[A shield has been brought.]

You women, each do give the child a hand. 
Slipp’ry his first throne, and the second too! 
Thou, Garceran, do thou stay at my side,
For equal wantonness we must atone—­
So let us fight as though our strength were one. 
And hast thou purged thyself of guilt, as I,
Perhaps that quiet, chaste, and modest maid
Will hold thee not unworthy of her hand! 
Thou shalt improve him, Dona Clara, but
Let not thy virtue win his mere respect,
But lend it charm, as well.  That shields from much.

[Trumpets in the distance.]

Hear yet They call us.  Those whom I did bid
To help against you, they are ready all
To help against the common enemy,
The dreaded Moor who threats our boundaries,
And whom I will send back with shame and wounds
Into the and desert he calls home,
So that our native land be free from ill,
Well-guarded from within and from without. 
On, on!  Away!  God grant, to victory!

[The procession has already formed.  First, some vassals, then the shield with the child, whom the women hold by both hands, then the rest of the men.  Lastly, the KING,_ leaning in a trustful manner on GARCERAN.]

ESTHER (turning to her father).

Seest thou, they are already glad and gay;
Already plan for future marriages! 
They are the great ones, for th’ atonement feast
They’ve slain as sacrifice a little one,
And give each other now their bloody hands.

[Stepping to the centre.]

But this I say to thee, thou haughty King,
Go, go, in all thy grand forgetfulness! 
Thou deem’st thou’rt free now from my sister’s power,
Because the prick of its impression’s dulled,
And thou didst from thee cast what once enticed. 
But in the battle, when thy wavering ranks
Are shaken by thy en’mies’ greater might,
And but a pure, and strong, and guiltless heart
Is equal to the danger and its threat;
When thou dost gaze upon deaf heav’n above,
Then will the victim, sacrificed to thee,
Appear before thy quailing, trembling soul—­
Not in luxuriant fairness that enticed,
But changed, distorted, as she pleased thee not—­
Then, pentinent, perchance, thou’lt beat thy breast,
And think upon the Jewess of Toledo!

(Seizing her father by the shoulder.)

Come, father, come!  A task awaits us there.

[Pointing to the side door.]

ISAAC (as though waking from sleep). 
             But first I’ll seek my gold!

ESTHER.  Think’st still of that
             In sight of all this misery and woe! 
             Then I unsay the curse which I have spoke,
             Then thou art guilty, too, and I—­and she! 
             We stand like them within the sinners’ row;
             Pardon we, then, that God may pardon us!