let us go up and we shall overcome them. But if there be no iniquity in
their nation, let my lord now pass by, lest their Lord defend them and
we become a reproach before all the world.

JUDITH. It was well said.

OZIAS. Lady, it was well said--if the slave said it. (_To_ Achior.) I
demanded of you: How came you _here_?

ACHIOR. Thus. When I had finished speaking to Holofernes, all they that
were about my lord and governor rose up in wrath and cried: Kill him.
And the face of Holofernes darkened, and he said: And who art thou,
Achior, that thou hast prophesied among us to-day that we should not
make war with the people of Israel because of their God? And who is God
but Nebuchadnezzar? Nebuchadnezzar by my hand will destroy the
Israelites, and their God shall not deliver them. Their mountains shall
be drunken with their blood and their fields shall be filled with their
dead bodies. (_The_ citizens _show alarm_.) And thou, Achior, shalt be
delivered up to the Israelites in Bethulia, and when thou seest me again
thou shalt fall among the slain.... And he commanded his servants, and
they took me, and carried me secretly to the foot of the hill of
Bethulia. And here am I!

OZIAS (_after a pause, positively_). It is a wicked device for our
undoing.

JUDITH. How so?

OZIAS. Plainly this fellow lies, and he has come subtly with a tale to
spy out our strength. Presently he will seek to escape from us again to