[Rhasis hastens.
See her again, my Rhea, as she was,
When plucking first the poppies of Provence!
And hear flow from her
Words sweeter than Memnon's in the wind of dawn!
Here's gold and silver (hands them). She shall rise and say:
"Years pale you, pale your brow, my Arduin,
And touch to gray the treasure of your hair,
But not Antinous could be so fair
To me—or wonderful:
For you have brought me from the cold tomb to life!..."
The bat's wing then! And to the sarcophagus
To lift its lid! for I will wait no longer——
[Takes alembic, as Rhasis obeys, and continues invokingly:
But now, vial of immortality!
By the presaging of the seven planets,
And by the searchless sources of the Nile,
And by the prayers of Christian and of Heathen,
And by the elements earth, air and fire,
That hold within their intermingled veins
The secret of illimitable life—
By fate and time and God—I here conjure you
Bring forth the Elixir which shall make her rise!
[He pours the ingredients, and quickly fumes arise. They clear and a liquid is seen in the bottom of the glass. With a cry he starts toward the sarcophagus, when Myrrha's face—which, excited, has parted the curtains—stops him enspelled. Rhasis, unnerved, quits the room—leaving them agaze.
Arduin (at length, as if to a spirit).
I do not dream?... you have arisen?... Rhea!
[Starting toward her.
Arisen ere I touched you?—O fear not!
For I am Arduin! do you not know me?
[She trembles speechless.
O wonderful awaking! O ... at last!
Tho yet the memory of the tomb is on you!...
This land is Egypt, whither in my grief
I brought you, my dead bride! Look on me! see!