The Choir sing.
Children of Aaron, go—depart;
In never more illustrious cause
Battled the zeal of your progenitors.
Children of Aaron, go—depart;
It is your king, your God, for whom ye fight.
One voice alone.
Where are those thunderbolts Thou launchest,
Great God, in Thy just wrath?
Art Thou no more the jealous God?
Art Thou no longer the avenger?
Another,
Where, God of Jacob, are Thy former favours?
Amid the horrors, that encompass us,
Hearest Thou alone the voice
Of our iniquities?
Art Thou no longer the forgiving God?
The Choir.
Where, God of Jacob, are Thy former favours?
One voice alone.
It is against Thyself that in this strife
The armies of the wicked aim assault.
Come let us cause to cease, say they,
God's festivals upon the earth;
And from His tiresome yoke deliver man:
Let all His saints be slaughtered;
His altars overthrown;
That of His name and glory
No memory may be left;
That neither He, nor Christ may reign o'er us.
The Choir.
Where are the thunderbolts Thou launchest,
Great God, in Thy just wrath?
Art Thou no more the jealous God?
Art Thou no longer the avenger?
One voice alone.
Sad remnant of our kings,
Dear and last bloom of such a beauteous stem,
Ah! 'neath the dagger of a cruel dam
Shall we, a second time, behold thee fall?
Say, did an angel at thy cradle side,
Beloved prince! against thy murderers
Defend thee with his care;
Or in the darkness of the tomb
Did God re-animate thy ashes?
Another.
Dost Thou, great God, impute the guilty deeds
Of father and grandfather unto him?
Abandon him without relenting pity?
The Choir.
Where, God of Jacob, are Thy former favours?
Art Thou no longer the forgiving God?
One of the daughters of the Choir (speaking).
Dear sisters, hear you not the sound
Of the fierce Tyrians' trumpet?
SALOMITH.
I even hear the barbarous soldiers' cries,
And I shiver with horror.
Come, let us fly to our refuge
Under the sanctuary's shadow.
ACT V.—Scene I.
ZACHARIAH, SALOMITH, THE CHOIR.
SALOMITH.
Dear Zachariah, well! what have you learnt?
ZACHARIAH.
Redouble to the Lord your fervent prayers:
Perhaps we are approaching our last hour;
The order's given for the horrid conflict.
SALOMITH.
What is Joas doing?
ZACHARIAH.
He has just been crowned:
On him the high-priest's poured the holy oil.
O heaven, what joy was seen in every eye,
Beholding him, the ransomed from the tomb!
My sisters, still is seen the dagger's scar.
Also his faithful nurse appeared to us,
Who guarding that dear charge has had no eye
To note her cares but God's and Josabet's.
Our Levites wept with joy and tenderness,%
And mixed their sobs with shouts of ecstacy.
He, midst those transports, courteous, without pride,
To one his hand, to others gave his look,
And swore to govern by their frank advice,
Naming them all his brothers or his sires.
SALOMITH.
Think you this secret's spread beyond these walls?
ZACHARIAH.
This secret to the temple's still confined;
The band of Levi's race, distributed,
Have placed themselves all silent at the doors;
All are to rush together on the foe,
And for the signal cry, "Long live King Joas!"
My father wills that Zachariah guard
The king, forbidden to expose himself.
Meanwhile the queen, with poniard in her hand,
Laughs at the feeble check of our brass gates.
To crush them she attends the fatal engines,
Breathing, in short, but blood and devastation.
Some priests, my sister, at the first proposed,
That in a secret cave, our fathers' dug,
The precious ark at least should be concealed.
"O base insulting fear my father cried,
The ark which caused so many gorgeous towers
To fall, and forced the Jordan's backward course;
So many times triumphant o'er the gods
Of nations, must it flee at the approach
Of insolent woman?" My mother, near
The king, in deadly trouble, now her eye
Being on the altar, and now turned on him,
Silent, and sinking 'neath the weight of dread,
Would have extorted tears from eyes of brass.
The king from time to time embracing her
Consoled her: then she said, "my sisters dear,
All follow me, and if our king to-day
Must perish, let one fate unite ourselves
With him."
SALOMITH.
What rugged hand knocks with repeated blows?
Why those disordered Levites put to flight?
And what precaution makes them hide their arms?
Is the temple stormed?
ZACHARIAH.
Disperse your fears, God sends us Abner.
Scene II.
ABNER, JOAD, JOSABET, ZACHARIAH, SALOMITH,
TWO LEVITES, THE CHOIR.
JOAD.
Must I believe my eyes,
Dear Abner? By what way have you been here
Conducted, through a camp besieging us?
'Twas said that Ahab's sacrilegious daughter
Had loaded with vile chains your generous hands.
ABNER.
Yes, sire, she feared my fortitude and zeal.
Confining me's the least part of her rage;
In horrid dungeon by her orders buried,
I was expecting that the temple burnt
To ashes, and not satiated yet,
With many floods of slaughter, she would come,
And rid me of a troublesome life, cut short
The days which would a thousand times have swelled
The grief of being survivor of my kings.
JOAD.
What miracle has brought about your pardon?
