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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Hammer. A Story of the Maccabean Times
+by Alfred John Church and Richmond Seeley
+
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no
+restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under
+the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or
+online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license
+
+
+
+Title: The Hammer. A Story of the Maccabean Times
+
+Author: Alfred John Church and Richmond Seeley
+
+Release Date: December 31, 2013 [Ebook #44550]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: US-ASCII
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HAMMER. A STORY OF THE MACCABEAN TIMES***
+
+
+
+
+
+                               _THE HAMMER_
+
+
+
+
+
+              [Illustration: _The Cave among the Mountains._]
+
+
+
+
+
+                               THE HAMMER
+
+                    _A STORY OF THE MACCABEAN TIMES_
+
+
+                                   BY
+                         ALFRED J. CHURCH, M.A.
+       _Lately Professor of Latin in University College, London_
+                                  AND
+                             RICHMOND SEELEY
+
+
+
+_With Illustrations by __JOHN JELLICOE_
+
+
+LONDON
+SEELEY AND CO. LIMITED
+ESSEX STREET, STRAND
+1890
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 PREFACE
+
+
+It is not so very long since the Apocrypha was found in almost every copy
+of the English Bible, but in the present day it is seldom printed with it,
+and very seldom indeed read. One or two of the writings included under
+this name are trivial and even absurd; but, on the whole, the Apocryphal
+books deserve far more attention than they receive. Among the foremost, in
+point of interest and value, must be placed the First Book of Maccabees.
+Written within fifty years of the events which it records, at a time, it
+must be remembered, that was singularly barren of historical literature,
+it is a careful, sober, and consistent narrative. It is our principal, not
+unfrequently our sole, authority for the incidents of a very important
+period, a period that was in the highest degree critical in the history of
+the Jewish nation and of the world which that nation has so largely
+influenced. It is commonly said that the great visitation of the Captivity
+finally destroyed in the Hebrew mind the tendency to idolatry. But the
+denunciations of Ezekiel prove to us that the exiles carried into the land
+of their captivity the evil which they had cherished in the land of their
+birth, and it is no less certain that they brought it back with them on
+their return. It grew to its height in the early part of the Second
+Century B.C., along with the increasing influence of Greek civilization in
+Western Asia. The feeble Jewish Commonwealth was more and more dominated
+by the powerful kingdoms which had been established on the ruins of the
+empire of Alexander, and the national religion was attacked by an enemy at
+least as dangerous as the Phoenician Baal-worship had been in earlier days,
+an enemy which may be briefly described by the word Hellenism. The story
+of how Judas and his brothers led the movement which rescued the Jewish
+faith from this peril is the story which we have endeavoured to tell in
+this volume. Our plan has been to follow strictly the lines of the First
+Book of Maccabees, going to the Second, a far less trustworthy document,
+only for some picturesque incidents. The subsidiary characters are
+fictitious, but the narrative is, we believe, apart from casual errors,
+historically correct.
+
+We have to acknowledge special obligations to Captain Conder's "Judas
+Maccabaeus," a volume of the series entitled "The New Plutarch." We also
+owe much to Canon Rawlinson's notes in the "Speaker's Commentary on the
+Bible," to Canon Westcott's articles in the "Dictionary of the Bible," and
+to Dean Stanley's "Lectures on the Jewish Church."
+
+If any reader should be curious as to the literary partnership announced
+on the title-page--a partnership that has grown, so to speak, out of
+another of many years' standing, shared by the writers as author and
+publisher--he may be informed that the plan of the story and a detailed
+outline of it have been contributed by Richmond Seeley, and the story
+itself written for the most part by Alfred Church.
+
+LONDON,
+_Sept. 3, 1889._
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAP.                                         PAGE
+     I.   A NEW ORDER OF THINGS                    1
+    II.   ANTIOCHUS                               19
+   III.   MENELAUeS                                37
+    IV.   AT ANTIOCH                              49
+     V.   THE WRATH TO COME                       68
+    VI.   THE EVIL DAYS                           79
+   VII.   THE DARKNESS THICKENS                   90
+  VIII.   SHALLUM THE WINE-SELLER                101
+    IX.   THE PERSECUTION                        113
+     X.   IN THE MOUNTAINS                       124
+    XI.   NEWS BAD AND GOOD                      135
+   XII.   THE PATRIOT ARMY                       148
+  XIII.   GUERILLA WARFARE IN THE MOUNTAINS      159
+   XIV.   THE BURIAL OF MATTATHIAS               171
+    XV.   THE SWORD OF APOLLONIUS                184
+   XVI.   NEWS FROM THE BATTLE-FIELD             193
+  XVII.   THE BATTLE OF EMMAUS                   208
+ XVIII.   THE BATTLE OF BETH-ZUR                 225
+   XIX.   IN JERUSALEM                           235
+    XX.   THE CLEANSING OF THE TEMPLE            242
+   XXI.   THE DEDICATION OF THE TEMPLE           254
+  XXII.   WARS AND RUMOURS OF WARS               263
+ XXIII.   MORE VICTORIES                         274
+  XXIV.   THE SABBATICAL YEAR                    284
+   XXV.   REVERSES                               294
+  XXVI.   LIGHT OUT OF DARKNESS                  304
+ XXVII.   A PEACEFUL INTERVAL                    314
+XXVIII.   HOPES AND FEARS                        323
+  XXIX.   CIVIL WAR                              331
+   XXX.   NICANOR                                339
+  XXXI.   THE FALLING AWAY                       352
+ XXXII.   THE LAST BATTLE                        362
+XXXIII.   THE HOPE OF ISRAEL                     368
+
+
+
+
+
+                          LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+THE CAVE AMONG THE MOUNTAINS     _Frontispiece_
+ANTIOCHUS IN THE TAVERN                      32
+THE PERSECUTION                             118
+THE LAST CHARGE OF MATTATHIAS               168
+THE SWORD OF APOLLONIUS                     192
+FAREWELL TO THE MOUNTAINS                   232
+THE DEATH OF ELEAZAR                        302
+THE BOY KING                                314
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                THE HAMMER
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER I.
+
+                          A NEW ORDER OF THINGS.
+
+
+The time is the evening of a day in the early autumn of the year 174 B.C.
+There has been a great festival in Jerusalem. But it has been curiously
+unlike any festival that one would have expected to be held in that famous
+city. The people have not been crowding in from the country, and
+journeying from their far-off places of sojourn among the heathen, to keep
+one of the great feasts of the Law. Nothing could be further from the
+thoughts of the crowd that is streaming out of this new building which
+stands close under the walls of the Temple. What would they who built the
+Temple some two and a half centuries before have thought of this strange
+intruder on the sacred precincts? It is not difficult to imagine, for the
+new erection is nothing more or less than a Circus, built and furnished in
+the latest Greek fashion, and the spectacle which the crowd has been
+enjoying, or pretending to enjoy--for it is strange to all, and distasteful
+to some--is an imitation of the Olympian games. Things then, we see, have
+been curiously changed. Even the city has almost lost its identity. It is
+no longer the capital of the Jewish nation, but the chief town of an
+insignificant province in the Greek kingdom of Syria, one of the fragments
+into which the great dominion of Alexander had split some hundred and
+fifty years before. We shall understand something more about this
+marvellous change if we listen to a conversation that is going on in one
+of the houses that adjoin the Temple.
+
+"Well, Cleon, you will allow that our little show to-day has been fairly
+successful. We are but novices, you know; barbarians, I am afraid you will
+call us. But we hope to improve. You Greeks are wonderful teachers. You
+can give in a very short time a quite marvellous appearance of refinement
+to the merest savages. And we are not that; you would not call us savages,
+my dear friend."
+
+"Savages! The gods forbid that such insolent folly should ever come from
+my tongue! You have a most elegant taste in art, my dear Jason. Our own
+Callias--he is our first _connoisseur_ at Athens; you must have heard me
+mention him--would not disdain to have some of the little things which you
+have about you here in his own apartment."
+
+And, as he spoke, Cleon looked round the room, which, indeed, was very
+handsomely furnished in the latest Greek taste. The walls were covered
+with tapestry, showing on a purple ground a design, worked in silver and
+gold, which represented the triumphant return of the Wine-god from his
+Eastern campaigns. At one end of the room stood a sumptuously-carved
+bookcase, filled with volumes adorned by the most skilful binders of
+Alexandria. The bookcase was flanked on either side by a pedestal statue,
+one displaying the head of Hermes, the other the head of Athene. On a
+sideboard were ranged twelve silver goblets, on which had been worked in
+high relief the labours of Hercules. But probably the most precious object
+in the room--at least in its master's estimation--was a replica, about half
+the size of life, of the statue that we know as the "Dying Gladiator." It
+was the work of a sculptor of Pergamum, a special favourite of the
+art-loving dynasty of the Attali. It had been purchased for the enormous
+sum of half a talent of gold;(1) and Jason had thought himself especially
+fortunate in being allowed to secure it on any terms. The Pergamene artist
+was bound, in consideration of the handsome payment which he received from
+his royal patron, not to execute commissions for strangers, and it was
+only as a special favour, and not till a heavy bribe had been paid to some
+influential personage in the court, that the rule had been relaxed in
+favour of Jason.
+
+And who, it may be asked, was Jason?
+
+Jason was the Jewish high priest, the successor of Aaron, of Eleazar, of
+Jehoiada, of Hilkiah, and as unlike these worthies of the past in
+appearance, in speech, in ways of thinking, as it is possible to conceive.
+His costume, in the first place, was that of a Greek exquisite. He wore a
+purple tunic, showing at the neck a crimson under-shirt, and gathered up
+at the waist with a belt of the finest leather, clasped with a design in
+silver, which showed a dog laying hold of a fawn. His knees were bare, but
+the shins were covered with silk leggings of the same colour as the tunic,
+against which the gold fastenings of the sandals showed in gay relief. His
+hair was elaborately curled, and almost dripping with the richest of
+Syrian perfumes. The forefinger of the left hand showed the head of Zeus
+finely carved on an amethyst, that of the right was circled by a sapphire
+ring with the likeness of Apollo.
+
+His speech was Greek. Hebrew of course he knew, both in its classical and
+its conversational forms; but he was as careful to conceal his knowledge
+as an old-fashioned Roman of his time would have been careful to hide the
+fact, if he had happened to know any language besides his own. His very
+name, it will have been observed, had been changed to suit the new fashion
+which he was endeavouring to set to his countrymen. Really it was
+Joshua--no dishonourable appellation, one would think, seeing that it had
+been borne by the conqueror of Canaan, and by the most distinguished of
+the later high priests. But it did not please him, and he had changed it
+to Jason.
+
+As for his ways of thinking, these will become evident enough if we listen
+to a little more of his conversation.
+
+"And you think, Cleon," he went on--Cleon was a Greek adventurer who gave
+himself out as an Athenian, but who was shrewdly suspected of coming from
+one of the smaller islands of the AEgean--"you think that our games went
+pretty well?"
+
+"Admirably, my dear Jason," answered the Greek, who really had thought
+them a deplorable failure, but who valued too much his free quarters in
+the high priest's sumptuous palace to give a candid expression of his
+opinion.
+
+"You see we had great difficulties to contend with. You can hardly
+imagine, for instance, how hard I found it to persuade our young men to
+run and wrestle naked. They quoted some ridiculous nonsense from the Law,
+as if we could be bound nowadays by some obsolete old rules that no
+sensible person would think for a moment of observing.(2) You saw, I dare
+say, to-day that I was obliged to allow some of them to wear a loin-cloth.
+They positively refused to come into the arena without it. Well, we shall
+educate them in time. They _must_ learn to admire the beauty of the human
+form, unspoilt by any of the trappings with which, for convenience sake,
+we are accustomed to conceal it. I don't despair of our having a school of
+art here some day--not rivals, my dear Lysias, of your glorious Phidias and
+Praxiteles, but imitators, humble imitators, whom yet you won't disdain to
+acknowledge."
+
+"But, my dear sir, you forget the Commandment, 'Thou shalt not make to
+thyself any graven image.'"
+
+The speaker was a young man who had hitherto taken no part in the
+conversation. He also had a Hebrew name and a Greek. His father, a rich
+priest who claimed descent from no less a person than the prophet Ezekiel,
+had called him Micah; but he had followed the fashion, and dubbed himself
+Menander. Still, Greek ways and habits did not sit over-easily upon him.
+Fashion has often a singular power over the young; but it could not quite
+drive out the obstinate patriotism of the Jew. He could still sometimes be
+scandalized at the thorough-going Hellenism of the high priest; and he was
+so scandalized now. The Commandment was one of the things which he had
+learnt at his mother's knee, and which he had solemnly repeated when, at
+the age of twelve, he had been regularly admitted to the privileges of a
+"son of the Law."
+
+"My dear Menander," broke in the high priest, "what can you be thinking
+about? I had hoped better things of you. You do discourage me most
+terribly. 'No graven image or likeness of anything that is in heaven or
+earth!' Was there ever anything so hopelessly tasteless? Why, this is the
+one thing that has checked all growth of art among us? And without art
+where is the beauty of life? Now tell me, Menander, did you ever see
+anything so hideous as the Temple? There is a certain splendour about
+it--or was, till I had to strip off most of the gold for purposes of
+state--but of beauty or taste not a scrap. You, Cleon, have never seen the
+inside of it. Well, you have lost nothing. It would simply shock you after
+your lovely Parthenon. Bells and pomegranates--things that any moulder
+could make--and sham columns, and everything as bad as it can be. And then
+the dresses! You should see--though I should really be ashamed if you did
+see it--the absurd costume that some of them would make me wear as high
+priest. Anything more cumbrous and clumsy could not be. A man can hardly
+move in it; and as for showing any of the proportions of the figure--and I
+take it that dress is meant to reveal while it seems to hide them--one
+might as well be wrapped up in swaddling clothes."
+
+"Did you ever wear it?" asked Cleon.
+
+"Once, and once only," answered Jason. "That was on the day when I was
+admitted to the office. You see it had to be done. Some of my enemies--and
+I am afraid that I have enemies after all that I have done for this
+ungrateful people--might have said that things were not regular without it,
+and when one has paid twenty talents of gold for the office, it would be
+rank folly to risk it for a trifle. But I have never worn it since, and
+never mean to again. I did design something much lighter and neater,
+worthy the Greek fashion, but with just a tinge--it would be well to have a
+tinge--of our own in it; but it did not please the elders when I showed it
+to them, a bigoted set of fools!"
+
+"But your worship is very fine, I am told," said the Greek.
+
+"Very tasteless, very tasteless," answered the high-priest, "the singing
+and music as rude as possible. I tried to improve them when I first came
+into office. When I was at Antioch I saw some very pretty performances in
+the groves of Daphne, and I wanted to remodel our ceremonies on something
+of the same lines. Of course I could not transplant them just as they
+were: you will guess that there were one or two things that would hardly
+do here. I am not strait-laced, as you know, but there are limits.
+However, it all came to nothing. Our people are so clumsy and obstinate.
+So the only thing will be to let these antiquated ceremonies die out by
+degrees."
+
+Micah broke in at this point. Disposed as he was to follow Jason's lead,
+this was going too far. "Surely, my dear sir, if you take away from us all
+that is distinctive, where will be our reason for existence? After all is
+said, we are not Greeks and never can be Greeks; and if we cease to be
+Jews, what are we?"
+
+"_Jews!_ my dear fellow," cried the high-priest, "why do you use the
+odious word? We are not Jews, we are Antiochenes. Do you know that I paid
+five talents to the treasurer of Antiochus for license to use the name?
+For Heaven's sake, let us have our money's worth. By the way," he went on,
+turning to Cleon, "when does your Olympian festival next take place?"
+
+"In two years' time," said the Greek.
+
+"I propose to send an embassy with a handsome present for your great
+temple. I should like to establish friendly relations with your people at
+the head-quarters of your race. Do you think it is possible that our
+Menon--you saw him in the stadium just now--might be allowed to run? It
+would take all that your athletes know to beat him."
+
+"Quite impossible. He could hardly make out a Greek pedigree, I suppose?"
+
+"No; he could not do that. But would not money smooth the way?"
+
+"It could not be. Money will do most things with us, as it will elsewhere,
+but not that. A man must show a pure Greek descent."
+
+"But the embassy can go?"
+
+"Certainly," replied the Greek, with a smile; "we are ready to take gifts
+from any one. But--excuse my obtruding the suggestion--is it quite wise to
+run counter to your people's prejudices in this way? Couldn't they get up
+an agitation against you?"
+
+"My dear Cleon, I feel quite easy on that score. I made the highest bid
+for the place, and it is mine, just as much as this ring is mine."
+
+"But might not some one outbid you? I have heard of such things being
+done."
+
+"Outbid me? Hardly. I have squeezed the uttermost farthing out of the
+people to pay the purchase-money and the tribute, and I defy my rivals,
+with all the best will in the world, to beat me. Why, my fellows, the
+tax-gatherers, are the most ingenious rascals in the world for putting on
+the screw. I make them bid against each other when I put the taxes up to
+auction, and they really go to figures that I should not have thought
+possible. And then, after all, they manage somehow or other to get a
+handsome margin of profit for themselves. I know the scoundrels always
+seem to have a great deal more money than I have."
+
+Menander, somewhat revolted at his friend's levity, rose to take leave.
+"Stop a moment," said Jason, "I have a little commission for you, which
+will give you a pleasant outing and a score or two of shekels to put in
+your pocket."
+
+"Well, the shekels will be welcome. Those are very charming fellows, those
+Greek friends of yours," he went on, addressing Cleon, "but they have the
+most confounded luck with the dice that I ever knew. But what is it, sir,
+that you want me to do?"
+
+"I want to do a civil thing to our friends at Tyre. You know that we do a
+very brisk trade with them, and a little bit of politeness is never thrown
+away. Well, next month they have the great games of Hercules, and I want
+you to take a present to the Governor, and, as you will be there, just a
+trifle--a silver tripod, or something of the kind--for Hercules himself. The
+Tyrian people would take it amiss, I fancy, if you went quite
+empty-handed."
+
+Micah--for at the moment he felt much more like a Micah than a
+Menander--flushed all over. "I take a present to the idol at Tyre! You must
+be joking; but, with all respect, sir, it is a joke which I do not
+appreciate."
+
+"Come, my dear Menander," said the high priest, with a laugh, "why all
+this fuss? You must excuse me for saying so, but you are really a little
+stupid this morning. What nonsense to talk about idols! The Greek heroes
+are really the same as our own. Hercules is nothing more or less than
+Samson under another name. You will find in every country the legend of
+some strong man who goes about killing wild beasts and slaying his
+enemies, and doing all kinds of wonders; and it does not become an
+enlightened man like yourself to fancy that our hero is anything better
+than another nation's hero. However, think the matter over. If you don't
+choose to go there are plenty who will, and Tyre, I am told, is still
+worth seeing, though, of course, it is nothing like what it was."
+
+At this moment a servant burst somewhat unceremoniously into the room.
+
+"How now, fellow?" cried the high priest, "Where are your manners? Don't
+you know that I have company and am not to be interrupted?"
+
+"Pardon, my lord," said the man, in a breathless, agitated voice, "but the
+matter is urgent. Your nephew Asaph is dying, and has sent begging you to
+come to him."
+
+"Asaph dying!" cried the high priest, turning pale. "How is that?"
+
+Asaph had been one of the performers in the exhibition of the day. A light
+weight, but an exceedingly active and skilful wrestler, he had entered the
+lists with a competitor much stronger and heavier than himself. The
+struggle between the two athletes had been protracted and fierce and had
+ended in a draw. There had been two bouts, but in neither had this or that
+antagonist been able to claim a decided success. In each, both wrestlers
+had fallen, Asaph being uppermost in the first, but underneath in the
+second. On rising from the ground he had complained of severe internal
+pains; but these had seemed to pass away, and he had been conveyed in a
+litter to his mother's house. After a brief interval the pains had
+returned with increased severity; vomiting of blood had followed, and the
+physician had declared that the resources of his art were useless. The
+poor lad--he was but a few months over twenty--sent, in his agony, for his
+uncle the high priest. It was a forlorn hope--for how could such a man give
+comfort?--but it was the only one that occurred to him.
+
+No one was more conscious of the incongruity of the task thus imposed upon
+him, the task of administering consolation and comfort to the dying, than
+Jason himself. His first impulse was to refuse to go. But to do so would
+not only cause a scandal, but would also be the beginning of a family
+feud. And Jason, though selfish and hardened by base ambitions, was not
+wholly without a heart. He had some affection for his sister, a widow of
+large means, whose purse was always open to him when he wanted help, and
+Asaph--or Asius, as he preferred to call him--was his favourite nephew,
+possibly his successor in his office. He felt that he must go, but it was
+with a miserable sinking of heart that he felt it.
+
+"Lead on," he said to the slave, "I will follow. You, my friends, must
+excuse me."
+
+The worldly priest might well have dreaded to enter the house of woe to
+which he had been called.
+
+The unhappy mother met him at the door. "Oh, Joshua!" she cried, the
+foolish affectation of the Greek name being forgotten in the hour of
+trouble. "Can you help us? My dear Asaph is dying, and he is terribly
+distressed about his sins. You are high-priest. Have you not some power to
+do him good?"
+
+"Take me to him," said Jason, "I will do all that I can for him."
+
+The unhappy lad was lying on a couch, the deathly pallor of his face
+showing with a terrible contrast against the rich purple of the coverlet.
+His eyes were wide open, and there was a terror-stricken look in them that
+was inexpressibly painful to witness. As soon as he saw his uncle, he
+burst forth in tones of agonized entreaty. "I have sinned; I have sinned;
+I have followed in the ways of the heathen, and, see, my God hath called
+me into judgment. Help me! help me! Save me from the fire of Gehenna!"
+
+The high priest strove to say something; but his faltering lips seemed to
+refuse to do their office.
+
+"Speak! speak!" cried the young man. "It was you who told me to go into
+the arena. You said there was no harm in it; you encouraged me, and now
+you desert me. O help me!" and his voice, which had been raised to a loud,
+angry cry, sank again to low tones of entreaty. "You are high priest; you
+surely can do something with the Lord. Pray for me to Him. Quick! quick!
+the evil ones are clutching at me!" and, as he spoke, he turned his eyes
+with a fearful glance as if he saw some terrible presence which was
+invisible to the rest.
+
+His uncle, more unhappy than he had ever been before in his life, stood in
+dumb despair. It seemed impossible to mock this wretched creature with
+words in which he did not himself believe. And, indeed, the words
+themselves seemed to have fled altogether from his memory. At last, with a
+tremendous effort, he summoned up some of the words, once familiar to his
+lips, but which had not issued from them for years. It was what we know as
+the fifty-first Psalm in our psalter that he began--"_Have mercy upon me, O
+God, after Thy great goodness, according to the multitude of Thy mercies
+do away mine offences._" He began with a faltering and uncertain voice,
+which gathered strength as he went on. The dying man listened with an
+eagerly-strained attention, and the words seemed to have some soothing
+effect upon him. When the speaker came to the words, "Cast me not away
+from Thy presence," he clasped his hands together. At the very moment of
+the act a strong convulsion shook his frame: a stream of blood gushed from
+his mouth; in another moment Asaph was dead.
+
+His unhappy mother had been carried fainting to her apartments, where her
+maids were endeavouring to restore her to consciousness. The high priest
+was almost glad that she was in such a state that there could be no
+question of attempting to administer to her any consolation. No one,
+indeed, could have felt less like a comforter than he did at that moment.
+As he walked slowly back to his palace he felt less satisfied with the
+Greek fashions, for which he had sacrificed the faith of his fathers, than
+he had done for many years.
+
+The news that he found awaiting him at home changed the current of his
+thoughts. A letter, carried, in Eastern fashion, by a succession of
+runners, had arrived from Joppa. It was as follows:--
+
+
+    "_Josedech, Chief of the Council of Joppa, to Joshua, Governor of
+                               Jerusalem._
+
+  "Know that a swift pinnace has arrived, bringing news that the fleet
+  of Antiochus the King is on its way hither. It will arrive, unless it
+  be hindered by weather or any other unforeseen cause, on the second
+  day. Let us know so soon as shall be possible how the heathen should
+  be received, whether we shall admit him into the city, and to whom we
+  shall assign the task of entertaining him. Farewell."
+
+
+Jason's face flushed as he read this curt and not very courteous epistle.
+"Governor of Jerusalem, indeed!" he muttered to himself. "So the old bigot
+won't acknowledge me to be high priest. I shall have to give him a lesson,
+and teach him who he is and who I am. 'How the heathen is to be received.'
+What is the fool thinking of? As if he could be shut out of the city if he
+chooses to come in! Well, I see plainly enough that there will be mischief
+here, if I don't take care. It won't be enough to write. I must send some
+of my own people to receive the king."
+
+He pressed a hand-bell that stood on the table. "Send the letter-carrier
+here," he said to the servant who answered the summons. In a few minutes
+the man appeared.
+
+"When can you start back with my answer?" asked the high priest.
+
+"This instant, my lord, if it should so please you."
+
+"And the other posts are ready?"
+
+"Each at his place, my lord."
+
+"And when will the letter be delivered in Joppa?"
+
+"Let me think," said the messenger. "The distance should be about two
+hundred and eighty furlongs, and the way descends. 'Tis now scarcely the
+first hour of the night. I should say that the letter should be there an
+hour before midnight."
+
+Jason at once sat down and wrote his answer:--
+
+
+  "_Jason, the High Priest, to Josedech, Chief of the Council of Joppa,
+                                greeting._
+
+  "I charge you that you do all honour to the most mighty and glorious
+  lord Antiochus. Let him have of the best, both in lodging and
+  entertainment, that your city affords. I doubt not your zeal and
+  goodwill, but that you may not fail for want of knowledge, I will send
+  certain of my own people, who will welcome the most august King in
+  such manner as shall be worthy both of his majesty and of our dignity.
+  Farewell."
+
+
+The messenger, who had been standing by while this letter was being
+written, received the document with a salute, and placed it in his girdle.
+A few minutes afterwards he was on his way.
+
+"And now for the deputation to meet his Highness," said Jason to himself.
+"I cannot expect them to get off quite so quickly as this good fellow. But
+they must not start later than noon to-morrow. And now, whom am I to send?
+Cleon, of course, and Menander----"
+
+He stopped short and reflected. "It's really very hard to find a
+respectable person who is quite free from bigotry--if, indeed, it is
+bigotry." For some minutes he seemed lost in thought. "Send the secretary
+to me," he said, when the servant came. This official soon made his
+appearance, and we will leave him and his master to settle the details of
+the deputation.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER II.
+
+                                ANTIOCHUS.
+
+
+The greater part of the population of Joppa, which, like most seaside
+towns, was somewhat cosmopolitan in its habits and ways of thinking, had
+hurried down to the shore to watch the arrival of the great Syrian King.
+And, indeed, his fleet was a sight worth seeing. Thirty ships, all of them
+with three banks of oars, were formed in a semicircle, the arc of which
+was parallel with the line of the shore. They were war-vessels, the finest
+and swiftest that the Syrian fleet possessed, manned with picked crews,
+and now gay with all the sumptuous adornments that befitted a peaceful
+errand. The day was perfectly windless, and the sea as calm as a lake.
+This circumstance made it possible for the squadron to preserve the order
+of its advance with an exactitude which would not have been possible had
+it been moving under sail. On the prow of each vessel stood a
+flute-player, and the rowers dipped their oars in time to his music. Each
+player had his eyes fixed on a conductor who was posted on the royal
+vessel, a five-banked ship, which occupied a position slightly in advance
+of the semicircle. Time was thus kept throughout the squadron--a result,
+however, not obtained, as may easily be imagined, without a vast amount of
+practice. The sight of the thousands of oars, as they were dipped and
+lifted again in rhythmical regularity, with the sunshine flashing upon
+them, was beautiful in the extreme. As for the ship that carried King
+Antiochus, it was a gorgeous spectacle. The ropes were of gaily-coloured
+silk; the hull was brilliant with gold. The figure-head was the head and
+bust of a sea-nymph, exquisitely wrought in silver. The poop was covered
+with a crimson awning.
+
+As the squadron approached the harbour, a convenience which the Joppa of
+to-day no longer possesses, the royal ship fell back, allowing the leading
+vessels on either side of the semicircle to precede it to the pier. From
+these a company of troops, splendidly arrayed in gilded armour,
+disembarked, and formed two lines, between which the King was to walk.
+
+The Syrian King was a young man of about two-and-twenty years, tall, and
+well made, and not without a certain dignity of presence. His face, too,
+at first sight would have been pronounced handsome. It was of the true
+Greek type: the forehead and nose forming an almost uninterrupted straight
+line. This line, however, receded too much, giving something of an
+expression of weakness. But for this the features of the young Syrian king
+might have been described as bearing a singular resemblance to those of
+the great Alexander. Youthful as he was, his complexion, naturally of a
+beautiful delicacy, was already flushed with excess. But the most sinister
+characteristic of his face was to be found in the restless look of his
+prominent eyes. The descendants of the brilliant soldier, the ablest and
+most upright of the generals of Alexander, who had founded the Syrian
+kingdom, had sadly degenerated under the corrupting influences of power.
+The hideous example of lust and cruelty had been set and improved upon by
+generation after generation, till the fatal taint of madness, always the
+avenger of such wickedness, had been developed in the race.(3)
+
+The Council of Joppa had sent a deputation of their body, headed by their
+president, Josedech, to receive the visitor with such respect as might
+lawfully be shown to a heathen. Greeting and compliments could be
+exchanged without any loss of ceremonial purity. Nor would there be any
+harm in presenting a gift. To sit down to meat with an unbeliever, was, of
+course, out of the question; but this difficulty had been overcome by the
+complaisance of a wealthy Greek merchant, who, for sufficient reasons of
+his own, had offered to entertain the visitor.
+
+The councillors saluted the King, not with the extravagant form of "Live
+for ever!" but with the more moderate form of "Peace be with you."
+Antiochus answered with a careless greeting. At the same time he turned to
+one of his courtiers, and said in a whisper which was heard, as it was
+meant to be heard, by others besides the persons addressed, "Look! what a
+set of he-goats. And faugh! how they smell!" The young King, who was
+exceedingly vain of his good looks, had the fancy of making himself up as
+the beardless Apollo, and, of course, the court followed the fashion that
+he set. The insulting words did not fail to reach the ears of the elders,
+but they affected not to have heard them. The president then proceeded to
+deliver his address of welcome. It was sufficiently civil, but, as may be
+supposed, not enthusiastic. The speaker hoped that friendly relations
+might continue to exist between the Jewish people and the kingdom of
+Syria. He was glad to receive on Jewish soil a powerful monarch who, he
+trusted, would be favourably impressed with what he should see and hear.
+If his subjects had any grievances they would find prompt redress; the
+King would doubtless do the same for Jewish merchants who considered
+themselves aggrieved.
+
+To this address, which, after the manner of such documents, was somewhat
+verbose and lengthy, Antiochus listened with ill-concealed impatience;
+perhaps it would be more correct to say, with impatience that was not
+concealed at all. He fidgeted about; he interjected disparaging remarks
+that must have been distinctly heard a long way off. He even corrected the
+speaker when he made a slip in Greek idiom. Still the elders preserved an
+imperturbable calm, though a keen observer might have seen the flush
+rising upon their faces.
+
+The address of welcome ended, it only remained to offer the customary
+present. An attendant stepped forward carrying a robe of honour, a piece
+of native manufacture, which, without being particularly splendid, was
+sufficiently handsome and valuable to be adequate to the occasion. But it
+did not please the young King, who, indeed, was scarcely in the humour to
+be pleased with anything. One of his followers received it from the hands
+of the attendant, and Antiochus, according to the usual etiquette, should
+have touched it, saying at the same time a few words of politeness. What
+he did was to take it from the hands of the courtier who had received it,
+shake it out, and hold it from him at arm's length, eyeing it, at the same
+time, with an expression of undisguised contempt. Even this was not all.
+Turning his back upon the elders he dropped the robe on the head of one of
+his attendants, and, by a sudden movement, twisted it round his neck,
+bursting out at the same time into a loud horse-laugh. The laugh was, of
+course, dutifully echoed by his courtiers; but to the Joppa crowd it
+seemed no laughing matter. An angry murmur ran through it. The front ranks
+made a menacing movement forwards, while stones began to fly from behind.
+On the other hand, the soldiers of the King's body-guard drew their
+swords, and began to form up behind him. They were not properly prepared,
+however, for a conflict; for, as they had come only on a service of
+ceremony, they had nothing with them but their swords and light ornamental
+breastplates.
+
+Everything wore a most threatening look, when there occurred an
+interruption that was probably welcome to every one, except, it may be,
+the hotheaded and reckless young sovereign himself. The deputation from
+Jerusalem had arrived. The high priest, anticipating, as we have seen,
+some trouble, had despatched them at the very earliest opportunity, and
+had urged them to make the best of their way to their destination. At the
+same time, that their presence might have something more than moral
+weight, he had sent a squadron of cavalry. The deputation, with their
+escort following close behind, now made their way through the crowd.
+
+The high priest was represented by his kinsman Phinehas--who had found a
+substitute for his unfashionable name in Phineus--by Menander, who has been
+already mentioned, and by two Greeks, of whom our acquaintance Cleon was
+one. Josedech and his companions willingly left the management of affairs
+in the hands of the new arrivals, and retired from the scene. Leaping from
+his horse, Phinehas, or Phineus, prostrated himself in Eastern fashion at
+the feet of Antiochus, and his companions followed his example, while the
+escort of cavalry saluted. "Rise," said Antiochus, whose good humour began
+to return when he found himself treated with what he conceived to be
+proper respect. He even condescended to reach out his royal hand, and
+assist the envoy to recover his feet. Phineus proceeded to deliver an
+address of welcome which was certainly not wanting in florid compliment.
+It might even have been called profane, for Antiochus was described not
+only as magnificent, illustrious, victorious (to mention a few only of the
+speaker's exuberant supply of epithets), but even as divine. The speech
+ended, an attendant presented a richly-chased casket of gold, filled with
+coins, fresh from the Syrian mint, and bearing the features and
+superscription of Antiochus himself. The King received it with something
+like _empressement_, and after speaking a few words of thanks, passed it
+to his treasurer. At the same time he took a bag of silver from one of his
+attendants, and condescended to scatter some of the pieces among the crowd
+that lined the quays, with his royal hands. As may be supposed, a vigorous
+scramble ensued, and not a few of the spectators were tumbled over the
+edge into the shallow water below. Others jumped in of their own accord
+after some of the pieces which had fallen short. A general burst of
+laughter was the result, and the situation lost the gravity which had been
+so alarming a few minutes before.
+
+The King now recognized an old acquaintance in Cleon. Antiochus, handed
+over in his childhood as a hostage by his father, had spent his boyhood
+and youth in Rome. The somewhat austere manners of that city had not
+pleased him, and he was glad to find in the young Greek an acquaintance
+more congenial than the young Marcelli, sons of the priest of that name,
+under whose charge he had been put. Cleon had come to Rome to seek his
+fortune, and had found employment in assisting the comic poet Caecilius in
+making his translations from the Greek. Poets, however, were not so well
+paid as to be able to spare much for their assistants, and Cleon had been
+very glad to act as the young prince's teacher, a post which his guardian
+the priest had found it very difficult to fill. Tutor and pupil had been
+on the most friendly terms. The elder man was indulgent, exacted no more
+than the youth was willing to learn, and, possibly thinking that all the
+necessary austerity was supplied by the Roman guardian, winked at various
+indulgences which would not have approved themselves to his employer.
+Antiochus retained a grateful recollection of the complaisant youth who
+had made things so agreeable for him in the days of his captivity.
+
+"Hail, Cleon, most delightful of teachers, behold the most thankful of
+pupils!"
+
+And he embraced the Greek, kissing him on both cheeks.
+
+"So you, too," he went on, "have escaped from that dismal prison-house
+across the sea! Was there ever a place, think you, more unfit for a
+gentleman to live in? And how have you fared since I saw you? I hope that
+Fortune has had something pleasant in store for you."
+
+"She could have done nothing better, Sire, than to thus give me the
+pleasure of seeing you."
+
+"Oh, what a compliment! I see that your tongue has not lost its dexterous
+twist. But I suppose I must attend to this stupid business here. Why can't
+they let one come quietly, and see what people really are. I dare say
+there are some good fellows here as elsewhere; but all these ceremonies
+and speech-making and fine clothes tire me to death. Well, we shall find a
+chance of having some talk together before long. Anyhow, you will come and
+see me at Antioch. I will make you court-poet, or general-in-chief, or
+high priest of Aphrodite! I know that you can do anything that you choose
+to turn your hand to."
+
+While this conversation was going on the Greek merchant who had
+volunteered to entertain the royal visitor was waiting to be introduced.
+This ceremony performed by Phineus, he proceeded to give his invitation.
+
+"Will your Highness be pleased to accept such humble hospitality as I can
+offer? My house and all that is within it are at your service."
+
+"Pleased! of course I shall be pleased," returned the King, in boisterous
+good humour. "I know what your 'humble hospitality' means. It is you
+merchants that can afford to do things handsomely. You make the money, and
+we can only spend it. What with armies and fleets and legions of servants,
+who eat us up like so many locusts, we never have a drachma that we can
+call our own. As for me, I am easily satisfied. Give me a mullet, a piece
+of roast kid, a flask of good wine, and a pretty girl to hand the cup, and
+I want no more. Lead on."
+
+The procession moved on to the merchant's house. This reached, the King,
+who declared that he wanted his midday sleep, was at once shown to his
+apartments.
+
+It was some six hours later when the banquet, for which the host had made
+magnificent preparations, was ready. The company was assembled, and was
+fairly numerous, though it did not contain the true _elite_ of Joppa
+society. With one or two not very respectable exceptions, the
+representatives of the high-class Jewish families were absent. But there
+were plenty of strangers in the town, and the room was sufficiently full.
+The trading community was present in force: Greeks, Syrians, Egyptians,
+Carthaginians, and even a Greek-speaking Gaul from Marseilles, were
+present. Rome was represented by two Roman knights, who were doing a
+profitable business in money-lending, and who had the name of pretty
+nearly every noble in Syria on their books.
+
+But the guest of the evening was absent. The company waited with the
+patience with which royal personages are waited for on such occasions. At
+last, when an hour had gone beyond the time fixed for the entertainment,
+the host ventured to send up to the King's apartment, with a humble
+reminder that the banquet was ready. But the apartment was empty!
+
+"What can have become of him?" was the thought in every one's mind, not
+unaccompanied by a certain anxiety in the older courtiers, who had
+observed with dismay the reckless proceedings of their master.
+
+At last a thought struck Cleon. He took the chief of the King's attendants
+aside and communicated to him his suspicions. "I saw something of his
+Highness's ways at Rome," he said, "and I can guess what has happened. He
+always had a fancy for disguises, for dressing himself up as a sailor or
+an artizan, and going to some very curious places in the city. Often and
+often have I been with him--to keep him out of mischief, you know--and, by
+the gods! it was well I did. I remember his being very nearly stabbed one
+night in a low wine-shop in the Suburra.(4) And now I remember that this
+morning his Highness said something about wanting to see what the people
+really were, without all this ceremony. Let us question the porter whether
+he has seen any one go out."
+
+The porter was questioned accordingly. At first he could give no
+information. At last he remembered observing two young men in sailor's
+dress passing the gate about three hours before. He had taken no heed of
+them. Sailors had been coming and going all day, with various articles
+which they were bringing up from the ship, and he had supposed that these
+were two of the number. Here the man's wife struck in with the information
+that she had noticed the two sailors, thinking that there was something
+odd about their appearance; their clothes were very shabby, but they had a
+superior air. Neither the man nor his wife knew anything more; but they
+thought that the two had turned in the direction of the harbour after
+leaving the house.
+
+Under these circumstances search seemed hopeless, and might, indeed, do
+more harm than good. Perhaps the safest plan would be to let the young man
+find his way back for himself. After some discussion, however, it was
+resolved that Cleon, after first changing the dress which he had donned
+for the banquet for something less conspicuous, should look in at some of
+the wine-shops near the harbour, which were suggested as likely places for
+the search by the character of the King's disguise.
+
+Cleon was successful beyond his expectation. His attention was attracted
+by the sound of boisterous laughter proceeding from a tavern whose windows
+fronted the place where the King had landed. The place was crowded to
+overflowing, and even the pavement before the house was thronged with
+idlers, who were content to hear what they could of the fun inside without
+having any score to pay. With no little difficulty Cleon edged his way
+into the principal room. It was a strange scene that met his eye. The room
+was crowded with Phoenician and Greek sailors, with here and there the
+swarthy face of a Moor among them. The guests sat on benches, closely
+packed together, and every one had a huge earthenware cup in his hand and
+a pitcher of wine at his feet. At the further end of the room was a small
+platform reserved for the performers who were accustomed to entertain the
+audience. A couple of dancing-girls had just exhibited a dance of the
+boisterous kind which was specially favoured by the seafaring spectators;
+and now his Syrian Majesty was doing his best to entertain the company
+with the burlesque of a Roman electioneering oration. He spoke in Greek,
+or, rather, the mixture of tongues, the _Lingua Franca_ of the time, which
+did duty for Greek in the seaport towns of the Eastern Mediterranean; and
+he used with considerable effect the broad Roman accent. His speech, could
+it be reproduced, would be dull or even unintelligible to us, but his
+audience found it highly entertaining. The Greeks, always quick-witted,
+caught the points with admirable readiness, and the others laughed, if not
+for any other reason, at least for sympathy. The most completely
+successful part was where the orator, who affected to be a candidate for
+the consulship, propounded a grand scheme, according to which the citizens
+of Rome were to live in idleness, supported by the contributions of the
+whole world. When the attention of the audience began to flag, the young
+Prince, with an audacious presence of mind that would have become a
+veteran performer, suddenly changed the entertainment. Sticking a tall cap
+on his head, he proceeded to give a ludicrous imitation of the solemn
+dance of the priests of Mars. Cleon had seen the original performance in
+Rome, and he could not but confess that the slow, awkward movement, and
+droning chant which the performer adapted to a popular song of a somewhat
+equivocal kind, was a very clever piece of work.
+
+  [Illustration: _Antiochus in the Tavern._]
+
+A few minutes afterwards Antiochus retired, breathless with his exertions,
+and Cleon made his way after him.
+
+"So you are here," burst out the King. "Good, was it not?"
+
+"Excellent, my lord," returned Cleon; "but you must excuse me if I ask you
+to come back. The banquet is ready, and the company are waiting for you."
+
+"Confound the company; there is much better company here. I will stop
+where I am."
+
+Cleon remonstrated and argued; at first, it seemed, with no effect.
+Finally, however, by a judicious mixture of flattery and promises, and
+specially, by enlarging on the opportunity that there would be of
+electrifying the _elite_ of Joppa by a display of eloquence, he induced
+the King to come away. Antiochus was eaten up with a vanity that was
+almost insane, and he was as proud of his capacity for serious oratory as
+he was of his talents as a buffoon.
+
+Unfortunately the eloquence was never displayed. The King had drunk
+largely of the heady wine which was a favourite with the nautical
+customers of the tavern, and he applied himself with equal diligence to
+the more refined vintages which he found on the table of Stratocles, his
+entertainer. The company drank his health in bumpers; and, not to be
+outdone, a huge capacity for drink being, as he thought, one of his most
+honourable distinctions, he pledged them in return by draining a cup of a
+royal size. This was a final effort. He spoke a few hesitating sentences,
+frequently interrupted by hiccoughs, staggered, and but for the prompt
+attention of his attendants, who had indeed observed his condition, would
+have fallen to the ground. Nothing remained but to carry him out of the
+banqueting hall.
+
+It was late in the afternoon of the following day before he was
+sufficiently recovered from the effects of his debauch to start for
+Jerusalem. A halt for the night was made about halfway, and late in the
+afternoon of the next day the cavalcade approached Jerusalem. Jason came
+out to meet his guest. He had done his utmost to bring a reputable company
+with him, but his efforts had not been very successful. The respectable
+part of the population of the city was conspicuously absent, a mixed
+multitude of strangers and half-breeds, brutal in manners and squalid in
+appearance, represented the Jewish nation. Fortunately it was dark, and
+the torchlight procession with which the King was escorted into the city
+did something to conceal by its picturesque effects the general meanness
+of the affair. Antiochus, however, did not fail to notice the character of
+the gathering, and indeed rallied his host on his ragged and disreputable
+followers. But his good humour did not seem to be disturbed. He admired
+the decorations of the palace, was loud in praise of Jason's taste in art,
+and indeed admired one statuette so much that his host felt compelled to
+offer it for his acceptance, much against his will, for it was supposed to
+be an original by Scopas, and to be worth at least five talents. The next
+day came a visit to the Temple. The King shrugged his shoulders at what he
+was pleased to consider the tastelessness of its architecture, suggested
+to his host that he had better pull the whole place down and build it
+again in a better style, and offered him the services of his own architect
+and a painter who, he said, had a quite unequalled skill for such subjects
+as a dance of satyrs and nymphs, and would cover the walls of the new
+building with some really elegant designs. But if the architecture of the
+Temple did not please him, he expressed a genuine admiration for some of
+its contents. There was a greedy light in his eye as he looked at the rich
+furniture and gorgeous vessels--and this, though Jason, having certain
+views of his own, had the prudence not to show him the chamber which
+contained the most massive treasures of the place. But whatever Antiochus
+may have thought, he said nothing but what was civil and pleasant. It may
+be supposed, however, that a few days of such a guest would be enough, and
+it was with unmixed delight that at the end of a week Jason saw him depart
+for Phenice.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER III.
+
+                                MENELAUS.
+
+
+Two years have passed, and the fate which Jason had declared to be beyond
+all limits of probability or possibility has actually overtaken him. One
+of his agents, named Oniah, who has assumed the name of Menelaues, for the
+rage for Greek fashions still continues unabated, has outbidden him, and
+now reigns in his stead, occupying the palace on Mount Sion which he had
+been at such pains to adorn.
+
+If we look into his library we shall see not only the books and
+statuettes--the silver tankards are gone, melted down into money that was
+wanted for some sudden exigency--but our old acquaintance, Cleon. The
+supple Greek was not one of those who take their friends for better, for
+worse. Jason was wandering about among the hills of Ammon with scarcely a
+garment to his back or a shekel that he could call his own, and what use
+could he find for the company of an accomplished gentleman, who had as
+keen an eye as any one for a fine bit of sculpture or painting, and could
+not be rivalled, out of the profession, in his taste for wine? The
+accomplished gentleman knew where he was appreciated, where he was of use,
+and, naturally, where he was well off. Accordingly he had found means, as
+such people always do find means, of ingratiating himself with the new
+occupant of the palace, and was installed as his consulting connoisseur
+and chief adviser in matters of taste.
+
+"A poor creature, certainly," he had replied to some depreciatory
+criticism which Menelaues had passed on his predecessor, "but it must be
+allowed that he had a taste in art."
+
+"Or was sensible enough to be guided by those who had," said Menelaues.
+
+Cleon acknowledged the compliment with a bow, and went on, "I never found
+him make any difficulty about the price. And, of course, if a man goes to
+work in that spirit, and has good advice, too, he is bound to make a fine
+collection."
+
+Menelaues received the observation with a grimace, and a significant shrug
+of the shoulders. "'No difficulty about the price,' you say. Of course
+not. Why should he? When a man doesn't pay, he is apt to be easy about the
+amount. Do you know that the bills for half the things that you see in
+this room have been sent in to me? Sometimes he had to pay the money down.
+The 'Gladiator' there, from Pergamum could not have been got without ready
+cash; but wherever he could, he went on credit, and now the dealers are
+down upon me."
+
+And he held up a sheaf of bills.
+
+"Here," he went on, "is a pretty account from Theodotus of Alexandria, the
+bookseller, you know:
+
+"'_A Manuscript of Anacreon_ (said to be   10   minae.
+autograph)
+_The Milesian Tales_                        5   "
+_Drinking Songs from Cratinus_              2   "'
+
+And so it goes on, with a quantity of books which I am sure the old
+impostor never read. Two talents and twelve minae it comes to altogether.
+Then here is 'A Group of the Graces, 1 talent;' 'Silenus, 20 minae;' 'Satyr
+and Nymphs, half a talent.' 'Set of Flagons, worked with the Labours of
+Hercules, 2 talents.' These the villain melted down before he went. Fancy
+the rascality of that! Why, the silver by weight could not have been worth
+a fourth part of what it cost with the workmanship."
+
+"Well," said Cleon, "the fellows can wait. They can afford it; I know
+enough about these things to be sure that they get a very handsome profit.
+I used to travel, you know, for Cleisthenes of Syracuse, and so got to
+know something about the secrets of the trade. No, you need not be afraid
+of making them wait."
+
+"Well, they have waited three years already," returned Menelaues; "and very
+likely will have to be out of their money for as many more. But here is a
+gentleman who won't wait. Here is Sostratus" (Sostratus, it should be
+mentioned, was Governor of the Castle, which was garrisoned by Syrian
+troops, and so the representative of King Antiochus)--"here is Sostratus
+asking for the half-year's tribute, and giving me a pretty strong hint
+that, if I don't send it, he shall come and take it for himself. And where
+is the money to come from?"
+
+"Well," said Cleon, with a little laugh, "I suppose there is one way to
+get milk, and that is to go to the cow, or the goat, or the sheep. You
+see, we have a certain choice between big and little. And so, if you want
+money, you must go to the people, I suppose."
+
+"The people! they are squeezed absolutely dry, at least one would think
+so. I could tell you stories about the squeezing that would make you split
+your sides with laughing. There was old Levi, a Bethlehem farmer; they
+boiled him, or half-boiled him, because he would not pay his taxes--said
+that he couldn't, the old villain! They put him in a caldron, you see, and
+kept heating it up, because he would not tell where he had hidden his
+money."
+
+"Well, did they get it out of him?"
+
+"No, the obstinate old dog, he would not say a word; but before he was
+quite finished his wife brought the coins from her head-dress and bought
+him off. They say that he was the queerest figure when he came out of the
+water, with the skin hanging about him in folds. Well, at all events, it
+was a good washing for him. He had never been so clean in his life
+before."
+
+"And did he recover?" asked Menander.
+
+"Upon my word, I can't remember. But I do know that we got the money."(5)
+
+"Well, I remember what your predecessor used to say. It was in this very
+room about two years ago that I asked him whether he felt quite safe. 'Oh,
+yes!' he answered, 'I have got the last farthing that is to be got, and
+there is an end of it!'"
+
+"Well," replied the high priest, "there are other ways of getting money
+besides taxes. I will allow that Jason worked the taxes as well as a man
+could. No one can eat or drink, lie down or get up, walk or ride, travel
+or stay at home, be born or marry, or be buried, without having to pay for
+it. No! I do not see room for another, and I am sure that it is not for
+want of looking. But, as I said, there are other ways. Now--can you keep a
+secret?"
+
+"A secret! I should say so--not the grave itself better!"
+
+"Hush! my friend, good words! good words!" cried the high priest, who
+felt, or affected to feel, the common Greek superstition against words
+that seemed to carry an evil omen with them. "Well, if you can, come
+here."
+
+So saying, Menelaues took his friend into an adjoining room, and opening a
+cupboard, secured, as the Greek observed, by an iron door and by a lock of
+elaborate construction, showed him a number of massive gold vases.
+
+"And where do these come from?" asked Cleon, almost dazzled by the
+splendid array.
+
+"Where should they come from, but from the Temple? Some of these have got
+a history of their own. You see that two-handled cup? King Artaxerxes gave
+it to Nehemiah: solid gold. And you see those splendid sapphires in the
+handles? The very biggest stones of the sort I have ever seen, and worth
+three talents each. Then there is that salver, Alexander of Macedon gave
+it to the Temple; and that casket there was a present from the first
+Ptolemy."
+
+"But, my dear sir," said the Greek, astonished at the audacity of the
+whole affair, "is not this going a little too far? Suppose the people were
+to find it out? Would there not be a rather formidable uproar?"
+
+"Well, of course; we cannot get anything without risk. But I have taken
+precautions. First, I have put a facsimile of every one of these in the
+Temple; gilded lead, which does perfectly well for all practical
+purposes."
+
+"But the weight! Surely any one can tell the difference by the weight."
+
+"Of course, my dear Cleon, I know that lead is little more than half as
+heavy as gold. But there are ways of making it up. You can put a great
+deal more metal in, without its being observed, and almost make up the
+difference. And, you see, the things are never allowed to be handled; can
+only be looked at. I have given very strict orders about that, you may be
+sure. Of course the treasurer is in the secret; but as he must sink or
+swim with me, he may be trusted. Besides, I am not going to run the risk
+of keeping them here. I can trust you, my good Cleon, as I can my own
+brother--in fact, when I come to think of it, a good deal more--yet I am not
+sure that I should have told you so much, but that the best of these are
+going to be packed off to-night. The fact is, they are sold already."
