THE KING: Death has surrendered me. Some minutes? THE FIRST CAPTAIN: Yes. THE KING: I lay there during centuries of matter. A slumber-- SECOND CAPTAIN: What does he say? THIRD: He speaks of slumber. THE KING:--A slumber vile, inert, constraining. A detestable oblivion. There only the soul exists. I have touched the bottom and now like a diver I rise again. I have lived. Ah! Who would try to make me believe That I have been different from other men? A man of fantastic dreams! No! For I have been a man of strong desires. --What could I do? Reply! I have striven with agony. In what have I fallen short of what I might have done? All, all failed! And I remained alone and I did not despair, but still believed. And I die. But the royal sign Shall not be effaced from my brow. FIRST CAPTAIN: Yes, Tête-d'or. THE KING: If I have been impure in anything, I ask for pardon. My desire Has been for mighty things. --If you love me, do not let me succumb to this horrible feebleness! Ah! Ah! Things not attained! Cut me to pieces! Wrench my limbs from their sockets! Dismember me and fix my quarters above the gates of cities, That cowards may be shamed and infants in the wombs of their mothers may be given ferocious souls! _(Clamor below._ THE CENTURION: O King, your army is there drawn up in the depths below, And they call us, pressing against the base of the cliff, for they think that you are dead. THE KING: Certainly I am dead. Throw them my clothes! Throw them the spoils of my body! For I strip myself since they have abandoned me. And to them revert the effects of the deceased. Throw them the standard also. All the sky is my standard! _(They kneel all around him._ THE CENTURION: O King, pardon us! FIRST CAPTAIN: Pardon us, O King! And do not keep your anger against us, but pardon! SECOND: Pardon us. THE KING (_stretching out his hand_): Farewell, my friends! THE CENTURION: Farewell, King of men! Let me kiss you, royal hand! O fist more precious than a draught of water! THE KING: Farewell to you! Men, farewell! Gestures, the sound of steps in withered leaves, stumbled phrases Repeated with an idiot's stubborn fury, a confusion of faces and words. All this for a moment. And yet with attentive ears they hearken to the rustle of laurel leaves or, with wide eyes regarding the holy redness, Of the evening of the seasons, they wish to be content. As for me I have made you rise from your idleness, And I have summoned you out of the shade in which you sat, And I brought you an order, and this is the order I gave you, I commanded you to go forth! Neither the world nor the multitude of men has prevailed against us. And I led you up to this empty space. For here is the place where it has been ordained that I should die. Then leave me now. Farewell to you, my comrades! I will die alone! A CAPTAIN: Alas! THE KING: Why, alas? Farewell, my comrades. It was destined that this should be. Farewell, I love you all.