Chapter IV: Act III: Scene I

_Seven years have elapsed_.

_The same scene_.

_Curtain discovers_ MAH PHRU _seated on a high verandah_. _A clearance has been made in the surrounding trees to give a full view of the road beyond_. _She is watching_, _always watching_. _With her are two beautiful little boys_.

"To-day, perhaps," _she murmurs_. "Perhaps to-morrow; but without fail--one day."

"Look!" _she cries_. "At last my lord returns!"

_Coming up the jungle road_, _in view of the audience_, _are a bevy of horsemen_.

MAH PHRU, _wondering_, _descends to greet them_. _Enter_ U. RAI GYAN THOO. _He is dressed all in white_, _which is Burmese mourning_. MAH PHRU _sinks back_--_she fears the worst_. _The old man reassures her_. _He tells her that_ MENG BENG _has sent for his sons_--_that the Queen is dead_, _and there is no heir_.

"Queen? What Queen?" _demands_ MAH PHRU.

"The Queen of Burmah."

_So_ MAH PHRU _learns for the first time that her lover is the ruler of the country_, _supreme master of and dictator to everyone_.

_Weeping_, _but not daring to disobey_, _she summons the children to her_; _then_, _sinking on her knees_, _entreats in moving and pathetic words to be permitted to go with them_, _in the lowest most menial capacity_. U. RAI GYAN THOO _refuses_. _There is no place for her in the greatness of the world yonder_. "Even Kings forget," _he says_. "It is the command of the supreme Lord of the Earth and of the Sky that she remain where she is."

_Then he orders his followers to make the necessary arrangements for the safe journey of their future king and his brother_.

_The children stand passive in their gay dress_, _but are bewildered and afraid_.

MAH PHRU _has risen to her feet_. _She appears as if turned to bronze_--_a model of restraint and dignity_, _blent with colour and beauty and infinite grace_.

THE CURTAIN DESCENDS SLOWLY

SCENE II

_The same night_.

_The home of the Chinese Wizard_, HIP LOONG, _by the river_--_a place fitted with Chinese things_: _Dragons of gold with eyes of jade gleaming from out dim corners_, _Buddhas of gigantic size fashioned of priceless metals with heads that move_, _swinging banners with fringes of many-coloured stones_, _lanterns with glass slides on which are painted grotesque figures_. _The air is full of the scent of joss sticks_. _The Wizard reclines on a divan_, _inhaling opium slowly_, _clothed with the subdued gorgeousness of China_--_blue and tomato-red predominate_. _He has the appearance of a wrinkled walnut_. _His forehead is a lattice- work of wrinkles_. _His pigtail_, _braided with red_, _is twisted round his head_. _His hands are as claws_. _The effect is weird_, _unearthly_.

_Enter_ MAH PHRU.

_The Wizard silently motions her to some piled-up cushions at a little distance_. _He listens to what she tells him_. _He appears unmoved_, _at a recital apparently full of tragedy_. _Only the eyes of the dragons move_, _and the heads of the Buddhas go slowly like pendulums_. _When she has finished speaking_, HIP LOONG _makes reply_.

"This is how passion always ends. I have lived for a thousand years; and on this planet it is ever the same."

MAH PHRU _is not listening_.

"How can I go to my children?" _she demands_, _once again_.

"I can turn you into a bird," _the Wizard says_. "You can fly to the palace and walk and watch ever on that terrace in the rose gardens above the sea."

"What bird?" _she asks_, _trembling_.

"You shall have the form of the white paddy bird, because, though a woman and foolish as women ever are, you are very pure ivory. O! daughter of man and of love."

_To this_ MAH PHRU _dissents_. _She paces the long room_.

"Transform me into a peacock; they are more beautiful."

_The Wizard_, _leaning on his elbow_, _smiles_, _and the smile is a revelation of a mocking comprehension_.

"So be it." _He bows his head_.

_The lights fade one by one_.

CURTAIN

SCENE III

_The Gardens of the Palace of the King_.

_Time_: _late afternoon_.

_Colonnades of roses stretch away on every side_. _Fountains play_, _throwing a shower on water-lilies of monstrous size_. _Peacocks walk with stately tread across the green turf_. _Only one_, _larger and more beautiful than the rest_, _is perched alone_, _with drooping head and folded tail_, _on the broad-pillared terrace that overhangs the sea_. _The scene is aglow with light and colour_, _yet holds a shadowed silence_.

_Enter some courtiers_, _who converse in perturbed fashion as they go towards the Palace_.

_Enter_ MOUNG PHO MHIN _and_ U. RAI GYAN THOO, _accompanied by the Court Physicians and Astrologers_.

"The King cannot live beyond the night," _the Physicians say_. _The sudden_, _mysterious illness that has attacked him defies their skill_.

