e a casque....--Do not turn round;
I have found the golden threads....

ALLADINE.

Yes, yes, I will turn round....
[_She turns about, to kiss him again._

PALOMIDES.

Have a care. Do not stir. I am afraid of wounding thee....

ALLADINE.

Tear it away! Fear nothing. I can bear no more!...

PALOMIDES.

I would see thee too....

ALLADINE.

Tear it away! Tear it away! I am no longer within reach of woe!...
Tear it away!... Thou dost not know that one could wish to die....
Where are we?

PALOMIDES.

Thou'lt see, thou'lt see.... It is innumerable crypts ... great blue
halls, gleaming pillars, and deep vaults....

ALLADINE.

Why dost thou answer when I question thee?

PALOMIDES.

What matter where we be, if we be but together?...

ALLADINE.

Thou lovest me less already?

PALOMIDES.

Why, what ails thee?

ALLADINE.

I know well where I am when I am on thy heart.... Oh, tear the bandage
off!... I would not enter blind into thy soul.... What doest thou,
Palomides? Thou dost not laugh when I laugh. Thou dost not weep when
I weep. Thou dost not clap thy hands when I clap mine; and thou
tremblest not when I speak trembling to the bottom of my soul....
The band! The band!... I will see!... There, there, above my hair!...
[_She tears away the bandage_.] Oh!...

PALOMIDES.

Seest thou?

ALLADINE.

Yes.... I see thee only....

PALOMIDES.

What is it, Alladine? Thou kissest me as if thou wert already sad....

ALLADINE.

Where are we?

PALOMIDES.

Why dost thou ask so sadly?

ALLADINE.

No, I am not sad; but my eyes will hardly open....

PALOMIDES.

One would say your joy had fallen on my lips like a child at the
threshold of the house.... Do not turn away.... I fear lest you should
flee, and I fear lest I dream....

ALLADINE.

Where are we?

PALOMIDES.

We are in crypts that I have never seen.... Doth it not seem to thee
the light increases? When I unclosed my eyes, I could distinguish
nothing; now little by little it is all revealed. I have been often
told of wondrous caverns whereon the halls of Ablamore were built. It
must be these. No one descends here ever; and the king only has the
keys. I knew the sea flooded the lowest vaults; and it is probably the
reflex of the sea which thus illumines us.... They thought to bury us
in night. They came down here with torches and flambeaus and saw the
darkness only, while the light came out to me