ACT V

SCENE: _The garden of Pelagon, as in first act. Enter youths and maidens dancing about Pyrrha and Biades. They sing:_

Hymen, god of bended knees, Who would gain to thee must lose! Take from us thy merry fees, Though our fairest thou dost choose,-- Pyrrha and our Biades!

Fling the garland and the wreath! Roses, roses consecrate, That upgive their happy breath In an ardor 'neath our feet, Kissing fortune in their death!

Sparta's won, and Athens' wed! Shyest hours of midnight, bring Charm and blessing for the bed Whence a fairer Greece shall spring And her golden peace be bred!

[_They dance off, lower right, as Pelagon and Stesilaus enter middle left_]

_Pel._ Ha, neatly sung! By Hermes, they have made A tickling in my sandals.

_Ste._ Frivol!

_Pel._ Eh? Nay, youth must wind his horn----

_Ste._ Not in my ears!

_Pel._ Though he never come to the hunt. But Biades Has run the chase, and's bravely home again, The game in pack.

_Ste._ Too noble game for him! My girl! That I should ever play the sire To a fop of Athens!

_Pel._ If the burn's so raw, You've secret salve for it.

_Ste._ Yes. 'Tis not my blood That so forgets its source!

_Pel._ Sh! Stesilaus! A little butter on the tongue, my friend, Does no man harm.

_Ste._ Butter a hackle, not My tongue! If I'm so rubbed, I'll rasp the winds Till they sprout ears. Don't "sh" me, Pelagon. I'll muffle in no corners.

_Pel._ Hist, I say----

_Ste._ Don't zizz into my beard! We are not curs To nose and smell in council!

_Pel._ Ruin's on us! You will be heard----

[_Enter Menas, upper right_]

_Menas._ Joy to the noble fathers! Sweet saviors of our city!

_Ste._ Sweet!

_Menas._ What says Our Stesilaus?

_Pel._ Ahem! The Spartan joy Is ever dumb. But see him stirred to heart That by a gift from out his very life, His dearest daughter, peace is home in Athens, And's forced no more to camp and cadge and beg At our shut gates. Yet it goes hard to part Wi' the fairest branch on's tree.

_Menas._ In Biades He finds a treasured son.

_Ste._ By a mermaid's shoes, A precious son!

_Menas._ How, sir?

_Pel._ Indeed, indeed, A jewel of a son! Will you, friend Menas, Float with the senators, and bring to shore Report of how they drift,--what currents favor And what now counter us?

_Menas._ I'll go, my lords, To hear the latest honor they conclude Best caps your fame, and bring it in a word. [_Exit Menas_]

_Ste._ I had two minds to throw the truth in 's face And see him strangle on it.

_Pel._ Friend, wouldst make My old knees creak to earth? I sue to you Be soft as prudence. Shall we now be false To our dearly tended hope--united Greece? Now when the fact is on us, and our dream Walks in the day? I beg you clear your heart Of selfish fire that eats the very pattern Of love's new world. It is ungraced, perverse As altar flame that would devour the shrine 'Twas lit to honor.

_Ste._ Think of Greece? What's Greece, When my own daughter pairs with----

_Pel._ Nay, but mine. When you are bitterest set, say to yourself She's of my loins, and when more softly taken, Then call her yours. But openly be constant To a father's right in her, and proudly sire Her honors. And 's for Biades, he's but A brocket yet, his antlers barely bossed. My oath upon it, your reshaping hand Firm-cupped about his overweening spring, Will be a second cradle where he'll grow Fair to your fashion. Think on that.

_Ste._ I will. There's comfort. Ay, so, so. The terms of peace Make him a Spartan. Pyrrha stood with me Stout-willed on that.

_Pel._ Then whist! You trust your wife?

_Ste._ You speak to Stesilaus.

_Pel._ Eh, I know You've her in hand. My Sachinessa now-- [_Sighs_] But she loves Phania best. That locks her tongue. And, friend, do you not see the high all-ruling Will Has moved behind our own?

_Ste._ I think it so. Our aim achieves its heaven, though we smart Beneath it. To the outer glozing fame That now attires us splendent, we may add Inmost applause. When we exchanged our babes, 'Twas for this end and day, and had we held To our first intent and taken our own again, Our hope had died unfruitive. 'Twas there That deity came in and shifted us To th' true sybillic course.

_Pel._ Who dares say else? We'll wear the issue as a sacred robe Fallen on us from Olympus.

