The Indian Woman (L'Indienne)

I would not ask for anything better at present, but that is difficult; the Brahmins have already come to fetch me.

Surely... it is true that one could tell them a story, which, whether plausible or not, would always get you out of trouble, but despite that...

Even if it were not the Priests, the people...

Without a doubt, that is what I am saying. Ah! one could answer that the wise would approve of you, and that you would laugh at the opinion of others, but...

Is there really no other way?

None that I would wish to accept. Ah! I would have cherished my life only to spend it with you.

But this glory?

Glory... without a doubt. Ah! how much you will acquire when you are all surrounded by flames. You will face the most horrible death, and why would you fear it? What do you have to lose? Twenty or thirty years at most.

You think I would live that long?

You, with a compliant and sensitive wife! Gaiety would never leave us; we would spend our lives singing, laughing...

Laughing, singing... a Brahmin?...

Must a Brahmin renounce pleasure? Remember this Persian song.