Traitor, thou art Jason.
JASON.
I am thy prisoner, Judas Maccabaeus, And it would ill become me to conceal My name or office.
JUDAS.
Over yonder gate There hangs the head of one who was a Greek.
What should prevent me now, thou man of sin, From hanging at its side the head of one Who born a Jew hath made himself a Greek?
JASON.
Justice prevents thee.
JUDAS.
Justice?
Thou art stained With every crime against which the Decalogue Thunders with all its thunder.
JASON.
If not Justice, Then Mercy, her handmaiden.
JUDAS.
When hast thou At any time, to any man or woman, Or even to any little child, shown mercy?
JASON.
I have but done what King Antiochus Commanded me.
JUDAS.
True, thou hast been the weapon With which he struck; but hast been such a weapon, So flexible, so fitted to his hand, It tempted him to strike.

So thou hast urged him To double wickedness, thine own and his.
Where is this King?
Is he in Antioch Among his women still, and from his windows Throwing down gold by handfuls, for the rabble To scramble for?
JASON.
Nay, he is gone from there, Gone with an army into the far East.
JUDAS.
And wherefore gone?
JASON.
I know not.

For the space Of forty days almost were horsemen seen Running in air, in cloth of gold, and armed With lances, like a band of soldiery; It was a sign of triumph.
JUDAS.
Or of death.
Wherefore art thou not with him?
JASON.
I was left For service in the Temple.
JUDAS.
To pollute it, And to corrupt the Jews; for there are men Whose presence is corruption; to be with them Degrades us and deforms the things we do.
JASON.
I never made a boast, as some men do, Of my superior virtue, nor denied The weakness of my nature, that hath made me Subservient to the will of other men.
JUDAS.
Upon this day, the five and twentieth day Of the month Caslan, was the Temple here Profaned by strangers,--by Antiochus And thee, his instrument.

Upon this day Shall it be cleansed.

Thou, who didst lend thyself Unto this profanation, canst not be A witness of these solemn services.
There can be nothing clean where thou art present.
The people put to death Callisthenes, Who burned the Temple gates; and if they find thee Will surely slay thee.