_The Astrologers declare that the stars in their courses fight against his recovery_; _unless a miracle should happen_, _the new day will see him dead_.

_The Ministers regard each other in consternation_; _then walk the terrace with bent heads_.

_The peacock on the wall spreads its tail and utters a melancholy cry of poignant pain_.

_The listeners start in superstitious horror_.

_The peacock folds its tail and resumes its meditations_.

"That bird is not as other birds," _one astrologer declares_. "I have watched it for years past--it is ever alone--the others all avoid it. I think it has a soul."

"You mistake," _replies his colleague_; "it is but an evil Nat. {32} Observe its eyes: they are not those of a bird; they are those of a spirit in prison."

_They pass on in the wake of the ministers_.

_The peacock closes its eyes_.

_Enter the two young_ PRINCES, _accompanied by two great Pegu hounds_. _They converse in subdued tones_, _strolling slowly_. _They are followed by pages of honour_, _carrying grain_, _which the young men proceed to distribute amongst the birds as they rapidly approach them_. _The peacock on the wall never stirs_; _she watches the young men always_. _Then the elder one comes with a handful of food and proffers it_, _but the peacock does not eat_.

"I shall never understand you, Queen of the Kingdom of Birds," _he says_, _and strokes her feathers_. _At his touch the plumage scintillates with a brighter_, _a more exquisite sheen_.

_He murmurs to the bird in soft tones and mythical words_. _He tells it that the fear of everyone is that the King is mortally stricken_, _for he lies yonder in most strange and evil agony_; _that the hearts of himself and his brother are numb with the sorrow that knows no language_. _The bird listens eagerly_. _And if the King should go_, _he_, _the speaker_, _will reign in his stead_. _The prospect fills him with fear_. _He desires_, _as also his brother_, _if the King must die_, _to return to dwell in the forest with the mother who he knows awaits them there_.

_The peacock spreads its wings as if for flight_, _then crouches down once more_, _and over it watches the young prince_.

_The sun envelops them both in a sudden shaft of rose and purple and gold_. _A servant descends and comes across the grass_. _He shikoes profoundly to the two young men_, _lifting up his hands in the deepest reverence of Burmah_.

"The Lord of the Earth and the Sky desires his sons; he nears the Great Unknown."

CURTAIN

SCENE IV

_The retreat of_ HIP LOONG, _the Wizard_.

_Time_: _the same night_.

_The curtain discovers_ MAH PHRU, _who has returned to human form_, _and the Wizard together_.

_He tells her that he has restored her to her former state only because she has implored him to do so_; _that her life is measured by hours as a consequence of such insensate folly in breaking the vow of five years back_.

"But the King will live," _she murmurs_.

"The King will live. He will find happiness with someone fairer than you. That is well. Your life for his. It is the price."

"The price is nothing. Have I not looked on my heart's beloved one for five years--looked on his face--heard his voice--trembled with joy at his footsteps? Have I not waited and watched? Have I not gazed on my sons and seen their royal bearing, and known their touch?"

"You are, then, content?"

"You are a Wizard--you can read that I am."

"It is not I that am a Wizard--it is Love. That is the only Wizard this world knows."

CURTAIN

SCENE V

_The bed-chamber of the King_--_vast and shadowy_. _On heaped-up cushions and covers of yellow and blue_, _under a pearl-sewn creamy velvet baldaquin_, _embroidered with peacocks_, _lies_ MENG BENG, _mortally stricken_; _his face bears the ashen pallor that only dark skins know_. _The ministers_, _the servants_, _the courtiers_, _the countless motley gathering of an Eastern Court are scattered in anxious groups_, _watching_, _waiting_, _murmuring_. _Only the space near the couch is clear_. _Without_, _the dawn breaks over the sea_, _and_, _stealing through the opening_, _makes the great chamber flush till it looks like porphyry_.

_The tolling of a deep gong and the voices of a myriad birds invade the throbbing silence of the Palace_.

"He passes," _murmur the physicians_. _Everyone's gaze turns to the dying man_.

"Yet his star is in the ascendant," _say the astrologers_. _The risen sun touches him with its light like a caress_. _He opens his eyes_. _His sons advance_. _They raise him high on his cushions and give a restorative_. _The end has come_. _Suddenly he rallies slightly_.

_The doors at the far end are rudely opened_. _A woman_, _young and lovely_, _advances_, _thrusting roughly aside the many hands stretched out to bar her path_.

_She reaches the King_.

"I bring you life, Star of my Soul," _she cries_, "I bring you life," _and so saying_, _falls dead at his feet_.

_The Courtiers rush forward_.

_The King rises_.

_He stands erect_.

_The sun lies like a golden benediction over all_.

_Jewels glitter_.

_The whole world of birds sing_.

THE CURTAIN FALLS

Footnotes:

{4} One of the greatest feasts of the Buddhist year.

{6} Spire.

{32} Fairy.