Page 34 - The Prophet-statesman a Drama of Daniel

Now clothed in the robe and with a loose sash around the waist, the king-emperor
dropped into his favorite chair, which was covered with the skin of a leopard, the first

victim of Nebuchadnezzar himself in big-game hunting.

“I liked the appearance of all the young men of the captivity of Judah who received
their diplomas today, but especially the first four who were most highly honored,”

remarked Queen Rhea.
“Oh, so you were there after all, my dear. I failed to see you when I glanced up to
the royal box!” was the King’s reply.
“I was not in the royal box, but seated with some of the ladies of the court who are

helping me devise a means of recreation and a provision of good food for the poor,
underprivileged children of the slum district. The four young men who have now
entered the select circle of the Wise Men of Babylon, appealed to me greatly! ”
“What was it about them that struck you?” inquired her husband.

“There seemed to be a variety of virtues in them. They were sober and earnest,
humble and unassuming though exceedingly wise and learned. I noted that even amid
the thunderous applause accorded them, there was no hint of triumph on their
countenances, but only a quiet faith to which we, my dear husband, worshippers of Bel

are strangers. There was also a distinct suggestion of sadness on their faces which I feel
better qualified to understand. ”
“And why, fair one, do you feel better qualified to understand the sadness of their
faces than the other expressions that you have mentioned?”

“Because I feel I have something definitely in common with them. I am a stranger
in a strange land, just as they are.”
“Why do you say such things?” asked Nebuchadnezzar with some perplexity. “You
are the adored Queen of the mightiest monarch on earth, and he lays it all at your feet.

My empire is yours, all yours, and yet you say you are like these captive youths, a
‘stranger in a strange land’!”
“I meant not to disparage your generosity, my royal spouse! No rustic maiden, the
daughter of a decadent house in Media, as that from which I am derived, could in her

wildest dreams have contemplated such glory as that in which you have arrayed me.
And yet one finds it difficult to shake off an attachment to the scenes of one’s nativity
and youth. I dream of the lovely wooded mountains among which I was reared and my

ears long for the song of the mountain thrush, the mocking-bird, and the nightingale.
Even the screech of the hoot-owl or the raucous buzz of the cicada would be as music
in my ears. The palace here is of unexcelled splendor and from the eminence upon which
it rests the outlook is upon a city of well-built houses― masterpieces of human
construction, but across the walls an arid expanse of sand-dunes and tree-less

undulations. My eyes yearn for a sight of the wooded hills and the soft shadows on their
sides that lengthen as evening falls, and the blue mountains in the distance that