THE EMPRESS
[_Leaving the flower-garden, she halts before ascending
the marble stair and turns again to the flowers._] Guard
well, oh, flowers of the morning, the secret which I have
confided to you. Now it has escaped from my soul! That
it may never return, lock it up, oh, flowers, in your
blossoms. [She mounts several steps] And you, ancestral
shades, to whom I make this last prayer, Oh! lend your
aid to your daughter, powerless to triumph over herself.
Make my heart invulnerable, since you have called me to
this sovereign mission. Give me the force to thrust aside
all but my noble duty. Oh, help me to remember only "the
brimming cup of which not a drop must be spilled!"
[_She mounts the stair._]