disbelieve as it is for us to believe. Oh! what have I said! You
know everything! Give me time to undo what I have done. Give me a
year--a month--a day--an hour! Give me this hour's end, that I may
undo what I have done!

ANGEL. You cannot undo what you have done. Yet I have this power
with my message. If you can find one that believes before the
hour's end, you shall come to heaven after the years of purgatory.
For, from one fiery seed, watched over by those that sent me, the
harvest can come again to heap the golden threshing-floor. But now
farewell, for I am weary of the weight of time.

WISE MAN. Blessed be the Father, blessed be the Son, blessed be the
Spirit, blessed be the Messenger They have sent!

ANGEL [at the door and pointing at the hour-glass]. In a little
while the uppermost glass will be empty. [Goes out.]

WISE MAN. Everything will be well with me. I will call my pupils;
they only say they doubt. [Pulls the bell.] They will be here in a
moment. I hear their feet outside on the path. They want to please
me; they pretend that they disbelieve. Belief is too old to be
overcome all in a minute. Besides, I can prove what I once
disproved. [Another pull at the bell.] They are coming now. I will
go to my desk. I will speak quietly, as if nothing had happened.

[He stands at the desk with a fixed look in his eyes.]

[Enter PUPILS and the FOOL.]