Herod, you bid me farewell with tears, you looked at me with eyes filled<hr>
with affection, and yet you would have plotted my death? If you are capable of that, you can now<hr>
pretend to believe me guilty to have me killed innocent. And do not tell me that this<hr>
command was the result of the strong passion you had for me. The death of the beloved<hr>
can never be proof of affection. Hatish and love do not lead to the same<hr>
actions, they can sometimes rule successively in a heart, but never simultaneously.<hr>
Any man who loves sincerely cannot live without the person he loves, but he can<hr>
always die without her, and her loss would never be a pleasant thought to him. He should have<hr>
regret at parting from her, not the regret that she does not die with him. But your way<hr>
of loving is quite peculiar, and your inclinations are naturally so cruel that poisons<hr>
and daggers are the most pleasant gifts one can receive from you when you<hr>
wish to testify of your friendship. Tell me, how can you reconcile all these things?<hr>
Being aware that heaven protects me, I am convinced that if I were to die, my death<hr>
would be arranged in a way that your injustice and my innocence are clearly revealed.<hr>
       You say that I sent my portrait to Antony and thus had an affair with him. And<hr>
at the same time, you accuse me of having another affair with Joseph, for you claim<hr>
that I entrusted him with the most important thing for you, for having revealed your murderous intentions<hr>
against me. It is impossible that I gave myself fully to him as a<hr>
reward for this information. Reflect well, Herod, on what you are saying. Could Antony and Joseph<hr>
have coexisted in my heart? Were they rivals of the same rank and the same<hr>
merit? And this Mariamne whose birth is so high and illustrious, whose soul is so admirable<hr>
and glorious that some consider this proud nobility as a defect rather than a<hr>
quality, could she have succumbed to the same weakness for two men so different, that their<hr>
only common point is that it would have been impossible for them to touch her heart if they had attempted it?<hr>
My conquest is not as easy as you seem to believe, and I am surprised that you, who have<hr>
never tried, imagine it was so simple for the others. I acknowledge that Joseph revealed your hr>
bad intention towards me, but I didn't believe him. At first, I thought it was<hr>
a malicious act of Salome, who wanted to drive me to confront you openly in order to cause my<hr>
downfall. She thought that my death would touch me more than that of Hyrcanus and my brother. What<hr>
made me doubt more is that Joseph was trying to convince me that I had to thank you<hr>
for this extreme manifestation of your love for me. Furthermore, he only revealed this plot<hr>
upon your return, and he did it in the presence of my mother and all my ladies, without making it a<hr>
secret. I must admit that even though I expected everything from you, I doubted the truthfulness<hr>
of Joseph's words. I thought that as the father of our children, you were not capable<hr>
of such cruelty. I didn't make a firm decision in my mind and I waited for your return.<hr>
I greeted you with the same sadness as I have always had since the loss of Hyrcanus and<hr>
Aristobulus, without blaming you further.<hr>
<hr>
<hr>
                                                    17<hr>