"I believe in one only God, the Father,--and in one only Lord, Jesus Christ,--the first born son of God, who was incarnated and made man,--who was crucified, and buried,--who ascended into Heaven,--who will come to judge the living and the dead,--of whose Kingdom there shall be no end;--and in one Holy Spirit,--and in one baptism of repentance,--and in one Holy Catholic Church,--and in the resurrection of the flesh,--and in the life everlasting!"
(_Immediately the cross becomes loftier and loftier; it pierces the clouds, and casts its shadow upon the heaven of the gods._
_And at its base Anthony beholds vast bodies enchained, sustaining the rocks upon their shoulders,--giant figures half buried in the deeps of caverns. These are the Titans, the Giants, the Hecatonchires, the Cyclops._)
(_rises, indistinct and awful, like the far roar of leaves, like the voice of forests in time of tempest, like the mighty moaning of the wind among the precipices_):
"We knew these things!--we knew them! There must come an end even for the Gods! Uranus was mutilated by Saturn,--Saturn by Jupiter. And Jupiter himself shall be annihilated. Each in his turn;--it is Destiny!"
(_And little by little they sink into the mountain, and disappear._
_Meanwhile the golden tiles of the palace rise and fly away._)
JUPITER (_has descended from his throne. At his feet the thunderbolts lie, smoking like burning coals about to expire;--and the great eagle bends its neck to pick up its falling feathers_):
"Then I am no longer the master of all things,--most holy, most mighty, god of the phatrias and Greek peoples,--ancestor of all the Kings,--Agamemnon of heaven.
"Eagle of apotheoses, what wind from Erebus has wafted thee to me? or, fleeing from the Campus Martins, dost thou bear me the soul of the last of the Emperors?
"I no longer desire to receive those of men. Let the Earth keep them; and let them move upon the level of its baseness. Their hearts are now the hearts of slaves;--they forget injuries, forget their ancestors, forget their oaths,--and everywhere the folly of crowds, the mediocrity of individuals, the hideousness of races, hold sway!"
(_He pants with such violence that his sides seem ready to burst asunder; he clenches his hands. Weeping_, HEBE _offers him a cup. He seizes it._)