_Ste._ Which our wisdom Fits comely to us. Forget it not, such gift Had been withheld from minds too poor to be The heirs of Zeus.

_Pel._ But if the clay-eyed mob, Whose pottage traffic up Olympian paths Blocks commerce godly and invisible----

_Ste._ Tush, cut the string, if you have aught in bag.

_Pel._ Why, I would say if some of grosser sight Than our two selves, should fumble on our secret That Pyrrha is Athens born----

_Ste._ Nay, put your fears In pocket. It shall not be known.

[_Enter Biades_]

_Bia._ Ha, nunky! Where is my happy father? [_Sees Stesilaus_] A suit, my lord! I've Pyrrha's leave to make our home in Athens If thou wilt bless our dwelling. Crave thy grace For sake of her in whom thy pride best flowers! Here she'll o'erlay all Spartan crudity With suavest bloom, and take e'en native place Where Athens' love would set her.

_Ste._ Never, sir! [_Exit, middle left_]

_Bia._ The gray fox snaps. Ho, but I'll draw his teeth, And he shall yelp for 't too!

_Pel._ Shame, sir! Not give The road to him? The father of your bride?

_Bia._ I will when she's his daughter.

_Pel._ What! What, boy?

_Bia._ I say when she's his daughter. Let that in At your good ear, and in the t'other one I'll call _you_ father.

_Pel._ Ruin! It's come!

_Bia._ Who thinks I'd make that Spartan grunt my father, knows Not me! What? Set that boding beard at head Of my Athenian house? Or go to Sparta To hut me where I would not ask a stall For a borrowed horse?

_Pel._ But----

_Bia._ Scratch my helpless throat With bread a pig would stick at? Swallow brew Of salt and soot? And chafe my pumiced skin With itching linsey?--or an untanned hide, As man were still the beast that wore it?

_Pel._ Peace, My son----

_Bia._ Say grace for leeks and goose-foot?

_Pel._ But----

_Bia._ Though Eros pinned me head and foot with shafts, I've saved my eyes, bless my united wits, And know the high-road! I'll not lose me on A pig-trail to a sty.

_Pel._ But if these Spartans hear They'll sack the city! Zeus deliver us! We're lost! we're lost! Oh, Biades!

_Bia._ [_Calm_] Talk in a muff, good father Pelagon, Or we indeed are lost.

_Pel._ You'll keep the secret?

_Bia._ A time. I've plans in seed will make all Sparta A garden for my Athens, where her fame Shall browse to its tallest. Trust me, Pelagon. I'm still a general!

[_Enter, lower right, young men who surround Biades, and press him off, singing_]

Gander now must keep with goose! Biades, O, Biades, Thou shalt ne'er the cord unloose, For the mighty god decrees He shall hang who dares the noose!

[_Re-enter Stesilaus_]

_Ste._ He's gone? I took My anger off where it might safely blow. This path brushed clear by Heaven must not be closed By our stumbling selves. The widgeon! He would fly Above the eagle, but I'll snip his feathers, Give me good time! He'd live in Athens, ha! And swore on Hera's altar he would be A son of Sparta!

_Pel._ Nay, I noted, sir, That Sparta was not named in 's oath.

_Ste._ What now?

_Pel._ Naught, naught, my friend! Yet he but swore to make The land of Pyrrha his.

_Ste._ And what meant that But Sparta? If his warm wooer's oath must cool, We've winters that will do it.

_Pel._ Caution's best. Slow-mare will get you home.

_Ste._ A year or two Of good black bread, and free winds on his skin Will take the maiden from his cheeks and set A true man's beard there. Tush! I thought that Fate, Granting my main desire, gave me this plague, Which, with the rest, now proves my life has pleased High arbiters. You're silent, Pelagon.

_Pel._ No, no! Yes, yes! I think so. 'Tis indeed!

_Ste._ Come, come, my friend! We will go forth and meet The occasion as a guest, bethinking us We walk between mankind and deity.

[_They start out and are met by Alcanor and Phania who fall before them_]

_Pha._ [_Kneeling to Stesilaus_] Your blessing, father!

_Alc._ [_At Pelagon's feet_] Blessing, dearest father!

_Pel._ What, what!

_Pha._ [_To Stesilaus_] Forgive your child!

_Alc._ The priest----

_Ste._ My child?

_Alc._ The priest has made us one.

