Czar (staring up, seizes her by both hands). Vera, you here! My dream was no dream at all. Why have you left me three days alone, when I most needed you? O God, you think I am a traitor, a liar, a king? I am, for love of you. Vera, it was for you I broke my oath and wear my father’s crown. I would lay at your feet this mighty Russia, which you and I have loved so well; would give you this earth as a footstool! set this crown on your head. The people will love us. We will rule them by love, as a father rules his children. There shall be liberty in Russia for every man to think as his heart bids him; liberty for men to speak as they think. I have banished the wolves that preyed on us; I have brought back your brother from Siberia; I have opened the blackened jaws of the mine. The courier is already on his way; within a week Dmitri and all those with him will be back in their own land. The people shall be free — are free now — and you and I, Emperor and Empress of this mighty realm, will walk among them openly, in love. When they gave me this crown first, I would have flung it back to them, had it not been for you, Vera. O God! It is men’s custom in Russia to bring gifts to those they love. I said, I will bring to the woman I love a people, an empire, a world! Vera, it is for you, for you alone, I kept this crown; for you alone I am a king. Oh, I have loved you better than my oath! Why will you not speak to me? You love me not! You love me not! You have come to warn me of some plot against my life. What is life worth to me without you? (Conspirators murmur outside.)
Vera. Oh, lost! lost! lost!
Czar. Nay, you are safe here. It wants five hours still of dawn. Tomorrow, I will lead you forth to the whole people —
Vera. Tomorrow — !
Czar. Will crown you with my own hands as Empress in that great cathedral which my fathers built.
Vera (loosens her hands violently from him, and starts up). I am a Nihilist! I cannot wear a crown!
Czar (falls at her feet). I am no king now. I am only a boy who has loved you better than his honour, better than his oath. For love of the people I would have been a patriot. For love of you I have been a traitor. Let us go forth together, we will live amongst the common people. I am no king. I will toil for you like the peasant or the serf. Oh, love me a little too! (Conspirators murmur outside.)
Vera (clutching dagger). To strangle whatever nature is in me, neither to love nor to be loved, neither to pity nor — — Oh, I am a woman! God help me, I am a woman! O Alexis! I too have broken my oath; I am a traitor. I love. Oh, do not speak, do not speak — (kisses his lips) — the first, the last time. (He clasps her in his arms; they sit on the couch together.)
Czar. I could die now.
Vera. What does death do in thy lips? Thy life, thy love are enemies of death. Speak not of death. Not yet, not yet.
Czar. I know not why death came into my heart. Perchance the cup of life is filled too full of pleasure to endure. This is our wedding night.
Vera. Our wedding night!
Czar. And if death came himself, methinks that I could kiss his pallid mouth, and suck sweet poison from it.
Vera. Our wedding night! Nay, nay. Death should not sit at the feast. There is no such thing as death.
Czar. There shall not be for us. (Conspirators murmur outside.)
Vera. What is that? Did you not hear something?
Czar. Only your voice, that fowler’s note which lures my heart away like a poor bird upon the limed twig.
Vera. Methought that some one laughed.
Czar. It was but the wind and rain; the night is full of storm. (Conspirators murmur outside.)
Vera. It should be so indeed. Oh, where are your guards? where are your guards?
Czar. Where should they be but at home? I shall not live pent round by sword and steel. The love of a people is a king’s best bodyguard.
Vera. The love of a people!
Czar. Sweet, you are safe here. Nothing can harm you here. O love, I knew you trusted me! You said you would have trust.
Vera. I have had trust. O love, the past seems but some dull grey dream from which our souls have wakened. This is life at last.
Czar. Ay, life at last.
Vera. Our wedding night! Oh, let me drink my fill of love tonight! Nay, sweet, not yet, not yet. How still it is, and yet methinks the air is full of music. It is some nightingale who, wearying of the south, has come to sing in this bleak north to lovers such as we. It is the nightingale. Dost thou not hear it?
Czar. Oh, sweet, mine ears are clogged to all sweet sounds save thine own voice, and mine eyes blinded to all sights but thee, else had I heard that nightingale, and seen the golden-vestured morning sun itself steal from its sombre east before its time for jealousy that thou art twice as fair.
Vera. Yet would that thou hadst heard the nightingale. Methinks that bird will never sing again.
Czar. It is no nightingale. ‘Tis love himself singing for very ecstasy of joy that thou art changed into his votaress. (Clock begins striking twelve.) Oh, listen, sweet, it is the lover’s hour. Come, let us stand without, and hear the midnight answered from tower to tower over the wide white town. Our wedding night! What is that? What is that?
(Loud murmurs of Conspirators in the street.) Vera (breaks from him and rushes across the stage). The wedding guests are here already! Ay, you shall have your sign! (Stabs herself.) You shall have your sign! (Rushes to the window.)
Czar (intercepts her by rushing between her and window, and snatches dagger out of her hand). Vera!
Vera (clinging to him). Give me back the dagger! Give me back the dagger! There are men in the street who seek your life! Your guards have betrayed you! This bloody dagger is the signal that you are dead. (Conspirators begin to shout below in the street.) Oh, there is not a moment to be lost! Throw it out! Throw it out! Nothing can save me now; this dagger is poisoned! I feel death already in my heart.
Czar (holding dagger out of her reach). Death is in my heart too; we shall die together.
Vera. Oh, love! love! love! be merciful to me! The wolves are hot upon you! you must live for liberty, for Russia, for me! Oh, you do not love me! You offered me an empire once! Give me this dagger now! Oh, you are cruel! My life for yours! What does it matter? (Loud shouts in the street, “Vera! Vera! To the rescue! To the rescue!”)
Czar. The bitterness of death is past for me.
Vera. Oh, they are breaking in below! See! The bloody man behind you! (Czarevitch turns round for an instant.) Ah! (Vera snatches dagger and flings it out of window.)
Consps. (below). Long live the people!
Czar. What have you done?
Vera. I have saved Russia (Dies.)
TABLEAU.
THE DUCHESS OF PADUA