Who gave you tidings of Him then? FIRST KING. His star! We journeyed not together and we knew Naught of each other, for our kingdoms lie To furthest East and furthest West, seas flow Between them, lofty mountains sunder them---- SECOND KING. And yet it was the self-same star we saw, The self-same impulse that had seized our hearts; We wandered on the self-same way and met us At last together at the self-same goal---- THIRD KING. Whether a King’s son or a beggar’s son The Child this star has lighted into life Will be uplifted high, and on the Earth No man shall breathe that will not bow to Him. HEROD (_aside_). So speaks the Ancient Book as well! (_Aloud._) May I Make offer of a guide to Bethlehem? FIRST KING (_pointing to Heaven_). We have a guide! HEROD. Then good. And if the Child Be found, I prithee send to me the tidings That I with you may do Him reverence. FIRST KING. It shall be done. Now forth to Bethlehem! [_The_ THREE KINGS _with their retinue leave the stage_. HEROD. It never will be done! [_Enter_ JOAB _and_ TITUS, _followed by_ ALEXANDRA. Ha! JOAB. It is finished! [HEROD _covers up his face_. TITUS. She died, yes, died! But as for me, I have A still more fearful office to perform Than he who brought your word of blood to pass, For I must tell you she was innocent. HEROD. No, Titus, no! [TITUS _is about to speak_. (_Stepping close up to him._) For were that so, you could not Have let her go to death. TITUS. No one was able To hinder that but you. It gives me pain To be against my will your worse than headsman, But if a holy duty yields the dead one, Whoever he may be, the rite of burial, Still holier is the duty from a shame To wash him clean if he deserve it not. This duty now lays law on me alone. HEROD. I see from all you say one only thing-- Her spell in death itself was true to her. Why eats Soemus still my heart? How could he Resist this blinding woman in her life? Even in the dying flash she kindled you. TITUS. Goes jealousy the very grave beyond? HEROD. If I have duped me, if from out your mouth Some other thing than pity now were speaking Too deep by far not to be more than such, Then I must give you warning that your witness Helped to condemn her, that the duty-bond For you had then been this--to give me warning As soon as e’er the tiniest doubt had come. TITUS.