t/CSB LIBRARY 
 
 - 0- 
 
SALATHIEL 
 
 THE WANDERING JEW; 
 
 A Story of 
 The Past, the Present, and the Future 
 
 BY 
 
 THE REV. GEORGE CROLY, LL.D. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY 
 30 LAFAYETTE PLACE 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THERE has appeared from time to time in Europe, dur- 
 ing the last thousand years, a mysterious individual a 
 sojourner in all lands, yet a citizen of none; professing 
 the profoundest secrets of opulence, yet generally living 
 in a state of poverty; astonishing every one by the evi- 
 dence of his intercourse with the eminent characters of 
 every age, yet connected with none without lineage, pos- 
 session, or pursuit on earth a wanderer and unhappy! 
 
 A number of histories have been invented for him; 
 some purely fictitious, others founded on ill-understood 
 records. Germany, the land of mysticism, has toiled the 
 most in this idle perversion of truth. Yet those narra- 
 tives had been in general but a few pages, feebly founded 
 on the fatal sentence of his punishment for an indignity 
 offered to the Author of the Christian faith. 
 
 That exile lives ! that most afflicted of the people of af- 
 fliction yet walks this earth, bearing the sorrows of 
 nineteen centuries on his brow withering in soul for the 
 guilt of an hour of madness. He has long borne the scoff 
 of man in silence; he has heard his princely rank de- 
 graded to that of a menial, and heard without a mur- 
 mur; he has heard his unhappy offence charged to de- 
 liberate malice, when it was but the misfortune of a zeal 
 inflamed by the passions of his people; and he has bowed 
 to the calumny as a portion of his punishment. But the 
 time for this forbearance is no more. He feels himself 
 at last wearing away ; and feels, with a not uncheered sen- 
 
XX PREFACE. 
 
 Ration, like that of returning to the common fates of man- 
 - kind, a desire to stand clear with his fellow-men. In their 
 presence he will never move again, until that day when 
 all beings shall be summoned, and all secrets be known. 
 In his final retreat he has collected these memorials. 
 He has concealed nothing, he has dissembled nothing; the 
 picture of his hopes and fears, his weaknesses and his sor- 
 rows, is stamped here with sacred sincerity. 
 
 Other narratives may be more specious or eloquent, but 
 this narratiye has the supreme merit of reality. It may 
 be doubted; it may even be denied. But this he must 
 -endure. He has been long trained to the severity of the 
 world ! 
 
SALATHIEL. 
 
 THE WANDERING JEW. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 "TARRY THOU, TILL I COME." The words shot through 
 me I felt them like an arrow in my heart my brain 
 whirled my eyes grew dim. The troops, the priests, the 
 populace, the world, passed away from before my senses 
 
 / -like phantoms. 
 
 But my mind had a horrible clearness. As if the veil 
 that separates the visible and invisible worlds had been 
 rent in sunder, I saw shapes and signs, for which mortal 
 /language has no name. The whole expanse of the future 
 spread under my mental gaze. A preternatural light, a 
 new power of mind, seemed to have been poured into my 
 being. I lived over again in frightful distinctness every 
 act and instant of the night of my unspeakable sacrilege. 
 I saw, as if written with a sunbeam, the countless in- 
 juries, that in the rage of bigotry I had accumulated upon 
 
 v-the illustirous victim; the cruel tauntings that my lips 
 had taught the rabble; the sanguinary prejudice, that had 
 
 ^ forbidden them to discover a trace of virtue where all 
 virtue was. The blows of the scourge still sounded in 
 my ears. Every drop of the innocent blood rose up in 
 
 judgment against me. 
 
 Accursed be the night in which I fell before the tempter ! 
 Blotted out from time and eternity be the hour in which 
 
 ~ I took part with the torturers ! Every fibre of my frame 
 
22 SALATHIEL. 
 
 quivers, every drop of my blood curdles, as I still hear 
 the echo of the anathema, that on the night of woe sprang 
 first from my furious lips, "His BLOOD BE UPON us, AND 
 UPON OUR CHILDREN!" 
 
 I had headed the multitude: where others shrank, I 
 urged ; where others pitied, I reviled ; I scoffed at the feeble 
 malice of the priesthood; I scoffed at the tardy cruelty 
 of the Roman; I swept away by menace and by 
 scorn the human reluctance of the few who dreaded to 
 dip their hands in blood. Thinking to do God service, 
 and substituting my passions for my God, I threw fire- 
 brands on the hearts of a rash, jealous, and bigoted peo- 
 ple I triumphed! 
 
 In a deed, which ought to have covered earth with 
 lamentation, which was to make angels weep, which might 
 have shaken the universe into dust, I triumphed ! The 
 decree was passed : but my frenzy was not so to be satiated. 
 I loathed the light while the victim lived. Under the 
 charge of "treason to Cassar," I demanded instant execu- 
 tion of the sentence "Not a day of life must be given; 
 not an hour ; death, on the instant ; death I" My clamor 
 was echoed by the roar of millions. 
 
 But, in the moment of my exultation, I was stricken. 
 He who had refused an hour of life to the victim, was, in 
 terrible retribution, condemned to know the misery of life 
 interminable. I heard through all the voices of Jeru- 
 salem I should have heard through all the thunders of 
 heaven, the calm, low voice, "Tarry thou, till I come !" 
 
 I felt my fate at once ! I sprang away through the 
 shouting hosts, as if the avenging angel waved his sword 
 above my head. Furious execrations, the uproar of 
 myriads stirred to the heights of passion, filled the air: 
 still, through all, I heard the pursuing sentence, "Tarry 
 thou, till I come," and felt it to be the sentence of in- 
 curable agony ! I was never to know the shelter of the 
 
 , grave 
 
 Immortality on Earth ! The perpetual compulsion of 
 existence in a world made for change; to feel thousands 
 of years bowing down my wretched head; alienated from 
 all the hopes, enjoyments, and pursuits of man, to bear 
 the heaviness of that existence, which palls even with all 
 the stimulants of the most vivid career of man; life pas- 
 
SALATUIEL. 23 
 
 sionless, exhausted, melancholy, old. I was to be a wild 
 beast; and a wild beast condemned to pace the same 
 eternal cage ! A criminal bound to the floor of his dun- 
 geon forever! I would rather have been blown about on 
 the storms of every region of the universe. 
 
 Immortality on Earth ! I was still in the vigor of life ; 
 but must it be always so? Must not pain, feebleness, the 
 loss of mind, the sad decay of all the resources of the human 
 being, be the natural result of time? Might I not sink 
 into the perpetual sick-bed, hopeless, decrepitude, pain 
 without relaxation, the extremities of famine, of disease, 
 of madness ? jet this was to be borne, for ages of ages ! 
 
 Immortality on Earth ! Separation from all that 
 cheers and ennobles life. I was to survive my country ; to 
 see the soil dear to my heart violated by the feet of bar- 
 barians yet unborn, her sacred monuments, her trophies, 
 her tombs, a scoff and a spoil. Without a resting-spot 
 for the sole of my feet, I was to witness the slave, the man 
 of blood, the savage of the desert, the furious infidel, riot- 
 ing in my inheritance, digging up the bones of my fathers, 
 trampling on the holy ruins of Jerusalem ! 
 
 Immortality on Earth ! I was to feel the still keener 
 misery of surviving all whom I loved; wife, child, friend, 
 even to the last being with whom my heart could imagine 
 a human bond; all that bore a drop of my blood in their 
 veins, were to perish in my sight, and I was to stand on 
 the verge of the perpetual grave, without the power to 
 sink into its refuge. If new affections coula ever wind 
 their way into my frozen bosom, it must be only to fill 
 it with new sorrows; for, those I love must still be torn 
 from me. In the world I must remain, and remain alone ! 
 
 Immortality on Earth ! The grave that closes on the 
 sinner, closes on his sin. His weight of offence is fixed. 
 No new guilt can gather on him there. But I was to 
 know no limit to the weight, that was already crushing me. 
 The guilt of life upon life, the surges of an unfathom- 
 able ocean of crime were to roll in eternal progress over 
 my head. If the judgment of the great day were terrible 
 to him who had passed but through the common measure 
 of existence, what must be its terrors to the wretch who 
 was to appear, loaded with the accumulated guilt of a 
 thousand lives 1 
 
24 SALATHIEL. 
 
 Overwhelmed with despair, I rushed through Jerusalem, 
 with scarcely a consciousness of whither I was going. It 
 was the time of the Passover, when the city was crowded 
 with the multitude come to the great festival of the year. 
 I felt an instinctive horror of the human countenance, 
 and shunned every avenue by which the tribes came in. I 
 at last found myself at the Gate of Zion, that leads south- 
 ward into the open country. I had then no eyes for that 
 wondrous portal, which had exhausted the skill of the 
 most famous Ionian sculptors, the master-work of Herod 
 the Great. But I vainly tried to force my wild way 
 through the crowds that lingered on their march, to gaze 
 upon its matchless beauty; portal alone worthy of the 
 wonders to which it led, like the glory of an evening 
 cloud, opening to lead the eye upwards to the stars. 
 
 On those days the Eoman guard were withdrawn from 
 the battlements, and I ascended them to seek another 
 escape; but the concourse, gathered there to look upon 
 the entrance of the tribes, fixed me to the spot. Of all 
 the strange and magnificent sights of earth, this entrance 
 was the most fitted to swell the national pride of country 
 and religion. The dispersion, ordained by Heaven for 
 judgment on the crimes of our idolatrous kings, had, in 
 that wonder-working power by which good ti brought out 
 of evil, planted our law in the remotest extremities of 
 the world. Among its proselytes were the mighty of all 
 regions, the military leaders, the sages, the kings; all, at 
 least once in their lives, coming to pay homage to the 
 great central city of the faith; and all coming with the 
 pomp and attendance of their rank. The procession 
 amounted to a number which threw after-times into the 
 shade. Three millions of people have been counted at the 
 Passover. 
 
 The diversities of the multitude were not less striking. 
 Every race of mankind, in its most marked peculiarities, 
 there passed beneath the eye. There came the long train 
 of swarthy slaves and menials round the chariot of the 
 Indian prince, clothed in the silks and jowols of regions 
 beyond the Ganges. Upon them pressed the troop of 
 African lion-hunters, half naked, but with their black 
 limbs wreathed with pearl and fragments of unwrought 
 gold. Behind them moved on their camels patriarchal 
 
8ALATHIEL. 25 
 
 groups, the Arab Sheik, a venerable figure with his white 
 locks flowing from beneath his turban, leading his sons, 
 like our father Abraham, from the wilderness to the 
 Mount of Vision. Then rolled on the glittering chariot 
 of the Assyrian chieftain, a regal show of purple and 
 gems convoyed by horsemen covered with steel. The 
 Scythian Jews, wrapped in the furs of wolf and bear, iron 
 men of the north; the noble Greek, the perfection of the 
 human form, with his countenance beaming the genius 
 and beauty of his country; the broad and yellow features 
 of the Chinese rabbins; the fair skins and gigantic forms 
 of the German tribes; strange clusters of men unknown 
 to the limits of Europe or Asia, with their black locks, 
 complexions of the color of gold, and slight yet sinewy 
 limbs, marked with figures of suns and stars struck into 
 the flesh; marched crowd on crowd; and in strong 
 contrast with all, the Italian on the charger or in the 
 chariot, urging the living stream to the right and left, 
 with the haughtiness of the acknowledged master of man- 
 kind. The representative world was before me. But all 
 those distinctive marks of country and condition, though 
 palpably ineradicable by human means, were overpowered 
 and mingled by the one grand impression of the place and 
 the time. In their presence was the City of Holiness ; 
 the Hill of Zion lifted up its palaces ; above them ascended, 
 like another city in a higher region of the air, that 
 TEMPLE, to whose majesty the world could show no equal, 
 to which the eyes of the believer were turned from the 
 uttermost parts of the earth, in whose courts Solomon, the 
 king of earthly kings for wisdom, had called down the 
 blessing of the Most High, and it had descended on the 
 altar in fire; in whose sanctuary the King, whom heaven 
 and the heaven of heavens cannot contain, was to make his 
 future throne, and give glory to his people. 
 
 Jerusalem, Jerusalem ! when I think of what I saw 
 thee then, and of what I have since seen thee, the spoiled, 
 the desolate, the utterly put to shame; when I have seen 
 the Boman plough driven through the soil on which stood 
 the Holy of Holies ; the Saracen destroying even its ruins ; 
 the last, worst devastator, the barbarian of the Tartar 
 desert, sitting in grim scorn upon the ramparts of the city 
 of David; violating the tombs of the prophet and the 
 
26 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 king; turning up for plunder the soil, every blade of 
 whose grass, every atom of whose dust, was sacred to the 
 broken heart of Israel ; trampling the remnant, that 
 lingered among its walls only that they might seek a grave 
 in the ashes of the mighty ; I have felt my spirit maddened 
 within me. I have made impious wishes. I still start 
 from my bed, when I hear the whirlwind, and send forth 
 fierce prayers that its rage may be poured on the tents of 
 the oppressor. I unconsciously tear away my white locks, 
 and scatter them in bitterness of soul towards the East. 
 In the wildness of the moment, I have imagined every 
 cloud that sailed along the night, a minister of the descend- 
 ing vengeance. I have seen it a throne of terrible shapes 
 flying on the wings of the wind, majestic spirits and kings 
 of wrath hurrying through the heavens to pour down 
 sulphurous hail and fire, as upon the cities of the Dead 
 Sea. I have cried out with our prophet, as the vision 
 swept along, "Who is he that cometh from Edom? with 
 dyed garments from Bozra? he that is glorious in his ap- 
 paral, travelling in the greatness of his strength ! Where- 
 fore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like 
 him that treadeth the wine-press?" and I have thought 
 that I heard the answer: "I, that speak in righteousness, 
 mighty to save! I will tread them in mine anger, and 
 trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be 
 sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my 
 raiment; for the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and 
 the year of my redeemed is come!" 
 
 Then, when the impulse passed away, my eyes have 
 turned into fountains of tears, and I have wept until morn- 
 ing came, and the sounds of the world called back its 
 recollections, and for the sacred hills and valleys that I 
 had imagined in the darkness, I saw only the roofs of some 
 melancholy city, in which I was a forlorn fugitive; or a 
 wilderness, with but the burning sands and the robber be- 
 fore me; or found myself tossing on the ocean, not more 
 fruitless than my heart, nor more restless than my life, 
 nor more unfathomable than my woe. Yet, to the last 
 will I hope and love. Jerusalem ! Jerusalem ! even in 
 my mirth, if I forget thee ! 
 
 But those were the thoughts of after-times. On that 
 memorable and dreadful day. I had no perception but of 
 
8ALATHIEL. 27 
 
 some undefinable fate which was to banish me from man- 
 kind. I at length forced my way through the pressure at 
 the gate, turned to none of the kinsmen who called to me, 
 as I passed their chariots, and horses, overthrew with des- 
 perate and sudden strength all who impeded my progress, 
 and scarcely felt the ground till I had left the city behind, 
 and had climbed, through rocks and ruins, the mountain 
 that rose drearily before me, like a barrier shutting out 
 the living world. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 TERROR had exhausted me ; and throwing myself on the 
 ground, under the shade of the palm-trees that crowned the 
 summit of the hill, I fell into an almost instant slumber. 
 But it was unrefreshing and disturbed. The events of the 
 day again came before me, strangely mingled with those of 
 my past life, and with others of which I could form no 
 waking remembrance. I saw myself sometimes debased 
 below man like the great Assyrian king; driven out to 
 feed upon the herb of the forest, and wandering for years 
 exposed to the scorching sun by day, and the dews that 
 sank chilling upon my naked frame by night I then 
 seemed filled with supernatural power, and rose on wings 
 till earth was diminished beneath me, and I felt myself 
 fearfully alone. Still, there was one predominant sensa- 
 tion ; that all this was for punishment, and that it was to 
 be perpetual. At length, in one of my imaginary nights, 
 I found myself whirled on the wind, like a swimmer down 
 a cataract, in helpless terror into the bosom of a thunder- 
 cloud. I felt the weight of the rolling vapors round me ; 
 I saw the blaze; I was stunned by a roar that shook the 
 firmament. 
 
 My eyes sudenly opened, yet my dream appeared only 
 to be realized by my waking. Thick clouds of heavy and 
 heated vapor were rapidly rolling up from the precipices 
 below, and at intervals a pound, that I could not dis- 
 tinguish from distant thunder, burst on the wind. But 
 the sun was bright, and the horizon was the dazzling blue 
 of the eastern heaven. As my senses slowly returned, for 
 I felt like a man overpowered with wine, I was enabled 
 
28 SAuATHIEL. 
 
 to discover where I was. The discovery itself was terror. 
 I had in my distraction fled to the mountain on which 
 no Jew ever looked without shame and sorrow for the 
 crimes of the greatest king into whose nostrils the 
 Almighty ever poured the spirit of life, but which a 
 Jewish priest, as I was, could not touch without being 
 
 ' guilty of defilement. I sat on the Mount of Corruption, 
 so called from its having once witnessed the idolatries of 
 our might Solomon, when, in his old age, he gave way 
 to the persuasions of his heathen wives that irreparable 
 crime for which the kingdom was rent, and the strength 
 / of Israel scattered. I saw in the hollows of the hill the 
 spaces, still bearing the marks of burning, and barren 
 forever, on which the temples of Moloch, Chemosh, and 
 Ashtaroth, had stood in sight of the House of the living 
 God. The very palm-trees under which I had snatched 
 that wild and bitter sleep, were the remnant of the groves 
 in which the foul rites of the goddesses of Phoenicia and 
 Assyria once filled the air with midnight abomination, 
 and horrid yells of human sacrifice, almost made more 
 fearful by the roar of barbarian revel, the wild dissonance 
 of timbrel and horn, the Bacchanalian chorus of the 
 priesthood and people of impurity. 
 
 The vapors that rose hot and sickly before me, were 
 the smokes from the fires kindled in the valley of Hinnom ; 
 where the refuse of the animals slaughtered for the use 
 of the city, and the other pollutions and remnants of 
 things abominable to the Jew, were daily burned. The 
 sullen and perpetual fires, the deadly fumes, and the 
 aspects of the beings, chiefly public criminals, who were 
 employed in this hideous task, gave the idea of the place 
 of final evil. Our prophets, in their threats against tho 
 national betrayers, against the proud and the self-willed, 
 the polluted with idols, and the polluted with that still 
 darker and more incurable idolatry, the worship of the 
 world, pointed to the valley of Hinnom ! The Pharisee, 
 when he denounced the unbelief and luxury of the lordly 
 Sadducee, pointed to the valley of Hinnom ! All the 
 Pharisee, the Essene, the Sadducee, in the haughty spirit 
 that forgot the fallen state of Jerusalem, and the crimes 
 
 - that had lowered her ; the hypocrite, the bigot, and the 
 sceptic, alike mad with hopeless revenge ; when they saw 
 
SALATHIEL. 29 
 
 v the Roman cohorts triumphing with their idolatrous en- 
 signs through the paths once trod by the holy, or were 
 driven aside by the torrent of cavalry, and the gilded 
 chariot on which sat some insolent proconsul fresh from 
 Italy, pointed to the valley of Hinnom ! How often, as 
 the days of Jerusalem hurried towards their end, and by 
 some fatality, the violences of the Koman governors be- 
 came more frequent and intolerable, have I seen the groups 
 of my countrymen, hunted into some by-way of the city 
 by the hoofs of the Roman horse, consuming with that in- 
 
 ward wrath which was soon to flame out in such horrors, 
 flinging up their wild hands, as if to upbraid the tardy 
 heavens, gnashing their teeth, and with the strong con- 
 tortions of the Oriental countenance, and lip scarcely 
 audible from the force of its own convulsion, muttering 
 
 '' conspiracy. . Or, in despair of shaking off that chain 
 which had bound the whole earth, appealing to the endless 
 future; and shrouding their heads in their cloaks, like 
 
 ' sorcerers summoning up demons, each with his quivering 
 hand stretched out towards the accursed valley, and every 
 
 / tongue groaning "Hinnom I" 
 
 While I lay upon the summit of the mountain, in a state 
 which gave me the deepest impression of the parting of 
 soul and body, I was startled by the sound of a trumpet. 
 It was from the Temple; which, as the fires below sank 
 with the growing heat of the day, was now visible to me. 
 The trumpet was the signal of the third hour, when the 
 
 v first daily sacrifice was to be offered. It was the week of 
 the class of Abiah, of which I was, and this day's service 
 
 < fell to me. Though I would have given all that I possessed 
 on earth to be allowed to rest upon that spot, polluted as 
 it was, and there moulder away into the dust and ashes 
 that I had made my bed; I dared not shrink from that 
 most solemn duty of the priesthood. 
 
 I rose, but it was not until after many efforts that I 
 was able to stand. I struggled along the summit of the 
 ridge, holding by the stems of the palm-trees. The sec- 
 ond trumpet sounded loudly, and was re-echoed by the 
 cliffs. I had now no time for delay, and was about to 
 spring downwards towards a path which wound round the 
 head of the valley and beyond the fires, when my ears 
 were again arrested by the peal that had disturbed me in 
 
30 SALATHIEL. 
 
 my sleep; and my glance, which commanded the whole 
 circuit of the hills round Jerusalem, involuntarily looked 
 for the thundercloud. The sky was without a stain; but 
 the eminences towards the west, on whose lovely slopes 
 
 v of vineyard, rose, and orange grove my eye had so often 
 reposed as on a vast Tyrian carpet tissued with purple 
 and gold, were hung with gloom ; a huge and sullen cloud 
 seemed to be gathering over the heights, and flashes and 
 gleams of malignant lustre burst from its bosom. The v 
 
 cloud deepened, and the distant murmur grew louder and v 
 more continued. 
 
 I hurried to the city gate. To my astonishment, I found 
 the road, that I had left so choked up with the multitude, 
 
 -almost empty. The camels stood tethered in long trains 
 under the trees, with scarcely an owner. The tents were 
 deserted, except by children, and the few old persons 
 necessary for their care. The mules and horses grazed 
 through the fields without a keeper. I saw tents full of 
 the animals and other offerings that the tribes brought 
 up to the great feast, almost at the mercy of any hand 
 that would take them away. Where could the myriads have 
 disappeared, which had covered the land a few hours be- v ' 
 fore to the horizon ? 
 
 The city was still more a subject of astonishment. A > 
 panic might have driven away the concourse of strangers, 
 at a time when the violences of the Eoman sword had given 
 every Jew but too frequent cause for the most sensitive 
 alarm. But all within the gate was equally deserted. The 
 streets were utterly stripped of the regular inhabitants. 
 The Eoman sentinels were almost the only beings whom I 
 could discover in my passage of the long avenue, from the 
 foot of the upper city to the mount of the Temple. All 
 ihis was favorable to my extreme anxiety to escape every 
 eye of my countrymen ; yet I cannot tell with what a throb- 
 bing of heart, and variety of feverish emotions, I at length 
 reached the threshold of my dwelling. Though young, I 
 was a husband and a father. What might not have hap- 
 pened since the sunset of the evening before? for my 
 evil-doings, for which may He, with whom mercy lies at 
 the right hand and judgment at the left, have mercy on 
 me, had fatally occupied the night. I listened at the door, 
 with my heart upon my lips. I dared not open it. My 
 
SALATBIEL. 31 
 
 suspense was at length relieved by my wife's voice ; she was 
 weeping. I fell on my knees, and thanked Heaven that 
 she was alive. 
 
 But my infant! I thought of the sword that smote 
 the first-born in the land of bondage, and felt that Judah, 
 guilty as Egypt, might well dread its punishment. Was 
 it for my first-born that the sobs of its angel-mother had 
 arisen in her loneliness? Another pause of bitter sus-. 
 pense and I heard the laugh of my babe as it awoke in 
 her arms. The first human sensation that I had felt for 
 so many hours, was almost overpowering; and without 
 regarding the squalidness of my dress, and the look of 
 famine and fatigue that must have betrayed where I had 
 been, I should have rushed into the chamber. But at that 
 moment the third trumpet sounded. I had now no time 
 for the things of this world. I plunged into the bath, 
 cleansed myself from the pollution of the mountain, 
 hastily girt on me the sacerdotal tunic and girdle; and 
 
 /with the sacred fillet on my burning brow, and the censer 
 in my shaking hand, passed through the cloisters, and took 
 
 / my place before the altar. 
 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 OF all the labors of human wealth and power devoted 
 to worship, the temple within whose courts I then stood 
 was the most mighty. In the years of my unhappy wan- 
 derings, far from the graves of my kindred, I have seen 
 all the most famous shrines of the great kingdoms of 
 idolatry. Constrained by cruel circumstances, and the 
 still sterner cruelty of man, I have stood before the altar of 
 the Ephesian Diana, the masterpiece of Ionian splendor; 
 I have strayed through the woods of Delphi, and been made 
 a reluctant witness of the superb mysteries of that chief of 
 the oracles of imposture. Dragged in chains, I have been 
 forced to join the procession round the Minerva of the- 
 Acropolis, and almost forgot my chains, in wonder at that 
 monument of a genius, which ought to have been conse-v 
 =:_. crated only to the true God by whom it was given.' The 
 temple of the Capitoline Jove, the Sancta Sophia of the 
 Rome of Constantine, the still more stupendous fabric in 
 which the third Rome still bows before the fisherman of 
 
32 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 Galilee; all have been known to my step, that knows all ' 
 things but rest; but all were dreams and shadows to the 
 grandeur, the dazzling beauty, the almost unearthly glory, 
 of that temple which once covered the "Mount of Vision" 
 of the City of JEHOVAH/- 
 
 At the distance of almost two thousand years, I have 
 its image on my mind's eye with living and painful ful- 
 ness. I see the court of the Gentiles circling the whole ; 
 a fortress of the purest marble, with its wall rising six 
 hundred feet from the valley; its kingly entrance, worthy 
 of the fame of Solomon ; its innumerable and stately build- 
 ings for the priests and officers of the temple, and above 
 them, glittering like a succession of diadems, those ala- 
 baster porticos and colonnades in which the chiefs and 
 sages of Jerusalem sat teaching the people, or walked, 
 breathing the pure air, and gazing on the grandeur of a 
 landscape which swept the whole amphitheatre of the 
 mountains. I see, rising above this stupendous boundary, 
 the court of the Jewish women separated by its porphyry 
 pillars and richly-sculptured wall; above this, the sepa- 
 rated court of the men ; still higher, the court of the priests, 
 the crowning splendor of all, the central TEMPLE, the place 
 of the Sanctuary, and of the Holy of Holies, covered with 
 plates of gold, its roof planted with lofty spearheads of 
 gold, the most precious marbles and metals everywhere 
 flashing back the day, till Mount Moriah stood forth to 
 the eye of the stranger approaching Jerusalem, what it 
 
 * had been so often described by its bards and people, "a 
 mountain of snow studded with jewels." 
 
 The grandeur of the worship was worthy of this glory 
 
 * of architecture. Four-and-twenty thousand Levites min- 
 istered by turns a thousand at a time/ Four thousand 
 more performed the lower offices. Four thousand sing- 
 ers and minstrels, with the harp, the trumpet, and all the 
 richest instruments of a land whose native genius was 
 music, and whose climate and landscape led men instinct- 
 
 ' ively to delight in the charm of sound, chanted the in- 
 spired songs of our warrior king, and filled up the pauses 
 of prayer with harmonies that transported the spirit be- 
 yond the cares and passions of a troubled world. 
 
 I was standing before the altar of burnt offerings, with 
 the Levite at my side holding the lamb ; the cup was in 
 my hand, and I was about to pour the wine on the victim, 
 
8ALATHIEL. 33 
 
 when I was startled by the sound of hurried feet. In 
 
 another moment the gate of the court was abruptly thrown 
 
 back, and a figure rushed in; it was the High Priest, but 
 
 not in the robes of ceremony which it was customary for 
 
 v him to wear in the seasons of the greater festivals. He 
 
 was covered with the common vesture of the priesthood, 
 
 and was evidently anxious to use it for total concealment. 
 
 His face was buried in the folds of his cloak, and he 
 
 walked with blind precipitation towards the sanctuary. 
 
 But he had scarcely reached it, when a new feeling stopped 
 
 ' him ; and he turned to the altar, where I was standing in 
 
 .- mute surprise. The cloak fell from his visage ; it was pale 
 
 as death; the habitual sternness of feature which ren- 
 
 , ' dered him a terror to the people, had collapsed into feeble- 
 
 ness ; and while he gazed on the flame, I thought I saw the 
 
 - v glistening of a tear on a cheek that had never exhibited 
 
 human emotion before. But no time was left for question, 
 even if reverence had not restrained me. He suddenly 
 grasped the head of the lamb, as was customary for those 
 v who offered up an expiation for their own sins; his lip, 
 ashy white, quivered with broken prayer; then, snatch- 
 ing the knife from the Levite, he plunged it into the ani- 
 mal's throat, and with his hands covered with blood, and 
 with a groan that sounded despair, again rushed distract- 
 edly to the porch of the Holy House, flung aside in fierce 
 u irreverence the evil of the sanctuary, and darted in. 
 
 There was a subterranean passage from the interior of 
 the sanctuary to the High Priest's cloister; through which 
 I conceived that he had gone. But, on passing near the 
 porch, at the close of the sacrifice, I heard a cry of agony 
 from within that penetrated my soul. 
 
 I had never loved the head of our priesthood. He was 
 a haughty and hard-hearted man ; insolent in his office, v 
 which he had obtained by no unsuspicious means ; and a 
 ready tool alike of the popular caprice, and of the tyranny 
 of our foreign masters. But he was a man; was a man 
 of my own order; and was it for one like me to triumph 
 over even the most abject criminal of earth? I ascended 
 the steps of the porch, and, with a sinking heart and 
 trembling hand, entered the sanctuary. 
 
 But what I saw there I have no power to tell ! To 
 this moment, the recollection overwhelms my senses. Words 
 were not made to utter it. The ear of man was not made 
 
34 SALATBIEL. 
 
 * to hear it. Before me moved things mightier than of 
 > mortal vision, thronging shapes of terror, mysterious grand- 
 eurs, essential power, embodied prophecy ! The Veil was 
 rent in twain ! How could man behold, and live ! When 
 
 v I lifted my face from the ground again, I saw but the 
 High Priest/ He was kneeling, with his hands clasped 
 
 * upon his eyes; his lips strained wide, as if laboring to 
 utter a voice; and his whole frame rigid and cold as a 
 corpse/ I vainly spoke, and attempted to rouse him; 
 terror, or more than terror, had benumbed his powers; 
 
 ' and, unwilling to suffer him to be seen in this extremity, I 
 
 "V bore him in my arms to the subterranean. 
 
 But, a tumult, of which I could scarcely conjecture the 
 cause, checked me. The trampling of multitudes, and 
 cries of fury and fear, echoed round the Temple; and in 
 the sudden apprehension, the first and most fearful to the 
 priest of Judah, that the Komans were about to com- 
 mence their often threatened plunder^; I laid down my 
 unhappy burden beside the door of the passage, and re- 
 turned to defend, or die with, our perishing glory. The 
 sanctuary in which I stood was wholly lighted by the 
 lamps round its walls. But when, at length unable to 
 suppress my alarm at the growing uproar, I went to the 
 porch, I left comparative day behind me; a gloom deeper 
 than that of tempest, and sicklier than that of smoke, 
 overspread the sky. The sun, which I had seen like a 
 fiery buckler hanging over the city, was utterly gone. Even 
 while I looked, the darkness deepened, and the blackness 
 of night, of night without a star, fell far and fearful upon 
 the horizon, v ^=. , //. 
 
 It has been my fate, and an intense part of my punish- 
 
 v ment, always to conceive that the calamities of nature 
 and nations were connected with my crime. I have tried 
 to reason away this impression; but it has clung to me 
 like an iron chain; nothing could tear it away that left 
 the life. I have felt it hanging over my brain with the 
 weight of a thundercloud. As I glanced into the gloom, 
 the thought smote me, that it was I, who had brought this 
 
 v Egyptian plague, this horrid privation of the first element 
 of life, upon my country, perhaps upon the world, per- 
 haps never to be relieved ; for it came condensing, depth on 
 depth, till it seemed to have excluded all possibility of the 
 existence of light; it was, like that of our old oppressors, 
 
SALATIIIEL. 35 
 
 Y darkness that might be felt, the darkness of a universal 
 y grave. - 
 
 I formed my fierce determination at once, and resolved 
 to fly from my priesthood, from my kindred, from my 
 . country; to linger out my days, my bitter, banished days, 
 v in some wilderness, where my presence would not be a 
 curse, where but the lion and the tiger should be my fel- 
 low dwellers, where the sands could not be made the more 
 v barren for my fatal tread, nor the fountains more bitter 
 yfor my desperate and eternal tears. The singular pres- 
 ence of mind found in some men in the midst of universal 
 perturbation, one of the most effective qualities of our 
 nature, and attributed to the highest vigor of heart and 
 understanding, is not always deserving of such proud 
 /parentage. It is sometimes the child of mere brute ig- 
 v norance of danger, sometimes of habitual ferocity in my 
 instance it was that of madness; the fierce energy that 
 leads the maniac safe over roofs and battlements. All 
 in the Temple was confusion. The priests lay flung at 
 the feet of the altar; or, clinging together in groups of.:, 
 helplessness and dismay, waited speechless for the ruin 7 
 that was to visit them in this unnatural night. I walked 
 v through all, without a fear or a hope under heaven. 
 
 Through the solid gloom, and among heaps of men and 
 sacred things cast under my feet, like the spoil of some 
 - stormed camp, I made my way to my dwelling, direct and ^ 
 unimpeded, as if I walked in the light of day. I found my 
 wife in deeper terror at my long absence, than even at 
 the darkness. She sprang forward at my voice, and, - 
 falling on my neck, shed the tears of joy and love. But 
 few words passed between us, for but few were necessary, 
 -/ to bid her with her babe follow me. She would have fol- <j} 
 ' lowed me to the ends of the earth, ^^LT^^^- 
 { Miriam, Miriam ! how often have I thought of thee, 
 in my long pilgrimage ! how often, like that of a spirit 
 descended to minister consolation to the wanderer, have 
 I seen, in my midnight watching, thy countenance of 
 more than woman's beauty ! To me thou hast never died. 
 Thy more than man's loftiness of soul, thy generous fidel- 
 ity of love to a wayward and unhappy heart; thy patient 
 treading with me along the path that I had sowed with 
 the thorn and thistle for thy feet, but which should have 
 been covered with the wealth of princes, to be worthy of 
 
36 SALATHIEL. 
 
 v' thy loveliness and thy virtue; all rise in memory, and 
 condemnation, before the chief of sinners. Age after 
 age have I travelled to thy lonely grave; age after age 
 
 / have I wept and prayed upon the dust that was once per- 
 
 ; f ection. In all the hardness forced upon me by a stern 
 world; in all the hatred of mankind that the insolence 
 
 v of the barbarian and the persecutor has bound round my 
 
 bosom like a mail of iron, I have preserved one source of - 
 V y feeling sacred ; a solitary fount to feed the little vegeta-A 
 
 y tion of a withered heart, the love of thee : perhaps, to be a t$\ 
 sign of that regenerate time, when the curse shall be 
 withdrawn ; perhaps, to be in mercy the source from which , 
 that more than desert, thy husband's soul, shall be re-^ 
 freshed, and the barrenness flourish with the flowers of 
 
 Ythe paradise of God ! 
 
 Throwing off my robe of priesthood, as I then thought, 
 forever, I went forth, leading my heroic wife in one 
 
 Y hand, and bearing my child in the other. I had left be- 
 hind me sumptuous things, wealth transmitted from a 
 long line of illustrious ancestry. I cared not for them. 
 Wealth, a thousand times more precious, was within my 
 
 / embrace. Yet, when I touched the threshold, the last " 
 ' sensation of divorce from all that I had been came over 
 
 V. my mind. My wife felt the trembling of my frame, and, 
 with that gentle firmness which in the hour of trouble 
 often exalts the fortitude of woman above the headlong 
 and inflamed courage of the warrior, she bade me be of 
 good cheer. I felt her lips on my hand at the moment; 
 the touch gave new energy to my whole being; and I 
 /bounded forward into the ocean of darkness. > 
 
 Without impediment or error, I made my way over 
 and among the crowds that strewed the Court of the 
 Gentiles. I heard many a prayer and many a groan; but 
 I had no more to do with man; and forced my way 
 steadily to the great portal. Thus far, if I had been 
 stricken with utter blindness, I could not have been less 
 guided by the eye. But, on passing into the streets of the 
 lower city, a scattered torch, from time to time, strug- 
 gling through the darkness, like the lamp in a sepulchre, 
 gave me glimpses of the scene. The broad avenue was 
 encumbered with the living, in the semblance of the 
 dead. All was prostration, or those attitudes into which 
 men are thrown .by terror beyond the strength or spirit 
 
SALATHIEL. 37 
 
 of man to resist. The cloud that, from my melancholy 
 bed above the valley of Hinnom, I had seen rolling up 
 the hills, was this multitude. A spectacle, whose name 
 shall never pass my lips, had drawn them all by a cruel, a 
 frantic, curiosity out of Jerusalem, and left it the solitude 
 . that had surprised me. Preternatural eclipse and horror 
 fell on them, and their thousands madly rushed back to 
 perish, if perish they must, within the walls of the City 
 of Holiness. Still the multiude came pouring in; their 
 distant trampling had the sound of a cataract; and their 
 outcries of pain, and rage, and terror, were like what I 
 have since heard, but more feebly, sent up from the field 
 of battle. 
 
 I struggled on, avoiding the living torrent by the ear, 
 and slowly threading my way wherever I heard the voices 
 least numerous; but my task was one of extreme toil; and 
 but for those more than the treasures of the earth to me, 
 whose lives depended on my efforts, I should willingly 
 have lain down, and suffered the multitude to trample me 
 into the grave. How long I thus struggled, I know not. ~ 
 But, a yell of peculiar and universal terror that burst 
 round me, made me turn my reluctant eyes towards * 
 Jerusalem. The cause of this new alarm was seen at ^ 
 once.^ 
 
 A large sphere of fire fiercely shot through the heav- 
 ens, lighting its track down the murky air, and casting a 
 disastrous and pallid illumination on the myriads of gaz- 
 ers below. It stopped above the city; and exploded in 
 thunder, flashing over the whole horizon, but covering the 
 Temple with a blaze which gave it the aspect of a huge 
 mass of metal glowing in the furnace. Every out- 
 line of the architecture, every pillar, every pinnacle, was 
 seen with a livid and terrible distinctness. Again, all van- 
 ished. I heard the hollow roar of an earthquake; the 
 ground rose and heaved under our feet. I heard the 
 crash of buildings, the fall of fragments of the hills, and,?, 
 louder than both, the groan of the multitude. I caught 
 my wife and child closer to my bosom. In the next mo- 
 ment, I felt the ground give way beneath me, a sulphurous 
 vapor took away my breath; and I was swept into the 
 air, in a whirlwind of dust and ashes ! 
 
38 8ALATHIE-L. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 WHEN I recovered my senses, all was so much changed 
 round me, that I could scarcely be persuaded that either 
 the past or the present was not a dream. I had no con- 
 sciousness of any interval between them, more than that 
 of having closed my eyes at one instant, to open them at 
 
 ^ the next. Yet the curtains of a tent waved round me, in 
 a breeze fragrant with the breath of roses and balsam 
 
 '' trees. Beyond the gardens and meadows, from which 
 those odors sprang, a river shone, like a path of lapis lazuli, 
 in the calm effulgence of the western sun. Tents were 
 pitched, from which I heard the sounds of pastoral in- 
 struments; camels were drinking and grazing along the 
 riverside; and turbaned men and maidens were ranging 
 over the fields, or sitting on the banks to enjoy the cool 
 
 ~ 
 
 of the delicious evening. /~Q/T 
 
 While I tried to collect my senses, and discover wheth- 
 er this was more than one of those sports of a wayward 
 fancy which tantalize the bed of the sick mind, I heard 
 a low hymn, and listened to the sounds with breathlesss 
 anxiety. The voice I knew at once it was Miriam's. But, 
 in the disorder of my brain, and the strange circum- 
 stances which had filled the latter days, in that total 
 feebleness, too, in which I could not move a limb or utter ' 
 a word, a persuasion seized me that I was already bej^ond I 
 the final boundary of mortals. All before me was like that 
 paradise, from which the crime of our great forefather 
 had driven man into banishment. I remembered the con- 
 vulsion of the earth in which I had sunk; and asked my- 
 self, could man be wrapped in the flame, and the whirl- 
 wind that tore up mountains like the roots of flowers, and 
 yet live ? , 
 
 In this perplexity, I closed my eyes to collect my 
 thoughts, and probably exhibited some strong emotion 
 of countenance, for I was roused by a cry "He lives, he 
 lives!" I looked up Miriam stood before me, clasping 
 her lovely hands with the wildness of joy unspeakabl 
 and shedding tears, that large and lustrous fell down her 
 Blowing cheeks, like dew upon the pomegranate. She 
 threw herself upon my pillow, kissed my forehead with lips 
 that broathcd new life into me ; then pressing my chill hand 
 between hers, knelt down, and with a look worthy of that 
 
SALATHIEL. 39 
 
 heaven on which it was fixed, radiant with beauty, and 
 holiness, and joy, as the face of an angel, offered up her 
 thanksgiving. 
 
 The explanation of the scene that perplexed me was 
 given in a few words, interrupted only by tears and sighs 
 of delight. With the burst of the earthquake, the super- 
 natural darkness had cleared away. I was flung under 
 the shelter of one of those caves which abound in the 
 gorges of the mountains round Jerusalem. Miriam and 
 her infant were flung by my side, yet unhurt. While I 
 lay insensible in her arms, she, by singular good for- 
 tune, found herself surrounded by a troop of our kinsmen, 
 returning from the city, where terror had suffered but few 
 to remain. They placed her and her infant on their cam- 
 els. Me they would have consigned to the sepulchre of 
 the priests; but Miriam was not to be shaken in her pur- 
 pose, to watch over me until all hope was gone. I was 
 thus carried along; and they were now three days on 
 their journey homewards. The landscape before me was 
 Samaria. 
 
 My natural destination would have been the cities of 
 the priests, which lay to the south, bordering upon He- 
 bron. In those thirteen opulent and noble residences al- 
 lotted to the higher ministry of the Temple, they enjoyed 
 all that could be offered by the munificent wisdom of the 
 state ; wealth, that raised them above the pressures of life, 
 yet not so great as to extinguish the desire of intellectual 
 distinction, or the love of the loftier virtues. The means 
 of mental cultivation were provided for them with more 
 than royal liberality. Copies of the sacred books, multi- 
 plied in every form, and adorned with the finest skill of 
 the pencil, and the sculptor in gold and other materials, 
 attested at once the reverence of the nation for its law, and 
 the perfection to which it had brought the decorative arts. 
 The works of strangers, eminent for genius or knowledge, 
 or even for the singularity of their subject, were not less 
 to be found in those stately treasure houses of mind. 
 There the priest might relax his spirit from the sublimer 
 studies of his country, by the bold and brilliant epics of 
 Greece; the fantastic passion, and figured beauty of the 
 Persian poesy; or the alternate severity and sweetness of 
 the Indian drama that startling union of all lovely im- 
 ages of nature, the bloom and fragrance of flowers^ the 
 
40 SALATHIEL. 
 
 hues of the Oriental heaven, and the perfumes of isles of 
 spice and cinnamon, with the grim and subterranean ter- 
 rors of a gigantic idolatry. There he might spread the 
 philosophic wing from the glittering creations of Grecian 
 metaphysics, to their dark and early oracles in the East; 
 or, stopping in his central flight, plunge into the profound 
 of Egyptian mystery, where science lies, like the mummy, 
 wrapped in a thousand folds that preserve the form, but 
 preserve it with the living principle gone. 
 
 Music, of all pleasures the most intellectual, that glori- 
 ous painting to the ear, that rich mastery of the gloomier 
 emotions of our nature, was studied by the priesthood with 
 a skill that influenced the habits of the country. How 
 often have my fiercest perturbations sunk, at the sounds 
 that once filled the breezes of Judea! How often, when 
 my brain was burning, and the blood ran through my 
 veins like molten brass, have I been softened down to pain- 
 less tears, by the chorus from our hills, the mellow har- 
 monies of harp and horn, blending with the voices of the 
 youths and maidens of Israel ! How often have I in the 
 night listened, while the chant, ascending with a native 
 richness to which the skill of other nations was dissonance, 
 floated upwards like a cloud of incense, bearing the as- 
 pirations of holiness and gratitude to the throne of Him 
 whom man hath not seen nor can see ! 
 
 But, those times are sunk deep in the great gulf that 
 absorbs the happiness and genius of man. I have since 
 traversed my country in its length and breadth; I have 
 marked with my weary feet every valley, and made my 
 restless bed upon every hill from Idumea to Lebanon, 
 and from the Assyrian sands to the waters of the Medi- 
 terranean; yet the harp and voice were dead. I heard 
 sounds on the hills ; but they were the cries of the villagers 
 flying before some tyrant gatherer of a tyrant's tribute. 
 I heard sounds in the midnight; but they were the howl 
 of the wolf, and the yell of the hyena, revelling over the 
 naked and dishonored graves, which the infidel had given 
 in his scorn, to the people of my fathers. 
 
 But, the study to which the largest expenditures of 
 wealth and labor was devoted, was, as it ought to be, that 
 of the sacred books of Israel. It only makes me rebellious 
 against the decrees of fate, to think of the incomparable 
 richness and immaculate character of the volumes, over 
 
SALATHIEL. 41 
 
 which I have so often hung, and look upon the diminished 
 and degraded exterior in which their wisdom now lies be- 
 fore man. Where are now the cases covered with jewels, 
 the clasps of topaz and diamond ? the golden arks in which 
 the volume of the hope of Israel lay, too precious not to 
 be humiliated by the contact with even the richest treas- 
 ure of earth? Where are the tissued curtains, that hid, 
 as in a sanctuary, that mighty roll, too sacred to be 
 glanced on by the casual eye ? But, the spoiler the spoil- 
 er! The Arab, the Parthian, the human tiger of the 
 north, that lies crouching for a thousand years in the 
 sheep fold of Judah ! Is there not a sword ? Is there not 
 a judgment? Terribly will it judge the oppressor. 
 
 The home of my kinsmen was in the allotment of 
 Naphtali. The original tribe had revolted in the general 
 schism of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel; and was 
 swept into the Assyrian captivity. But on the restoration 
 by Cyrus, fragments of all the captive tribes returned, 
 and were suffered to resume their lands. Misfortune 
 wrought its moral on them : the chief families pledged 
 their allegiance once more to Judah, and were exemplary 
 in paying homage to the spirit and ordinances of their 
 religion. 
 
