Presently enter the Citizens, some with victuals and fruit.  One touches a beggar’s arm and then another’s.)

CITIZEN They are cold; they have turned to stone. (All abase themselves foreheads to the floor.)

ONE We have doubted them.  We have doubted them.  They have turned to stone because we have doubted them.

ANOTHER They were the true gods.

ALL They were the true gods.

THE FIRST ACT OF KING ARGIMENES AND THE UNKNOWN WARRIOR

  King Argimenes
  Zarb (a slave born of slaves)
  An Old Slave Slaves of King Darniak
  A Young Slave
  Slaves

  King Darniak
  The King’s Overseer
  A Prophet
  The Idol-Guard
  The Servant of the King’s Dog

  Queen Otharlia
  Queen Oxara
  Queen Cahafra Queens of King Darniak
  Queen Thragolind
  Guards and Attendants

ACT I

Time:  A long time ago.  SCENE:  The dinner-hour on the slave-fields of King Darniak.

(The Curtain rises upon King Argimenes, sitting upon the ground, bowed, ragged, and dirty, gnawing a bone.  He has uncouth hair and a dishevelled beard.  A battered spade lies near him.  Two or three slaves sit at back of stage eating raw cabbage-leaves.  The tear-song, the chaunt of the low-born, rises at intervals, monotonous and mournful, coming from distant slave-fields.)

KING ARGIMENES This is a good bone; there is juice in this bone.

ZARB I wish I were you, Argimenes.

KING ARGIMENES I am not to be envied any longer.  I have eaten up my bone.

ZARB I wish I were you, because you have been a King.  Because men have prostrated themselves before your feet.  Because you have ridden a horse and worn a crown and have been called Majesty.

KING ARGIMENES When I remember that I have been a king it is very terrible.

ZARB But you are lucky to have such things in your memory as you have.  I have nothing in my memory—­Once I went for a year without being flogged, and I remember my cleverness in contriving it—­I have nothing else to remember.

KING ARGIMENES It is very terrible to have been a king.

ZARB But we have nothing who have no good memories in the past.  It is not easy for us to hope for the future here.

KING ARGIMENES Have you any god?

ZARB We may not have a god because he might make us brave and we might kill our guards.  He might make a miracle and give us swords.

KING ARGIMENES Ah, you have no hope then.

ZARB I have a little hope.  Hush, and I will tell you a secret—­The King’s great dog is ill and like to die.  They will throw him to us.  We shall have beautiful bones then.

KING ARGIMENES Ah!  Bones.

ZARB Yes.  That is what I hope for.  And have you no other hope?  Do you not hope that your nation will arise some day and rescue you and cast off the king and hang him up by his thumbs from the palace gateway?