Ambassador: It has not been men's wont to disobey the Emperor.
King: Yet if I have sheltered this man in the holy place of my Court?
Ambassador: If that be so the Emperor bids you drink out of this golden goblet. [He signs and it is brought on by a bent and ugly dwarf] and wishes you farewell.
King: Farewell, you say?
Ambassador: Farewell.
King: What have you in the goblet?
Ambassador: It is no common poison, but a thing so strange and deadly that the serpents of Lebutharna go in fear of it. Yea travellers there hold high a goblet of this poison, at arm's length as they go. The serpents hide their heads for fear of it. Even so the travellers pass the desert safely, and come to Eng-Bathai.
King: I have not sheltered this man.
Ambassador: There is no need then for this Imperial gift.
[He throws the liquid out of the goblet through the doorway on to the marble. A great steam goes up.