Ah! there has been a prophecy.  Bring in the prophet. [Exit attendant.]

    [Enter mournfully with dejected head and walking very slowly
     Voice-of-the-Gods.]

King Karnos: 

You have made a prophecy.

Voice-of-the-Gods: 

I have made a prophecy.

King Karnos: 

I would hear that prophecy. [A pause.]

Voice-of-the-Gods: 

Your Majesty, the gods in three days’ time——­

King Karnos: 

Stop!  Is it not usual to begin with certain words? [A pause.]

Voice-of-the-Gods: 

It is written and hath been said... that the gods cannot lie.

King Karnos: 

That is right.

Voice-of-the-Gods: 

That the gods cannot lie.

King Karnos: 

Yes.  Yes.

Voice-of-the-Gods: 

In three days’ time the gods will destroy this city for vengeance upon some man, unless all men desert it.

King Karnos: 

The gods will destroy Thek!

Voice-of-the-Gods: 

Yes.

King Karnos: 

When will this happen?

Voice-of-the-Gods: 

It must be in three days’ time.

King Karnos: 

How will it happen?

Voice-of-the-Gods: 

Why.  It will happen.

King Karnos: 

How?

Voice-of-the-Gods: 

Why... there will be a sound... as the riving of wood... a sound as of thunder coming up from the ground.  A cleft will run like a mouse across the floor.  There will be a red light, and then no light at all, and in the darkness Thek shall tumble in.

    [The King sits in deep thought.  Exit Prophet slowly; he begins to
    weep, then casts his cloak over his face.  He stretches out his arms
    to grope his way and is led by the hand.  The King sits thinking.]

Tharmia: 

Save us, your Majesty.

Arolind: 

Save us.

Ichtharion: 

We must fly, your Majesty.

Ludibras: 

We must escape swiftly.

[The King sits still in silence.  He lifts a stick on his right to beat a little silver bell; but puts it down again.  At last he lifts it up and strikes the bell.  An Attendant enters.]

King Karnos: 

Bring back that prophet. [Attendant bows and exits.]

    [The King looks thoughtful.  The rest have a frightened
    look.  Re-enter Prophet.]

King Karnos: 

When the gods prophesy rain in the season of rain, or the death of an old man, we believe them.  But when the gods prophesy something incredible and ridiculous, such as happens not nowadays, and hath not been heard of since the fall of Bleth, then our credulity is overtaxed.  It is possible that a man should lie; it is not possible that the gods should destroy a city nowadays.