Why, yes! why, yes! it was I who found them.  The porter says it was he who saw them first; but it was I who waked them.  He was sleeping on his face and would not get up.—­And now he comes saying, “It was I who saw them first.”  Is that just?—­See, I burned myself lighting a lamp to go down cellar.—­Now what was I going to do down cellar?—­I can’t remember any more what I was going to do down cellar.—­At any rate I got up very early; it was not yet very light; I said to myself, I will go across the courtyard, and then I will open the gate.  Good; I go down the stairs on tiptoe, and I open the gate as if it were an ordinary gate....  My God!  My God!  What do I see?  Divine a little what I see!...

FIRST SERVANT.

They were before the gate?

THE OLD SERVANT.

They were both stretched out before the gate!...  Exactly like poor folk that are too hungry....  They were huddled together like little children who are afraid....  The little princess was nearly dead, and the great Golaud had still his sword in his side....  There was blood on the sill....

SECOND SERVANT.

We ought to make the children keep still....  They are screaming with all their might before the ventilator....

THIRD SERVANT.

You can’t hear yourself speak....

FOURTH SERVANT.

There is nothing to be done:  I have tried already; they won’t keep still....

FIRST SERVANT.

It seems he is nearly cured?

THE OLD SERVANT.

Who?

FIRST SERVANT.

The great Golaud.

THIRD SERVANT.

Yes, yes; they have taken him to his wife’s room.  I met them just now, in the corridor.  They were holding him up as if he were drunk.  He cannot yet walk alone.

THE OLD SERVANT.

He could not kill himself; he is too big.  But she is hardly wounded, and it is she who is going to die....  Can you understand that?

FIRST SERVANT.

You have seen the wound?

THE OLD SERVANT.

As I see you, my daughter.—­I saw everything, you understand....  I saw it before all the others....  A tiny little wound under her little left breast,—­a little wound that wouldn’t kill a pigeon.  Is it natural?

FIRST SERVANT.

Yes, yes; there is something underneath....

SECOND SERVANT.

Yes; but she was delivered of her babe three days ago....

THE OLD SERVANT.

Exactly!...  She was delivered on her death-bed; is that a little sign?—­And what a child!  Have you seen it?—­A wee little girl a beggar would not bring into the world....  A little wax figure that came much too soon;... a little wax figure that must live in lambs’ wool....  Yes, yes; it is not happiness that has come into the house....

FIRST SERVANT.

Yes, yes; it Is the hand of God that has been stirring....

SECOND SERVANT.