AN OLD SERVANT.
You will see, you will see, my daughters; it will be to-night.—Some one will come to tell us by and by….
ANOTHER SERVANT.
They will not come to tell us…. They don't know what they are doing any longer….
THIRD SERVANT.
Let us wait here….
FOURTH SERVANT.
We shall know well enough when we must go up….
FIFTH SERVANT.
When the time is come, we shall go up of ourselves….
SIXTH SERVANT.
There is no longer a sound heard in the house….
SEVENTH SERVANT.
We ought to make the children keep still, who are playing before the ventilator.
EIGHTH SERVANT.
They will be still of themselves by and by.
NINTH SERVANT.
The time has not yet come….
Enter an old Servant.
THE OLD SERVANT.
No one can go in the room any longer. I have listened more than an hour…. You could hear the flies walk on the doors…. I heard nothing….
FIRST SERVANT.
Has she been left alone in the room?
THE OLD SERVANT.
No, no; I think the room is full of people.
FIRST SERVANT.
They will come, they will come, by and by….
THE OLD SERVANT.
Lord! Lord! It is not happiness that has come into the house…. One may not speak, but if I could say what I know…
SECOND SERVANT.
It was you who found them before the gate?
THE OLD SERVANT.
Why, yes! why, yes! it was I who found them. The porter says it was he who saw them first; but it was I who waked them. He was sleeping on his face and would not get up.—And now he comes saying, "It was I who saw them first." Is that just?—See, I burned myself lighting a lamp to go down cellar.—Now what was I going to do down cellar?—I can't remember any more what I was going to do down cellar.—At any rate I got up very early; it was not yet very light; I said to myself, I will go across the courtyard, and then I will open the gate. Good; I go down the stairs on tiptoe, and I open the gate as if it were an ordinary gate…. My God! My God! What do I see? Divine a little what I see!…
FIRST SERVANT.
They were before the gate?
THE OLD SERVANT.
They were both stretched out before the gate!… Exactly like poor folk that are too hungry…. They were huddled together like little children who are afraid…. The little princess was nearly dead, and the great Golaud had still his sword in his side…. There was blood on the sill….
SECOND SERVANT.
We ought to make the children keep still…. They are screaming with all their might before the ventilator….
THIRD SERVANT.
You can't hear yourself speak….
FOURTH SERVANT.
There is nothing to be done: I have tried already; they won't keep still….
FIRST SERVANT.
It seems he is nearly cured?
THE OLD SERVANT.
Who?
FIRST SERVANT.
The great Golaud.
THIRD SERVANT.
Yes, yes; they have taken him to his wife's room. I met them just now, in the corridor. They were holding him up as if he were drunk. He cannot yet walk alone.
THE OLD SERVANT.
He could not kill himself; he is too big. But she is hardly wounded, and it is she who is going to die…. Can you understand that?
FIRST SERVANT.
You have seen the wound?
THE OLD SERVANT.
As I see you, my daughter.—I saw everything, you understand…. I saw it before all the others…. A tiny little wound under her little left breast,—a little wound that wouldn't kill a pigeon. Is it natural?
FIRST SERVANT.
Yes, yes; there is something underneath….
SECOND SERVANT.
Yes; but she was delivered of her babe three days ago….
THE OLD SERVANT.
Exactly!… She was delivered on her death-bed; is that a little sign?—And what a child! Have you seen it?—A wee little girl a beggar would not bring into the world…. A little wax figure that came much too soon;… a little wax figure that must live in lambs' wool…. Yes, yes; it is not happiness that has come into the house….
FIRST SERVANT.
Yes, yes; it Is the hand of God that has been stirring….
SECOND SERVANT.
Yes, yes; all that did not happen without reason….
THIRD SERVANT.
It is as good lord Pélléas … where is he?—No one knows….
THE OLD SERVANT.
Yes, yes; everybody knows…. But nobody dare speak of it…. One does not speak of this;… one does not speak of that;… one speaks no more of anything;… one no longer speaks truth…. But I know he was found at the bottom of Blind Man's Spring;… but no one, no one could see him…. Well, well, we shall only know all that at the last day….
FIRST SERVANT.
I dare not sleep here any longer….
THE OLD SERVANT.
Yes, yes; once ill-fortune is in the house, one keeps silence in vain….
THIRD SERVANT.
Yes; it finds you all the same….
THE OLD SERVANT.
Yes, yes; but we do not go where we would….
FOURTH SERVANT.
Yes, yes; we do not do what we would….
FIRST SERVANT.
They are afraid of us now….
SECOND SERVANT.
They all keep silence….
THIRD SERVANT.
They cast down their eyes in the corridors.
FOURTH SERVANT.
They do not speak any more except in a low voice.
FIFTH SERVANT.
You would think they had all done it together.
SIXTH SERVANT.
One doesn't know what they have done….
SEVENTH SERVANT.
What is to be done when the masters are afraid?… [A silence.
FIRST SERVANT.
I no longer hear the children screaming.
SECOND SERVANT.
They are sitting down before the ventilator.
THIRD SERVANT.
They are huddled against each other.
THE OLD SERVANT.
I no longer hear anything in the house….
FIRST SERVANT.
You no longer even hear the children breathe….
THE OLD SERVANT.
Come, come; it is time to go up…. [Exeunt in silence.
SCENE II.—An apartment in the castle.
ARKËL, GOLAUD, and the PHYSICIAN discovered in one corner of the room. MÉLISANDE is stretched upon her bed.