Oh, Majesty, we must envy these men who are about to die so gloriously. Our duty is otherwise; it is longer, it is more terrible.
EMPRESS
Our duty longer and more terrible?——Then what do you expect of me? Speak, what would you say. Your Empress will obey you, but speak at once, I do not understand. [She takes again the golden cup.]
FAITHFUL PRINCE
What we must do, my beloved Sovereign, is to flee and live.
EMPRESS [Violently]
Ah, no! All that you have demanded of me I have done, but I refuse to take flight like a coward.
VEILED-LIGHT
To flee, alas! yes. But to escape from the enemy, to deprive them of the prize of war——and thus their success will be but failure. Soon the blood of our heroes will inspire other heroes. A new army will rally to the cause of the Daughter of Heaven, and the war will begin again.
EMPRESS