GUIMARD. Have I been dead?
[He feels his face with his hands.
BISKRA. Long! Long!—Look at yourself in the mirror here! [She holds up the skull before him.
GUIMARD. Ah! That's me!
BISKRA. Can't you see your own high cheek-bones? Can't you see the eyes that the vultures have picked out? Don't you know that gap on the right side of the jaw where you had a tooth pulled? Can't you see the hollow in the chin where, grew the beard that your Elise was fond of stroking? Can't you see where used to be the ear that your George kissed at the breakfast-table? Can't you see the mark of the axe—here in the neck—which the executioner made when he cut off the deserter's head——
GUIMARD, who has been watching her movements and listening to her words with evident horror, sinks down dead.
BISKRA. [Who has been kneeling, feels his pulse; then she rises and sings] Simoom! Simoom! [She opens both gates; the curtain flutters like a banner in the wind; she puts her hand up to her mouth and falls over backward, crying] Yusuf!
THIRD SCENE
BISKRA. GUIMARD (dead). YUSUF comes out of the cellar.