+
+The Greek could only shrug his shoulders and say nothing. As my readers
+will have perceived, he was not a man of high principles--in fact, to put
+the matter plainly, he was an unscrupulous adventurer. But the reckless
+villainy of Menelaues fairly disgusted him. His taste, quite apart from any
+question of principle or honesty, revolted at the notion that a man,
+placed as was the high priest of the Jewish people, should deal with these
+historic treasures as a vulgar burglar might deal with them. This was a
+refinement of feeling into which the vulgar cupidity of Menelaues did not
+enter. He went on:
+
+"How wild that scoundrel Jason would be, if he knew of this, to think that
+he had lost such an opportunity, had these treasures in his hand, so to
+speak, and leave them to his worst enemy!"
+
+"Have you heard anything lately about him?" asked the Greek, not unwilling
+to change the subject.
+
+"Oh, yes," replied Menelaues, "he is wandering about somewhere in the
+country of the Ammonites, and at his wits' end, I am told, how to live."
+
+"Poor fellow!" said Cleon, _sotto voce_, "he was always very kind to me,
+and I can't help being sorry for him." He then went on aloud, "He will
+find it a great change from his way of living here."
+
+"Yes, yes!" said Menelaues; "but still, some of his old ways and habits
+will come in usefully. He was always great about training, you remember.
+Every one should be ready to fight a boxing-match or run a race. Cold,
+hunger, fatigue; these, he used to say, are the things to bring out a
+man's muscles. And now he has got them in perfection. He might really
+carry off some prize, only, unluckily, he is getting a little too old for
+that sort of thing. And then, you recollect, how he would go on about the
+beauty of the human form. Clothes, especially the gorgeous clothes of our
+people, obscured so tastelessly its magnificent proportions. Well, he has
+not much to complain of, I imagine, on that score. By the last account
+that I had of him he had as little in the way of clothing as a man could
+well have. Anyhow, he may console himself with thinking that _his_
+magnificent proportions are not obscured. Well, I don't pity him. A man
+who has managed to get into a good place and then cannot stick to it is
+nothing better than a fool, and richly deserves everything that he may
+get."
+
+At this point in the conversation a servant announced the arrival of a
+message from Sostratus, Governor of the Castle.
+
+"All the gods and goddesses confound the man!" cried the high priest, in a
+rage. He was fond of garnishing his conversation with a little Greek
+profanity. "Another dunning message, I suppose. Well, he must wait. No man
+can get any water by squeezing out of a dry sponge; and that is about what
+I am!"
+
+The communication from Sostratus proved, however, to be on quite another
+subject, though it was, if possible, even more unwelcome. It ran thus:--
+
+
+   "_Sostratus, Vicegerent of the Divine King, Antiochus, to Menelaues,
+                       the High Priest, greeting._
+
+  "Know that I have this day received the summons of the Divine King,
+  Antiochus, to attend him at his court at Antioch, within the space of
+  thirty days, there to inform his Highness more fully of affairs
+  concerning his province of Judaea. Know also that your presence is
+  required at the same place and time, whereof the writing herewith
+  enclosed, being sealed with the King's seal, will be proof sufficient.
+  Farewell."
+
+
+Menelaues's face visibly lengthened as he read this epistle. "By the dog!"
+(this was a Socratic oath which he sometimes affected, as giving to his
+conversation a certain philosophic tinge)--"By the dog! this is worse than
+being dunned! I like not a journey to Antioch. A very pretty place, but
+expensive, dreadfully expensive, especially when one has the honour of
+being entertained by the King."
+
+Cleon felt a certain pleasure in the high priest's discomfiture. The new
+patron was more overbearing, less considerate, and generally more
+difficult to get on with than the old. Jason, coxcomb as he was, had
+always been kind, and Cleon felt as kindly for him as it was in his nature
+to feel for any one. And then the exquisite propriety with which this
+disturbing news followed the man's taunts and boasts was irresistible.
+
+"It is hard," he said, as if to himself, "when a man has got into a good
+place----"
+
+Menelaues darted an angry look at his friend, but the Greek's face, which
+he knew how to keep under admirable control, expressed nothing but
+respectful sympathy. There was an unpleasant suggestion of mockery in what
+he had heard; but the Greek was a useful person; he had been trusted, too,
+and knew things which it would not do to have published. Altogether, the
+high priest concluded, it would not do to quarrel with him--anyhow, for the
+present; some day, perhaps, he might be got rid of.
+
+"I suppose, sir, you cannot make an excuse--important affairs of State, the
+King's service to be attended to, or something of that kind?"
+
+Cleon made the suggestion, knowing perfectly well that it was quite out of
+the question. But he enjoyed the novel position of tormenting his patron,
+and was taking it out, so to speak, for not a few rudenesses and slights.
+
+"Excuse!" cried Menelaues. "It would be as much as my head is worth to do
+anything of the kind. No! I must go. But this is not a journey which one
+cares to take empty-handed. Let me see what I can take--two or three of the
+most portable cups, as much coin as I can scrape together, and the
+jewels--jewels are always useful: it is so easy to hide them. Well, I shall
+leave you in charge; unless, indeed, you are very much set on going
+yourself."
+
+Cleon was not at all set upon going; on the contrary, nothing short of the
+strongest inducements would have persuaded him to the journey. Going to
+Antioch was like putting one's head into the lion's mouth. There was no
+particular reason, indeed, why _his_ head should be bitten off; but lions
+are capricious, and sometimes use their teeth for the mere fun of the
+thing.
+
+"I am much obliged for the chance," he said, "but my health has been
+suffering lately, and I do not feel quite equal to the journey."
+
+"Well, then," replied Menelaues, "stop here, and keep things as straight as
+you can. And if you can sell some of these pretty things for ready money,
+do so--the usual commission for yourself, of course. But it must all be
+kept quiet."
+
+The next day the high priest and the Governor, neither of them in very
+good spirits, were on their way to Antioch.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER IV.
+
+                               AT ANTIOCH.
+
+
+Antioch more than deserved the praise of "a very pretty place," which
+Menelaues had bestowed upon it. In fact, it was one of the finest cities of
+the world. The old town which the first Antiochus(6) had found had been
+improved away by him and his successors. All that could be done by a
+despotic power that made very short work with the wishes and even the
+rights of private owners of property, and by a lavish expenditure of
+money, had been done by five generations of rulers, and the result was
+magnificent. Broad streets ran from side to side; and those who grumbled
+that the narrow alleys of the old town gave at least a shelter from the
+sun were consoled by the rows of planes and limes, planted alternately,
+which shaded both sides of each thoroughfare. Rows of houses, which looked
+more like palaces than private dwellings, occupied the best quarter of the
+city, and even the poorest regions had nothing of the squalor of poverty.
+Even the filth so common in the East was conspicuously absent from
+Antioch, for every gutter ran with an unceasing stream of water, drawn
+from a higher point of the Orontes and carrying into that river at a lower
+point all the defilement of the streets. Temples, in which a whole
+pantheon of gods was worshipped, were to be seen on every hand. The pure
+and harmonious outlines of Greek architecture could be seen side by side
+with the _bizarre_ conceptions of Oriental art. If the kings and their
+Greek subjects worshipped Zeus and Apollo, and, above all, Aphrodite, who
+had here her famous grove of Daphne, so the Syrian population were
+faithful to Baal and Ashtaroth. A magnificent amphitheatre, capable of
+holding at least thirty thousand spectators, rose, a striking mass of
+white marble, on the north side of the city; a colonnade ran round the
+four sides of the market-place, gorgeous with the lavish colours of the
+East, for here the art of Greece had been superseded for once by the more
+ornate native taste. But the river, rushing down between its noble
+embankments of stone, was the chief ornament of the place. The Orontes had
+not gathered round it the splendid associations that clustered about the
+Tiber, but its broad, clear stream was in everything else more than a
+match for its Italian rival.
+
+Menelaues and his companion, who, it may be guessed, had reasons of his own
+for regarding with anxiety the summons that brought him to the capital,
+were not a little relieved to find that the King had been called away by
+urgent affairs.
+
+Tarsus, one of the most important cities in his dominions, had rebelled.
+Its antiquity, its wealth, and its fame as a seat of culture, a character
+in which it claimed to be a rival of Athens itself, had combined to give
+the Tarsians a high opinion of themselves. Successive rulers, beginning
+with the Assyrian kings, its first founders, had allowed the city a
+certain independence; and its pride was grievously wounded when the young
+King, with the reckless levity that distinguished him, handed it over as a
+private possession to his mistress. The citizens pitched the lady's
+collectors into the Cydnus, shut their gates, and defied their sovereign;
+Mallos, another Cilician city which had suffered the same indignity,
+following their example. The King had marched to reduce the rebels--a task,
+it was probable, of no little difficulty--leaving a certain Andronicus to
+act as his deputy, and specially to dispose of the charge on which
+Menelaues and Sostratus had been summoned.
+
+This charge was one of a very formidable kind. Menelaues's dealings with
+the treasures of the Temple had not been so secret as he had hoped. Such
+things cannot be done without a certain number of confederates, and such
+confederates are very apt to give a finishing touch to their villainy by
+betraying their chief. In this instance one of the journeymen employed had
+considered himself insufficiently paid, rightly thinking, perhaps, that if
+sacrilege can be recompensed at all, it ought to be recompensed
+handsomely. Personally he was too insignificant to venture an attack on so
+great a potentate as the high priest, but he knew whither to carry his
+information. He told what he knew to a priest, who, besides being a devout
+Jew, was a member of the family to which the high priesthood properly
+belonged. The priest, after satisfying himself that the story was true, at
+once set about bringing the offender to justice.
+
+His course was plain. Menelaues, we have seen, had supplanted Jason, and
+Jason had himself purchased the dignity. But Oniah, the rightful high
+priest, who had been displaced by Jason, was still alive. Antiochus,
+naturally fearing his influence with his countrymen, had kept him at his
+capital, treating him, strange to say, with remarkable consideration. But
+Oniah was one of those men who extort veneration even from the most
+reckless of profligates. His venerable figure, his face beaming with
+benevolence, his blameless life, and the charities which he dispensed up
+to and even beyond the limit of his means, had won for him the regard of
+all Antioch. Even the heathen would stop him in the streets and beg his
+blessing. Oniah was a power in Antioch for which even the reckless young
+profligate on the throne had an unfeigned respect.
+
+It may, then, be easily imagined that no little sensation was produced
+when this venerable personage appeared before Antiochus, and, in the
+presence of the Court, accused Menelaues, whom he had steadfastly refused
+to acknowledge as high priest, of having embezzled much of the treasure of
+the Temple at Jerusalem. That Oniah, whose veracity and good faith were
+beyond all question, should make such a charge was _prima facie_ evidence
+of its truth. As he was known to have many friends in Jerusalem, it was
+more than probable that evidence would be forthcoming. The King did not
+hesitate a moment in acting upon this probability. Of course, he did not
+look at the matter in at all the same light as that in which it was
+regarded by the devout Oniah. To the dispossessed high priest the robbery
+of the sacred vessels was a monstrous sacrilege, an offence of the deepest
+dye, not only against his country but against his God. Antiochus felt that
+it was he who had been wronged. The treasures of the Jerusalem Temple were
+_his_ treasures. He might be content to leave them, at all events for the
+present, where they were; but they must be ready to his hand whenever the
+occasion should arise, and any one who presumed to appropriate them was a
+traitor and a villain. Hence the urgent summons to Menelaues and to
+Sostratus, who, as Governor, could hardly fail, thought Antiochus, to have
+been cognizant of the whole proceeding.
+
+Almost immediately after the despatch of the summons came the trouble with
+Tarsus. The King started to chastise in person his rebellious subjects,
+and left, as we have said, Andronicus in general charge of affairs, and
+with a special commission to hear the accusation which Oniah was bringing
+against Menelaues. The choice was an unlucky one. Antiochus was sincerely
+anxious that justice should be done in the matter; but to get justice done
+in any particular case when it is not the rule of the administration is
+exceedingly difficult. Andronicus, to put the facts quite simply, was an
+unprincipled villain, ready to sell his decisions, when he could do so
+with impunity, to the highest bidder. He was an old acquaintance and
+confederate of Sostratus, and Menelaues, who had established friendly
+relations with the Governor during their journey from Jerusalem to
+Antioch, soon received a hint as to how he should proceed. The hearing of
+the case had been appointed for the sixth day after his arrival. Before
+that date one of the sacred vessels which he had taken the precaution of
+bringing with him, had been exchanged for five hundred gold pieces, and
+the gold pieces had found their way into the pocket of Andronicus.
+
+On the day appointed Oniah, supported by the principal Jewish inhabitants
+of Antioch and by not a few of the most respectable Greeks, appeared to
+substantiate his charges against the usurper Menelaues. The evidence
+appeared to be overwhelming. The artizan who had been employed to
+fabricate the worthless imitations of the precious vessels told the whole
+story of the fraud with a fulness of detail which seemed to bear all the
+stamp of truth. Another witness related how he had carried one of the
+original articles to a goldsmith at Sidon, and actually produced a rough
+memorandum of its weight, which had been made upon the spot, to be
+afterwards embodied in the formal receipt.
+
+The line of defence adopted was bold, not to say impudent. The whole
+affair, according to Menelaues, was a conspiracy on the part of the
+irreconcilable Jews to overthrow a loyal subject of the King. The
+witnesses, he declared, had been suborned, the documents had been forged.
+He then went on to bring a counter-charge against his accuser. And here he
+found a certain advantage in the transparent honesty of Oniah.
+
+"Do you acknowledge," he asked the ex-high priest, "the validity of the
+appointments which our most noble lord Antiochus has made to the office of
+high priest?"
+
+Oniah frankly confessed that he did not.
+
+"Do you consider yourself to be still, according to the Law, in rightful
+possession of that office?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"And bound to assert that right?"
+
+"By lawful means."
+
+"And you hold all means to be lawful that are enjoined in the Law of
+Moses?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"And among such means you would count the banishment from the precincts of
+the Holy City of all such as do not worship the Lord God of Israel?"
+
+Oniah felt that he was becoming entangled in this artful web of questions,
+and made an effort to break loose. "I appeal," he cried, "most excellent
+Andronicus, to all who, in this city of Antioch, for these four years past
+have known my manner of life. You see sundry of them, nor of my own nation
+only, in the court this day. Ask them whether I have not lived in all
+peace and quietness, not seeking to disturb, either by word or deed, the
+dominions of my lord the King."
+
+Menelaues, of course, had not come unprovided with witnesses. The old man
+had, to tell the truth, used language of an imprudent kind. He was a
+patriot and a believer. As such, he had his beliefs and his hopes, and it
+was part of his character to express such beliefs and hopes quite openly.
+He had talked of a day when the Holy Land should be no more the prey of
+the alien and the heathen, when a king of the House of David should rule
+in Mount Sion, when the Temple should regain all the sacredness and all
+the glory which had ever belonged to it. Such language, construed
+strictly, was not consistent with a thorough loyalty to the Syrian
+monarch. But no one who knew Oniah, a man of peace who had the good sense
+to recognize what was and what was not possible, could suppose that any
+scheme of revolt against existing authorities had ever entered into his
+mind. In fact he had not said a word that had not been said before by one
+or more of the prophets. Still, words which breathed a spirit of
+independence, when reported by witnesses, and acknowledged by Oniah--who
+was, indeed, too honest to deny them--gave Andronicus the occasion for
+which he had been looking. He gave his decision in the following terms:--
+
+"The charge against Menelaues is postponed for further hearing. Meanwhile
+the documents produced and the witnesses will remain in the custody of the
+Court. As for Oniah, he must be reserved for the judgment of the King in
+person. I should myself have been disposed to release him; but in the
+absence of my lord, considering that the peace of the realm is so
+essentially concerned, I do not venture so far."
+
+He was proceeding to give orders for the removal of Oniah, when an ominous
+murmur from the audience, with which the court was crowded, made him
+pause. Prisoners who saw the inside of an Antioch dungeon were sometimes
+not heard of again. The air had a certain power of developing very rapid
+diseases, so rapid that the sufferers were not only dead but buried before
+any tidings of the sickness reached their friends. Antioch was not
+disposed to see the man who was probably the most widely respected of all
+its inhabitants, exposed to such a risk. Andronicus, who could not even
+trust the soldiers to act against so venerable a person, drew back. He was
+willing, he said, to accept sureties in a sufficient amount for the due
+appearance of the accused. The sureties were forthcoming in a moment, in
+sums so great and so absolutely secure that Andronicus had no pretext for
+refusing them. He proceeded to adjourn the Court for fourteen days.
+
+During the interval he took the opportunity of making a change in the
+garrison of the capital. Troops recruited from some of the regions
+bordering on Judaea, and accordingly among the bitterest enemies of its
+people, replaced some Greek mercenaries. The strangers knew nothing about
+Oniah, except that he was a Jew, and, being a Jew, of course hateful. They
+could be relied upon to obey orders, and those who knew Andronicus were
+sure what orders he would issue.
+
+Oniah's friends urged him to fly. He was too old and feeble, he replied;
+it would be better for him to die at his post. Then they implored him to
+take sanctuary.
+
+"What!" he cried, "take sanctuary in a heathen temple! There is none other
+in the place. I would sooner die a thousand times."
+
+It was not in a temple, they explained, that he was to find shelter. It
+was in the Gardens of Daphne that they wished him to take refuge. And they
+proceeded to unfold an elaborate argument, the gist of which was that the
+Gardens were a civil, and not a religious, sanctuary; that there would be
+no occasion for him to enter the consecrated enclosure; he would be simply
+availing himself of a custom which forbad the entrance of the Minister of
+Justice into a place devoted to the amusement of the people. It is
+probable that they strained their argument beyond the limits of the truth.
+It was with great difficulty that Oniah could be made to yield. When he
+did so at last, on the urgent representations of his friends that the
+hopes of a free Israel were largely dependent on the preservation of his
+life, he could not help foreboding that the concession would not profit
+either himself or them.
+
+The world scarcely contained a more beautiful place--beautiful both by
+grace of nature and diligence of art--than the Gardens of Daphne; and
+certainly none that seemed more unlikely to shelter a devout Jew. Its
+avenues of cypress and laurels, its delicious depths of shade, its
+thousand streams, clear as crystal and untouched by the drought of the
+longest, most fiery summer, were but a part of its charms. Of some,
+perhaps the chief of its attractions, it is best not to speak; but there
+were others, less unseemly indeed, but such as must have been absolutely
+scandalous to such a man as Oniah. The curious thronged to see the
+gigantic statue of Apollo, a match both in size and costliness of material
+to that of Zeus in the plain of Olympia. (It was sixty feet in height, and
+wrought of gold and ivory.) To complete the resemblance to the famous
+meeting-place of the Greek race, there was a running ground and rings for
+wrestling and boxing. Finally, Daphne claimed to rival another great
+centre of Greek life in its special characteristic. It was stoutly
+maintained that the Apollo who haunted the laurel-groves of Daphne was as
+true a prophet as he who spoke through the lips of Pythia at Delphi.
+Crowds of men and women, eager to learn the secrets of the future, came to
+the groves of Antioch. The method by which they saw into the secrets of
+fate seemed singularly simple. The questioner dipped a laurel leaf into
+the stream that flowed by the shrine, and lo! the surface appeared written
+over with the intimations of fate. Simple it was, but the priests had
+spent a world of pains in acquiring the art of invisible writing, and they
+did their best to learn something about the history and prospects of the
+applicants.
+
+Such was Daphne, and no one could be more astonished than were its
+inhabitants and visitors at the strange figure whom they saw before them;
+strange to the place, indeed, rather than to them, for Oniah, as has been
+said, was one of the best-known personages in Antioch. The rumour of his
+coming had gone before him, and a crowd, half curious, half respectful,
+had gathered to meet him. In not a few, indeed, curiosity and respect were
+mingled with something of fear. The presence of this austere piety in this
+haunt of vicious pleasure, was thought to augur ill for its prosperity.
+Some of the priests were heard to murmur that one who was the avowed enemy
+of the gods ought not to be admitted. But they did not venture to deny to
+any one who sought them the privileges of sanctuary, while their fears
+were not of a kind which they could make their followers understand. They
+had, therefore, to acquiesce, and hope that the unwelcome visitor would
+bring with him no ill-luck.
+
+A little building, as remote as possible from the central temple, had been
+secured for the residence of Oniah. On reaching the gardens he had to make
+his way to it through two dense lines of eager spectators. The temple, the
+shrine of the oracle, the pavilions devoted to pleasure, were for the
+nonce deserted. The drunkards left their wine-cup, and, stranger still,
+the dice-players their gaming-tables, to gaze upon the holy man. As he
+walked up the narrow avenue that had been left for his passage, some of
+the women whose venal beauty was one of the attractions of the place,
+threw themselves at his feet. Unhappy creatures, they had been brought up
+from childhood to this life of degradation, which indeed had a certain
+hideous sanction of religious association about it; but they had not
+altogether lost the womanly veneration for goodness, and, like the
+Magdalen of a later time, seemed to forget themselves in its presence. The
+old man, unconscious of their character, or perhaps, with the Divine Guest
+of the Pharisee of Capernaum, ignoring it, stretched out his hands with
+the gesture of blessing, and, though it was technically a pollution to
+touch a heathen, he even laid them on some children who were almost thrust
+into his arms. There was hardly a heart that was not touched with this
+kindness, and when the priest, as he entered his new abode, turned and
+bade the multitude farewell, he was answered with shouts of enthusiasm.
+
+Menelaues and his accomplices were dismayed at the escape of the victim. A
+witness who knew so much, and whose word was so implicitly believed, must
+be silenced at any cost. To take him by force from the sanctuary was
+impossible. Any attempt of the kind would certainly end in disaster. But
+it might be possible to draw him forth by fraud. Menelaues knew enough of
+the old man's character to be sure that he had gone reluctantly, and would
+gladly seize the opportunity of quitting a scene in which he must have
+felt himself so much out of place. Some such fraud it would not be
+difficult to contrive with the help of Andronicus. Accordingly another of
+the sacred vessels found its way to the dealer, and another purse of gold
+into the pocket of the viceroy, and in a few hours the plot was arranged.
+As Antiochus was on his way back from the north, there was no time to be
+lost.
+
+Two days after the arrival of Oniah at the gardens a visitor to him was
+announced. It was the viceroy himself.
+
+"Venerable sir," he began, "it has grieved me beyond measure to find that
+you were distrustful of my honourable, and I may say friendly, intentions
+concerning you. Whoever accused me of ill-will towards you has wronged me
+most foully. And let me add that you also have been wronged no less in
+that you have been persuaded to come to a place so unworthy of your
+dignity. Your safety should be ensured, not by a sanctuary in which
+thieves and murderers find refuge, but by the inviolable precincts of the
+royal palace itself. Let me offer to you, in the name of the King, the
+hospitality of his abode. In the meanwhile I am willing to swear by any
+oaths that may suffice to satisfy you and your friends, that you shall
+suffer no injury from my hands."
+
+One or two of Oniah's friends strongly dissuaded him from trusting himself
+to the viceroy. But their caution was overborne by their companions and by
+the eagerness of the priest to quit so uncongenial a place. Andronicus
+took every oath known to Greek or Jew that he would treat the priest with
+all respect, and Oniah gladly bade farewell to the Gardens. His departure
+was made at the dead of night, and unknown to any of the inhabitants of
+Daphne. Had they been aware of his intention, it is probable, knowing as
+they did the character of Andronicus, that they would have hindered it by
+force.
+
+Almost at the moment of Oniah's arrival at the palace a runner reached it
+from the King announcing his intended arrival on the next day.
+
+Speedy action was necessary, and Andronicus, though not without
+misgivings, determined to lose no time. A Court of Justice, so called, was
+hastily held. A creature of his own was called to preside over it.
+Witnesses whose testimony had been carefully prepared, deposed to
+preparations for rebellion to which Oniah had been privy, and to which he
+had lent his aid. The accused was not allowed to have an advocate, and
+scarcely even permitted to speak. Two hours sufficed for this mockery of a
+legal process, and two more for carrying into effect the sentence of death
+which was of course pronounced. Though the brutal Cilicians who formed the
+garrison of the palace were ready to carry out any order which their
+officer might give, it was judged well to avoid anything like a public
+execution. That very night Oniah was poisoned in his prison, and before
+dawn the next day his body was hastily consigned to the tomb.
+
+The punishment for this atrocious act of treachery and cruelty was not
+long delayed. One of the first acts of Antiochus, after his return to his
+capital, was to demand the presence of Oniah, and then the story had to be
+told. Andronicus did his best to put such a colour upon it as would
+deceive his master. The attempt was vain. The King saw in a moment through
+the idle charges which had been brought against the dead man. "What!" he
+cried, "Oniah rebel against _me_!" His vanity and self-confidence made the
+accusation seem the very height of absurdity.
+
+"Of course," the King went on--"of course he did not acknowledge the
+priesthood of Jason or Menelaues; he has told me so himself twenty times.
+He could not think otherwise, and he was as honest as the day. I only wish
+that he had left another as honest behind him. Zeus and all the gods of
+heaven and hell confound me if I do not avenge him to the uttermost. Tell
+me," he cried, turning to the captain of the Cilicians, who stood by
+dismayed at his master's rage--"tell me where you have buried him."
+
+The captain described the place.
+
+"I will see him once more, and these villains shall see him too," he said,
+pointing to the trembling pair, Andronicus and his creature the judge.
+
+He went on foot, his royal dress discarded for a mourner's cloak. His
+courtiers followed him, and a guard of soldiers behind brought with them
+the guilty viceroy and judge.
+
+"Open the grave," he said, when he reached the spot.
+
+It was soon done, for the murderers had hurried their victim into a
+shallow tomb. In a few minutes the body of the dead man was exposed to
+view. Decay had not commenced, and death had given fresh depth and beauty
+to the serenity which had been their habitual expression in life.
+Antiochus gazed awhile at the face; then, dropping on his knees, covered
+his head with his mantle, and burst into a passion of tears.
+
+In a few minutes he rose to his feet. Grief had given place to rage, and
+his eyes blazed with fury.
+
+"Bind that wretch!" he cried, pointing to the wretched Andronicus.
+
+He was bound, and stood waiting his doom.
+
+"He is not worth the blow of an honest sword," cried the King; "strangle
+him, as if he were a dog. But first make him look at the man whom he has
+murdered."
+
+Andronicus was forced to the edge of the grave and compelled to look at
+the dead. A halter was thrown round his neck, and the next moment he was a
+corpse. The judge shared his fate. "And you, sir," said the King, turning
+to the captain who had administered the poison--"you, sir, though you are a
+barbarian, and know no better, must learn that you cannot rob the world of
+one who was worth a thousand such brutes as you. You are captain no more;
+that is your successor," and he pointed to an officer in his train. "You
+can groom his horses, if you don't want to starve. And think that you are
+lucky that you keep your head."
+
+So the good Oniah was avenged.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V.
+
+                            THE WRATH TO COME.
+
+
+A year has passed since the tragedy related in the last chapter. Menelaues,
+thanks chiefly to the fickle temper of Antiochus, had escaped the fate
+which overtook his accomplice Andronicus, and had returned to pillage his
+unfortunate countrymen in Palestine. But his lease of power had come to an
+end. Jason, his dispossessed rival, had taken the opportunity of a report
+that Antiochus was dead, and attacked him. There could hardly be any
+choice between the two men. Both were equally rapacious; equally
+unfaithful to their religion and their country. But Jason had been out of
+power for two years, and his misdeeds had faded a little from the memory
+of the people; Menelaues's enormities were still fresh in their
+recollection. After a sharp conflict, the losses of which were utterly out
+of proportion to any gain that could possibly come from it, Jason had won
+the day, and his rival had been compelled to take refuge in the Castle.
+Then came the news that the report of the death of Antiochus was false. He
+had settled affairs in Egypt after his liking, and was now on his way
+northwards, furious at the trouble which this obstinate province was
+giving him, and resolved, as he said, to quiet it for good. Jason had fled
+in headlong haste, and his partisans, and, indeed, most of those who had
+the means to go, had followed his example. Meanwhile Jerusalem was
+awaiting the future with fear and trembling.
+
+It is an evening in the early summer, and the western wall of the city is
+crowded with men and women, who are gazing with awe-stricken faces on the
+strange appearance of the sunset. All day people had been talking of the
+marvellous shapes which had appeared the evening before in the western
+sky, and now a great multitude had assembled to see whether the marvel
+would be repeated, and, if so, to judge of it for themselves. Nor had they
+assembled in vain. Never, within the memory of man, had the heavens worn a
+stranger, a more terrifying look. Above the spot where the sun was just
+sinking to his rest the whole sky glowed with a red and angry light. On
+this background, so to speak, the clouds of a lower stratum had shaped
+themselves into the forms of two armies ready to engage in battle. The
+spectators seemed to be able to trace in one place the serried ranks of
+infantry, in another the massed array of chariots and horses. A space,
+brilliantly coloured, as it might seem, with something like the hue of
+blood, intervened between the two airy hosts. But these seemed to be
+slowly nearing each other, and the gazing people watched the lessening
+space, expecting, one might think, to hear the actual clash of arms when
+they should have met. But then the sun set, and with the sudden failing of
+light that marks the evening of more southern climes than ours, the whole
+pageant vanished from before the eyes of the spectators.
+
+Among the crowd is our old acquaintance Menander, or Micah, whom we last
+met in the library of Jason. Things have not gone well with him since
+then. He had cherished a belief that Greek culture, the brightness of
+Greek literature and art, would do something to amend the severity, and
+what he was pleased to call the tastelessness of Jewish life. To a certain
+extent it had been an honest belief, though the pleasure-loving nature of
+the man, in its revolt against the stern morality of the Law, had had
+something to do with developing it. But his experience of Greek culture
+and its works had not been encouraging. If the reforming doctrine had to
+be preached by such prophets as Jason, and Menelaues, and the cruel and
+profligate young tyrant Antiochus, it was more than doubtful whether it
+would do any good. Hitherto, certainly, it had done no good at all. The
+people were more unhappy, more spiritless, more like slaves than they had
+ever been before; the rulers were more greedy and selfish, more absolutely
+careless of all that did not concern their own interests. Might he not, he
+began to think to himself, have made a mistake? Might not the old life,
+which was at least the life of free men, be better than the new?
+
+He was busy with such thoughts when he heard a woman's voice behind him
+whisper "Micah." He did not recognize it at once, but its tones were
+familiar to him, and they seemed to touch the same chord in his heart with
+which his thoughts were then busy. And the name, the old Hebrew name, that
+too was familiar, though it was long since he had heard it. He was
+"Menander" to his friends; for his friends were either Greeks, or else
+Jews who, like himself, had cast off the associations of his birth and
+race.
+
+"Micah," said the voice again, and he turned to look at the speaker.
+
+She was a woman of some thirty years, plainly, almost poorly, dressed, but
+with all the air of gentle birth and breeding. Her face was beautiful, not
+with the brilliant loveliness of youth, but with that which is brought
+into the features by a pure and tender soul. There were the lines of many
+sorrows and cares upon her forehead, and round her eyes, and in the
+corners of mouth and cheek; but her eyes, save that they seemed almost too
+large for the thinner contours of the face, were as beautiful as they had
+been in the first glory of her youth.
+
+It was Hannah, his elder sister, who had been as a mother to him in his
+orphaned childhood, that Menander recognized. Years had passed since they
+met. There had been no quarrel, but circumstances had made a barrier
+between them. What Menander's life had been we know, and Hannah was the
+wife of a faithful and devout Jew, Azariah by name, who, though still
+cherishing kindly thoughts for his young kinsman, had felt that, for the
+present at least, they were best apart.
+
+Brother and sister eagerly clasped hands, and Menander, or Micah, as we
+will call him, felt a lump rise in his own throat as he saw the tearful
+smile in Hannah's lustrous eyes.
+
+"Micah," she said--"for you will not mind my calling you Micah, though I
+hear you use another name; but you were always Micah to me--this is a
+strange sight on which we have been looking."
+
+"Yes, sister," he answered, with a gaiety of tone which was more than half
+assumed--"yes, sister, strange enough; but then we know that the clouds do
+take strange shapes at times. A current of air blows them this way or
+that, and, with our fancy to help, they become anything in heaven or earth
+that we may fancy."
+
+"Nay, Micah, there is more than fancy here. You and I used to watch the
+clouds from the window in the old house, and to laugh at the odd shapes
+which we found in them--lions, and dogs, and whales, and such things--but we
+never saw such a sight as this."
+
+"But we had not in those days such thoughts of our own to read into the
+sights of the skies. But tell me, Hannah, what do you think it means?"
+
+"What can it mean," she answered, in a low voice, "but wrath--wrath upon us
+and upon our children?"
+
+"Wrath, perhaps," he cried; "and the sky has, I must confess, an angry
+look. But why must it be upon us? Why not rather upon our enemies? I see
+nothing in the skies which tells us whether these sights be meant for us
+or for them."
+
+"Nay, my brother, speak not thus, for you know better in your heart. The
+heavens give us these signs, or rather God gives them to us through the
+heavens, but He leaves it to our own hearts to interpret them. They tell
+us surely enough on whom this wrath must fall."
+
+"But, sister, tell me why on us? Are we worse than our neighbours--than
+these robbers of Edomites and Ammonites, these sullen Romans, never
+satisfied except when they are fighting--these mongrel Syrians?"
+
+"They are heathen," said Hannah, in a solemn voice, "and they do not sin
+against light. Let us leave them to the judgment of God. But ourselves we
+can judge. Look at this city; we call it the City of David--but where is
+the spirit of David? Have we not trampled the Law underfoot, making to
+ourselves graven images of things in heaven and earth and the water under
+the earth? Where is the honour of the Sabbath? Where is the morning and
+evening sacrifice? Where are the yearly feasts? Will our God deliver us
+again, when we will not thank Him for the deliverances that He hath
+wrought already? Oh, Micah, I do not seek to anger you; but are you such
+as our father, now in Abraham's bosom, would rejoice to see you? And tell
+me, how was it that we Hebrews became a great people? A Syrian ready to
+perish was our father, and lo! before a thousand years were past, Solomon
+reigned from the great river to the Western sea. How came we by this
+might? Was it by aping Egyptian or Greek? Did we not keep to our own way,
+and walk after our own law, and worship our own God? Then it was well with
+us, and the nations round about feared us and honoured us; but now they
+laugh us to scorn, for we are ashamed of our own selves, and seek to be
+what they are, and cannot attain to it, and so fall short both of their
+greatness and of ours."
+
+Micah stood dumb before this fierce torrent of words. Was this the gentle
+Hannah of his youth? There must be some mighty influence that could change
+the lamb into the lioness.
+
+She went on, in a gentler voice, "You are not angry with me, brother?"
+
+"Surely not."
+
+"I must go, for my husband will be waiting for the evening meal. Come,
+children," she went on, speaking to two little girls who had been clinging
+to their mother's cloak, gazing open-eyed and half-terrified at this
+strange kinsman.
+
+"And are these my nieces?"
+
+"Yes; Miriam and Judith," answered Hannah, pointing first to one and then
+to the other. "This, children, is your dear uncle, Micah."
+
+The young man stooped and kissed the children.
+
+"You will not let it be so long before we see you again?" said Hannah.
+
+His answer was to wring her hand, and turn away. Her words had pricked him
+to the heart, and he did not know whether to thank her or be angry.
+
+We must now turn to another group which had also been drawn to the walls
+by the report of the marvellous sights that were to be seen in the
+heavens. A group it was that would have attracted attention anywhere, so
+remarkable were the contrasts and the resemblances which it presented.
+
+The principal figure was an old man dressed in the everyday garb of a
+priest. The burden of years had bowed his stately figure, for he had long
+since passed the limit which the Psalmist assigns to the life of man, but
+his eye was as brilliant as ever, and his voice, when he spoke, had lost
+none of its depth and fulness of tone. His three companions were men in
+the vigour of life. All surpassed the common stature, but yet none of them
+equalled the height of their father, for that they were father and sons
+the most casual observer must have seen. In age there was little
+difference between them. The eldest may have numbered about forty years,
+the youngest, perhaps, four less. Their dress was mainly that of the
+middle-class Jew, and so different from the old man's priestly garb, but
+not without some distinctive marks that indicated the fact that they
+belonged to the House of Aaron. The multitude of priests was indeed so
+great that but a very small share in the services of the Temple, even when
+these were fully carried out, fell to the lot of any one man. These
+services had now been reduced to a minimum, and numbers of the priestly
+houses, while not repudiating their hereditary office, practically devoted
+themselves to the ordinary avocations of life. This had been done by the
+three sons of Mattathias of Modin, for such was the name and such the
+ancestral city of the aged priest.
+
+"Judas," said the old man, addressing one of his sons, "these signs in the
+heavens are of a surety from the Lord."
+
+The son addressed was the youngest of the three; but it was evident from
+the bearing of his brothers, and from the air of respect and attention
+with which they waited for him to speak, that they were accustomed to see
+him the first recipient of their father's confidence. And indeed it was
+not difficult to see, under a superficial resemblance of figure and face,
+something that distinguished him from his companions. John, the eldest,
+was a plain, blunt soldier, raised above the average level of his
+profession, by the purity of his life and the depth of his religious
+convictions, but still essentially a soldier, one who saw no way of
+solving complicated questions save by a downright blow of the sword.
+Simon, the second in point of age, had a singularly mild and benevolent
+expression, though his eyes were full of intelligence and the lines of his
+mouth and chin seemed to show that he could be firm on occasion. But Judas
+had all the outward characteristics of a hero. A sturdier soldier never
+wielded sword, but he saw that there are difficulties to which the sword
+alone can bring no solution. Nor was he slow to follow all the subtleties
+of diplomacy; but, at the same time, he never lost his grasp of the
+principles which all the skill of the diplomatist is unable to change.
+
+"Father," he now said, "that these signs are from the Lord I do not doubt.
+But what is your counsel?"
+
+"Speak you first, my son," replied the old man; "'tis ever best so. You
+might be unwilling to differ from me and yet be in the right. This at
+least my years have taught me--that it is easy for any man to err."
+
+"Let us stay," said Judas. "'Tis true the air is stifling, such as a free
+man can scarcely bear to breathe. But there are many, father, that look to
+you for counsel and guidance, and we may scarcely leave them, at least
+till the call sounds more plainly in our ears."
+
+"Nay," cried John, the soldier, "I am not, as you know, one that would
+readily give his vote for flight. But here we are, methinks, as rats in a
+hole. May we not lawfully, and with good faith to God and our brethren,
+seek some place where we may at least have space to draw our swords and
+strike a blow?"
+
+"And you, Simon, what say you?" asked the old man, turning to his second
+son.
+
+"God knows that I would give much to be back at home. But our brethren
+need us here, and we may give them some comfort. Let us stay."
+
+"Judas and Simon," said the old man, after a pause, "you have spoken well,
+and I give my voice with yours. As yet our duty seems to keep us here.
+When it shall call us hence, we will follow it. And you, John, think not
+that you will long want for an occasion to strike with the sword. It shall
+come; but you will be readier for it if you make no haste to meet it."
+
+With this the little party turned away from the wall, and made their way
+to their lodging in the city.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER VI.
+
+                              THE EVIL DAYS.
+
+
+It was not long before the portent which the terrified crowd had watched
+from the walls of Jerusalem found, or at least began to find, its
+fulfilment, for, indeed, many days were to pass before the wretched people
+had drained the cup of suffering to the dregs.
+
+First there was the actual arrival of the army, the rumour of whose
+approach had struck such terror into Jason. At its head came Antiochus in
+person, fresh from his successful campaigns in Egypt and in his train
+followed the renegade Menelaues with a crowd of unscrupulous and profligate
+adventurers. There was no attempt at resistance. The gates were thrown
+open by the King's adherents in the city. But if the citizens had hoped to
+soften the tyrant's heart by their submissive attitude they were miserably
+disappointed. For days the streets of the city ran red with blood. The
+prominent members of the patriotic party were the first to perish. Then
+came all the private enemies of the returning renegades; and then a far
+greater multitude who were singled out for destruction by the possession
+of anything that excited the cupidity of the conquerors. Lastly, as ever
+happens at such times, the massacre that is suggested by hatred or greed
+was followed by the massacre that is the result of the merest wantonness.
+But there were victims more unhappy than those who thus perished by the
+sword of the heathen. The money found on the persons and in the houses of
+the victims did not satisfy the cupidity of their murderers. There were
+thousands who had indeed nothing of their own to lose, but who were in
+themselves a valuable property. These were sent off in droves to be sold,
+till the slave-markets of the Eastern Mediterranean were glutted with the
+Jewish youth.
+
+Still worse in the eyes of all pious Jews than the massacre or the
+captivity was the profanation of the Temple. The innermost shrine, the
+Holy of Holies, which the high priest himself was permitted by the Law to
+enter but once only in the year, was thrown open to the unhallowed gaze of
+a debauched heathen. With a horror that passes description the people saw
+the renegade Menelaues, bound to be the guardian of the sanctity of the
+place, actually drawing aside the veil with his own hand, and conducting
+the King into the awful enclosure. They saw the most sacred treasures,
+gifts of the piety of many generations, treasures to which the revenue of
+the Persian kings, and even of the victorious Alexander himself had
+contributed, become the spoil of the sacrilegious intruders. The golden
+altar of incense and the table of the shew-bread were taken by the King,
+while the seven-branched candlestick of gold fell, as was commonly
+believed, to the high priest himself. They saw it, and it almost
+overturned their faith that no visible sign of the Divine wrath followed
+an impiety so terrible.
+
+So Antiochus came and went, leaving behind him as his deputy, Philip, the
+Phrygian, "in manners more barbarous than he who set him there." The time
+that followed was one of grievous depression and sadness. Life went on, as
+it will even amidst the gloomiest circumstances, but all the joy and
+brightness were crushed out of it.
+
+Micah's sister, the Hannah whom we have seen talking to him on the wall,
+gave birth to a son shortly after the departure of Antiochus. No feast was
+held on occasion of the rite that made the little one a member of the
+family of Abraham. When the forty days of purification were past, the
+mother was not taken to present her offspring in the Temple. The Temple,
+the haunt of pagans and apostates, was no place for faithful sons and
+daughters of Abraham. A visit to its courts could hardly be the seal of
+purification when it needed purifying so sorely itself.
+
+An occasion that should by right have been still more joyful was allowed
+to pass with the absence of festivity. A younger sister of Hannah, Ruth by
+name, had long before been promised to Seraiah, a friend and relative of
+her husband. Time after time the marriage had been postponed, under the
+pressure of evil times; and when at last it was performed, not even then
+without sore misgivings and anticipations of evil among all the elders of
+the family, the celebration was of the quietest kind. Not a guest beyond
+the few friends who attended on the bridegroom was invited; and it was in
+dead silence, not with the usual shouts of merriment and gay procession of
+torches, that the bride was taken to her husband's home.
+
+And yet, as we shall see, even for these evils there was a compensating
+good.
+
+Micah, though he had affected to make light of the foreboding of evil
+which he had heard from his sister, had really been impressed by it--so
+much impressed, indeed, that he had left the city for a little country
+house at the northern end of the Lake of Galilee, that belonged to him. He
+had invited his relatives to accompany him, but they had declined. Their
+place, they said, was at home, among their poorer brethren, where they
+might do something to help and strengthen. All that Micah could do was to
+commend them to the protection of the Greek party in the city, with whom,
+in spite of his fast increasing disgust at their proceedings, he had not
+yet broken.
+
+He had now returned, and he lost no time in finding his way to his
+sister's house. The ravages made by fire and sword were only too plainly
+visible as he walked along. Houses that he had known from his childhood,
+in which he had often been a guest, were now but blackened walls; others
+were shapeless ruins. Again and again he saw on fragments of stone and
+plaster hideous blotches which he knew to be of blood; and as he saw these
+things he cursed aloud the hands which had wrought these horrors, not
+without the bitterest self-reproach that his own hand might have grasped
+them in friendship.
+
+It was a great relief to find that his sister's house had been spared any
+outrage. But when he demanded admittance in the usual way, by kicking the
+door, it became evident that there had been a reign of terror, and that
+the inmates of the dwelling were not sure that it was yet over. The door
+was not thrown open in the usual free fashion of Jewish hospitality, but
+he became aware by a slight movement of one of the closed lattices that he
+was being inspected from above. The inspection was apparently
+satisfactory, for in another minute there was a sound of undrawing bolts
+and unfastening chains, and the inhospitable door was at last open.
+Hannah, sadly aged in look her brother thought, met him in the hall, and
+greeted him with a silent embrace. After a pause, in which she seemed to
+be struggling with her tears, she said--
+
+"Welcome, dear Micah; while you and my husband and my children are left to
+me I feel that I cannot be unhappy. And perhaps you," she added, with a
+wistful look in his face, "will draw nearer to us now. But come and see my
+dear ones."
+
+She led the way to a room at the back of the house, looking out into a
+little garden shaded by a wide-branching fig-tree. Hannah noiselessly drew
+aside the curtain that served for a door, and the two stood by common
+consent and watched the scene that met their eyes. Azariah, the father of
+the family, was sitting with his back turned to them, holding on his knees
+a copy of the Law. On two stools at his feet sat his daughters, each
+holding in one hand a tablet covered with wax, and in the other a _stylus_
+or sharp-pointed iron pen. He was slowly dictating to them the words,
+"Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one Lord," and the little creatures
+were laboriously forming, not without many pauses for thought, the
+scarcely familiar letters.
+
+"Now read it, my children," said Azariah, when the task was finished; and
+one after another the sweet, childish voices repeated the well-known
+words. Micah, as he listened, felt himself strangely touched. Presently he
+heard his sister murmur to herself, "In Thy Law will I meditate day and
+night," and glancing at her face saw it illumined with a joy which he
+could scarcely have believed those wasted features capable of expressing.
+
+"'Tis well, Miriam; 'tis well, Judith," said Azariah to the little girls,
+and putting his hands upon their heads, as they stood before him, for they
+had risen to repeat the holy words, he repeated, "The God of Abraham and
+Sarah bless you." And then, for they were mere children after all, and not
+above childish rewards, gave each a ripe fig from a basket which stood on
+a table by his side.
+
+The lesson being over, Hannah advanced, and her brother followed. Azariah
+turned and greeted the new comer not unkindly, but with a certain reserve,
+for he could not forget that his visitor was a Menander as well as a
+Micah, and that he had been the friend of the traitorous Jason, and the
+yet more traitorous Menelaues. The children, after their first feeling of
+alarm, for a strange face was seldom seen in that home, and when Miriam,
+the elder, had recognized her uncle, showed no reserve in their welcome.
+They clung about his neck, and kissed him. They insisted on his coming to
+see their pets--Miriam's turtle-doves, and Judith's dormice, and the little
+gazelle fawn which they owned in common. "They have not heard a word
+against me," thought Micah to himself; and this affectionate loyalty
+touched him to the heart. From his sister he might, perhaps, have expected
+it, but that the stern Azariah, a narrow-minded bigot, without a kindly
+thought for any that did not walk in his way, as he had been accustomed to
+think of him--that Azariah himself should have dealt with him so
+mercifully, was a surprise as it was also a reproach.
+
+He stopped with them for the rest of the day, and after the evening meal,
+when the little ones had gone to bed, after making their uncle promise
+that he would soon come and see them again, the three had much serious
+talk together.
+
+Micah had, of course, the family history to hear, for, stranger as he had
+been to them for some years past, he knew scarcely anything about it. He
+learnt now for the first time that a little boy had been born who, had he
+lived, would have been about two years younger than Judith. The mother had
+much to say about his beauty and goodness, and his rare promise of
+intelligence. Micah was touched all the more because he could not forgive
+himself for the alienation which had prevented him from saying a word of
+comfort to his sister in the hour of her bereavement. "It was, indeed, a
+terrible loss," and he rose from his seat and kissed her. He felt that
+this little proof of his love would be better than many words.
+
+"Nay," she said, with a cheerfulness that almost startled him--"nay; you
+must not say that we have lost our dear little Joshua. I know that I have
+a son still, though he is not here. I confess that it was very hard to
+part with him. But he is quite safe in Abraham's bosom, safer and better
+off," she added, with a sad smile, "than he would be here; and some day I
+shall see him, and show him to you, dear Micah, and we shall be happy
+together."
+
+After this the little party had much talk about the state of things in the
+present, and the prospects of the future. Again Micah was astonished to
+see the cheerfulness and courage which his sister and her husband kept up
+in the midst of circumstances which must have been most disheartening.
+
+"Ah!" said Azariah, when the conversation turned upon the desolation of
+the Temple, and the loss of all the ceremonial of worship, the daily
+sacrifice, and the great festivals of the year--"Ah! there are consolations
+even here. Perhaps we thought too much of these things in the old time. We
+were taken up with the outside, with the show and the splendour, the
+vessels of gold, and the clouds of incense smoke as they curled about the
+pillars and the roof, and we forgot what they meant. But now that the
+outside things are taken from us, we can give our hearts to that which is
+within. We have our gatherings still, though the Temple doors are shut.
+Every Sabbath-day we meet, and the Law and the Prophets are read in our
+ears--aye, and there are those who can expound them, and speak words that
+comfort and strengthen us. I, myself, have felt the Spirit move me once or
+twice to exhort and cheer the brethren. No, brother! believe me, it is not
+wholly loss that we cannot assemble any more in our beautiful house. Our
+fathers learnt much when they sat mourning by the waters of Babylon, and
+we also are learning much in this our second captivity."
+
+This sounded strange to the young man, who, indeed, had dulled his
+understanding of spiritual things by his follies and excesses. Still he
+could not help feeling deeply impressed by the evident earnestness of the
+speaker. But he felt that he could say nothing. A trifler and unbeliever
+like himself could only remain silent in the presence of thoughts and
+feelings so much higher than anything to which he could reach.
+
+After a short pause Azariah went on--"The Lord has not seen fit to renew
+among us the spirit of prophecy, and we know not certainly of the things
+that are coming upon the earth. Yet a man, though he be no prophet, may
+read the signs of the times. Believe me, there are days to come more full
+of evil and darkness even than those that we have seen. My heart sometimes
+fails me when I think of this dear woman," and as he spoke he laid his
+hand upon his wife's shoulder, "and of the little ones whom God has given
+us. It will be a hard time for men to battle through--but for women and
+children----." And his voice faltered.
+
+Hannah turned to him with her brave, cheerful smile--"'As thy days, so
+shall thy strength be.' The great prophet said it, did he not, to all his
+people--to the weak ones as well as to the strong?"
+
+Shortly after Micah took his leave. As he walked through the deserted
+streets he thought much of the words which he had heard that night, and
+still more of the cheerfulness and courage, ten times more eloquent than
+all words, which he had witnessed.
+
+"Is all this a delusion?" he asked himself. "Six months ago, perhaps even
+six hours ago, I should have had little doubt in saying so. But now--well,
+if it is a delusion, it is strangely like a reality. Anyhow its effects
+are real enough. Dear Hannah! always the best and kindest of sisters, but
+a timid creature, whom I used to amuse myself by frightening. But now--she
+is as bold as a lioness. Well, I can only hope that the truths which I
+have been learning, if they are truths, will stand me in as good stead
+when the need comes."
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VII.
+
+                          THE DARKNESS THICKENS.
+
+
+Azariah had read the signs of the times aright. The darker days had come,
+days so full of trouble that the unhappy people looked back to the past
+that had seemed so sad and gloomy as to a time of rest. Things had not
+been going well with King Antiochus, for the Romans had driven him out of
+Egypt, and in his rage and fear he turned against his Jewish subjects with
+greater ferocity than ever. One of his motives was the brutal desire to
+wreak upon the feeble the vengeance which he could not exact from the
+strong; the other was a genuine fear lest he should lose another province
+as he had already lost Egypt. He saw that the policy of Rome was to stir
+up against him the national spirit of subject peoples, and he knew well
+enough that in the Jews, crushed though they had been by oppression and
+massacre, this national spirit was not by any means dead. Accordingly he
+set himself with relentless ferocity to extinguish it. Everything
+distinctive of the people was to be rooted out; that done they might
+become really submissive; there would be no more a land of the Jews, but
+simply a province of Southern Syria.
+
+The first thing, he conceived, would be to strike such terror into the
+hearts of the people that there should be no thought among them of
+resistance. For such a purpose nothing could be more effective than
+another massacre such as that which had already been perpetrated two years
+before under his own eyes: only this, he determined, should be more
+complete. He perceived with a devilish ingenuity that his orders would be
+more relentlessly carried out if he entrusted their execution to some one
+else, than if he were personally present. Appeals might be made to him to
+which he might yield out of sheer weariness, whereas a lieutenant, if he
+were only hard-hearted enough, would simply fall back upon the orders
+which he had received, and refuse all responsibility save that of seeing
+that these were fully carried out.
