no longer blue!... He has turned black!...

MYTYL
Give me your hand, little brother.... I feel so frightened and so cold....


CURTAIN




ACT III.


SCENE 1.--_The Palace of_ NIGHT.

_A large and wonderful hall of an austere, rigid, metallic and sepulchral
magnificence, giving the impression of a Greek temple with columns,
architraves, flagstones and ornaments of black marble, gold and ebony. The
hall is trapezium-shaped. Basalt steps, occupying almost the entire width,
divide it into three successive stages, which rise gradually toward the
back. On the right and left, between the columns, are doors of sombre
bronze. At the back, a monumental door of brass. The palace is lit only
by a vague light that seems to emanate mainly from the brilliancy of the
marble and the ebony. At the rise of the curtain_, NIGHT, _in the form
of a very old woman, clad in long, black garments, is seated on the steps
of the second stage between two children, of whom one, almost naked,
like Cupid, is smiling in a deep sleep, while the other is standing up,
motionless and veiled from head to foot_.