First Sentry
Still you, is it? What are you doing here? I thought I saw a shadow pass down the wall. Are you alone?
Jeremiah
I am alone! I am alone!
[Slowly, with heavy steps, Jeremiah passes towards the town. The sentry stares after him until he is swallowed up in the gloom. Then the soldier resumes his march to and fro in the moonlight. Nothing is heard save his footsteps on the flagstones, until from a distance the challenge: “Samson guard us”, “Samson guard us”, begins to pass once more round the walls]
THE PROPHET’S ORDEAL
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief. Isaiah LIII, 10.
The small bed-chamber where Jeremiah’s Mother lies ill. Doorways and windows are covered with curtains to exclude light and sound. The interior is so dark that the figures of those in the chamber are barely visible. The white bed-furniture is conspicuous in the gloom. Close to the bed stands Ahab, the elderly servingman.