RAKHAZ: [_Puffing and blowing._]
Ho! Naaman? Where have you been living? Naaman is a broken reed
whose claws have been cut. Build no hopes on that foundation, for
it will upset in the midst of the sea and leave you hanging in the air.

SABALLIDIN:
He clatters like a windmill. What would he say, Hazael?

HAZAEL:
Naaman can do nothing without the command of the King; and the King
fears to order the army to march without the approval of the gods.
The High Priest is against it. The House of Rimmon is for peace with
Asshur.

RAKHAZ:
Yes, and all the nobles are for peace. We are the men whose wisdom
lights the rudder that upholds the chariot of state. Would we be
rich if we were not wise? Do we not know better than the rabble what
medicine will silence this fire that threatens to drown us?

IZDUBHAR:
But if the Assyrians come, we shall all perish; they will despoil
us all.

HAZAEL:
Not us, my lord, only the common people. The envoys have offered
favourable terms to the priests, and the nobles, and the King. No
palace, no temple, shall be plundered. Only the shops, and the
markets, and the houses of the multitude shall be given up to the
Bull. He will eat his supper from the pot of lentils, not from