+
+Such a lieutenant he knew that he possessed in the person of a certain
+Apollonius, a Cretan mercenary, who had already given proofs enough that
+he was about as little troubled as any man could be with a conscience or
+with feelings of compassion. To Apollonius, accordingly, the commission
+was entrusted, and he proceeded to execute it in a particularly brutal and
+treacherous way.
+
+He marched to Jerusalem, taking with him a picked force of some five
+thousand men--picked, it may be said, quite as much for their unscrupulous
+and ferocious character, as for their strength and skill in arms. There
+would have been, in any case, little chance of resistance, but, to make
+his task the easier of accomplishment, he had so timed his coming that he
+approached the city two or three hours before the end of the Sabbath.
+Secret orders had been sent to Philip, the Phrygian, that he was to relax
+the severity of his rule; and the people had begun to breathe again after
+a long period of repression. The Temple was still shut, or virtually shut,
+but the synagogues were open, and were indeed frequented by throngs of
+fervent worshippers.
+
+It wanted a couple of hours to sunset when the news ran through the city
+that an armed force was approaching the walls. The first feeling aroused
+by the tidings was naturally one of alarm. The appearance of the soldiers,
+however, was such as to disarm all apprehensions. In the first place they
+were more like a crowd of men who happened to be carrying arms than an
+army. They were not marching in ranks, or indeed keeping any kind of
+order. A multitude of country-folk could be seen mingled among them,
+soldiers and civilians walking side by side in the most friendly and
+unconstrained fashion. Some of the new comers recognized old acquaintances
+among the townsfolk, and introduced their comrades to them; and though
+some of the sterner sort stood rigidly aloof, there were quite enough
+among the inhabitants of Jerusalem to give the visitors a general welcome.
+Apollonius himself, a conspicuous figure as he rode on his white charger
+up and down the streets of the city, was noticeably busy in renewing old
+acquaintanceships and making new ones.
+
+And then in a moment the whole scene was changed. A soldier and a citizen
+were standing on the wall, talking and laughing together, and that in a
+place where they could be seen by all observers. Suddenly, without there
+having been even the slightest sign of a quarrel, the soldier was seen to
+plunge his sword into the side of his companion. It was a preconcerted
+signal. The wretched inhabitants, who would have been defenceless in any
+case, were taken absolutely off their guard, and had but slender chances
+of escape. How many hundreds, possibly thousands, perished cannot be
+guessed. But the massacre was more general, more pitiless than that which
+had devastated the city two years before. Apollonius's "picked" men showed
+themselves altogether worthy of his choice, so brutal and bloodthirsty
+were they. And Apollonius himself was to be seen everywhere urging his men
+to make short work with these "pestilent Jews," as he called them, and not
+unfrequently striking a blow himself. He earned on that day such hatred
+that thereafter there was not to be found a Jew, save among the vilest
+renegades and traitors, but uttered a curse when his name was mentioned.
+
+Of course the soldiers had to be paid for their bloody day's work, and
+they were paid by the plunder of the city. The houses were stripped, and
+the plunderers, when they had carried away everything that had roused
+their cupidity, often, out of sheer wantonness, completed the work of
+devastation, by setting fire to the desolated houses. Altogether Jerusalem
+presented such a spectacle as had not been seen since the days of the
+Babylonian conquest.
+
+The spirit of the people having been, as it would seem, thus effectually
+broken for the present, it remained to provide against its possible
+revival in the future.
+
+Long gaps were made in the line of wall, so long that it took not a few
+days to make them, and would certainly require as many weeks to repair.
+The town thus made defenceless was further overawed by the erection of a
+fort in the City of David, this fort being held by a strong garrison of
+Greeks and Asiatic mercenaries.
+
+The means of repression thus provided, the next thing was to extinguish
+all that was characteristic of the national life. First, the great centre
+of that life, the Temple, was formally desecrated. Already it had been
+subjected to such indignities that the pious Jew could scarcely bear to
+enter its precincts. But the final horror, the "abomination of
+desolation," was yet to come. On the 15th of the month Chisleu (December)
+an altar of a Greek pattern, and consecrated to the Olympian Zeus, was
+placed on the great altar of sacrifice, and ten days afterwards a huge sow
+was slaughtered on this. Her blood, caught after the Greek fashion in a
+bowl, was sprinkled on the altar of incense and on the mercy-seat within
+the Holy of Holies--a hideous mockery of the sprinkling which the Law
+enjoined to be performed once in every year. From the animal's flesh a
+mess of broth was prepared, and this was sprinkled on the copies of the
+Law. The Temple, thus dishonoured, was as if it had ceased to be.
+
+The meeting-houses, in which, as we have seen, the people had found a
+substitute for the Temple worship, were summarily closed. An edict was
+issued commanding that every one who possessed a copy of the Law, or of
+any one of the sacred books, should give it up without loss of time. To
+call in cupidity to the aid of fear in enforcing this edict, the King's
+officers were instructed to pay a reasonable price for the manuscripts
+thus produced. It was made a capital offence to read or to recite any part
+of the proscribed writings. Then the practice of circumcision was
+forbidden. Death was to be the penalty for all who should take any part in
+performing this rite--for the circumciser, the mother, the father, even the
+babe itself.
+
+And then to the policy of repression Antiochus added the policy of bribery
+and temptation. Their own worship forbidden, the Jews were to be allured
+by the seductions of the worship of their masters. Hitherto little had
+been done in this way. Insults indeed, had been heaped upon the people;
+but little attempt had been made to attract them. The Temple gates, closed
+for more than a year, were again thrown open; and the courts, long silent,
+resounded with the mirth of sacrificial banquets and the gaiety of
+festivals. Not only all the splendours, but all the impure pleasures of
+heathen worship were called in to assist the attempt that was being made
+to sap what was left of the faith of the people.
+
+Antiochus, who, for all his wrath at Jewish obstinacy, could not help
+feeling a certain respect for it, took the trouble to send among the
+people a missionary, if he may be so called, who was to instruct them in
+the new religion which their King was so anxious to impose upon them.
+
+Theopompus, or Athenaeus, to use the name which was commonly given him from
+his birthplace, was a follower of the philosophy of Epicurus. He had held
+a subordinate post, as lecturer in geometry, in the famous school of the
+Garden, but had found his modest income insufficient to meet his somewhat
+expensive tastes. If he had had but a tolerable competence, Athenaeus would
+have made an ideal Epicurean. He was devoted to pleasure, but there was
+nothing unseemly or extravagant about his devotion. For the foolish people
+who ruined their constitutions and emptied their purses by exhausting
+excesses he had a genuine contempt. "Give me," he would say, "a decent
+sufficiency of 'outside things,' and I am content." As he had a fair
+smattering of culture, and a real acquaintance with geometry, and had a
+venerable appearance which happily hit the mean between hilarity and
+austerity, he might have been, but for a chronic want of money, a real
+success among the somewhat _dilettante_ philosophers of Athens. But
+circumstances were against him. Poverty did not ill become an Academic,
+and positively set off a Stoic; but an Epicurean seemed to have missed his
+vocation if he could not be always handsomely dressed and able to give
+elegant entertainments to his friends. Athenaeus, who liked above all
+things to be on good terms both with himself and with every one else, felt
+this very acutely, and he was proportionately delighted when the Syrian
+King proposed to him that he should go as a teacher, not without a
+handsome salary, of Greek religion and Greek culture.
+
+His success was not encouraging. In the first place he had a difficulty in
+making himself understood. The pure Attic Greek on which he prided himself
+was strange to the ears of his new audience, and he could not bring
+himself to descend to the barbarous dialect to which they were accustomed.
+And when he was seriously called to account in the matter of his belief he
+found himself involved in difficulties from which he saw no way of escape.
+At Athens religion was politely ignored. The common people must, of
+course, have their gods and goddesses; and the wise man, if he were
+prudent, would say nothing--anyhow in public--to disturb their belief; but
+within the privileged walls of the schools the names of Zeus and Athene
+and Apollo were never so much as mentioned, except, perhaps, in the course
+of some antiquarian discussion.
+
+Among his new disciples, as he would fain have reckoned them, Athenaeus
+found a very different temper. They were terribly in earnest; abstractions
+and phrases did not satisfy them; they pushed their questions home in a
+very perplexing way.
+
+One day at the conclusion of a lecture, the customary invitation to the
+audience to put any questions that might occur to them was accepted by a
+young man who sat on one of the front benches.
+
+"I would ask you, venerable sir," he said, "some questions about the gods
+of your religion."
+
+"Speak on," replied Athenaeus, with his usual courtesy; "I shall be
+delighted to satisfy you to the best of my power."
+
+"Are we to believe the stories that are told us in this book?" and he held
+up, as he spoke, a little volume of popular mythology, filled from
+beginning to end with tales that, to say the least, were not edifying.
+"For, if these be true, these divine beings were such as would be banished
+from the society of all honest men and women. They are thieves,
+adulterers, murderers. It would be a thousand times better to have no gods
+at all than such as these."
+
+"You are right, sir," said the lecturer; "these stories are for the
+ignorant only, at least in their outward meaning, though they have an
+inner meaning also, which I will take some fitting occasion to expound.
+But not such are the gods whom we worship."
+
+"Will you tell us something of them?" continued the questioner.
+
+"Willingly, for they are such that the wisest of men need not be ashamed
+of them. They dwell in some remote region, serene and happy. Wrath they
+feel not, nor sorrow, nor any of the passions that disturb the souls of
+men."
+
+"And do they care for our doings upon earth?"
+
+"How so? They neither love nor hate; and both they must do, I take it, did
+they concern themselves with human affairs."
+
+"What profit, then, is there in them? How are men the better for their
+being?"
+
+"That I know not; only that it is part of the order of things that they
+must be."
+
+"Far be it from me," exclaimed the young Jew, "to exchange for such idle
+existences the God of my fathers! He may smite us in His anger till we are
+well-nigh consumed, but at least He cares for us. He led our fathers
+through the sea and through the wilderness in the days of old. He has
+spoken to us by the prophets, and He has made His Presence to be seen in
+His Temple; and though He has hidden His face from us for a time, yet He
+will repent Him of His wrath, and devise the means by which He shall
+recall His banished unto Him. No, we will not change our God for yours!"
+
+A loud murmur of assent went round the benches when the speaker sat down,
+and Athenaeus felt that he had made but small way with his audience.
+
+Finding his theology and philosophy but ill received, Athenaeus bethought
+him of what seemed a more hopeful method of proselytizing. Could not a
+specially powerful attraction be found in the festival of Dionysus, the
+wine-god? Vintage feasts, he reflected, are common to every country where
+wine is produced, and it would not be difficult to ingraft the Greek
+characteristics on a celebration to which the Jews were already
+accustomed. Some of the less scrupulous might be tempted to take part in
+such a festival, a beginning would be made, and more would follow in due
+time. How the scheme prospered will be told in the next chapter.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VIII.
+
+                         SHALLUM THE WINE-SELLER.
+
+
+"Things are growing worse and worse; only three customers yesterday, and
+not a single one to-day, though it must be at least an hour past noon. One
+would think that all the world had become Nazarites. Then, though there is
+next to nothing coming in, there is no stop to the going out. First comes
+the rascally tax-gatherer, and squeezes one as dry as a grape-skin in a
+press. And if, by chance, there happens to be a drop left, some snuffling
+priest is sure to turn up, and talk about one's duty as a patriot and a
+Jew till he drags the last shekel out of one."
+
+The speaker was one Shallum, a Benjamite, who kept a little wine-shop in
+the Lower City. When he had finished his grumble, he thrust his hand into
+an empty wine-jar, drew from it a little leathern bag, untied the string
+which was round the neck, poured out the scanty contents on the counter
+and counted them. He knew the amount perfectly well, for he had gone
+through the counting process at least ten times before that day. But when
+a man is desperately anxious to make two ends meet, he will measure them
+again and again, though he may know exactly by how much they are too
+short.
+
+"Twelve shekels and ten annas! And old Nahum will be here to-morrow,
+asking for his thirty shekels!"
+
+Nahum was a Lebanon wine-grower, whose long-suffering had been already
+tried to the utmost by the delays of the impecunious Shallum.
+
+At this moment his meditations were interrupted by the entrance of two
+visitors, who had been standing, listening and watching outside the door.
+They were traders in a small way, who had migrated from Joppa when they
+heard that Greek wares were becoming the fashion in Jerusalem.
+
+"Ho! Shallum," cried one of them, "two cups of your best Lebanon; and make
+haste, for we have important business on hand."
+
+"Shall I draw some water fresh from the well? This is a little too warm to
+be used."
+
+"Water!" said the man. "Jew, don't blaspheme. Mix water with our wine
+to-day, of all days in the year!"
+
+"And why not to-day?" said Shallum.
+
+"Because it is the feast of Dionysus, the wine-giver; and it would be the
+grossest impiety to profane his bounty with any mixture of meaner things.
+Commonly his godship winks at human weakness; but to-day it is different.
+May he confound me if I do him such dishonour!"
+
+"He will certainly confound you if you drink this heady wine undiluted,"
+muttered Shallum to himself, as he set the two cups before his guests.
+
+"Excellent! excellent!" cried Lycon, the elder of the two Greeks, as he
+set down his goblet, half empty. "But why the god vouchsafes such capital
+drink to these unbelieving dogs of Jews puzzles me beyond expression."
+
+His companion broke out into a drinking-song:
+
+  "Fill the cup with ample measure,
+    Dionysus' gift divine;
+  Earth and sea hold no such treasure
+    As the gleaming, sparkling wine.
+
+  All for youth are love's caressings,
+    Gold and gems for princes shine;
+  All may share the wine-god's blessings,
+    Rich and poor are glad with wine."
+
+Shallum was fairly tolerant, as indeed a tavern-keeper can hardly fail to
+be, of the ways and manners of his customers; but to hear this praise of a
+false god, one of the odious demons that were worshipped by the heathen,
+was too much for his patience. He muttered a curse under his breath, and
+emphasized this expression of disgust by spitting on the floor.
+
+"Don't talk to me of your gods and goddesses!" cried Shallum, goaded
+beyond all endurance, "a lewd, drunken crew that no respectable person
+would have anything to do with!"
+
+"Come, my friend," said the Greek, "this is not the sort of talk which one
+expects to hear from a loyal subject of the pious Antiochus. We Greeks are
+not such bigots as you are, cursing every man, woman, or child that does
+not go exactly in our own way; but you must treat us and our belongings
+with respect. We are not going to have barbarians scoffing at what we
+think fit to worship. I have heard of men being crucified for less than
+you have said to-day. But hearken, Shallum, we did not come here to-day to
+quarrel with you. You are a good fellow, after all, and keep as capital a
+tap of wine as any that I know, King Tmolus(7) only excepted. We want you
+to come with us and have a jolly day. What is the good of quarrelling
+about words? You and we are quite agreed that there is something in wine
+that makes it one of the finest things under the sun. Suppose that we
+choose to call that something Dionysus the Wine-god, and you choose to say
+that your god has to do with it, what is the difference? We are really
+agreed. It is the goodness in wine that we both like, and I'm sure that a
+really honest fellow like you, that we can always rely on to give us the
+right stuff, should be the first to acknowledge it. Well, can't we show an
+agreement? That is why we want you to come with us. A whole crowd of your
+countrymen are coming, I understand. It will be a pretty sight, and there
+will be some of the finest music that you ever heard, and dancing, and fun
+of all kinds, and, of course, as much wine as ever you want. Of course you
+will come, my dear Shallum?"
+
+"_I_ come?" growled the wine-seller. "Not I! What do I care about your
+dancing and singing? And as for wine, I can have as much as I want at
+home, and better stuff, too, than any that I am likely to get elsewhere."
+
+Lycon, who was evidently bent on getting his way, did not suffer his good
+humour to be disturbed by the Jew's churlishness. "Ah!" said he, "that
+reminds me. Stupid fellow that I am, I quite forgot the matter of business
+that really brought me here. To tell the truth, business and this old
+Lebanon don't very well agree. But listen; Neocles, who is
+manager-in-chief of the whole festival, has quite made up his mind to have
+your wine, and none but yours, for all the better sort of people. He was
+to get some skins for the common folks from Zadok--do you know him?"
+
+"Know him?" said Shallum; "I should think I did--hasn't got a drop of sound
+wine in his shop."
+
+"So the Chief said. But we were to come to you for the good wine. What can
+you let us have? Mind that it must be the very best. We were not to haggle
+about the price, Neocles said, so long as we got it really good."
+
+And Lycon pulled out of his pocket a money-bag that was evidently much
+better furnished than Shallum's lean and hunger-bitten purse. Untying the
+neck, he poured into his hand, with an air of careless profusion, some ten
+or twelve gold pieces.
+
+Shallum's keen eyes glistened at the sight. Here was enough to pay not
+only Nahum but all his creditors, and leave him a handsome sum over
+wherewith to tide over the hard times. His somewhat brusque manner changed
+in a moment. He was now the most obsequious of tradesmen.
+
+"Everything in my stores is at your disposal. And I have a better wine
+than this in my cellar, and only ten shekels a skin," he went on, adding
+about three to the utmost he expected to get. "But wait a moment,
+gentlemen, you shall taste it for yourselves."
+
+He took a small flagon from beneath the counter and disappeared. The two
+Greeks smiled to each other. "We have the fish fast," one of them said;
+"after all there is nothing like a golden bait."
+
+Shallum shortly reappeared with the wine, which was tasted and approved.
+
+"Well," said Lycon, "we will say ten skins of this at ten shekels a piece,
+and five of the other sort at eight--that is the price; is it not?"
+
+Shallum nodded assent. As a matter of fact he would never have expected
+more than seven. But if these Greeks were so free with their money why
+should not an honest Jew have the benefit of it?
+
+"Of course you will come with us?" said Lycon.
+
+"You may take my word for it, there will be nothing to offend you."
+
+Shallum hesitated for a moment, and then muttered an unwilling "Yes."
+
+"And you won't mind wearing this little twig of ivy, just twisted round
+your head? It means nothing--every one does it."
+
+This was more than the wretched man was prepared for. "Not I," he said; "I
+am not going to wear any of your idolatrous ornaments."
+
+Lycon put the money-bag into his pocket again. "Then, my dear Shallum, I
+am afraid we shall not be able to do any business. 'Give and take' is our
+motto. We put a nice little bargain in your way; and you must humour us.
+However, if you are obstinate, there must be an end of it. I dare say
+Zadok can find us what we want. Come, Callicles," he went on, turning to
+his companion, "we must be going."
+
+Shallum saw his dreams of deliverance from his money-troubles vanishing
+into air, and grew desperate. "Stop," he said to his guests, "let me think
+for a moment. You won't ask me to do anything else. A few leaves can't
+make much odds either way. I don't remember ever hearing anything in the
+Law against wearing ivy. It isn't like eating swine's flesh, or those
+detestable scaleless eels that you Greeks are so fond of. Yes, I'll wear
+the thing, if you want me to so much."
+
+"That's right, Shallum; I thought a sensible man like you would not throw
+away a good chance for a mere nothing."
+
+So saying, Lycon stepped outside the shop, and whistled. In a minute or so
+a cart, which had been waiting round the corner, was driven up. The skins
+of wine were stowed away in it, and the two Greeks, with Shallum between
+them, all wearing the ivy-wreath, took their seats, and started for the
+Valley of the Cheesemongers, where it had been arranged that the festival
+should be held.
+
+The festival was scarcely a success, if it was meant, as it certainly was,
+to attract the Jewish population. A few hundreds, indeed, had been
+persuaded or compelled to be present. Most of them belonged to the lowest
+and most degraded class, wretched creatures whom any purchaser might
+secure for any purpose with a shekel or a flagon of wine. To-day they were
+"hail fellow well met" with their Greek neighbours, but to-morrow they
+would be perfectly ready to tear them in pieces. A few of somewhat better
+character had been bribed, as Shallum had been bribed, to come. These had
+little of the air of genuine holiday-makers. Their bursts of simulated
+gaiety did not conceal the shame which they really felt. Others, again,
+did not make even this pretence of hilarity. They had been actually
+compelled to come, and they had all the air of prisoners led in the
+triumphant procession of a victorious general. Their faces were ghastly
+pale. Some, with their teeth firmly clenched, seemed to be forcibly
+keeping in the curses which struggled to find utterance. Others, of a
+gentler temper, were weeping silently; and others, again, preserved a look
+of dogged indifference. The Greek part of the spectators, who could have
+enjoyed the humours of the scene with a good conscience, were depressed by
+the presence of these unwilling guests. In consequence, everything seemed
+to fail. The jesters, with their grotesque garb and faces hideously
+smeared with wine-lees, could scarcely get a laugh from their audience;
+the singing lacked heartiness, the dancing was dull and spiritless. It is
+only natural that revellers, who find the time passing slowly, should try
+to quicken its movement. There was little brightness or gaiety in this
+feast of the wine-god, and there was therefore all the more excess. Some
+seized the rare opportunity of intoxicating themselves without expense,
+while others drank to drown their shame or their anger. Shallum, whose
+occupation had somewhat seasoned him against the effects of wine, remained
+comparatively sober, but his Greek companions were less discreet or less
+strong-headed. They became, by a rapid succession of moods, boisterously
+gay, foolishly affectionate, and provokingly quarrelsome. It was not long
+before things came to a crisis. Lycon taunted the wine-seller with the
+quality of his wines; that did not affect him, for he was used to such
+complaints from his customers, and took them as part of his day's work. He
+scoffed at the subjection of his nation to Greek rule; Shallum still kept
+his temper. The tipsy Greek was only encouraged to further insults by his
+companion's self-restraint. He attempted to daub the Jew's face with the
+dregs from a broken flagon. Shallum angrily shook him off, and he reeled
+back, just saving himself from a fall by catching at the trunk of an olive
+tree. "Hog of a Jew!" he cried, "do you lay hands on a free-born Greek?
+Come, Callicles," he went on, turning to his companion, "let us teach the
+beast how to behave himself." The two rushed at the Jew, aiming blows at
+his head with the staves which they carried in their hands. One of them
+stumbled against the stones of a ruined house, and fell so heavily that he
+was unable or unwilling to raise himself again. Shallum easily evaded the
+attack of the other, dealing him at the same time so fierce a stroke of
+the fist that it stretched him senseless on the ground. The deed done, he
+looked hastily round to see whether any spectator had witnessed it. To his
+great relief, he found himself alone. From the lower city came the sounds
+of furious revelry and the strains of the Bacchic chorus--
+
+  "Comrades, crown the bowl with wine,
+  Round your locks the ivy twine,
+  Deeper drink and join again
+  Bacchus and his reeling train."
+
+His first impulse was to tear the ivy-wreath from his head. Then he
+reflected that if he could endure to wear it for a few moments longer, it
+might serve him as a passport. The event proved that he was right. He
+passed unquestioned through the crowd of revellers, left the precincts of
+the valley, and striking on an unfrequented path, hurried on at the top of
+his speed, not pausing till he had put at least six miles between himself
+and the scene of his late adventure. Then he threw himself on the ground
+and bewailed his grievous fall in an agony of shame and remorse. After a
+while the fatigue and excitement of the day, helped by the fumes of the
+wine, which his rapid movements had sent to his brain, overpowered him,
+and he sank into a heavy sleep.
+
+His slumbers lasted late into the day. When he woke, his head aching with
+the excess of the day before, he felt even more wretched, more hopeless.
+To return to the city was out of the question. But where was he to go?
+While he was debating this question with himself, and could find nothing
+in the least resembling an answer, he caught the sound of approaching
+footsteps. Mingled feelings of shame and fear suggested to him that he
+should hide himself, and he plunged into the bushes which lined the side
+of the road.
+
+The traveller approached. He was a renegade Jew, and Shallum recognized
+him as one who had taken an active part in the festivities of the
+preceding day. Just as he passed Shallum's hiding-place an unlucky impulse
+made him burst forth into a snatch of the Bacchic chant--
+
+  "Deeper drink and join again
+  Bacchus and his reeling train."
+
+His listener heard the words with mingled feelings of disgust and rage,
+and leaping down into the road felled him senseless to the ground.
+
+At first it seemed as if what he had done did not make his way plainer
+before him. But as he stood by the prostrate man a thought occurred to
+him. He took the purse which the man, in the usual traveller's fashion,
+wore by way of girdle round his waist, and examined its contents. It held
+three gold pieces and some ten shekels. The gold he left; but half of the
+shekels he transferred to his own keeping. One of the shekels sufficed to
+purchase some bread and dried flesh at the neighbouring village. Thus
+recruited in strength the fugitive made his escape to the mountains.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER IX.
+
+                             THE PERSECUTION.
+
+
+Menander, or Micah--the young man still wavered between the two moods which
+were symbolized by these names--had been greatly moved, as we have said, by
+what he had seen and heard in his visit to his sister and her husband. But
+he could not shake himself free from the habits and prepossessions of
+years. Though he had always kept aloof from the worst excesses of his
+renegade and heathen friends, still his moral tone had been lowered, and
+even his physical nerve weakened by a frivolous and self-indulgent life.
+Sometimes he would half resolve to cast in his lot with his people.
+Sometimes, again, the cynical or doubting temper returned. What madness it
+would be, so the evil voice whispered to him, to sacrifice all that made
+life pleasant, and, very possibly, life itself, for what both philosophers
+and practical men of the world agreed in pronouncing to be a delusion!
+
+Till this question had been settled one way or the other, he found it
+impossible to rest. The city became odious to him, for he shrank from the
+sight of his fellow-men. Indeed, he did not know with whom to associate.
+His Greek or Greek-loving acquaintances, with their frivolities and vices,
+disgusted him; and the patriots regarded him with coldness and aversion.
+Solitude, he fancied, might suit him better, and he went again to his
+country house at Lebanon. But he found himself worse off than ever where
+there was nothing to come between his thoughts and himself, and he
+hastened back to Jerusalem. Then it suddenly occurred to him that his
+sister had been expecting shortly to become a mother, and he made his way
+to her house to inquire of her welfare. Azariah himself answered his
+knock.
+
+"How is Hannah?"
+
+"Thanks be to the Lord," replied Azariah, "she is well. She had an easy
+travail."
+
+"And the babe? A son or a daughter?"
+
+"The Lord has given us a son."
+
+But he said it without the gladness that a Jewish father, newly blessed
+with the hope that there should be one to preserve his name in Israel,
+should have felt.
+
+"But you must come in and see him, for indeed he is of a singular beauty."
+
+The young man followed his host into the chamber already described, and
+sat down to wait. Presently Azariah reappeared, holding the child in his
+arms. It was no father's fondness that had made him speak of his singular
+beauty. The child was but five days old; but he had none of the
+"shapeless" look which is commonly to be seen in the newly born. His
+features were shaped with a regularity most uncommon at so tender an age,
+and his complexion beautifully clear, while his little head was surrounded
+with what may be called a halo of golden hair.
+
+Micah was loud in his admiration. "I never saw his equal for beauty. You
+are indeed a happy father to have the fairest son in all Israel."
+
+The smile on Azariah's face faded away.
+
+"I would not be thankless for the 'gift that cometh from the Lord,' nor
+wanting in faith; yet I sometimes cannot but think that in these days the
+childless are the happiest, or, I should rather say, the least unhappy."
+
+"Of course you will be prudent," said Micah, "and yield to the necessities
+of the time. Put off the circumcision of the child. There can be no harm
+in that. And when Hannah has got her strength again, you can come down to
+my place in the Lebanon, and it can be done quietly, without any one being
+the wiser."
+
+Azariah said nothing. He turned away his face, but not before his
+brother-in-law had seen his eyes fill with tears. After leaving some
+loving messages for his sister the young man departed, hoping, though not
+without some serious doubt, that his advice would be followed.
+
+A week after, when the question, he knew, would have been decided one way
+or the other, he bent his steps again towards his sister's house. As he
+walked through the streets he could see that the persecutors were busy at
+their work. Fires were burning here and there, and copies of the Law and
+the other holy books were being burned in them. From a house which he
+recognized as being the dwelling of a scribe of great learning, a party of
+Greek soldiers burst forth, as he passed, dragging behind them a
+richly-ornamented scroll of the Psalms. For a moment the wild impulse
+surged in his heart to rescue the sacred writing from the flames; but he
+recognized the hopelessness of the attempt; and, indeed, he sadly asked
+himself, was he fit to be a champion of holy things? A soldier gathered up
+the parchment in his arms, and tossed it in a heap on the fire. Part of it
+opened as it fell, and Micah saw for a few moments before the flames
+reached them, words which he never forgot till his dying day: "Princes
+have persecuted me without a cause, yet do I not swerve from Thy
+commandments." As he stood and looked, with a rage in his heart which he
+could not express, two more soldiers came out of the house, holding
+between them the scribe himself, a venerable man, in whom Micah recognized
+an old friend of his father's. They threw him down, face foremost, on the
+fire, and held him there till he was suffocated. But before the tragedy
+was finished, the young Jew had turned away, feeling in his heart that the
+question which he had been debating so long was being rapidly settled for
+him.
+
+The blow that was to clinch his conclusions was not long in falling. As he
+came near the bottom of the little hill on the top of which stood his
+sister's house, he saw a cross, and, bound to it by cords, what seemed to
+be the figure of a woman, with a dead child hung round her neck. The sun
+had set, and the light was failing with the rapidity that is
+characteristic of a southern latitude.
+
+"Truly these Greeks have a strange way of showing their love of beauty. We
+have had sickening sights in Jerusalem of late enough to make their name
+stink in our nostrils for ever. What poor wretch is this? How has she
+offended our masters? And the child--what treason can he have been guilty
+of?"
+
+And as he spoke a dreadful fear shot through his heart. After all--for he
+knew what a dauntless spirit his sister had shown at their last
+meeting--after all they might have circumcised the child and brought down
+upon themselves the vengeance of the persecutors. He turned aside from the
+road and ran up to the terrible object. It was almost dark by the time he
+reached it, and he had to light a torch which he carried with him in case
+of need, before he could see what the object really was. Then one glance
+was enough. The features of the woman were black and swollen; but he
+recognized them in a moment. It was the face of Hannah, his sister. But a
+month before he had seen it beaming with light and love, and now---- Had he
+needed any confirmation he would have found it in the child. The features
+were beyond recognition; but the golden halo of hair was there; its
+brightness scarcely dimmed.
+
+He sank upon his knees, and lifting his hands to heaven he cursed the
+authors of this wickedness, and swore that he would give all his life to
+avenge the innocent blood. Then rising he hastened to the house of
+Azariah.
+
+He found a considerable company assembled. They were deep in debate about
+the course of action to be pursued when Micah, who had been met by Azariah
+at the door, was introduced into the room. Most of those present were
+acquainted with him, at least by reputation, and they were naturally
+disposed to consider his presence an intrusion. But it was soon manifest
+that the new comer was not indifferent, much less hostile, to their
+objects.
+
+"Hear me, brethren," he cried, "if, indeed, one so unworthy as I may call
+you brethren," and he went on to recount the struggles with which his mind
+had been agitated during the weeks just past. Then, after briefly touching
+on what he had just seen, he went on, "I have sinned; I have forsaken the
+Law of my God; I have defiled myself by a companionship with the heathen;
+and though I have not worshipped their false gods"--there was a sigh of
+relief from the company as he uttered these words with a solemn
+emphasis--"yet I have been a guest at the feasts of their temples. If,
+therefore, you judge me to have transgressed beyond all pardon, cast me
+out from your company; I can find some other way to do service for the
+country that I have betrayed, and the God whom I have denied. Yet, if you
+think me worthy of death, I do not refuse to die." And he drew a dagger
+from his belt, and offering it to one who seemed to be a leader in the
+assembly, stood with bared breast before him.
+
+  [Illustration: _The Persecution._]
+
+A murmur of admiration ran through the meeting.
+
+"Nay, brother," said the man whom he addressed, "this is not the time to
+take one soldier from the hosts of the Lord. You have sinned in the past;
+make amends in the future. There will be time and opportunity enough. And
+if you are the brother of her who has witnessed a good confession even
+unto death, you will not fail to use the occasion that shall come."
+
+The company then resumed the debate which had been interrupted by Micah's
+arrival. Little difference of opinion indeed remained among them, and when
+the president, Seraiah by name, brother-in-law of Azariah, as being the
+husband of his sister Ruth, stated his views they met with general assent.
+
+"We have seen enough," he said, "and suffered enough. This city is
+polluted, and is no longer a fit abode for the faithful. Let them that are
+in Judaea flee unto the mountains. Meanwhile we will gather together such
+as have not bowed the knee to Baal, and will make head against the
+oppressor. But here we shall be struck down, and perish as a beast
+perishes in the pit into which he has fallen."
+
+After this the company dispersed to make such preparation as they could
+for their departure, which was fixed for the night following. Micah and
+Seraiah remained behind in the house of mourning. Azariah withdrew to
+comfort his little girls, who were crying almost incessantly for their
+mother. Comfort he needed sorely for himself, and he found it, as far as
+it could be found, in this fatherly care. Every look and gesture of the
+little ones reminded him of her whom he had lost, and seemed to open the
+wound afresh. Yet it consoled him to talk to them about their mother, to
+tell the story of her early days, to remind them, though they did not need
+to be reminded, of all her goodness and love, and to picture her happiness
+where she sat in Paradise with the holy women of old, with Miriam, and
+Sarah, and Rachel.
+
+Meanwhile Seraiah told the story of Hannah's end to Micah. "We came
+together," he said, "on the eighth day after the birth of her child; but
+though all was prepared for the circumcision of the boy, we had not yet
+resolved what was to be done. I know that I wavered--I confess it with
+shame--and so did Azariah. And, indeed, I can scarcely find it in my heart
+to blame him. He had no thought of his own life, but to risk his wife's
+and the child's--that was terrible. And there were others who advised him
+to yield for the time; the risk was too terrible. Indeed, that was the
+feeling of most of us, and those who thought otherwise were unwilling to
+speak. We were assembled, you know, in your sister's chamber. She sat on
+the bed, holding the little one in her arms. Her face was somewhat pale;
+but she had a calm and steadfast look, like the look of one who watches
+his adversary in the battle line of the enemy, and there was a fire in her
+eyes, such as I have never seen in the eye of woman before. When I had
+spoken, counselling delay and yielding for a while to the necessities of
+the time, I turned to her and said, 'And you, Hannah, what think you?'
+
+"Then she spoke, and her voice never faltered for a moment, but was clear
+and full, though indeed she never raised it above the pitch that becomes
+the obedience and modesty of the woman. 'Pardon me,' she said, 'fathers
+and brethren, if I seem, in differing from your counsel, to reproach you.
+I am but a weak woman, and know nothing of policy or of the needs of the
+time. But I know the thing that the Lord our God has commanded: "Every
+man-child among you shall be circumcised," and "whosoever shall not be
+circumcised that soul shall be cut off from among his people." The Lord
+hath given me this child, and shall I not do for him according to the
+commandment? Shall we fear man rather than God? And for myself, is it a
+new thing for a mother to give her life into the hand of God? Four times
+already have I so given it, and He has restored it to me. And if it be His
+will that it be taken, shall I not obey? What said the Holy Children when
+Nebuchadnezzar would have had them fall down and worship the golden image,
+lest they should be cast into the burning fiery furnace. "Our God whom we
+serve is able to deliver us out of thy hand, and He will deliver us out of
+thy hand, O King; but if not----"'
+
+"Then she turned to her husband, and said, 'What shall be his name?' as
+steadily and quietly as if there had been no question of danger or fear.
+'Let his name be David,' said the father, as he took the babe from its
+mother's arms; for the sun was about to set, and in a few moments the due
+time would be past. So they carried the child into the next room. And when
+your sister heard his cry, she broke forth into blessings and
+thanksgiving. 'Thanks be to Thee, O Lord,' she cried, 'in that Thou hast
+made him a child of the Covenant. And now I beseech Thee to grant that he
+may walk before Thee all the days of his life as walked Thy servant David,
+and that he may sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom
+of heaven.'
+
+"After that she bade us stay and partake of the feast which she had caused
+to be prepared. Verily she had left nothing uncared for. Never was her
+table better spread, and, as you know, she was a notable housekeeper. And
+though, for her weakness, she could not sit at table with us, she was gay
+and cheerful even beyond her wont, so that we men, for very shame, had to
+banish the care from our faces, and laugh and be merry with her. But the
+next day the soldiers came and beat Azariah, as they thought, to death,
+and----" The speaker paused; indeed he could not speak for the choking
+tears. At last he said, in a broken voice, "What need to tell the rest?
+You know it."
+
+The next night Azariah, Seraiah, Micah, and a company of some thirty men
+and women left Jerusalem. Part of them were on foot, but an ass had been
+found to carry Ruth, Seraiah's wife, who was expecting shortly to become a
+mother. Their destination was the hill-country that went by the name of
+the Wilderness of Bethaven.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER X.
+
+                            IN THE MOUNTAINS.
+
+
+The time is evening; the place is a rocky pass between Bethel and
+Michmash. At the mouth of a cave which commands a view of the approach
+from the westward, are seated two men, in one of whom we may recognize
+Shallum, the quondam wine-seller of Jerusalem.
+
+"Well, comrade," he is saying to his companion, "this business is not
+quite to my liking. It is all very well when we can relieve a Greek
+merchant, or, better still, a Syrian tax-gatherer, of his money-bags; but
+I hate robbing our own people. That poor fellow to-day, for instance, who
+was taking home his wages--he had been wood-cutting, he said, in Bashan--it
+really went to my heart to take the money from him."
+
+The companion whom he addressed was a rough, savage-looking fellow, who
+certainly did not look as if he would feel very much for Shallum's
+scruples. He had followed, indeed, the robber's trade, it may be said,
+from his childhood, as his fathers had followed it before him, almost
+since the days of the Captivity.
+
+He now broke out into a loud, mocking laugh.
+
+"Ah! my friend Shallum," he said, "you are a great deal too soft and
+tender-hearted. But then you are new to the business; when you have been
+at it as long as I have, you won't have these scruples. Now, mark what I
+say; and if we are to be good friends, don't let me hear any more of this
+nonsense. You are a stout fellow and a man of your hands; and as for
+myself, well, I rather think that a novice like you could hardly have come
+across a better teacher. I don't doubt that we shall do very well
+together; and when we have made a little money, I shan't blame you if you
+give up the business and become what they call an honest man. For myself,
+the 'honest man' line does not suit me--it is not in my blood, you know.
+But, meanwhile, if we are to work together, we must agree. Now, all is
+fish that comes to our net. Of course, I don't mean the people about
+here--our neighbours, you know. We must not touch them; on the contrary,
+they must have a share of what we make. As long as they are our friends we
+are safe. But all strangers are lawful booty. And mind--for I see that you
+are a little wroth about this--mind, it is only dead men who tell no
+tales."
+
+Benjamin's words of wisdom--the more experienced of the two robbers was
+named Benjamin--were interrupted by an exclamation from his companion.
+
+"Hush!" he cried, "I hear a sound of voices from the pass."
+
+The two men listened; Shallum was evidently right. A party of travellers
+were approaching from the west.
+
+"We are in luck," said Benjamin; "it is not often that we do business so
+late in the day."
+
+As he spoke the leaders of the party emerged into sight.
+
+"Shoot, Shallum!" said Benjamin; "strike one of those fellows down and we
+shall have the whole party in confusion."
+
+"Nay, Benjamin; I hear the voices of women and children; and see--God
+wither my hand if I shoot at such helpless people as these."
+
+The rest of the party was now in sight. Two men, one on either side of the
+ass, were supporting Ruth, who, worn out by the fatigues of the day, could
+with difficulty keep her seat on the animal. These were her husband and
+Azariah. Close behind came Micah, carrying on his shoulder the little
+Judith, who was fast asleep. Then followed Miriam, Judith's elder sister.
+The poor child limped sadly along, for her city life had been but a poor
+training for that long day's march, and she felt just a little envious of
+the good fortune which Judith enjoyed in being carried.
+
+Shallum recognized the figures of Seraiah and Ruth, with whom he happened
+to have had some slight acquaintance in Jerusalem, and from whom indeed he
+had received no little kindness.
+
+"Benjamin," he said, in a determined voice, "I know these people, and if I
+can help it they shall suffer no harm."
+
+"Well, well; have your way," said his companion, who indeed was not quite
+as hard of heart as he would make himself out. "If, as you say, you know
+them, go down and make friends."
+
+Shallum at once made his way down into the pass, and, standing in the
+path, greeted the travellers with the customary salutation, "Peace be with
+you!"
+
+"What, Shallum!" said Seraiah, "is that you? What brings you here?"
+
+"That were a long story," returned the man, "and this is not the time to
+tell it. But can I serve you?"
+
+"Can you find shelter for my poor wife? But it is idle, I fear, to ask
+you. There can be no inn near this wild place."
+
+"'Tis true, sir, there is no inn; yet if you can put up with such poor
+lodging as we can give, the lady will have at least shelter."
+
+Ruth was lifted from her seat on the ass, and carried between her husband
+and Azariah up the rocky track that led to the cave, Shallum showing the
+way with a lighted torch in his hand, for by this time the night had
+fallen.
+
+Benjamin met the little party at the mouth of the cave. His life of crime
+had not quenched all kindly feeling in him. He felt, too, that he was a
+host; and the sense of hospitality, which keeps its hold on an Eastern
+heart as long as anything good is left to it, bade him do his best for his
+guests. And the sweet smile of thanks with which Ruth greeted him when she
+was laid on the couch of cloaks, which the two inmates of the cave had
+hastily arranged on a pile of heather, won him altogether.
+
+A minute or two afterwards Micah followed with the two children; Judith,
+still fast asleep, was put down by Ruth's side, while Miriam forgot her
+fatigue in the delightful excitement of this new adventure. The new-comers
+had brought with them a slender store of provisions. These they proceeded
+to share, declining with thanks the dried flesh and wine which their
+entertainers offered. The rest of the party found shelter, under guidance
+of the robbers, in some of the many caves with which the rocks in the
+neighbourhood were honeycombed.
+
+Next morning the arrangements for housing the little colony were made.
+There was an abundance of caves to give shelter to all, and the
+accommodation though rough, at least protected them from the weather.
+Their life was simple in the extreme--simple even to hardness. They sought
+for herbs and roots, and from the neighbouring peasants they bought a few
+goats, to browse among the rocks, and a small quantity of corn, which they
+bruised between stones and baked. The mountain springs furnished their
+drink, a few flasks of wine being reserved for any cases of sickness.
+Twice a day the whole company met for worship. Seraiah read a portion
+first from the Law and then from the Prophets, for they had not forgotten
+to bring rolls of the Sacred Books. Then standing erect, with covered
+heads, their faces turned towards the Temple, they joined in prayer. In
+the words of one who himself in old time had found himself shut out for a
+while from the privileges of the Holy Place and was content to realize
+them by faith, the congregation uttered together the petition, "Let my
+prayer be set forth in Thy sight as the incense; and let the lifting up of
+my hands be an evening sacrifice." One of the psalms of penitence
+followed; for surely they had all many sins to repent of--sins of which
+they were now suffering the penalty; and, after the psalm, a prayer for
+deliverance from the enemy, and for the setting up again of the throne of
+David, and for that without which neither deliverance nor a restored
+kingdom could profit them--purity and righteousness in their own hearts and
+souls.
+
+Nothing could be more simple and frugal than their daily fare. Wild fruits
+and herbs were largely used, and any little plots of fertile ground that
+could be found were planted with vegetables, some far-seeing member of the
+party having brought with him a small supply of garden seeds. When a few
+days after their arrival Ruth gave birth to a son it was much feared that
+the scanty supply of nourishing food might long delay her restoration to
+strength. This fear was not realized. The feeling of freedom and
+deliverance combined with the fine mountain air to bring her back to her
+wonted health, and she found herself able to go about her daily work long
+before she could have hoped to do so in the more enervating atmosphere of
+the city.
+
+One day she had gone to gather herbs for the daily mess, a work in which
+she was especially useful from the knowledge of plants which she had taken
+pains to acquire in her unmarried days. She had taken, of course, the
+new-born infant with her, and Miriam, who was delighted to perform, as far
+as her strength permitted, the office of nurse. The little Judith, whose
+night's rest had been disturbed by some childish ailment, had been left at
+home to make up her allowance of sleep. The mother found on her return
+that a strange visitor had made herself at home in the cave. The little
+one was fast asleep on a bed of rugs which had been made up for her, and
+curled up at her side with one of her fore paws round her neck was a
+jackal. The two companions were roused together by the arrival of the
+party, and, wonderful to relate, neither showed any symptoms of alarm. The
+jackal rose from its resting-place, approached Ruth, and fawned at her
+feet, and the child came after its bedfellow and stroked affectionately
+its shaggy skin.
+
+When, two or three weeks afterwards, the new comer gave birth to a litter
+of cubs, the joy of the children was complete. The little animals soon
+learnt to play with the girls, and their dam sat by and watched their
+gambols, and sometimes even condescended to join in them herself.
+
+The little colony heard of the strange incident with delight, and saw in
+it a token of Divine favour. "Man rages cruelly against us," they said,
+"but we find friends among the beasts of the field. Surely it is our God
+who hath changed the heart of this savage dweller in the wilderness, and
+we will trust that He will do yet greater things than these."
+
+"Mother," said Miriam one day to Ruth, "by what name shall we call our new
+friend?"
+
+The question puzzled her, and she referred it to her husband.
+
+"It does not seem fitting," she said, "that we should give the name of a
+daughter of the Covenant to the beast, for though she is of kindly temper
+yet she is unclean."
+
+Seraiah thought awhile.
+
+"You say truth, my wife. Let us call her Jael."
+
+"But why Jael?"
+
+"Because the wife of Heber was of the unclean, for was she not of the
+house of the Kenite? Yet was she a friend of Israel, for she slew Sisera
+that was captain of the host of Jabin, King of Canaan."
+
+So thenceforward the creature went by the name of Jael.
+
+It was not long before she justified her name by showing that she could be
+fierce on occasion.
+
+A wayfarer, who described himself as a discharged soldier and a Moabite by
+birth, asked for shelter and food. Scanty as were the means of the
+fugitives, they did not grudge the stranger a share of their meal. They
+gave him their best, adding to their daily fare the special luxury of some
+dried grapes. As he complained of being footsore, Ruth applied some simple
+remedies to the blisters on his feet. Altogether he was treated not only
+as a welcome but even as an honoured guest. On his part he professed a
+fervent sympathy with the hopes and plans of his hosts. The next morning
+he started as if to continue his journey. But the cupidity of the wretch
+had been roused by the sight of the handsome earrings--almost the sole
+remaining relic of former affluence--which he had spied in his hostess's
+ears. About an hour before noon, when he judged that the men would be
+still busy about their daily work, he crept back to the cave. Ruth was
+sitting by a fire nursing her babe. The jackal lay asleep in a corner; the
+girls were playing with the cubs on a sunny little plot of ground outside.
+
+"Lady," began the fellow, in a beggar's wheedling voice, "can you spare a
+little money for a poor fellow who has not so much as a copper coin to buy
+him a piece of bread?"
+
+Ruth was startled at his re-appearance, but concealed her alarm.
+
+"Friend," she said, "I have no money; but I will give you half a loaf if
+you want food, though you had done better, I should think, to keep on your
+way, for you can hardly find any that are poorer than we."
+
+"But you have gold," said the man.
+
+"Gold? Not I," she answered.
+
+"Nay, lady," he went on, with a perceptible tone of threatening in his
+voice, "those earrings that you wear are doubtless of true metal. They
+add, indeed, to your beauty, and it is a pity that you should lose them;
+but then there is no one to admire you in this wilderness, and they would
+keep a poor fellow like myself in flesh and wine for a month or more."
+
+"My earrings?" said Ruth, stupefied by the man's audacity.
+
+"Yes, your earrings, lady," said the man. "I should advise you to take
+them out yourself, for if I have to do it I am afraid that I shall show
+myself a very rough tirewoman."
+
+The spirit of Ruth, the same that had dwelt of old in a Miriam or a
+Deborah, was roused at the man's insolent audacity. She seized a
+half-burnt brand from the fire and stood on her defence. The soldier,
+thinking that he had found an easy prey, approached. But he had not
+reckoned on an ally who was ready to help her in her need. Jael had been
+woke by the voices, and watched with glaring eyes the soldier's movements,
+uttering every now and then a low growl, which, however, the man was too
+much occupied to heed. As soon as he came within reach, she sprang upon
+him from her lurking-place. The force with which she threw herself upon
+him overset him, and he fell backwards, his head striking on the
+mill-stone which formed part of the scanty furniture of the cave. In a
+moment her fangs were in his throat. In vain did Ruth, who saw the man's
+danger and was unwilling that he should perish in his sins, call her by
+her name. All the savage instinct in her was roused by the taste of blood.
+Before two minutes had passed the freebooter was dead.
+
+"We did well to call her Jael," said Seraiah that evening, as he helped to
+carry the corpse out of the cave. "The wretch has received the due reward
+of his deeds."
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XI.
+
+                            NEWS BAD AND GOOD.
+
+
+As the weeks went by fugitives continued to arrive at the little asylum
+which Seraiah and Azariah had founded among the hills. There was not one
+of them but brought with him some dismal story of the cruelty of the
+heathen and the renegades who acted as their instruments, and of the
+sufferings of the faithful. We should weary our readers were we to relate
+them in their monotony of horror. One will suffice, for it is the most
+famous as it is the most tragic of all the tales of that reign of terror.
+
+One night the sentinels, whom the chiefs of the little colony were always
+careful to post, heard the sound of approaching footsteps. They challenged
+the new comer, and bade him stand, and tell them his errand. He could not
+articulate his answer, so spent was he with fatigue and distress; but it
+was evident that he was harmless, a mere youth, solitary, and unarmed.
+Unwilling to disturb the little colony at so late an hour--it was indeed
+past midnight--the sentinels bade the stranger rest before their
+watch-fire. He was so exhausted and weary that he could swallow but very
+little of the food which his entertainers offered him. A few mouthfuls of
+barley cake, and a draught of milk more than satisfied him. Then he sank
+down on the ground overpowered with sleep, and his hosts wrapped him in a
+cloak and left him to his repose. Yet, wearied as he was, his slumbers
+were broken. Again and again he started up with a cry of horror on his
+lips. Those who listened to him felt sure that he must be going over in
+his dreams some dreadful scenes which he had witnessed.
+
+The next day he could scarcely be recalled to consciousness. Indeed it was
+judged well to leave nature to recover herself. The women of the colony
+took it in turns to watch by his side, and were ready, when he awoke for a
+few moments, with a cup of milk, the only thing which he seemed to relish.
+By degrees his slumbers grew more peaceful, and on the morning of the
+second day after his arrival he woke calm and collected.
+
+It was Ruth who then happened to be on duty at his side. When he saw her,
+he said, "Lady, I have a story to tell, and the chief of this place should
+hear it. Let him make haste to come, for I feel that I cannot rest while
+it is untold."
+
+Ruth sent one of her children to fetch her husband. The stranger refused
+to postpone his narrative till he should have gathered a little more
+strength. "Nay," said he; "it is like a weight upon my soul, and I would
+lighten me of it by committing it to faithful ears."
+
+"Speak on," said Seraiah.
+
+Then the lad told his story.
+
+"My name is Abimelech, and I come from Jerusalem. My father and mother are
+dead; but I lived with my grandmother, the mother of my father, and his
+brethren, my uncles. There were seven of them, the eldest being some
+thirty-and-three years of age, and the youngest twenty; but my father that
+is dead was the first-born. On the first day of the month, coming home
+about the eleventh hour from the school of the Rabbi Zechariah----"
+
+"Are there then yet those who teach in the city?" interrupted Seraiah.
+
+"Yes," answered the lad, "but they do it by stealth, for the reading of
+the Law is strictly forbidden by the Governor. But we learn it
+notwithstanding, and verily if the heathen should destroy every roll that
+there is of the Holy Books in the whole world there are those who could
+replace them from memory. I pretend not to so much; but I could say three
+out of the five books of Moses, the man of God."
+
+"Praised be the Lord God of Israel," cried Seraiah, "who hath not left
+Himself without a witness! But go on with your story."
+
+"Coming home, then, from school I found the soldiers of Philip the
+Phrygian in the house, Philip himself being there. They had set forth a
+table in the court of the house, whereon they had placed abominable flesh.
