[ACT IV]
A Room in the Palace
[At the back, to the right, is a large marble bed, on which Lancéor is lying lifeless. Joyzelle, anxious, dishevelled, is busying herself around him.
Joyzelle.
Lancéor! Lancéor!... He cannot hear me.... His eyes are wide open.... Lancéor, I am here, I am bending over your eyes.... Look at me, look at me!... No, he does not see me!... Lancéor, for pity's sake!... If your voice is too weak, give a sign of life!... I take you in my arms, my arms that love you!... Come, come, come to yourself, in our great love!... See, see, it is my hands that are lifting your head.... Do you recognize my hands, as they stroke your hair?... You so often told me, when we were happy, that the least caress of these dear hands would recall your soul, even from the greatest happiness of paradise, from the greatest darkness in the depths of.... No, no, it is not there!... But his head is drooping, his arm falls back lifeless and his fingers seem to me colder than this marble.... (Mechanically feeling one of the columns of the bed.) No, it is not that.... But I must know.... And his eyes are no longer.... (Raising his head.) Is it his or mine that are so dim?... No, it is impossible!... No, no, I will not have it! Ah, I will open your lips!... (She places her lips on Lancéor's.) Lancéor! Lancéor! All the ardour of my life shall enter your heart!... Do not fear, do not fear! It is the saving flame and life that restores life!... Breathe it all in the last efforts of my breath which loves you!... I would gladly suffocate in exchanging my life for yours!... I give you my strength, my hours, my years!... Here they are, here they are!... You have but to make a movement, to open your lips!... It must be so!... It must be possible thus to give new life to those whom we love better than ourselves!... When we give them all, they cannot but take it!... (Raising her head to look at Lancéor.) He is falling back! He is going from me!... (Infatuated, she takes him in her arms again.) Help!... No, this is too much!... Help! Hasten! Hasten!... Ah no, I know better, no, no, it is not that.... Death does not come like this when love threatens it!... No, no, I fear nothing, no, no, I will not have it!... But I am crying for help! I cannot remain alone, I cannot fight alone against all the strength of death approaching!... If no one comes, it will end by conquering!... Help, I say!... You must come to my aid!... Life must help me, or it is no longer possible and we shall succumb!...
[She falls sobbing on Lancéor's lifeless body. Enter Merlin.
Merlin.
I am here, Joyzelle....