  A Gallery in Merlin's Palace
Merlin. You sleep, my Arielle, you my inner force, the neglected power which slumbers in every soul and which I alone, till now, awaken at will.... You sleep, my docile and familiar little fairy, and your hair, straying like a blue mist, invisible to men, mingles with the moon, the perfumes of the night, the rays of the stars, the roses that shed their petals, the spreading sky, to remind us thus that nothing separates us from any existing thing and that our thought does not know where the light begins for which it hopes, nor where the shadow ends which it
Arielle. (Waking.) Master!... Merlin. This is the hour, Arielle, when love must watch.... I shall often trouble your sleep in these coming days.... Arielle. My sleep was so long that I am always relapsing into it; but I feel stronger and become happier at each new awakening that your thought imposes on me.... Merlin. Whither are you taking my son and when shall I see him again?... Arielle. I was following him with my eyes in my attentive dream.... He is approaching us.... He thinks that he is lost; and his destiny leads him where happiness awaits him.... Merlin. Will he know me?... It is many years since the prescribed proof exacted that we should live as strangers to each other; and I am eager to be able to embrace him as I did long ago, when he was a child.... Arielle. No, fate must be allowed to decide freely; nor may the proof be falsified by the love of a father of whose existence he must not know.... Merlin. But now that Joyzelle is here, close to us; now that he is coming towards her, does the future become more clear, can you read further into it?... Arielle. (Gazing upon the sea and the night, in a sort of trance.) I read in it what I read from the first moment.... Your son's fate is wholly inscribed within a circle of love. If he love, if he be loved with a wondrous love, which should be that of all men, but which is becoming so rare that at present it seems to them a dazzling folly; if he love, if he be loved with an ingenuous and yet clear-seeing love, with a love simple and pure and all-powerful as the mountain stream, with an heroic love, yet one that shall be gentler than a flower, with a love which takes all and gives back more than it takes, which never hesitates, which is not deceived; a love which nothing disconcerts and nothing repels, a love which hears and sees naught save a mysterious happiness invisible to all beside, which perceives it everywhere, in every form and every trial, and which, with a smile, will even commit crime to claim it.... If he obtain that love, which exists somewhere and is waiting for him in a heart that I seem to have recognized, his life will be longer, Merlin. Ay, for all men the hour of love is an important hour!... Arielle. For LancÉor, alas, it is the inexorable hour!... Within these next few days he will reach the summit of his life. With groping hands, he touches happiness and the tomb.... He is dependent entirely on the last steps which he is taking and on the act of the virgin who is coming to meet him.... Merlin. And if Joyzelle be not she whom fate selects?... Arielle. Indeed, I fear that the proof which we are about to attempt is the only one which it offers; but man must never lose courage in face of the future.... Merlin. Why attempt the proof if it be uncertain?... Arielle. If we do not offer it, fate will offer it; it is inevitable, but it is left to chance; and that is why I try to direct its course.... Merlin. And if he love Joyzelle and she do not love him with the love which fate demands?... Arielle. Then we shall have to intervene more openly. Merlin. How? Arielle. I will try to learn. Merlin. Arielle, I conjure you, as this concerns the dearest being, much dearer than myself; as I have only one son and he can become what we well know that I could never be: is it not possible to make an unexampled, an almost desperate effort with regard to the future; to violate time; to snatch from the years, even were they to revenge themselves upon us two, the secret which they conceal so strictly and which contains much more than our own life and our own happiness?... Arielle. No, strive as I may, I can reach no further.... The future is a world limited by ourselves, in which we discover only that which concerns us and sometimes, by chance, that which interests those whom we love the most.... I Merlin. And, therefore, starting from this point which I can surmount, we must submit to unknown Arielle. But here they come, in the breaking dawn.... Let us hasten away, they are coming near.... Let us leave to their destiny, which is beginning its work, the solitude and the silence which it demands.
