Bardas: As I held her piteous hand
Came revellers who saw us—jested her
Of taking a new love. She broke my grasp——
Antonio: And leapt?—down the wide air?
Bardas: Swifter than all
Prevention.
Antonio: Helena! O Helena!
That all thy loveliness should fare to this,
Thy glory go in dark calamity!
Bardas: I saw her as she leapt and until death
Shall see no more.
Antonio (drawing): Blot it from you! Her face,
Her sorrow and her fairness shall not stand
Imprisoned in your eye, tho' 'twere to cry
Relentlessly your crime.—But no—but no!
(Sheathing his sword, he pauses, then staggers suddenly out.)
Paula: Let me go to my lady!
Charles: Still her! She
Forever hath a fluttering, a cry,
Undurably. It presses the lone air
With sensitive and aching agony.
Paula (witlessly, in tears): I know thy song, my lady, I know, I know!
'Twas pretty and 'twas strange, but now I know.