Ber. I go to meet them.
Ard. Stay!
Ber. They shall not come to me. I go to them.
My honor, love, my honor!
Ard. O, men, men!
You build a shrine to love and ask us fling
Our lives, our souls into it. Once within,
The door forever shut, there sits a god,
A monster-god, your honor, and we must sue
For barest room to stand or crouch or kneel
Where by your oaths we should be sovereign.
Ber. The shrine itself is honor, dear, my heart.
That gone, we have indeed no holy place
To shelter love. Was 't not yourself who said
That man to man must keep his pledge?
Ard. Ah me,
That shining night! That night of golden wings!
And now comes this. Can such two nights be born
In the same world, and but one sun between?
[Bertrand staggers]
You're bleeding still!
Ber. Fast, fast.
Ard. My veil——
I'll wrap you with it! [Binds wound]
Ber. Thanks, for I would live
To die upon their swords.
Ard. Wait, wait, my lord!
O, do not meet them in their first deep rage——