you'd
been promoted to Captain of the guards...I heard about the
extremely skilled woman leading them...
Oscar : Fersen!
Hans Axel : Oscar!
The real reason that I've returned to France is to search for
a partner in marriage, at my father's request. The oldest son
of the general of Sweden's army and an advisor to the royal
family can't remain single forever.
Oscar : Marriage?
Hans Axel : I'm not getting any younger...
Two or three of the daughters of the Minister of Finance have
been selected as candidates.
Oscar : Are you going to see Lady Antoinette?
Hans Axel : I'll pay a visit to the palace tomorrow. Has she changed?
<>
Hans Axel : She's beautiful, beautiful beyond compare, like a blooming
flower, overflowing with dazzling elegance.
Marie : Hans Axel von Fersen!
Yes, I know him! He's an old friend, from long ago!
<>
Marie : Oh, Fersen! Is it really you?
I knew...I knew that you'd come back to France!
Crossing hundreds upon hundreds of nights, transcending the long
time and distance that had separated them, the passion in the heart
of Marie Antoinette, the 22-year-old Queen, was reborn.
<>
A moment filled with light, frozen in the flow of time...
Oscar : She's just like she was four years ago! Maybe at least this
way she'll separate herself from Countess Polignac a bit...
<>
Polignac : Count Fersen!? A young Swedish nobleman!?
Lady Antoinette invited that young thing to the court while
I was away giving birth?
This is not good! If I don't keep my eyes on her, she'll
start doing whatever she wants!
What kind of a man is this Fersen? Well, since he's foreign,
surely he won't know the proper rules of the court...
--Countess Polignac is here!
Marie : Countess Polignac! You came at just the right time!
Marie : I've been talking to Oscar just now, and I think that I ought
to quit gambling.
Polignac : What?
Marie : After all, it is against the law...and I lose all the time, and
the country keeps getting further in debt...
Polignac : I see...well, that's perfectly all right, we'll just have to
find some other amusement.
That Oscar! Stepping in where it wasn't her business!
<>
Marie : By the way, Oscar, I've heard a great deal of talk about a
pretty young girl at your house.
Oscar : She is a distant relative of my older sister's fiancé.
Marie : Well, you definitely ought to bring her to the palace!
Polignac : Even you!? Haven't you heart that she was very rude to my
daughter at the ball? She even threw a fan at her!
Oscar : Countess Polignac, it was Miss Charlotte who was at fault.
<>
Polignac : What? You're saying that my daughter was to blame?
Oscar : Yes, she insulted Rosalie, and I would like her to apologize.
Polignac : She would dare say that to me, when I can manipulate the
Queen so easily? That's very dangerous, Oscar. If you
interfere with me, I will have to do something...and I can
do anything now.
<>
Oscar : And in the time of Charles VII, the Hundred Years' War finally
came to an end. This was around the time of Joan of Arc.
Rosalie : Yes, I understand.
Oscar : You're working hard, and you remember everything so quickly.
It's easy to teach you. I've already taught you the basics
of history, literature, and etiquette.
She's beautiful...you'd think she'd been a noble from
birth...
Rosalie : Oscar...
Um, do you know of any noble women named Martine Gabrielle?
<>
Oscar : Hmm...Martine Gabrielle, and then what? What's her last name?
Rosalie : I don't know! But--she's my real mother! My mother told me
right before she died that I was the daughter of a noble
woman!
Oscar : Is that true? Why didn't you say so before?
Rosalie : Because I couldn't believe it myself...
But if she's still alive, I'd like to see her, even if it
was just a glance...
Oscar : Do you know, André?
André : Martine Gabrielle? I feel like I've heard the name before...
Oscar : All right, Rosalie! I'll do everything in my power to find
out who this Martine Gabrielle is!
Rosalie : Oscar!
Oscar : Rosalie, sit down now and let's practice your pronunciation.
You'll have to appear in the palace soon...the Queen said
she'd like to meet you.
Rosalie : The Queen!?
<>
Rosalie : No, I don't want to meet her!
Oscar : Rosalie?
Rosalie : Everyone said that we were suffering by not getting enough to
eat because of her frivolities!
Oscar : Sit down, Rosalie.
Rosalie : No! She's mean, and silly, and as cold as a monster, and...
Oscar : Sit down!
<>
Polignac : You look very beautiful, Charlotte! Just as I wished, you're
the prettiest princess in the palace!
Charlotte : That girl's coming with Oscar again today! Rosalie--was it
that--isn't even a noble!
Polignac : What are you worried about? No one could compare to you.
--Hans Axel von Fersen has arrived!
--Captain Oscar François de Jarjayes has arrived!
--Look over that way, it's as pretty as a picture!
--Truly! How beautiful!
Charlotte : No one's looking at me, mother!
--The King and the Queen have arrived!
Marie : I felt as if my heart would stop just now! I wonder why?
<>
Marie : I have to calm down, everyone's staring at me! I have to
calm down, or they'll think I'm strange!
Good day, Oscar. Is that the girl you spoke of before?
Oscar : Yes, Lady Antoinette.
Charlotte : Mother! The Queen talked to someone else before talking to us!
Polignac : What does this mean, Lady Antoinette?
Marie : Enjoy yourself, Miss Rosalie La Molière.
Rosalie : This is the Queen? She's not the person I thought she was,
the one everyone in town talks about! She's as beautiful
and as gentle as a goddess!
Rosalie : It's an honour to meet you.
Polignac : My Queen, let me introduce to you my daughter Charlotte.
I trust you have not forgotten us?
Marie : Countess Polignac!
<>
Rosalie : It's that woman! The one who killed my mother with her
carriage and escaped while laughing!
Polignac : This can't be!
<>
Rosalie : Sir Oscar!
Oscar : Wait!
Rosalie : Why? Let me go!
Oscar : Do you want to be killed for nothing?
Polignac : This girl...!
Lady Antoinette, this girl is not nobility!
Marie : Countess Polignac?
Polignac : In Paris, I...
<>
Oscar : Well, Countess Polignac!
Polignac : Oscar!
Oscar : What did you say you did in Paris?
Were you about to confess to the Queen that you ran her
innocent mother over with a carriage in Paris?
