VERA:
Our wedding night!
CZAR:
And if death came himself, methinks that I could kiss his pallid mouth, and such 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 someone 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 to-night! 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:
O sweet, mine ears are clogged to all sweet sounds save shine 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 lovers' 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. There was no other way but this.
