s said that Ahab's sacrilegious daughter
Had 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 burnt
To ashes, and not satiated yet,
With many floods of slaughter, she would come,
And rid me of a troublesome life, cut short
The days which would a thousand times have swelled
The 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 air
Said, "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 gold
Of David's secret treasure you preserve,
And from the hands of that rapacious queen
You may thereby save all that's rich and rare,
Why, yield it up. Would you that foul assassins
Come 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 God
Would make the queen forget an innocent child,
And that the blood of Abner would content
Her cruelty, and that my death would calm
The heavens that torture her! But what avails
Your useless tenderness? If you all perish,
Is death the less to him? And does our God
Bid 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, preservi