[Joab approaches.
(In a contained voice.) You go at once to Bethlehem
And tell the Captain there who’s in command
To find the Marvellous Boy—Nay, he will not
Ransack him out, not all can see the star;
As for those Kings, they’re sly as sanctimonious—
The children who within the bygone year
Were born, he is to slay upon the spot.
He leaves no single one surviving.
Joab (retreating).