 We speeded through the soil of Samaria. The ran- 
 corous enmity borne by the Samaritans to the subjects 
 of Judah, for ages made all intercourse between Jerusalem 
 and the north difficult. It was often totally interrupted 
 by war it was dangerous in peace; and the ferocious 
 character of the population, and the bitter antipathy of 
 the government, made it to the Jew a land of robbers. 
 But, among the evils of the Roman conquest, was mingled 
 this good, that it suffered no subordinate tyranny. Its 
 sword cut away at a blow all those minor oppressions 
 which make the misery of provincial life. If the moun- 
 tain robber invaded the plain, as was his custom of old, 
 the Roman cavalry were instantly on him with the spear, 
 until he took refuge in the mountains if he resisted in 
 his native fastnesses, the legionaries pursued him with 
 torch and sword, stifled him if he remained in his cave, 
 or stabbed him at its mouth. If quarrels arose between 
 villages, the cohorts burned them to the ground; and the 
 execution was done with a promptitude and complete- 
 ness that less resembled the ordinary operations of war 
 
4<J SALATHIEL. 
 
 than the work of superhuman power. The Roman knowl- 
 edge of our disturbances was instantaneous. Signals es- 
 tablished on the hills conveyed intelligence with the speed 
 of light, from the remotest corners of the land to their 
 principal stations. Even in our subsequent conspiracies, 
 "the first knowledge that they had broken out was often 
 conveyed to their partisans in the next district by the 
 movement of the Roman troops. Well had they chosen 
 the eagle for their ensign. They rushed with the eagle's . 
 rapidity on their victim; and when it was stretched in 
 blood, they left the spot of vengeance, as if they had left 
 it on the wing. Their advance had the rapidity of the 
 most hurried retreat, and the steadiness of the most secure 
 triumph. Their retreat left nothing behind, but the marks 
 of their irresistible power. . 
 
 * All the armies of the earth have since passed before 
 me. I have seen the equals of the legions in courage and 
 discipline; and their superiors in those arms by which 
 human life is at the caprice of ambition. But their equals 
 I have never seen, in the individual fitness of the soldier 
 for war; in his fleetness, muscular vigor, and expertness 
 in the use of his weapons; in his quick adaptation to all 
 the multiplied purposes of the ancient campaign from 
 the digging of a trench, or the management of a catapult, 
 to the assault of a citadel; in his iron endurance of the 
 vicissitudes of climate; in the length and regularity of 
 his marches; or in the rapidity, boldness, and dexterity 
 of his manoeuvre in the field. Yet, it is but a melancholy 
 tribute to the valor of my countrymen, to record the Ro- 
 man acknowledgment, that of all the nations conquered by 
 Rome, Judea bore the chain with the haughtiest dignity, 
 and most frequently and fiercely contested the supremacy 
 of the sword. 
 
 Under that stern supremacy, the Samaritan had long 
 rested; and flourished in exemption from the harassing 
 cruelty of petty war. We now passed with our long 
 caravan unguarded, and moving at will through fields 
 rich with the luxuriance of an Eastern summer, where 
 our fathers would have scarcely ventured, but with an 
 army. I made no resistance to being thus led away to a 
 region ?o remote from my own. To have returned to 
 the cities of the priests would have but given me hourly 
 agony. ? Even the gates of Jerusalem were to my feelings 
 
SAL ATE I EL. 43 
 
 . anathema. The whole fabric of mind had undergone a 
 
 C revolution ; like a man tossed at the mercy of the tempest, 
 
 I sought but a shore and all shores were alike to him 
 
 who must be an exile f 01 
 y^^-^-s^p-^r-^ 
 
 CHAPTEK V. 
 
 THE country through which we passed, after leaving 
 the boundaries of Samaria where, with all its peace, no 
 Jew could tread but as in the land of strangers was new 
 to me. My life had been till now spent in study, or in 
 serving the altar; and I had heard, with the usual and 
 unwise indifference of men devoted to books, the praise 
 of the picturesque and stately provinces that still remained 
 to our people. I was now to see for myself; and was 
 often compelled, as we advanced, to reproach the idle 
 prejudice that had so long deprived me, and might forever 
 deprive so many of my consecrated brethren, of an en- 
 joyment cheering to the human heart, and full of lofty 
 and hallowed memory to the man of Israel. As we passed 
 along, less travelling than wandering at pleasure, through 
 regions where every winding of the marble hill, or descent 
 of the fruitful valley, showed us some sudden and romantic 
 beauty of landscape, my kinsmen took a natural pride in 
 pointing out the noble features that made Canaan a living 
 history of Providence. 
 
 What were even the trophy-covered hills of Greece, or 
 the monumental plains of Italy, to the hills and plains 
 where the memorial told of the miracles and the presence 
 of the Supreme? "Look at that rock," they would ex- 
 claim ; "there descended the angel of the Presence ! On 
 the summit of that cloudy ridge stood Ezekiel, when he 
 paw the vision of the latter days. Look to yonder cleft in 
 the mountains; there fell the lightning from heaven on 
 the Philistine." In our travel we reached a valley, a spot 
 of singular beauty and seclusion, blushing with flowers, 
 and sheeted with the olive from its edge down to a stream 
 that rushed brightly through its bosom. There was no 
 dwelling of man in it ; but on a gentler slope of the de- 
 elivity stood a gigantic terebinth tree. More than cu- 
 riosity was attracted to this delicious spot; for the laugh 
 and talking of the caravan had instantly subsided at the 
 
44 SALATHIEL. 
 
 sight. All, by a common impulse, dismounted from their 
 horses and camels; and though it was still far from sun- 
 set, the tents were pitched, and preparations made for 
 prayer. The spot reminded me of the valley of Hebron, 
 sacred to the Jewish heart, as the burial-place of Abraham, 
 Sarah, and Isaac; may they sleep in the bosom of the 
 Lord ! The terebinth tree, under which the greatest of the 
 patriarchs sat and talked with the angels the fountain 
 the cave of Macpelah, in which his mortal frame re- 
 turned to the earth, to come again in glory, appeared to 
 lie before me. 
 
 From the day of my unspeakable crime, I had never 
 joined in prayer with my people. Yet, I was still a be- 
 liever in the faith of Israel. I even clung to it with the 
 nervous violence of one who, in a shipwreck, feels that 
 his only hope is the plank in his grasp; and that some 
 more powerful hand is tearing even that plank away. 
 But, the sight of human beings enjoying the placid conso- 
 lations of prayer, had from the first moment overwhelmed 
 me with so keen a sense of my misfortune the pious gen- 
 tleness of attitude and voice the calm uplifted hand, and 
 low and solemn aspiration, were in so deep a contrast to 
 the involuntary wildness and broken utterings of a heart 
 bound in more than adamantine chains; that I shrank 
 from the rebuke, and groaned in solitude. 
 
 I went forth into the valley, and was soon lost in its 
 thick vegetation. The sound of the hymn, that sank down 
 in mingled sweetness with the murmuring of the evening 
 air through the leaves, and the bubbling of the brook be- 
 low, alone told me that I was near human beings. I sat 
 upon a fragment of turf, embroidered as never was king- 
 ly footstool, and with my hands clasped on my eyes, to 
 remove from me all the images of life, gave way to that 
 visionary mood of mind, in which ideas come and pass 
 in crowds without shape, and leaving no more impression 
 than the drops of a sun-shower on the trees. I had re- 
 mained long in this half-dreaming confusion, and had 
 almost imagined myself transported to some intermediate 
 realm of being, where a part of the infliction was that of 
 being startled by keen flashes of light from some upper 
 world, when I was roused by the voice of Eleazar, the 
 brother of Miriam, at my side. His manly and generous 
 countenance expressed mingled anxiety and gladness at 
 
SALATHIEL. 45 
 
 discovering me. "The whole camp," said he, "have been 
 alarmed at your absence, and have searched, for these 
 three hours, through every part of our day's journey. 
 Miriam's distraction at length urged me to leave her; and 
 it was by her instinct that I took my way down the only 
 path hitherto unsearched, and where, indeed, from fear 
 or reverence of the place, few but myself would have 
 willingly come." He called to an attendant, and, send- 
 ing him up the side of the valley with the tidings, we 
 followed slowly, for I was still feeble. As we emerged 
 into an opener space, the moon lying on masses of cloud, 
 like a queen pillowed on couches of silver, showed me, 
 in her strong illumination of the forest, the flashes which 
 had added to the bewildered pain of my reverie. While 
 I talked with natural animation of the splendor of the 
 heavens, and pointed out the lines and figures on the 
 moon's disk, which made it probable that it was, like 
 earth, a place of habitation ; he suddenly pressed my hand, 
 and stopping, with his eyes fixed on my face, "How," said 
 he, "does it happen, my friend, my brother Salathiel?" 
 I started, as if my name, the name of my illustrious an- 
 cestor, direct in descent from the father of the faithful, 
 were an accusation. He proceeded with but a more ar- 
 dent pressure of my quivering hand "How is it to be ac- 
 counted for, that you, with such contemplations, and the 
 knowledge that gives them the dignity of science, can 
 yet be so habitually given over to gloom? Serious crime 
 I will not believe in you ; though the best of us are stained. 
 But your character is pure; I know your nature to be too 
 lofty for the degenerate indulgence of the passions; and 
 Miriam's love for you, a love passing that of women, is, in 
 itself, a seal of virtue. Answer me can the wealth, 
 power, or influence of your brother and his house, nay of 
 his tribe, assist you ?" 
 
 I was silent. He paused; and we walked on awhile, 
 without a sound but that of our tread among the leaves: 
 but his mind was full, and it would have way. "Salathiel," 
 said he, "you do injustice to yourself, to your wife, and 
 to your friends. This gloom that sits eternally on your 
 forehead, must wear away all your uses in society; it 
 bathes your incomparable wife's pillow in tears; and it 
 disheartens, nay distresses us all. Answer me as one man 
 of honor and integrity would another. Have you been 
 
46 BALATBIEL. 
 
 disappointed in your ambition? I know your claims. 
 You have knowledge surpassing that of a multitude of 
 your contemporaries; you have talents that ought to be 
 honored; your character is unimpeached and unimpeach- 
 able. Such things ought to have already raised you to 
 eminence. Have you found yourself thwarted by the com- 
 mon artifice of official life? Has some paltry sycophant 
 crept up before you by the oblique path that honor dis- 
 dains ? Or have you felt yourself an excluded and marked 
 man, merely for the display of that manlier vigor, richer 
 genius, and more generous and sincere impulse of heart, 
 which to the conscious inferiority of the rabble of under- 
 standing, is gall and wormwood? Or have you taken 
 too deeply into your resentment, the common criminal 
 negligence that besets common minds in power, and makes 
 them carelessly fling away upon incapacity, and guiltily 
 withhold from worth, the rewards which were intrusted 
 to them, as a sacred deposit, for the encouragement of na- 
 tional ability and personal virtue?" 
 
 I strongly disavowed all conceptions of the kind; and 
 assured him that I felt neither peculiar merits nor pe- 
 culiar injuries. "I had seen too much of what ambition 
 and worldly success were made of, to allow hope to excite, 
 or failure to depress me. I am even/' added I, "so far 
 from being the slave of that most vulgar intemperance of 
 a deranged heart, the diseased craving for the miserable 
 indulgences of worldly distinction, that would to heaven 
 I might never again enter the gates of Jerusalem!" 
 
 He started back in surprise. The confession had been 
 altogether unintended ; and I looked up to see the burst of 
 Jewish wrath descending upon me. I saw none. My 
 kinsman's fine countenance was brightened with a lofty 
 joy. "Then you have renounced. But no, it is yet too 
 soon. At your age, with your prospects, can you have re- 
 nounced the career offered to you among the rulers of 
 Israel?" 
 
 "I have renounced." 
 "Sincerely, solemnly, upon conviction?" 
 "From the bottom of my soul, now and forever !" 
 We had reached the open space in front of the tere- 
 binth tree that stood in majesty, extending its stately 
 branches over a space cleared of all other trees, a sover- 
 eign of the forest. In silence he led me under the shade 
 
8ALATHIEL. 4? 
 
 to a small tomb, on which the light fell with broken 
 lustre. "This," said he, "is the tomb of the greatest 
 prophet, on whose lips the wisdom of heaven ever burned. 
 There sleeps Isaiah ! There is silent the voice, that for 
 fifty years spoke more than the thoughts of man in the 
 ears of a guilty people. There are cold the hands, that 
 struck the harp of more than mortal sounds to the glory 
 of Him, to whom earth and its kingdoms are but as the 
 dust of the balance. There lies the heart, which neither 
 the desert nor the dungeon, nor the teeth of the lion, nor 
 the saw of Manasseh, could tame: the denouncer of our 
 crimes the scourge of our apostasy the prophet of that 
 desolation which was to bow the grandeur of J udah to the 
 grave, as the tree of the mountain in the whirlwind. Saint 
 and martyr, let my life be as thine; and if it be the 
 will of God, let my death be even as thine." 
 
 He threw himself on his knees, and remained in prayer 
 for a time. I knelt with him, but no prayer would issue 
 from my heart. He at length rose, and, leading me into 
 the moonlight, said, in a low voice: "Is there not, where 
 the holy sleep, a holiness in the very ground? I waive 
 all the superstitious feelings of the idolator, worshipping 
 the dust of the creature, for the king alike of all. I pass 
 over the natural human homage for the memory of those, 
 who have risen above us by the great qualities of their 
 being. But if there are supernal influences acting upon the 
 mind of man; if the winged spirits that minister before 
 the throne still descend to earth on missions of mercy, I 
 frill believe that their loved place is round the grave where 
 sleeps the mortal portion of the holy. In all our journeys 
 to the Temple, it has been the custom of our shattered and 
 humiliated tribe to pause beside this tomb, and offer up 
 our homage to that mightiest of the mighty, who made 
 such men for the lights of Israel !" He then earnestly 
 repeated the question "Have you abandoned your of- 
 fice?" "Yes," was the answer, "totally; with full pur- 
 pose never to resume it. In your mountains I will live 
 with you, and with you I will die." Memory smote me as 
 I pronounced the word: the refuge of the grave was not 
 for me ! 
 
 "Then," said he, "you have relieved my spirit of a 
 load; you are now my more than brother." He clasped 
 me in his arms. "Yes, Salathiel, I know that jour high 
 
48 SALATHIEL. 
 
 heart must have scorned the prejudices of the Scribe and 
 the Pharisee; you must have seen through, and loathed 
 the smiling hypocrisy, the rancorous bigotry, and the furi- 
 ous thirst of blood, that are hourly sinking us below the 
 lowest of the heathen. Hating the tyranny of the Roman ; 
 as I live this hour, I would rather see the city of David 
 inhabited by none but the idolater, or delivered over to 
 the curse of Babylon, and made the couch of the lion and 
 the serpent; than see its courts filled with those impious 
 traitors to the spirit of the law, those cruel extortioners 
 under the mask of self-denial those malignant revellers 
 in human torture under the name of insulted religion; 
 whose joy is crime, and every hour of whose being but 
 wearies the long-suffering of God, and precipitates the 
 ruin of my country." 
 
 He drew from his bosom, and unrolled in the moon- 
 light a small copy of the Scriptures: "My brother," 
 said he, "have you read the holy prophecies of him by 
 whose grave we stand ?" My only answer was a smile ; they 
 were the chief study of the priesthood. "True," said he; 
 "no doubt, you have read the words of the prophet. But 
 Wisdom is known of her children, and of them alone. 
 Eead here." 
 
 I read the famous Haphtorah: "Who hath believed 
 our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? 
 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and 
 as a root out of a dry ground : he hath no form nor come- 
 liness ; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that 
 we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of 
 men ; a man of sorrows !" 
 
 He stopped me, laying his hand on my arm ; I felt his 
 strong nerves tremble like an infant's. "Of whom hath 
 the prophet spoken?" uttered he in a voice of intense 
 anxiety. "Of whom? of the Deliverer, that is to restore 
 Judah; him that is to come," was my answer. "Him 
 that is to come still to come?" he exclaimed. "God of 
 heaven, must the veil be forever on the face of thy Israel ? 
 When shall our darkness be light; and the chain of our 
 spirit be broken !" The glow and power of his counte- 
 nance sank ; he took the roll with a sigh, and replaced it in 
 his robe; then with his hands clasped across his bosom, 
 and his head bowed, he led our silent way up the side 
 of the valley. 
 
BALATHIEL. 49 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 WE soon reached the hill country, and our road passed 
 through what were once the allotments of Issachar, Za- 
 bulon, and Asher; but by the Roman division, was now 
 Upper Galilee. My health had been rapidly restored by 
 the exercise and the balmy air. My more incurable disease 
 was prevented by the journey from perhaps totally en- 
 grossing my mind. Of all the antagonists to mental de- 
 pression, travelling is the most vigorous; not the flight 
 from place to place, as if evil were to be outrun ; nor the 
 enclosure of the weary of life in some narrow vehicle that 
 adds fever and pestilence to heaviness of heart; but the 
 passing at our ease through the open air and bright land- 
 scape of a new country. To me the novelty and loveli- 
 ness of the land were combined with the memory of the 
 most striking events in human record. I had, too, the 
 advantage of companionship, which would have enlivened 
 travel through the wilderness brave and cheerful men, 
 and women on whose minds and forms nature laid her 
 finest stamp of beauty. 
 
 The name of Jew is now but another title for humilia- 
 tion. Who that sees that fallen thing, with his counte- 
 nance bent to the ground, and his form withered of its 
 comeliness, tottering through the proud streets of Europe 
 in some degrading occupation, and clothed in the robes 
 of the beggared and the despised, could imagine the bold 
 figures and gallant bearing of the lion hunters, with whom, 
 in the midst of shouts and songs of careless joy, I spurred 
 my barb up the mountain paths of Galilee ! Yet, fallen 
 as he is, the physiognomy of the Jew retains a share of its 
 original impress, sufficient to establish the claim of the 
 people to have been the handsomest race on earth. Indi- 
 viduals of superior comeliness may often be found among 
 the multitudes of mankind. But no nation, nor distinct 
 part of any nation, can rival an equal number of the un- 
 happy exiles of Israel, in the original impress of that 
 hand which made man only a little lower than the angels. 
 To conceive the Jew as he was, we should conceive the 
 stern and watchful contraction of the dark eye expanded; 
 the fierce and ridgy brow louring no more; the lip no 
 longer gathered in habitual fear or scorn; the cheek no 
 longer sallow with want or pining, and the whole man 
 
50 8ALATBIEL. 
 
 elevated by the returning consciousness that he has a 
 rank among nations. All his deformities have been the 
 birth of his misfortunes. What beauty can we demand 
 from the dungeon? what dignity of aspect from the 
 hewers of wood and drawers of water for mankind? 
 Where shall we seek the magnificent form and illumined 
 countenance of the hero and the sage? from the heart 
 cankered by the chain, from the plundered, the enslaved, 
 the persecuted of two thousand years? 
 
 Of the daughters of my country I have never seen the 
 equals in beauty. Our blood was Arab, softened down by 
 various changes of state and climate, till it was finally 
 brought to perfection in the most genial air, and the 
 most generous soil of the globe. The vivid features of 
 the Arab countenance, no longer attenuated by the desert, 
 assumed, in the plenty of Egypt, that fulness and fine 
 proportion which still belongs to the dwellers by the Nile ; 
 but the true change was on our entrance into the promised 
 land. Peace, the possession of property, days spent among 
 the cheerful and healthful occupations of rural life, are 
 in themselves productive of the finer developments of the 
 human form ; a form whose natural tendency is to beauty. 
 But our nation had an additional and an unshared source 
 of nobleness of aspect ; it was free. 
 
 The state of man in the most unfettered republics of the 
 ancient world was slavery, compared with the magnan- 
 imous and secure establishment of the Jewish common- 
 wealth. During the three hundred golden years, from 
 Moses to Samuel before, for our sins, we were given 
 over to the madness of innovation, and the demand of an 
 earthly diadem the Jew was free, in the loftiest sense of 
 freedom; free to do all good; restricted only from evil; 
 every man pursuing the unobstructed course pointed out 
 by his genius or his fortune; every man protected by 
 laws inviolable, or whose violation was instantly visited 
 with punishment by the Eternal Sovereign alike of ruler 
 and people. 
 
 Freedom! twin sister of Virtue, thou brightest of all 
 the spirits that descended in the train of Eeligion from 
 the throne of God; thou that leadest up man again to 
 the early glories of his being; angel, from the circle of 
 whose presence happiness spreads like the sunrise over 
 the darkness of the land ; at the waving of whose sceptre. 
 
SALAT3IEL. 51 
 
 knowledge, and peace, and fortitude, and wisdom, descend 
 upon the wing ; at the voice of- whose trumpet the more 
 than grave is broken, and slavery gives up her dead ; when 
 shall I see thy coming? When shall I hear thy sum- 
 mons upon the mountains of my country, and rejoice in 
 the regeneration of the sons of Judah? I have traversed 
 nations; and, as I set my foot upon their boundary, I 
 have said, "Freedom is not here !" I saw the naked hill, 
 the morass steaming with death, the field covered with 
 weedy fallow, the sickly thicket encumbering the land; 
 I saw the still more infallible signs, the downcast visage, 
 the form degraded at once by loathsome indolence and 
 desperate poverty; the peasant cheerless and feeble in his 
 field, the wolfish robber, the population of the cities crowded 
 into huts and cells, with pestilence for their fellow ; I saw 
 the contumely of man to man, the furious vindictiveness 
 of popular rage; and I pronounced at the moment, "This 
 people is not free I" 
 
 In the republics of heathen antiquity, the helot, the 
 client sold for the extortion of the patron, and the born 
 bondsman lingering out life in thankless toil, at once put 
 to flight all conceptions of freedom. In the midst of al- 
 tars fuming to liberty, of harangues glowing with the 
 most pompous protestations of scorn for servitude, of 
 crowds inflated with the presumption that they disdained 
 a master, the eye was insulted with the perpetual chain. 
 The temple of Liberty was built upon the dungeon. Eome 
 came, and unconsciously avenged the insulted name of 
 freedom; the master and the slave were bowed down to- 
 gether; and the dungeon was made the common dwelling 
 of all. 
 
 In the Italian republics of after ages, I saw the vigor 
 that, living in the native soil of empire, has always 
 sprung up on the first call. The time was changed since 
 Italy poured its legions over the world. The volcano was 
 now sleeping; yet the fire still burned within its womb, 
 and threw out in its invisible strength the luxuriant qual- 
 ities of the land of power. The innate Eoman passion 
 for sovereignty was no longer to find its triumphs in the 
 field; but it rushed up the paths of a loftier and more 
 solid glory, with a speed and a strength that left man- 
 kind wondering below. The arts, adventure, legislation, 
 literature in all its shapes, of the subtle, the rich, and 
 
52 SAL ATBI EL. 
 
 the sublime, were the peaceful triumphs, whose laurels 
 will entwine the Italian brow, when the wreath of the 
 Caesars is remembered but as a badge of national folly 
 and individual crime. 
 
 But those republics knew freedom only in name. All, 
 within a few years from their birth, had abandoned its 
 living principles justice, temperance and truth. I saw 
 the soldiery of neighbor cities marching to mutual dev- 
 astation, and I said, "Freedom is not here!" I saw 
 abject privation mingled with boundless luxury; in the 
 midst of the noblest works of architecture, the hovel; in 
 the pomps of citizens covered with cloth of gold, gazing 
 groups of faces haggard with beggary and sin; I saw the 
 sold tribunal, the inexorable state prison, the established 
 spy, the protected assassin, the secret torture; and I said, 
 "Freedom is not here !" The pageant filled the streets 
 with more than kingly blazonry, the trumpets flourished, 
 the multitude shouted, the painter covered the walls with 
 immortal emblems, in honor of Freedom ; I pointed to the 
 dungeon, the rack, and the dagger! Bitterer and deeper 
 sign than all, I pointed to the exile of exiles, the broken 
 man, whom even the broken trample, of all the undone 
 the most undone, my outcast brother in the blood of 
 Abraham ! 
 
 I am not about to be his defender; I am not regard- 
 less of his tremendous crime; I cannot stand up alone 
 against the voice of universal man, which has cried out, 
 that thus it shall be; but I say it from the depths of my 
 soul, and as I hope for rest to my miseries, that I never 
 saw freedom survive in that land which loved to smite 
 the Jew ! 
 
 I saw one republic more, the mightiest and the last; 
 for the justice of Heaven on the land, the most terrible; 
 for the mercy of Heaven to mankind, the briefest in its 
 devastation. But, there all was hypocrisy, that was not 
 horror ; the only equal rights were those of the equal rob- 
 ber; the sacred figure of Liberty veiled its face; and the 
 offering on its violated shrine was the spoil of honor, 
 bravery, and virtue. 
 
 The daughters of our nation, sharing in the rights of 
 its sons, bore the lofty impression that virtuous freedom 
 always stamps on the humtn features. But they had tfie 
 softer graces of their sex, in a degree unequalled in the 
 
BALATHIEL. 53 
 
 ancient world. While the woman of the East was im- 
 mured within bolts and bars, from time immemorial a 
 prisoner; and the woman of the West was a toy, a savage, 
 or a slave ; our wives and maidens enjoyed the intercourses 
 of society, which their talents were well calculated to 
 cheer and adorn. They were skilled on the harp; their 
 sweet voices were tuned to the richest strains of earth; 
 they were graceful in the dance; the writings of our bards 
 were in their hands; and what nation ever possessed such 
 illustrious founts of thought and virtue! But, there was 
 v another and a still higher ground for that peculiar ex- 
 pression, which makes their countenance still lighten be- 
 fore me, as something of more than mortal beauty. The 
 earliest consciousness of every Jewish woman was that 
 she might, in the hand of Providence, be the sacred source 
 of a blessing and a glory that throws all imagination into 
 the shade; that of her might be born a Being, to whom 
 earth and all its kings should bow ! the more than man ! 
 the more than angel ! veiling for a little time his splen- 
 dors in the form of man, to raise Israel to the sceptre of 
 the world, to raise that world into a renewed paradise, 
 and then to resume his original glory, and be Sovereign, 
 Creator, God all in all ! 
 
 This consciousness, however dimmed, was never for- 
 gotten ; the misfortunes of Judah never breaking the strong 
 link by which we held to the future. The reliance on pre- 
 dictions perpetually renewed, and never more vividly re- 
 newed than in the midst of our misfortunes; a reliance 
 commemorated in all the great ceremonies of our nation, 
 in our worship, in our festivals, in every baptism, in every 
 marriage must have filled a large space in the susceptible 
 mind of woman. And what but the mind forms the coun- 
 tenance? and what must have been the moulding of that 
 most magnificent and elevating of all hopes, for centuries, 
 on the most plastic and expressive feature in the world ! 
 
 Sacredly reserved from intermixture with the blood of 
 the stranger, the hope was spread throughout Israel. The 
 line of David was pure, but its connection had shot wide- 
 ly through the land. It was like the Indian tree taking 
 root through a thousand trees. Every Jewish woman 
 might hope to be the living altar, on which the Light to 
 lighten the Gentiles was to descend ! The humblest might 
 be the blessed among women ! the*mother of the Messiah ! 
 
54 SALATHIEL. 
 
 But all is gone! Ages of wandering, woe, poverty, con- 
 tumely, and mixture of blood, have done their work of 
 evil. The loveliness may partially remain, but the glory 
 pf Judah r s daughters is no more. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 WE continued ascending through the defiles of the moun- 
 tain range of Carmel. The gorges of the hills gave us 
 alternate glimpses of Lower Galilee, and of the great sea 
 which lay bounding the western horizon with azure. The 
 morning breezes from the land, now in the full vegetation 
 of the rapid spring of Palestine, scarcely ceased to fill the 
 heavens with fragrance, when the sea-wind sprang up, 
 and, with the coolness and purity of a gush of fountain- 
 waters, renewed the spirit of life in the air, and made the 
 whole caravan forget its fatigue. Our bold hunters 
 spurred down the valleys and up the hills, with the wild- 
 ness of superfluous vigor; tossed their lances into the air; 
 sang their mountain songs, and shouted the cries of the 
 chase and the battle. 
 
 On one eventful day a wolfwas started from its covert 
 and every rein was let loose in a moment; nothing could 
 stop the fearlessness or the riders, or exhaust the fire of the 
 steeds. The caravan, coming on slowly with the women 
 and children, and lengthening out among the passes, was 
 forgotten. I scorned to be left behind, and followed my 
 daring companions at full speed. The wolf led us a long 
 chase ; and on the summit of a rock, still blazing in the sun- 
 light, like a beacon, while the plain was growing dim, he 
 fought his last fight, and, transfixed with a hundred 
 lances, died the death of a hero. But the spot which we 
 had reached supplied statelier contemplations : we were on 
 the summit of Mount Tabor: the eye wandered over the 
 whole glory of the Land of Promise.^ To the south ex- 
 tended the mountains of Samaria, their peaked sum- 
 mits glowing in the sun with the colored brilliancy of a 
 chain of gems. To the east lay the lake of Tiberias, a 
 long line of purple. Northward, like a thousand rain- 
 bows, ascended, lit by the western flame, the mountains 
 of Gilboa, those memorable hills on which the spear of 
 Saul was broken, and the first curse of our obstinacy was 
 
8ALATHIEL. 55 
 
 branded upon us in the blood of our first king. Closing 
 the superb circle, ascended step by step the Antilibanus, 
 soaring into the very heavens. 
 
 Of all the sights that nature offers to the eye and mind 
 of man, mountains have always stirred my strongest feel-> 
 ings. I have seen the ocean when it was turned up from 
 the bottom by tempest, and noon was like night with the 
 conflict of the billows and the storm that tore and scat- 
 tered them in mist and foam across the sky. I have seen 
 the desert rise around me, and calmly, in the midst of^ 
 thousands uttering cries of horror, and paralyzed by fear, 
 have contemplated the sandy pillars coming like the ad- 
 vance of some gigantic city of conflagration flying across 
 the wilderness, every column glowing with intense fire, 
 and every blast death; the sky vaulted with gloom, the 
 earth a furnace. But with me, the mountain in tempest 
 or in calm, whether the throne of the thunder, or with the 
 evening sun painting its dells and declivities in colors 
 dipped in heaven has been the source of the most ab- 
 sorbing sensations: there stands magnitude, giving the 
 instant impression of a power above man grandeur that 
 defines decay antiquity that tells of ages unnumbered 
 beauty that the touch of time makes only more beautiful 
 use exhaustless for the service of man strength imperish-' 
 able as the globe; the monument of eternity the truest) 
 earthly emblem of that everliving, unchangeable, irresisti- 
 ble Majesty, by whom and for whom all things were made ! 
 
 I was gazing on the Antilibanus, and peopling its dis- 
 tant slopes with figures of other worlds ascending and de- 
 scending, as in the patriarch's dream, when I was roused 
 by the trampling steed of one of my kinsmen returning 
 with the wolf's head, the trophy of his superior prowess, 
 at his saddle bow. "So," said he, "you disdained to share 
 the last battle of that dog of the Galilees? But we shall 
 show you something better worth the chase, when we 
 reach home. The first snow that drives the lions down 
 from Lebanon, or the first hot wind that sends the panthers 
 flying before it from Assyria, will have all our villages up 
 in arms; every man who can draw a bow, or throw a\ 
 lance, will be on the mountains ; and then we shall give you 
 the honors of a hunter in exchange for your philosophy." 
 He uttered this with a jovial laugh, and a hand grasping 
 mine with the grip of a giant. "Yet/' said he, and a shade 
 
56 BALATHIEL. 
 
 passed over his brow, "I wish we had something better to 
 do ; you must not look down upon Jubal, and the tribe of 
 your brother Eleazar, as mere rovers after wolves and 
 panthers." 
 
 I willingly declared my respect for the intrepidity and 
 dexterity which the mountain life insured. "Yet," inter- 
 rupted Jubal sternly, "what can be done while those 
 Romans are everywhere round us?" He stopped short, 
 reined up his horse with a sudden force that made the 
 animal spring from the ground, flung his lance high in 
 air, caught it in the fall, and having thus relieved his 
 indignation, returned to discuss with me the chances of 
 Roman war. "Look at those," said he, pointing to the 
 horsemen who were now bounding across the declivities to 
 rejoin the caravan; "their horses are flame, their bodies 
 are iron, and their souls would be both, if they had a 
 leader." "Eleazar is brave," I replied. "Brave as his 
 own lance," was the answer ; "no warmer heart, wiser head, 
 or firmer arm, moves at this hour within the borders of 
 the land. But he despairs." "He knows," said I, "the 
 Roman power and the Jewish weakness." , 
 
 "Both both, too well!" was the reply. "But lie for- 
 gets the power that is in the cause of a people fighting 
 for their law and for their rights, in the midst of glorious 
 remembrances, nay in the hope of a help greater than 
 that of the sword. Look at the tract beyond those linden- 
 trees." 
 
 ;> He pointed to a broken extent of ground, darkly dis- 
 tinguishable from the rest of the plain. "On that ground, 
 to this moment wearing the look of a grave, was drawn up 
 the host of Sisera; under that ground is their grave. By 
 this stone," and he struck his lance on a rough pillar de- 
 faced by time, "stood Deborah the prophetess, prophesying 
 against the thousands and ten of thousands of the heathen 
 below. On this hill were drawn up the army of Barak, as 
 a drop in the ocean, compared with the infidel multitudes. 
 They were the ancestors of the men whom you now see 
 trooping before you; the men of Naphtali, with their 
 brothers of Zabulon. On this spot they gathered their 
 might like the storm of Heaven. From this spot they. 
 poured down like its whirlwind? and lightnings upon the 
 taunting enemy. God was their leader. They rushed 
 upon the nine hundred scythed chariots, upon the mailed 
 
SALATHIEL. 57 
 
 cavalry, upon the countless infantry. Of all, but one 
 .escaped from the plain of Jezreel, and that one only to 
 perish In his flight by the degradation of a woman's 
 '.hand!" He wheeled round his foaming horse, and ap- 
 pealed to me. "Are the Eoman legions more numerous 
 than that host of the dead? Is Israel now less valiant, 
 less wronged, or less indignant ? Shall no prophet arise , 
 among us again? Shall it not be sung again, as it was 
 then sung to the harps of Israel 'Zabulon and Naphtali 
 were a people that jeoparded their lives unto the death in 
 the high place of the field ?' 
 
 I looked with involuntary wonder at the change wrought 
 in him by those proud recollections. The rude and jovial 
 hunter was no more; the Jewish warrior stood before me, 
 filled with the double impulse of generous scorn of the 
 oppression, and of high dependence on the fate, of his 
 nation. His countenance was ennobled, his form seemed 
 to dilate, his voice grew sonorous as a trumpet. A sudden 
 burst of the declining sun broke upon his figure, and threw 
 a sheet of splendor across the scarlet turban, the glittering 
 tunic, the spear-point lifted in the strenuous hand, the 
 richly-caparisoned front and sanguine nostril of his im- 
 patient charger. A Gfentile would have worshipped him 
 as the tutelar genius of war. I saw in him but the man 
 that our history and our law were ordained, beyond all 
 others, to have made; the native strength of character 
 raised into heroism by the conviction of a guiding and 
 protecting Providence. 
 
 The conversation was not forgotten on either side; and 
 it bore fruit, fearful fruit, in time. 
 
 We had reached on our return a commanding point, 
 from which we looked into the depths already filling with 
 twilight, and through whose blue vapors the caravan toiled 
 slowly along, like a wearied fleet in some billowy sea. Sud- 
 denly a tumult was perceived below; shouts of confusion 
 and terror rose; and the whole caravan was seen rushing 
 in all directions through the passes. For the first moment 
 we thought that it had been attacked by the mountain 
 robbers. We grasped our lances, and galloped down the 
 side of the hill to charge them; when we were stopped at 
 once by a cry from the ridge which we had just left. It 
 struck through my heart the voice was Miriam's. To my 
 unspeakable horror, I saw her dromedary, mad with fear 
 
58 SAL ATE I EL. 
 
 and pouring blood, rush along the edge of the precipice. I 
 saw the figure clinging to his neck. The light forsook 
 my eyes; and but for the grasp of Jubal, I must have 
 fallen to the ground. His voice roused me. When I 
 looked round again, the shouts had died, the troop had 
 disappeared it seemed all a dream ! 
 
 But, again, the shouts came doubling upon the wind; 
 and far as the eye could pierce through the dusk, I saw 
 the .white robe of Miriam flying along like a vapor. I 
 threw the reins on my horse's neck I roused him with 
 my voice I rushed with the fearlessness of despair 
 through the hills I overtook the troop I outstripped 
 them : still the vision flew before me. At length it sank. 
 The dromedary had plunged down the precipice; a depth 
 of hideous darkness. A torrent roared below. I struck 
 in the spur, to follow. My horse wheeled round on the 
 edge : while I strove to force him to the leap, my kins- 
 men came up, with Eleazar at their head. Bold as they 
 were, they all recoiled from the frightful depth. Even 
 in that wild moment, I had time to feel that this was but 
 the beginning of my inflictions, and that I was to be the 
 ruin of all that belonged to me. In consciousness un- 
 speakable, I sprang from my startled steed; and before a 
 hand could check me, I plunged in. A cry of astonish- 
 ment and horror rang in my ears as I fell. The roar of 
 waters was then around me. I struggled with the tor- 
 rent ; gasped and heard no more. 
 
 This desperate effort saved the life of Miriam. We were 
 found apparently dead, clasped in each other's arms, at 
 some distance down the stream. The plunge had broken 
 the band by which she was fixed on the saddle. She floated, 
 and we were thrown together by the eddy. After long 
 effort, we were restored. But the lamentations of my 
 matchless wife were restrained beside my couch, only to 
 burst forth when she was alone. We had lost our infant! 
 
 The chase of the wolves in the mountain had driven 
 them across the march of the caravan. One of these sav- 
 ages sprang upon the flank of the dromedary. The ani- 
 mal, in the agony of its wounds, burst away: its proverbial 
 fleetness baffled pursuit; and it was almost fortunate that 
 it at length bounded over the precipice; as, in the moun- 
 tain country, its precious burthen must have perished by 
 the lion or by famine. Miriam held her babe with the 
 
8ALATUIEL. 59 
 
 strong grasp of a mother; but in the torrent. that grasp 
 was dissolved. All our search was in vain. My wife wept : 
 but I had in her rescued my chief treasure on earth; ana 
 was partially consoled by the same deep feeling which 
 pronounced, that I might have been punished by the loss 
 of all. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 LET me hasten through some years. The sunshine of 
 life was gone ; in all my desire to conform to the habits of 
 iny new career, I found myself incapable of contentment. 
 But the times, that had long resembled the stagnation of 
 a lake, were beginning to be shaken. Rome herself, the 
 prey of conspiracy, gradually held her foreign sceptre 
 with a feebler hand. Gaul and Germany were covered, 
 with gathering clouds; and their flashes were answered 
 from the Asiatic hills. With the relaxation of the para- 
 mount authority, the chain of subordinate oppression, as 
 always happens, was made tighter. As the master was 
 enfeebled, the menials were less in awe ; and Judea rapidly 
 felt what must be the evils of a military government with- 
 out the strictness of military discipline. 
 
 I protested against being charged with ambition. But 
 I had a painful sense of the guilt of suffering even such 
 powers as I might possess to waste away, without use to 
 some part of mankind. I was weary of the utter unpro- 
 ductiveness of the animal enjoyments, in which I saw the 
 multitude round me content to linger into old age.- I 
 longed for an opportunity of contributing my mite to the 
 solid possessions by which posterity is wiser, happier, or 
 purer, than the generation before them: some trivial 
 tribute to that mighty stream of time which ought to go 
 on, continually bringing richer fertility as it flowed. I 
 was not grieved at the change, which I saw overshadow- 
 ing the gorgeous empire of Rome. My unspeakable crime 
 may have thrown a deeper tinge on those contemplations. 
 But by a singular fatality, and perhaps for the increase 
 of my punishment, I was left for long periods in each year 
 to the common impressions of life. The wisdom, which 
 even my great misfortune might have forced upon me, 
 was withheld; and the being who, in the conviction of 
 
60 SALATHIEL. 
 
 his mysterious destiny, must have looked upon earth and 
 its pursuits as man looks upon the life of flies as atoms 
 in the sunshine as measureless emptiness and trifling 
 was given over to be disturbed by the impulses of genera- 
 tions on whose dust he was to sit, and to see other genera- 
 tions rise round him, themselves to sink alike into dust, 
 while he still sat an image of endurance, torturing, but 
 imperishable. 
 
 There was a season in each year when those recollections 
 returned with overwhelming vividness. If all other knowl- 
 edge of the approach of the Passover could have escaped 
 me, there were signs, fearful signs, that warned me of that 
 hour of my woe. A periodic dread of the sight of man, a 
 sudden sense of my utter separation from the interests of 
 the transitory beings round me, wild dreams, days of im- 
 movable abstraction, yet filled with the breathing picture 
 of all that I had done on the day of my guilt in Jerusalem, 
 rose before me with such intense reality, that I lived again 
 through the scene. The successive progress of my crime 
 the swift and stinging consciousness of condemnation 
 the flash of fearful knowledge, that showed me futurity ; 
 all were felt with the keenness of a being from whom all 
 his fleshly nature has been stripped away, and the soul 
 bared to every visitation of pain. I stood like a disem- 
 bodied spirit, in suffering. 
 
 Yet, I could not be restrained from following my tribe 
 on their annual progress to the Holy City. To see from 
 afar the towers of the Temple, was with me like a craving 
 for life: but I never dared to set my foot within its 
 gates. On some pretence or other, and sometimes through 
 real powerlessness, arising from the conflict of my heart, 
 I lingered behind, yet within the distance from which 
 the city could be seen. There, among the precipices, I 
 wandered through the day, listening to the various uproar 
 of the mighty multitude, or wistfully catching some echo 
 of the hymns in the Temple sounds that stole from my 
 eye many a tear till darkness fell, the city slumbered, 
 and the blast of the Roman trumpets, as they divided the 
 night, reminded me of the fallen glories of my country. 
 
 In one of those wanderings, I had followed the courses 
 of the Kedron, which, from a brook under the walls of 
 Jerusalem, swells to a river on its descent to the Dead 
 Sea. The blood of the sacrifices from the conduits of the 
 
SALAT8IEL. 61 
 
 altars curdled on its surface, and stained the sands purple. 
 It looked like a wounded vein from the mighty heart above. 
 I still strayed on, wrapped in sad forebodings of the hour 
 when its stains might be of more than sacrifice; until I 
 found myself on the edge of the lake. Who has ever seen 
 that black expanse without a shudder? There were the 
 engulfed cities. Around it life was extinct no animal 
 bounded no bird hovered. The distant rushing of the 
 Jordan, as it forced its current through the heavy waters, 
 or the sigh of the wind through the reeds, alone broke the 
 silence of this mighty grave. Of the melancholy objects 
 of nature, none is more depressing than a large expanse of 
 stagnant waters. No gloom of forest, or wildness of 
 mountain, is so overpowering as this dreary, unrelieved 
 flatness: the marshy border the sickly vegetation of 
 the shore the leaden color which even the sky above it 
 wears, tinged by its sepulchral atmosphere. But the 
 waters before me were not left to the dreams of a saddened 
 fancy: they were a sepulchre. Myriads of human be- 
 ings lay beneath them, entombed in sulphurous beds. The 
 wrath of Heaven had been there ! The day of destruction 
 seemed to pass again before my eyes, as I lay gazing on 
 those sullen depths. I saw them once more a plain 
 covered with richness; cities glittering in the morning 
 sun; multitudes pouring out from their gates to sports 
 and festivals; the land exulting with life and luxuriance. 
 Then a cloud gathered above. I heard the thunder; it 
 was answered by the earthquake. Fire burst from the 
 skies it was answered by a thousand founts of fire spout- 
 ing from the plain. The distant hills blazed, and threw 
 volcanic showers over the cities. Round them was a tide 
 of burning bitumen. The earthquake heaved again. All 
 sank into the gulf. I heard the roar of the distant waters. 
 They rushed into the bed of fire; the doom was done; 
 the Cities of the Plain were gone down to the blackness of 
 darkness forever! 
 
 I was idly watching the bursts of suffocating vapor, that 
 shoot up at intervals from the rising masses of bitumen, 
 when I was startled by a wild laugh and wilder figure 
 beside me. I sprang on my feet, and prepared for de- 
 fence with my poniard; the figure waved his hand, in 
 sign to sheathe the unnecessary weapon; and said, in a 
 tone strange and melancholy, "You are in my power; but 
 
62 8ALATBIEL. 
 
 I do not come to injure you. I have been contemplating 
 your countenance for some time I have seen your dis- 
 turbed features your wringing hands your convulsed 
 form : are you even as I am ?" 
 
 The voice was singularly mild, yet I never heard a 
 sound that so keenly pierced my brain. The speaker was 
 pf the tallest stature of man every sinew and muscle 
 exhibiting gigantic strength; yet with the symmetry of a 
 Greek statue. But his countenance was the true wonder 
 it was of the finest mould of manly beauty; the contour 
 was Greek, though the hue was Syrian : yet the dark tinge 
 of country gave way at times to a corpse-like paleness. I 
 had full leisure for the view; for he stood gazing on me 
 without a word; and I remained fixed on my defence. At 
 length he said, "Put up that poniard! You could no 
 more hurt me than you could resist me look here !" He 
 wrenched a huge mass of rock from the ground, and whirled 
 it far into the lake, as if it had been a pebble. I gazed 
 with speechless astonishment. "Yes," pursued the figure, 
 "they throw me into their prisons; they lash me; they 
 stretch me on the rack; they burn my flesh." As he 
 spoke he flung aside his robe, and showed his broad breast 
 covered with scars. "Short-sighted fools ! little they know 
 him who suffers, or him who commands. If it were not 
 my will to endure, I could crush my tormentors, as I 
 crush an insect. They chain me, too," said he with a 
 laugh of scorn. He drew out the arm which had been 
 hitherto wrapped in his robe. It was loaded with heavy 
 links of iron. He grasped one of them in his hand, 
 twisted it off with scarcely an effort, and flung it up a 
 sightless distance in the air. "Such are bars and bolts to 
 me ! When my time is come to suffer, I submit to be tor- 
 tured ! When that time is past, I tear away their fetters, 
 burst their dungeons, and walk forth trampling their 
 armed men.'* 
 
 I sheathed the dagger. "Does this strength amaze 
 you?" said the being: "look to yonder dust;" and he 
 pointed to a cloud of sand that came flying along the 
 shore. "I could outstrip that whirlwind; I could plunge 
 unhurt into the depths of that sea; I could ascend that 
 mountain, swifter than the eagle; I could ride that 
 thunder-cloud." 
 
