HEROD AND MARIAMNE ACT I SCENE 1 _A Castle on Zion. A large Audience-Chamber._ JOAB, SAMEAS, ZERUBABEL _and his Son_ PHILO, TITUS, JUDAS, _and many others_. _Enter_ HEROD. JOAB (_advancing towards the King_). I’m back again. HEROD. I’ll speak with you anon. Announce the weightiest first! JOAB (_retreating: aside_). The weightiest! I had a kind of notion ’twere to learn Whether my head sits shoulder-tight or not. HEROD (_beckoning to_ JUDAS). How is it with the fire? JUDAS. With the fire? Know you already what I came to tell? HEROD. At midnight it broke out; I was the first To mark it, and the first to call the watch. Am I at fault, or did I wake yourself? JUDAS. It is extinguished. (_Aside._) Ha, then it is true The mummer dogs the town-ways in disguise When others are asleep! Then bridle tongue! A chance may prick it blind against his ear! HEROD. I saw when all was in a reel of flames A woman, young, through the window of a house; She seemed quite sense-numbed. Was this woman saved? JUDAS. She’d none of it. HEROD. She’d none of it? JUDAS. By Heaven, She made defence against the force essayed To bear her off; she laid about with hands And feet; she clutched and clung to the bed On which she sat, shrieking “that very hour She’d chosen for a death by her own hands. And now that death was come by lucky chance!” HEROD. She must have been a maniac. JUDAS. Possibly The poignancy of pain gave her the wrench. Her husband had just died the moment ere then. His corpse, still warm, was lying in his bed. HEROD (_aside_). That tale’s in point: I’ll tell’t to Mariamne And fix her eyes i’ the very telling! (_Aloud._) This woman Has had no child belike; in the other case The child shall be my care; as for herself, Let her have rich and princely burial. I feel she was among all women queen. SAMEAS (_advancing towards_ HEROD). A burial? I protest the thing can’t be, Or, at the least, not in Jerusalem, For it is written---- HEROD. Are you not known to me? SAMEAS. You’ve had ere now a chance to make acquaintance; I was the tongue once of the Sanhedrim When it was dumb before you. HEROD. Sameas, I hope you know me too. Hard on the heel You have pursued the youngling, and were lief To make the hangman richer by the head Of that same youngling. I forgive your deeds As man and King. Your neck still carries yours. SAMEAS. If for the grace that bade you leave it me I dare not use it, here it is! That were A worse mischance than loss for good and all. HEROD.