_Pel._ What priest? Who dared Defile the altar with such rite?

_Alc._ [_Rising_] Defile? Though you're my Phania's father, you shall cast No stain upon that holy ceremony Whose odor yet is round us. Sir, the priest Has blessed us. Do you as you please. Come, Phania! Come, sweet! We'll smile at this. Though a father's curse Bethorn our way, a gentler heaven will drop Its soft approval where thy feet must pass. [_Going_]

_Pel._ Speak, Stesilaus! Stop your wretched son!

_Alc._ Not wretched, sir, while Phania is my own. We shall be blest when you, too late, beseech Unhearing gods forgive you this!

_Pel._ Stay, sir! O, miserable boy!

_Pha._ No, father, no! He's happy in my love as leaf in air, As the sea-crystalled fish, as lotos in Its pool,--and I--O, sir, my joy has wings, And tho' I love you dear and daughterly,-- Who gave me life,--your anger has no weight To keep my feet on earth. Like twirling lark Too high for storm to reach, I dance above Displeasure's cloud. [_Trips off with Alcanor_]

_Pel._ Sweet wretches! Here's a turn! My little Phania! Friend, what shall we do?

_Ste._ Again the finger of the gods.

_Pel._ The gods To limbo! I will save my daughter!

_Ste._ Yours?

_Pel._ Yea, by each hour of prattle at my knee! By all my care that's been her constant nurse, And every joy that from devotion sprang To meet me like a flower as she grew, She's mine, mine, mine! Oh, Stesilaus, oh, Whosever she may be, I love the chick, And she shall not be damned!

[_Enter, upper left, Sachinessa and Archippe_]

_Ste._ Here's a reproach Comes with a dual mouth. If we show doubt, They'll put us under pestle. Rally, sir!

_Sac._ [_To Archippe_] Are you all lump? Pick up your courage. Why! The gods are gods by their audacity. I'll bring it off. Now, Pelagon?

_Pel._ [_Who has turned to flee_] What, you, My love?

_Sac._ Such heavy news! Enough to make The gods no more co-venture with a world Augmented so!

_Pel._ What, Sachinessa, what?

_Sac._ Our Phania's married to Alcanor.

_Pel._ Eh?

_Sac._ Now are you pleased? Now is your cruelty Full-fed, or must it glut again?

_Pel._ My sweet----

_Sac._ You'll meddle with high Zeus! Have you enough?

_Pel._ Oh, Sachinessa!

_Sac._ Brother and sister bound In an abhorrent union that will drive Their shades forever from Elysian ground! Nay, even Hades will make fast her gates 'Gainst such offenders, innocently vile! Archippe, speak to that unbending man, Half author of this shame! I'd thin his beard If Heaven had mocked me with his long, smug face For husband! Ugh! The whiskered horse!

_Arc._ Dumb, sir? You've no defence?--no master argument To prove your wisdom's never off the road To Zeus' gate? Not once in all your life, Although your daughter's to her brother wedded?

_Ste._ 'Tis well. I can not doubt the gods.

[_They stare at him_]

_Arc._ Her brother born? So foul a hap?

_Ste._ A thing too dread in thought, And in the act unutterable if Zeus Be unconcerned in it. Therefore believe His hand here moves, and holy majesty O'errules the mortal scruple, so dividing This horror from its kind. May it not be The blood of Stesilaus hath in 'ts flow A heavenly tinct that makes it not a sin, But rather virtue, to keep pure the stream From baser founts? They've done no more than kings And gods before them.

_Sac._ Pelagon, _your_ croak!

_Pel._ I take a lower ground, my dearest dove. All Athens knows me modest----

_Sac._ Ay to that! Can blush as deep as any crow that flies!

_Pel._ Now, now! From first to last I've held it truth That breeding scantles birth, and on that count Make Phania our daughter.

_Sac._ Oh, you do?

_Pel._ I stand on this, that training is the man. Or woman, let us say, and not the blood We buried with our fathers. So these two Mate not ancestrally, but in their lives That distantly upbred have not between them A structural thread to bind them of one house.

_Sac._ What men are these?

_Arc._ I am no more afraid Of him I thought was Stesilaus.

_Ste._ Listen, You women. Though we are thus righted----

_Sac._ Humph!

_Ste._ In man's and Heaven's eye, we yet will bow To your own wish in this. As once we gave Your sighs the right of way, we now will ease This second woe by taking swiftest means To part this clucking pair.

