The men that work, the women that bear children, and the fields that yield food. You have given a second birth to everything. Young man, I greet you with the name of Father. May blessings gather on your beloved head. Enter, conquering hero, Welcome to this hearth and to this shadowy hall almost bereft of light, And first I salute you as is fitting. _(He hows before him._ _(All come and one after the other bow before him._ Hail! TÊTE-D'OR: I thank you, Sire. I thank you all. Who am I? What have I done? That which must be already exists. From whom is this knowledge hidden? (_To_ CÉBÈS) And you, will you not give me a word of welcome, thus happily returned? CÉBÈS: O Tête-d'or! TÊTE-D'OR: Find an excuse! Pretend that you still are sick! CÉBÈS: Stay here with me. I want to talk to you. TÊTE-D'OR: He wants to talk to me. THE KING: Do you wish us to withdraw? TÊTE-D'OR: Do this for me. Do this for me, my friends! I ask your pardon. You shall hear what I have to say to you presently. _(They all go out._ TÊTE-D'OR: Well, Cébès, here I am! The same as ever! I come again, having conquered! CÉBÈS: By these victorious hands, dear friend! TÊTE-D'OR: Give me a brotherly welcome. _(They embrace._ CÉBÈS: O man with the power to conquer! TÊTE-D'OR: I bayed at their heels! I made them rise from the dung in which they sat. Then I saw that what I wished for was. CÉBÈS: But how? TÊTE-D'OR: I am telling you! I was more firm on my horse than on a rock. --But I wanted to talk with you and there you are still in your bed. CÉBÈS: Do not pity me. TÊTE-D'OR: Are you feeling better? CÉBÈS: Because I am not worth your trouble, hero! TÊTE-D'OR: You do not render me a true account. Am I not your tutor? Do you think that all I have done can go for naught? Was it in vain, that adoption that bound us so close together on that night of sorrow? And are you not mine? _(Silence._ Eh? CÉBÈS: Well? TÊTE-D'OR: What? CÉBÈS: Nothing. TÊTE-D'OR: You twist the chain of my sword but do not speak. CÉBÈS: Tête-d'or.... TÊTE-D'OR: Well? _(Silence._ CÉBÈS: Did you bring back your army with you? TÊTE-D'OR: Yes, it is close behind me. CÉBÈS: You have gained the victory! You knew how to command all these men according to their corps and their battalion, and they obeyed you! TÊTE-D'OR: Yes, for I saw and knew. CÉBÈS: What? TÊTE-D'OR: My opportunity and how to seize it. The eyes and the brain cry at the selfsame instant: "This thing must be!" I take that which is due me. CÉBÈS: And I, I do not see and do not know! What could I have done? Yet I am wise though in one thing only. TÊTE-D'OR: Which is? CÉBÈS: Will it bore you if I tell you everything? Or shall I speak freely As to the man in whom I have put my trust? TÊTE-D'OR: In what thing? CÉBÈS (_very low_): To give Myself. But to give myself to whom? Not To one as weak as I am. Nothing imperfect can satisfy me for I do not satisfy myself.