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_ ACT V
[A corridor, so long that its furthest arches seem to lose themselves in a kind of indoor horizon. The sisters of Palomides wait before one of the innumerable closed doors that open into this corridor. They seem to be guarding it. A little further down, on the opposite side, Astolaine and the Physician converse before another door, also closed.]
ASTOLAINE.
[_To the Physician._] Nothing has ever happened until now in this palace, where all things have seemed to be asleep since my sisters died; and my poor old father, pursued by a strange restlessness, has fretted without reason at this calm, which seems, for all that, the least dangerous form of happiness. Some time ago,--his reason beginning to totter even then,--he went up to the top of a high tower; and as he stretched his arms out timidly toward the forests and toward the sea, he said to me--smiling a little fearfully at his words, as if to disarm my incredulous smile--that he called about us events which had long been hidden beneath the horizon. They have come, alas! sooner and more in number than he expected, and a few days have sufficed for them to reign in his stead. He has been their first victim. He fled to the meadows, singing, all in tears, the evening when he had little Alladine and luckless Palomides taken down into the crypts. He has not since been seen. I have had search made everywhere throughout the country and even on the sea. He has not been found. At least, I had hoped to save those he made suffer unwittingly, for he has always been the tenderest of men and the best of fathers; but there, too, I think I came too late. I do not know what happened. They have not spoken yet. They doubtless must have thought, hearing the sound of the iron and seeing all at once the light again, that my father had regretted the kind of surcease he had granted them, and that some one came to bring them death. Or else they slipped as they drew back, upon the rock that overhangs the lake; and so must have fallen through heedlessness. But the water is not deep in that spot, and we succeeded in saving them without difficulty. To-day it is you alone who can do the rest.
[THE SISTERS OF PALOMIDES have drawn nearer.]
THE PHYSICIAN.
They are both ailing with the same disease, and it is a disease I do not know.--But I have little hope left. They were seized perhaps with the cold of the underground waters; or else those waters may be poisonous. The decomposed body of Alladine's lamb was found there.--I will come back to-night.--Meanwhile they must have silence.... The level of life is very low in their hearts.... Do not go into their rooms and do not speak to them, for the least word, in the state they are in, might cause their death.... They must succeed in forgetting one another.
[Exit.]
ONE OF THE SISTERS OF PALOMIDES.
I see that he will die.
ASTOLAINE.
No, no.... Do not weep;... one does not die so, at his age....
ANOTHER SISTER.
But why is your father angry without reason at my poor brother?
THIRD SISTER.
I think your father loved Alladine.
ASTOLAINE.
Do not speak so of it.... He thought I suffered. He thought to have done good, and he did evil unwittingly.... That often happens to us.... It is my fault, perhaps.... I recall it to-day.... One night I was asleep. I was weeping in a dream.... We have little courage when we dream. I waked.... He was beside my bed, looking at me.... Perhaps he was deceived....
FOURTH SISTER
(_running_).
Alladine has stirred a little in her room....
ASTOLAINE.
Go to the door ... listen.... Perhaps it was the nurse rising....
FIFTH SISTER
(_listening at the door_).
No, no; I hear the nurse walking.... There is another noise.
SIXTH SISTER
(_also running_).
I think Palomides has moved too; I hear the murmur of a voice seeking....
THE VOICE OF ALLADINE.
[_Very feebly, within the room._]
Palomides!...
ONE OF THE SISTERS.
She is calling him!...
ASTOLAINE.
Let us be careful!... Go, go in front of the door, that Palomides may not hear....
THE VOICE OF ALLADINE.
Palomides!
ASTOLAINE.
My God! My God! Silence that voice!... Palomides will die of it if he hear it!...
THE VOICE OF PALOMIDES.
[Very feebly, within the other room.]
Alladine!...
ONE OF THE SISTERS.
He answers!...
ASTOLAINE.