_Sac._ You'll yield to _us_?

_Arc._ How like you, Sachinessa, this high place Above the gods?

_Sac._ They shall be parted?

_Ste._ Ay, We do consent.

_Sac._ Nay, you shall please yourselves. For my own part, I will not break their bonds And set their hearts a-bleeding.

_Arc._ No, nor I.

_Ste._ How now, vapidity?

_Arc._ I mean, my lord, You have convinced me, and this marriage bond Shall be as Zeus has made it.

_Sac._ Pelagon, Your reason captures mine, and I repent My mockery. This strange event's no more Uncouth, now you have pried the way for me To wisdom's bed of truth. I clearly see Thai man and woman of one mother born May be no kin. The marriage shall stand.

_Pel._ In name of Zeus!

_Arc._ Yes, in his name.

_Ste._ Nay, wife, We know your simple heart, and read its horror Through this pretence so suddenly clapped on. We shall reject a forced and sad submission----

_Pel._ Ay, ay, we shall! I'll act at once, and stop Their kisses, riveting a bond unblessed----

_Sac._ Unblessed?

_Pel._ My golden joy, I speak your thought Not mine.

[_A clamor in street_]

_Ste._ They come for us.

_Pel._ I hear my name. We'll out and greet them.

_Ste._ No, my friend. Let them come in unnoted.

_Pel._ Ay, we'll sit Withdrawn, in gentle argument. Here's shade.

[_They go aside. Enter Lysander, Agis, Creon, Menas, and a score of Spartans and Athenians_]

_Lys._ Is Stesilaus here? We must be heard.

_Arc._ He's here.

_Menas._ And Pelagon! Where's Pelagon?

_Sac._ His good ear's toward, sir.

_Pel._ [_Unable to keep aside_] Did I not hear My name?

_Sac._ Why, so I said.

_Agis._ [_Advancing to Stesilaus_] My lord, we come----

_Ste._ What haste, good Agis? Goes the world so fast?

_Agis._ As fast as Fate can drive it, and you, my lord, Are under foot.

_Pel._ [_Who has been listening to Menas_] You hear it, Stesilaus! Athens is ashes! We're betrayed, betrayed!

[_Biades, Pyrrha, Phania, Alcanor, and their companions swarm in, lower right_]

_Ste._ Silence, and let us hear! Now, Agis, speak.

_Agis._ And grieve that 'tis my part. The Spartans know Your treachery----

_Ste._ Who dares to give such a name To deed of mine?

_Agis._ Denial comes too far Behind the proof, my lord.

_Ste._ The proof? What proof?

_Lys._ 'Tis known to all. The very curb cries out That Pyrrha is Athenian born, the child Of Pelagon.

_Pyrr._ Oh, Zeus!

_Bia._ Bear up, my Pyrrha!

_Agis._ Ay, Athens weds with Athens, and on that You build the peace of Sparta! A bold deceit Of yours and Pelagon's, whereby we're sold To a foeman's pleasure!

_A Spartan._ Though the heart of Athens Be in the knot that binds your traitorous bargain, We'll cut it through!

_Agis._ Will you deny you changed Your babes in cradle?

[_Silence_]

_Bia._ Pray you, who revealed This ancient secret?

_Menas._ Creon came----

_Bia._ Ah, Creon!

_Menas._ Before the senate, then in seat to unfold From rivalrous invention, topless honors For these two lords, whose guilt had long devoured Such labor's root and reason.

_Bia._ Creon came?

_Menas._ And bared the tale, made his by accident, And swore you knew it too,--that Pyrrha there Is Pelagon's daughter, and Phania is the child Of Spartan Stesilaus.

_Pha._ Oh, oh, oh!

_Alc._ A rope for me then!

_Cre._ [_To Biades_] Sir, I did not speak, But trusted all to you, until the secret Laid night on Phania's innocence and grew Too foul to keep.

_Pyrr._ You knew this, Biades?

_Bia._ And knew you would forgive!

_Pyrr._ This was the spring Of all your oaths! In my espousèd hand You'd lay my country's peace, knowing her name Was Attica! This was your proof of love. The oilèd wedge that let you in my heart! False in the trothal moment that should make The foulest for an instant pure!

_Bia._ But hear----

_Pyrr._ Oh, in that hour which women wrap in rose And hide where thoughts like guardian doves may go, You set a cautel touching it with death That leaves me treasureless!

