  Scene:—Same as Acts I and II. The statues of the gods are set up again, in their places, facing them a throne has been erected on which the High Priest is seated. Rheou, Satni, Mieris, Yaouma, Sokiti, Nourm, Bitiou, the Steward and all the women and servants of the household, and the laborers. When the curtain rises all are prostrate with their faces to the ground. High Priest [after a pause] Rise! [All rise to their knees. A pause] The divine images are again in their places. You have shown that you repent. You have begged for pardon. You have testified your horror of the terrible crime you were driven to commit. You await your chastisement. The gods now permit that we proceed to the sacrifice, that will bring about the overflowing of the Nile, and give for yet another year, life to the land of Egypt. She who has chosen, the elect, the savior, is she here? Yaouma [rising to her feet, radiant] I am here! High Priest. Let her go to clothe her in the sacred robe. Form the procession to bear her to the threshold of the abode of the glorious and the immortal. Yaouma. Come! A number of the women rise and go out right with Yaouma. High Priest. To-day, at the hour when Ammon-Ra came forth from the underworld, I entered the sanctuary. All. O Ammon! Pity! Pity! Ammon! High Priest. Cease your sobs! Cease your cries! Cease your useless prayers! Hear the God who speaks through my mouth. All. Be kind! Thou! Thou! Have pity! Beseech High Priest. Yes—I—I have pity on you. But your crime is so great! Have you considered well the enormity of your sin? None can remember to have seen the like. The Gods! To overthrow the Gods! And such Gods! Ammon and Thoueris! I would I might disarm their wrath. But what shall I offer them in your name that may equal your offence? People. All! Take all we possess, but spare our lives. High Priest. All you possess! 'Tis little enough. People. Take our crops. High Priest. And who then will feed you? Already you pay tithes. I will offer a fourth of your harvests for ten years. But 'tis little. Even did I say you would give half of all that is in your homes, should I succeed? And would you give it me? People. Yes! Yes! High Priest. Still it will not be enough. Hear what the God hath breathed to me. There must be prayers, ceaseless prayers in the temple. Every year ten of your daughters must enter the house of the God to be consecrated. People. Our daughters! Ammon! Our daughters! High Priest. The God is good! The God is good! Lo! I hear him pronounce the words of pardon. But further, you must needs assist the Pharaoh to carry out the divine commands. Ammon wills that the Ethiopian infidels be chastised. All who are of an age to fight will join the army, that is on the eve of departure. People [in consternation] Oh! the war! the war! High Priest. Proud Ethiopia threatens invasion to Egypt. You must defend your tombs, your homes, and your women. Would you become slaves of the blacks? People. No, no, we would not! High Priest. You will go to punish the foes of your kings? People. We will go. High Priest. And what will be your reward? Know you not that victory will be yours, because the god is with you. And if some fall in battle, should we not all envy their fate, since they leave this world to go towards Osiris. The arrows of your foes will fall harmless at your feet, like wounded birds. Their swords shall bend on your invulnerable bodies. The fire they light against you will become as perfumed water. All this you know to be true. You know that your gods protect you. You know they are all-powerful, because, yesterday, you all did see how the stone image of the goddess Isis did bow, to show you she protects you. People. To the war! To the war! To Ethiopia! Satni [leaping up to the terrace] I have been coward too long! [To the crowd] The miracle of yesterday—'twas I—'twas I who worked it. General uproar. High Priest. I deliver this man to you, and I deliver you to him. You will not let him deceive you twice. Execrations of the people, Satni cannot speak. The High Priest is borne out on his throne accompanied by Rheou. Satni [when the uproar subsides] I was in the temple— People. That is a lie! Satni. It was I who made the head of the image bow. People. He blasphemes. Have done! Have done! Let him not blaspheme! Satni. It was I! And I ask your forgiveness. A Man. Why should you do it, if you despise our gods? Satni. I did it out of pity. People. We have no need of your pity. Satni. That is true. You have need only of my courage. And I failed you. I was touched by your tears. I was weak, thinking to be kind. A Man. You are not kind. You would