Remember this! This girl has been searching for you to
avenge her mother! She was prepared to die right here
for that!
<>
Polignac : No, it was a misunderstanding on my part, Lady Antoinette.
I'm sorry for getting upset.
Did she really come all this way to avenge her mother?
Rosalie : I was so close...so close to getting my revenge...Why
have I been practicing swordsmanship so far, if not for this?
Oscar : You'd have had your revenge, but what then? You'd have been
executed as well. Isn't that foolish? Do you value your own
life so little that you'd be willing to kill Countess Polignac
only to die yourself?
<>
Oscar : Don't die, Rosalie! You've become a member of the Jarjayes
family, and I don't want to let you die!
Rosalie : Oscar...Oscar!
Oscar : No matter what happens, let's seek out this Martine Gabrielle.
So just think of tomorrow, Rosalie.
Hans Axel : I had no idea Oscar's anteroom was so large...
<>
--Aren't you ready yet? The people from the counts' houses
have been waiting for some time.
Hans Axel : Oscar!
Damn! I got the wrong room!
--How rude, Count Fersen!
Hans Axel : I'm very sorry, I was mistaken about the room...
<>
--Queen?
Marie : Pick up my fan, please...
What a sweet surprise! Fersen suddenly flew in front of
me, like Icarus, and I felt as if I would stop breathing!
<>
Oscar : You went into the Queen's room by mistake, you dolt?
Hans Axel : Hey, who do you think I came here for? Oscar, be careful!
Polignac is targeting you.
Countess Polignac, the so-called "Shadow Queen," is capable
of anything, so be careful, Oscar!
On the special request of Queen Marie Antoinette, Fersen came to the palace
dressed in the blue and white uniform of the Swedish military. A short
while later...
<>
Marie : Wonderful! It suits you so well! Count Fersen, you look
very good in those foreign clothes.
--Look at how the Queen's looking at him!
--She's a married woman!
--Don't you find the Queen's kindness to Count Fersen strange?
--It seems she's forgotten her own position!
--If they were in love...
<>
Oscar : Ah!
<>
Oscar : André!
Marie : Oscar!
<>
Hans Axel : Oscar!
Oscar : I'm all right. But that was close.
--Oh, that heavy chandelier!
--What happened to it? It didn't seem that old!
Oscar : Was it a coincidence?
Marie : Oscar was--Oscar was--
Polignac : It's all right, your highness.
Oscar : No...it's possible that...
<>
Nicolas : Are you sure it's all right for us to come in this far, Jeanne?
Jeanne : Don't be stupid! Anyone can come in here as long as they
have a hat and sword! Get a hold of yourself!
The Queen will pass through the hall of mirrors soon, and then
we'll try the same trick as before.
--That was really dangerous, let's have all the chandeliers
in the palace tested!
Nicolas : The Queen is coming! Quick, Jeanne!
Jeanne : All right!
Nicolas : Jeanne! Wake up, my wife! Wake up, Jeanne!
<>
Oscar : You're...
Nicolas : Captain!
Wake up, Jeanne, we've got to get out of here! It's my
captain!
Goodbye!
Oscar : A strange man...I normally wouldn't suspect him of anything,
but he was acting a little oddly...
Jeanne : Yes, I've gone to the palace and talked intimately with
the Queen. I now understand that the reason she hates
you results completely from a misunderstanding.
Rouen : Oh, I'm so glad!
Jeanne : You still cannot have an audience with her because of her
mother in Austria, but she said she might reply if you
would write her a letter.
Rouen : I'm crying with happiness!
I'm going home right now to write her a letter!
--Sir Oscar! The Queen has called you. She says to come to
Versailles at once because there is a matter she wishes to
speak with you about.
Oscar : What? The Queen? I wonder what it could be about.
All right, I'll go right away.
Rosalie : Sir Oscar! Please don't go! You promised you would help me
with my grammar!
Oscar : Rosalie...I'm sorry, but this is my job.
Rosalie : No, your promise to me should come first! I've been studying
so hard!
<>
Oscar : You don't understand, do you?
Rosalie : Why is some whim of the Queen more important than your promise
to me?
Oscar : Rosalie!
Rosalie : No! You're always going on about the Queen, the Queen.
Oscar : Rosalie!
Rosalie : I'm sorry. But...at least let me go with you...
Oscar : All right, hurry up.
Rosalie : You don't understand...you don't understand...the Queen has
everything, and I have nothing but my feelings for you...
<>
Oscar : This is a little strange...they said that the Queen was at the
Opera today.
André : That was a wasted errand.
Oscar : But don't you find it odd?
<>
Oscar : Damn! André, my sword--!
Who are you? Who called you here?
<>
--Good, the girl's here too! Die!
Oscar : Get away, Rosalie! You can drive the carriage back to to
the house!
Rosalie : I...
<>
Oscar : Rosalie!
--Even though you're a woman...
André : Oscar!
Rosalie : Eeek!
André : Oscar!
--That'll finish him off!
Hans Axel : Oscar!
<>
André : Sir Fersen!
--Pull back, someone's coming!
Hans Axel : Is Oscar all right?
I stopped by her house and saw that she wasn't home, and
thought maybe...
Rosalie : If only I hadn't come along and gotten in the way!
--Sir Oscar was attacked by a highwayman and got hurt!
--It's a very serious wound; she was stabbed in the left shoulder.
--And Miss Rosalie was attacked as well!
--Are her wounds very deep?
--Someone called her, pretending to be the Queen!
<>
Polignac : Charlotte, you came at just the right time. I was about to
have an important talk with you.
Charlotte : Mother...
What did you do to Sir Oscar?
Polignac : Don't be silly, Charlotte.
Charlotte : I'm not! Last night, uncle came home with strange men with
blood on their clothes!
Polignac : That could have been an accident...yes, it was!
Charlotte : You're lying to me, mother!
Polignac : Be quiet, Charlotte!
Polignac : {It's bad that they weren't able to kill her...and they had the
chance to get that girl, too! But it is a serious wound, so
she probably won't come to the palace for a while...}
Now, stop with that nonsense and come here. I've decided
that you're to marry Count De Guiche. It's thanks to your
mother's influence that you'll be able to marry a Count.
