Scene I.—A Gallery in the Palace.

[Enter Merlin and LancÉor.

LancÉor.

Father!... Then it is true, and you are my father!... And indeed it seems to me, since you told me, as though I had always known it in my far-seeing heart.... (Coming closer.) But how wonderful it is!... I see you again at last as I saw you amid my childish sports; and, when I look at you, I see myself in a graver, nobler and more powerful mirror than those which reflect my features along this room. But what will Joyzelle say?... How she will laugh when she remembers her fears, for she imagined.... No, she herself shall tell you what she thought, to punish her for her senseless terror.... She used to hate you, but with a softened hatred that already smiled like one about to be pierced by the rays of love.... But where is she hiding? I have been seeking her for nearly two hours in vain.... Have you seen her? I must tell her at once of the unspeakable happiness which this evening has brought us....

Merlin.

Not yet. I must remain in her eyes, until the close of the day, the pitiless tyrant whom she curses in her heart. My poor, dear child!... How I have tortured your adorable love!... But I have already told you the object of these proofs.... In making you suffer, I have but been the instrument of fate and the unworthy slave of another will, whose source I do not know, which seems to demand that the slightest happiness should be surrounded by tears.... I have but hastened, in order to bring happiness more quickly, the coming of those tears which hung in suspense between your two destinies.... You shall know some day by what power, a power which has no magical or supernatural quality, but which still lies hidden at the bottom of men's lives, I at times command certain phenomena, certain appearances that bewildered you. You shall also learn that I have acquired the gift, often a useless one, of reading the future a little more clearly and a little further than the rest of men.... And so I saw you, groping for each other, in time and space, for an unparalleled love, the most perfect perhaps that the two or three centuries over which my eyes have turned concealed within their shade.... You might have met each other after many wanderings; but it was necessary to hasten the expected meeting, because of you, my son, whom death claimed in the absence of love.... And, on the other side, nothing marked out Joyzelle for the hoped-for love, save a few scattered and uncertain points and the proofs themselves which she was to surmount. I therefore hurried on the prescribed proofs: they have all been painful, but necessary; the last will be decisive and more serious....

LancÉor.

Serious?... What do you mean?... It will not be dangerous for Joyzelle, or for others?...

Merlin.

It will not be dangerous for Joyzelle, but it imperils, for the last time, the predestined love to which your life is linked.... That is why, in despite of all, in despite of my confidence, of my anticipations, of my certainty even, I am afraid, I tremble a little at the approach of the decisive hour....

LancÉor.

If Joyzelle is to decide, love has nothing to fear.... Come, do not hesitate, Joyzelle will always be the source of joy.... But I do not understand how, knowing the future, you are not able to see her triumph beforehand?...

Merlin.

I already told you, before we came in here, that Joyzelle can change the future which she faces.... She possesses a force which I have seen in none save her; that is why I do not know whether the great victory which your love expects will not be mingled with some little shadow and tears....

LancÉor.

What do you mean?... You seem perturbed.... What are you hiding from me?... How can you believe that Joyzelle would ever be the cause of a tear or the cause of a shadow?... There is nothing in Joyzelle, not even the suffering which she might inflict, there is nothing in her but brings health, happiness and love!... Ah, how well I see that you know little of the living triumph, the endless dawn contained in her voice, her eyes, her heart!... One must have held her in his arms to know what treasures of hope, what torrents of certainty issue from the least word murmured by her lips, from the slightest smile that plays upon her face.... But I am too long delaying the impatient victory. Go, father, go.... I will remain here, I will wait, I will watch the happy moments pass, until my Joyzelle utters a great cry of joy which shall tell me that love has determined destiny....

[Merlin embraces LancÉor and exit slowly.

Scene II.—The same room as in Act IV. The moon lights it with its blue radiance.

[On the right, Merlin is seated on the great marble bed. Arielle is kneeling at the head of the bed, on the steps of the dais that supports it.

Merlin.

Arielle, the hour is striking and Joyzelle is approaching.... I have made the sacrifice of my useless life; and yet I would that my death, if possible, should not come to sadden the most ardent and innocent love that the world has known.... But you tremble, you weep, you hide from me your eyes swollen with tears.... What do you see, my child, that you contemplate with so great a dread?...

Arielle.

