My son! You will show greater courage in saying good-bye to me. And you must prove yourself worthy of your noble, your more than human lot. Remember that you are not an ordinary child. Under your delicate flesh, in the fine network of your veins, flows the blood of divinity. The Bright Dynasty has no representative but you alone. Oh, my best beloved! You are the son of Heaven!
[THE CHILD, very thoughtful, lets his head sink]
FAITHFUL PRINCE
Raise up your face, do not turn it down, dazzled by the bright name of your ancestors. Already you must be master of your feelings. You owe your heart as a debt to this people unnumbered, which is conquered and oppressed and looks to you for its deliverance. To this people alone belong your thoughts, your actions, your very life.
THE CHILD [Sad and grave]
I will go——I will not cry.
EMPRESS
To whom shall we entrust this greatest of our treasures? You have no doubt thought about it. I feel that your plans are made.
FAITHFUL PRINCE
Our young Emperor has shown without knowing him, a sympathy for the Viceroy of the South. Now he is precisely the best situated to offer him an inviolable refuge. My advice is that we entrust him to him.