Charlotte : {Marriage!?}
Marriage? You must be joking...I'm only eleven, mother...
<>
Polignac : Count De Guiche likes young girls. You mustn't be selfish!
You can become a Countess!
Charlotte : {No...that's too frightening...when Sir Oscar is still...}
A month later, Oscar was able to return to court, still protecting her left shoulder.
--Oscar François!
--It's been so long!
--Has her wound healed completely?
--What scary eyes!
--She must be in a bad mood!
--Probably because of your shrill voice talking about her wound!
<>
Oscar : Rosalie, stay close by my side. I'm not the only one they
were targeting.
Rosalie : Yes, Sir Oscar.
Marie : Oscar! I've been so worried about you! Are you all better
now? We're trying to find the culprit as soon as possible!
Oscar : Lady Antoinette...
Polignac : Your Highness! Such a big fuss over someone who might have
been a simple bandit!
{What? There's no proof! No one can say anything as long as
there isn't any proof!}
Rosalie : She's watching Oscar...she might not even know what her own
mother did...
Oscar : Ow!
André : Oscar!
Oscar : I shouldn't be so careless.
André : You should put your arm in a cast so it won't move!
Charlotte : Your chair...
Oscar : Miss Charlotte!
Charlotte : Oscar, Sir...could I touch your left hand, please?
<>
--Poor Charlotte...
--She's being forced to marry Count de Guiche.
--The poor thing's only eleven years old.
Charlotte : {Marriage!?}
Hans Axel : This Regel is an English lady...she has a great deal of wealth
and a high status, and I intend to write to my father in
Sweden and arrange an engagement.
Oscar : Is she beautiful? What about her character? Her hobbies?
Her education?
Hans Axel : I don't know a thing about those. The only problem for me
is whether or not it will be profitable for my father.
<>
Oscar : Can you marry someone you don't even love, Fersen!?
Hans Axel : Oscar...but can you marry someone if all you have is love?
<>
Marie : The Swedish ambassador...
I haven't seen Count Fersen in my salon lately, has he
fallen ill?
--Look, the Queen's asking about Count Fersen again!
--It's as if that's all she thinks about! Don't you find it
strange?
--Queen, Count Fersen is here to see you.
Marie : {He's finally come! There are so many things I want to tell
him! But they all disappear when I see his face...}
What's wrong, Count Fersen? You haven't come to play cards
at all. I've been worried.
Hans Axel : Your Highness...
<>
Hans Axel : I am sorry. Talks about my engagement are progressing now...
Marie : {Marriage!?}
Well...congratulations...you must be very happy. And your
fiancée...your fiancée...
Oscar : Lady Antoinette!
<>
Marie : {Married...Fersen is to be married...Well, of course he is.
What am I so surprised at? Why am I crying? No...the tears
just come on their own...but my chest feels so tight!
Fersen is to be married!}
Oscar : Fersen! Why did you tell her? Why!?
<>
Hans Axel : How could I possibly tell her that I loved her!?
She's the Queen...the wife of the King of France.
It is treason against the King!
Hans Axel : I fear what would happen if I allowed myself to get any closer
to her...with these feelings...
Oscar : Fersen...
Rosalie : Where are you, Sir Oscar?
{Miss Charlotte de Polignac...}
<>
Rosalie : {I hear that she's going to be married to Count de Guiche,
even though she's only eleven...I feel sorry for her...}
Charlotte...
Charlotte : Rosalie La Molière...
Rosalie : {She's completely innocent, and so young!}
Polignac : What are you doing, Charlotte? Come here!
Don't talk with that suspicious girl!
<>
Charlotte : That's cruel, mother! Rosalie La Molière is...
Polignac : {Rosalie La Molière!?}
Charlotte : Mother?
Polignac : {La Molière!}
Did you say Rosalie La Molière!?
<>
André : Oscar, Rosalie, this is urgent!
I know who that woman is, Martine Gabrielle!
It's the name of Countess Polignac! Martine Gabrielle de
Polignac!
<>
Rosalie : Martine Gabrielle de Polignac!? Countess Polignac is my
real mother!?
Oscar : Are you sure you're not mistaken, André?
André : I'm absolutely sure. I investigated all the nobles that could
be called noble.
<>
Oscar : Rosalie!
<>
Polignac : Is Rosalie La Molière really that child? Rosalie is such a
common name that it didn't even trouble me, but--if she really
is Rosalie La Molière...then the woman hit by my carriage
was...
Polignac : La Molière, who worked as a maid in the house of Valois, to
whom I entrusted Rosalie right after she was born. I have
to be sure...oh, God!
Oscar : Rosalie, it's me. May I come in?
<>
Oscar : If I had known it would turn out like this...if I had known
that what I did would cause you so much pain...even when I
taught you how to use a sword, I wanted time to persuade you
not to seek revenge. I couldn't just abandon you, if you
would have even become a prostitute...
<>
Oscar : But it seems that there's nothing left for me to do. There's
not even anything I can do about your sadness.
Rosalie : No, Oscar...If I hadn't met you then, my body would have
been corrupted and I would be extremely poor. I'm so grateful
that I can't even find the words to say it. If you hadn't
been there...
Please don't worry, I've made up my mind.
My mother was a woman so poor she mostly only ate bread crumbs
and even sold her underwear for food, but she did her best
to raise me.
<>
Rosalie : I may be the daughter of Countess Polignac, but my mother
was that gentle woman, La Molière. I feel that from the
bottom of my heart!
Oscar : Rosalie...
Are you sure you're all right, coming to the ball?
Rosalie : What about you, with your left arm the way it is?
Oscar : {Fersen isn't here...}
<>
Rosalie : {No, she isn't my mother! I only have one mother!}
<>
Polignac : You...
Rosalie : {I still think I'd like to kill her if I could! I could
never call her my mother!}
Polignac : {Rosalie...are you really my Rosalie?}
Rosalie : {Charlotte...my little sister?
She's my little sister, crying all by herself...}
Rosalie : You love Oscar, don't you?
Charlotte : Rosalie...
Rosalie : You poor thing, having to get married so young...I understand.
I love Oscar too...so much it hurts...
Charlotte : Rosalie! You're so kind. I'm sorry for saying such hurtful
things before.
