[Kindling.
Rhasis. Pardon! I know not—only that you say
Some come of Ophiuchus—
The demon you have warned me of—who oft
With thwarting laugh has struck the secret from you....
Many before have followed the mirage
Of dreams—but to more thirst: trust not too much!
Arduin. But fear? fear? you are falling from me too?
Like Ion the son of him who ... you? you too?
At the prime moment?
Rhasis. No, my master, no!
But I would spare you pain unbearable.
Arduin. Ha! and believe—you do?—that all wise men
Of all the world could so have been deceived?
Believe—do, do?—that she cannot arise?
Did not great Hermes say of the Elixir
It should be found—
And did not Polydos,
The Greek, chancing upon it, raise his friends
In battle slain?...
Did not the Jew of Galilee, the Christ,
Whom even you name Prophet, likewise win it?
[Peacelessly.
Speak!
Rhasis. Master, yes!... But O! trust not too much.
Wiser, I know, than all Arabia
Are you—like to Mahomet—were it not
That you have set within your heart a woman.
But if, perchance, the Elixir does not prove——
Arduin. Availing? Have not all things pointed to it?
The day she died
Did I not hear a voice
That breathed into my brain she should arise?
And as I waited did a book of wisdom
Not chance into my hands to show the way?
Were the first words I read not, In ten years
The miracle shall come—
Revealed to you within the land of the Sphinx?
Rhasis. So read it, so! But——
Arduin. Is this not that land?
Are not those stones the pyramids that thro
The ages have stood waiting for this hour—
When I shall bring her beauty back, today?
Is not that face the Sphinx,
Whose timeless and intemperable meaning
No man has read in desert, star, or sea,
But which must be the secret I unsphere?
Rhasis. O master!
Arduin. Fail, fail, fail? now to restore her?
Who died as you shall know, here ere she rises,
Because my brother—aieh! the father of Ion—
Who bore as well that name—
Desiring her, vilely accused her——
Myrrha (involuntarily, behind curtains). Oh!...
Arduin (bewildered). Who spoke? It was her voice?
[Runs to sarcophagus.
Rhasis. No, master, no!...
Arduin (slowly returning). Fail, fail to bring her fairness from the tomb!
Her face which can alone sow finitude's
Fell desolation with enverdured dreams
And fill the ways of the world again with hope?
I tell you she eternal must arise—
Tho God die for it!
[Begins to gird himself.
Must!... and the hour is now!—
Venus is in the house of ready Taurus,
The moon is full, and as I toiled today,
[Goes to furnace.
From the alembic a strange cloud arose,
And once again her face!... Prepare! prepare!
Rhasis. I will do all you say. But, master, if——
Arduin (immitigably). No death-word more of doubt. It is the power
Which holds us futile from omnipotence.
Mete out the sulphur
Into the alembic
Of Cleopatra's crystal.—I must see her!