My lord, you are like a rushing river.
OZIAS. You have seen my heart.
JUDITH. I have seen it.
OZIAS. And what say you?
_There is the sudden sound of a disturbance. Enter, from back, soldiers,
holding_ Achior, _and a group of excited citizens_. Haggith _appears at
the house-door._
OZIAS (_fiercely_). What! Are my commands no more than the wind in the
corn, and is there to be naught but tumult within the walls of this
city?
VOICES IN THE GROUP. An Assyrian! An Assyrian!
FIRST SOLDIER. Lord Ozias! We saw this man lying bound at the foot of
the hill, and we descended and loosed him and brought him privily into
Bethulia by the secret way. And now we present him to my lord.
OZIAS Fools! Then no longer is the secret way secret.
VOICES. Slay him! Stone him! Whip the dog!
JUDITH (_nobly scornful, to the crowd_). Oh! Brave! Oh! Men of courage
and high valour!
OZIAS (_to_ Achior). Who are you?
ACHIOR. Achior.
OZIAS. Your condition?
ACHIOR (_with calm, genial candour_). Captain of all the Ammonites in
the army of Holofernes.
JUDITH. Let them loose him, Lord Ozias. His eyes are not the eyes of
treachery.
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