id="id00199">ARKËL.

Thou wouldst leave before thy brother's return?—Perhaps thy friend is less ill than he thinks….

PÉLLÉAS

His letter is so sad you can see death between the lines…. He says he knows the very day when death must come…. He tells me I can arrive before it if I will, but that there is no more time to lose. The journey is very long, and if I await Golaud's return, it will be perhaps too late….

ARKËL.

Thou must wait a little while, nevertheless…. We do not know what this return has in store for us. And besides, is not thy father here, above us, more sick perhaps than thy friend…. Couldst thou choose between the father and the friend?… [Exit.

GENEVIÈVE.

Have a care to keep the lamp lit from this evening, Pélléas….

[Exeunt severally.

SCENE IV.—Before the castle. Enter GENEVIÈVE and MÉLISANDE.

MÉLISANDE.

It is gloomy in the gardens. And what forests, what forests all about the palaces!…

GENEVIÈVE.

Yes; that astonished me too when I came hither; it astonishes everybody. There are places where you never see the sun. But one gets used to it so quickly…. It is long ago, it is long ago…. It is nearly forty years that I have lived here…. Look toward the other side, you will have the light of the sea….

MÉLISANDE.

I hear a noise below us….

GENEVIÈVE.

Yes; it is some one coming up toward us…. Ah! it is Pélléas…. He seems still tired from having waited so long for you….

MÉLISANDE.

He has not seen us.

GENEVIÈVE.

I think he has seen us but does not know what he should do….
Pélléas, Pélléas, is it thou?…

Enter PÉLLÉAS

PÉLLÉAS.

Yes!… I was coming toward the sea….

GENEVIÈVE.

So were we; we were seeking the light. It is a little lighter here than elsewhere; and yet the sea is gloomy.

PÉLLÉAS

We shall have a storm to-night. There has been one every night for some time, and yet it is so calm now…. One might embark unwittingly and come back no more.

MÉLISANDE.

Something is leaving the port….

PÉLLÉAS.

It must be a big ship…. The lights are very high, we shall see it in a moment, when it enters the band of light….

GENEVIÈVE.

I do not know whether we shall be able to see it … there is still a fog on the sea….

PÉLLÉAS.

The fog seems to be rising slowly….

MÉLISANDE.

Yes; I see a little light down there, which I had not seen….

PÉLLÉAS.

It is a lighthouse; there are others we cannot see yet.

MÉLISANDE.

The ship is in the light…. It is already very far away….

PÉLLÉAS.

It is a foreign ship. It looks larger than ours….

MÉLISANDE.

It is the ship that brought me here!…

PÉLLÉAS.

It flies away under full sail….

MÉLISANDE.

It is the ship that brought me here. It has great sails…. I recognized it by its sails.

PÉLLÉAS.

There will be a rough sea to-night.

MÉLISANDE.

Why does it go away to-night?… You can hardly see it any longer….
Perhaps it will be wrecked….

PÉLLÉAS.

The sight falls very quickly…. [A silence.

GENEVIÈVE.

No one speaks any more?… You have nothing more to say to each other?… It is time to go in. Pélléas, show Mélisande the way. I mast go see little Yniold a moment. [Exit.

PÉLLÉAS.

Nothing can be seen any longer on the sea….

MÉLISANDE.

I see more lights.

PÉLLÉAS.

It is the other lighthouses…. Do you hear the sea?… It is the wind rising…. Let us go down this way. Will you give me your hand?

MÉLISANDE.

See, see, my hands are full….

PÉLLÉAS.

I will hold you by the arm, the road is steep and it is very gloomy there…. I am going away perhaps to-morrow….

MÉLISANDE.

Oh!… why do you go away? [Exeunt.

ACT SECOND.

SCENE I.—_A fountain in the park.

Enter_ PÉLLÉAS and MÉLISANDE.

PÉLLÉAS.

You do not know where I have brought you?—I often come to sit here, toward noon, when it is too hot in the gardens. It is stifling to-day, even in the shade of the trees.

MÉLISANDE.

Oh, how clear the water is!…

PÉLLÉAS.

It is as cool as winter. It is an old abandoned spring. It seems to have been a miraculous spring,—it opened the eyes of the blind,—they still call it "Blind Man's Spring."

MÉLISANDE.

It no longer opens the eyes of the blind?

PÉLLÉAS.

Since the King has been nearly blind himself, no one comes any more….

MÉLISANDE.

How alone one is here!… There is no sound.

PÉLLÉAS.

There is always a wonderful silence here…. One could hear the water sleep…. Will you sit down on the edge of the marble basin? There is one linden where the sun never comes….

MÉLISANDE.

I am going to lie down on the marble.—I should like to see the bottom of the water….

PÉLLÉAS.

No one has ever seen it.—It is as deep, perhaps, as the sea.—It is not known whence it comes.—Perhaps it comes from the bottom of the earth….

MÉLISANDE.

If there were anything shining at the bottom, perhaps one could see it….

PÉLLÉAS.

Do not lean over so….

MÉLISANDE.

I would like to touch the water….

PÉLLÉAS.

Have a care of slipping…. I will hold your hand….

MÉLISANDE.

No, no, I would plunge both hands in it…. You would say my hands were sick to-day….

PÉLLÉAS.

Oh! oh! take care! take care! Mélisande!… Mélisande!…—Oh! your hair!…

MÉLISANDE (starting upright). I cannot,… I cannot reach it….

PÉLLÉAS.

Your hair dipped in the water….

MÉLISANDE.

Yes, it is longer than my arms…. It is longer than I…. [A silence.

PÉLLÉAS.

It was at the brink of a spring,