(_The Minstrel sings._) _Victory to thee, victory for ever, O brave heart. Victory to life, to joy, to love, To eternal light. The night shall wane, the darkness shall vanish, Have faith, brave heart. Wake up from sleep, from languor of despair, Receive the light of new dawn with a song._ (_A ray of light hovers before the cavern._) Ah! There he is. Chandra! Chandra! Hush. Don't make any noise. I cannot see him distinctly. Ah! It cannot be any other than Chandra. Oh, what joy! Chandra! Come! Chandra! How could you leave us for so long? Have you been able to capture the Old Man? _Chandra_ Yes, I have. But we don't see him. _Chandra_ He is coming. But what did you see in the cave? Tell us. _Chandra_ No, I cannot tell you. Why? _Chandra_ If my mind were a voice, then I could tell you. But could you see him, whom you captured? Was he the Old Man of the World? The Old Man who would like to drink up the sea of youth in his insatiable thirst. Was it the One who is like the dark night, whose eyes are fixed on his breast, whose feet are turned the wrong way round, who walks backwards? Was it the One who wears the garland of skulls, and lives in the burning-ground of the dead? _Chandra_ I do not know, I cannot say. But he is coming. You shall see him. _Minstrel_ Yes, I see him. [_The light strengthens and gradually throughout the scene grows to a culminating brilliance at the close._] Where? _Minstrel_ Here. He is coming out of the cave.--Some one is coming out of the cave. How wonderful. _Chandra_ Why, it is you! Our Leader! Our Leader! Our Leader! Where is the Old Man? _Leader_ He is nowhere. Nowhere? _Leader_ Yes, nowhere. Then what is he? _Leader_ He is a dream. Then you are the real? _Leader_ Yes. And we are the real? _Leader_ Yes. Those who saw you from behind imagined you in all kinds of shapes. We didn't recognize you through the dust. You seemed old. And then you came out of the cave,--and now you look like a boy. It seems just as if we had seen you for the first time. _Chandra_ You are first every time. You are first over and over again. _Leader_ Chandra! You must own your defeat. You couldn't catch the Old Man. _Chandra_ Let our festival begin. The sun is up. Minstrel, if you keep so still, you will swoon away. Sing something. (_The Minstrel sings._) _I lose thee, to find thee back again and again, My beloved. Thou leavest me, that I may receive thee all the more, when thou returnest. Thou canst vanish behind the moment's screen Only because thou art mine for evermore, My beloved. When I go in search of thee, my heart trembles, spreading ripples across my love. Thou smilest through thy disguise of utter absence, and my tears sweeten thy smile._ Do you hear the hum? Yes. They are not bees, but the people of the place. Then Dada must be near at hand with his quatrains.