upon me--I am poor now, I am going away, will you not consent to
heal me?

SATNI [_anguished_] Mieris--Could I have healed you, would it not be
done already?

MIERIS. You can do it! I know you can do it! Work a miracle.

YAOUMA. A miracle! Show that your god is more powerful than our gods.

A MAN [_who has just entered_] Heal us!

SATNI. I am not able.

ANOTHER. Work a miracle.

SATNI. There are no miracles!

A MAN. Then your gods are less mighty than ours.

SATNI. Yours do not exist.

THE PEOPLE [_terrified at the blasphemy_] Oh!

A MAN. Why do you lead us away from our gods, if you have no others to
give us?

ANOTHER. You shall not insult our gods!

ANOTHER. We will hand you over to the priests lest the gods smite us for
hearing you!

ANOTHER. Ammon will chastise us!

SATNI. No.

A MAN. Isis will abandon us!

SATNI. It will not make you more wretched.

ANOTHER. Then show us you are stronger than our gods.

MIERIS. A miracle!

RHEOU. He is stronger than our gods! } [_Together_]
YAOUMA. A miracle or I die! }

SATNI. You demand it! You demand a miracle. Well, then, you shall have
one, I will do this, but in the presence of all! Go! go! go throughout
the domains--bring hither those you find bowed on the earth, or hung to
poles for drawing water. Go you others, summon the slaves, the piteous
workers--call hither the drawers of stones, bid them drop the ropes
that flay their shoulders, bid them come.

MIERIS. What would you do?

SATNI. Convince them.

MIERIS. Now of a sudden, brutally?

SATNI. Brutally.

RHEOU. Do you believe them ready?

SATNI. You are afraid.

RHEOU. Day comes not suddenly on night, between them is the dawn.

_Delethi leads Mieris right under the peristyle._

SATNI. I would have day, broad daylight--Now, at once, for all! 'Tis a
crime to _promise_ them reward for their suffering. How do we know that
they will ever be paid?

RHEOU. They are so miserable--

SATNI. The truth--is the truth good only for the rich? Will you add that
injustice to all the others? Behold them! [_Gradually the slaves and
workers of all kinds have entered till they fill the stage. Amongst them
Pakh, Sokiti, Bitiou the Dwarf_] Yes, behold them, the victims, behold
the wretched! I know you all. You, you are shepherd, you are worse
nourished than your flocks, and your beasts, at least, are not given
blows. They do not beat the cows nor the sheep. You, you sow and you
reap;