L'Ecosse est à feu et à sang. Votre mari se pr?pare en cachette à envoyer une arm?e dans le Nord. (Scotland is in chaos. Your husband is secretly sending an army north)
Isabelle Comment tu le sais? (How do you know this?)
La nuit dernière j'ai couch? avec quelqu'un du conseil de guerre. (Last night I slept with a member of the War Council)
Isabelle Mais il n'?tait pas sens? te faire de confidences sur l'oreiller. (He shouldn't be telling secrets in bed)
Et oui. Les anglais ne savent pas à quoi sert une langue. (Ah, yes. Englishmen don't know what a tongue is for)
I Isabella
Ah. Cet Ecossais r?volt?, ce Wallace. Il se bat pour venger une femme? (Ah. This Scottish rebel, Wallace. He fights to avenge a woman?)
Ah j'oubliais. Un magistrat qui voulais le capturer d?couvrit qu'il avait un amour secret. Il ?gorgea la fille afin de pousser Wallace à la r?volte. Wallace se r?volta. Ses ennemies reconnurent sa passion pour son amour perdu. Ils organiserent de saisir Wallace en profanant les s?pultures et de son père et de son frère, et ensuite en s'embusquant à la tombe de sa femme. Mais il s'en ai sorti en guerroyant l'arme au poing. Et cacha le cadavre de sa bien-aim? dans un endroit secret. Ça c'est l'amour non? (I nearly forgot. A magistrate wished to capture him, and found he had a secret lover. So he cut the girl's throat to tempt Wallace to fight, and fight he did. Knowing his passion for his lost love, they next plotted to take him by desecrating the graves of his father and brother, and setting an ambush at the grave of his love. He fought his way through the trap and carried her body to a secret place. Now that's love, no?)
I Isabella
De l'amour? J'en sais rien. (Love? I wouldn't know)
Isabelle I understand you have recently been given the rank of knight.
I have been given nothing. God makes men what they are.
Isabelle Did God make you the sacker of peaceful cities, the executioner of the king's nephew, my husband's own cousin?
York was the staging point for every invasion of my country. And that royal cousin hanged innocent Scots, even women and children, from the city walls. Oh, Longshanks did far worse the last time he took a Scottish city.
[to Isabelle]
Sanguinarius homo indomitus est, et se dite **** mendacium. (He is a bloodthirsty savage, and he is telling lies.)
Ego nunquam pronunciari mendacium! Sed ego sum homo indomitus. (I never lie! But I am a savage.) [to Princess] Ou en français, si vous pr?f?rez? (Or in French, if you prefer?) [in English] You ask your king to his face, ask him, and see if his eyes can convince you of the truth.
Isabelle Let us talk plainly. You invade England, but you can not complete the conquest so far from your shelter and supply. The king desires peace.
Longshanks desires peace?
Isabelle He declares it to me, I swear it. He proposes that you withdraw your attack. In return he grants you title, estates, and this chest of gold which I am to pay to you personally.
A lordship and titles. Gold. That I should become Judas?
Isabelle Peace is made in such ways.
Slaves are made in such ways! The last time Longshanks spoke of peace I was a boy. And many Scottish nobles, who would not be slaves, were lured by him under a flag of truce to a barn, where he had them hanged. I was very young, but I remember Longshank's notion of peace.
Isabelle I understand you have suffered. I know... about your woman.
[pause]
She was my wife. We married in secret because I would not share her with an English lord. They killed her to get to me. I've never spoken of it, I don't know why I tell you now, except... I see her strength in you. One day, you will be a queen. And you must open your eyes. You tell your king that William Wallace will not be ruled... and nor will any Scot while I live.
PE Prince Edward
You brought back the money, of course.
Isabelle No, I gave it to ease the suffering of the children of this war.
Ha! That's what happens when you send a woman.
Isabelle Forgive me, sire. I thought that generosity might demonstrate your greatness to those you mean to rule.
My greatness will be better demonstrated when Wallace returns to Scotland and finds his country in ashes.
Isabelle Sir, I've come to beg you to confess all and swear allegiance to the king, that he might show you mercy.
Will he show mercy to my country?
Isabelle Mercy is to die quickly, perhaps even live in a tower. In time, who knows what could happen.
If I swear to him, then all that I am is dead already.
Isabelle You will die. It will be awful.
Every man dies, not every man really lives.
Isabelle Drink this. It will dull your pain.
No. It will numb my wits, and I must have them all. For if I'm senseless or if I wail, then Longshanks will have broken me.
Isabelle I have come to beg for the life of William Wallace.
PE Prince Edward
You're quite taken with him, aren't you.
Isabelle I respect him. At worst he was a worthy enemy. Show mercy, O great king, and win the respect of your own people. Even now you are incapable of mercy. And you. To you that word is as unfamiliar as love.
PE Prince Edward
Before he lost his powers of speech he told me his one comfort was he would live to know Wallace was dead.
