SCENE 1

_The Castle on Zion._ MARIAMNE’S _Apartments_. MARIAMNE. ALEXANDRA.

ALEX.

You pose me with your riddles. First the oath “I kill myself if he return no more!” Then bitter coldness when he came, so froward That he was mortified as keen as I Rejoiced; and now again the deepest mourning! I’d gladly see the man who comprehends you.

MAR.

If ’tis so hard, why do you plague yourself?

ALEX.

And then the tart repugnance in the manner With which you fend Soemus to his distance! His looks betray there’s something on his heart----

MAR.

You think so?

ALEX.

Ay, and he would make avowal But dare not venture it; he would perhaps, If he should see you leap into the Jordan, Be dubious if he were privileged To rescue you from death; and he were right, For this blunt gracelessness is past all bounds.

MAR.

You’ll own at least that Herod cannot say I probed the virtue of his friend, and lured His secret, if he has one, out of him With cozening-tongued duplicity. No, no; It lies on the knees of God if I should learn it; And my heart says I take no risk therein.[13]

[_Enter_ SAMEAS, _with fetters on his hands_.