A Room in the Palace

[At the back, to the right, is a large marble bed, on which LancÉor is lying lifeless. Joyzelle, anxious, dishevelled, is busying herself around him.

Joyzelle.

LancÉor! LancÉor!... He cannot hear me.... His eyes are wide open.... LancÉor, I am here, I am bending over your eyes.... Look at me, look at me!... No, he does not see me!... LancÉor, for pity's sake!... If your voice is too weak, give a sign of life!... I take you in my arms, my arms that love you!... Come, come, come to yourself, in our great love!... See, see, it is my hands that are lifting your head.... Do you recognize my hands, as they stroke your hair?... You so often told me, when we were happy, that the least caress of these dear hands would recall your soul, even from the greatest happiness of paradise, from the greatest darkness in the depths of.... No, no, it is not there!... But his head is drooping, his arm falls back lifeless and his fingers seem to me colder than this marble.... (Mechanically feeling one of the columns of the bed.) No, it is not that.... But I must know.... And his eyes are no longer.... (Raising his head.) Is it his or mine that are so dim?... No, it is impossible!... No, no, I will not have it! Ah, I will open your lips!... (She places her lips on LancÉor's.) LancÉor! LancÉor! All the ardour of my life shall enter your heart!... Do not fear, do not fear! It is the saving flame and life that restores life!... Breathe it all in the last efforts of my breath which loves you!... I would gladly suffocate in exchanging my life for yours!... I give you my strength, my hours, my years!... Here they are, here they are!... You have but to make a movement, to open your lips!... It must be so!... It must be possible thus to give new life to those whom we love better than ourselves!... When we give them all, they cannot but take it!... (Raising her head to look at LancÉor.) He is falling back! He is going from me!... (Infatuated, she takes him in her arms again.) Help!... No, this is too much!... Help! Hasten! Hasten!... Ah no, I know better, no, no, it is not that.... Death does not come like this when love threatens it!... No, no, I fear nothing, no, no, I will not have it!... But I am crying for help! I cannot remain alone, I cannot fight alone against all the strength of death approaching!... If no one comes, it will end by conquering!... Help, I say!... You must come to my aid!... Life must help me, or it is no longer possible and we shall succumb!...

[She falls sobbing on LancÉor's lifeless body. Enter Merlin.

Merlin.

I am here, Joyzelle....

Joyzelle.

(Starting up, as though to go to him, while still holding LancÉor in a close embrace.) Ah, it is you!... So it is you!... At last here is help and life coming!... Look at him! See!... It is time, he is falling back!... I fling myself at your feet!... Yes, yes, you can do all; and I have seen clear in all things!... Ah, at such moments as this, one would see clear in the depths of a darkness which worlds have never traversed!... Oh, I entreat you, tell me what to do!... I am no longer Joyzelle, I am no longer fierce and I have no more pride.... I am broken and dead: I drag myself at your feet; and it is no more a question of this or that, of love or kisses, or of trifling things!... Life and death stand face to face, they are fighting under our eyes and must be separated.... You do not move a step!... Ah, I know how great your hatred is and how you detest that defenceless man!... Yes, you are right, he is anything you please, he is a coward, he is a rascal, he is your enemy, he is a twenty-fold traitor, since you will have it so!... Yes, I admit it, I was wrong, I confess it, and I no longer love him, since you wish it, and I am ready for anything, provided he be saved!... But that must be done and that counts and all the rest is madness!... But come, come, come, I tell you death is triumphing and will carry him off!... See, his hands are turning blue and his eyes are growing dull and it is horrible!...

Merlin.

Joyzelle, fear nothing; his life is in my hands and I will save him, if you wish me to save him....

Joyzelle.

If I wish you to save him!... But do you not see that, if you were to hesitate, do you not know that, if for his sake, I had to.... No, no, I meant to say ... my distress bewilders me.... He has ceased to breathe, I no longer hear his heart.... You seem to me so slow!... Do you think that there is no danger, no need for haste?... I will speak no more; I am making you lose minutes which perhaps were passing to save him.... If you will not help him yourself—and I can understand that, for you do not love him—tell me only what I must do to assist him; and I shall know how to do it.... But I can see, I am sure that he cannot wait and that we must make haste....

Merlin.

