Part 4 (1/2)

(_In the distance a beating of m.u.f.fled drums._)

This m.u.f.fled rolling is the headsman's sign.

It was to see it not I left the town.

CALAF.

These are strange things you tell me, Barak How Could Nature ever fas.h.i.+on such a thing, And call it woman, as this Turandot, So harnessed against love, so pitiless?

BARAK.

My own wife's daughter serves her in the harem, And tells such things about her--things, my Prince!-- Worse than a tigress is this Turandot; And worst of all her vices is her pride.

CALAF.

To h.e.l.l with such a monster! If _I_ were Her father,, I would burn her at the stake....

BARAK (_looking towards the city gate._)

See, there comes Ishmael, the friend and guide Of the young Prince they slaughtered even now.

My poor friend!

SCENE IV

ISHMAEL. _The foregoing._

ISHMAEL (_Enters weeping from the city_).

Oh, my friend! Now he is dead.

My Prince is dead! Accursed headsman's axe, Why hast thou severed not this neck of mine?

(_Breaks out into despairing weeping._)

BARAK.

But why didst thou not hinder him in time, My friend?

ISHMAEL.

Dost thou on all my misery Heap reprimands, Ha.s.san! I have done my duty To the uttermost. I might, indeed, have summoned His father hither, if there _had_ been time; But there was _not_.

BARAK.

Be calm, my friend, be calm.