Joyzelle.
(Starting up, as though to go to him, while still holding Lancéor in a close embrace.) Ah, it is you!... So it is you!... At last here is help and life coming!... Look at him! See!... It is time, he is falling back!... I fling myself at your feet!... Yes, yes, you can do all; and I have seen clear in all things!... Ah, at such moments as this, one would see clear in the depths of a darkness which worlds have never traversed!... Oh, I entreat you, tell me what to do!... I am no longer Joyzelle, I am no longer fierce and I have no more pride.... I am broken and dead: I drag myself at your feet; and it is no more a question of this or that, of love or kisses, or of trifling things!... Life and death stand face to face, they are fighting under our eyes and must be separated.... You do not move a step!... Ah, I know how great your hatred is and how you detest that defenceless man!... Yes, you are right, he is anything you please, he is a coward, he is a rascal, he is your enemy, he is a twenty-fold traitor, since you will have it so!... Yes, I admit it, I was wrong, I confess it, and I no longer love him, since you wish it, and I am ready for anything, provided he be saved!... But that must be done and that counts and all the rest is madness!... But come, come, come, I tell you death is triumphing and will carry him off!... See, his hands are turning blue and his eyes are growing dull and it is horrible!...
Merlin.
Joyzelle, fear nothing; his life is in my hands and I will save him, if you wish me to save him....
Joyzelle.
If I wish you to save him!... But do you not see that, if you were to hesitate, do you not know that, if for his sake, I had to.... No, no, I meant to say ... my distress bewilders me.... He has ceased to breathe, I no longer hear his heart.... You seem to me so slow!... Do you think that there is no danger, no need for haste?... I will speak no more; I am making you lose minutes which perhaps were passing to save him.... If you will not help him yourself—and I can understand that, for you do not love him—tell me only what I must do to assist him; and I shall know how to do it.... But I can see, I am sure that he cannot wait and that we must make haste....
Merlin.
I have told you, Joyzelle, his life is in my hands and cannot escape without my consent. I warned you of it. The poison is doing its work and I can see it. I alone can cure him, snatch him from death, call back his vigour, his beauty, which are fading away, and restore him to you as he was before....
Joyzelle.