her vices is her pride.

CALAF.

To Hell with such a monster! If _I_ were
Her father,, I would burn her at the stake....

BARAK (_looking towards the city gate._)

See, there comes Ishmael, the friend and guide
Of the young Prince they slaughtered even now.
My poor friend!

SCENE IV

ISHMAEL. _The foregoing._

ISHMAEL (_Enters weeping from the city_).

Oh, my friend! Now he is dead.
My Prince is dead! Accursed headsman's axe,
Why hast thou severed not this neck of mine?

(_Breaks out into despairing weeping._)

BARAK.

But why didst thou not hinder him in time,
My friend?

ISHMAEL.

Dost thou on all my misery
Heap reprimands, Hassan! I have done my duty
To the uttermost. I might, indeed, have summoned
His father hither, if there _had_ been time;
But there was _not_.

BARAK.

Be calm, my friend, be calm.

ISHMAEL.

Calm? I be calm? Like arrows stinging sharp
The last words that he spoke stick in my breast:

"Weep not," he said, "for I am glad to die,
Since I may not possess her. Bear my greeting
Unto my father. May he pardon me
That when I fared I took no leave of him.
Tell him it was for fear lest his denial
Should force my disobedience. And show him
This picture.

(_Draws a picture from the folds of his robe._)

When he sees such loveliness,
He will forgive, and weep my fate with thee."
Thus speaking, my dear Prince a hundred times
Kissed the accursed picture, and then bowed
His neck to the stroke. Blood spurts on high.
The trunk
Quivers, and falls. High in the headsman's hands
The head I love. Blind, dazed with pain I flee....

(_Hurls the picture to the ground and tramples on it._)

Thou devilish, accursed witchery!
I tread thee in the dust, thou spawn of Hell!
And O that I could trample with these feet
The witch herself! Haha! I was to take thee
Unto his father, unto Samarkand?
I fancy
That Samarkand will never see me more.

(_Exit in desperation._)

SCENE V

BARAK, CALAF.

BARAK.

Well? Did you hear?

CALAF.

You see me all amazed.
One thing I understand not: how such power
Should issue from a picture.

(_Bends down to lift up the picture._)

BARAK (_screams_).

Prince, bethink you I
What are you doing?

CALAF.

I will lift it up,
To gaze upon this perilous loveliness....

(_Makes a dash for the picture._ BARAK _holds
him back with force._)

BARAK.

You might as well look on the Gorgon's head!
I will not le