Arnold Bennett

“ OZIAS. That is what is in my heart! Behold my heart, and the depths of my heart. Look deep, and deeper, and still you will see naught therein but the beauty and the subtlety of Judith.
JUDITH. It is no common man that with the parched tongue of thirst can talk thus while unspeakable calamity assails the city.
OZIAS. It is Ozias.
JUDITH (gently) . I came not to meet Ozias, but the governor of Bethulia. From my tent I hearkened to the words which he spoke to the people, and the Lord said to me: Go down to him, thou, a woman. And I am here.
OZIAS. The Lord reigns! ”

“ CHABRIS. This vantage-point is new since my day. You have built it here, not to see the Assyrians, but to see Judith. And that is why you have set a guard to keep the street empty.
OZIAS. And if it be so, what then? Old man, you are so old that to confess in your ear is sweet, like murmuring secrets into the grave. If I do come to this place to watch for the marvellous vision of Judith, what then?
CHABRIS. What then? And the populace of Bethulia dying of thirst?
OZIAS. The populace!... Mice! Rats! Beetles! (He makes the motion of crushing with his foot.) ”

“ OZIAS. Blessed be our God!
JUDITH. But how does this matter touch thee, and what is my virtue in thy regard?
OZIAS. Let Holofernes suffice thee, and drive not me also to death with the softness of thy voice. Art thou not aware that the soul of my soul burns for thee and will not wait—the more so since thou hast done a mighty deed and art proved a woman beyond all women?
JUDITH. Nay! I have done naught; but the Lord hath saved Israel by thy hand. ”

“ I meet the governor of this city, and he is Ozias! Ozias! Seven days do men mourn for him that is dead, but for an ungodly man all the days of his life! Why is there no water in Bethulia, sprig?
OZIAS. Old man, meditation is good and solitude is good, but think not because you sit staring all day at your own belly that the sun and stars have ceased to revolve round the earth and the kings of this world to make war. ”

“ Who are you that seek to stand instead of God among the children of men?
OZIAS. Stand instead of God!
JUDITH. Who are you that have tempted God this day? For you cannot find the depth of the heart of man,—how then shall you search out God or comprehend his purpose? Brother, provoke not the Lord our God to anger. For if he will not help us within these five days, he has power to defend us when he will, even every day. Do not bind the counsels of God. For God is not as man that he may be threatened, neither as the son of man that he should be wavering. ”

“ HOLOFERNES. Thou dost not. For I am mad for thee, and thou hast set thy seal upon me for evermore. My heart cannot hold thee, for thou hast filled it to overflowing, and all men see that my heart is full of thee and runneth over. Yea, I have a hundred and two and thirty thousand that bow themselves at my feet and that live and die by my glance. And I am at thy feet and thy glance is my joy and my sorrow according to thy whim. Judith, I entreat thee, command me something. For whatever thou command me, that will I execute. ”

“ INGUR. Ay! A woman in the camps of the Assyrians—she is undone. She is a lamb in a den of terrible tigers. (Comfortingly.) No, no! I will protect thee, but I warn thee that thou art undone. I am honest. (Caresses her.)
HAGGITH (clumsily returning his caress) . Thou wilt not harm me.
INGUR. I will not tear thee to pieces, but thou shalt come away with me. (She timidly strokes him) . Thou hast not the habit of this stroking.
HAGGITH. My mistress commanded me, when I encountered any noble Assyrian, to use him thus. It is true that I have not the habit. Nevertheless I do what I can. ”

“ HOLOFERNES (reflective) . Who would despise these Hebrews that have among them such women as she? (Fiercely) . Surely it is not good that one man among them should be left; for if one were let go he might deceive the whole earth.
JUDITH (advancing a step, appealingly) . Will the wise man cast away a pearl, and will my lord in anger lose his servant for ever?
BAGOAS (to Holofernes) . Let her not speak with my lord alone in my lord's tent.
JUDITH. I would speak with the illustrious prince—and with Bagoas also. (She smiles.)
HOLOFERNES (with a gesture) . I cannot lose thee. ”

“ JUDITH. As Nebuchadnezzar is your god, so is the Lord of Israel mine. And my God laid a secret command upon me to speak with Prince Holofernes alone and with none other in his tent. Thus, and thus only, was it that I refused to speak in the presence even of the mighty Bagoas. But as I withstood you in the valley there, the God of Israel descended upon me and I heard the voice of God in my ear, and the voice said: 'It is permitted to thee to speak with Bagoas also.' Therefore I yielded to the importunity of Prince Holofernes and of Bagoas.
BAGOAS. Your god is a wise god and has discernment. ”

“ But when I tell thee, fall down on thy face.
HAGGITH. Is he a great captain?
INGUR. His mightiness is the chief eunuch of the Prince, and there is none greater than he save only the Prince himself, for Bagoas has charge over all the women of the Prince's tents.
HAGGITH. Women of the Prince's tents?
INGUR. Ay! Wives! Concubines! Virgins! Beyond counting. Didst thou think in thy Hebrew pride, that the Prince was a savage and a barbarian?... Down, damsel! Here is Bagoas. Embrace the earth for thy life's sake. (Haggith obeys.) ”

“ O Lord God of my father Simeon, the Assyrians are multiplied in their power; they trust in shield, and spear, and bow, and sling; and know not that thou art the Lord which breakest battles; the Lord is thy name. Behold their pride, and send thy wrath upon their heads; give into my hand, which am a widow, the power that I have conceived. For thy power standeth not in multitude, nor thy might in strong men. Smite the Assyrians by the deceit of my lips; break down their stateliness by the hand of a woman. ”

