Empress monologue (Act 1) — The Daughter of Heaven

To-day, the flames have swept away those flowers, and the Phoenix is in agony, her wings burned in the fire of war. But, on the threshold of the Great Beyond, she will confide to you her deepest secret. Now it is your turn to listen. [_The_ EMPEROR _raises his head and looks at her._] While you were uttering those noble and magnificent words of sacrifice----Oh! beneath my impassive mask, what a struggle was mine on to be deaf to their appeal! And I should have yielded, if the duty which you presented to me had been only a painful duty. But it would have been too easy and too sweet. For I loved you! [_The_ EMPEROR _arises_.] And, living, I have no more the right to happiness, because it was I who lighted that great funeral pyre of men's lives in my palace.