those eyes!--A great innocence?--More than innocence! One would say
that the angels of heaven celebrated there an unceasing baptism. I know
those eyes! I have seen them at their work! Close them! close them! or I
shall close them forever!--You need not put your right hand to your
throat so; I am saying a very simple thing--I have no concealed meaning.
If I had, why should I not speak it? Ah!--do not attempt to
flee!--Here!--Give me that hand!--Ah! your hands are too hot!--Away! the
touch of your flesh disgusts me!--Here!--You shall not escape me now!"
He seizes her by the hair. "Down on your knees! On your knees before
me!--Ah! your long hair is of some use at last!" He throws her from side
to side, holding her by her hair. "Right, left!--Left, right!--Absalom!
Absalom!--Forward! now back! To the ground! to the ground! Ha! ha! you
see, I laugh already like an imbecile!" Arkel, running up, seeks to
restrain him. Golaud affects a sudden and disdainful calmness. "You are
free to act as you please," he says.--"It is of no consequence to me.--I
am too old to care; and, besides, I am not a spy. I shall await my
chance; and then.... Oh! then!... I shall simply act as custom demands."
"What is the matter?--Is he drunk?" asks Arkel. "No, no!" cries
Melisande, weeping. "He hates me--and I am so wretched! so wretched!"

"If I were God," ruminates the aged king, "how infinitely I should pity
the hearts of men!"

The scene changes once more to the fountain in the park. Yniold is
discovered seeking to move a great rock behind which his golden ball has
rolled. Night is coming on. The distant bleating of sheep is heard.
Yniold looks over the edge of the terrace and sees the flock crowding
along the road. Suddenly they cease their crying. Yniold calls to the
shepherd. "Why do they not speak any more?" "Because," answers the
shepherd, who is concealed from sight, "it is no longer the road to the
fold." "Where are they going to sleep to-night?" cries the child. There
is no answer, and he departs, exclaiming that he must find somebody to
speak to.[5] Pelleas enters, to keep his tryst with Melisande. "It is
the last time," he meditates. "It must all be ended. I have been playing
like a child with what I did not understand. I have played, dreaming
about the snares of fate. By what have I been suddenly awakened? Who has
aroused me all at once? I shall depart, crying out for joy and woe like
a blind man fleeing from his burning house. I shall