Enter the NUNCIO with Guards.

Nuncio. [to his Attendants.] Hold both, the sorcerer and this accomplice

Ye talk of, that accuseth him! And tell

Sir Loys he is mine, the Church's hope:
Bid him approve himself our Knight indeed!

Lo, this black disemboguing of the Isle !

[To the Druses.] Ah, children, what a sight for these old eyes

That kept themselves alive this voyage through
To smile their very last on you! I came

To gather one and all you wandering sheep
Into my fold, as tho' a father came...

As tho', in coming, a father should..

[To his Guards.] (Ten, twelve,

-Twelve guards of you, and not an outlet? None?
The wizards stop each avenue? Keep close!)
[To the Druses.] As if one came to a son's house, I say,
So did I come-no guard with me--to find..

I find, (ye prompt aright) your Father slain !

While most he plotted for your good, that Father

(Alas! how kind, ye never knew)-lies slain !

[Aside.] (And Hell's worm gnaw the glozing knave— with me,

For being duped by his cajoleries!

Are these the Christians? These the docile crew

My bezants went to make me Bishop o'er ?)

[To his Attendants, who whisper.] What say ye does this wizard style himself?

Hakeem? Biamrallah? The third Fatemite?

What is this jargon? He-the insane Khalif,
Dead near three hundred years ago, come back
In flesh and blood again?

I stand here with my five-and-seventy years,

The Patriarch's power behind, and God's above me! Those years have witnessed sin enough; ere now Misguided men arose against their lords,

And found excuse; but ye, to be enslaved

By sorceries-cheats ;-alas! the same tricks, tried
On my poor children in this nook of the earth,
Could triumph,-that have been successively
Exploded, laughed to scorn, all nations thro'-
"Romaioi, Ioudaioi te kai proselutoi,

"Cretes and Arabians "--you are duped the last!
Said I, refrain from tearing me? I pray ye

Tear me!

Shall I return to tell the Patriarch

That so much love was wasted-every gift

Rejected, from his benison I brought,

Down to the galley-full of bezants, sunk

An hour since at the harbour's mouth, by that. . .
That... never will I speak his hated name!

[To his Servants.] What was the name his fellow slip

fetter

Called their arch-wizard by? [they whisper.] Oh, Djabal was't?

Druses. But how a sorcerer? false wherein ?

Nuncio. (Ay, Djabal!) How false? Ye know not, Djabal has confessed . . .

Nay, that by tokens found on him we learn. . .
What I sailed hither solely to divulge-
How by his spells the demons were allured

To seize you-not that these be aught save lies
And mere illusions. Is this clear? I say,

By measures such as these, he would have led you
Into a monstrous ruin: follow ye?

Say, shall ye perish for his sake, my sons?

Druses. Hark ye!

Nuncio.

-Be of one privilege amerced? No! Infinite the Patriarch's mercies be!

No! With the Patriarch's license, still I bid ye
Tear him to pieces who misled you! Haste!

Druses. The old man's beard shakes, and his eyes are white fire! After all, I know nothing of Djabal beyond what Karshook says; he knows but what Khalil says; who knows just what Djabal says himself. Now, the little Copht Prophet, I saw at Cairo in my youth, began by promising each bystander three full measures of wheat...

Enter KHALIL and the Initiated Druses.

Kha. Venice and her deliverance are at hand! Their fleet stands thro' the harbour! Hath he slain The Prefect yet? Is Djabal's change come yet? Nuncio [to Attendants.] What's this of Venice? Who's this boy?

[Attendants whisper.] One Khalil ? Djabal's accomplice, Loys called, but now, The only Druse, save Djabal's self, to fear?

[To the Druses.] I cannot hear ye with these aged

ears.

Is it so? Ye would have my troops assist?

Doth he abet him in his sorceries?

Down with the cheat, guards, as my children bid!

[They spring at KHALIL: as he beats them back, Stay-no more bloodshed-spare deluded youth! Whom seek'st thou? (I will teach him)-Whom, my child?

Thou know'st not what these know, what these declare. I am an old man, as thou seest-have done

With earth, and what should move me but the truth? Art thou the only fond one of thy tribe?

'Tis I interpret for thy tribe!

Kha.

Oh, this

Is the expected Nuncio! Druses, hear-
Endure ye this? Unworthy to partake

The glory Hakeem gains you! While I speak,
The ships touch land: who makes for Lebanon?
They'll plant the winged lion in these halls!

Nuncio. [Aside.] If it be true! Venice?-Oh, never true!

Yet Venice would so gladly thwart our Knights,
And fain get footing here, stand close by Rhodes!
Oh, to be duped this way!

Kha.

Ere he appears

To lead you gloriously, repent, I say!

Nuncio [Aside.] Nor any way to stretch the archwizard stark

Ere the Venetians come? Be he cut off,

The rest were easily tamed. [to the Druses.] He? Bring him forth!

Since so you needs will have it, I assent!

You'd judge him, say you, on the spot? Confound
The sorcerer in his very circle? Where's

Our short black-bearded sallow friend who said
He'd earn the Patriarch's guerdon by a stab?
Bring Djabal forth at once!

Druses.

Ay, bring him forth! The Patriarch drives a trade in oil and silk,

And we're the Patriarch's children-true men, we! Where is the glory? Show us all the glory!

Kha. You dare not so insult him! What, not see...
(I tell thee, Nuncio, these are uninstructed,
Untrusted they know nothing of our Khalif !)
-Not see that if he lets a doubt arise

'Tis but to give yourselves the chance of seeming
To have some influence in your own Return!
That all may say they would have trusted him
Without the all-convincing glory—ay,

And did! Embrace the occasion, friends! For, think-
What merit when his change takes place? But now,
For your sakes, he should not reveal himself!

No-could I ask and have, I would not ask
The change yet!

Enter DJABAL and Loys.

Spite of all, reveal thyself!

I had said, pardon them for me—for Anael—
For our sakes pardon these besotted men—
Ay-for thine own-they hurt not thee! Yet now
One thought swells in me and keeps down all else.
This Nuncio couples shame with thee, has called
Imposture thy whole course, all bitter things
To hear he is but an old fretful man!
Hakeem-nay, I must call thee Hakeem now—