Roger Waters - The Execution of Louis Capet | Текст песни

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• Roger Waters
• The Execution of Louis Capet

Scene 3:

The Execution of Louis Capet

The war against Austria and Prussia, breaking out in the Spring of 1792, provides grounds to accuse Louis of treachery. The Ringmaster tells us that the people have been to see the King, demanding that he drink the health of the nation and again wear the red cap of liberty rather than look for comfort to his emigre brothers and their foreign allies in Austria. Apparently, the King no longer really cared. Donning the red cap too late to satisfy his visitors, they unceremoniously ripped it from his head. Now he is resigned to his fate. As a guillotine is rolled into the ring, the revolutionary dead appear to rise as ghosts. The Ringmaster gives a running commentary whilst the King, "a simple soul not bad, not mad", approaches the scaffold. As he mounts the steps to the blade, Marie Marianne asserts that too many people have died for the cause of freedom at the battle of the Tuileries for him to escape death now. Besides, the Priest adds, the King has betrayed the crown’s sacred trust. It is necessary to take his life to wipe the slate clean, to begin again. The Troublemaker reiterates this notion. The ghosts raise their arms, pointing to the guillotine. As the blade falls, they lower them. Everyone stands motionless as the guillotine is trundled from the ring. The Queen, and her son, the Dauphin, who have been watching from their places in the royal box, descend to the ring, and move amongst the stationary ghosts. The Queen turns to her son. Terror, blood, and the blade are ever the constants, she sadly tells him.

RINGMASTER
In the spring of ninety-two
The Austrians and the Prussians too
Crossed the line
The war had come
The people went to see the King
Reluctantly he let them in

RINGMASTER & CHORUS
And over tea they said that
He must choose one hat

RINGMASTER
A crown in Koblenz with his friends
Or if he choose to make amends
He might adopt

CHORUS
He might adopt

RINGMASTER & CHORUS
Their scarlet bonnet

RINGMASTER
Surprise, surprise, when left to choose

Too late he choose "The Bonnet Rouge"