MELISANDE.

Let me go; let me go!...  Some one might come....

PELLEAS.

No, no, no; I shall not set thee free to-night....  Thou art my prisoner to-night; all night, all night!...

MELISANDE.

Pelleas!  Pelleas!...

PELLEAS.

I tie them, I tie them to the willow boughs....  Thou shalt not go away now;... thou shalt not go away now....  Look, look, I am kissing thy hair....  I suffer no more in the midst of thy hair....  Hearest thou my kisses along thy hair?...  They mount along thy hair....  Each hair must bring thee some....  Thou seest, thou seest, I can open my hands....  My hands are free, and thou canst not leave me now....

MELISANDE.

Oh! oh! thou hurtest me.... [Doves come out of the tower and fly about them in the night.]—­What is that, Pelleas?—­What is it flying about me?

PELLEAS.

It is the doves coming oat of the tower....  I have frightened them; they are flying away....

MELISANDE.

It is my doves, Pelleas.—­Let us go away, let me go; they will not come back again....

PELLEAS.

Why will they not come back again?

MELISANDE

They will be lost in the dark....  Let me go; let me lift my head....  I hear a noise of footsteps....  Let me go!—­It is Golaud!...  I believe it is Golaud!...  He has heard us....

PELLEAS.

Wait!  Wait!...  Thy hair is about the boughs....  It is caught there in the darkness....  Wait, wait!...  It is dark....

Enter GOLAUD, by the watchman’s round.

GOLAUD.

What do you here?

PELLEAS.

What do I here?...  I....

GOLAUD.

You are children....  Melisande, do not lean out so at the window; you will fall....  Do you not know it is late?—­It is nearly midnight.—­Do not play so in the darkness.—­You are children.... [Laughing nervously.] What children!...  What children!...
          
                                           [Exit, with PELLEAS.

SCENE III.—­The-vaults of the castle.

Enter_ GOLAUD and PELLEAS.

GOLAUD.

Take care; this way, this way.—­You have never penetrated into these vaults?

PELLEAS.

Yes; once, of old; but it was long ago....

GOLAUD.

They are prodigious great; it is a succession of enormous crypts that end, God knows where.  The whole castle is builded on these crypts.  Do you smell the deathly odor that reigns here?—­That is what I wished, to show you.  In my opinion, it comes from the little underground lake I am going to have you see.  Take care; walk before me, in the light of my lantern.  I will warn you when we are there, [They continue to walk in silence.] Hey! hey!  Pelleas! stop! stop!—­[He seizes him by the arm.] For God’s sake!...  Do you not see?—­One step more, and you had been in the gulf!...