Charlotte : {No one else will get close to me because they're afraid of
my mother's power...except for you, Rosalie...you're like
a sister!}
I don't want to get married!
Rosalie : Charlotte!
{Charlotte, Charlotte! My little sister, who cries at night
thinking the same thoughts!}
--How is this, Lady Jeanne?
Jeanne : Very good! Anyone would think this was the beautiful
handwriting of a lady!
--I worked very hard on it!
Jeanne : I'm sorry for making you wait, Rouen. Here is the reply
from the Queen.
Rouen : There's no mistake, this is the royal fleur-de-lis seal!
I'm trembling all over!
My dear Rouen, please forgive me for misunderstanding you earlier. I love your round face and your charming nose. I would like to continue corresponding secretly with you. I will never forget your devotion.
Rouen : And then, her noble and beautiful signature!
Marie Antoinette de France!
Jeanne : {He's either naif or stupid, or both.}
<>
Jeanne : At any rate, Archbishop Rouen, the Queen has told me that she
would like a donation of 50,000 livres as proof of your
devotion.
Rouen : Oh, that's hardly anything! I'll even add something extra
to you as thanks!
Jeanne : Oh, Rouen!
Finally...
Jeanne : Money, money, money! Fifty thousand livres!
(600 million yen)[This would be around 6 million dollars
today, not taking the exchange rate and inflation into
account.]
Nicolas : Jeanne, I think we should stop now. Using the Queen's name
to embezzle money...
Jeanne : Be quiet, Nicolas!
{That was only a trial! I can get anything from that fool!
I could be rich enough to live at Versailles!}
Jeanne : {I've heard rumors that Rosalie was taken into the Jarjayes
household...that she wears lovelier clothes than I do...
I can't let her outdo me.}
Hans Axel : I can't go in there, Oscar. I came because it was an opera
sponsored by the King and I felt I had to, but...I'm sorry.
Please understand, and go by yourself.
Oscar : Fersen...
<>
Oscar : {Fersen, it somehow feels like those words pierce my heart...
I wonder why...}
--Queen, it will soon be time to go to the opera house.
Marie : I'm sorry, but would you please leave me alone for a while?
{I wonder where he is now, and what he's been doing since
then...}
<>
<>
Hans Axel : I'm sorry, your Highness!
Marie : Hello...what happened with the talk of your marriage?
Hans Axel : The engagement has been made official.
Marie : Well, we shall have to celebrate that...I will inform the
cabinet...
I wish for your happiness.
Hans Axel : Thank you, I will be happy.
<>
Marie : {Oh, who is it that will be held against your broad chest,
held in your strong arms? No, I can't believe that you
would make some strange woman your wife! Oh, why can't
I say anything?}
<>
Marie : How can I close up my burning heart?
Hans Axel : Highness!
Marie : Fersen! Oh, my Fersen!
Hans Axel : Highness!
Marie : Please forget just for now that I am the Queen!
I love you, Fersen! I can't help loving you!
<>
Hans Axel : {Lady Antoinette! How I've waited for this! Since the
moment I first saw you, at 18 years old...}
<>
Perhaps their souls had been softly calling to each other ever since that night at the masquerade ball four years earlier...it had been destined by God that this time would come, and it was only a matter of when...
<>
Hans Axel : Please forgive me...
Marie : {Don't say anything...}
For the first time, Antoinette felt the bliss of passion running through her body.
Marie : {I love you, I love you!}
More than ever, she was alive.
<>
--Lately the Queen shines more brilliantly than ever.
--Even Hebe, the goddess of youth, Flora, the goddess of
flowers, or Psyche would pale by comparison.
--Don't you know why?
--You mean, the rumors about her and Count Fersen?
--Really? They're lovers?
--Not so loud!
--But her husband is the King of France!
<>
Oscar : André, please request an audience for me with the Queen.
André : An audience? Why such formality?
Marie : What's wrong, Oscar? This is awfully formal...
Oscar : I am ready to receive any punishment, but I am afraid that
I must give you this warning.
<>
Oscar : Have you entirely forgotten your position as the mother and
Queen of all the French people!? Rumors of your relationship
with Count Fersen have spread throughout the court. Have you
not thought of the risks that they will reach the King, and
all the citizens? Furthermore, there are already those within
the court who do not think well of you because of Countess
Polignac and the gambling.
<>
Oscar : I beseech you to listen to me, for otherwise you will be in
great danger!
Marie : Oscar...thank you for worrying about me so much. But it
seems that not even you understand...perhaps you cannot
understand what a woman's heart seeks.
<>
Marie : I was only 14 when I was brought to France and married so
that I could become the Crown Princess. I was just a
playful child who had never known love. For the treaty
between France and Austria, as the Crown Princess, the Queen,
and the mother of the French people...all of this has made me
forget what it is to be just a woman named Marie Antoinette.
You are a woman as I am, Oscar François! You should understand
this! I am a human first and a Queen second, a woman with
a beating heart! I want to love and be loved just as any
other woman does!
<>
Marie : Fersen was my first love! I spent all my youth just to
meet him and fall in love with him. Not even God could stop
my passion for him!
The King is a wonderful person, modest and studious. I respect
him very deeply...but that is not the same thing as love, though
we are husband and wife! Even when I tried to amuse myself with
singing and dancing and clothes, it couldn't make me forget the
emptiness I felt!
<>
Oscar : {Though I am a woman just as she is, I could never understand
her sadness and her pain!}
Marie : Perhaps I should not have expected to find an understanding
woman's heart in you...
Oscar : A woman's heart?
Oscar : André...
André : Oscar...
Oscar : {When I was 11, my father told me to devote myself entirely
to protecting Lady Antoinette. But...}
<>
Oscar : {Even though I was so close to her, I was completely unable to
protect her from getting wrapped up in the troubles and scandals
of the world!}
--It's Archbishop Rouen!
--How unusual to see him at one of the Queen's balls!
--The Queen truly dislikes him for being so shamelessly involved
with women, despite being a priest!
--Shh, I don't think he knows that himself!
Marie : I'm going back to my room. I've had enough of seeing unpleasant
men for today!
--Your Highness?
Rouen : Lady Antoinette?
<>
--This just in! The Queen is being unfaithful to the King with
a foreign military officer!