_Bia._ My Pyrrha,----

_Pyrr._ Not yours!

_Bia._ Howe'er 'twas done, I won you!

_Pyrr._ Won a Spartan! Now keep the shadow. As an Athenian maid I do renounce you! [_Escapes him_]

_Bia._ Ah! Zeus loves the dice. He's always at the game. But who'd have thought This throw would be against me? Hear me, sweet! [_To Stesilaus_] Dear father, speak to her. She'll heed your voice, Your judgment ripe, and words set out like cups With wisdom's honey.

_Pel._ [_Awake to fathership_] Ay, my son, I will!

_Bia._ Not you, in name of hope! [_Follows Pyrrha_]

_Alc._ Monsters of fatherhood, how dare you show Your faces in this sun? Go seek some cave Whose darkest den will not betray a shame Of its own hue! No, Phania, do not cling To my unwilling breast that now must be A hedge of swords to your bird bosom. [_Holds her tightly_]

_Pha._ Oh!

_Cre._ Withdraw your hand, proud Spartan!

_Alc._ I will protect My sister, sir, from any lord of Athens!

_Sac._ Look, Pelagon,--and Stesilaus,--here! Look on this warbling joy hatched tenderly In nest of your conceit, which you've kept warm Forgetting you had hearts where love bechid Sat in unfeathered cold. If you are fathers, Drink of their ecstasy till every vein Applauds it!

_Lys._ Pray you, peace! The Senators!

[_Enter Amentor and other Senators_]

_Ste._ What's your demand?

_Amen._ Your life, Lord Stesilaus. And that of Pelagon, in Athens' name.

_Pel._ My life?

_Amen._ Not less will still this wind and save Our homes from undefended sack. They've seized The citadel----

_Bia._ Then on my armor! Wife May whistle when the bugle calls!

_Amen._ Stay, sir! The Spartans are in power, and any check Means slaughter. There's no help. The Persian fleet Has sailed. The Athenians drop their useless arms And follow at command, knowing no way To win but by a bloodless yielding.

_Bia._ Yield!

_Amen._ Sir, we must grant the Spartans these two lives, Whereon they'll strike no further. So they swear.

_Sac._ [_To Pelagon_] This is your downy Peace wooed from the clouds To hover over Athens! Save the name! She's from a briar-patch, not Heaven! Her wings Are full of burrs!

_Bia._ [_Holding Pelagon_] Stand to! A scuttled ship Has no choice deck. There's nothing to be saved But dignity.

_Pel._ Nay, that's for Stesilaus! [_Breaking away_] My life, my life!

[_Noise mounts without. The wall is broken through, rear, and the breach reveals the street filled with angry Spartans_]

_Amen._ Peace!

_Gir._ Give us Stesilaus!

_Voices._ And Pelagon! The traitors! Give them up!

_Amen._ You see them. There they stand. [_Misses Pelagon_] Where's Pelagon?

_Voices._ We have him here! Bring Stesilaus!

_Arc._ Hold! I am Archippe. Let me speak.

_Voices._ No mercy!

_Arc._ I ask none, friends. The wife of Stesilaus Is not so much in 's debt she owes him aught On mercy's score.

_Gir._ Then speak.

_Arc._ Is Philon here? The reverend priest?

_Voices._ He comes! Make way! He's here!

[_Philon comes out_]

_Philon._ Speak first, Archippe. I'll follow you.

_Arc._ My friends, I'm such a one as you do most contemn,-- A woman disobedient to her lord. But if you judgment give upon that point, Remember that my lord is Stesilaus. When this my daughter here,--yes, Pyrrha, she,-- Child of my nurturing blood,----

_Voices._ What? What? Your child?

_Amen._ Silence! Speak on, Archippe.

_Arc._ When she lay A morsel cradled, two months' breath in her, Came he, the father, swearing she must go To Sachinessa's breast, and I must take Her Phania to my own,--thereby to serve In some occulted way the future good Of Greece. And all the mercy won from him Was leave to journey with my child to Athens----

_Sac._ But I was not so meek! By Pallas, no! What--who--was Pelagon, to rob my bosom Of Hera's gift? Who made him greater than The gods? 'Tis but a girl, he said, to me, A mother! I went to Philon then, the priest Whom Athens honors, and by holy counsel, We did not change our babes, but let our deed Wear face that pleased them, with a heart our own, And home Archippe went with Pyrrha safe, While I in Athens held my Phania close. And they, fond sires, who knew no difference Between a _girl_ and _girl_, hugged their deep plan And built the phantom of united Greece Upon it.