Three among you remain here,... and we will go to the other door. Come, come quickly. We will surround them. We will try to defend them.... Lie back against the doors.... Perhaps they will hear no longer....
ONE OF THE SISTERS.
I shall go into Alladine's room....
SECOND SISTER.
Yes, yes; prevent her from crying out again.
THIRD SISTER.
She is already cause of all this evil....
ASTOLAINE.
Do not go in, or I go in to Palomides.... She also had a right to life; and she has done nought but to live.... But that we cannot stifle in their passage their deadly words!... We are without help, my poor sisters, my poor sisters, and hands cannot stop souls!...
THE VOICE OF ALLADINE.
Palomides, is it thou?
THE VOICE OF PALOMIDES.
Where art thou, Alladine?
THE VOICE OF ALLADINE.
Is it thou whom I hear far from me making moan?
THE VOICE OF PALOMIDES.
Is it thou whom I hear calling, and see thee not?
THE VOICE OF ALLADINE.
One would believe thy voice had lost the last of hope....
THE VOICE OF PALOMIDES.
One would believe that thine had crossed the winds of death....
THE VOICE OF ALLADINE.
It goes hard with thy voice to pierce into my room....
THE VOICE OF PALOMIDES.
And I no longer hear thy voice as of old time.
THE VOICE OF ALLADINE.
I have been woe for thee!...
THE VOICE OF PALOMIDES.
They have divided us, but I do love thee ever....
THE VOICE OF ALLADINE.
I have been woe for thee.... Art then still suffering?
THE VOICE OF PALOMIDES.
No; I no longer suffer, but I =fain= would see thee....
THE VOICE OF ALLADINE.
We shall not see each other more; the doors are shut....
THE VOICE OF PALOMIDES.
Thy voice would make one say thou lovedst me no more....
THE VOICE OF ALLADINE.
Yes, yes; I love thee still, but it is mournful now....
THE VOICE OF PALOMIDES.
Whither is thy face turned? I hardly understand thee....
THE VOICE OF ALLADINE.
We seem to be an hundred leagues from one another....
THE VOICE OF PALOMIDES.
I try to rise in vain; my spirit is too heavy....
THE VOICE OF ALLADINE.
I too would come,--I too--but still my head falls back....
THE VOICE OF PALOMIDES.
Thou seemest almost to speak in tears despite thyself....
THE VOICE OF ALLADINE.
No; I wept long ago; it is no longer tears....
THE VOICE OF PALOMIDES.
There's something in thy thoughts thou dost not tell me of....
THE VOICE OF ALLADINE.
They were not precious stones....
THE VOICE OF PALOMIDES.
And the flowers were not real....
ONE OF THE SISTERS OF PALOMIDES.
They rave....
ASTOLAINE.
No, no; they know what they are saying....
THE VOICE OF ALLADINE.
It was the light that had no pity on us....
THE VOICE OF PALOMIDES.
Where goest thou, Alladine? Thou'rt being borne away....
THE VOICE OF ALLADINE.
I have no more regret to lose the light o' the sun....
THE VOICE OF PALOMIDES.
Yes, yes; we shall behold the sweet green things again!...
THE VOICE OF ALLADINE.
I have lost desire to live....
[A silence; then more and more faintly:]
THE VOICE OF PALOMIDES.
Alladine!...
THE VOICE OF ALLADINE.
Palomides!...
THE VOICE OF PALOMIDES.
Alla ... dine!...
[A silence.--Astolaine and the sisters of Palomides listen, in anguish. Then the nurse opens, from the inside, the door of Palomides' room, appears on the sill, makes a sign, and all enter the room. The door doses behind them. A new silence. A little afterwards, the door of Alladine's room opens in its turn; the other nurse comes out in like manner, looks about in the corridor, and, seeing no one, re-enters the room, leaving the door wide open.]
[CURTAIN.]
[THE END]
Maurice Maeterlinck's play: Alladine and Palomides
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