--And she doesn't even have an heir to the throne!
--It must be some shameless young thing, trying to become a second
Lady Polignac!
--So the result of living in the lap of luxury is adultery!
--Does she have any idea how people like us are living?
Rouen : I gave her 50,000 livres, and got so many letters from the Queen
to make it seem as if she liked me, and yet instead of smiling
at me, she completely ignored me! What does this mean, Jeanne?
Jeanne : My, you are impatient, Rouen! Listen to the gossip outside.
The rumors say that she's becoming very friendly with a man.
It would reflect badly on her to start associating with you
just now.
Rouen : Hmm...I guess you might be right...
Jeanne : Why don't you write her a letter and send her a present? Of
course, I'll give them to her for you.
<>
Polignac : What's wrong, Charlotte? That doesn't look like the face of a
girl who's about to get married. And you've just received a
letter of congratulations from the Queen, too.
Charlotte : Mother...there's a weight on my shoulders.
Polignac : All I wish for is your happiness, Charlotte. This marriage will
bring you glory and happiness, and it will finally make the
Polignac family one of the high-ranking noble families.
<>
Charlotte : {But I'm scared of marriage! Save me, Rosalie! I don't want
to get married! I'd rather die!}
--Really, if you don't start being a little calmer, your injury's
never going to heal completely!
Oscar : Yes, ma'am.
Polignac : Charlotte! Charlotte!
<>
Polignac : Have you seen my Charlotte anywhere?
--Lady Charlotte? She went off towards the courtyard...
Rosalie : Sir Oscar! Please, look for Charlotte! She's been missing
since this evening! Please find her! She's my little sister!
Oscar : Charlotte!
--Charlotte!
Polignac : Charlotte, where are you?
<>
--Over there!
Polignac : Charlotte! Charlotte, come down from there!
Charlotte : {I'm sorry, mother. I hope that the next time I'm born, it won't
be as a noble.}
<>
Oscar : Charlotte!
<>
Oscar : {I didn't make it in time...my left arm wouldn't work! Is
this a divine punishment?}
--Lady Polignac!
--Lady Polignac!
<>
--Is it true that Charlotte didn't die in an accident?
--She killed herself?
--She died rather than marry Count de Guiche.
--For a Christian, suicide is a sin against God and the country.
--And she wouldn't be able to have a church funeral.
--Lady Polignac is saying that it was an accident, but
the truth...
<>
Polignac : It was an accident! My daughter Charlotte died in an accident!
She didn't commit suicide!
Rosalie : {Charlotte, my poor little sister. You didn't even live to
be able to call me 'sister.'}
<>
Rosalie : {It must really be awful to be a noble. You're completely
controlled by your family and traditions. I couldn't live
if my humanity were denied like that.}
André : There you are, Rosalie!
Rosalie : André!
André : Come down right away, there's someone here to see you from
the Polignac family.
Rosalie : What?
--Miss Rosalie, I have come here to tell you that Lady Polignac
would like to officially adopt you as her daughter and bring
you to the Polignac house.
Rosalie : {As her daughter? Then--she knows about me?}
Please leave, and tell Lady Polignac that Rosalie does not think
of her as her mother.
--Miss Rosalie!
<>
--The reason that Lady Polignac abandoned you when you were small...
Rosalie : Leave! My mother is dead! She was run over by Lady Polignac's
carriage! And that woman ran away laughing! Go away, go away!
Oscar : Rosalie!
<>
Rosalie : Sir Oscar...please don't go anywhere. I'll serve you for my
whole life, but please, let me be with you always! I...
<>
Oscar : Rosalie, I want you to always care about your family and your
little sister. I want you to leave here someday.
Don't forget this--I am a woman.
Rosalie : {Sir Oscar...}
Oscar : Is it true that you've broken your engagement, Fersen?
Hans Axel : Oscar...you became angry at me, once, for thinking that I had
to marry someone--it matters not who--that I needed a wife
as the heir of Count Fersen. It's different now. It might
be unnatural, but that's all right. I've made up my mind to
never marry.
<>
Oscar : Fersen!?
Hans Axel : Don't say anything, Oscar. There's one woman whom I'd risk my
soul for, whom I want to love for my whole life. A woman who
risked everything to love me. I'll never be able to marry
her.
Hans Axel : That's why I'll never marry, as long as I live! That's what
God has foreordained.
Oscar : {Fersen...}
Hans Axel : I suffer so much, every time I see Lady Antoinette! I love her
so much!
<>
--Hey, look at this flier!
--Is it interesting?
--It's about the Queen's illicit affair with Count Fersen!
--Let me see!
--Ha ha ha!
--It's a picture of the Queen, suffering in her adulterous affair!
--Show it to me!
<>
--Captain!
Oscar : Get back to your posts! Arrest whoever it is who's spreading these
things around!
{Fliers...so the rumors have spread to the citizens. This is
what I had most feared...}
<>
--The Queen...
--Of course! She would know where Count Fersen would be.
--That Austrian's brought mud into the French royal family!
Marie : {Oh, Fersen! How I wish that you could stay by me and hold
me against your chest! How I wish that my entire body
could be eyes just to look at you! It would be foolish to
speak to you now. We must not even stare at each other.
My name as the "Reine de France" (Queen of France) must tear
through the love welling up within me.}
<>
Oscar : {I can't let this continue! I must do something!}
The Queen's weekly balls, which had been stopped for a time in mourning for
Charlotte, finally recommenced.
Oscar : Are you ready, Rosalie? The carriage is waiting.
Rosalie : Yes, I'm coming.
<>
Rosalie : {Sir Oscar's wearing her formal uniform? Then maybe...maybe
she'll dance with me at the ball tonight?}
--Look! It's Oscar in her dress uniform!
--Maybe that means she'll dance tonight!
--I would have spent more time dressing up if I had known!
<>
Marie : Oscar, what a stroke of good fortune to see you here in your
dress uniform. Will you dance with a man tonight, or a
woman?
Oscar : Whichever you wish, Your Highness.
<>
--So the Queen's not just going to keep Fersen for herself, she's
taking Oscar, too?
--Unbelievable! Does she really think that we don't know anything?
--Shh! Look how beautiful they are!