ABNER.
God only knows what passes in her heart.
She sent for me, and with distracted air
Said, "see those soldiers quite surround that temple,
A vengeful fire's about to make it ashes;
Thy God 'gainst mine can not defend Himself.
Howe'er His priests—but they must make quick haste,
On two conditions may redeem their lives—
That in my power Eliacin be given,
With treasures which I know are known to them,
Amassed by David, formerly your king,
Intrusted to the high-priest's secret care.
Go tell them at that price that they may live."
JOAD.
What counsel, Abner, think you we should follow?
ABNER.
If, in effect, 'tis true that all the gold
Of David's secret treasure you preserve,
And from the hands of that rapacious queen
You may thereby save all that's rich and rare,
Why, yield it up. Would you that foul assassins
Come break the altar, burn the cherubim,
And laying on our ark a violent hand,
With your own blood pollute the sanctuary?
JOAD.
Would it become us, Abner, from kind hearts,
To give to torture an unfortunate child,
Whom God Himself confided to my care;
And at his life's expense redeem our own?
ABNER.
Alas! God sees my heart. O that our God
Would make the queen forget an innocent child,
And that the blood of Abner would content
Her cruelty, and that my death would calm
The heavens that torture her! But what avails
Your useless tenderness? If you all perish,
Is death the less to him? And does our God
Bid you to dare impossibilities?
Submitting to a heartless tyrant's law,
Moses, left by his mother at the Nile,
Was seen almost at birth condemned to fall:
But God, preserving him beyond all hope,
Made e'en the tyrant tend, his infancy.
Who knows God's will towards our Eliacin?
And, if preparing him like destiny,
He has not, the fierce murderess of our kings,
Already made susceptible of pity?
At least, short time ago, I saw his aspect
Move her (which Josabet observed as well),
I saw the tempest of her fury fall.
(To Josabet.),
Princess! can you be silent in this peril?
What, for a boy, who is a stranger to you,
Will you allow that Joad shall fruitlessly
Leave you, his son, and people to be slaughtered?
And that the fire devour the very place
Upon the earth where God would be adored?
Why, were that tender boy a precious relic
Of your ancestral kings, could you do more?
JOSABET (aside, to Joad).
O wherefore do you not speak out, you see
His tenderness for Israel's kings?
JOAD.
Princess 'tis not yet time.
ABNER.
The time's more precious, sire, than you suppose.
Whilst hesitating here to answer me,
Mathan, beside the queen, indignant flaming,
Demands the signal, panting for the carnage.
Must I entreat you at your sacred feet,
By the place saintly, closed to all but you,
Dread place, where dwells the majesty of God?
However hard the task on you imposed,
We must but think of warding off the blow.
O give me only time to breathe—to-morrow,
This very night, I will arrange the means
To save the temple and avenge its wrongs.
But ah! I see my tears and vain discourse
Are arguments too frail to change your mind:
Your austere virtue will not be subdued.
Well! bring me then my armour, and a sword,
That at the portals of the temple, where
The foe awaits me, Abner, at the least,
May die in combat
JOAD.
I yield. You give advice which I embrace:
Let us avert so many threatening ills.
'Tis true there is a treasure left by David;
To my fidelity the charge was given:
It was the melancholy Jews' last hope,
Which from the light my vigilance concealed:
But since we must expose it to our queen,
I'm going to please her. Open wide our gates!
Let her, accompanied by her bravest chiefs,
Advance, but from our sacred altars, let
Her hold at distance the unreasoning fury
Of herds of strangers, and protect me from
The horror of the pillage of the temple.
Would a few priests and children rouse suspicion?
With her arrange the number of her suite.
As to that child, so feared, so terrible—
Abner, I know the justness of your heart—
I will explain his birth before you both:
You'll hear if we should place him in her power,
And you shall judge 'twixt him and Athaliah.
ABNER.
Ah! now, I take him under my protection.
Fear nothing, I return to her who sent me.
Scene III.
JOAD, JOSABET, ZACHARIAH, SALOMITH, ISHMAEL, TWO
LEVITES, THE CHOIR.
JOAD.
Great God! Thy hour is come, they bring Thy prey!
Ishmael, listen. (Speaks low to him.)
JOSABET.
Mighty Master of the heavens!
Re-bind on her the veil which wrapt her eyes,
When rendering all her crimes abortive, Thou
Conceal'dst that tender victim in my bosom!
JOAD.
Go, prudent Ishmael, lose not any time,
Follow my grave instructions, step by step;
And, above all, let everything present
To her, upon her entry and her way,
The picture of a calm profound. You, children,
Prepare a throne for Joas. Let him advance,
Accompanied by our sacred combatants;
And also cause his faithful nurse to come,
Princess, and let your tears cease flowing.
(To a Levite.)
You, when the queen with mad presumption drunk,
Has passed the threshold of the temple's doors,
That she no more be able to return,
Take care that instantly the warlike trumpet
Shall spread a sudden consternation through
The enemy's camp; then call upon the people
To the support of Judah's king, and let
The marvellous prodigy of Joas preserved
Resound upon the ear. He comes.
