So thou saidst before. Think of something new. Here in Galilee I am inclined to be mild and tolerant of goodness. I am told that thou hatest the Pharisees. I hate them too. I am told that thou hatest the priests. I love them not. I am told that thou hatest the Romans. I---- Say, why didst thou spare me? JOHN Sire, my heart failed me. HEROD Failed thee! Before me, whom thou callest "the little"! Art thou flattering me because I have loosened thee from thy chains? JOHN Thou hast not laid me in chains, and canst not loosen me from them. HEROD What ... and yet I made thee falter? JOHN It was Another who threw thee in my way.... And so my heart failed me. HEROD Tell me, Baptist--I call thee by the name I have heard people speak of thee by, and I hope thou wilt not be angry--tell me, Who is that King of the Jews whose image thou danglest before the people?... See, the guards are gone, and thy confidence shall be rewarded. Tell me, who is it? JOHN Sire, I know not. HEROD And so thou deniest thy own creature? JOHN What is my own I deny. HEROD Ha, ha, ha! I have half a mind to summon my little Greek that he may go to school under thee. Listen [_in a low voice_], I too have heard of a King of the Jews who will come with a sword drawn above his head, and he will spare no one who doth not serve him at the right moment. JOHN [_Eagerly._] Who is it, of whom thou speakest? HEROD Master, I do not know. Thou seest thus that I too have a burden of secret anxiety oppressing me, and await the sunrise.... But let me speak with thee seriously, Baptist. Thou hurlest thy arrows of reproach at me on account of the woman I stole.... I could almost pity thee for that. Thou, a great man, mightst have chosen a greater subject than a woman. And knowest thou every day she sharpens those arrows herself for me?... But enough of that. The smiths say that good metal rings true even when it is cracked, and thou ringest true. How dost thou manage it?... I pray thee teach me the way.... What, silent again? JOHN Methinks I know you now, ye smiling scoffers. Ye grow fat on the wit of the market-places; but hunger seizes you, and ye then lift your eyes to the earnest ones, walking on the mountain-tops. HEROD By Bacchus, there lurks some truth in that. But it's not good walking on the mountain-tops. We wait to see you fall; then we shall not smile, but laugh. JOHN But I say unto thee, Sire, thou wilt not laugh. He Who cometh requireth me not. That is why He cast me down.... Gaze into His eyes when He comes, and thou wilt not laugh, even at me. HEROD It seems to me thy reasoning is poor, and revolves in a circle.... And yet there is something that attracts me to thee. Baptist, thou hast so long been my enemy, couldst thou not possibly be my friend? JOHN Sire, meseemeth that to be nobody's enemy and nobody's friend is the right of the lonely. It is their all. Let me keep it. HEROD