I put him to death as was just, and the punishment meted out did not exceed the crime. THE PRINCESS: Father! Father! TÊTE-D'OR: Cry! Call him! "Father! Father!" See, doubtless he hears. Call louder! What is a man that is dead? And who exists beyond the grave to still be mindful of us? And you, where were you before you were born, work of the womb? So, having lived, we return to the same nameless nothingness A human soul inflated with love and malediction! That is why I shall do my part here and shall rise like a lofty tree. THE PRINCESS: The blood of my father is on you. It has fallen upon you like rain, And your own shall flow like a spring. TÊTE-D'OR: Joyfully, joyfully, I accept the omen! So be it! So be it! I long to see that day! Let it flow, let it submerge the world! Let the vein of my heart be pierced, let my blood leap forth like a lion, let it gush like a subterranean sea beneath the iron of the drill. --And now, And now, depart! There is no place for you here. THE PRINCESS: Let me carry my father with me. TÊTE-D'OR: Take him! Carry away the fallen. THE PRINCESS (_kneeling before the body_): Sire! O sacred dead, let me touch you and be not angry thereat, for these are the hands of your daughter. And as you carried me here and there in your arms when I was already grown, Even so I shall bear you away, O sole remaining possession, O my dead and fallen race. _(With difficulty she puts the body on her shoulders and goes out, carrying it thus on her back._ TÊTE-D'OR: Though every heart should glut itself with anguish it shall not shake me for mine is full to the brim! I killed him scarcely seeing him, like a partridge shot in a dream, Or as the hurrying traveller pulls up an importunate fern. --I have said what I had to say and soon I shall announce to you what we shall undertake. My time is at hand. Like the arch of the rainbow my glory shall rise above the world, Announcing to those who see it the birth of a new day! I breathe you again! I worship you, sweet perfume of victory! Rose, give me your scent! Sun, cover your face in your bed of celestial down! And bury this child. For it is not fitting that I should soil by commerce with the dead the Majesty of Empire. This dead child! The dawn of my future glory! _(He goes out with a convulsive sob._ _(Pause._ _(Enter the group of Mourners who take their places around the body of CÉBÈS._ _(Drum-beats. They raise the body on their shoulders and sombrely go out._ _(Increasing murmur outside. Confused noise of bells and voices. Discharge of cannon at regular intervals. All go out except CASSIUS. Military music is heard approaching amid a tremendous hubbub. All at once it breaks of and loud cries are heard, which draw nearer, and the noise of an armed crowd running._