No More Learning

How they run
Flinging fuel to light them against fear?

Now they begin to roar their terror: now
They wave and beckon wordless desperate things
One to another.

Hear the iron and brass
Ringing above their voices, as they snatch
The arms that seem to fight among themselves,
Seized by their masters' anguish; dost thou hear
The clumsy terror in the camp, the men
Hasting to arm themselves against our God,
Ozias?

_Ozias_.
Lions have taken a sentinel.

_A Citizen_.
Judith hath taken Holofernes.

_Judith's voice outside, under the gate_.
Yea,
And brought him back with her. Open the gates.

_The Citizens_.
Open the gates. Bring torches. Wake, ye Jews!
Hail, Judith, marvellously chosen woman!
How bringst thou Holofernes? Show him to us.

_Judith_.
Dare you indeed behold him?

_A Citizen_.
Is he bound?

_Judith_.
Drugged rather, with a medicine that God
Prepared for him and gave into my hands.
Open the gates! It is a harmless thing,
The Holofernes I have made your show;
You may gaze blithely upon him. I have tamed
The man's pernicious brain. Open the gates!
What, are your hands still nerveless? But my hands,
The hands of a woman, have done notable work.

_The Gates open_. JUDITH _appears, standing against
the night and the Assyrian fires.