Page 38 - The Prophet-statesman a Drama of Daniel

Rhea listened with rapt interest and sighed when the reading was ended. “Why do
we not know more of this Jahveh, their God, my husband? Can it be that such a great
and powerful deity would confine His interests to one people?” inquired Rhea.

“It is because I wished to enlist His aid in our behalf that I have brought the vessels
from His temple in Jerusalem to Babylon and have treated them with the utmost respect.
And it is for the same reason that I brought the young men over and have trained them
to assist us in government,” explained the King.

“Thou art a wise and noble king, O Nebuchadnezzar. I have the feeling that we shall
yet find the Hebrew God Jahveh is greater than our Bel. I am eager to learn more of
Him.”
“But tonight, fair one, bother no more your pretty head, but hasten to thy downy

couch, that the bloom fade not from thy cheek.”
Shortly the beautiful queen was wrapped in slumber while the royal husband slept
beside her.

But his sleep was tumultuous and restless, and a little after midnight he awakened
and was able to sleep no more. For a while he lay quietly in order to avoid disturbing
the restful slumber of his queen, but there was a storm of conflict in his mind. The
pressure upon him became so intense, that well before dawn he slipped off the great bed

and out into the living room, where he paced the floor in mental anguish.

So absorbed was he in his thoughts that he did not even notice that the light was
coming through the window and that Rhea was walking beside him, her hand holding

his arm.

“What troubles you, my beloved?” She asked with great tenderness.

“The thing is gone from me and I cannot recover it, try as I may!” He spoke in
considerable irritation and in a tone foreign to the one he had always used in speaking
to her. She had never once seen him in the mood in which his subjects saw him, and she
had been a little perplexed at the obvious fear in which he was held by them, when the

consciousness of it began to break upon her. She could not understand why one whom
she saw as kind, tender, and solicitous should cause the domestics tremble in terror. But
now he shook off the gentle touch of her hand, and turned quickly to face her, his black

eyes blazing. “Why, the dream! The dream! The gods mock me. They show me a dream
of great magnitude and importance, of such compelling significance that I awaken with
a start, then they wrest it from me, and it is gone. There is naught left save an impression
of something stupendous, but I cannot reproduce a vestige of it.” His voice rose to a
crescendo as he cried: “I tell you, Rhea, I must have it again! Even the gods cannot thus

taunt me!”