tting on a rock near the portico of
her house. The strings of the orchestra murmur and the chromatic figure
which we shall hear again in her love-song coos in the wood-winds:

[figure: a musical score excerpt]

She awaits him whom passion has made her slave in full confidence of
her hold upon him.

Samson, recherchant ma presence,
Ce soir doit venir en ces lieux.
Voici l'heure de la vengeance
Qui doit satisfaire nos dieux!

Amour! viens aider ma faiblesse!

The vengeance of her gods shall be glutted; it is to that end she
invokes the power of love to strengthen her weakness. A passion like
his will not down--that she knows. To her comes the High Priest:
Samson's strength, he says, is supernatural and flows from a vow with
which he was consecrated to effect the glory of Israel. Once while he
lay in her arms that strength had deserted him, but now, it is said, he
flouts her love and doubts his own passion. There is no need to try to
awaken

[figure: a musical score excerpt]

jealousy in the heart of Dalila; she hates Samson more bitterly than
the leader of his enemies. She is not mercenary, like the Biblical
woman; she scorns the promise of riches which the High Priest offers so
she obtain the secret of the Hebrew's strength. Thrice had she essayed
to learn that secret and thrice had he set her spell at naught. Now she
will assail him with tears--a woman's weapon.

The rumblings of thunder are heard; the scene is lit up by flashes of
lightning. Running before the storm, which is only a precursor and a
symbol of the tempest which is soon to rend his soul, Samson comes.
Dalila upbraids her lover, rebukes his fears, protests her grief.
Samson cannot withstand her tears. He confesses his love, but he must
obey the will of a higher power. "What god is mightier than Love?" Let
him but doubt her constancy and she will die. And she plays her trump
card: "Mon coeur s'ouvre a ta voix," while the fluttering strings and
cooing wood-winds insinuate themselves into the crevices of Samson's
moral harness and loosen the rivets that hold it together:--

[figure: a musical score excerpt to the words "My heart, at thy dear
voice"]

Herein lies the strength and the weakness of music: it must fain be
truthful. Dalila's words may be hypocritical, but the music speaks the
speech of genuine passion. Not until we hear the refrain echoed
mockingly in the last scene of the drama can we believe that the
passion hym