Master, I beseech you, abandon this proof: there is yet time!... My eyes cannot see through the mist that surrounds it.... It may be mortal, I see it, I feel it; and chance has placed our two lives in the hand of a blind and infatuated virgin.... I do not want to die!... There are other outlets.... I have always served you as your very thought.... But to-day I am afraid, I can follow you no longer.... You well know that my death is the echo of yours.... Abandon this: we will look elsewhere, in the future; and we can still escape the danger....

Merlin.

I cannot abandon the last proof.... It is for you to see that it does not turn to disaster. It is for you to grasp the as yet uncertain weapon which Joyzelle is preparing to raise against us....

Arielle.

But I do not know that I shall succeed!... Joyzelle's strength is so swift, so profound, that it escapes my arm, escapes my eyes, escapes destiny!... I see only the flash of falling steel.... All is confused in a shadow; and my life and yours depend on a movement of my unskilful hand....

Merlin.

She is there, I hear her, she is feeling for the door.... Be obedient and silent; I am obedient too. Watch and be quick and strong.... I will close my eyes and await my fate....

Arielle.

(Dismayed and maddened.) Abandon the proof!... I cannot go through with it!... I refuse!... I want to fly!...

Merlin.

(Imperiously.) Silence!...

[He stretches himself on the bed, closes his eyes and appears to be sleeping soundly. Arielle, overcome by her sobs, sinks down on the steps of the dais. On the left, at the opposite end of the room, a little door opens and Joyzelle enters, wrapped in a long cloak and carrying a lamp in her hand. She takes two or three steps and stops. Arielle rises and stands invisible behind the heavy curtains at the foot of the bed.

Joyzelle.

(Stopping, haggard, hesitating, trembling.) Now and here.... I have taken the last step.... Until this moment, which time can no longer keep back and which is about to see a thing that will never be wiped out; until I came to that little door which has just closed upon two captive destinies, I knew, I knew all that I had to do.... Ah, I had reflected and I had judged so well!... There was nothing but that, there was nothing else: it was certain, it was just, it was inevitable!... But now all changes and I have forgotten all.... There are other powers, there are other voices and I am all alone against all that speaks in the uncertain night.... Justice, where are you?... Justice, what must I do?... I shall act because you wished it.... You convinced me and urged me on.... There, but now, under the thousands of stars which shone upon the door and which you invoked to reassure my soul!... There was no doubt, then, and all the certainty of all that breathes and of all that quivers and of all that loves and has a right to love illumined my heart!... But, in face of the deed, you yourself draw back, you deny your laws and abandon me!... Ah, I feel too much alone, delivered like a blind slave to the unknown.... I shall walk without looking.... I see nothing and I shall not raise my mad eyes to the bed until the moment when the thing.... (She advances with a mechanical step to the foot of the bed.) Now, fate itself shall say yes.... (She lifts the lamp, looks at the bed, sees Merlin sleeping and, in her surprise, takes a step back.) He sleeps!... What is this?... I had not foreseen.... Anything but this.... Must I wait still?... Oh, I should like to wait!... He is sound asleep.... Then he did not wish.... But, if he were not asleep, I could not have done it.... He would have disarmed me, he would have mastered me.... It must be true, it is fate, it is a good and just fate that delivers him to me thus.... I, who was looking for a sign!... But there is the sign!... What more do I want, if I want anything more?... And yet, as he is asleep, I cannot know.... Perhaps he has pity, perhaps he renounces and would bid me go!... He was not without soul; and often, at moments, he spoke like a father.... Ah, if he had risen, if he had been there, with arms held out to me, in an attitude of.... Then, then I should have been strong and should have conquered!... But a man asleep.... That shatters hatred.... And then, one no longer knows.... And to change this sleep which one word puts to flight into that which no human or superhuman power can disturb!... Oh, I would at least that one word of forgiveness.... Ah no, I am too great a coward!... This is terror seeking an outlet.... I did not come for further meditation.... There is no doubt, after what he did, after what he said!... I listen only to my voice, the voice of my destiny, which wills that I should save us both!... So much the worse if I am wrong!... I am right! I am right!... Go out, my lamp: I have seen all that I need see.... (She puts out the lamp, places it on one of the marble stairs, seizes the dagger which she held concealed, raises it and looks at it for a moment.) Now, it is your turn!... Ah, if you could do what my thought, what my desperate pity would have, and if the death that gleams at the point of this blade were not real death, irrevocable death!... But enough.... It is time.... It is said, it is done, I strike!...