 As he threw himself back, gazing upon the sky, with 
 
SALATBIEL. 63 
 
 his grand form buoyant with vigor, and his arm exalted, 
 he looked like one to whom height or depth could offer no 
 obstacle. His mantle flew out along the blast, like the 
 unfurling of a mighty wing. There was something in his 
 look and voice that gave irresistible conviction to his wild 
 words. Conscious mastery was in all about him. I 
 should not have felt surprise, to see him spring up into 
 the clouds ! 
 
 My mind grew inflamed with his presence. My blood 
 burned with sensations, for which language has no name; 
 a thirst of power, a scorn of earth, a proud and fiery long- 
 ing for the command of the mysteries of nature. I felt 
 as the great ancestor of mankind might have felt, 
 when the tempter told him, "Ye shall be even as gods." 
 
 "Give me your power," I exclaimed; "the world to me 
 is worthless : with man all my ties are broken : let me live 
 in the desert, and be even as you are : give me your power." 
 "My power !" he repeated, with a ghastly laugh, that 
 v/as echoed round the wilderness by what seemed voices 
 innumerable, until it died away in a distant groan. "Look 
 on this forehead !" He threw back the corner of his 
 mantle. A furrow was drawn round his brow, covered 
 with gore, and gaping like a fresh wound. 1 "Here," howled 
 he, "sat the diadem. I was Epiphanes." 
 
 "You, Antiochus ! the tyrant ; the persecutor ; the spoil- 
 er ; the accursed of Israel !" I bounded backwards in sud- 
 den horror. I saw before me one of those spirits of the 
 evil dead, who are allowed from time to time to reappear 
 on earth in the body, whether of the dead or the living. 
 For some cause that none could unfold, Judea had been, 
 within the last few years, haunted by those beings more 
 than for centuries. Strange rites, dangerously borrowed 
 from the idolater, were resorted to for our relief from 
 this new terror: the pulling of the mandrake at the eclipse 
 of the moon, incantations, midnight offerings, the root 
 Baaras, that was said to flash flame, and kill the animal 
 that drew it from the ground. Our Sadducees and scep- 
 tics, wise in their own conceit, declared that possession 
 was but a human disease, a wilder insanity. But, with the 
 range and misery of madness, there were tremendous dis- 
 tinctions, which raised it beyond all the ravages of the 
 hu^t mind, or the afflicted frame : the look, the language, 
 

 64 BALATH1EL. 
 
 the horror, of the possessed, were above man. They de- 
 fied human restraint; they lived in wildernesses where the 
 very, serpents died; the fiery 'sun of the East, the in- 
 clemency of the fiercest winter, had no power to break 
 down their strength. But they had stronger signs; they 
 .spoke of things to which the wisdom of the wisest was 
 folly; they told of the remotest future, with the force of 
 prophecy ; they gave glimpses of a knowledge brought from 
 realms of being inaccessible to living man last and lofti- 
 est sign, they did homage to HIS coming, whom a cloud 
 of darkness, the guilty and impenetrable darkness of the 
 heart, had veiled from my unhappy nation. But their 
 homage was agony; they believed and trembled.- 1 > 
 
 "Power," said the possessed, and his large and unmov- 
 ing eyes seemed lighting up with fire from within "Pow- 
 er you shall have, and hate it ; wealth you shall have, and 
 hate it; life you shall have, and hate it; you shall know 
 the heights and depths of man. The worm among a na- 
 tion of worms, steeped in ruin to the lips, you shall un- 
 dergo the bitterness of death, until " His brow writhed ; 
 
 he gnashed his teeth, and convulsively sprang from the 
 ground, as if an arrow had shot through him. 
 
 The current of his thoughts suddenly changed. Things 
 above man were not to be uttered to the ear unopened by 
 the grave. "Come," said he, "son of misfortune, em- 
 blem of the nation, that living shall die, and dying shall 
 live; that, trampled by all, shall, trample upon all; that, 
 bleeding from a thousand wounds, shall be unhurt; that, 
 beggared, shall wield the wealth of nations; that, without 
 a name, shall sway the councils of kings; that, without a 
 city, shall inhabit in all kingdoms ; that, scattered like the 
 dust, shall be bound together like the rock; that, perish- 
 ing by the sword, by the chain, by famine, by fire, shall yet 
 be imperishable, unnumbered, glorious as the stars of 
 heaven." 
 
 Overwhelmed with sensations, rushing in a flood through 
 my heart, I had cast myself upon the ground; the flash- 
 ing of the fiery eye before me consumed my blood; and, 
 fainting, I lay with my face upon the sand. But his 
 words were deeply heard; with every sound of his search- 
 ing voice they struck into my soul. He grasped me; and 
 I was lifted up like an infant in his grasp. "Come," said 
 he, "and see what is reserved for you and for your people. 
 
 . > o ~ 
 
SALAT3IEL. 65 
 
 He darted forward with a speed that took away my 
 breath; he ran; he bounded; he flew. "Now, behold!" 
 he uttered in an accent as composed as if he had not 
 moved a limb. I looked, and found myself on one of the 
 hills close to the great southern gate of Jerusalem. Years 
 had passed since I ventured so nigh. But I now gazed on 
 the city of pomp and beauty, with an involuntary won- 
 der, that I could have ever deserted a scene so lovely and 
 so loved. 
 
 It was the twilight of a summer evening. Tower and 
 wall lay bathed in a sea of purple; the Temple rose from 
 its centre like an island of light ; the host of Heaven came 
 riding up the blue fields above; the sounds of day died in 
 harmony. All was the sweetness, calmness, and splendor 
 of a vision painted in the clouds. 
 
 "There," said the possessed, "I was once master, con- 
 queror, avenger: yet, I was but the instrument to punish 
 your furious dissensions; your guilty abandonment of the 
 law of your leader; your more than Gentile apostasy from 
 the worship of Him, who is to be worshipped with more 
 than the blood of bulls and goats. A power hidden from 
 my idolatrous eyes went before me, and broke down the 
 courage of your people. I marched through your gates on 
 the neck of the godless warrior; I plundered the wealth 
 of your rich men, made worldly by their wealth; I slew 
 your priesthood, already the betrayers of their altar; I 
 overthrew your places of worship, already defiled; I cov- 
 "ered the ruins with the blood of swine; I raised idols in the 
 sanctuary; I bore away the golden vessels of the Temple, 
 and gave them to the insult of the Syrian; I slew your 
 males; I made captives of your women; I abolished your 
 sacrifices, and pronounced in my hour of blasphemy, that 
 within the walls of Jerusalem the flame should never again 
 be kindled to the Supreme. The deed was mine, the cause 
 was the iniquity of your people." 
 
 The history of devastation roused me to look on the 
 devastator. "Let me be gone," I exclaimed, struggling 
 from his grasp. "Strange and terrible being, let me hear 
 no more this outrage on God and man. I am guilty, too 
 guilty, in having listened to you for a moment/' He laid 
 his hand upon my brow, and I felt my strength dissolve 
 at the touch. "Go," said he, "but first be a witness of the 
 
66 SAL ATE I EL. 
 
 future. A fiercer destroyer than Epiphanes shall come, 
 to punish a darker crime than ever stained your fore- 
 fathers. A destruction shall come, to which the past was 
 the sport of children. Tower and wall, citadel and temple, 
 shall be dust. The sword shall do its work ; the chain shall 
 do its work ; the flame shall do its work. Bad spirits shall 
 rejoice; good spirits shall weep: Israel shall be clothed 
 in sackcloth and ashes for a time, impenetrable by a 
 created eye. The world shall exult, trample, scorn, and 
 slay. Blindness, madness, and misery, shall be the por- 
 tion of the people. Now, behold !" 
 
 He stood, with his arm stretched out towards the Temple. 
 All before me was tranquillity itself; night had suddenly 
 fallen deeper than usual; the stars had been wrapped in 
 clouds, that yet gathered without a wind; a faint tinge of 
 light from the summit of Mount Moriah, the gleam of the 
 never-extinguished altar of the Daily Sacrifice, alone 
 marked the central court of the Temple. I turned from 
 the almost death-like stillness of the scene, with a look of 
 involuntary disbelief, to the face of my fearful guide ; even 
 in the deep darkness every feature of it was strangely 
 visible. 
 
 A low murmur from the city caught my ear: it rapidly 
 grew loud, various, wild: it was soon intermixed with the 
 clash of arms. Trumpets now rang: I recognized the 
 charging shout of the Eomans; I heard the tumultuous 
 roar of my countrymen in return. The darkness was con- 
 verted into light; torches blazed along the battlements: 
 the Tower of Antonia, the Eoman citadel, with its massy 
 bulwarks and immense altitude, rose from a tossing ex- 
 panse of flame below like a colossal funeral pile; I could 
 see on its summit the alarm, the rapid signals, the hasty 
 snatching up of spear and shield, the confusion of the gar- 
 rison, which that night's vengeance was to offer up on the 
 pile. The roar of battle rose, it deepened into cries of 
 agony, it swelled again into furious exultation. 
 
 I thought of my countrymen butchered by some new 
 caprice of power; of my kinsmen, perhaps at that instant 
 involved in the massacre; of the city, every stone and 
 beam of which was dear to my embittered heart, given 
 up to the vengeance of the idolater ! The prediction of its 
 ruin was in my ears; and I longed to perish with my 
 
 tribe. I panted with every shout of the battle; every new 
 
 ~r^ 
 
8ALATHIEL. 67 
 
 sheet of flame that rolled upwards from the burning 
 houses fevered me; I longed to rush into the uproar, with 
 the speed of the whirlwind. But, the terrible hand was 
 still upon my forehead, and I was feeble as a broken reed. 
 "Behold," said the possessed, "those are but the begin- 
 nings of evil." I felt a sudden return of my strength- I 
 looked up, he was gone ! 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 I PLUNGED into the valley; and found it filled with 
 fugitives, incapable, from terror, of giving me any ac- 
 count of the conflict. Women and children, hastily thrown 
 on the mules and camels, continued to pour through the 
 country. The road wound through hills, and though 
 sometimes approaching near enough to the walls to be 
 illuminated by the blaze of the torches and beacons, yet, 
 from its general darkness and intricacy, leaving me to 
 make my way by the sounds of the struggle. But 1 was 
 quickly within reach of ample evidence. The bend of 
 the road, from which the first view of the grand portico 
 was seen, had been the rallying point to the multitude 
 driven out by the unexpected resistance of the garrison. 
 The tide of fight had thence ebbed and flowed, and I 
 found the spot covered with the dead and dying. In my 
 haste, I fell over one of the wounded; he groaned, and 
 prayed me for a cup of water. I knew the voice of Jairus, 
 one of the boldest of our mountaineers, and bore him to" 
 the hillside, that he might not be trampled by the crowd. 
 He faintly thanked me, and said, "If you be a man of 
 Israel, fly to Eleazar. Take this spear : another moment 
 may be too late." I seized the spear, and sprang for- 
 ward. - 
 
 The multitude had repelled the Eomans, and forced 
 them up the broad central street of the city. But a re- 
 inforcement from the Tower of Antonia joined the troops, 
 and were driving back the victors with ruinous disorder. 
 I heard the war-cries of the tribes as they called to the 
 rescue and the charge. "Onward, Judah !" "Ho, for 
 Zabulon !" "Glory to Naphtali !" I thought of the times 
 of Jewish triumph, and saw before me the warriors of the 
 
68 SALATHIEL. 
 
 Maccabees. Nerved with new sensations, the strong in- 
 stincts which make the war horse paw the ground at the 
 trumpet, and make men rush headlong upon death, I 
 forced my path through the multitude, that tossed and 
 whirled like the eddies of the ocean. I found my kins- 
 men in front, battling desperately against the long spears 
 of a Roman column, that, solid as iron, and favored by 
 the higher ground, was pressing down all before it. The 
 resistance was heroic, but unavailing; and when I burst 
 forward, I found at my side nothing but faces dark with 
 despair, or covered with wounds. In front was .a wall of 
 shields and helmets, glaring in the light of the conflagra- 
 tion, that was now rapidly spreading on all sides. The 
 air was scorching, the smoke rolling against us in huge 
 volumes; burning, and loss of blood, were consuming the 
 multitude. But, what is in the strength of the soldier, 
 or the bravery of discipline, to daunt the desperate energy 
 of men fighting for their country and, above all men, 
 of the Israelite, fighting in sight of the profaned Temple? 
 The native frame, exercised by the habits of our temperate 
 and agricultural life, was one of surpassing muscular 
 strength; and man for man thrown naked into the field/ 
 we could have torn the Roman garrison into fragments 
 for the fowls of the air. But their arms, and the help 
 which they received from the nature of the ground, were 
 too strong for the assault of men fighting with no shield 
 but their cloaks, and no arms but a pilgrim's staff, or 
 some weapon caught up from a dead enemy. 
 
 Yet, on me there came a wild impression, that this 
 night was to make or unmake me; an undefined feeling, 
 that in the shedding of my blood in sight of the Temple, 
 there might be some palliative, some washing away, of 
 my crime. I sprang forward between the combatants ; the 
 battle paused for an instant, and my name was shouted in 
 exultation by ten thousand voices. A shower of lances 
 from the battlements was instantly poured upon me.' I 
 . felt myself wounded, but the feeling only roused me to 
 bolder daring. .Tearing off my gory mantle, I, lifted it on 
 the point of my javelin, and with the poniard in my right 
 hand, aloud devoted the Romans .to ruin in the name of the 
 Temple. ' 
 
 The enemy, in their native superstition, shrank from a 
 
BALATHIEL. 69 
 
 being who looked the messenger of angry Heaven. The 
 naked figure, the blood streaming from my wound, the 
 wild and mystic sound of my words, might have reminded 
 them of the diviners, who had often shaken their souls in 
 their own land. I burst into the circle of their spears, 
 waving my standard, and calling on my nation to follow/ I 
 smote to the right and left. The entrance that I had made 
 in the iron bulwark was instantly filled by the multitude. 
 All discipline now gave way. The weight of the Eoman 
 armor was ruinous to men grappled hand to hand by the 
 light and sinewy agility of the Jew. We rushed on, 
 trampling down cuirass . and buckler, till we drove the 
 enemy, like sheep, before us to the first gate of the Towei* 
 of Antonia. Arrows, lances, stones, in showers from the 
 battlements, then could not stop the valor of the people. 
 >We rushed on to assault the gate...^ Sabinus, the tribune 
 of the legion, rallied the remnant of the fugitives, and, 
 under cover of the battlements, made a last attempt to 
 change the fortunes of the night.- Exhausted as I was, 
 bruised and bleeding, my feet and hands lacerated with 
 the burning ruins, my tongue cleaving to my mouth with 
 deadly thirst, I rushed upon him. He had been cruelly 
 known to the Jews, a tyrant and plunderer, for the many 
 years of his command. No trophy of the battle could 
 have been so cheering to them as his head. But he had, 
 the bravery of his country ; and it was now augmented by 
 rage. - The despair of being able to clear himself before 
 , imperial jealousy, for that night's disasters, must have 
 made life worthless to him. He bounded on the draw- 
 bridge at my cry. Our meeting was brief; my poniard 
 broke on his cuirass; his falchion descended with a blow 
 that would have cloven a headpiece of steel. I sprang 
 aside, and caught it on the shaft of my javelin standard, 
 which it cut clear in two. I returned the blow with the 
 fragment. . The iron pierced his throat ; he flung up his 
 hands, staggered back, and dropped dead. The roar of 
 Israel rent the heavens ! 
 
 Scarcely more alive than the trunk at my feet, I fell 
 back among the throng. But, whatever may be the envy of 
 courts, no injustice is done in the field. The successful 
 leader is sure of his reward, from the gallant spirits that he 
 has conducted to victory. I was hailed with shouts -I was 
 
70 SAL ATE I EL. 
 
 lifted on the shoulders of the multitude; the men of Naph- 
 tali proudly claimed me for their own; and when I clasped 
 the hand of my brave friend Jubal, whom I found in th" 
 . foremost rank, covered with dust and blood, he exclaimed 
 "Remember Barak; remember Mount Tabor." 
 
 But, I looked round in vain for one with whom I had 
 parted but a few days before, and without whom I scarcety 
 dared to meet Miriam. Her noble brother was not to be 
 seen; had he fallen? Jubal understood my countenance, 
 and mournfully pointed to the citadel, which rose abo~ r e us, 
 frowning down on our impotent rage. "Eleazar is a pris- 
 oner?" I interrogated. "There can be no hope for him 
 from the hypocritical clemency of those barbarians of 
 Italy," was the answer ; "it was with him that the insurrec- 
 tion began. Some new Eoman insolence had commanded 
 that our people should offer a sacrifice to the image of the 
 emperor to the polluted, blood-thirsty tyrant of Rome and 
 mankind. Eleazar shrank from this act of horror. The 
 tribune, that dog of Rome, whose tongue you have silenced 
 so may perish all the enemies of the Holy City ! com- 
 manded that our chieftain should be scourged at the altar. 
 The cords were round his arms ; the spearmen were at his 
 back ; they marched him through the streets, calling on all 
 the Jews to look upon the punishment, that was equally 
 reserved for all. Our indignation burst forth in groans 
 and prayers. I hastily gathered our tribe: we snatched 
 up what arms we could, and were rushing to his rescue, 
 when we saw him sweeping the guard before him. He had 
 broken his bands by a desperate effort. We fell upon the 
 pursuers. Blood was now drawn, and we knew the venge- 
 ance of the Romans. To break up, and scatter through 
 the country, would have been only to give our throats to 
 their cavalry. Eleazar determined to anticipate the at- 
 tack. Messengers were sent round to the leaders of the 
 tribes, and the seizure of the Roman fortress was resolved 
 on. But the garrison were now roused. We were beaten 
 down by a storm of darts and javelins, and must have 
 been undone, but for your appearing. In the first onset, 
 Eleazar, while cheering us to the charge, was struck by 
 a stone from an engine. I saw him fall among a circle of 
 the enemy; and hastened to his reseup. But when I 
 reached the spot, he was gone, and my last sight of him 
 
BALATHIEL. 71 
 
 was at yonder gate, as he was borne in, waving his hand 
 his last farewell to Naphtali." 
 
 Deep silence followed his broken accents; he hung his 
 head on his hand, and the tears glistened through his 
 fingers. The circle of brave men round us wrapped their 
 heads in their mantles. I could not contain the bitterness 
 of my soul. Years had cemented my friendship for the 
 virtuous and generous-hearted brother of my beloved. He 
 had borne with my waywardness: he had done all that 
 man could do, to soften my heart, to enlighten my darkness, 
 to awake me to a wisdom surpassing rubies. I lifted up 
 my voice and wept. The brazen blast of a trumpet from 
 the battlements suddenly raised all our eyes. Troops 
 moved slowly along the walls of the fortress ; they ascended 
 the central tower. Their ranks opened, and in the midst 
 was seen by the torch-light a man of Israel. They had 
 brought him to that place of exposure, in the double cruelty 
 of increasing his torture, and ours, by death in the presence 
 of the people. A universal groan burst from below. He 
 felt it, and meekly pointed with his hand to that Heaven, 
 where no tortures shall disturb the peace of the departed. 
 The startling sound of the trumpet stung the ear again ; 
 it was the signal for execution. I saw the archer advance, 
 to take aim at him. He drew the shaft. Almost un- 
 consciously, I seized a sling from the hands of one of our 
 tribe. I whirled it. The archer dropped dead, with the 
 arrow still on his bow. 
 
 To those who had not seen the cause, the effect was 
 almost a miracle. The air pealed with acclamation; a 
 thousand slings instantly swept the escort from the battle- 
 ments; the walls were left naked; ladders were raised 
 ropes were slung axes were brandished; the activity of 
 our hunters and mountaineers availed itself of every crev- 
 ice and projection of the walls; they climbed on each 
 other's shoulders; they leaped from point to point, where 
 the antelope could have scarcely found footing; they ran 
 over narrow and fenced walls and curtains, where, in open 
 daylight, and with his senses awake to the danger, no man 
 could have moved. Torches without number now showered 
 upon all that was combustible. At length, the central 
 tower took fire. We fought no longer in darkness; the 
 flames rolled sheet on sheet above our heads, throwing 
 
72 SAL AT HI EL. 
 
 light over the whole horizon. We were soon in no want 
 of help; the tribes poured in at the sight of the confla- 
 gration ; and no valor could resist their enthusiasm. Some 
 cried out, that they saw beings mightier than man descend- 
 ing to fight the battle of the favored nation : some, that 
 the day of Joshua had returned, and that a light of more 
 than earthly lustre was visible in the burning! But the 
 battle was no longer doubtful. The Romans, reduced in 
 number by the struggle in the streets, exhausted by the 
 last attack, and aware, from the destruction of their 
 magazines, that their most successful resistance must be 
 ended by famine, called out for terms. I had but one 
 answer "The life of Eleazar." The drawbridge fell, 
 and he appeared ; the next moment he was in my arms ! 
 The garrison marched out. I restrained the violence of 
 their conquerors, irritated by the memory of years of in- 
 sult. Not a hair of a Roman head was touched. They 
 were led down to the valley of Kedron; were disarmed, 
 and thence sent without delay under a safeguard, to their 
 countrymen in Idumea. In one night the Holy City 
 was cleared of every foot of the idolater. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 BUT, while the people were in a state of the wildest 
 triumph, the joy of their leaders was tempered by formid- 
 able reflections. The power of the enemy was still un- 
 shaken : the surprise of a single garrison, though a dis- 
 tinguished evidence of what might be done by native valor, 
 was trivial, on the scale of a war, that must be conducted 
 against the mistress of the civilized world. The policy 
 of Rome was known: she never gave up a conquest, while 
 it could be retained by the most lavish and persevering 
 expenditure of her strength. Her treasury would be 
 stripped of every talent, and Italy left without a soldier, 
 before she would surrender the most fruitless spot, an acre 
 of sand, or a point of rock, in Judea. 
 
 I went forth, but not among the leaders, nor among the 
 people ; I turned away equally from the council, and the 
 triumph. A deeper feeling urged me to wander round 
 those courts where my spirit had so often turned in my 
 
SAL ATE I EL. 73 
 
 exile. The pollution of blood was on the consecrated 
 ground. The Eoman soldiers, in their advance, had driven 
 the people to take refuge in the cloisters of the Temple; 
 and the dead lying thickly among the columns, showed 
 how fierce even that brief and partial struggle had been. 
 With a torch in my hand, I trod through those heaps of 
 what once was man, to have one parting look at the scene 
 where I had passed so many blameless hours. I stood 
 before the porch of my own cloister, almost listening for 
 the sound of the familiar voices within. The long in- 
 terval of time was compressed into an instant. 
 
 I awoke from this reverie, with something like scorn, at 
 the idleness of human fancy, and struck open the door. 
 There was no answer ; but the bolts, loosened by time, gave 
 way, and I was again the master of my mansion. It was 
 uninhabited, since my flight; why, I could not conceive. 
 But as I passed from room to room, I found them all as 
 if they had been left but the hour before. The embroidery, 
 which Miriam wrought with a skill distinguished even 
 among the daughters of the Temple, was still fixed in 
 its frame before the silken couch; where stood the harp 
 that relieved her hours of graceful toil. The tissued 
 sandals were still waiting for the delicate feet. The veil, 
 the vermilion mantle that designated her rank, the tabret, 
 the armlets and necklaces of precious stones, still hung 
 upon the tripods, untouched of the spoiler. There was 
 but one evidence of time among them but that bore its 
 bitter moral. It was the dust, that hung heavy upon the 
 curtains of precious needlework, and chilled the richness 
 of the Tyrian purple; decay, that teacher without a 
 tongue, the lonely emblem of what the bustle of man- 
 kind must come to at last; the dull memorial of the proud, 
 the beautiful, the brave ! All was the silence of the tomb ! 
 With the torch in my hand, throwing its red reflection 
 on the walls and remembrances round me, I sat, like the 
 mummy of an Egyptian king in the sepulchre in the 
 midst of many things that I had loved, yet divorced from 
 them by an irresistible law, forever ! 
 
 I impatiently broke forth into the open air. The stars 
 were waning; a gray streak of dawn was whitening the 
 summit of the Mount of Olives. As I passed by Herod's 
 palace, and lifted my eyes in wonder at the unusual sight 
 
74 BALATHIEL. 
 
 of a group of Jews keeping watch, where, but the day be- 
 fore, the Roman governor lorded it, and none but the 
 Roman soldier durst stand ; I saw Jubal hunting out, 
 and making signs to me through the crowd, from the 
 esplanade above. I was instantly recognized, and all made 
 way for my ascent up those gorgeous and almost countless 
 steps of porphyry, that formed one of the wonders of 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 "We have been in alarm about you," said he, hastily, 
 "but, come to the council; we have wasted half the night 
 in perplexing ourselves. Some are timid, and call out for 
 submission on any terms ; some are rash, and would plunge 
 us unprepared into the Roman camps. And lastly, we are 
 not without our traitors, who confound all opinions, and 
 who are making work for Roman gold and iron. Your 
 voice will decide. Speak at once, and speak your mind; 
 your kinsmen will support it with their lives." . 
 
 The council was held in the amphitheatre of the palace. 
 The heads of families and principal men of the people had 
 crowded into it, until the council, instead of the privacy 
 of a few chieftains, assumed the look of a great popular 
 assembly. Tens of thousands had forced themselves into 
 the seats; every bosom responding to every accent of the 
 speakers, a mighty instrument vibrating through all its 
 strings to the master's hand. Accustomed as I was, by 
 the festivals of our nation, to the sight of great bodies 
 of men swayed by a common impulse, I stopped, in aston- 
 ishment, at the entrance of the colossal circle. Three- 
 fourths of it were almost totally dark, giving a shadowy 
 intimation of human beings, by the light of a few scattered 
 torches, or the feeble dawn, that rounded the extreme 
 height with a ring of pale and moonlike rays. But, in 
 the center of the arena a fire blazed broadly, and shovn-1 
 the leaders of the deliberation, seated in the splendid 
 chairs once assigned to the Roman governors and legion- 
 ary tribunes. Eleazar filled the temporary throne. 
 
 The chief man of the land of Ephraim was haranguing 
 the assembly, as I entered. "Go to war with Rome !" 
 pronounced he; "you might as well go to war with the 
 ocean, for her power is as wide; you might as well fight 
 the storm, for her vengeance is as rapid ; you might as well 
 call up the armies of Judca against the pestilence, for her 
 
8ALATHIEL. 75 
 
 sword is as sweeping, as sudden, and as sure. Who but 
 madmen would go to war without allies? and where are 
 yours to be looked for! Home is the mistress of all na- 
 tions. Would you make a war of fortresses? Rome has 
 in her possession all your walled towns. Every tower 
 from Dan to Beersheba has a Roman banner on its battle- 
 ments. Would you meet her in the plain? Where are 
 your horsemen? The Roman cavalry would be upon 
 you before you could draw your swords, and would trample 
 you into the sand. Would you make the campaign in the 
 mountains? The Roman generals would disdain to waste 
 a drop of blood upon you; they would only have to block 
 up the passes, and leave famine to do the rest. Harvest 
 is not come; and if it were, you dare not descend to the 
 plains to gather it. You are told to rely upon the strength 
 of the country. Have the fiery sands of the desert, or the 
 marshes of Germany, or the snows of Scythia, or the 
 stormy waters of Britain, defended them? Does Egypt, 
 within your sight, give you no example? A land of in- 
 exhaustible fertility, crowded with seven millions of men, 
 passionately devoted to their country, opulent, brave, and 
 sustained by the countless millions of Africa, with a 
 country defended on both flanks by the wilderness, in the 
 rear inaccessible to the Roman, exposing the narrowest 
 and most defensible front of any nation on earth: yet 
 Egypt, in spite of the Lybian valor, and the Greek genius, 
 is garrisoned at this hour by a single Roman legion! 
 The Roman bird, grasping the thunder in its talons, and 
 touching with one wing the sunrise, and with the other the 
 sunset, throws its shadow over the world. Shall we call 
 it to stoop upon us? Must we spread for it the new 
 banquet of the blood of Israel?" 
 
 How different is the power of speech upon men sitting 
 in the common, peaceful circumstances of public assem- 
 blage, from its tyranny, over minds anxious about their 
 own fates ! All that I had ever seen of public excitement 
 was stone and ice, to the burning interest that hung upon 
 every word of the orator. The name of Onias was famous 
 in Judea, but I now saw him for the first time. His had 
 been a life of ambition, compassed often by desperate 
 means, and woe be to the man who stood between him and 
 his object. By the dagger, and by subserviency to the 
 
76 SALATHIEL. 
 
 Roman procurators, he had risen to the highest rank be- 
 low the throne. In the distractions of a time which broke 
 off the regular succession of the sons of Aaron, Onias had 
 even been high priest; but Eleazar, heading the popular 
 indignation, had expelled him from the Temple, after one 
 month of troubled supremacy. I could read his history 
 in the haughty figure, and daring, yet wily visage, that 
 stood in bold relief before the central flame. But, to the 
 assemblage his declamation had infinite power; they lis- 
 tened, as to the words of life and death; they had come, 
 not to delight their ears with showy periods, but to hear 
 what they must do to escape that inexorable fury which 
 might within a few days, or hours, be let loose upon every 
 individual head. All was alternately the deepest silence, 
 and the most tumultuous agitation. At his strong ap- 
 peals, they writhed their athletic forms, they gnashed their 
 teeth, they tore their hair; some crouched to the ground 
 with their faces buried in their hands, as if shutting out 
 the coming horrors; some started upright, brandishing 
 their rude weapons, and tossing their naked limbs in 
 gestures of defiance; some ^at bending down, and throw- 
 ing back their long locks, that not a syllable might escape ; 
 others knelt, with their quivering hands clasped, and their 
 pallid countenances turned up in agony of prayer. Many 
 had been wounded, and their foreheads and limbs hastily 
 bound up were still stained with gore. Turbans and robes 
 rent and discolored with dust and burning were on every 
 side, and the whole immense multitude bore the look of 
 men who had but just struggled out of some great calam- 
 ity, to find themselves on the verge of one still more ir- 
 remediable. 
 
 The orator found that his impression was made ; and he 
 hastened to the close. For this he reserved the sting. 
 "If it be the desire of those who seek the downfall of 
 Judah, that we should go to war, let it be the first wisdom 
 of those who seek its safety, to disappoint, to defy, and 
 to denounce them." The words were followed by a visi- 
 ble movement among the hearers. "Let an embassy be 
 instantly sent to the pro-consul," said he, "lamenting the 
 excesses of the night, and offering hostages for peace." 
 The silence grew breathless; the orator, wrapped in his 
 robe, and bending his head, like a tiger, crouching, waited 
 
for the work of the passions; then suddenly starting up, 
 and fixing his stormy gaze full on Eleazar, thundered out, 
 "And at the head of those hostages, let the incendiary who 
 caused this night's havoc, be sent, and sent in chains !" 
 
 The words were received with fierce applause by the 
 assemblage; and crowds rushed into the arena, to enforce 
 them by the seizure of Eleazar. I glanced at him ; his life 
 hung by a hair, but not a feature of his noble countenance 
 was disturbed; I sprang upon the pavement at the foot of 
 the throne; every moment was precious; the multitude 
 were raging with the fury of wild beasts. My voice was 
 at length heard ; the name of Salathiel had become power- 
 ful, and the tumult partially subsided. My words were 
 few, but they came from the heart. I asked them was 
 it to be thought of, that they should deliver up men of 
 their own nation, of their purest blood, the last scions 
 of the noblest families of Israel, into the hands of the 
 idolater! and for what crime? For an act which every 
 true Israelite would glory to have done; for rescuing the 
 altar of the living God from pollution. I bade them, 
 "beware of dipping their hands in righteous blood, for the 
 gratification of a revenge, that had for twenty years 
 poisoned the breast of a hoary traitor to his priesthood 
 and his country." There was a dead silence. I pursued. 
 
 "We are threatened with the irresistible power of Home. 
 Were we to forget, that Eome was at this moment torn 
 with internal miseries, her provinces in revolt, her senate 
 decimated, her citizens turned into a mass of jailors and 
 prisoners; and, darkest sign of degradation, that Nero 
 was upon her throne?" The multitude began to feel. 
 
 "Whom," said I, "have we comquered this night? A 
 Roman garrison. Where have we conquered them? In 
 the midst of their walls and machines. By whom was 
 the conquest achieved? By the unarmed, undisciplined, 
 unguided men of Israel. The shepherd, and the tiller of 
 the ground, with but the staff and sling, smote the cuirassed 
 Roman, as the son of Jesse smote the Philistine !" 
 
 The native bravery of the people lived again, and they 
 shouted, in the language of the Temple, "Glory to the 
 .King of Israel ! Glory to the God of David !" 
 
 Onias saw the tide turning, and started from his seat 
 to address the assembly ; but he was overpowered with out- 
 
78 8 AL ATE I EL. 
 
 cries of anger. Furious at the loss of his fame and his 
 revenge, he rushed through the arena towards the spot 
 where I stood. Jubal, ever gallant and watchful, bounded 
 to my side, and seized the traitor's hand, in the act of un- 
 sheathing a dagger; he wrested the weapon from him, and 
 was ready to have plunged it in his heart, at a sign from 
 me. Eleazar's sonorous voice was then first heard. "Let 
 no violence be done upon that slave of his passions. No 
 Jewish blood must stain our holy cause. Eeturn, Onias, 
 to your tribe, and give the rest of your days to repentance." 
 Jubal cast the baffled homicide from his grasp far into 
 the crowd. 
 
 The universal echo now was "war !" "Ruin to the 
 idolater. War for the Temple." "War," I exclaimed, "is 
 wisdom, honor, security. Let us bow our necks again, | 
 and we shall be rewarded by the axe. The Romans never 
 forgive, until the brave man who resists is either a slave 
 or a corpse; the work of this night has put us beyond 
 pardon ; and our only hope is in arms, the appeal to that 
 sovereign justice before which nothing is strong but virtue, 
 truth, and patriotism. War is inevitable, and will be 
 glorious !" 
 
 My words, few as they were, rekindled the chilled ardor 
 of the national heart. They were followed by shouts for 
 instant battle. "War against the world ! liberty to Israel !" 
 Some voices began a hymn; the habits of the people pre- 
 pared them for this powerful mode of expressing their 
 sympathies. The whole assembly spontaneously stood up, 
 and joined in the hymn. The magnificent invocation of 
 David, "Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered," 
 ascended in solemn harmonies on the wings of the morn- 
 ing. It was heard over the awaking city, and answered; 
 the chant of glory spread to the encampments on the sur- 
 rounding hills; and in every pause, we heard the responses 
 rolling on the air, in rich thunder. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE result of our deliberation was, that Israel should 
 be summoned to make a last grand effort ; that Jerusalem 
 should be left with a strong garrison, as the centre of the 
 
BALATLIIEL. 79 
 
 armies; and that every chief tian should set forth, to stir 
 up the energies of his people. 
 
 Eleazar and his kinsmen were instantly upon the road 
 to the mountains; and all was haste, and that mixture of 
 anxiety and animation which makes all other life taste- 
 less and colorless to the warrior. With what new vivid- 
 ness did not the coming conflict invest the varied and 
 romantic country, through which we had already jour- 
 neyed so often ! The hill, the marble ravine, the superb 
 sweep of forest, that we once looked on but with the vague 
 indulgence of the picturesque eye, now filled us with the 
 vision of camps and battles. Hunters of the lion, we had 
 felt something of this interest, in tracing the ground where 
 we were to combat the kingly savage. But, what were the 
 triumphs of the chase, to the mighty chances of that strug- 
 gle, in which a kingdom was to be the field, and the 
 Roman glory the prey : 
 
 Man is belligerent by nature, and the thought of war- 
 summons up sensations, and even faculties, within him, 
 that in the common course of life would have been no 
 more discoverable than the bottom of the sea; the moral 
 earthquake must come, to strip the depths of the heart 
 to our gaze. Even Eleazar's calm and grave wisdom felt 
 the spirit of the time, and he reasoned on the probabilities 
 of the struggle, with the lofty ardor of a king preparing to 
 win a new throne. JubaPs sanguine temper was irre- 
 strainable; he was the war-horse in the sight of the ban- 
 ners; his bronzed cheek glowed with hope and exultation; 
 he saw in every cloud of dust a Roman squadron; and 
 grasped his lance, and wheeled his foaming charger, with 
 the eager joy of a soldier longing to assuage his thirst for 
 battle. 
 
 The weight on my melancholy mind was beyond the 
 power of chance or time to remove ; but a new strength was 
 in the crisis. The world to me was covered with clouds 
 eternal, but it was now brightened by a wild and keen 
 lustre; I saw my way by the lightning. An irresistible 
 conviction still told me, that the last day of Israel was 
 approaching, and that no sacrifice of valor could avert 
 the ruin. In the midst of the loudest exhilaration of the 
 fearless hearts around me, the picture of the coming ruin 
 would grow upon my eyes. I saw my generous friends 
 
$0 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 perish one by one ; my household desolate ; every name that 
 I ever loved passed away. When I bent my eyes round the 
 horizon luxuriating in the golden sunshine of the east, 
 I saw but a huge altar, covered with the fatal offerings of 
 a slaughtered people. 
 
 And this was seen, not with the misty uncertainty of 
 a mind prone to dreams of evil; but with a clearness of 
 foresight, a distinct and defined reality, that left no room 
 for conjecture. Yet, and here was the bitterest part of 
 my meditation, what was all this ruin to me ? What were 
 those men and women, and households and lands, but as 
 the leaves on the wind, to me ! I might strive, in the 
 last extremities of their struggle. I might undergo the 
 agonies of death with them a thousand times; and I in- 
 wardly pledged myself never to desert their cause, while 
 through pain or sorrow I could cling to it : but this devo- 
 tion, however protracted must have an end. I must see the 
 final hour of them all ; and more unhappy, more destitute, 
 more undone than all, I must be deprived of the conso- 
 lation of making my tomb with the righteous, and laying 
 my weary heart in the slumbers of their grave ! Still, I 
 experienced more than the keenest fervor of the impulse, 
 which was now burning around me. With me, it was not 
 kingly care, nor the animal ardency of the soldier. It was 
 the high stimulation of something like the infusion of a 
 new principle of existence. I felt as if I had become the 
 vehicle of a descended spirit. A ceaseless current of 
 thought ran through my brain. Old knowledge, which 
 I had utterly forgotten, revived in me with spontaneous 
 freshness. Casual impressions and long past years arose, 
 with their stamps and marks as clear, as if a hoard of 
 medals had been suddenly brought to light, and thrown 
 before me. I ran over in my recollection persons and 
 names even with painful accuracy. The conceptions of 
 those for whom I once felt habitual deference, were now 
 seen by me in their nakedness. All that was habitual was 
 passed away; I saw intuitively the vanity and giddiness, 
 the inconsequential reasoning, the bewildering prejudice, 
 which made up what, in other days, I had called the wis- 
 dom of the wise. 
 
 As I threw out in the most unpremeditated language 
 the ideas thus glowing and struggling for escape, I found, 
 
BALATBIEL. 81 
 
 that the impression, of some extraordinary excitement in 
 me, was universal. Accustomed to be heard with the 
 attention due to my rank, I now saw the ears and eyes of 
 my fellow-travellers turned on me with an evident and 
 deferential surprise. When I talked of the hopes of the 
 country, of the resources of the enemy, of the kingdoms 
 that would be ready to make common cause with us against 
 the galling tyranny of Nero, of the glory of fighting for 
 our altars, and of the imperishable honors of those whose 
 blood earned peace for their children; they listened as 
 to something more than man. "Was I the prophet, dele- 
 gated at last to lead Judea to her glory?" 
 
 At those discourses, bursting from my lip with uncon- 
 scious fire, the old men would vow the remnant of their 
 days to the field ; the young would sweep over the country 
 performing the evolutions of the Roman cavalry, then re- 
 turn brandishing their weapons, and demanding to be let 
 loose on the first cohort that crossed the horizon. With me, 
 every pulse now was war. The interest which this new 
 direction of our minds gave to all things, grew perpetually 
 intenser in mine. I spurred to the barren heath; it had 
 now no deformity, for upon it I saw the spot from which 
 battle might be offered to an army advancing through the 
 valley below. The marsh that spread its yellow stagnation 
 over the plain, might be worth a province, for the protec- 
 tion of my camp. The thicket, the broken bank of the 
 torrent, the bluff promontory, the rock, the sand, every 
 repellent feature of the landscape, was invested with the 
 value of a thing of life and death, a portion of the great 
 stake, in the game that was so soon to be played for restora- 
 tion or ruin. 
 
 Those are the delights of solidership, the indescribable 
 and brilliant colorings which the sense of danger, the de- 
 sire of fame, and the hope of triumph, throw over 
 life and nature. Yet, if war was ever to be forgiven for 
 its cause, to be justified by the high remembrances and 
 desperate injuries of a people, or to be encouraged by the 
 physical strength of a country, it was this, the final war 
 of Israel. In all my wanderings, I have seen no kingdom, 
 for defence, equal to Judea. It had in the highest degree 
 the three grand essentials, compactness of territory, dens- 
 ity of population, and strength of frontier. If I were,. 
 
82 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 at this hour, to be sent forth to select from the earth a 
 kingdom; I should say, even extinguishing the recollec- 
 tions of my being, and the love which I bear to the very 
 weeds of my country for beauty, for climate, for natural 
 wealth, and for invincible security, give me Judea ! 
 
 The Land of Promise had been chosen by the Supreme 
 Wisdom, for the inheritance of a people destined to be 
 unconquerable, while they continued pure. It was sur- 
 rounded, on all sides but one, by mountain and desert; 
 and that one was defended by the sea, which at the same 
 time opened to it the intercourse with the richest coun- 
 tries of the west. On the north, opposed to the vast popu- 
 lation of Asia Minor, it was protected by the double range 
 of the Libanus and Antilibanus, a region of forests and 
 defiles, at all seasons nearly impassable to chariots and cav- 
 alry; and, during winter, barred up with torrents and 
 snows. The whole frontier on the east and south was 
 a wall of mountain rising from a desert; a durable bar- 
 rier, over which no enemy, exhausted by the privations of 
 an Asiatic march, could force their way against a brave 
 army, waiting fresh within its own confines. But even if 
 the Syrian wastes of sand, and the fiery soil of Arabia, 
 left the invaders strength to master the mountain de- 
 fences, the whole interior was full of the finest positions 
 for defence, that ever caught the soldier's eye. 
 
 All the mountains sent branches through the champaign. 
 As we spurred up the sides of Carmel, we saw a horizon 
 covered with hills, like clouds. Every city was built on 
 an eminence, and capable of being instantly converted into 
 a fortress. But, while an army kept the field, the larger 
 operations of strategy would have found matchless sup- 
 port in the course of the Jordan, the second defence of 
 Judea ; a line passing through the whole central country 
 from north to south, with the lake of Tiberias and the lake 
 Asphalti ties at either extreme, at once defending, and sup- 
 plying, the movements in front, flank, and rear. 
 
 The territory thus defensible had an additional and 
 superior strength in the character and habits of its popu- 
 lation. In a space of two hundred miles long by a hun- 
 dred broad, its inhabitants once amounted to nearly four 
 millions, tillers of the ground, bold tribes, invigorated 
 by their life of industry, and connected with each other 
 
BALATHtEL. 83 
 
 by the most intimate and frequent intercourse, under 
 the divine command. By the la w of Moses may he 
 rest in glory ! every man from twenty to sixty was 
 liable to be called on for the general defence; and the 
 customary armament of the tribes was appointed at six 
 hundred thousand men ! 
 
 The munitions of war were in abundance. All the 
 variety of troops known in the ancient armies were to 
 be found in Judea, in the highest discipline; from the 
 spearsman to the archer and the slinger, from the heavy- 
 armed soldier of the fortress to the ranger of the desert 
 and the mountain. Cavalry were prohibited ; for the great 
 purpose of the Jewish armament was defence. The spirit 
 of the Jewish code was peace. By the prohibition of cav- 
 alry, no conquest could be made on the bordering king- 
 doms of interminable plains. The command, that the 
 males of the tribes should go up thrice in the year to the 
 great festivals of Jerusalem, was equally opposed to the 
 encroachments on the neighboring states. It was not 
 until Israel had abandoned the purity of the original 
 Covenant with Heaven that the evils of ambition, or tyr- 
 anny, were felt within her borders. 
 
 Her whole polity was under a divine sanction; and her 
 whole preservation was distinguished by the perpetual 
 agency of miracle, for the obvious purpose of compelling 
 the people to know the God of their fathers. But the 
 physical strength of such a people in such a territory was 
 incalculable. Severity of climate will not ultimately re- 
 pel an invader, for that severity scatters and exhausts the 
 native population. Difficulties of country have been per- 
 petually overpassed by a daring invader in the attack of a 
 feeble or negligent people. To what nation were their 
 gnows, their marshes, or their sands a barrier against the 
 great armies of the ancient or the modern world? The 
 Alps and the Pyrenees have been passed as often as they 
 have been attempted. But no empire can conquer a na- 
 tion of millions of men determined to resist; no army 
 that could be thrown across the frontier would find the 
 means of penetrating through a compact population, of 
 which every man was a soldier, and every soldier was 
 fighting for his own. 
 
 The Jew was, by his law, a free proprietor of the soil. 
 
84 8ALATBIEL. 
 
 He was no serf, no broken vassal. He inherited his por- 
 tion of the land by an irrevocable title. Debt, misfortune, 
 or time could not extinguish his right. Capable of being 
 alienated from him for a few years, the land returned 
 at the Jubilee. He was then once more a possessor, the 
 master of competence, and restored to his rank among 
 his fellow men. This bond, the most benevolent, and 
 the strongest, that ever bound man to a country, was the 
 bond of the Covenant. If Israel had held the institu- 
 tions of her Lawgiver inviolate, she would have seen the 
 Assyrian, the Egyptian, and the Roman, with all their 
 multitudes, only food for the vulture. But, we were a 
 rebellious people; we sullied the purity of the Mosaic or- 
 dinances; we abandoned the sublime ceremonial of its 
 worship, for the profligate rites of paganism; we rejected 
 the Lord of the Theocracy for the pomps of an earthly 
 king. Then, the mighty protection that had been to us as 
 eagle's wings, and as a wall of fire, was withdrawn. Our 
 first punishment was by our own hand ; the union of Israel 
 was a band of flax in the flame. The tribes revolted. The 
 time was come for the hostile idolater to do his work. 
 We were overwhelmed by enemies in alliance with our 
 own blood. The banners of Jacob were seen waving be- 
 side the banners of Ashtaroth and Apis. An opening was 
 made into the bosom of the land for all invasion; the 
 barriers of the mountain and the desert were in vain; the 
 proverbial bravery of the Jew only rendered his chain 
 more severe; and the policy that, of old, united the high- 
 est wisdom with the most benevolent mercy, became at 
 once the scoff and problem of the pagan world. 
 
