The Daughter of Heaven

The EMPEROR [_To the_ EMPRESS, _who is leaning against the balustrade of the throne_] Alas! I can read obstinate resolution in your eyes! You have determined to die, I know it!...

My task, you say, is not yet completed? But the palace is only a ruin. The gates are giving way, the walls are crumbling----This time we can withstand the attack only ten minute...

The Pavilion of the Ladies-in-Waiting----So there are also Ladies-in-Waiting here? In very truth, it seems to me that I am dreaming. Yet I knew what I came hither to find that a...

Oh! no----But I desire to ask your indulgence for the lovely dead flowers. Permit them to remain there as a carpet at the foot of our pavilion. Though broken from their stems, t...

Daughter of Heaven, deign to raise your eyes to gaze upon the heart-broken conqueror who bows before you. Deign to look and to recognise him. Doubtless you will remember him. Bu...

Enlighten me, Oh, Divine Reason! Spirits of my ancestors, enter into my spirit, strengthen my weakness, embolden my heart!----Will these womanly hands have the power to carry on...

But they desired your death. The sentence is too lenient. And see, I spared them the torture-chamber----Now, I shall never again dare to be away from you. No, not even for a min...

So here are my household, my court of death, and doubtless my last retinue of mourners; just four persons! [_To the_ LADIES-IN-WAITING] Which two of you, my maidens, will have t...

[_As soon as she appears at the top of the terrace the perfumes begin to burn in the censers. The guards unfurl the banners which they are holding in their hands. Chamberlains a...

If your Excellency would say a word for me to the Empress, my desires would be fulfilled and I should obtain the red button, which I have earned by my services.

Oh, dispense with all vain formalities. The minutes left to us are sparingly numbered----Drop the mask and speak quickly. Who are you? A Tartar, alas! are you not? Otherwise you...

Enter here, noble captive. Look not over yonder. Each man should die but once, and you would die each time you saw a head fall. Is it not punishment enough for you to be the las...

[_Halting at the top of the Imperial stair_] Oh, Night of enchantment! Pure light and silence cool!----Oh, scintillating stars, envelope me in your rays! And thou, pale moon, sh...

Arise, we have no further need of prostrations. We are all equal here. There is but one rank now, that which is conferred on all alike by the nobility of sacrifice. [WAN-TSI _ri...

[_Announcing from the height of a turret at the summit of the ramparts_] An army, see, over there. The Tartars are returning! Thousands and thousands of them. In the distance th...

You have remained our masters in all things. In comparison with you we shall always be barbarians, we the invaders and the conquerors. Oh! may it be the unique glory of my reign...

A courier from the Emperor. [_The_ SOLDIERS _stand in file on either side and bend the knee. The_ COURIER _is on horseback, and is carrying over his shoulder a small packet, wra...

[_To some other women as he points to the prisoners tied to stakes._] What, the second group there? Their turn will come very soon. The Chief Executioner has given us a few minu...

You have no other duty than to obey. [_With a gesture he dismisses the_ SOLDIERS, _who have advanced to seize the man._] The executioners must be tired. Let their chief give the...

Such consideration has been shown me that I am terrified, more terrified than at torture and death. Why am I in his palace, instead of in a prison?----What can he, what dares he...

[_Wounded men are lying in their own blood here and there among the ruins. The_ EMPRESS _is in the middle of the stage, accoutred like a warrior, helmeted, holding a weapon in h...

Arise, friend, we are alone. You have already guessed my project, have you not? I want her to come here, near me. [_Pointing to the throne._] Pale and in the white of her deep m...

EMPRESS. [_Without replying, dreamily repeats the Coronation admonition._] Be attentive and anxious as if you carried a vase filled to the brim with water, of which not a drop m...

[_Stopping his work and listening._] _Do you hear_ the great bronze bell and the drum? Another Prince is passing through the Gateway of State and making his entrance into our Pa...

Yes, but to whom will you now entrust your Emperor? Let us take time to think at least----Or perhaps, since there is such immediate need, you have deceived me, and we are surrou...

