Volume II Part 74 (1/2)

This gift by my death I give!

XV

The Forest has conquered! The Forest has conquered!

The Forest has conquered!

The world awakes anew; And O, the scent of the hawthorn, And the drip of the healing dew!

[_The song ceases. t.i.tANIA and OBERON come out into the moon-lit glade._]

OBERON

Yet one night more the gates of fairyland Are opened by a mortal's kindly deed.

But Robin Hood and Marian now are driven As we shall soon be driven, from the world Of cruel mortals.

t.i.tANIA

Mortals call them dead; Oberon, what is death?

OBERON

Only a sleep.

But these may dream their happy dreams in death Before they wake to that new lovely life Beyond the shadows; for poor Shadow-of-a-Leaf Has given them this by love's eternal law Of sacrifice, and they shall enter in To dream their lover's dream in fairyland.

t.i.tANIA

And Shadow-of-a-Leaf?

OBERON

He cannot enter now.

The gates are closed against him.

t.i.tANIA

But is this For ever?

OBERON We fairies have not known or heard What waits for those who, like this wandering Fool, Throw all away for love. But I have heard There is a great King, out beyond the world, Not Richard, who is dead, nor yet King John; But a great King who one day will come home Clothed with the clouds of heaven from His Crusade.

t.i.tANIA

The great King!

OBERON

Hush, the poor dark mortals come!

[_The crowd of serfs, old men, poor women, and children, begin to enter as the fairy song swells up within the gates again.

ROBIN and MARIAN are led along by a crowd of fairies at the end of the procession._]