Chapter II: Act III

(_The morning breaks, and is already in many pieces. The first rays of
the sun are reflected in several hundred dewdrops which are rocking
themselves in the gently waving brush-wood. Two masks drop from the
trees and rush on each other’s swords._)

1ST MASK. Are you dead?

2ND MASK. Only parts of me.

_Enter_ EMMA.

1ST MASK. Lady, may I ask if you have any present intention of giving up the ghost, if so, perhaps I could----?

EMMA. I am much obliged to you, but I have already made my own arrangements----

(_A pair of jack-boots are carried across the stage._)

EMMA. Are those, perhaps, the mortal remains of my Ulpho?

(_Ulpho enters in carpet slippers._)

ULPHO. I am still alive, but I wear boots no more.

(_The river rises, and a Dragoon Regiment, which has been stationed on
the opposite bank, are carried away, one by one, by the flood. Ulpho
fetches an umbrella from the side scenes._)

EMMA. Would we could share it together!

(_Ulpho is about to give it to her, when a thunderbolt descends, and
the umbrella falls between them._)

ULPHO. Fate has decided otherwise.

(_They embrace, and the curtain falls in an agitated manner._)

ACT IV.

(_Enter an old man with a very broad-brimmed hat._)

OLD MAN. Woe! Woe!

ULPHO. What brought _you_ here?

OLD MAN (_wildly_). Can I never preserve my incognito?

[_He stabs himself._

EMMA (_regarding the body_).

A fate like his I must admire;
How pleasant must it be to die?
Not otherwise would I expire,
And you, my Ulpho, standing by.

[_She stabs herself._

ULPHO. Ah! now I feel lighter, better.

[_He starves himself to death._