 But opulence, salubrity, and luxuriance of production, 
 belonged to the site of the land of Israel. It lay central 
 between the richest regions of the world. It was the 
 natural road of the traffic of India with the west ; thai 
 traffic, which raised Tyre and Sidon from rocks and shal- 
 lows on a fragment of the shore of Asia, into magnificent 
 cities; and which was yet to raise into political power 
 and unrivalled wealth the rocks and shallows of the re- 
 motest shore of the Mediterranean. Our mountain ranges 
 tempered the hot winds from the wilderness. The sea 
 cooled the summer heats with the living breeze, and tem- 
 pered the chill of winter. Our fields teeme^ with per- 
 petual fruits and flowers. 
 
8ALATHIEL. 85 
 
 The extent of the land, though narrow, when con- 
 trasted with the surrounding kingdoms, was yet not to 
 be measured by its lineal boundaries; a country, inter- 
 sected everywhere with chains of hills capable of cultiva- 
 tion to the summit, alike multiplies its surface, and varies 
 its climate. We had, at the foot of the hill, the products 
 of the torrid zone; on its side those of the temperate; on 
 its summit the robust vegetation of the north. The as- 
 cending circles of the orange grove, the vineyard and the 
 forest covered it with perpetual beauty. 
 
 This scene of matchless productiveness is fair and fer- 
 tile no more. For ages, before my eyes opened on the 
 land of my fathers, the national misfortunes had im- 
 paired its original loveliness. The schism of the tribes, 
 the ravages of successive invaders, and, still more, the 
 continued presence of the idolater and the alien in the 
 heart of the land, turned large portions of it into 'desert. 
 The final fall almost destroyed the traces of its fruitful- 
 ness. What can be demanded from the soil, lorded over 
 by the tyranny of the Moslem, stripped of its population, 
 and given up by poverty, to the mendicant, the monk, and 
 the robber? 
 
 But, more than human evil smote my unhappy coun- 
 try. The curse pronounced by our great prophet three 
 thousand years ago, has been deeply fulfilled. "The 
 stranger that shall come from a far land shall say, when 
 he beholdeth the plagues of the land, and the sickness 
 that the Lord hath laid upon it, the land of brimstone 
 and salt and burning, even all nations shall say, 'Where- 
 fore hath the Lord done this unto this land ? What mean- 
 eth the heat of this great anger?' Then men shall say, 
 'Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord 
 God of their fathers !' '' 
 
 Yet, what might have been the progress of this peo- 
 ple ! The glory of Israel is no fine vision of the fancy. 
 The same prophetic word which has given terrible demon- 
 stration of its reality in our ruin, declares the hope once 
 held forth to our obedience. Judea was to have borne the 
 first rank among nations; to have been an object of uni- 
 versal honor; to have been unconquerable; to have en- 
 joyed unwearied fertility; protected from the casualities 
 of the elements; free from disease; the life of its people 
 
86 SAL ATE I EL. 
 
 continuing to the furthest limit of our nature. A bless- 
 ing was to be upon the labors, the possessions, and the 
 persons, of the tribes; all Israel, a holy nation, in the 
 highest sense of the word a sovereign race, to which the 
 world should pay a willing and happy homage. We must 
 add to these high attributes the direct influence of a gov- 
 erning people, placed in its rank for the express purpose 
 of a guide to nations. Combining the knowledge, and 
 devotedness, of a priesthood, with the actual power, and 
 dignity, of kings; by its own constitution as safe from 
 all encroachment, as prohibited from all aggression; in- 
 formed by the immediate wisdom, and sustained by the 
 visible arm of Omnipotence; Judea might have changed 
 the earth into a paradise, and raised universal man to the 
 highest happiness, knowledge, and grandeur, of human 
 nature ! 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 WAR was now inevitable. Attempts had been made by 
 our rulers to propitiate the Eoman Emperor, but their 
 answer was the march of a Legion to Jerusalem. The 
 seizure of some of the people who had made themselves 
 conspicuous in the late capture of the citadel followed, 
 and an order was despatched to the Governor of Galilee 
 for the execution of Eleazar. His tribe instantly assem- 
 bled ; and all voices were for resistance. My noble kins- 
 man, still pacific, offered himself as the victim. But this 
 generous sacrifice we all denounced, and called for war. 
 The apointment of a Leader was next debated in a hur- 
 ried assemblage, to which every head of a village came in 
 arms. No man could contest the command with Eleazar. 
 But he declined it, from a sense of his experience in war, 
 in a few simple words. Then, suddenly bursting into ar- 
 dor, he exclaimed, "Our war is holy. It is not to be haz- 
 arded on the claims of hereditary rank, personal freedom, 
 or even on national favoritism. The only claims which 
 the nation must acknowledge in its extremity are the 
 rights of tried talent, experienced intrepidity and un- 
 questionable service. Such a leader stands among us at 
 thjs moment," Every eye was turned upon me. "Yes/ 1 
 
SALATHIEL. 87 
 
 exclaimed my noble kinsman, "you have already made 
 your choice. Genius, valor and success have combined 
 to mark one man for the leader of Israel. He is worthy 
 of the diadem." Then, turning to me and lifting his 
 hand, as if he was letting fall the diadem upon my head, 
 "Go forth," cried he, in a tone of almost prophetic grand- 
 eur. "Go forth, Prince of Naphtali, leader of Israel, to 
 break the chains of Judah and conquer in the cause of 
 man and Heaven." The words were received with ac- 
 clamation ! 
 
 I vainly protested against the general voice, that I was 
 a priest of the Temple; of the house of Aaron, of the 
 tribe of Levi, and bound to Naphtali, only by ties of 
 kindred and gratitude. I was answered by a multitude 
 of voices, that my summons was actually in the service of 
 the Temple; that war extinguished all office but that of 
 defending the country. That I had long retired from the 
 duties of the priesthood; that Moses was at once the 
 priest and the leader ; that Samuel was at once the prophet 
 and the Sovereign of Israel, and, above all,, that I had 
 shown myself by daring and success almost superior to 
 man; the Heaven-elected leader of Israel. 
 
 I acknowledge that my heart was with the answerers, 
 and I at length gave way to what, even I believed to be 
 the will of more than man. A thousand falchions, wielded 
 by as sinewy hands as ever drew sword, w,ere instantly 
 moved round my head, I was placed on a shield, and in 
 this ancient fashion of our countrymen I was inaugurated 
 Prince of Naphtali. This was one of the blinding flashes 
 that broke in from time to time on my gloomy career. 
 When the assemblage broke up and I returned towards 
 my mountain home, I was still in the excitement of the 
 scene. I even began to imagine that my terrible sentence 
 was about to be lightened, perhaps to pass away; my sta- 
 tion in life was now fixed; services of the highest rank in 
 the noblest cause were before me, and I felt myself ex- 
 claiming, even to the solitude, "I am Prince of Naphtali." 
 My exultation was soon to have a fall. 
 
 It was the evening of one of the loveliest days of the 
 loveliest season of earth, the Spring of Palestine. All 
 nature was clothed with its robe of genial beauty; the 
 olives on the higher grounds had put forth their first 
 
88 SALATHIEL. 
 
 green, and with every slight gust that swept across them, 
 heaved like sheets of emerald; the birds sang in a thou- 
 sand notes from every bush; the sheep and camels lay in 
 the meadows visibly enjoying the sweet air; the shepherds 
 sat gathered together on the side of some gentle eminence, 
 talking, or listening to the songs of the maidens who 
 came in long lines to the fountains below. The heavens 
 gave prospect of a glorious summer, in the colors shown 
 only to the Oriental eye; hues so brilliant that many a 
 traveller stops on the verge of the valleys, arrested, in his 
 haste homeward, by the pomp above. All was the loveli- 
 ness and joy of pastoral life, in the only country where I 
 ever found it realized. The mind is to be medicined by 
 natural loveliness, and mine was doubly cheered. To 
 return to our home is at all times a delight; but the new 
 conjuncture, the high hopes of the future, and the con- 
 sciousness that a career of the most distinguished honor 
 might be opening before my steps, made this return more 
 vivid than all the past; and when I reached the foot of 
 the long ascent from which my dwelling was visible, I felt 
 an impatience beyond restraint, and spurred up the 
 hill with my tidings. How fine the ear becomes when 
 quickened by the heart ! As the mountain road, now more 
 difficult by the darkness of the wild pines and cedars that 
 crowded the summit, compelled me to slacken my pace, I 
 thought, that I could distinguish the household voices, 
 the barking of my hounds, and the laugh of the retainers 
 and peasantry, that during the summer crowded my doors. 
 
 I pictured the dearer group, who had so often welcomed 
 me. The early and cruel loss of my son had not been 
 repaired. I was not destined to be the father of a race; 
 but, two daughters were given to me, and, in the absence 
 of all ambition, they were more than a recompense. Sa- 
 lome, the elder, was now approaching to womanhood ; she 
 had the dark eyes and animated beauty of her mother; 
 the foot of the antelope was not lighter; and her wreathed 
 smile, her laugh of innocence, and buoyancy of soul, for- 
 bade sorrow in her sight. Oh, what I afterwards saw that 
 face of living joy! What floods of sorrow bathed those 
 cheeks that once shamed the Persian rose ! 
 
 The younger was scarcely more than a child ; her mind 
 and her form were yet equally in the bud: but she had 
 
SALATHIEL. 89 
 
 an eye of the deepest azure, a living star; and even in her 
 playfulness there was an elevation, a lofty and fervent 
 spirit, that made me often forget her years. She was mis- 
 tress of music almost by nature; and the cadences and 
 rich modulations that poured from her harp, under fin- 
 gers slight and feeble, as if the stalks of flowers had been 
 flung across the strings, were like secrets of harmony treas- 
 ured for her touch alone. Our prophets, the true masters 
 of the sublime, were her rapturous study. Their truths 
 might yet be veiled, but their genius blazed broad upon 
 her sensitive soul. 
 
 I imaged my children hastening through the portal, 
 twined hand in hand with their noble mother, still in the 
 prime of matron beauty, to give me welcome. The light 
 thickened, and the intricacy of the forest impeded me. At 
 length, wearied by the delay, I sprang from my horse, left 
 him to make his way as he could, and tried my path 
 through a thicket which crept round the skirts of the 
 forest. As I struggled onward, listening with sharpened 
 anxiety, for every sound of home, I caught a sound, like 
 that of a wild beast rustling close at my side. The thicket 
 was now utterly dark. My eyes were useless. I drew my 
 scimitar and plunged it straight before me. The blow 
 was instantly followed by a shriek. Friend or enemy, si- 
 lence was now impossible, and I demanded who was nigh. 
 I was answered but by groans; my next step was on a 
 human body. Shocked and startled, I yet lifted it in my 
 arms, and bore the dying man to an open space where the 
 moonlight glimmered. To my unspeakable horror, he was 
 one of my most favored attendants, whom I had left in 
 the principal charge of my household. I tore up my 
 mantle to stanch his wound; but he fiercely repelled my 
 hand. In an undefined dread of some evil to my family, 
 I commanded him to speak, if but one word, and tell me 
 that all was safe. He buried his face in his mantle. 
 
 In the whirlwind of my thoughts, I flung him from me, 
 that I might go forward and know the good or evil ; but 
 he clung round my feet and exerted his last breath to 
 implore me not to leave him to die alone. "You have 
 killed me," said he, in broken accents; "but it was only 
 the hand of the Avenger. I was corrupted by gold. You 
 have terrible enemies among the leaders of Jerusalem: a 
 
90 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 desperate deed has been done." My suspense amounted to 
 agony; I made another effort to cast off the trammels of 
 the assassin; but he still implored. "Evil things were 
 whispered against you. I was told that you had been con- 
 victed of a horrible crime." The sound shot through my 
 senses: he must have felt the trembling of my frame; for 
 he, for the first time, looked upon my face. "My sight is 
 gone," groaned he, and fell back. I dared not meet the 
 glance even of his clouding eyes. "They said that you 
 were condemned to an unspeakable punishment, and that 
 the man who swept the world of you and yours did God 
 service. In my hour of sin the tempter met me; and this 
 day from sunrise have I lurked on your road, to strike my 
 benefactor and my lord. In the dark I lost my way in 
 the thicket; but vengeance found me." "My wife, my 
 children, are they safe?" I exclaimed. He quivered, re- 
 laxed his hold, and uttering, "Forgive!" two or three 
 times, with nervous agony, expired. 
 
 A single bound from this spot of death placed me on a 
 point of rock, from which I had often gazed on my little 
 world in the valley. The moon was now bright and the 
 view unobstructed. I looked down. Were my eyes dim? 
 There was no habitation beneath me: the grove, the gar- 
 den, were there, sleeping in the moonlight; but all that 
 had the semblance of life was gone! I rushed down and 
 found myself among ruins and ashes still hot. I called 
 aloud, in terror and distraction I yelled to the night, but 
 no voice answered me. My foot struck upon something 
 in the grass; it was a sword, black with recent blood. 
 There had been burning, plunder, slaughter here ! in this 
 treasure house of my heart; desolation had been busy in 
 the centre of what was to me life more than life. I 
 raved; I flew through the fields; I rushed back to con- 
 vince myself that I was not in some frightful dream. 
 What I endured that night I never endured again ; that 
 conflict of fear, astonishment, love and misery could be 
 contained but once even in my bosom: in all others it 
 must have been death. In the moment of reviving hope 
 I had been smitten. While my spirit was ascending on 
 the wings of justified ambition and sacred love of coun- 
 try I had been dashed down to earth, a desolate and a 
 desperate man, 
 
8ALATHIEL. 91 
 
 What I did thenceforth, or how I passed through that 
 night, I know not; but I was found in the morning with 
 my robe fantastically thrown over me like a royal mantle, 
 and a fragment of half -burnt wood for a sceptre in my 
 hand performing the part of a monarch, giving orders 
 for the rebuilding of my palace and marshalling the move- 
 ments of an army of shrubs and weeds. I was led away 
 .with the lofty reluctance of a captive sovereign to the 
 household of Eleazar. 
 
 The wrath and grief of my kinsmen were without bounds. 
 Every defile of the mountains was searched, every strag- 
 gler seized ; messengers were despatched across the frontier 
 with offers of ransom to the chiefs of the desert, in case 
 my family should have escaped the sword. Threats of 
 severe retaliation were used by the Roman governor of 
 the province ; all was in vain. The only glimpse of intel- 
 ligence was from a shepherd, who two nights before had 
 seen a troop, which he supposed to be Arabs, ride swiftly 
 by the gates Kuriathim, our nearest city; but this in- 
 telligence only added to the misfortune. The habits of 
 those robbers were proverbially savage; they lived by the 
 torch and the sword; they slaughtered the men without 
 mercy; the females they generally sold into a returnless 
 captivity. To leave no trace of their route, they slaugh- 
 tered the captives whom they could not carry through 
 their hurried marches. To leave no trace of what they 
 had done, they burned the place of massacre. But this 
 ruin was from other and more malignant hands! 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 WHAT I might have suffered in the agony of a bereaved 
 husband and father, was spared me. My visitation was of 
 another kind; dreadful, yet perhaps, not so pre-eminently 
 wretched, nor so deeply striking at the roots of life. My 
 brain had received an overwhelming blow. Imagination 
 was to be my tyrant; and every occurrence of life, every 
 aspect of human being, every variety of nature, day and 
 night, sunshine and storm, made a portion of its fearful 
 empire. What is insanity, but a more vivid and terrible 
 dream? Jt has the dream-like tumult of events, the 
 
92 SALATHIEL. 
 
 rapidity of transit, the quick invention, the utter disre- 
 gard of place and time. The difference lies in its in- 
 tensity. The madman is awake; and the open eye admin- 
 isters a horrid reality to the fantastic vision. The vigor 
 of the senses gives a living and resistless strength to the 
 vagueness of the fancy; it compels together the fleeting 
 mists of the mind, and embodies them into shapes of 
 deadly power. 
 
 I was mad ! yet by degrees all my madness was not pain- 
 ful. Books, my old delight, still lulled my mind. I 
 turned the pages of some volume; then fancy waved her 
 wand, and built upon its contents a world of adventure. 
 Every language appeared to open its treasures to me. I 
 roved through all lands I saw all the eminent for rank 
 or genius I drank of the fountains of poetry I ad- 
 dressed listening senates, and heard the air echo with ap- 
 plause. Wit, beauty, talent, laid their inestimable tributes 
 at my feet. I was exalted to the highest triumphs of 
 mind ; and then came my fate ; in the midst of my glory 
 came a cloud, and I was miserable! This bitter sense of 
 defeat was characteristic of my visions. Be the cup 
 ever so sweet, it had a poison drop at bottom. 
 
 The history of my country was most frequent on my 
 mind. I imagined myself the great King of Babylon. 
 From the superb architecture of those palaces, in which 
 Nebuchadnezzar forgot that he was but man, I issued my 
 mandates to a hundred monarchs. I saw the satraps of 
 the East bow their jewelled necks before my throne. I 
 rode at the head of countless armies, Lord of Asia, and 
 prospective Conqueror of all the realms that saw the sun. 
 In the swellings of my haughty soul I exclaimed, like 
 him, "Is not this the Great Babylon that I have built?" 
 and like him in the very uttering of the words, I was 
 cast out, humbled to the grass of the field, hideous, brutal, 
 and wretched 
 
 I was Belshazzar. I sat in the halls of glory. I 
 heard the harps of minstrels, the voice of singing men and 
 singing women. The banquet was before me; I was sur- 
 rounded by the trophies of irresistible conquest. Beauty, 
 flattery, splendor, the delight of the senses, the keener 
 feast of vanity, the rich anticipation of triumph measure- 
 less and endless, made me all but a god. % I put the pro- 
 
8ALAT3IEL. 93 
 
 f aned cup of the temple to my lips. Thunder pealed : the 
 serene sky, the only canopy worthy of my banquet and 
 my throne, was sheeted over with lightning. I swallowed 
 the wine it was poison and fire in my veins. The gigantic 
 hand came forth, and wrote upon the wall 
 
 The moon, the ancient mistress of the diseased mind, 
 strongly exerted her spells on mine. I loved her light ; but 
 it was only when it mingled softly with the shadows of 
 the forest and the landscape. I welcomed her return from 
 darkness, as the coming of some guardian genius to shed 
 at once beauty and healing on its path. Darkness was to 
 me a source of terror; daylight overwhelmed me: but the 
 gentle splendor of the crescent had a dewy influence on 
 my faculties. I exposed my feverish forehead to her 
 beams, as if to bathe it in celestial balm. I felt in her 
 gradual increase, an increase of the power to soothe and 
 console. This indulgence grew into a kind of visionary 
 passion. I saw in the crescent, as it sailed up the aBther, a 
 galley crowded with forms of surpassing loveliness, faces 
 that bent down and smiled upon me, and hands that show- 
 ered treasures, to be collected by mine alone. But, excess 
 even of her light always disturbed me. From the full 
 splendor of the moon, there was no escape; the rays smote 
 upon me with merciless infliction; I fled to the woods as 
 a hunted deer; a thousand shafts of light penetrated the 
 shade. I hid myself in the depths of my chamber ; flames 
 of lambent silver, curling and darting in forms innumer- 
 able, shot round my couch. Upon the inequalities of the 
 ground, or the waves of the fountain and the river, ser- 
 pents of the most inimitable lustre, yet of the most deadly 
 poison, coiled and sprang after me with a rapidity that 
 mocked human feet. If I dared to glance upwards, I be- 
 held a menacing visage distending to an immeasurable 
 magnitude, and ready to pour down wrath ; or an orb with 
 its mountains and oceans swinging loose through the 
 heaven, and rolling down upon my solitary brow. 
 
 But, those were my hours of comparative happiness. I 
 had visions of unspeakable terror; flights through regions 
 of space, that left earth and the sun incalculable millions 
 of miles behind; flights ceaseless, hopeless still hurrying 
 onward with more than winged speed through worlds on 
 worlds, and still enduring ; the heart sickening and wither- 
 
94 &ALATHIEL. 
 
 ing with a consciousensss of being swept beyond the 
 bounds of living things, and of being doomed to this 
 flight, forever. 
 
 Those trials changed into every shape of desperation. 
 
 I was driven out to sea in a bark that let in every wave. 
 I struggled to reach the land I tore my sinews with 
 toil I saw the trees, the shore, the hills, sink in slow, yet 
 sure succession I felt in the hands of an invisible power, 
 bent on my undoing. The storm subsided, the sun shone, 
 the ocean was without a surge. Still I struggled; with 
 the strength of despair I toiled to regain the land to re- 
 tard the viewless force that was perpetually urging me 
 further from existence. I began to suffer thirst and 
 hunger. They grew to pain, to torture, to madness. I felt 
 as if molten lead were poured down my throat. I put my 
 arm to my mouth, and shuddering, quenched my thirst in 
 my own veins. It returned instantly, with a more fiery 
 sting. There was nothing in the elements to give me hope 
 to draw off thought from my own fate to deaden the 
 venomed sensibilities that quivered through every fibre. 
 The wind slept the sky was cloudless the sea smooth as 
 glass: not a distant sail not a wandering bird not a 
 springing fish not even a floating weed, broke the ter- 
 rible monotony. The sun did not pass down the horizon. 
 Al above me was unvaried, motionless sky all around me, 
 unvaried, motionless ocean. I alone moved still urged 
 further from the chance of life; still undergoing new ac- 
 cessions of agony that made the past trivial. I tasted the 
 water beside me : it added fire to fire. I convulsively darted 
 out my withered hands, as if they could have drawn down 
 the rain, or grasped the dew. I withered piecemeal, yet 
 with a continuing consciousness in every fragment of my 
 frame ! 
 
 My visitation changed. 
 
 I wandered at midnight through a country of moun- 
 tains. Worn out with fatigue, I lay down upon a rock. 
 I found it heave under me. I heard a thunder-peal. A 
 sudden blaze kindled the sky. Bewildered and stunned, I 
 started to my feet. The mountains were on flame; a hun- 
 dred mouths poured down torrents of liquid fire ; they 
 came shooting in sulphurous cataracts down the chasms. 
 The forests burned before them like a garment the rocks 
 
BALATHIEL. 95 
 
 melted the rivers flew up in sheets of vapor the valleys 
 were basins of glowing ore the clouds of smoke and ashes 
 gathered over my head in a solid vault of gloom, sullenly 
 illuminated by the conflagration below the land was a 
 cavern of fire. In terror inconceivable, I ran, I bounded, 
 I plunged down declivities, I swam rivers: still, the fiery 
 torrents hunted my steps, as if they had been commis- 
 sioned against Hie alone. I felt them gathering speed on 
 me; when I bounded, the spot from which I sprang was 
 on flame before I alighted on the ground. I climbed a 
 promontory with an effort that exhausted my last nerve. 
 The fatal lava swept round its foot; and, in another in- 
 stant must encircle me. I ran along the edge of a precipice 
 that made the brain turn; the fire chased me from pin- 
 nacle to pinnacle. I clung to the weeds and trunks of 
 trees on its sides, and, in dread of being dashed to pieces, 
 tremblingly let myself down the wall of perpendicular 
 rock. Breathless and dying at the bottom of the descent, I 
 glanced upwards; the flame of the thicket on the brow 
 showed me my pursuer. I saw the rapid swelling of the 
 molten tide. In another moment, it plunged through 
 the air in a white column, the valley was instantly an ex- 
 panse of conflagration every spot was inundated with the 
 blaze. I flew, with scorching feet with every sinew of 
 my frame parched and dried of its substance with my 
 eyes blinded, and my lungs burned up by the suffocating 
 fumes that rushed before, around, and above me. At 
 length my limit was reached. The land afforded no fur- 
 ther room for flight. I stood on the verge of the ocean. 
 Death was inevitable. I had but the choice. Before me 
 spread the world of waters, sad, dim, fathomless, intermina- 
 ble; behind me, the world, of flame. By a last desperate 
 effort, I plunged into the ocean. The indefatigable lava 
 rolled on, mass on mass, like armies rushing to the assault. 
 The billows shrank before the fiery shock, sheets of vapor 
 rolled up; still the eruption rolled on, and the returning 
 billows fought against it. The conflict shook the land ; the 
 mountain shore crumbled down; the sands melted and 
 burned vitreous; the atmosphere discharged scalding tor- 
 rents; the winds, shaken from their balance, raged with 
 the violence of more than tempest. Thunder roared in 
 peals that shook the earth, the ocean and the heavens. 
 
06 BALATH1EL. 
 
 In the midst of all I lived, toeced like a grain of sand in 
 the whirlwind. 
 
 Strange and harassing as those trials of my mind were, 
 they had yet contained some appeals to individual energy, 
 some excitement of personal powers, that produced a kind 
 of cheering self-applause. I was Prometheus on his rock, 
 chained and remediless, yet still resisting and uncon- 
 quered. But the true misery was, when I was passive. 
 
 I strayed through an Egyptian city. Buildings num- 
 berless, of the most regal design, rose round me ; the walls 
 were covered with sculptures of extraordinary richness 
 noble statues lined the public ways wealth in the wildest 
 profusion was visible wherever the foot trod. Endless 
 ranges of porphyry and alabaster columns glittered in the 
 noon. Superb ascents of marble steps mounted before 
 me, to heights that strained the eye. Arch over arch, 
 studded with the lustre of precious stones, climbed until 
 they lay like rainbows upon the sky. Colossal towers 
 circled with successive colonnades of dazzling brightness 
 ascended airy citadels, looking down upon earth, and 
 colored with the infinite dyes and lustres of the clouds. 
 But, all was silence in this scene of pomp. There was no 
 tread of human being heard within the circuit of a city, 
 fit for more than man. The utter extinction of all that 
 gives the idea of life was hideous ; there was not the note 
 of a passing bird, not the chirp of a grasshopper. I in- 
 stinctively shrank from the sight of things lovely in them- 
 selves, yet which froze my mind by their image of the 
 tomb. But to escape was impossible, there was an im- 
 pression of powerlessness upon me, for whose melancholy 
 I can find no words. My feet were chainless, but never 
 fetter clung with such a retarding weight, as that invisi- 
 ble bond by which I was fixed to the spot. Ages on agesj 
 seemed to have heavily sunk away, and still I stood, bound 
 by the same manacle, standing on the same spot, looking 
 on the same objects. To this I would have preferred the 
 fiercest extreme of suffering. The passion for change is 
 the most incapable of being extinguished or eluded, of all 
 that dwell within the heart of man. 
 
 But, a change at length came. The sun decayed. Twi- 
 light fell, shade on shade, on tower and column ; until total 
 darkness shrouded the scene of glory. Yet, as if a new 
 
SALATHIEL. 97 
 
 faculty of sight were given to me, the thickest darkness 
 did not blunt the eye. I still saw all things the mi- 
 nutest figures of the architecture, the finest carving of the 
 airy castles, whose height was, even in the sunshine, almost 
 too remote for vision. Suddenly, there echoed the murmur 
 of many voices, the trooping of many feet; the colossal 
 gates opened, and a procession of forms innumerable en- 
 tered; they were of every period of life, of every pursuit, 
 of every rank, of every country. All the various emblems 
 of station, all the weapons and implements of mankind, 
 all costumes, rich and strange, civilized and savage; all 
 the attributes and adjuncts of the occupations of society 
 were in that mighty train. The monarch, sceptred and 
 crowned, passed on his throne; the soldier reining his 
 charger; the philosopher gazing on his volume; the priest 
 bearing the instruments of sacrifice. It was the triumph 
 of a power ruling all mankind; but ruling them, when 
 their world has passed away DEATH. 
 
 While I gazed in breathless awe, I found myself involved 
 in the procession. Eesistance was in vain ; I was conscious 
 that I might as well have struggled against the tides of 
 the ocean, or thought to stop the revolution of the globe. 
 We advanced through the place of darkness by millions 
 of millions, yet without crowding the majestic avenue, or 
 reaching its close. I rapidly recognized a multitude of 
 faces, which I had known, from the models and memorials 
 of the past ages. But the power that marshalled them had 
 no regard to time. The pale, fixed Asiatic countenance of 
 Ninus moved beside the glowing cheek and flashing eye of 
 Alexander. The patriarch followed the Caesar. The thou- 
 sand years were as one day, the one day as a thousand 
 years. 
 
 Again, the whole stately train suddenly melted upon 
 the eye, and I was alone, in tenfold darkness entombed. 
 I lay in the sepulchre, but with the full vividness of life, 
 and with a perfect knowledge that there it was my doom 
 to lie forever. A miraculous foresight gifted me with the 
 fearful privilege of looking into the most remote futurity. 
 Ages on ages unfolded themselves, with al their wonders, 
 to tantalize me. I saw worlds awake from chaos, and re- 
 turn to it in flood and flame. I saw systems swept away 
 like the sand. The universe withered with years, and 
 
98 SALATUIEL. 
 
 rolled up like the parchment scroll. I saw new regions 
 of space, glowing with a new creation; the angelic hier- 
 archies rising through new energies, new triumphs, new 
 orders of existence; developments of power and mag- 
 nificence, of sublime mercy and essential glory, too high 
 for the conception of mortal faculties. Yet I was still to 
 be entombed ! No ray of light, no sound, no trace of ex- 
 ternal being, no sympathy of flesh or spirit, of earth or 
 heaven was to reach me. The four narrow walls, the wind- 
 ing-sheet, the worm, were my world ! I seemed to lie 
 thus, for periods beyond all counting; powerless to move 
 a limb; the sleepless, conscious, vivid victim of misery un- 
 speakable the bondsman of the sepulchre ! 
 
 In those wanderings, I experienced not even the slightest 
 recollection of the cause, which had so sternly shaken my 
 brain. Wife, children, country, were a blank. Imagina- 
 tion, that strangest and most imperious of our faculties, 
 whose soaring from earth to heaven may be among the in- 
 dications of power beyond the grave, disdains to linger on 
 the realities of our being. It delights in the commanding, 
 the bold, the superb. In my instance it had the wildness 
 of disease; but who has ever felt its workings, even in the 
 dream of health, without wonder at its passion for the 
 richer and more highly relieved remembrances; its singu- 
 lar skill in throwing together the loftier portions of life 
 and nature, to the total disregard of the level ; its subtlety 
 in the seizure of the circumstances of pain, its pointings 
 and sharpenings; its fabrication of adventure, at once of 
 the most regular consecutiveness, and the wildest original- 
 ity; and all characterized by the same spontaneous swift- 
 ness of change, and illimitable command over space and 
 time, a power of instant flight from continent to conti- 
 nent, and from world to world; the transit that would 
 actually fill up years and ages the work of a moment ! 
 the actual moment expanding into years and ages ! 
 
 What are those but the infant attributes of the dis- 
 embodied spirit! the imperfect developments of a state 
 of being to which time and space are as nothing; when 
 man, shaking off the covering of the grave, shall be clothed 
 with the might of angels! the splendid denizen of In- 
 finitude and Eternity! 
 
 
8ALATBIEL. 99 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 AT length, the past returned to my mind. Dim recol- 
 lections, shadows that alternately advanced and eluded 
 me, sketches of forms and events, like pictures unfinished 
 by the pencil, began to lie before me, yet, colorless and un- 
 defined. But, day by day the outlines grew more complete, 
 the figures assumed a body; they lived they moved 
 the uttered voices; and while, to other eyes I was a soli- 
 tary and hopeless fugitive from human converse, to my 
 own I was surrounded with a circle of all that I loved; 
 yet, with a continued sense of privation, a mysterious feel- 
 ing of something imperfect in the indulgence, that dashed 
 my cup with bitterness. 
 
 With the increase of my strength, I became a wanderer 
 to great distances among the mountains. No persuasion 
 of my kinsmen could restrain me from those excursions. 
 The mildness of a climate in which the population sleep 
 in the open air, and the abundance of fruits, met the two 
 chief difficulties of travelling. I felt an irresistible im- 
 pulse to penetrate the mountain ranges, that rose in chains 
 of purple and azure before me. With the artifice of the 
 diseased mind, I made my few preparations in secret; 
 and with but scrip and staff, marched forth to tread hill 
 and valley, city and desert, were it to the last limit of the 
 globe. 
 
 Through what diversities of scene, or impediments of 
 road I long passed, no memory rests upon me. The same 
 instinct which guides the bird, led me to the fruit-tree and 
 the stream, taught me where to shelter for the night, and 
 gave me sagacity enough for the avoidance of the habitual 
 dangers of a route seldom tried but by the wolf and the 
 robber. But my frame, gradually invigorated by exercisa, 
 bore me through all; and I scaled the chain of Libanus 
 with an unwearied foot. There, I reached the skirts of a 
 region where the snow scarcely melts, even in the burning 
 summer of Syria. The falling of the leaf, and the furious 
 blasts that burst through the ravines, told me that I had 
 spent months in my pilgrimage, and that I must brave 
 winter on its throne. Still I persevered. I felt a new 
 excitement in the new difficulty of the season ; I longed to 
 try my power of endurance against the storm, to wrestle 
 
100 8ALATBIEL. 
 
 with the whirlwind, to baffle the torrent. The very sight 
 of the snow, as it began to sheet the sides of the lower hills, 
 gave me a vague idea of a brighter realm of existence; it 
 united the pinnacles with the clouds; the noble promon- 
 tories and forest-covered eminences no longer rose in stern 
 contrast with the sky; they were dipped in celestial blue; 
 they wore the silvery and sparkling lustre of the morning 
 skies; they blushed in the effulgence of the sunset, with as 
 rich a crimson as the cloud that crowned them. 
 
 But, all was not fantastic vision. From the summit of 
 one of those hills I saw, what was then worth a pilgrimage 
 through half the world to see, the cedar grove of Lebanon. 
 After a day of unusual fatigue and perplexity, I had found 
 my path blocked up by a perpendicular pile of rock. To 
 all but myself, the difficulty might have been impractica- 
 ble; but my habits had given me the spring and sinew of 
 a panther; I bounded against the marble, and, after long 
 effort, by the help of weeds, and scattered roots of the wild 
 vines, climbed my perilous way to the summit. An endless 
 range of Syria lay beneath; the sea and the wilderness 
 gleamed on my left and right; and a rich succession of 
 dells, crowded with the date, the olive, and the grape, in 
 their autumnal dyes, spread out before me, as far as the 
 eye could reach, in a land whose air is pure as crystal. 
 
 A sound of trumpets and wild harmonies arose, and I 
 discovered, at an almost viewless depth below, a concourse 
 of people moving through the hollows of the mountains. 
 The tendency of man to man is irresistible; and that un- 
 expected sight, where but the wild beast and the eagle were 
 to have been my companions, gave me the first sensation of 
 pleasure that I had long experienced. Bounding from 
 rock to rock with a hazardous rapidity which arrested the 
 crowd in astonishment and alarm, I joined them, just in 
 time to see the shafts and slings laid down, which they had 
 prepared for my coming, in the uncertainty whether I were 
 a wolf or the leader of a troop of mountain robbers ! 
 
 They formed one of the many caravans which annually 
 gathered from the shores of the Mediterranean, to worship 
 at Lebanon. The homage to sacred groves had been trans- 
 mitted from the earliest antiquity, and was universal in the 
 realms of paganism. To the Jew, worship on the hill and 
 under the tree was prohibited ; but the forest that Solomon 
 
SALATHIEL. 101 
 
 had chosen, the trees of which the first Temple was built, 
 the foliage which shaded the first planters of the earth, 
 must to the descendant of Abraham be full of reverent 
 interest. The ground was scriptural ; the fiery string of 
 the prophet Ezekiel had been struck to its praise; the 
 noblest raptures of our poets celebrated the glory of Leba- 
 non; the names of the surrounding landscape recalled 
 lofty and lovely memories; the vale of EDEN led to the 
 mountain of the Cedars ! 
 
 To my fellow-travellers, traditions tinged by the fervid 
 coloring of the Oriental fancy, heightened the native power 
 of the spot. On the summits of the trees were said to 
 descend at appointed times those ministering spirits, whose 
 purpose is to rectify the ways of man. There stooped on 
 the wing the bearers of the sword against the evil mon- 
 archs; there brooded the angel of the tempest; there the 
 invisible ruler of the pestilence blew with his breath, and 
 nations sickened; there, in night and in the interval of 
 storms, was heard the trumpet that, before kings dreamed 
 of quarrel, announced the collision of guilty empires for 
 their common ruin. The violation of the grove was sup- 
 posed to be visited with the most inexorable calamity; the 
 hand that cut down a tree for any ordinary use, withered 
 from the body; all misfortunes fell upon the man; his 
 wealth dissolved away, his children died in their prime; 
 if life was suffered to linger in himself, it was only to 
 perpetuate the warning of his punishment. Yet, there 
 was prouder distinction mingled with those stern attri- 
 butes. Above the hill was presumed the pagan entrance to 
 the skies. Once in the year, the celestial gate rolled back 
 on its golden hinges, to sounds surpassing mortal music; 
 the heavens dropped balm ; the prayer offered on that night 
 reached at once the supreme throne ; the tear was treasured 
 in the volume of light; and the worshipper who died be- 
 fore the envious coming of the morn, ascended to a felicity, 
 earned by others only through the tardy trial of the grave ! 
 Even the river, which ran round the mountain's foot, bore 
 its imaginary virtue ; its water, unpolluted by the decays 
 of autumn, or the turbidness of winter, showed the pre- 
 servative power of a superior spell: it was entitled the 
 Holy Stream; and sealed vessels of it were sent even to 
 India and Italy, as presents of health and sanctity to 
 kings, worthy of kings. 
 
102 8ALATBIEL. 
 
 When we entered the last defile, the minstrels and 
 singers of the caravan commenced a p?ean. Altars fumed 
 from various points of the chasm above; and the Syrian 
 priests were seen in their robes performing the empty rites 
 of idolatry. I turned away from this perversion of human 
 reason, and pressed forward through the lingering multi- 
 tude, until the forest rose in its majesty before me. 
 
 My step was now checked in solemn admiration. I savr 
 the earliest products of the earth the patriarchs of the 
 vegetable world. The first generation of the reviving globe 
 had sat beneath these green and lovely arches; the final 
 generation was to sit beneath them. No roof so noble ever 
 rose above the heads of monarchs, though it were covered 
 with gold and diamonds ! The forest had been long im- 
 paired in its extent and beauty by the sacrilegious hand of 
 war. The perpetual conflicts of the Syrian and Egyptian 
 dynasties had laid the axe to it with remorseless violation. 
 It once spread over the whole range of the mountains; its 
 diminished strength now, like the relics of a mighty army, 
 made its stand among the central fortresses of its native 
 region ; and there majestically bade defiance to the further 
 assault of steel and fire. The forms of the trees seemed 
 made for duration; the trunks were of prodigious thick- 
 ness, smooth and round as pillars of marble; some rising 
 to a great height, and throwing out a vast level roof of 
 foliage; some dividing into a cluster of trunks, and with 
 their various heights of branch and leaf, making a suc- 
 cession of verdurous caves; some propagating themselves 
 by circles of young cedars, risen where the fruit had 
 dropped upon the ground: the whole bearing the aspect 
 of a colossal temple of nature the shafted column, the 
 deep arch, the solid buttress, branching off into the richest 
 caprices of Oriental architecture, the solemn roof, high 
 above, pale, yet painted by the strong sunlight through the 
 leaves with transparent and tesselated dyes, various as the 
 colors of the Indian loom. 
 
 In the monentary feeling of awe, and of wonder, I could 
 comprehend, why paganism loved to worship under the 
 shade of forests ; and why the poets of paganism filled that 
 shade with the presence of deities. The airy whisperings, 
 the deep loneliness, the rich twilight, were the very food of 
 mystery. Even the forms that towered before the eye; 
 
8ALATHIEL. 103 
 
 those ancient trees, the survivors of the general law of 
 mortality, gigantic, hoary, covered with their weedy robes, 
 bowing their aged heads in the blast, and uttering strange 
 sounds and groanings in the struggle, gave to the high- 
 wrought superstition of the time, the images of things un- 
 earthly ; the oracle, and the God ! Or, was this impression 
 but the obscure revival of one of those lovely truths that 
 shone upon the days of Paradise, when man drew knowl- 
 edge from its fount in Nature; and all, but his own pas- 
 sions, were disclosed to the first-born of creation? 
 
 The caravan encamped in the depth of the valley, and 
 the grove was soon crowded with worshippers, in whose 
 homage I could take no share. Fires were lighted on the 
 large stones, which had for ages served the purpose of 
 altars ; and the names of the Syrian idols were shouted and 
 sung in the fierce exultation of a worship but slightly puri- 
 fied from its original barbarism. As the night fell, I with- 
 drew to the entrance of the defile, and gave a last glance 
 at Lebanon. In the grove, filled with fires, and echoing 
 with wild music and dances of riot, I saw the emblem of 
 my fallen country; the holiness, old as the memory of na- 
 tions, profaned ; yet the existence preserved, and still to be 
 preserved: Israel, once throned upon its mountains, now 
 diminished of its beauty; to be yet more diminished; but 
 to live, when all else perished ; to be restored, and to cover 
 its native hills again with glory. I buried my face in my 
 robe, and throwing myself down by the skirt of one of the 
 tents, gave way to meditations, sweet and bitter. 
 
 I heard my name pronounced ! I listened ; the name of 
 my wife followed. I looked to the sky, to the forest, to 
 convince me that this was no mockery of the diseased mind. 
 I was fully awake. I lifted up the corner of the tent. 
 Savage figures were sitting over their cups, inflamed into 
 quarrel; and, in the midst of high words and execrations, 
 I heard their story. They were robbers from Mount 
 Amanus; come, equally, to purify their hands by offering 
 sacrifice at Lebanon, and to recompense themselves for 
 their lost time, by robbing on the way. The quarrel had 
 arisen from the proposal of one of them to extend their ex- 
 pedition into Judea, a proposal which he sustained by men- 
 tioning the success of his previous enterprises. My name 
 was again sent from mouth to mouth, and I found that it 
 
104 SALATHIEL. 
 
 was inscribed on some jewel, which formed a part of his 
 plunder. The thought struck me, that this might afford a 
 clue. I burst into the tent, and demanded tidings of my 
 wife and children. The ruffians started, as if in the pres- 
 ance of a spectre. "Where," I repeated, "are my family? 
 I am Salathiel !" "Safe enough," said the foremost. "Are 
 they alive?" I cried; "lead me to where they are, and you 
 shall have whatever ransom you desire." The ruffian laughed. 
 "Why, as for ransom, all the money has been made by 
 them that is likely to be made for some time; unless the 
 Greek that bought them repents of his bargain." The 
 speech was received with loud laughter. I grew furious. 
 "Villains, you have murdered them. Tell me the whole 
 show me where they lie, or I will deliver you up to the 
 chief of the caravan as robbers and murderers." They 
 were appalled; with a single stride I was at the throat of 
 the leading ruffian, and seized the jewel : it was my bridal 
 present to Miriam ! My hand trembled, my eyes grew dim 
 at the glance. But, in the next moment, I found myself 
 pinioned, a gag forced into my mouth, a cloak flung over 
 me ; and heard the discussion whether I was to be stabbed 
 on the spot, left to die of famine, or have my tongue cut 
 out, and thus unfitted for telling secrets, be turned to gain, 
 and sold? 
 
 But this was not to be my lot. The quarrel of the 
 banditti increased with their wine ; blows were given ; the 
 solitary lamp was thrown down in the conflict; it caught 
 some combustible matter; and the tent was in a blaze. By 
 a violent exertion I loosened the cords from my arms, and 
 in the confusion fled unseen. The fire spread; and my 
 last glance at the valley showed the encampment turned 
 into a sheet of fire. Alone, and exhausted with deadly 
 fatigue, I had yet but one thought, that of seeking my 
 family through the world. I wandered on, through the 
 vast range of wild country that guards Syria on the side of 
 the desert. I at length reached the foot of Mount Arnaiuis, 
 traversed the chain, saw from it the interminable plains of 
 Asia Minor, the desert of Aleppo, the shores of Tripoli; 
 and was then left only to choose in which I should again 
 commence my hopeless pilgrimage. 
 
 There is something in great distress of mind, that throws 
 a strange protection round the sullerer. I passed the 
 
8ALATHIEL. 105 
 
 Roman guards unquestioned the robber left me without 
 inquiring, whether I was worth his dagger. The wolves, 
 driven down by famine, and devouring all else that had 
 life, neglected the banquet that I might have supplied. 
 Yet I shrank from none, but marched on through city, 
 cave, and forest. But, one evening the sky was loaded 
 with a tempest that drove even me to seek for shelter. I 
 found it in one of the caverns, that so often scare the 
 mariner's eye, on the iron-bound shore of Cilicia. 
 
 From the mouth of the cavern I listlessly gazed on the 
 lightnings, that disclosed at every explosion the sea rolling 
 in foaming ridges before the gale. In the intervals of the 
 gusts, I heard, to my surprise, the murmur of many voices, 
 apparently in prayer, close beside me. But all my interest 
 was suddenly fixed on the sea, by the sight of a large war- 
 galley running before the wind. She had neither sail nor 
 oar. Her masts were gone; and but for the crowd of 
 people on her deck, whose distracted attitudes I could clear- 
 ly see by the flashes, she looked a floating tomb. 
 
 To warn the galley of the nearness of the shore, I gath- 
 ered the brushwood beside me, and set it on fire. A shout 
 from the crew told that my signal was understood; and I 
 rushed down the bed of a stream that fretted its way 
 through the precipice. Before I reached the shore, I saw 
 various fires blazing above, and many figures hurrying 
 down, on a purpose like my own. We had not arrived too 
 soon. The galley, after desperate efforts to keep the sea, 
 had run for an inlet of the rocks, and was embayed ; surge 
 on surge, each higher than the one before, now rolled over 
 the ill-fated vessel, and each swept some portion of her 
 crew into the deep. We rushed into the waves and had suc- 
 ceeded in drawing many to shore, when a broader burnt, 
 the concentrated force of the tempest, thundered on the 
 galley; she was broken into splinters. Stunned and half 
 suffocated with the surge, I grasped, in the mere instinct of 
 self -preservation, at whatever was nearest; and, through 
 infinite hazard, reached the shore, with a body in my arms. 
 Need I tell my terror, anxiety, hope, and joy, when I found 
 that this being, whom I saw at length breathing, moving, 
 pronouncing my name, falling on my neck, was Miriam ! 
 
