Page:Plays in Prose and Verse (1922).djvu/128

And we who gaze grow like him and abhor
The moments that come between us and that death
You promised us.

king. Take up his body.
Go where you please and lay it where you please,
So that I cannot see his face or any
That cried him towards his death.

youngest pupil. Dead faces laugh!
The ancient right is gone, the new remains
And that is death.

[They go towards the king holding out their halters.

We are impatient men,
So gather up the halters in your hands.

king. Drive them away.

[He goes into the palace. The soldiers block the way before the pupils

soldier. Here is no place for you.
For he and his pretensions now are finished.
Begone before the men-at-arms are bidden
To beat you from the door.

oldest pupil. Take up his body
And cry that driven from the populous door
He seeks high waters and the mountain birds
To claim a portion of their solitude.

[They make a litter with cloak and staffs or use one discovered, heaped with food, at the opening of the play.