Ackazarpses: 

No, no, Illustrious Lady.  They will not harm you.  They do not know how their fierce looks distress you.  They do not know how delicate you are.

Priest of Horus:  [to Ackazarpses]

Indeed we trust the Queen and none would harm her.

    [Ackazarpses soothes the Queen.]

Rhadamandaspes:  [to Zophernes]

I think we do wrong to doubt her, seeing she is alone.

Zophernes:  [to Rhadamandaspes]

Yet I would that the banquet were over.

Queen:  [to Ackazarpses and the Priest of Horus, but audible to all]

Yet they do not eat the food that I set before them.

Duke of Ethiopia: 

In Ethiopia when we feast with queens it is our custom not to eat at once but to await the Queen till she has eaten.

Queen:  [Eats.]

Behold then, I have eaten.

    [She looks at the Priest of Horus.]

Priest of Horus: 

It has been the custom of all that held my office, from the time when there went on earth the children of the Moon, never to eat till the food is dedicate, by our sacred signs, to the gods. [He begins to wave his hands over the food.]

Queen: 

The King of the Four Countries does not eat.  And you, Prince
Rhadamandaspes, you have given royal wine unto your slave.

Rhadamandaspes: 

O Queen, it is the custom of our dynasty... and has indeed long been so,... as many say,... that the noble should not feast till the base have feasted, reminding us that our bodies even as the humble bodies of the base——­

Queen: 

Why do you thus watch your slave, Prince Rhadamandaspes?

Rhadamandaspes: 

Even to remind myself that I have done as our dynasty doth.

Queen: 

Alas for me, Ackazarpses, they will not feast with me, but mock me because I am little and alone.  O I shall not sleep to-night, I shall not sleep. [She weeps.]

Ackazarpses: 

Yes, yes, Illustrious Lady, you shall sleep.  Be patient and all shall be well and you will sleep.

Rhadamandaspes: 

But Queen, Queen, we are about to eat.

Duke of Ethiopia: 

Yes, yes, indeed we do not mock you.

King of Four Countries: 

We do not mock you, Queen.

Priest of Horus: 

They do not mean to mock you.

Queen: 

They... give my food to slaves.

Priest of Horus: 

That was a mistake.

Queen: 

It was... no mistake.

Priest of Horus: 

The slaves were hungry.

Queen:  [still weeping]

They believe I would poison them.

Priest of Horus: 

No, no, Illustrious Lady, they do not believe that.

Queen: 

They believe I would poison them.

Ackazarpses:  [comforting her]