I have told you, Joyzelle, his life is in my hands and cannot escape without my consent. I warned you of it. The poison is doing its work and I can see it. I alone can cure him, snatch him from death, call back his vigour, his beauty, which are fading away, and restore him to you as he was before....

Joyzelle.

Ah, I entreat you, do not dally thus!... What is his beauty to me, if his life escapes us?... Give him back to me as he is, whatever he may be, what care I, if only I have him back, if only he breathes!...

Merlin.

Yes, I will give him back to you. I have already twice done—and each time repented—what I will do again for the last time, since you ask it: but it is a sacrifice which none but you could have obtained. By restoring his life, I risk my own. To rouse his strength, to recall his soul, I must give him a part of my strength, a part of my soul. It may be that he will take from me more than I have left and that I shall fall dead beside the rival whom I shall have restored to life.... Time was when I would thus risk my existence to save a stranger by the wayside, almost without hesitating and without asking anything in exchange.... But to-day I am more prudent and more wise. As I am offering my life, it is but fair that I should be paid for it and paid in advance; and I will give it to him only if you promise me the dearest moment of your own....

Joyzelle.

How?... What am I to do?...

Merlin.

(Aside.) O poor and all too innocent child!... And you, my chaste thoughts, oh, take no part in the odious words which my voice must now spread around their love!... I blush at the proof and am ashamed of what I am now compelled to say.... You will forgive me when you know all.... It is not I that speak: it is the future, which man ought not to know, the shameless, pitiless future, which reveals a day and throws light upon a destiny only to conceal the rest and which wishes that I should know whether you are she whom it marks out....

Joyzelle.

What are you saying?... Why do you hesitate?... There is nothing in the world; examine myself as I may, I see nothing in the world, in our world or in the other, that I could be asked and not be ready to....

Merlin.

See, I will cease talking in riddles.... That man whom you see and whom you hold pressed in your arms lies stretched as near death as though he were laid on the slab of his tomb.... A movement can bring him back to life; a movement can make him fall on the other side.... Well, at the very moment when you say yes and before the echo which slumbers yonder under those marble vaults has time to repeat that you have consented, I will make the certain movement which will snatch him from the darkness, provided that you promise to come to-night, here, in this room in which I shall restore him to you and on this same bed over which you are leaning, to give yourself to me, without shame, without reserve....

Joyzelle.

I?... Give myself to you?...

Merlin.

Yes.

Joyzelle.

I, give myself to you, when he is restored to me?...

Merlin.

So that he may be restored to you.

Joyzelle.

No, I have not understood.... There are words, no doubt, which I do not understand.... No, it is not possible that a man who is not one of the princes of hell should come thus, at the moment when all love's sorrow knows not what to hope for nor what to undertake.... No, I have mistaken you and I am doing you an injury.... You must forgive me, I am a virgin, I am ignorant, I do not quite know what those words imply.... But I see now.... Yes, you are right.... Yes, yes, you mean to say that it is fair that I should bear a share of the danger and that my life should be joined for a moment to yours, in order to create the other life which is to revive him.... But I want that share, I want it for myself alone, I want the whole of it, the greatest possible share, and I never hoped that it could be given me....

Merlin.

Joyzelle, time presses.... Do not seek elsewhere: you know what I am asking and the word means all that you dare not believe....

Joyzelle.

Then, at the very moment when he comes back to me, when I see him once more breathing in my arms and smiling at the love which he will have found again, I shall have to snatch from him all that I have given?... But what remains for him if you take everything from us; and what shall I tell him when he kisses me?...

Merlin.

You will tell him nothing, if you wish for his happiness....

Joyzelle.

But I must tell him everything, since I love him!... No, no, I can see clearly, that cannot be, that does not exist; and there must be gods or demons to prevent such things: if not, I cannot see why one should wish to live.... I have confidence in them, I have confidence in you.... It was only a proof; and all this is not, cannot be real.... It seems to me that already you look at me with less ill-will.... See, I beseech you, I throw myself at your feet and kiss your hands.... I will confess all to you.... I did not love you, you hated him too much; but I never believed that you were unjust or unworthy of love.... When you came in, I did not hesitate, I went up to you, I asked you to snatch from death the only man I love; and yet I knew that you love me too.... But, I do not know why, my instinct told me that you were generous and capable of doing what I would have done for you, what he himself would have done; and, when you have done what we would have done, you shall have in our hearts a part of our love that is not the least good part, nor the least fine, nor the most perishable....

