class="smcap">Lancéor.

What?

Joyzelle.

We are caught in a trap and those flowers are betraying us.... The birds were silent, the trees were dead, there was nothing here but weeds, which no one dug up.... I recognize them all and remember their names, which still remind me of their former wretchedness.... Here is the buttercup, laden with golden disks; the poor pale pimpernel is changed into a bush of lilies; the tall scabious are dropping their petals over our heads; and those purple bells which shoot up over the wall to tell the world that they have seen us, are the foxglove, which was pining in the shade.... It is as though the sky had shed its flowers.... Do not look at them; they are here to ruin us.... Ah, I am wrong to seek and I should have understood!... He muttered confused threats.... Yes, yes, I knew he had spells at his command.... They told me so one day, but I did not believe them.... Now it is his time; it is well, it is too late; but perhaps we shall see that love also knows....

[A horn sounds.

Lancéor.

Hark!...

Joyzelle.

It is the horses' hoofs and the horn sounding the recall.... He is returning. Fly!...

Lancéor.

But you?...

Joyzelle.

I have nothing to fear, but his hateful love.... Go!...

Lancéor.

I will stay with you; and, if his violence....

Joyzelle.

You will ruin us both.... Go!... Hide there, behind those spurges.... Whatever he may say, whatever he may do, do not show yourself and fear nothing for me: I shall know how to defend myself.... Go!... He is coming!... Go!... I hear his voice....

[Lancéor hides behind a cluster of tall spurges. The railed gate opens and Merlin enters the garden.

Merlin.

Is he here, Joyzelle?...

Joyzelle.

No.

Merlin.

Those flowers do not lie; they inform against love.... They were your keepers and have been faithful to me.... I am not cruel and I forgive more than once.... You can save him by pointing to the bush which hides him.... (Joyzelle stands motionless.) Do not look at me with those eyes of hatred.... You will love me one day, for love goes by dark and generous paths.... Do you not believe that I will keep my promises?...

Joyzelle.

No!...

Merlin.

I have done nothing, Joyzelle, to deserve such hatred or such an insult.... Since you wish it, I will let fate take its course....

[A cry of pain is heard from behind the cluster of spurges.

Joyzelle.

(Rushing behind the cluster.) Lancéor!...

Lancéor.

Joyzelle!... I am hurt.... An adder has stung me....

Joyzelle.

It is not an adder.... It is a horrible animal.... It is lifting itself against you!... Let me crush it underfoot.... It is foaming.... It is dead.... Lancéor, you are turning pale!... Lean on my neck.... Fear nothing, I am strong.... Show me your wound.... Lancéor, I am here.... Lancéor, answer me!...

Merlin.

(Approaching them and examining the bite.)
The wound is mortal.... The poison is very slow and its action is strange.... Do not despair.... I alone know the remedy....

Joyzelle.

Lancéor! Lancéor! Answer me! Answer me!...

Merlin.

He will not answer, he is sound asleep.... Withdraw, Joyzelle, unless you wish this mere sleep to end in the grave.... Withdraw, Joyzelle: you will not be betraying him; you will be warding off death....

Joyzelle.

First make the sign that shall restore him to life!

Merlin.

(Looking at her gravely.) I will make the sign, Joyzelle. (Joyzelle exit slowly, turns back and withdraws at last, before a grave and imperious gesture from Merlin. Merlin, left alone with Lancéor, kneels down beside him to dress his wound.) There, have no fear, my son, there, it is for your happiness; and may all my heart open in the first kiss that I am able to give you.

[He embraces him long and fervently. Enter Arielle.

Arielle.

Master, we must hasten and lay the new trap.

Merlin.

Will he fall into it?

Arielle.

Man always falls into a trap, when his instinct leads him; but let us veil his reason, let us change his character; we shall behold a sight that will make us smile....

Merlin.

I shall not smile, for the sight is a sad one and I do not like to see a noble and beautiful love, a love that believes itself predestined and unparalleled, thus reduced to nothing, at the first proof, in the arms of a phantom....

Arielle.

Lancéor is not free, for he is no longer himself and I have abandoned him to his instinct during the past hour....

Merlin.

He ought to have conquered it....

Arielle.

You speak like that because I am submissive: but remember the time when I was less docile.

Merlin.

You think yourself very docile because I have conquered you; but you retain some shadow even in the light in which I have been able to train you and I find in you a certain cruelty that takes too great a pleasure in men's weaknesses....

Arielle.

Men's weaknesses are often necessary to the purposes of life....

Merlin.

What will happen if he yields?...

Arielle.

He will yield: it is written. The question is if Joyzelle's love will surmount the proof.

Merlin.

And do you not know?

Arielle.

No; she has a mind which is not wholly within my sphere, which depends upon a principle which I do not know, which I have never seen except in her and which changes the future.... I have tried to subdue her; but she obeys me only in little things. But