OZIAS. And you?
MESSENGER (saluting). Do my eyes behold the great lord Ozias, governor of Bethulia?
OZIAS. Your eyes behold him.
MESSENGER. It is not yet dawn, nevertheless the streets of the city are full of a great going and coming, but I found none to lead me to the house of the lord Ozias. Yet when I saw my lord's visage my heart said: 'This is he.'
OZIAS. What is your affair with me?
MESSENGER. I am a messenger.
OZIAS (curtly). Speak quickly, for the government of this city in this hour is no common matter, and the whole charge of it lies upon me.
MESSENGER. And I am no common messenger. I come with wings through the night from Jerusalem, from Joachim, the high priest.
OZIAS. Ah! (Changing his tone and beckoning the messenger aside.) What tidings do you bear?
MESSENGER. I bear the licence from Joachim.