+My uncles were standing bound, guarded by soldiers, and with them was my
+grandmother. Then said the Governor, Philip, to the eldest of the seven,
+whose name was Judah, 'Pleasure me, my friend, by eating this excellent
+meat; 'tis of the most savoury, believe me.' My uncle Judah answered, 'I
+cannot obey thee in this matter, for it is forbidden by the Law.' Philip
+said, 'Maybe he lacks an appetite. Give him that which shall sharpen his
+taste.' Thereupon the executioner stepped forth with his lash, and gave
+him ten stripes. 'Dost feel hungry now?' said the Governor. 'I had sooner
+starve,' said Judah, 'than eat the abominable thing.' 'Nay,' cried the
+Governor, 'miscall not the good things which are provided for you at the
+charge of thy lord the King.' Then he said to the executioner, 'This
+fellow uses not his tongue for any good purpose, but only to rail against
+my lord. Cut it out, therefore.' So they cut the tongue out of my uncle's
+mouth; and after that they cut off his hands and his feet. And afterwards,
+he being yet alive, they put him in a pan and burnt him over the fire.
+Then the Governor said to the second in age, whose name was Eleazar, 'Ah!
+friend, like you this better than the swine's flesh? You may have your
+choice, if you will.' But he answered nothing. Then they tortured him most
+cruelly till he died. And so they did to all, one after the other. What
+they did I cannot bear to tell; nor, indeed, do I know the whole truth,
+for when three had perished in this manner I fainted for the horror of the
+thing; nor did I come to myself till the sixth was ready to suffer. Him I
+heard say these words to the Governor--'Be not deceived, or think that our
+God has abandoned us. He has given us over to your hand because we have
+offended against Him; nor do we suffer beyond what we have deserved. But
+as we have not escaped the punishment of our sins, so neither will you,
+but will perish miserably!' After this he did not speak another word; nay,
+nor give a sign of pain, but stood steadfast and unmoved.
+
+"When there was but one of the seven left alive, Benjamin by name, the
+Governor seeing him, and, I take it, having some pity on his youth, for he
+was fair as a woman, said to him, 'Young man, you see how all these have
+perished miserably, because of their pride and obstinacy. Learn, then, by
+their fate to behave yourself more wisely. And hark! I will give you
+riches, more than you can desire, and promote you to honour, if you will
+humour my lord the King in this small matter.' Benjamin said, 'Your gifts,
+my lord, be to another, and your honours to such as are worthy of them;
+but as for me, I will not depart from the law of my God.' Then Philip said
+to the mother of the seven, 'Persuade him, for I would not have you left
+childless, if there is any help. These your sons were stout fellows, and
+could have done good service for my lord if they had been better advised;
+and I would fain save this one that is left. Reason with him, then, that
+he save his life, and that you be not wholly bereaved.' Then the woman
+said, 'Trust me, my lord; I will reason with him.' Then Philip smiled and
+said, 'Your wisdom comes somewhat late'; and he whispered to one that
+stood by, 'You see that I have prevailed at last.' But the man shook his
+head. Then the woman said to her son, 'O, my child, have pity on me, for I
+bore for you the pangs of childbirth, and spent on you the labour of
+nurture, bringing you up to this age. Repay me, therefore, for all that I
+have done.' Then she paused awhile, and those that stood by scarcely knew
+what was in her heart. But the young man said, 'Mother, how shall I repay
+you?' And she answered, 'By remembering that the Lord made heaven and
+earth, and all that is therein. Depart not from His Law, nor forget Him.
+Heed not this tormentor, who has power over your body for a short moment;
+but stand steadfast, as your brethren have stood steadfast; so shall I
+receive you with them into the everlasting glory.' Then the young man
+smiled, as a bridegroom might smile when the veil is lifted from the face
+of his bride, and said, 'Fear not, my mother; so it shall be, the Lord
+helping me.' As for the Governor, he was mad with rage, and cried to the
+executioner, 'Smite him, and this fool also.' And the man, who indeed, I
+take it, was weary of his work, smote the youth and mother, and killed
+them, dealing each but one blow. So they escaped the torture."
+
+On the following Sabbath Seraiah read to the congregation the story of the
+Three Children in the fire, and then delivered a stirring address on the
+faith and courage of the heroic mother and her sons. The people listened
+with a breathless attention, and when he had finished, drew, so to speak,
+together that deep sigh of relief which tells the speaker that he has been
+holding the hearts of his hearers. He was one of those trustful souls who
+amidst all dangers find their strength in quietness and confidence. But
+the other leaders of the settlement could not help feeling somewhat
+anxious as to the future. What was to be the end? This constancy under
+suffering was grand beyond all praise; but were they and their brethren to
+stand still and see the religion of their fathers trampled out in blood?
+Was there no one to strike a blow for their faith and their fatherland?
+For they could measure the average strength and depth of human nature, and
+knew that there are ten who are ready to do and dare for one who can
+suffer and be strong. "Do you remember," said Seraiah to his
+brother-in-law, as they were talking over the position of affairs after
+the gathering for worship--"do you remember that day when we fought against
+the Edomites, how our line crumbled away while we had to stand still as a
+target for the Edomite arrows, and how it grew solid again in a moment
+when our general gave the signal to charge? One was ready before to think
+that half the men were cowards, and then one could almost have sworn that
+there was not a coward among them. Yes, Azariah, we must strike when the
+time comes; but when the time will come is more than I can tell."
+
+The next day brought an answer to his question.
+
+The people were dispersing after the usual morning prayer when a stranger
+was seen hurrying up the pass. Arrived at the top, where a party of the
+men had gone to meet him, he threw himself breathless on the ground; at
+the same time he drew a small piece of folded parchment from the pouch
+which was fastened to his girdle, and handed it to one of the men. It ran
+thus: "Mattathias to Seraiah, in the wilderness of Bethaven, greeting.
+Listen to the young man who brings this present without doubting, for he
+is faithful, and speaks words of truth." In a few moments Seraiah
+appeared. By this time the messenger had recovered his breath, and was
+ready to tell his tale.
+
+"What news bring you?" said Seraiah.
+
+"Great news; for the Lord has smitten His enemies hip and thigh by the
+hand of Mattathias, son of Asmon, and by the hand of his sons."
+
+A murmur of delight ran through the little audience, and every eye
+brightened at the prospect of action.
+
+"Tell on. We hear!" cried Seraiah.
+
+"May I crave a drink of water? for the way is long, and I have been
+travelling since the sun set yesterday."
+
+The water was fetched. When he had quenched his thirst, young Asaph--that
+was the messenger's name--began his story.
+
+"You know Mattathias, the son of Asmon, and the five young men, his sons,
+how they dwelt at Modin? Two months since, Philip the Phrygian--may the
+Lord cut him off in his sins!" and the speaker paused, and spat upon the
+ground to emphasize his disgust. "This Phrygian, then, sent one of his
+officers two months since to build an altar to one of the false gods
+before whom these children of perdition bow down. So the altar was built,
+none hindering, for the people were without a leader. This being finished,
+the Governor's officer proclaimed a sacrifice and a feast to one of the
+demons whom these heathen worship. I know not the evil thing's name, and
+if I knew it, would not take the accursed word upon my lips. On the
+appointed day there was a great gathering of the inhabitants of Modin. It
+was about the tenth hour when the Governor's deputy came, with his
+trumpeters and a small company of soldiers--it may be a score. When he had
+taken his seat the ministers brought up the ox that was for the sacrifice,
+a great beast, altogether white; and they had gilded his horns and put
+garlands of flowers about his neck, as their custom is. Then the deputy
+called to one Menahem, a usurer that dwelt in the village, and one of
+those who would sell their souls for a shekel. 'Menon,' he said--for they
+had changed his name after their fashion to one of their own
+tongue--'Menon, come forth, and do your office.' And then he turned to the
+people, and said, 'Hearken to me, ye Jews. This Menon here, who is known
+to all of us, has been promoted to great honour, for my lord Philip, who
+is the lieutenant of the Divine Antiochus, has made him priest. Honour him
+henceforth accordingly. And be sure also that if you are obedient, and
+give up your own dull and senseless superstition, and worship henceforth
+as the King commands, it shall be well with you and your children.' When
+he had ended, the fellow approached the altar, and cut some hairs from the
+forehead of the beast, and sprinkled some meal mingled with salt between
+its horns. And it chanced, or, I should rather say, it was ordered of the
+Lord, that as the man did this Mattathias and his sons passed by on the
+outskirts of the crowd. And when he perceived the abominable thing that
+was being done, and that he who did it was a Jew, his spirit was moved
+within him. Then he ran forward, he and his sons with him. And when they
+were come into the space before the altar the old man cried, 'He that is
+on the Lord's side come hither!' And some threescore of the people that
+were there came to him, and the rest stood still, and did nothing, for
+they knew that the sons of Asmon were mighty men of valour. As for the
+deputy and his soldiers, they were astonished beyond measure, and before
+they came to themselves some of the company of Mattathias rushed upon them
+and disarmed them. But Mattathias himself, with Judas his son, laid hold
+on Menahem. Then that miserable creature fell on his knees and begged for
+pardon, saying that he had done this thing on compulsion. 'Nay,' said
+Mattathias, 'the compulsion was of thy own evil and greedy heart. Thou
+hast sinned beyond all mercy of man; but the mercies of the Lord are past
+all measure. Die thou must; but I would have thee die in the faith of a
+son of Israel.' Then the poor wretch--I had never thought to pity him, for
+he turned my own mother, when she lay dying, on to the public road, but no
+one could have refused him pity then--the wretch, I say, repeated with a
+stammering tongue, 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one Lord.' And now
+he said, 'I give thee for thy prayers to the All-Merciful, till the shadow
+of this staff come so far,' and he planted a staff in the ground. And when
+the time was spent, the old man took his sword, and sheared off the
+wretch's head with one blow. I had not thought that there was such
+strength in his arm. Then they brought the deputy and his soldiers to
+Mattathias. First he dealt with the deputy. 'Slay him,' he said, 'for he
+has made the people of the Lord to transgress.' So they slew him. Then
+they made the soldiers stand before him. Four out of their number were
+Jews. These he commanded to be slain, after giving them the same grace
+that he had given to Menahem. To the others he said, 'You have not sinned
+as these your fellows, for you were born in darkness. Take, therefore,
+your choice: depart, and take good heed not to fall into our hands again,
+for, if you so fall, you die without further mercy; or, if ye will, stay
+with us. Only you must follow our ways, so far as it is commanded that the
+stranger should follow them.' Half chose to depart, and half to stay.
+
+"After this, Mattathias chose some of the young men to go as messengers to
+the villages round about, and carry the tidings of what had been done, and
+to say, 'The Lord hath lifted up His ensign; gather yourselves together
+unto it.' Also he appointed a place where they should meet--that is to say,
+Michmash."
+
+"And when may we look for his coming?" asked Seraiah.
+
+"Doubtless he will come to-morrow."
+
+That night there was much rejoicing in the little colony. No one, indeed,
+deceived himself with the thought that he could look forward to easy and
+pleasant days. All knew perfectly well that a time of struggle and
+suffering was before them. But there was hope. The darkness had parted,
+and they saw a far-off gleam of light. At the least they would have the
+chance of striking a blow for their country and their God.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XII.
+
+                            THE PATRIOT ARMY.
+
+
+Three days passed before Mattathias and his sons arrived; but when they
+came, they brought with them a considerable force. The news of the events
+at Modin had spread like wildfire through southern Judaea, and hundreds who
+had endured the rule of the heathen with ill-concealed impatience flocked
+to the standard of revolt. It was a strange array that might have been
+seen making its way up the mountain pass. A professional soldier would
+certainly at the first glance have thought meanly of its fighting
+capacities. Scarcely a score of the whole multitude was properly armed.
+Old weapons that had hung unused for a century or more had been taken down
+that they might strike another blow for the God of Israel. There had not
+been time to rub the rust from the sword-blades and the spear-heads, much
+less to hammer out upon the anvil the dents and notches left by the
+half-forgotten battles in which they had last been used. But it was only a
+few who had even these antiquated weapons. Most of the fighting men were
+armed as their fathers had been under the domination of the Canaanites in
+the days of Barak, or of the Philistines in the days of Saul. They carried
+mattocks and hoes, pruning-hooks and reaping-hooks tied to the ends of
+poles, or stakes shod with iron or even only hardened in the fire. But a
+nearer inspection would have changed the contempt of the military critic
+into something like admiration. These men had all that goes to the making
+of the soldier except the arms, and this want, after all, is the easiest
+to be supplied. They had on their faces the set, stern look of those who
+are fighting for a cause, and that a cause very near to their hearts.
+There were old men among them; but most were in the full vigour of youth
+and manhood. A real leader of men would have preferred to be followed by
+them than by the most handsomely equipped army of mercenaries.
+
+At the head of the column walked the aged Mattathias. Two of his sons,
+John and Judas, were with him, the other two being busy with the
+multifarious duties which fell upon the leaders of a force as yet so
+imperfectly organized. The old man--he had passed the threescore years and
+ten which are more commonly the limit of human existence, among the
+short-lived races of the East than among ourselves--had been carried in a
+litter for part of the way. This he had left at the entrance of the pass,
+being anxious not to give an impression of weakness. He now walked erect
+and with a firm step, his indomitable spirit supplying for the time all
+that was wanting in his physical strength. Nothing could be more
+enthusiastic than the reception which met him when he reached the little
+colony among the hills. He was the champion for whom they had been
+looking, and they received him as if he had been an "angel of God."
+Azariah and Seraiah, who had been hitherto informal leaders, gladly
+resigned their power into his hands, and from thenceforwards acted under
+his orders.
+
+There was indeed much to do. The little post in the mountains was now to
+become a fortress, garrisoned by an army which was already considerable in
+numbers, and which daily increased in strength. Faithful Jews from all
+parts of the country flocked to the place which seemed the last refuge of
+patriotism and faith. Nor were there wanting less respectable adherents.
+There was not a few men who, like Benjamin and Shallum, had followed a
+life in which right and wrong, good motives and bad, were curiously mixed
+up and confounded. They were divided between patriotism and
+robbery--divided, of course, in very varying proportions. None were quite
+blameless, and none were quite bad. The most unprincipled had lurking
+somewhere in his heart a real regard for his country, and, to say the
+least, he found much more satisfaction in emptying the pockets of a
+heathen than in robbing his own people. The most honest, on the other
+hand, could not always guide his actions by any strict rule of integrity.
+He had to live, and if his enemies did not furnish him with the means, he
+must get them from his friends. Many of these men were genuinely attracted
+by the new movement, genuinely glad to lead a life which their consciences
+could heartily approve. Others found that their occupation was gone, and
+that they must enlist in the new patriot army or starve. The garrison thus
+gained a considerable number of recruits, but some of them were of a class
+that was likely to give no little trouble in the future.
+
+In strong contrast with these doubtful adherents, and yet, in some
+respects, even more difficult to control, were the Chasidim--the
+"religious," "mighty men and voluntarily devoted to the Law"--the spiritual
+ancestors of the Pharisees of a later time, but actuated by a zeal far
+more sincere than what could commonly be found in their degenerate
+descendants. Men braver it would not have been possible to find; their
+courage amounted to something like recklessness; but they were
+enthusiasts, and held their tenets with a tenacity that sometimes made
+discipline almost impossible.
+
+An incident that occurred soon after the arrival of Mattathias and his
+sons exhibited these difficulties in a striking way. The scene of it was
+the extreme right of the position, where Abiathar, one of the Chasidim, an
+able soldier but a most uncompromising zealot, was in chief command. The
+whole of the population had assembled to take part in a Sabbath service.
+They had listened to the great chapter in Deuteronomy which proclaims the
+blessings that will follow obedience, the curses that will fall on those
+who disobey. They had sung together that Psalm "for the Sons of Korah,"
+which tells of triumph and of shame, in which Israel now thanks Him who
+has saved them from their enemies and now complains that He has made them
+a reproach to their neighbours' scorn, and a derision to them that are
+round about. And they were listening to a stirring exhortation to quit
+them like men and be strong, from the soldier-priest who was in chief
+command, when an alarm was raised that the enemy were at hand. Some of the
+younger men were on the point of running to fetch their weapons, for they
+were of course unarmed, when the stern voice of their leader called them
+back. "Have you so soon forgotten the blessing and the curse which the
+Lord your God hath set before you? Has He not commanded you to keep holy
+the Sabbath-day, and will you profane it by smiting with the sword?" They
+obeyed the command, though not without some murmurs from those who had not
+been thoroughly schooled in the stern tenets of the Chasidim. Meanwhile
+the enemy, a strong force that had been sent out from the garrison at
+Jerusalem, had come up. A herald from the officer in command approached,
+and delivered a message in these terms:--
+
+"Philip the Governor, and Apollonius, captain of the King's army, bid you
+come forth from your hiding-place and deliver yourselves up. Let your
+former transgressions against the King suffice, and do now according to
+his commandment. So will he have mercy upon you, and admit you to his
+grace."
+
+The answer of the Jewish commander was brief and decisive: "We will not
+come forth, neither will we do according to the King's commandment."
+
+Then followed one of the strangest scenes recorded in history. The
+peremptory refusal of the proffered terms was followed in a few minutes by
+a shower of missiles from the hostile force. The crowd at which they were
+aimed made no attempt at resistance, or even at escape. They fell where
+they stood, without lifting a hand, almost without uttering a cry. There
+is no greater trial of an army's discipline than to make it stand and see
+its ranks thinned without being able to strike a blow in return. But the
+soldiers who endure this trial endure it in the hope of an hour that
+cannot be long delayed, when they shall reap the reward of their patience
+in an assured victory. The Chasidim who followed Abiathar had no such
+support in their endurance. They stood like sheep for the slaughter,
+strong men as they were, and conscious that they could save themselves if
+they would. Not a stone did they throw in reply to the missiles that were
+showered upon them; and when the hostile ranks closed in, not till after
+some wondering delay, and began to finish the bloody work with their
+swords, they still held their ground with the same passive, unresisting
+courage.
+
+To one man at least the sword of the heathen brought that day a welcome
+release from his troubles. Shallum, the wine-seller of Jerusalem, had been
+consumed with remorse for the part which he had taken on the day when he
+followed "Bacchus and his reeling train." The words haunted his mind with
+maddening repetition. The stern doctrines of the Chasidim had exercised a
+singular attraction for him, and though, stained as he was with sins for
+which he could scarcely hope purification, he did not even propose to join
+their ranks, he was a diligent attendant at their services and an
+attentive listener to their teaching. This day he had stood on the
+outskirts of the crowd, hearing with a rapt attention the promises and
+denunciations of the Law, and listening to, though not daring to join in,
+the chanted psalms. "Perhaps," he said to himself, "the sound of the holy
+music will rid me of that accursed Bacchic chant which rings for ever in
+my ears." For a moment, when the massacre began, that love of life which
+even the most miserable scarcely ever loses rose up strong in his heart.
+But he crushed it down. "I have transgressed too often," he thought to
+himself, "the commandment of the Lord; let me obey it at least this once,
+though I die." The next moment the stroke of a Greek sword levelled him to
+the ground, and the Bacchic chant vexed him no more.
+
+Not a single man of all that company--so strong was the contagion of
+enthusiasm among them--made any effort to escape the fate that overtook his
+companions. Still there was left a survivor to carry to Mattathias the
+news, at once so terrible and so glorious, of that day's doings. One of
+the men had been felled to the ground by the blow of a stone at the first
+discharge of the enemy's missiles, and had been left for dead upon the
+field. When he came to himself, late in the night, he found himself the
+only living being among masses of the slain. His first duty was obviously
+to carry tidings of the events to the commander-in-chief, and he made his
+way to head-quarters as quickly as his enfeebled condition permitted.
+
+Mattathias saw that this question of the Sabbath must be settled at once,
+and, if the war was to be carried on with any prospect of success, settled
+on the side of freedom. He called a council in the early morning of the
+next day--the news had reached him about two hours after midnight. His five
+sons were present, as were Azariah, and Seraiah, with others who held
+command in the patriot army. A long debate followed, for some of the
+Chasidim still clung to their rigid opinions, even in the face of the
+disaster which had happened, and the manifest probability, even certainty,
+of its happening again. They answered with stern iteration to each appeal
+that was made to them by the advocates of reason and moderation, "Thou
+shalt keep holy the Sabbath-day." It was impossible to yield to them, and
+yet, such was their courage and devotion, almost equally impossible to
+break with them.
+
+Mattathias, who presided at the assembly, had left the debate to other
+speakers, and had contented himself with keeping the peace between them,
+as far as he could. At last he rose and delivered his opinion.
+
+"Brethren," he said, "let us take heed that we break not the Law while we
+seem to keep it. The Lord hath commanded us that we shall not work our own
+works or do our own pleasure upon His day. Shall we take occasion thereby
+to neglect His work and leave undone His pleasure? The heathen have come
+into His inheritance and devoured it. Shall we suffer them to usurp it for
+ever? Say, too, ye that will not stretch out a finger to save the people
+of the Lord from destruction because it is the Sabbath, do ye not reach
+out your hand to save a brother or a sister or a neighbour, yea, even a
+stranger upon that day, if it so chance that they be overtaken by some
+instant need? Nay, more; do ye not pull out an ox or an ass, if it be
+fallen on that day into a pit? and will ye not pull out the Lord's people
+from the pit which the malice of their enemies shall have digged for them?
+Listen, therefore, to my sentence. If the enemy come upon us upon the
+Sabbath we will beat him back, God helping. Nevertheless, if it may be so
+without damage to the Lord's cause, we will not march against him on that
+day. If there be sin in this matter let it be upon me and my children."
+
+And as he spoke the five young men, his sons, rose up in their places, and
+answered, _Amen_.
+
+The decision was generally accepted and acted upon, though to the last
+some of the more determined of the Chasidim avoided, as far as was
+possible, all military action on the Sabbath.
+
+The rule of Sabbath observance was, however, still very strictly kept. It
+was two or three days after the council described above had been held,
+when one of the half-bandit, half-patriot recruits was discovered busily
+employed in cleaning his armour on the Lord's day. He was kept in
+confinement till sunset, when the Sabbath was considered to end; a council
+of war was hastily summoned to hear the case. The man pleaded the recent
+decision of Mattathias, which had, he said, relaxed the law of the
+Sabbath. It was answered to him that the cleaning of armour was no
+necessary work, and that the distinction must now be kept more strictly
+than before, lest the people should fall into sin. He then urged that his
+offence was an error, and might be atoned for by a sin-offering.
+
+"Alas! my son," said Mattathias, "the Temple is profaned; nor can there be
+any more either sin-offering or peace-offering till it be purified. You
+must bear your iniquity yourself."
+
+John the soldier, who was unwilling that the army should lose one whose
+offence, after all, had only been an excess of military zeal, and Simon,
+whose gentle soul always was inclined to the milder course, voted for a
+lighter punishment than death, but they were overruled. Even Judas voted
+against them, knowing that such an army as theirs could only be held
+together by the bond of an enthusiastic faith.
+
+"Give the glory to God," said the aged president of the Court, when he had
+communicated his sentence to the prisoner, "and take your death patiently,
+knowing that though you be judged according to men in the flesh, you shall
+live according to God in the spirit." The man bowed his head in
+submission, and repeated the confession of faith, "Hear, O Israel, the
+Lord thy God is one Lord."
+
+"The Lord bless thee, my son," said Mattathias, "and take thee into
+Abraham's bosom."
+
+So the transgressor died. And they buried him under a heap of stones to
+which every passer-by made it his duty to add his tribute.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIII.
+
+                    GUERILLA WARFARE IN THE MOUNTAINS.
+
+
+Some weeks had necessarily to pass before the patriot army could assume
+the offensive. Some kind of drill was necessary, though Judas, who had the
+chief direction of military affairs, did not attempt to teach his men any
+elaborate manoeuvres. But practice in sword-play and in shooting with the
+bow was diligently attended to. A corps of slingers was also formed under
+the command of one Sheba, a Benjamite, who possessed that skill with his
+weapon which was characteristic of his tribe. The sling was admirably
+suited to the kind of warfare which they would have to wage. As long as
+there were stones there would not be wanting missiles for the slings,
+while the supply of arrows would be likely to fall short, and could not
+easily be renewed. Meanwhile some rude anvils had been fitted up, and
+every one who could work as a smith was pressed into the service of
+repairing old arms or making new ones. By degrees many of the fighting men
+obtained an equipment which, if not very handsome, was at least fairly
+effective. Some of the new arrivals, too, were old soldiers, and brought
+their arms with them. Jews who had enlisted in the armies of the various
+Asiatic kings flocked to the standard of independence, when once it had
+been set up. Even some of the well-paid mercenaries who formed the
+bodyguard of Antiochus were patriotic enough to prefer to their luxurious
+existence the privations of life among the mountains. It was a life which,
+at the least, they could lead without offence.
+
+It was winter when Mattathias and his sons reached the mountains; and with
+the first beginnings of spring the force under his command, now increased
+to a respectable strength, commenced active operations. These were
+extended over a considerable range of country to all the villages that had
+submitted to the edicts of the heathen rulers of the land. Even fortified
+towns, in several instances, were surprised, not, it may be guessed,
+without the connivance of the patriotic party within the walls. The idol
+altars which the King's commissioners had set up were thrown down with
+every circumstance of indignity. All stores belonging to the usurping
+government were confiscated for the use of the national forces. But
+private property was respected. Arms, indeed, if they were likely to be
+useful, were taken, but always taken at a price.
+
+Severe as was the discipline, it met with a cheerful submission from the
+men, so commanding was the influence exercised by their leaders.
+Conspicuous among them were, of course, the sons of Mattathias. All were
+favourites, but Judas and Simon took the lead. The strength, the skill,
+and the daring of the first were such that he was absolutely idolized by
+his troops. There was no task, however perilous, which they would not
+attempt under his guidance, for there was nothing which he did not seem
+capable of achieving. His physical strength was enormous; and his
+fertility of resource unfailing. He had always some new device for
+outwitting the enemy; and when the crisis of an undertaking arrived, if an
+attacking party were to be helped up some almost inaccessible height, a
+gate to be broken open by main force, or a pass to be held against
+overwhelming odds, Judas was always ready and always, it seemed,
+successful. Scarcely less honoured, though in a different way, was the
+prudence and kindliness of Simon. If Judas never failed in an attempt it
+was, in part at least, because Simon's advice was so uniformly sagacious,
+because he could measure so exactly the means at their command. And when
+the fighting was over, no one could be more unwearying in his attentions
+to the wounded. The voice which rang so loud and clear through the din of
+battle was now soft and caressing, and the touch of his hand was as gentle
+and tender as if it had been a woman's.
+
+Such leaders could do anything with their troops, even when they had to
+task their obedience by the infliction of punishment. Even such men as the
+ex-robber Benjamin felt what may be called the infection of discipline. He
+had accompanied one of the expeditions, in which a select force of
+patriots, after marching forty miles within twenty-four hours, surprised a
+squadron of Greek cavalry in one of the towns of Galilee. A short but
+sharp conflict took place in the square of the town, and Benjamin had
+borne himself with conspicuous courage. The struggle over, the soldiers
+had received entertainment, not in every case very willingly given, from
+the inhabitants of the town. Benjamin happened to be quartered upon a
+particularly churlish host, and resenting the coarse and scanty fare, so
+unsuited to the wealth apparent in all the fittings of the house, had
+revenged himself by abstracting a rich cloak belonging to his miserly
+entertainer. The article was stowed away on his own person, but the keen
+eye of one of the Chasidim officers espied it; the thief was denounced
+when the force had reached the encampment, and brought before the council,
+which was held under the presidency of Judas. The culprit pleaded in vain
+the shabby treatment which he had received. It was not for him, he was
+told, to take the law into his own hands. When he urged that the man was a
+traitor to his country he was asked whether he had himself taken the cloak
+from patriotic motives. "Did you purpose," said Judas, going to the point
+with characteristic directness, "to make this a common possession, or to
+take it for yourself?" Benjamin faltered under this searching question,
+and had no answer to give. Then Judas pronounced his sentence: "In old
+time he who had offended in this manner, as did Achan in the matter of the
+spoils of Jericho, died the death. These times are not equal to a justice
+so strict. But what the law enjoins that you will suffer. Were such sin as
+yours to go unpunished we could expect no blessing on our arms. We should
+become, not what we would be, the armies of the Lord, but a horde of
+robbers. You will receive forty stripes save one; if you offend again, you
+die."
+
+Without a murmur the culprit bared his shoulders for the lash. When the
+whip had once fallen Judas stayed the executioner's hand. "Benjamin," he
+said, "you have done ill, but you have also done well. You saved from
+death our brother Seraiah as he lay wounded under the feet of the
+horsemen. For this good deed the rest of the punishment is remitted. Go,
+and sin no more."
+
+Seraiah indeed had been so seriously wounded that he had to be carried
+back to the camp on a litter rudely constructed of boards, and Ruth was
+now nursing him in the cave which had been originally set apart for their
+dwelling, and which they still retained. It was a miserable abode, though
+it at least afforded shelter from the rain. Indeed the lot of the women
+and children in the patriot encampment was full of suffering. The men had
+the constant excitement of their warfare to cheer them, but the women had
+only to toil and to endure. In the day the drought consumed them, and the
+frost by night. They had none of the comforts of life. Their food was
+coarse in the extreme, and often very scanty. But, perhaps, their greatest
+trial was in the matter of clothes. The stock which they had brought with
+them from their homes was, for the most part, worn out, and it was only on
+rare occasions, when some property of the heathen fell into the hands of
+the patriots, that any part of it could be replenished. Sheepskins and
+goatskins dried in the sun were commonly used, what remained of their
+wardrobes being reserved for special occasions.
+
+Some time after the incident described above a serious trouble came upon
+Azariah. Miriam, his elder daughter, when she returned one day from her
+usual task of gathering herbs to eke out the family meal, complained of
+headache. It was evident that she was suffering from sunstroke. As the
+spring advanced the heat in some of the narrow mountain valleys became
+exceedingly oppressive, and the town-bred child felt it acutely. For some
+days her life was in danger, all the greater because she had neither
+medical attendance nor skilful nursing. Ruth did all she could for the
+little sufferer, but then Ruth had her own husband to attend to, for,
+though recovering from his wound, he needed much care, and her child was
+still too young to be left alone. One or two visits in the day was all
+that she could give. For the most part the girl's father was her nurse,
+the little Judith giving such help as she could. Love gave a lightness and
+tenderness to his touch, and supplied the place of skill in that
+marvellous way which is so often possible to love. Day after day, as he
+sat by the bedside, and watched his charge, the girl's face, now pale and
+wasted, and aged as it was with suffering, reminded him more and more of
+his lost Hannah. He lived over the happy past that they had known before
+the evil days began, the time when their first acquaintance as youth and
+maiden had ripened into love, and the early years of their wedded life.
+Thus he began to live in a world of imagination, while the sordid
+circumstances of the present seemed to make no impression upon him, though
+he always retained a punctual recollection of the duties that belonged to
+his attendance upon the sick.
+
+One day Ruth had come in to pay the daily visit for which, however
+engrossing her own occupations, she always contrived to find an
+opportunity. The patient was in a sound sleep, with the little Judith for
+her sole attendant, Azariah having received an urgent summons to attend a
+council of war, in which some subject with which he was especially
+acquainted was to be discussed.
+
+After a few minutes Azariah returned, but without any of the signs of
+agitation or haste that might be expected from one hurrying back to the
+performance of a duty that he had been compelled to neglect. His sister
+wondered to see him so calm, and she was still more surprised when he went
+on to say--
+
+"How like the child is growing to my dear Hannah!"
+
+Ruth had often thought the same, but had not ventured to say so, for
+Azariah had never mentioned his dead wife.
+
+"Yes," she answered, "I have often thought so."
+
+"I have had some happy times of late. Before I could not get out of my
+mind the dreadful sight of her face when I last saw it." He paused for a
+moment, overpowered by the recollection, but soon resumed in a cheerful
+voice: "But now in this dear child I seem to see her as she was in those
+happy Bethlehem days before our marriage, and again in the still happier
+time we had together in Jerusalem."
+
+"But does it not trouble you to leave the child alone?"
+
+"Nay, sister, she is not alone. Nor do I speak of our dear little Judith
+here." And he stroked the little girl's head, and bade her go and play
+outside, but be careful not to go into the sun.
+
+"Believe me," he went on, "that when I am not here, Miriam's angel is with
+her. Perhaps you will think me mad when I say that I have seen, and that
+not once or twice only, the flash of white garments vanishing in the
+darkness as I came into the cave. And last night, as I sat here, dreaming,
+it may be, but certainly seeing everything in the cave as plainly as I see
+it this moment, the angel came with the little babe--our little David that
+my Hannah took with her to Paradise--to kiss his sick sister. And when
+Miriam awoke about an hour after dawn, the fever had left her."
+
+At this moment the girl opened her eyes. "Oh, father," she cried, "did you
+indeed see little brother last night?--for I saw him too; but I did not see
+that an angel was carrying him. He seemed to be in the air somehow, with
+no one holding him up. And he had beautiful white clothes--not these nasty
+sheepskins and goatskins that we have to wear--and he stretched out his
+hands to me, and kissed me, and I felt that moment as if that dreadful
+burning had gone out of me. And oh! there was such a wonderful look upon
+his face. It was just like the look on dear mother's face that evening
+when the sun was just setting, and you took little brother up in your
+arms, and said his name was David."
+
+Ruth could only listen to such talk with wonder and awe. But she went back
+to her husband and child with a lighter heart than she had borne for many
+days.
+
+But a trouble was at hand which, though it had been for some time
+foreseen, was great enough to make private sorrows and anxieties seem
+inconsiderable. It was reported through the encampment that Mattathias,
+the father of his people, was dying.
+
+The old man's health had been failing for some time. The hardships of his
+new life had told grievously upon it, all the more that he refused the
+exemption from labour which his age required. He had ceased to accompany
+the expeditions because he found that his presence hampered the movements
+of younger and stronger men, but the management of the multifarious
+affairs of the encampment--the home administration, as it may be called, of
+the patriotic movement--he kept in his own hands. Early and late he busied
+himself in this work, and before many weeks were past his labours wore him
+out.
+
+He was well aware that the end had come, and that all that remained for
+him to do was to appoint a successor who should accomplish, or at least
+carry on--for he did not deceive himself as to the difficulty of the
+work--the task which he had commenced. All the leaders were summoned to his
+presence, the wounded Seraiah, for whose capacity and serene courage the
+old chief had a high regard, being carried thither on a litter. The old
+man was propped in his bed on cushions, the difficulty of breathing making
+it impossible for him to lie down. On either side stood his five sons,
+John, the eldest, being at his right hand, with Eleazar and Jonathan near
+him, while Simon and Judas were on the left. A physician, the solitary
+professor of the healing art that the camp possessed, sat by the bed's
+foot, with a cup of some cordial in his hand.
+
+  [Illustration: _The Last Charge of Mattathias._]
+
+The old man began by laying his hand on John's head. "My son," he said,
+"for your loyalty and faithful obedience I thank the Lord that gave me so
+excellent a son for my first-born. You know what it is in my mind to do
+with respect to the succession of my work, and I am assured that you
+approve. But for the sake of those that stand by,"--and he pointed to the
+assembled chiefs--"I solemnly declare that for no defect of courage or
+honesty I pass you by. And say if you are content to leave it according to
+what seems best to my judgment."
+
+"Father," said the faithful John, "I am content."
+
+Simon beckoned to the physician, who handed the cup of cordial to the
+dying man. He swallowed a few drops, and then went on:
+
+"Hear, my friends and brethren. In the distribution of my worldly goods I
+follow custom and law. The inheritance of my fathers I give to my eldest
+born, according to the custom of the birthright; and I direct that the
+younger shall have such portions as are due to them. But I have that to
+give which has been entrusted to me of the Lord, and with which I must
+deal according to His pleasure, so far as it is given to me to know it.
+Simon, I will that thou be the father of the people. Care for them as for
+thy children. Do justice between man and man. Strive to the utmost that
+they keep the Law of the Lord their God. He has given thee prudence and
+discernment and knowledge of the customs of our fathers. See that thou use
+these things for the glory of the Lord and the good of the people. Judas,
+I will that thou be captain of the host. Be stout and of a good courage,
+and the Lord shall fight on thy side, and give thee the victory. The end
+is not yet, and maybe thou wilt not see it with thine eyes; but, though it
+tarry, wait for it. 'For they that go on their way weeping, bearing
+precious seed, shall doubtless come again with joy, and bring their
+sheaves with them.'"
+
+He then addressed a few words to the two other sons, words of mingled
+encouragement and advice. This done he stretched out his hands, and, with
+a voice of surprising firmness in one so weak, blessed the whole assembly,
+repeated the usual profession of an Israelite's faith, and then drew his
+last breath without a struggle.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIV.
+
+                        THE BURIAL OF MATTATHIAS.
+
+
+Judas and his brothers sat late into the night consulting about a daring
+scheme which the new captain of the host proposed.
+
+"It would be an unseemly thing," he said, "that Mattathias, the son of
+Asmon, should be thrust into a hole among the rocks as if he were an
+outcast or a robber. Verily we will bury him with his fathers in the
+sepulchre of Asmon."
+
+"'Twill be no easy matter to contrive," said Jonathan, the man of many
+devices. "The sepulchre is hard by the town, and we can scarcely avoid the
+eyes of the people in coming and going."
+
+"Nay, Jonathan, I have no purpose of doing the thing in secret. It would
+not be well to bury my father by stealth in his own sepulchre. It shall be
+done openly, and before the eyes of men."
+
+The brothers, bold men as they were, were astonished at the hardihood of
+the plan. But their respect for the genius of Judas silenced any
+opposition. And then he had never failed in any enterprise. John was the
+first to speak.
+
+"'Tis well thought of, Judas. Lead the way, and I follow;" and he clasped
+his brother's hand.
+
+The captain then developed his plan, which, when examined, seemed less
+audacious than it had appeared at first sight. It was to be a surprise,
+and the very unlikelihood of the attempt made its success more probable.
+Modin was not occupied by a garrison, and the townsfolk, even if their
+goodwill could not be counted on, would scarcely venture to resist. Only
+it would be necessary to act before any rumour of their intention could
+get about, and, the funeral march once begun, to hasten it to a completion
+as much as possible.
+
+The body was at once preserved against decay as far as the scanty means at
+the command of the patriots would allow. Then word was sent through the
+encampment that all who wished to take their last look at the dead hero
+must come at once. For three hours a constant stream of awestruck and
+weeping visitors passed through the tent in which he lay, attired in his
+priestly garb, the long white beard reaching almost to his waist, his
+wasted features settled into the majestic repose of death. Every visitor
+as he entered loosed his sandals from his feet, feeling that the place
+which he was entering was holy ground. Every one, as he took his last look
+on the hero's face, prayed to the God of his fathers that his last end
+might be like his. Women brought their children that they might kiss the
+hem of his garment. It would be a distinction to them in their old age
+that they had been privileged to pay this honour to Mattathias, the son of
+Asmon.
+
+Before dawn the procession started. The body, in its rude coffin of wood,
+was placed upon a bier, thirty bearers taking it in turns to carry it. The
+thirty were divided into five relays of six, one of the sons of the dead
+being always among those who performed the duty. With the exception of a
+small force which was left for the protection of the women and children,
+all the fighting men of the settlement accompanied the body. In spite of
+the efforts which had been made to procure or manufacture arms, they were
+still but poorly equipped. Of military display, of the "pomp and
+circumstance of glorious war," there was absolutely nothing. But the solid
+qualities of endurance and courage could be seen in their sinewy forms and
+resolute faces. To an observer who could look below the surface that
+squalid array had in it the capacity for achieving an heroic success.
+
+Judas had been quite right in predicting that the expedition would meet
+with little or no opposition. Its march, indeed, was absolutely unmolested
+by the enemy. The movement was wholly unexpected, and consequently no
+force had been collected to hinder it; while the garrisons of the two or
+three fortified places which the army passed on its route did not feel
+themselves strong enough to attempt any attack. Already, though as yet no
+pitched battle had been fought, these Jewish "Ironsides" had inspired
+their enemies with a wholesome dread of their prowess. Both Greeks and
+renegades knew that these ragged, ill-armed mountaineers stood as stoutly
+and plied their swords as fiercely as any soldiers in the world.
+
+No incident occurred in the course of the march save one, which, though
+little thought of at the time, was destined to lead to events of
+considerable importance. When the first halt was called, Benjamin, who was
+a well-known personage in the neighbourhood, and who in spite, perhaps in
+consequence, of his antecedents enjoyed not a little popularity, found
+entertainment in the house of an old acquaintance. The man was a farmer,
+who had been accustomed to make a handsome profit by supplying the bandits
+with useful information. Recognizing his old accomplice in the ranks of
+the patriot army, he invited him into his house, and entertained him with
+his best. Unfortunately this best happened to be some salted swine's
+flesh. Benjamin had some scruple about eating it; but it was not strong
+enough to resist the claims of a ravenous hunger, supported as they were
+by his entertainer's ridicule. The meal was washed down by the contents of
+two or three flasks of potent wine, and the friends were so busily
+occupied with discussing these, and with talking over old times, that the
+signal for assembly passed unnoticed. Then followed a search for
+stragglers, and Benjamin was discovered with the fragments of his meal
+before him; and though his hunger had stripped the bones bare enough, no
+one could doubt what was the animal to which they had belonged.
+
+The offender had been caught, so to speak, red-handed, and some voices
+were raised to demand his instant execution. But the officer in command of
+the detachment interposed. In any case he would have objected to a
+proceeding of which Judas would certainly have disapproved, and he had
+besides a certain kindness for Benjamin, of whose courage and dexterity he
+had been more than once a witness. Accordingly the offender was put under
+close arrest, and the army resumed its march.
+
+Benjamin had no need to be told that he was in very serious danger. The
+Chasidim, at least, would be more ready to overlook fifty thefts than one
+transgression in the matter of unclean food; and he felt sure that if he
+could not contrive to escape before the army returned to the encampment,
+possibly before they reached Modin, his days were numbered. While he was
+meditating on the chances of escape, one of the escort, an associate of
+former days, was thinking how he could help him. Happening to be in front
+of the prisoner, he purposely stumbled and fell. The prisoner fell over
+him, and in the confusion the soldier cut the cords that bound Benjamin's
+hands. The prisoner was not a man to lose such an opportunity. Waiting
+till he reached a convenient spot on the march, he shook off his bonds,
+sprang to the side of the road, and, before his keepers could recover from
+their astonishment, was lost to sight in the woods which bordered it.
+
+When the army reached Modin no attempt was made to interfere with its
+proceedings. Our old acquaintance, Cleon, had been sent to replace the
+commissioner killed when Mattathias raised the standard of revolt, and
+Cleon was far too careful of himself to risk his safety in any foolhardy
+struggle against superior strength. When the body of armed men was first
+seen approaching the town, he had supposed that its object was to possess
+itself of any money, arms, or provisions that might be found in the place.
+A nearer view showed the funeral procession, and one of the townspeople
+was acute enough to guess the real purpose of the expedition. Cleon's
+resolve was at once taken. He would make the best of circumstances which
+he could not control. Accordingly he went out of the town with a flag of
+truce in his hand, and meeting the vanguard of the approaching array,
+demanded an interview with its leader.
+
+He was brought into the presence of Judas.
+
+"May I ask," he said, "the purpose of your coming?"
+
+"We are come to bury Mattathias, son of Asmon, in the sepulchre of his
+fathers," was the brief reply.
+
+"And you, sir," continued the Greek, with elaborate courtesy, "may I ask
+to whom I am speaking?"
+
+"I am Judas, son of Mattathias."
+
+"Allow me, then," answered Cleon, "to express my sympathy with you in the
+loss of so renowned a father, once, I believe, a distinguished citizen of
+this place, and to assure you that you will meet with no molestation in
+whatever honours you may see fit to render to his memory. I would myself
+willingly attend the obsequies, did I suppose that my presence would be
+welcome."
+
+"We thank you, sir," said Judas, who was inwardly chafing at this
+hypocritical politeness, but disdained to show his feelings; "we would
+sooner be alone."
+
+Cleon saluted and withdrew.
+
+The funeral ceremonies were performed with an impressive solemnity. The
+stone which closed the entrance to the family tomb of the house of Asmon
+had been rolled away, and the dead body was placed in the niche which had
+been long ago prepared for its reception. Only the sons of Mattathias and
+a few of their best trusted counsellors and lieutenants entered the cave;
+the rest of the multitude stood without, waiting in profound silence till
+they should be told that the old warrior had been laid in his last
+resting-place.
+
+When the cave had been closed again John, as the eldest son of the
+deceased, spoke a few words to the army.
+
+"We have buried our dead," he said, "out of our sight; but his memory
+lives and will live among us. Let us be true and faithful as he was, that
+we may be with him when he shall rise again at the last day, and sit down
+with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the supper of the people of God.
+Meanwhile let us follow and obey him whom with his last breath he named as
+his successor. Long live Judas, son of Mattathias, son of Asmon, the
+captain of the host of the Lord!"
+
+And all the army shouted their approval.
+
+Cleon had followed up his courtesies by an invitation addressed to Judas
+and his principal officers, in which he begged the honour of their company
+at a meal. Judas declined the invitation, but intimated that he would
+gladly purchase a supply of corn. The commissioner, well aware that his
+guests could take by force anything that was refused to them, at once
+acceded to the request, and Micah was selected, on account of his
+familiarity with the Greek language, to conduct the transaction.
+
+The details of the business arranged with the commissioner's secretary,
+Micah received a message from the great man himself, begging for the
+pleasure of an interview.
+
+"What!" cried Cleon, affecting a surprise which he did not really feel,
+"is this my old friend Menander whom I see?"
+
+"My name is Micah," said the Jew, not without a feeling of disgust and
+shame as his mind reverted to the past.
+
+"As you please," said Cleon. "By whatever name you may please to call
+yourself, I hope that we shall always be good friends. But tell me, what
+is the meaning of this disguise?"
+
+"I know not what you mean by disguise."
+
+"I mean these rags, which a scarecrow would hardly condescend to wear;
+that battered helmet, which looks as if the boys had been kicking it for a
+month about the market-place; that deplorably shabby sword, which even a
+rag-and-bone man would be ashamed to hang up in his shop. Is this the
+elegant Menander--I beg your pardon, the elegant Micah, who was once the
+very pink of neatness and fashion?"
+
+"As for my past follies, you may laugh at them as you will, nor can I deny
+that you are in the right. But of these rags, as you are pleased to call
+them, of these shabby arms, I am not ashamed. I have come to myself. The
+things that I once prized I count as dung, and for that which I once
+despised I would gladly die."
+
+"Why, what madness is this? What have you got to live for? How can you
+support existence among this deplorable crew of beggars and outlaws, with
+not a man among them, I will warrant, who has the least taste of culture,
+or the faintest tincture of art?"
+
+"These 'beggars and outlaws,' as you call them, are the soldiers of the
+Lord; and you will find that they are enemies not to be despised, that
+these battered helmets can turn a blow, and these jagged swords can deal
+one that will make its way through all your finery."
+
+"But, my dear friend--I may call you so, I suppose, in spite of any little
+difference of opinion there may be between us?"
+
+The Jew made no motion of assent.
+
+"Well, you cannot be deceiving yourself as to the utter hopelessness of
+your attempt. Why, when you come to meet our troops in regular battle, you
+will disappear like chaff before the wind. You may take a few places by
+surprise, but you have no more chance of winning a regular victory than a
+dove has of killing a kite. Come now, be reasonable; give up this silly
+affair, and be my guest, till we can find something suitable for you to
+do. I will set you up with some new clothes, to which you are perfectly
+welcome. And I will warrant that in a few days you will be wondering that
+you were ever foolish enough to undertake such a wildgoose business as
+this."
+
+"Your gifts be to yourself. Nay, Cleon," he soon went on to say, in a
+softer tone, "I would not speak harshly to you for the sake of old
+kindnesses which I doubt not you meant well in showing me. But be sure
+that I am in earnest. The old things are hateful to me. I have other
+desires, other hopes; and if they are not satisfied, not fulfilled, I can
+at least die for them."
+
+"Die for them, indeed! _That_, my dear Micah, is only too likely, and die,
+I am afraid, in an exceedingly unpleasant way. It is simple madness to
+suppose that a crowd of ragamuffins, under a general--Apollo save the
+mark!--who has never seen a battle, can stand against the troops of the
+King. You used to be a very good fellow, Menander or Micah, or whatever
+you call yourself, but, as sure as you are sitting there, if you go on in
+this mad fashion, I shall have the pain of seeing you some day hanging on
+a cross."
+
+At the sound of the word the young Jew started as if he had been stabbed.
+It opened the way for a flood of memories which, for a while, carried him
+out of himself. When he could command himself sufficiently to speak, he
+burst out--
+
+"Yes--hanging on a cross! Nothing more likely if only you and your friends
+get their way. You talk of taste, and art, and beauty: you have always
+plenty of fine words on your tongues, but when it comes to practice you
+are as brutal as the fiercest of the savages whom you profess to
+despise--nay, you are ten times worse, for you know what you are doing.
+Now, listen to me, Cleon. Some six months ago I was walking through
+Jerusalem after your teachers of culture and art had been busy giving
+their lessons. What think you I saw? I saw a woman hanging on a cross, and
+her little son, a babe of a few days old, fastened about her neck. Thank
+God they were dead. Some one of your people had in mercy--for you are not
+altogether without mercy--strangled her before they fastened her to the
+cross. And what was her offence? Was she unchaste, a thief, a murderer?
+Not so; no purer, gentler soul ever lived on the earth. No, she had done
+for her son as her fathers for a thousand years and more had done for
+their sons. And this was how your prophets of refinement and beauty dealt
+with her. Cleon, that woman was my sister. Do you think that such deeds as
+that will go unpunished? Surely not; whether your faith--if you have a
+faith--or mine be true, there is a vengeance that follows--slow, it may be,
+but sure of foot--the men who work such wickedness. And, for my part, I
+doubt not who the first minister of that vengeance will be. You sneer at
+our general; he is no general at all, you think; a mere leader of
+vagabonds, who has never seen a battle. He will see many a battle, yea,
+and the back of many a foe, before his work is done. He is a very Hammer
+of God, and he will break his enemies to pieces. And now, Cleon, hearken
+again to me. You and I have broken bread together as friends. That is past
+for ever. May the God of my fathers send down upon me all the plagues that
+He holds in the vials of His wrath, if I have any truce with the enemies
+of His people! But with you, as I would not join hands in friendship, so I
+would not cross them in anger. Pray, therefore, to your gods, as I will
+certainly pray to Him whom I worship, that we may never see each other
+again. And now farewell!"
+
+The expedition returned to the mountains without mishap.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XV.
+
+                         THE SWORD OF APOLLONIUS.
+
+
+The daring action of Judas at Modin was a defiance to the rulers at
+Jerusalem, and felt to be so, not only by them, but by the whole country.
+It was followed up by active operations on the part of the patriots
+against the smaller towns of south-eastern Palestine. The population began
+to feel that it was safer to be on the side of the patriots than against
+them. Thanks to this feeling, to the genuine favour with which the
+movement was regarded, and to the perfect system of scouts which he had
+organized, Judas had early and trustworthy information of all the
+movements of the enemy. Apollonius had made up his mind that he must act
+if he was not to lose entirely his hold upon the country, and set about
+organizing a force so overwhelmingly strong that it must, he thought,
+sweep the insurgents before it. This intention, and indeed, it may almost
+be said, every detail of his preparations, was communicated to Judas. He,
+on his part, was determined that a heathen army should never again invade
+the mountain sanctuary. He would not await attack. His military instincts,
+which, indeed, were extraordinarily fine and true, warned him that
+boldness was now his best policy, and that he should go down and give
+battle to the enemy.
+
+It was on the eve of the departure of the patriot army, when Seraiah might
+have been seen making his way back from a conference of the chiefs to the
+cave which served him as a dwelling. He was now recovering from his wound,
+but he was still too weak to support the fatigues of a march. Accordingly
+Judas had left him in command of the little garrison, scarcely, indeed,
+containing one able-bodied man, which was to protect the encampment. When
+he reached his home he found his nieces, Miriam and Judith, sitting with
+his wife, and watching the infant that was slumbering by her side.
+
+"See," said Judith, as the child smiled in his sleep, "his angel is
+whispering to him. Oh, uncle, have you ever seen the angel?"
+
+She prattled on without waiting for an answer. "Father sees angels, and
+they bring him words from mother, where she is in Paradise. And, do you
+know, uncle, last night he had a wonderful dream about a sword? He told it
+to us this morning. He often tells us his dreams. Sometimes he seems as if
+he were talking to mother; and he says that Miriam is so like her."
+
+"Well, Judith, and what was the dream?" said Ruth.
+
+"Father saw a mighty angel--one of the cherubim, you know, that father says
+God sends abroad to do His errands--come flying down, and the angel had in
+his hand a great sword. And he stood by father's bed, and showed him a
+name graven on the blade--it was the name which we may not speak, though it
+is part of father's name(8)--and when he had done this he put the hilt in
+his hand and departed. Then father awoke, and found only his own old sword
+in his hand; and this, you know, is so hacked that it is not of much use,
+and is very weak, too, in the handle. Father never sleeps without it, and
+he must have drawn it out in his sleep, without knowing it, from under the
+pillow where he keeps it. But he says the dream will certainly come true.
