e, I look to the skies to recall the sweet
calm of thy features. Vain labor! The heavens have no calm like thine,
and their heat is cold when compared with the flame which is turning my
heart into ashes."

"Aha-a! aha-a!"

"One day I stood among roses, which the gleam of thy glances clothe in
white, gold, and scarlet. Each leaf of them reminded me of one hour,
each blossom of one month passed at thy feet. The drops of dew are my
tears, which are drunk by the merciless wind of the desert.

"Give a sign; I will seize thee, I will bear thee away to my
birthplace, beloved. The sea will divide us from pursuers, myrtle
groves will conceal our fondling, and gods, more compassionate toward
lovers, will watch over our happiness."

"Aha-a! aha-a!"

The prince dropped his eyelids and imagined. Through his drooping
lashes he could not see the garden, he saw only the flood of moonlight
in which were mingled shadows and the song of the unknown man to the
unknown woman. At instants that song seized him to such a degree, and
forced itself into his spirit so deeply, that Ramses wished to ask: "Am
I not the singer myself? nay, am I not that love song?"

At this moment his title, his power, the burdensome problems of state,
all seemed to him mean, insignificant in comparison with that moonlight
and those calls of a heart which is enamored. If the choice had been
given him to take the whole power of the pharaoh, or that spiritual
condition in which he then found himself, he would have preferred that
dreaming, in which the whole world, he himself, even time, disappeared,
leaving nothing behind but desire, which was now rushing forth to
infinity borne on the wings of song and of music.

Meanwhile the prince recovered, the song had ended, the lights in the
villa had vanished, the white walls, the dark vacant windows were
sharply outlined. One might have thought that no person had ever been
in that house there. The garden was deserted and silent, even the
slight breath of air stirred the leaves no longer.

One! two! three! From the temple were heard three mighty sounds from
bronze.

"Ah! I must go," thought the prince, not knowing well whither he was to
go or for what purpose.

He turned, however, in the direction of the temple, the silver tower of
which rose above the trees as if summoning him.

He went as in a trance, filled with strange wishes. Among the trees it
was narrow for him; he wished to ascend to the top of that tower