have handed us over to foreign gods. People. Yes! yes! that is true! Satni. I gave you the lie that you begged for. I wanted to lull your sorrows to sleep. A Man. You have brought down on us the anger of the gods. Another. The evils that crush us, 'tis you have let them loose on us. All. Yes, yes! Liar! Curse you! Let him be accursed! Satni. Curse me. You are right. I am guilty. I had not the strength to persevere; to lead you, in spite of your tears, to the summits I would lead you to. To still a few sobs, to give hope to some who were stricken, I worked the miracle; and, beholding that false miracle, you made submission. I have confirmed, I have strengthened the empire of the lie. A Man. 'Twas you who lied. Satni. I have given back your minds, for another age, to slavery and debasement. I have given back to the priests their power that was endangered. I have given them means to increase your burdens, to take your daughters, to send you to a war, covetous, murderous, and unjust. A Man. You are a spy from Ethiopia! Another. You are a traitor to your country! All. Yes! a traitor! Death to the traitor! Satni. And to defend your tyrants, you will kill men as wretched as yourselves, dupes like you, and like you enslaved. A Man. We know you are paid to betray Egypt! All. Yes, we know it! We know the price of your treason! Another. You would sell Egypt, and 'tis to weaken us you would overthrow our gods. All. Traitor! Traitor! Satni. If I am a traitor, 'tis to my own cause! But a while ago I was proud of my deed, thinking I had sacrificed myself to you. Alas! I only sacrificed your future to my pity. I wept for you; to weep for misfortune—what is that but an easy escape from the duty of fighting its cause? I pitied you. Pity is but a weakness, a submission—To perpetuate the falsehood of the miracle, and the life of atonement to come is to drug misery to sleep. A Man. Misery!—can you give us anything to cure it? They laugh. Satni. They have implanted in you, the belief that misery is immortal, invincible. By my falsehood, I too have seemed to admit this; and thus I have helped those, in whose interest it is that misery should last for ever. A Man. He insults the Pharaoh! Another. Do not insult our priests! Satni. Had there been no miracle, you would have despaired—you would have sorrowed. I ought to have faced that. I ought to have faced the death of a few, to save the future of all. We go forward only by destroying. What matter blood and pain! Pain and blood—never a child is born without them! I would— An angry outburst. A Woman. Kill him! Kill him! He says we must put our children to death! Satni. All are glorious who preach new efforts— People. Death! Death to the traitor! Satni. All are infamous who preach resignation People. Enough! Kill him! Death! Satni. It is in this world that the wretched must find their paradise, it is here that every one's good must be sought with a zeal that knows no limit, save respect for the good of others. A burst of laughter. People. He is mad! He knows not what he says! He is mad! Yaouma is borne on right on a litter carried by young girls. She is decked out like an idol; she stands erect, half in ecstasy. People. Yaouma! The chosen of Ammon-Ra! Glory to her who goes to save Egypt! With jubilant cries the procession goes slowly towards the gates at the back, preceded and surrounded by musicians and dancers. Satni. Yaouma! Yaouma! One word! One look of farewell! Yaouma! 'Tis I, Satni! Look on me! The acclamations drown his voice. Yaouma is wrapped in her soul's dream. She passes without hearing Satni's voice. The crowd follows her. Mieris [to Delethi who supports her] Lead me to Satni—go—[To Satni] Satni, your words have sunk deep in my heart—Yaouma, they tell me, did not hear your voice. She is lost in the joy of sacrifice. The need to make sacrifice is in us all. If the gods are not, to whom shall we sacrifice ourselves? Satni. To those who suffer. Mieris. To those who suffer. During this Bitiou has come slowly down behind Satni. Bitiou. Look! He too, he will fall down! He plunges a dagger in Satni's back. Delethi draws Mieris away. Satni falls. Satni [raising himself slightly] It was you who struck me, Bitiou—[He looks long and sadly at him] Bitiou looks at the blood on the dagger, and flings it away in horror. Then he crouches down by Satni and begins to cry softly. Delethi [to Mieris] Mistress, come and pray! Mieris. No, I do not believe in gods in whose name men kill. Outside are heard the trumpets and acclamations that accompany Yaouma to the Nile. CURTAIN |
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