(Bagoas bows and moves towards the entrance. Judith is standing there. The two look at each other for a moment.)
BAGOAS (with a gesture, indicating Judith). Highness!
HOLOFERNES (Jumping up. To Bagoas). Begone to thy post!
(Judith glides in silently. Bagoas goes out. They pass by each other without a word or a salutation, but mutually scrutinizing.)
JUDITH. The great feast of the captains is over?
HOLOFERNES. The captains are departed, drunken with wine and their pride. But thy feast and my feast is not begun. (Points to the repast.)
JUDITH (enigmatically.) I am here.
HOLOFERNES (ecstatic.) Art thou in truth here, or do my eyes behold that which is not?
JUDITH. Did I not say that I should come in the night?
HOLOFERNES. Yea, I trusted thee. I trusted thee so much that at the feast of the captains I commanded that all my hosts shall attack Bethulia, with bow, and sling, and spear, at sunrise, and also I gave the word of Holofernes for a pledge that naught in the heavens or on the earth should resist the onset of the Assyrians; for some among them feared the word of Achior which they had heard.