 My daughters, too, were rescued. The nearness of the 
 shore, saved the crew, who, until they saw the fire on the 
 
106 BALATHIEL. 
 
 rocks, had given themselves up to despair. The chance of 
 help led them to steer close in land, and I was congratu- 
 lated as the general preserver. Miriam's story was brief. 
 Our dwelling had been surrounded by a troop of robbers. 
 The household was surprised in their sleep. Resistance 
 was vain ; the rest was plunder and captivity. The robbers, 
 fearful of pursuit, took the road to the mountains at full 
 speed. My wife and daughters were treated with unusual 
 care, lest their beauty should be injured, and thus their 
 value in the slave-market of Tripoli impaired. As the 
 robber told me ; they had been purchased by a merchant of 
 Cyprus, and by him conveyed to his island, to be sold to 
 some more opulent master. There they were redeemed, by 
 an act of equal generosity and valor, and were returning 
 to Judea, when they were overtaken by the storm. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 WHEN the first tumult of our spirits was passed I had 
 leisure to see what changes the interval had made in faces 
 so loved. Miriam's betrayed the hours of distress that 
 she must have passed, but her noble style of beauty, the 
 emanation of a noble mind, was as conspicuous as ever. 
 I even thought, when her large eye fell on me from time 
 to time, that it shone with a loftier intelligence, as if 
 misfortune had raised its vision above the things of our 
 trivial world. My daughters' forms had matured, but 
 Salome, the elder, wore a portion of her mother's look; 
 her laughing glance still beamed, yet she was often lost 
 in meditation, and the rapid changes of her cheek, from 
 the deepest crimson to the paleness of an autumnal leaf, 
 alarmed me with menaces of early decay. Esther, too, 
 had undergone her revolution. But it was of the bright- 
 est texture. The seas, the skies, the mountains of Greece, 
 filled her glowing spirit with images of new life. She 
 had listened with boundless delight to the traditions of 
 that most brillant of all people; the works of the pencil 
 and the chisel had met her eye in a profuseness and per- 
 fection that she had never contemplated before; her harp 
 echoed to names of romantic valor and proud patriot- 
 ism; and as I gazed on her in those hours when, in the 
 
SALATHIEL. 10? 
 
 feeling that she was unobserved, she gave way to the 
 rich impulses of her soul, I thought alternately of the 
 prophetess and of the muse. 
 
 The shipwreck converted the solitary shore into a little 
 village ; the sailors collected the fragments of the vessel, 
 and formed them into huts; the caves that ran along the 
 level of the sands, supplied habitations of themselves ; 
 and by the assistance of those dwellers on the precipice, 
 who had so unexpectedly started to light, the first dif- 
 ficulties of a wild coast were sufficiently combated. The 
 bustling activity of the Greek mariners, and the adroit- 
 ness with which they availed themselves of all contriv- 
 ances for passing the heavy hour, their sleights of hand, 
 sports and dances, their recitations of popular poems, and 
 their boat songs, kept the spot in continual animation. 
 
 This was my first contact with the actual people, and 
 I acknowledged their right to have been distinguished 
 among the most showy disturbers of mankind. The evil 
 of the character, too, was displayed without mucli 
 trouble of disguise. They habitually gamed, till they 
 had no better stake than the fragments of their own cloth- 
 ing; but they would game for a shell, for a stone that 
 they picked up on the sands, for anything. They quarrelled 
 with as perfect facility as they gamed: the knife was out 
 quick as lightning; but to do them justice, their wrath 
 was as brief. The combatants embraced at a word, danced, 
 kissed and wept; then drank, gamed, quarrelled, and were 
 sworn brothers again. But this was Greece in its lowest 
 rank. 
 
 Constantius, the commander of the galley, was a speci- 
 men of the land which produced a Plato and a Pericles. 
 When I first saw him led to me by Miriam as the cham- 
 pion, who had restored her and her children to happiness, 
 I saw virtue and manliness of the highest order in his 
 features. He was in his prime, but a scar across his fore- 
 head, and the severities of naval life, had given early se- 
 riousness to his countenance. But his conversation had 
 the full spirit of the springtime of life. It was incom- 
 parably various, and animated; altogether free from pro- 
 fessional pedantry, it had the interest that belongs to pro- 
 fessional feelings. Military adventure, striking traits of 
 warlike intelligence, the composition of the fleets and ar- 
 
108 SAL ATE I EL. 
 
 mies of the various states that fought under the wing of 
 the Roman eagle, were topics on which his fire was ex- 
 haustless. On those I listened to him with the strong 
 sympathy of one to whom war must henceforth be the 
 grand pursuit ; war for national freedom ; war purified of 
 its evil by the most illustrious cause that ever unsheathed 
 the sword. 
 
 But, Constantius had conversation for us all. His in- 
 tercourse with the ruling lands of the earth gave him a 
 copious store of recollections, picturesque and strange. 
 Esther combated and questioned the traveller. Salome 
 listened to the warrior listened and loved. He had high- 
 er topics, of which I was yet to hear. In the inhabitants 
 of the precipice, he found a little colony of his country- 
 men, fugitive Christians, driven out by persecution, to 
 make their home in the wilderness of nature. The long 
 range of caverns which perforated the rock, gave them a 
 roof. The fertility of the soil, and the occasional visit of 
 a bark sent by their concealed friends, supplied the nec- 
 essaries of life, and there they awaited the close of that 
 ferocious tyranny which at length roused the world against 
 Nero; or awaited the close of all suffering in the grave. 
 A succession of storms now rendered travelling impossible, 
 and detained us among those hermits for some days. I 
 found them intelligent, and, in general, men of the higher 
 ranks of knowledge and condition. Some were of cele- 
 brated families, and had left behind them opulence and 
 authority. A few were peasants. But misfortune, and, 
 .^till more, principle, extinguished all that was abrupt in 
 the inequality of ranks, without leaving license in its stead. 
 Jew as I was, and steadily bound to the customs of my 
 country, I yet did honor to the patience, the humility and 
 the devotedness of those exiled men. I even once attended 
 their worship on the first day of the week; assured that 
 the abomination of idols was not to be found there, and 
 that I should hear nothing insulting to the name of Israel. 
 
 The ceremonial was simple. Those who had witnessed 
 the heaven-commanded magnificence of the Temple, might 
 smile at the bareness of walls of rock, figured only with 
 the wild herbage; or those who had seen the extravagant 
 and complicated rights of paganism, might scorn the few 
 and obvious forms of the homage. But, there was the 
 
8ALATHIEL. 109 
 
 Spirit of strong prayer the breathing of the heart the 
 unanswerable sincerity. Every violence of the mere ani- 
 mal frame was unknown. I saw no pagan convulsion no 
 fierceness of outcry and gesture not even the vehement 
 solemnity of the Jew. All was calm; tears stole down, 
 but they stole in silence; knees were bowed, but there was 
 no prostration ; prayers, fervent and lofty, were poured 
 forth, but it was in accents uttered less from the lip than 
 from the soul appeals of hallowed confidence, as to a 
 Being who was sure to hear, the voice of children to a 
 Father ! 
 
 At length the storms cleared away, and the sky wore 
 the native azure of the climate. A messenger despatched 
 to Cyprus returned with a vessel for the embarkation of 
 the Greeks. Camels and mules were procured from the 
 neighboring country for our journey, and the morning was 
 fixed on which we were to separate. Yet, with so much 
 reason for joy, few resolutions could have been received 
 with less favor. Constantius almost shunned society, or 
 shared in it with a silence and depression that made his 
 philosophy more than questionable. Miriam was engaged 
 in long conferences with Salome, from which they both 
 came sad. Esther was thus my chief companion, and she 
 talked of the shore, the sea, and even of the tempest, with 
 heightened interest. The Greeks, sailor and soldier alike, 
 loved too well the romantic ease and careless adventure 
 of the place, to look with complacency on the little vessel 
 in which they were to be borne once more into the land 
 of restraint. The fugitive colony were not the slowest in 
 their regrets. They had been deeply prepared for human 
 vicissitude, and had humbled themselves to all things ; yet, 
 such is the strong and natural connection of man with 
 man, that they lamented the solitude to which they must 
 again be left, like the commencement of a new exile. 
 
 There are few things more singular than the blindness 
 which, in matters of the highest importance to ourselves, 
 often hides the truth that is as plain as noon to all other 
 eyes. The cause which had deprived Constantius of his 
 eloquence, and Salome of her animation, was obvious to 
 every one but me. Nor was the mystery yet to be dis- 
 closed to my tardy knowledge. I had strayed through 
 the cliffs, as was my custom after the heat of the day, 
 
HO 8ALATB1EL. 
 
 and was taking a last look at the sea, from the edge of 
 the precipice. The sands far below me were covered with 
 preparations for the voyage, which, like our journey, was 
 to commence with the rising sun. The little vessel lay, a 
 glittering toy, at anchor, with her threadlike streamers 
 playing in the breeze. The sailors were fishing, preparing 
 their evening meal, heaving water and provisions down the 
 rocks, or enjoying themselves over flagons of Syrian wine 
 round their fires ; all was the activity of a seaport ; but from 
 the height on which I stood, all was but the activity of a 
 mole-hill. "And is it of such materials," mused I, "that 
 ambition is made? is it to command, to be gazed on, to be 
 shouted after by such mites and atoms as these, that life 
 is exhausted in watching and weariness; that our true en- 
 joyments are sacrificed; that the present and the future 
 are equally cast from us ; that the hand is dipped in blood, 
 and the earth desolated ? What must Alexander's triumph 
 have looked, to one who saw it from the towers of Babylon ? 
 a triumph of emmets !" I smiled at the moral of three 
 hundred feet of precipice. 
 
 A step beside me put my philosophy to flight. My wife 
 stood there; and never saw I even her beauty more 
 beautiful. The exertion of the ascent had colored her 
 cheek; the breeze had scattered her raven locks across a 
 forehead of the purest white; her lip wore the smiles so 
 long absent; and there was altogether an air of hope and 
 joy in her countenance, that made me instinctively ask of 
 what good news she was the bearer. Without a word she 
 sat down beside me, and pressed my hand between hers; 
 she fixed her eyes on mine, tried to speak, and, failing, 
 fell on my neck and burst into tears. Alarmed at her 
 sobs, and the wild beating of her heart, I was about to 
 rise for assistance, when she detained me, and the smile re- 
 turned; she bared her forehead to the breeze, and, recov- 
 ering, unburdened her soul. 
 
 "How many billows," said she, gazing on the sea, "will 
 roll between that little bark and this shore to-morrow ! 
 There is always something melancholy in parting. Yet, if 
 that vessel could feel, with what delight would she not 
 wing her way to Cyprus, lovely Cyprus !" 
 
 I was surprised ! "Miriam ! this from you ? Can you 
 regret the place of paganism the land of your capitivity ?" 
 
SAL AT til EL. ilx 
 
 "No," was the answer, with a look of lofty truth; "I 
 abhorred the guilty profanations of the pagan; and who 
 can love i". e dungeon ? Even were Cyprus a paradise, I 
 should have felt unhappy in the separation from my coun- 
 try and from you. Yet, those alone who have seen the 
 matchless loveliness of the island the perpetual anima- 
 tion of life in a climate and in the midst of scenes made 
 for happiness can know the sacrifice that must be made 
 by its people in leaving it, and leaving it perhaps for- 
 
 ever. 
 
 urn 
 
 The crew of that galley are not to be tried by long 
 exile. In two days at furthest they will anchor in their 
 own harbors," was my only answer. 
 
 "And how deeply must the sacrifice be enhanced by the 
 abandonment of rank, wealth, professional honors! and 
 this is the sacrifice on which I have been sent to consult 
 my husband." 
 
 I was totally at a loss to conceive of whom she spoke. 
 
 "Our friend our deliverer from captivity or death 
 the generous being, who, through infinite hazards, restored 
 your wife and children to happiness and home " 
 
 "Constantius ? impossible ! at the very age of ambi- 
 tion, with his talents, his knowledge of life, his prospects 
 of distinction !" 
 
 "Constantius will never return to Cyprus in that gal- 
 ley will never draw sword for Eome again will never 
 quit the land given by Heaven to our fathers; if such be 
 the will of Salathiel." 
 
 "Strange ! But his motives ? He is superior to the 
 fickleness that abandons an honorable course of life through 
 the pure love of novelty, or is he weary of the absurdities 
 of paganism ?" 
 
 "Thoroughly weary more than weary: he has abjured 
 them forever and ever." 
 
 "You rejoice me. But it was to be expected from his 
 manly mind. You have brought an illustrious convert, 
 my beloved ! and if your captivity has done this it was 
 the will of Heaven. Constantius shall be led with dis- 
 tinction to the Temple, and be one of ourselves. Judea 
 may yet require such men. Our holy religion may exult 
 in such conquests from the darkness of the idolatrous 
 world." 
 
112 8ALATBIEL. 
 
 The voice of the hermits at their evening prayer now 
 arose, and held us in a silence, which neither seemed in- 
 clined to break. Many thoughts pressed on iny mind; the 
 addition to our circle, of a man whom I honored and 
 esteemed; the accession of a practiced soldier to our cause; 
 the near approach of the hour of conflict; the precarious 
 fate of those I loved, in the great convulsion which was to 
 rend away the Roman yoke, or leave Judea a tomb. I ac- 
 cidentally looked up and saw that Miriam had been as 
 abstracted as myself. But war and policy were not in 
 the contemplations of the beaming countenance; nor their 
 words on the lips that quivered and crimsoned before me. 
 Her eyes were fixed on the sky, and she was in evident 
 prayer, which I desired not to disturb. She at length 
 caught my glance and blushed like one detected; but 
 quickly recovering said, in a tone never to be forgotten, 
 "My husband ! my lord ! my love ! would that I dared open 
 my whole spirit to you! would that you could read for 
 yourself the truths written in my heart !" 
 
 "Miriam !" 
 
 "This is no reproach. But I know your strength of 
 opinion; your passion for all that concerns the glory of 
 Israel; your right, the right of talents and character to 
 the foremost rank; and those things repel me." 
 
 "Speak out at once. We can have no concealments, 
 Miriam ; candor, candor in all things." 
 
 "You have heard the prayers of those exiles; you ac- 
 knowledge their acquirements and understandings; they 
 have sacrificed much, everything friends, country, the 
 world. Can such men have been imposed on? Can they 
 have imposed on themselves? Is it possible that their 
 sacrifices could have been made for a fiction ?" 
 
 "Perhaps not; the question is difficult. We are strange- 
 ly the slaves of impulse. Men every day abandon the most 
 obvious good for the most palpable follies. Enthusiasm 
 is a minor madness." 
 
 "But are those exiles enthusiasts? They are grave men, 
 experienced in life; their language is totally free from 
 extravagance; they reason with singular clearness; they 
 live with the most striking command over the habits of 
 their original condition. Greeks, as they are, you see no 
 haste of temper, you hear no violence of language among 
 
8ALATSIEL. 
 
 them. Once idolaters, they shrink from the thought of 
 idols. Now fugitive and persecuted, they pray for their 
 persecutors; sharing the lair of wild beasts, and driven 
 out from all that they knew and loved, they utter no com- 
 plaint they even rejoice in their calamity and offer up 
 praises to the mercy that shut the gates of earth upon 
 their steps, only to open the gates of heaven." 
 
 "I am no persecutor, Miriam. Nay, I honor the self- 
 denial, as I doubt not the sincerity of those men. But, if 
 they have thrown off a portion of their early blindness, 
 why not desire the full illumination ? Why linger half way 
 between falsehood and truth ? It is not, as you know, our 
 custom to solicit proselytes. But such men might be not 
 unworthy of the hope of Israel." 
 
 "It is to the hope of Israel that they have come, that 
 they cling, that they look up for a recompense; a glorious 
 recompense for their sufferings." 
 
 "Let them then join us at sunrise and come to our 
 holy city." 
 
 "Salathiel, the time is declared when men shall wor- 
 ship not in that mountain alone, but through all lands; 
 when the yoke of our law shall be lightened, and the weary 
 shall have rest; when the altar shall pass away, as the il- 
 lustrious victim has passed; and the wisdom of heaven 
 shall be the possession of all mankind." 
 
 I looked at her in astonishment. "Miriam, this from 
 you ! from a daughter of the blood of Jacob ! from the 
 wife of a servant of the Temple ! Have you become a Chris- 
 tian ?" 
 
 "I have done nothing in presumption. I have prayed 
 to the Source of light that he would enlighten my un- 
 derstanding. I have, night and day, examined the law 
 and the prophets. Bear with my weakness, Salathiel, if it 
 be proved weakness. But, if it be wisdom, knowledge, and 
 truth, I implore you by our love, by the higher interests of 
 your own soul, to follow my example." 
 
 It was impossible to answer harshly to a remonstrance 
 expressed with the overflowing fondness of the heart: I 
 could only remind her of the unchangeable promises made 
 to Judaism. 
 
 "But, it is of those promises I speak," urged she; "we 
 have seen the day which our father Abraham longed to 
 
114 8ALATBIEL. 
 
 see; that mighty Being, the Lord of eternity, the express 
 image of the glory of the Invisible, the hope of the pa- 
 triarch, the promise of the prophet, has come." I was 
 alarmed. 
 
 "Yet Israel is divided and enslaved, torn by capricious 
 tyranny, and hurrying to the common convulsions of 
 doomed nations. Is this your triumphant kingdom of 
 prophecy ?" 
 
 "Salathiel, I have doubted like you, but I have been at 
 length convinced, out of the mouths of the prophets them- 
 selves. Have they not declared that Israel should suffer, 
 before it triumphed, and suffer too for a period that strikes 
 the mind with terror? That the King of Israel should 
 be excluded from his kingdom; nay, take upon him the 
 form of a servant; nay, die, and die by a death of pain 
 and shame, the death of a slave and criminal ?" 
 
 "It is so written. But it is beyond our power to recon- 
 cile." 
 
 "Pray then for the power, and it will be given to you. 
 Ask for the spirit of holy intelligence, and it will en- 
 lighten you. Pride is the crime of our nation. Humility 
 would take the veil from the eye of our people. Salathiel, 
 my lord, the being treasured in my heart ! Read the 
 Scriptures. I have prayed for you. Eead " 
 
 "But how can the promise of the kingdom be denied? 
 It is the theme first, last and without end, of all the in- 
 spired masters of Israel. What splendor and reality of 
 history was ever more vivid and real than the glorious 
 promises of Isaiah ?" I murmured. 
 
 "Yet what force and minuteness of picturing ever ex- 
 celled Isaiah's description of the lowliness, the obscurity, 
 the rejection, the agonies, and the death, of the Messiah? 
 Why shall we suppose that the one description is true, and 
 the other false? Has not the same inspiration given 
 both? Why shall we conceive that the Messiah and his 
 kingdom must appear together? We see the time of his 
 first coming defined to a year by our great prophet Daniel. 
 But where do we see the time of the triumphant kingdom 
 defined? Why may it not follow at a distance of ages? 
 We know that we shall stand at the latter day upon the 
 earth, and in our flesh shall see God. Why shall not the 
 triumph be reserved for that day of glory? &*e our peo- 
 
SALATtitEL. 115 
 
 pie now fit to be a nation of kings? Or, are the best of 
 us, in the mortal feebleness of our nature, fit to share in 
 a triumph in which angels are to minister? fit dwellers of 
 a city from which error and evil are to be excluded; in 
 which there is to be no tear, no human suffering, no re- 
 membered bitterness; 'a, city whose builder and maker 
 is God ;' within whose walls live holiness, power and virtue ; 
 on whose throne sits the Omnipotent !" 
 
 Sensations to which I dared not give utterance op- 
 pressed me; my crime, my fate, rose up before the mental 
 eye. I had no answer to this admirable woman. Her 
 pure zeal and her holiness of heart touched every chord 
 in mine. But let no man blame my stubbornness until 
 he has weighed the influence of feelings, born with the 
 people, strengthened by their history, reinforced by mira- 
 cle, and authenticated by the words of inspiration. That 
 Judaism was purity itself to the worship and morals of 
 the pagan world; that it was the continued object of a 
 particular Providence; that it alone possessed the revela- 
 tions of God; were facts that defied doubt. And that 
 those high distinctions should be made void, and the 
 slavish mind of paganism be admitted into our privileges; 
 still more, that it should be admitted, to the exclusion of 
 the chosen line, seemed to me a conclusion that no rea- 
 soning could substantiate, a fantastic and airy fiction to 
 which no reasoning could be applied. 
 
 The moon ascended in serenity, and her orb, slightly 
 tinged by the many-colored clouds that lay upon the hori- 
 zon, threw a faint silver upon the precipice. The sounds 
 below were hushed; the moving figures, the vessel, the 
 sea, the cliffs, were totally veiled in purple mist. We 
 could not have been more alone if we had been seated on 
 a cloud; and the beauty, the exalted gesture, and the 
 glowing wisdom of the being before me were like those 
 that we conceive of spirits delegated to lead the disem- 
 bodied mind upwards from world to world. A sea bird 
 winging its way above our heads broke the reverie. I re- 
 minded my teacher that it grew late and our absence might 
 produce anxiety. 
 
 "Salathiel," said she, with mingled fervor and soft- 
 ness, "you know I love you; never was heart more fondly 
 bound to another than is mine to you. I am grateful fox 
 
116 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 your permission to receive Constantius into our tribe. 
 But one obligation infinitely dearer you can confer on me 
 read this scroll." Sbe drew from her bosom a letter 
 written to his church by one of the Christian leaders in 
 Asia. "I desire not to. off end your convictions, nor to 
 hasten you into a rash adoption of those of others. But 
 in this scroll you will find philosophy without its pride, 
 and knowledge without its guile; you will find more, the 
 disclosure of those mysteries which have so long perplexed 
 our people. Read, and may He who can bring wisdom out 
 of the lips of babes, and make the wisdom of the wise fool- 
 ishness, shed his light upon the generous heart of my 
 husband !" 
 
 At another time I might have started in horror from 
 this avowal of her faith. But the scene, the circumstances, 
 an unaccountable internal impression; a voice of the 
 soul prohibited me. I took her trembling hand, and, 
 without a word, led her down to our dwelling. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 No tidings sooner make themselves known than those 
 of the heart. We found our daughters waiting anxious- 
 ly at the entrance of the cave which had been fitted up 
 for our temporary shelter. Before a word could be ex- 
 changed a glance from Miriam told the success of her 
 mission; and anxiety was turned into delight. Esther 
 danced round me and was eloquent in her gratitude. Sa- 
 lome shed silent tears, and when I attempted to wipe them 
 away fell fainting into my arms. We spent a part of the 
 night in the open air. The last wine and fruits of our 
 .store were brought out: the Cypriot exiles came down 
 from their rocks ; the crew of the galley, already on board, 
 danced, sang and drank to the success of the voyage, and 
 it was not till the moon, our only lamp, was about to be 
 extinguished in the waters, that we thought of closing 
 our final night on the Syrian shore. 
 
 We travelled along the coast as far as Berytus, then, 
 turning to the eastward, crossed the Libanus, and the 
 mountain country that branches into Upper Galilee. Our 
 coming had been long announced, and we found Eleazar, 
 
SALATHIEL. 117 
 
 Jubal, and our chief kinsmen waiting at one of the passes 
 to lead us home in triumph. The joy of our tribe was 
 honest, if it was tumultuous; and many a shout disturbed 
 the solitude as we moved along. My impatience increased 
 when we reached the well-known hills that sheltered what 
 was once my home. Yet I remembered too keenly the 
 shock of seeing its desolation, not to dread the first sight 
 of the spot, and rode away from the group at full speed 
 that my nervousness might have time to subside before 
 their arrival. But at the foot of the last ascent I drew the 
 rein. Every tree, every bush, almost every stone had been 
 familiar to me in my wanderings; and were now painful 
 memorials of the long malady of my mind. 
 
 Eleazar, who watched me during the latter part of the 
 journey with something of a consciousness of my thoughts, 
 put spurs to his horse and found me standing, pale and 
 palpitating. "Come," said he, "we must not alarm Mir- 
 iam by thinking too much of the past; let us try if the 
 top of the hill will not give us a better prospect than the 
 bottom." 
 
 I shrank from the attempt. "No !" said I, "the horror 
 that the prospect once gave me must not be renewed. 
 Let us change the route, no matter how far round; the 
 sight of that ruin would distract me to the last hour of 
 my life." 
 
 He only smiled in reply, and, catching my bridle, gal- 
 loped forward. A few seconds placed us on the summit 
 of the hill. Could I believe my eyes ! All below was as if 
 rapine never had been there. The gardens, the cattle, the 
 dwelling lay a living picture under the eye. "This is 
 miracle !" I exclaimed. "No; or it is but the miracle of a 
 little activity and a great deal of good will," was the 
 answer. 
 
 "Your kinsmen did this at the time when you were 
 slumbering with the wolf and bear in the Libanus. Na- 
 ture did her part in covering your fields and gardens ; and 
 those sheep and cattle are a tribute of gratitude from 
 your brother for the preservation of his life." 
 
 Our troop now ascended the height. The land lay be- 
 neath them in the luxuriance of summer. They were ar- 
 dent in their expressions of surprise and pleasure. We 
 rushed down the defile and I was once more master of a 
 
118 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 home. Public events had rapidly ripened in my absence. 
 Popular wrath was stimulated by increased exaction. Law 
 was more palpably perverted into insolence. Order was 
 giving way on all sides. The .Roman garrisons, neglected 
 and ill paid, were adopting the desperate habits of the 
 populace; and in the general scorn of religion and right, 
 the country was becoming a horde of robbers. The ulti- 
 mate causes of this singular degeneracy might be remote, 
 and set in action by a vengeance above man; but the im- 
 mediate were plain to every eye. 
 
 The general principles of Home, in the government of 
 her conquests, were manly and wise. When the soldier 
 had done his work and it was done vigorously, yet with 
 but little violence beyond that which was essential for 
 complete subjugation the sword slept as an instrument of 
 evil, and awoke only as an instrument of justice. 
 
 The barbaric invasions which had periodically ravaged 
 the Eastern empires, even in their day of power, were 
 repelled with a terrible vigor. The legions left the desert 
 covered with the tribe for the feast of the vulture; and 
 showed to Europe the haughty leaders of the Tartar, 
 Gothic and Arab myriads in fetters, dragging wains, dig- 
 ging in mines or cleansing the highways. 
 
 If peace could be an equivalent for freedom, the equiva- 
 lent was never so amply secured. The world, within 
 this iron boundary, flourished; the activity and talent of 
 man were urged to the highest pitch ; the conquered coun- 
 tries were turned from wastes and forests into fertility; 
 ports were dug upon naked shores; cities swelled from 
 villages; population spread over the soil once pestilential, 
 and breeding only the weed and the serpent. The sea was 
 covered with trade; the pirate and the marauder were 
 unheard of or hunted down. Commercial enterprise shot 
 its lines and communications over the map of the earth, 
 and regions were then familiar which even the activity of 
 the revived ages of Europe has scarcely made known. 
 
 Those were the wonders of great power steadily directed 
 to a great purpose. General coercion was the simple prin- 
 ciple; and the only talisman of a Roman Emperor was 
 the chain, except where it was casually commuted for the 
 sword : the universality of the compression atoned for half 
 its evil. The natural impulse of man is to improve- 
 
8ALATHIEL. 119 
 
 merit ; he requires only security from rapine. The Koman 
 supremacy raised round him an impregnable wall. It 
 was the true government for an era when the habits of 
 reason had not penetrated the general human mind. Its 
 chief evil was in its restraint of those nobler and loftier 
 aspirations of genius and the heart, which from time to 
 time raise the general scale of mankind. 
 
 Nothing is more observable than the decay of original 
 literature, of the finer architecture, and of philosophical 
 invention under the empire. Even military genius, the 
 natural product of a system that lived but on military 
 fame, disappeared: the brilliant diversity of warlike tal- 
 ent that shone on the very verge of the succession of the 
 Caesars, sank, like falling stars, to rise no more. No cap- 
 tain was again to display the splendid conceptions of Pom- 
 pey's boundless campaigns; the lavish heroism and inex- 
 haustible resource of Anthony; or the mixture of un- 
 daunted personal enterprise and profound tactic, the 
 statesmanlike thought, generous ambition and high-minded 
 pride that made Caesar the very emblem of Eome. But 
 the imperial power had the operation of one of those great 
 laws of nature, which through partial evil sustain the 
 earth a gravitating principle, which, if it checked the 
 ascent of some gifted beings beyond the dull level of life, 
 yet kept the infinite multitude of men and things from 
 flying loose beyond all utility and all control. 
 
 Yet, it was only for a time. The empire was but the 
 superstructure of the republic, a richer, more luxuriant 
 and more transitory object for the eye of the world; and 
 the storm was already gathering that was to shake it to 
 the ground. The corruptions of the palace first opened 
 the imperial ruin. They soon extended through every de- 
 partment of the state. If the habitual fears of the tyrant, 
 in the midst of a headlong populace, could scarcely re- 
 strain him in Rome, what must be the excesses of his min- 
 ions where no fear was felt ! where complaint was stifled 
 by the danger! and where tho government was bought by 
 bribes, to be replaced only by licensed rapine ! 
 
 Under Nero, Judea was devoured by Roman avarice. 
 She had not even the sad consolation of owing her evils 
 to the ravage of those nobler beasts of prey in human 
 shape that were to be found in the other provinces s^e. 
 
120 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 was devoured by locusts. The polluted palace supplied 
 her governors a slave lifted into office by a fellow slave ; 
 a pampered profligate, exhausted by the expenses of the 
 capital; a condemned and notorious extortioner, with no 
 other spot to hide his head ; were the gifts of Nero to my 
 country. Pilate, Felix, Festus, Albinus, Florus, a race 
 more profligate and cruel, as our catastrophe approached, 
 tore the very bowels of the land. Of the last two, it was 
 said that Albinus should have been grateful to Florus, for 
 proving that he was not the basest of mankind, by the 
 evidence that a baser existed; that he had a respect for 
 virtue, by his condescending to commit those robberies 
 in private, which his successor committed in public; and 
 that he had human feeling, by his abstaining from blood, 
 where he could gain nothing by murder; while Florus 
 disdained alike concealment and cause and slaughtered 
 for the public pleasure of the sword ! 
 
 A number of partial insurrections, easily suppressed, 
 displayed the wrath of the people, and indulged the cruelty 
 of the procurator. They indulged also his avarice. De- 
 feat was always followed by confiscation; and Florus even 
 boasted that he desired nothing more prosperous than an 
 insurrection in every village of Judea. He was about to be 
 gratified before he had prepared himself for this luxury ! 
 
 A menial in my house was detected with letters from an 
 agent of the Koman governor. They required details of 
 my habits and resources, which satisfied me that I was 
 become an object of vengeance. From the time of my 
 return I had seen with bitterness of soul the insults to my 
 country. I had summoned my friends to ascertain what 
 might be our means of resistance, and found them as 
 willing and devoted as became men ; but our resources, for 
 more than the first burst of popular wrath, the seizure of 
 some petty Roman garrison, or the capture of a convoy 
 were nothing. The jealousies of the chief men of the 
 tribes, the terrors of Rome, the positions of the Roman 
 troops, cutting off military communication between the 
 north and south of Judea, made the attempt hopeless, and 
 it was abandoned for the time. Even those letters which 
 marked me for a victim made no change in my determina- 
 tion, that if I could not escape danger by individual 
 means, no public blood should be laid to my charge. For 
 
SALATHIEL. 121 
 
 a few months all was tranquil; the habits of rural life 
 are calculated to keep depressing thoughts at a distance. 
 My wife and daughters returned to their graceful pur- 
 suits, with the added pleasure of novelty, after so long a 
 cessation. I hunted through the hills with Constantius; 
 or, traversing the country which might yet be- the scene 
 of events, availed myself of the knowledge of a master of 
 the whole science of Koman war. 
 
 At home the works of the great poets of the west, with 
 whom our guest had made us familiar, varied the hours; 
 but I found a still more stirring and congenial interest 
 in the histories of Greek valor and in the study of the 
 mighty minds that made and unmade empires. 
 
 With the touching and picturesque narrative of Her- 
 odotus in my hand, I pantingly followed the adventures 
 of the most brilliant of nations. I fought the battle with 
 them against the Persian; I saw them gathered in little 
 startled groups on the hills, or flying in their little galleys 
 from island to island, the land deserted, the sea covered 
 with fugitives; the Persian fleets darkening the waters 
 like a thunder-cloud ; and in a moment all changed ! The 
 millions of Asia scattered, like dust before the wind 
 Greece lifted to the height of martial glory, and com- 
 mencing a career of triumph still more illustrious, that 
 triumph of the mind, in which, through the remotest 
 vicissitudes of earth, she was to have no conqueror. 
 
 I, especially and passionately, pursued the campaigns 
 of that extraordinary man whose valor, vanity and fortune 
 make him one of the landmarks of human nature. In 
 Alexander I delighted in tracing the native form of the 
 Greek through the embroidered robes of royalty and tri- 
 umph. In his romantic intrepidity and deliberate science ; 
 .his alternations of profound thought and fantastic folly; 
 the passion for praise, and the contempt for its offerers; 
 the rash temper and the noble magnanimity; the love for 
 the arts, and the thirst for that perpetual war before 
 which they fly; the philosophic scorn of privation and 
 the feeble lapses into self-indulgence; the generous fore- 
 cast, which peopled deserts and founded cities, and the 
 giddy and fatal neglect which left his diadem to be 
 fought for, and his family to be the prey of rival rebel- 
 lions; I saw the true man of the republic, not the lord 
 
122 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 of the rugged hills of Macedon, but the Athenian of the 
 day of popular splendor and folly, with only the difference 
 of the sceptre. 
 
 To me, those studies were like a new door opened into 
 the boundless palace of human nature. I felt that sense 
 of novelty, vigor and fresh life that the frame feels in 
 breathing the morning air over the landscape of a new 
 country. It was a voyage on an unknown sea, where every 
 headland administers to the delight of curiosity. In this 
 there was nothing of the common pedantry of the schools. 
 My knowledge of life had hitherto been limited by my 
 original destination. A Jew and a priest, there was but 
 one solemn avenue through which I was to see the glimpses 
 of the external world. The vista was now opened beyond 
 all limit: visions of conquest, of honor among nations, of 
 praise to the last posterity, clustered round my head. 
 There were times when, in this exultation, even my doom 
 was forgotten. The momentary oblivion may have been 
 permitted, merely to blunt the edge of incurable misfor- 
 tune. I was permitted at intervals to recruit the strength, 
 that was to be tried, till the end of time. 
 
 I was one day immersed in Polybius, with my master in 
 soldiership at my side, guiding me by his living com- 
 ment through the wonders of the Punic campaigns, when 
 Eleazar entered with a look that implied his coming on a 
 matter of importance. Constantius rose to withdraw. 
 "No," said my brother, "the subject of my mission is one 
 that should not be concealed from the preserver of our 
 kindred. It may be one of happiness to us all. Salome 
 is arrived at the age when the daughters of Israel marry. 
 She must give way to our general wish and play the matron 
 at last." He turned with a smile to Constantius and asked 
 his assent to the opinion; he received no answer. The 
 young Greek had plunged more deeply than ever into the 
 passage of the Alps. "And who is the suitor?" I in- 
 quired. 
 
 "One worthy of her and you. A generous, bold, warm- 
 hearted kinsman, in the spring of life, sufficiently opulent, 
 for he will probably be my heir, prepared to honor you, 
 and, I believe, long and deeply attached to her." 
 
 "Jubal! There is not a man in our tribe to whom I 
 would more gladly give her. Let my friend Jubal come. 
 
SAL ATE I EL. 13 
 
 Congratulate me, Constantius ; you shall now at last see 
 festivity in our land, in scorn of the Koman. You have 
 seen us in flight and captivity; you shall now witness 
 some of the happiness that was in Judah before we knew 
 the flapping of an Italian banner; and, if fortune smile, 
 shall be, when Home is like Babylon." 
 
 Constantius suddenly rose from his volume, and, thrust- 
 ing it within the folds of his tunic, was leaving the apart- 
 ment. "No," said I, "you must remain; Miriam and 
 Salome shall be sent for and in your presence the con- 
 tract signed." 
 
 For the first time I perceived the excessive pallidness of 
 his countenance, and asked whether I had not trespassed 
 too much on his patience with my studies. 
 
 His only reply was, "Is there no liberty of choice in 
 the marriages of Israel? Will you decide without con- 
 sulting her, whom this contract is to render happy or 
 miserable, while she lives?" He rushed from the room. 
 
 Miriam came, but alone. Her daughter had wandered 
 out into one of our many gardens. She received Eleazar 
 with sisterly fondness, but her features wore the air of 
 constraint. She heard the mission; but "she had no 
 opinion to give in the absence of Salome. She knew too 
 well the happiness of having chosen for herself to wish 
 to force the consent of her child. Let Salome be con- 
 sulted." 
 
 The flourish of music and the trampling of horses broke 
 up our reluctant conference. Jubal was already come, 
 with a crowd of his friends. We hastened to receive him 
 at the porch, and he bounded into the court on his richly- 
 caparisoned barb, at the head of a troop in festal habili- 
 ments. 
 
 The man of Israel loved pomp of dress and handsome 
 steeds. The group before me might have made a body- 
 guard for a Persian king. Jubal had long looked on my 
 daughter with the admiration due to her singular beauty; 
 it was the custom to wed within our tribe; he was the fa- 
 vorite and heir of her uncle; she had never absolutely 
 banished him from her presence; and in the buoyancy of 
 natural spirits, the boldness of a temperament born for a 
 soldier, and perhaps in the allowable consciousness of a 
 showy form, he had admitted none of the perplexities of 
 
124 SALATHIEL. 
 
 a trembling lover. Salome was at length announced, and 
 the proposed husband was left to plead his own cause. 
 
 CHAPTEE XVII. 
 
 WE received the friends of our intended son with the ac- 
 customed hospitality ; but to me the tumult of many voices 
 and even the sight of a crowd, however happy, still excited 
 the old disturbances of a shaken mind. 
 
 I left my guests to the care of Eleazar, and galloped into 
 the fields, to gather composure from the air of fruits and 
 flowers. A homeward glance showed me, to my surprise, 
 the whole troop mounted, and in another moment, at speed 
 across the hills. I hastened back. Miriam met me. My 
 kinsman had openly disclaimed my alliance. 
 
 Indignant and disappointed, I prepared to follow him, 
 and demand the cause of this insult. As I passed one of 
 the pavilions, I heard voices within. The voices were low, 
 and I could, for a while, catch but a broken sentence. 
 
 "I owed it to him not to deceive his partiality. He 
 offered all that it could have done a Jewish maiden honor 
 to receive: his heart, hand and fortune." 
 
 "And you rejected them all ?" said the answerer. "Have 
 you no regrets for the lover no fears of the father?" 
 
 "For the lover I had too high an esteem to give him a 
 promise which I could not keep. I knew his generous 
 nature. I told him at once, that there was an invincible 
 obstacle !" 
 
 "I should like incomparably to know what that obstacle 
 could be ?" said the answerer. 
 
 The speakers were Constantius and Salome. Astonish- 
 ment fixed me to the spot. I was unable to move a step. 
 
 The natural playfulness f the sweet and light-hearted 
 girl replied "that a philosopher ought to know all things, 
 without questioning." 
 
 "But there is much in the world that defies philosophy, 
 my fair Salome ; and of all its problems, the most perplex- 
 ing is the mind of woman ! of young, lovely, dangerous 
 woman !" 
 
 "Now, Constantius, you abandon the philosopher, and 
 play the poet." 
 
SALATBIEL, 125 
 
 "Yet without the poet's imagination. No; I need 
 picture no beauty from the clouds no nymph from the 
 fountains no loveliness that haunts the trees, and breathes 
 more than mortal melody on the ear. Salome ! my muse is 
 before me." 
 
 "You are a Greek," said she, after a slight interval; 
 "and Greeks are privileged to talk and to deceive." 
 
 "Salome ! I am a Greek no longer. What I shall yet 
 be, may depend upon the fairest artist that ever fashioned 
 the human mind. But mine are not the words of inex- 
 perience. I am on this day five-and-twenty years old. My 
 life has led me into all that is various in the intercourse 
 of earth. I have seen woman in her beauty, in her talent, 
 in her art, in her accomplishment ; from the cottage to the 
 throne but I never felt her real power before." 
 
 "Which am I to believe the possible or the impossible ? 
 A soldier ! a noble ! a Greek ! and of all Greeks, one of 
 Cyprus ! the offerer of your eloquence at every shrine, 
 where your own lovely countrywomen stood on the altar ! 
 I, too, have seen the world." 
 
 "May all the Graces forbid that you should ever see it 
 but what it would be made by such as you; a place of 
 gentleness and harmony a place of fondness and inno- 
 cence an elysium !" 
 
 "Now, you are farther from the philosopher than ever; 
 but I must listen no more; the sun is taking its leave of 
 us, and blushing its last through the vines for all the fine 
 romance that it has heard from Constantius. Farewell, 
 philosophy." 
 
 "Then farewell, philosophy," said Constantius; and 
 caught her hand, as she was lightly moving from the pa- 
 vilion. He led her toward the casement. "Then farewell, 
 philosophy, my sweet; and welcome truth, virtue and 
 nature. I loved you in your captivity ; I loved you in your 
 freedom; on the sea, on the shore, in the desert, in your 
 home, I loved you. In life I will love you, in death we 
 shall not be divided. This is not the language of mere ad- 
 miration, the rapture of a fancy dazzled by the bright eyes 
 of my Salome. It is the language of reason, of sacred 
 truth, of honor bound by higher than human bonds; of 
 fondness, that even the tomb will render only more ardent 
 and sublime. Here, in the sight of Heaven, I pledge an 
 immortal to an immortal." 
 
126 SALATHIEL. 
 
 Astonishment and grief alone prevented my exclaiming 
 aloud against this bond on the affections of my child. The 
 marriage of the Israelite with the stranger was prohibited 
 by our law ; and still more severely prohibited by the later 
 ordinances of our teachers. But, marriage with a fugitive, 
 an alien, a son of the idolater, whose proselytism had never 
 been avowed, and whose skill in the ways of the world 
 might be at this hour undermining the peace, or the faith 
 of my whole family the idea was tenfold profanation ! I 
 checked myself, only to have complete evidence. 
 
 "But," said my daughter, in a voice mingled with many 
 a sigh, "if this should become known to my father, and 
 known it must be how can we hope for his consent? 
 Now, Constantius, you will have to learn what it is to deal 
 with our nation. We have prejudices, lofty, though 
 blind indissoluble, though fantastic. My father's consent 
 is beyond all hope." 
 
 "He is honorable he has human feeling he loves you." 
 
 "Fondly, I believe ; and I must not thus return his love : 
 no, though my happiness were to be the forfeit, I must not 
 pain his heart by the disobedience of his child." 
 
 "But Salome, my sweet Salome ! are obstinacy and prej- 
 udice to be obeyed, against the understanding and the 
 heart ? Can a father counsel his child to a crime ; and 
 would it not be one to give your faith to this Jubal, if you 
 could not love him ?" 
 
 "I have decided that already. Never will I wed Jubal." 
 
 My indignation rose to its height. I had heard my child 
 taught to rebel. I had heard myself pronounced the slave 
 of prejudice. But the open declaration that my authority 
 was to be to my child a law no more let loose the whole 
 storm of my soul. I rushed forward; Salome uttered a 
 cry, and sank senseless upon the ground. Constantius i 
 raised her up, and bore her to a vase, from which he 
 sprinkled water upon her forehead. "Leave her," I ex- 
 claimed ; "better for her to remain in that insensibility, 
 better to be dead than an apostate. Villain, begone ! it is 
 only in scorn that a father's vengeance suffers you to live. 
 Fly from this house, from this country. Go, traitor, and 
 let me never see you more." I tore the fainting girl from 
 his arms. He made no resistance, and no reply. Salome 
 recovered, with a gush of tears, and feebly pronounced his 
 
8ALATHIEL. 
 
 name. "I am with you still, my love/' he pronounced in 
 an unaltered tone. She looked up, and, as if she had then 
 first seen me, sprang forward with a look of terror. "Go," 
 said I, "go to your chamber, weak girl, and on your knees 
 atone for your disobedience. But no, it is impossible ; you 
 cannot have been so guilty: this Greek this foreign 
 bringer-in of fables this smooth intruder on the peace of 
 families, cannot have so triumphed over your understand- 
 ing." 
 
 "I have been rash, sir," said Constantius loftily; "I 
 may have been unwise, too, in my language; but I have 
 been no deceiver. Not for the wealth of kings not even 
 for the more precious treasure of the heart I love would 
 I sully my lips with a falsehood." 
 
 "Begone !" cried I ; "I am insulted by your presence. 
 Go, and pervert others hypocrite ; or rather, take my con- 
 temptuous forgiveness, and repent, in sackcloth and ashes, 
 the basest crime of the basest mind. Come, daughter, and 
 leave the baffled idolater to think of his crime." I was 
 leading her away she hesitated; and I cast her from me. 
 Constantius with his cheek burning, and his eye flashing, 
 approached her. My taunts had at length roused him. 
 
 "Now, Salome," said he, haughtily glancing on me, "in- 
 jured as I am, I disclaim an idle deference for an authority 
 used only to give pain. You are my betrothed; you shall 
 be my bride. Let us go forth, and try our chance together 
 through the world." 
 
 She was silent, and wept only more violently. But, with 
 one hand covering her face, she repelled him with the 
 other. 
 
 "Then you will be the wife of Jubal ?" said he. 
 
 "Never !" she firmly pronounced. "So help me Heaven, 
 never !" 
 
 "Retire, girl," I exclaimed; "and weep tears of blood 
 for your rebellion. Go, stranger ingrate deceiver and 
 never darken my threshold more. Ay, now I see the cause 
 of my brave kinsman's departure. He was circumvented. 
 A wilier tongue was here before him. He disdained to 
 reveal the daughter's folly to the insulted father. But this 
 shall not avail either of you. He shall return." 
 
 Salome cast up an imploring glance, and sank upon her 
 knees before me. Constantius advanced to her; but I 
 
128 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 bounded between them my dagger was drawn. "Touch 
 her, and you die." He smiled scornfully, and approached 
 to raise her from the ground. 
 
