I see nobody but my daughter's granddaughter, and her I forbid
to speak to me, because being a woman she has the tongue of a woman, and
a woman's tongue is unfavourable to meditation. How should I be told?
OZIAS. I am the governor of this great city of Bethulia.
CHABRIS. You are responsible for this city?
OZIAS. I am.
CHABRIS. Now I understand my misfortune. And the truth was in me when I
said to your mother as she lay dying: Better it is to die without
children than to have them that are ungodly.
OZIAS. Oh! How comely a thing is the judgment of grey hairs!
CHABRIS. You ask me what has brought me at last out of my house. I will
tell you. Thirst! Thirst has brought me out of my house. Every morning
and every evening my great-grandchild serves me with pulse and water.
For five days she has furnished less and less water, and this day--not a
drop! Can one eat pulse without water to drink? Half an hour ago I went
to her to reason with her, and she lay on her bed cracked, and raved
that she herself had not drunk for three days and that there was no
water left in all Bethulia. So I came at last out of my house into the
streets of this city famous for its cool fountains which never fail.
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