_God!—God of the burning soul!_ _Lord of the clanging sword!_ _God, our God, from Thy kindling goal,_ _Answer us, answer, Lord!_ _How far and blind_ _Shall the kings of our kind_ _Beguile our hearts on their paths abhorred,_ _Ere thou, O Christ of a race made whole,_ _Come in Thy world-accord?_ TENTH ACTION (The Wounded Pedlar) _STAGE A_ While the OUTCASTS have been approaching, CASPAR has come forth from the Place of the Tree and watched them coming. Now, where he joins BELSHASAR and MELCHIOR, the THREE KINGS call, in song, to the dim Figures who draw near. [Sidenote: _Carol 8. Trio and Solo. Ballad of the Kings and the Pedlar_] THE THREE KINGS _Who are ye that come singing in darkness,_ _Outcast in the desert so late?_ CLAUS _O Kings, it is me, Claus the Pedlar,_ _And these be my children and mate._ THE THREE KINGS _Who are those there, your comrades, beside you:_ _Those shadows, say, who should they be?_ CLAUS _They be Death, and his young brother, Sorrow,_ _And his old brother, Poverty._ THE THREE KINGS _Nay, but who is that other amidst them,_ _That lifteth her face: What is she?_ CLAUS _That is Song, and she is their sister_ _Who waiteth upon them, all three._ (CLAUS, RUTH and the two CHILDREN have now joined the THREE KINGS.) CASPAR _Goodman, why are the eyes of your woman_ _So weary of look and so wild?_ CLAUS _He hath broken our home, hath King Herod,_ _And killed us our new-born child._ _Now tell us, ye Kings that be Wise Men,_ _Now tell us, where darkly we roam:_ _What right hath a king of a pedlar_ _To rob him his child and his home?_ MELCHIOR _A king hath the right of his power_ _To raise high his glory and crown._ CLAUS _Then it’s Claus hath the right of a pedlar_ _To pull his high glory adown._ CASPAR _A king hath his host and his captains_ _To shatter the weak with his horde._ CLAUS _Then it’s Claus he will be his own captain_ _To sharpen the edge of his sword._ BELSHASAR _Nay, a king hath the might of his lordship_ _’Tis death for his slave to defy._ CLAUS _Then it’s me hath the right of my manship_ _To master his might or to die._ _For ’tis God is my King and not Herod,_ _And God he keepeth no slave;_ _And liever than live Herod’s henchman_ _I’ll lie a free man in the grave._ _So I dared him his host and his captains,_ _And struck for my babe a sword blow;_ _And ’tis here they have broken my body;_ _With Death now right soon must I go._ CASPAR Nay, cheerly, Claus! Cheerly, goodwife and kiddies! Now you have wandered to a lucky place. Our Evergreen shall heal your hurt. Run, Elf, And fetch him balsam gum to balm his wounds. (ELF runs within.)