SCENE XV

_The_ EMPRESS, _the_ FAITHFUL PRINCE, _and several_ LADIES-IN-WAITING.

[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 her hands._]

FAITHFUL PRINCE

Noble Sovereign, have courage.

EMPRESS

Ah, no, leave me. I am at the end of my strength!-----I played the Empress, did I not, as long as my child was here?----Now that he is gone, let me be a woman, let me be his mother!----I shall never again see him whom you have just taken away from me. Never, do you hear? I feel it, I know it! Since we are above ordinary beings, may Heaven be just to us and give us superhuman strength! Why have we hearts like other people, and anguish which breaks them?----Ah, the very beggar-women in rags in the street are less miserable! No handsome spy comes to them, to make their souls falter, and then flees-and after that their children are not taken away from them!----Your Empress would rather be a beggar, hungry and cold, but clasping her little one to her breast-----Yes, a beggar I tell you, who holds out her hand to passers-by as she sits on the steps of a temple!----[_Sobbing, she throws herself on the terrace steps._]

CURTAIN