THE PRINCESS: I am just behind you. THE KING: Now When it is more difficult to stir one foot than the whole mass of an empire I must rise From the lazy bed of death. _(He struggles to his feet and walks toward her, reeling._ THE PRINCESS: What are you doing? THE KING: This way? THE PRINCESS: Leave me! What are you doing? Why do you come? THE KING: Is it you that I hold? I can no longer see distinctly. Let me Lean upon you till I can get my breath. I can do no more! I need your help to keep myself on my feet. _(Pause._ Where are your hands? THE PRINCESS: What can you do? THE KING: Where are your hands? I tell you that now I cannot see distinctly. Quickly, before I fall. I feel your hair. Your arms are here. I cannot raise my arms. My hands are dead Like those of a man who has stayed too long in cold water. But there is still strength in my head. My teeth shall serve for pincers. _(He pulls the nail out of the left hand._ One hand--the other. _(He pulls out the other nail._ Ah! _(He reels violently._ THE PRINCESS: You are falling! Take care! THE KING: I plunge my thighs in the void! Death shakes me violently! I am falling! I am falling! Do not forget that I have drawn out the nails from your hands. _(He falls before her._ _(The PRINCESS sways and falls to her knees and remains crouching beside him._ THE PRINCESS: It is not just that he should die stretched on the ground here. I must carry him back. _(She tries to raise him._ How heavy he is! I cannot do it! And yet it must be done! With these maimed hands, these arms that are weaker than tendrils of ivy, this body that cannot even support its own weight. _(She carries him with difficulty to the funeral bier where she replaces him._ I have done it! I have rivalled the black ant that drags a burden greater than itself. _(She puts her ear to the breast of the KING._ But who would have believed That he could still be alive! I hear the beating of his heart. Here I will wait until it is silent Or until mine has stopped. --No. He awakes. THE KING (_he looks at her with friendly eyes_): Behold the courage of the wounded, the strength that sustains the weak, The fellowship of the dying. She could carry me here with these bleeding and dislocated hands. Through this same meek courage with which you have dragged me here, through this naive endurance, The woman in her sphere is the image of an inspired resignation, teaching good will to men, As formerly, servant of the house, she became servant of God. And it is you Who join me once more in this place where I must perish! Do not be ashamed because you see me naked. It is needful at times that the woman, wife or nurse, Should contemplate man in his virility. Consider it! I was man! And through me the strength of the man has satisfied his will, And suddenly I have been broken! I have been thrown, like carrion, under the shadow of a tree!