"Dunsany, Lord - Plays of Gods and Men" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dunsany Lord)

If your Majesty has time for such things there are the
camels themselves.

King:
No, no, I do not wish to watch the camels. They can
never take me out to the beautiful desert to be free
forever from cities. Here I must stay to do the work
of a King. Only my dreams can go, and the shadows of
the camels carry them, to find peace by the tents of
the Arabs.

Chamberlain:
Will your Majesty now come to the council-hall?

King:
Yes, yes, I come.
[Voices off: "Ho Yo! Ho Yay!
Ho Yo! Ho Yay!"]
Now the whole caravan has started. Hark to the drivers
of the baggage-camels. They will run behind them for
the first ten miles, and to-morrow they will mount
them. They will be out of sight of Thalanna then, and
the desert will lie all round them with sunlight
falling on its golden smiles. And a new look will come
into their faces. I am sure that the desert whispers
to them by night saying, "Be at peace, my children, at
peace, my children."
[Meanwhile the Chamberlain has opened the
door for the King and is waiting there
bowing, with his hand resolutely on the
opened door.]

Chamberlain:
Your Majesty will come to the council-hall?

King:
Yes, I will come. Had it not been for Iktra I might
have gone away and lived in the golden desert for a
year, and seen holy Mecca.

Chamberlain:
Perhaps your Majesty might have gone had it not been
for Iktra.

King:
My curse upon Iktra!
[He goes through the doorway.]
[As they stand in doorway enter Zabra R.]

Zabra: