for us to have been clothed with rags than to
bring our husbands to death by what we have done.

Arolind:

We have done much and we have angered a king, and (who knows!) we may
have angered even the gods.

Tharmia:

Even the gods! We are become like Helen. When my mother was a child she
saw her once. She says she was the quietest and gentlest of creatures
and wished only to be loved, and yet because of her there was a war for
four or five years at Troy, and the city was burned which had
remarkable towers; and some of the gods of the Greeks took her side, my
mother says, and some she says were against her, and they quarrelled
upon Olympus where they live, and all because of Helen.

Arolind:

O don't, don't. It frightens me. I only want to be prettily dressed and
see my husband happy.

Tharmia:

Have you seen the prophet?

Arolind:

Oh yes, I have seen him. He walks about the palace. He is free but
cannot escape.

Tharmia:

What does he look like? Has he a frightened look?

Arolind:

He mutters as he walks. Sometimes he weeps; and then he puts his cloak
over his face.

Tharmia:

I fear that he will betray them.

Arolind:

I do not trust a prophet. He is the go-between of gods and men. They
are so far apart. How can he be true to both?

Tharmia:

This prophet is false to the gods. It is a hateful thing for a prophet
to prophesy falsely.

[Prophet walks across hanging his head and muttering.]

Prophet:

The gods have spoken a lie. The gods have spoken a lie. Can all their
vengeance ever atone for this?

Tharmia:

He spoke of vengeance.

Arolind:

O he will betray them.

[They weep. Enter the Queen.]

Queen:

Why do you weep? Ah, you are going to die. You heard the death-lute.
You do well to weep.

Tharmia:

No, your Majesty. It is the man that has played for the last three
days. We all heard him.

Queen:

Three days. Yes, it is three days. Gog-Owza plays no longer than three
days. Gog-Owza grows weary then. He has given his message and he will
go away.

Tharmia:

We have all heard him, your Majesty, except the deaf young man that
went back to Barbul-el-Sharnak. We hear him now.

Queen: Yes! But nobody has seen him yet. My maidens have searched for
him but they have not found him.

Tharmia:

Your Majesty, my husband heard him, and Ludibras, and while they live
we know there is nothing to fear. If the King grew angry with them--
because of any idle story