(_They hide behind the columns at the other end of the hall_. TYLTYL _remains alone with the DOG by the monumental door_.) THE DOG (_panting and hiccoughing with suppressed fright_) I shall stay, I shall stay!... I'm not afraid!... I shall stay!... I shall stay with my little god!... I shall stay!... I shall stay!... TYLTYL (_patting the_ DOG) That's right, Tylô, that's right!... Kiss me.... You and I are two.... And now, steady!... (_He places the key in the lock. A cry of alarm comes from the other end of the hall, where the runaways have taken refuge. The key has hardly touched the door before its tall and wide leaves open in the middle, glide apart and disappear on either side in the thickness of the walls, suddenly revealing the most unexpected of gardens, unreal, infinite and ineffable, a dream-garden bathed in nocturnal light, where, among stars and planets, illumining all that they touch, flying ceaselessly from jewel to jewel and from moonbeam to moonbeam, fairy-like blue birds hover perpetually and harmoniously down to the confines of the horizon, birds innumerable to the point of appearing to be the breath, the azured atmosphere, the very substance of the wonderful garden_.) TYLTYL (_dazzled, bewildered, standing in the light of the garden_) Oh!... Heaven!... (_Turning to those who have fled_) Come quickly!... They are here!... It's they, it's they, it's they!... We have them at last!... Thousands of blue birds!... Millions!.... Thousands of millions!... There will be too many!... Come, Mytyl!... Come, Tylô!... Come, all!... Help me!... (_Darting in among the birds_.) You can catch them by handfuls!... They are not shy!... They are not afraid of us!.... Here! Here!.... (MYTYL _and the others run up. They all enter the dazzling garden, except_ NIGHT _and the_ CAT.) You see!... There are too many of them!... They fly into my hands!... Look, they are eating the moonbeams!... Mytyl, where are you?.... There are so many blue wings, so many feathers falling that one cannot see anything for them!.... Don't bite them, Tylô!.... Don't hurt them!.... Take them very gently!.... MYTYL (_covered with blue birds_) I have caught seven already!.... Oh, how they flap their wings!.... I can't hold them!.... TYLTYL Nor can I!.... I have too many of them!... They're escaping!.... They're coming back!.... Tylô has some, too!.... They will drag us with them!.... They will take us up to the sky!.... Quick, let us go out this way!.... Light is waiting for us!.... How pleased she will be!.... This way, this way!.... (_They escape from the garden, with their hands full of struggling birds, and, crossing the whole hall amid the mad whirl of the azure wings, go out on the right, where they first entered, followed by_ BREAD _and_ SUGAR, _who have caught no birds_. NIGHT _and the_ CAT, _left alone, return to the back of the stage and look anxiously into the garden_.) NIGHT Haven't they got him?...