Rosalie : Oscar...
<>
Rosalie : {Oh, Rosalie, how could you have been so foolish? What were
you hoping for? You should have expected this from the start!}
<>
Rosalie : {Sir Oscar doesn't care for anyone but the Queen! I have to give
up...but they were so beautiful, glittering like drops of
sunlight as they danced! I should have known...}
No matter how much I love her, I'll have to give up!
<>
Rosalie : André!
André : Rosalie...you poor thing, I didn't know. But you'll be all right.
You'll cry, and someday you'll fall in love with a man...
My pain is greater than yours. I have to watch silently as
another man captures Oscar's heart.
<>
Rosalie : Another man...captures Oscar's heart?
André : I hoped desperately that someday she would realize how I felt,
but I was left cursing the differences between us every day--
probably for the rest of my life...
Rosalie : André...
{I see now. You've been by Oscar's side for so long--I saw
only her, and didn't realize it at all. But I'm so lonely...}
At this time, across the Atlantic in America, the descendants of the pilgrims
who had traveled from England in 1620 on the Mayflower fought for their
independence from England, in the American Revolutionary War.
--Yes, France is siding with America.
--Is it true that we'll be sending soldiers to assist them?
--They've already started recruiting volunteers.
<>
Rosalie : {They're sending soldiers to America? At least Oscar's in the
royal guard, so it won't affect her.}
Polignac : My Queen, your sadness is making the entire palace dreary.
If it's because of Count Fersen, you have nothing to worry
about. In high society, it's perfectly normal to have
a lover outside of marriage.
Marie : Lady Polignac!
Polignac : I won't say this loudly, but I too am having an affair with
my husband's best friend. He comforts me greatly.
<>
Polignac : Do what your heart desires. I'll help you from the shadows.
Marie : Thank you, Lady Polignac.
Polignac : Please do not forget your promise to come incognito to Paris
tonight.
Marie : Of course.
Polignac : {Fersen is a modest and unambitious man. Her passion for him
will make her forget the citizens and the economy, leaving
the Polignac family free to do as it likes.}
<>
Polignac : Wait! Rosalie, wait!
<>
Polignac : You refused to come to our mansion...
Rosalie : Was that wrong of me? You don't have the right to give me
orders.
Polignac : Yes I do! I am your mother!
Rosalie : Like hell you are!
Polignac : Rosa...
Rosalie : I want Charlotte back!
<>
Rosalie : I want my little sister back! Then I'll go to your mansion!
You still don't understand why she died!
Polignac : Rosalie! Rosalie!
<>
Polignac : {Gentle white hands...a sweet scent...white hands that pressed
at my heart...
I was only a girl of fifteen when I fell in love with Count
San Remy of Valois and he broke my heart. I found out that
he was cheating on me with the maid, La Molière, and she had
given birth to his daughter.}
<>
Polignac : {Soon afterwards, I became pregnant with Rosalie. What could
I have done? Unmarried and knowing nothing of the world,
I kept my pregnancy a secret from my parents. It was
La Molière who saved me by taking my newborn daughter.
Even though we should have been rivals, there were tears of
sympathy in her eyes.
Rosalie, even after marrying into the Polignac house, and giving
birth to Charlotte, not a day went by without my thinking of you.}
Polignac : {Why can't you forgive me?}
Rouen : Jeanne...are you really sure that the money and letters I've
been entrusting to you have been given to the Queen?
Jeanne : How can you doubt it, Rouen? She's sent you letters in reply.
Rouen : That's true, but the attitude of the letters seem to be different
from that of the real Queen.
Jeanne : Rouen, the Queen said that she would meet you in the Venus
thicket of Versailles gardens four weeks from tonight.
Do you still doubt me?
Rouen : She really said that? We're to meet secretly--and at night?
<>
Nicolas : Jeanne, have you finally gone mad? How can you promise that
priest that he'll meet the Queen?
Jeanne : Look at this, Nicolas.
Nicolas : The Queen? In our house? I'm the one who's going mad!
Jeanne : Look closely.
<>
Jeanne : That girl is a Parisian prostitute named Olivia.
Isn't she the exact image of the Queen?
Oscar : You can go home and rest before me, André. I won't be home before
tomorrow morning.
André : What are you doing? I'll stay with you.
<>
Jeanne : Do you understand, Olivia? A very important priest is coming
here. You'll give this rose to him and say "You understand
how I feel, do you not?"
Olivia : "You understand how I feel"...and then you'll really give me
15000 livres?
Nicolas : Over here, Archbishop Rouen. Quietly!
Rouen : Oh, you are even more beautiful than ever tonight!
Olivia : You understand how I feel, do you not?
Rouen : This rose is for me? I'm so happy!
Nicolas : There are people coming! Leave at once, Rouen!
<>
Nicolas : Captain!
Oscar : And the one behind you is Archbishop Rouen...what are you
doing here in the middle of the night like this?
Rouen : How rude!
Nicolas : What a beautiful moonlit night, isn't it?
André : What was that?
Oscar : Normally I would have interrogated them further, but it was
Archbishop Rouen!
<>
Rouen : The Queen met with me in secret in the Venus thicket! And she
even gave me this red rose. What is it, if not proof of
her feelings? I'll put it in a frame and treasure it
forever! And then I'll build a rose walkway in my garden
to commemorate this!
Jeanne : That fool!
Jeanne : Rouen, the Queen would like a gift of 60,000 livres for
charity.
Rouen : Certainly!
Jeanne : Rouen, the Queen would like to borrow 100,000 livres.
Rouen : Of course!
Oscar : Fersen!
I heard that you were volunteering to enter the Marquis de
Lafayette's army in America. You can't possibly be serious!
Fersen : It's true, Oscar. I'm going to America as Lafayette's aide
next week.
Oscar : Fersen!
<>
Oscar : That place is a battlefield! There's no guarantee that you'd
come back alive!
Fersen : I know that. I'm a soldier myself. I never thought I was
going to America to have a good time.
I'm sorry, Oscar, but I'm running away. If I stay here
with Lady Antoinette, then she'll be dragged into a
terrible scandal! I've already caused her so much pain...
