Part 6 (1/2)

BARAK.

Stop looking on her face and look on that!

That head up yonder, smoking yet with blood, Is the last lunatic's. And the same headsman Who set it there to-morrow will be yours.

(_Bursts into tears._)

CALAF (_turning towards the Prince's head_).

Unhappy man! What unknown power decrees That I must be thy mate? Up, Barak, up!

Thou hast already once mourned me for dead, And why not once again? I will venture it.

Tell no one who I am. Perchance the heavens Are tired of heaping troubles on my back.

If fortune crown me in this game of riddles, Barak, I shall be grateful! Now, farewell!

BARAK.

O Heaven! My son.... My child....

(_Notices his wife coming out of her house._)

Come hither, quick!

Skirina, help thou also! See, this youth, Whom I love well, is running from me now To woo the Princess and her riddles....

SCENE VI

SKIRINA. _The foregoing._

SKIRINA.

Hold!

What drives thee on, fair youth, to meet thy death?

CALAF.

My fate, good woman, and this loveliness....

(_Shows the picture._)