SIMON As I went seaward I met men coming to the yearly feast. These told me of his works, they spoke of marvels, Of healings and of resurrections. He suffers the old wrong of the downtrodden. ACTE Are there no wrongs then in our Africa? SIMON The whole earth groans beneath the persecuted; The outcast, the despised cry out to me. ACTE And you whom they trust to save them turn aside To this one man. SIMON I have not turned aside, yet I may help him. ACTE Go back. Your peril grows. You will be trapped. SIMON Rome cannot take me. ACTE It is not Rome I fear but this Judean. SIMON [_Moving toward the doorway of Pilate’s house._] Why does the wife of Pilate stay, Having summoned me with horsemen? ACTE [_Going with him._] Doubtless she forgets. Her whims are many. SIMON I must hear from her What they have done with him. ACTE [_Placing herself before him._] Simon! Mists are before your eyes, Mists of forgetting. You have forgotten Battus and all your holy vows before the priests of Libya and Egypt to bring him back to Africa Rome’s conqueror. [_She calls off left to BATTUS. The ATTENDANTS enter with him._] Come, lad, sit here. [_She leads him to a seat at centre._] Let’s play at worlds for Simon. Who are you? BATTUS I am Battus. ACTE And who is Battus? BATTUS Son of Cyrenian kings and kings of Egypt, Son of all Africa. ACTE Who shall be your army? BATTUS The slaves of Rome. ACTE Who shall lead them up to victory? BATTUS Simon and I. ACTE And then? BATTUS They shall be free. All wrongs shall be righted. The great shall be brought low, the lowly raised. ACTE How shall we reach our own? BATTUS Through blood and fire. ACTE Who shall be our own? BATTUS All those who suffer wrongs, the poor, the captives. ACTE [_To SIMON._] What do you say, now you have heard the faith he lives by? SIMON Oh, I have not forgotten. We shall go forward. ACTE To triumph. SIMON Yes, to triumph. ACTE Through fire and blood. SIMON Through fire and blood. ACTE Ah, I have never doubted the fierce heart in you. Never be tamed. [_PROCULA appears in her doorway. ACTE sees her and moves apprehensively aside. PROCULA sees SIMON._] PROCULA You are the Libyan captain? [_ACTE waves BATTUS and her attendants off left._] SIMON The wife of Pilate sees him. PROCULA [_Going swiftly to him._] You have seen Jesus the Nazarene? SIMON I have seen him. PROCULA Save him. SIMON When is he to be tried? PROCULA He has been tried. SIMON [_To ACTE._] Who has deceived me? [_To PROCULA._] Has he been condemned? PROCULA Not yet, not yet. SIMON Your husband holds him. PROCULA I have no power in this. SIMON You sent for me. PROCULA Save this one man. I know your power. ACTE Remember Cyrene, Egypt and our world, Battus and Africa. SIMON