Empress monologue (Act 1) — The Daughter of Heaven

I sought to justify my flight, that was all. I did all I could, but none can ever atone for a cowardly action. It was in my own palace that I should have met my death, in the funeral fire lighted by my own hand, in which so many heroes were consumed----My ashes should have mixed with theirs. Duty, do you say? But do you believe that I still belong to Earth? My cities are in ruins, my armies annihilated, my son dead. And at this very moment I know that one by one the heads of my few remaining soldiers are falling into the dust beneath your high Tartar walls. Then what duty remains, I ask you? [_She takes the dagger from the fold of her robe and raises her hand to strike herself._] Nothing, nothing but this! [_The Emperor rushes towards her with a cry, seizes her wrist, takes the dagger, and hurls it to the ground._] Ah! So you dare to touch me now?