Jeremiah Part 21

SECOND SENTRY

This crime cannot be G.o.d's will. He has given us our lives that we may live them. Everything that men do not understand they describe as G.o.d's will. War does not come from G.o.d. Whence comes it then?

FIRST SENTRY

How can I tell whence it comes? I know that there is war, and that it is useless to chatter about it. I do my duty; sharpen my spear, not my tongue.

[For a time they are silent once more, gazing out into the white stillness. From a great distance come the words of the challenge "_Samson guard us_," scarcely audible at first. Then the sound grows louder, still coming from unseen sentries. At length the words "_Samson guard us_," loud and clear from the next post. Our two sentries take up the challenge, and it is heard with diminishing loudness as it pa.s.ses on round the wall. Again all is still. The two sentries stand silent in the moonlight, their faces shadowed by their helmets]

SECOND SENTRY

Know you aught of the Chaldeans?

FIRST SENTRY

I know that they are our enemies, that they are attacking our homes.

SECOND SENTRY

I am not thinking about that. Have you ever seen any of them close at hand; do you know their customs and their country?

FIRST SENTRY

I have been told that they are cruel as wild cats and venomous as serpents. It is said that they sacrifice their children to idols of copper and lead. But I have never set eyes on a Chaldean.

SECOND SENTRY

Nor I. Too many mountains tower skyward between Jerusalem and Babylon; there are rivers to cross, and more country than a man can march over in many weeks. The very stars in the sky are different, and yet the men of Ashur are arrayed against us and we against them. What do they covet from us? If I were to question one of them, all he could tell me would doubtless be that in his house as in mine are wife and children lying upon straw. I believe if I could talk things over with such a man we should understand one another well enough. Often I feel that I should like to summon one of them, to hold out a friendly hand, so that we could have a heart to heart talk.

FIRST SENTRY

You must not do that.

SECOND SENTRY

Wherefore not?

FIRST SENTRY

They are our enemies and it is our duty to hate them.

SECOND SENTRY

Why should I hate them if my heart knows no reason for hatred?

FIRST SENTRY

They began the war; they were the aggressors.

SECOND SENTRY

Yes, that is what we say in Jerusalem. In Babylon, perchance, they tell another story. If we could talk things over with them, we might get some light on the question.

FIRST SENTRY

You must not talk with them. Our duty is to strike them down. Such are our orders, and we must obey.

SECOND SENTRY

My reason tells me that I must not converse with them, but in my soul I feel that I must. Whom do we serve by compa.s.sing their death?

FIRST SENTRY

What a question, simpleton! We serve G.o.d, and the king our master.

SECOND SENTRY

But G.o.d said, and it is written: "Thou shalt not kill". Mayhap, if I were to take my sword and cast it from me, I should serve G.o.d better than by slaying an enemy.

FIRST SENTRY

But it is likewise written: "Eye for eye, tooth for tooth".

SECOND SENTRY

[Sighs] Many things are written. Who can understand them all?

FIRST SENTRY

This is idle dreaming. The Chaldeans have invested our town; they wish to burn our houses; I stand here with sword and spear, and will do my utmost to prevent them. Too much knowledge is unwholesome. I know all I want to know.

SECOND SENTRY

Yet I cannot but ask myself ...

FIRST SENTRY

[Stubbornly] You should not ask so many questions. A soldier's business is to fight, not to reason why. You ponder overmuch, instead of doing your duty unquestioningly.

SECOND SENTRY

How can a man help questioning himself? How can he be other than uneasy, at such an hour? Do I know where I am, or how long I have still to stand on guard? This darkness beneath the wall, where the masonry is crumbling, will perhaps be my grave to-morrow. Maybe the wind which now caresses my cheek will not find me here in the morning. But can I fail, while I live, to ask the meaning of life? The flame flickers until the torch goes out. How can life do other than question until it is quenched by death? Maybe death is already within me; perchance the questioner is no longer life, but death.

FIRST SENTRY

You brood and brood. You are only tormenting yourself to no purpose.

SECOND SENTRY