Act IV: The Cadets of GasconyScene VIII
Roxane, Christian. In the distance cadets coming and going. Carbon and De Guiche give orders.
Roxane
Running up to Christian
Ah, Christian, at last!…
Christian
Taking her hands
Now tell me why—Why, by these fearful paths so perilous—Across these ranks of ribald soldiery,You have come?
Roxane
Love, your letters brought me here!
Christian
What say you?
Roxane
’Tis your fault if I ran risks!Your letters turned my head! Ah! all this month,How many!—and the last one ever betteredThe one that went before!
Christian
What!—for a fewInconsequent love-letters!
Roxane
Hold your peace!Ah! you cannot conceive it! Ever sinceThat night, when, in a voice all new to me,Under my window you revealed your soul—Ah! ever since I have adored you! NowYour letters all this whole month long!—meseemedAs if I heard that voice so tender, true,Sheltering, close! Thy fault, I say! It drew me,The voice o’ th’ night! Oh! wise PenelopeWould ne’er have stayed to broider on her hearthstone,If her Ulysses could have writ such letters!But would have cast away her silken bobbins,And fled to join him, mad for love as Helen!
Christian
But…
Roxane
I read, read again—grew faint for love;I was thine utterly. Each separate pageWas like a fluttering flower-petal, loosedFrom your own soul, and wafted thus to mine.Imprinted in each burning word was loveSincere, all-powerful…
Christian
A love sincere!Can that be felt, Roxane!
Roxane
Ay, that it can!
Christian
You come…?
Roxane
O, Christian, my true lord, I come—(Were I to throw myself, here, at your knees,You would raise me—but ’tis my soul I layAt your feet—you can raise it nevermore!)—I come to crave your pardon. (Ay, ’tis timeTo sue for pardon, now that death may come!)For the insult done to you when, frivolous,At first I loved you only for your face!
Christian
Horror-stricken
Roxane!
Roxane
And later, love—less frivolous—Like a bird that spreads its wings, but can not fly—Arrested by your beauty, by your soulDrawn close—I loved for both at once!
Christian
And now?
Roxane
Ah! you yourself have triumphed o’er yourself,And now, I love you only for your soul!
Christian
Stepping backward
Roxane!
Roxane
Be happy. To be loved for beauty—A poor disguise that time so soon wears threadbare—Must be to noble souls—to souls aspiring—A torture. Your dear thoughts have now effacedThat beauty that so won me at the outset.Now I see clearer—and I no more see it!
Christian
Oh!…
Roxane
You are doubtful of such victory?
Christian
Pained
Roxane!
Roxane
I see you cannot yet believe it.Such love…?
Christian
I do not ask such love as that!I would be loved more simply; for…
Roxane
For thatWhich they have all in turns loved in thee?—Shame!Oh! be loved henceforth in a better way!
Christian
No! the first love was best!
Roxane
Ah! how you err!’Tis now that I love best—love well! ’Tis thatWhich is thy true self, see!—that I adore!Were your brilliance dimmed…
Christian
Hush!
Roxane
I should love still!Ay, if your beauty should to-day depart…
Christian
Say not so!
Roxane
Ay, I say it!
Christian
Ugly? How?
Roxane
Ugly! I swear I’d love you still!
Christian
My God!
Roxane
Are you content at last?
Christian
In a choked voice
Ay!…
Roxane
What is wrong?
Christian
Gently pushing her away
Nothing…I have two words to say:—one second…
Roxane
But?…
Christian
Pointing to the cadets
Those poor fellows, shortly doomed to death,—My love deprives them of the sight of you:Go,—speak to them—smile on them ere they die!
Roxane
Deeply affected
Dear Christian!…
She goes up to the cadets, who respectfully crowd round her.