OZIAS (to Achior). Who are you?
ACHIOR. Achior.
OZIAS. Your condition?
ACHIOR (with calm, genial candour). Captain of all the Ammonites in the army of Holofernes.
JUDITH. Let them loose him, Lord Ozias. His eyes are not the eyes of treachery.
OZIAS (to the soldiers). Loose him. (To Achior.) And how come you here? Speak the truth—and fear.
ACHIOR. My mouth shall say truth, but I will not fear.
OZIAS. My hand is terrible.
ACHIOR. Thus it happened. When the children of Israel had shut up the passages of the hill country and had fortified all the tops of the high hills, Holofernes was very angry. And he called the captains of Ammon and said to them: Tell me now, ye sons of Chanaan, who these Israelites are that dwell in the hill country, and wherein is their power and strength, and why they have determined not to come and meet me, more than all the inhabitants of the west? And I, Achior, answered the question of Holofernes.
OZIAS. And what answer gave you?