[She raises the dagger to strike Merlin. Arielle, invisible, seizes her wrist and, without apparent effort, paralyzes her gesture. At the same moment, Merlin opens his eyes, smiling, rises and, with a movement of delight, takes Joyzelle tenderly in his arms.

Merlin.

It is well!... Joyzelle is great and Joyzelle triumphs!... She has conquered fate by listening to love; and it is you, my child, whom destiny marks out....

Joyzelle.

(Still failing to understand, and struggling.) No, no, no!... I could not.... Ah, though my heart fail me, I have courage yet!... And I have all my life, if I no longer have my strength, and never, no, never, so long as I have breath....

Merlin.

Look at me, Joyzelle.... I am restoring its strength to the arm which you raised in love's defence.... I leave it its weapon which tried to strike me and which was striking true.... Until that movement, all was undecided; now, all is clear, all is radiant and sure.... Look at me, Joyzelle, and no longer fear my lips.... They seek your brow, there at last to place the kiss which the father lays on the brow of his daughter....

Joyzelle.

What is this and what do you mean that I cannot understand?... Yes, I see in your eyes that you seem to love me as one loves a child.... So I was mistaken and I was on the point of...?

Merlin.

No, you were right; you would not have been she whom love demands if you had not done what you were going to do.

Joyzelle.

I do not know, I am dreaming.... But since it is not the abominable thing, I abandon myself to my dream....

Merlin.

Yes, it is true, my Joyzelle, I am yearning to enjoy your delighted surprise, to follow your glances which seem to me so beautiful in their astonished flight, in which confidence dawns and which no longer know where to rest their wings, like sea-birds that have lost the shore.... I am taking my share of the happiness which I bestow.... I shall have no other.... But do not be anxious, we shall together enter into fate's secrets; and, when LancÉor....

Joyzelle.

Where is he?

Merlin.

Ah, that name rouses you; and see, the shore appears to those glances lost in space!... Listen, I hear him.... Your heart, without our knowing it, has gone to tell him that you loved him to the point which love cannot surpass.... He is hastening, he is here!...

[The door opens. Enter LancÉor, followed by Arielle, invisible.

LancÉor.

Father!... She is mine!...

Merlin.

My son, she has triumphed; destiny gives her to you....

LancÉor.

(Taking Joyzelle in his arms and covering her with wild kisses.) Ah, I knew it and I was sure of it!... Joyzelle, my Joyzelle!... I do not ask what you can have done to disarm fate.... I know nothing yet; but we know all beforehand who love each other as you and I love; and already I hail the new truth that must have been revealed at the first touch of your heart!... Ah, father, father, I told you, I told you!... But she does not understand why I am embracing you.... It is true, I go too fast.... Come here, Joyzelle, that I may unite you both in my arms.... We had with us an enemy who loves us; he was obliged to make us suffer; and that gentle enemy was my own father, whom I thought lost, my father here, my father found again, who awaits but a smile to embrace you too.... Oh, do not turn away, do not look at me with those eyes already laden with reproaches.... I have hidden nothing from you.... I knew it to-day, this evening, the moment you left me; and, so soon as I knew it, I had to fly far from you, lest I should betray myself, for all our happiness, it appears, depended on this last secret; and, when a secret is committed to love, it is as though one hid a lighted lamp in a crystal vase.... You would have learnt all merely by seeing my eyes, my hands, my very shadow; and I could not show you my happiness.... You were not to know of it till the great proof.... It was necessary that you should do an impossible thing.... What thing I do not know; but, smile as I might, I had to yield; I had to wait and patiently count the minutes of the hour which thus separated our two impatient passions.... But now, I hasten, I listen, I want to know.... Speak, speak, I am listening....

Joyzelle.

Since you are happy, I am happy, too.... I know nothing more.... I have scarce awakened from a horrible and incomprehensible dream....

Merlin.

Yes, my poor Joyzelle, the dream was horrible; but now it is overcome and the proof is past, establishing a happiness which nothing threatens now, except the enemy that threatens all men....

LancÉor.

But what, when all is told, was that fearful proof?...

Merlin.

