our wives, our children! Hurrah! hurrah!'
At the feet of the speaker, leaning against the table on which he stands, rests his friend, companion, and disciple. His eye is dark and oriental, shadowed by long and gloomy lashes, his arms hang down, his limbs bend under him, his body is badly formed and distorted, his mouth is sensual and voluptuous, his expression is sharp and malicious, his fingers are laden with rings of gold—he joins the tumult, crying with a rough, hoarse voice: 'Long live Pancratius!' The speaker looks at him carelessly for a moment, and says: 'Citizen, Baptized, hand me a handkerchief!'
Meantime the uproar continues; the cries become more and more tumultuous: 'Bread for us! Bread! bread! Long live Pancratius! Death to the nobles! to the merchants! to the rich! Bread! bread! Bread and blood! Hurrah! hurrah!'
A tabernacle. Lamps. An open book lies on a table. Baptized Jews.
The Baptized. My wretched brethren; my revenge-seeking, beloved brethren! let us suck nourishment from the pages of the Talmud, as from the breast of our mother; it is the breast of life from which strength and honey flow for us, bitterness and poison for our enemies.
Chorus of Baptized Jews. Jehovah is our God, and ours alone; therefore has He scattered us in every land!
Like the coiled folds of an enormous serpent, He has wreathed us everywhere round and through the adorers of the cross; our lithe and subtile rings pass round and through our foolish, proud, unclean rulers.
Let us thrice spew them forth to destruction! Threefold curses light upon them!
The Baptized. Rejoice, my brethren! the Cross of our Great Enemy is already more than half hewn down; it is rotting to its fall; it is only standing on a root of blood: if it once plunge into the abyss it will never rise again. Hitherto the nobles have been its sole defence, but they are ours! ours!
Chorus of Baptized Jews. Our work, our long, long work of centuries, our sad, ardent, painful work is almost done!
Death to the nobles—let us thrice spew them forth to destruction! Threefold curses light upon them!
The Baptized. The might of Israel shall be built upon a liberty without law or order, upon a slaughter without end, upon the pride of the nobility, the folly of the masses. The nobles are almost destroyed; we must drive the few still left into the abyss of death, and scatter over their livid corpses the ruins of the shattered cross in which they trusted!
Chorus of Baptized Jews. The cross is now our holy symbol; the water of baptism has reunited us with men; the scorning repose upon the love of the scorned!
The freedom of men is our cry; the welfare of the people our aim; ha! ha! the eons of Christ trust the sons of Caiaphas!
Centuries ago our fathers tortured our Great Enemy to death; we will again torture him to death this very day—but He will never rise more from the grave which we prepare for Him!
The Baptized. Yet a little space, a little time, a few drops of poison, and the whole world will be our own, my brethren!
Chorus of Baptized Jews. Jehovah is the God of Israel, and of it alone.
Let us thrice spew forth the nations to destruction! Threefold curses light upon them!
Knocking is heard at the door.
The Baptized. Take up your work, brethren! And thou, Holy Book, away from sight—no unclean look shall soil thy spotless leaves! Who is there?
Voice (without). A friend. Open in the name of freedom.
The Baptized. Quick to your hammers and looms, my brethren!
Enter Leonard.
Leonard. Well done, citizens. You watch, I see, and whet your swords for to-morrow.—(Approaching one of the men:) What are you making here in this corner?
One of the Baptized. Ropes.
Leonard. You are right, citizen, for he who falls not by iron must hang!
The Baptized. Citizen Leonard, is the thing really to come off to-morrow?
Leonard. He who thinks, feels, and acts with the most force among us, has sent me to you to appoint an interview. He will himself answer your question.
The Baptized. I go to meet him. Brethren, remain at work. Look well to them, citizen Yankel.
Chorus of Baptized Jews. Ye ropes and daggers, ye clubs and bills, the works of our hands, ye wilt go forth to destroy them!
The people will kill the nobles upon the plains, will hang them in the forests, and then, having none to defend them, we will kill and hang the people! The Despised will arise in their anger, will array themselves in the might of Jehovah: His Word is Redemption and Love for His people Israel, but scorn and fury for their enemies!
Let us thrice spew them forth to destruction: threefold curses fall upon them!
A tent. A profusion of flasks, cups, and flagons. Pancratius alone.
Pancratius. The mob howled in applause but a moment ago, shouted in loud hurrahs at every word I uttered. But is there a single man among them all who really understands my ideas, or who comprehends the end and aim of that path upon which we have entered, or where the reforms will terminate which have been so loudly inaugurated within the last hour? 'Ah! fervidum imitatorum pecus!'
Enter Leonard and the Baptized Jew.
Do you know Count Henry?
The Baptized. I know him well by sight, great citizen, but I am not personally acquainted with him. I remember once when I was approaching the Lord's Supper, he cried to me, 'Out of the way!' and looked down upon me with the arrogant look peculiar to the nobles—for which I vowed him a rope in my soul.
Pancratius. Prepare to visit him early to-morrow morning, and announce to him that it is my wish to confer with him alone.
The Baptized. How many men will you send with me on this embassy? I do not think it would be safe to undertake it without a guard.
Pancratius. You must go alone, my name will be sufficient guard, and the gallows on which you hung the baron yesterday, your shield.
The Baptized. Woe is me!
Pancratius. Tell him I will visit him to-morrow night.
The Baptized. And if he should put me in chains or order me to be hung?
Pancratius. You would die a martyr for the freedom of the people!
The Baptized. I will sacrifice all for the freedom of the people.—(Aside.) Woe is me!—(Aloud.) Good night, citizen.
Leonard. Pancratius, why this delay, these half measures, these contracts, this strange interview? When I swore to honor and obey you, it was because I believed you to be a hero of extremes, an eagle flying even in the face of the sun directly to its aim; a brave man ready to venture all upon the cast of a die.
Pancratius. Silence, child!
Leonard.
