Robert E. Lee Part 3

BUCK--Be you Captain Lee?

LEE--That's my name. What can I do for you?

BUCK--You can't do nothin' for me. Me and my friends can do anything we want for ourselves. We ain't helpless, see?

LEE--That being the case, I wish you would proceed to your own affairs and allow me to attend to mine.

BUCK--We'd be happy to have you, but this here you're doing now, don't happen to be none of your business.

LEE--Evidently you are looking for trouble, but I am much too busy to oblige you.

BUCK--Unless you leave off being busy right here and now, you're pretty liable to land in a heap o' trouble.

LEE--I am not in the least interested in your threats and I will ask you to be kind enough to leave in order to save me the trouble of having you put out.

BUCK--I reckon you don't know who you're talking to. I'm Buck Brown and this is Coyote Jim, my running mate, and all the rest of these here is our pals and have come to back us up in anything we say.

LEE--I am here to work not to argue. If you are not away from these works in three minutes, I will take means to see that you are.

BUCK--Did you know the city gov'ment wasn't going to give you no money for your work?

LEE--They can do as they like with their own, but I was sent here to do certain work, and I will do it.

BUCK--(_Pointing._) Do you see them cannons up there? Unless you quit your dirty meddlin', you'll have a chance to get acquainted with them.

LEE--Do you think I'd be kept from doing my duty by a pack of bullies and cowards? Go back and hide behind your cannon. You'll need more than those to protect you if you meddle again.

(_BUCK and his friends skulk out._)

SCENE III

_Banquet Hall of the Palace, City of Mexico, after its conquest by the American forces. Officers sitting around the table._

Characters

General Scott General Wilc.o.x General Twiggs General Magruder Thirty other officers

WILc.o.x--Well, I must say I'm thankful it's all over and I do hope it isn't long before we can get back to G.o.d's own country. Furthermore, I for one am thankful enough to be sitting here enjoying myself.

SCOTT--I am inclined to believe that if it had not been for one Captain Robert E. Lee, you and I would still be fighting those slippery Mexicans.

PIERCE--Yes, I have the utmost confidence in the skill and judgment of Captain Lee.

TWIGGS--His gallantry and good conduct deserve the highest praise.

WILc.o.x--(_Rising and raising his gla.s.s._) Gentlemen, I wish to propose a toast that I know you will all drink heartily. I propose the health of the Captain of Engineers who found a way for our army into the city.

Gentlemen, (_Raising his gla.s.s again_) the health of Captain Robert E.

Lee!

(_All the officers rise at once and lift their gla.s.ses. Then look around for LEE._)

WILc.o.x--Why he isn't here. What can be the matter.

MAGRUDER--I'll go and fetch him.

SCOTT--You might know Lee would be first in the battle and last at a banquet.

TWIGGS--I thought all of the crowd were here.

SCOTT--They are all here but Lee. Evidently we were all too much interested in our food to notice anything else. Let's sing a song to welcome him. (_They sing two stanzas of "Yankee Doodle."_)

TWIGGS--Here comes Magruder alone. (_MAGRUDER enters._) Why, what's the matter? Couldn't you find him?

MAGRUDER--Oh, I found him all right, but that was all the good it did me.

SCOTT--Is he ill?

MAGRUDER--If he is, I wish I had the same thing the matter with me. He's suffering from a sense of duty.

TWIGGS--You don't have to worry then.

WILc.o.x--Tell us all about it.

MAGRUDER--You might as well sit down first because he isn't coming.

(_They all sit down but MAGRUDER._) You see I found him in a little room in a corner of the palace hard at work on a map. I asked him why he wasn't at the banquet and he said he was too busy. I told him it was just drudgery and to let some one else do it, but he looked up at me with that mild, calm gaze we all know so well and said, "No, I'm just doing my duty."

ACT II

SCENE I

_General Scott's office, Washington, April 18, 1861._

Characters

Colonel Lee General Scott

SCOTT--The nation is in a terrible condition.

LEE--As far as I can judge from the papers we are between a state of anarchy and civil war. May G.o.d avert from us both!

I see that four States have declared themselves out of the Union. Four more apparently will follow their example. Then if the border States are dragged into the gulf of revolution, one half of the country will be arrayed against the other.