Joyzelle will tell you in the first kisses, free from all anxiety, which you will exchange after this victory. They will veil better than my poor words what, in this proof, appears unpardonable.... The proof was dangerous and almost insurmountable.... Joyzelle could have chosen a different course.... She might have yielded, sacrificed herself, sacrificed her love, despaired, I know not what!... She would not have been the Joyzelle that was expected.... There was but one path traced by destiny; she entered upon it, followed it to the end and saved your life in saving her own love....

Joyzelle.

It is ordained, then, that love strikes and kills all that tries to bar its way?...

Merlin.

No, Joyzelle, I do not know.... Let us not make laws with a few scraps picked up in the darkness that surrounds our thoughts.... But she who was to do what you were willing to do was she whom fate intended for my son.... It was therefore written, for you and for you alone and perhaps for those who resemble you a little, that they have a right to the love which fate points out to them; and that that love must break down injustice.... I do not judge you: it is fate that approves you; but I am over-joyed that it has thus chosen you among all women....

Joyzelle.

Father!... I tremble still when I see that weapon which, for a moment.... Forgive me, father, I loved you already....

Merlin.

It is I who ask you now to offer me a forgiving hand....

Joyzelle.

No, no, these are not the cold hands of forgiveness!... These are the hands that caress, worship and give thanks!... I know now why, despite my hatred, I could not hate!... What you have done was more difficult than all that I have done, because it was cruel; and, when I think again on what has happened, it is you, it is you, father, who have endured the heaviest and the most deserving proof....

Merlin.

No, the most deserving was not among those which you can discover.... It will remain the secret of this heart which loves you both and unites you within itself and which, to change this too-deep secret into happiness, asks my two children for but a moment of their joy and perhaps for a kiss a little longer than those granted in passing to old men whose time on earth is short....

LancÉor.

(Throwing himself in Merlin's arms.) Father!...

Joyzelle.

(Also embracing Merlin.) My father too!...

Arielle.

(Trying to mingle with the closely entwined group.) No one sees me and no one thinks of giving me my share of the love snatched by my invisible hands from the miserly hands of the days and years....

Merlin.

(Smiling.) I see you, Arielle: you love all three of us; but a more ardent kiss ascends towards Joyzelle than those which you give to us.... There, kiss her; the proof is finished in my old heart too.... Yet a little while and we shall be far from her and far from all love....

[Arielle kisses Joyzelle long and slowly.

Joyzelle.

What are you saying, father, and to whom are you speaking?... It seems as though flowers which I cannot gather were lightly touching my forehead and caressing my lips....

Merlin.

Do not repel them, they are sad and pure.... It is my poor Arielle who spreads them over you; it is my invisible daughter, the good fairy of the island, who discovered and protected you and LancÉor. She wishes to mingle, for the last time, in your great love and asks for a share, as discreet as herself, of the happiness which we owe her....

Joyzelle.

Where is she?... I see no one near but you and LancÉor....

Merlin.

And do you think, my child, that we see all that lives deep down in our lives?... Be kind and gentle to poor Arielle.... She is now giving you a parting kiss before going far away to disappear with me in the regions where fate wills that my destiny should be fulfilled....

LancÉor.

To disappear with you?... Father, I do not know....

Merlin.

Let us not question those who have nothing more to say.... All is now determined.... Thanks to the unknown gods, I have been able to give happiness to the two hearts that were dearest to me; but I can do no more, nor can you do anything, for my own happiness.... I am going towards my destiny and I go in silence, lest I should sadden this smiling hour, which is yours alone.... I know what awaits me; and nevertheless I am going....

Joyzelle.

No, no, no, no, father, you shall not go!... We are around you, and if some danger which we cannot see threatens your old age, we shall try at least to alleviate the dread of it.... When there are three to undergo a misfortune and those three love one another, then the misfortune changes to a burden of love, which we bear with delight....

Merlin.

Alas, no, my Joyzelle: it would all be useless!... Would to the gods that men had to pass only through kindly evils, as yours were!... But all life's secret purposes are not so clear, are not so good.... But we speak in vain of what is written.... I am still here, in the arms of those who love me.... The day of my distress is not this day.... Let us enjoy our hour, in the sweet sadness that follows on great joys, by listening to our minutes of love, passing and fleeting, one by one, in that frail ray of nocturnal light in which we clasp one another for our greater happiness.... The rest does not as yet belong to men....

CURTAIN.

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