He seizes
her arms_.] And they could wrestle with all those you prefer.... [_He
twists her arms behind her head_.] Ah! you will not speak!... There
will yet come a time when all your soul shall spirt out like a clear
spring, for woe....

ALLADINE.

No, no!

ABLAMORE.

Again,... we are not at the end, the journey is very long--and naked
truth is hid among the rocks.... Will she come forth?... I see her
gestures in your eyes already, and her cool breath will lave my visage
soon.... Ah!... Alladine! Alladine!...[_He releases her suddenly_.]
I heard your bones cry out like little children.... I have not hurt
you?... Do not stay thus, upon your knees before me,... It is I who
go down on my knees. [_He does as he says_] I am a wretch.... You must
have pity.... It is not for myself alone I pray.... I have only one
poor daughter.... All the rest are dead.... I had seven of them
about me.... They were fair and full of happiness; and I saw them no
more.... The only one left to me is going to die, too.... She did
not love life.... But one day she encountered something she no longer
looked for, and I saw she had lost the desire to die.... I do not ask
a thing impossible.... [ALLADINE _weeps and makes no answer_.]

SCENE IV.--_The apartment of_ ASTOLAINE. ASTOLAINE _and_ PALOMIDES
_discovered_.

PALOMIDES.

Astolaine, when I met you several months ago by chance, it seemed
to me that I had found at last what I had sought for during many
years.... Till you, I did not know all that the ever tenderer goodness
and complete simplicity of a high soul might be. I was so deeply
stirred by it that it seemed to me the first time I had met a human
being. You would have said that I had lived till then in a closed
chamber which you opened for me; and all at once I knew what must be
the soul of other men and what mine might become.... Since then,
I have known you further. I have seen you act, and others too have
taught me all that you have been.

There have been evenings when I quitted you without a word, and went
to weep for wonder in a corner of the palace, because you had simply
raised your eyes, made a little unconscious gesture, or smiled for no
apparent cause, yet at the moment when all the souls about you asked
it and would be satisfied. There is but you who know these moments,
because you are, it seems, the soul of all, and I do not believe those
who have not drawn near you can know what true life is. To-day I come
to