DRAKE. Ship of Jason, humph! Tradition grand, perverted to a Grecian fable. That is the ark of Noah! I never told you how at Fez, a sage once took strange fancy to me, and taught me knowledge of the spheres. A man of wonderment and awe, he came and went unquestioned and unknown, without a friend or country, yet with boundless wealth. Some thought he was an Indian necromancer, some a Jew, some said he was an Arab, and practised Alchemy. He cast my horoscope, and told my destiny. “Born,” he said, “for great adventures, strange revolutions on the sea, a pebble in the sling of God to smite the power of Spain, and raise thy country to her place.” (_He walks musing_). JOHN DRAKE (_with emotion_). The story, brother, is full of wonder, strange being this! DRAKE. He showed me by the stars—that the celestial sphere was made at Babel—a record of the deluge when the great event was new. Zill-Allah, so he called himself, “Shadow of God,” knew all languages, the sacred tongues of India, Egypt, Juda. The story of the flood is in them all, because they came from Babel. The dispersed who formed the nations brought them thence, who else had all been dumb, for language is beyond invention, ’tis the gift of God. In that high tower of rebel pride were lodged the sciences. The heavens were charted, the celestial sphere was formed, and when the awful deluge filled their minds, they wrote its tragic memory in the stars. Argha, Arg, Ark, the same in every tongue. The ship of Noah. (_He looks at his companion who is deeply absorbed_, _then points up_). Behold the raven on the serpents back, there is the dove—Bright bird of hope—its symbol, there the great Father of mankind, the victim and the altar, around the monsters of the deep and the wild waves—(_Both are earnest and absorbed when the ship rocks and slides_, _they are startled and agitated_.) DRAKE (_startled but calm_). Thy will be done. JOHN DRAKE (_much excited_). God of mercy! She is breaking up! All hands on deck! (_He runs about alarmed and screaming_) she is breaking up, all hands on deck. (_The crew rush upon deck in alarm_, _the ship rolls to one side_, _then falls off the rock into the sea with a heavy plunge_, _as if overwhelmed_—_a loud scream from the sailors_, _she suddenly rights and glides off uninjured_, _the crew recovering from their alarm break into a loud cheer_). CREW. Hurrah! Hurrah! DRAKE. Down on your knees and give thanks for your deliverance! (_The ship is hauled off_). _Scene changes_. SCENE V.—ROOM IN HAMPTON COURT. _The_ QUEEN _alone waiting for_ LORD WILLIAM HOWARD, EARL OF EFFINGHAM. _She walks back and forward in deep abstraction past a large steel mirror_. _She is startled and arrested by catching sight of the reflection of herself_.