The Pride and the Passion Page #6

It happened once.

Anthony?

Yes?

- Who were you with?

- When?

When your trousers split.

As I was saying,

the king will want to meet you, of course.

And you can tell him how once, long ago

in Spain, you met an English captain

and made him

the proudest man in the world.

I love you, Anthony.

Juana.

Yes?

All of us here are Spanish,

and we know what we want and what

we will have to pay to go to vila.

I understand that, Miguel.

But you want more.

You are thinking of after vila.

Yes.

That part, I do not know.

But we have been together

a long time, Juana.

You have lived with me, and I cannot

even read or write my own name.

And when I cannot say the words

I want to say, you have said them for me,

and I have felt equal to any man.

But, inside... inside myself,

I know I am less.

Did you think I cannot feel in my heart

that a woman wants more?

I can only repay you with

what we started out for - vila.

If this is not enough, tell me, then.

The attempt of this staff

to locate a handful of rabble

will go down in military history

as a monument to ineptitude.

Your ambitions and careers dissolve

in these cannon tracks across Spain.

It has now cost us a bridge

and a full company of men

to find out exactly where

that cannon is. Here.

Huh?

A long way from

Las Cruces and the sea, Colonel.

Yes, sir.

They're in these mountains.

There is a pass. Here.

They will come through it.

I intend them to.

I don't think they will come out this time.

Well?

There are French cannon up there.

Everybody knows that.

- And I know it too.

- How can you think of going through?

- Do you know another way?

- We said we'd help, not kill ourselves.

They'll catch you in a crossfire.

They may not hear us.

We'll muffle the wheels and hooves.

You guarantee

every Frenchman is stone deaf?

If we get halfway through

before they hear us we'll have a chance.

Do you think being a mule

is all that's expected of you?

We left our shops and our farms.

If they opened your veins, do you know

what would come out? Not blood.

You see, we have to go south

to get to vila.

To go south, we have to go through here.

You do understand?

Yes, Captain, we understand it perfectly.

We may be a little ashamed of it,

but we all have wives and children,

and we are not ready to die for this gun.

- But we must have your help.

- Ah, we go without them!

His astonishing charm

has won the day again.

- Do you want me to get on my knees?

- If it would do any good, yes!

- But we need them, Miguel.

- Not that much.

against 1,000 men.

- We're about to try it the other way round.

- Captain.

I do not know history.

But I do know this -

that I will stand before

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes