Page:Aida Libretto English.djvu/41

Ramphis (In the crypt).

Radames, Radames: thou hast betrayed
Of thy country the secrets to aid the foeman.

Priests.

Defend thyself!

Ramphis.

He is silent.

All.

Traitor vile!

Ramphis.

Radames, Radames: and thou wast absent
From the camp the very day before the combat!

Priests.

Defend thyself!

Ramphis.

He is silent.

All.

Traitor vile!

Ramphis.

Radames, Radames: and thou hast played
The part of a traitor to King, and to honour!

Priests.

Defend thyself!

Ramphis.

He is silent.

All.

Traitor vile! Radames, we thy fate have decided,
Of all traitors the fate shall be thine—
'Neath the altar whose God thou'st derided
Thou a sepulchre living shalt find.

Amneris.

Find a sepulchre living! hated wretches!
Ever vengeful, bloodthirsty and blind,
Yet who serve of kind Heaven the shrine.

(Assailing the Priests, who re-enter from the Crypt.)

Priests of Heaven, a crime you have enacted,
Tigers ever in bloodshed exulting,
Earthly justice and Heaven's you are insulting,
On the guiltless your sentence will fall.

Priests.

None can his doom recall!

Amneris (To Ramphis).

Priest of Heaven: thou death hast inflicted
On whom well ye know once I treasured;
May a broken heart's curses unmeasured
With his blood on thy guilty head fall!

Priests.

None can his doom recall!

(Departing slowly.)

Amneris.

Impious priesthood, curses light on ye all!
On your heads Heaven's vengeance will fall!

(Exit wildly.)

SCENE IV.

The scene is divided into two floors.—The upper floor represents the interior of the Temple of Vulcan, resplendent with gold and glittering light; the lower floor is a Crypt.—Long Arcades vanishing in the gloom.—Colossal Statues of Osiris with crossed hands support the pillars of the vault.

Radames is discovered in the Crypt, on the steps of the staircase leading into the vault.—Above, two Priests in the act of letting down the stone which closes the subterranean.