And to change this sleep which one word puts to flight into that which no human or superhuman power can disturb!... Oh, I would at least that one word of forgiveness.... Ah no, I am too great a coward!... This is terror seeking an outlet.... I did not come for further meditation.... There is no doubt, after what he did, after what he said!... I listen only to my voice, the voice of my destiny, which wills that I should save us both!... So much the worse if I am wrong!... I am right! I am right!... Go out, my lamp: I have seen all that I need see.... (_She puts out the lamp, places it on one of the marble stairs, seizes the dagger which she held concealed, raises it and looks at it for a moment._) Now, it is your turn!... Ah, if you could do what my thought, what my desperate pity would have, and if the death that gleams at the point of this blade were not real death, irrevocable death!... But enough.... It is time.... It is said, it is done, I strike!... [_She raises the dagger to strike MERLIN. ARIELLE, invisible, seizes her wrist and, without apparent effort, paralyzes her gesture. At the same moment, MERLIN opens his eyes, smiling, rises and, with a movement of delight, takes JOYZELLE tenderly in his arms._ MERLIN. It is well!... Joyzelle is great and Joyzelle triumphs!... She has conquered fate by listening to love; and it is you, my child, whom destiny marks out.... JOYZELLE. (_Still failing to understand, and struggling._) No, no, no!... I could not.... Ah, though my heart fail me, I have courage yet!... And I have all my life, if I no longer have my strength, and never, no, never, so long as I have breath.... MERLIN. Look at me, Joyzelle.... I am restoring its strength to the arm which you raised in love's defence.... I leave it its weapon which tried to strike me and which was striking true.... Until that movement, all was undecided; now, all is clear, all is radiant and sure.... Look at me, Joyzelle, and no longer fear my lips.... They seek your brow, there at last to place the kiss which the father lays on the brow of his daughter.... JOYZELLE. What is this and what do you mean that I cannot understand?... Yes, I see in your eyes that you seem to love me as one loves a child.... So I was mistaken and I was on the point of...? MERLIN. No, you were right; you would not have been she whom love demands if you had not done what you were going to do. JOYZELLE. I do not know, I am dreaming.... But since it is not the abominable thing, I abandon myself to my dream.... MERLIN.