+And now, Miriam," she went on, turning to her sister, for the little
+maiden was of the true housewife temper, "we must be going back to get
+father's dinner ready for him."
+
+When they were left alone Seraiah said to Ruth, "It is as I feared--I am to
+stay behind."
+
+Ruth felt a thrill of joy go through her, but was too wise a woman to show
+it.
+
+"Old Reuben will not hear of my going. He says that I should be more
+hindrance than help, and perhaps he is right. The Lord's will be done,
+though I would fain have struck a blow in the battle that is to decide;
+for I am sure that as this battle goes, so will the end be. But I am to be
+in command of the garrison here."
+
+"And you will not mind taking care of the women and children, dear
+husband?" said Ruth.
+
+"I should be ungrateful indeed if I did," said Seraiah, as he kissed her.
+
+Meanwhile the excitement in the camp had risen to fever heat. Scouts had
+come racing in at headlong speed with tidings that the enemy's army had
+started from Jerusalem, and that it numbered not less than twelve thousand
+regular troops, well-equipped, and furnished with a formidable supply of
+the engines of war. The patriots were in that state of exaltation in which
+men make little of the numbers opposed to them, and the disparity of
+forces roused no apprehensions. If any such were felt they gave way to
+rage when the messengers added that the hated Apollonius himself was in
+command of the hostile army.
+
+Azariah and Micah were among a small company of chiefs who were standing
+outside the tent of Judas, and were discussing the prospects of the war.
+
+"The curse of God light upon him!" cried Azariah. "Surely He will so order
+it that I may smite him down on the field of battle, and avenge the
+innocent blood! Surely the blood of my wife and my child cries against him
+from the earth!"
+
+"Nay, brother," broke in Micah, "the task of the avenger of blood lies
+upon me, for I am next-of-kin to Hannah."
+
+"Surely," replied Azariah, with some heat, "there is no kinship so close
+as the tie which binds husband to wife! 'Tis I that should be Hannah's
+avenger of blood."
+
+"My brothers," broke in the voice of Judas, who appeared in the door of
+his tent, "you think too much of your private wrongs. Great they are, I
+know--none greater. But is there one soldier in this army that has not lost
+wife, or child, or father, or brother by the hand of this evil man? We
+will go, one and all, as avengers of blood, and the Lord will deliver him
+into the hands of him whom He shall choose."
+
+Next day the army set out. On the evening of the second day they came in
+sight of the forces of Apollonius. Some of the more fiery spirits were for
+an instant attack, but the prudence of Judas, which was not less
+conspicuous than his daring, restrained them. His men were wearied with a
+long day's march, and they wanted food. And he himself had not had time to
+reconnoitre the enemy's position or receive any intelligence from his
+scouts.
+
+Early next day the battle began. In one sense Judas was greatly
+overmatched. The enemy were superior in numbers--almost in the proportion
+of four to one--and in equipment. But, on the other hand, the Hebrew leader
+could rely implicitly on his soldiers. Anything that mortal man, inspired
+by zeal and the burning sense of wrong, could achieve, they might be
+trusted to do. To such a temper, of course, the policy of attack is best
+suited. Judas massed his best troops on his right wing, which happened to
+be opposed to what his eagle eye discerned to be the weakest part of the
+enemy's line. Apollonius saw his intention, and commenced a movement of
+troops which was designed to strengthen the weak point in his array. But
+such a movement in the face of a hostile force cannot be carried out
+without confusion. Judas saw his opportunity, ordered his men to advance
+at the double, and closed fiercely with the foe.
+
+The Greek line broke almost at once, and the chief danger now was that the
+conquerors might press on too eagerly. The Greeks were not an
+undisciplined mob which could be treated with contempt. Some of them, at
+least, were veteran soldiers, in whom the sense of discipline was an
+instinct, and who, if not very enthusiastic in the cause for which they
+were fighting, were perfectly well aware that their best chance of
+personal safety was to be found in keeping together and holding their
+ground. Judas, in whom native genius seemed to supply the want of
+experience, appreciated the enemy with whom he had to deal, and kept his
+own men well in hand, though he was careful not unduly to check their
+courage.
+
+The fortune of the day continued to declare in favour of the patriots; but
+Apollonius himself, surrounded by a picked force of mercenaries, still
+held his ground. Shortly after noon Azariah and Micah, who had kept close
+together during the battle, and had both performed prodigies of valour,
+gathering a company of their immediate followers, made a determined rush
+in his direction. The bodyguard, terrified by the fierceness of this
+onset, wavered and fled, leaving but three or four faithful attendants,
+who refused to leave their commander.
+
+The Greek recognized Azariah, and called to him by his name. "Azariah, if
+you think that I have wronged you, I do not refuse you the opportunity of
+revenge. Come out from your companions, and I will meet you alone. You are
+a brave man, and would not take a soldier at unfair odds."
+
+Azariah did not deign to answer; but one of his comrades replied, "Dog of
+a heathen! you forget where you are. We are not contending in your foolish
+games: we are the avengers of blood--the innocent blood which you have
+shed; and we will slay you as men slay a venomous snake. Such equity as
+you have dealt to others, we will show to you. Was it in fair fight that
+you slew women and children?"
+
+Apollonius looked on the ring of scowling faces that surrounded him, and
+saw that there was no mercy or even what he would have called the courtesy
+of war to be hoped from them. "I only wish," he said, "that I had rooted
+out the whole cursed brood from the earth, and burnt the den of thieves
+which you call your city, and laid the shrine of the demon whom you call
+your God level with the ground!"
+
+"Silence, blasphemer!" cried Azariah, as he whirled his sword over his
+head.
+
+It was not the almost worthless weapon, with its dented edge and broken
+hilt, that he had carried into the battle. Early in the day he had cut
+down a Greek officer, and taken the sword of the dead man in exchange for
+his own.
+
+As he spoke he beckoned to his countrymen. They stood back, even Micah
+recognizing the right of the husband to strike the first blow at the
+murderer of his wife.
+
+Apollonius raised his sword to parry the stroke which he expected to be
+aimed at his head. With a rapid change of movement his adversary changed
+the blow into a thrust, and drove the point of his weapon through the
+Greek's heart.
+
+Azariah was drawing out his weapon from the corpse, when Judas, who had
+been hastening to the spot not without some hope of himself crossing
+swords with the hated Apollonius, came up.
+
+"A mighty weapon that!" he exclaimed, as the conqueror wiped the blade on
+the dead man's tunic. "Let me take it in my hands."
+
+He poised it and judged its balance, tried the edge, and then narrowly
+scanned the markings on the blade.
+
+"Ah!" said he, "how came you by this sword? I had observed"--and indeed his
+eagle eye noted every detail--"that yours was but a poor weapon, unworthy
+of your strength, and I wished to find something better for you."
+
+Azariah told him how he had taken it from a Greek on the field of battle.
+
+"And saw you this?" he went on, pointing to the Holy Name which had been
+engraved on the blade. "Doubtless this belonged to some Hebrew warrior in
+time past, for the fashion of the letters is somewhat antique; the heathen
+whom you slew had taken it, and now the Lord has given it back into the
+hands of the faithful."
+
+Azariah then related his dream.
+
+"The angel whom you saw," said Judas, "was, doubtless, the angel of
+battle, and the Lord has been faithful, as ever, to His promise."
+
+He gave back the consecrated sword to Azariah, and took the weapon which
+was still grasped in the right hand of the dead Apollonius. "With this,"
+he said, "I will fight as long as I live." And he broke out into the
+triumphal chant of the Psalmist--"The ungodly have drawn out the sword, and
+have bent the bow to cast down the poor and needy. Their sword shall go
+through their own heart and their bow shall be broken."
+
+  [Illustration: _The Sword of Apollonius._]
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVI.
+
+                       NEWS FROM THE BATTLE-FIELD.
+
+
+While the patriots, bivouacking on the field of battle, slept the sound
+sleep of those who have fought a good fight, the women, left, with the
+children and the sick, in charge of a small guard, only strong enough to
+protect them against casual robbers, felt the most intense anxiety. Ruth
+in her cave, with the children slumbering by her side, watched through the
+night, listening intently to every sound. At one time she could hear the
+bats which haunted the rocks flapping and fluttering as they went out to
+take their flights in the night air. Then from farther away came the
+moaning of the jackals, as they hunted for their prey, with now and then
+the deeper note of a wolf, or the sound, so strangely like to mocking
+laughter, of the hooting owls. Everything at that moment seemed very dark
+and hopeless to the anxious wife.
+
+"'Tis everywhere the same," she thought to herself--"the stronger hunt and
+devour the weak. The lions roaring after their prey, do seek their meat
+from God. The lambs and the fawns are their prey, and God gives the
+helpless, innocent things into their jaws. And will he give us to the jaws
+of the heathen who are hunting us that they may devour us? Did He deliver
+the thousand who died that they might not profane His Sabbath? Not so. He
+suffered them to perish, to be a prey for the beasts of the field and the
+fowls of the air. 'Verily our bones lie scattered before the pit, like as
+when one breaketh and heweth wood upon the earth.'"
+
+And then her thoughts travelled to those who were especially close to her
+heart. Azariah and Micah--where were they? How had it fared with them in
+the battle? Were they lying on the field of battle with stark faces turned
+to the stars of heaven, and the vultures preying on their limbs? And she
+shuddered, and hid her face in the coarse coverlet under which she lay, as
+if she would shut out the dreadful picture that her thoughts had conjured
+up before her.
+
+When she opened her eyes again, there was a faint suspicion of light in
+the darkness of the cave. The bats came flapping back from the outer air
+to their haunts in the roof. Jael, the jackal, who had been for her
+nightly prowl came back with her cubs, and lay down in her accustomed
+corner. The light grew rapidly stronger, and when Ruth stepped from the
+threshold of the cave into the fresh morning air, though the sun was not
+visible, its light had begun to touch the highest summits of the
+mountains.
+
+Looking to the head of the pass Ruth could see her husband where he stood
+at his post of observation, a spot which commanded a distant view of the
+westward approaches to the encampment. As she watched him she observed him
+make a signal that indicated that he had to make some important
+communication. A moment afterwards she could see other men hurrying to the
+spot. She bade Miriam and Judith, who were always her guests during their
+father's absence, watch the still sleeping infant, and made all the haste
+she could to join her husband. When she reached him she found the little
+group of watchers straining their eyes as they gazed at a body of armed
+men that could be seen in the distance. "Who are they? foes or friends?"
+was the question that was in every heart, though none ventured to put it
+into words.
+
+As the vanguard of the approaching force came to an eastward turn in the
+path, a ray of sunshine touched the helmets of the men and made them
+glitter.
+
+"What is this?" said one of the men. "They went with caps of leather;
+whence come these helmets of brass and steel?"
+
+A shudder went through the hearts of Ruth and of the other women who by
+this time had joined her. If the patriots had been overpowered, and these
+armed men were heathen murderers and ravishers come to wreak their
+vengeance on those who had been left behind----
+
+"Whence come they?" said Seraiah. "They are the spoils of the heathen."
+
+As he spoke the distant sound of singing was carried by the wind up the
+pass, and though the words could not as yet be heard it was recognized at
+once as one of the Temple chants. The little band of sentries and women
+raised a joyful shout, and hurried down the pass to meet the new comers.
+And now the noble voice of Judas could be heard leading the song of
+triumph. "Thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle; Thou shalt
+throw down mine enemies under me. Thou hast made mine enemies also to turn
+their backs upon me; and I shall destroy them that hate me.... I will beat
+them as small as the dust before the wind." And now the good news had
+spread like wildfire through the camp. The rest of the women hastened down
+to meet and greet the deliverers, and among them Miriam and Judith,
+carrying Ruth's infant child. The first thought of all was to do honour to
+the chief who had led the host of the Lord to victory. They kissed the hem
+of his robe, his hands, even his feet. It was only when they had satisfied
+these feelings of gratitude and reverence that they could think of private
+affections. And when the whole array, the women and children now mingling
+in the ranks with the armed men, reached the top of the pass, it halted
+for a few minutes. The name which Micah, in his talk with Cleon, had given
+to Judas had passed through the army, and had caught the popular fancy.
+There was scarcely a man among them but had seen him dealing death at
+every blow among the ranks of the heathen. "Hail, Judah Maccabah! Hail,
+Hammer of God!" was the cry that went up from the assembled multitude. The
+title has been given in after times to other sturdy champions of the
+truth, notably to him who, in the Valley of Tours, turned back the tide of
+Paynim invasion;(9) but never has it been more honourably gained, or more
+worthily borne, than it was by Judas, the son of Mattathias.
+
+
+
+Great as was the exultation of the patriots over their victory, no one
+among them, and least of all their far-sighted general, deceived himself
+with the flattering notion that it had finished the war. Every one was
+well aware that the defeat and death of Apollonius was not only a disgrace
+that Antiochus and his lieutenants were bound to avenge, but a disaster
+that had to be repaired. It was without surprise, therefore, that Judas
+heard that Seron, Governor of Coele-Syria, was marching southwards over
+the great maritime plain known by the name of Sharon, with what rumour
+described as a vast host.
+
+Judas at once resolved to repeat the policy which had been found so
+successful in the conflict with Apollonius. The enemy would soon reach the
+passes that led into the hill-country of Eastern Palestine; and it was
+there that he must be met. To allow him to make good this movement without
+opposition would be to throw away a great advantage. The Jewish commander
+resolved, accordingly, to dispute the possession of the pass. With a
+boldness which seemed to some of his followers to verge upon rashness, he
+left Jerusalem, occupied as it was by a hostile garrison, behind him, and
+marched westward till he reached the range which looks over the Plain of
+Sharon to the Great Sea.
+
+This strategy was simple enough, though it was not wanting in boldness;
+but then came the difficult question, "What road will the enemy take--the
+ordinary route by Emmaues,(10) or the more difficult way through the pass
+of Beth-horon?" The scouts were at fault, but it seemed likely that a
+general strange to the country would prefer the easier course. But
+scarcely had Judas acted on this probability and taken up his position on
+the plateau of Emmaues, than a breathless messenger came rushing in with
+the intelligence that Beth-horon was to be the point of attack. The
+patriots had already been in motion since dawn, but another march was
+necessary, and, if it was to be of any avail, must be executed at full
+speed, and without any pause for food or rest. There had been just time to
+reach the head of the pass, and to hide the vanguard behind rocks and in
+the ravines that led into the main road, when the Greek force was seen to
+be approaching. It was still a mile distant, and as the road was steep,
+making a rise of not less than five hundred feet in the mile, its progress
+was slow. It was an anxious time of waiting as the patriots watched the
+hostile column drawing nearer and nearer. They could see its strength, its
+dense and numerous files, the discipline showed by the precision of its
+march, and its complete equipment, so different from their own imperfect
+supply of weapons and armour. And there were some whose hearts fainted
+within them at the sight. "How shall we, being so few, be able to stand up
+against so great and strong a multitude? And now we are worn with
+marching, and weak for want of bread." Judas was indefatigable in cheering
+and encouraging them. "With the Lord our God," he said, as he went from
+one company to another, "it is all one to deliver with a great multitude,
+or with a small company." Then he pointed to Ajalon, and recalled to the
+thoughts of his hearers the famous associations of the place. "Do you not
+remember," he said, "how Joshua, the son of Nun, smote the five kings of
+the Canaanites? The Lord was with him, staying even the sun and the moon
+in their course, that He might give to His people the heritage of the
+heathen, and surely He will be with us on this day, for His name's sake,
+that he may restore to us this same heritage. His enemies come against us
+in the pride of their hearts to destroy us, and our wives, and our
+children. But the Lord is on our side; and He will overthrow them before
+our face. And as for you, be not afraid of them. Stand fast and quit you
+like men." He had not completed the round of his force--and indeed there
+were some companies in it which he knew to be of temper so sturdy that
+they might safely be left to themselves--when the Greeks, slowly labouring
+in their heavy armour up the ascent, came within reach. Judas gave the
+signal, and with a loud cry, "The Hammer of God! The Hammer of God!" the
+patriots rose from their ambush, and threw themselves on the van of the
+enemy. The attack was entirely unexpected, for the Greek commander was
+ill-served by his scouts, and it met with no serious resistance. Almost in
+a moment the Greek line was broken, and a wild flight commenced. When the
+fugitives reached the plain they scattered themselves in all directions.
+With his usual prudence, Judas checked his men in their pursuit of the
+vanquished, but eight hundred lay dead or seriously wounded upon the
+plain.
+
+Seraiah, who had extorted from the old physician attached to the patriot
+army an unwilling permission to bear arms, had fallen fainting to the
+ground, close to the entrance to the pass. Near him lay six or seven Greek
+corpses. The tide of battle had passed elsewhere, and the place was
+deserted. This was exactly the opportunity which Benjamin and his
+associates--since his escape during the expedition to Modin he had gathered
+about him a small band--had been watching. They issued from their
+hiding-places among the rocks, and began to search the prostrate bodies
+for spoil. The first that they came to was a Greek sub-officer, somewhat
+richly attired. The man was still alive and groaned as they turned him
+over to get more conveniently at the silver ornaments of his belt. "Curse
+the villain!" cried Benjamin, as he drove his sword into his side; and
+when the poor wretch breathed his last, went on, "A brave man might have
+been left to take his chance, but such cowards as these 'tis positively a
+good work to despatch. Did you ever see such a scandalous flight?--and they
+were positively five to one at the very least."
+
+It was now Seraiah's turn to be stripped. He, too, gave signs of life, and
+one of the robbers, an Edomite, who hated Jews and Greeks impartially, was
+about to stab him, when Benjamin, who recognized his old comrade's face,
+interfered.
+
+"Nay, man," he said, "'tis one of the patriots, and an old friend of mine
+to boot. Look you after the others, and I will attend to this brave
+fellow."
+
+Hastily and with a practised hand he bound up Seraiah's wound, for the old
+place had broken out afresh. The injured man, consumed by the thirst that
+follows the loss of blood, begged for water. Benjamin supplied him with a
+draught from the bottle which he carried, and followed it up with some
+rough wine of the country in a wooden cup. By this time the robbers, who
+had finished their work of spoiling the dead, were ready to return to
+their hiding-place among the hills.
+
+"Come, captain," said the Edomite, "'tis time to go; you had best leave
+your friend to himself, or you will see more of his countrymen than you
+will quite like."
+
+"Go," said Benjamin; "I will follow you soon."
+
+Seraiah was now sufficiently revived to be able to sit up. The robber
+offered him bread and flesh. "'Tis clean meat," he said. The wounded man,
+however, refused it. It might be of a lawful kind, but he did not know
+that it had been lawfully killed, and he contented himself with bread to
+which he added a few raisins with which he happened to have provided
+himself. Another draught of wine completed the repast.
+
+"Benjamin," he said, when he had finished, "you are too good for this
+life, for these friends. Come with us and fight on our side, for be sure
+that it is the side of the Lord. I will intercede for you to our captain,
+and he is as merciful as he is strong."
+
+"Nay, nay," said Benjamin, "you are too confident; yours may be the side
+of the Lord, for I don't know much about these things, but the side of the
+Lord, as far as I have been able to see, does not always win. I hate these
+Greeks. They robbed me of my house and everything that I had. May all the
+curses that are written in the Law overtake them! But they are very likely
+to get the best of it after all."
+
+"Did you see how they fled to-day?" cried Seraiah.
+
+"Yes; you made them run," said the robber, with a grim laugh. "It was rare
+sport to see them pelt helter-skelter down the pass, like so many sheep
+with a dog after them. But there are many more where these came from, and
+they will simply trample you down."
+
+"That will not be done so easily as you think. Is Judas the Hammer--for
+that is what the people call him--a likely man to be so dealt with? Nay,
+Benjamin, he is another Joshua, another David, and I am as sure as if a
+prophet had told me that the Lord of Hosts is with him, and will deliver
+the heathen into his hands."
+
+Benjamin was silent awhile. Then he said, in an altered tone, "You say the
+truth about Judas, the son of Mattathias. A better captain to lead, a
+better soldier to strike with the sword, I never saw. I would gladly
+follow him. And verily I would sooner fight for my people than for my own
+hand. But your ways are over-strict. I cannot put up with these
+'religious' as you call them. Why should I not eat pig's flesh if I can
+get it? It has a good relish, and it has never harmed me yet."
+
+"But 'tis forbidden, Benjamin," gently answered Seraiah, now in good hopes
+of winning over this somewhat stubborn proselyte, "and you are too good a
+man to give up your country for a matter of meat or drink."
+
+"Aye," said the man, "but there are other things."
+
+"Nothing surely that cannot be borne," went on Seraiah. "Oh, Benjamin, you
+have saved my life to-day, and henceforth you are my brother; but I could
+almost wish, but for my wife and child's sake--you remember Ruth and the
+babe?--that you had left me to die, if I am to see you return to the ways
+of death."
+
+The cause was almost won when, at an unhappy moment, a party of Jewish
+soldiers returning from the pursuit came in sight. One of them immediately
+recognized Benjamin, and gave the alarm to his companions. They rushed to
+arrest him, but Benjamin divined their purpose and dashed up the rocks. To
+overtake him was impossible, for he was fleet of foot and unencumbered;
+but one of the Chasidim, for the soldiers belonged to this party, let fly
+an arrow which struck him in the left arm. It was but a slight wound, for
+the barb was not covered in the flesh; but it stirred him to a furious
+rage, which was all the fiercer because, by a great effort, he had just
+brought himself to yield to Seraiah's arguments. He tore the arrow from
+the wound, hurled it at his pursuers with impotent rage, and crying, "All
+the plagues of Egypt consume you!" disappeared among the rocks.
+
+"You have lost a good recruit," said Seraiah to his comrades when they
+returned to him.
+
+"What should this son of Belial profit us?" one of the Chasidim haughtily
+replied. "The Lord grant that my next arrow may be driven better home!"
+
+Seraiah made no answer, but painfully lifting himself from the ground made
+his way up the pass alone. He did not care for the company of his
+comrades, and they, on their part, though they could not help respecting
+him as a soldier, thought him sadly wanting in zeal for the Law and for
+the traditions of the elders.
+
+Late that night some of the fugitives, who had crossed the mountains
+somewhat further to the south, reached Jerusalem. They found the city
+anxiously expecting tidings of the battle; and two of their number who
+were officers were at once brought into the Governor's house. He was
+indisposed, and Cleon, who had given up his post at Modin and was now
+attached to head-quarters, saw the new arrivals in his stead. When he had
+heard their story, he did not conceal his scorn for the mismanagement--or
+was it cowardice?--that had made a well-equipped and powerful army flee
+before a crowd of half-armed vagabonds.
+
+"It is easy to talk, my fine sir," retorted one of the men, "when you have
+only got to stop at home and find fault; but if you had seen them to-day,
+you would be singing to a very different tune. By all the gods above and
+below, these Jews rushed on more like lions than men. And as to this
+Judas, son of Asmon, there is no standing against him. No man wants two
+blows from _his_ sword."
+
+"A good soldier, I dare say," said Cleon superciliously, "and a skilful
+swordsman. But there are others as good as he. And as for his army, if it
+is to be called an army, it is quite impossible that it can hold out very
+long. I was a little hasty in what I said just now. These fanatics have a
+way of giving some trouble at first, and it is quite possible for really
+good troops to be beaten by them. But it is quite out of the question to
+suppose that they can resist any serious attempt to deal with them. Of
+course we have made the usual mistake of making too light of them. That
+must not be done again. The next expedition will be made with overwhelming
+force, and will unquestionably bring this troublesome matter to an end. I
+hope to go with it myself."
+
+"That will be as you please, sir," said the officer, who had not by any
+means recovered his temper after the imputations cast on his courage, "but
+if I may venture to say so, I would recommend that you should not get in
+the way of Judas, the son of Asmon."
+
+And, indeed, whatever men like Cleon may have pretended to think, from
+that time "began the fear of Judas and his brethren and an exceeding great
+dread to fall upon the nations round about them."
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVII.
+
+                          THE BATTLE OF EMMAUS.
+
+
+The effort to wipe out the disgrace of the two defeats and to restore the
+Greek supremacy was not long delayed; and when it was made, it was made
+with all the force which the lieutenants of Antiochus could command. The
+King himself was absent in Persia; but his vicegerent had _carte blanche_
+for the preparations which they were to make. Lysias, Governor of Syria,
+had collected forty thousand foot and seven thousand horse, and this force
+had been put under the command of Nicanor, Gorgias being his principal
+lieutenant. This time, it was intended, the work should be done
+thoroughly. This Jewish people, so obstinately troublesome, was to be
+absolutely extirpated. Not a single native inhabitant was to be left in
+Palestine, which was to be peopled in future by a more accommodating and
+manageable race.
+
+This scheme, if it was to be carried out, would involve huge dealings in
+human flesh, and the slave-merchants of the sea-coast cities were,
+naturally, vastly interested in its success. Anxious to do the business as
+cheaply and effectively as possible, they formed what, in the language of
+modern commerce, would be called a "Syndicate," and sent parties of
+dealers to follow the two armies, and act as their agents when the scheme
+should begin to come into practical working.
+
+This was the occupation, then, of four repulsive-looking creatures who had
+obtained permission to follow the army of Nicanor, and whom we may see
+discussing a flagon of the best Chian wine--the trade was as profitable as
+it was odious--and canvassing the prospects of business.
+
+"Well," said one of the four, pursuing the narrative of an interview which
+he had just been having with Lysias, "we had a long debate about terms.
+The Governor was quite firm about one thing: there must be no picking and
+choosing. 'No,' he said, 'either you buy them all, or they shall be put up
+in the open market.' 'But what,' I said, 'am I to do with the old and the
+weak?' 'And what am I to do with them?' he answered. 'No; you must buy
+them all or none.' There I could not move him. He could not be bothered
+with detail. For so many prisoners, so many talents, half paid down, half
+six months credit. Old men and women at their last gasp, and new-born
+babes were all to be counted in. Those were his terms and I had to accept
+them, or we should not have come to an agreement."
+
+"That does not seem a good bargain," interrupted another member of the
+company.
+
+"Wait a moment," said the first speaker, "till you hear the price. I think
+you will agree that there is no reason to complain. At first he wanted a
+talent(11) for every fifty. That of course was out of the question on the
+'take-all' terms, and I told our friend so quite plainly. 'No,' I said, 'a
+talent for every hundred is about the right price, and even then we may
+very well lose,' which, you will allow, was sailing very near the wind
+indeed. Well, we had a long argument. First he would meet me half way. But
+I held out. You know they _must_ have money. There is Antiochus--the
+'Glorious' they call him--gone off to Persia on a wild goose chase after
+some treasures he has heard of. I'll wager that he'll spend more than he
+gets by a long way. I have friends at Court, and they tell me that the
+treasury is as empty as--well, we'll say a wine jar, after our friend
+Nicias there has had it at his mouth for a minute. So I was firm. And at
+last--to make a long story short--we came to terms at a talent for ninety.
+And I can't help thinking that it is not by any means a bad bargain."
+
+"And what are we to do with the worthless ones?" said one of the dealers.
+"Surely having to keep them will take all the shine off our profits."
+
+"Keeping them! Who talks about keeping them? We shall only have to bury
+them, and that does not cost very much. You have not been long in the
+trade, my good friend, and you don't know how soon their food seems to
+disagree with the poor wretches whom we can't sell."
+
+He smiled an evil smile, and the others burst out into a laugh, in which,
+however, the young man who "had not been long in the trade" did not join.
+
+"And what becomes of all the money?" said one of the dealers, who had
+hitherto taken no part in the conversation.
+
+"Well, a part will be wanted for present expenses, pay of the troops,
+stores, and so forth; and that is to be paid in gold. But the greater part
+has to go to Rome--the King, you know, owes a great deal on the indemnity
+account. For that we shall find bills of exchange."
+
+"Most of the money, then, is to go to Rome?"
+
+"Yes; and don't you see the advantage of the arrangement? Of course most
+of it will come back into our pockets. Slaves from this part of the world
+are quite the fashion in Rome now; and I am very much mistaken if these
+Jewish slaves don't turn out a great success. They are quite a novelty; I
+should think that they have hardly been seen in the Roman markets. And
+then they have a very distinguished look, and the girls are sometimes
+remarkably handsome. I don't like to brag--and of course this is all
+between ourselves--but I think that we shall make a _very_ good business
+indeed out of this campaign."
+
+"If our side wins, that is," said the youngest of the dealers, who was
+evidently a little discomposed by what he had heard.
+
+"_If_, indeed! There is no 'if' in the matter. You don't suppose this set
+of ragged beggars can stand against the army of Lysias?"
+
+"Well, they stood against Apollonius, and killed him; and they stood
+against Seron."
+
+"Yes, but this is another matter altogether. Lysias has got fifty thousand
+as good troops as there are in the world, barring, of course, the Romans;
+and they _must_ win. And then we shall all make our fortunes as sure as
+the sun is in the sky."
+
+And, indeed, as viewed from without, the prospects of success which seemed
+to lie before the forces of Antiochus were very great. The army was
+powerful--it numbered nearly eight times as many as that of the patriots--it
+was thoroughly well equipped, and it was led by men who at least had the
+reputation of being good soldiers.
+
+This time it was judged expedient to avoid the difficult pass of
+Beth-horon and to advance by the easier road of Emmaues. At Emmaues,
+accordingly, Nicanor had pitched his camp for the night, intending to move
+early the next day on Jerusalem, to occupy that city with overwhelming
+force, and to carry on the operations of the campaign from that base. He
+was the more hopeful of success because he had received exact information
+of the position of the patriot general. Benjamin had never forgiven the
+painful wound which he had received from the arrow of one of the Chasidim
+after the battle of Beth-horon. The injury had galled him all the more
+because his feelings had been really touched by the appeals of Seraiah,
+and he had seriously meditated throwing in his fortunes once more with the
+cause of his countrymen. He now made his way to the camp of Nicanor, and
+told him all that he knew of the position of Judas. The Greek general
+despatched his lieutenant with a picked force to attack him. While the
+enemy was thus occupied he should be able, he thought, to make the passage
+of the mountains without hindrance or loss.
+
+Judas was at Mizpeh, in command of a force more numerous than any he had
+before been able to collect, but still not amounting to more than six
+thousand men. But the sight that this six thousand saw from the Mizpeh
+ridge--the watch-tower, as it was called--was such as to rouse to fury the
+hearts of all who beheld it. For there, lying before them, was the city of
+their love, the city of David, of Solomon, of Josiah, of Hezekiah, of
+Ezra, and Nehemiah, and they could see, only too plainly in the clear
+sunset light, the horror of its desolation. The streets were empty; the
+walls, in old time thronged at evening by crowds of citizens and their
+families, were deserted; the gates were shut. The Temple could be seen,
+but its courts were silent and empty. And, rising above, in the City of
+David, in the very heart of the Jewish kingdom, was the fort of the Greek
+garrison--the hateful sign of the domination of the heathen. Then followed
+a touching ceremony, by which the servants of the Lord, banished from the
+courts of His House, yet sought to show the reverence and the love which
+they felt for its sacred precincts, for the Holy Place which they could
+see with their eyes, though they might not tread it with their feet. A
+numerous company of mourners, chosen to represent the whole people, ranged
+themselves on the ridge which commanded the prospect so sad and yet so
+dear. They were clad in garments of black sackcloth, itself ragged and
+tattered, and had strewn ashes on their heads. They spread out copies of
+the Law--that Law which the heathen had silenced in its own peculiar seat,
+and which they had insulted and profaned, picturing on its very pages the
+cruel and lustful demons whom they worshipped; the functions of the
+priests had ceased, but they could at least display within sight of the
+Sanctuary the garments which they wore; the sacrifices could not be
+offered, but they could at least show the bullocks and rams, the
+firstfruits of the cornfield and the vineyard, and present them in heart
+and will; vows could not be performed, but the Nazarites, with their
+unshorn locks, could stretch out their hands to the Sanctuary, and
+dedicate themselves in intention. And then from the whole multitude rose
+the cry, "What shall we do with these, and whither shall we carry them?
+For Thy Sanctuary is trodden down and profaned, and Thy priests are in
+heaviness and brought low. And lo! the heathen are assembled together
+against us to destroy us; what things they imagine against us, Thou
+knowest. How shall we be able to stand against them, except Thou, O God,
+be our help?"
+
+This done, the trumpets sounded, as if to remind the mourners that they
+were soldiers again, and the whole multitude fell at once into military
+order. Judas carefully inspected his force. Mindful of the old indulgence
+given by the Law, he proclaimed that any among his followers who were
+building a house, or planting a vineyard, or had left behind him at home a
+newly-married wife, should depart. Those were not days when houses were
+being built or vineyards planted, for the land, save for some barren
+mountain ranges, was in the power of the heathen; nor was it a time for
+marrying or giving in marriage. Scarcely a man out of the whole array
+claimed the exemption. And when the leader went on, "If any man be timid
+or of a faint heart, let him turn back, while there is time," only two or
+three slunk away.
+
+To those that remained Judas addressed a few stirring words. "You have
+seen," he said, "the city of your fathers from afar, how it lies desolate
+and dishonoured. Be bold and quit you like men, and the Lord will deliver
+it into your hands, for He can deliver both by many and by few. Arm
+yourselves at dawn, and we will fight with those nations who have defiled
+our sanctuary and have now come out to destroy us."
+
+But the struggle was to come sooner than any one had looked for it.
+Azariah had been setting the sentinels who were to watch the northern side
+of the encampment, when he heard a voice that seemed to have a familiar
+sound.
+
+"Azariah!" it said, in a penetrating whisper.
+
+"I am here; say on;" and he felt sure that he recognized the voice of
+Benjamin.
+
+"Tell your captain that Gorgias has come out of the camp of Nicanor with
+six thousand men, the very choicest of his army, and that he will attack
+him this night. Farewell!"
+
+And before Azariah could answer he was out of sight and hearing. A quick
+remorse had overtaken the robber for his treacherous act, and he had done
+his best to remedy the wrong.
+
+Judas, on hearing the news, lost no time in making his resolve. It was
+bold, even audacious. He would not wait to be attacked, but would himself
+attack, and that not the detachment under Gorgias, which it was quite
+possible he might have some difficulty in meeting, but the main body
+itself. Here he would certainly have the advantage of being utterly
+unexpected. And a victory over this would be almost, if not absolutely,
+decisive.
+
+Accordingly he left his camp at Mizpeh without attempting to remove any of
+his belongings. In truth, they were scanty enough, and, if things went
+well with him, he should secure spoil of a hundredfold more value than all
+that he had left. With nothing but their arms, and such scanty provision
+as they could carry in their pouches, his men marched through the darkness
+down into the plain.
+
+The day was dawning when he came within sight of the camp of Nicanor.
+Though not regularly fortified, it was a place of considerable strength,
+which an army far more numerous and better equipped than that which Judas
+had under his command might hesitate to attack. The cavalry had bivouacked
+outside; the infantry were within the lines, but might be seen passing out
+of the gates.
+
+So formidable a task did it seem to attack a fortified camp, held by a
+vastly superior force, that even Judas's band of heroes hesitated for a
+moment. He felt it at once, and at once addressed himself to check it. He
+called a halt, and bidding the ranks close in to as small a space as
+possible, he addressed them, sending his mighty voice in the still air of
+the morning with so commanding a power that it reached the very extremity
+of the crowd. In a few stirring words he reminded them of the deliverances
+which God had wrought in old time for His people. He spoke of the three
+hundred of Gideon, how they had discomfited the host of the Midianites, of
+the angel that had smitten with an unseen sword the legions of the haughty
+Sennacherib. He told them of the day when Macedonian and Jew had stood
+side by side against the Gallic invaders of Asia, and of how the Jew had
+stood firm while the Greek had fled before the fury of the barbarian
+onset. Finally he reminded them of the victories which they themselves had
+so lately won against overwhelming odds.
+
+When he had finished his harangue, he divided the host between himself and
+his brothers, John, Simon and Jonathan. Eleazar was to recite the Holy
+Book, and to give his name as the watchword of the day. These arrangements
+made, he gave a signal to the trumpeters. They blew a piercing blast.
+Then, with a shout, "The Help of God! The Help of God!"(12) the patriots
+charged. It might have seemed to an onlooker the strategy of despair, but
+it was successful, as it had been many a time in history before, as it has
+been many a time since.
+
+The Greeks stared at them, as they advanced, with astonishment. Were these
+men madmen, or were they fired by some Divine fury? In either case they
+would be dangerous antagonists. As the patriots drew nearer, without a
+sign of hesitation or holding back, the terror which had been creeping
+over the minds of the Greeks became insupportable. They broke and fled,
+and did not even, so complete was their demoralization, attempt to hold
+their camp. Though pursuit was shortened by the approach of the Sabbath,
+which Judas would not suffer to be infringed upon even to complete his
+victory, more than three thousand fell, and as the Greek line had not
+waited to receive the onset of the patriots, all of them perished in the
+flight.
+
+The work was not yet done, for the detachment under Gorgias had still to
+be accounted for. This, however, gave the conquerors very little trouble.
+That general had found the camp of Judas empty, and had naturally
+concluded that its occupants had been frightened away by his approach. He
+started in pursuit, but without being able to find any clear traces of the
+route which the supposed fugitives had taken. Probably, he thought, this
+would be in the direction of the mountain retreat from which they had
+issued. It was long before he satisfied himself that he was mistaken; but
+the peasants whom he questioned were evidently truthful when they declared
+that they had seen nothing of the force of which he was in search. He had
+to retrace his steps, and could not do this till he had given his men a
+rest, wearied as they were with almost incessant marching for a night and
+a day. It was late in the afternoon before he arrived in sight of the camp
+of the main body, and by that time Judas's victory had been won. He was
+astonished and alarmed to see that part of it was on fire. Shortly
+afterwards a fugitive from the defeated army came in with news of what had
+happened. Neither Gorgias nor his men were in any humour to encounter the
+patriots; they hastily turned and made the best of their way to Jerusalem.
+
+Information of this retreat was soon brought to Judas by his scouts, and
+he felt that now at last he and his followers might enjoy their victory.
+The Sabbath was given, as usual, to rest and devotion. A great service was
+held, a prominent feature of it being the chanting of the great Psalm of
+Thanksgiving,(13) "O give thanks unto the Lord, for His mercy endureth for
+ever." The marvels of creation, the deliverance from Egypt, the passage of
+the hosts of the Lord through the Red Sea, the fall of the Amorite kings
+who had sought to stop their way to the Promised Land, the possession of
+the inheritance which had been promised to the fathers--all these blessings
+were enumerated, and after each new theme, given by the clear voices of
+the singers, rose the thunderous chorus of reply from the multitude, "For
+His mercy endureth for ever."
+
+On the first day of the week the spoils were divided. The division was
+made with scrupulous fairness, and with a reverent regard to the
+injunctions of the Law. The wounded received a special consideration for
+their sufferings; a share was reserved for the widows and orphans of the
+slain; and those to whom had been given the unwelcome duty of staying
+behind to guard the encampment were not forgotten. The rich furniture of
+the officers' tents, the gold and silver plate, the many-coloured silks,
+and robes of Tyrian purple, with a well-furnished pay-chest, made together
+a splendid booty.
+
+Among the prisoners was the party of slave-dealers to whom our readers
+were introduced at the beginning of this chapter.
+
+"Who are you?" cried Judas, when they were brought before him, "and what
+do you here?"
+
+"We are merchants," said their spokesman, "brought by business into the
+camp of his Excellency Nicanor."
+
+"And in what merchandize do you deal?" asked Judas, though, as may be
+supposed, he was perfectly well acquainted with their occupation.
+
+"We deal in the prisoners of war," answered the man. "Permit me, sir," he
+went on, "to congratulate your Excellency on the splendid victory that you
+have won, and to beg the favour of your custom. We offer the best of
+prices for goods, and pay in ready money or in bills on the best houses,
+quite as safe as cash, I can assure you, and far more convenient to
+carry."
+
+"Do you know this document?" asked Judas, holding up a piece of parchment
+which had been found among the property of the slave-dealers.
+
+The man turned pale and said nothing.
+
+Judas then proceeded to read aloud: "It is hereby covenanted between the
+most excellent Lysias, Governor of Syria, on the first part, and Theron
+and his Company, dealers in slaves, on the second part, that the said
+Lysias shall hand over, and that the said Theron and his Company shall
+take all persons that shall be captured in the operations now about to be
+begun by the army of the said Lysias. And it is further covenanted that
+the said Theron and Company shall pay to the said Lysias or such other
+persons as he shall appoint, the sum of one talent of gold for every
+ninety persons delivered alive into the hands of the said Theron and
+Company. Furthermore it is agreed that the said Theron and Company shall
+have no claim for a drawback for any such persons dying after they have
+been once delivered; but that a drawback shall be allowed at the rate of
+six _minae_(14) for every person, who, as being a loyal subject of our lord
+and king Antiochus, or of any prince in friendship and alliance with him,
+shall have been wrongfully taken prisoner."
+
+"Know you this document?"
+
+Theron stammered an assent. "It is but a common matter of business, my
+lord. Such covenants must be drawn up, and, doubtless, they sound somewhat
+harsh."
+
+"Ye have digged a pit, and are fallen into the midst of it yourselves,"
+said Judas, in a voice of thunder. "Let them be taken with the followers
+of the camp to the slave-market of Sidon."
+
+"Mercy, my lord!" cried the dealers, falling on their knees.
+
+"Such mercy as you have shown yourselves you shall have, and no more. Lead
+them away."
+
+"Nay, my lord," cried Theron, struggling away from the soldier who had
+grasped him by the arms, "you do ill to deal so harshly with men that have
+not borne arms against you."
+
+"You have done tenfold worse," was the answer. "I know your works. You
+sell our youths to the mines, where the young man grows old and decrepit
+before he has reached to middle age, and the maidens you sell to shame;
+and the old and sick you slay with the sword or poison. Take them away."
+
+"Listen once more, my lord," cried the man, in an agony of despair. "We
+have money; not here, of course, but with those whom we represent; if you
+should want a loan, we can find it for your Excellency, and at low
+interest, lower than you will find elsewhere."
+
+"Take them away!" thundered Judas.
+
+And taken away they were, still screaming out, as they were dragged off,
+offers of ransom, or loans at five per cent. interest, or no interest at
+all.
+
+The next day Judas and his army, richly laden with spoils of every kind,
+returned to the sanctuary among the hills.
+
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+                         THE BATTLE OF BETH-ZUR.
+
+
+Several months have passed since the scenes described in the last chapter.
+During the winter Judas has been increasing and consolidating his army,
+and he has now a force both more numerous and better equipped than any
+that he had hitherto commanded. Again he has marched to encounter the
+Greeks, but he has no easy task before him. Lysias in person commands the
+Syrian army. Antiochus has sent him some veteran troops from the capital;
+he has raised fresh levies of his own, and he has enrolled in his ranks
+the remnants of the armies of Seron and Nicanor. Altogether he has
+collected an army of sixty thousand men, and must out-number his
+antagonists at least five times. The struggle will be of a critical kind,
+and the victory, if won at all, can hardly be won without grievous loss.
+The Greeks are fighting for their last stake. If they lose this they are
+disgraced.
+
+The experience of a soldier's wife had not lessened the anxiety with which
+Ruth waited for news of the battle. This time all that were especially
+near and dear to her had gone with the army--her husband, her brother, and
+Azariah--all had run or were even then running deadly peril of their lives.
+When the news came it might find her utterly desolate, a widow indeed.
+
+During the night these terrors had had almost undisputed sway. It seemed
+impossible to her to recall the holy words which at other times brought
+comfort to her soul. Some dreadful picture of her dear ones lying cold and
+stark upon the battle-field would rise up before her eyes; and again and
+again the hideous laughing of the hyenas, echoed among the hills, seemed
+to her like the mocking triumph of the heathen.
+
+The light of morning brought, as it is wont to bring, if not cheerfulness,
+at least a more hopeful spirit. Anyhow she had not to lie in forced
+inaction. The daily duties had to be done; and she could find in them not
+forgetfulness, indeed, but the wholesome invigorating influence of work.
+Her first task was to fetch the daily ration of food. Miriam and Judith
+accompanied her, and her little boy was now old enough to toddle by her
+side. The girls had already begun to bear the burdens of a woman's cares,
+but the child was in happy unconsciousness of trouble, and there was a
+certain infection of cheerfulness in his laughter and prattle.
+
+Ruth's way to the store where the rations were distributed led past the
+point from which the best view of the pass could be obtained. She scanned
+the prospect eagerly as she went, but could see nothing. On her return she
+espied the figure of a man who seemed--for he was still almost too distant
+to be distinguished--to be approaching.
+
+"Look, girl," she cried, "surely some one comes yonder, and he must be
+bringing tidings of the battle. Oh! if they are safe----"
+
+As she spoke she dropped the piece of flesh, which she was carrying, from
+her hand; and immediately a vulture swooped down and carried it off.
+
+The watchman had now descried the figure of the traveller, and made the
+signal which was to indicate to the inmates of the encampment the fact
+that tidings from the army was at hand. In an instant all that were able
+to move had poured out, and were hurrying to the top of the pass.
+
+The messenger was Micah, whom, as one of the fleetest runners in the army,
+Judas had selected to carry the news of his victory. He had traversed the
+distance, which could not have been less than thirty miles, at a pace
+which had sorely tried even his athletic frame. He flung himself on the
+ground, panting convulsively for breath, and unable to speak. One of the
+elders poured a few drops of cordial into his mouth, and by degrees he
+recovered his powers. His first act was to kneel and with outspread hands
+to thank the Lord of Hosts. "We thank thee, God of our fathers, that thou
+hast delivered us out of the hand of the enemy, and brought us unto the
+haven where we would be." Then, amidst the breathless attention of the
+listening crowd, he told the story.
+
+"Judas the Hammer," and as he said the name a murmur of blessing could be
+heard from the whole assembly--"Judas, the Hammer of God, has smitten the
+enemy to pieces. Two days since he met Lysias--for the Governor himself was
+in command--at Beth-zur. There by that valley of Elah, where David slew
+Goliah of Gath, has the Lord God of Israel proved again that the battle is
+not to the strong nor the race to the swift. Judas himself led the right
+wing; the left he had given to Seraiah and Azariah, whom I myself had the
+privilege of following. The lines of the two armies were about equal in
+length; nor, indeed, was there room on either side for more; but they had
+their ranks forty deep and more, and we but seven or eight at the most,
+for they were many times more numerous. But the Lord showed once again
+that He can deliver as surely by few as many. Our captain, than whom no
+man has a more generous temper, though he would gladly have been the first
+to advance against the enemy, granted that privilege to us. Then we
+shouted, as we did in the day of Emmaues, 'The Lord is our Help!' and ran
+forward. While we were yet half a furlong from them, we saw them tremble
+and waver; and before we could cross our swords with them their line had
+broken. That done, their numbers availed them no more, but rather hindered
+them, so crowded and crushed together were they. We slew till we were
+weary of slaying."
+
+"And what befell Lysias, the Governor?" asked one of the elders.
+
+"He had posted himself over against Judas himself, judging that there
+would be the most need of his presence. And indeed they say--for I myself
+did not see him, being, as I have said, on the other side of the
+field--that he bore himself as a brave soldier and a good captain. And
+Judas, when he saw him, pressed forward, seeking to meet him face to face.
+But Lysias was struck with terror and fled. He had not the heart to abide
+a stroke from the Hammer. He escaped with some hundred horsemen of his
+bodyguard from the field. The prisoners say that he is gone to Antioch to
+gather another army. Let him gather it. We will deal with it and him as we
+have dealt hitherto with the enemies of the Lord."
+
+"And what does Judas now?" asked the elder.
+
+With a look of joy and triumph Micah lifted his head and said, "He is in
+Jerusalem. The Lord has given back into our hands the Holy City, the City
+of David His servant."
+
+It is impossible to describe the delight with which this announcement was
+received. The women, even the men, wept for joy. This was indeed a
+glorious gain of victory. Last year they could only see the Holy City from
+afar, and weep over its desolation. Now they could pour out their love and
+their sorrow within its sacred precincts.
+
+"Yes," he repeated, "Judas is in Jerusalem, and is making ready to purify
+the Temple. And you are to return as speedily as you can. The days of your
+exile are over. Our God has recalled His banished unto Him."
+
+His public mission finished, Micah could give time to private affection.
+He went with Ruth and the children to their cave, and then, after sharing
+their morning meal, told them all they wanted to hear. Seraiah and Azariah
+were both safe, though both had had narrow escapes, Azariah's helmet
+having been broken in by a sword-stroke from a gigantic Gaul, and Seraiah
+being saved by a little roll of the Prophecy of Daniel, which he always
+carried about with him--it was a gift from his wife--and which had stopped
+the point of a javelin that would otherwise have pierced his heart. Ruth
+and the children were never satisfied with asking questions and listening
+to his answers. Even the little Daniel seemed to understand something of
+what was being said, as he listened, with his baby-eyes wide open, to the
+talk of his elders.
+
+"And Cleon," asked Ruth, "the Greek with whom you used to be so friendly
+in time past--did you see him? You met him, you told us, in Modin, and
+parted in anger; did you meet him again?"
+
+A cloud seemed to pass over Micah's face at this question, and for a few
+moments he was silent.
+
+"Ah! Ruth," he said, "the Lord be merciful to him, as He has been merciful
+to me! And did I not sin against Him tenfold more grievously than any
+heathen could have sinned? For was I not a child of the Covenant, and had
+I not light and knowledge, whereas he was born in ignorance and knew not
+of the mercies and deliverances which I knew, and knowing despised."
+
+"Is he a prisoner, then?" asked Miriam, "and will Judas spare him?"
+
+"He needs no mercy from man, my child," said Micah, solemnly. "In the
+battle I did not meet him. That was well. I should have been loath to
+cross swords with him; and yet I could hardly have failed to do so. But in
+the evening, when Lysias had fled eastward with the remnants of his host,
+and the victory was won, I saw him on the field of battle. The captain
+himself was with me, as we went among the wounded and the dead, looking
+for any to whom we could give such help as they needed. He had been
+pierced with a ghastly wound through the breast. And when Judas saw him,
+he said to me, 'Ah! that is a brave soldier, and as good a swordsman as
+ever I met. I had a hard bout with him this morning, and had he not
+slipped in making a blow, it might have gone ill with me. Do you know
+him?' 'Yes;' I said, 'in the old time, when I mingled with the heathen and
+walked in their ways.' 'See, then, whether you can help him in any way; I
+love a brave man, be he heathen or no.' I was willing enough to do
+anything that I could for him, you may be sure; one glance at that pale
+face was enough to chase away all the anger with which we had parted.
+'Cleon!' I said. And he knew me and smiled--a very wan and feeble smile,
+but still a smile. Then I tried to stanch the blood that was flowing from
+his wound. 'Nay,' said he, ''tis idle; I am past all help; let it flow,
+and I shall be sooner out of my pain. But, dear Menander--nay, pardon me, I
+should call you Micah--give me some water to drink, for I have a raging
+thirst.' I had a leathern bottle of water, and gave him a draught. Then I
+rested his head upon my shoulder, and bathed his forehead with the water.
+Judas meanwhile had gone further, and I saw a party of the Chasidim
+ranging the field, and I thought that they could scarcely pass us by
+without seeing us, so I said to Cleon, 'Let me lay you down till these are
+past; for if they know you as a friend of Jason they will not spare your
+life. 'Tis better to feign death than to meet it at their hands.' Then he
+smiled and said, 'No need, Micah, to feign death. Your Hammer has smitten
+me down, and I shall not need another stroke.' And almost as he spoke the
+words, he died. And just then the captain came back, and we buried him
+where he had fallen. The Lord have mercy on him!"
+
+"But will He have mercy on the heathen?" said Miriam, who had begun to
+think.
+
+"Nay, child--who knows?" answered Micah. "Surely some of us need His pardon
+more than they, who have not known Him, nor have been called by His name."
+
+  [Illustration: _Farewell to the Mountains._]
+
+The next day Micah returned, in obedience to orders, and two or three days
+afterwards all the party that had been left in the mountains followed him
+to Jerusalem. It was a happy day, but saddened, for the children at least,
+by one loss. The jackal, Jael, followed the party awhile, but when they
+reached the plain, stood still and watched them disappear, making mournful
+cries the while. Even the prospect of seeing their old home could not
+quite reconcile the children to the loss of this strange playmate, who had
+yet grown so dear to them.
