It gives me no surprise. No, in a Herod nothing gives surprise Who once as stripling on the Sanhedrim Declared a war: who with his gleaming weapon Strode up before his judge and dropped the hint That he himself was Headsman and the Headsman Upon himself no sentence executes, He may as man--Ha, I can see him now As, front to front opposing the High Priest, He leaned against a column ’mid a ring Of his hired bravos, who in robber-hunting Turned robber too--strange metamorphosis! And took our total tally, head for head, As though he stood before a thistle patch And summed in mind a way to weed it clean. ALEX. Yes, yes, that was an hour of hours for him, A moment he may proudly call to mind. A boyish madcap, scarce in his twentieth year, He stands arraigned before the Sanhedrim, Because in stark presumptuous sacrilege He’d arrogated violence on the law; Because his hand unsanctioned executed A death-decree you had not yet pronounced. The dead man’s widow, as he treads the threshold, Counters him with her curse: within there sits All in Jerusalem that’s old and grey. But since he comes not sackclothed, and no ashes Bestrew his head, you get a sag in the heart: You think no more with punishment to greet him, You think no more with threatenings to tame him! You say him naught, he laughs you off and goes. SAMEAS. I spoke! ALEX. Yes, when too late! SAMEAS. And had I done it Before that moment it had been too soon. Through reverence for the High Priest I was silent. He was the eldest and the youngest I. ALEX. No matter. Had you courage at that moment To prove you held the simple heart of duty The larger mood would not be urgent now. Then look to’t well if you--Ho, ho! I see Another loophole yet remains if you Scarce relish combat with him, and in truth ’Twere risky play. Best ’ware him. So you’ll enter For a mild bout with lions and with tigers In this brute-battle that he now ordains. SAMEAS. What mean these words? ALEX. You know the fighting-games Of Rome? What, no? SAMEAS. Thank God I know them not. I count it for no jot of gain to know About the heathen but what Moses tells us. Down go my eyelids every single time I see a Roman soldier cross my path, And then I bless my father in his grave That he ne’er gave me tutoring in their tongue. ALEX. And so you do not know that savage beasts Are shipped by them from Africa to Rome In hundreds? SAMEAS. No indeed, I know it not. ALEX.