REPORTER: Mr. Bentley, you must know as much about Colonal Lawrence as anybody does. BENTLEY: Yes, it was my privilege to know him, and to make him known to the world. He was a poet, a scholar, and a mighty warrior. [aside, as reporter leaves] He was also the most shameless exhibitionist since Barnum and Bailey. SERGEANT: [watching as Lawrence extinguishes the flame of a match with his thumb and forefinger] You'll do that once to often. It's only flesh and blood. LAWRENCE: Why, Michael George Hartley, you're a philosopher. CORPORAL: [having tried for himself to extinguish a match between his thumb and forefinger] Ow! It damn well 'urts! LAWRENCE: Certainly it hurts. CORPORAL: Well what's the trick then? LAWRENCE: The trick, William Potter, is not minding if it hurts. DRYDEN: The Bureau thinks the job of the moment is to win the war. MURRAY: Don't tell me my duty, Mr. Dryden. MURRAY: If you're insubordinate with me, Lawrence, I'll put you under arrest! LAWRENCE: It's my manner, sir. MURRAY: What? LAWRENCE: My manner, sir. It looks insubordinate but it isn't really. MURRAY: I can't make out whether you're bloody bad-mannered or just half-witted. LAWRENCE: I have the same trouble, sir. LAWRENCE: Sherif Ali! So long as the Arabs fight tribe against tribe, so long will they be a little people. A silly people! Greedy, barbarous, and cruel - as you are! BRIGHTON: Now look sir, Great Britain is a small country - much smaller than yours. Small population compared with some. It's small, but it's great. And why? ALI: Because it has guns. BRIGHTON: Because it has discipline! FEISAL: Because it has a navy. Because of this the English go where they please and strike where they please, and this makes them great. LAWRENCE: Right. LAWRENCE: Since you do know, we can claim to ride in the name of Feisal of Mecca. FEISAL: Yes, Lieutenant Lawrence, you may claim it. But in whose name do you ride? ELDER HARITH: Gasim's time has come, Aurens. It is written. LAWRENCE: Nothing is written! LAWRENCE: I shall be at Akaba. That IS written. [points to his own head] In here. ALI: El Aurens... Truly, for some men nothing is written unless they write it. AUDA: I am Auda Abu Tayi. LAWRENCE: Ah. I have heard of another man of that name. AUDA: Other? What other? LAWRENCE: The Auda I heard of would not need to summon help to look after his wells. AUDA: Ah. He must be a great hero. LAWRENCE: He is. He would not refuse water to men coming out of the great Nefudh desert. AUDA: Would he not? Truly, that MUST be some other man. AUDA: Thy mother mated with a scorpian. ALI: It was execution, Aurens. No shame in that... besides, it was necessary. You gave life and you took it. The writing is still yours. ALI: Garlands for the conqueror, flowers for the man. LAWRENCE: I'm none of those things, Ali. ALI: What then? LAWRENCE: Don't know. Thanks. My god I love this country. LAWRENCE: Yes, cross Sinai. ALI: Sinai! LAWRENCE: Yes. ALI: With these? [indicates the boys, FARRAJ and DAUD] LAWRENCE: They'll be alright with me. [seeing Ali's face, he takes him by one of his cross straps and adds] Look Ali. If any of your bedouin arrived in Cairo and told them that we've taken Akaba, the generals would laugh. ALI: I see. In Cairo you will put off these funny clothes. You will wear trousers and tell stories of our quaintness and barbarity. And then they will believe you. LAWRENCE: [softly] You're an ignorant man. AUDA: There is no gold in Akaba! No gold! No "great box"! LAWRENCE: Did Auda come to Akaba for gold? AUDA: For my pleasure, as you said, but gold is honourable and Aurens promised gold. Aurens lied. LAWRENCE: See, Auda. [writes, reading aloud] "The Crown of England promises to pay 5, 000 golden guineas to Auda Abu Tayi. Signed, in His Majesty's absence, by"... me. In ten days I'll be back with the gold. With gold, with guns, with everything. AUDA: Ten days? You will cross Sinai? LAWRENCE: Why not? Moses did. AUDA: And you will take... the children? LAWRENCE: [calling over his shoulder] Moses did! AUDA: Moses was a prophet! [shouting after him] And beloved of God! [turns to Ali] He said there was gold here. He lied. He is not perfect. FARRAJ: Aurens... Why do you walk? [LAWRENCE makes no answer] But