decided to be God. He has decreed
that all nations and tribes shall call upon him as God. And he has
conquered the whole earth, excepting only Judea; and Bethulia is the
gate into Judea, and Bethulia has not listened to his decree, and I am
the governor of Bethulia. So Nebuchadnezzar the great king is very angry
and Holofernes is the tool of his wrath.

CHABRIS (_going up the steps again and gazing_.) How many did you say?

OZIAS. A hundred and twenty thousand foot and twelve thousand horse.

CHABRIS. At any rate this will be the last war.

OZIAS. Why?

CHABRIS. Why! Because plainly war cannot continue on such a scale. Or if
it does, mankind is destroyed. Nebuchadnezzar has rendered war
ridiculous.

OZIAS _(laughs; then half to himself, sarcastically)._ What is heavier
than lead, and what is the name thereof, but an aged fool?

CHABRIS (_descending again, self-centred_). It remains that I cannot eat
pulse without water to drink. (_To_ Ozias.) And surely Bethulia has more
wells than any other city of Judea.

OZIAS. The wells are at the foot of the hills, and Holofernes has
seized them all.

CHABRIS. That is not fighting.

OZIAS. It is war.

CHABRIS. No, no! In my time soldiers fought fairly.

OZIAS. And killed each other. Why should Holofernes sacrifice thousands
of lives to take the heights when he can reach the same result by
letting his men sit still and watch?

CHABRIS. I say this is not war. Once I travelled many days to Nineveh.
It is a city of extravagance, and when I beheld its mad, new-fangled
ways, I knew that the last day was nigh. I was right. Three thousand and
five hundred years since Jehovah created Adam, and Eve from his rib ...
Too long! Too long! And what is pulse without water? I must have water.

OZIAS. It is thirty-four days since Holofernes took the wells. If you
have received water up to yesterday your great-grandchild must indeed
have thirsted that you might drink. I have distributed water by measure,
but now the cisterns are empty, and women and young men fall down in the
streets, and there is no water in Bethulia. We are all in like case, the
high and the lowly.

CHABRIS. Then give me your bottle.

OZIAS. What bottle?

CHABRIS. I saw you put it from your lips as I came.

OZIAS. It behoves you to understand, old man, that my solemn duty as
governor is to maintain my own strength, for if I fell the city would
fall. Without me to inspire them the populace would yield in a mo