The Rose of Versailles

Episode 40

"Adieu, My Beloved Oscar"

translated by GinRei

 [] = description of the scenes
 () = alternative translations (feel free to put them or drop them), and
      sometimes my comments or explanations
 {} = translation of what it says on the screen

**********************************************************************
 notes on names:
 Andre should be spelled with "/" accent acute over the "e"
 Francois should be spelled with a cedilla (like "5") under the "c".
 (Bernard) Chatelet is spelled with a circumflex ^ over the 'a'.
**********************************************************************

[recap]

OSCAR
Fire at 45 degrees!
Aim the upper part of the fortress!

OSCAR
Fire!

OSCAR
Fire!!

DELAUNEY?
Aim at that commander. (Fire) all at once!

DELAUNEY?
Fire!

[opening title]

{Last Episode: Adieu, My Beloved Oscar}

OSCAR
Andre...

ROSALIE
Lady Oscar!

ALAIN
Commander!
Commander Oscar, hang on!!
Can you hear me?!
Commander!!

OSCAR
Don't yell, Alain. I can hear you.

ALAIN
What are you all doing?! Lend me your hands!
Move her to a safe place!!

CAPTAIN?
Fire!

BERNARD
Over here! Hurry!

ALAIN
Bernard!
Wait a sec! Oscar is...

OSCAR
Put me down, Alain. Put me down...
Please, I beg you...
I'm really tired...
5 minutes is enough, I want to rest in peace...

BERNARD
Doctor!

DOCTOR
Bring the blanket.

[Doctor measures her pulse]

BERNARD
Doctor...

DOCTOR
Wipe the blood off her face.

ROSALIE
I will...

OSCAR
Why? I can't hear the firing of our cannons.
Fire, keep firing. Seize the Bastille!
Fire, Alain, fire. What are you doing?!

ALAIN
Ex-French Guards!  Get to your positions!

OSCAR
Fire, keep firing...

ALAIN
OK, everyone!
Fire all you can!!

COMPANYMEN
All right!!

CITIZEN
OK!
Charge!!

BERNARD
Can you hear it, Oscar?
The voice of the People making a charge!

[closes her eyes]

OSCAR
Adieu... (Farewell)

ROSALIE
NO-!!

[flashbacks]

{July 14th, 1789, Oscar Francois dies...
and an hour later...
the Bastille Prison surrenders with a white flag...}

NARRATION
The Revolution didn't end with the victory of the People at the Bastille.
The real Revolution was about to begin.
That is, the establishment of a new social system, and trials of the (former)
rulers by the victors. In fact, most the bloodshed of the French Revolution
took place not while but after the battle.

[Countryside]

BERNARD
Hey, Alain! Squad leader Alain!!
It's me, Bernard!

ALAIN
Yo, Bernard! It's been a while.

BERNARD
A while?!
It's already 5 years since the Bastille!

ALAIN
5 years...is it that long already?

BERNARD
I looked for you everywhere.
Why did you disappear after the Bastille fell (/the fall of the Bastille)?

ALAIN
The graves of my mother and sister are here.
It was my decision from long ago to become a farmer here.

BERNARD
They look alike.
The graves of Oscar and Andre are on a small hill in Arras, like those.

ALAIN
Oscar and Andre, yeah.
In a way, they were lucky.
They died without knowing the ugliness of the Revolution that followed.

[flashback]

{October 1, 1789}

WOMEN
I'll chop off her head!!
That Austrian woman said "(Let them) eat cakes if there's no bread." while
we starve!!

[These, BTW, are not really her words. But they summon and
represent the general lack of knowledge of Antoinette of her people.]

NARRATION
October 1st, 1789, women's anger exploded by the continuing food shortage
after the Revolution. Their anger was directed (only) toward Antoinette. Men
sided them, and a (big) group of over 6000 headed toward Versailles.

SERVANT
Please escape!! To a safe...

MEN
Where is the Queen?!
Find and tear her apart!!

MAN
Drag the Queen!
Drag the Queen out to the balcony!!

MAIDS
No, Your Majesty!!
It's dangerous to show your presence!
Your Majesty!!

CROWD
Drag her out!!

WOMAN
Here comes the sow!

MAN
It's all because of her!!

[Antoinette bows]

NARRATION
Marie Antoinette, the last queen of the Bourbon Dynasty which lasted for 200
years, finally bowed deeply to the (/her?) People. People were quieted.
Despite their conviction in the victory of the Revolution, people were moved
by Antoinette's dignity, determined to remain as the Queen even as she bowed.

ANTOINETTE in her mind
I will not accept the revolution. NEVER!!

SERVANT
The National Assembly has already divested the clergy and nobility's
prerogative (/privileges). Trials are held (by the revolutionary committee
in Paris (almost) everyday. Nobles with bad reputations (/who were unpopular 
with the People) are sentenced to death one after another.

FERSEN
How is Her Majesty doing?

SERVANT
By the demand of the People, the Royal Family has moved from Versailles to
the Tuileries Palace.

FERSEN overlapping
That old Tuileries Palace, where nobody has stepped in for 150 years?

LOUIS
Oh, I'm quite content (/satisfied) here.
Dust it off a bit, and this will be a comfortable home.

FERSEN
I can't believe it. How pitiful.

SERVANT
The palace is (always) surrounded by soldiers. Only a few servants attend the
(royal) family.

FERSEN
I see. That's enough.

SERVANT
Yes, Sir.

FERSEN
Wait.
When will the next news arrive?

SERVANT
The next messenger will (/is scheduled to) be dispatched on a fast horse in
3 days.

FERSEN
Oscar! Now lost (/late) friend of my mind. Give me courage!
Give me your white wings of Pegasus, which soar to heaven!

BERNARD
Poor Fersen, his passion decisively drove Marie Antoinette into a corner.
While Mme. Polignac and other nobles who surrounded the Queen (mostly) fled
(to other countries), only Fersen came back to Paris.

FERSEN
I've come back to die with you.
To be your shield and support you.

ANTOINETTE
Fersen!

NARRATION
On June 20th, 1791, a carriage secretly left Paris.
It was an escape (/defection?) plan that Fersen put all his effort.

MAN
Over here!

FERSEN
Your Majesty, we have arrived Bondy.  [Bondy is only 6 miles outside Paris.]
We'll rest a little and change horses.
Please do not worry. It's a straight way to Pont Sommevel from here.
General Bouille and his cavalry(men) are waiting there to help you cross the
border.

LOUIS
Count Fersen.

LOUIS
Thank you. It's far enough to be safe.
So you should head back now.

FERSEN
But Your Majesty!

LOUIS
We should part here.
If something happens, I don't want to put you, a foreigner, in a danger.

FERSEN
Yes, Your Majesty.
I will defect to Belgium from here.

LOUIS
Please be careful.
I'll never forget your friendship.
The Queen must be feeling the same.

FERSEN
I wish you good luck!
I pray for the success (of this journey)!

NARRATION
It was a permanent farewell fit for the love that could
never come out into the light.

BERNARD
And the escape plan failed miserably.

ALAIN
Well, of course. (or, As it should have.)
The Queen's ill fame and her conceited (/haughty?) face are well known
through out France.

BERNARD
The identity of the Royal Family was revealed in the town of Varenne and they
were taken back to Paris.

VOICE
The King! It's Louis XVI!
A king who has the nerve to abandon his country!!
Drag out and execute them!!

BERNARD
It took 3 days to Paris.
But in towns on the way, people surrounded the carriage and made fusses.

NARRATION
And the terror of the journey turned Antoinette's beautiful blond into white
hair of an old woman.

[Antoinette screams]

NARRATION
Because of the escape attempt, the citizens lost what
little respect they still had for the Royal Family.

They started demanding the trial of the Royal Family.
In August, 1792, the Royal Family was moved from the Tuileries Palace
to the Temple Tower in Malais district.
And in September, the National Convention (/Convention Nationale) was
established to replace the National Assembly. Abolishing Monarchy at
the same time,
France abolished the monarchy and declared to the world that it
would become a Republic.

