ALICIA. I saw her follow The stream in the hollow Where never Apollo Abides. So thick are the trees That never the breeze Stirs them, or sees What satyr inhabits the glen, what nymph in the pools of it hides.
Lighter of foot Than a sylph or a fairy, Sinuous, wary, I passed from the airy Lawns, where the flute Of the winds made tremulous music for man.
I followed the ripple Of the stream; I crept Where the waters wept - The floss in the foss Gurgling across The bosses of moss, Like a dryad's nipple In the mouth of Pan!
CRASSUS. O pearl of the house! you came to the end?
ALICIA. The dusk of the slave, the dawn of a friend?
CRASSUS. Freedom is thine for the skill and the will.
ALICIA. The skill is mine - but the will lies still, Still as the earth that dare not stir Till the kiss of the sun awaken her!
CRASSUS. Yet at these secrets and riddles? Behold! I can fill thy lap with a harvest of gold.
ALICIA. Yet all the gold you could give to me Would fall at my feet when I rose to be free.
CRASSUS. What will you then?