EMPRESS
We are above all rites and rules. I have spoken my will.
THE GRAND MISTRESS
The orders of your Majesty shall be transmitted to the officials of the palace, who will inform the princes and the dignitaries.
EMPRESS
It is well.
[The GRAND MISTRESS rises and goes out.]
SCENE V
THE EMPRESS
[Leaving the flower-garden, she halts before ascending the marble stair and turns again to the flowers.] Guard well, oh, flowers of the morning, the secret which I have confided to you. Now it has escaped from my soul! That it may never return, lock it up, oh, flowers, in your blossoms. [She mounts several steps] And you, ancestral shades, to whom I make this last prayer, Oh! lend your aid to your daughter, powerless to triumph over herself. Make my heart invulnerable, since you have called me to this sovereign mission. Give me the force to thrust aside all but my noble duty. Oh, help me to remember only "the brimming cup of which not a drop must be spilled!"