Judith, a play in three acts | Page 6

living man that
shall not bow down before Nebuchadnezzar. Bethulia will fall. I, the
governor, shall be taken captive and shown to Nebuchadnezzar, and in
that day Holofernes shall say to Nebuchadnezzar: Lo! Here is Ozias the
Israelite who resisted thy mighty armies for thirty-four days and yet
five days more. Use him if it seem good to thee. And I shall be lifted up
to be a satrap of Nebuchadnezzar, and I shall partake of the bright glory
of Nebuchadnezzar. And--(hesitates.)
JUDITH (_subtly and sweetly_). And?
OZIAS (_in an outburst_). What am I without you, O Judith? Before
Manasses loved you, did I not love you? For three years have I not
watched over you in all honour and respect, and troubled you not with
my importunity until this day, which is the day of days? What am I
without you, and what shall be my dominion and my satrap's throne if
you do not sit in majesty by my side, O Rose of Sharon and matchless
among women?
Judith (_as before_). My lord, you are like a rushing river.
OZIAS. You have seen my heart.

JUDITH. I have seen it.
OZIAS. And what say you?
_There is the sudden sound of a disturbance. Enter, from back, soldiers,
holding_ Achior, and a group of excited citizens. Haggith _appears at
the house-door._
OZIAS (_fiercely_). What! Are my commands no more than the wind
in the corn, and is there to be naught but tumult within the walls of this
city?
VOICES IN THE GROUP. An Assyrian! An Assyrian!
FIRST SOLDIER. Lord Ozias! We saw this man lying bound at the
foot of the hill, and we descended and loosed him and brought him
privily into Bethulia by the secret way. And now we present him to my
lord.
OZIAS Fools! Then no longer is the secret way secret.
VOICES. Slay him! Stone him! Whip the dog!
JUDITH (_nobly scornful, to the crowd_). Oh! Brave! Oh! Men of
courage and high valour!
OZIAS (to Achior). Who are you?
ACHIOR. Achior.
OZIAS. Your condition?
ACHIOR (_with calm, genial candour_). Captain of all the Ammonites
in the army of Holofernes.
JUDITH. Let them loose him, Lord Ozias. His eyes are not the eyes of
treachery.
OZIAS (_to the soldiers_). Loose him. (To Achior.) And how come

you here? Speak the truth--and fear.
ACHIOR. My mouth shall say truth, but I will not fear.
OZIAS. My hand is terrible.
ACHIOR. Thus it happened. When the children of Israel had shut up
the passages of the hill country and had fortified all the tops of the high
hills, Holofernes was very angry. And he called the captains of Ammon
and said to them: Tell me now, ye sons of Chanaan, who these
Israelites are that dwell in the hill country, and wherein is their power
and strength, and why they have determined not to come and meet me,
more than all the inhabitants of the west? And I, Achior, answered the
question of Holofernes.
OZIAS. And what answer gave you?
ACHIOR. I said to Holofernes: This people is descended of the
Chaldeans. But they left the way of their ancestors and would not
follow the gods of their fathers; and they worshipped the God of
heaven. So they were cast out from the face of the gods of Chaldea, and
they fled into Mesopotamia. And they came to Chanaan. But when a
famine covered all the land of Chanaan they went down into Egypt, and
the king of Egypt brought them low with labouring in brick and made
them slaves. Then they cried to their God, and he smote all the land of
Egypt with plagues.... And God dried the Red Sea for them.
VOICES. It is true. It is true!
ACHIOR. And they came to Chanaan, and drove before them the
inhabitants of that land, and they dwelt in that country many days. And
while they sinned not before their God they prospered, because the God
that hates iniquity was with them.
VOICES. It is true.
ACHIOR. But when they departed from the way which their God
appointed, then they were destroyed in many battles very sore, and

were led captives into a land that was not theirs, and the temple of their
God was cast to the ground.
VOICES. Gentile dog! Shall we not render him to pieces?
JUDITH. There is but one truth, brethren, whether it please or whether
it displease.
OZIAS (to Achior). Make an end.
ACHIOR. And I said to Holofernes: But now this people are returned
to their God, and have possessed Jerusalem, and are seated in the hill
country. (With more emphasis.) And I said further to Holofernes: Now
therefore, my lord and governor, if there be any error in this people, let
us go up and we shall overcome them.