_Arc._ If those ghostly towers, now fallen, May rise again, it is our act, my lords, Provides them nature's base, and not a dream's. Condemn us, if you will, as erring wives, But as true mothers give us softer justice. And if there's scale or balance that can hold Such torturous weight, lay on it all the pain Of lonely years that saw me turn my face From my loved daughter, lest this man of rock Should know her mine and his.

_Pyrr._ Your own, your own, My mother!

_Ste._ So you slip me, dame, And Pyrrha goes with you. But Biades Is under thumb by this same turn. He now Must know himself a Spartan, and shall keep My terms.

_Arc._ Make them full easy. You shall lay No marring hand upon our children's joy As fell on mine.

_Bia._ O, sue for me, Archippe! Give me my bride! Whatever be her race, Her home is in my arms!

_Arc._ Forgive him, Pyrrha. Not for his pleading, but for love I know You bear him.

[_Pyrrha permits Biades to embrace her_]

_Alc._ [_To Phania_] Sweet, we know our heaven by Those moments in a hell.

_Amen._ Here's feast enough!

_Bia._ But poor old Creon in this rain of porridge Starves for a spoon.

_Cre._ And you, perforce, take one Of Spartan make.

_Bia._ I'm caught. But in love's lap. I'll swallow Sparta for so dear a bed.

_Menas._ And you need fear no distaff tyranny, My lord. There you are safe. Although your bride Be Hera-limbed, you've proved yourself her Zeus In open match.

_Cre._ How if her movèd heart Crept to her arm and slipped the victory Unwon to love?

[_Biades is suddenly embarrassed_]

_Pyrr._ [_With a caress of assurance_] If that were so, my lords, My pride would harbor his, and none should know My secret.

_Ste._ Senators, and men of Athens, Art dumb when justice waits on you for voice? What censure have you for these rebel wives, And this unsainted priest?

_Amen._ [_To Philon_] You counselled them To their deceit?

_Philon._ I did.

_Amen._ You've no defence?

_Philon._ I need none.

_Ste._ Ha!

_Philon._ Whoso reveres the gods Draws of their strength in every mortal inch, And in this act I did them reverence, Standing between their wish and meddling wits Of these presumptive men. But pardon them. For it is shame enough to've thought to make A frislet of their own shake like the locks Of cloud-haired Zeus. For me, my hand is on My altar, and I fear no fall.

_Amen._ No more, Good Philon.

_Philon._ Ay, a word, This morning, sir, I blessed the couple here, knowing them free Of kindred blood,--Alcanor and his Phania. The strands are doubly woven that now bind Sparta and Athens. Pyrrha and Biades Were first to link them one, and now this pair Unites them o'er.

_Amen._ You hear, my Spartan friends. What say you? Is it peace?

_Spartans._ Peace be to Athens!

_Amen._ And peace to Sparta! Hearts and altars guard it! Go, citizens! See that the chariots Glow with new garlands for this double bridal. And let the noble wives of these proud lords Co-queen festivity. All shall rejoice Save this convicted pair,--you, Pelagon, And Stesilaus. You we prison here, Your own sole company, nor shall you speak Save in a rhyme now dim with little use, But shall be better known from this day forth With polish you shall give it. Hear it, sirs:

_The man who would his own pie bake_ _Must from his wife ten fingers take._

[_Curtain falls and rises. Pelagon and Stesilaus are discovered, their backs to each other, the only occupants of the garden. Through the breach in the wall the festal procession is seen passing. Curtain_]

* * * * *

KIDMIR

A PLAY IN FOUR ACTS

_CHARACTERS_

OSWALD, _Earl of Clyffe_ BERTRAND, _sometime_ VAIRDELAN, _his son_ CHARILUS, _a Greek_ ARDIA, _his daughter_ BIONDEL _and_ VIGARD, _sons of Charilus_ BANISSAT, _Prince of Avesta_ PRINCE FREDERICK BERENICE, _his daughter_ GAINA, _serving-woman to Ardia_ BARCA, _servant to Charilus_ RAMUNIN, _a headsman_ SEVEN MAIDENS, _friends of Ardia_

_Followers of Banissat, soldiers of Oswald, nobles, wedding-guests, dancers, guards, &c._

Time: _During the later Crusades_ Place: _The southern coast of Asia Minor_