Merlin.

Yes, I know: when I have given him back his life, at the risk of my own, he will have the kisses, the lips and the eyes, the days and the nights, all, in short, that forms love's vain and ephemeral happiness!... But I, I shall have something much better; and sometimes, by chance, in passing, I shall be vouchsafed a kindly smile, which will not perish, provided that I refrain from demanding it too often.... No, Joyzelle, at my age we are no longer satisfied with illusions of that kind nor with those deceptive dregs. The hour of heroic falsehoods is past for me. I wish to have what he will have. I care little for your smile, which I know to be impossible: I want yourself; I want you absolutely, were it only for a moment; but I shall have that moment: he will give it me.... (Approaching LancÉor.) Look at him, Joyzelle: his features are becoming distorted; we have waited too long and the danger increases with each minute that passes.... Will you come?...

Joyzelle.

(Casting a bewildered glance around her.) Nothing bursts, nothing falls and I am alone in the world!...

Merlin.

(Feeling LancÉor's body.) The danger is becoming grave.... I know the symptoms....

Joyzelle.

Well, then, yes, I will come!... I will come to-night! I will come this evening!... But save him first and restore him to life!... See, his eyes are hollowing and his lips are fading and I stand here bargaining for his life, as though it were a question of....

Merlin.

He shall be restored to you; but remember, Joyzelle, if you are not true to your promise, the hand that cures him will strike him mercilessly....

Joyzelle.

But I shall be true to it and I would go on my knees to the end of the other world to remain true to it!... Ah, I will come, I tell you! I give myself absolutely and I am wholly yours!... What more do you want?... I have nothing left!...

Merlin.

It is well; I have your promise; I will fulfil mine.... (Aside, taking LancÉor in his arms.) Forgive me, my son, in the name of your destiny, which demands this torture.... (He leans over LancÉor and presses a long kiss on his eyelids and lips. Aloud.) See, he returns from the regions without light.... Life is restored to him, but he will awake only in your eager arms. I leave you to your work. Remember your word....

[Exit Merlin. Joyzelle has taken LancÉor in her arms and looks at him in anguish. Soon her lover's eyes half open and his hands move feebly.

Joyzelle.

LancÉor!... His eyes have opened and closed again and I saw the light bathe in their blue! And here are his hands, which seem to seek mine!... Here they are, LancÉor, here they are in your own, which are no longer frozen!... They dare not leave them, lest they should lose them; and yet I would support your shoulder and embrace your neck which droops upon my breast.... Ah, all the good things are returning and returning together!... I hear his heart beat, I breathe his breath: they took all away from me, but they have given it all back!... Listen to me, LancÉor: I want to see you, I am looking for your face, do not hide your forehead in my hair, which loves you; my eyes love you still more and want their share too!... (LancÉor lifts his head a little.) Oh, he has heard me and listened to me!... He is here, he is here, there is no doubt of it now, he is here, before me, more living than life!... He is here before me and the roses of dawn and the flowers of awakening have brought colour to his cheeks and are covering his smile, for he smiles already as though he saw me!... Ah, the gods are too good!... They have pity on men!... There are skies that open! There are gods of love! There are gods of life!... We must thank them and love one another, since they also love!... Come, come, come to my arms; your eyes still seek me, but your lips find me.... They open at last to call to mine; and mine are here, carrying all love!...

[A pause; she kisses him long and eagerly.

LancÉor.

(Recovering consciousness.) Joyzelle....

Joyzelle.

Yes, yes, it is I, it is I; look at me, look!... Here are my hands, my forehead, my hair, my shoulder.... And here are my kisses, which yours recognize!...

LancÉor.

Yes, it is you, it is indeed you, it is you and the light.... And then this room, too, which I saw before.... Wait a little.... What happened to me?... I remember, I remember.... I was lying yonder, yonder, I know not where, before great doors which some one was trying to open.... I was buried and was turning cold.... And then I called to you, I called without ceasing and you did not come....

Joyzelle.

But I did, I came, I was there, I was there!...

LancÉor.

