FRAN.
How long is it since he wrote to you?

MIN.
Alas! he has only written to me once since the peace.

FRAN.
What!--A sigh on account of the peace? Surprising? Peace ought only to
make good the ill which war causes; but it seems to disturb the good
which the latter, its opposite, may have occasioned. Peace should not
be so capricious! . . . How long have we had peace? The time seems
wonderfully long, when there is so little news. It is no use the post
going regularly again; nobody writes, for nobody has anything to write
about.

MIN.
"Peace has been made," he wrote to me, "and I am approaching the
fulfillment of my wishes." But since he only wrote that to me once,
only once--

FRAN.
And since he compels us to run after this fulfillment of his wishes
ourselves. . . If we can but find him, he shall pay for this! Suppose,
in the meantime, he may have accomplished his wishes, and we should
learn here that--

MIN. (anxiously).
That he is dead?