Woe's me! do I fear thee? else should I not wake thee, For tending thou needest--If my hand touched thy hand [_Touching him._ I should fear thee the less.--O sweet friend, forgive it, My hand and my tears, for faintly they touched thee! He trembleth, and waketh not: O me, my darling! Hope whispers that thou hear'st me through sleep, and wouldst waken, But for dread that thou dreamest and I should be gone. Doth it please thee in dreaming that I tremble and dread thee, That these tears are the tears of one praying vainly, Who shall pray with no word when thou hast awakened? --Yet how shall I deal with my life if he love not, As how should he love me, a stranger, unheard of? --O bear witness, thou day that hast brought my love hither! Thou sun that burst out through the mist o'er the mountains, In that moment mine eyes met the field of his sorrow-- Bear witness, ye fields that have fed me and clothed me, And air I have breathed, and earth that hast borne me-- Though I find you but shadows, and wrought but for fading, Though all ye and God fail me,--my love shall not fail! Yea, even if this love, that seemeth such pleasure As earth is unworthy of, turneth to pain; If he wake without memory of me and my weeping, With a name on his lips not mine--that I know not: If thus my hand leave his hand for the last time, And no word from his lips be kind for my comfort-- If all speech fail between us, all sight fail me henceforth, If all hope and God fail me--my love shall not fail. --Friend, I may not forbear: we have been here together: My hand on thy hand has been laid, and thou trembledst. Think now if this May sky should darken above us, And the death of the world in this minute should part us-- Think, my love, of the loss if my lips had not kissed thee. And forgive me my hunger of no hope begotten! [_She kisses him._ KING PHARAMOND (_awaking_) Who art thou? who art thou, that my dream I might tell thee? How with words full of love she drew near me, and kissed me. O thou kissest me yet, and thou clingest about me! Ah, kiss me and wake me into death and deliverance! AZALAIS (_drawing away from him_) Speak no rough word, I pray thee, for a little, thou loveliest! But forgive me, for the years of my life have been lonely, And thou art come hither with the eyes of one seeking. KING PHARAMOND Sweet dream of old days, and her very lips speaking The words of my lips and the night season's longing. How might I have lived had I known what I longed for! AZALAIS I knew thou wouldst love, I knew all thy desire-- Am I she whom thou seekest? may I draw nigh again? KING PHARAMOND Ah, lengthen no more the years of my seeking, For thou knowest my love as thy love lies before me. AZALAIS (_coming near to him again_) O Love, there was fear in thine eyes as thou wakenedst; Thy first words were of dreaming and death--but we die not. KING PHARAMOND