Joyzelle. (Stopping, astonished, before LancÉor.) What are you seeking? LancÉor. I do not know where I am.... I was seeking a shelter.... Who are you? Joyzelle. My name is Joyzelle. LancÉor. Joyzelle.... I am saying the name.... It is as caressing as a wing, the breath of a flower, a whisper of gladness, a ray of light.... It describes you completely, it sings in the heart, it lights the lips.... Joyzelle. And you, who are you? LancÉor. I no longer myself know who I am.... A few days ago, my name was LancÉor; I knew where I was and I knew myself.... To-day, I seek myself, I grope within myself and all around me and I wander in the mist, amid mirages.... Joyzelle. What mist? What mirages?... How long have you been on this island? LancÉor. Since yesterday.... Joyzelle. Strange, they did not tell me.... LancÉor. No one saw me.... I was wandering on the shore, I was in despair.... Joyzelle. Oh! Why?... LancÉor. I was very far from here, I was very far from him, when a letter told me that my old father was dying.... I took ship at once. We were long at sea; then, in the first port at which the ship put in, I learnt that it was too late, that my father was no more.... I continued my voyage, at least to be on the scene of his last thoughts and carry out his last wishes.... Joyzelle. Why are you here? LancÉor. Why? I do not know, nor do I know how.... The sea was very still and the sky was clear.... We saw only the water slumbering in the azure.... Suddenly, without warning, the waves were invaded by thick blue mists.... They rose like a veil, which clung to our hands, to the rigging, to our faces.... Then the wind blew, our anchor broke loose and the blind ship, driven by a current that made her timbers creak, arrived towards evening in the unknown harbour of this unexpected island.... Sad and disheartened, I landed on the beach; I fell asleep in a cave overlooking the sea; and, when I awoke, the fog had lifted and I saw the ship disappear like a radiant wing on the horizon of the waves. Joyzelle. What had happened? LancÉor. I do not know.... I would have tried to follow her, but I could find no boat in the Joyzelle. That is curious.... It is like myself.... LancÉor. Like you?... Joyzelle. Yes, I too came to the island through a thick fog.... But I was shipwrecked.... LancÉor. When was that? And how?... Where do you come from, Joyzelle?... Joyzelle. I was coming from another island.... LancÉor. Where were you going? Joyzelle. Where some one was awaiting me.... LancÉor. Who? Joyzelle. One whom they had thought right to choose for me.... LancÉor. Were you betrothed?... Joyzelle. Yes. LancÉor. Do you love him?... Joyzelle. No. LancÉor. But then?... Joyzelle. My mother wished it.... LancÉor. Do you intend to obey her? Joyzelle. No. LancÉor. Ah, that is well!... I like that!... And my father, at the moment of his death, wished that I also should choose her whom he had chosen for me.... He had his reasons, very deep and serious reasons, it appears.... And, as he wished it and as he is no longer alive, I must obey him.... Joyzelle. Why? LancÉor. We cannot evade the wishes of the dead. Joyzelle. Why? LancÉor. They can no longer be altered.... We must have pity, we must respect them.... Joyzelle. No.... LancÉor. You would not obey?... Joyzelle. No. LancÉor. Joyzelle!... This is horrible!... Joyzelle. No, the dead are horrible, if they want us to love those whom we do not love.... LancÉor. Joyzelle!... I am afraid of you.... Joyzelle. I said.... What did I say?... Perhaps I was too quick.... LancÉor. Joyzelle, your eyes are moist at the thought of the dead and belie your words.... Joyzelle. No, it is not for them.... Perhaps I was harsh.... And yet, they are wrong. LancÉor. Let us speak no more of the dead.... You have not told me how your shipwreck.... Joyzelle. We lost our way in a thick fog.... A fog so thick that it filled our hands like white feathers.... The pilot mistook the course.... He thought he saw a beacon.... The ship struck upon a hidden reef.... But no one perished.... The waves bore me away; and then I saw the blue water glide before my eyes as though I were sinking in a stifling sky.... I went down and down.... Then some one caught hold of me and I lost