But I do not know that I shall succeed!... Joyzelle's strength is so swift, so profound, that it escapes my arm, escapes my eyes, escapes destiny!... I see only the flash of falling steel.... All is confused in a shadow; and my life and yours depend on a movement of my unskilful hand....
Merlin.
She is there, I hear her, she is feeling for the door.... Be obedient and silent; I am obedient too. Watch and be quick and strong.... I will close my eyes and await my fate....
Arielle.
(Dismayed and maddened.) Abandon the proof!... I cannot go through with it!... I refuse!... I want to fly!...
Merlin.
(Imperiously.) Silence!...
[He stretches himself on the bed, closes his eyes and appears to be sleeping soundly. Arielle, overcome by her sobs, sinks down on the steps of the dais. On the left, at the opposite end of the room, a little door opens and Joyzelle enters, wrapped in a long cloak and carrying a lamp in her hand. She takes two or three steps and stops. Arielle rises and stands invisible behind the heavy curtains at the foot of the bed.
Joyzelle.
(Stopping, haggard, hesitating, trembling.) Now and here.... I have taken the last step.... Until this moment, which time can no longer keep back and which is about to see a thing that will never be wiped out; until I came to that little door which has just closed upon two captive destinies, I knew, I knew all that I had to do.... Ah, I had reflected and I had judged so well!... There was nothing but that, there was nothing else: it was certain, it was just, it was inevitable!... But now all changes and I have forgotten all.... There are other powers, there are other voices and I am all alone against all that speaks in the uncertain night.... Justice, where are you?... Justice, what must I do?... I shall act because you wished it.... You convinced me and urged me on.... There, but now, under the thousands of stars which shone upon the door and which you invoked to reassure my soul!... There was no doubt, then, and all the certainty of all that breathes and of all that quivers and of all that loves and has a right to love illumined my heart!... But, in face of the deed, you yourself draw back, you deny your laws and abandon me!... Ah, I feel too much alone, delivered like a blind slave to the unknown.... I shall walk without looking.... I see nothing and I shall not raise my mad eyes to the bed until the moment when the thing.... (She advances with a mechanical step to the foot of the bed.) Now, fate itself shall say yes.... (She lifts the lamp, looks at the bed, sees Merlin sleeping and, in her surprise, takes a step back.) He sleeps!... What is this?... I had not foreseen.... Anything but this.... Must I wait still?... Oh, I should like to wait!... He is sound asleep.... Then he did not wish.... But, if he were not asleep, I could not have done it.... He would have disarmed me, he would have mastered me.... It must be true, it is fate, it is a good and just fate that delivers him to me thus.... I, who was looking for a sign!... But there is the sign!... What more do I want, if I want anything more?... And yet, as he is asleep, I cannot know.... Perhaps he has pity, perhaps he renounces and would bid me go!... He was not without soul; and often, at moments, he spoke like a father.... Ah, if he had risen, if he had been there, with arms held out to me, in an attitude of.... Then, then I should have been strong and should have conquered!... But a man asleep.... That shatters hatred.... And then, one no longer knows.... And to change this sleep which one word puts to flight into that which no human or superhuman power can disturb!... Oh, I would at least that one word of forgiveness.... Ah no, I am too great a coward!... This is terror seeking an outlet.... I did not come for further meditation.... There is no doubt, after what he did, after what he said!... I listen only to my voice, the voice of my destiny, which wills that I should save us both!... So much the worse if I am wrong!... I am right! I am right!... Go out, my lamp: I have seen all that I need see.... (She puts out the lamp, places it on one of the marble stairs, seizes the dagger which she held concealed, raises it and looks at it for a moment.) Now, it is your turn!... Ah, if you could do what my thought, what my desperate pity would have, and if the death that gleams at the point of this blade were not real death, irrevocable death!... But enough.... It is time.... It is said, it is done, I strike!...