<>
Fersen : I'm too young to deny the look of love in her eyes and
supress the passion burning within me! There's nothing
I can do for her but to put a distance of thousands of
miles between us.
I'm sorry, Oscar. Please take care of Lady Antoinette!
Oscar : Fersen!
<>
--Count Fersen has volunteered to go fight in America?
--Oh my! Tearing himself from the Queen to go to a distant and
dangerous battlefield!
--Does this mean those rumors were false?
--It seems that there was nothing between them after all.
Rouen : {Of course! The one that the Queen secretly loves is me!}
Louis : So he's going to America...
Marie : Your Highness...
Louis : Unlike the other nobles, he was unambitious, and I thought of
him as a good friend. It's too bad.
In the days before his departure, Marie Antoinette could not take her eyes
off Count Fersen. Whenever she saw him, here eyes would fill with tears.
It was a tragic and hopeless parting.
<>
--Count Hans Axel von Fersen, Colonel of the Swedish Cavalry,
is here.
Hans Axel : Your Highness, I have come to say goodbye to you.
I must leave for America.
Marie : {Fersen...other lovers could have held each other tight,
confirming their love. They could have shared tears and
words of good-bye. But I must only pray for his safety
and try to bear my loneliness!}
<>
Marie : {Just...try to bear my loneliness!}
Fersen departed from the region of Brest and became the aide to the
Marquis de Lafayette. He joined a warship supporting the 64th artillery
regiment. In one of history's ironies, one of the greatest commanders
of the French revolution was Lafayette himself.
Oscar : {Excellent, Fersen. I know of no more noble action in the
name of true love. Don't die, Fersen! Come back alive!}
--Her Highness has arrived!
Marie : I've come to complain to you about a person who had the
audaciousness to kick me in the stomach!
Louis : Huh?
Marie :
<>
Louis : Are you...maybe...
Marie : I'm finally with child! The baby just moved inside me.
--The Queen is with child!
--Sir Oscar! The Queen is with child!
Oscar : What?
--Maria Teresa! Lady Antoinette of France is with child!
<>
Teresa : She's finally become pregnant? My daughter will give
birth to a heir to the throne of France? I've waited
so long for this! It has always been my dream!
I hope that it will be a Prince...
News of the Queen's pregnancy swept through Europe in a matter of days,
and at this happy news--the first in a long time--Antoinette's popularity
rose.
Oscar : {Lady Antoinette will be a mother soon.}
Oscar : {I think--I hope--that her taste for fun and luxury will
abate a bit. She'll be a mother...}
According to old laws, the birth was attended by about fifty nobles from
the court. The suffering of those people, in a crowded room for seven
hours, was indescribable.
<>
--Waaaaaaaaaah!
--It's over!
--It's been born!
--Is it a Prince?
--How is Lady Antoinette?
The hopes of the citizens and the court were in vain; a Princess had been born.
Her name was Marie Therèse de France, the name of Antoinette's beloved
Austrian mother, changed into French.
<>
--Your Highness, a jeweler has come to see you.
--The reason I have come to see you, Your Highness, is that
I have obtained a magnificent diamond necklace.
Marie : A diamond necklace?
--The late King Louis XV had ordered it from me as a present to
his mistress, Lady Du Barry, but he died suddenly and now
there's no one to take it.
Marie : Oh, how wonderful!
--Because of the high price, even most royal families could
not afford it. It does cost 1,600,000 livres...
Marie : 1,600,000 livres?
--That would be all right, wouldn't it, my Queen? You could
pay it in installments.
Marie : Well...I already have many, many diamonds, and 1,600,000 livres
could buy artillery and warships...
<>
How was it that, at a time like this, Marie Antoinette was able to guess
that this diamond necklace would be the very thing to lead to her
tragic downfall?
Oscar : Your Highness, the general audience is beginning in the
Mirror Room.
<>
Therèse : Don't go, Maman Reine [Queen Mommy]! Sing to me a little
longer!
Marie : I'm sorry, Marie Therèse. Please understand, your mother's
busy.
Therèse : No, Maman Reine!
Oscar : Royal Princess...
Therèse : Oshcar-big-brother!
Oscar : By 'Oshcar-big-brother,' does she mean me?
<>
Marie : {This huge palace, buried in marble and statues of
gold and silver...and this life lived out in front of
nobles, with traditions and formalities that make it hard
to breathe...oh, if I could only escape from here and live
happily, surrounded by the people I love!}
Among the numerous palaces in the huge garden of Versailles, the one
that Marie Antoinette loved the best was Petit Trianon palace, which
Louis XVI had given to her as a wedding present. It was a simple but
beautiful building with a mere 7 or 8 rooms.
<>
Polignac : What? You're going to move to Petit Trianon, leaving the
King behind?
{This is very convenient! With the Queen gone from the palace,
I'll be able to arrange things exactly as I like, without
the interference of Oscar and the other nobles!}
Marie : And I'll make a lovely pastoral garden around Petit Trianon,
with a water mill and a farmhouse, and a pond with real
ducks in it!
Oscar : You mustn't!
<>
Oscar : Your Highness, you mustn't do it! The Queen of a country
may not abandon the palace and the government! It would
be a betrayal of the citizens of France! Please think of
the happiness of your country's citizens before your own
happiness, and stay at Versailles! It is your duty!
Polignac : Come along, Queen.
Marie : Yes...
Oscar : Please, wait! Your Highness!
<>
Marie : {Oscar...why is she always opposed to everything that would
make me happy? I do care deeply for her...I want her to
come to Petit Trianon with me.}
Oscar : {Lady Antoinette!}
--She's gone to Petit Trianon?
--She's abandoned Versailles?
--And only Lady Polignac and a few other people she likes can
come in?
--What an insult!
--What will happen to us nobles? We have long, distinguished
histories!
<>
--She's making a fool of us!
--Who will ever come to this palace again?
--Even if I were asked, I would refuse!
Teresa : {Antoinette, my Antoinette! What a foolish thing, forgetting
your own position and duties! Great unhappiness will surely
come to you now. It will be too late to regret it then,
Antoinette! When will you open your eyes?}
--Eek! Empress!
--Mother! Mother, what happened?
Teresa : {I don't want to watch as you fall into misery...}
On November 29, 1780, the Empress of Austria, Maria Teresa, fell dangerously
ill from hardening of the lungs.