No, you were not there.... I was seized with icy coldness, I was seized with darkness and I was losing my life.... But now it is you!... Yes, yes, my eyes see you, they behold you suddenly as they emerge from the dark.... Scared though they be by the glaring light, it is you they see and I am passing from the tomb to the joy of the sunlight in the arms of love! That seems impossible to one coming from so far!... I must touch you, I must cling to the caresses of your hands, to the light of your eyes, I must seize the real gold of the hair that bears witness to the daylight!... Oh, you could never believe how one loves when dying, nor how I mean to love you after losing you and finding you again!...

Joyzelle.

I too, I too!...

LancÉor.

And the joy of returning to the arms which press one and which still tremble, because they had ceased to hope!... Do you feel yours quiver and mine adore you?... They seek, they enlace one another, they fear lest they should lose one another, they no longer dare to open.... They no longer obey, they do not know that they are hurting us and are like to stifle us in their blind intoxication!... Ah, they know at last the worth of clasping a glowing body; and one would die to learn life and to know love!...

Joyzelle.

Yes, one would die....

LancÉor.

It is strange: when I was down there, in the frozen region, some one approached whom I thought I recognized....

Joyzelle.

It was he.

LancÉor.

Who?

Joyzelle.

The lord of the island.

LancÉor.

He?... But he hated me....

Joyzelle.

It was he.

LancÉor.

I do not quite understand.... Did he then bring me back to love, to life?... Was he willing to restore me to her who loved me and whom he loved himself?...

Joyzelle.

Yes.

LancÉor.

But why did he do it?...

Joyzelle.

I besought him until he consented.

LancÉor.

Did he hesitate?

Joyzelle.

Yes.

LancÉor.

Why?

Joyzelle.

He said that, in saving your life, he risked his own.

LancÉor.

Nothing compelled him to it.... And then, quite simply, he gave back life to the only man who is taking away all hope of the love that would make the happiness of his life?...

Joyzelle.

Yes.

LancÉor.

And without asking anything, from kindness, from pity, from generosity?...

Joyzelle.

Yes.

LancÉor.

Ah, we were unjust and our worst enemies are better than we believe!... There are treasures of nobility and love even in the heart of hatred!... And this thing which he has done!... No, I really do not know that I could have done as much; and I would never have thought that that poor old man.... But is it not almost incredible, Joyzelle, and is it not heroic?...

Joyzelle.

Yes.

LancÉor.

Where is he? We must go and fling ourselves at his feet, confess our error, wipe out the injustice of which we were guilty when we did not love him.... He must have his part and the best part of the happiness which he restores to us!... He must have our hearts, our joy, our smiles and our tears of love, all that one can give to those who give all!...

Joyzelle.

We will go, we will go....

LancÉor.

Joyzelle, what is it?... You scarcely answer me.... I do not know if my senses are still in the power of the night whence I am issuing, but I do not recognize your words and your movements.... You seem to be seeking, doubting, dreaming.... And I, who return to you full of love and joy, find so little of either in your eyes, which avoid me, in your hands, which forget me.... What has happened? Why recall me and restore me to life, if, during my absence, I have lost what I love?...

Joyzelle.

Oh no, no, LancÉor, you have not lost me!...

LancÉor.

Your voice seeks a smile and finds but a sob....

Joyzelle.

Yes, I wanted to smile and I am smiling now.... But do not be surprised: I have wept so long and so desperately that the tears still rise in spite of myself.... Joy was so far away that it could not return with the first kisses.... It will need many before it recovers confidence in my heart; and I am almost sad in the midst of my happiness....

LancÉor.

Oh, my poor Joyzelle!... Is that what your grave silence means?... And I was distressing myself like a stupid child!... I am thinking only of myself, I am drunk with life and understand nothing.... I was forgetting that in your place I should have lost courage.... It is true, you are right, it is you, not I, returning from death; and, when two beings love as we do, the one that does not die is the only one that really dies.... Do not hide your tears.... The sadder you appear, the more I feel that you love me.... Now it is for me to take care of you, now it is for me to call back your soul, to warm your disconcerted hands, to pursue your lips and bring you back to the midst of the happiness which we had lost.... We shall soon be there, since love is our guide.... It triumphs over everything when it finds two hearts that give themselves to it fearlessly and without reserve.... All the rest is nothing, all the rest is forgotten, all the rest withdraws to make way for love....

Joyzelle.

(Staring fixedly before her.) All the rest withdraws to make way for love....

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