bedience.

AMBASSADOR: A gift from the old wine-gardens of the sun.

KING: How knew the Emperor that I had thus obeyed him?

AMBASSADOR: It has not been men's wont to disobey the Emperor.

KING: Yet if I have sheltered this man in the holy place of my Court?

AMBASSADOR: If that be so the Emperor bids you drink out of this golden
goblet. [_He signs and it is brought on by a bent and ugly dwarf_] and
wishes you farewell.

KING: Farewell, you say?

AMBASSADOR: Farewell.

KING: What have you in the goblet?

AMBASSADOR: It is no common poison, but a thing so strange and deadly
that the serpents of Lebutharna go in fear of it. Yea travellers there
hold high a goblet of this poison, at arm's length as they go. The
serpents hide their heads for fear of it. Even so the travellers pass
the desert safely, and come to Eng-Bathai.

KING: I have not sheltered this man.

AMBASSADOR: There is no need then for this Imperial gift.

[_He throws the liquid out of the goblet through the doorway on to the
marble. A great steam goes up._

KING: Neither have I ordered that his head be sent back to Eng-Bathai.

AMBASSADOR: Alas, for so rare a wine.

[_He pours it away._

KING: I have banished him and he is safe. I have neither obeyed nor
disobeyed.

AMBASSADOR: The Emperor therefore bids you choose the gift that he
honours himself by sending to your Court.

[_He signs. Enter a massive_ NUBIAN _with two cups._

The Emperor bids you drink one of these cups.

[_The huge_ NUBIAN _moves up close to the_ KING _holding up the two cups
on a tray._

[_The_ POLITICIAN _slinks off. Exit L._

KING: The cups are strangely alike.

AMBASSADOR: Only one craftsman in the City of Smiths ever discerned a
difference. The Emperor killed him, and now no one knows.

KING: The potions also are alike.

AMBASSADOR: Strangely alike. [_The_ KING _hesitates._] The Emperor bids
you choose his gift and drink.

KING: The Emperor has poisoned the cups!

AMBASSADOR: You greatly wrong the Emperor. Only one cup is poisoned.

KING: You say that one is poisoned?

AMBASSADOR: Only one, O King! Who may say which?

KING: And what if I refuse to do this thing?

AMBASSADOR: There are tortures that the Emperor never names. They are
not spoken of where the Emperor is. Yet the Emperor makes a sign and
they are accomplished. He makes the sign with a certain one of his
fingers.

KING (_half to himself_): How wonderfully they have the look of wine.