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 moment. What is the populace? Poltroons, animals, sheep, rabbits, insects, lice!
CHABRIS. Give me the bottle.
OZIAS. It is as empty as the cisterns.
CHABRIS. Give it to me, or I will cry through the streets that you are concealing water. (Ozias gives him the bottle. Chabris drinks. Ozias snatches the bottle away and conceals it.) Ah!
(A figure is glimpsed in the tent on the roof of Judith's house. Ozias starts.)
CHABRIS. What is that up yonder?
OZIAS. Nothing.
CHABRIS. Whose house is this?