Shipwreck (14 page)

CONSUL
   It's the same thing. Count Orlov would never forget my name.

HERZEN
   But you're only the messenger.

CONSUL
   There's a streak of the Cleopatra in him.

HERZEN
   We'd better have a drink. Rocca! Vino.

Rocca interrupts an aria to serve the wine.

HERZEN
   (
cont.
) Why don't I write personally to Count Orlov? Then you wouldn't know what I've said.

CONSUL
   Would you do that? I'd be immensely grateful.

Herzen starts writing. The wine is served.

CONSUL
   (
cont.
) Are you having a celebration?

HERZEN
   A homecoming. My mother has been in Paris with one of my children. They're returning tonight on the Marseilles steamer.

CONSUL
   Your little boy who is deaf?

HERZEN
   I was
wondering
why Orlov would keep a consul in a place like this.

CONSUL
   No, no … what an egoist! I see your children with their nurse, playing on the beach. But you're right. Life is very quiet. Very few passports are being issued to travellers since the … events in Europe.

Natalie comes onto the verandah with Sazonov.

NATALIE
   Look who's come from Geneva!

HERZEN
   (
to the Consul
) Allow me to present you to my wife. This is Mr …

CONSUL
   Ibayev, Russian Consul.

Natalie is frightened.

NATALIE
   What …? (
to Herzen
) Is everything all right?

HERZEN
   Perfectly. (
to the Consul
) And this is …

Sazonov becomes suave.

SAZONOV
   Ah. I'm impressed. I never told anyone I was coming.

CONSUL
   I had business with Mr Herzen.

Sazonov laughs sceptically.

SAZONOV
   Of course. Please compliment Count Orlov for me … on his excellent information.

CONSUL
   Do you know Count Orlov?

SAZONOV
   No. But I daresay he knows me. I was a thorn in his side for many years in Paris.

HERZEN
   Sit down, have a drink—

SAZONOV
   (
ignoring Herzen
) No doubt you know a little bit about my … activities in Geneva. Tell Orlov we will undoubtedly be meeting one day.

CONSUL
   Certainly. What name shall I say?

SAZONOV
   Just say … the blue nightingale is still flying in the sky … He'll understand.

Herzen signs and seals the letter.

HERZEN
   All done.

The Consul accepts the letter and bows to Natalie and Sazonov. Herzen accompanies him out. There is a transition to evening. Natalie and Rocca, perhaps with a maid, are completing the preparations for the reunion, with Chinese lanterns, bunting, toys on the table, and a ‘Welcome Kolya' sign. (In an ideal world Sasha would be part of this, but he is eleven now. His never-seen sister, Tata, would be
seven.) Sazonov is vaguely helping, too, but soon gives up to ramble on and drink. Natalie hardly bothers to listen to him.

SAZONOV
   I've had a letter from Botkin … Alexander's pamphlet on the development of revolutionary ideas in Russia gave heart attacks to his friends in the Moscow University circle … (
He becomes conscious of Rocca and suddenly addresses him.
) Watch out, look what you're doing!

Rocca reacts late and baffled.

NATALIE
   He doesn't know Russian. He's our Italian servant. (
to Rocca) E niente.
[It's nothing.]

SAZONOV
   You can't be too careful.

NATALIE
   Why aren't they here yet? I should have gone with Alexander to meet the steamer …

SAZONOV
   What else …? Moscow was
en fête
for the opening of the railway. Tsar Nicholas loves it. He inspected every bridge and tunnel personally. His German relatives impressed everyone by their appetites in the station refreshment room …

NATALIE
   (
distracted
) Why are they so late? It's probably Granny's trunks. She travels like an archduchess.

SAZONOV
   Who's with them?

NATALIE
   Only her maid, I think, and Spielmann, Kolya's tutor. (
to Rocca
)
Por favor, vai a vedere se vengano.
[Please go and see if they're coming.]

SAZONOV
   The speech man? Are you mad? That can't be his real name!

Rocca meets Herzen at the edge of the stage. Herzen brushes past him. Natalie sees him.

NATALIE
   Alexander …? Where are they?

HERZEN
   They're not coming. The boat from Marseilles … isn't coming.

Herzen embraces her, weeping.

NATALIE
   (
bewildered
) They're not coming at all?

HERZEN
   No. There was an accident at sea … Oh, Natalie!

NATALIE
   When is Kolya coming?

HERZEN
   He's never coming. I'm sorry.

Natalie fights out of his embrace and pummels him.

NATALIE
   Don't you dare tell me that! (
She runs inside.
)

HERZEN
   (
to Rocca
) Get rid of everything. (
Herzen gestures at the decorations.
)

SAZONOV
   God … what happened?

HERZEN
   They got rammed by another boat. A hundred people drowned. (
to Rocca in Italian
) Get rid of all this.

Herzen follows Natalie indoors. She starts to howl in her grief. Rocca uncertainly starts to blow out the candles.

A
UGUST
1852

At night Herzen stands by the guardrail on the deck of the crosschannel steamer at sea. After a few moments he realises that Bakunin is at the rail, too.

BAKUNIN
   Where are we off to? Who's got the map?

