Athaliah | Page 5

Let all invoke Him ever: His empire was before the birth of time; Sing, and proclaim His benefactions.
One voice alone. In vain unrighteous violence hath imposed Silence upon the people praising Him: His name shall never perish. Day unto day proclaims His glory and His power: The universe is full of His magnificence: Sing, and proclaim His benefactions.
All the Choir. The universe is full of His magnificence: Sing, and proclaim His benefactions.
One voice alone.
He gives to flowers their lovely hues, He brings the fruits to birth and ripens them; To these He portions, with judicious care, The heat of day and coolness of the night: The fields receiving them, return The gifts with usury.
Another.
He bids the sun to animate His works, And light's the power of His own hands; But still His holy law, His spotless law Is richest blessing God has given mankind.
Another.
O, Mount of Sinai, keep eternally In our remembrance the illustrious day, When on thy flaming summit, in a cloud, Densely enveloped, God into the eye Of mortals caused to shine A beamlet of His glory. O tell me why those lightnings and those flames The floods of vapour, rumblings in the air, The trumpetings, and thunder: Came He to overturn The order of the elements? Came He to shake the earth Upon its old foundations?
Another.
He came to witness to the Hebrew children His holy precepts' everlasting light; He came to bid that happy people love Him With a love eternal.
All the Choir.
O law divine, delightful law! O justice, tenderness supreme! What satisfaction, sweetness overflowing, To pledge unto that God our love and faith!
One voice alone.
He freed our fathers from a cruel yoke; While in the desert, with delicious food He nourished them: He gives to us His law, He gives Himself; and for such benefits He orders us to love Him.
The Choir. O justice, tenderness supreme!
The same voice.
For them He closed the waters of the sea, And from an arid rock made fountains gush; He gives to us His law, He gives Himself; And for such benefits He orders us to love Him.
The Choir. O law divine, delightful law! What satisfaction, sweetness overflowing, To pledge unto that God our love and faith!
Another voice alone.
O you, who only know a servile fear, Ingrates, can not a God so good delight you? Is it so difficult unto your hearts, So painful, then, to love Him? The bondsman dreads the tyrant's violence, But love's the portion of a child: You wish that God should load you with His blessings, Without returning Him your love!
All the Choir.
O law divine, delightful law! O justice, tenderness supreme! What satisfaction, sweetness overflowing, To pledge unto that God our love and faith!

ACT SECOND,--Scene I. and II.
{JOSABET, SALOMITH, THE CHOIR.} {JOSABET.}
That is enough, my daughters, cease your chanting: Tis time to mingle in the public prayers. Our hour is come; Let us go celebrate This glorious day, and, in our turn, appear Before the Lord. What do I see! my son! What is the cause that hastens your return? Where run you thus, all pale and out of breath?
{ZACHARIAH.}
O, my mother!
{JOSABET.}
Well! what!
{ZACHARIAH.}
The temple is profaned!
{JOSABET.}
How?--
{ZACHARIAH.}
And by the Lord the temple is abandoned.
{JOSABET.}
I tremble; hasten to enlighten me.
{ZACHARIAH.}
My sire, the high priest, having offered up, According to the law, the sacred bread Of the new harvest, to the God that fosters Mankind, appearing still with gory hands Fresh from the reeking entrails of the victim; Close to his side the young Eliacin Assisting, like myself, in linen vests; The priests, meanwhile, with sacrificial blood Besprinkling the assembly and the altar; A murmur indistinct arose; at once The astonished people turn aside their glance,-- A woman--can I name her and not curse?-- A woman--It was Athaliah's self!
{JOSABET.}
Heavens!
{ZACHARIAH.}
In one of the church courts, reserved for men, This haughty woman enters, with proud mien, And even prepares to overpass the bounds Of the enclosure sacred, which alone Is open to the Levites. Terrified The people fled in every way. My father-- Ah! what resentment kindled in his eye! Moses to Pharoah seemed less formidable: Queen! go! said he, and quit this awful place, From which thy sex and vices banish thee: Dost thou come here to brave the majesty Of the Eternal God? At which the queen, Casting on him infuriated glance, Her mouth was opening, doubtless, to blaspheme: I know not if the angel of the Heavens Appearing showed to her a flaming sword; But instantly her tongue and lips were frozen, And all her over-boldness was abashed; As if her eyes were awe-struck, they were fixed; And, above all, Eliacin appeared To amaze her.
{JOSABET.}
What! Has Eliacin been seen by her?
{ZACHARIAH.}
We both of us beheld that cruel queen, Who with an equal horror struck our hearts: But very soon the priests surrounded us-- They caused us to withdraw.