Faithful in sleep and constant in her dreams!... The demons of the night will steal nothing from the love that fills the past and future of a heart!... Ah, my master and father!... It is she whom your only hope awaited, in vain, to avert the fate that threatens your old age!... O master, if you be willing, there is yet time; and happiness is here: you have but to gather it!... It sways uncertain between your son and you; a gesture would be enough to fix it upon ourselves.... Come hither, she is yours!... Come, come, come, I am calling you.... I know that I am right and that man must not renounce life and ruin himself to save those whom he loves.... MERLIN. (_In the distance, in a voice of grave reproach._) Arielle!... [_He enters, wrapped in a long cloak._ ARIELLE. I am speaking for you and my voice is your voice.... I speak in the name of your heart, which loves deeply and dares not confess it.... You had, at this prescribed moment, to meet that sleeping woman, in order to avoid one who will destroy your old age.... MERLIN. Begone, it is too late.... ARIELLE. No, it is not too late; this is the one moment; and your destiny depends on the movement which you make.... MERLIN. Begone, do not tempt me, or I will plunge you back into your impotent shade.... I drew you from it to open my eyes, not to mislead me.... ARIELLE. To listen to the instinct by which alone men are saved is not to be misled.... Think of the terrible days which Viviane is preparing: Viviane, whom you must love if you do not love this one.... _Merlin._ Viviane?... Is it in this life or in some other world that that name resounds within my secret heart like a name of madness, sorrow and shame?... _Arielle._ No, it is in this life, the only one that you possess.... It is the name of the fairy who, in Brocéliande, where your fate leads you, awaits your appearance to shatter your old age.... O master, I see her!... Have a care, she approaches and will win your heart!... So soon as this love, so pure, so healthful, has lost its claims, hers crawls out of the shadow.... Master, I entreat you!... My eyes are counting her wiles: she entwines you with her arms which travesty love; she takes away your power, your reason, your wisdom; she snatches from you at last the secret of your strength; and, like an old, drunken man, you fall to the ground.... Then she strips you, mocks at you, rises to her feet and closes on us the door of the mortal cavern which will never open again.... MERLIN. It is inevitable, then?... ARIELLE. You know, as I do, that nothing can deceive me where you are concerned.... Master, I beseech you, both for yourself and for me, who love the light and who must lose it with you!... This is the irrevocable hour!... Choose, choose life!... It still offers itself and therefore it belongs to us and you have a right to it!... MERLIN. Begone, it is useless.... Besides, this one would never have loved me.... ARIELLE.