Ahasuerus.
Esther, the Queen, not yet a trusted Queen.
 Not lightly can an Emperor put his trust
 In man or woman. She is proud, and pride
 Is slow to give or take in confidence.
 How the Queen Vashti comes into my mind!
 She disobeyed my order at the feast,
 So she is put away, and lives in exile.
 How little quiet have I known since then!
 Plot, plot and counter-plot, and none to comfort,
 Nor to advise, as Vashti used to do.
 Was it a plot that made her disobey?
 I sent Prince Memucan to bring her to me:
 He brought back word that she refused to come.
 How if Prince Memucan were lying to me?
 Misquoting what she said, to make me rage
 And put her from her place beside my throne?
 For since she went, Prince Memucan has been
 About me day and night, and grows in power.
 Who are the comrades of Prince Memucan?
 Meres, Adathan; but his chiefest friend
 Is Haman, my most trusted councillor.
 Haman, my friend, to whom I love to give
 Princedoms and palaces and silver mines.
 And yet, what if the two conspired together
 To rid me of the Queen, that they might rule me?
 I will send Memucan beyond the seas
 Upon some dangerous mission of great honour:
 He shall away to-morrow in all haste.
 But Haman I can trust.

[He tries to compose himself to sleep.]

Princedoms, and palaces, and silver mines,
 Pomps, glories, splendours, princedoms, palaces—
 Vashti the Queen, and enemies, and princedoms—
 A long, long life, and heavy hours of time!

[He sleeps. A clink of metal to mark
passage of time.]

Ahasuerus [Starting up].
It was not I,
 It was the slave Harbonah poisoned him,
 Not I. I was not there. I never knew.
 Horrible white face with the blotch of death;
 Harbonah gave it in the honey cake—
 The honey cake, I never gave it you.
 I was not at the feast, it is well known
 I was most sick that night.

[He wakes.]

Merach! Merach! begone! It was not Merach,
 But someone at the footing of the bed.
 Someone, a Jew, with bones instead of face
 And blood that dripped.

[He gropes at foot of bed. He rises.]

O blessed night, so full of peace, so calm,
 After that horror.
 Ah! I know it now,
 What the Chaldean told me long ago,
 That I should know no quiet rest at night,
 Being a King, unless I ate of bread
 Baked in a house where sorrow never came.
 O blessed bread, would I could eat of thee!

[Goes Back.]

Guards! are the gates secure?
Guards [Off].
God save the King!
 The King’s gates are made sure, and the gates’ keys
 Here, under guard. May the King live for ever!
Ahasuerus.
The sentries on the walls; do they report
 All quiet in the city?
Guard.
All, great King.
Ahasuerus.
No armed men moving, no suspicious thing?
Guard.
Nothing, O Son of Heaven, but silent darkness,
 And here and there a priest of the great sun
 Praying long life and blessing on our Monarch.
Ahasuerus.
Long life, long misery!
 It is within this room the horror is—
 That thing, that Jew, that thing out of the grave.
 No, nothing, nothing! I can see there’s nothing.
 So—I will sleep. I will repeat that song
 Made long ago by one who could not sleep,
 To help his fellow-sufferers.

[Repeats.]

Along the beach a wave comes slowly in,
 And breaks, and dies away, and dies away;
 The moon is dimmed and all the ropes are taut.
Along the beach a wave comes slowly in,
 And breaks and dies away, and dies away,
 It is no season, sailor, to quit port.
Along—etc.

[He sleeps.] [Enter Ghost of Thares.
The Ghost comes behind Ahasuerus
and across stage. It stands still and
hinnies like a snipe.]

Ahasuerus [In his sleep].
O no! Spare me! Spare me!
 Loose me my hands. O they have tied my feet!
 I cannot get from bed, and now they come.
 Merciful Gods! my thigh-bones are both broken.
 I cannot stir. Who is it gibbering there?
 Who are you? Who?
Thares [In a disguised, piping voice].
The shadow of what I was,
 Come for your blood.
Ahasuerus.
I’ll give you gold—my kingdom—
 But let me go!
Thares [Creeping slowly across, hands out].
I cannot, Ahasuerus,
 I want your life, the soul out of your body.
 See, I come nearer and a little nearer,
 A little nearer still, and put out hands—
 Lean, skinny hands, that used to serve your food,
 Thin hands to put your powerless hands aside
 And take you by the throat as now I do,
 And squeeze, and squeeze the life out of your flesh!

[He begins to strangle Ahasuerus.]

Ahasuerus [With effort].
Ah, gods! He kills me! Kills me!
 Out, O gods!
 Hydaspes! Help!
 Hydaspes! Guards! Hydaspes!

[Exit Thares, L.]

Hydaspes [R.].
Lord!
Ahasuerus.
The villain strangled me. It was a dream.
 A dreadful dream! And yet I knew his face.
 Who was the man? One who made plots against me,
 And died, from torture, as a due reward.
 Who was the man?
 Go, bring the records here,
 The wise Chaldeans and the record-writers,
 And let them read the records, for I know
 The man’s name will be there.

[Exit Hydaspes.]

It was his spirit.
 An evil thing, a harbinger of evil,
 A plotter coming as the vulture comes
 Before the corpse. But the Chaldean scribes
 Will know his name, and by their magicry
 Tell me what evil comes.
 Thares it was—
 Thares, the man was, who was put to death
 For plotting with the other, Bigdana.

[Goes Back.]

Let pass the wise Chaldeans when they come.
The Guard [Off].
God save the King! May the King live for ever!
Curtain.
 s

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