Act V: Scene II

JOAD.Must I believe my eyes,Dear Abner? By what way have you been hereConducted, through a camp besieging us?'Twas said that Ahab's sacrilegious daughterHad loaded with vile chains your generous hands.

ABNER.Yes, sire, she feared my fortitude and zeal.Confining me's the least part of her rage;In horrid dungeon by her orders buried,I was expecting that the temple burntTo ashes, and not satiated yet,With many floods of slaughter, she would come,And rid me of a troublesome life, cut shortThe days which would a thousand times have swelledThe grief of being survivor of my kings.

JOAD.What miracle has brought about your pardon?

ABNER.God only knows what passes in her heart.She sent for me, and with distracted airSaid, "see those soldiers quite surround that temple,A vengeful fire's about to make it ashes;Thy God 'gainst mine can not defend Himself.Howe'er His priests--but they must make quick haste,On two conditions may redeem their lives--That in my power Eliacin be given,With treasures which I know are known to them,Amassed by David, formerly your king,Intrusted to the high-priest's secret care.Go tell them at that price that they may live."

JOAD.What counsel, Abner, think you we should follow?

ABNER.If, in effect, 'tis true that all the goldOf David's secret treasure you preserve,And from the hands of that rapacious queenYou may thereby save all that's rich and rare,Why, yield it up. Would you that foul assassinsCome break the altar, burn the cherubim,And laying on our ark a violent hand,With your own blood pollute the sanctuary?

JOAD.Would it become us, Abner, from kind hearts,To give to torture an unfortunate child,Whom God Himself confided to my care;And at his life's expense redeem our own?

ABNER.Alas! God sees my heart. O that our GodWould make the queen forget an innocent child,And that the blood of Abner would contentHer cruelty, and that my death would calmThe heavens that torture her! But what availsYour useless tenderness? If you all perish,Is death the less to him? And does our GodBid you to dare impossibilities?Submitting to a heartless tyrant's law,Moses, left by his mother at the Nile,Was seen almost at birth condemned to fall:But God, preserving him beyond all hope,Made e'en the tyrant tend, his infancy.Who knows God's will towards our Eliacin?And, if preparing him like destiny,He has not, the fierce murderess of our kings,Already made susceptible of pity?At least, short time ago, I saw his aspectMove her (which Josabet observed as well),I saw the tempest of her fury fall.

(To Josabet.),Princess! can you be silent in this peril?What, for a boy, who is a stranger to you,Will you allow that Joad shall fruitlesslyLeave you, his son, and people to be slaughtered?And that the fire devour the very placeUpon the earth where God would be adored?Why, were that tender boy a precious relicOf your ancestral kings, could you do more?

JOSABET (aside, to Joad).O wherefore do you not speak out, you seeHis tenderness for Israel's kings?

JOAD.Princess 'tis not yet time.

ABNER.The time's more precious, sire, than you suppose.Whilst hesitating here to answer me,Mathan, beside the queen, indignant flaming,Demands the signal, panting for the carnage.Must I entreat you at your sacred feet,By the place saintly, closed to all but you,Dread place, where dwells the majesty of God?However hard the task on you imposed,We must but think of warding off the blow.O give me only time to breathe--to-morrow,This very night, I will arrange the meansTo save the temple and avenge its wrongs.But ah! I see my tears and vain discourseAre arguments too frail to change your mind:Your austere virtue will not be subdued.Well! bring me then my armour, and a sword,That at the portals of the temple, whereThe foe awaits me, Abner, at the least,May die in combat

JOAD.I yield. You give advice which I embrace:Let us avert so many threatening ills.'Tis true there is a treasure left by David;To my fidelity the charge was given:It was the melancholy Jews' last hope,Which from the light my vigilance concealed:But since we must expose it to our queen,I'm going to please her. Open wide our gates!Let her, accompanied by her bravest chiefs,Advance, but from our sacred altars, letHer hold at distance the unreasoning furyOf herds of strangers, and protect me fromThe horror of the pillage of the temple.Would a few priests and children rouse suspicion?With her arrange the number of her suite.As to that child, so feared, so terrible--Abner, I know the justness of your heart--I will explain his birth before you both:You'll hear if we should place him in her power,And you shall judge 'twixt him and Athaliah.

ABNER.Ah! now, I take him under my protection.Fear nothing, I return to her who sent me.