Act I: Scene II

JOAD.Princess, the time's accomplished, I must speak!You may conceal your rescued charge no longer.The guilty vauntings of Jehovah's foes,Misdeeming against Him His silence deep,Too long of falsehood's taxed His promises:What do I say? Success imparting lifeInto their fury, even on our shrinesYour cruel stepmother would offer upTo Baal idolatrous incense. Let us showThe infant monarch, whom your hands have saved,Raised in the temple 'neath the Lord's defence.He will possess the courage of our princes;His mind already mounts above his years.Before my voice explains his destiny,I go to offer him to God, by WhomOur sovereigns rule; our Levites and our priests,Immediately assembling, I to themThe offspring of their princes will declare.

JOSABET.Knows he his name and noble parentage?

JOAD.He answers only to Eliacin,And by his mother thinks himself abandoned,To whom I have in pity served as father.

JOSABET.Alas! what perils I have known him 'scape!What peril is he nigh to come to, still?

JOAD.What! does your faith, already weak, shrink back?

JOSABET.To your wise counsels, lord, I yield myself:For, from the day I snatched that child from death,Into your hands I've placed the care of him;Dreading the violence of my love, I have,As much as possible, e'en shunned his sight,For fear, when seeing him, some foolish griefShould bring to light my secret with my tears.But, above all, I have believed it goodTo consecrate three days and nights entireTo tears and prayers. However, may I askOf you to-day, What friends have you preparedTo second you? Will Abner, the brave Abner,Come to defend us? Has he taken oathTo show himself beside his king?

JOAD.Though we can be assured of Abner's faith,He even knows not yet, we have a king.

JOSABET.To whom do you confide the care of Joas?Obed or Ammon does that honour favour?The benefits showered on them by my sire--

JOAD.To Athaliah they have sold themselves.

JOSABET.Whom, then, do you engage against her guards?

JOAD.Have I not said? Our Levites and our priests.

JOSABET.I know that under your foreseeing careTheir numbers are redoubled, secretlyAssembled near you; that full of loveFor you, for Athaliah boundless hate,A solemn oath anticipating, bindsThem to the son of David, when revealed;But with that noble fire with which they burnCan they, alone, avenge their prince's cause?For such great object is their zeal sufficient?Doubt you that Athaliah, at the wordFirst spread abroad--that Ochoziah's sonIs here concealed--will fail her barbarous troopOf strangers to collect about the temple,And violate its gates? Will it suffice'Gainst them to place your sacred ministers,Who never scattered but their victims' blood;Who, raising to the Lord their harmless hands,Can only groan and pray for our offences?Perhaps, when in their arms, Joas pierced with wounds--

JOAD.Then count you God for nought who fights for us!God, who protects the orphans' innocence,And in their weakness testifies His power;God, who hates tyrants, who in JezreelSwore Jezabel and Ahab to uproot;God, who smote Joram, husband of their daughter,And even to his son pursued their house;God, whose avenging arm, awhile withheld,Is always threatening o'er that impious race:

JOSABET.And 'tis His rigid justice on those kingsThat throes me for my wretched brother's son.For who can say that child, at birth, was notCondemned with them--included in their guilt?That God, for David's sake, will grant him favour,And separate him from a hateful race?Alas! the horrible perplexing state,In which heaven represents itself to me,Haunts me incessantly, and frights my soul.The chambers gorged with princes massacred--Inexorable Athaliah, armedWith poniard, fires her barbarous soldieryUnto the carnage, and pursues the courseOf her assassinations. Left for dead,Joas strikes my sight! Methinks I still beholdHis nurse, distracted, throw her feeble formIn vain before the murderers; and him,Extended on the earth, clasp to her breastI take him up all bloody--with my tearsBathing his visage--bring him back to life;And still in terror, or caressing me,I feel his innocent arms upon me press.Great God! let not my love be fatal to him,The precious relic of the loyal David:Brought up within Thy house to love Thy law,He knows no other father yet than Thee.About to attack a homicidal queen,If peril's aspect terrifies my faith,If flesh and blood to-day, bewildered being,Have too great part in tears I shed for him,Heir of Thy sacred promises, preserve him,And punish me alone for all my frailty!

JOAD.Your griefs are crimeless, Josabet; but GodWould have us trust in His paternal care.Upon the son who fears Him He does notCall blindly in His wrath to answer forHis sire's impiety. All that remainStill faithful Hebrews, will come forth to-dayTo make their vows anew; all that revereThe race of David, Athaliah hate!Joas will affect them with his modesty,Through which appears to glow his royal blood,And our example, by His very voiceThe Lord supporting, will moreover speakWithin His temple straight unto their hearts.Two unbelieving kings in turns have braved Him;Tis now imperative a king be raisedUpon the throne, who shall avow hereafterThat, to the honour of his ancestors,God caused him, by the influence of His priests,To re-ascend; and, by their hands, hath snatchedHim, Joas, from the oblivion of the tomb,To light again the fire of David's ashes.Great God! if Thou foreseest that of his raceUnworthy, he will stray from David's footsteps,Yea, let him be as fruit whilst growing, plucked,Or blighted in its bloom by hostile blast!But if this child, obedient to Thy rule,Is to be useful aid in Thy designs,Restore the sceptre to the rightful heir;Give into my weak hands his potent foes;Confound the councils of the cruel queen!Deign, deign, my God, on Mathan and on herTo cast the spirit of vanity and falsehood,Fatal forerunner of the fall of kings!Adieu; the hour is pressing. Unto you,His sister and our son advancing, bringThe daughters of the families most devout.