“ CHARMIS (hesitating) . Women and old men? But the onslaught against the Assyrians of which I hear?
OZIAS (imperiously) . Go quickly. For who is the governor of this city? Is it thou or is it I?
(Exit Charmis, L.)
(Men and women have gathered joyously in the street.)
VOICES (mockingly, indicating Ingur, with a tendency to horseplay) . The Assyrian! The Assyrian!
OZIAS. Take him to the guard-house and chain him to Achior.
HAGGITH. He shall not go, lord Ozias. For as my mistress beguiled Holofernes, so did I beguile Ingur, and he is my slave. ”

“ My desires are terrible; they will not be withstood; they consume me daily, but daily I am renewed. I am on fire, but by the fierceness of the fire I am strengthened. I was conceived for greatness and my mother bore me for mastery, and the huge earth shall shake with the terror of my commands.... And I am held between thy fingers.
JUDITH. I deny not thy greatness.
OZIAS. Surely thou canst not. For thou too art great. And my greatness yearns to thine.
JUDITH. Wilt thou listen?
OZIAS. I hear.
JUDITH. With this greatness of thine goes deceit and laxity of mind. ”

“ HOLOFERNES. I will be alone. But Bagoas shall stand at the door of the tent.
JUDITH. As my lord wills.
HOLOFERNES (ecstatic, moving a little towards her; she responds) . Fairest among women! Can it be!... The way of God is wondrous.
(A half-veiled Assyrian woman appears through the hangings R., and watches.)
JUDITH (solemnly and significantly) . There are yet hid greater things than this, and thou hast yet seen but a few of his works.
HOLOFERNES (sinking back on the couch, mysteriously afraid) . Sorceress!
(The watcher disappears.)
JUDITH (cooingly) Does my lord shrink from his handmaid? ”

“ You are valiant men, and women lion-hearted. Without you I am naught, and if I defy Holofernes, my fortitude is yours and my resolve springs from you. Charmis has invoked the holy name of the God of Israel. Let Israel not forget its God, for never has the Most High forsaken Israel. Brethren, be of good courage. Let us yet endure five days. Five short days. And if these days pass and the God of Israel turn not his mercy towards us, then will I do according to the word of Charmis. Such is my oath to you. And so it shall be.
Haggith enters from the house of Judith.
HAGGITH. My lord Ozias! ”

“ JUDITH. Holofernes came out of the mountains from the north, and his horsemen covered the hills; and he bragged that he would burn up the borders of Israel, and kill her young men with the sword, and make the virgins as a spoil. But the Almighty Lord hath disappointed the Assyrians by the hand of a woman; and my sandals ravished the eye of Holofernes, and my beauty took his mind prisoner, and the knife passed through his neck. Let all creatures serve the Lord! ”

“ If the God of Israel perchance is merciful, and the city is saved at the eleventh hour, then it will be said in Jerusalem that there is none like Ozias of Bethulia for steadfastness, for he alone by his ardour revived the fainting populace and held firm the city; and great will be my recompense.... But that is a dream. Always I have faced the substance of things, and the substance is that Nebuchadnezzar has decreed to rule over the whole earth, and from the east to the west there is no living man that shall not bow down before Nebuchadnezzar. Bethulia will fall. ”

“ BAGOAS. Yea, highness. But my lord has but this moment appointed a great feast with his captains at sunset. How then shall he eat and drink with the lady Judith?
HOLOFERNES. Thick-skull! Speak not to me of my captains! The Council of the Captains was as dust in my mouth, and I could not away with it. Therefore I sharply dismissed the Council, and soothed their damnable pride with the promise of a mighty feast. But what care I for the captains? My heart thirsts horribly for this Hebrew woman, and I am full of a great madness. ”

“ OZIAS. It is a day memorable beyond all the days of Bethulia—because Judith, the widow of Manasses, has issued from her house and from her secrecy, and because after long years she has lightened the city with her countenance.
JUDITH (smiling) . We hold converse with words, but the shadow of destruction is over us, and our hearts are darkened, and we hide our hearts in speech. Ozias, governor of Bethulia, show me your heart. ”

“ OZIAS. My hand is terrible.
ACHIOR. Thus it happened. When the children of Israel had shut up the passages of the hill country and had fortified all the tops of the high hills, Holofernes was very angry. And he called the captains of Ammon and said to them: Tell me now, ye sons of Chanaan, who these Israelites are that dwell in the hill country, and wherein is their power and strength, and why they have determined not to come and meet me, more than all the inhabitants of the west? And I, Achior, answered the question of Holofernes. ”

“ Take the sack and do as my lady hath ordained by me, Haggith.
OZIAS (to men, who hesitate) . Take the sack. It is my command.
(Exeunt two men, L., with sack.)
HAGGITH. Next, ye shall send men for water to the wells beneath the city that all may drink, for already the Assyrians are fled from the wells, knowing that Holofernes is dead. And ye shall send forth all your army into the valley to fall upon the Assyrians, for they are afraid of the judgment of God, and none dare abide in the sight of his neighbour. Neither can they stand against the chosen race of God. ”

“ But meanwhile, if I go crouching to the feet of Holofernes, what will happen and what will come to pass? Surely it will come to pass that the monster who has sat down to watch us die of thirst will slay our little children and our old men, and dishonour our women, and ravish our innocent virgins; for the enslaving of the conquered will not content his anger nor satisfy the lust of his great hosts. Shall these things be? I say they shall not be. But what am I, save the servant of the citizens of Bethulia? ”