A Gallery in Merlin's Palace
[Merlin is seated near Arielle, who is sleeping on the steps of a marble staircase. It is night.
Merlin.
You sleep, my Arielle, you my inner force, the neglected power which slumbers in every soul and which I alone, till now, awaken at will.... You sleep, my docile and familiar little fairy, and your hair, straying like a blue mist, invisible to men, mingles with the moon, the perfumes of the night, the rays of the stars, the roses that shed their petals, the spreading sky, to remind us thus that nothing separates us from any existing thing and that our thought does not know where the light begins for which it hopes, nor where the shadow ends which it escapes.... You are sleeping soundly and, while you sleep, I lose all my knowledge and become like my blind brethren, who do not yet know that on this earth there are as many hidden gods as there are hearts that throb.... Alas, I am to them the genius to be avoided, the wicked sorcerer in league with their enemies!... They have no enemies, but only subjects who know not where to find their king.... They are persuaded that my secret virtue, which is obeyed by the plants and the stars, by water, stone and fire and to which the future at times reveals some of its features: they are persuaded that this new and yet so human virtue is hidden in philtres, in horrible charms, in hellish herbs and awful signs.... No, it is in myself, even as it resides in them; it is in you, my frail Arielle, in you who were once in me.... I have taken two or three bolder steps in the dark.... I have done a little earlier what they will do later.... All things will be subject to them when they have learnt at last to revive your goodwill, even as I have revived it.... But it were vain for me to tell them that you are sleeping here and to point to your dazzling grace: they would not see you.... Each one of them must find you within himself; each one of them must open as I do the tomb of his life and come to awake you as I awake you now....
[He bends over Arielle and kisses her.
Arielle.
(Waking.) Master!...
Merlin.
This is the hour, Arielle, when love must watch.... I shall often trouble your sleep in these coming days....
Arielle.
My sleep was so long that I am always relapsing into it; but I feel stronger and become happier at each new awakening that your thought imposes on me....
Merlin.
Whither are you taking my son and when shall I see him again?...
Arielle.
I was following him with my eyes in my attentive dream.... He is approaching us.... He thinks that he is lost; and his destiny leads him where happiness awaits him....
Merlin.
Will he know me?... It is many years since the prescribed proof exacted that we should live as strangers to each other; and I am eager to be able to embrace him as I did long ago, when he was a child....
Arielle.
No, fate must be allowed to decide freely; nor may the proof be falsified by the love of a father of whose existence he must not know....
Merlin.
But now that Joyzelle is here, close to us; now that he is coming towards her, does the future become more clear, can you read further into it?...
Arielle.
(Gazing upon the sea and the night, in a sort of trance.) I read in it what I read from the first moment.... Your son's fate is wholly inscribed within a circle of love. If he love, if he be loved with a wondrous love, which should be that of all men, but which is becoming so rare that at present it seems to them a dazzling folly; if he love, if he be loved with an ingenuous and yet clear-seeing love, with a love simple and pure and all-powerful as the mountain stream, with an heroic love, yet one that shall be gentler than a flower, with a love which takes all and gives back more than it takes, which never hesitates, which is not deceived; a love which nothing disconcerts and nothing repels, a love which hears and sees naught save a mysterious happiness invisible to all beside, which perceives it everywhere, in every form and every trial, and which, with a smile, will even commit crime to claim it.... If he obtain that love, which exists somewhere and is waiting for him in a heart that I seem to have recognized, his life will be longer, fairer and happier than that of other men. But, if he do not find it before the month is past, for the circle is closing; if Joyzelle's love be not that which the future holds out to him from the high skies; if the flame do not burn its full span, if a regret veil or a doubt obscure it, then death triumphs and your son is lost....
Merlin.
Ay, for all men the hour of love is an important hour!...
Arielle.
For Lancéor, alas, it is the inexorable hour!... Within these next few days he will reach the summit of his life. With groping hands, he touches happiness and the tomb.... He is dependent entirely on the last steps which he is taking and on the act of the virgin who is coming to meet him....
Merlin.
And if Joyzelle be not she whom fate selects?...
Arielle.
Indeed, I fear that the proof which we are about to attempt is the only one which it offers; but man must never lose courage in face of the future....
Merlin.
Why attempt the proof if it be uncertain?...
Arielle.
