)
OZIAS. Friend, keep the licence and render it back to Joachim, the high
priest in Jerusalem. For I need it not, and I demanded it only by excess
of prudence such as becomes the governor of a city besieged and
thirsting. But we Bethulians are a faithful and a constant people, and
we have trusted in the Most High. And if perchance any have drunk of the
sanctified wine unknown to me (_with a grimace_)--it shall be denied
utterly, for the sake of seemliness.
MESSENGER. But in the days of trial to come, will not the lord Ozias
have need of the licence?
OZIAS (_grandly_). Friend, return ye to Joachim and say to him that the
Lord has delivered Bethulia from the Assyrians by the subtlety of his
servant Ozias.
MESSENGER (_amazed_). What says my lord?
OZIAS. Yea, this night the head of Holofernes is set on a spear in the
square before the temple, and the Assyrians flee one from another in
disorder, and my hosts are about to descend upon them and rend them to
pieces where they stand foolishly in the valley.
MESSENGER. But this thing is marvellous beyond the understanding of man!
OZIAS. It is indeed marvellous.
MESSENGER.
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