PALOMIDES. Where are we? ALLADINE (_embracing him_). I love thee still, Palomides.... PALOMIDES. I love thee too, my Alladine.... ALLADINE. They come.... PALOMIDES. [_Looking behind him as they still recoil_.] Have a care.... ALLADINE. No, no; have no more care.... PALOMIDES (_looking at her_). Alladine? ALLADINE. Yes ... [They still recoil before the invasion of light or peril, until they lose their footing; and they fall and disappear behind the rock that overhangs the underground and now gloomy water.--A silence. Astolaine and the sisters of Palomides enter the crypt.] ASTOLAINE. Where are they? ONE OF THE SISTERS OF PALOMIDES. Palomides!... ASTOLAINE. Alladine! Alladine!... ANOTHER SISTER. Palomides!... It is we!... THIRD SISTER. Fear nothing; we are alone!... ASTOLAINE. Come! come! we have come to rescue you!... FOURTH SISTER. Ablamore has fled.... FIFTH SISTER. He is no longer in the palace.... SIXTH SISTER. They do not answer.... ASTOLAINE. I heard the water stirred!... This way, this way! [_They run to the rock that overlooks the underground_.] ONE OF THE SISTERS. They are there!... ANOTHER SISTER. Yes, yes; at the very bottom of the black water.... They embrace. THIRD SISTER. They are dead. FOURTH SISTER. No, no; they are alive! they are alive!... See.... THE OTHER SISTERS. Help! help!... Call!... ASTOLAINE. They make no effort to save themselves!... ACT FIFTH. [A corridor, so long that its furthest arches seem to lose themselves in a kind of indoor horizon. The sisters of Palomides wait before one of the innumerable closed doors that open into this corridor. They seem to be guarding it. A little further down, on the opposite side, Astolaine and the Physician converse before another door, also closed.] ASTOLAINE.