Three kings from out the Eastern lands are here, They are with costly presents richly laden And at this very moment have arrived. Never were seen more strangely striking figures Nor garments of more wondrous kind than these. SALOME. Conduct them in. [_Exit_ SERVANT. I’ll tell him this at once. So long as they’re with him he will not think On her; and all is over soon with her. [_She goes after_ HEROD. [_The_ SERVANT _conducts in the_ THREE KINGS FROM THE EAST. _They are dressed in strange and curious raiment in such a way that they differ from each other in every particular. A rich retinue follows them, of like characteristics. Gold, incense, and myrrh. Enter_ HEROD, _and_ SALOME _shortly after him_. FIRST KING. O King, all hail! SECOND KING. A blessing on thy House! THIRD KING. A benison to all eternity! HEROD. I thank you. But methinks for such an hour The salutation’s strange. FIRST KING. Was not a son Born to you? HEROD. Me? Oh no! My wife has died. FIRST KING. We have no call to tarry here. SECOND KING. So there’s A second King then here? HEROD. Then there would be None here at all. THIRD KING. There’s here, beside your own, A second stem, it seems, of Kingly blood. HEROD. And why? FIRST KING. It is so. SECOND KING. Yes, it must be so. HEROD. Of that too I know naught. SALOME (_to_ HEROD). In Bethlehem The stem of David still has left a shoot Remaining. THIRD KING. David was a King? HEROD. ’Tis so. FIRST KING. Let us now go even unto Bethlehem! SALOME (_continuing, to_ HEROD). But now it plants its seed alone in beggars. HEROD. I think it, else---- SALOME. I spoke once with a virgin Of David’s house, Mary, I think, her name. I found her fair enough for such a lineage, But she was to a carpenter betrothed And scarcely lifted eyes upon my face When I made question of her name. HEROD. You hear it? SECOND KING. ’Tis naught! We go. HEROD. You will then, ere you go, Acquaint me what has brought you hither. FIRST KING. Reverence Before the King above all Kings. SECOND KING. The wish Ere yet we die to view his countenance. THIRD KING. The holy duty at His feet in homage To lay whatever on earth is costly-rare. HEROD.