RACHEL (approaching).  O mighty Prince!

KING.  No more!  I need my strength and steadfast will,
             No parting words shall cripple my resolve. 
             Ye’ll hear from me when I have done my work;
             But how, and what the future brings, is still
             Enwrapt in night and gloom.  But come what may,
             I give my princely word ye shall be safe. 
             Come, Garceran!  With God!  He be with you!

[Exeunt KING and GARCERAN at the left.]

RACHEL.  He loves me not—­O, I have known it long!

ESTHER.  O sister, useless is too tardy knowledge,
             When injury has made us sadly wise. 
             I warned thee, but thou wouldst not ever heed.

RACHEL.  He was so hot and ardent at the first!

ESTHER.  And now makes up in coolness for his haste.

RACHEL.  But I who trusted, what shall be my fate? 
             Come, let us flee!

ESTHER.  The streets are occupied;
             Against us all the land is in revolt.

RACHEL.  And so I then must die and am so young? 
             And I should like to live!  Not live, indeed—­
             But die, unwarned, an unexpected death! 
             ’Tis but the moment of our death that shocks!

(At ESTHER’s neck.)

Unhappy am I, sister, hopeless, lost!

(After a pause, with a voice broken by sobs.)

And is the necklace set with amethysts,
Thou broughtst?

ESTHER.  It is.  And pearls it has as bright
             And many, too, as are thy tears.

RACHEL.  I would
             Not look at it at all—­at least not now. 
             But only if our prison lasts too long,
             I’ll try divert eternal wretchedness,
             And shall adorn myself unto my death. 
             But see, who nears?  Ha, ha, ha, ha, it is,
             In sooth, our father, armed cap-a-pie!

[ISAAC, a helmet on his head, under his long coat a cuirass, enters from the left.]

ISAAC.  ’Tis I, the father of a wayward brood,
            Who ere my time are shortening my days. 
            In harness, yes!  When murder stalks abroad,
            Will one’s bare body save one from the steel? 
            A blow by chance, and then the skull is split! 
            This harness hides, what’s more, my notes of ’change,
            And in my pockets carry I my gold;
            I’ll bury that and curse and soul will save
            From poverty and death.  And if ye mock,
            I’ll curse you with a patriarchal curse—­
            With Isaac’s curse!  O ye, with voices like
            The voice of Jacob, but with Esau’s hands,
            Invert the law of primogeniture! 
            Myself, my care!  What care I more for you! 
            Hark!