Oh Majesty, not yet. [The other LADIES-IN-WAITING, scattered among the wounded, have heard the command and silently come and take their places about their Sovereign.]
EMPRESS
Would you wish to have them take me alive? That man who has seen, you have heard what he has just said.
TRANQUIL BEAUTY
But the palace is still standing.
PEARL
The army of the South may come to save us.
EMPRESS
To avenge us perhaps——later. But to save us——child, who think you could save us? [To herself.] Ah, that mysterious aid for which I have so foolishly hoped!——"The Star," said the handsome lying spy, "the star which shall watch over me so well when all shall bow before the triumph of the Dragon." Child, who think you could save us?——We have no more powder, no more men, no water, nothing. We have hurled down the stones of our ramparts; the gates give way, the walls are crumbling——[To CINNAMON] Give it to me, the hour has come.
TRANQUIL BEAUTY