+
+And so the rugged mountains which had afforded a refuge to the faithful
+remnant were left again to silence and solitude. But the memory of what
+the confessors and martyrs had endured in the evil days was never to
+perish. Generation after generation remembered with sympathy and reverence
+what men, aye, and weak women and children had borne for conscience'
+sake--cold and hunger and nakedness, and that anguish of soul which is
+harder to be endured than all bodily pain. Two centuries later, an
+inspired Hebrew, writing to Hebrews, commemorated the noble endurance of
+this faithful band in his famous roll of the triumphs of faith: "They
+wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted,
+tormented, of whom the world was not worthy; they wandered in deserts and
+mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth."(15)
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIX.
+
+                              IN JERUSALEM.
+
+
+Among those who watched the approach of Judas and his host to Jerusalem
+were two men, one in extreme old age, the other numbering, it would seem,
+about fifty years. They wore the priestly garments, old indeed and
+threadbare, but still clean and showing many signs of careful repair.
+Theirs was a strange history. For two years they had been in hiding in the
+city. When Apollonius had filled the streets of Jerusalem with blood, the
+murderers had sought with especial care for all priests and Levites. To
+them at least no mercy was to be shown. These two men--Shemaiah was the
+name of the elder of the two, and Joel that of the younger--had narrowly
+escaped death from the soldiers of Apollonius. They had taken refuge--so
+close was the pursuit--in a garden, the gate of which happened to be open,
+and had hidden themselves in the bushes till nightfall. Where they were,
+who or of what race was the owner of the house, whether they were likely
+to meet with more mercy from his hands than they could expect from the
+soldiers, they knew not. But that hiding-place was their only chance, and
+in their desperate strait they snatched at it. While they were debating in
+whispers whether they should throw themselves on the compassion of this
+unknown person, they saw--for it was a moonlight night--the figure of a
+woman walking down a path which passed close by their hiding-place. They
+could see from her features, which the brilliant moonlight of the East
+lighted up, that she was a countrywoman of their own, and they resolved to
+appeal to her for protection. Shemaiah, whose age and venerable appearance
+would, they judged, be less likely to alarm, threw himself on the ground
+at her feet. She started back in astonishment.
+
+"Lady," he said, "I see that you are a daughter of Abraham. Can you help
+two servants of the Lord that have so far escaped from the sword of the
+Greeks?"
+
+She was reassured by a nearer view of the speaker. "Who are you?" she
+said. "Speak without fear, for there is no one to harm you."
+
+Shemaiah told his story.
+
+"And your companion," said Eglah--for that was the woman's name--"where is
+he?"
+
+The old man called to Joel, who came forth at his bidding from his
+hiding-place.
+
+Eglah stood for a few minutes buried in thought. Then she spoke.
+
+"As I hope that the Lord will have mercy on me and pardon my sin, so will
+I help you even to the giving up of my life. But I am not worthy that you
+should come under my roof. Now listen to my story. When Antiochus--the Lord
+reward him for the evil that he has done to His people!--came to this city,
+I was seized and sold for a slave. And a certain Greek soldier, Glaucus by
+name, the captain of a company, bought me in the market. He had compassion
+on me, and dealt honourably with me, and made me his wife after the
+fashion of his people. And I consented to live with him, though I knew
+that it was a sin for a daughter of Abraham to be wife unto a man that was
+a heathen. But alas! sirs, what was I to do? for I was a weak woman, and
+there was no one to help me. Should I have slain him in his sleep, as
+Judith slew Holofernes? Once I thought to do so, and I took a dagger in my
+hand, but when I saw him I repented. Whether it was fear or love that
+turned me I know not. That I was afraid I know, for the very sight of the
+steel made me tremble. And I must confess that I loved him also, for he
+had been very kind and gentle with me; and there is not a goodlier man to
+look at in all Jerusalem."
+
+"Be comforted, my daughter," said Shemaiah, whose years had taught him a
+tolerance to which his younger companion had, perhaps, scarcely attained.
+"'Tis at least no sin for a wife to love her husband."
+
+"Then you do not think me so wicked as to be beyond all hope?" cried poor
+Eglah, eagerly.
+
+"Nay, my daughter," said the old man; "you were in a sore strait, and all
+women are not as Judith was."
+
+"Then you will not refuse to come into my house? I have a large cellar
+where you can lie hid. 'Tis under the ground, indeed, but airy and dry,
+and you can make shift to live there. And I will feed you as best I may.
+My husband has an open hand, and never makes any question as to the money
+that I spend upon the house, and he will not know what I have done. I
+judge it best to keep the thing from him, not because I fear that he would
+betray you--for he is an honourable man and kindly, but it would go hard
+with him, being an officer in the army of the King, if it should be
+discovered that he knew it."
+
+And so for two years Shemaiah and Joel had inhabited the cellar in Eglah's
+house. Glaucus, the husband, was just the kindly, generous man whom his
+wife had described. Once or twice he had terrified her by some joking
+remark about the rapidity with which the provision purchased for the house
+disappeared. "When we dine together, my darling," he said, on one
+occasion, "you eat what would be scarce enough for a well-favoured fly;
+but I am glad to think that you are hungry at other times." "O husband,"
+she said, "there are many poor of my own people, and I cannot deny them."
+She hoped as she said it that the falsehood would not be counted as
+another sin against her. "Nay, nay, darling," said the good-natured man.
+"Give as much as thou wilt. Thank the gods and his Highness the King I
+have enough and to spare."
+
+Glaucus, though allowed to live in his own house, had, of course, to spend
+much time upon his military duties, and was, consequently, often away.
+During his absence Eglah could bring out the two prisoners from their
+underground lodging, and allow them to enjoy the fresh air of the garden,
+which, happily, was not overlooked. She gave them the best food that her
+means would procure, and at the same time took pains, as has been said, to
+keep their garments scrupulously clean and neat. On the whole they passed
+the time of their captivity in tolerable comfort, and without much injury
+to their health. Latterly they had been cheered by the tidings, always
+given to them at the very earliest opportunity by their hostess, of the
+successes of Judas. Within the last few days Glaucus had told his wife
+that a decisive battle was expected, that it would probably be fought at
+Beth-zur, and that if her countrymen won it, there was nothing that could
+hinder them from taking possession of Jerusalem.
+
+Glaucus, who held a command in the garrison of the fort, had not been with
+Lysias at Beth-zur, but he had heard late on the evening of the day of the
+result of the battle and had, of course, told it to his wife, and she in
+turn had communicated it to her inmates. They had been scarcely able to
+sleep for joy, and had eagerly waited for news of the conqueror's
+approach. Evening was come, and Eglah had not paid them the accustomed
+visit. The house was curiously silent; all day not a sound of voices or
+steps had reached their ears. And now the suspense had become unbearable.
+"Go forth," said Shemaiah to his younger companion, "go forth, and bring
+me word again." Joel crept out of his retreat. The streets were deserted;
+but the fortress was crowded. The garrison stood thickly clustered on the
+walls, and with them were many inhabitants of the city. It was easy to
+guess that what Glaucus had foretold had happened. Judas was on his way to
+take possession of Jerusalem, and all who had compromised themselves by
+resisting him, had either fled from the place altogether or had taken
+refuge in the fort. He returned to Shemaiah with a description of what he
+had seen, and the two at once hastened down to the walls to greet the
+deliverers.
+
+The sun was near its setting when they entered the city. Without turning
+to the right or left, though many must have been consumed with anxiety to
+hear the fate of kinsmen and friends, they marched to Mount Sion. It was
+an hour of triumph, the fruition of hopes passionately cherished through
+many a dark day of sorrow. To stand once more in the place which God had
+chosen to set His name there, how glorious. But it had its bitterness, as
+such hours will have, for it was a miserable sight that greeted them.
+Nothing, indeed, had been done of which they had not heard. There was
+nothing that they might not have expected or foreseen. Yet the actual view
+of the holy place in its dismal forlornness overpowered them. It was as if
+the sight had come upon them by surprise. "When they saw the Sanctuary
+desolate and the altar profaned, and the gates burnt with fire, and shrubs
+growing in the courts as in a forest or one of the mountains, and the
+chambers of the priests pulled down, they rent their clothes, and made
+great lamentations, and cast ashes upon their heads, and fell down flat to
+the ground upon their faces."
+
+To repair this ruin, to put an end to this desolation, to purify the place
+which had been so shamefully polluted, was the first duty of the
+deliverers. But that the work might be done in peace it was necessary that
+the fortress of Acra, to use military language, should be masked. A strong
+force was told off to perform this duty; the rest would lend their aid to
+the great work of purification.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XX.
+
+                       THE CLEANSING OF THE TEMPLE.
+
+
+Azariah and Micah had been put under John, the eldest of the five
+brothers, in command of the force employed to blockade the garrison of
+Acra. The night had passed quietly; the garrison had not attempted a
+sortie, and had not even harassed the besiegers with a discharge of
+missiles. And when the morning came they seemed inclined to continue the
+same inaction. From the high ground the two Jews looked down upon the
+Temple courts and saw the priests directing a crowd of eager helpers in
+the work of cleansing the Sanctuary, and labouring diligently with their
+own hands. The first task was to pull down the idol altar which had been
+erected on the altar of burnt-offering. This was done in a fury of haste.
+The hands of the workmen could not, it seemed, move fast enough in
+destroying the abominable thing. The stones were carried out of the temple
+with gestures of loathing and disgust, and afterwards taken to the Valley
+of Hinnom--unholy things to be cast away in an unholy place.
+
+But the stones of the holy altar itself had been polluted by the
+superstructure that had been erected upon them. What was to be done with
+them? At least it was manifest that they could not stand where they were.
+Sacrifice could not be offered upon them. They were reverently detached
+from the cement which bound them together, and then borne one by one to a
+chamber of the Temple, where they were to be laid up till a prophet should
+arise who should show what was to be done with them. The first duty of
+dealing with the altar completed, came the work of cleansing and repairing
+the courts and chambers. The long, trailing creepers were pulled down; the
+weeds and shrubs were rooted out. The place was still a ruin, but the
+manifest signs of its desolation and abandonment were removed. So numerous
+and so eager were the labourers that for this part of the work a few hours
+sufficed. The task of reparation would, of necessity, be longer and more
+tedious.
+
+Azariah and Micah had been watching the work with perhaps a more absorbing
+interest than was quite consistent with their duty of watching the
+garrison, when suddenly one of the sentries blew an alarm. Scarcely had it
+sounded when a flight of arrows from the garrison of the fortress fell
+among the besiegers. The Greeks had watched their opportunity, and when
+almost all eyes were turned on the work that was going on below, had sent
+a volley among the ranks of the enemy.
+
+This sudden attack did no little damage. One or two of the patriots were
+killed on the spot, several were seriously wounded; the others either
+covered themselves with their shields, a precaution which they ought not
+to have neglected, or sought refuge among the ruins.
+
+Azariah, though he had been caught a little off his guard, was not
+unprepared to deal with a manifestation of this kind. He had organized a
+company of slingers, and he now ordered them to advance and clear the wall
+of its defenders. They knelt with one knee upon the ground, and covered
+themselves with their shields. Under this shelter they loaded their
+slings. Then, rising rapidly at a preconcerted signal from their
+commander, they sent a simultaneous and well-directed shower of leaden
+bullets on the defenders of the wall. These missiles, sent with a skill
+and a strength in which the Jewish slingers were unsurpassed, had a
+marvellous effect. In a moment the wall was cleared, except that here and
+there along its length the dead and wounded might be seen. The survivors
+did not venture forth from shelter to carry them away. A fierce conflict
+followed. From the loopholes of the towers and from behind the battlements
+the Greek archers kept up the discharge of their arrows, and the Jewish
+slingers replied. No great damage was done on either side; but every now
+and then a skilful aim at some exposed body or limb was followed by a cry
+of pain from the wounded man, and the cry was taken up by a shout of
+triumph from the hostile force. In the course of the afternoon a storm
+came on, with thunder and lightning and a deluge of rain. Before it had
+cleared away the light had failed, and hostilities had perforce to be
+suspended.
+
+About the beginning of the second watch(16) Micah, who was making a round
+of the sentries, heard the sound of something that seemed to fall heavily
+upon the soft and plashy ground. The rain had ceased, and the sky had
+partially cleared; for a few minutes all was still; then Micah could hear
+a sighing which was not the sighing of the wind. He followed the guidance
+of the sound, and found a woman lying almost insensible upon the ground.
+He called one of the sentinels to help him, and together they carried her
+under shelter, and brought torches, by the light of which they might
+examine her injuries. That she was stunned by the fall was evident, for
+she did not speak, and when they attempted to move her she groaned with
+the pain. When left alone she did not seem to suffer much, and they judged
+it best to wait for the morning, administering meanwhile a little wine and
+water from time to time.
+
+The next morning four of the soldiers were told off to remove her on a
+litter that had been constructed for the use of the wounded to a deserted
+house in the Lower City--and of deserted houses there was only too great a
+choice. As the bearers put down their burden on the way to take a brief
+rest a strange figure came up to the party. It was a woman, young and
+still showing the remains of beauty, but with a miserably haggard look. It
+was easy to see from her uncertain gait and wandering eye that she was a
+lunatic.
+
+Huldah had been for some time a well-known figure in Jerusalem, and her
+story was of the saddest. She had been a servant in the house of Seraiah,
+and had been Ruth's own waiting-maid. Returning home from some errand on
+which she had been sent one day at the beginning of Apollonius's reign of
+terror, she had been seized by the attendants of the newly-dedicated
+Temple of Jupiter, and made a slave. Before many weeks had passed the
+cruel outrages to which she was subjected overthrew her reason. Thus
+become a trouble to her captors she was permitted to escape. Since then
+she had been accustomed to wander about the city. The horrors of the past
+still haunted her, and the recollection of the abominable idolatries in
+which she had been forced to serve. At every pool of water and fountain
+she would stay and wash. From every passer-by she would beg for something
+that might serve for her cleansing: it was the one craving of her soul to
+be rid of its defilement. For food or money she never asked; but a few
+kindly souls in the city gave her enough to support life, and sometimes
+would renew the garments, threadbare, but always scrupulously neat and
+clean, which she wore. Of these friends the kindest was Eglah, who had a
+fellow-feeling for the sufferer, and who was always on the watch to atone
+by her charitable deeds for what she believed to be the great offence of
+her life.
+
+Huldah cast a glance at the litter in passing, and at once recognized in
+the suffering woman her own benefactress. For indeed it was Eglah whom
+Micah had found under the fortress wall. The recognition made a marvellous
+change in the poor maniac. It turned her thoughts in another direction.
+She ceased to dwell upon her own sufferings, and, for the time at least,
+reason regained its sway.
+
+She knelt down by the side of the litter, and kissed one of the hands that
+hung listlessly down. Then, rising to her feet, she arranged the cushion
+on which Eglah lay so as to make it more comfortable. That done, she bade
+the bearers take up their burden, made a gesture of dissent when they were
+turning aside to the house to which they had been directed, and led the
+way to Eglah's own dwelling.
+
+The unhappy creature was positively transformed by the charge which had
+thus been laid upon her. The most intelligent and thoughtful nurse could
+not have done better for her patient than did the poor distracted Huldah.
+A physician who was called in examined Eglah, and found that though she
+had been sadly bruised and shaken, no bones were broken. Whether any
+internal injury existed was more than he could positively say; that time
+alone would show. Meanwhile careful attention was all that could be done
+for her, and attention more careful than Huldah's it would be impossible
+to imagine.
+
+The two priests who had found shelter in Eglah's house were naturally
+among those whom Judas had summoned to take part in the cleansing of the
+Temple when he made proclamation for all such as, being of the House of
+Aaron, were "of blameless conversation and had pleasure in the Law." Posts
+of special dignity were, indeed, conferred upon them, for both were men of
+high reputation for sanctity and learning, which was not a little
+increased by the romantic story of their long seclusion and marvellous
+escape. Judas assigned them quarters near to his own, and was accustomed
+to have frequent recourse to their advice. They thus found themselves
+almost constantly employed, and were unable for several days to find an
+opportunity of inquiring what had happened to their protectress.
+
+When at last they found their way to the house Eglah had sufficiently
+recovered her strength to be able to rise from her bed. She was sitting,
+busy with her needle. Huldah was watching her with an intense look of
+affection that was infinitely pathetic.
+
+The poor woman told her story with a voice that again and again was broken
+with sobs.
+
+"When I was preparing your morning meal in the kitchen my husband, whom I
+had never before known to set foot in the place, suddenly appeared. I was
+greatly terrified lest he should ask for whom I was getting the food
+ready, but he was too much occupied with other things to notice it at all.
+'Eglah,' he said, 'you must come with me into the fort. Judas the Hammer
+has broken our army to pieces. Lysias has fled before him, no one knows
+whither, and within a few hours he will be in the city. I would have you
+here, for the fort is scarcely a place for a woman, but I fear your
+people. Haply they may slay you as having been yoked to a heathen. My
+darling,' he went on--and here poor Eglah's voice was choked with tears--'I
+have done ill for you, I fear; but I meant it for the best. And now, I
+fear, you must cast in your lot with me. May the God whom you serve turn
+it for good.' So I gathered a few things together, and went with him. I
+thought many times that we should scarcely have reached the fort alive,
+for the people cursed us as we went, the women especially casting many
+bitter words at me as one that had left her people to join herself to the
+heathen. But my husband had some six or seven soldiers with him; and they
+were brave men and well armed. We had not been many hours in the fort
+before there began a battle between the garrison and the soldiers of
+Judas. One of my husband's men, who had gone in a spirit of folly and
+vanity to show his courage, was struck down with a stone, and my husband
+ran forth to drag him in. And just as he was returning, another stone from
+the slingers struck him on the back of his head. It was about the ninth
+hour of the day when he was wounded, and he lived till the beginning of
+the second watch, but he never spoke again."
+
+Here the poor creature's story became confused and broken, and her
+listeners could only guess what had followed. The tale of what followed
+must be told for her. "'Ah!' said one of the soldiers, 'Glaucus has it. He
+will never move again, I reckon. A good fellow, but overstrict.' 'But how
+about the Jewish girl whom he calls his wife?' said the other; 'I shall
+take her.' 'Nay, nay; let there be fair play between us, comrade, as there
+has always been. Why you more than I?' 'Because I was the first to speak.'
+'Not so; 'twas I that first spoke of her.' 'Well, we won't quarrel,
+comrade. No woman is good enough to separate old friends. Let us cast the
+dice for her, and the man that wins shall stand treat for a flagon of
+wine.' And then Eglah heard them cast the dice, and count the numbers--they
+would have twenty throws a-piece, they said--and curse and swear when they
+threw low. And when they had finished their dice-throwing they came in to
+see how Glaucus fared; and just as they entered the chamber, he drew a
+long breath and died. One of them put his hand upon his heart and said,
+''Tis all over with him; he will never toss a flagon or kiss a pretty girl
+again.' And then he laid his hand upon Eglah's shoulder, and said, 'Cheer
+up; we will find another husband for thee as good as he.' But the first
+said, 'Nay, Timon, leave her alone. The women are not like us. You must
+give them a few hours to cry.' 'Well, well,' said his comrade, 'you were
+always soft-hearted. Let us come and have our flagon; there is no reason
+why we should wait for that.'" The comrades went on their errand and left
+the widow alone with her dead husband. She kissed him, and cut off a
+little curl of his hair, and then went forth on the wall--for the chamber
+in which he lay was in one of the wall-towers--and threw herself down to
+the ground. It was better, she thought, to die than to sin again.
+
+"Daughter," said Joel, "you should thank the Lord that, without your own
+doing, the tie that bound you to this heathen man is broken."
+
+"O sir," broke out the poor woman, "do not say so. I cannot find it in my
+heart to thank Him, though I do try to say in my heart, 'Thy will be
+done.'"
+
+"Brother," said the old Shemaiah, "you are too hard upon her. 'Tis right
+that a wife should mourn for her husband, be he Jew or Greek. Before the
+Lord, I had thought ill of her had she been of the temper that you would
+have her."
+
+Eglah turned to the old man a grateful look. "O sir," she said, "you do
+not know how kind and good my Glaucus was. I never had an angry word from
+him. Nor did he ever hinder me from my prayers. Rather he would say when I
+went three times to my chamber to pray, 'Speak a word for me, wife, if you
+will.' And he would oftentimes speak to me about my God, and say that he
+liked Him better than the gods in whom _he_ had been taught to believe.
+And I used to tell him stories out of the Book, and how the Lord had
+delivered his people out of the land of Egypt, and had brought them into
+the land which He sware to Abraham to give him. And he never mocked or
+laughed, but listened with all his heart. And, sir, I do sometimes think
+that if he had been spared to live longer, he would have become one of us.
+But he is dead, and I shall never, never see him any more."
+
+And the poor desolate widow burst out into a passion of tears, and threw
+herself prostrate on the couch, Huldah trying to comfort her, not with
+words--which, indeed, she could not command, and which, in any case, would
+have been of small avail--but with great demonstrations of love.
+
+After a while Eglah looked up, and turning to Shemaiah, in whose sympathy
+and charity she trusted, said, "O, sir, do you think that there is any
+hope for him? Must he go into that dreadful Gehenna? For indeed he was
+kind and good, and never thought of any woman but his wife, and never
+injured one of our people, but would help them and defend them when his
+fellows were rough with them. He was better than many Jews that I know. Is
+it not possible that God may have mercy upon him?"
+
+Joel was about to speak, but Shemaiah beckoned to him to hold his peace.
+"My daughter," he said, "these things are too deep for us; but I would
+say, be of good hope for him that is gone, seeing that he was such as you
+say. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? To some He giveth much
+light, and to some but little; and He judgeth each according to that which
+He has given. Therefore I bid you be of good cheer."
+
+"And may I pray for him?" asked Eglah.
+
+"Surely you may, for no prayer, so that it come out of an honest heart and
+pure lips, but finds some fulfilment."(17)
+
+He rose and, giving her his blessing, departed, followed by Joel, whose
+narrow intelligence was not a little startled by what his old companion
+had said.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXI.
+
+                      THE DEDICATION OF THE TEMPLE.
+
+
+Jerusalem now began to assume an aspect very different from that which it
+had borne for some years past. Thousands, who had been driven away by the
+terrors of the evil days, now hastened to return. Many of the lower class,
+constrained by the necessity of poverty, had always remained, enduring
+persecution as best they could, and often, of course, escaping it by their
+obscurity. Now the wealthier inhabitants began to flock back from their
+hiding-places in the country and from foreign lands; the streets again
+began to be busy; the shopkeepers displayed the wares which there had been
+no one to purchase, or which they had been afraid to show; the long-shut
+markets were reopened and thronged with purchasers.
+
+The priests alone, gathered as they were from their abodes scattered
+throughout Palestine, made a considerable addition to the population of
+the city. They were a numerous class, far beyond any requirements of their
+sacrificial duties, and commonly remained at home, awaiting the rarely
+recurring occasion of services that called them to Jerusalem. But now a
+work was before them in which all could take part, for the Temple, having
+been cleansed and having received such repair as could be done at once,
+was to be dedicated afresh.
+
+The first necessary work was the construction of a new altar of sacrifice.
+This work was to be of the primitive kind, in strict conformity to the
+Law, and as unlike as possible to the elaborate erections of the alien
+worship, and it was to be done, from first to last, by the consecrated
+hands of the priests. They dug out of the earth of the valley rough
+stones. No tool of iron was to be used in raising them from their place;
+none was to be employed in hewing them into shape. It was the priests
+again who solemnly conveyed them into the Great Court of the Temple, who
+joined them together with mortar, and covered them with whitewash.
+Meanwhile other preparations for a wholly renovated service were being
+busily carried on. Most of the furniture of the Temple had been carried
+off by a succession of plunderers; if any of the less valuable and less
+easily removed articles had been left these had suffered an irremediable
+defilement. Everything therefore had to be replaced; and workmen were now
+busily employed in this work. The altar of incense, the candlestick with
+its seven branches, the table on which the loaves of the shew-bread were
+to be placed, the mercy-seat with the overshadowing cherubim that was the
+chief feature of the Holy of Holies, and the various curtains that were
+needed for the separation of the various parts of the building, were
+manufactured with all possible haste, some of the articles, from lack of
+time and materials, being intended to serve their purpose only till they
+could be more worthily replaced. Generally, however, it was time rather
+than means that was wanting, for in the late campaigns treasure almost
+enough to replace the spoliations of years had been taken from the Greeks,
+and this, after being duly purified and blessed, could be devoted to holy
+uses.
+
+And so came on the day that had been appointed for the Feast of
+Dedication. It was to be the 25th of the month Chisleu.(18) It was a
+memorable day, both for good and evil, in the annals of Jewish worship. On
+this day, ages before, Jerusalem, the newly-won capital of the nation, had
+been finally chosen as the place where God should set His name; for on
+this day David, as he made atonement in the day of pestilence, bought the
+threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite to be the future dwelling-place of
+the Presence of the Lord God of Israel. And on this day, again, five years
+ago, the first idol sacrifice had been offered within the consecrated
+precincts.
+
+In the early morning, before the sun had risen upon the earth, a spark was
+obtained by striking stone against stone, the fire was rekindled on the
+altar, the golden candlestick was lighted and the table of the shew-bread
+duly furnished with its twelve loaves.
+
+Meanwhile the rest of the people also had been busy in making preparations
+for the great celebration. Every family, even the poorest, was to keep
+festival on the day that was to be a new beginning of the national life.
+The women and children were early afoot, gathering branches of palms and
+other "goodly trees"; none of them having busier hands than Ruth and her
+nieces. Even the little Daniel would take his part in the work, tottering
+along by his mother's side with his arms full of boughs. When they had
+gathered as great a burden as they could carry, Ruth gathered her little
+company about her, and told them, just as the rising sun began to flood
+the valley with its slanting rays, the story of the day--of the glory and
+the shame which it had brought to Israel.
+
+And now, as the time of the morning sacrifice drew near, the whole people
+moved in one great stream towards the Temple, and the Great Court was
+crowded. On the walls of the fortress the heathen soldiers of the garrison
+stood in throngs watching the solemnities of the day. Some of them, of
+course, were ready with their mockery; but most looked on in respectful
+silence. Many of them had witnessed the prowess of these strange fanatics
+in the field. They might be given over to a "senseless and tasteless
+superstition," but they could deal shrewd blows with their swords, and
+therefore they were not to be despised. No truce had been arranged, but
+one was tacitly observed. The forbearance of the Greeks was partly due to
+a wholesome awe of the Jewish archers and slingers, partly to a curiosity
+that, as has been said, was not wholly unmixed with respect.
+
+Then came the solemn ritual of sacrifice. This ended, the whole
+congregation of the people united in solemn supplication to the Lord God
+of Israel. Usually it was the custom to stand during the office of prayer;
+sometimes the attitude of kneeling was used; now, as if to express the
+intensity of their feeling, they threw themselves flat upon their faces,
+and poured out their entreaty that evils such as they had endured in the
+past might never again come upon them in the future. "O Lord,"--this was
+the burden of their prayer,--"if we sin against Thee any more, do Thou
+chasten us Thyself with Thine own hand, after the multitude of Thy
+mercies. Make us suffer that which shall seem good to Thee here in our own
+land, but scatter us no more among the heathen, and deliver us not again
+unto the nations that blaspheme Thy holy name."
+
+The prayer ended, came the great Psalm of Thanksgiving; and then the
+people dispersed to their houses to hold festival. Their mirth was
+prolonged far into the night, which, indeed, was almost turned into day
+throughout the streets of Jerusalem, so brilliant was the light that
+streamed from the lamps set in almost every window.
+
+For eight days the Feast of Dedication was continued. Each day the
+services began with the customary morning sacrifice. At earliest dawn the
+Master of the Temple summoned the priests who had been watching round the
+fire in the gate-house as they waited for his summons. Then they went out
+and fetched the lamb for the burnt-offering. The creature had already been
+examined on the previous day, and pronounced to be free from spot or
+blemish. This done, they went outside the court in which the great altar
+stood, and watched for the coming day. The Mount of Olives stood between
+them and the East, and far behind it were the mountains of Moab. Here the
+first streaks of the morning light were to show themselves. Then the
+priest whose turn it was to slay the victim of the day bathed in the great
+laver. Thus purified for the performance of his office, he stirred up the
+burning embers from under the ashes of the altar, and added fresh fuel.
+This done, he was joined by the other priests, and the morning sacrifice
+was offered. Then followed the special ceremonies of the festival, among
+them the prayer for deliverance from captivity, as already given, and the
+singing of the great Thanksgiving. And every day the public services were
+followed by private rejoicings. No one could have believed that the
+rejoicing city, gay with its brightly dressed throngs of merry-makers and
+resounding with the music of tabret and harp, was the desolate place so
+long trodden down by the heathen. There had been days in the past when the
+most hopeful could scarcely discern any light in the darkness. But now
+they could see the "silver lining of the cloud." In this very Temple, now
+dedicated afresh with such joyous zeal, but a few years before, the
+priests "had left the sacrifices when the game of the Discus called them
+forth." That deadly folly had been purged with blood. The brutal violence
+of Antiochus had saved the nation from an imminent relapse into
+heathenism.
+
+Among the many hearts that were gladdened by these rejoicings there was
+one, as sorely burdened as any, that had found a complete deliverance from
+the troubles of the past. The unhappy Huldah, in proportion as her charge
+gained strength, and her work became less absorbing, had seemed to be
+falling back into her old condition. For the time her thoughts had been
+concentrated on the suffering Eglah; now they were free to be turned upon
+herself, her own troubles, her own dismal memories. Eglah did all she
+could to keep her employed, and the girl's gentle and affectionate nature
+still felt her influence. Yet it was evident that unless some remedy could
+be found the old madness would resume its sway.
+
+On the first day of the Dedication festival, the two were standing
+together in the Court of the Women. The priests, who were making a circuit
+of the whole building, sprinkling everywhere the blood of purification,
+came in due course to the spot. As they performed their office a drop fell
+upon the garment of Huldah, who had been joining in the prayers with an
+earnestness almost frenzied. The effect was marvellous. In a moment the
+excitement passed away. Her eyes lost their wandering look, and, in a tone
+calmer and more collected than any that she had ever before been known to
+use since the time of her trouble, she said, showing the crimson spot to
+Eglah--"He has heard my prayer; He has sprinkled me with the blood of
+cleansing." She stood silent and collected until the whole ritual was
+finished, and when the time for the hymn of thanksgiving came round joined
+her voice with a quiet happiness to the voices of the congregation.
+
+When the people returned to their homes Huldah left the Temple in company
+with Eglah. But it was evident that her strength was exhausted. She could
+barely totter along with all the help that Eglah and a neighbour could
+give her, and when she came to the house of Seraiah and Ruth, which
+happened to lie in her way, she sank almost unconscious to the ground.
+Providentially at that moment Ruth came up with her husband and the little
+Daniel.
+
+"She seemed so much better in the Temple--was quite calm and peaceful
+again--and now I am afraid that she is going to be very ill," said Eglah.
+
+Woman's wit suggested to Ruth a happy thought for dealing with the
+sufferer.
+
+"Leave her to me," she said. "She was happy here once, and here, if it
+please the Lord, she will be happy again."
+
+Ruth and her husband carried her into the house, and laid her upon her bed
+in her old chamber. Once there she was able to swallow a little broth
+which had been hastily prepared, cast one grateful look of recognition at
+her old mistress, and then fell into a deep sleep. The next morning she
+awoke, entirely restored to reason, and, though still somewhat weak, able
+to go about the household tasks in which she had been once employed, and
+which she resumed at once without a question, and as if, indeed, they had
+never been interrupted for a day. The three years of misery were entirely
+blotted out of her memory; nor did any spectre from the past ever come
+back to trouble her.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXII.
+
+                        WARS AND RUMOURS OF WARS.
+
+
+The Feast of Dedication having been kept and made an ordinance in Israel
+for ever,(19) Judas's next act was to fortify the restored Temple. It was
+exposed, even more than the rest of the city, to a sudden attack from the
+garrison of the fort, which might work irreparable mischief could it gain,
+even for an hour, possession of the sacred building. Accordingly a high
+wall, strengthened at intervals by towers, was now erected round it, and a
+force was told off from the army to watch it. This done, the patriot
+leader could attend without anxiety to other cares. At Beth-zur a fortress
+was erected and strongly garrisoned to guard the Eastern frontier
+especially against the attacks of the Idumeans, who, under their new name,
+inherited all the old Edomite jealousy of Israel. After personally
+superintending the erection of this stronghold, Judas marched against
+other tribes on the east and south, who had been taking advantage of the
+troublous times to plunder their Jewish neighbours. The Arabs of the
+Negeb, or South Country, were defeated at a pass near the Dead Sea, which
+bore the appropriate name of the Pass of the Scorpions; the Ammonites,
+another tribe whose kinship with the chosen people seems to have
+embittered their hereditary enmity, were defeated under their Greek
+leader, Timotheus.
+
+Meanwhile life at Jerusalem had been settling down into a peaceful order.
+The younger of the two priests whom Eglah had befriended had found scope
+for his energies by joining the army; Shemaiah, the elder, was again an
+inmate in the house which had sheltered him, where Eglah, who had never
+forgotten the charity with which he had spoken of her husband, tended him
+with all the care of a daughter. The old man was never tired of hearing
+the story of the two dismal years during which he had been in hiding.
+
+"Ah, father!" she said to him one day, "you were not so ill off in your
+poor prison after all. Had you had your liberty you would have seen altars
+to the false gods in every street. And it was not safe to pass them
+without showing some sign of reverence."
+
+"And how did you fare, my daughter?" asked the old man.
+
+"I could avoid them, knowing where they were, by passing by on the other
+side, and my good Glaucus--the Lord have mercy on him!--was always kind and
+helpful. He would fetch the water regularly from the fountain, where there
+was an altar to the Naiad, as they called the demon of the spring, which I
+could not have avoided. The people used to laugh at him for doing a
+woman's work, but he did not heed them. O why was he taken away before he
+could learn the truth? I think that he would have known it if he could
+have lived a little longer."
+
+And the poor woman burst into a passion of tears. She was always haunted
+with this fear of her husband's fate, and reproached herself with not
+having been earnest enough in speaking of the truth to her husband.
+
+"Peace, my daughter," said the old man, gently; "the mercies of the Lord
+are without end, and His ways past finding out. Be sure that He will not
+forget the kindness that was showed to a daughter of Abraham. But tell
+me," he went on, anxious to change the subject--"tell me how we came to
+find the courts of the Temple desolate and overgrown as though no one had
+entered them for months? Did you not say that there were sacrifices there,
+and feasts to the demons whom the Greeks worship?"
+
+"Yes, father; it was so for a time. But soon there were few or none to
+make sacrifices, for the city was utterly impoverished. So the priests,
+whom Philip the Phrygian and Apollonius--the curse of the Lord be upon
+him!--brought in to serve at the altars, went elsewhere, for, of a truth,
+they would have died of hunger had they stayed here. O father, it was a
+mournful existence; of a truth we were fed with the bread of affliction
+and the water of affliction."
+
+As they talked Ruth came in with a troubled face.
+
+"O Eglah!" she cried, "I did hope that we should have peace and quiet, but
+there are wars and rumours of wars on every side. This morning letters
+came to the captain from our brethren in Gilead. That evil Timotheus--would
+to God he had not escaped out of the hand of Judas!--has gathered together
+a host of the Ammonites and slain some--a thousand, 'tis said, with their
+wives and children, and shut up the rest in the fortress of Dametha. And
+now my husband and my brother are in council with the captain, and I fear
+me much that they will be sent to the wars, for indeed," she added, with a
+touch of a woman's pride in those that are dear to her, "Judas esteems
+them highly, and will always have them in places of trust. Nor would I
+keep them back from helping the Lord's people. But hark! I hear his step."
+
+As she spoke Seraiah came in from the council.
+
+"How is it?" cried Ruth, with trembling voice, her fears again getting the
+upper hand. "Do you go? and Azariah?"
+
+"Yes, my dearest, I go, and next in command to the captain and his
+brothers."
+
+Ruth flung her arms round her husband's neck. "Oh! I am proud of you; but
+yet if you could have stayed, for our little Daniel is so young----"
+
+And she could say no more.
+
+"Nay, wife, be of good cheer, and do not grudge us to the Lord's service,
+for indeed there is need of us all. Even while the letters from Gilead
+were being read there came messengers from Galilee with their clothes
+rent. From them we heard that the men of Ptolemais and of Tyre and Sidon
+and all Galilee of the Gentiles were gathered together. Then it was
+determined that Simon should go to Galilee with three thousand men, and
+Judas and Jonathan to Gilead."
+
+"And what of Azariah?"
+
+"He and Joseph, the son of Zachariah, are to be left in the city with the
+remnant of the army as captains of the people. They are to have the
+Governor's house, and you, with our little Daniel, will live there while I
+am away. This will be well for you, and for Miriam and Judith also, for
+there will be many coming and going, and Miriam is a fair maiden, as she
+should be, being kin to you."
+
+Ruth smiled through her tears at the lover-like compliment.
+
+"Come now," Seraiah went on, "and get ready what I shall want for my
+journey, for we set out at sunset."
+
+The two women kissed each other, and the old priest blessed Seraiah. "The
+Lord give thee strength in the day of battle, and deliver thee out of the
+hand of the enemy, and bring thee back to the house of thy fathers."
+
+At sunset exactly--for Judas was one of the commanders who are exactly and
+punctually obeyed--the two expeditions set forth.
+
+Their departure was, of course, observed by the garrison of the fort, who
+were encouraged by it to make some fierce sallies on the diminished forces
+of the patriots. These were as fiercely repelled, and in a few days things
+settled down again into the virtual truce which had existed for some time
+between besiegers and besieged.
+
+Eight days after the departure of the expeditions tidings of victory came
+from the main army under Judas. The captain of the host had taken Bozrah,
+in Edom. The place lay at least a hundred miles to the east; but the
+patriots had covered the distance with unexpected rapidity, and, reaching
+the place before there had been any notion of their approach, had taken it
+almost without resistance. The messenger had left, he said, as soon as the
+place was taken, but Judas had marched the same night to Dametha, which
+was in urgent need of relief.
+
+The next day came in tidings of further success. Dametha and its garrison,
+with the crowd of helpless fugitives which had sought shelter within its
+walls, was safe. The night march from Bozrah had been made just in time.
+Had it been delayed till morning it might well have been too late. The
+Ammonites had chosen that very day for a fierce assault upon the place.
+Just as the day was dawning and the assailants were close under the walls
+Judas had appeared. His approach had been observed by the besieged, who
+had watched it from the citadel, but the assailants were taken by
+surprise. Hemmed in between two attacking forces, the garrison who made a
+sortie from the town and the army of the patriots in the rear, they had
+been utterly routed. Timotheus had barely escaped with his life, and had
+fled northward, followed by Judas in hot pursuit. A few days afterwards
+came the news that the campaign was at an end--begun and finished within
+the space of two weeks. This time the captain had found time to write a
+despatch. It ran thus:--
+
+"Judas, Captain of the Lord's host, to Azariah, greeting. Know that the
+Lord has delivered the enemy into our hands. Timotheus, having suffered
+defeat at Dametha, fled northward to a temple where the heathen worship
+the 'Two-horned Ashtaroth,' a strong place by nature and skilfully
+fortified. I judged it better that I should not spill the blood of the
+people of the Lord in assaulting it, and so, having cleared the walls of
+defenders by help of my slingers, I surrounded it with great quantities of
+faggots. To these I caused fire to be set, nor did my slingers suffer the
+Ammonites to approach to put out the flames. In the end the whole was
+consumed, and Timotheus perished in the fire. The Lord has rewarded him
+according to his deeds. So much for what has been done: now for what
+remains to do. This country is not as yet a safe dwelling-place, and will
+not be till the heathen shall be more thoroughly subdued. It is my
+purpose, therefore, to bring the people of this land to Jerusalem.
+Provide, to the best of your ability, for their food and lodging.
+Farewell!"
+
+The exultation felt by the people at Jerusalem when the tidings of their
+final victory reached them passes description. The times of David, they
+were sure, were about to return. The promise was once again to be
+fulfilled--"He shall reign from the flood [the Euphrates], unto the world's
+end." In the Temple chant of the day the words went--"I will not be afraid
+of ten thousands of the people that have set themselves against me round
+about. Up, Lord, and help me, O my God, for Thou smitest all Thine enemies
+upon the cheek-bone. Thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly."
+
+But when tidings of still further victories, won by Simon in Galilee, came
+in to swell the popular enthusiasm, there was a certain change of feeling,
+something of the jealousy that almost inevitably springs up when great
+deeds are done. Joseph and Azariah chafed at the life of inaction which
+they were forced to live at Jerusalem, and what they thought in their
+hearts the soldiers did not hesitate to express openly. "Let us also," so
+ran the common talk--"let us also get for ourselves a name, and go and
+fight against the enemies of the Lord."
+
+On the day after the tidings of Simon's victories came in the two captains
+were waited upon by a deputation of soldiers, who came to urge that they
+might be relieved from the inaction to which they were condemned, an
+inaction made all the more hard to bear by the glories that were being won
+elsewhere. Azariah and Joseph listened with attention, and, indeed, were
+at no pains to hide their sympathy.
+
+"The men are right," said Joseph, when the deputation had withdrawn. "They
+will lose all heart if we keep them idling here."
+
+"In my heart I am inclined to agree with you," answered his colleague;
+"but what did the captain say?--'Watch the garrison of the heathen that
+they do no hurt to the city and the Holy Place while we are away.' But he
+said nothing of going elsewhere, and I should be unwilling to disobey him,
+for, beyond all doubt, the Lord is with him."
+
+"Nay, brother, you are too narrow in your thoughts of obeying. We obey him
+best if we do the best that we can for the cause of the Lord. And though I
+honour Judas greatly, yet he is but a captain in the Lord's host, even as
+we are. Why should we not do as he has done? And tell me, Azariah," he
+went on, "do you think that the vision which you saw when the angel of the
+Lord brought you a sword with the Name written on it has been altogether
+fulfilled? Shall this sword which he bade you use for the Lord always
+abide in the scabbard? Is this the life to which you are called?"
+
+"You speak truly," said Azariah. "I can scarcely be faithful to my trust
+if I suffer the sword of the Lord to rust. But tell me, what think you we
+had best do?"
+
+"Gorgias," said Joseph, "is encamped at Jamnia, and does great mischief to
+the land and the people; if we can drive him out we shall earn great
+thanks both from the captain and from our brethren."
+
+The resolution of the commanders was heard with unmingled delight by their
+men, and with almost equal pleasure by the inhabitants of the city. Some
+of the more cautious disapproved, and Shemaiah even made his way to the
+Governor's house--no easy task for his scanty strength--and remonstrated
+with Azariah. "My son," said he, "your strength is to sit still. Make not
+too much speed, and be not over-bold." He was listened to with respect,
+and even with some compunction on Azariah's part. But it seemed too late
+to retreat. To hold back now would infallibly give rise to the charge of
+cowardice, and Azariah, brave as a lion against all outward danger, had
+not the rare moral courage which would have enabled him to face such an
+accusation.
+
+At sunrise on the day after the resolution had been taken, the expedition
+set out with confident expectation of victory, and watched from the walls
+by an eager multitude. At sunset a miserable remnant came straggling back
+into the city. They had fared, as their fathers had fared many centuries
+before, when, with the like unauthorized daring, they had assaulted the
+hill fortress of Ai, and had returned, bringing discouragement with them.
+Gorgias had sallied out from his hill fortress, had charged the Jewish
+force with full advantage of the ground, and had driven them in headlong
+flight before them. Azariah and Joseph had done all that leaders could do
+to turn the tide of battle, but their efforts had been in vain. Two
+thousand men had fallen, the wounded being, perforce, left to the mercy or
+cruelty of the enemy.
+
+The city was filled with mourning for the dead; and, of course, there was
+a rapid revulsion of feeling against the leaders whose rash action had
+ended in such disaster. "Who are these men," was the general cry, "who
+have caused the people of the Lord to perish? They are not of the seed of
+those by whose hand deliverance is given to Israel."
+
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+                             MORE VICTORIES.
+
+
+The heathen in the fort observed the return as they had observed the
+departure of the expedition that had ended so disastrously. Their sallies
+became fiercer and more frequent, and Azariah, his forces weakened by the
+loss of two thousand men, found it difficult to repel them. Nothing could
+have exceeded the energy with which he devoted himself to this duty, or
+the courage with which he executed it. Night and day he was at his post,
+for it was here only that he found a refuge from the anguish and doubt
+which tormented him; here only the reproaches of the widows of the slain
+could not follow him. He allowed himself no rest; sleep he seemed
+absolutely to do without, and food he hastily snatched at any moment when
+the opportunity offered.
+
+One remission only from this task he allowed himself, and this because it
+was a duty. He paid a daily visit to his children. They, too, poor little
+souls, had not escaped a share in the trouble. The life which they had led
+for the last two years had developed their understanding beyond their age,
+and they felt, if they did not fully appreciate, their father's
+unhappiness. One consolation they had, the care of two little orphans--the
+father had fallen in the expedition, and the mother had been struck down
+by the news of her husband's death--who had been taken into the house and
+put under the charge of the elderly kinswoman who looked after Azariah's
+household.
+
+On one of these occasions he found the aged Shemaiah. His first impulse
+was to avoid the old man, but a few words of sympathy overcame him; his
+self-control broke down, and hiding his face in his robe he shed the rare
+and painful tears of a man.
+
+When the first outburst of grief was over he spoke.
+
+"Tell me, father, why has God forsaken His servant who trusted in Him. I
+went out in faith--and see the end. Would that I had died in the battle!"
+
+"My son, may it not be that you tempted the Lord? Did you count the cost
+when you went forth against Gorgias, whether you had force sufficient for
+the attack, or skill to handle it?"
+
+"Does faith, then, go for nothing? Had Judas men enough, as soldiers
+reckon in such matters, or skill enough, seeing that he had had no
+experience in war, when he overthrew Apollonius? Yet the Lord gave him the
+victory because he trusted in Him."
+
+"My son, God gave the victory to Judas, having first given him not
+strength only and courage, but skill also and understanding. He gives not
+the same gifts to all: to Moses wisdom and learning, but to Aaron eloquent
+speech; to David the arts of war, but to Solomon the arts of peace. Think
+you that because you are a servant of the Lord, you are therefore to
+choose the service that you will do? You would be captain of the Lord's
+host like Judas. Would you also indite psalms with David, and devise
+proverbs with Solomon? The Spirit of the Lord divideth to every man
+severally as He will. To Mattathias He gave discernment to see in Judas
+the leader and commander of the people, and the people were obedient to
+him. And so Judas discerned in you one who might be entrusted with the
+defence of the city, but not with the warfare against the heathen that are
+without. This was your service, but you were not content with it. Think
+not that the Lord has forgotten you, but rather that you have left the
+place in which you were set."
+
+This was plain speaking, but given with such gentleness and sympathy that
+the rebuke healed more than it wounded. Humbled yet comforted, Azariah
+returned to his post before the fortress. But he could not forget that his
+great trial was yet to come. Nor was it long delayed. The next day it was
+evident that something was happening that had attracted the attention of
+the garrison. The highest tower was crowded with soldiers who were
+intently watching something that could not be seen from below. And indeed
+it was a remarkable spectacle. Judas was returning with his victorious
+army, escorting at the same time a vast crowd of non-combatants, men,
+women, and children, the whole population of the country beyond Jordan,
+which could no longer be inhabited with safety, and all Jerusalem had gone
+out to meet the champion. Then, in a moment, the tower was deserted, the
+gates were thrown open, and a furious sortie, the last that could be
+attempted with any hope of success, was made with the whole force of the
+garrison. It was with a desperate courage that Azariah repelled the
+attack. Never had he exposed himself so recklessly. He could almost have
+wished to fall in the fight; for now the dreaded meeting was at hand, and
+he had to render up to his chief the trust which he had so abused. The
+attack was repelled, and then Azariah had to remain in an inaction that
+was almost unbearable till he should be summoned to the interview with his
+chief.
+
+The sun was just setting when a soldier presented himself, and, after
+saluting, said, "The general seeks you."
+
+"Has he summoned the council?" asked Azariah, who dreaded a public
+censure.
+
+"Nay," said the man; "he is alone."
+
+And Azariah followed him to the captain's house, with such a tremor in his
+heart as no dangers of battle had ever caused.
+
+What followed at the meeting was never known, save as far as the result
+was concerned. Shemaiah was awaiting his return, and the first glance
+showed the old man that things had gone well with his friend. The burden
+of trouble was gone. Azariah looked brighter and more cheerful--so great is
+the force of reaction--than he had done since he had lost his Hannah.
+Shemaiah felt that there was no need to question him, and waited in
+silence for what his friend should please to tell him. What he heard was
+this:
+
+"The captain would have kept me in the office to which he appointed me
+when he departed. He said--and I repeat his words, not for my own glory,
+but for a proof of his generosity--'No man could have better kept the
+heathen from the fort in check than you have done. Therefore, I would have
+you stay where you are. I must go again to the wars, for the Idumeans and
+the Philistines have to be subdued. And I shall go with a lighter heart,
+leaving the defence of the city in your hands.' But I said to him, 'O my
+lord, let me rather go with you. You have accomplished to the full the
+work unto which you were sent of God, and have come back, having redeemed
+from captivity and death our brethren from beyond the river, nor lost one
+of your own people. But I, going in the presumption of my heart to a
+warfare unto which I was not sent, have accomplished nothing; I have
+wrought no deliverance for my people, and the bones of two thousand of my
+brethren lie scattered on the plain. Henceforth I am but a sword in the
+hand of the servant of the Lord.' But the captain said nothing. Let it be
+as he will. As for me, I am content, for I know that he has pardoned me."
+
+Whatever the kind of service in which Judas might see fit to employ his
+lieutenant, it was clear that there would be no lack of work for him to
+do.
+
+The victories of Judas in Gilead had been followed by successes won by
+Simon in Galilee. And from Galilee, as from Gilead, there had been a great
+migration of the inhabitants, who sought in Jerusalem a safer home than
+they could find in their own country.
+
+And now, at the head of a more powerful army than he had hitherto been
+able to collect, Judas set out. His first object was Hebron, which had for
+some time past been in the possession of the Idumeans. He took it by
+assault; it might almost be said, so unexpected was his coming, by
+surprise. Indeed, one cause of his success was the extraordinary rapidity
+and secrecy of his movements. Almost the moment that his plans were
+formed, he was on his way to execute them. Even if there had been traitors
+or spies in his camp--and such were almost unknown--any information which
+they could send to the enemy was outstripped, so to speak, by his action.
+Hebron had to be abandoned after its capture, for he could not spare a
+sufficient garrison to hold it. All that could be done was to take care
+that it should not, for some time at least, become a stronghold of the
+enemy. Its citadel was destroyed; the towers on the wall burnt, and a
+furlong of the wall itself broken down.
+
+From Hebron the Jewish leader marched southward, and then turning eastward
+invaded the country of the Philistines. Azotus, which was supposed to be
+safe on account of its maritime position, and was, in consequence,
+negligently guarded, was assaulted with success, and its temples and
+altars destroyed, though Gorgias was still in force at Jamnia, only nine
+miles to the north. Several of the smaller Philistine towns were taken on
+the return march to Jerusalem; and altogether this people received a
+lesson which they were not likely soon to forget. All this was
+accomplished with very little loss. Joel, the priest, however, was killed
+at Azotus, where he had recklessly exposed himself in the attack.
+
+Great as was the popular rejoicing at these victories, it was nothing to
+the exultation caused by the next tidings that reached
+Jerusalem--Antiochus, the oppressor, the blasphemer--Antiochus was dead!
+
+The day after the return of the army a Syrian runner was caught while
+endeavouring to make his way into the fortress through the lines of the
+besiegers. He had been sent by Lysias with a despatch to the commander of
+the garrison. The document was of the briefest. It ran thus:
+
+
+          "_Lysias, the Governor, to the most valiant Eucrates._
+
+  "Know that our most excellent Lord and King, Antiochus, surnamed the
+  Illustrious, is dead in Persia. Let the soldiers that are with you
+  swear allegiance to the son of our departed master by the name of
+  Antiochus Eupator, which he has taken to himself in remembrance of the
+  glories of his father."(20)
+
+
+The man, when questioned by Judas and the council, was able to supplement
+the bare news of the King's death with some interesting details. He had
+had some talk with the messenger who had brought the tidings to Antioch,
+and had heard all that was as yet known. His story ran thus:
+
+"The King was in Persia when he heard how his armies had been defeated,
+not once or twice only, in the land of Judaea. Great was his rage--so great
+that for the space of three or four hours none dared to come near him.
