The Bishop And now the night begins.
No longer can the deceptive sun eclipse the hovering ghosts.
The unravelled mind can no longer weave its reassuring patterns.
Mem'ries unlock their secret dungeons to haunt these crumbling halls like evil mice.
Listen! Listen! Who's there?
Again those voices, again those steps.
Quickly, sister, lock the doors.
The Nun My lord, there is no one near you but I.
Dark and voiceless is the palace.
The servants are asleep within, while the guards watch the gates outside huddled over their shields.
It is a cold and windy night.
The Bishop What is that noise, then?
The Nun It is the sea, my lord, pounding its green hooves over the marble terraces.
The Bishop Look there, my sister!
What are those shadows?
The Nun Swift migrating clouds flowing along the moon's path.
The Bishop I know those steps! I know those voices!
Ah, sister, save me!
Save me from the children.
Let me die in peace.
The Nun There are no children there, my lord.
The Bishop Yes, yes, they are outside, the bloodless, glass-eyed children hung with weeds, crying for help, for help.
The Nun Why should one fear the voices of children?
The Bishop Beware, beware of pleading children, for where are we to guide them if not within the maze where our own perdition lies.
The Nun It is for love they cry, my lord, more than for guidance.
The Bishop And was it not my love which led them to their doom?
The Nun Forget, forget, my lord.
Now that your death is near, rescue you must the heart from the wreckage of your past, and steer your floundering soul toward the emerging haven.
The Bishop My past is but one day.
Ah, to forget that day!
Holding a glass of sweet Salernian wine I saw the setting sun place a golden sword upon the sluggish sea.
The whole world was silent as if it knew.
Suddenly I heard them along the beach, among the olive groves.
The Children Good men, let us pass.
Conquer we shall Jerusalem guided by Gabriel's flaming flight, for we are God's own infantry.
Give us your ships, give us the sea.
Without shield or sword we shall defeat the infidel and wipe the Christian stain away, for we are God's own infantry.
Give us your ships, give us the sea.
Oh-Oh...
The Bishop Where do you come from, children?
What do you seek?
The Children Far is my town of towers, far my hill of meadows green. Many the mountains that we had to cross,
many the rivers and the burning plains.
Far is my weeping mother, far my waving father, far the dog, far the brook and the apple tree.
Sleeping together under lonely moons we feared no wolf or eagle, for we come by God's command to free His tomb in Holy Land.
Lead us to your shore. Give us your ships, give us the sea.
Oh-Oh...
The Townspeople Behold the singing children, the innocent dreamers,
Barefoot and ragged, their eyes consumed with loneliness, they come toward us.
They carry in their satchels black bread and berries, and treasured mem'ries of distant homes.
(No dog will bark at them.)
Their tender beauty scathed by festering wounds (No dog will bark at them), their wild hair crowned by wilted flowers, they come toward us.
On tiny carts, driven by goat or donkey, the sick and wounded lie.
Behold the singing children, God's own little knights, barefoot and ragged, and consumed with loneliness, they come toward us.
What burning vision in their sunken eyes gave them such lasting strength?
The Bishop Away, away!
Why must they come to me?
Give me an enemy to kill, O Lord, but not a child to help!
I fear the voice of innocence, for he who loves the helpless must mistrust his love.
The Nun It is not your fault if they all drowned.
You tried to stop them, we all remember.
But the people would not listen to your pleading.
The Townspeople Give them your blessing!
Let them depart!
Who else shall free the Holy Tomb?
The coward Christian knight waiting his chance to plunder his unwary neighbor hides in his towers.
In vain the Holy Father pleads, in vain he prays and weeps.
While the Cathar sews his heresy in Languedoc, the Tartar hordes advance in pagan splendor, planting their bloody tents over our burned cathedrals.
Are not the innocents the very messengers of God?
Let them depart. Let them depart.
Give them your blessing, let them depart!
The Bishop Why did I let them leave?
Why did I lift my hand to bless them?
O God, you gave me a ring, you gave me a staff and called me shepherd.
If I must guide your flock, why did you leave me unguided?
I do not mind leading a man who knows that I know not, but can I tell the innocent: "Do not seek my hand for I, too, am lost"?
They asked me for my blessing and, oh, I blessed them.
Away they sailed on creaking vessels, singing.
The Children I shall kiss Our Lord's tomb, I shall free the Holy Land.
Do not cry, dear mother, it is God's command.
Ave maris stella, help us break the Moorish might.
Do not cry, dear mother, for your little knight.
Deeds of Christian glory wait for us across the sea.
Do not cry, dear mother, but rejoice with me.
The Bishop The bat-like ships had hardly met the bleak horizon when the fearful storm broke over them.
The Children Mother, dear mother, where are your arms to hold me? Where is your voice to scold the storm away?
Mother, dear mother, your child is lost and calls you.
Come, oh come, to take me back with you.
O man of God, help us, help us!
The Bishop Do not call for help, my children.
Love has no wings and faith is fallible.
The Children Is there no one to help me here?
The Bishop Lock the doors, sister, I cannot bear their cries.
The Children No little friend, no sailor, no man of God, no angel?
The Bishop Away! Please go away!
The Children Where is my father who fears no wind nor thunder, who hunts the bear and brings the maple down?
There is no longer sun or sea or Cross to lead me.
In a windy, wat'ry abyss we are flung.
I can no longer hear my own voice. Ah-Ah...
Can you hear me, mother?
Jesu Deus noster, miserere nobis. Ah-Ah...
The Bishop I blessed them to their doom.
Was it God's will or my own folly?
Who was I to know if it was God or Satan who blinded them with secret splendor?
I do not think I blessed them out of pride or vanity.
But then our soul is deeper than we are, and who can trace and kill the Minotaur who haunts the labyrinth of our hearts?
The Townspeople Cursed be the shepherd who leads his flock to death!
Stone his palace, burn his books, break his staff, and cast his ring into the sea.
Let him walk naked, a man among men.
The Bishop Yes, I must be at fault.
What love, what faith can justify the man who makes himself the arbiter of other people's lives?
What man can call himself a leader if God will mock his strategy?
Many are the innocents who call for help, but God has made Pilates of us all.
The Nun Do not fret, my brother, do not ask vain questions.
Prepare your soul with prayer, for you're about to die. Amen.
The Bishop If this be death, O God, I pray not for eternal bliss or peace or immortality.
The Nun Requiem aeternam.
The Bishop For all that I have suffered...
The Nun Dona eis Domine.
The Bishop ...for all that I have sought,
let me, if for an instant only, behold the eternal truth.
Give me the answer!
The Nun Amen.
The Bishop No forgiveness can wash my guilt away...
The Nun Amen.
The Bishop ...for without knowledge absolute there can be no paradise for me.
No gates of Heaven shall I enter unless it be revealed to me why, why I, who loved so purely, was cursed with such destructive love.
All Sleep, sleep in peace, O gentle pilgrim, you have not asked in vain.
The tooth, the nail, the eye have a precise function.
Nothing is purposeless, nothing.
Then why should God have given you in life a questioning mind if not to hand to you in death the blinding answer?
Sleep, sleep at last, O gentle pilgrim.
Sleep, sleep into the dawn.