eggars in rags, when I
think of it.... Go! go!... I could tell you things....

ALLADINE.

Palomides!... What is the matter?

PALOMIDES.

Go! go!... I have seen tears that came from further than the eyes....
There is something else.... It may be, nevertheless, that we are right
... but how I regret being right so, my God!... Go!... I will tell you
to-morrow ... to-morrow ... to-morrow....
[_Exeunt severally_.

SCENE III.--_A corridor before the apartment of_ ALLADINE. _Enter_
ASTOLAINE _and the_ SISTERS OF PALOMIDES.

ASTOLAINE.

The horses wait in the forest, but Palomides will not flee; and yet
your lives and his are in danger. I do not know my poor father any
longer. He has a fixed idea that troubles his reason. This is the
third day I have followed him step by step, hiding myself behind the
pillars and the walls, for he suffers no one to companion him. To-day,
as the other days, and from the first gleams of the morning he has
gone wandering through the corridors and halls of the palace, and
along the moats and ramparts, shaking the great golden keys he has
had made and singing at the top of his voice the strange song whose
refrain, _Go follow what your eyes have seen_, has perhaps pierced
even to the depths of your chambers. I have concealed from you till
now all that has come to pass, because such things must not be spoken
of without reason. He must have shut up Alladine in this apartment,
but no one knows what he has done with her. I have listened at the
doors every night and whenever he has been away a moment, but I have
never heard any noise in the room.... Do you hear anything?

ONE OF THE SISTERS OF PALOMIDES.

No; I hear only the murmur of the air passing through the little
chinks of the wood....

ANOTHER SISTER.

It seems to me, when I listen hard, that I hear the great pendulum of
the clock.

A THIRD SISTER.

But what is this little Alladine, then, and why does he bear such
ill-will to her?

ASTOLAINE.

It is a little Greek slave that came from the heart of Arcady....
He bears her no ill-will, but ... Do you hear?--It is my father....
[_Singing heard in the distance._] Hide yourselves behind the pillars
... He will have no one pass by this corridor.--[_They hide._]

_Enter_ ABLAMORE, _singing and shaking a bunch of great keys_.

ABLAMORE (_sings_).

Misfortune had three golden keys.
--He has no rescue for the Queen!