[_Takes her hand._
And know our severed days!
And shall we bend the knee to cowardice, Which ever has a premonition ready, When you who are so like her might tonight----
[_She starts back, for RHASIS, exclaiming, leaves the window._
_Rhasis._ He comes.
_Ion._ Now?
_Rhasis._ Go: or take this on yourselves.
_Ion._ Upon me be it! For there is no rest Until his pardon weds us--and I pay him.
_Rhasis._ Then but a word remains, young master, more: To tell you--that I fear--lest thro long toil, His mind....
_Myrrha._ Oh! (_recoils_)
_Ion._ It is not true!... No Myrrha! no!
[_Takes her in his arms._
And is ingrat.i.tude I scorn to heed.
[_Turns away._
Come then and by your beauty"s likeness win him.
[_He leads her behind the curtains then goes, door left. A moment, which leaves RHASIS distraught, and ARDUIN enters. He pauses, as if at some presence; then, gazing on the sarcophagus, shudders with hope and comes down._
_Arduin._ The night at last when I again shall clasp her And banish death to biers beyond the stars!
_Rhasis_ (_kneeling_). Master!
_Arduin._ Rise up and never kneel again!
For from henceforth I shall be lord of life, The secret of the phoenix in my hand.
[_Lifts an alembic._
Gray have I grown in quest of it and old, Youthless and as a leper to delight, But it has come at last--at last has come!
[_Sets vessel down._
_Rhasis._ And I rejoice, master, for I have toiled With you these many years--but is it sure?
_Arduin._ As the moon is in heaven! as the skies!
[_In an ecstasy._
For last night I beheld In dreams deeper than day how it must be.
I saw a tomb far-hidden in the earth And Life within it Mixing salt and sulphur-- Twin elements Of the great trinity.
I saw her hands pour out quick mercury Upon a bat"s wing wrought with hieroglyphics, And then I saw her cast in gold and silver That melted with strange voice and sudden flame, The while she gazed on me most meaningly.
And then ... when all was done....
[_The vision consuming him._
My wife, my Rhea, lit with loveliness And as a spirit clad with resurrection, Rose up within my dream ... fair, young and glad!...
_Rhasis._ But, master ... are dreams true?
_Arduin._ Such dreams as these?
[_Kindling._
_Rhasis._ Pardon! I know not--only that you say Some come of Ophiuchus-- The demon you have warned me of--who oft With thwarting laugh has struck the secret from you....
Many before have followed the mirage Of dreams--but to more thirst: trust not too much!
_Arduin._ But fear? fear? you are falling from me too?
Like Ion the son of him who ... you? you too?
At the prime moment?
_Rhasis._ No, my master, no!
But I would spare you pain unbearable.
_Arduin._ Ha! and believe--you do?--that all wise men Of all the world could so have been deceived?
Believe--do, do?--that she _cannot_ arise?
Did not great Hermes say of the Elixir It should be found-- And did not Polydos, The Greek, chancing upon it, raise his friends In battle slain?...
Did not the Jew of Galilee, the Christ, Whom even you name Prophet, likewise win it?
[_Peacelessly._
Speak!
_Rhasis._ Master, yes!... But O! trust not too much.
Wiser, I know, than all Arabia Are you--like to Mahomet--were it not That you have set within your heart a woman.
But if, perchance, the Elixir does not prove----
_Arduin._ Availing? Have not all things pointed to it?
The day she died Did I not hear a voice That breathed into my brain she should arise?
And as I waited did a book of wisdom Not chance into my hands to show the way?
Were the first words I read not, _In ten years The miracle shall come-- Revealed to you within the land of the Sphinx_?
_Rhasis._ So read it, so! But----
_Arduin._ Is this not that land?
Are not those stones the pyramids that thro The ages have stood waiting for this hour-- When I shall bring her beauty back, today?
Is not that face the Sphinx, Whose timeless and intemperable meaning No man has read in desert, star, or sea, But which must be the secret I unsphere?