EMPRESS
Ah! a Sovereign then, who has not the force wherewith to command obedience!——So others have told me that before——I still hate him with that ineradicable race-hatred which you know, to which now contempt is added. Oh, that Emperor who smokes opium in his mummy's palace, while his hordes of soldiers at their own free will go through the provinces, leaving red tracks behind and charnel-houses for the vultures!
And if the impossible were to happen and I were to humiliate myself sufficiently to accept his pardon, who would warrant me after all—since he is not obeyed? Amid that army of wild beasts which was here awhile ago and will return soon to shout for our death, who could enforce the order of pardon of your phantom Emperor?——Who, I ask?
EMPEROR
I!
EMPRESS
You! [More gently and in some agitation.] You! Perhaps in very truth you might, for you seem to be one of those whom one dare not disobey. Moreover you have the superb audacity to reappear at this moment! But if the loyalty which I read in your eyes does not deceive me, cease the game which you are playing, and this time answer———Who are you?
EMPEROR
Who am I? Up to now nothing! Inexistent as a vaporous cloud! Nothing! But to-morrow perhaps everything, if you so wish it. To-morrow everything and radiating at your side like a sun in the blue ether——
EMPRESS [Drawing back]