In watching your actions, I must admit that I have always doubted the truth of the words of Joseph. Salome's malice, however, increased my suspicions, and when I spoke to you about it, it was more to clarify the situation than to accuse you. For if it had been true that I held a special affection for Joseph, and that I took what he had confided in me as pure truth and as proof of his compassion towards me, I would rather have died than revealed it, and this unfortunate man would still be alive.
       Yet here are all the signs of kindness that I have granted him: no one claims that we had a special relationship, no one says that he often came to my room, and finally, I did nothing more for him than his cruellest enemy would have done if she had been in the same situation. Indeed, I would have rewarded him poorly if I had acted this way. You also assert that hatred and revenge drove me to gratify Joseph after discovering your intention. But know that great souls take others as their model and do not make the same mistakes. The crimes of others inspire them with such horror that they are never more firmly attached to good than when they witness evil. And for my part, I think that I would have been less innocent if you had been less unjust.
       Finally, if Mariamne, descended from so many kings, had wanted to give her affection to someone, it would not have been Salome's husband or Herod's favourite. And if she had been capable of punishing the crimes of others, she would not have caused the death of the one she would have thought she wanted to preserve.
You know too well my astonishment when after my speech, I understood from your response that it was true. I was so surprised that I almost lost my words. However, I did not anticipate the accusation that rests on me today. The simple knowledge of your crime and Joseph's innocence, which I exposed to your cruelty, is the object of all my pain.
       Since then, Salome, taking this opportunity to make me disappear, as she has long been plotting, probably persuaded you that I wanted to kill you.
       And here is the only crime for which there is a witness against me. But he is here more to justify than to convince. How much credibility can we give to the fact that, for a project of such importance, I entrusted myself to a man of such low condition? Do I usually converse with such people? How did he come into my apartment? Is he from my family or related to one of my officers? In what place did I speak with him? How did I bribe him to denounce the jewels that I gave him, to display the money he received for such a great project? For it is unreasonable to think that he would have risked his life on a simple hope. This witness, or rather this stranger, might answer that, having no intention of carrying out this action and instead wanting to warn you, he did not think of a reward. But I reply to this impostor that in order to give me no reason to suspect him, he should have accepted anything I offered him as proof of my conspiracy.

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