SCENE III
_The_ TARTAR EMPEROR _and The_ EMPRESS
[_The_ EMPEROR _advances while the four men of his suite remain in the rear. At a signal from the_ EMPRESS, _the_ LADIES-IN-WAITING _and all others on the stage retire to the back._]
EMPEROR
[_Bending the knee before her, as on the Coronation day_] Oh, Sovereign, oh, brave warrior, may the day dawn which will brighten your dark destiny! [_He rises._]
EMPRESS [_Trembling_]
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 would have been unable to break through their ring of steel----A Tartar, say?
EMPEROR
Yes.
EMPRESS
A spy, then, when you came on my Coronation day? Nothing but a spy, alas!
EMPEROR
No! One who risked his life that day, as he does again, to save yours.
EMPRESS
My life is no longer of any importance, and the right to save it belongs to none. At the Court of the Usurper who reigns at Peking what position is I yours?----Secret agent for venturesome missions? No, a great dignitary, then? Tell me.
EMPEROR
Yes.
EMPRESS
And a Prince?
EMPEROR
What matters it what I am? Your Majesty is the chief concern. Deign to listen to what the Emperor----
EMPRESS [_Interrupting_]
Where is your Emperor? At the head of his troops?
EMPEROR [_Embarrassed_]
Well----No, in his place over yonder. The rites, I need scarcely tell you, do not permit him to leave it.
[_Throughout this dialogue the cannon is heard incessantly in distant parts of the city._]
EMPRESS
The rites, ah, the rites! You see what attention I have paid to the rites, I, the daughter of the Mings, the daughter of Heaven and the Invisible----I am here in the midst of my soldiers. I am fighting like them!----And it is he, your phantom Emperor, who dares to send me a message?
EMPEROR
With a message of pardon one always dares----
EMPRESS
Say rather that a message of pardon is the last message which may be sent when it is from him and concerns me!----So the Tartars dare to offer pardon!----You have just passed through my city of Nanking and you have seen? It is glorious, is it not, their work?----
EMPEROR
Alas! yes, I have seen with horror,----but I can swear to you by my life that such were not the orders which were given by my Sovereign.
EMPRESS
Ah! a Sovereign then, who has not the force wherewith to command obedience!----So others have told me that before----I still hate him with that ineradicable race-hatred which you know, to which now contempt is added. Oh, that Emperor who smokes opium in his mummy's palace, while his hordes of soldiers at their own free will go through the provinces, leaving red tracks behind and charnel-houses for the vultures!
And if the impossible were to happen and I were to humiliate myself sufficiently to accept his pardon, who would warrant me after all--since he is not obeyed? Amid that army of wild beasts which was here awhile ago and will return soon to shout for our death, who could enforce the order of pardon of your phantom Emperor?----Who, I ask?
EMPEROR
I!
EMPRESS
You! [_More gently and in some agitation._] You! Perhaps in very truth you might, for you seem to be one of those whom one dare not disobey. Moreover you have the superb audacity to reappear at this moment! But if the loyalty which I read in your eyes does not deceive me, cease the game which you are playing, and this time answer-----Who are you?
EMPEROR
Who am I? Up to now nothing! Inexistent as a vaporous cloud! Nothing! But to-morrow perhaps everything, if you so wish it. To-morrow everything and radiating at your side like a sun in the blue ether----
EMPRESS [_Drawing back_]
Ah, you remember all too well my recent indulgence toward your enigmas. Amid the perfume of incense, amid pomp and luxury, I betrayed the weakness of a woman. To-day, no; you find me stronger and more stern, precisely because I am defeated, and know that I must die.
EMPEROR [_Bowing before her_]
Oh, Sovereign, never were you more sacred to me Do not be offended by my words and for a short time still allow me my mask and my mystery. Hear only this: A fortnight ago, when I left that palace where I saw you in all your Imperial splendour, I hastened to Peking to request of that Emperor whom you hate that he would stop this horrible war. On the way I learned that our Tartar armies were marching with lightning speed, and I turned back as quick as my ship and horses could take me, to give to them myself the order for peace. I have the right to do so. See, here is the seal which gives me full power in the name of Tsings. As you have said, I am one of those whom men dare not disobey; at least, not face to face, when I speak----I have learned now how to give orders and to enforce them. Deign only to allow your soldiers to give the signal for a truce, just to hoist the flag on the tower, and not one of their heads shall fall, I swear it----
EMPRESS
To make that offer to me, Prince, you must not be of the Imperial blood----The Daughter of Heaven can never accept the mercy of a Tartar!----