SAINT BARTHOLOMEW. What is that to speak of! I am the holy Saint Bartholomew with the skin, who, at Emperor Pamphilii"s command was flayed alive clear down to the knees; and what miracles happened after my death! You perhaps have never heard of the mysteries or of the devil in woman shape and the prognostication about the volcano?
SAINT LAURENCE. What is that to speak of as compared with mine? I have six miracles: The beam in the church, the crystal chalice, the Nun"s corpse--
PALL. [Rises up.] Oh, boast moderately of your sufferings. I am only a pall, but for fifty years I have borne on my back so many corpses, and have seen so much suffering--so many shattered hopes, so much inconsolable grief, so many torn hearts that suffered in silence and were thrust into oblivion without the solace of gilded statues--that you would be silent had you seen one-half of it. Ah, life is so black, so black, so black!
BROOM. [Raps on floor and rustles its straws.] What--you chatter about life, old Pall, you who have seen only death? Life is black on one side and white on the other. To-day I"m only a broom, but yesterday I stood in the forest, so stout and trim, and wanted to be something great.
They all want to be great, you see, so it happened as it happened! Now I think like this: What comes is best; since you couldn"t be great, you may as well be something else; there is so much to choose from--One may of course be useful, and at worst one can content oneself with being good, and when one has not been given two legs to stand on, one must be happy anyhow and hop on one. [Broom goes b.u.mping along and finally leans against altar.]
PEHR. [Walks rapidly over to holy-water fount, by confessional, takes holy-water sprinkler and sprinkles out into the church.] Away, spectres and evil spirits! [As he lays back sprinkler a noise is heard from the confessional.] Someone is there! Reverend Father, hear me and accept the sighs of a broken heart!
LISA. [In a.s.sumed voice--from confessional.] Speak, my son.
PEHR. How shall I leave my dreams?
LISA. Oh, you have dreamed enough and you are no longer young. Think of your missteps--have you not made such?
PEHR. Yes, I have pursued fortune and have sacrificed conscience and honor in order to win fame and power. Now I cannot bear misfortune, and hate myself!
LISA. Then you have ceased to love yourself above all else?
PEHR. Yes.--I would free myself from _self_--if I could.
LISA. Then, Pehr, you can also love another.
PEHR. Oh, yes! But where shall I seek her?
LISA. [Comes out.] Here! [They embrace.]
PEHR. Now you will not leave me again?
LISA. No, Pehr, for now I believe you love me.
PEHR. What good fairy sent you across my pathway?
LISA. Do you still believe in good fairies? Mark you, when a little baby boy is born into the world, a little baby girl is also born somewhere; and they seek and seek until they find each other. Sometimes they go amiss as to the right one, then it turns out badly; sometimes they never find each other, then there is much sorrow and affliction; but when they find each other, then there is joy, and it is the greatest joy life holds.
PEHR. It is Paradise Found!
[Enter s.e.xton, with staff--The old Man in the tower.]
s.e.xTON. The church must be closed.
LISA. See, now he drives us from Paradise!
PEHR. That he cannot do.--We carry it with us and lay it, like the verdant isle, out in the stormy sea.
s.e.xTON. [Lays down his staff.] Alongside the peaceful harbor, where the waves break up and go to rest.
PEHR AND LISA. Father! Father! [Fairy and Elf appear, each in their window.]
CURTAIN.