What have I heard? O God, what shame is this
Plotted beneath Thy pure and silent stars!
Was it for this that I was brought away
Captive from Israel's blessed hills to serve
A heathen mistress in a land of lies?
Ah, treacherous, shameful priest! Ah, shameless wife
Of one too noble to suspect thy guilt!
The very greatness of his generous heart
Betrays him to their hands. What can I do?
Nothing,--a slave,--hated and mocked by all
My fellow-slaves! O bitter prison-life!
I smother in this black, betraying air
Of lust and luxury; I faint beneath
The shadow of this House of Rimmon. God
Have mercy! Lead me out to Israel.
To Israel!

[_Music and laughter heard within the palace. The doors fly open and a
flood of men and women, dancers, players, flushed with wine,
dishevelled, pour down the steps, KHAMMA and NUBTA with them. They
crown the image with roses and dance around it. RUAHMAH is discovered
crouching beside the arbour. They drag her out before the image._]

NUBTA:
Look! Here's the Hebrew maid,--
She's homesick; let us comfort her!

KHAMMA: [_They put their arms around her._]
Yes, dancing is the cure for homesickness.
We'll make her dance.