Isabelle [whispered in Longshank's ear]
You see, death comes to us all. But before it comes to you, know this. Your plot dies with you. A child who is not of your line grows in my belly. Your son will not sit long on the throne, I swear it.
Scotland. My land. The French will grovel to anyone with strength, but how will they believe our strength when we cannot rule the whole of our own island?! [Isabelle walks in] Where is my son?
Isabelle Pardon, my lord. He asked me to come in his stead.
I sent for him, and he sends you?
Isabelle Shall I leave, my lord?
If he wants his queen to rule when I am gone, then by all means, stay and learn how. Please. Nobles. Nobles are the key to the door of Scotland. Grant our nobles lands in the north, give their nobles estates here in England, and make them too greedy to oppose us.
A Advisor
But sire, our nobles will be reluctant to uproot. New lands mean new taxes and they are already taxed for the war in France.
Are they? Are they? [glaring at Isabelle] The trouble with Scotland... is that it's full of Scots! [Longshanks' advisors laugh] Perhaps the time has come to reinstitute an old custom. Grant them prima noctes. First night, when any common girl inhabiting their lands is married, our nobles shall have sexual rights to her on the night of her wedding. If we can't get them out, we'll breed them out. That should fetch just the kind of lords we want to Scotland, taxes or no taxes, eh?
A Advisor
A most excellent idea, sire.
Isabelle I am the Princess of Wales. I come as the king's servant, and with his authority.
Isabelle To discuss the king's proposals. Will you speak with a woman? [William follows her into the tent] I understand you have been given the rank of knight.
I have been given nothing. God makes men what they are.
Isabelle Did God make you the sacker of peaceful cities, the executioner of the king's nephew, my husband's own cousin?
York was the staging point for every invasion of my country. And that royal cousin hanged innocent Scots, even women and children, from the city walls. [Isabelle looks at Hamilton in disbelif] Well, Longshanks did far worse the last time he took a Scottish city.
[in Latin]
He is a bloody murdering savage. And he's telling lies.
[in Latin]
I never lie. But I am a savage. [in French] Or in French if you prefer? [in English] You ask your king, to his face, ask him. You see if his eyes can convince you of the truth.
Isabelle Hamilton, leave us.
Isabelle Leave us. Now. [Hamilton leaves the tent] Let us talk plainly. You invade England, but you can not complete the conquest so far from your shelter and supply. The king desires peace.
Longshanks desires peace?
Isabelle He declares it to me, I swear it. He proposes that you withdraw your attack. In return he grants you title, estates, and this chest of gold which I am to pay to you personally.
A lordship and titles. Gold. That I should become Judas?
Isabelle Peace is made in such ways.
Slaves are made in such ways! The last time Longshanks spoke of peace I was a boy. And many Scottish nobles, who would not be slaves, were lured by him under a flag of truce to a barn, where he had them hanged. I was very young, but I remember Longshanks' notion of "peace".
Isabelle I understand you have suffered. I know... about your woman.
She was my wife. We married in secret because I would not share her with an English lord. They killed her to get to me. I have never spoken of it. I don't know why I tell you now, except... I see her strength in you. One day, you'll be a queen. And you must open your eyes. You tell your king that William Wallace will not be ruled... and nor will any Scot while I live.
L Longshanks
Ah, my son's loyal wife returns unkilled by the heathen. So he accepted our bribe?
Isabelle No, he did not.
L Longshanks
Then why does he stay? My scouts tell me he has not advanced.
Isabelle He waits for you at York. He says he will attack no more towns or cities if you are man enough to come face him.
L Longshanks
Did he? The Welsh bowmen will not be detected arriving so far around his flank. The main force of our armies from France will land here to the north of Edinburgh. Conscripts from Ireland will approach from the southwest to here.
E Edward
Welsh bowmen? Troops from France? Irish conscripts? Even if you dispatched them today, they'd take weeks to assemble.
L Longshanks
I dispatched them before I sent your wife. [to Isabelle] So our little ruse succeeded. Thank you. And while this upstart awaits my arrival in York, my forces will have arrived in Edinburgh behind him. You spoke with this Wallace in private? Tell me, what kind of man is he?
Isabelle A mindless barbarian, not a king like you, my lord.
L Longshanks
You may return to your embroidery.
Isabelle Humbly, my lord. [turns to leave]
E Edward
You brought back the money, of coarse?
Isabelle No. I gave it to ease the suffering of the children of this war.
L Longshanks
[laughs]
That's what happens when you send a woman!
Isabelle Forgive me, sire. I thought that generosity might demonstrate your greatness to those you mean to rule.
L Longshanks
My greatness will be better demonstrated when Wallace returns to Scotland and finds his country in ashes.
M'lady. I received your message. This is the second time you have warned me of danger. Why?
Isabelle There will be a new shipment of supplies coming north next month, foods and weapons, they won't...
No, stop. Why do you help me? Why do you help me?
Isabelle Because of the way you're looking at me now.
