JUDITH. I will speak to my lord alone.

BAGOAS (_aside to_ Holofernes). It is a device.

HOLOFERNES (_angrily_). Speak out all thy heart, and quickly!

JUDITH. I will speak to my lord in my lord's tent.

HOLOFERNES (_furious_). In my tent! Who art thou who defiest me, and
what is thy licence, heathen slave, to defile the tent of Holofernes?
Bind her. Take her away, and twist the cords about her neck, and
strangle her, and cast her insolence into the lake.

(Judith _is seized and bound in an instant_.)

HOLOFERNES (_in two minds_). Wait!

BAGOAS. She is bound, illustrious prince.

HOLOFERNES. Wait!

BAGOAS (_aside to_ Holofernes). Prince, let not the benevolence of your
heart be your undoing, for in the loveliness of her face is cunning and
great peril. I have lived all my days amid the craftiness of women, and
my lord also knows somewhat of their strange tricks, which bring ruin to
the carnal.

HOLOFERNES (_reflective_). Who would despise these Hebrews that have
among them such women as she? (_Fiercely_). Surely it is not good that