If we do not offer it, fate will offer it; it is inevitable, but it is left to chance; and that is why I try to direct its course....
Merlin.
And if he love Joyzelle and she do not love him with the love which fate demands?...
Arielle.
Then we shall have to intervene more openly.
Merlin.
How?
Arielle.
I will try to learn.
Merlin.
Arielle, I conjure you, as this concerns the dearest being, much dearer than myself; as I have only one son and he can become what we well know that I could never be: is it not possible to make an unexampled, an almost desperate effort with regard to the future; to violate time; to snatch from the years, even were they to revenge themselves upon us two, the secret which they conceal so strictly and which contains much more than our own life and our own happiness?...
Arielle.
No, strive as I may, I can reach no further.... The future is a world limited by ourselves, in which we discover only that which concerns us and sometimes, by chance, that which interests those whom we love the most.... I see very clearly all that unfolds itself round Lancéor, until his road meets Joyzelle's road. But around Joyzelle the years are veiled. It is an effulgent veil, a veil of light, but it hides the days as profoundly as a veil of darkness.... It interrupts life. Then, beyond the veil, I again find happiness and death awaiting him, like two equal, indifferent, inscrutable hosts; and I cannot tell which is the nearer, the more imperious.... It is not possible for me to know if Joyzelle is the predestined one.... Everything promises that it is she, but nothing confirms it.... Her face is stretched towards the coming years ... and, call to her as I may, with all my might, she does not answer, does not turn her head. Nothing can distract her; and I have never seen her features, which I can only imagine.... One sign alone is certain: it is that of the very sharp and cruel proofs which she will have to overcome.... By these proofs alone we shall know her....
Merlin.
And, therefore, starting from this point which I can surmount, we must submit to unknown powers, question facts like other men, await their reply and try to conquer them if they threaten harm to those whom we love....
Arielle.
But here they come, in the breaking dawn.... Let us hasten away, they are coming near.... Let us leave to their destiny, which is beginning its work, the solitude and the silence which it demands.
[Exeunt Merlin and Arielle. A few moments after, while the daylight swiftly increases, Joyzelle and Lancéor enter from opposite sides and meet.
Joyzelle.
(Stopping, astonished, before Lancéor.) What are you seeking?
Lancéor.
I do not know where I am.... I was seeking a shelter.... Who are you?
Joyzelle.
My name is Joyzelle.
Lancéor.
Joyzelle.... I am saying the name.... It is as caressing as a wing, the breath of a flower, a whisper of gladness, a ray of light.... It describes you completely, it sings in the heart, it lights the lips....
Joyzelle.
And you, who are you?
Lancéor.
I no longer myself know who I am.... A few days ago, my name was Lancéor; I knew where I was and I knew myself.... To-day, I seek myself, I grope within myself and all around me and I wander in the mist, amid mirages....
Joyzelle.
What mist? What mirages?... How long have you been on this island?
Lancéor.
Since yesterday....
Joyzelle.
Strange, they did not tell me....
Lancéor.
No one saw me.... I was wandering on the shore, I was in despair....
Joyzelle.
Oh! Why?...
Lancéor.
I was very far from here, I was very far from him, when a letter told me that my old father was dying.... I took ship at once. We were long at sea; then, in the first port at which the ship put in, I learnt that it was too late, that my father was no more.... I continued my voyage, at least to be on the scene of his last thoughts and carry out his last wishes....
Joyzelle.
Why are you here?
Lancéor.
Why? I do not know, nor do I know how.... The sea was very still and the sky was clear.... We saw only the water slumbering in the azure.... Suddenly, without warning, the waves were invaded by thick blue mists.... They rose like a veil, which clung to our hands, to the rigging, to our faces.... Then the wind blew, our anchor broke loose and the blind ship, driven by a current that made her timbers creak, arrived towards evening in the unknown harbour of this unexpected island.... Sad and disheartened, I landed on the beach; I fell asleep in a cave overlooking the sea; and, when I awoke, the fog had lifted and I saw the ship disappear like a radiant wing on the horizon of the waves.
Joyzelle.
What had happened?
Lancéor.
I do not know.... I would have tried to follow her, but I could find no boat in the harbour.... I must wait, therefore, until another vessel passes....
Joyzelle.
That is curious.... It is like myself....
Lancéor.
Like you?...