op escaped!

{JOAD.}

What would you then?

{ABNER.}

O happy day for me!
O with what ardour would I own my king!
Doubt you, that at his feet our eager tribes--
But wherefore flatter me with these vain thoughts?
The wretched heir of our triumphant kings
Alone was Ochoziah, with his children;
By Jehu's shafts I saw the father pierced;
You, by the mother, saw the son despatched.

{JOAD.}

I say no more; but when the star of day
Shall have performed a third part of his course
On the horizon, come with this same zeal
Again into the temple, whilst to prayers
The third hour summons us, and God to you
Will show, by benefactions weighty, that
His word is stable, that it ne'er deceives.
Depart: I must prepare for this great day,
And dawn already gilds the temple's summit.

{ABNER.}

What are those favours that I cannot fathom?
The illustrious Josabet approaches you:
I go to mingle with the faithful band
Which this day's solemn pomp enticeth forth.

_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 life
Into their fury, even on our shrines
Your cruel stepmother would offer up
To Baal idolatrous incense. Let us show
The 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 Whom
Our sovereigns rule; our Levites and our priests,
Immediately assembling, I to them
The 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: