30. Look, most savage king, at the sights worthy
of thy feast. Stretch forth thy right hand, that nothing be
wanting to thy cruelty, that streams of holy blood may pour down
between thy fingers. And since the hunger for such unheard-of
cruelty could not be satisfied by banquets, nor the thirst by goblets,
drink the blood pouring from the still flowing veins of the cut-off
head. Behold those eyes, even in death, the witnesses of thy
crime, turning away from the sight of the delicacies. The eyes
are closing, not so much owing to death, as to horror of luxury.
That bloodless golden mouth, whose sentence thou couldst not endure, is
silent, and yet thou fearest. Yet the tongue, which even after
death is wont to observe its duty as when living, condemned, though
with trembling motion, the incest. This head is borne to
Herodias: she rejoices, she exults as though she had escaped from
the crime, because she has slain her judge.