 "Give that wretched child up to me this moment," I ex- 
 claimed in fury; "or may the bitterness of a father's 
 curse be on her head !" He staggered back ; then stooping 
 his lips upon her forehead, gave her to me, and strode 
 from the pavilion. 
 
 I flew to the house of Eleazar. I found him anxious 
 and agitated. Calm as his usual manner was, the late 
 transaction had left its traces on his manner and counte- 
 nance. Jubal was in the apartment, which he traversed 
 backwards and forwards in high indignation. He made 
 no return to my salute, but by stopping short, and gazing 
 full on me, with a look of mingled anger and surprise. 
 
 "Jubal," said I, "kinsman, we must be friends." I 
 held out my hand, which he took with no fervent pressure. 
 "I am here only to explain this idle offence." 
 
 "It requires no explanation," interrupted Jubal, sternly. 
 "I, and I alone, am to blame if there be any one to blame 
 in the matter. The offer may have been hasty, or unwel- 
 come, or unpardonable, from one like me, still without 
 rank in the tribe; it may have been fit that I should be 
 haughtily rejected by the family of the descendant of 
 Aaron; but," said he, pressing his strong hand upon his 
 throat, as if to keep down a burst of passion, "the subject 
 is at an end; now and forever at an end." He recom- 
 menced his striding through the chamber. 
 
 "Let us hear all, my friend," said I. "I know that 
 Salome thinks highly of your spirit, and your heart. Was 
 there any palliation offered? Did she disclose any secret 
 reason for a conduct so opposite to her natural regard for 
 you; and which she must feel so offensive to me? But, 
 insult from family, impossible !" 
 
 "Hear, then. I had not alighted from my horse, when 
 I saw displeasure written in the face of every female in 
 your household. From the very handmaids up to their 
 mistress, they had, with the instinct of woman, discovered 
 my object; and, with the usual deliberation of the sex, 
 had made up their minds, without hearing a syllable. 
 Your wife received me, it is true, with the grace that be- 
 longs to her above women; but she was visibly cold. JYty 
 
SALATHIEL. 
 
 kinswoman Esther absolutely shrank from me, and scorned 
 to return a word. Salome fled. As for the attendants, 
 they frowned and muttered upon me in all directions, with 
 the most candid wrath possible. In short, I could not have 
 fared worse had I been a Eoman, come to take possession; 
 or an Arab, riding up to rifle every soul in the house." 
 
 "Ominous enough!" said Eleazar, with his grave smile. 
 "The opinions of the sex are irresistible. With half my 
 knowledge of them, Jubal, you would have turned your 
 horse's head homewards at once; and given up your hopes 
 of a bride, at least till the next day, or the next hour, or 
 whatever may be the usual time for the sex's change of 
 mind. Cheer up, kinsman; caparison yourself in another 
 dress, let time do its work ride over to Salathiel's dwell- 
 ing to-morrow, and find a smile for every frown of to- 
 day." 
 
 "But, you saw Salome !" said I. "I am impatient to 
 hear how she could have ventured to offend. Could she 
 dare to refuse my brother's request, without a reason?" 
 
 "No; her conduct was altogether without disguise. She 
 first tried to laugh me out of my purpose, then argued, 
 then wept; and, finally, told me that our alliance was im- 
 possible." 
 
 "Hash girl ! but she has been led into this folly by others ; 
 yet the chief folly was my own. Ay, my eyes were dim, 
 where a mole would have seen. I suffered a showy, plausi- 
 ble villain to remain under my roof, till he has, by what 
 arts I know not, wiled away the duty and the understand- 
 ing nay, I fear, the religion of my child." I smote my 
 breast in sorrow and humiliation. 
 
 Jubal burst from the apartment, and returned with his 
 lance in his hand, quivering with wrath. "Now, all is 
 cleared," he cried; "the true cause was the magic of that 
 idolater. I know the arts of paganism to bewitch the 
 senses of woman; the incantations, the perfumes, the mid- 
 night fires, and images, and songs. But let him come 
 within the throw of this javelin, and then try whether all 
 his magic can shield him." 
 
 Eleazar grasped his robe as he was again rushing out. 
 "Stop, madman ! Is it with hands dipped in blood that 
 you are to solicit the heart of Salome? Give me that 
 horrid weapon; and you, Salathiel, curb your wild spirit, 
 
130 SALATBIEL. 
 
 and listen to a brother, who can have no interest but in the 
 happiness of both and all. If Salome, whom I loved an 
 infant on the knee, and love to this moment, the most in- 
 genuous and happy-hearted being on earth, has been be- 
 trayed into a fondness for this stranger, have we the right 
 to force her inclinations ? I know the depth of understand- 
 ing that lies under her playfulness ; can she have been de- 
 ceived, and least of all by those arts ? Impossible ! If she 
 have sacrificed her obedience to the noble form and high ac- 
 complishments of the Greek, we can only lament her ex- 
 posure to a captivation, made to subdue the heart of woman 
 since the world began." 
 
 "Jubal," interrupted I, "give me that manly and honest 
 hand. Eleazar's wisdom is too calm to understand a 
 father, or a lover. You .shall return with me, you shall 
 be my son; Salathiel has no other. This foolish girl will 
 be sorry for her follies, and rejoice to receive you. The 
 Greek is driven from my house. And let me see who there 
 will henceforth disobey." The lover's face brightened 
 with joy. 
 
 "Well, make your experiment," said Eleazar, rising. "So 
 end all councils of war, in more confusion than they be- 
 gan. But, if I had a wife and daughters " 
 
 "Of course, you would manage them to perfection. So 
 say all, who have never had either." 
 
 Eleazar's cheek colored slightly; but with his recovering 
 smile of benevolence, he followed us to the porch and wished 
 us success in our expedition. 
 
 We found the household tranquillized again. Miriam 
 received me with one of those radiant smiles, that are a 
 husband's best welcome home. She had succeeded in calm- 
 ing the minds of her daughters, and, a much more difficult 
 task, in suppressing the wrath of the numerous female 
 domestics, who had, as usual, constructed out of the graces 
 of the Greek, and the beauty of Salome, a little romance 
 of their own. In the whole course of my life, I never met 
 a female, from the flat-nosed and ebony-colored monster of 
 the tropics, to the snow-white and sublime fascinator of 
 a Greek isle, without a touch of romance; repulsiveness 
 could not conceal it, age could not extinguish it, vicissi- 
 tude could not change it. I have found it in all times and 
 places ; like a spring of fresh waters starting up even from 
 
SALATHIEL. 131 
 
 the flint; cheering the cheerless, softening the insensible, 
 renovating the withered; a secret whisper in the ear of 
 every woman alive, that, to the last, passion might flutter 
 its pinions round her brow. The strong prejudices of our 
 nation had here given way, rebellion was but hushed; and 
 I was warned, by many a look, of the unwelcome suitor 
 whom I brought among them. But from Salome there was 
 no remonstrance. I should have listened to none. I loved 
 my child with the strongest affection of a heart, rocked by 
 all the tides of passion: but I could bear to look upon the 
 pale beauty of her face nay, in the wrath of the hour, 
 could have seen her borne to the grave rather than permit 
 the command to be disputed by which she was to wed in our 
 tribe. 
 
 To shorten a period, of which I felt the full bitterness, 
 the marriage preparations were hurried on. Never was the 
 ceremony anticipated with less joy; we were all unhappy. 
 Eleazar remonstrated, but in vain. Jubal retracted, but I 
 compelled him to adhere to his proposal. Miriam was 
 closeted perpetually with the betrothed ; and, of the whole 
 household, Esther alone walked or talked with me, and it 
 was then only to give me descriptions of her sister's misery, 
 or to pursue me through the endless mazes of argument, on 
 the hardship of being forced to be happy. The prepara- 
 tions proceeded. The piece of silver was given, the con- 
 tracts were signed, the presents of both families were made ; 
 the portion was agreed upon. It was not customary to re- 
 quire the appearance of the bride until the celebration it- 
 self; and Salome was invisible during those days of activ- 
 ity; in which, however, I took the chief interest, for noth- 
 ing could be further from zeal than the conduct of the 
 other agents, Jubal alone excepted. He had recovered the 
 easily recovered confidence of youth, and perhaps prided 
 himself on the triumph over a rival so formidable. Two 
 or three petitions for an interview came to me from my 
 daughter. But I knew their purport, and steadily de- 
 termined not to hazard the temptation of her tears. 
 
 The day came, and with it the guests ; our dwelling was 
 full of banqueting. The evening came, when the cere- 
 mony was to be performed, and the bride led home to her 
 husband's household in the usual triumph. One of our 
 customs was, that a procession of the bridegroom's younger 
 
132 SALATHIEL. 
 
 friends, male and female, should be formed outside the 
 house to wait for the coming forth of the married pair. 
 The ceremony was borrowed by other nations ; but, in our 
 bright climate and cloudless nights, the profusion of lamps 
 and torches, the burning perfumes, glittering dresses, and 
 fantastic joy of the dancing and singing crowd, had un- 
 equalled liveliness and beauty. I remained at my case- 
 ment, gazing on the brilliant escort, that, as it gathered 
 and arranged itself along the gardens, looked like a flight 
 of glow-worms. But no marriage summons came ! I grew 
 impatient. My only answer was, the sight of Jubal rush- 
 ing from the house, and an outcry among the women. 
 Salome was not to be found ! She had been left by herself 
 for a few hours, as was the custom, to arrange her thoughts 
 for a ceremony which we considered religious in the high- 
 est degree. On the bridegroom's arrival, she had disap- 
 peared ! 
 
 The blow struck me deep. Had I driven her into the 
 arms of the Greek, by my severity? Had I driven her 
 out of her senses ? or out of life ? Conjecture on conjecture 
 stung me. I reprobated my own cruelty, refused consola- 
 tion, and spent the night in alternate self-upbraidings, and 
 prayers for my unhappy child. 
 
 Search was indefatigably made. The fiery jealousy of 
 Jubal, the manly anxiety of Eleazar, the hurt feelings of 
 our tribe, insulted by the possibility that their chieftain's 
 heir should have been scorned, and that the triumph should 
 be to an alien, were all embarked in the pursuit. But, 
 search was in vain; and, after days and nights of weari- 
 ness, I returned to my home, there to be met by sorrow- 
 ing faces, and to feel that every tear was an appeal against 
 my own obstinacy. I shrank into solitude. I exclaimed 
 that the vengeance, the more than vengeance, of my crime, 
 had struck its heaviest blow on me, in the loss of my child ! 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 I WAS in one of those fits of abstraction, revolving the 
 misery in which my still beloved daughter might be, if 
 indeed she were in existence ; when the door of my cham- 
 ber opened softly, and one of my domestics appeared, mak- 
 
SALATHIEL. 133 
 
 ing a signal of silence. This was he whom I had detected 
 in correspondence with the Eoman agent, and forgiven 
 through the entreaties of Miriam. The man had since 
 shown remarkable interest in the recovery of my daughter, 
 and thus completely reinstated himself. He knelt oefore 
 me, and, with more humility than I desired, implored my 
 pardon for having again held intercourse with the Eoman. 
 
 "It was my zeal," said he, "to gain intelligence; for I 
 knew that nothing passed in the provinces a secret from 
 him. This letter is his answer, and perhaps I shall be for- 
 given for the sake of what it contains." I read it with 
 trembling avidity. It was mysterious; described two fugi- 
 tives who had made their escape to Coesarea; and inti- 
 mated that, as they were about to fly into Asia Minor, the 
 pursuit must be immediate, and conducted with the utmost 
 secrecy. 
 
 I was instantly on horseback. Dreading to disturb my 
 family by false hopes, I ordered out my hounds, ranged 
 the hills in sight of my dwelling, and then turning off, 
 struck in the spur, and attended only by the domestic, 
 went full speed to Csesarea. From the summit of Mount 
 Carmel I looked down upon the city and the broad Medi- 
 terranean. But my eyes then felt no delight in the 
 grandeur of art or nature. The pompous structures on 
 which Herod the Great had expended a treasure beyond 
 count, and which the residence of the governor made the 
 Roman capital of Judea, were to me but so many dens and 
 dungeons, in which my child might be hid. The sea showed 
 me only the path by which she might have been borne 
 away, or the grave in which her wanderings were to close. 
 
 By extraordinary speed, I reached the gates just as the 
 trumpet was sounding for their close. My attendant went 
 forth to obtain information; and I was left pacing my 
 chamber in feverish suspense. I did not suffer it long. 
 The door opened, and a group of soldiers ordered me to fol- 
 low them. Resistance was useless. They led me to the 
 palace. There I was delivered from guard to guard, 
 through a long succession of apartments, until we reached 
 the door of a banqueting room. The festivity within was 
 high; and if I could have then sympathized with singing 
 and laughter, I might have had full indulgence during the 
 immeasurable hour that I lingered out, a broken wretch, ex- 
 
134 SALATHIEL. 
 
 hausted by desperate effort, sick at heart, and of course not 
 unanxious for the result of an interview with the Eoman 
 procurator ; a man whose name was equivalent to vice, ex* 
 tortion, and love of blood, throughout Judea. 
 
 At length the feast was at an end. I was summoned, 
 and for the first time saw Gessius Florus, a little bloated 
 figure, with a countenance that, to the casual observer, was 
 the model of gross good nature, a twinkling eye, and a lip 
 on the perpetual laugh. His bald forehead wore a wreath 
 of flowers, and his tunic and the couch on which he lay 
 breathed perfume. The table before him was a long vista 
 of sculptured cups, and golden vases and candelabra. "I 
 am sorry to have detained you so long," said he, "but this 
 was the emperor's birthday, and, as good subjects, we have 
 kept it accordingly." 
 
 During this speech, he was engaged in*contemplating the 
 wine bubbles as they sparkled above the brim of a large 
 amethystine goblet. A pale and delicate Italian boy, 
 sumptuously dressed, the only one of the guests who re- 
 mained, perceiving that I was fatigued, filled a cup, and 
 presented it. "Eight, Septimius," said the debauchee, 
 "make the Jew drink the emperor's health." The youth 
 bowed gracefully before me, and again offered the cup, but 
 the time was not for indulgence, and I laid it on the table. 
 "Here's long life and glory to Nero Claudius Ceesar, our 
 pious, merciful, and invincible emperor," cried Florus; 
 and only when he had drunk to the bottom of the goblet, 
 found leisure to look upon his prisoner. 
 
 He either felt or affected surprise, and, turning to his 
 young companion, said, "By Hercules, boy, what grand 
 fellows those Jews make! The helmet is nothing to the 
 turban, after all. What magnificence of beard ! No Ital- 
 ian chin has the vigor to grow anything so suburb; then, 
 the neck, like the bull of Milo; and those blazing eyes! 
 If I had but a legion of such spearsmen " 
 
 I grew impatient and said, "I stand here, procurator, 
 in your bonds. I demand why! I have business that 
 requires my instant attention and I desire to be gone." 
 
 "Now, have I treated you so inhospitably," said he, 
 laughing, "that you expect I shall finish by shutting my 
 doors upon you at this time of night?" He glanced upon 
 his tablets and read the name. "Ay," said he, "and after 
 
SALATHIEL. 135 
 
 I had been so long wishing for the honor of your com- 
 pany. Jew, take your wine, and sit down upon that couch 
 and tell me what brought you to Caesarea." 
 
 I told him briefly the circumstances. He roared with 
 laughter, desired me to repeat them and swore that "By 
 all the gods ! it was the very best piece of pleasantry he had 
 heard since he set foot in Judea." I stood up in irre- 
 pressible indignation. "What !" said he, "will you gc 
 without hearing my story in return ?" He filled his goblet 
 again to the brim, buried his purple visage in a vase of 
 roses, and having inhaled the fragrance, and chosen an 
 easy posture, said coldly, "Jew, you have told me a most 
 excellent story, and it is only fair that I should tell you 
 one in return; not half so amusing, I admit, but to the 
 full as true. Jew, you are a traitor !" I started back. 
 "Jew," said he, "you must in common civility hear me out. 
 The truth is, that your visit has been so often anticipated 
 and so long delayed, that I cannot bear to part with you; 
 you are an apostate; you encourage those Christian dogs. 
 Why does the man stare ? You are in communication with 
 rebels, and I might have had the honor of meeting you 
 in the field if you had not put yourself into my hands in 
 Csesarea." 
 
 He pronounced those words of death in the most tran- 
 quil tone; not a muscle moved; the cup which he held 
 brimful in his hand never overflowed. "Jew," said he, 
 "now be honest, and so far set an example to your nation. 
 Where is the money that has been gathered for this rebel- 
 lion? You are too sagacious a soldier to think of going 
 to war without the main spring of the machine." 
 
 I scorned to deny the intended insurrection ; but "money 
 I had collected none." 
 
 "Then," said he, "you are now compelling me to a 
 measure which I do not like. Ho ! guard !" A soldier 
 presented himself. "Desire that the rack shall be got 
 ready." The man retired. "You see, Jew, this is all your 
 own doing. Give up the money and I give up the rack. 
 And the surrender of the coin is asked merely in com- 
 passion to yourselves, for without it you cannot rebel, and 
 the more you rebel the more you will be beaten." 
 
 "Beware, Gessius Floras," I exclaimed, "beware. I am 
 your prisoner, entrapped, as I now see, by a villain, or by 
 
136 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 the greater villain who corrupted him. You may rack me 
 if you will; you may insult my feelings, tear my flesh, 
 take my life; but, for this, there will be retribution. 
 Through Upper Galilee, from Tiberias to the top of Li- 
 banus, this act of blood will ring, and be answered by 
 blood. I have kinsmen many; countrymen, myriads. A 
 single wrench of my sinews may lift a hundred thousand 
 arms against your city and leave of yourself nothing but 
 the remembrance of your crimes." 
 
 He bounded from his couch ; the native fiend flashed out 
 in his countenance. I waited his attack with my hand on 
 the poniard within my sash. My look probably deterred 
 him, for he flung himself back again, and, bursting into a 
 loud laugh, exclaimed: "Bravely spoken. Septimius, we 
 must send the Jew to Rome to teach our orators. Ay, I 
 know Upper Galilee too well not to know that rebellion 
 is more easily raised there than the taxes. And it was for 
 that reason that I invited you to come to Caesarea. In the 
 midst of your tribe capture would have cost half a legion ; 
 here a single jailor will do the business. Ho ! guard !" he 
 called aloud. I heard the screwing of the rack in the next 
 room and unsheathed the poniard. The blade glittered in 
 his eyes. Septimius came between us and tried to turn the 
 procurator's purpose. 
 
 "Let your guard come," cried I, "and, by the sacred- 
 ness of the Temple, one of us dies. I will not live to be 
 tortured, or you shall not live to see it." If the door had 
 opened I was prepared to dart upon him. 
 
 "Well," said he, after a whispered expostulation from 
 Septimius, "you must go and settle the matter with the 
 Emperor. The fact is, that I am too tender-hearted to 
 govern such a nation of dagger-bearers. So, to Nero ! If 
 we cannot send the Emperor money we will at least send him 
 men." He laughed vehemently at the conception ; ordered 
 the singing and dancing slaves to return; called for wine 
 and plunged again into his favorite cup. 
 
 Septimius arose and led me into another chamber. I 
 remonstrated against the injustice of my seizure. He 
 lamented it, but said that the orders from Rome were 
 strict, and that I was denounced by some of the chiefs in 
 Jerusalem as the head of the late insurrection, and the 
 projector of a new one. The procurator, he added, 
 
SALATHIEL. 137 
 
 been for some time anxious to get me into his power with- 
 out raising a disturbance among my tribe; the treachery 
 of my domestic had been employed to effect this; and 
 "now," concluded he, "my best wish for you a wish 
 prompted by motives of which you can form no conjecture 
 is, that you may be sent to Rome. Every day that sees 
 you in Caesarea, sees you in the utmost peril. At the first 
 rumor of insurrection your life will be the sacrifice." 
 
 "But my family! What will be their feelings! Can I 
 not at least acquaint them with my destination ?" 
 
 "It is impossible. And now, to let you into a state 
 secret, the Emperor had ordered that you should be sent 
 to Rome. Florus menaced you only to extort money. He 
 now knows you better and would gladly enlist you in the 
 Roman cause. This I know to be hopeless. But I dread 
 his caprice, and shall rejoice to see the sails hoisted that 
 are to carry you to Rome. Farewell: your family shall 
 have due intelligence." He was at the door of the cham- 
 ber, but suddenly returned, and, pressing my hand, said 
 again, "Farewell, and remember that neither all Romans 
 nor even all Greeks may be alike !" He then with a grace- 
 ful obeisance left the room. 
 
 A soldier, sword in hand, soon entered. He pointed to 
 the door, where an armed party were seen, and informed 
 me that I was ordered for immediate embarkation. 
 
 It was scarcely past midnight; the stars were still in 
 their splendor; the pharos threw a long line of flame on 
 the waters; the city sounds were hushed; and, silent as .1 
 procession to the grave, we moved down to where the tall 
 vessel lay rocking with the breeze. At her side a Nubian 
 slave put a note into my hand; it was from the young 
 Roman, requesting my acceptance of wine and fruits from 
 the palace, and wishing me a prosperous result to my 
 voyage. The sails were hoisted ; the stately mole, that even 
 in the night looked a mount of marble, was cleared; 
 the libation was poured to the Tritons for our speedy 
 passage, and the blazing pharos was rapidly seen but as a 
 twinkling star. 
 
13 g SALATHIEL. 
 
 ; 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 OUB trireme flew before the wind. By daybreak the 
 coast was but a pale line along the waters ; but Carmel still 
 towered proudly eminent, and with its top alternately 
 clouded and glittering in the sun, might have been taken 
 for a gigantic beacon, throwing up alternate smoke and 
 flame. With what eyes did I continue to look, until the 
 mighty hill too sank in the waters! But thought still 
 lingered on the shore. I saw, with a keenness more than 
 of the eye, the family circle; through many an hour of 
 gazing on the waters, I was all but standing in the midst 
 of those walls which I might never more see; listening 
 to the uncomplaining sighs of Miriam, the impassioned 
 remonstrances of my sole remaining child, and busied 
 in the still harder task of finding out some defence against 
 the self-accusation that laid the charge of rashness and 
 cruelty heavy on my soul. But, the scene round me was 
 the very reverse of moody meditation. The captain was 
 a thorough Italian trierarch, ostentatious, gay, given to 
 superstition, and yet occasionally a little of a freethinker. 
 His ship was to him child, wife, and world; and at every 
 manoeuvre he claimed from us such tribute as a father 
 might for the virtues of his favorite offspring; perpetual 
 luck was in everything that she did: she knew every 
 headland from Cyprus to Ostia : a pilot was a mere super- 
 numerary: she could run the whole course without the 
 helm, if she pleased. She beat the Liburnian for speed; 
 the Cypriot for comfort ; the Sicilian for safety ; and every 
 other vessel on the seas for every other quality. "All 
 he asked was, to live in her, while he lived at all; and 
 to go down in her when the Fates were at last to cut his 
 thread, as they did those of all captains, whether on sea 
 or land." 
 
 The panegyric of the good ship Ganymede was in some 
 degree merited: she carried us on boldly. For a sea, in 
 which the winds are constant when they come, but in which 
 the calms are as constant as the winds, nothing could have 
 been more perfectly adapted than the ancient galley. If 
 the gale rose, the ship shot along like the eagle that bore 
 her Trojan namesake : light, strong, with her white sails 
 full of the breeze, and cleaving the surge with the rapidity 
 
SALATBIEL. 139 
 
 of an arrow. If the wind fell, we floated in a pavilion, 
 screened from the sun, refreshed with perfumes burning 
 on poop, brow and masts, surrounded with gilding, and the 
 carvings and paintings of the Greek artists, drinking de- 
 licious Wines, listening to song and story, and in all this 
 enjoyment, gliding insensibly along on a lake of absolute 
 sapphire, encircled and varied by the most picturesque 
 and lovely islands in the world. The Ganymede had been 
 under special orders from Rome for my transmission; 
 but the captain felt too much respect for the procurator 
 not to trespass on the letter of the law, so far as to fill 
 up the vacancies of his hold with merchandise, in which 
 Florus drove a steady contraband trade. Having done 
 so much to gratify the governor's distinguishing propen- 
 sity, he next provided for his own; and loaded his gallant 
 vessel mercilessly with passengers, as much prohibited as 
 his merchandise. While we were yet in sight of land, I 
 walked a lonely deck; but when the salutary fear of the 
 galleys on the station was passed, every corner of the 
 Ganymede let loose a living cargo. 
 
 For the Jewish chieftain going from Florus on a mis- 
 sion to the Emperor, as the captain conceived me and my 
 purpose to be, a separate portion of the deck was kept 
 sacred. But, I mingled from time to time with the 
 crowd, and thus contrived to preserve at once my re- 
 spect and my popularity. Never was there a more mis- 
 cellaneous collection. We transported into Europe a 
 Chaldee sorcerer, an Indian gymnosophist, an Arab teacher 
 of astrology, a Magian from Persepolis, and a Platonist 
 from Alexandria. Such were our contributions to Oriental 
 science. We had, besides, a dealer in sleight-of-hand 
 from Damascus; an Egyptian with tame monkeys and a 
 model of a pyramid; a Syrian serpent-teacher; an Idu- 
 mean maker of amulets against storm and calm, thirst 
 and hunger, and every other disturbance and distress of 
 life; an Armenian discoverer of the stone by which gold 
 mines were to be discovered; a Byzantine inventor of the 
 true Oriental pearls; a dealer from the Caspian in gum: 
 superseding all that Arabia ever wept; an Epicurean 
 philosopher, who professed indolence, and, to do him 
 justice, was a striking example of his doctrine; and a 
 Stoic, who, having gone his rounds of the Koman gar- 
 
140 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 risons as a teacher of dancing, a curer of wines, and a 
 flute-player, had now risen into the easier vocation of a 
 philosopher. Of course, among these professors the dis- 
 coverer of gold was the most moneyless; the maker of 
 amulets against misfortune the most miserable; and the 
 Stoic the most impatient. The Epicurean alone adhered 
 to the spirit of his profession. 
 
 But the unstable elements round us were a severe trial 
 for any human philosophy but that of a thorough optimist. 
 Wind and water, the two most imperious of all things, 
 were our masters; and a calm, a breeze, or even a billow, 
 often tried our reasoners too roughly for the honor of 
 tempers so saturated with wisdom. On these occasions 
 the Platonist defended the antiquity of Egypt with double 
 pertinacity; the Chaldee derided its novelty by the addi- 
 tion of a hundred thousand years to his chronology of 
 Babylon; the Indian with increased scorn, wrinkling his 
 brown visage, told them that both Babylon and Egypt 
 were baubles of yesterday compared with the million years 
 of India. The dagger would have silenced many a dis- 
 cussion on the chief good, the origin of benevolence, antl 
 the beauty of virtue, but for the voice of the captain, which, 
 like thunder, cleared the air. He, I will allow, was the 
 truest philosopher of us all. The trierarch was an un- 
 conscious optimist; nothing could touch him in the shape 
 of misfortune; for, to him it had no existence. If tha 
 storm rose, "we should get the more rapidly into port;' 5 
 if the calm came to fix us scorching on the face of the 
 waters, "nothing could be safer." If our provisions fell 
 short, "abstemiousness now and then was worth a genera- 
 tion of doctors." If the sun burned above us, with the 
 fire of a ball of red-hot iron, "it was the test of fair 
 weather;" if the sky was a mass of vapor, "we escaped 
 being roasted alive." 
 
 His maxims on higher subjects were equally consoling. 
 "If a man had to struggle through life, struggle was the 
 nursing-mother of greatness; or, il he were opulent, he 
 had gained the end without the trouble. If he had dis- 
 ease, he learned patience, essential for sailor, soldier, and 
 philosopher alike. If he enjoyed health, who could doubt 
 the blessing? If he lived long, he had time for pleasure; 
 if he died early, he escaped the chances of the tables' 
 
SALATHIEL. 141 
 
 turning." The optimist applied his principle to me, 
 by gravely informing me, that "though it depended on the 
 Emperor's state of digestion, whether I should, or should 
 not, carry back my head from his presence, yet if I lived, I 
 should see the games of the Circus; and if I did not., I 
 should in all probability care but little about the matter." 
 
 Nothing in the variety of later Europe gives me a 
 parallel to the distinctions of rank and profession, style 
 of subsistence, and physiognomy of society, in the ancient 
 world. Human nature was classed in every kingdom, 
 province, and city, almost as rigidly as the different races 
 of mankind. The divisions of the slave, the freedman, 
 the citizen, the artist, the priest, the man of literature, 
 and the man of public life, were cut with a ploughshare, 
 whose furrows were never filled up. Life had the curious 
 mixture of costume, the palpable diversity of purpose, 
 and the studied intricacy of a drama. 
 
 Our voyage was rapid; but even a lingering transit 
 would have been cheered by the innumerable objects of 
 beauty and memory, which rise on every side in the pas- 
 sage through a Grecian sea. The islands were then un- 
 touched by the spoiler; the opulence of Home had been 
 added to Attic taste; and temples, theatres, and palaces, 
 starting from groves, or studding the sides of the stately 
 hills, and reflected in the mirror of bays, smooth and 
 bright as polished steel, held the eye a continual captive. 
 On the sea, flights of vessels, steering in all directions, 
 glittering with the emblems of their nations, the colored 
 pennants, the painted prows, and gilded images of their 
 protecting deities, covered the horizon with life. We 
 had reached the southern cape of Greece, and were, with a 
 boldness unusual to ancient navigation, stretching across 
 in a starless night for the coast of Italy; when we caught 
 a sound of distant music, that recalled the poetic dreams 
 of nymphs and tritons. The sound swelled and sunk 
 on the wind, as if it came from the depths of the sea, 
 or the bosom of the clouds. As we parted from the land, 
 it swelled higher, until it filled the midnight with pompous 
 harmony. To sleep was profanation, and we all gathered 
 on the deck, exhausting nature and art in conjectures 
 of the cause. 
 
 The harmony approached and receded at intervals, grew 
 
142 BALATHIEL* 
 
 in volume, then stole away in wild murmurs, to revive 
 with still more luxuriant sweetness. Night passed in 
 delight and conjecture. Morning alone brought the solu- 
 tion. 
 
 Full in the blaze of sunrise steered the imperial fleet, 
 returning in triumph from the Olympic games, with the 
 Emperor on board. We had unconsciously approached 
 it during the darkness. 
 
 The whole scene wore the aspect of a vision summoned 
 by the hand of an enchanter. The sea was covered with 
 the fleet in order of battle. Some of the galleys were 
 of vast size, and all were gleaming with gold and decora- 
 tions; silken sails, garlands on the masts, trophies hung 
 over the sides, and embroidered streamers of every shape 
 and hue, met the morning light. We passed the wing of 
 the fleet, close enough to see the sacrificial fires on the 
 poop of the imperial quinquereme. A crowd in purple 
 and military habits was standing round a throne, above 
 which proudly waved the scarlet flag of command. A 
 figure advanced: all foreheads were bowed, acclamations 
 rent the air, the trumpets of the fleet flourished, and the 
 lofty harmonies, that had charmed us in the night, again 
 swelled upon the wind, and followed us, long after the 
 whole floating splendor had dissolved into the distant 
 blue. 
 
 At length the headlands of the noble bay of Tarentum 
 rose above the horizon. While we were running with the 
 speed of a lapwing, the captain, to our surprise, shortened 
 sail. I soon discovered that no philosophy was perfect; 
 that even the optimist thought that daylight might be 
 worse than useless, and that a blot had been left on crea- 
 tion in the shape of a custom-house officer. 
 
 Night fell at last; the moon, to which our captain had 
 taken a sudden aversion, was as cloudy as he could desire ; 
 and we rushed in between the glimmering watch-towers 
 on the lapygian and Lacinian promontories. The glow 
 of light along the waters soon pointed out where the 
 luxurious citizens of Tarentum were enjoying the banquet 
 in their villas. Next came the hum of the great city, 
 whose popular boast was, like that of later times, that 
 it had more festivals than days in the year. 
 
 But, the trierarch's often-told delight at finding him- 
 
SALATHIEL. 143 
 
 self free to rove among the indulgences of his favorite 
 shore, had lost its poignancy; and with a firmness which 
 set the Stoic in a rage, the Epicurean in a state of re- 
 bellion, and the whole tribe of our sages in a temper of 
 mere mortal remonstrance, he resisted alike the remon- 
 strance and the allurement, and sullenly cast anchor in 
 the center of the bay. It was not until song and feast 
 had died, and all was hushed, that he stole, with the slight- 
 est possible noise, to the back of the mole, and 
 sending us below, disburthened his conscience, and the 
 hold of the good ship Ganymede together. I had no 
 time to give to the glories of Tarentum. Nero's ap- 
 proach hurried my departure. The centurion who had 
 me in charge trembled at the idea of delay; and we rode 
 through the midst of three hundred thousand sleepers 
 in streets of marble and ranks of statues, as silently and 
 swiftly as if we had been the ghosts of their ancestors. 
 When the day broke we found ourselves among the Luca- 
 nian hills, then no desert, but crowded with population. 
 From the inn where we halted to change horses, the Taren- 
 tine gulf spread broad and bold before the eye. 
 
 The city of luxury and of power, once the ruler of 
 southern Italy, and mistress of the seas; which had sent 
 out armies and fleets, worthy to contest the supremacy 
 with Pyrrhus, and the Carthaginian; was, from this 
 spot, sunk, like all the works of man, into littleness. But 
 the gulf, like all the works of nature, grew in grandeur. 
 Its circular shore edged with thirteen cities, the deep 
 azure of its smooth waters, inlaid with the flashes of sun- 
 rise, and traversed by fleets, diminished to toys; reminded 
 me of one of the magnificent Eoman shields, with its 
 centre of sanguine steel, the silver incrustation of the 
 rim, and the storied sculpture. We passed at full speed 
 through the Lucanian and Samnian provinces, fine sweeps 
 of cultivated country, interspersed with the hunting grounds 
 of the great patricians; forests that had not felt the axe 
 for centuries, and valleys sheeted with the vine and rose. 
 
 But, on reaching the border of Latium, I was already 
 in Rome; I travelled a day's journey among streets, and 
 in the midst of a crowded and hurrying population. The 
 whole was one huge suburb, with occasional glimpses of a 
 central mount, crowned with glittering and gilded struc- 
 tures. "There !" said the centurion, with somewhat of 
 
144 BALATBISL. 
 
 religious reverence ; "behold the eternal Capitol !" I en- 
 tered Rome at night, passing through an endless number 
 of narrow and intricate streets, where hovels, the very 
 abode of want, were mingled with palaces blazing with 
 lights and echoing with festivity. The centurion's house 
 was at length reached. He showed me to an apartment, 
 and left me, saying, "that I must prepare to be brought 
 before the Emperor immediately on his arrival.'' 
 
 I am now, thought I, in the heart of the heart of the 
 world ; in the midst of that place of power from which the 
 destiny of nations issues; in the great treasure-house to 
 which men come from the ends of the earth for knowledge ; 
 for justice, for wealth, honor, thrones ! and what am I ? 
 a solitary slave! 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 WITH the original mixture of Ionian and northern blood 
 in his veins, the character of the Roman was at once taste- 
 ful and barbarian. Like the Asiatic, delighting in luxury, 
 like the Tartar, delighting in gore, he turned the elegance 
 of the Greek games into the combat of gladiators. He was 
 a voluptuary, but the gravest of all voluptuaries. Of all 
 nations, the Roman bore the strongest resemblance to that 
 people of conquerors, who at length swept his name from 
 Byzantium; superb, but slavish; fierce, but sensual; brave 
 as the lion, but base in its appetites as the jackal. A people 
 made for the possession of empire, and for its corruption. 
 
 Of all men, he had the least resemblance to his successor. 
 Haughty, sagacious, and solemn, though ravening for ra- 
 pine, and merciless in his revenge, he bequeathed nothing 
 to that miscellany of mankind which has followed him, but 
 his passion for shows. 
 
 Rome was all shows. Its innumerable public events were 
 all thrown into the shape of pageantry. Its worships, elec- 
 tions, the departure and return of governors and consuls, 
 every operation of public life, was modelled into a pomp; 
 and in the boundless extent of the empire, those operations 
 were crowding on each other every day. The multitude, 
 that can still be set in motion by a wooden saint, was then 
 summoned by the stirring ceremonial of empire, the actual 
 sovereignty of the globe. What must have been the strong 
 
SALATHIEL. 145 
 
 excitement, the perpetual concourse, the living and various 
 activity of a city, from which flowed the stream of power 
 through the world, to return to it loaded with all that the 
 Opulence, skill, and splendor of the world could give ! 
 
 Triumphs, to whose grandeur and singularity the pomps 
 of later days are but as the attempts of paupers and chil- 
 dren; rites, on which the very existence of the state was 
 to depend; the levy and march of armies, which were to 
 carry fate to the remotest corners of the earth ; the kings of 
 the east and west, coming to solicit diadems, or to depre- 
 cate the irresistible wrath of Rome; vast theatres; public 
 games, that tasked the whole fertility of Roman talent, and 
 the most prodigal lavishness of imperial luxury; were the 
 movers that among the four millions of Rome made life a 
 hurricane. 
 
 I saw it in its full and grand commotion ; I saw it in its 
 desperate agony; I saw it in its frivolous revival; and I 
 shall see it in an hour, wilder, weaker, and more terrible 
 than all. I remained under the charge of the centurion. 
 No man could be better fitted for a state jailor. Civility 
 sat on his lips, but caution the most profound sat beside 
 her. He professed to have the deepest dependence on my 
 honor, yet he never let me move beyond his eye. But I had 
 no desire to escape. The crisis must come; and I was as 
 well inclined to meet it then, as to have it lingering over 
 me. 
 
 Intelligence, in a few days, arrived from Brundusium, of 
 the Emperor's landing, and of his intention to remain at 
 Antium, until his triumphal entry should be prepared. My 
 fate now hung in the scale. I was ordered to attend the 
 imperial presence. At the vestibule of the Antian palace, 
 my careful centurion deposited me in the hands of a sena- 
 tor. As I followed him through the halls, a young female 
 richly attired, and of the most beautiful face and form, 
 crossed us, light and graceful as a dancing nymph. The 
 senator bowed profoundly. She beckoned to him, and they 
 exchanged a few words. I was probably the subject; for 
 her countenance, sparkling with the animation of youth and 
 loveliness, grew pale at once: she clasped both her hands 
 upon her eyes, and rushed into an inner chamber. She 
 knew Nero well; and dearly she was yet to pay for her 
 knowledge. The senator, to my inquiring glance, answered 
 \n a whisper, "The Empress Poppaea." 
 
146 SALATHIEL. 
 
 A few steps onward, and I stood in the presence of the 
 most formidable being on earth. Yet, whatever might have 
 been my natural agitation at the time, I could scarcely 
 restrain a smile at the first sight of Nero. I saw a pale, 
 under-sized, light-haired young man, sitting .before a table 
 with a lyre on it, and a parrot's cage, to whose inmate he 
 was teaching Greek, with great assiduity. But for the regal 
 furniture of the cabinet, I should have supposed myself led 
 by mistake into an interview with some struggling poet. 
 He shot around one quick glance, on the opening of the 
 door, and then proceeded to give lessons to his bird. I had 
 leisure to gaze on the tyrant and parricide. 
 
 Physiognomy is a true science. The man of profound 
 thought, the man of active ability, and, above all, the man 
 of genius has his character stamped on his countenance by 
 nature; the man of violent passions and the voluptuary 
 have it stamped by habit. But the science has its limits: 
 it has no stamp for mere cruelty. The features of the 
 human monster before me were mild, and almost handsome : 
 a heavy eye and figure tending to fulness, gave the im- 
 pression of a quiet mind;and but for an occasional rest- 
 lessness of brow, and a brief glance from under it, in which 
 the leaden eye darted suspicion, I should have pronounced 
 Nero one of the most indolently harmless of mankind. 
 
 He now remanded his pupil to its perch, took up the lyre, 
 and throwing a not unskilful hand over the strings, in the 
 intervals of his performance, languidly addressed a broken 
 sentence to me. "You have come, I understand, from 
 Judea; they tell me that you have been, or are to be, a 
 general of the insurrection ! you must be put to death ; 
 your countrymen give me a great deal of trouble, and I 
 always regret to be troubled with them. But, to send you 
 back, would be only an encouragement to them, and to keep 
 you here among strangers, would be only a cruelty to you. 
 I am charged with cruelty; you see the charge is not 
 true. I am lampooned every day; I know the scribblers, 
 but they must lampoon or starve, and I leave them to do 
 both. Have you brought any news from Judea? They 
 have not had a true prince there since the first Herod ; and 
 he was quite a Greek, a cut-throat and a man of taste. He 
 understood the arts. I sent for you to see what sort of 
 animal a Jewish rebel was. Your dress is handsome, but 
 
SALATHIEL. 147 
 
 too light for our winters. You cannot die before sunset, 
 as until then I am engaged with my music-master. We all 
 must die, when our time comes. Farewell till sunset may 
 Jupiter protect you !" 
 
 I retired to execution ! and, before the door closed, heard 
 this accomplished disposer of life and death, preluding upon 
 his lyre with increased energy. I was conducted to a turret, 
 until the period in which the Emperor's engagement with 
 his music-master should leave him at leisure to see me die ! 
 Yet there was kindness even under the roof of Nero, and 
 a liberal hand had covered the table in my cell. The hours 
 passed heavily along, but they passed ; and I was watching 
 the last rays of my last sun, when I suddenly perceived a 
 cloud rise in the direction of Eome. It grew broader, deeper, 
 darker as I gazed ; its centre was suddenly tinged with red ; 
 the tinge spread ; the whole mass of cloud became crimson ; 
 the sun went down, and another sun seemed to have risen 
 in its stead. I heard the clattering of horses' feet in the 
 court-yards below; trumpets sounded; there was evident 
 confusion in the palace ; the troops hurried under arms ; and 
 I saw a squadron of cavalry set off at full speed. 
 
 As I was gazing on the spectacle before me, which per- 
 petually became more menacing, the door of my cell slowly 
 opened, and a masked figure stood upon the threshold. I 
 had made up my mind ; and demanding if he were the exe- 
 cutioner, told him, "I was ready." The figure paused, list- 
 ened to the sounds below, and after looking for a while on 
 the troops in the court-yard, signified by signs, that I had 
 a chance of saving my life. 
 
 The love of existence rushed back upon me ; and I eagerly 
 inquired what was to be done. He drew from under his 
 cloak the dress of a Eoman slave, which I put on, and 
 noisely followed his steps through a long succession of 
 small and strangely intricate passages. We found no diffi- 
 culty from guards or domestics. The whole palace was in a 
 state of extraordinary alarm. Every human being was 
 packing up something or other : rich vases, myrrhine cups, 
 gold services, were lying in heaps on the floors; costly 
 dresses, instruments of music, all the appendages of luxury, 
 were flung loose in every direction, signs of the sudden 
 breaking up of the court. I might have plundered the 
 value of a province with impunity. Still, we wound our 
 
148 BALAfSISL. 
 
 hurried way. In passing along one of the corridors, the 
 voice of sorrow struck the ear; my mysterious guide hesi- 
 tated; I glanced through the slab of crystal that showed 
 the chamber within. 
 
 It was the one in which I had seen the Emperor, but his 
 place was now filled by the form of youth and beauty which 
 had crossed me on my arrival. She was weeping bitterly, 
 and reading with passionate indignation a long list of names 
 probably one of those rolls in which Nero registered his in- 
 tended victims, and which in the haste of departure he had 
 left open. A second glance saw her tear the paper into a 
 thousand fragments, and scatter them in the fountain that 
 gushed upon the floor. I left this lovely and unhappy 
 creature, this dove in the vulture's talons, with almost a 
 pang. A few steps more brought us into the open air, but 
 among bowers that covered our path with darkness. At the 
 extremity of the gardens my guide struck with his dagger 
 upon a door ; it was opened ; we found horses outside ; he 
 sprang on one ; I sprang on its fellow ; and palace, guards, 
 and the scaffold were left far behind. 
 
 He galloped so furiously that I found it impossible to 
 speak ; and it was not until we had reached an eminence, a 
 few miles from Rome where we breathed our horses, that I 
 could ask to whom I had been indebted for my escape. 
 But I could not extract a word from him. He made signs 
 of silence, and pointed with wild anxiety to the scene that 
 spread below. It was of a grandeur and terror indescribable. 
 Rome was an ocean of flame ! Height and depth were 
 covered with red surges, that rolled before the blast like an 
 endless tide. The flames burst up the sides of the hills, 
 which they turned into instant volcanoes, exploding volumes 
 of smoke and fire ; then plunged into the depths in a hundred 
 glowing cataracts ; then climbed and consumed again. The 
 distant sound of the great city in her convulsion went to 
 the soul. The air was filled with the steady roar of the 
 advancing blaze, the crash of falling houses, and the hideous 
 cr.tcry of the myriads flying through the streets, or sur- 
 rounded and perishing in the conflagration. Hostile to 
 Rome as I was, I could not restrain the exclamation : "There 
 goes the fruit of conquest, the glory of ages, the purchase 
 of the blood of millions ! Was vanity made for man f My 
 guide continued looking forward with intense ~%rnestness, 
 
SALATHIEL. 149 
 
 as if he were perplexed by what avenue to enter the burning 
 city. I demanded who he was, and whither he would lead 
 me. He returned no answer. A long spire of flame that 
 shot up from a hitherto untouched quarter engrossed all his 
 senses. He struck in the spur, and making a wild gesture 
 to me to follow, darted down the hill. 
 
 I pursued; we found the Appian choked with wagons, 
 baggage of every kind, and terrified crowds hurrying into 
 the open country. To force a way through them was im- 
 possible. All was clamor, violent struggle, and helpless 
 death. Men and women of the highest rank were hurrying 
 on foot, or trampled by the rabble that had then lost all 
 respect of condition. One dense mass of miserable life, 
 irresistible from its weight, crushed by the narrow streets, 
 and scorched by the flames over their heads, continued to 
 roll through the gates like an endless stream of black lava. 
 
 We now turned back, and attempted an entrance through 
 the gardens of some of the villas that skirted the city wall 
 near the Palatine. All were deserted, and after some dan- 
 gerous bounds over the burning ruins, we found ourselves 
 in the streets. The fire had originally broken out on the 
 Palatine, and hot smokes that wrapped and half blinded us, 
 hung thick as night upon the wrecks of pavilions and 
 palaces ; but the dexterity and knowledge of my inexplicable 
 guide carried us on. It was in vain that I insisted upon 
 knowing the purpose of this terrible traverse. He pressed 
 his hand on his heart in reassurance of his fidelity, and still 
 spurred on. 
 
