The world awakes anew;
And O, the scent of the hawthorn,
And the drip of the healing dew!

[_The song ceases. TITANIA and OBERON come out into the moon-lit
glade._]

OBERON

Yet one night more the gates of fairyland
Are opened by a mortal's kindly deed.
But Robin Hood and Marian now are driven
As we shall soon be driven, from the world
Of cruel mortals.

TITANIA

Mortals call them dead;
Oberon, what is death?

OBERON

Only a sleep.
But these may dream their happy dreams in death
Before they wake to that new lovely life
Beyond the shadows; for poor Shadow-of-a-Leaf
Has given them this by love's eternal law
Of sacrifice, and they shall enter in
To dream their lover's dream in fairyland.

TITANIA

And Shadow-of-a-Leaf?

OBERON

He cannot enter now.
The gates are closed against him.

TITANIA

But is this
For ever?

OBERON
We fairies have not known or heard
What waits for those who, like this wandering Fool,
Throw all away for love. But I have heard
There is a great King, out beyond the world,
Not Richard, who is dead, nor yet King John;
But a great King who one day will come home
Clothed with the clouds of heaven from His Crusade.

TITANIA

The great King!

OBERON

Hush, the poor dark mortals come!

[_The crowd of serfs, old men, poor women, and children, begin to
enter as the fairy song swells up within the gates again.
ROBIN and MARIAN are led along by a crowd of fairies
at the end of the procession._]

TITANIA

And there, see, there come Robin and his bride.
And the fairies lead them on, strewing their path
With ferns and moon-flowers. See, they have entered in!

[_The last fairy vanishes thro' the gates._]

OBERON

And we must follow, for the gates may close
For ever now. Hundreds of years may pass
Before another mortal gives his life
To help the poor and needy.

[_OBERON and TITANIA follow hand in hand thro' the gates. They
begin to close. SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF steals wistfully
and hesitatingly across, as if to enter. They close
in his face. He goes up to them and leans against
them sobbing, a small