TIME:  The following morning.

The audience-hall in BENHADAD’S palace.  The sides of the hall are lined with lofty columns:  the back opens toward the city, with descending steps:  the House of Rimmon with its high tower is seen in the background.  The throne is at the right in front:  opposite is the royal door of entrance, guarded by four tall sentinels.  Enter at the rear between the columns, RAKHAZ, SABALLIDIN, HAZAEL, IZDUBHAR.

IZDUBHAR:  [An excited old man.]
  The city is all in a turmoil.  It boils like a pot of lentils.  The
  people are foaming and bubbling round and round like beans in the
  pottage.

HAZAEL:  [A lean, crafty man.]
  Fear is a hot fire.

RAKHAZ:  [A fat, pompous man.]
  Well may they fear, for the Assyrians are not three days distant. 
  They are blazing along like a waterspout to chop Damascus down like
  a pitcher of spilt milk.

SABALLIDIN:  [Young and frank.]
  Cannot Naaman drive them back?

RAKHAZ:  [Puffing and blowing.]
  Ho!  Naaman?  Where have you been living?  Naaman is a broken reed
  whose claws have been cut.  Build no hopes on that foundation, for
  it will upset in the midst of the sea and leave you hanging in the air.

SABALLIDIN: 
  He clatters like a windmill.  What would he say, Hazael?

HAZAEL: 
  Naaman can do nothing without the command of the King; and the King
  fears to order the army to march without the approval of the gods. 
  The High Priest is against it.  The House of Rimmon is for peace with
  Asshur.

RAKHAZ: 
  Yes, and all the nobles are for peace.  We are the men whose wisdom
  lights the rudder that upholds the chariot of state.  Would we be
  rich if we were not wise?  Do we not know better than the rabble what
  medicine will silence this fire that threatens to drown us?

IZDUBHAR: 
  But if the Assyrians come, we shall all perish; they will despoil
  us all.

HAZAEL: 
  Not us, my lord, only the common people.  The envoys have offered
  favourable terms to the priests, and the nobles, and the King.  No
  palace, no temple, shall be plundered.  Only the shops, and the
  markets, and the houses of the multitude shall be given up to the
  Bull.  He will eat his supper from the pot of lentils, not from
  our golden plate.

RAKHAZ: 
  Yes, and all who speak for peace in the council shall be enriched;
  our heads shall be crowned with seats of honour in the processions
  of the Assyrian king.  He needs wise counsellors to help him guide
  the ship of empire onto the solid rock of prosperity.  You must be
  with us, my lords Izdubhar and Saballidin, and let the stars of
  your wisdom roar loudly for peace.

IZDUBHAR: 
  He talks like a tablet read upside down,—­a wild ass braying in the wilderness.  Yet there is policy in his words.