All things change. I must be strong and resist! I have been a wandering fire, I must rise like a rooted flame! Do not leave me alone! Trust in me! Tell me I have the power! CÉBÈS: Hope! SIMON: Yes, I can do it. CÉBÈS: Here I, the first, salute you! SIMON: You have knelt before me, alas! Yet honor me, since thus we have encountered, since we are here together. Stay, and that I may serve you as an altar, Draw near and lay your head against my side. CÉBÈS: I give you my prayer and my salutation. SIMON: O pride! you embrace me then! CÉBÈS: Ah! What is this that drips on my head! SIMON: It is my blood; thus man, though he has no breasts, knows how to pour forth his milk! And now, O Cébès, You are like a servant who before he departs Clasps to his breast the cross, But that crucified thing with its lips of granite draws towards heaven a band of briars, And a robin is singing on its ruined shoulder. Receive my blood upon you! Oh, I will stab myself to the heart that my blood may burst forth like a fountain, as you drive in the bung of a cask with a resolute blow! It is my blood. Thus do we greet each other, you and I, we who walk through the shades with warm blood in our veins. Like two brothers who, after death, recognise one another in the eternal night, although they cannot see And throw themselves into each others' arms, the tears streaming down their cheeks. CÉBÈS: I salute you, O King! I hold you in my arms, Majesty! And I have tasted of your blood, like the first wine trod from the wine-press! _(He rises._ SIMON: Farewell! CÉBÈS: Farewell! _(He goes out._ SIMON: And whom have I myself? And whom have I? _(He paces to and fro, for a little, with a hesitating step._ Two trees and all the night behind! The mist parts and in places the stars appear! O equilibrium of things in the night! O energy that acts with unconquerable power, according to its nature! I also will do my work. Creeping beneath it I will cause the great stone to tremble! And with a blow I will take the burden upon me, as a butcher takes on his back a side of beef! Oh, to act! To act! To act! Who will give me the strength to act! Ah! ah! _(He throws himself flat on the ground._ O night, my mother! Crush me or close my eyes with earth! Mother, why have you cleft through the midst the skin of my eyelid! Mother, I am alone! Mother, why do you force me to live! Far better it would be for me if to-morrow the dewy earth in the East should not be reddened by the dawn! O night, you seem very beautiful! I cannot do it! Comfort me, your child! And you, O Earth, look how I lie on your breast! O sheltering night, earth! earth! _(He faints._ Act II _A hall in the_ KING'S _palace, with high windows at the hack._ _Night._ CÉBÈS, _sick, lying upon a bed. A little lamp is placed on the floor. Here and there men, stretched out asleep, snoring._