they may return."
Went then with a crowd depressed in mind
The proud in heart, as them the queen bade.
Found they five hundred of cunning men,
Chosen comrades, who craft of lore 380
Through memory of mind the most possessed,
Wisdom in spirit. They back to the hall
In little while again were summoned,
Wards of the city. The queen them gan
With words address (she glanced over all): 385
"Often ye silly actions performed,
Accursed wretches, and writings despised,
Lore of your fathers, ne'er more than now,
When ye of your blindness the Healer rejected,
And ye contended 'gainst truth and right, 390
That in Bethlehem the child of the Ruler,
The only-born King, incarnate was,
The Prince of princes. Though the law ye knew,
Words of the prophets, ye were not then willing,
Workers of sin, the truth to confess." 395
With one mind then they answered her:
"Lo! we the Hebrew law have learned,
That in days of old our fathers knew,
At the ark of God, nor know we well
Why thou so fiercely, lady, with us 400
Hast angry become. We know not the wrong
That we have done amid this nation,
Chiefest of crimes[2] against thee ever."
Helena said and 'fore the earls spake
Without concealment; the lady proclaimed 405
Aloud 'fore the hosts: "Now go ye quickly,
Seek out apart who wisdom with you
Might and mindcraft the most may have,
That each of the things they boldly may tell me,
Without delay, that I from them seek." 410
Went they then from the council as the mighty queen,
Bold in the palace, them had commanded,
Sorry-in-mind eagerly searched they,
With cunning sought, what were the sin
That they in the folk might have committed 415
Against the Caesar, for which the queen blames them.
Then there 'fore the earls one them addressed,
Cunning in songs (his name was Judas),
Crafty in word: "I surely know,
That she will seek of the victor-tree 420
On which once suffered the Ruler of nations
Free from all faults, own Son of God,
Whom though guiltless[3] of every sin
Through hatred hanged upon the high tree
In days of old our own fathers. 425
That was terrible thought. There is now great need
That we with firmness strengthen our minds,
That we