Yes, you pale ghosts, I mastered you in life, And will in death. I hold an Empire up, A thing that IS; no glimmering dream of boys Or what might be, but will not till men change; No phantom Paradise of vengeance glutted By poor men upon rich men, but a world Rising and doing its work and lying down Because my fierceness keeps the wolves at bay. And yet, those Jews, even at my palace door, So Haman said, have had my death contrived. What if that captain be in league with them? Guard! Is Hydaspes there? GUARD. He is here, great King. Hydaspes, the King calls. [HYDASPES _enters_.] HYDASPES. Lord! Do you call? AHASUERUS. Come in. Let fall the hanging. Come you there Into the moonlight, that I see your face. [HYDASPES _comes down Left_.] Let me be sure that no one crawls behind you. Hold out your hands, so; let me see the fingers. Stay there. No nearer. You have travelled far? HYDASPES. I have been far, among the Indian lands. AHASUERUS. And saw strange peoples? HYDASPES. Some. AHASUERUS. Which were the strangest? HYDASPES. Those of Tibet, who made their pence of gold, And reckoned costly things by cups of water. AHASUERUS. What next seemed strange to you? HYDASPES. The Tartar horsemen Who live on cheese of mare’s milk and go on For ever over never-ending grass, And have no home except the black felt tent And the great plain and the great sky and silence. AHASUERUS. A good life, that, for men. Who, next to those? HYDASPES. The race of Sittras by the sacred river; They are all men, grown grey; no women there. They have put by their wives and families, Their crowns, their swords, their households and their cares, And seek for wisdom there, until they die. AHASUERUS. Do they find wisdom? HYDASPES. No, but they find peace. AHASUERUS. Do they, by Heaven; as a dead man does. Wisdom is life upon the tickle edge, Not the blind staring of the stupefied At nothing out of nothing. I envy you For travelling thus and seeing all these things, Which I shall only hear of. Tell me now, When you were wandering, did you meet the Jews? HYDASPES. No, never, Lord. AHASUERUS. Nor heard about their race? HYDASPES. Not in the East. AHASUERUS. But in the West you have? HYDASPES. Yes, here at home. AHASUERUS. What have you heard? HYDASPES.