A YOUNG GIRL Oh, she is fairer than the fairy queen! Clarice de Miramand and Blanchefôret! YVETTE (_aside_) Is she so fair? Is she so fair indeed? I broke her fan—now she will break my heart! A YOUNG GIRL He is a knight like Lancelot! YVETTE Oh me! She is the Queen, she is that Guinevere! [_Distant music. The noise of footsteps and voices in the street beyond the wall._ A YOUNG GIRL Oh, outside the wall what is there passing? SISTER FIDELIS (_severely_) We have nothing to do with outside the wall. A YOUNG GIRL (_indicating the door in the wall_) Might we open the door a little way? SISTER FIDELIS The blessed saints forbid! [_From the street are heard the drums and fifes of passing National troops. The bayonets of the soldiers are visible above the wall._ VOICES (_in the street_) _Allons, enfants de la patrie, Le jour de gloire est arrivé!_ A YOUNG GIRL Oh, soldiers! ANOTHER Were the wall only down! [_The circle about the fountain breaks. The young girls walk up and down beneath the trees. The Sisters watch them from a garden bench. The music dies away._ YVETTE _sits upon the stone marge of the fountain_. YVETTE What is this pain that’s tearing at my heart? What matters it to me whom he doth love? And what concern of mine that she is fair? I would she were not so!—Oh, misery! She is in Nantes, she is La Belle Marquise! I would that she were dead! [_The chapel bell rings._ O Seigneur Dieu! Her death! I do not wish her death! Not I! O Our Lady! let not ill thoughts possess me! I would I were at Morbec this still eve, Herding the cows amid the golden broom, Above a sea of glass without a wind, As stagnant calm as is this prisoned water! I would gather the musk rose in the lane, I would tread the wet sand and count the ships, My brow would not burn, my heart would not ache, No tears from my eyes would I wipe away! Why should they not fall like the winter rain? I am the herd girl here as at Morbec, And she’s a great lady, loved for herself! O love! is it love that stifles me so? O love! is it love that makes me weep? I thought that love was all splendour and light, The bow in the sky, the bird at its height, The glory and state of an angel bright! What is this pain that burdens all my heart?