The Fugitive King

(album: Ça Ira - 2005)

[ACT THREE]

[Scene 1 "The Fugitive King"]

[RINGMASTER]
And high above,
Homing in the restless sky,
Rooks, melancholy, proclaim a schism between
God, sacred, and the Crown, profane
Between the heavens and the King
The dark horizon cracks a crooked grin,
Admitting one small grain of change
Then two, then four, then bit by bit,
Then tock by tick
All the old presumptions hove in rings

[KING]
The King is afraid that his kingdom is slipping away

[QUEEN]
The Queen pines for the good times at Versailles

[KING]
He works on his locks to the sound of the ticking of clocks

[QUEEN]
The children play in a garden that's ringed with steel

[KING]
They wanted to visit St. Cloud to be able to

[KING & QUEEN]
Breathe in the air

[OFFICER]
The National Guard forbad them to leave