So that’s the feast? Why _there_ I saw feasts, look ye, Where never fruit went past the lips if not Brought from some foreign part; where penalty, Oft the death-penalty, was fixed if ever A single water-drop were drunk; where people All trussed with hempen cerements and with pitch Beplastered, in the garden-parks at nights Were burnt for torches---- MOSES. Peace! What evil then Had those poor fellows on the satrap done? ART. Done? Naught at all! With us a funeral Is far more gorgeous than a wedding here. MOSES. And I suppose you gobble up your dead? It pairs well with the rest o’ the tale! ART. But then Is it not true as well that once your Queen Melted a pearl to nothing in her wine, That was more costly than the King’s whole realm, And that she gave this wine unto a beggar Who gulleted it down like common stuff? MOSES. It is not true, thank God! ART. (_to_ JEHU). Well--but you said it! JEHU. Because I felt it was a brave thing for her, And such is told of the Egyptian Woman. MOSES. Be off with you! ART. (_pointing to the roses which_ JEHU _carries_). Real roses! Why they’re cheap. Among our folk we’ve silvern ones and golden. These should be sent to other lands where flowers Are costly--rare as gold and silver here. [_The servants scatter. The guests, among them_ SOEMUS, _have been assembling during the latter half of this scene. Music and dancing._ SILO _and_ JUDAS _detach themselves from the others and advance to the foreground_. SILO. What does this mean? JUDAS. You ask what does this mean? The King is coming back, and that to-day. SILO. You think so? JUDAS. Can you ask? Could there well be Another ground than this for such a feast? Go, practise some new-fangled bob o’ the back! SILO. Yet it was said that---- JUDAS. Sham and Flam, as ever, If it were said some evil overtook him, But quite in order, since there’s many a one That wishes him this evil. Do men dance In houses where there’s wailing for the dead? SILO. Then soon there’ll be a deal of blood set pouring-- The dungeons since the outbreak are cram full. JUDAS.