OZIAS.  Ah!

MESSENGER.  And here is the licence. (Offering it.)

OZIAS.  Friend, keep the licence and render it back to Joachim, the high priest in Jerusalem.  For I need it not, and I demanded it only by excess of prudence such as becomes the governor of a city besieged and thirsting.  But we Bethulians are a faithful and a constant people, and we have trusted in the Most High.  And if perchance any have drunk of the sanctified wine unknown to me (with a grimace)—­it shall be denied utterly, for the sake of seemliness.

MESSENGER.  But in the days of trial to come, will not the lord Ozias have need of the licence?

OZIAS (grandly).  Friend, return ye to Joachim and say to him that the Lord has delivered Bethulia from the Assyrians by the subtlety of his servant Ozias.

MESSENGER (amazed).  What says my lord?

OZIAS.  Yea, this night the head of Holofernes is set on a spear in the square before the temple, and the Assyrians flee one from another in disorder, and my hosts are about to descend upon them and rend them to pieces where they stand foolishly in the valley.

MESSENGER.  But this thing is marvellous beyond the understanding of man!

OZIAS.  It is indeed marvellous.

MESSENGER.  And when Joachim enquires of me who hath taken Holofernes the great captain to behead him, and by what device, what shall I answer to Joachim?

OZIAS.  You will answer that Ozias, knowing the weakness of Holofernes, sent down to him secretly a woman, a certain Judith of Bethulia, and upon the counsel of Ozias the woman by wiles compassed the death of Holofernes as I have told you.

MESSENGER.  It is a tale which fathers shall tell to their children, and to their children’s children, and men shall wonder thereat for all time.  And now your servant will say to you a thing which has not been told to him but which his ear has heard.  It was said among the mighty that if my lord Ozias should save Judea from the heathen, he would receive notable advancement and be raised up among the great ones of the land. (Ozias bows.) Yet will Joachim not be astonished, for it was spoken in Jerusalem that among all the Israelites there is none like the lord Ozias for cunning and obstinacy in defence.

OZIAS (nettled).  Nevertheless it is meet that Joachim should be astonished, for with five thousand have I set at naught one hundred and two and thirty thousand, and in the chronicles of Israel there is written down no deed to match the delivery of Judea from the Assyrians.

MESSENGER.  The God of Israel hath saved Israel.

OZIAS.  The God of Israel hath save Israel,—­by my hand.  Go ye, and when you have eaten and drunk, set ye forth again for Jerusalem.

(The Messenger salutes and exit, L.)

(Throughout this scene excited and joyous men and women frequently pass the street in twos and threes.)