Most true, my child. In this discern the cares Which with unwonted gloom our brows o’erspread Israel ungrateful to their Heavenly Father Forsake his altars and forget his laws Pride violence and rapine waste the land. To inbred evils terrible to bear Are joined proud Ammon’s and Philistia’s bands Who waste the land, and spare nor sex nor age. The few who still remember their Creator In sackcloth clad, raise the repentant voice, Implore his mercy a forgiving grace. As former sins afflict their guilty minds, The injustice done thy father, stings their conscience As humble suppliants they implore forgiveness And entreat your sire to lead his chosen troops To shield his country from proud Ammon’s force His doubtful mind now ponders their request His patriot bosom burns to save his country But latent fears of their returning hatred Repress the generous ardour of his soul. ELIZABETH. Ah, sure he will not hesitate to fly When his loved Israel calls for succour When thousands of our nation ask for aid Who ne’er united with his envious foes To persecute and drive him from his country But now I rejoiced in this obscurity Which saved my father from dread war’s alarms But since my suffering brethren need his aid Dear as he is I yield him for their safety And my suppliant voice unite with theirs To urge his presence in the tented field. (_Enter an attendant._) ATTENDANT. Madam two women ask to be admitted And to your private ear relate their sorrows BETHULAH. Whence come they, what is their dress and mien? ATTENDANT. They both are clothed in Israel’s mourning garb One venerable by years, but more by grief The other young and beauteous as the morn Her gentle mien, a face bedewed with tears Melt every heart to pity, may they have leave to enter? BETHULAH. Conduct them hither. Thy outcasts Israel Shall find a shelter in my humble shed. ELIZABETH. Some sad, disastrous tale of wrongs and woe I stand prepared to hear, Oh my loved country Tho’ a stranger to thee, thou still art dear “Dear as the blood which mantles in my heart.” (_Enter_ MAHALAH _and_ TIRZAH.) BETHULAH. What do I see, the stern Athobat’s wife Mahalah here. MAHALAH.