MESSENGER. I bear the licence from Joachim.

OZIAS. What licence?

MESSENGER. The licence for the people of Bethulia to drink the wine
which is sanctified and reserved to the priests which serve the Lord.

OZIAS (_affecting to be puzzled_). Who hath demanded this licence from
Joachim?

MESSENGER (_surprised_). The lord Ozias sent a messenger to Jerusalem to
beseech that the licence should be granted. And my lord's messenger
travelled so swiftly that in the moment when he reached the temple at
Jerusalem he fell sick and vomited, and I have come to Bethulia in his
place, for after he had vomited he unfolded to me the secret way
into the city.

OZIAS (_grandly_). It is true. In the heavy multitude of my cares I had
forgotten this matter of the licence.

MESSENGER (_confidentially_). And Joachim hath bidden me to say privily
that if any have already in their extremity drunk of the sanctified wine
it shall be denied utterly--for the sake of the church.

OZIAS. Ah!

MESSENGER. And here is the licence. (_Offering it_.)

OZIAS. Friend, keep the licence and render it back to Joachim, the high
priest in Jerusalem. For I need it not, and I demanded it only by excess
of prudence such as becomes the governor of a city besieged and
thirsting. But we Bethulians are a faithful and a constant people, and
we have trusted in the Most High. And if perchance any have drunk of the
sanctified wine unknown to me (_with a grimace_)--it shall be denied
utterly, for the sake of seemliness.

MESSENGER. But in the days of trial to come, will not the lord Ozias
have need of the licence?

OZIAS (_grandly_). Friend, return ye to Joachim and say to him that the
Lord has delivered Bethulia from the Assyrians by the subtlety of his
servant Ozias.

MESSENGER (_amazed_). What says my lord?

OZIAS. Yea, this night the head of Holofernes is set on a spear in the
square before the temple, and the Assyrians flee one from another in
disorder, and my hosts are about to descend upon them and rend them to
pieces where they stand foolishly in the valley.

MESSENGER. But this thing is marvellous beyond the understanding of man!

OZIAS. It is indeed marvellous.

MESSENGER. And when Joachim enquires of me who hath taken Holofernes the
great captain to behead him, and by what device, what shall I answer to
Joachim?

OZIAS. You will answer that Ozias, knowing the weakness of Holofernes,
sent down to him secretly a woman, a certain Judith of Bethuli