nt weed,
A cloister thing unvisited of dew,
Withering and untended and afar
From the remembered ruin of my home,
And here has planted me in happiness.
Then, for her, all I am!

_Vittia._ Or--hope to be?

_Yolanda._ The price, say, of your silence.--I am weary.

_Vittia._ And would be rid of me.

_Yolanda._ The price, the price.

_Vittia._ It is (_low and ashamed_) that you renounce Amaury's
love.

[_A pause._

_Yolanda._ Amaury's love.... You then would rend me there
Where not Eternity could heal the wound
Though all the River of God might be for balm!
Cruelty like to this you could not do?

[_Waits a moment._

A swallow on the battlements to-day
Fell from the hawk: you soothed and set it free.
This, then, you would not--!

_Vittia._ Yes.

_Yolanda._ You cannot!

_Vittia._ Yes.

_Yolanda_ (_wrung for a moment then calm_).
I had forgotten, you are of Venice--Venice
Whose burdening is vast upon this land.
Good-night.

_Vittia._ And you despise me!

_Yolanda._ More I loathe
That love of him has led your thought so low.

[_Is going._

_Vittia._ Stay! If you leave and do not choose at once--

[_Sounds are heard at the gates._

Who's that?... (_starts_). Amaury?... You've expected him?

[_The chains fall._

Your purpose, then! Is it now to renounce
And force him from you or to have me breathe
To Renier Lusignan the one word
That will transmute his wrong to madness?
Say it! For centuries have stained these walls
But never a wife; never--

_Enter_ BERENGERE.

_Yolanda._ Mother?...

_Berengere._ Amaury
Has spurred to us, Yolanda, from his post,
And is below. But ... what has befallen?

[_Looks from one to the other._

_Yolanda._ He comes here, mother?

_Berengere._ At once.

_Yolanda_ (_in dread_). Ah!

_Berengere._ Child?...

_Vittia_ (_to_ YOLANDA). To-night
Must be the end.

_Yolanda._ Go, go.

_Berengere_ (_as_ VITTIA _passes out_). What thing is this?

_Yolanda._ Mother, I cannot have hi