There was a sting in that speech.
HEROD
[Quickly collecting himself.] My good Merokles, begin.
MEROKLES
[Stands up and reads from a roll of parchment.]
"Cooled by Hebron's far-gleaming snow,
The fiery soul, concealed in ice,
Favours with its flickering smile
Us the worshippers.
"So thou sendest forth twofold beams of silent light,
So flames for us shoot forth from thy coldness,
So we prize as sacred thy flickering smile, mighty Vitellius--
Till we----"
VITELLIUS
My dear friend, what is this man talking about?
HEROD