Judith, a play in three acts | Page 3

away and conceals it.) Ah!
(A figure is glimpsed in the tent on the roof of Judith's house. Ozias starts.)
CHABRIS. What is that up yonder?
OZIAS. Nothing.
CHABRIS. Whose house is this?
OZIAS. It is the house of Judith, the daughter of Merari.
CHABRIS. Ah! Merari, the son of Ox, the son of Oziel--Oziel and I were little playful boys together--the son of Elcia, the son of Raphaim, the son of Eliab, the son of Nathanael, the son of----
OZIAS. Old man, your memory is terrible. Have pity!
CHABRIS. The draught has revived me. So Merari married and had a daughter. What manner of woman is she?
OZIAS. She is the widow of Manasses, who died of the heat in the barley harvest. And she is childless. And she is very rich; for Manasses left her gold and silver and menservants and maid-servants and cattle and lands. And she has remained a widow in her house three years and four months, and never has she come forth. And there is none to give her an ill word, for she fears the Lord greatly.
CHABRIS. Yes. But what manner of woman is she?
OZIAS. She is beautiful to behold.
CHABRIS (_to himself_). Oh! That manner of woman!
OZIAS. And she has fasted all the days of her widowhood, except the eves of the Sabbaths and the Sabbaths, and the eves of the new moons and the new moons, and the feasts and solemn days of the House of Israel.
CHABRIS. You are most deeply versed in her life. Is she exceeding beautiful?
OZIAS. She is exceeding beautiful.
CHABRIS. Then it was she who peeped (_with a peculiar emphasis on the word_) from the tent a moment since.
OZIAS. Old man, you have eyes.
CHABRIS. It is the draught of water.
OZIAS. She is said to take the air in her tent daily at this hour.
CHABRIS (_accusingly_). And that is why you are here, Ozias.
OZIAS. No! I come here to reflect upon my plans for the saving of the city, and because of this vantage-point, to view the army of the Assyrians.
CHABRIS. This vantage-point is new since my day. You have built it here, not to see the Assyrians, but to see Judith. And that is why you have set a guard to keep the street empty.
OZIAS. And if it be so, what then? Old man, you are so old that to confess in your ear is sweet, like murmuring secrets into the grave. If I do come to this place to watch for the marvellous vision of Judith, what then?
CHABRIS. What then? And the populace of Bethulia dying of thirst?
OZIAS. The populace!... Mice! Rats! Beetles! (He makes the motion of crushing with his foot.)
CHABRIS. Yet the city is doomed. You can have no hope.
OZIAS. No hope? Am I then a dead body? Am I a rotting corpse? True, the city will be taken, and when the city is taken I may be killed. But in your meditations, old man, has it not occurred to you that death must be highly interesting? Or I may be seized for a slave. But either I should cease speedily to be a slave, or I should become the most powerful slave in Babylon. (Reflectively.) We might be enslaved together.
CHABRIS. Who?
OZIAS. Judith and I. The history of the world is full of miracles. Meanwhile, I live, and the strong savour of life inflames my nostrils; and the ever-increasing magnificence and terror of war is like wine in my mouth. I shake with delight at the vastness and the mystery of the future.... And there is woman!
CHABRIS. I feel I can eat my pulse now.
OZIAS. There is still woman.
_A fracas is heard, back. Enter_ Rahel, _running, followed by two soldiers and a mixed group of Bethulians, including_ Charmis, an elder.
RAHEL (to Chabris, _like a termagant_). Why did you go forth alone, grandad, frightening me when I looked and could not find you? At your age! Come back with me this moment.
CHABRIS. Ay! There is still woman!
OZIAS (_angrily, to_ first soldier). Did I not give an order to bar the street?
FIRST SOLDIER. My lord, some of these are elders of high authority, and would pass. As for the girl----
RAHEL (to Chabris). This moment! (She faints and falls.)
CHABRIS (_indifferently, as_ Charmis moves towards Rahel). Let her lie. She will come to of herself--or not, as God wills.
OZIAS (_to the soldiers, with cold fierceness_). Get back to your places. (Exeunt soldiers.)
CHARMIS (looking at Ozias and indicating Rahel). She is the fourteenth I have seen faint from thirst in the streets this day.
OZIAS (_soothingly_). Alas! And you or I may be the next. We are all in like case. But what is to be done?
(_Confused feeble exclamations from the group of citizens:_ 'We want to know. We are come for that. There is but one thing to be done.')
OZIAS (_still soothingly_). Who among you will be the spokesman?
CHARMIS. We