Mordecai: Give the Queen this paper and say to her that I, Mordecai, the Jew, bid her come to me.
[Servant withdraws.]
Mordecai [walking, talks to himself]: Israel, O Israel, my people! You shall not perish. Esther, your Queen, will save you.
[Enter Esther.]
Esther: Mordecai, my uncle, why art thou here? Thou lookest unhappy. Hath aught happened to thee?
Mordecai: Yea, Esther, I am unhappy. I have sorrowful news to tell thee.
Esther: Chamberlains, withdraw! Speak, Mordecai; tell me quickly. It may be that I can help thee.
Mordecai: Esther, thou canst help me, and thou art the only one who can. Haman, the King's counselor, hateth the Jews—thy people and mine. He hath sent a decree over all the country commanding that every Jew, both old and young, little children and women, be killed on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month. Esther, thou must save thy people and thyself? Thou must go before the King and beg of him that he spare thy people.
[Esther shows great distress.]