--Are you in pain, mother?
Teresa : Ah, Josef...it isn't a bad way to die.
<>
Teresa : {God, you didn't let me see my daughter's child ascend to
the French throne, but you did make one of my wishes come
true by not letting me see my daughter fall into misery.
God bless my children, Leopold, Maria Christina, Amelia,
Maria Carolina...}
<>
Teresa : {And Marie Antoinette, Queen of France!}
<>
--Empress!
--Maria Teresa!
Maria Theresa, a woman who had fought many wars, believed deeply in God,
built elementary schools for the poor and improved labor conditions, who
believed talent was more important than one's bloodline, the Empress of the
great nation of Austria, passed away at the age of 63. She worried about
her beloved daughter Marie Antoinette until she breathed her last.
--Lady Antoinette!
--Queen!
--Your mother--!
<>
--Please write a letter of condolences to your brother Joseph,
the new Emperor.
Marie : No! I can't do it! I can't see the letters I'm writing!
<>
Marie : Mother! Mother! Mother!
The young Queen had lost her greatest support forever, and the dark, quiet
footsteps of history started to creep up on her.
<>
Queen Marie Antoinette became pregnant again in 1781. Her second child
was born quietly at 1:15 on the afternoon of October 22nd. It was the
Prince that her late mother had wished so much for, Prince Louis Josephe
Gusavier.
--A Prince is born!
--An heir to the throne!
--Hooray for France!
--Three cheers for the Queen!
Oscar : Fire a hundred and one shots in celebration!
<>
But during the weeks of celebration, there were still many peasants who
couldn't even buy bread to eat.
--Now, this is something that I want the Queen to buy very
much...
<>
--Jeanne, I've heard that you are very close to the Queen.
I'd like you to reccomend it to her.
Jeanne : {How it glitters with rainbow light! If all these diamonds
could be mine, I'd live my whole life in such luxury!
I absolutely must make it mine, even if I have to risk
everything I have! I'll do it!}
<>
Jeanne : So you see, Rouen, the Queen wants this necklace very much,
but the King will not let her buy it. She thinks that
she could buy it secretly for herself and pay in installments,
but she would need someone with status and property to
insure the loan.
Rouen : Then...maybe...
Jeanne : Yes! That's brilliant! You could be that person!
She certainly trusts you!
<>
Jeanne : There are many other men she could ask, but few have the
status that you have.
Rouen : All right! I will insure the loan!
Jeanne : {I'll finally have it! The 1,600,000-livre diamond of my
dreams and longing!}
<>
Rouen : Insured by Louis de Rouen...there! Now, be sure to give
the necklace to the Queen, Jeanne. Here's the contract...
and tell the Queen to be sure not to forget the first
400,000 livre payment.
Jeanne : Yes, of course!
<>
Jeanne : Nicolas! I finally got the necklace! Now, to divide it
up!
Nicolas, you go to England and sell the diamonds.
Letaut, you go to Switzerland. I'll stay in Paris to make
sure Archbishop Rouen doesn't suspect anything.
<>
With her two lovely children, a few nobles whom she liked, beginning with
Lady Polignac, far away from her duties as Queen in the beautiful
Petit Trianon palace, Marie Antoinette lived at the peak of happiness...
except for her worries over Fersen, fighting in far-away America.
André : Oscar! Have you heard? England granted America its
independence!
Oscar : So...the revolutionary war is over.
André : The soldiers are going to start coming back soon. The
peace treaty is to be signed at Versailles.
<>
On November 29th, 1783, the treaty of Versailles was ratified!
England recognized America's independence, and America's revolutionary
war was brought to an end.
Marie : {Fersen! Fersen's returning from America! He's coming
back!}
<>
Oscar : {Why!? Almost all the soldiers are back in France...so
why isn't Fersen back yet?}
Rosalie : Sir Oscar, your hand!
Oscar : {We've received no word of his death...}
<>
Oscar : {But if he's still alive, then he should already be back!
What happened, Fersen?}
André : Oscar, that's enough. You're drinking like a bottomless
pit, even though you're a woman!
André : If grandma ever finds out that I took you to a tavern in
the first place, I'll...
Oscar : André, what's wrong with me coming to a place you come to
all the time? We're both human. To hell with status,
dammit!
What's so funny, André?
André : Nothing!
--You've got spirit! Have another glass!
<>
--Hey, look, everybody! There's a guy so beautiful he'd
make Zeus drool! If he's in the army, he must be a
subordinate officer...I'll bet even Narcissus didn't
have a face this pretty!
--Drink up, drink up!
André : Stop it, you fools!
--You'd better stay out of it.
<>
--What the hell do you think you're doing?
--Who do you think you are, calling me a beautiful guy?
If you lay one finger on me, I'll hit you so hard
you won't be able to walk straight again!
<>
Robespierre:Aren't you being rather rought tonight, beautiful captain
of the guard?
Oscar : Maximillian de Robespierre!
Robespierre:Hello! So our paths cross again. I've just come from Arras.
I'm now a high-level graduate student of law in Paris.
--A lawyer? One of the Queen's dogs?
Robespierre:Don't get so excited, Bernard de Chatelet.
<>
--It's the captain of the guard!
--A noble!
--What's he doing here?
--Kick him out!
Oscar : Just go ahead and try!
André : Oscar, no!
--Why, you! Do you have any idea what we eat every day?
André : Oscar, run!
<>
--The tavern's going to be ruined!
Robespierre:Looks like you've got an exclusive story, Bernard.
You'll be able to sell out your newspaper tomorrow
with the story of how a noble caused a huge fight in
a tavern.
<>
Oscar : Go to hell, Fersen!
André : Oscar?
Ow!
Ouch ouch ouch...
<>
André : Oscar! You're not dead, Oscar, are you?
You're awfully hot-blooded, Oscar. At least they didn't
find out you were a woman. Let's see, we should get a
carriage...damn! They took off with my wallet, too!
Poor Oscar...no matter how you look, when I see how you
suffer, you're unmistakeably a woman. There are times
when the pain in one's heart is too much to bear...
<>
André : The stars are beautiful. I'll carry you in my arms like
this until dawn.