consciousness.... LancÉor. Who caught hold of you?... Joyzelle. The lord of this island. LancÉor. And who is this lord?... Joyzelle. He is an old man who wanders like a restless shade about this marble palace.... LancÉor. If I had been there!... Joyzelle. What would you have done?... LancÉor. I should have saved you!... Joyzelle. Was I not saved?... LancÉor. It is not the same thing!... You would not have suffered, nothing would have come to you.... I should have carried you on the crest of the waves.... Ah, I do not know how.... Like a cup full of precious pearls, of which not one must be touched by a shadow; like a flower Joyzelle. I awoke lying on the sands.... The old man was there. Then he had me carried to this palace.... LancÉor. Is he king of this island?... Joyzelle. The island is almost desert, one sees none but a few servants who move about in silence.... He can have for his subjects only the trees, the flowers and the happy birds with which the island seems filled.... LancÉor. What he did was well done.... Joyzelle. He is good and kind; and he received me as my father himself could not have received me.... Yet I do not like him.... LancÉor. Why? Joyzelle. I believe he loves me.... LancÉor. What!... He dares!... No, it is not possible, or else the years no longer have the weight they should have and reason escapes us when death draws near.... Joyzelle. And yet I fear it.... He gave me to understand.... He is strange and sad.... They say he has a son who is very far from here, who is lost, perhaps.... He is always thinking of him.... When he thinks that he will see him again, his face lights up, he.... Here he is!...
Merlin. I was looking for you, Joyzelle.... (Turning to LancÉor, with a threatening glance.) As for you, I know who you are and I know the reasons that have brought you to this island, the trick of this pretended shipwreck and the name of the enemy who sent you.... LancÉor. Me?... But it was a mere accident that flung me on this coast.... Merlin. Let us waste no phrases. Joyzelle. What has he done? Merlin. He intended, alas, to do the basest thing that man can do: to betray kindness, deceive friendship and sell to the enemy the too generous host who was going to welcome him.... Joyzelle. No! Merlin. Why? Do you know him? Joyzelle. Yes. Merlin. Since when? Joyzelle. Since I first saw him. Merlin. And when did you see him? Joyzelle. When he entered this room.... Merlin. That is hardly.... Joyzelle. It is enough. Merlin. No, Joyzelle, and soon proofs and facts will show you that it is not enough and that an honest look, an innocent smile and ingenuous words often conceal more dangerous snares than those of thankless old age or of love that has but little hope.... Joyzelle. What do you mean to do? Merlin. I am waiting for the final certainty; and then I shall do what it is lawful and necessary to do to remove all fear of an enemy who would stop at nothing. The pitiless measures which I shall take concern your safety as much as my own; for the same plots surround us both and we are united by fate.... I can tell you no more to-day; have confidence in me; perhaps you already know that your happiness is mine.... Joyzelle. You saved my life, I remember that.... Merlin. You remember it without any kindliness: but I hope that one day you will do me justice.... (To LancÉor.) As for you, go. The information which I have received is not open to doubt. When the facts which I fear have confirmed it, I shall act. Meanwhile, you are my prisoner. You will be shown the part of the palace reserved for you. If you go beyond the limits laid down, you become your own judge and LancÉor. I obey, but only until you recognize your error. We shall meet soon, Joyzelle.... Merlin. No, bid her farewell; for it is doubtful if you will ever see her again.... Nevertheless, Joyzelle, chance may bring you again in this man's presence. In that case, fly from him; your life and his depend most strictly on your prompt flight. If I learn that you have seen each other, you are irrevocably lost.... (To LancÉor.) Do you promise to fly from her? LancÉor. If her life is at stake, yes. Merlin. And you, Joyzelle? Joyzelle. No. |
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