Nay, not yet wholly so! Only a short time since there was a fire Foretold by one--a fire that came to pass. MAR. Granted; but ’twas himself at mid of night Applied the kindling flame. SAMEAS. Woman, blaspheme not! MAR. And I blaspheme not! No, I say what happened. The man’s a Pharisee like you yourself. He speaks like you, he raves like you. The fire Was meant to prove to us that he was truly A prophet, and could see into the future. But still a soldier caught him in the act. SAMEAS. A Roman? MAR. Yes. SAMEAS. He lied! He was perhaps Suborned. He was suborned thereto by Herod, Suborned by you yourself. MAR. Sirrah, your place! SAMEAS. You are his wife, you are the wife o’ the miscreant Who overweens him into the Messiah. If you can lock him in your arms and kiss him You can do other things for him as well. ALEX. He overweens him now into Messiah? SAMEAS. He does! He flung the words into my teeth When to the dungeon he had ordered me. I shrieked to God. I cried--“Look on thy folk And send Messiah unto us, whom Thou Hast promised for the time of direst need! The direst need’s upon us!” Then replied he With a proud curl o’ the lip--“He’s long since here; But ye--ye know it not! ’Tis I myself!” ALEX. Now, Mariamne? SAMEAS. Then, with godless wit He proved that we’re a Folk of scatter-brains And he alone has got an uncracked pate. We did not dwell for naught on the Dead Sea That is devoid of motion--ebb and flood-- And therefore poisons all the world with pest. It was a trusty mirror of ourselves! And he was bent to pang us into living Were he compelled e’en Moses’ numskull book-- So unabashed his words--with force to tatter. It was for that sole cause our river Jordan, Whose clear wave laughed and leapt throughout our land, Symbolled us not instead of a dull bog. ALEX. He flung the mask so wholly from him? SAMEAS. Ay! And yet perchance he deemed me, when he did it, As good as dead by then, for straight thereon He gave the word of death. MAR. He had been goaded. He found revolt for greeting. SAMEAS. Now I warn you What is your duty. Be renounced from him As he has now renounced his God. Thereby You can chastise him, for he loves you dear. My only notion, when Soemus freed me, Was that you’d done it. If you do it not Chide not the shaft that from the welkin falls As undeserved when it strikes you with him. I go to sacrifice. ALEX. Take then the victims From out my stall. SAMEAS.