Let the Governess of the Palace come here at once! [To the GOVERNESS, as she enters and prostrates herself.] Untie the hands of the Empress, and then go.
[The GOVERNESS obeys and goes out. A pause.]
Your voice is no longer yours. Your eyes are no longer yours. You stand here before me, yet your soul seems to be at an infinite distance. I did not expect to find you so, and you frighten me. The Majesty of death is upon you.
EMPRESS
They are calling to me from the Land of the Shades. Allow me to cross the threshold soon, from you I can accept no mercy. My faithful ones, my warriors, are wondering at my delay in rejoining them, and my son is listening to catch the echo of my footfall behind him on the dark path.
EMPEROR
Your son!——Ah! Your son! Who has mourned him more than I, excepting only you? Ten of my couriers, my swiftest horsemen, were sent at once, riding their horses night and day, spurring them to death, leaving their corpses by the roadside, in a frantic effort to arrive in time and avert the evil which could not be repaired——
EMPRESS
What was achieved? Where is the body of my little son?
EMPEROR