suspend it
here, as some small solace to our griefs, [_To the attendant_]
Keeper of the yellow gate, behold, the incense in yonder vase is
burnt out: hasten then to add some more. Though we cannot see her,
we may at least retain this shadow; and, while life remains, betoken
our regard. But oppressed and weary, we would fain take a little
repose.

[_Lies down to sleep. The Princess appears before him in a
vision_.] [1]

PRINCESS. Delivered over as a captive to appease the barbarians,
they would have conveyed me to their Northern country: but I took an
occasion to elude them and have escaped back. Is not this the
Emperor, my sovereign? Sir, behold me again restored.

[_A Tartar soldier appears in the vision_.]

SOLDIER. While I chanced to sleep, the lady, our captive, has
made her escape, and returned home. In eager pursuit of her, I have
reached the imperial palace.--Is not this she?

[_Carries her off. The Emperor starts from his sleep_.]

EMPEROR. We just saw the Princess returned--but alas, how
quickly has she vanished! In bright day she answered not to our
call--but when morning dawned on our troubled sleep, a vision
presented her in this spot. [_Hears the wild fowl's [2] cry_] Hark,
the passing fowl screamed twice or thrice!--Can it know there is no
one so desolate as I? [_Cries repeated_] Perhaps worn out and weak,
hungry and emaciated, they bewail at once the broad nets of the
South and the tough bows of the North. [_Cries repeated_] The
screams of those water-birds but increase our melancholy.

ATTENDANT. Let your Majesty cease this sorrow, and have
some regard to your sacred [3] person.

EMPEROR. My sorrows are beyond control. Cease to upbraid
this excess of feeling, since ye are all subject to the same. Yon
doleful cry is not the note of the swallow on the carved rafters,
nor the song of the variegated bird upon the blossoming tree. The
princess has abandoned her home! Know ye in what place she grieves,
listening like me to the screams of the wild bird?

_Enter President_.

PRESIDENT. This day after the close of the morning council,
a foreign envoy appeared, bringing with him the fettered traitor
Maouyenshow. He announces that the renegade, by deserting his
allegiance, led to the breach of truce, and occasioned all these
calamities. The princess is no more! and the K'han wishes for p