Canto 7

Words waxed in speech; men counsel took
On every side; some hither, some thither,
Considered and thought. Then came many thanes
To the people's assembly. The heralds called,
The Cæsar's criers: "This queen you invites,
Men, to the hall, that the council-decisions
Ye rightly may tell. Of rede have ye need
In the place of assembly, of wisdom of mind."
Ready they were, the sad-in-mind
People's protectors, when they were summoned
Through stern command; to court they went
Craft's might to tell. Then gan the queen
The Hebrew men in words address,
Ask the life-weary of writings of old,
How ere in the world the prophets sang,
Men holy in spirit, of the Son of God,
Where the Prince [of the people] his sufferings bore,
True son of Creator, for love of souls.
Stubborn they were, harder than stone,
Would not that secret rightly make known
Nor answer to her any would tell,
Anger-provokers, of what she sought,
But they of each word made a denial,
Firm in their minds, of what she gan ask,
Said that in life they any such thing
Nor ere nor since ever had heard of.
Helena spake and angrily said:
"I [now] in truth to you will say,--
And of this in your life there shall be no deception,--
If ye in this falseness longer continue
With treacherous lying, who stand here before me,
That you on the mountain bale-fire shall take,
Hottest of war-waves, and your corpses consume,
The lambent flame, so for yoú shall that lie
To leaving of life [surely] be turned.
Ye may not prove that word, which ye just now in wrong
Concealed 'neath heaps of sins. Nor may ye hide that fate,
Obscure its deepest might." In thought of death they were
Of pyre and life's end, and delivered then one
Well-skilled in songs (to him the name Judas
Was given 'fore kinsmen);--him they gave to the queen,
Said of him very wise: "He may truth to thee tell,
Fate's secrets reveal, as thou askest in words,
The law from beginning forth to the end.
He is before earth of noble race,
Wise in word-craft and son of a prophet,
Bold in council. To him 'tis inborn
That he the answers clever may have,
Knowledge in heart. He to thée shall declare
'Fore the crowd of men the gift of wisdom
Through mickle might, as thy mind desires."
In peace she permitted each one to seek
His own [dear] home, and him alone took,
Judas, as hostage, and earnestly prayed
That he of the rood would rightly teach,
Which of old in its bed was long concealed,
And she himself apart to her called.
Helena spake to him alone,
Glory-rich queen: "For thee two are ready,
Or life or death, as liefer shall be,
To thee to choose. Now quickly declare
To which of the two thou wilt agree."
Judas to her spake again (he might not the sorrow avoid,
Avert the ire of the empress. In the power of the queen was he):
"How maý him befall who oút on the waste,
Tired and foodless, treads the moorland,
Oppressed with hunger, and bread and stone
Both in his sight together shall be,
The hard and the soft, that he take the stone
For hunger's defence, care nót for the bread,
Return to want and reject the food,
Renounce the better, if both he enjoys?"