PALOMIDES.

Wait.  To-day I bless my strength....  I feel the knots beginning to give way....  One struggle more, and let my fists burst!  One struggle more!  I have my hands! [Tearing away the bandage.] And my eyes!...

ALLADINE.

You see now?

PALOMIDES.

Yes.

ALLADINE.

Where are we?

PALOMIDES.

Where are you?

ALLADINE.

Here; can you not see me?

PALOMIDES.

My eyes weep still where the band has left its trace....  We are not in darkness....  Is it you I hear toward where I can just see?

ALLADINE.

I am here; come.

PALOMIDES.

You are at the edge of that which gives us light.  Do not stir; I cannot see all that there is about you.  My eyes have not forgot the bandage yet.  They bound it tight enough to burst my eyelids.

ALLADINE.

Come; the knots stifle me.  I can wait no longer....

PALOMIDES.

I hear only a voice coming out of the light....

ALLADINE.

Where are you?

PALOMIDES.

I have no idea myself.  I walk still in darkness....  Speak again, that
I may find you.  You seem to be on the edge of an unbounded light....

ALLADINE.

Come! come!  I have borne without a word, but I can bear no more....

PALOMIDES (groping forward).

You are there?  I thought you so far away!...  My tears deceived me.  I am here, and I see you.  Oh, your hands are wounded!  They have bled upon your gown, and the knots have entered into the flesh.  I have no longer any weapons.  They have taken away my poniard.  I will tear them off.  Wait! wait!  I have the knots.

ALLADINE.

Take off the bandage first that makes me blind....

PALOMIDES.

I cannot....  I do not see....  It seems to be surrounded by a net of golden threads....

ALLADINE.

My hands, then, my hands!

PALOMIDES.

They have taken silken cords....  Wait, the knots come undone.  The cord has thirty turns....  There, there!—­Oh, your hands are all blood!...  You would say they were dead....

ALLADINE.

No, no!...  They are alive! they are alive!  See!...

    [With her hands hardly yet unbound, she clasps Palomides about the
    neck and kisses him passionately.]

PALOMIDES.

Alladine!

ALLADINE.

Palomides!

PALOMIDES.

Alladine, Alladine!...

ALLADINE.

I am happy!...  I have waited a long while!...

PALOMIDES.

I was afraid to come....

ALLADINE.

I am happy ... and I would that I could see thee....

PALOMIDES.

They have tied down the bandage like a casque....—­Do not turn round;
I have found the golden threads....