+Then he summoned his counsellors to him, and said, 'I will destroy this
+nation of rebels till there shall be not one of them left,' and giving up
+all other plans he marched westward with all his army. But on his way he
+came to the city of Elymais, where there is a temple, the treasury of
+which is reputed to be more wealthy than any in the whole land of Persia,
+for it has never been spoiled within the memory of man. Even the great
+Alexander left it untouched, adding also much of the spoil which he had
+taken himself. This temple the father of the King had sought to plunder;
+but the people of the city rose against him, and drove him away. When the
+King came to this city he said, 'Here is another nest of rebels. Did they
+not rise against the King, my father? Verily I will avenge his memory upon
+them.' So he went into the city, having some five hundred soldiers with
+him. And the magistrates received him with honour. And when he said, 'I
+would see your temple and its treasures,' they consented. 'Only,' they
+said, 'it is our custom that no armed man may come within the precincts.'
+'Will you strip me of my sword?' said the King. 'Not so,' they answered,
+'but your followers must be without any, and not more than ten in number.'
+When the King heard this he was greatly wroth, and said to the magistrates
+of the city, 'I will come in despite of you.' So he went, he and his five
+hundred, to the square in which the temple stands. But he found the whole
+place filled with an armed multitude, and when he would have forced his
+way into the precincts he was beaten back, losing not a few of his
+soldiers, and being himself struck on the head with a stone. After this,
+whether it was from his rage, which became more terrible than ever, or
+from any other cause, I know not; but the King was smitten with some
+disease, and could no longer ride, as he had been wont, but was carried in
+a litter. And they say that the stench of his wounds was so great that the
+men who bore the litter could scarcely endure it, but were changed
+continually. So they brought him to Tabol, in the land of Persia, and
+there he died, being terribly tormented with pain. And I heard that when
+he was dying, he cried out with a most lamentable voice repenting him of
+the wrong that he had done against the gods in robbing their temples."
+
+"Of what did he speak?" asked one of the council.
+
+"Nay," said the man, "that I know not. Some said that he spoke of this
+Temple in Jerusalem, and some that it was the temple in Elymais, where men
+worship the moon-goddess, that was in his mind. But more I do not know."
+
+Judas rose up in his place and repeated the last words of that great
+triumphal chant in which more than a thousand years before Deborah and
+Barak had celebrated the overthrow of another king who had mightily
+oppressed the children of Israel.
+
+"So let all Thine enemies perish, O Lord, but let them that love Him be as
+the sun when he goeth forth in his might."
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+                           THE SABBATICAL YEAR.
+
+
+A time was now approaching to which the responsible leaders of the people
+looked forward, for the most part, with great anxiety. This was the
+Sabbatical year. During a whole twelve months it would not be lawful to
+carry on any offensive war, or, a far more serious matter, to till the
+ground. Debate ran high as to whether the Law could be observed in its
+strictness. There were many who asked, with no little show of reason,
+"Will it be possible in times so troublous to keep a year of rest? Moses,
+when he commanded it, thought of a people dwelling quietly in a land from
+which they had driven out all their enemies. As things are now, these
+enemies are about us, and even in the very midst of us. And then the
+harvest? Will it suffice to feed the people, already more than twice as
+numerous as in the previous year, and daily increasing?"
+
+The answer of the Chasidim was peremptory. "For what," they asked, "have
+we suffered and fought? For what did the martyrs lay down their
+lives--Eleazar the priest, and the mother and her sons, and Hannah, the
+wife of Azariah, and others without number? For what did Mattathias wear
+out the remnant of his years? Was it not for the Law, that it might be
+kept whole and undefiled? Might we not have lived in peace, and stood high
+in favour with the King, if we had been content to forsake the law of the
+Lord our God? And now that He has given us the victory, and delivered us
+from the hand of the heathen, so that we may serve Him without fear, shall
+we cast His commandments behind our backs? Were we not few in number, and
+scarcely armed, and yet did He not give into our hands great armies, well
+equipped with shield and sword and spear? Were we not well-nigh perishing
+of hunger among the mountains, and did He not richly supply our needs?
+Surely the earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof, and, if He will,
+He can make that which it bringeth forth of itself to abound even as the
+fields which the sower has sowed and the reaper has reaped?"
+
+And the Chasidim had their way, as zealous men are wont to have it, when
+they know exactly their own minds and what they want. The Sabbatical year
+was proclaimed. There was to be no labour, no ploughing or sowing, no
+tendance of oliveyards and vineyards. The people were to live simply and
+wholly on the bounty of the earth.
+
+The first month of the Sabbatical year itself bore the name of the
+Sabbatical month. Into this were crowded three of the great feasts and
+celebrations of the year--the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and
+the Feast of Tabernacles. But the whole year was to be one round of
+religious celebrations. To the daily sacrifices in the Temple were added
+special services of intercession, praise, and thanksgiving. Nor did the
+Temple-worship alone satisfy the religious wants of the people. The
+synagogues were thronged, and that not on the Sabbath only but on every
+day of the week. The Law and the Prophets were read and expounded, not, we
+may be sure, without many stirring references to the events of the day.
+
+All this religious enthusiasm was wanted to support the people under the
+hardships of the time. Provisions, if they did not actually run short,
+began to rise in price. Judas and his council did their best to prevent
+it; but the selfish instincts of the possessors of corn could not be
+overcome; stores were held back from the market, and the poorer class,
+swollen as it was in numbers by the great immigration of the preceding
+year from Gilead and Galilee, began to suffer seriously.
+
+Meanwhile the insolence of the Greek garrison was increasing daily. The
+Jewish soldiers contented themselves, or endeavoured to content
+themselves, with repelling attack. This meant, of course, standing exposed
+to showers of missiles which they could not return, and it tried their
+patience to the uttermost. Even some of the Chasidim were heard to murmur
+that there must be some limits to this endurance; among the besiegers in
+general, who had not risen to the height of Chasidim zeal, a spirit of
+discontent was growing up that might well have become dangerous.
+
+Before long, however, the evil worked its own cure. One sabbath-day, about
+the beginning of the month which we should call November, there was a
+great solemnity in the Temple, and the outposts of the besieging force had
+been more than usually weakened. Ruth, with her little Daniel and her two
+nieces, was going towards the Temple, escorted by her husband and Micah,
+when one of the lower gates of the fortress was suddenly thrown open, and
+a party of Greeks rushed out upon the party. Seraiah and Micah were both
+armed, but for some minutes they had to make head against their assailants
+alone. One of the soldiers who had seized Ruth was promptly felled to the
+earth by a blow from Micah's sword; and Seraiah did similar execution on
+another. But the odds were too great for them. Micah was brought to the
+ground, and it was only by desperate efforts that his brother-in-law could
+save him from being stabbed as he lay. Ruth, meanwhile, being left without
+help, was carried off to the very gates of the fortress. And then, just
+before it was too late, came the longed-for help. The two girls, who, with
+their little cousin, had been some distance behind, ran screaming towards
+the Temple, and happily met with their father, who was just about to
+change guard at one of the posts. He and his company ran at the top of
+their speed to the scene of the conflict, plunged recklessly through the
+missiles which were showered on them from the fortress, and reached the
+wall at the same moment with the ravishers, whose progress was impeded by
+the struggles of the captive, for, brave woman as she was, she never lost
+her presence of mind. A few of the party escaped into the fortress, the
+nearest gate of which was cautiously opened to receive them; but the
+greater number were instantly put to the sword. Ruth, whose strength broke
+down when she knew that she was safe, was carried home, sorely bruised and
+half-unconscious.
+
+Judas was profoundly moved when he heard of this outrage. He had long been
+chafing under the restrictions imposed upon his action by his rigid
+supporters, and this determined him to break through them. He had a great
+affection for Azariah and his kindred. The men were known to him for their
+loyalty and courage, and Ruth as an indefatigable worker among the sick
+and wounded. His resolution was taken, but with the prudence and soundness
+of judgment that were habitual to him he was careful to avoid any
+appearance of being peremptory or self-willed. He called to him one of his
+lieutenants, who was reputed to be a leader among the Chasidim.
+
+"Micaiah," he said, "you remember when a thousand of our brethren were
+slain by the heathen, helpless and unarmed, because it was the sabbath?"
+
+"I remember," replied the man.
+
+"And that it was determined by my father, as captain of the host, with
+full consent of all the princes and priests, that such a thing should
+happen no more?"
+
+"It was so determined."
+
+"Think you, then, that there is one law for the seventh day, and another
+for the seventh year?"
+
+"I know nothing, save what I find in the traditions of the fathers."
+
+"Our fathers had no such experience as we have had. No, Micaiah, we will
+not reap nor sow, trusting that the Lord will feed us. But I see not that
+the Law forbids us to strike with the sword when the heathen seek to carry
+our wives and our children into captivity, nor will I lay upon the people
+a burden that the Lord has not laid upon them. If I sin in this matter,
+let the punishment fall upon me and upon my father's house."
+
+Micaiah was not altogether content, but he did not feel sufficiently
+convinced to resist. And, indeed, the character and the exploits of Judas
+gave an overpowering weight to any conclusion at which he arrived.
+
+The next day an assembly of the soldiers was held, and Judas informed them
+that operations would be more vigorously conducted for the future. The
+announcement was received with great satisfaction, even by the stricter
+partisans of the Law. The insolence of the garrison was summarily checked.
+The sallies on which it ventured were repulsed so fiercely that they were
+soon discontinued, while relays of archers and slingers, succeeding each
+other without intermission from earliest dawn to nightfall, kept the walls
+clear.
+
+But though this difficulty was surmounted others not less serious
+remained. The privations resulting from the observance of the Sabbatical
+year were such as to overtask the endurance of all but enthusiasts. And,
+of course, under these circumstances it was inevitable that the
+regulations should be evaded. Huldah, with the children, was wandering one
+day among the gardens in the neighbourhood of the city. They were
+searching for some fruit for Ruth who was now making a very slow recovery
+from the injuries which she had received. They were at liberty to go where
+they pleased, for all right of property was at an end, at least for the
+time. But others had been before them, and it seemed as if everything had
+been gathered, even before it was ripe. They were returning home with but
+the scantiest results from this toil when they witnessed a scene of
+uproar. Some men had been discovered by the officers of the chief priests
+in the unlawful act of cultivating the ground. They had been sowing the
+seeds of some quick-growing plants, doing it in such an irregular fashion
+that what came up might seem to have been chance-sown, but they had been
+detected, and were now being led off in custody, angry and defiant, and
+loudly condemning the bigoted folly which, as they said, to carry out an
+obsolete enactment, condemned a whole people to starvation.
+
+A crowd speedily gathered and followed the officers and their prisoners to
+the house of one of the chief priests. Huldah and the children went with
+it. The case was tried, in Eastern fashion, in the open air and in public.
+The process was short, for the offenders had been caught in the act, and
+the law which they had transgressed was plain. The defence which they
+attempted on the plea of necessity was cut short by the judge. "The Word
+of God," said he, "is of more account than meat and drink. Take these
+men," he went on, speaking to an officer whom we should call the
+provost-marshal, "and see that they suffer each forty stripes save one.
+And you," he added, turning to the prisoners, "know that if you offend
+again in this matter you shall be stoned with stones till you die."
+
+The men were bound and flogged. That was a sight which Huldah and the
+children did not wait to see; but just as they were reaching their home
+the men passed them, furious at the indignity which they had suffered, and
+loudly proclaiming their determination to be revenged.
+
+The next morning they were missing from the city. A porter at one of the
+smaller gates was found tied and gagged. He said that he had been attacked
+by a party of men, some of whom could be identified by his description
+with the sufferers of the day before. The others were Greeks, apparently
+belonging to the garrison. They had surprised him, taken his keys from
+him, and had gone--so he judged from something that he had overheard--on the
+road to Antioch. This gave a serious aspect to the affair. The men had
+evidently deserted, and would put all the information that they had at the
+service of the enemy. Judas immediately ordered a pursuit. But though the
+party that he sent out was more than once close upon the tracks of the
+fugitives it did not succeed in overtaking them.
+
+Time went on. The Feast of the Dedication came round, and was kept with as
+much cheerfulness as the depressed spirits and scanty means of the people
+permitted. Spring succeeded winter, bringing with it in its milder
+temperature and in the abundance of its natural growths some alleviations
+of the common suffering. But the prospect, as a whole, was scarcely
+brighter. It was almost a relief when tidings reached the city that a
+struggle was at hand. It was better, thought many, to die on the field of
+battle than to sit still and starve. And, indeed, death on the
+battle-field seemed a likely prospect. Lysias, who had been making his
+preparations during the whole of the winter, was now, it was said, about
+to set forth. The force which he had under his command was reported to be
+overwhelmingly strong, numbering not less than 120,000 men. It was also
+said that he had with him thirty-two war-elephants. The boy-King--Eupator
+was not more than nine years old--was also said to be with him.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXV.
+
+                                REVERSES.
+
+
+Judas met the danger with his accustomed resolution. He waited in the city
+till he could be certain of the road which the invaders were taking. As
+soon as he knew that it was from the south that they were approaching, he
+collected all his available force, having for the purpose to raise the
+siege of the fortress, and marched forth to meet them.
+
+The fortress of Beth-zur, which was intended to be the first line in the
+defence of the capital, was in danger of falling into the hands of the
+enemy. Micah had received, early in the year, a commission to revictual
+it, but had found the task one that was difficult, if not impossible, to
+execute. There was a positive scarcity of food, and the scarcity was
+aggravated as usual by the practice of hoarding. It was to little purpose
+that Micah scoured the country, making requisitions of grain and other
+supplies. Some few, strong in their faith, gave up what they had, and
+committed themselves and their children to the Lord, whose law they were
+seeking to obey. Others met the demand with a flat refusal, and at the
+same time taunted Micah with the folly of enforcing an impracticable law
+in times of such difficulty. Many met him with the plea of poverty, and
+their wasted forms and sunken faces were proof enough that this plea was
+genuine. The work, therefore, for all the zeal that Micah displayed, went
+on but very slowly, and, indeed, was not half finished when the advanced
+guard of the army of Lysias appeared. Beth-zur was immediately invested.
+The engines, of which Lysias had a large stock, played fiercely upon the
+walls, and preparations was made for an assault. Micah, on the other hand,
+saw no hope that he would be able to stand a long siege. The garrison
+under his command was not large enough adequately to man the walls, while
+it was too large for the stock of provisions which he had been able to
+collect.
+
+Under these circumstances his resolution was soon taken. Before dawn on
+the second day of the investment the whole garrison made a desperate
+sally. Happily they had no non-combatants to care for, and as yet no sick
+or wounded. Fire was set to the engines. The besiegers, thinking that this
+was the object of the attack, and that the garrison would make their way
+back into the fortress, when this had been accomplished, occupied
+themselves chiefly in putting out the fire. But Micah had no intention of
+returning. He availed himself of the confusion caused by the burning of
+the camp, cut his way with desperate resolution through the enemy, and
+succeeded in reaching the camp of Judas with the larger part of his force.
+The rest were not able to follow him, but succeeded in regaining the
+fortress, which they continued to hold against the Greeks.
+
+The camp was at Beth-Zachariah, about nine miles south from Jerusalem, and
+on an elevated position, not less than three thousand feet above the level
+of the sea, which commanded the whole of the neighbouring country. Behind,
+to the north, could be seen the towers of Jerusalem, with Bethlehem, the
+City of David, in the nearer foreground, nestling among its oliveyards and
+vineyards. To the west lay the plain of Philistia, with the white cliff of
+Gath clearly visible in the extreme distance; to the east could be seen
+the purple mountains of Moab. The road from Hebron, by which the Greek
+army would approach, crept along the eastern side of the mountains. From
+his elevated position Judas could see the movements of his adversaries
+while they were still at a considerable distance. Observing that they
+pitched their camp on the further side of a narrow defile, with the
+character of which he was intimately acquainted, he conceived the idea of
+an ambush.
+
+He summoned Azariah to his tent and detailed his plan. Azariah also knew
+the place well, and entered into the scheme with enthusiasm--such
+enthusiasm, indeed, that Judas felt it necessary to give him a parting
+caution. "Remember," he said, "if this scheme fails, that you come back to
+me immediately. If the ambush should be discovered, retreat at once. There
+must be no attack. I cannot spare a man. We shall want all that we have,
+if not more than all, to make head against the thousands of Lysias."
+
+Azariah promised obedience, and lost no time in setting out on his errand.
+Shortly after sunset he started, having with him a picked force of a
+thousand men. Before midnight he had reached the place fixed upon by
+Judas, and there, in a hollow half-way up the side of the hill that formed
+one side of the pass, he laid his ambush.
+
+It was an anxious night for the little band. It was always an accepted
+maxim in ancient warfare that it was the most steadfast courage that was
+wanted for the ambush. Men who were brave enough when fighting in the open
+plain found their courage fail when they had to lie for hours watching for
+the moment of attack, crouched upon the ground, unable to move and
+scarcely venturing to talk. Azariah's men were brave--indeed they had been
+carefully chosen for this very service--but they were not altogether
+insensible of the dangers of their position. They knew, too, and even
+exaggerated the strength of the advancing army. As they talked in whispers
+during the night, for, as may be imagined, few could sleep, they spoke of
+the chances of the coming day. The elephants, which had never before been
+seen on Jewish soil, were mentioned with special awe.
+
+"Strange and terrible beasts they are," said one man to his neighbour;
+"savage as lions, and many times larger and stronger."
+
+"Is it so?" said the other. "I heard once from an Arab, who had been
+driver of one of these creatures, that they are marvellously gentle and
+tame."
+
+"Maybe they are by nature; but their drivers have ways of rousing them to
+fury before the battle."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"They show them the blood of grapes and mulberries, and the creatures rage
+terribly. 'Tis said that one of them can tread down a whole company of
+men."
+
+"Well, but 'tis possible, I know, to stand against them. King Antiochus,
+father to the madman whom the Lord smote for his sins, had an array of
+them in his army when he fought against the Romans at Magnesia, but they
+profited him little. So Simeon told me--you know the man, the old Benjamite
+who took service with the King. The Romans stood firm in their rank, and
+threw their javelins at the beasts' trunks, and in the end, so Simeon
+said, they did more damage to their own people than to the enemy."
+
+"The Lord grant that it be so to-morrow."
+
+The sun had just risen when the approach of the Greek army became visible.
+And now the vanguard was almost within striking distance of the ambush
+which, to all appearance, was still undiscovered. Another few steps and
+they would be immediately below, at a point where they might be assailed
+with disastrous effect. Behind a little rock which was within a few yards
+of the pass Azariah knelt, sword in hand, waiting to give the signal to
+his men. Their fears had mostly vanished in the morning light, and the
+dreaded elephants did not form part of the advanced guard.
+
+But just as Azariah was about to give the signal to charge his quick ear
+caught the sound of tramping feet, which seemed to come from some place
+above his own position. The next moment he caught sight, in the slanting
+rays of the early sun, of the glitter of helmets and shields. A Greek
+force, fully equal in number to his own, was marching in a direction
+parallel to the pass but higher up the mountain-side. Lysias had learnt
+wisdom from experience. He no longer despised his enemy, but credited him
+with the military skill which, indeed, he had more than once proved
+himself to possess. He had foreseen the ambush, and had sent a force to
+guard against the danger. Azariah's force, though out of sight of the
+road, could be seen from the higher ground, and the Greeks greeted their
+appearance with shouts of laughter. For one moment a wild desire to charge
+swept through the mind of the Jewish captain. He had hoped to blot out by
+some brilliant service the remembrance of his former disaster, and now he
+had failed again. True, it was not by his own fault; yet he had failed,
+and he would have to go back to Judas empty-handed. A single word would
+have sent his men in furious onset against the foe. Should he say it? Then
+there came back to his recollection the gentleness and forbearance of
+Judas. He could not disobey such a leader a second time. He gave the
+signal to retreat. His men heard it with disgust; but they knew that he
+was acting against his own desire as much as against theirs, and they
+obeyed without a murmur, or, if some of the youngest and fiercest among
+them complained of the order, it was only under their breath that they
+spoke.
+
+Azariah now made his way to Judas with all the haste that he could use.
+
+"I have failed," he said. "The heathen seemed to know of our design
+beforehand. There could be no surprise, so I did not attack, but came back
+to you at once."
+
+"You have done well," said Judas, who knew what a sacrifice the fiery
+soldier had made. "A chance victory won by disobeying orders is worse than
+a defeat."
+
+But Judas, though, as always, he did full justice to his lieutenant, was
+much depressed by the failure of the attempt, and he looked with a gloomy
+brow at the approaching host, as it came on in all the pomp and
+circumstance of war, the sunlight gleaming on the banners, the helmets of
+brass and gold, and on the long, slanting lines of spear-heads. As it came
+nearer the regular tread of the columns and the clang of arms, with now
+and then the shrill voice of a clarion or the deep note of a trumpet heard
+above the roar, moved even the stoutest warrior to something like fear.
+
+Judas followed once more the tactics which he had so often found
+successful. To stand on the defensive was hopeless; his few thousands
+would inevitably be trodden down under the feet of this huge multitude.
+His only hope was in attack. If he could but break the line at a single
+point his success might be again, as it had been before, the beginning of
+a panic, and the great host of Lysias might melt away as the host of
+Apollonius had melted; but the attack must be made while the enemy were
+yet upon ground where they had not space to make full use of their
+numbers. He charged with his accustomed fury before the vanguard of the
+enemy had emerged into the open. For a time it seemed as if his audacity
+was to be successful. The hostile army reeled under the shock of the
+patriots' furious charge. In two or three places it broke. But there was
+in reserve a second line of veterans, the steadiest and best troops that
+could be found in the Syrian armies, for Lysias knew by this time that
+none but the very best could stand against Judas and his Ironsides. And
+then the numbers were overpowering. Step by step the Jewish column was
+forced back. They left six hundred of the enemy dead on the field behind
+them; but the attack had failed.
+
+Then, as the Greek army deployed upon the open ground which the retreat of
+the Jews left open to them, the elephants came upon the scene--the "huge,
+earth-shaking beasts," which even the hardiest warrior could hardly see
+for the first time without some sinking of heart. Each animal was
+accompanied by picked bodies of horse and foot. Each carried a tower from
+which skilful marksmen, whose accurate aim was greatly helped by their
+elevated position, hurled missiles upon the ranks of the foe. The
+creatures themselves seemed to share in all the fury of the battle. They
+trumpeted loudly and furiously; at the bidding of the Indian drivers who
+were perched upon their necks they seized soldiers from among the Jewish
+ranks with their trunks, whirled them aloft, and then dashed them down,
+mangled and lifeless corpses, upon the ground.
+
+Then was done one of the heroic acts which stand out conspicuously on the
+pages of history. Eleazar, one of the Maccabee brothers, saw how his
+countrymen were being demoralized by the terror of these strange
+adversaries, and felt that it was a crisis that called for personal
+devotion. One of the elephants was conspicuous among the rest, not only
+for its superior size but for the splendour of its equipment. He felt sure
+that it must be the one that carried the boy-King himself. Immediately his
+resolve was taken. He made his way, striking furiously right and left, and
+dealing death with every blow, through the Syrian ranks, crept under the
+huge beast, and dealt him a mortal wound. Like another Samson, he perished
+by his own success. The creature fell with a suddenness that gave him no
+opportunity of escape, and he was crushed to death by its weight.
+
+  [Illustration: _The Death of Eleazar._]
+
+The hero did not accomplish his object, to rally his countrymen. One might
+rather say that their panic was heightened by the fall of one of the
+heroic brothers, a son of the great house to which they owed their
+liberty. But his deed was not forgotten. The fourth of the Maccabee
+brothers lived in the history of his people as Eleazar Avaran--Eleazar "the
+Beast Slayer."
+
+But the battle was lost beyond all hope. The only thing left for Judas was
+to save as much as he could out of the wreck. He sounded the signal for
+retreat, drew off his men in good order, and, making his way back as
+rapidly as possible to Jerusalem, threw himself into the Temple fortress,
+resolved to stand a siege.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+                          LIGHT OUT OF DARKNESS.
+
+
+For a time the prospects of the patriots seemed dark indeed. Beth-zur had
+fallen, and the only hope of the cause was in the Temple fortress. This
+was fiercely assailed by the garrison of the Greek stronghold of Mount
+Zion on the one side, and, on the other, by the army which had been
+victorious at Beth-Zachariah, and which now occupied the Lower City. The
+Temple fortress was strong; it was fairly well supplied with munitions of
+war; and the garrison was large--indeed, almost too large for the
+accommodation of the place. The fatal weakness of the position was the
+scanty supply of provisions. Only water was abundant, for the unsparing
+toil of former generations had provided for this want; had it not been for
+this the resistance of the garrison must very soon have come to an end,
+for food was scarce--so scarce, indeed, that the strength of the fighting
+men could hardly be maintained by the insufficient rations which were
+doled out to them, while the few non-combatants received barely enough to
+keep body and soul together.
+
+The condition of the Jewish population of the city was not as bad as might
+have been expected. The cruelties of the days of Apollonius and Philip
+were not repeated; for Lysias, who, as guardian of the boy-King, was
+practically supreme, favoured a policy of conciliation, and did his best
+to repress outrage. Indeed he sanctioned the establishment of what may be
+called a municipal guard or militia, which, while under obligation to give
+no assistance to the garrison of the Temple, was permitted to protect the
+peaceful inhabitants of the city. This guard was under the command of
+Seraiah.
+
+There was much, of course, that it was difficult for those to bear who
+looked to Judas and his brothers as the hope of Israel. Menelaues had
+returned, and with him a whole troop of renegade Jews, whose insolence and
+impiety sorely tried the patience of the faithful population. And the
+scarcity of food was only less severe in the city than it was in the
+fortress.
+
+For some time Seraiah's own household continued to receive mysterious
+supplies from some unknown source, which made them far more comfortable
+than their neighbours. Once a week, or even oftener, they would find a bag
+of corn or flour, a basket of dried grapes or other fruits, a bundle of
+salt fish, a string of doves or wood-pigeons, put in an outhouse, nor
+could they guess who their benefactor could be. But when this had gone on
+for nearly two months, the secret came out. Seraiah, returning from his
+military duties at an early hour in the morning, and entering by a little
+postern gate in order to avoid disturbing the household, saw a man drop
+from the garden wall. He seized him by the arm, and the stranger, turning
+sharply round, revealed the well-known features of Benjamin.
+
+"What do you here?" he asked.
+
+"I am come on an errand of my own," answered the robber.
+
+"But in my house?"
+
+"Ask no more questions," said the man; "but take my word--and I would not
+lie to you for all the kingdom of Antiochus--that I mean no harm to you or
+yours."
+
+A thought flashed across Seraiah's mind.
+
+"It is you, then, who have been bringing us, week after week, these
+supplies of food?"
+
+Benjamin said nothing.
+
+"I adjure you by God that you answer me," said Seraiah.
+
+"Well, if you will know it, it is I who have done it. Why should not God
+use a man's hands to feed His servants, as well as a raven's beak?"
+
+"Tell me--how did you come by these things?"
+
+"In various ways."
+
+"Lawfully?"
+
+"Well, I can hardly say; you and I might not agree about the matter."
+
+"Tell me--did you buy them with your money?"
+
+"Nay; that is not my way. I do not buy or sell."
+
+"Then you stole them."
+
+"I told you that we should not agree. But this I know, that they to whom
+they belonged could do without them better than you and your children."
+
+"Benjamin," said Seraiah, "you mean well, and I thank you. But after this
+bring no more of these gifts, for I cannot receive them. I would not have
+my Judge say to me, 'When thou sawest a thief, thou consentedst unto him.'
+I had sooner die of hunger--aye, and what is far worse, see my children
+die--than take that which has not been lawfully acquired."
+
+"As you will have it," said Benjamin; "if there were more like you, mayhap
+I should have been a better man. But meanwhile, the world being what it
+is, you and yours will have a hard time of it;" and he turned to go away.
+"And the captain," he went on--"how does he fare? I hear that things are
+not going well with him. 'Tis a thousand pities, for a braver man never
+handled sword."
+
+Seraiah told him briefly the story of recent events, and described the
+present condition of affairs, the other listening with an eager attention,
+and breaking in now and then with an exclamation of wonder and admiration.
+
+"Come, Benjamin," he said, when he had finished, "why will you not throw
+in your lot with us? Things look dark just now; but they will brighten. He
+who has helped us so far will not desert us now."
+
+"Sir," said the man, "I would gladly follow the captain, whether he led me
+to life or to death. No man could ask a better lot than to be his soldier.
+But I like not all that are with him. They are over-strict, and make no
+allowance for such as have not their zeal. Once they beat me; another time
+they had stoned me to death but that I slipped out of their hands; and
+both for some miserable trifles which no man of sense would care about.
+No, sir; Judas I honour and love, but these bigots who give a man no peace
+I cannot away with. And now the day is beginning to break, and I must go.
+I am sorry that you will not take my poor gifts."
+
+The next moment he had disappeared.
+
+And now came a time of grievous trouble for Ruth and her young charges,
+for she had naturally taken charge of Azariah's two daughters. She did not
+question her husband's refusal to share any longer the illicit gains of
+Benjamin, but she could not shut her eyes to the fact that the children
+were suffering grievously. For herself she could endure, as women can; the
+girls, too, were old enough to understand the cause of their suffering,
+though they could not enter into the reasons of what seemed so strange an
+observance--the Sabbatical year; but little Daniel was too young to know
+much beyond the fact that he was always terribly hungry, and though he was
+often brave enough to check his crying when he saw how it distressed his
+mother, there were times when the pangs of hunger were more than he could
+bear in silence. Poor Ruth denied herself everything but the few scraps
+that were absolutely necessary to keep body and soul together, and her
+physical weakness did not make it easier to keep up her hope and courage.
+Her hardest task, perhaps, was to hide, as far as it was possible, the
+true state of things from her husband. His strength must be kept up, for
+so much depended upon it; but the children, not to speak of herself, had
+to have their scanty share diminished that it might be so. This, of
+course, he was not allowed to know, and Ruth was at her wits' end again
+and again to keep it from him.
+
+Within the Temple fortress, meanwhile, things had become almost desperate.
+A few shekels' weight of flour was given out to each man daily, for Judas
+insisted that all should share alike. That even this scanty allowance
+might hold out the longer, numbers of the garrison made their escape every
+night under the cover of darkness that the remainder might prolong their
+resistance for yet a few days more.
+
+Before long came a time when absolutely nothing was left. "Their vessels
+were without victuals," and Judas and the few that still remained with him
+met to hold a final deliberation.
+
+"My friends," said the great captain, "you see the straits into which we
+are brought. There is no need to tell you of them, or to prove by words
+what we all know too well in fact. What, then, shall we do? Shall we stay
+here and perish slowly by hunger, or shall we fall upon our swords, or
+shall we sally forth from the gates, and, having slain as many of the
+heathen as we may, so perish ourselves? I had hoped that the Lord would
+give deliverance to Israel by my hand, and by the hand of my brothers. But
+if it be not so, His will be done. For He is not shut up to do that which
+it pleaseth Him by one man or another. He can call whomsoever He will, and
+give him strength for the work."
+
+He paused for a moment, and Azariah broke in, "It is well said, O captain
+of the host. The Lord hath helped His people hitherto, and He will help
+them to the end. Only let us trust in Him, for"--and here, with an
+impetuous gesture, he struck his foot upon the rock--"they that put their
+trust in the Lord shall be even as this mountain, which may not be
+removed, but standeth fast for ever."
+
+Judas was just rising to announce his resolve when the sound of a trumpet
+was heard at the gate of the fortress. It was a herald bringing a message
+from the young King.
+
+"Have you aught to say to me in private?" asked Judas, when the man was
+brought in.
+
+"Nay," he answered; "my message is one that all may hear."
+
+He then delivered it, reading the words from a parchment which he carried
+in his hand, and which bore the sign-manual (an impression of the
+seal-ring dipped in ink) of Antiochus Eupator, as well as that of Lysias.
+They ran thus:
+
+"Antiochus, surnamed Eupator, King of Syria and Egypt, offers to the
+people of the Jews peace and friendship. He permits them to worship God
+after the manners and customs of their fathers, and he hereby revokes all
+the edicts which the King, his father, having been misinformed by
+unfaithful advisers, issued against the said nation of the Jews."
+
+Never was there a more surprising, a more unexpected change in the
+position of affairs. But it might have been foreseen by those who had
+watched with a full knowledge of the truth, the recent course of events.
+
+Despatches had reached Lysias from Antioch which convinced him that he and
+his young charge had enemies to reckon with who would be far more
+formidable than Judas and his followers. Philip had returned from Persia
+with the host of Epiphanes, and had assumed the management of affairs, and
+Philip was a dangerous rival. Were he to prevail, his own position as the
+chief adviser of the King would be untenable; and the King himself would
+very probably be dispossessed by some other claimant to the throne.
+
+He laid the case, or at least so much as it was necessary to explain,
+before the boy-King. The lad, who was indeed intelligent beyond his years,
+at once acquiesced in the advice, that easy conditions of peace should be
+offered to the garrison.
+
+Then an assembly of the soldiers was summoned. All the officers were
+invited by name, and, after the usual fashion of such gatherings, as many
+of the men as could crowd into the chambers were also present. To them
+Lysias said nothing about the news from Antioch, which it would be better,
+he thought, to conceal as long as possible; but he dwelt on the useless
+hardships which they were all enduring.
+
+"Famine and the pestilence are upon us," he said, "and we decay daily. But
+the place to which we lay siege is strong, and we are no nearer to the
+taking of it than we were six months since. Now, therefore, let us offer
+to these men, who are neither robbers nor murderers, peace and liberty,
+that they may worship God after their own fashion, and live by their own
+laws. For, of a truth, it is far better, as many of yourselves know, that
+they should be our friends than our enemies."
+
+An unanimous shout of approval was the answer; and hence the message which
+came so opportunely to Judas and his followers in the very crisis of their
+despair.
+
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+                           A PEACEFUL INTERVAL.
+
+
+It was one of the stipulations of the peace offered by the young
+Antiochus, and accepted by Judas, that the King should be admitted with
+due ceremony into the surrendered fortress. It was to be a formal
+acknowledgment of his authority, but nothing more. No change, it was
+understood, was to be made; the King and his attendants were not to go
+beyond the court which it was lawful for the Gentiles to enter.
+
+On the morrow, accordingly, the boy-King came with a splendid procession
+of nobles and officers. In front marched a company of soldiers, picked
+from the whole army for their beauty of feature and commanding stature,
+and gorgeous with their gilded arms. Then, in the order of their dignity,
+came the high officers of state; last, the young monarch himself, the
+Governor Lysias leading him by the hand.
+
+The approach to the Temple was thronged by a crowd of eager spectators,
+none of whom were more profoundly interested in the sight than the little
+Daniel, with his cousins, Miriam and Judith. The child's fancy had been
+caught by all that he had heard of the young prince. It seemed strange to
+him, almost beyond belief, that a lad, a little older, it was true, than
+himself, but younger than Miriam, should have power to do so much harm.
+"Mother," he said one day to Ruth, "why does God let him hurt so many
+people? It is all his doing that the brave soldiers are shut up in the
+Temple, and that we have so little to eat. Will he not be punished for it
+some day? I suppose, as he is a king, nobody can punish him except God.
+But He will, won't He, mother?"
+
+  [Illustration: _The Boy King._]
+
+Then came the unexpected news of the peace; and nothing would satisfy
+little Daniel but that he must see the boy-King received in the Temple.
+Eagerly did the child watch him as he walked in his little suit of armour,
+which the most skilful artizans in Antioch had made so light as not to be
+too much for his strength, and great was his delight when Eupator,
+catching a sight of his eager face, kissed his hand to him with a pleasant
+smile. That smile he never forgot, though it is true that his old anger
+against the young king returned next day almost as vehemently as ever when
+he heard that orders had been given that the ramparts of the Temple
+fortress were to be broken down, and that the Greek soldiers, anxious to
+depart, had begun the work of destruction the very hour at which the edict
+had been published.
+
+Though this breach of faith was a great blow to the patriots, still they
+had much to console them. In the first place, to their intense relief, the
+Greek army marched away, and the Holy City was no more defiled by the
+presence of the heathen. Then the renegade Menelaues, whom every faithful
+Jew hated with a more bitter hatred than he felt for the heathen
+themselves, went away, but not of his own free choice, with the King.
+Lysias had an honest man's dislike for a traitor, and indeed did not
+scruple to say that this impostor, who was neither good Jew nor real
+Greek, had done more than any one else to cause the recent troubles.
+
+Not less welcome was the end of the Sabbatical year. This of itself would
+not, of course, have relieved the pressure of scarcity; but there was help
+from without which before had not been available. Hitherto the Jews had
+been under a ban; they were enemies of the Syrian King, and none who
+desired to be his friends would have any dealings with them. Now all was
+changed. The ban was removed. The people were in favour with Eupator and
+Lysias. A brisk trade commenced, and supplies of food came in abundance.
+With good heart and hope the people set themselves to their work. From
+being a city of mourning Jerusalem became gay and cheerful.
+
+The general gladness culminated in the Feast of Tabernacles, always the
+most joyous of Jewish festivals, and now celebrated with special
+manifestations of delight. Never had the people felt so keenly the
+pleasure of seeming at least to return to the simple life of earlier
+times, the rustic enjoyments of a nation that had not yet learnt to dwell
+in cities. It was the ordinance that for seven days the Israelite should
+dwell, not in his house, but in a booth of boughs. For days waggon-loads
+without number of the boughs of the olive, the palm, the pine, the myrtle,
+and other trees which had a foliage sufficiently thick for the purpose,
+were brought into the city. When a house had a roof of a convenient size
+and situation, the booth was built upon it; in many cases it was set up in
+the court. Those who had come from elsewhere to share in the festival set
+up their booths in the court of the Temple, in the street of the Water
+Gate, and in the street of the Gate of Ephraim. It was a beautiful sight
+at any time, and now the fresh foliage hid the scars of many a grievous
+wound that had been inflicted during the years of desolation.
+
+Every day, at the time of the morning sacrifice, each Israelite, gaily
+dressed in holiday attire, made his way to the Temple. Each carried in one
+hand a bundle of the same branches that were used in the building of the
+booths, and in the other a fruit of the citron tree. When all the company
+was assembled, and the parts of the victim had been laid upon the altar, a
+priest was seen approaching with a golden ewer in his hand. He had filled
+it at the pool of Siloam, and he brought it into the court of the Temple
+through the Water Gate. The trumpets sounded as he came in and ascended
+the slope of the altar. On each side of this were two silver basins; into
+that on the eastern side he poured the sacred water; while another priest
+poured wine into that on the western. Then the "Hallel"(21) was sung; when
+the singers came to the words, "O give thanks unto the Lord; for He is
+good, because His mercy endureth for ever," each Israelite shook his
+bundle of branches; he did it again when they sang, "Save, Lord, I beseech
+Thee, O Lord: O Lord, I beseech Thee, send now prosperity;" and a third
+time at the words, "O give thanks unto the Lord; for He is good: for His
+mercy endureth for ever." In the evening there was a grand illumination.
+Eight lamps, so large and so high that they sent their light over nearly
+the whole of the city, were set up in the court of the Temple, while many
+of the people carried flambeaux in their hands. Meanwhile a company of
+Levites, standing on the steps of the Court of the Women, chanted to the
+music of cymbal and the harp the fifteen "Songs of Degrees."(22)
+
+These were the public rejoicings; the private festivities were on the most
+liberal scale. Never did the maxim that he who fails to contribute
+according to his means to the general joy is a sinner above other men meet
+with a more hearty acceptance.
+
+Azariah with his daughters and little Daniel were watching the ceremonies
+of the last and greatest day of the feast from the roof of the Governor's
+house, where they were joined by Micah and by Joseph, who, it will be
+remembered, had shared with him the disastrous command of the city during
+the absence of Judas in Gilead. Joseph was exultant; Micah's face was
+grave and even sad.
+
+"Thank the Lord, Azariah," cried Joseph, "for He has dealt with the
+traitor after his deservings."
+
+"Whom mean you?" asked Azariah; "for we have had more traitors here than
+one."
+
+"Whom should I mean but Menelaues, the false priest who sat in Aaron's
+seat?"
+
+"And what has befallen him?"
+
+"The King has caused him to be put to death. He was in little favour when
+they took him home, for Lysias said that he had wrought all the mischief
+that had been done. And when they came to Antioch the matter of Oniah was
+brought against him, for there were many who loved the old man, and had
+taken it ill that his death had not been fully avenged. And when the young
+King heard the story, Menelaues being present, and having nothing to say
+against it, he cried, 'I wonder that the King, my father, suffered this
+murderer to escape, but he shall not go unpunished any more. Take him, and
+cast him alive into the Tower of Ashes.' So they took him and did as the
+King had commanded."
+
+"And what is the Tower of Ashes?" asked the little Daniel, who had been
+listening to this conversation with a sort of terrified interest.
+
+Micah answered his question. "At Berea is a tower, the bottom of which is
+full of ashes, and in the tower is a machine which revolves and plunges
+the criminal who is bound to it deep into the ashes until he is smothered.
+But as for this unhappy man, the Lord have mercy upon him!"
+
+Joseph turned fiercely upon him. "I marvel," he said, "that you should
+pray for this fellow, who was worse than the heathen. He has but had his
+deservings."
+
+"And where should I be, if I had had mine?" answered Micah. "I walked in
+the same way with this Menelaues, and sinned against the Law, even as he
+sinned, and but that God had mercy upon me, surely I had come to the same
+end."
+
+"Don't be sorry, uncle," said the boy, holding up his little face for a
+kiss; "I am sure that God has forgiven you, for He knows how bravely you
+have fought for Him, and how many of the heathen you have killed with your
+sword."
+
+"May it be so, dear child! But though He has forgiven me, yet I must reap
+as I have sown."
+
+"And who shall be high priest in this traitor's place?" asked Joseph,
+after a pause. "For Oniah, the son of him that was slain at Antioch, is in
+the land of Egypt, and he takes part with the unfaithful brethren who
+would build another Temple among the temples of the heathen, leaving the
+place which the Lord has chosen to set His name there."
+
+"And if the House of Zadok have perished, why should not Judas, son of
+Mattathias, be high priest?" said Azariah. "He is of a principal house
+among the sons of Aaron, and the Lord has been with him always."
+
+Joseph had never forgiven Judas for his own disaster. His was one of those
+mean natures that justify the saying, "The injured may forgive, the
+injurer never." The captain had treated him with the same generous
+kindness which he had showed to Azariah, but this kindness had not been
+received in the same temper. On the contrary it rankled in his mind, till
+by a strange, yet not uncommon, perversion of feeling, it had produced a
+positive sense of injury. He now broke out:
+
+"Nay, nay, my friend, you say too much. That he has won victories I deny
+not; but was the Lord with him when he fled before the face of the heathen
+at Beth-Zachariah, or when Beth-zur was yielded up to Lysias, or when we
+had well-nigh perished with famine in the siege, or when the King broke
+down the ramparts of the Temple? Not so: whatever the people may shout or
+sing in his praise, he too has known defeat, even as we have."
+
+"This I know," said Azariah, "that whereas we were trodden underfoot by
+the heathen till there was no life left in us, now we are risen and stand
+upright."
+
+"And how long, think you," returned Joseph, "will it be so with us? Did we
+drive away the King, or did he not rather depart of his own accord,
+because of what he and his counsellors had heard of the doings of Philip?
+And will he not return, and the end be worse than the beginning?"
+
+Azariah answered, with some heat, "As for that which may happen hereafter,
+I say nothing. These things are in the hand of God. But that the young
+Antiochus departed to his own land was, I doubt not at all, of the Lord's
+doing. Why, even this child knows the story of Sennacherib, and the words
+which Isaiah the prophet spoke to Hezekiah when the King was
+faint-hearted, and could not see how there should be any deliverance for
+Israel. Did not the prophet say, 'He shall hear a rumour, and shall return
+unto his own land?'"
+
+Joseph said nothing. With all his meanness and littleness he was a
+patriot, and really loved his country; and it went against his heart and
+conscience to prophesy evil against her.
+
+Then the little Daniel startled them all by saying, with flashing eyes,
+"And I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land."
+
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+                             HOPES AND FEARS.
+
+
+A few weeks after the conversation recorded in the last chapter, Ruth was
+hearing her little boy repeat the Commandment when Seraiah came in,
+carrying in his hand an open letter.
+
+"There is news from Syria," he said.
+
+"And is it good or bad?" asked his wife.
+
+"That I can hardly say," was Seraiah's reply. At the same time he
+signalled to his wife that she should take the child out of the room. The
+signal, however, was too late. The quick-witted little fellow had heard
+what had been said, and immediately jumped to the conclusion that
+something had been heard about the boy-King. His mind was occupied, it
+might almost be said, day and night with the thought of the young Eupator.
+He scarcely knew whether he hated or loved him; but the brilliant figure
+of the lad had caught his imagination. He lived, as imaginative children
+often will, a sort of second life in thinking of him.
+
+"Oh! father," he now cried, "I am sure that you have something to tell me
+about the boy-King. Is he coming here again? I should like to see him,
+though he did break his promise so shamefully."
+
+"My boy," said his father, "you will never see him again."
+
+"Oh! Why?"
+
+"He is dead. This letter tells me all about him."
+
+The boy burst into a passionate fit of tears, which all his mother's
+caresses and attempts at consolation were for some time unable to stop.
+When the violence of his grief had spent itself he said--
+
+"Oh! father, tell me about him. Were they very cruel to him? And how did
+it happen? I thought that kings killed people, but I did not know that any
+one could kill them."
+
+"Listen, my child, and I will try to explain it to you. The father of
+Eupator, the boy who is just dead, was not rightfully King. He came after
+his elder brother, and this elder brother had a son named Demetrius, who
+ought to have succeeded his father. But this son had been sent to Rome as
+a hostage."
+
+"What do you mean by a hostage, father?"
+
+"When you are going to trust some one about whom you do not feel quite
+sure, you take something from him that he values very much, and say, 'You
+will lose this unless you behave well.' So Demetrius's father gave his son
+to the Romans to keep, and the Romans were sure that as long as they had
+the child his father would not do anything that they did not like. Well,
+as I told you, Demetrius was sent to Rome to be security for his father's
+good behaviour, and there he lived all the time that Antiochus, whom they
+called Epiphanes, was King. And when Epiphanes died Demetrius asked the
+Romans to let him go, that he might claim the kingdom which, he said,
+belonged to him and which his cousin Eupator was too young to be able to
+govern. But they would not let him go, and I have been told that Lysias
+bribed some of the chief men among them, and these persuaded the rest. At
+last he got tired of waiting for leave, and he ran away from Rome without
+it, and landed at a place called Tripolis, not very far from Antioch, with
+only twenty or thirty men with him. But as soon as ever the soldiers at
+Antioch heard of his coming, they declared that they would have him for
+their King."
+
+"But why?" put in Daniel.
+
+"Well, if they did not know much that was good about him, they knew
+nothing that was bad. Anyhow they all rose in his favour; and they seized
+the young King and Lysias the Governor and brought them to him, and asked
+him what they should do with them. He would not say, 'Kill them,' for,
+after all, the little boy was his cousin, and had not done him any harm.
+And he did not like to say, 'Keep them alive,' for he was afraid that his
+cousin might some day have his throne; so he only said to the soldiers,
+'Take care that they do not see my face.' So the soldiers--they were the
+young King's own guard--took him and killed him, and Lysias with him."
+
+When he had heard this the child allowed his mother to take him away. He
+saw that his father, usually so calm, was anxious and troubled, and, wise
+with a wisdom beyond his years--the fruit of the troubled life which he and
+his had been leading--would not ask him any more questions. But that night,
+when his mother came to give him the last kiss before he went to sleep, he
+had many things to say to her. Poor little fellow! he had seen many
+terrible sights, which all his parents' care could not keep from his eyes,
+and had heard of many more, and he could not help asking again, "Did they
+hurt him very much?" and when she had comforted him as best she could on
+this score, he showed that there was another trouble in his mind. "Oh!
+mother," he said, "do you remember that when he ordered the walls of the
+fortress to be pulled down, I prayed to God that he might be punished for
+breaking his promise? and only the other day, when Joseph was talking
+about his coming back, I said--something in me seemed to make me say it
+almost without my knowing--'He shall fall by the sword in his own land.'
+And now he is punished, for he has fallen by the sword. Do you think that
+God listened to me, and did it because I said these things? But, mother, I
+did not hate him very much; sometimes I used to think I loved him; and oh!
+it would be dreadful to think that I had anything to do with his being
+killed!"
+
+"My son," said Ruth, "do you remember what our father Abraham said, 'Shall
+not the Judge of all the earth do right'?"
+
+"Yes, mother, I am sure that He will do right; and the King did deserve to
+be punished. But perhaps his counsellors told him to do it; and I am sure
+that if I was told to do something that was wrong by people that I loved,
+I should be very likely to do it."
+
+When his mother came to see him some hours afterwards she found him
+asleep, but his pillow was wet with tears, and now and then a little sob
+showed how deeply the trouble had entered into his little heart.
+
+There was trouble in older and wiser hearts than his. The Jews had hoped
+much from the boy-King. His bad faith in the matter of the Temple fortress
+they had willingly put down to evil counsellors, and they could not forget
+that he had given them terms, good beyond all their hopes, when they were
+in the last extremity. The death of Lysias was a more serious loss. He was
+the pacificator; to his influence they ascribed the conciliatory policy of
+the young Antiochus. And now he was gone. Would his death be the signal of
+a change? Would Demetrius go back to the ways of the mad Antiochus? or had
+he learnt prudence, if not mercy, from his sojourn among the Romans and
+the bitter experience of an exile?
+
+Opinion was divided. Some hoped, some feared; but all were resolved that
+they would never give way, that they would defend to the last drop of
+their blood the freedom which they had won. Azariah, whose temper of mind
+had gathered a certain gloom from the unhappy experiences of his life,
+took a desponding view of the situation. Micah, on the contrary, was
+cheerful, and he had some strong arguments to back him up.
+
+"Remember," he said to his brother-in-law one day, when the subject had
+been discussed at some length between them, "that I have had opportunities
+for forming a judgment which, happily for you, have not come in your way.
+I once saw much of these Greeks--I am ashamed to remember the time, but
+still it would be folly not to make use of what I then learnt--and I am
+sure that that madman Antiochus did not represent what they really feel.
+You don't know how they despise all barbarians as they call them; and,
+despising them, they are disposed to let them alone. They don't want us to
+worship their gods; they think that we are not good enough. But Antiochus
+was mad with pride and arrogance, and it is not likely that any one else
+should be found to follow his steps. We may have trouble; indeed I feel
+sure that we shall; but depend upon it there will not be another such
+attempt as the madman made to stamp out our religion."
+
+And the tidings that soon after reached Jerusalem from Antioch seemed to
+justify this forecast. There seemed to be trouble ahead, but it was not
+trouble of the sort which had brought desolation upon the Holy City. A
+deputation from that party among the Jews which affected Greek habits and
+Greek practices had been admitted to the presence of the new King. They
+had accused Judas, the son of Mattathias, of having driven them from their
+land, and of being an enemy to the sovereignty of the Greeks. Demetrius
+had listened to their representations, and had conferred the office of
+high priest on Alcimus,(23) the leader of the malcontents, and had
+promised to send a force which would instal him in his office, and at the
+same time take vengeance on Judas and the Chasidim. This force was to be
+under the command of Bacchides, one of the most trusted of his
+counsellors.
+
+A high priest of the stamp of Menelaues--for such Alcimus was known to
+be--would be anything but welcome. Probably it would be necessary to resist
+him and his proceedings by force. Still things were not as bad as they
+might have been. That King Demetrius should have appointed a high priest
+at all showed that he was not bent, as Epiphanes had been, on extirpating
+the Jewish faith. With such doubtful comfort as this assurance could give
+they were compelled to be satisfied and to await the development of
+events.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+                                CIVIL WAR.
+
+
+The new high priest arrived at Jerusalem, escorted by a powerful force
+under the command of Bacchides. None but absolute renegades were glad to
+see Greek soldiers again lording it in the streets of Jerusalem; but
+otherwise there was a wide difference of opinion as to the duty of
+faithful Jews with regard to the reception of the stranger. Alcimus and
+his Greek companions were loud in their professions of good will. They
+intended, they said, nothing but benefits to the people. All would be well
+if they were only received in the same spirit in which they came.
+
+Judas and his brothers received these assurances with profound
+incredulity. They and their immediate followers had thought it prudent to
+leave the city. There had been no opportunity of properly repairing the
+walls of the Temple fortress, and without some such stronghold to serve as
+shelter in case of need, they would, they felt, be at the mercy of the
+Greeks. In the position to which they had withdrawn there was a hot
+discussion. Judas, as usual, urged the counsels of prudence and common
+sense. It was easy, he said, to make these professions of peace and good
+will--so easy that, without some substantial guarantee of their sincerity,
+it would be madness to risk anything on the strength of them. Alcimus, or
+Eliakim--he must own that he did not like or trust these double-named Jews,
+for they were often double-faced also--might be thinking of nothing but
+peace; but why did he come with an army behind him? He might have been
+sure, sprung as he was from the race of Aaron, that none of his countrymen
+would harm him. Why had he surrounded himself with a multitude of godless
+heathen who would be only too likely to harm them? "Let us wait"--this was
+his final advice--"till he and his friends give us some proof that they
+really mean what they say."