 We now passed under the shade of an immense range of 
 lofty building, whose gloomy and solid strength seemed to 
 bid defiance to chance and time. A sudden yell appalled 
 me. A ring of fire swept round its summit burning cord- 
 age, sheets of canvas, and a shower of all things combusti- 
 ble, flew into the air above our heads. An uproar fol- 
 lowed, unlike all that I had ever heard, a hideous mixture of 
 howls, shrieks, and groans. The flames rolled down the 
 narrow street before us, and made the passage next to im- 
 possible. While we hesitated, a huge fragment of the build- 
 ing heaved, as if in an earthquake, and fortunately for us 
 fell inwards. The whole scene of terror was then open. 
 
 The great amphitheatre of Statilius Taurus had caught 
 fire ! the stage with its inflammable furniture was intensely 
 
150 SAL ATE I EL. 
 
 blazing b'elow. The flames were wheeling up, circle above 
 circle, through the seventy thousand seats that rose from 
 the ground to the roof. I stood in unspeakable awe and 
 wonder on the side of this colossal cavern, this mighty 
 temple of the city of fire. At length a descending blast 
 cleared away the smoke that covered the arena. The cause 
 of those horrid cries was now visible. The wild beasts 
 kept from the games had broken from their dens. Maddened 
 by affright and pain, lions, tigers, panthers, wolves, whole 
 herds of the monsters of India and Africa, were inclosed in 
 an impassable barrier of fire. They bounded, they fought, 
 they screamed, they tore; they ran howling round and 
 round the circle; they made desperate leaps upwards 
 through the blaze ; when flung back, they fell, only to fast- 
 en their fangs in each other, and with their parching jaws 
 bathed in blood die raging. I looked anxiously to see 
 whether any human being was involved in this fearful 
 catastrophe; but, to my relief, I could see none. The 
 keepers and attendants had obviously escaped. As I ex- 
 pressed my gladness, I was startled by a loud cry from my 
 guide, the first sound that I had heard him utter. He 
 pointed to the opposite side of the amphitheatre. There 
 indeed sat an object of melancholy interest; a man who 
 had either been unable to escape, or had determined to die. 
 Escape was now impossible. He sat in desperate calmness 
 on his funeral pile. He was a gigantic Ethiopian slave, 
 entirely naked. He had chosen his place, as if in mockery, 
 on the imperial throne ; the fire was above him and around 
 him ; and under this tremendous canopy he gazed, without 
 the movement of a muscle, on the combat of the wild beasts 
 below; a solitary sovereign, with the whole tremendous 
 game played for himself, and inaccessible to the power of 
 man. 
 
 I was forced away from this absorbing spectacle ; and we 
 once more threaded the long and intricate streets of Rome. 
 As we approached the end of one of those bewildering 
 passages, scarcely wide enough for us to ride abreast, I was 
 startled by the sudden illumination of the tky immediately 
 above; and, rendered cautious by the experience of our 
 hazards, called to my companion to return. He pointed 
 behind me, and showed the fire bursting out in the houses 
 by which we had just galloped. I followed on. A crowcl 
 
8ALATHIEL. 151 
 
 that poured from the adjoining streets cut off our retreat. 
 Hundreds rapidly mounted on the houses in front, in the 
 hope, by throwing them down, to check the conflagration. 
 The obstacle once removed, we saw the source of the light 
 spectacle of horror ! The great prison of Rome, the 
 Lamartine, was on fire. 
 
 Never can I forget the sights and sounds the dismay 
 the hopeless agony the fury and frenzy that then over- 
 whelmed all hearts. The jailors had been forced to fly, 
 before they could loose the fetters, or open the cells, of 
 the prisoners. We saw those gaunt and woe-begone wretches 
 crowding to their casements, and imploring impossible 
 help ; clinging to the heated bars ; toiling with their im- 
 potent grasp to tear out the massive stones ; some hopelessly 
 wringing their hands ; some calling on the terrified specta- 
 tors, by every name of humanity, to save them ; some, vent- 
 ing their despair in execrations and blasphemies that made 
 the blood run cold; others, after many a wild effort to 
 break loose, dashing their heads against the walls, or stabbing 
 themselves. The people gave them outcry for outcry; but 
 the llame forbade approach. Before I could extricate my- 
 self from the multitude, a whirl of fiery ashes shot upwards 
 from the falling roof; the walls burst into a thousand 
 fragments ; and the huge prison, with all its miserable in- 
 mates, was a heap of embers ! 
 
 Exhausted as I was by this endless fatigue, and yet more 
 by the melancholy sights that surrounded every step, no 
 fatigue seemed to be felt by the singular being who governed 
 my movements. He sprang through the burning ruins 
 he plunged into the sulphurous smoke he never lost the 
 direction that he had first taken ; and though baffled and 
 forced to turn back a hundred times, he again rushed on his 
 track with the directness of an arrow. For me to make my 
 way back to the gates, would be even more difficult than to 
 push forward. My ultimate safety might be in following, 
 and I followed. To stand still, and to move, seemed equal- 
 ly perilous. 
 
 The streets, even with the improvements of Augustus 
 were still scarcely wider than the breadth of the little Vol- 
 scian carts that crowded them. They were crooked, long, 
 and obstructed by every impediment of a city built in haste 
 after the burning by the Gauls, and with no other plan 
 
152 SALATHIEL. 
 
 than the caprice of its hurried tenantry. The houses were 
 of immense height, chiefly wood, many roofed with thatch, 
 and all covered or cemented with pitch. The true surprise 
 is, that it had not been burned once a year, from the time 
 of it building. Nero, that hereditary concentration of vice, 
 of whose ancestor's yellow beard the Eoman orator said, 
 "No wonder that his beard was brass, when his mouth was 
 iron and his heart lead," the parricide and the prisoner, 
 might plausibly exonerate himself of an act which might 
 have been the deed of a drunken mendicant in any of the 
 fifty thousand hovels of this gigantic aggregate of every- 
 thing that could turn to flame. 
 
 We passed along through all the horrid varieties of 
 misery, guilt, and riot, that could find their place in a great 
 public calamity: groups gazing in woe on the wreck of 
 their fortunes in vapor and fire; groups plundering in the 
 midst of the flame; crowds of rioters, escaped felons, and 
 murderers exulting in the public ruin, and dancing and 
 drinking with Bacchanalian uproar ; gangs of robbers stab- 
 bing the fugitives, to strip them ; revenge, avarice, despair, 
 profligacy, let loose naked; undisguised demons, to swell 
 the wretchedness of this tremendous infliction upon a blood 
 covered empire. 
 
 Still we spurred on, our jaded horses at length sank 
 under us ; and leaving them to find their way into the field, 
 we struggled forward on foot. The air had hitherto been 
 calm, but now gusts began to rise, thunder growled, and the 
 signs of tempest thickened on. We gained an untouched 
 quarter of the city, and had explored our weary passage up 
 to the gates of a large patrician palace, when we were 
 startled by a broad sheet of flame rushing through the sky. 
 The storm was come in its rage. 
 
 The range of public magazines of wood, cordage, tar, and. 
 oil, in the valley between the Ccelian and Palatine Hills, 
 had at length been involved in the conflagration. All that 
 we had seen before, was darkness to the fierce splendor of 
 this burning. The tempest tore off the roofs, and swept 
 them, like floating islands of fire, through the sky, The 
 most distant quarters on which they fell were instantly 
 wrapped in flame. One broad mass, whirling from an 
 immense height, broke upon the palace before us. A cry 
 of terror was heard within. The palace was wrapped in 
 
SALATHIEL. 153 
 
 flame. My guide, then for the first time, lost his self-pos- 
 session. He staggered towards me with the appearance 
 of a man who had received a spear head in his bosom. L 
 caught him before he fell; but his head sank, his knees 
 bent under him, and his white lips quivered with unintel- 
 ligible sounds. I could distinguish only the words 
 "gone, gone forever." 
 
 The flame had already seized upon the principal floors of 
 the palace; and the volumes of smoke that poured through 
 every window and entrance rendered the attempt to save 
 those still within a work of extreme hazard. But ladders 
 were rapidly placed, ropes were flung, and the activity of 
 the attendants and retainers was boldly exerted, until all 
 were presumed to have been saved, and the building was 
 left to burn. My overwhelmed guide was lying on the 
 ground, when a sudden scream was heard, and a figure, in 
 the robes and with the rosy crown of a banquet, strange 
 contrast to her fearful situation, was seen flying from 
 window to window in the upper part of the mansion. It 
 was supposed that she had fainted in the first terror, and 
 been forgotten. The height, the fierceness of the flame, 
 which now completely mastered resistance; the volumes of 
 smoke that suffocated every man who approached, made the 
 chance of saving this unfortunate being utterly desperate, 
 in the opinion of the multitude. 
 
 I shuddered at the horrors of this desertion. I looked 
 round at my companion; he was kneeling, in helpless 
 agony, with his hands lifted up to heaven. Another scream, 
 wilder than ever, pierced my senses. I seized an axe from 
 one of the domestics, caught a ladder from another, and 
 in a paroxysm of hope, fear, and pity, scaled the burning 
 wall. A shout from below followed me. 
 
 I entered at the first window that I could reach. All 
 before me was cloud. I rushed on, struggled, stumbled over 
 furniture and fragments of all kinds; fell, rose again, 
 found myself trampling upon precious things, plate and 
 crystal ; and still, axe in hand, forced my way. I at length 
 reached the apartment where I had seen the figure it had 
 vanished ! 
 
 A strange superstition of childhood, a thought that I 
 might have been lured by some spirit of evil into this place 
 pf ruin, suddenly came on me. I stopped, to gather my 
 
154 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 faculties. I leaned against one of the pillars it was hot ; 
 the floor shook and cracked under my tread; the walls 
 heaved, the flame hissed below, while overhead roared the 
 whirlwind, and burst the thunder-peal. 
 
 My brain was fevered by agitation and fatigue. The 
 golden lamps still burning; the long tables disordered, yet 
 glittering with the ornaments of patrician luxury; the 
 Tyrian couches ; the scarlet canopy that covered the whole 
 range of the tables, and gave the hall the aspect of an im- 
 perial pavilion, partially torn down in the confusion of the 
 flight, all assumed to me a horrid and bewildering splendor. 
 The smokes were already rising through the crevices of the 
 floor; a huge volume of yellow vapor slowly wreathed and 
 arched round the chair at the head of the banquet table. I 
 could have imagined a fearful lord of the feast under that 
 cloudy veil ! Everything round me was marked with pre- 
 ternatural fear, magnificence, and ruin. 
 
 A low groan broke my momentous reverie. I heard the 
 broken words, "Oh, bitter fruit of disobedience ! Oh, my 
 father ! Oh, my mother ! shall I never see you again ? 
 For one crime I am doomed. Eternal mercy, let my crime 
 be washed away ! let my spirit ascend pure ! Farewell, 
 mother, sister, father, husband !" With the last word I 
 heard a fall, as if the spirit had left the body. 
 
 I sprang towards the sound : I met but the solid wall. 
 "Horrible illusion !" I cried "am I mad, or the victim of 
 the powers of darkness?" I tore away the hangings a 
 door was before me. I burst it through with a blow of the 
 axe, and saw stretched on the floor, and insensible 
 Salome ! 
 
 I caught my child in my arms; I bathed her forehead 
 with my tears; I besought her to look up, to give some 
 sign of life, to hear the full forgiveness of my breaking 
 heart. She looked not, answered not, breathed not ! To 
 make a last effort for her life, I carried her into the banquet- 
 room. But the fire had forced its way there; the storm 
 had carried the flame through the long galleries ; and spires 
 of lurid light already darting through the doors, gave fear- 
 ful evidence that the last stone of the palace must soon go 
 down. 
 
 I bore my unhappy daughter towards the window; but 
 the height was deadly; no gesture could be*seen through 
 
8ALATHIEL. 155 
 
 the piles of smoke ; end the help of man was in vain. To 
 my increased misery, the current of air revived Salome, at 
 the instant when I hoped that by insensibility she would 
 escape the final pang. She breathed, stood, and, opening 
 her eyes, fixed on me the vacant stare of one scarcely roused 
 from sleep. Still clasped in my arms, she gazed again ; but 
 my wild face, covered with dust, my half-burnt hair, the axe 
 gleaming in my hand, terrified her ; she uttered a scream, 
 and darted away from me headlong into the centre of the 
 burning. I rushed after her, calling on her name. A 
 column of fire shot up between us; I felt the floor sink; 
 all was then suffocation I struggled and fell. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 I AWOKE, with a sensation of pain in every limb. A 
 female voice was singing a faint song near me. But the 
 past was like a dream. I involuntarily looked down for the 
 gulf on which I had trod I looked upward for the burning 
 rafters. I saw nothing but an earthen floor, and a low 
 roof hung with dried grapes and herbs. I uttered a cry. 
 The singer approached me. But there was nothing in her 
 aspect to nurture a diseased imagination; she was an old 
 and emaciated creature, who yet rejoiced in my restoration. 
 She in turn called her husband, a venerable Jew, whose first 
 act was to offer thanksgiving to the God of Israel, for the 
 safety of a chief of his nation. But, to my inquiries for the 
 fate of my child, he could give no answer ; he had discovered 
 me among the ruins of the palace of the ^Emilii, to which 
 he with many of his countrymen had been attracted, with 
 the object of collecting whatever remnants of furniture 
 might be left by the flames. I had fallen by the edge of a 
 fountain, which extinguished the fire in its vicinage, and I 
 was found breathing. During three days I had lain in- 
 sensible. The Jew now went out, and brought back with 
 him some of the elders of our people, who, notwithstanding 
 the decree of the Emperor Claudius, had remained in Rome, 
 though an increased privacy. I was carried to their house 
 of assemblage, concealed among groves and vineyards 
 beyond the gates; and attended to with a care which might 
 cure all things but the wounds of the mind. On the great 
 
156 SALATHIEL. 
 
 object of my solicitude, the fate of my Salome, I could 
 obtain no relief. I wandered over the site of the palace ; it 
 was now a mass of ashes and charcoal ; its ruins had been 
 probed by hundreds; but search for even a trace of what 
 would have been to me dearer than a mountain of gold, was 
 in vain. 
 
 The conflagration continued for six days ; and every day 
 of the number gave birth to some monstrous report of its 
 origin. Of the fourteen districts of Home, but four re- 
 mained. Thousands had lost their lives, tens of thousands 
 were utterly undone; the whole empire shook under the 
 blow. Then came the still deeper horror. 
 
 Fear makes the individual feeble, but it makes the multi- 
 tude ferocious. A universal cry arose for revenge. Great 
 public misfortunes give the opportunity that the passions 
 of men and sects love ; and the fiercest crimes of selfishness 
 are justified under the name of retribution. 
 
 But the full calamity burst on the Christians, then too 
 new to have fortified themselves in the national prejudices, 
 if they would have suffered the alliance ; too poor to reckon 
 on any powerful protectors; and too uncompromising to 
 palliate their scorn of the whole public system of morals, 
 philosophy and religion. The emperor, the priesthood, and 
 the populace conspired against them, and they were ordered 
 to the slaughter. I too had ray stimulants to hatred. 
 Where was I? in exile, in desperate hazard; I had been 
 torn from home, robbed of my child, made miserable by the 
 fear of apostasy in my house ; and by whom was this com- 
 prehensive evil done? The name of Christian was gall to 
 me. I heard of the popular vengeance, and called it jus- 
 tice ; I saw the distant fires in which the Christians were con- 
 suming, and calculated how many each night of those hor- 
 rors would abstract from the guilty number. Man becomes 
 cruel by the sight of cruelty ; and when thousands and hun- 
 dreds of thousands were shouting for vengeance; when 
 every face looked fury, and every tongue was wild with some 
 new accusation ; when the great and the little, the philoso- 
 pher and the ignorant, raised up one roar of reprobation 
 against the Christian, was the solitary man of mercy to be 
 looked for in one bleeding from head to foot with wrongs 
 irreparable ? 
 
 On one of those dreadful nights, I was gazing from the 
 
8ALAT3IEL. 157 
 
 house-top on the fire forcing its way through the remain- 
 ing quarters, the melancholy gleams through the country 
 showing the extent of the flight; and in the midst of the 
 blackened and dreary wastes of Rome, the spots of livid 
 flame where the Christians were perishing at the pile ; when 
 I was summoned to a consultation below. 
 
 A Jew had just brought an imperial edict proclaiming 
 pardon of all offences, to the discoverer of Christians. I 
 would not have purchased my life by the life of a dog. But 
 my safety was important to the Jewish cause, and I was 
 pressed on every side by arguments of the wisdom, nay, the 
 public duty of accepting freedom on any terms. And what 
 was to be the price ? the life of criminals long obnoxious to 
 the laws, and now stained beyond mercy. I loathed delay ; 
 I loathed Rome ; I was wild to return to the great cause of 
 my country, which never could have a fairer hope than now. 
 An emissary was sent out; money soon effected the dis- 
 covery of a Christian assemblage: I appeared before the 
 praetor with my documents, and brought back in my hand 
 the imperial pardon, given with the greater good-will, as 
 the assemblage chanced to comprehend the chiefs of the 
 heres} r . They were seized, ordered forthwith to the pile, 
 and I was ordered to be present at this completion of my 
 national service. 
 
 The executions were in the gardens of the imperial palace 
 which had been thrown open by Nero, for the double pur- 
 pose of popularity and of indulging himself with the dis- 
 play of death at the slightest personal inconvenience. The 
 crowd was prodigious, and to gratify the greatest possible 
 number at once, those murders were carried on in different 
 parts of the gardens. In the vineyard, a certain portion 
 were to be crucified ; in the orangery, another portion were 
 to be burnt; in the pleasure-ground, another were to be 
 torn by lions and tigers: gladiators were to be let loose; 
 and when the dusk came on the whole of the space was to 
 be lighted by human torches, Christians wrapped in folds 
 of linen covered with pitch and bitumen, and thus burning 
 down from the head to the ground. 
 
 I was horror-struck; but escape was now impossible, 
 and I must go through the whole hideous round. With 
 my flesh quivering, my ears ringing, my eyes dim, I was 
 forced to see miserable beings, men, stay women, nay in- 
 
158 8ALATBIEL. 
 
 fants, sewed up in skins of beasts, and hunted and torn to 
 pieces by dogs; old men, whose hoary hairs might have 
 demanded reverence of savages, scourged, racked, and nail- 
 ed to the trees to die; lovely young females, creatures of 
 guileless hearts and innocent beauty, flung on flaming scaf- 
 folds. And this was the work of man, civilized man, in the 
 highest civilization of the arts, the manners, and the learn- 
 ing of the pagan world. 
 
 But the grand display was prepared for the time when 
 those Christians who had been denounced on my discovery 
 were to be executed; an exhibition at which the emperor 
 himself announced his intention to be present. The great 
 Circus was no more; but a temporary amphitheatre had 
 been erected, in which the usual games were exhibited 
 during the early part of the day. At the hour of my 
 arrival, the low bank circling this immense inclosure was 
 filled with the first names of Rome, knights, patricians, 
 senators, military tribunes, consuls; the emperor alone 
 was wanting to complete the representative majesty of the 
 empire. I was to form a part of the ceremony, and the 
 guard who had me in charge cleared the way to a con- 
 spicuous place, where my national dress fixed every eye on 
 me. Several Christians had perished before my arrival. 
 Their remains lay on the ground, and in their midst stood 
 the man who was to be the next victim. By what influence 
 I know not, but never did I see a human being who made 
 on me so deep an impression. I have him before me at this 
 instant. 
 
 The victims had been generally offered life, for recanta- 
 tion ; and this man was giving his reply. I see the figure ; 
 low, yet with an air of nobleness; stooped a little with 
 venerable age ; but the countenance, full of life, and marked 
 with all the traits of intellectual power, the strongly aqui- 
 line nose, the bold lip, the large and rapid eye; the whole 
 man conveying the idea of an extraordinary permanence of 
 early vigor under the weight of labor or of years. Even 
 the hair was thick and black, with scarcely a touch of silver. 
 If the place and time were Athens, and the era of Demos- 
 thenes, I should have said that Demosthenes stood before 
 me. The vivid action ; the flashing rapidity with which ho 
 seized a new idea, and compressed it to his purpose; the 
 impetuous argument that, throwing off the formality of 
 
SALATB1EL. 159 
 
 logic, smote with the strength of a new fact, were Demos- 
 thenic. Even a certain infirmity of utterance, and an 
 occasional slight difficulty of words, added to the likeness; 
 but there was a hallowed glance, and a solemn yet tender 
 reach of thought, interposed among those intense appeals, 
 that asserted the sacred superiority of the subject and the 
 man. He was already speaking, when I reached the scene 
 of terrors. I can give but an outline of his language. 
 
 He pointed to the headless bodies around him. 
 
 "For what have these my brethren died? Answer me, 
 priests of Eome; what temple did they force what altar 
 overthrow what insults offer to the slightest of your public 
 celebrations ? Judges of Eome, what offence did they com- 
 mit against the public peace? Consuls, where were they 
 found in rebellion against the Eoman majesty ? People of 
 Eome, who among your thousands can charge one of these 
 holy dead with extortion, impurity, or violence ; can charge 
 them with anything but the patience that bore wrong with- 
 out a murmur, and the charity that answered torture only 
 by prayer?" 
 
 He then touched upon the nature of his faith. 
 
 "Do I stand here demanding to be believed for opinions ? 
 No; but for facts. I have seen the sick made whole, the 
 lame walk, the blind receive their sight, by the mere name 
 of Him whom you crucified. I have seen men, once 
 ignorant of all languages but their own, speaking with the 
 language of every nation under heaven; the still greater 
 wonder, of the timid defying all fear, the unlearned instant- 
 ly made wise in the mysteries of things divine and human, 
 the peasant putting to shame the learned awing the proud 
 enlightening the darkened ; alike in the courts of kings, 
 before the furious people, and in the dungeon armed with 
 an irrepressible spirit of knowledge, reason, and truth, that 
 confounded their adversaries. I have seen the still greater 
 wonder of the renewed heart ; the impure suddenly abjuring 
 vice; the covetous, the cruel, the faithless, the godless 
 gloriously changed into the holy, the gentle, the faithful, 
 worshippers of the true God in spirit and in truth the con- 
 quest of the passions which defied your philosophers, your 
 tribunals, your rewards, and your terrors, achieved in the 
 one mighty name. Those are facts, things which I have 
 seen with these eyes; and who that had seen them could 
 
1GO SALATHIEL, 
 
 doubt that the finger of God was there? Dared I refuse 
 ray belief to the divine mission of the Being by whom, and 
 even in memory of whom, things baffling the proudest 
 human means were wrought before my senses ? Irresistibly 
 compelled by facts to believe that Christ was sent by God, 
 I was with equal force compelled to believe in the doctrines 
 declared by that glorious revealer of the King alike of quick 
 and dead. And thus I stand before you this day, at the 
 close of a long life of labor and love, a Christian." 
 
 This appeal to the understanding, divested as it was of 
 all studied ornament, was listened to by the immense mul- 
 titude with the most unbroken interest. It was delivered 
 with the strong simplicity of conviction. He then spoke of 
 the Founder of his faith. 
 
 "Men may be insane for opinions ; but who can be insane 
 for facts? The coming of Christ was prophesied a thou- 
 sand years before ! From the beginning of his ministry, he 
 lived wholly before the eyes of mankind. His life corres- 
 ponds with the prophecies in circumstances totally beyond 
 human conjecture, contrivance, or power. The virgin 
 mother, the village in which he was born, the lowliness of 
 his cradle, the worship paid to him there, the hazard of his 
 life all were predicted. Could the infant have shaped 
 the accomplishment of those predictions? The death that 
 he should die, the hands by which it was to be inflicted, even 
 the draught that he should drink, the raiment that he 
 should be clothed in, and the sepulchre in which he 
 should be laid, were predicted. Could the man have shaped 
 their accomplishment? The time of his resting in the 
 tomb, his resurrection, his ascent to heaven, the sending of 
 the Holy Spirit after he was gone ; all were predicted ! 
 all were beyond human collusion, human power, even 
 beyond human thought, all were accomplished ! Is not 
 here the finger of God ? 
 
 "Those things, too, were universally known to the nation 
 most competent to detect collusion. Did Christ come to 
 Rome, where every new religion finds adherents, and where 
 all pretensions might be advanced without fear; where a 
 deceiver might have quoted prophecies that never existed, 
 and vaunted of wonders done, where there was no eye to 
 detect them? No! his life was spent in Judea. He made 
 his appeal to the Scriptures, in a country where they we.ro 
 
SAL AT HI EL. 161 
 
 in the hands of the nation. His miracles were wrought 
 before the eyes of a priesthood that watched him step by 
 step ; his doctrines were spoken, not to the mingled multi- 
 tude of man, holding a thousand varieties of opinion, and 
 careless of all, but to an exclusive race, subtle in their in- 
 quiries, eager in their zeal, and proud of their peculiar 
 possession of divine knowledge. 
 
 "Yet, against his life, his miracles, or his doctrine, what 
 charge could they bring? None. There is not a single 
 stigma on the purity of his conduct; the power of his 
 wonder-working control over man and nature ; the holiness, 
 wisdom, and grandeur of his views of Providence; the 
 truth, charity, and meekness of his counsels to man. Their 
 single source of hatred was the pride of worldly hearts, that 
 expected a king where they were to have found a teacher. 
 
 "They crucified him; he died in prayer, that his mur- 
 derers might be forgiven; and his prayer was mightily 
 answered. He had scarcely risen to his eternal throne, 
 when thousands believed, and were forgiven. To him be 
 the glory, forever and ever !" 
 
 All this was heard in wonder. I could see eyes lifted to 
 heaven, and lips as if moved in prayer ! 
 
 "Compare him with your legislators. He gives the spirit 
 of all law in a single sentence 'Do unto others as you 
 would they should do unto you.' Compare him with your 
 priesthood. He gives a single prayer, containing the sub- 
 stance of all that man can rationally implore of Heaven. 
 Compare him with your moralists. He lays the foundation 
 of virtue in love to God ! Compare him with your sages. 
 He leads a life of privation without a murmur : he dies a 
 death of shame, desertion, and agony; and his last breath 
 is mercy ! Compare him with your conquerors. Without 
 the shedding of a drop of blood, he has already conquered 
 hosts that would have resisted all the swords of earth ; hosts 
 of stubborn passions, cherished vices, guilty perversions of 
 the powers and faculties of man. In proof of all, look on 
 these glorious dead, whom I shall join before the set of 
 yonder sun. Yes, martyrs of God ! ye were his conquests ; 
 and ye too are more than conquerors, through Him that 
 loved us, and gave himself for us. But a triumph shall 
 come, magnificent and terrible, when all eyes shall behold 
 Him; and the tribes of the earth, even they who pierced 
 ij shall mourn." 
 
162 8ALATBIEL. 
 
 Some raged ; more listened ; many wept. He spoke with 
 still loftier energy. 
 
 "Then rejoice, ye dead! for ye shall rise; ye shall be 
 clothed with glory; ye shall be as the angels, bright and 
 powerful, immortal, intellectual kings ! 'For though worms 
 destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.' * He 
 paused as if he saw the vision. 
 
 The sky was cloudless; the sun was in the west, but 
 shining in his broadest beams ; the whole space before me 
 was flooded with his light; when, as I gazed upon the 
 martyr, I saw a gleam issue from his upturned face; it 
 increased to brightness, to radiance, to an intense lustre, 
 that made the sunlight utterly pale. All was astonishment 
 in the amphitheatre, but all was awe. The old man seemed 
 unconscious of the wonder that invested him. He con- 
 tinued with his open hands lifted up, and his eyes fixed on 
 heaven. The glory spread over his form; and he stood 
 before us robed in an effulgence which shot from him, like 
 a living fount of splendor, round the colossal circle. Yet 
 the blaze, though it looked the very essence of light, was 
 strangely translucent; we could see with undazzled eyes 
 every feature ; and whether it was the working of my over- 
 whelmed mind, or a true change, the countenance appeared 
 to have passed at once from age to youth. A lofty joy, a 
 look of supernal grandeur, a magnificent yet ethereal 
 beauty, had transformed the features of the old man into 
 the likeness of the winged sons of Immortality ! 
 
 He spoke again ; and the first sound of his voice thrilled 
 through every bosom, and made every man start from his 
 seat. 
 
 "Men and brethren ! it is the desire of your Father, that 
 all should be saved Jew and Gentile alike ; for with Him 
 there is no respect of persons. He is the Father of all ! 
 Christianity is not a philosophic dream, but a divine com- 
 mand the summons of the God of gods, that you should 
 accept His mercy the opening of the gates of an eternal 
 world ! It is not a call to the practice of barren virtue, but 
 a declaration of reward mightier than the imagination of 
 man can conceive. Would you be immortals would you 
 be glorious as the stars of heaven would you possess 
 eternal faculties of happiness, supremacy, and knowledge ? 
 A,gk for forgiveness of your evil, in the name of Jesus of 
 
SALATHIEL. 163 
 
 Nazareth! What is easier than the price? what more 
 transcendent than the reward ? Who shall tell the limit of 
 the risen soul? What resistless power what more than 
 regal majesty what celestial beauty may be in his frame ! 
 what expansion of intellect what overflowing tides of new 
 sensation what shapes of loveliness what radiant stores 
 of thought, and mysteries of exhaustless knowledge, may be 
 treasured for him ! what endless ascent through new ranks 
 of being, each as much more glorious than the last, as the 
 risen spirit is above man ! For what can be the limit to 
 the power of God to make those happy, glorious, and 
 mighty, whom He will? For what can be the bound to 
 the fellow-heirs with Christ, their leader in trial, their 
 leader in triumph? Omnipotence for their protector, for 
 their friend, for their father! He who gave to us his 
 own Son, will He not with Him give us all things ?" 
 
 The voice sank into prayer. 
 
 "King of kings ! if through a long life, I have labored 
 in thy cause, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in 
 perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in 
 perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the 
 sea, in perils among false brethren ; in weariness and pain- 
 fulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in cold 
 and nakedness ; thine alone be the praise, who hast brought 
 me through them all, with a strong hand and an outstretch- 
 ed arm. And now, Lord ! thou who shalt change my vile 
 body into the likeness of thy glorious body, be with thy 
 servant in this last hour ! Saviour and God ! receive my 
 spirit ; that where Thou art, even I may be with Thee !" 
 
 He was silent : the splendor gradually passed away from 
 his form; and he knelt upon the sand, bowing down his 
 neck to receive the blow. But to lift a hand against such 
 a being seemed now an act of profanation. The axe-bearer 
 dared not approach. The spectators sat hushed in involun- 
 tary homage. Not a word, not a gesture, broke the silence 
 of involuntary veneration. 
 
 At length, a flourish of distant trumpets was heard. 
 Cavalry galloped forward, announcing the emperor; and 
 Nero, habited as a charioteer in the games, drove his gilded 
 car into the arena. The Christian had risen ; and with his 
 hands clasped upon his breast, was awaiting death. Nero 
 cast the headsman an execration at his tardiness; the axe 
 
164 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 swept round ; and when I glanced again, the old man lay 
 beside his brethren ! 
 
 This man I had sacrificed. My heart smote me : I would 
 have fled the place of blood, but I was in the midst of 
 guards: more of my victims were to be slain ; and I must be 
 the shrinking witness of all. The emperor's arrival com- 
 menced the grand display. He took his place under the 
 curtains of the royal pavilion. The dead were removed; 
 perfumes were scattered through the air; rose-water was 
 sprinkled from silver tubes upon the exhausted multitude ; 
 music resounded; incense burned; and, in the midst of 
 those preparations of luxury, the lion-combat began. 
 
 A portal of the arena opened, and the combatant, with a 
 mantle thrown over his face and figure, was led in, sur- 
 rounded by soldiery. The lion roared, and ramped against 
 the bars of its den at the sight. The guard put a sword 
 and buckler into the hands of the Christian, and he was left 
 alone. He drew the mantle from his face, and bent a slow 
 and firm look round the amphitheatre. His fine counte- 
 nance and lofty bearing raised a universal sound of admira- 
 tion. He might have stood for an Apollo encountering the 
 Python. His eye at last turned on mine. Could I be- 
 lieve my senses ? Constantius was before me ! 
 
 All my rancor vanished. In the moment before I could 
 have struck the betrayer to the heart. But, to see him 
 hopelessly doomed; the man whom I had honored for his 
 noble qualities, whom I had even loved, whose crime was 
 at worst but the crime of giving way to the strongest temp- 
 tation that can bewilder man; to see this noble creature 
 flung to the savage beast, torn piecemeal before my eyes 
 I would have cried to earth and heaven to save him. But 
 my tongue cleaved to the roof of my mouth. I would have 
 thrown myself at the feet of Nero; but I sat like a man 
 of stone, pale, paralyzed the beating of my pulses stopped 
 my eyes alone alive. 
 
 The gate of the den was now thrown back, and the lion 
 rushed in with a roar, and a bound that bore him half 
 across the arena. I saw the sword glitter in the air ; when 
 it waved again, it was covered with blood, and a howl 
 told that the blow had been driven home. The lion, one 
 of the largest from Numidia, and made furious by thirst 
 and hunger, an animal of prodigious power, crouched for 
 
BALATHIEL. 165 
 
 an instant as if to make sure of his prey, crept a few- 
 paces onward, and sprang at the victim's throat. He was 
 met by a second wound; but his impulse was irresistible, 
 and Constantius was flung upon the ground. A cry of 
 natural horror rang round the amphitheatre. The struggle 
 was now for instant life or death. They rolled over each 
 other; the lion reared on its hind feet, and, with gnashing 
 teeth and distended talons, plunged on the man ; again they 
 fell and rose together. Anxiety was now at its wildest 
 height. The sword swung round the champion's head in 
 bloody circles. The hand of Constantius had grasped the 
 lion's mane, and the furious bounds of the monster could 
 not loose his hold; but his strength was evidently giving 
 way; he still struck terrible blows, but each was weaker 
 than the one before; till, collecting his whole force for a 
 last effort, he darted one mighty blow into the lion's throat, 
 and sank. The savage yelled, and spouting out blood, fled 
 bellowing round the arena. But the hand still grasped the 
 mane ; and his conqueror was dragged whirling through the 
 dust at his heels. A uriversal outcry now arose, to save 
 him, if he were not already dead. But the lion, though 
 bleeding from the vein, was still too terrible; and all 
 shrank from the hazard. At length the grasp gave way, 
 and the body lay motionless upon the ground. 
 
 What happened for some moments after I know not. 
 There was a struggle at the portal; a female forced her 
 way through the guards, rushed in alone, and flung her- 
 self upon the victim. The sight of a new prey roused the 
 lion; he tore the ground with his talons; he lashed his 
 streaming sides with his tail ; he lifted up his mane, and 
 bared his fangs. But he came no longer with a bound ; he 
 dreaded the sword, and crept, snuffing the blood on the 
 sand, and stealing round the body in circuits still dimin- 
 ishing. 
 
 The confusion in the vast assemblage was now extreme. 
 Voices innumerable called for aid. Women screamed and 
 fainted. Even the hard hearts of the populace, accustomed 
 as they were to the sacrifice of life, were roused to honest 
 curses. The guards grasped their arms, and waited but 
 for a sign of mercy from the emperor. But Nero gave no 
 sign. I glanced upon the woman's face. It was Salome ! 
 I sprang upon my feet. I called on her name ; I implored 
 
166 BALATHIEL. 
 
 her to fly from that place of death, to come to my helpless 
 arms, to think of the agonies of all who loved her. 
 
 She had raised the head of Constantius on her knee, and 
 was wiping the pale visage with her hair. At the sound of 
 my voice she looked up, and calmly casting back the locks 
 from her forehead, fixed her gaze upon me. She still knelt ; 
 one hand supported the head, with the other she pointed 
 to it, as her only answer. I again adjured her. The 
 was the silence of death among the thousands round me. 
 A sudden fire flashed into her eye her cheek burned. She 
 waved her hand, with an air of superb sorrow. 
 
 "I am come to die," she uttered, in a lofty tone. "This 
 bleeding body was my husband. I have no father. The 
 world contains to me but this clay in my arms. Yet," and 
 she kissed the ashy lips before her, "yet, my Constantius, 
 it was to save that father that your generous heart defied 
 the peril of this hour. It was to redeem him from the 
 hand of evil, that you abandoned our quiet home ! yes, 
 cruel father, here lies the preserver who threw open your 
 dungeon, who led you safe through conflagration, who, to 
 the last moment of hib liberty, only thought how he might 
 protect you." Tears at length fell in floods from her 
 eyes. "But," said she, in a tone of wild power, "he was be- 
 trayed; and may the Power whose thunders avenge the 
 cause of His people, pour down just retribution upon the 
 head that dared " 
 
 I heard my own condemnation about to be unconscious- 
 ly pronounced by the lips of my child. Wound up to the. 
 last degree of suffering, I tore my way, leaped on the bars 
 before me, and plunged into the arena by her side. The 
 height was stunning; I tottered forward a few paces, and 
 fell. The lion gave a roar, and sprang upon me. I lay 
 helpless under him I felt his fiery breath I saw his 
 lurid eye glaring I heard the gnashing of his white 
 fangs above me 
 
 An exulting shout arose. I saw him reel as if struck 
 gore filled his jaws. Another mighty blow was driven 
 to his heart. He sprang high in air with a howl. Ho 
 dropped he was dead ! The amphitheatre thundered 
 with acclamation. 
 
 With Salome clinging to my bosom, Constantius raised 
 me from the ground. The roar of the lion had roused him 
 
8ALATHIEL. 167 
 
 from his swoon, and two blows saved me. The falchion 
 was broken in the heart of the monster. The whole multi- 
 tude stood up, supplicating for our lives, in the name of 
 filial piety and heroism. Nero, devil as he was, dared not 
 resist the strength of the popular feeling: he waved a 
 signal to the guards ; the portal was opened ; and my chil- 
 dren, sustaining my feeble steps, and showered with gar- 
 lands and ornaments from innumerable hands, slowly led 
 me from the arena. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 THE first rage of the persecution was at an end; the 
 popular thirst of blood was satiated. The natural admira- 
 tion that follows fortitude and innocence, and the natural 
 hatred that consigns a tyrant to the execration of his time 
 and of posterity, found their way ; and Nero dared murder 
 no more. I voluntarily shared the prison of Constantius 
 and my child. Its doors were now set open. The liber- 
 ality of my people supplied the means of returning to 
 Judea, and we hastened down the Tiber, in the first vessel 
 that spread her sails from this throne of desolation. 
 
 The chances that had brought us together were soon 
 explained. Salome, urged to desperation by the near ap- 
 proach of her marriage, and solicited to save herself from 
 the perjury of vowing her love to one unpossessed of her 
 heart, had flown with Constantius to Caesarea. The only 
 person in their confidence was the domestic, who betrayed 
 me into the hands of the procurator, and who assisted them 
 only that he might lure me from home. 
 
 At Caesarea they were wedded, and remained in conceal- 
 ment, under the protection of the young Septimius. My 
 transmission to Rome struck them with terror, and Con- 
 stantius instantly embarked, to save me by his Italian 
 influence. The attempt was surrounded with peril; but 
 Salome would not be left behind. Disguised, to avoid my 
 possible refusal of life at his hands, he followed me, step 
 by step. There were many of our people among the attend- 
 ants, and even in the higher offices, of the court. The em- 
 press had, in her reproaches to Nero, disclosed the new 
 barbarity of my sentence. No time was to be lost. Con- 
 
168 SALATHIEL. 
 
 stantius, at the imminent hazard of life, entered the palace. 
 He saw the block already erected in the garden before the 
 window, where Nero sat inventing a melody which was to 
 grace my departure. The confusion of the fire offered the 
 only escape. I was witness to his consternation, when he 
 made so many fruitless efforts to penetrate to the place 
 where Salome remained, in the care of his relatives. When 
 I scaled the burning mansion, he desperately followed, lo.-i 
 his way among the ruins, and was giving up all hope, when, 
 wrapped in fire and smoke, Salome fell at his feet. He bore 
 her to another mansion of his family. It had given shelter 
 to the chief Christians. They were seized. His young wife 
 scorned to survive Constantius; and chance, and my own 
 fortunate desperation, alone saved me from seeing their 
 martyrdom. 
 
 We returned to Judea. In the first embrace of my 
 family all was forgotten and forgiven. My brother re- 
 joiced in Salome's happiness ; and even her rejected kins- 
 man, through all his reluctance, acknowledged the claims 
 of him to the daughter's hand who had saved the life of 
 the father. 
 
 What perception of health is ever so exquisite as when 
 we first rise from the bed of sickness? What enjoyment 
 of the heart is so full of delight as that which follows ex- 
 treme suffering? I had but just escaped the most formid- 
 able personal hazards ; I had escaped the still deeper suffer- 
 ing of seeing ruin fall on beings whom I would have died 
 to rescue. Salome's heart, overflowing with happiness, 
 gave new brightness to her eyes, and new animation to her 
 lovely form. She danced with involuntary joy; she sang, 
 she laughed ; her fancy kindled into a thousand sparklings. 
 Beautiful being ! in my visions thou art still before me. I 
 clasp thee to my widowed heart, and hear thy sweet voice, 
 sweeter than the fountain in the desert to the pilgrim, 
 cheering me in the midst of my more than pilgrimage! 
 
 An accession of opulence gave the only increase, if in- 
 crease could be given, to the happiness that seemed within 
 my reach. The year of Jubilee arrived. Abolished as the 
 chief customs of Judea had been by the weakness and guilt 
 of idolatrous kings and generations, they were still observed 
 by all who honored the faith of their fathers. The law 
 of Jubilee was sacred in our mountains : it was the law of 
 a wisdom and benevolence above man. 
 
SALATHIEL. 169 
 
 Its peculiar adaptation of Israel, its provision for the 
 virtue and happiness of the individual, and its safeguard 
 of the public strength and constitutional integrity, were 
 unrivalled amongst the finest ordinances of the ancient 
 world. 
 
 On the entrance of the Israelites into Canaan, the land 
 was divided, by the inspired command, among the tribes, 
 according to their numbers. To each family a portion was 
 assigned, as a gift from Heaven. The gift was to be in- 
 alienable. The estate might be sold for a period; but, at 
 the fiftieth year, in the evening of the day of Atonement, 
 in the month of Tisri, the sound of the trumpets from the 
 Sanctuary, echoed by thousands of voices from every moun- 
 tain-top, proclaimed the Jubilee. Then returned, without 
 purchase, every family to its original possessions. All the 
 more abject degradations of poverty, the wearing out of 
 families, the hopeless ruin, were obviated by this great law. 
 The most undone being in the limits of Judea had still a 
 hold in the land. His ruin could not be final, perhaps 
 could not extend beyond a few years ; in the last extremity 
 he could not be scorned, as one whose birthright was ex- 
 tinguished ; the Jubilee was to raise him up, and place the 
 outcast in the early rank of the sons of Israel. All the 
 higher feelings were cherished by this incomparable hope. 
 The man, conscious of his future possession, retained the 
 honorable pride of property under the sternest privations. 
 The time was hurrying on, when he should stand on an 
 equality with mankind, when his worn spirit should begin 
 the world again with fresh vigor, if he were young; or, 
 when he should sit under the vine and the fig-tree of his 
 fathers, if his age refused again to struggle for the distinc- 
 tions of the world. 
 
 The agrarian law of Borne and Sparta, feeble efforts to 
 establish this true foundation of personal and political 
 vigor, showed at once the natural impulse, and the weak 
 performance, of human wisdom. The Eoman plunged the 
 people in furious dissensions, and perished almost in its 
 birth. The Spartan was secured for a time, only by bar- 
 barian prohibitions of money and commerce a code which 
 raised an iron wall against civilization, turned the people 
 into a perpetual soldiery, and finally, by the mere result 
 of perpetual war, overthrew liberty, dominion, and name. 
 
170 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 The Jubilee was for a peculiar people, restricted by a 
 divine interposition from increase beyond the original 
 number. But who shall say how far the same benevolent 
 interposition might not have been extended to all nations, 
 if they had revered ihe original compact of Heaven with 
 man ? how far throughout the earth the provisions for each 
 man's wants might not have been secured the overwhelm- 
 ing superabundance of portionless life that fills the world 
 with crime, might not have been restrained ; how far des- 
 potism, that growth of desperate abjectness of the under- 
 standing and gross corruption of the senses, might not have 
 been repelled by manly knowledge, and native virtue? 
 But the time may come. 
 
 In the first allotments of the territory, ample domains 
 had been appointed for the princes and leaders of the 
 tribes. One of those princedoms now returned to me, and 
 I entered upon the inheritance of the leaders of Naphtali, 
 a large extent of hill and valley, rich with corn, olive, and 
 vine. The antiquity of possession gave a kind of hallowed 
 and monumental interest to the soil. I was master of its 
 wealth; but I indulged a loftier feeling, in the recollec- 
 tion of those who had trod the palace and the plain be- 
 fore me. Every chamber bore the trace of those whom the 
 history of my country had taught me to reverence; and 
 often, when in some of the fragrant evenings of summer 
 I have flung myself among the thick beds of bloom, that 
 spread spontaneously over my hills, the spirits of the loved 
 and honored seemed to gather round me. I saw once more 
 the matron gravity, and the virgin grace; even the more 
 remote generations, those great progenitors who with David 
 fought the Philistine; the solemn chieftains who with 
 Joshua followed the ark of the covenant through toil and 
 battle into the promised land; the sainted sages who wit- 
 nessed the giving of the law, and worshipped Him who 
 spake in thunder from Sinai ; all moved before me, for all 
 had trod the very ground on which I gazed. Could I trans- 
 fer myself back to their time, on that spot I should stand 
 among a living circle of heroic and glorious beings, before 
 whose true glory the pomps of earth were vain ; the hearers 
 of the prophets themselves; the servants of the man of 
 miracle, the companions of tho friend of God; nay, dis- 
 tinction that surpasses human thought, themselves the 
 chosen of Heaven. 
 
SALATHIEL. 171 
 
 The cheering occupations of rural life were to be hence- 
 forth pursued on a scale more fitting my rank. I was the 
 chieftain of my tribe, the man by whose wisdom multi- 
 tudes were to be guided ; and by whose benevolence multi- 
 tudes were to be sustained. I felt that mingled sense of 
 rank and responsibility which, with the vain, the ignorant, 
 or the vicious, is the strongest temptation to excess; but, 
 with the honorable and intelligent, constitutes the most 
 pleasurable and the most elevated state of the human mind. 
 
