(Maurice Maeterlinck).
Translated from the French by Alfred Sutro.
Characters: [see below]

A remote time; a gloomy place of rocks and eaves and the distant roar of the sea. The Palace lies far down amid a mass of shadows, it is falling in ruins and no one troubles, the walls are crumbling. The moon is sinking behind the poplars that stifle the palace. There is only one tower which time does not touch; it is enormous, and its shadow is always on the house.