HOLOFERNES. It is a lie. For from this night I have put away from me all women but thee, and there is not one among them to compare with thee. (Appealingly). And since the judgment of heaven hath done a miracle by thee in the tent of Holofernes this night, wilt thou deny, O tenderness! that thou hast been divinely appointed to me, and I to thee?
JUDITH. I will not deny that the Lord is in this thing. And for thy comfort I will tell thee that which thou knowest not.
HOLOFERNES (expectant). Tell me.
JUDITH. Before I escaped from Bethulia, as I lay on my bed, a vision came to me, and it was the vision of Holofernes in the likeness of his majesty and his might. And I saw the vision by my bed, and so it was that I came down into the valley.... (Softly.) And wouldst thou that I should have uttered this secret to any but thee!
HOLOFERNES (full of emotion). I will kiss thy lips, and thou art mine, O fragrance!
JUDITH. Kiss my lips.
(Holofernes kisses her, and then in an excess of feeling stumbles backward.)
(A half-veiled Assyrian woman appears at the opening R., and watches. Bagoas, in the porch of the tent, turns and sees her, and dashes at her with a weapon. Both disappear through the opening, R.)
JUDITH (moving with stealth towards the hidden knife, comfortingly). O mighty child, where is thy strength, and where is thy terribleness? Rest thee a moment on the couch, and thy soul's captive will tend thee.
(Holofernes drops on the couch, and Judith caresses him.)