I'd know his cough amid a thousand. Timothy, draw forward the couch for him to rest on. (Enter Paul.) So, Paul, it's thou, and so weary. I would have chosen to remember thee otherwise; but choice is not given to us.
PAUL: From weariness to weariness, so I have lived.
EUNICE: But why didst thou not wait for me?
PAUL: I thought to return sooner.
EUNICE: Here is Timothy, thy son in the faith, who arrived safely after missing thee on the hills.
TIMOTHY: And who has been for the last two days striving to get tidings of thee from the shepherds.
PAUL: Will none loose my sandals for me? (Eunice loosens his sandals. Paul turns to Probus.) Of the strength that the journey back from Jericho has robbed me, thou'lt tell Festus; long marches, hunger, thirst. . . . But whom do I see? Aquila and Priscilla, returned from Rome! What tidings do ye bring?
aquila: Evil tidings enough, dear Master, of stirs and quarrels that have broken out between Jews and Christians.
PRISCILLA: News of Nero must have reached Caesarea.
AQuiLa: An Emperor once so gentle that he could not sign an order for an execution without tears that he had learnt to write, now signs away the lives of half his Senators.
PRISCILLA: A madman he is said to be. Before we left Rome a rumour was going hither and thither that what remained of the Senate, about two-thirds, had been summoned at midnight to attend upon the Emperor. Only a few minutes were given to them to clothe themselves, and when they arrived at the Emperor's golden house they were ushered into a long gallery draped in black with seats on either side; and when all these were filled, the Emperor, dressed in black, fiddled whilst he danced past the quaking Senators. He disappeared through a distant door, not a word having been spoken, and then, after an interval, the Senators were informed by an officer of the Imperial household that they might return to their beds.
PAuL: But ye would not have me forgo the journey because a mad Emperor wears the purple?
Aquila: We thought it might be deferred till the spring.
