[_Hoarsely_]
Say it's not true.

BARON
What is not true?

VERA
What David said. It was the mob that massacred--_you_ had no hand in it.

BARON [_Sullenly_]
I was there with my soldiers.

DAVID [_Leaning, pale, against a chair, hisses_]
And you looked on with that cold face of hate--while my mother--my
sister----

BARON [_Sullenly_]
I could not see everything.

DAVID
Now and again you ordered your soldiers to fire----

VERA [_In joyous relief_]
Ah, he _did_ check the mob--he _did_ tell his soldiers to fire.

DAVID
At any Jew who tried to defend himself.

VERA
Great God!
[_She falls on the sofa and buries her head on the cushion,
moaning_]
Is there no pity in heaven?

DAVID
There was no pity on earth.

BARON
It was the People avenging itself, Vera. The People rose like a flood.
It had centuries of spoliation to wipe out. The voice of the People is
the voice of God.

VERA [_Moaning_]
But you could have stopped them.

BARON
I had no orders to defend the foes of Christ and
[_Crossing himself_]
the Tsar. The People----

VERA
But you could have stopped them.

BARON
Who can stop a flood? I did my duty. A soldier's duty is not so pretty
as a musician's.

VERA
But you could have stopped them.

BARON [_Losing all patience_]
Silence! You talk like an ignorant girl, blinded by passion. The
_pogrom_ is a holy crusade. Are we Russians the first people to crush
down the Jew? No--from the dawn of history the nations have had to stamp
upon him--the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Persians, the Babylonians,
the Greeks, the Romans----

DAVID
Yes, it is true. Even Christianity did not invent hatred. But not till
Holy Church arose were we burnt at the stake, and not till Holy Russia
arose were our babes torn limb from limb. Oh, it is too much! Delivered
from Egypt four thousand years ago, to be slaves to the Russian Pharaoh
to-day.
[_He falls as if kneeling on a chair, and, leans his head on the
rail._]
O God, shall we always be broken on the wheel of history? How long, O
Lord, how long?

BARON [_Savagely_]
Till you are all stamped out, ground into your dirt.
[_Tenderly_]
Look up, little Vera! You saw how _papasha_ loves you--how he was ready
to hold out his hand--and how this cur tried to bite it. Be calm--tell
him a daughter of Russia cannot mate with dirt.

VERA
Father, I will be calm. I will speak without passion or blindness. I
will tell David the truth. I was