HERZEN
   Michael? Are you dead?

BAKUNIN
   No.

HERZEN
   That's good. I was just thinking about you, and there you are, how very … un-odd!—yes, looking just like you looked when I saw you off in the rain on the tender to Kronstadt where the steamer was waiting. Do you remember?

BAKUNIN
   You were the only one who came to see me off.

HERZEN
   And now you're the only one who's come to see
me
off!

BAKUNIN
   Where are you going?

HERZEN
   England.

BAKUNIN
   Alone?

HERZEN
   Natalie died three months ago … We lost Kolya. He was drowned at sea, my mother with him, and a young man who was teaching Kolya to speak. None of them was ever found. It finished my Natalie. She was expecting another baby, and when it came, she had no strength left. The baby died, too.

BAKUNIN
   My poor friend.

HERZEN
   Oh, Michael, you should have heard Kolya talk! He had such a funny, charming way … and he understood everything you said, you'd swear he was listening! The thing I can't bear … (
He almost breaks down.
) … I just wish it hadn't happened at night. He couldn't hear in the dark. He couldn't see your lips.

BAKUNIN
   Little Kolya, his life cut so short! Who is this Moloch …?

HERZEN
   No, no, not at all! His life was what it was. Because children grow up, we think a child's purpose is to grow up. But a child's purpose is to be a child. Nature doesn't disdain what lives only for a
day.
It pours the whole of itself into the each moment. We don't value the lily less for not being made of flint and built to last. Life's bounty is in its flow, later is too late. Where is the song when it's been sung? The dance when it's been danced? It's only we humans who want to own the future, too. We persuade ourselves that the universe is modestly employed in unfolding our destination. We note the haphazard chaos of history by the day, by the hour, but there is something wrong with the picture. Where is the unity, the meaning, of nature's highest creation? Surely those millions of little streams of accident and wilfulness have their correction in the vast underground river which, without a doubt, is carrying us to the place where we're expected! But there is no such place, that's why it's called Utopia. The death of a child has no more meaning than the death of armies, of nations. Was the child happy while he lived? That is a proper question, the only question. If we can't arrange our own happiness, it's a conceit beyond vulgarity to arrange the happiness of those who come after us. (
Pause.
) What happened to you, Michael? Were you betrayed?

BAKUNIN No.
   I ran out of revolutions. When the soldiers caught up with me, I was too tired to care. I only wanted to sleep. I had plenty of time to sleep after that … nine months in fetters in the fortress of Königstein, and when the Germans had done with me, as long againin Prague Castle. Thank you for the money you sent. I was allowed to order cigars and books. I learned English! (
accented
) ‘George and Mary go to the seaside.' How is George? Thank him for me. Emma sent a hundred francs, too. Small sums of money came from
democrats all over, from people I didn't know. Brotherhood before bread, it's not all bathwater.

HERZEN
   You've become a myth. I heard that society ladies were collecting funds for a rescue attempt.

BAKUNIN
   Word must have got back to Russia—there were twenty Cossacks waiting at the border to escort me to the Peter and Paul Fortress. No, it's up to the revolution now.

HERZEN
   What revolution?

BAKUNIN
   The Russian revolution. It can't be long coming now. Our Westerniser friends at home were waiting for a Russian bourgeoisie to make a revolution for their children, but—don't you see?—not having a bourgeoisie is Russia's good fortune!

HERZEN
   Don't tell me, tell them.

BAKUNIN
   Our own revolution, Herzen! Not a bourgeois revolution like in Europe—they let us down very badly, the Germans and the French, they were all for getting rid of aristocratic privilege, but they closed ranks to defend their property.

HERZEN
   What did you expect?

BAKUNIN
   Well, why didn't you tell me?

HERZEN
   You never listened.

BAKUNIN
   Why should I listen? There were more
poor
people with the vote than
rich
people … How could it turn out the way it did?

HERZEN
   It's as Proudhon said, universal suffrage is counterrevolutionary.

BAKUNIN
   He kept coming out with those, Pierre-Joseph, didn't he? I taught him Hegel. His wife would serve supper by the fire, go to bed, get up, and serve breakfast, and we'd still be sat there over the embers, going through the categories … Great days, Herzen!

HERZEN
   Oh … Bakunin!

BAKUNIN
   We were there for the February revolution. It was the happiest time of my life.

HERZEN
   I was in Italy. Ten days after I got back to Paris, I knew the revolution was dead … and now the Republic is dead, too.
Vive la mort!
Did you know? President Louis-Napoleon turned himself into Emperor Louis-Napoleon with only a few thousand arrests. People didn't care. It was one way out of a Republic which was ashamed of itself. The Second Empire arrived just in time to finish the year off nicely. Expect important changes in furniture and ladies' fashions. You're right. It's over with us Russians and the Western model. Civilisation passed us by, we belonged to geography, not history, so we escaped. We can now get on without being distracted. The West has nothing to teach us. It's sinking under its weight of precious cargo which it won't jettison—all those shackles for the mind. With us it's all ballast. Over the side with it! We're too oppressed to make do with half-liberty. We're free to act because we have nothing.