The God-Eater

23 [Criospa, ‘taking hashish, throws it upon the glowing censer. Maurya comes down stage and bends over it. Criospa lifts it up and offers it reverently.| Maurya. Methinks anticipation o’ the event Shoots in my veins, darting delight. Why, this is strange ! I am losing myself. Criosda ! The walls of the world fall back with a crash. Where is all this? Iam out of myself: I expand. O Maurya, where art thou, little phantom of myriads of agesago? What a memory! Ah, Ah! She is falling. [Maurya staggers. Criospa, who has been watching her narrowly, catches her and lays her tenderly on the altar.| Oh, what happiness, what happiness! Criosda, dear brother, how I love you ! I wish to sleep for ever—I wish to die ! [Crrospa, who has been bending over her, leaps up, shrieks.| Criospa. The luck of Maurya ! [He draws quickly his dirk; it flashes on high, he leaps on to the body of Maurya, and plunges it into her heart.| CurRTAIN.