The Viceroy of the South sends to explain to your Majesty that the reason that he was unable to reach the palace for the ceremony to which he was invited was because he was take...

My trouble is mixed with sweetness----Would it not seem that Heaven approves of me and will be my ally? This child comes to me, defends me, is uneasy because of my pallor, and g...

Your Viceroy, Sire, is not a Tartar, but a Chinese, which means that he espouses the cause of the rebels. Yet at Peking, outside the walls of your Palace of Eternal Silence, wha...

Yes! We wished to kidnap the child, to hold him as a hostage and thus to have you at our mercy. We have nothing further to say. Our lips are sealed.

_The_ EMPEROR _and_ FOUNT-IN-THE-FOREST, _the little_ EMPEROR _of Nanking,--a child of seven or eight years, who enters playing with a shuttlecock in the Chinese fashion, with g...

[_He is one hundred years old. He has a white beard, stiff and rough. He is blind, and is led by a young boy. He tries to prostrate himself, but the_ EMPRESS _stops him._]

The EMPRESS [_at the foot of the imperial stair, leaning on the marble banisters._] The storm, said the old man----The storm, it will come from the north as always!----Black clo...

[_Before the curtain rises the shouts of the crowd are heard, mingled with sound of gongs and bells. The execution-ground under the ramparts of Peking. A colossal grey wall with...

Oh, power she still has. Yesterday evening, by order of the Emperor, two eunuchs were decapitated simply for having announced to her the death of her son without preliminary forms.

[THE EMPRESS _watches him disappear, and then mounts the steps of the terrace to get a last glimpse of him, and when he is out of sight she cries aloud in her anguish, wringing...

Divine Sovereign, two Tartar spies entered the palace with the monstrous design of kidnapping our young Emperor. Like tigers they lay in wait, hidden in the bushes. They came ou...

My duties as Grand Mistress make it necessary for me to call your Majesty's attention to the fact that this is contrary to the rites. Audiences must take place in the Throne Roo...

THE EMPEROR OF PEKING, a Tartar of the Tsing (Pure) Dynasty (aged 30) FOUNT-IN-THE-FOREST, Councillor to the Tartar Emperor ARROW-BEARER } FAITHFUL PRINCE } Chinese dignitaries...

[_The stage setting is all of white marble, glistening in the moonlight. At the centre back is seen the_ EMPRESS'S _Pavilion rising upon several terraces of white marble. Its cu...

[_Before the curtain rises, shots are heard. It is nightfall in the Imperial Citadel at Nanking, half battered-down by the_ TARTARS. _Behind a huge wall with battlements are hea...

[_Leaving the flower-garden, she halts before ascending the marble stair and turns again to the flowers._] Guard well, oh, flowers of the morning, the secret which I have confid...

[_They enter hastily along the path at the foot of the steps._ ARROW-BEARER, _raising his head, recognises the_ EMPRESS, _on her way along the Imperial stair. He makes a sign of...

Will be finished! What, when I see the ground still strewn with petals and dead flower----and here, of all places, around the Pavilion of the Ladies-in-Waiting. [_Aside_] where...

He shall be rewarded by Heaven and by me. As for the grandees of my court who dared to stop my Courier, have them found at once and dealt with by the executioner to-morrow. Why...

_To the left, the pavilion of the ladies-in-waiting, in front of which is a flower-wreathed verandah, Through the trees and the bushes in full bloom, roofs of yellow earthenware...

Come, all dignitaries and great men of the Empire! Put perfumes in the censers, keep on amber! Sound the marble chimes, as for the gods. Pay homage to Your Empress! On your knee...

EMPEROR [_He strikes the gong gently, an_ OFFICIAL _appears. To the_ OFFICIAL] Double the number of guards at the gates. Instant death to any one who, for any reason whatever, d...

An order from the Emperor! [_All listen with bowed heads._] Let the members of the Privy Council, Ministers, and Dignitaries, robed in their costumes of state, meet in silence i...