Page 47 - The Prophet-statesman a Drama of Daniel

She knew of the forgotten dream, since he had told her, and she knew he had
consulted with some of the Wise Men in an effort too retrieve it, but beyond this she

knew nothing, though she sensed that the air was charged with tenseness. The eunuchs
and the ladies in waiting said not a word to her, and it seemed that they showed even
more fear of her royal lord than usual.

She was the queen, but more ignorant of what was transpiring in the realm, the
ruthless decree of her husband, the smoldering resentment of the populace, than the
maid behind the mill. She was weighted down with forebodings and fears, and was
conscious that something was very much amiss.

She was at the point of tears for the whole period, and when her husband departed
for the fourth day without a parting kiss, she burst into tears and wept out the anguish
of her heat. “If I could only know what all this awful tenseness is about, I could stand it

better.” she sobbed, but there was none to answer or comfort her.

‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧‧

“Cause him to enter,” bellowed Nebuchadnezzar when he learned that Daniel stood

without.

Coming through the swinging doors and walking with steady step toward the King,
Daniel prostrated himself, half-way across the great throne-room space, and then arose

and continued to the foot of the throne.

The King appeared in even darker mood than there days before. His eyes flashed
from their deep sockets and gleamed out from under the beetle brows that projected

outward as awnings, raven-black.

With a menacing scowl and contemptuous tone he demanded, “Art thou able to
make known unto me the dream which I have seen, and the interpretation thereof?”

The young Hebrew was not in the least intimidated, nor did he tremble in any slight
degree. One who had been in the habit of standing before the King of Kings and had the

assurance in his heart of the favor of the Ruler of the Universe had no reason to quail in
the presence of any earthly monarch. Daniel did, however, maintain the strictest
standards of decorum, dignity and humility, and replied with a circumlocution rather
than a categorical affirmative: “The secret which the King hath demanded cannot the
Wise Men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, show unto the King. But

there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the King
Nebuchadnezzar, what shall be in the latter days. But as for me, this secret is not