PALOMIDES. My eyes weep still where the band has left its trace.... We are not in darkness.... Is it you I hear toward where I can just see? ALLADINE. I am here; come. PALOMIDES. You are at the edge of that which gives us light. Do not stir; I cannot see all that there is about you. My eyes have not forgot the bandage yet. They bound it tight enough to burst my eyelids. ALLADINE. Come; the knots stifle me. I can wait no longer.... PALOMIDES. I hear only a voice coming out of the light.... ALLADINE. Where are you? PALOMIDES. I have no idea myself. I walk still in darkness.... Speak again, that I may find you. You seem to be on the edge of an unbounded light.... ALLADINE. Come! come! I have borne without a word, but I can bear no more.... PALOMIDES (_groping forward_). You are there? I thought you so far away!... My tears deceived me. I am here, and I see you. Oh, your hands are wounded! They have bled upon your gown, and the knots have entered into the flesh. I have no longer any weapons. They have taken away my poniard. I will tear them off. Wait! wait! I have the knots. ALLADINE. Take off the bandage first that makes me blind.... PALOMIDES. I cannot.... I do not see.... It seems to be surrounded by a net of golden threads.... ALLADINE. My hands, then, my hands! PALOMIDES. They have taken silken cords.... Wait, the knots come undone. The cord has thirty turns.... There, there!--Oh, your hands are all blood!... You would say they were dead.... ALLADINE. No, no!... They are alive! they are alive! See!... [With her hands hardly yet unbound, she clasps Palomides about the neck and kisses him passionately.] PALOMIDES. Alladine! ALLADINE. Palomides! PALOMIDES. Alladine, Alladine!... ALLADINE. I am happy!... I have waited a long while!... PALOMIDES. I was afraid to come.... ALLADINE. I am happy ... and I would that I could see thee.... PALOMIDES. They have tied down the bandage like a casque....--Do not turn round; I have found the golden threads.... ALLADINE. Yes, yes, I will turn round.... [_She turns about, to kiss him again._ PALOMIDES. Have a care. Do not stir. I am afraid of wounding thee.... ALLADINE. Tear it away! Fear nothing. I can bear no more!... PALOMIDES. I would see thee too.... ALLADINE. Tear it away! Tear it away! I am no longer within reach of woe!... Tear it away!... Thou dost not know that one could wish to die.... Where are we? PALOMIDES. Thou'lt see, thou'lt see.... It is innumerable crypts ... great blue halls, gleaming pillars, and deep vaults.... ALLADINE. Why dost thou answer when I question thee? PALOMIDES. What matter where we be, if we be but together?... ALLADINE. Thou lovest me less already? PALOMIDES. Why, what ails thee? ALLADINE.