pitcher of spilt milk.

SABALLIDIN: [Young and frank.]
Cannot Naaman drive them back?

RAKHAZ: [Puffing and blowing.]
Ho! Naaman? Where have you been living? Naaman is a broken
reed whose claws have been cut. Build no hopes on that
foundation, for it will run away and leave you all adrift
in the conflagration.

SABALLIDIN:
He clatters like a windmill. What would he say, Hazael?

HAZAEL:
Naaman can do nothing without the command of the King; and
the King fears to order the army to march without the
approval of the gods. The High Priest is against it. The
House of Rimmon is for peace with Asshur.

RAKHAZ:
Yes, and all the nobles are for peace. We are the men whose
wisdom lights the rudder that upholds the chariot of state.
Would we be rich if we were not wise? Do we not know better
than the rabble what medicine will silence this fire that
threatens to drown us?

IZDUBHAR:
But if the Assyrians come, we shall all perish; they will
despoil us all.

HAZAEL:
Not us, my lord, only the common people. The envoys have
offered favourable terms to the priests, and the nobles,
and the King. No palace, no temple, shall be plundered.
Only the shops, and the markets, and the houses of the
multitude shall be given up to the Bull. He will eat
his supper from the pot of lentils, not from our golden
plate.

RAKHAZ:
Yes, and all who speak for peace in the council shall be
enriched; our heads shall be crowned with seats of honour
in the procession of the Assyrian king. He needs wise
counsellors to help him guide the ship of empire onto the
solid rock of prosperity. You must be with us, my lords
Izdubhar and Saballidin, and let the stars of your wisdom
roar loudly for peace.

IZDUBHAR:
He talks like a tablet read upside down,--a wild ass braying
in the wilderness. Yet there is policy in his words.

SABALLIDIN:
I know not. Can a kingdom live without a people or an army?
If we let the Bull in to sup on the lentils, will he not
make his breakfast in our vineyards?

[Enter other courtiers following SHUMAKIM, a hump-backed
jester, in blue, green and red, a wreath of poppies
around his neck and a flagon in his hand. He walks
unsteadily, and stutters in his speech.]

HAZAEL:
Here is Shumakim,