+
+The Chasidim were loud and vehement in their opposition to this counsel.
+Joseph, whose bitterness and jealousy had not been weakened by the lapse
+of time, constituted himself their spokesman.
+
+"The Law," he said, "plainly declares that there shall be a high priest.
+There are acts, acts of the highest importance, even necessity, which only
+he can perform. Our worship without him is maimed and imperfect. We cannot
+expect that there will be a blessing upon it, that, lacking this essential
+part, our sacrifices will be accepted or our prayers heard. And now we
+have a high priest that is of the race of Aaron. He promises--and why
+should we not believe him?--that his purposes towards us are for good and
+not for evil. Let us go to him, and do him the honour that is due to his
+office. If harm come of it, we shall have at least obeyed the commandment
+of God."
+
+Judas and his brothers, with such faithful followers as Seraiah and Micah,
+stood resolutely aloof, but they could not control the action of the
+enthusiasts. A large body of the Chasidim paid to Alcimus a formal visit.
+They welcomed him to the seat of his office; they paid him their homage;
+intimating at the same time that there were grievances for which they
+asked redress and abuses which needed reform. Nothing could have exceeded
+the show of politeness and even friendship with which they were received.
+Alcimus made the most solemn protestations that neither they nor their
+friends should suffer any harm. He could only regret that unfounded
+suspicions had kept away the great soldier who had done so much for his
+country and whom he would have had so much pleasure in welcoming. They
+were invited to a banquet, which had been duly prepared, they were
+assured, in obedience to the requirements of the Law, and of which they
+could partake without any fear of contracting impurity.
+
+After the banquet there was to be a conference. The proceedings began, and
+were continued for some time without interruption, though Alcimus could
+scarcely control his impatience at what he thought the unreasonable
+demands of the bigots. Meanwhile Bacchides, who had hitherto kept himself
+in the background, was quietly surrounding the council-chamber with
+troops. Joseph was in the midst of an harangue when the doors were thrown
+open, a company of soldiers marched in, and arrested every member of the
+deputation. It was now the turn of Alcimus to retire into the background.
+He had served his purpose, acting, it may be said, as a decoy, and, thanks
+to him, some of the most inveterate enemies of the Greek party had been
+entrapped. The Greek commander made short work with his prisoners. Alcimus
+went through the farce of interceding for them, but he never expected,
+and, perhaps, never intended, to obtain his requests. Sixty of them were
+executed on the spot, and the rest were cast into prison. The bodies of
+the victims were hurriedly thrown into carts, drawn outside the city, and
+left to be the prey of the vulture and the wild dog.
+
+The horror and dismay which spread through the city with the news of the
+bloody deed were such as it would be impossible to describe. The victims
+were well-known men, and, for the most part, as much respected as they
+were known. There was a frantic rush to do honour to the remains of the
+martyred patriots. But Bacchides had foreseen that this would probably
+occur, and had surrounded the place with a cordon of soldiers. The people
+could do nothing but stand upon the walls while the birds and beasts of
+prey mangled the corpses, and mingle, in their impotent rage, curses on
+the murderers, with lamentations over the dead. In more than one of their
+national hymns they found a fitting expression of their grief; but none
+was more suitable to the circumstances of the time than the words of the
+seventy-ninth Psalm: "The dead bodies of Thy servants have they given to
+be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, and the flesh of Thy saints unto the
+beasts of the earth. Their blood have they shed like water round about
+Jerusalem, and there was none to bury them."
+
+The conduct of Judas did not, as may be supposed, escape censure. It is
+the first impulse of a multitude in the presence of some great disaster to
+throw the blame upon its rulers, and the Jews, in their anger and grief,
+felt and yielded to it.
+
+"Yes," said an old man, who had lost a brother and a son in the massacre,
+"he was too prudent to trust himself to the heathen; he stood aloof from
+their danger, and when they offered themselves up as a sacrifice, he was
+not there."
+
+"And did he not well?" said a zealous partisan. "Did he not warn them and
+entreat them, and they took no heed to his words?"
+
+"But had he and his men of war gone with them," returned the other, "they
+had not been left without defence. But now they went as sheep to the
+slaughter."
+
+"What can you look for when the sheep will go where the shepherd does not
+lead them? And as for Judas, did he ever spare his life? Has he not taken
+it in his hand time after time, fighting with a few men against thousands
+of the heathen? And tell me now," went on the speaker, "to whom should we
+have looked for deliverance had Judas also been slain with these? The Lord
+has had mercy upon His people, lest they should be utterly cast down, and
+has left unto them their captain."
+
+On the whole, popular opinion was strongly in Judas's favour. Then came
+another turn of events. The Greek general, weary of his sojourn among a
+people that hated him, marched out of Jerusalem, and encamped in one of
+the suburbs,(24) where he could keep his troops better in hand, and not
+expose them to the daily risk of collision with a hostile population. This
+place, too, he shortly evacuated, returning with the main part of his army
+to Antioch, though he left a small force to support Alcimus, who would
+now, he thought, with this help, be able to hold his own.
+
+But before he went he committed another deed only less atrocious than the
+treacherous massacre of the Chasidim. Every partisan, or supposed
+partisan, of Judas whom he could either entrap or seize was mercilessly
+slaughtered. Nor did Greeks, who, from motives of expediency or under
+pressure of superior force, had submitted to Judas, escape.
+
+If Bacchides imagined that these cruelties would strengthen the position
+of the renegade high priest he was greatly mistaken. Alcimus was more
+universally, more fervently hated than even Jason or Menelaues had been.
+The disappointment caused by this renewal of troubles was all the more
+bitter because it had succeeded to hopes that seemed so well established.
+And every one felt that it was Alcimus who was to blame. His greed and
+ambition had disturbed the peace which they were beginning to enjoy. On
+his head was all the innocent blood that had been shed.
+
+And now a new horror was added to all that the unhappy country had
+endured. It was no longer Jew fighting against Greek, but Jew against Jew.
+Civil war, always more bitter, more ruthless than the very fiercest
+struggle between strangers, broke out. The renegades rallied to Alcimus.
+Their interests were bound up with his cause. Some of them had committed
+themselves so deeply that they could not hope for pardon from the
+patriots. Others had a genuine dislike for Jewish severity and a liking
+for Greek license, and fought for all that, as they thought, made life
+worth living. But the number of these philo-Greek partisans was but small,
+and the popular feeling was unmistakably against them, and Judas felt
+himself strong enough to assert his position vigorously. He was not now a
+partisan leader, raising the standard of revolt against established
+authority; he was himself the established authority, justified in
+punishing all that presumed to rebel against him. This judicious display
+of firmness, of what might even be called severity, vastly strengthened
+his position. The waverers who always go with the strongest, who care
+little for principle, but most for self-interest and safety, when they saw
+that the sword of Judas was a more immediate danger to his enemies than
+the sword of the Syrian King, hesitated no longer about joining him.
+Alcimus found himself deserted by all but a few desperate partisans. The
+commander of his Greek auxiliaries declared himself unable to give him
+sufficient help. Accordingly he had no alternative but to give up the
+unequal contest, and to hurry back to Antioch, where he might lay his
+complaints before King Demetrius.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXX.
+
+                                 NICANOR.
+
+
+The complaints which Alcimus carried to the Syrian King at Antioch were
+eagerly listened to. Demetrius was eager, as new rulers frequently are, to
+reverse the policy of his predecessor. Eupator had yielded to the
+persistency of these obstinate Jews, but he would show them that it was he
+and not they who was master. A new expedition should be sent, and this
+pestilent rebel, who, after all, had been shown not to be invincible,
+should be extinguished for ever. There was some doubt as to who should be
+put in command; but ultimately the King's choice fell upon Nicanor, the
+same that had been associated with Gorgias in an earlier campaign. He had
+been since promoted to the exalted office of "Commander of the Elephants,"
+and was in high favour with Demetrius.
+
+Once more Judas found himself obliged to retire from Jerusalem, where he
+could not command the liberty of movement that was necessary for his
+safety; but he remained in the neighbourhood, and watched the development
+of events.
+
+Nicanor's first idea was to repeat the treachery of Bacchides, and to get
+Judas and his brothers into his power. A letter, written in studiously
+friendly terms, was sent to the Jewish captain, suggesting a conference,
+at which the matters in dispute might easily be settled. Judas was not
+likely, especially after recent experience, to fall into the trap; but
+nevertheless he did not refuse the invitation. He came to the conference,
+but he came with a strong guard, and not till he had secured such
+conditions as seemed to make a treacherous surprise impossible. The
+meeting took place. Side by side, on two chairs of state, sat the two
+generals, each with their armed guard within call. On either side was a
+barrier, beyond which no one that did not belong to the stipulated number
+of attendants was allowed to pass. The conversation between the two was
+friendly and animated. Nicanor's treacherous purpose did not prevent him
+from having a genuine admiration for the character and achievements of his
+great adversary; and the praises which he heaped upon him were perfectly
+sincere. But this feeling did not make him at all less anxious to get this
+formidable hero into his power.
+
+Negotiations had not proceeded very far, in fact had not got beyond the
+initial stage, when a preconcerted signal warned Judas that there was
+danger at hand. Self-possessed as ever, he showed no sign of having
+penetrated his companion's intention. A point of some importance was
+raised by Nicanor, and Judas intimated that he could not deal with it
+until he had consulted his council. Rising from his seat, without allowing
+the least indication of disturbance to be seen in his manner, he bade the
+Greek general a courteous farewell, rejoined his guard, and was soon out
+of the reach of danger. But when he was again among his friends, he did
+not conceal his feelings. "He is a false liar," he said, "and, so long as
+he lives, I will see his face again no more." The words were to have a
+singularly close fulfilment.
+
+Nicanor, finding his attempted fraud unsuccessful, resolved to try force.
+He marched against Judas, who, for military reasons, had retired as far as
+Samaria, and gave him battle at Capharsalama. But the plans of Nicanor
+were conceived with more haste than prudence. He delivered his attack
+under unfavourable conditions, and received a crushing defeat in which he
+lost fully five thousand men.
+
+Thus baffled for a second time, he returned to Jerusalem in a frenzy of
+rage. On the day after his arrival he went, followed by an armed guard, to
+the Temple, and forced his way into the Great Court. It was the time of
+the morning sacrifice, and the trembling priests came down from the altar
+to salute him.
+
+"Rebels," he cried, "you are praying to your God that the enemies of the
+King may prosper."
+
+"Not so, my lord," said the presiding priest, "we have but this moment
+offered the customary sacrifice for the health and welfare of the most
+excellent Demetrius."
+
+"These are but words, and I ask for deeds. Let this pestilent fellow, this
+Judas, be delivered into my hands. Thus and thus only shall I know that
+you are faithful to my lord the King."
+
+"But, my lord, you ask that which is impossible. How can we, that are men
+of peace, have power to lay hands upon this man of war?"
+
+"Ask me not how, but do the thing that I command, or it shall go ill with
+you and your city."
+
+"Nay, my lord, speak not so. Ask that which is possible, and it shall be
+done to the uttermost of our power."
+
+"Fair words! fair words! But I know well that, after the manner of your
+race, for you are the enemies of all men, you curse me behind my back. Now
+listen unto me. You will not deliver this traitor into my hands----"
+
+The priests attempted to speak, but he silenced them with an imperious
+gesture.
+
+"So be it. Then I will take him by force. And when I have taken him, and
+dealt with him after his deserts, then----" he paused for a moment, and held
+out his right hand with a threatening gesture towards the altar--"then I
+will burn this house with fire; even as the Chaldaeans burnt it in the days
+of your fathers, so will I burn it. All the gods of heaven and hell
+confound me, if I do not burn it, as a man burns a brand in the fire."
+
+So speaking he turned away, and without deigning to salute the terrified
+priests, quitted the precincts of the Temple.
+
+When he was gone the priests stood weeping and praying before the altar.
+"O Lord," they said, "for the blasphemies wherewith Thine enemies
+blaspheme Thee, reward Thou them sevenfold into their bosom. Thou didst
+choose this house to be called by Thy name, and to be a house of prayer
+for Thy people. Avenge Thyself, therefore, of this man and his host, and
+cause them to fall by the sword."
+
+Nicanor had sent to Antioch for reinforcements, for he would not fail
+again for lack of strength or due preparation, and marching out of
+Jerusalem, he awaited their arrival at the western end of the Pass of
+Beth-horon. Judas, who, after his victory near Samaria, had followed his
+beaten enemy, took up his position at Adasa, an elevated position about
+four miles to the north of Jerusalem. He thus put himself between Nicanor
+and the Holy City. But he had only three thousand men to match against a
+force three times as numerous.
+
+The fate of the Sanctuary of Israel now seemed to be trembling in the
+balance. If Nicanor was victorious its doom was sealed. He had vowed, with
+all the emphasis of an awful curse upon himself, that if he came again in
+peace he would utterly destroy it. Day after day the women and the old men
+left behind were continually in the Temple, which, perhaps, they might in
+a few days see destroyed before their eyes. And when at night the Temple
+gates were shut they sought their homes to fast and to renew in private
+their prayers for the deliverance of the Holy Place, and the victory of
+the armies of the Lord.
+
+By a notable coincidence the anniversary of a great danger and a great
+deliverance was approaching. Within a few days the Feast of Purim would be
+celebrated. Would the time bring with it a fresh cause for thanksgiving,
+or a disaster so terrible that all the deliverances of the past would seem
+to be of no avail?
+
+"Tell us, mother," said little Daniel, one evening when they had returned
+from their daily visit to the Temple--"tell us about Mordecai and the
+wicked Haman." He knew the story well, but, after the manner of children,
+liked it better the oftener he heard it.
+
+So Ruth told the familiar tale again--how the wicked Haman, wroth that the
+honest Mordecai would not pay him reverence, slandered the whole nation to
+the King till he obtained a decree for their slaughter, how Mordecai went
+to Esther the Queen, a Jewess herself, and bade her save her people,
+though she risked her own life to do it, how the wicked Haman was hanged
+on the gallows which he had made for his enemy, and the Jews had license
+given them by the King to slay their adversaries in every city of the
+kingdom of Persia.
+
+"And this Nicanor," she went on, when she had finished her story--"this
+Nicanor is a new Haman. May the God against whom he has uttered his
+blasphemies cast him down and destroy him."
+
+Meanwhile the hour of battle was drawing near. Judas and his little army
+were bivouacking on the hills of Adasa. It was the 12th day of the month
+Adar--about equivalent to the beginning of March--and on that high ground
+the night air was cold and piercing. Seraiah, Azariah, and Micah were
+sitting by a camp-fire, and talking over the chances of the coming
+struggle.
+
+It was the eve of the great Purim feast--the memorial which had been kept
+now for three hundred years of the great deliverance which God had wrought
+for His people by the hands of Mordecai and Esther. The thoughts of the
+comrades naturally turned to this memorable day.
+
+"Where and how," said Micah to his companions, "shall we keep the Purim
+feast?"
+
+"Shall we keep it at all?" said Azariah, always somewhat disposed to take
+a gloomy view of their prospects. "A Mordecai we have, none more
+steadfast; and there is a Haman against us even more cruel and wicked than
+he of Persia. But Ahasuerus is against us, nor do I see who shall turn him
+from his purpose."
+
+"Well," said Seraiah, with a smile, "at least we can use our swords
+without his license."
+
+While they were talking they observed a figure emerge from out the
+darkness into the circle of light made by the flames. They rose to their
+feet, for it was the captain himself.
+
+"Sit down, my friends," he said, "we shall be on our feet enough
+to-morrow." And as he spoke, he took his seat on the ground by their side.
+
+He went on, after a few minutes of silence, "So Azariah doubts what sort
+of a Purim festival we shall keep. As for myself I doubt not. But I have
+been thinking not so much of Mordecai and Haman--though it seems to me a
+happy thing that we shall fight on the day of that deliverance--as of
+Hezekiah and Rabshakeh. Did not the king his master send him to blaspheme
+the Holy City? And did not Hezekiah lay the letter before the Lord? And
+what was the end? In one night the host of the Assyrians was as if it had
+not been. So shall it be, I am persuaded in my heart, with this
+blaspheming Nicanor and his host. He and they shall be utterly destroyed.
+Yes, Azariah, we shall keep our Purim right joyously, after the manner of
+our fathers. But as for our enemies, the wine that they shall drink(25)
+will be the wine of the wrath of God."
+
+He rose with these words, and passed away to spend the rest of the night
+in meditation and prayer. His face next morning, when in the early dawn he
+stood in front of his slender line, was as the face of one who has talked
+face to face with God. Not less rapt than his look was the tone of his
+voice as he poured out the words of his prayer--"O Lord, when they that
+were sent from the King of the Assyrians blasphemed, Thine angel went out
+and smote an hundred fourscore and five thousand of them. Even so destroy
+Thou this host before us this day, that the rest may know that he hath
+spoken blasphemously against Thy Sanctuary, and judge Thou him according
+to his wickedness."
+
+A murmur of assent passed through the little army as he uttered these
+words in that clear, thrilling voice which was one of his many gifts as a
+born leader of men. The next moment the line advanced, for Judas followed
+again the successful tactic of attack. Never had his Ironsides advanced
+with a more determined courage; never did they deal fiercer blows. The
+enemy were scattered by their impetuous onset, as the dust is scattered
+before the wind. For all his brutality and falsehood, Nicanor was no
+coward. He stood in the very van of his army, giving such cheer as he
+could to his men, and though the lines behind him reeled and shook with
+that movement which is the sure presage of defeat to a soldier's eye, at
+the approach of the Chasidim, he stood his ground with a dauntless
+courage. He was almost the first to fall, Azariah striking him to the
+ground with a sweeping blow of his sword. It was an appropriate ending to
+the blasphemer that he should receive his death-stroke from the weapon
+that bore the talisman of the Holy Name.
+
+The Greek line had been already beginning to break, but the death of the
+leader completed the rout.
+
+It was no common victory that Judas won that day. The pursuit was long and
+bloody. The beaten army fled in wild disorder over the country, only to
+find enemies on every hand. Before the sun set it was simply annihilated.
+The tradition of that awful slaughter still lingers in the place, and the
+valley is called "The Valley of Blood."
+
+Their work done, the conquerors entered the city. The news of the great
+deliverance had already reached it, and the Feast of Purim was being kept
+in earnest. During the earlier part of the day the suspense and anxiety
+had been too great to admit of anything more than formal rejoicing. The
+customary sacrifices were offered, the customary prayers put up; but the
+thoughts of all were with Judas and his men on the battle-field of Adasa.
+Then came rumours, at first wholly vague and even fictitious--rumours first
+of victory, then of defeat, then of victory again. An hour or so after
+noon a swift runner came in with some authentic tidings. But he could not
+tell of all that happened. This was gradually learnt, and then, long after
+the darkness had closed in, came the advanced guard of the conquering
+army, and, close upon midnight, Judas himself. In spite of the darkness,
+multitudes thronged to meet him. With extravagant manifestations of
+delight, with shouting and singing, with mingled tears and laughter, they
+welcomed him home, the deliverer of the city and the Temple. Never before
+had he been so enthusiastically received. And it was well that it should
+be so, for this was his last return as a conqueror.
+
+The feast was continued with yet more hearty rejoicing into the next day.
+And indeed from thenceforth the two deliverances were to be celebrated
+together--the salvation which Judas had wrought for his people on the
+battle-field of Adasa, and that which Esther and Mordecai had accomplished
+in the presence-chamber of the Persian King.
+
+Ruth would gladly have stayed at home and expressed thankfulness in
+private, but the children were urgent with her that she should take them
+into the streets that they might see the people keep holiday. It was a
+request that, as the wife and sister of patriots, she could not refuse;
+and in the depth of her mother's heart was the proud thought that the
+little Daniel was not an unworthy scion of the race, and that not a few
+would look with admiration on the son of Seraiah, the nephew of
+Azariah.(26) And indeed she did hear as she passed along not a few
+whispered praises, which made her pulses beat quick with thankfulness and
+joy.
+
+As they came in their rambling into the neighbourhood of the Temple, they
+found their way blocked by a dense crowd, which seemed eagerly pressing
+forward to see some spectacle of surpassing interest. "What is it?" she
+asked of one who had been, it seemed, successful in the struggle for a
+glimpse of this interesting sight, and was now turning away. She could not
+help shuddering at his answer, and called to the children to come away.
+But the quick ears of little Daniel had also caught the man's reply, and
+he loudly objected.
+
+"Nay, mother," he said, "I must see. Such things are not for women to
+see"--the little fellow of five or six had already caught the masculine
+tone of superiority--"but I am a soldier's son, and shall not be afraid to
+look. And when I am a man I shall fight for God and for His Holy Temple."
+
+"You are a brave lad, and if I mistake not, and you are the nephew of
+Azariah, there is no one here that has a better right to look at yonder
+sight than you. For 'twas your brave uncle, I am told, that slew that son
+of Belial with his sword."
+
+So saying he lifted the child from the ground, and raised him till he
+could stand upon his shoulders. And what did the little Daniel see that
+made him shout and clap his hands? It was the head and hand of Nicanor
+nailed against the Temple wall. There were the pallid, distorted lips that
+had uttered such proud blasphemies against the Sanctuary of the Lord;
+there was the shrunken, bloodless hand that had been lifted up with
+threats and scorn against His Holy Place. The Lord had indeed punished the
+proud doer.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+                            THE FALLING AWAY.
+
+
+Though Jerusalem was almost wild with joy--and, indeed, so utterly had the
+Greek army disappeared that deliverance was complete for the time--Judas's
+heart was full of sad forebodings. Demetrius, he knew, had a steadfastness
+of purpose which augured ill for the future. He was not a madman like
+Epiphanes, nor a child like Eupator; but a cool-headed, resolute man, who
+had seen something of the world, and would carry out his plans with both
+perseverance and skill. Would he sit down under the defeats which he had
+received and recognize Jewish independence? Judas thought it unlikely. The
+vengeance might be laid aside, but it would be sure to come. Could he hope
+to repeat these victories again and again? Once before he had been reduced
+to the greatest straits, and had only escaped by an unexpected change in
+the purpose of the young Antiochus. Could he look for anything so
+marvellous again? Only one plan appeared to him to be possible, and he
+lost no time in calling a council of his principal followers and
+announcing it to them. It was certain, he told them, that there would be
+another war, and a war that would last for years, if only the Jewish
+people could hold out so long. "We warriors may endure it, and if the
+worst come to the worst, we can but fall on the field of battle. But what
+of the old and the weak? What of the women and children? And then we are
+not united. Our foes are of our own household. We have to fight not only
+against the Greek, but against the Jew also. And even in this assembly
+there are some," he went on, with an emphasis which could not be mistaken,
+"who speak evil of me behind my back. What, then, shall we do? Speak, any
+one who has counsel to give."
+
+The appeal was met with silence, and the speaker continued, "You have
+nothing to advise. Listen, therefore, to my counsel, and resist it not in
+haste because it seems strange. There is a nation that, rising from a
+beginning small as ours, has now made for itself a great dominion. They
+are stern to their enemies, but they are just and faithful to their
+friends. Like Israel in the earlier and better days, they have no king to
+rule them after his own pleasure, but an assembly that weighs every plan
+carefully and wisely. And in battle they cannot be resisted. Have you
+heard of such a people?"
+
+One or two voices answered with the word "Rome."
+
+"You have said well," he said; "it is of the Romans that I have been
+speaking. Let us make alliance with them. We shall be, as it were, an
+outpost for them against the King of Syria, against whom they have fought
+already, and, doubtless, will fight again. And they will be a protection
+to us. And with the Romans on our side, we need fear the Greeks no more."
+
+One or two of the council were in Judas's secret. Others had guessed, more
+or less correctly, what he was intending, but on most the announcement of
+his intention fell like a thunderbolt. For a few moments there was the
+pause of intense astonishment. Then followed a burst of indignation, in
+which, of course, the Chasidim led the way.
+
+"Say not," cried one of their chief speakers, "the Romans are like to
+Israel because they have no king. Did not Samuel say to the people, when
+they fell away from their faith because of Nahash the Ammonite, and would
+have a king after the manner of the heathen round about, 'The Lord your
+God is your King.' And shall we, knowing that the Lord Jehovah is the King
+of the Jews, reject Him from reigning over us, and choose us for rulers an
+assembly of some three hundred idolaters. Will you set these men of sin to
+be lords over the City of God?"
+
+"Nay," replied Judas, "you speak unadvisedly and rashly. We shall have our
+own rulers. We shall worship after our own way. The Romans will help us in
+war; and we shall help them as we only can. Did not David make friendship
+and alliance with Hiram, King of Tyre, and did not Solomon, in whose reign
+was peace, make that friendship and alliance yet closer?"
+
+The Chasidim replied, quoting the prophets and denunciations of the
+Egyptian alliance. "Even that accursed Rabshakeh," they said, "spoke the
+truth, when he said that Pharaoh, King of Egypt, was a bruised reed which
+will go into a man's hand and pierce it, if he lean upon it. So shall it
+be with thee, if thou lean upon Rome."
+
+The war of words raged long and furiously. The Chasidim had the best of
+the argument, but to the majority of the council the prospect of a settled
+peace was irresistibly alluring. And the influence of Judas, too, was
+overpowering. By a large majority it was decided to send to Rome,
+Eupolemus, the son of John, and Jason, the son of Eleazar,(27) envoys who
+had been selected for the mission by Judas himself.
+
+When the resolution had been passed the council broke up, and the Chasidim
+dispersed with dark looks and saddened hearts. The next few days passed in
+uncertainty and gloom. No news had come from Antioch as to the movements
+or intentions of the King. But there was little doubt as to what he would
+do. Whatever they might try to believe in their secret hearts they could
+not but own that when the opportunity came Demetrius would deal them a
+blow into which he would put all his strength.
+
+And how would that blow be met? Would they be able to escape it, or parry
+it, or stand up against it? The Chasidim, the Ironsides, the men who had
+been the stay and strength of Judas's armies, who had followed him to
+victory at Beth-zur, at Beth-horon, at Adasa, were miserably dejected. The
+embassy to Rome had broken their spirits. The issue, before so simple to
+these stern souls, narrow, perhaps, in their range of vision, but of a
+clear and single eye, was now confused. While they fought for the Lord
+against the gods of the heathen, they could confidently expect that He
+would show Himself greater than all gods, and this faith had made them
+irresistible. But now, if Jew and Roman were to fight side by side, with
+what confidence could they call upon the Lord of Hosts? Was He the Lord of
+_that_ host, in whose ranks were ranged the battalions of the
+uncircumcised?
+
+Some left the leader whom they now regarded as unfaithful to his trust,
+and departed to distant villages, hanging up the swords which they were
+steadfastly resolved not to draw side by side with the heathen. Others, in
+whom the military instinct of discipline, or the personal attachment to
+Judas, as the general who had led them so often to victory, were so strong
+as to overpower all other considerations, remained with him. Nothing could
+take them from his side, but they went with heavy hearts and with an
+outlook on the future that was almost hopeless.
+
+Meanwhile the embassy started. What the answer of the Romans would be
+Judas did not doubt. They would rejoice to secure the alliance of a people
+who could lend them aid so useful. But would the answer come in time to
+save the city and the Temple from the wrath of Demetrius?
+
+And indeed that wrath did not linger. Within a month Bacchides was on his
+way from Antioch with a force of twenty thousand foot and two thousand
+horse. The renegade Alcimus accompanied him, and was to be reinstated in
+his high-priesthood. Their line of march was through Galilee. On their way
+they took the fortified town of Masaloth, and put the garrison to the
+sword. It was about the time of the Passover feast that the invaders
+reached Jerusalem. There was some talk about attacking it; but Alcimus was
+urgent in resisting the proposal. "The King's quarrel," he said, "is with
+Judas, who is the cause of all this mischief, and Judas is not here. And
+the King has commanded that I should be replaced in my office; but what
+shall my office profit me if there be no city for me to govern, nor Temple
+in which I am to minister?" Bacchides yielded to these representations,
+and leaving the city unhurt marched to Beeroth (a few miles north-east of
+Jerusalem) and there pitched his camp.
+
+Among the patriots there was such doubt and dismay as had never been felt
+from the day when the aged Mattathias struck the first blow for freedom,
+not even in that dark hour when Judas and his famine-stricken followers
+were about to make their desperate sally from the Temple fortress. It was
+not that they were fighting against overwhelming odds, for they had faced
+as great before; it was that they had lost their unquestioning faith in
+their leader.
+
+"Ah!" said Micah to Azariah, when they were discussing the matter for the
+twentieth time--and indeed it was almost the only subject of their talk--"I
+have seen these heathen from near at hand--I say it with shame--and I know
+what they are better than you, better than Judas, who is so good that he
+can scarcely believe that other men are bad. 'He that toucheth pitch shall
+be defiled,' says Jesus, the son of Sirach, and though our captain is
+greater than other men, in this matter he is but as they are. What madness
+drove him to meddle with the accursed thing? God forgive me if I speak
+evil of the ruler of my people, but I must say that which is in my heart."
+
+"Nay," said Azariah, still loyal to his great-hearted chief, though he too
+had doubts which he had to crush down by sheer force of will--"nay, you go
+too far. Did not Jehoshaphat, the servant of the Lord, make alliance with
+the children of Edom when he fought against Mesha, the King of Moab?"
+
+"But the children of Edom," answered Micah, "were akin to our people; but
+as for these Romans, they are utterly unclean. O, brother, I have often
+thought whether, as a faithful servant of the Law, I could remain any
+longer with the captain."
+
+"You will not leave us?" cried Azariah--"it only wants that, and I shall be
+ready to fall on my own sword."
+
+"No; I shall not go. If I am wrong the Lord pardon me; but I cannot go
+when so many are falling away. Yet if these Romans come--then I shall
+depart."
+
+"They will not come--at least before the battle. Judas knows it, and it
+troubles him. As for me, I know not. But this I know, that he is the
+servant of the Lord, and I will follow him to the death. Nevertheless I
+cry day and night unto the God of Israel that He will not suffer His
+servants to be found fighting in the ranks of them that know Him not."
+
+There were the same doubts among the faithful in the city. The aged
+Shemaiah had been in the Temple all day, assisting at the sacrifices which
+were being offered, and the prayers which were being put up for the
+success of Judas and his army. All night the services would be continued;
+but the old man was utterly worn out, and he had been led back by one of
+the Levites to Seraiah's house.
+
+"Father," said Ruth, "do you think that our prayers are heard? I know that
+God does not vouchsafe the visible signs of His presence in His Temple as
+He did in the days of old, and that He does not touch with fire from
+heaven the sacrifice that He accepts. But yet He sometimes seems to
+answer, and we feel in our hearts that He will give us what we ask. Has it
+been so to-day with you, father?"
+
+There was a touching eagerness in her manner, as she put the question. Not
+Miriam, not Deborah, had loved their country with a sincerer passion than
+did she; and then she had a husband and a brother in the camp, and she
+knew that before another sun had set, their fate and the fate of their
+country would be decided.
+
+The priest shook his head. "My daughter," he said, "I can give you no
+comfort, for no comfort has been given to me. My heart was cold within me
+while I prayed, for I could not forget that the servant of the Lord had
+touched the accursed thing when he sought the alliance of the Romans."
+
+"O sir," broke in Huldah, who had been eagerly listening, "he did not do
+it for his own gain or advancement. He did but seek the peace of Israel."
+
+"Daughter," said the old man, solemnly, "there are that cry 'Peace!
+Peace!' when there is no peace; and that is no peace which can be got only
+by unlawful dealing with the heathen. It is God, and God only, that can
+give this blessing to His people. And He has greater blessings in store
+than this. Does Judas seek to be honoured and to make us honoured by the
+nations round about? If he would be in truth the servant of the Lord let
+him rather be content with the lot of which Isaiah the prophet speaks: 'He
+is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with
+grief.' So only shall he make many righteous; so only shall he be exalted
+of God. This is the lot of the chosen people: not to live at ease among
+the nations."
+
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+                             THE LAST BATTLE.
+
+
+It was the night before the battle. Day by day and hour by hour the
+contagion of doubt and disaffection had been spreading through the little
+army that followed Judas. He had had three thousand men when he pitched
+his camp at Eleasa, and the three thousand had now dwindled down to less
+than one.
+
+Judas was sitting by one of the camp-fires with Azariah and Seraiah, when
+two soldiers came up, bringing bound between them a man who had
+endeavoured, they said, to make his way into the camp. He wore his hat
+drawn down over his forehead, and little of his face could be seen, but
+there was something in his figure that seemed familiar to Azariah.
+
+"Who are you?" said Judas, "and what want you in the camp? Are you for us
+or for our enemies?"
+
+"My lord," said the man, "my name is Benjamin, and--for I will hide nothing
+from you--I am a robber. Once I was a soldier in your army, but I broke the
+law, and I fled lest I should be put to death. Now I am come, of my own
+accord, to make such amends for my transgression as I may. Slay me, if you
+will, as I stand here. There is no need of a trial. I have been tried and
+condemned, and I acknowledge that I deserve to die. But if you will be
+merciful, let me fight in the morning by your side; and on the morrow, if
+I yet live, let me suffer the due punishment. Life I ask not, but only
+that I may strike a blow for you before I die."
+
+"Unbind him," said Judas to the soldiers.
+
+The command was obeyed.
+
+"You are free to go or stay. But I would gladly have you at my side
+to-morrow, for I have forgotten all but that you are a brave man."
+
+Benjamin stepped forward, and raising the hem of the captain's robe to his
+lips, kissed it. He then knelt, and putting his head to the ground made as
+though he would have placed Judas's foot upon his neck.
+
+"Nay," said the captain, "we want not slaves, but brothers." And he raised
+him from the ground. "And now," he went on, "sit down and tell us what you
+know, for I make sure that you have not come empty of news."
+
+Benjamin did indeed know all that could be known about the enemy, and,
+indeed, about the situation of affairs. To a question from Seraiah he
+replied that a surprise was impossible. The camp was too well guarded and
+watched.
+
+"Do they know our real numbers?" asked Judas.
+
+"Yes," was the answer, "the deserters have told them." And he proceeded to
+give a number of names of those who had gone over to the enemy, with a
+readiness and a precision that showed how diligent had been his watch.
+
+When he had told all his story, and understood that there was nothing more
+for him to do before the morrow, he wrapped himself in his cloak, and with
+characteristic indifference to the future, fell immediately into a
+profound and dreamless sleep.
+
+As soon as the first rays of light were seen Judas mustered his soldiers
+and hastily numbered them. There were about eight hundred in all, while
+the army of Bacchides, according to the calculations of Benjamin, which
+seemed to have been carefully made, could not be less than twenty
+thousand.
+
+Judas was not dismayed by this disparity of numbers, but was still true to
+his old strategy of attack. "Let us go up against our enemies," was the
+exhortation that he addressed to the remnant that was still faithful to
+him. At first they shrank back. The odds were too vast; the attempt too
+desperate. An old soldier who had proved his valour on more than one
+battle-field was put forward as their spokesman.
+
+"This, sir," he said, "will be to tempt God. Let us now save our lives.
+Hereafter we will return again, and fight with them. But now we are too
+few."
+
+But Judas did not waver for a moment. "God forbid," he cried, "that I
+should do this thing, and flee away from them. Not so; if our time is
+come, let us die manfully for our brethren, and not stain our honour."
+
+His words roused once more an answering echo in the hearts of those who
+heard him. They replied with a cry of assent. Victory they could not hope
+for, but their captain they would follow whithersoever he should lead
+them, and as long as he lived they would guard his life with theirs.
+
+The little host was then divided into five companies, commanded by Judas
+and his two brothers, Simon and Jonathan, by Seraiah and Micah
+respectively. Azariah, whose standing in the army would have entitled him
+to a separate command, had made a special request that he might be allowed
+to fight by the side of Judas. Benjamin had begged and obtained the same
+privilege.
+
+On both sides the trumpets sounded, and both armies moved forward. It was
+with nothing less than astonishment that the Greeks saw the slender
+proportion of the force that was opposed to them. Most laughed aloud at
+the thought that such a handful of men should venture to stand up against
+their own well-appointed and numerous host. Others, who had before crossed
+swords with Judas's men knew that that day's battle, end as it might,
+would be no laughing matter. And indeed they were right. The little
+company of Jewish heroes fought as three centuries before Leonidas and his
+men had fought at Thermopylae.(28) The Greeks came on with the same
+arrogant confidence in their numbers as did the picked Persian force
+against the defenders of Greece, and met with a like disastrous repulse.
+Such was the fury of the Jewish soldiers, such their agility and strength,
+that they kept the attacking force in check during the whole day. When
+night approached the Greeks had made, it might almost be said, absolutely
+no way.
+
+But the resistance, successful as it had been, had cost lives, and Judas
+saw his force dwindling before his eyes. Then he made his last desperate
+effort. He threw himself on the right wing, where Bacchides commanded in
+person, broke the line, and drove it in confusion before him. Possibly he
+was too rash in his pursuit, but on such a day, when such odds are to be
+encountered, it is scarcely possible to distinguish between rashness and
+courage. Anyhow, it was but a brief success. The left wing closed in upon
+his rear, and he and his gallant band were surrounded. Judas was the mark
+of a hundred swords and spears. For a time he seemed to bear a charmed
+life. Azariah and Benjamin, at his right hand and his left, beat down the
+blows aimed at him, wholly careless of their own lives, while he with the
+long sweep of his fatal sword--the same that he had taken from the dead
+Apollonius on his first battle-field--dealt blow after blow, till the
+ground was covered with the corpses of his enemies. But a spear pierced
+the stout heart of Benjamin, and a sword-stroke laid Azariah in the dust;
+and just as the sun sank behind the rugged hills, the hero who had smitten
+the enemies of his country at Bethhoron and Emmaues, at Elah and at Adasa,
+had struck his last blow. The Hammer lay broken on the rock.
+
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+                           THE HOPE OF ISRAEL.
+
+
+A week had passed since the fatal day of Eleasa. Judas had been buried in
+peace in the grave where he had laid, five years before, the aged
+Mattathias. The Greek general had been so much impressed with the valour
+and generalship of the Jewish hero that he strictly ordered that no
+indignity should be offered to his remains; and when an envoy came from
+the surviving brothers to ask that the corpse should be given up for
+burial, made no difficulty about granting the request. It was only fitting
+that a brave man should be so honoured. The King, too, had been avenged on
+his enemy, nor did he imagine for a moment that the rebels, as he called
+them, would continue to hold out now that their leader had been taken from
+them. It was impossible for him to foresee that those undaunted brothers
+would maintain the desperate struggle until they had wrung from the Syrian
+king the recognition of Jewish independence. Accordingly he granted a
+truce for a fortnight, and even sent some of his troops to accompany the
+funeral procession. It had been a touching scene; and when the hero had
+been laid to rest in the sepulchre of his fathers, and the piercing voices
+of the women, many of whom had struggled over the long and toilsome way
+from Jerusalem to be present, raised the cry of lamentation, many of the
+Greek soldiers found themselves moved to tears. This had been the dirge
+that had been sung over the grave:--
+
+  "How is the valiant man fallen that delivered Israel.
+  In his acts he was like a lion, and like a lion's whelp roaring for his
+              prey.
+  For he pursued the wicked, and sought them out, and burnt up those that
+              vexed his people.
+  Wherefore the wicked shrunk for fear of him, and all the workers of
+              iniquity were troubled, because salvation prospered in his
+              hand.
+  He grieved also many kings, and made Jacob glad with his acts, and his
+              memorial is blessed for ever."
+
+And now once more the little company of those whom we have known by name
+are gathered in Seraiah's house. The orphaned girls are there, Miriam and
+Judith, passionately grieving for their father, but yet exulting as
+passionately that he was at the side of Judas to the last, and that his
+hope had been at least so far fulfilled that he and the captain whom he
+loved had been saved from drawing sword among the legions of Rome. Little
+Daniel, too, is there, his childish heart sorely troubled with the
+darkness of a dispensation which he cannot understand; and Ruth,
+comforting herself and the children with the thought that he whom they had
+lost had rejoined his own Hannah, and half reproaching herself for her
+selfish joy in having her Seraiah still spared to her. Huldah and Eglah,
+who had been among the mourners at Modin, are there also, and the aged
+priest Shemaiah.
+
+"O father," cried one of the women, "tell us why these things are so. Why
+does God so disappoint us of our hopes? We trusted that it had been he who
+should have delivered Israel, and now he is dead!"
+
+"We must wait," said the old man, "for God's good time, for He seeth not
+as we see. Did not David think that Solomon, his son, should be the
+promised king of Israel; and, behold, he turned aside to worship idols,
+and laid such burdens on the people that his kingdom was broken in twain?
+And now we, too, have built our hopes upon a man, and they have failed.
+Surely of Judas it might have been said, 'He shall deliver the needy when
+he crieth, the poor also, and him that hath no helper; he shall redeem
+their soul from deceit and violence, and dear shall their blood be in his
+sight.'
+
+"We looked," said Seraiah, "for the time when all kings should fall down
+before him, all nations should do him service. He seemed like the stone
+cut out of the mountain without hands that should smite all the kingdoms
+of evil, and we waited for the reign of Messiah the Prince."
+
+"And will Messiah come?" cried little Daniel, who had been eagerly
+listening to these words, not understanding all, indeed, but catching
+their general purport.
+
+"Surely, my son," said the old man; "but there are many things to be
+suffered first."
+
+He was silent for a time, sitting with eyes that seemed to take no heed of
+the present, but to be gazing into a far futurity. At last he spoke.
+
+"He loved Israel with all his heart, but he has brought upon us a people
+of iron, harder than the brazen Greeks. He looked to them for help that he
+might build up the walls of Sion, and behold! in the days to come they
+will make Jerusalem a desolation and the inhabitants thereof a hissing.
+And yet, by the Lord's help, he wrought a great deliverance for Israel. He
+recovered and cleansed the Temple, and by his hand the Lord changed the
+king's commandment, so that we may once more worship Him in the beauty of
+holiness. And surely, had it not been for him, when he put to flight the
+hosts of Lysias, we should have been carried away again into captivity.
+For this was in the heart of our persecutors; only Judas stood in the way
+that it should not be done. The Lord reward him for it, and impute not his
+transgression unto him, for he did not transgress wilfully, or out of an
+evil heart. Nevertheless, I am persuaded that it shall not be so when
+Messiah shall come, for come He will at the appointed time, seeing that
+the Lord repenteth Him not of His promises. Verily He shall not do homage
+to any godless bestower of kingdoms, nor listen to the voice of the Evil
+One, though he promise Him all the world and the glory of it. With His own
+right hand and with His holy arm will He get Himself the victory!"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                THE FAMILY OF THE ASMONEANS, OR MACCABEES.
+
+
+The name "Maccabee," probably derived from a Hebrew word signifying a
+"Hammer," was originally given to Judas, and afterwards extended to his
+four brothers. They came of a priestly family, belonging to the first and
+noblest of the twenty-four "courses," taking its name from a certain Asmon
+or Chasmon, great-grandfather of Mattathias, father of Judas. The five
+heroic brothers all met with a violent death.
+
+That of Judas and Eleazar has been already described.
+
+John, the eldest, was killed in a skirmish, shortly after the death of
+Judas.
+
+Jonathan maintained himself in power by a clever policy of leaning on
+Rome, and taking part with various claimants to the Syrian crown. He
+became High-priest at some time after the year 153, and perished in 144 by
+the treachery of a certain Tryphon, who usurped for a time the throne of
+Syria.
+
+Simon succeeded to the High-priesthood, and governed the Jewish people for
+a period of eight years with great success. In B.C. 143 he obtained from
+the Syrian king a formal recognition of the independence of the Jews, and
+in the following year he got possession of the fortress in Jerusalem
+occupied by the Syrian faction. In 135 he was treacherously murdered by
+his son-in-law, Ptolemaeus.
+
+Simon, who had maintained the alliance with Rome, was succeeded by his son
+John Hyrcanus, who followed the same policy, and he again by his son
+Aristobulus, who assumed the title of King in 107.
+
+Mariamne, the unhappy wife of Herod the Great, belonged to the Maccabean
+House. With the death of her two sons it became extinct.
+
+
+
+
+
+                           The Gresham Press,
+                             UNWIN BROTHERS,
+                          CHILWORTH AND LONDON.
+
+
+
+
+
+                           BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
+
+                          ----------------------
+
+STORIES FROM HOMER. With Coloured Illustrations. Eighteenth Thousand.
+Price 5s., cloth.
+
+"A book which ought to become an English classic. It is full of the pure
+Homeric flavour."--_Spectator._
+
+
+STORIES FROM VIRGIL. With Coloured Illustrations. Fourteenth Thousand.
+Price 5s., cloth.
+
+"Superior to his 'Stories from Homer,' good as they were, and perhaps as
+perfect a specimen of that peculiar form of translation as could
+be."--_Times._
+
+
+STORIES FROM THE GREEK TRAGEDIANS. With Coloured Illustrations. Eighth
+Thousand. Price 5s., cloth.
+
+"Not only a pleasant and entertaining book for the fireside, but a
+storehouse of facts from history to be of real service to them when they
+come to read a Greek play for themselves."--_Standard._
+
+
+STORIES OF THE EAST FROM HERODOTUS. With Coloured Illustrations. Seventh
+Thousand. Price 5s., cloth.
+
+"For a school prize a more suitable book will hardly be found."--_Literary
+Churchman._
+
+"A very quaint and delightful book."--_Spectator._
+
+
+THE STORY OF THE PERSIAN WAR FROM HERODOTUS. With Coloured Illustrations.
+Fifth Thousand. Price 5s., cloth.
+
+"We are inclined to think this is the best volume of Professor Church's
+series since the excellent 'Stories from Homer.'"--_Athenaeum._
+
+
+STORIES FROM LIVY. With Coloured Illustrations. Fifth Thousand. Price 5s.,
+cloth.
+
+"The lad who gets this book for a present will have got a genuine
+classical treasure."--_Scotsman._
+
+
+ROMAN LIFE IN THE DAYS OF CICERO. With Coloured Illustrations. Fourth
+Thousand. Price 5s., cloth.
+
+"The best prize-book of the season."--_Journal of Education._
+
+
+THE STORY OF THE LAST DAYS OF JERUSALEM FROM JOSEPHUS. With Coloured
+Illustrations. Fourth Thousand. Price 3s. 6d., cloth.
+
+"The execution of this work has been performed with that judiciousness of
+selection and felicity of language which have combined to raise Professor
+Church far above the fear of rivalry."--_Academy._
+
+
+A TRAVELLER'S TRUE TALE FROM LUCIAN. With Coloured Illustrations. Third
+Thousand. Price 3s. 6d., cloth.
+
+"There can hardly be a more amusing book of marvels for young people than
+this."--_Saturday Review._
+
+
+HEROES AND KINGS. Stories from the Greek. Fifth Thousand. Price 1s. 6d.,
+cloth.
+
+"This volume is quite a little triumph of neatness and taste."--_Saturday
+Review._
+
+
+THE STORIES OF THE ILIAD AND THE AENEID. With Illustrations. Price 1s.,
+sewed, or 1s. 6d., cloth.
+
+"The attractive and scholar-like rendering of the story cannot fail, we
+feel sure, to make it a favourite at home as well as at
+school."--_Educational Times._
+
+
+THE CHANTRY PRIEST OF BARNET: A Tale of the Two Roses. With Coloured
+Illustrations. Fourth Thousand. Price 5s.
+
+"This is likely to be a very useful book, as it is certainly very
+interesting and well got up."--_Saturday Review._
+
+
+WITH THE KING AT OXFORD. A Story of the Great Rebellion. With Coloured
+Illustrations. Fourth Thousand. Price 5s.
+
+"Excellent sketches of the times."--_Athenaeum._
+
+
+THE COUNT OF THE SAXON SHORE. A Tale of the Departure of the Romans from
+Britain. With Sixteen Illustrations. Third Thousand. Price 5s.
+
+"A good stirring tale."--_Daily News._
+
+
+STORIES OF THE MAGICIANS: THALABA; RUSTEM; THE CURSE OF KEHAMA. With
+Coloured Illustrations. Price 5s.
+
+"Worthy of all praise."--_Pall Mall Gazette._
+
+
+THREE GREEK CHILDREN. A Story of Home in Old Time. With Twelve
+Illustrations. Price 3s. 6d.
+
+"This is a very fascinating little book."--_Spectator._
+
+
+TO THE LIONS! A Tale of the Early Christians. With Sixteen Illustrations.
+Price 3s. 6d., cloth.
+
+"The picture of the life of the Early Christians is drawn with admirable
+simplicity and distinctness."--_Guardian._
+
+
+
+
+
+                                FOOTNOTES
+
+
+    1 Nearly L2,000.
+
+    2 "The exceeding profaneness of Jason, that ungodly wretch, and no
+      high priest" (2 Macc. iv. 13).
+
+    3 Antiochus's surname, self-assumed or given by the flattery of his
+      courtiers, of "Epiphanes" (the Illustrious), was jestingly changed
+      by his subjects through the alteration of a single letter into,
+      "Epimanes" (Madman).
+
+    4 The Suburra was one of the least reputable quarters in Rome.
+
+    5 "He came with the King's mandate, bringing nothing worthy the high
+      priesthood, but having the fury of a cruel tyrant, and the rage of a
+      savage beast" (2 Macc. iv. 25).
+
+    6 Son and successor of Seleucus Nicator, the first of the dynasty of
+      the Greek Syrian kings.
+
+    7 The wine of Mount Tmolus, a mountain near Smyrna, before which, as
+      Virgil says (Georgics ii. 184), all other wines rise as before their
+      betters.
+
+    8 Azariah, holpen of Jehovah.
+
+    9 Charles Martel defeated the Saracens between Poictiers and Tours
+      (A.D. 732).
+
+   10 Not to be confounded with the village near Jerusalem.
+
+   11 The talent must have been a talent of gold, which may be reckoned as
+      equal to L3,300.
+
+   12 This is the meaning of the name Eleazar.
+
+   13 Psalm cxxxvi.
+
+   14 About L,24.
+
+   15 Hebrews xi. 37-38. Compare ii. Macc. x. vi. "When as they wandered
+      in the mountains and dens like beasts."
+
+   16 Nine o'clock, p.m.
+
+   17 There seems to have been a belief among the Jews of this time in the
+      efficacy of prayers for the dead. So we read in 2 Maccabees xii. 45:
+      "Whereupon he made a reconciliation for the dead that they might be
+      delivered from sin." This is probably the chief reason why the
+      Council of Trent included the Books of Maccabees and other
+      Apocryphal writings in the Canon of Scripture.
+
+   18 The month Chisleu about corresponds to our December.
+
+   19 See S. John x. 22, 23: "And it was at Jerusalem the Feast of the
+      Dedication, and it was winter. And Jesus walked in the Temple, in
+      Solomon's porch."
+
+   20 Eupator means "Born of a great father."
+
+   21 Psalms cxiii.-cxviii.
+
+   22 Ibid. cxx.-cxxxiv.
+
+   23 Alcimus seems to have been an adaptation, not a little remote,
+      however, from the original, of the Hebrew name Eliakim.
+
+   24 "Bezeth," it is called. Possibly it may be identified with Bezetha,
+      which was afterwards part of the city.
+
+   25 Copious draughts of wine were an important part of the customary
+      celebration of the Purim festival.
+
+   26 "Et pater AEneas et avunculus excitet Hector."
+
+   27 Observe the Greek names of the two. In each case the father's name
+      is Hebrew, and the son's Greek. This seems to show how far the
+      Hellenization of the people had proceeded.
+
+   28 We commonly talk of the "three hundred" at Thermopylae. As a matter
+      of fact there were _a thousand_, not reckoning the Thebans, who are
+      said to have laid down their arms at once. But the seven hundred men
+      from Thespiae, a little Boeotian town, fought bravely to the end;
+      only their glory is swallowed up in that of the "three hundred"
+      Spartans. Canon Westcott speaks of this battle as the Jewish
+      Thermopylae ("Dictionary of the Bible").
+
+
+
+
+
+                            TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE
+
+
+Variations in hyphenation have not been changed. In several places, wrong
+quotation marks have been silently corrected.
+
+Other changes, which have been made to the text:
+
+      page xi, "ELEAZER" changed to "ELEAZAR"
+      page 230, double "the" removed
+      page 354, "of" changed to "or"
+
+
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HAMMER. A STORY OF THE MACCABEAN TIMES***
+
+
+
+                                 CREDITS
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