ACTE CINQUIÈME

KARLOO. (Quel que soit le coupable... frappe, Karloo .… frappe sans pitié!...»

Docorès. Karloo!…. toi, me frapper! toil.….

KArLoo (tirant le poignard). Mon serment!

Dozorès (folle de terreur, se débattant). De ta main! . non! Cela ne se peut pas! pitié! J’ai peur!

KARLooO (hors de lui). J'ai juré!

Dozorès. Non! je ne veux pas! Laisse-moil…

KarLoo. J'ai juré! j'ai juré!

(Il frappe.)

Dozcorès (tombant). Ahl. (Karloo jette son poignard.) Cette fois, va. je suis morte! Ah! je t’aimais bien pourtant... je t’aimais tant!

KARLOO (égaré). Je l’ai tuée! moi! moi!

DoLorès. Au moins, viens me rejoindre! viens!

KarLoo (tombant à genoux auprès d’elle, inanimée, et la couvrant de baisers en sanglotant). Ah! oui, j'irai! Ah! ah! misérable que je suis! je l’ai tuée! Dolorès! mon amour! Ah! Dieu! Dieu! ah! mon Dieul!..

Dozorès. Viens! viens donc!

KArLoo (debout). Oui, attends-moil... j'y vais (1I court à la fenêtre, monte sur l'appui et crie:) Bourreau.…. (Rumeurs.), tu n’as pas ton compte! place à ton bûcher! place pour moi!

Dozorès (se soulevant, pour le voir). Ah...

KarLoo (à Dolorès, avec amour). Tu vois! j'y vais. j'y vais!

(IL saute dans la place; Dolorès retombe morte.) FIN

Patrie! treats dramatically an episode in one of the outstanding events of modern history, the struggle of the Netherlands in the 16th century for independence from Spain, which resulted finally in the establishment of the Dutch Republic, better known as Holland.

During the Middle Ages, the territory known as the Netherlands or Low Countries, corresponding roughly to modern Holland and Belgium, with a small slice of what is now northeastern France, was split up into a number of more or less independent sovereignties, dukedoms, earldoms, countships, bishopries. Within these feudal states there had grown up a number of communes or citystates, which were practically small self-governing republics.

In 1437 practically all these scattered states came in various ways, by inheritance, purchase or seizure, into’ the hands of a single ruler, Philip the Good of Burgundy. His son, the famous Charles the Bold, completed the process of unification by 1473. Under these two rulers, the Netherlands prospered greatly in a material way, but the cities found their hard-won political liberties steadily being curtailed as the dukes of Burgundy established themselves more firmly as absolute sovereigns. However, on the death of Charles the Bold, in 1477, the cities forced his heiress, Mary, to grant them the “Great Privilege,” by which they recovered most of their former rights.

In 1477, the marriage of the Burgundian heiress, Mary, to Maximilian of Austria brought the Netherlands under

the rule of the house of Hapsburg, and eventually the provinces, 17 in number, passed into the hands of the Emperor Charles V. Charles was an absolutist, determined to weld together his empire into a centralized unity. Under his rule, the citizens of the Netherlands were again deprived of most of the liberties for which they had struggled so long; only the forms of local goverment remained. In addition they were crushed by the heavy taxation demanded of them to pay for Charles’ numerous wars. And finally, to make their condition still more uncomfortable, Charles proceeded to persecute the adherents of the Reformation, whose democratic doctrines had made rapid progress in the Low Countries. Charles V. abdicated in 1555 and all his Spanish possessions, including the Netherlands, passed into the hands of his son, Philip II. In 1564, Philip II ordered the decrees against heresy passed by the Council of Trent to be applied to the Netherlands, their execution being entrusted to the Inquisition. Intense opposition was everywhere aroused, even in the Catholic provinces, and the Regent, Margaret of Parma, found it quite impossible to enforce the edicts with any degree of completeness. Philip II, fanatically orthodox, furious at the opposition of the Netherlands, determined to exterminate the heresy in this part of his dominions at whatever cost. Accordingly, in 1567 he despatched the greatest Spanish general of the age, the Duke of Alva, with an army of picked veterans, to crush out in blood all resistance to the royal decrees against heresy. For six terrible years (1567-1573) Alva tyrannized over the Netherlands, without reducing the patriotic party to submission, thanks to the heroic leadership of the national armies by William of Orange, who after his departure to his German estates

in 1567, had become the centre of resistance to the Spanish attempt to crush out the last vestiges of liberty in the Netherlands.

Alva retired in 1573, as a result of Philip’s dissatisfaction with the complete failure of his policy. The struggle for liberation went steadily on in the years following, in spite of numerous discouragements for the national party, especially the defection of the Catholic provinces. The Union of Utrecht (1579), by which the northern Protestant provinces declared their independence of Spain, marks the successful conclusion of the struggle. Spain did not officially recognize this independence till the treaty of Westphalia (1648) but, in 1579, the new state of Holland had in fact come into existence, à state which was destined for two centuries to play a rôle in European history out of all proportion to its geographical extent.

The subject of Patrie! was apparently suggested to Sardou by a sentence in Motley’s ‘Rise of the Dutch Republic ”” (II, 183):

“A private and most audacious attempt to secure the person of Alva and the possession of Brussels had failed.”

Motley merely mentions this plot without giving any details. A rather complete, though brief, account of the conspiracy, based upon contemporary chronicles and memoirs, which Sardou may well have utilized, is found in Kervyn de Lettenhove, Les Huguenots et les Gueux, étude historique sur vingt-cinq années du XVIe siècle, 1560-1585 (Bruges, 1884). According to this account, after the arrest of Egmont and Horn, a plan was devised by certain fugitive nobles to seize and kill the Duke of Alva during Easter week, 1568, when, according to the custom of the rulers of Flanders, he would withdraw to

the seclusion of the priory of Groenendael, three leagues from Brussels, to take part in the services of Holy Week. The Prince of Orange was probably not unconnected with this plot, for one of his most intimate confidants, Jacques de Wesembeke, wrote about this time to the seigneur de Risoir, urging him and his brother, the seigneur de Carloo, to give a new proof of their courage and devotion. Alva’s plans were discovered by Carloo, who, in the disguise of a monk, obtained access to Groenendael. Risoir, with five or six hundred horsemen, concealed in the forest of Soignes, was to attack Alva’s escort at the opportune moment, and either capture or kill the Duke. This accomplished, it was planned to overwhelm the Spanish troops in Brussels and set free Egmont and Horn. (It will be noted that Sardou follows a somewhat different version of the affair, which puts the conspiracy after the execution of Egmont and Horn, instead of making their rescue the dominant motive of the conspirators.)

But too many persons were involved in the conspiracy. Either through indiscretion or treachery the secret was betrayed to Alva, who changed his plans and retired to a different monastery. (In a letter to the Landgrave Wilhelm of Hesse, April 17, 1568, William of Orange regrets this change of plan.) The conspirators, warned barely in time of the discovery of their plot, managed to escape toward the German frontier, with the exception of a certain seigneur de Beausart, formerly in the service of Egmont. Arrested and put to torture, Beausart refused to reveal the names of his fellow conspirators and submitted courageously to a cruel death.

Historically, therefore, Risoir (Rysoor) and Carloo

(Karloo) were brothers. By changing this relationship, and making Karloo at the same time the friend and fellow conspirator of Rysoor and the lover of his wife, Sardou has enormously increased the dramatic possibilities of the situation.

The names of the other conspirators, mentioned by Sardou, are for the most part those of victims of Alva’s ferocity in this same year 1568, whose memory has survived in the pages of Motley.

PT