bed and feeling the body_).

They are right....
[_A long silence._

ARKEL.

I saw nothing.--Are you sure?...

THE PHYSICIAN.

Yes, yes.

ARKEL.

I heard nothing.... So quick, so quick!... All at once!... She goes
without a word....

GOLAUD (_sobbing_).

Oh! oh! oh!

_ARKEL._

Do not stay here, Golaud.... She must have silence now.... Come,
come.... It is terrible, but it is not your fault.... 'T was a little
being, so quiet, so fearful, and so silent.... 'T was a poor little
mysterious being, like everybody.... She lies there as if she were the
big sister of her child.... Come, come.... My God! My God!... I shall
never understand it at all.... Let us not stay here.--Come; the child
most not stay here in this room.... She must live now in her place....
It is the poor little one's turn....
[_They go out in silence._

[CURTAIN.]

Alladine and Palomides.

_To Camille Mauclair_.

Persons.

ABLAMORE.

ASTOLAINE, _daughter of Ablamore_.

ALLADINE.

PALOMIDES.

THE SISTERS OF PALOMIDES.

A PHYSICIAN.

[NOTE: The translation of Ablamore's song is taken from the version of
this play made by the editors of "Poet-lore." R.H.]

Alladine and Palomides.

* * * * *

ACT FIRST.

_A-wild part of the gardens_. ABLAMORE _discovered leaning over_
ALLADINE, _who is asleep_.

ABLAMORE.

Methinks sleep reigns day and night beneath these trees. Each time
she comes here with me toward nightfall, she is hardly seated when she
falls asleep. Alas! I must be glad even of that.... During the day,
whene'er I speak to her and her look happens to encounter mine, it is
hard as a slave's to whom a thing impossible has just been bidden....
Yet that is not her customary look.... I have seen her many times
resting her beautiful eyes on children, on the forest, the sea, or her
surroundings. She smiles at me as one smiles on a foe; and I dare not
bend over her save at times when her eyes can no longer see me.... I
have a few moments every evening; and all the rest of the day I live
beside her with my eyes cast down.... It is sad to love too late....
Maids cannot understand that years do not separate hearts.... They
have called me "The wise King."... I was wise because till now nothing
had happened to me.... There are men who seem to turn events aside.