in the forest with the mother who he knows awaits them there_.

_The peacock spreads its wings as if for flight_, _then crouches down
once more_, _and over it watches the young prince_.

_The sun envelops them both in a sudden shaft of rose and purple and
gold_. _A servant descends and comes across the grass_. _He shikoes
profoundly to the two young men_, _lifting up his hands in the deepest
reverence of Burmah_.

"The Lord of the Earth and the Sky desires his sons; he nears the Great
Unknown."

CURTAIN

SCENE IV

_The retreat of_ HIP LOONG, _the Wizard_.

_Time_: _the same night_.

_The curtain discovers_ MAH PHRU, _who has returned to human form_, _and
the Wizard together_.

_He tells her that he has restored her to her former state only because
she has implored him to do so_; _that her life is measured by hours as a
consequence of such insensate folly in breaking the vow of five years
back_.

"But the King will live," _she murmurs_.

"The King will live. He will find happiness with someone fairer than
you. That is well. Your life for his. It is the price."

"The price is nothing. Have I not looked on my heart's beloved one for
five years--looked on his face--heard his voice--trembled with joy at his
footsteps? Have I not waited and watched? Have I not gazed on my sons
and seen their royal bearing, and known their touch?"

"You are, then, content?"

"You are a Wizard--you can read that I am."

"It is not I that am a Wizard--it is Love. That is the only Wizard this
world knows."

CURTAIN

SCENE V

_The bed-chamber of the King_--_vast and shadowy_. _On heaped-up
cushions and covers of yellow and blue_, _under a pearl-sewn creamy
velvet baldaquin_, _embroidered with peacocks_, _lies_ MENG BENG,
_mortally stricken_; _his face bears the ashen pallor that only dark
skins know_. _The ministers_, _the servants_, _the courtiers_, _the
countless motley gathering of an Eastern Court are scattered in anxious
groups_, _watching_, _waiting_, _murmuring_. _Only the space near the
couch is clear_. _Without_, _the dawn breaks over the sea_, _and_,
_stealing through the opening_, _makes the great chamber flush till it
looks like porphyry_.

_The tolling of a deep gong and the voices of a myriad birds invade the
throbbing silence of the Palace_.

"He passes," _murmur the physicians_. _Everyone's gaze turns to the
dying man_.

"Yet his star is in the ascendant," _say the astrologer