SCENE 5

HEROD. JOSEPH.

[_Enter a_ SERVANT.

SERVANT.

Your kinsman!

HEROD.

He is welcome! There is my man! To him I hand my sword And goad him through the craven mood so deep To hardy mettle that he’ll use’t like me.

[_Enter_ JOSEPH.

JOSEPH.

I heard immediate start for Alexandria Is your intent, and wished to bid God-speed.

HEROD.

God-speed! A speed, belike, without returning.

JOSEPH.

Without returning!

HEROD.

Ay, ’tis possible.

JOSEPH.

I never saw you thus till now.

HEROD.

Proof certain I never was in such ill plight till now.

JOSEPH.

But if you grow heart-faint----

HEROD.

I’ll not, I say! For, come what will, I’ll bear it: yet the hope That any good can come leaves me in lurch.

JOSEPH.

That makes me wish to God I had been blind And ne’er on Alexandra’s hooded doings Had played the pry.

HEROD.

I could believe it of you!

JOSEPH.

For had I not unearthed the portraiture Of Aristobulus which in secrecy For Antony was painted, and had I Not scented out her courier-despatch To Cleopatra: more than all, the coffin That with her son concealed her at the harbour-- Had I not blocked it and prevented flight That was begun already----

HEROD.

Then had she No thanks to owe you, and with qualmless mind You’d bear to see her daughter on the throne, The throne that she, the dauntless Maccabean, Will surely mount if I return no more, And none before her edge his way thereto.

JOSEPH.

I mean it not that way; I mean that much Had lain in smother.

HEROD.

Much! Why, not a doubt But much that’s awkward had instead occurred. No matter now. You make your tally full; But there’s one item you’ve forgot----

JOSEPH.

And that?

HEROD.

You were presumably attending him The time he went a-bathing when----

JOSEPH.

I was.

HEROD.

Presumably you wrestled him?

JOSEPH.

At first, yes.

HEROD.

H’m, queerish! Well?

JOSEPH.

No dizziness attacked him When he was in my arms, and had it happened Either I would have rescued him or he Had dragged me under with him to the bottom.

HEROD.

No doubt. But as you cannot help but know, All who were there make just your protestation, And since a perverse chance will have it so, That you not only bore him company But wrestled him----

JOSEPH.

What means that check of word?

HEROD.

My Joseph, you and I, we make a couple That stands stern charge.

JOSEPH.

I too?

HEROD.

I dare assert I have both kin and trusty friend in you?

JOSEPH.

’Tis so I flatter me.

HEROD.

’Twere better not so. Had I like Saul cast the dart after you And could you prove it through your deathly wound For you ’twere better: no back-biter’s word Had risen to find the credulous ear: and you, For a blood-deed of which your hands were guiltless, Would never lose your head.

JOSEPH.

I? lose my head?

HEROD.

That is your fate if I do not return, And Mariamne----

JOSEPH.

But my hands _are_ guiltless:

HEROD.

What helps you there? the ugly look’s against you. And then again, suppose you were believed, Are not the many, many services You’ve rendered me, in Alexandra’s eyes As many crimes against herself? Will she Not have these thoughts--“Had he o’erwinked my flight There’d be one living who now lies i’ the grave?”

JOSEPH.

True, true!

HEROD.

And can she not then with some show Of right demand your life to pay another’s That she imagines lost through fault of yours? Will she not set her daughter on to do it?

JOSEPH.

Salome! Ah, that comes of visiting The painter. Year on year fresh portraits of me She still demands.

HEROD.

I know she loves you dear.

JOSEPH.

The less her love, the better were my case. Had I the portrait of Aristobulus Detected when I--good then. She can soon Possess my latest, less a head.

HEROD.

My Joseph, A man protects his head.

JOSEPH.

When you have given Your own for lost?

HEROD.

That’s only half the trick. I’ll try to save it through the stratagem, That of myself free-willed I thrust that head Into the lion’s gullet.

JOSEPH.

Once luck helped you When the Pharisees----

HEROD.

This is a sorrier case. But hap what haps to me it is my will To lay your destiny in your own hands. You always were a man, be now a king. I hang the purple mantle round your neck And proffer you the sceptre and the sword. Hold fast. To me alone you give it back!

JOSEPH.

What, do I understand you?

HEROD.

And confirm Your throne and life with it in certain tenure By killing Mariamne if your hear That I return not hither.

JOSEPH.

Mariamne?

HEROD.

She is the last bond whereby Alexandra Is knit unto the folk now that the flood Has choked her son; she is the gay-hued plume Rebellion’s helm will flaunt, the day whereon It heads against you.

JOSEPH.

Ah, but Mariamne!

HEROD.

Amazed that I----? I’ll make no false front, Joseph! My counsel’s good, is good for you; what need Of further words? yet, to be frank, I give it Not for your sake alone--Here’s the bluff truth! That she should with some other--I can’t bear it-- That would be bitterer than--I grant she’s proud-- But after death--and then, Antony-- And first and worst of all that mother of hers Who’ll harry on the dead against the dead-- You catch my drift, you must.

JOSEPH.

But----

HEROD.

Hear me out! She led me on to hope that she herself Would deal her death if I----Tell me, can debts Be summoned in by proxy? ’Tis allowed Even by force--what think you?

JOSEPH.

’Tis allowed.

HEROD.

Promise me then that you will take her life If she take not her own. Be not too hasty And not too tardy either. Go to her Soon as my messenger, for I shall send one, Reports of me “it’s over!” tell it her And mark then if she reaches hand for dirk Or makes to do aught else. You promise?

JOSEPH.

Yes.

HEROD.

I will not have you swear, for no man yet Forced any one to swear he’d use his foot To crush a snake that threatened him with death. He does it of himself if he be sane; For he could sooner practise abstinence Of meat and drink without a scathe, than this.

[JOSEPH _makes a gesture_.

I know you throughly and I will commend you To Antony as one in all this crew That he dare trust in. You will prove him that By showing that a woman of your blood Is not too sacred to become your victim When smothering of rebellion is the stake, For that’s the point of view will gloze the deed, That side you serve up for his eyes. ’Tis followed By a street hubbub: your despatch to him Is that an outbreak was your deed’s precursor And only by its instrument was quelled. As for the folk, ’twill have a shuddering-fit When it beholds your bloody sword, and many Will say:--“It seems I knew but half this man!” And now----

JOSEPH.

I’ll see you yet, not now alone; I know for sure, as ever you’ll come back.

HEROD.

’Tis not past hope: and therefore one thing more--

[_A long pause._

I swore just now an oath that touches you.

[_Writes a letter and seals it._

Here ’tis! Receive in charge this letter sealed. You see the run o’ the title--

JOSEPH.

To the headsman!

HEROD.

I’ll keep what I have therein promised you, And if, perhaps, you’ve mind to tell a tale About a King who----

JOSEPH.

Come! Impose the task, To hand this note myself unto the headsman.[6]

[_Exit._