bound my eyes with
bands.... I think my hands are bleeding....

PALOMIDES.

Wait. To-day I bless my strength.... I feel the knots beginning to
give way.... One struggle more, and let my fists burst! One struggle
more! I have my hands! [_Tearing away the bandage_.] And my eyes!...

ALLADINE.

You see now?

PALOMIDES.

Yes.

ALLADINE.

Where are we?

PALOMIDES.

Where are you?

ALLADINE.

Here; can you not see me?

PALOMIDES.

My eyes weep still where the band has left its trace.... We are not in
darkness.... Is it you I hear toward where I can just see?

ALLADINE.

I am here; come.

PALOMIDES.

You are at the edge of that which gives us light. Do not stir; I
cannot see all that there is about you. My eyes have not forgot the
bandage yet. They bound it tight enough to burst my eyelids.

ALLADINE.

Come; the knots stifle me. I can wait no longer....

PALOMIDES.

I hear only a voice coming out of the light....

ALLADINE.

Where are you?

PALOMIDES.

I have no idea myself. I walk still in darkness.... Speak again, that
I may find you. You seem to be on the edge of an unbounded light....

ALLADINE.

Come! come! I have borne without a word, but I can bear no more....

PALOMIDES (_groping forward_).

You are there? I thought you so far away!... My tears deceived me.
I am here, and I see you. Oh, your hands are wounded! They have bled
upon your gown, and the knots have entered into the flesh. I have no
longer any weapons. They have taken away my poniard. I will tear them
off. Wait! wait! I have the knots.

ALLADINE.

Take off the bandage first that makes me blind....

PALOMIDES.

I cannot.... I do not see.... It seems to be surrounded by a net of
golden threads....

ALLADINE.

My hands, then, my hands!

PALOMIDES.

They have taken silken cords.... Wait, the knots come undone. The cord
has thirty turns.... There, there!--Oh, your hands are all blood!...
You would say they were dead....

ALLADINE.

No, no!... They are alive! they are alive! See!...

[With her hands hardly yet unbound, she clasps Palomides about the
neck and kisses him passionately.]

PALOMIDES.

Alladine!

ALLADINE.

Palomides!

PALOMIDES.

Alladine, Alladine!...

ALLADINE.

I am happy!... I have waited a long while!...

PALOMIDES.

I was afraid to come....

ALLADINE.

I am happy ... and I would that I could see thee....

PALOMIDES.

They have tied down the bandage lik