University of Virginia Library

Scene VII.—Interior of the Temple.

The Jewish High Priest, Alexander.
High Priest.
This is that scroll whereof I spake to thee;
That Vision which the exiled prophet saw,
Sitting in Susa, by Choaspes' flood:
“In vision I beheld a Beast two-horn'd;
Westward he push'd, and northward, and to south,
Nor any stood before him, After that,
Another, mightier portent, swifter far
Rush'd from the west, o'er face of all the earth
Which yet he touch'd not, flying upon wings;
He smote against that Beast, and trod him down;
Nor any might deliver. Then, a Voice
There reach'd me from betwixt the river banks:
‘That Beast which thou beheldest is that king,
Lord of the Median and the Persian realms:
He that shall overcome him is the Greek.’”
This is that Vision which our prophet saw.

Alex.
That Voice your prophet heard was Voice of
God—
(after musing)
You will not wed my cause, and save your city?

High Priest.
We may not, and we will not.

Alex.
Yet you know
Mine is the empire?

High Priest.
What is writ is writ.

Alex.
What was that sacrifice you offer'd late?
The like I have not seen.

High Priest.
The shadow 'twas
Of substance onward striding. Ask no more:
We are prophet-people: ours the Hope:
We are God's people, and we stand apart:
The kings of the earth may speed us, or may rend;
Know us they cannot.

Alex.
I too had a vision—
I yield you credence, Priest. I have repented
My first resolve, and fling it from me far:
I tribute none demand, and in your city
Challenge no rule.
Your prophets spake in ancient days of me;
Spake they in earlier days of Persian Cyrus?

High Priest.
By name, before his birth two hundred years:
Hear thou God's Edict. “Cyrus is my shepherd:
I hold his right hand, loosening at his feet
The hearts of Monarchs. I will cut in twain
The bars of iron and the brazen gates.”

Alex.
The Babylonian gates stood wide that night
When back Euphrates shrank.

High Priest
(reading).
“Be dry, ye rivers!
In Babylon the desert beast shall hide;
The dragon couch within her palaces;
The bittern shriek above her shallow pools.”
Young man, hold thou no hand to Babylon,
For God hath judged her, lest thou share her plagues.

Alex.
Hers was the first of Empires, and the worst—
(After a pause.)
The day goes by; lead onward to the gates.
O'er all the earth my empire shall be just,
Godlike my rule.

High Priest.
Young man, beware! God's prophet
Awards thee Persia's crown, but not the world's:
He who wears that should be the Prince of Peace.
Thy portion lies in bounds. Limit and Term
Govern the world. Thou know'st the Voice was God's
That spake. Two ways there are—between them choose.

Alex.
I shall not fail to meditate these twain;
Then make election.

High Priest.
Pardon, royal sir,
A little moment past your choice was made:
'Tis known above; and you one day will know it.
You trust not God: the man you trust will fail you.

Alex.
What man?

High Priest.
Yourself.

Alex.
At least I trust none other.

High Priest.
My message is delivered: Sir, farewell!

[High Priest departs. Ptolemy enters
Alex.
There sits unwonted wonder on your brow,
My Ptolemy!

Ptol.
Sir, all men kneel to you,’
You but to one, and him a man unknown!
When first that long and strange procession reach'd us
I saw an earnest inquest in your eye,
A pallor on your cheek.

Alex.
You err, my friend:
I knelt, but not to one unseen till then.
Three years gone by, three months, and twenty days,
At noon I sat in Macedonian Dium,
(Its witless sons acclaimed me as a god)
Musing the fortunes of this Asian war
Then but decreed. There fell on me a trance
Filled with strange fear. Never save in that trance
Have I known fear.

Ptol.
What saw you in it, sir?

Alex.
Things as they were.

Ptol.
No more?

Alex.
Yea, things beside:
My captains grew ape-visaged, and chattering rush'd
On errands all confused, while down the street,
In the wide Agora, on the temple's steps,
The concourse, shrunk to pigmies, scream'd and strove;—
The tallest like a three years' child. Meanwhile,
There where benignant plains had spread but late,
Heaven-high there hung in the east a mount, firecrown'd,
And ruin-flank'd—a mount which seemed a world
Huger than man's. The pigmies and the apes
Saw it and laughed.

Ptol.
'Twas strange!

Alex.
It was not slumber:
Parmenio and Philotas at my right,
You, Ptolemy, at my left, witnessed and sware
That from my session ta'en till, sunset nigh,
The priesthood issued from the fane of Zeus
I had not ceased from audience and command
Though sterner than my wont. The trance was long,
And, as it deepen'd, darkness closed around:
Then from that darkness like a god this man
Drew near, methought, that mitre on his brow,
That gem-illumined breast-plate on his breast.
He spake,—“Fear nought; the God I serve shall lay
His hand upon thy head, and lead thee on
Triumphant through the danger and the gloom.”
This world is full of wonders, Ptolemy,
Or else it were not world for man, since man
Is marvellous most. Divulge this thing to none,
Nor write it in thine annals of the war.