why, Lord? There is room for both. [then, sharply, with a note of fear in his voice] Aurens! Why, Lord? It serves no purpose. There is room for both. [LAWRENCE nods and moves to ride with FARRAJ] LAWRENCE: We want two large glasses of lemonade. BARTENDER: This is a bar for British officers. LAWRENCE: That's all right; we're not particular. LAWRENCE: [to BARTENDER] He likes your lemonade. ALLENBY: You acted without orders you know. LAWRENCE: Shouldn't Officers "use their initiative at all times"? ALLENBY: Not really... It's awfully dangerous, Lawrence. LAWRENCE: I know. ALLENBY: Already? LAWRENCE: Yes. ALLENBY: I'm promoting you major, Lawrence... LAWRENCE: I don't think that's a very good idea. ALLENBY: I didn't ask you. I want you to go back and... carry on the good work. LAWRENCE: No thankyou, sir. ALLENBY: Why not? LAWRENCE: Well, I... let's see now... I - killed - two people. I mean two Arabs. One was a boy. That was... yesterday. I led him into a quicksand. The other was a man... that was, oh let me see... before Akaba anyway - I had to execute him with my pistol. There was something about it I didn't like. ALLENBY: Well, naturally... LAWRENCE: No. Something else. ALLENBY: I see. Well that's all right; let it be a warning. LAWRENCE: No. Something else. ALLENBY: What then? LAWRENCE: I enjoyed it. FEISAL: You will find Major Lawrence with my army, Mr. Bentley. BENTLEY: Exactly sir, and where will I find your army? FEISAL: I don't know. FEISAL: With Major Lawrence, mercy is a passion. With me, it is merely good manners. You may judge which motive is the more reliable. BRIGHTON: This looting has got to stop! ALI: It is customary. BRIGHTON: It is theft! And theft makes theives. ALI: It is their payment, Colonal. BRIGHTON: Payment? ALI: Truly, are not British soldiers paid? BRIGHTON: They don't go home when they've been paid! ALI: They are not free to. LAWRENCE: Didn't you know? They can only kill me with a golden bullet. LAWRENCE: The best of them won't come for money... they'll come for me! BENTLEY: What did that Turkish General do to him at Deraa? ALI: He was the same man after Deraa... the same man, humbled. What did the English general do to him in Jerusalem? BENTLEY: Search me. Ask Aurens. ALI: I did. BENTLEY: What did he say? ALI: He laughed... He told me to gather the Harith, here... He offered me money. BENTLEY: Did you take it? ALI: No. But many did. ALI: God help the men who lie under that. LAWRENCE: They're Turks. ALI: God help them. BENTLEY: [surveying the thousands of massacared Turks] Jesus wept. Jesus wept. ALI: Does it surprise you, Mr. Bentley? Surely you know the Arabs are a barbarous people! Barbarous and cruel! Who but they?... Who but they...? BENTLEY: [turning to LAWRENCE] Oh, you rotten man. Here. Let me take your rotton bloody picture, for the rotton bloody newspapers. LAWRENCE: If you answer, there will be bloodshed. ALI: You speak to me of bloodshed. LAWRENCE: [raises his hand] I pray that I may never see the desert again. Hear me God. LAWRENCE: What about you, Ali? ALI: No, I shall stay here. And learn politics. LAWRENCE: That's a low occupation. ALI: I had not thought of it when I met you. [gets up and begins to leave, then turns back] You tried very hard to give us Damascus. LAWRENCE: It's what I came for. [turns quickly to ALI] It would be something? ALI: Yes. Much. AUDA: [grips ALI by the arm] He is your friend? ALI: Take your hand away. AUDA: You love him. ALI: No, I fear him. AUDA: Then why do you weep? ALI: If I fear him... who love him... How must he fear himself, who hates himself? FEISAL: Young men make wars - and the virtues of war are the virtues of youth - courage and hope for the future. And then old men make the peace, and the vices of peace are the vices of old men - mistrust and caution. It must be so. ALLENBY: Well? DRYDEN: Well it seems to me that we're to have a British Water Works with an Arab flag on it. Do you think it was worth it? ALLENBY: Not my business. Thank God, I'm a soldier. DRYDEN: Yes sir: so you keep saying. FEISAL: [to DRYDEN] You, I suspect, are the cheif architect of this... compromise. What do you think? DRYDEN: Me, your Highness? On the whole, I wish I'd stayed in Tunbridge wells.
