ers and the crowd follow
after.]

A GIRL (covering her face with her hands).
Oh, our poor Queen!

A 2D GIRL.
She was like alabaster, cold and white!

A 3D GIRL.
Not once along the awful way she raised
Her eyes!

A 4TH GIRL.
She did not wish to see!

THE 1ST GIRL.
Oh fie,
That Mark should shame her so!

THE 2D GUARD.
Make haste, ye must
Go in!

1ST GUARD (to the kneeling shepherd).
Wake up! Thou too must go within
The church. Now come!

SHEPHERD.
The sun fell down!
It grazed my eyes!

A GIRL.
I'll pray with all my heart
For our poor Queen!

A 2D GIRL.
We all will pray--and curse
The King!

3D GUARD.
Thou slut, be still, and hold thy tongue!
Make haste into the church--go in!

1ST GUARD.
I hear
The lepers coming! hark!

3D GUARD.
Here, girl, thou'st dropped
Thy kerchief!

[He picks it up.]

THE GIRL.
Thanks!

1ST GUARD (taking the old man by the arm).
Take hold of me, old man.
Make haste.

[The doors of the church close: the stage
remains empty for a few seconds. The music
of the organ swells, and a hymn is heard.
Then, by snatches, first distantly, then
nearer, the rythmical rattling of the lepers
resounds.]

SCENE III

The lepers enter the courtyard. They are a wild pack dressed in gaudy
rags, and rumpled, armless cloaks with hoods; carrying long staves and
crutches; with colored cloths bound about their sinister foreheads.
Their faces are sunburnt, their hair is snow-white and streams in the
wind. Some have their heads shaved. Their arms and feet are bare.
Altogether they present a motley appearance, though the hardships of
their life, as a band forced to live together, give them the aspect of
weather-beaten and dried chaff driven hither and thither by the wind.
They stand shyly and rock unsteadily on their dried and shrunken
legs--silent and restless. Like ghosts of the noonday, they try to hush
their voices throughout the scene.

IWEIN (is the first to enter; the others file past him).
Come quick!