Yes; the air is delicious. Come, Herodias, our guests await us. Ah! I have slipped! I have slipped in blood! It is an ill omen. It is a very evil omen. Wherefore is there blood here?... and this body, what does this body here? Think you I am like the King of Egypt, who gives no feast to his guests but that he shows them a corpse? Whose is it? I will not look on it. FIRST SOLDIER It is our captain, sire. He is the young Syrian whom you made captain only three days ago. HEROD I gave no order that he should be slain. SECOND SOLDIER He killed himself, sire. HEROD For what reason? I had made him captain. SECOND SOLDIER We do not know, sire. But he killed himself. HEROD That seems strange to me. I thought it was only the Roman philosophers who killed themselves. Is it not true, Tigellinus, that the philosophers at Rome kill themselves? TIGELLINUS There are some who kill themselves, sire. They are the Stoics. The Stoics are coarse people. They are ridiculous people. I myself regard them as being perfectly ridiculous. HEROD I also. It is ridiculous to kill oneself. TIGELLINUS Everybody at Rome laughs at them. The Emperor has written a satire against them. It is recited everywhere. HEROD Ah! he has written a satire against them? Cæsar is wonderful. He can do everything.... It is strange that the young Syrian has killed himself. I am sorry he has killed himself. I am very sorry; for he was fair to look upon. He was even very fair. He had very languorous eyes. I remember that I saw that he looked languorously at Salomé. Truly, I thought he looked too much at her. HERODIAS There are others who look at her too much. HEROD His father was a king. I drove him from his kingdom. And you made a slave of his mother, who was a queen, Herodias. So he was here as my guest, as it were, and for that reason I made him my captain. I am sorry he is dead. Ho! why have you left the body here? I will not look at it--away with it! [_They take away the body._] It is cold here. There is a wind blowing. Is there not a wind blowing? HERODIAS No; there is no wind. HEROD I tell you there is a wind that blows.... And I hear in the air something that is like the beating of wings, like the beating of vast wings. Do you not hear it? HERODIAS I hear nothing. HEROD I hear it no longer. But I heard it. It was the blowing of the wind, no doubt. It has passed away. But no, I hear it again. Do you not hear it? It is just like the beating of wings. HERODIAS I tell you there is nothing. You are ill. Let us go within. HEROD I am not ill. It is your daughter who is sick. She has the mien of a sick person. Never have I seen her so pale. HERODIAS I have told you not to look at her. HEROD Pour me forth wine [_wine is brought_]. Salomé, come drink a little wine with me. I have here a wine that is exquisite. Cæsar himself sent it me. Dip into it thy little red lips, that I may drain the cup. SALOMÉ I am not thirsty, Tetrarch. HEROD