VOICE
The (chosen) delegate (/representative) from Picaldy (Aisne) Province,
Louis (de) St. Just!

ST. JUST
Sovereignty originally rests with the People (/us).
But the King took that power, and deprived the People of their rights!
That means, the King's existence itself is an unforgivable crime (/sin)!
The King IS the crime (itself)! (or, The King IS the body of the crime!)
The fact that Louis XVI is still blinking gives me gooseflesh!

DELEGATES
That's right!!

VOICE
Next is Maximilien Robespierre!

ROBESPIERRE
Louis XVI is not a defendant (/accused)!
And as we're not gods, we don't have the right to judge people (/a man).
But! We have the right to choose the right way for the future of our country!
To be plain,
Louis is dangerous for our Republic.
By just being alive, he's already a crime!

DELEGATES
That's right!!

NARRATION
361 against 360.
By mere one vote margin, Louis XVI was sentenced to death.
On January 21st, 1793, (the following year), Louis XVI died on the block
(/was guillotined).

ANTOINETTE
Charles! Charles!!

CHARLES
Mother!!

ANTOINETTE
Let him go!
You took my husband. And now my child!
You're also fathers, aren't you?!

MAN
Right, we did have sons!
Having no milk to feed them,
when we just watched them die of malnutrition,
you ate sumptuously, wore jewels,
and were laughing in Versailles!!
Take him (away)!!

VOICE
Yes!

ROSALIE
Soon, the Queen was sentenced to death.

ALAIN
Hey, let's stop.
I don't care what happened to the Queen.
Bernard, have you come all this way just to tell me such things?

BERNARD
No, not at all.
I came here to hear about Oscar and Andre.
Right now, I'm writing a book called "A Short History of French Revolution".
And I want to talk about (/mention) them in the book.
You're at least the one who knew them.

ALAIN
Then it's even more so!
Antoinette on death row has nothing to do (with me?).

BERNARD
Yes, there is.
Listen to Rosalie's story a bit more.

ROSALIE
I attended Her Majesty who was now moved to the Concierge Prison.
At first, Her Majesty didn't realize who I was, but...

 [This is presumably where Ikeda got the Rosalie character
  Since history places an otherwise unknown girl of that name in MA's prison.]

ANTOINETTE
Could you be someone with Oscar that I met in a ball?

ROSALIE
Yes, I'm Rosalie.
I asked for this role to be of some consolation (/comfort?).

ANTOINETTE
I miss Oscar!
Please tell me about Oscar.
Rosalie, please!

ROSALIE
After that, I told her about Lady Oscar almost everyday.
After listening, Her Majesty always said...

ANTOINETTE
My mind becomes peaceful when I think about (/remember) Oscar...
(or, My mind is at peace...?)

[guillotine]

{October 16, 1793}
{12:15  Marie Antoinette  (was executed/beheaded) }

ROSALIE [holding up a white rose]
She (/Her Majesty) gave me this on the morning of her last day.
She made it with cosmetic papers in the cell, remembering Lady Oscar.
And she said...

ANTOINETTE
Rosalie, please color this rose.
The color that Oscar liked.

ROSALIE
Then I realized suddenly,
that I've never asked (/heard) what color of rose Lady Oscar liked.

ALAIN
I don't know about Oscar,
but Andre would probably say he likes white...

ROSALIE
Then I should keep it as it is.

ALAIN
Yeah, that's better.

NARRATION
Soon after, Robespierre and St. Just were executed as they lost in a political 
struggle.  Fersen arrived in his country after Antoinette's death. He became a 
cold-hearted ruler who hated his subjects. And about a decade after, he was 
slaughtered by his own people (/by the citizens).

{Fin}

[ending title]

NEXT EPISODE:
Versailles in the late 18th century...there lived women of noble dignity and
passionate love who fell in beauty [like roses]. In reply to many requests,
with lots of memorable scene, we present, A Digest of the Rose of Versailles:
"The Rose and Women of Versailles. "

END

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  Bruce Carlson     carlson@indirect.com     Phoenix, AZ



