SCENE I.--_A Gallery in the Palace.
[_Enter MERLIN and LANCÉOR._
LANCÉOR.
Father!... Then it is true, and you are my father!... And indeed it seems to me, since you told me, as though I had always known it in my far-seeing heart.... (_Coming closer._) But how wonderful it is!... I see you again at last as I saw you amid my childish sports; and, when I look at you, I see myself in a graver, nobler and more powerful mirror than those which reflect my features along this room. But what will Joyzelle say?... How she will laugh when she remembers her fears, for she imagined.... No, she herself shall tell you what she thought, to punish her for her senseless terror.... She used to hate you, but with a softened hatred that already smiled like one about to be pierced by the rays of love.... But where is she hiding? I have been seeking her for nearly two hours in vain.... Have you seen her? I must tell her at once of the unspeakable happiness which this evening has brought us....
MERLIN.
Not yet. I must remain in her eyes, until the close of the day, the pitiless tyrant whom she curses in her heart. My poor, dear child!... How I have tortured your adorable love!... But I have already told you the object of these proofs.... In making you suffer, I have but been the instrument of fate and the unworthy slave of another will, whose source I do not know, which seems to demand that the slightest happiness should be surrounded by tears.... I have but hastened, in order to bring happiness more quickly, the coming of those tears which hung in suspense between your two destinies.... You shall know some day by what power, a power which has no magical or supernatural quality, but which still lies hidden at the bottom of men's lives, I at times command certain phenomena, certain appearances that bewildered you. You shall also learn that I have acquired the gift, often a useless one, of reading the future a little more clearly and a little further than the rest of men.... And so I saw you, groping for each other, in time and space, for an unparalleled love, the most perfect perhaps that the two or three centuries over which my eyes have turned concealed within their shade.... You might have met each other after many wanderings; but it was necessary to hasten the expected meeting, because of you, my son, whom death claimed in the absence of love.... And, on the other side, nothing marked out Joyzelle for the hoped-for love, save a few scattered and uncertain points and the proofs themselves which she was to surmount. I therefore hurried on the prescribed proofs: they have all been painful, but necessary; the last will be decisive and more serious....
LANCÉOR.
Serious?... What do you mean?... It will not be dangerous for Joyzelle, or for others?...
MERLIN.
It will not be dangerous for Joyzelle, but it imperils, for the last time, the predestined love to which your life is linked.... That is why, in despite of all, in despite of my confidence, of my anticipations, of my certainty even, I am afraid, I tremble a little at the approach of the decisive hour....
LANCÉOR.
If Joyzelle is to decide, love has nothing to fear.... Come, do not hesitate, Joyzelle will always be the source of joy.... But I do not understand how, knowing the future, you are not able to see her triumph beforehand?...
MERLIN.
I already told you, before we came in here, that Joyzelle can change the future which she faces.... She possesses a force which I have seen in none save her; that is why I do not know whether the great victory which your love expects will not be mingled with some little shadow and tears....
LANCÉOR.
What do you mean?... You seem perturbed.... What are you hiding from me?... How can you believe that Joyzelle would ever be the cause of a tear or the cause of a shadow?... There is nothing in Joyzelle, not even the suffering which she might inflict, there is nothing in her but brings health, happiness and love!... Ah, how well I see that you know little of the living triumph, the endless dawn contained in her voice, her eyes, her heart!... One must have held her in his arms to know what treasures of hope, what torrents of certainty issue from the least word murmured by her lips, from the slightest smile that plays upon her face.... But I am too long delaying the impatient victory. Go, father, go.... I will remain here, I will wait, I will watch the happy moments pass, until my Joyzelle utters a great cry of joy which shall tell me that love has determined destiny....
[_MERLIN embraces LANCÉOR and exit slowly._