 Yet what are the fortunes of man but a ship launched 
 on an element whose essence is restlessness The very 
 wind, without which we cannot move, gathers to a storm, 
 and we are undone ! The tyranny of our conquerors had, 
 for a few months, been paralyzed by the destruction of 
 Home. But the governor of Judea was not to be long 
 withheld, where plunder allured the most furious rapacity 
 that perhaps ever hungered in the heart of man. I was in 
 the midst of our harvest, surrounded with the fruitage of 
 the year, and enjoying the sights and sounds of patriarchal 
 life, when I received the formidable summons to present 
 myself again before Florus. Imprisonment and torture 
 were in the command. He had heard of my opulence, and 
 I knew how little his insolent cupidity would regard the 
 pardon under which I had returned. I determined to re- 
 tire into the mountains and defy him. 
 
 But the Roman plunderer had the activity of his country- 
 men. On the very night of my receiving the summons, I 
 was roused from sleep by the outcries of the retainers, 
 who in that season of heat lay in the open air round the 
 palace. I started from my bed, only to see, with astonish- 
 ment, the courtyards filled with cavalry, galloping in pur- 
 suit of the few peasants who still fought for their lord. 
 There was no time to be lost; the torches were already in 
 the hands of the soldiery, and I must be taken or burnt 
 alive. Constantius was instantly at my side. I ordered 
 the trumpet to be sounded on the hills, and we rushed 
 out together, spear in hand. The Romans, alarmed by 
 resistance, where they had counted upon capture without 
 a blow, fell back. The interval was fatal to them. Their 
 retreat was intercepted by the whole body of the peasantry, 
 at length effectually roused. The scythe and reaping-hook 
 were deadly weapons to horsemen cooped up between walls, 
 
172 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 and in midnight. No effort of mine could stop the havoc, 
 when once the fury of my people was roused. A few es- 
 caped, who had broken wildly away in the first onset. The 
 rest were left to cover the avenues, with the first sanguinary 
 offerings of the final war of Judea. 
 
 I felt that this escape could be but temporary; for the 
 Roman policy never forgave, until the slightest stain of 
 defeat was wiped away. All was consternation in my 
 family; and the order for departure, whatever tears it 
 cost, found no opposition. In a few hours, our camels and 
 mules were loaded, our horses caparisoned, and we were 
 prepared to quit the short-lived pomp of the house of my 
 fathers. Constantius alone did not appear. This noble- 
 minded being had won, even upon me, until I considered 
 him as the substitute for mv lost son, and I would run 
 the last hazard, rather than leave him to the Roman mercy. 
 With the women, the interest was expressed by a declared 
 resolution not to leave the spot until he was found. The 
 caravan was broken up, and all desire of escape at an end. 
 
 At the close of a day of search through every defile of 
 the country, he was seen, returning at the head of some 
 peasants bearing a body on a litter. I flew to meet him. 
 He was in deep affliction, and drawing off the mantle which 
 covered the face, he showed me Septimius. "In the flight 
 of the Romans," said he, "I saw a horseman making head 
 against a crowd. His voice caught my ear. I rushed 
 forward to save him, and he burst through the circle at 
 full speed. But by the light of the torches I could per- 
 ceive that he was desperately wounded. When day broke, 
 I tracked him by his blood. His horse, gashed with scythes, 
 had fallen under him. I found my unfortunate friend 
 lying senseless beside a rill, to which he had crert for 
 water." 
 
 Tears fell from his eyes as he told the brief story. I too 
 remembered the generous interposition of the youth, and 
 when I looked upon the paleness of those fine Italian 
 features, that I had so lately seen lighted up with living 
 spirit, and in a scene of regal luxury. I felt a pang for the 
 uncertainty of human things. But, the painful part of the 
 moral was spared us. The young Roman's wounds were 
 stanched, and in an enemy and a Roman I found the means 
 of paying a debt of gratitude. His appearance among the 
 
SALATHIEL. 173 
 
 troops sent to seize me, had been only a result of his 
 anxiety to save the father of his friends. He had acci- 
 dentally discovered the nature of the order, and hoped to 
 anticipate its execution. But he arrived only in time to 
 be involved in the confusion of the flight. Pursued and 
 wounded by the peasantry, he lost his way, and, but for 
 the generous perseverance of Constantius, he must have 
 died. 
 
 The public information which he brought was of the 
 most important kind. In the Eoman councils, the utter 
 subjugation of Judea was resolved on; the last spark of 
 national independence was to be extinguished, though 
 in the blood of the last native ; a Roman colony established 
 in our lands ; the Eoman worship introduced ; and Jeru- 
 salem profaned by a statue of Nero, and sacrifices to him 
 as a god, on the altar of the sanctuary. To crush the re- 
 sistance of the people, the legions, to the amount of sixty 
 thousand men, were under orders from proconsular Asia, 
 Egypt, and Europe. The most distinguished captain of 
 the empire, Vespasian, was called from Britain to the com- 
 mand, and the whole military strength of Rome was pre- 
 pared to follow up the blow. 
 
 I summoned the chief men of the tribe. My tempera- 
 ment was warlike. The seclusion and studies of my early 
 life had but partially suppressed my natural delight in 
 the vividness of martial achievement. But the cause that 
 now summoned me was enough to have kindled the dullest 
 peasant into the soldier. I had seen the discipline of the 
 enemy; I had made myself master of their system of war. 
 Fortifications, wherever a stone could be piled upon a hill ; 
 provisions, laid up in large quantities wherever they could 
 be secured ; small bodies of troops, practised in manoeuvre, 
 and perpetually in motion between the fortresses; a gen- 
 eral base of operations, to which all the movements re- 
 ferred ; were the simple principles that had made them con- 
 querors of the world. I resolved to give them a speedy 
 proof of my pupilage. 
 
174 SAL ATE I EL. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 INDECISION, in the beginning of war, is worse than war, 
 I decided that, whatever were the consequence, the sword 
 must be unsheathed without delay. With Eleazar and Con- 
 stantius, I cast my eyes over the map, and examined on 
 what point the first blow should fall. The proverbial 
 safety of a multitude of councillors was obviously dis- 
 regarded in the smallness of my council; yet, few as we 
 were, we differed upon every point but one, that of the 
 certainty of our danger; the promptitude of Roman venge- 
 ance suffered no contest of opinion. Eleazar, with a 
 spirit as manly as ever faced hazard, yet gave his voice 
 for delay. 
 
 "You must first have the people with you, and for that 
 purpose you must have the leaders of the people 
 
 "What !" interrupted I, "must we first mingle in the 
 cabals of Jerusalem, and rouse the frigid debaters of the 
 Sanhedrin into action? Are we first to conciliate the 
 irreconcilable, to soften the furious, to purify the cor- 
 rupt? If the Romans are to be our tryants till we can 
 teach patriotism to faction, we may as well build the dun- 
 geon at once, for to the dungeon we are consigned for the 
 longest life among us. It is the irrevocable nature of 
 faction to be base, until it can be mischievous; to lick 
 the dust until it can sting; to creep on its belly until it 
 can twist its folds round the victim. To the field, I say ; 
 once and for all, to the field." 
 
 My mind, at no period patient of contradiction, was 
 fevered by the perplexity of the time. I was about to 
 leave the chamber, when Constantius gravely stopped me. 
 "My father," said he, with a voice calmer than his coun- 
 tenance, "you have hurt our noble kinsman's feelings. It 
 is not in an hour, when even our unanimity may fail, that 
 we should suffer dissensions between those whose hearts 
 are alike embarked to this great cause. Let me medi- 
 ate between you." 
 
 He led Eleazar back from the casement to which he had 
 withdrawn to cool his blood, burning with the offence of 
 my language. "Eleazar is in the right. The Romans are 
 irresistible by any force short of the whole people. They 
 have military possession of the country, all your fortresses, 
 
SALATHIEL. 175 
 
 all your posts, all your passes. They are as familiar as 
 you are with every defile, mountain, and marsh ; they sur- 
 round you with conquered provinces on the north, east, 
 and south ; your western barrier is open to them, while it is 
 shut to you; the sea is the high road of their armies, 
 while, at their first forbidding, you dare not launch a 
 galley between Libanus and Idumea. Nothing can counter- 
 balance this local superiority but the rising of your whole 
 people." 
 
 "Yet, are we to intrigue with the talkers in Jerusalem 
 for this?" interrupted I. "What less than a descended 
 thunderbolt could rouse them to a sense that there is even 
 a heaven above them?" 
 
 "Still, we must have them with us," said Constantius, 
 "for we must have all. Universality is the spirit of an in- 
 surrectionary war. If I were commander of a revolt, I 
 should feel greater confidence of success at the head of a 
 single province, in which every human being from boy- 
 hood upwards was against the enemy, than at the head of 
 an empire partially in arms. The mind even of the rudest 
 spearsman is a great portion of him. The boldest shrinks 
 from the consciousness that hostility is on all sides; that 
 whether marching or at rest, watching or sleeping, by night 
 or by day, hostility is round him ; that it is in the very air 
 he breathes, in the very food he eats; that every face he 
 sees is the face of one who wishes him slain; that every 
 knife, even every trivial instrument of human use, may be 
 turned into a shedder of his blood. Those things, perpet- 
 ually confronting his mind, break it down; until the man 
 grows reckless, miserable, undisciplined, and a dastard." 
 
 "Yet," observed Eleazar, "the constant robbery of an 
 insurrectionary war must render it a favorite command." 
 
 "Let me speak from experience," said Constantius. "Two 
 years ago, I was attached, with a squadron of galleys, to 
 the expedition against the tribes of Mount Taurus. While 
 the galleys wintered in Cyprus, I followed the troops up 
 the hills. Nothing had been omitted that could counter- 
 act the severity of the season. Tents, provisions, clothing 
 adapted to the hills, even luxuries despatched from the 
 islands, gave the camps almost the indulgences of cities. 
 The physical hardships of the campaign were trivial com- 
 pared with those of hundreds in which the Eomans had 
 
176 SALATHIEL. 
 
 beaten regular armies, Yet the discontent was indescrib- 
 able, from the perpetual alarms of the service. The 
 mountaineers were not numerous; but half armed; disci- 
 plined they were not at all. A Koman centurion would 
 have out-manoeuvred all their captains. But they were 
 brave; they knew nothing but to kill or be killed; and it 
 made no difference to them whether Death did his work 
 by night or by day. Sleep, to us, was scarcely possible. To 
 sit down on a march was to be levelled at by a score of 
 arrows; to pursue the archers was to be lured into some 
 hollow, where a fragment of the rock above, or a felled tree, 
 was ready to crush the legionaries. We chased them from 
 hill to hill; we might as well have chased the vultures 
 and eagles that duly followed us, with the perfect certainty 
 of not being disappointed of their meal. Wherever the 
 enemy showed themselves, they were beaten, but our victory 
 was totally fruitless. The next turn of the mountain road 
 was a stronghold, from which we had to expect a new storm 
 of arrows, lances, and fragments of rock; and, until our 
 campaign is forgotten, no Eoman captain will look for 
 his laurels in Mount Taurus again." 
 
 "Such forever be the fate of wars against the natural 
 freedom of the brave," said I. "Before another Sabbath, 
 I shall make the experiment of my fitness to be the leader 
 of my countrymen. At the head of my own tribe I will 
 march to the Holy City, seize the garrison, and from 
 Herod's palace, from the very chair of the Procurator, will 
 I at once silence the voice of faction, and lift the banner to 
 the tribes of Israel." 
 
 "Nobly conceived," said Constantius, his countenance 
 glowing with animation. "Blow upon blow is the true 
 tactic of an insurrectionary war. We must strike at once, 
 suddenly and boldly. The sword of him who would tri- 
 umph in a revolt, must not merely sound on the enemy's 
 helmet, but cut through it." 
 
 "Yet to a march on Jerusalem," said Eleazar, " the ob- 
 jections are palpable. The city would be out of all hope 
 of a surprise, difficult to capture, and beyond all chance to 
 keep." 
 
 "Ever tardy, thwarting, and contradictory," I ex- 
 claimed. "If the Eoman sceptre lay under my heel, I 
 should find Eleazar forbidding me to crush it. My mind 
 
BALA'fHIEL. 177 
 
 is fixed; I will hear no more." I started from my seat, 
 and paced the chamber. Eleazar approached me: "My 
 brother," said he, holding out his hand with a forgiving 
 smile, "we must not differ. I honor your heart, Salathiel ; 
 I know your talents; there is not a man in Judea whom 
 I should be prouder to see at the head of its councils. And 
 now I offer you myself and every man whom I can influ- 
 ence, to follow you to the last extremity. The only ques- 
 tions is, where the blow is to fall." 
 
 Constantius had been gazing on the chart of Judea, 
 which lay between us on the table. "If it be our object/' 
 said he, "to combine injury to the Romans with actual ad- 
 vantage to ourselves, to make a trial where failure cannot 
 be ruinous, and where success may be of measureless value, 
 here is the spot." He pointed to Masada. 
 
 The fortress of Masada was built by Herod the Great, 
 as his principal magazine of arms. A fierce and success- 
 ful soldier, one of his luxuries was the variety and costli- 
 ness of his weapons, and the royal armory of Masada was 
 renowned throughout Asia. Pride in the possession of 
 such a trophy, probably aided by some reverence for the 
 memory of the friend of Cassar and Antony, whom the 
 legions still almost worshipped as tutelar genii, originally 
 saved it from the usual Eoman spoliation. But no native 
 foot was permitted to enter the armory, and mysterious 
 stories of the sights and sounds of those splendid halls 
 filled the ears of the people. Masada was held to be the talis- 
 man of the Roman power over Judea, by more than the 
 people; the belief had made its way among the legions, 
 and no capture could be a bolder omen of the war. 
 
 I still preferred the more direct blow on Jerusalem, and 
 declaimed on the vital importance, in all wars, of seizing 
 on the capital. But I was controlled. Eleazar's grave wis- 
 dom and the science of Constantius deprived me of argu- 
 ment; and the attack on Masada was finally planned be- 
 fore we left the chamber. Nothing could be more primi- 
 tive than our plan for the siege of the most scientific for- 
 tification in Judea, crowded with men, and furnished with 
 every implement and machine of war that Roman experi- 
 ence could supply. Our simple preparations were a few 
 ropes for ladders, a few hatchets for cutting down gates 
 and palisadoes, and a few faggots for setting on fire what 
 
8ALATHIEL. 
 
 we could. Five hundred of our tribe, who had never 
 thrown a lance but in hunting, formed our expedition ; and 
 at the head of those, Constantius, who claimed the ex- 
 ploit by the right of discovery, was to march at dusk, con- 
 ceal himself in the forests during the day and on the 
 evening of his arrival within reach of the fortress, attempt 
 it by surprise. Eloazar was, in the meantime, to rouse 
 his retainers, and I was to await at their head the result 
 of the enterprise, and, if successful, unfurl the standard 
 of Naphtali and advance on Jerusalem. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 THE remainder of this memorable day lingered on with 
 a tardiness beyond description. The criminal who counts 
 the watches of the night before his execution has but a 
 faint image of that hot and yet pining anxiety, that 
 loathing of all things unconnected with the one mighty 
 event, that mixture of hopelessness and hope, that mor- 
 bid nervousness of every fibre in his frame, which make 
 up the suspense of the conspirator, in even the noblest 
 cause. 
 
 When the hour of banquet came I sat down in the 
 midst of magnificence, as was the custom of my rank ; the 
 table was filled with guests ; all around me was gaiety and 
 pomp, high-born men, handsome women, richly attired 
 attendants; plate, the work of Tyrian and Greek artists, 
 in its massive beauty; walls covered with tissues; music 
 filling the air cooled by fountains of perfumed waters. I 
 felt as little of them as if I were in the wilderness. If I 
 had one wish it was that for the next forty-eight hours 
 oblivion might amount to insensibility ! At my wife and 
 daughters I ventured but one glance. I thought that I 
 had never before seen them look so fitted to adorn their 
 rank, to be the models of grace, loveliness and honor to 
 society; and the thought smote my heart! how soon may 
 all this be changed ! 
 
 My eyes sought Constantius; he had just returned from 
 his preparations and came in glowing with the enthusi- 
 asm of the soldier. He sat down beside Salome and his 
 cheek gradually turned of the hue of death. He sat, like 
 
SALATHIEL. 179 
 
 myself, absorbed in frequent reverie; and to the playful 
 solicitations of Salome, that he would indulge in the table 
 after his fatigue, he gave forced smiles and broken an- 
 swers. The future was plainly busy with us both ; with 
 all that the heart of man could love beside him, he felt 
 the pang of contrast ; and when on accidentally lifting his 
 eyes they met mine, the single conscious look interchanged 
 told the perturbation that preyed on both in the heart's 
 core. 
 
 I soon rose, and, having letters to despatch to our 
 friends in Borne, retired to my chamber. There lay the 
 chart still on the table, marked by the pencil lines of 
 the route to Masada. With what breathlessless I now 
 traced every point and bearing of it ! There, within a 
 space over which I could stretch my arm, was my world ! 
 In that little boundary was I to struggle against the su- 
 premacy that covered the earth ! Those fairy hills, those 
 scarcely visible rivers, those remote cities, dots, of human 
 habitation, were to be henceforth the places of siege and 
 battle, memorable for the destruction of human life, en- 
 grossing every energy of myself and my countrymen, and 
 big with the fates of generations on generations ! 
 
 It was dusk and I was still devouring with my eyes 
 this chart of almost prophecy, when Constantius entered. 
 "I have come," said he, gravely, "to bid you farewell for 
 the night. In two days I hope we shall all meet again." 
 
 "No, my brave son/' I interrupted, "we do not leave 
 each other to-night." 
 
 He looked surprised. "I must be gone this instant. 
 Eleazar has done his part with the activity of his honest 
 and manly mind. Two miles off, in the valley under the 
 date grove, I have left five hundred of the finest fellows 
 that ever sat a charger. In half an hour Sirius rises; 
 then we go, and then let the governor of Masada look to 
 it. Farewell, and wish me good fortune." 
 
 "May every angel that protects the righteous cause 
 hover above your head !" I exclaimed ; "but no farewell ; 
 we go together." 
 
 "Do you doubt my conduct of the enterprise?" pro- 
 nounced he strongly. "'Tis true, I have been in the 
 Roman service; but that service I hated from the bot- 
 tom of my soul. If I could have found men to follow me, 
 
180 
 
 I should have done in Cyprus what I now do in Judea. 
 The countryman of Leonidas, Cimon and Timoleon was 
 no*; born to hug his slavery." 
 
 He relaxed the belt from his waist and dropped it with 
 hio scimitar on the ground. I lifted it and gave it again 
 to his hand. 
 
 "No, Constantius," I replied, "I honor your zeal and 
 would confide in you if the world hung upon the balance. 
 But I cannot bear the thought of lingering here while 
 you are in the field. My mind within those few hours has 
 been on the rack. I must take the chances with you." 
 
 "It is utterly impossible," was his firm answer. "The 
 Eoman spies are everywhere. The natural result follows, 
 that our march would be intercepted ; and I am not sure, 
 but that even now we may be too late. That inconceiv- 
 able sagacity by which the Komans seem to be masters of 
 every man's secret has been already at work; troops were 
 seen on the route to Masada this very day. But let it be 
 known that the Prince of Naphtali has left his palace, 
 and the dozen squadrons of Thracian horse which 1 saw 
 within those four days at Tiberias will be riding through 
 your domains before the next sunset." 
 
 This reflection checked me. "Well then," said I, "go; 
 and the protection of Him whose pillar of cloud led His 
 people through the sea and through the desert be your 
 light in the hour of peril !" 
 
 I pressed his hand; he turned to depart, but came 
 back ; and, after a slight hesitation, said : "If Salome had 
 once offended her noble father by her flight, the offence 
 was mine. Forgive her, for her heart is still the heart of 
 your child. She loves you. If I fall, let the memory of 
 our disobedience lie in my grave !" His voice stopped, 
 and mine could not break the silence. "Let what will 
 come," resumed he with an effort, "tell Salome that 
 the last word on my lips was her name!" He left the 
 chamber and I felt as if a portion of my being had gone 
 forth from me. 
 
 This day was one of the many festivals of our coun- 
 try and my halls echoed with sounds of enjoyment. The 
 immense gardens glittered with illumination in all the 
 graceful devices of which our people were such masters ; 
 and when I looked out for the path of Constantius I was 
 
8ALATHIEL. 181 
 
 absolutely pained by the sight of so much fantastic pleas- 
 ure, while my hero was pursuing his way through dark- 
 ness and danger. 
 
 At length the festival was over. The lights twinkled 
 thinner among the arbors, the sounds of glad voices sank, 
 and I saw from my casement the evidences of departure in 
 the trains of torches that moved up the surrounding hills. 
 The sight of a starlight sky has always been to me among 
 the softest and surest healers of the heart; and I gazed 
 upon that mighty scene which throws all human cares 
 into such littleness until my composure returned. 
 
 The last of the guests had left the palace before I ven- 
 tured to descend. The vases of perfumes still breathed 
 in the hall of the banquet; the alabaster lamps were still 
 burning; but, excepting the attendants who waited on 
 my steps at a distance, and whose fixed figures might have 
 been taken for statues, there was not a living being near 
 me, of the laughing and joyous crowd that had so lately 
 glittered, danced, and smiled within those sumptuous walls : 
 Yet what was this but a picture of the common rotation oi 
 life? Or, by a yet more immediate moral, what was it 
 but a picture of the desertion that might be coming upon 
 me and mine? I sat down to extinguish my sullen philos- 
 ophy in wine. But no draught that ever passed the lip 
 could extinguish the fever that brooded on my spirit. I 
 dreaded that the presence of my family might force oul 
 my secret and lingered with my eyes gazing, without 
 sight, on the costly covering of the board. 
 
 A sound of music from an inner hall, to which Miriam 
 and her daughters had retired, aroused me. I stood at the 
 door, gazing on the group within. The music was a hymn, 
 with which they closed the customary devotions of the 
 day. But there was something in its sound to me that I 
 had never felt before. At the moment, when those sweet 
 voices were pouring out the gratitude of hearts as innocent 
 and glowing as the hearts of angels, a scene of horror 
 might be acting. The husband of Salome might be strug- 
 gling with the Roman sword; nay, he might be lying a 
 corpse under the feet of the cavalry, that before morn 
 might bring the news of his destruction in the flames that 
 startled us from our sleep and the swords that pierced 
 our bosoms. 
 
8ALATHIEL. 
 
 And what beings were those, thus appointed for the 
 sacrifice? The lapse of even a few years had perfected 
 the natural beauty of my daughters. Salome's sparkling 
 eye was more brilliant; her graceful form was moulded 
 into more easy elegance ; and her laughing lip was wreathed 
 with a more playful smile. Never did I see a creature of 
 deeper Witchery. My Esther, my noble and dear Esther, 
 who Was, perhaps, the dearer to me from her inheriting 
 a tinge of my melancholy, yet a melancholy exalted by 
 genius into a charm, was this night the leader of the 
 song of holiness. Her large uplifted eye glowed with the 
 brightness of one of the stars on which it was fixed. 
 Her hands fell on the harp in almost the attitude of 
 prayer, and the expression of her lofty and intellectual 
 countenance, crimsoned with the theme, told of a com- 
 munion with thoughts and beings above mortality. The 
 hymn was done; the voices had ceased; yet the inspira- 
 tion still burned in her soul; her hands still shook from 
 the chords' harmonies, sweet, but of the wildest and bold- 
 est brilliancy; bursts and flights of sound, like the rush- 
 ing of the distant waterfall at night, or the strange, sol- 
 emn echoes of the forest in the first swell of the storm. 
 Miriam and Salome sat beholding her, in silent admira- 
 tion and love. The magnificent dress of the Jewish fe- 
 male could not heighten the power of such beauty. But 
 it filled up the picture. The jewelled tiaras, the em- 
 broidered shawls, the high-wrought and massive armlets, 
 the silken robes and sashes fringed with pearl and dia- 
 mond, the profusion of dazzling ornament that form the 
 Oriental costume to this day, were the true habits of the 
 beings that then sat, unconscious of the delighted yet anx- 
 ious eye that drank in the joy of their presence. I saw 
 before me the pomp of princedoms, investing forms worthy 
 of thrones. 
 
 My entrance broke off the harper's spell, and I found 
 it a hard task to answer the touching congratulations that 
 flowed upon me. But the hour waned and I was again 
 left alone for the few minutes which it was my custom to 
 give to meditation before I retired to rest. I threw open 
 the door that opened into a garden thick, with the Persian 
 rose and filling the air with cool fragrance. At my first 
 glance upwards I saw Sirius; he was on the verge of the 
 
SALATHIEL. 183 
 
 horizon! the thought of the day again gathered over my 
 soul. I idly combined the fate of Constantius with the 
 decline of the star that he had taken for his signal. My 
 senses lost their truth, or contributed to deceive me. I 
 fancied that I heard sounds of conflict; the echo of horses' 
 feet rang in my ears. A meteor that slowly sailed across 
 the sky struck me as a supernatural summons. My brain, 
 fearfully excitable since my great misfortune, at length 
 kindled up such strong realities that I found myself on 
 the point of betraying the burden of my spirit by some 
 palpable disclosure. 
 
 Twice had I reached the door of Miriam's chamber to 
 tell her my whole perplexity. But I heard the voice of 
 her attendants within, and again shrank from the tale. I 
 ranged the long galleries, perplexed with capricious and 
 strange torments of the imagination. "If he should fall," 
 said I, "how shall I atone for the cruelty of sending him 
 upon a service of such hopeless hazard a few peasants 
 with naked breasts against Koman battlements ! What 
 soldier would not ridicule my folly in hoping success; 
 what man would not charge me with scorn of the life of my 
 kindred? The blood of my tribe will be upon my head 
 forever. There sinks the Prince of Naphtali! In the 
 grave of my gallant son and his companions is buried my 
 dream of martial honor; the sword that strikes him cuts to 
 the ground my last ambition of delivering my country." 
 
 The advice of Constantius returned to my mind, but, 
 like the meeting of two tides, it was only to increase the 
 tumult within. I felt the floor shake under my hurried 
 tread. I smote my forehead it was covered with drops 
 of agony. The voices within my wife's chamber had 
 ceased. But was I to rouse her from her sleep, perhaps 
 the last quiet sleep that she was ever to take, only to hear 
 intelligence that must make her miserable? 
 
 I leaned my throbbing forehead upon one of the marble 
 tables, as if to imbibe coolness from the stone. I felt a 
 light hand upon mine. Miriam stood beside me. "Sala- 
 thiel !" pronounced she, in an unshaken voice, "there is 
 something painful on your mind. Whether it be only a 
 duty on your part to disclose it to me, I shall not say; 
 but if you think me fit to share your happier hours, must 
 J have the humiliation of feeling that I am to be e- 
 
 " 
 
184 SALATHIEL. 
 
 eluded from your confidence in the day when those hours 
 may be darkened ?" 
 
 I was silent, for to speak was beyond my strength, but 
 I pressed her delicate fingers to my bosom. 
 
 "Misfortune, my dear husband," resumed she, "is trivial, 
 but when it reaches the mind. Oh, rather let me en- 
 counter it in the bitterest privations of poverty and exile ; 
 rather let me be a nameless outcast to the latest year I 
 have to live, than feel the bitterness of being forgotten by 
 the heart to which, come life or death, mine is bound for- 
 ever and ever." 
 
 I glanced up at her. Tears dropped on her cheeks ; but 
 her voice was firm. "I have observed you," said she, "in 
 deep agitation during the day, but I forbore to press you 
 for the cause. I have listened now till long past midnight 
 to the sound of your feet, to the sound of groans and pangs 
 wrung from your bosom ; nay, to exclamations and broken 
 sentences which have let me most involuntarily into the 
 knowledge that this disturbance arises from the state of 
 our country. I know your noble nature; and I say to 
 you, in this solemn and sacred hour of danger, follow the 
 guidance of that noble nature." 
 
 1 cast my arms about her neck and imprinted a kiss as 
 true as ever came from human love upon her lips. She 
 had taken a weight from my soul. I detailed the whole de- 
 sign to her. She listened with many a change from red 
 to pale, and many a tremor of the white hand that lay in 
 mine. When I ceased the woman in her broke forth in 
 tears and sighs. "Yet," said she, "you must go to the 
 field. Perish the thought that for the selfish desire of 
 looking even upon you in safety here, I should hazard the 
 dearer honor of my lord. It is right that Judea should 
 make the attempt to shake off her tyranny. The people 
 can never be deceived in their own cause. Kings and 
 courts may be deluded into the choice of incapacity; but 
 the man whom a people will follow from their firesides 
 must bear the palpable stamp of a leader." 
 
 "Admirable being!" I exclaimed, "worthy to be hon- 
 ored while Israel has a name. Then, I have your consent 
 to follow Constantius. By speed, I may reach him before 
 he can have arrived at the object of the enterprise. Fare- 
 well, my best beloved, farewell !" She fell into my arms 
 in a passion of tears. 
 
8ALATHIEL. 185 
 
 She at length recovered and said: "This is weakness, 
 the mere weakness of surprise. Yes, go, Prince of Naph- 
 tali. No man must take the glory from you. Constantius 
 is a hero, but you must be a king, and more than a king ; 
 not the struggler for the glories of royalty, but for the 
 glories of the rescuer of the people of God. The first 
 blow of the war must not be given by another, dear as he 
 is. The first triumph, the whole triumph, must be my 
 lord's/' She knelt down and poured out her soul to 
 Heaven in eloquent supplication for my safety. I lis- 
 tened in speechless homage. 
 
 "Now go," sighed she, "and remember, in the day of 
 the battle, who will then be in prayer for you. Court no 
 unnecessary peril, for if you perish, which of us would 
 desire to live !" She again sank upon her knees and I in 
 reverent silence descended from the gallery. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 MY preparations were quickly made. I divested my- 
 self of my robes, led out my favorite barb, flung an alhaik 
 over my shoulders, and by the help of my Arab turban, 
 might have passed for a plunderer in any corner of Syria. 
 This was done unseen of any eye; for the crowd of atten 
 ants that thronged the palace in the day were now stretched 
 through the courts, or on the terraces, fast asleep, under 
 the double influence of a day of feasting and a night of 
 tepid summer air. I rode without stopping until the sun 
 began to throw up his yellow rays through the vapors of 
 the Lake of Tiberias. Then, to ascertain alike the prog- 
 ress of Constantius, and avoid the chances of meeting 
 with some of those Roman squadrons which were perpet- 
 ually moving between the fortresses, I struck off the road 
 into a forest, tied my barb to a tree, and set forth to re- 
 connoitre the scene. 
 
 Travelling on foot was the common mode in a country 
 which, like Judea, was but little fitted for the breed of 
 horses, and I found no want of companions. Pedlars, 
 peasants, disbanded soldiers and probably thieves diversi- 
 fied my knowledge of mankind within a few miles. I es- 
 caped under the sneer of the soldier and the compassion 
 of the peasant. The first glance at my wardrobe satisfied 
 
186 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 the robber that I was not worth the exercise of his pro- 
 fession, or perhaps that I was a brother of the trade. I 
 here found none of the repulsiveness that makes the in- 
 tercourse of higher life so unproductive. Confidence was 
 on every tongue ; and I discovered, even in the sandy ways 
 of Palestine, that to be a judicious listener is one of the 
 first talents for popularity all over the world. But of my 
 peculiar objects I could learn nothing, though every man 
 whom I met had some story of the Romans. I ascertained, 
 to my surprise, that the intelligence which Septimiu* 
 brought from the very curtains of the imperial cabinet was 
 known to the multitude. Every voice of the populace was 
 full of tales, probably reckoned among the profoundest se- 
 crets of the state. I have made the same observation in 
 later eras, and found, even in the most formal mysteries 
 of the most frowning governments, the rumor of the 
 streets outruns the cabinets. So it must be, while diploma- 
 tists have tongues, and while women and domestics have 
 curiosity. 
 
 But if I were to rely on the accuracy of those willing 
 politicians, the cause of independence was without hope. 
 Human nature loves to make itself important, and the 
 narrator of the marvellous is always great, according to 
 the distention of his news. Those who had seen a cohort 
 invariably magnified it into a legion; a troop of cavalry 
 covered half a province; and the cohorts marching from 
 Asia Minor or Egypt for our garrisons were reckoned by 
 the very largest enumeration within the teller's capacity. 
 
 As I was sitting by a rivulet, moistening some of the 
 common bread of the country, which I had brought to 
 aid my disguise, I entered into conversation with one of 
 those unhoused exiles of society whom at the first glance 
 we discern to be nature's commoners, indebted to no man 
 for food, raiment or habitation, the native dweller on the 
 road. He had some of the habitual jest of those who 
 have no care, and congratulated me on the size of my 
 table, the meadow ; and the unadulterated purity of my po- 
 tation, the brook. He informed me that he came direct 
 from the Nile, where he had seen the son of Vespasian 
 at the head of a hundred thousand men. A Syrian soldier, 
 returning to Damascus, who joined our meal, felt indig- 
 nant at the discredit thus thrown on a general under 
 
8ALATH1BL. 187 
 
 whom he had received three pike wounds and leave to 
 heg his way home. He swore by Ashtaroth that the force- 
 under Titus was at least twice the number. A third wan- 
 derer, a Eoman veteran, of whom the remainder was cov- 
 ered over with glorious patches, arrived just in time to 
 relieve his general from the disgrace of so limited a com- 
 mand, and another hundred thousand was instantly put 
 under his orders; sanctioned by asservations in the name 
 of Jupiter Capitolinus, and as many others of the cal- 
 endar as the patriot could pronounce. This rapid re- 
 cruiting threw the former authorities into the background, 
 and the old legionary was, for the rest of the meal, the un- 
 disputed leader of the conversation. They had evidently 
 heard some rumor of our preparations. 
 
 "To suppose," said the veteran, "that those circumcised 
 dogs can stand against a regular-bred Roman general is 
 sacrilege. Half his army, or a tenth of his army, would 
 walk through the land, north and south, east and west, 
 as easily as I could walk through this brook." 
 
 "No doubt of it," said the Syrian, "if they had some 
 of our cavalry for flanking and foraging." 
 
 "Ay, for anything but fighting, comrade," said the 
 Eoman with a laugh. 
 
 "No, you leave out another capital quality," observed 
 the beggar, "for none can deny that whoever may be first 
 in the advance, the Syrians will be first in the retreat. 
 There are two manoeuvres to make a complete soldier 
 how to get into the battle and how to get out of it. Now, 
 the Syrians manage the latter in the most undoubted 
 perfection." 
 
 "Silence, villain," exclaimed the Syrian, "or you have 
 robbed your last henroost in this world." 
 
 "He says nothing but the truth for all that," inter- 
 rupted the veteran. "But neither of us taxed your cav- 
 alry with cowardice. No, it was pure virtue. They had 
 too much modesty to take the way into the field before 
 other troops, and too much humanity not to teach them 
 how to sleep without broken bones." 
 
 The beggar, delighted at the prospect of a quarrel, gave 
 the assent that more embroiled the fray. 
 
 "Mark Antony did not say so/' murmured the indig- 
 nant Syrian. 
 
1 88 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 "Mark Antony!" cried the Eoman, starting upon his 
 single leg; "glory to his name, but what could a fellow 
 like you know about Mark Antony?" 
 
 "I only served with him," drily replied the Syrian. 
 
 "Then here's my hand for you," exclaimed the brave 
 old man; "we are comrades. I would love even a dog 
 that had seen the face of Mark Antony. He was the first 
 man that I ever carried buckler under. Ay, there was a 
 soldier for you; such men are not made in this puling 
 age. He could fight from morn till night, and carouse 
 from night till morn, and never lose his seat on his charger 
 in the field for the day after. I have seen him run half 
 naked through the snows in Armenia, and walk in armor 
 in the hottest day of Egypt. He loved the soldier and the 
 soldier loved him. So, comrade, here's to the health of 
 Mark Antony. Ah, we shall never see such men again." 
 He drew out a flask of ration wine, closely akin to vinegar, 
 of which he hospitably gave us each a cup, and after pour- 
 ing a libation to his hero's memory, whom he evidently 
 placed among his gods, swallowed the draught, in which 
 we devoutly followed his example. 
 
 "Yet," said the beggar, "if Antony were a great man 
 he has left little men enough behind him. There's, for 
 instance, the present gay procurator; six months in the 
 gout, the other six months drunk, or, if sober, only think- 
 ing where he can rob next. This will bring the govern- 
 ment into trouble before long, or I'm much mistaken. 
 For my part, I pledge myself, if he should take any part 
 of my property " 
 
 "Why, if he did," said the Syrian, "I give him credit 
 for magic. He could find a crop of wheat in the sand 
 or coin money out of the air. Where does vour estate 
 lie?" 
 
 "Comrade," said the veteran, laughing, "recollect, if 
 the saying be true, that people are least to be judged of 
 by the outside, the rags of our jovial friend must hide 
 many a shekel, and as to where his estate lies, he has a 
 wide estate who has the world for his portion, and money 
 enough who thinks all his own that he can lay his fingers 
 on." 
 
 The laugh was now loud against the beggar. He, how- 
 , bore all like one accustomed to the buffets of fortune. 
 
kALATHIEL. 189 
 
 and, joining in it, said: "Whatever may be my talents 
 in that way, there is no great chance of showing them in 
 this company; but if you should be present at the sack of 
 Masada, and I should meet you on your way back " 
 
 "Masada !" exclaimed I instinctively. 
 
 "Yes, I left the town three days ago. On that very 
 morning an order arrived to prepare for the coming of the 
 great and good Florus, who, in his wisdom, feeling the 
 want of gold, has determined to fill up the hollows of the 
 military chest and his own purse by stripping the ar- 
 mory of everything that can sell for money. My in- 
 telligence is from the best authority. The governor's prin- 
 cipal bath slave told it to one of the damsels of the stew- 
 ard's department, with whom the Ethiopian is mortally 
 in love; and the damsel, in a moment of confidence, told 
 it to me. In fact, to let you into my secret, I am now 
 looking out for Florus, in whose train I intend to make 
 my way back into this gold mine." 
 
 "The villain I" cried the veteran, "disturb the arms of 
 the dead ! Why, they say that it has the very corslet and 
 buckler that Mark Antony wore when he marched against 
 the Idumeans." 
 
 "I fear more the disturbance of the arms of the living/' 
 said the Syrian. "The Jews will take it for granted that 
 the Eomans are giving up the business in despair, and if 
 I'm a true man there will be blood before I get home." 
 
 "No fear of that, fellow soldier," said the veteran, 
 gaily; "you have kept your two legs, and when they have 
 so long carried you out of harm's way it would be the 
 worst treatment possible to leave you in it at last. But 
 there is something in what you say. I had a dream last 
 night. I thought that I saw the country in a blaze, and 
 when I started from my sleep my ears were filled with a 
 sound like the trampling of ten thousand cavalry." 
 
 I drew my breath quick, and, to conceal my emotion, 
 gathered up the fragments of our meal. On completing 
 my work I found the beggar's eye fixed on me; he smiled. 
 "I, too, had a dream last night," said he, "and of much 
 the same kind. I thought that I saw a cloud of cavalry 
 riding as fast as horse could lay hoof to the ground; I 
 never saw a more dashing set since my first campaign upon 
 the highways of this wicked world. I'll be sworn that, 
 
100 8ALATH1EL. 
 
 whatever their errand may be, such riders will not come 
 back without it. Their horses' heads were turned towards 
 Masada, and I am now between two minds, whether I may 
 not mention my dream to the procurator himself." 
 
 I found his keen eye turned on me again. "Absurd!" 
 said I; "he would recommend you only to his lictor." 
 
 "I rather think he would recommend me to his treas- 
 urer, for I never had a dream that seemed so like a fact. 
 I should not be surprised to find that I had been sleeping 
 with my eyes open." 
 
 His look convinced me that I was known ! 1 touched his 
 hand, while the soldiers were busy packing up their cups 
 and showed him gold. He smiled carelessly. I laid my 
 hand on my poniard; he but smiled again. 
 
 "The sun is burning out," said he, "and I can stand 
 talking here no longer. Farewell, brave soldiers, and safe 
 home to you ! Farewell, Arab, and safe home to those that 
 you are looking after !" He stalked away, and as he passed 
 me said in a low voice, "Glory to Naphtali !" 
 
 After exchanging good wishes with the old men, I fol- 
 lowed him; he led the way towards the wood at a pace 
 which kept me at a distance. When I reached the shade, 
 he stopped, and prostrated himself before me. 
 
 "Will my lord," said he, "forgive the presumption of 
 his servant? This day, when I first met you, your dis- 
 guise deceived me. I bear intelligence from your friends." 
 I caught the fragment of papyrus from him and read: 
 "All's well. We have hitherto met with nothing to op- 
 pose us. To-morrow night we shall be on the ground. If 
 no addition be made to the force within, the surprise will 
 be complete. Our cause itself is victory. Health to all 
 we love!" 
 
 "Your mission is now done," said I. "Go on to Naph- 
 tali and you shall be rewarded as your activity has de- 
 served." 
 
 "No," replied he, with the easy air of a licensed hu- 
 morist, "I have but two things to think of in this world 
 my time and my money of one of them, I have infinitely 
 more than I well know how to spend, and of the other 
 infinitely less. I expected to have killed a few days in going 
 up to Naphtali. But that hope has been cut off by my 
 finding you half way. I will now try Floras and get rid of 
 a day or two with that most worthy of men." 
 
SALATH1EL* 191 
 
 "That I forbid," interrupted I. 
 
 "Not if you will trust one whom your noble son has 
 trusted. I am not altogether without some dislike to the 
 Eomans myself, nor something between contempt and 
 hatred for Gessius Floras." His countenance darkened at 
 the name. "I tell you," pronounced he bitterly, "that fel- 
 low's pampered carcass this day contains as black a mass 
 of villainy as stains the earth. I have an old account to 
 settle with him." 
 
 His voice quivered. "I was once no rambler, no outcast 
 of the land. I lived on the side of Hermon, lovely Her- 
 mon ! I was affianced to a maiden of my kindred, as sweet 
 a flower as ever blushed with love and joy. Our bridal day 
 was fixed. I went to Csesarea-Philippi to purchase some 
 marriage presents. When I returned I found nothing 
 but women weeping and men furious with impotent rage. 
 My bride was gone. A Roman troop had surrounded her 
 father's house in the night, and torn her away. Wild, 
 distracted, nay, I believe raving mad, I searched the land. 
 I kept life in me only that I might recover or revenge 
 her. I abandoned property, friends, all ! At length I 
 made the discovery." 
 
 To hide his perturbation, he turned away. "Powers of 
 justice and vengeance !" he murmured in a shuddering 
 tone, "are there no thunders for such things? She had 
 been seen by that hoary profligate. She was carried off by 
 him. She spurned his insults. He ordered her to be 
 chained, to be starved, to be lashed !" 
 
 Tears burst from his eyes. "She still spurned him. 
 She implored to die. She called upon my name in her 
 misery. Wretch that I was, what could I, a worm, do 
 under the heel of the tyrant? But I saw her at last. I 
 made my way into the dungeon. There sat she, pale as 
 the stone to which she was chained, a silent, sightless, 
 bloodless, mindless skeleton. I called to her; she knew 
 nothing. I pressed my lips to hers; she never felt them. 
 I bathed her cold hands in my tears; I fell at her feet; I 
 prayed to her but to pronounce one word; to give some 
 sign of remembrance ; to look on me. She sat like a statue ; 
 her reason was gone, gone forever!" He flung himself 
 upon the ground and writhed and groaned before me. To 
 turn him from a subject of such sorrow, I asked what he 
 meant to do by his intercourse with Florus. 
 
192 8ALATH1EL. 
 
 "To do ? Not to stab him in his bed ; not to poison Kim 
 in his banquet; not to smite him with that speedy death 
 which would be mercy; no, but to force him into ruin 
 step by step ; to gather shame, remorse and anguish round 
 him, cloud on cloud; to mix evil in his cup with such ex- 
 quisite slowness that he shall taste every drop ; to strike 
 him only so far that he may feel the pang without being 
 stunned; to mingle so much of hope in his undoing that 
 he may never enjoy the vigor of despair; to sink him into 
 his own Tartarus inch by inch, till every fibre has its par- 
 ticular agony." He yelled, suddenly rose from the ground, 
 and rushed forward and threaded the thickets with a 
 swiftness that made my pursuit in vain. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 THE violence of the beggar's anguish, and the strong 
 probabilities of his story, engrossed me so much, that 
 I at first regretted the extraordinary flight which put it 
 cut of my power to offer him any assistance. I returned 
 with a feeling of disappointment to the spot where I had 
 left my horse, and was riding towards the higher country, 
 to avoid the enemy's straggling parties, when I heard a 
 loud outcry. On a crag so distant that I thought human 
 speed could scarcely have reached it in the time, I saw 
 this strange being making all kinds of signals, sometimes 
 pointing to me, then to some object below him ; and utter- 
 ing a cry which might easily be mistaken for the howl of 
 a wild beast. 
 
 I reined up: it was impossible for me to ascertain 
 whether he were warning me of danger, or apprising others 
 of my approach. Great stakes make man suspicious; and 
 the prince of Naphtali, speeding to the capture of the 
 principal armory of the legions, might be an object well 
 worth a little treachery. I rapidly forgot the beggar's 
 sorrows in the consideration of his habits; decided that his 
 harangue was a piece of professional dexterity, probably 
 played off every week of his life ; and that, if I would not 
 be in Roman hands before night, I must ride in the pre- 
 cisely opposite directions to that which his signals so labori- 
 ously recommended. Nothing grows with more vigor than 
 
8ALATBIEL. 193 
 
 the doubt of human honesty. I satisfied myself in a few 
 moments that I was a dupe; dashed through thicket, over 
 rock, forded torrent, and, from the top of an acclivity, at 
 which even my high-mettled steed had looked with re- 
 pugnance, saw, with the triumph of him who deceives the 
 deceiver, the increased violence of the impostor's attitudes. 
 He leaped from crag to crag with the activity of a goat; 
 and when he could do nothing else, gave the last evidence 
 of Oriental vexation by tearing his robes. I waved my 
 hand to him in contemptuous farewell, and dismounting, 
 for the side of the hill was almost precipitous, led my 
 panting Arab through beds of wild myrtle, and every lovely 
 and sweet-smelling bloom, to the edge of a valley that 
 seemed made to shut out every disturbance of man. 
 
 A circle of low hills, covered to the crown with foliage, 
 surrounded a deep space of velvet turf, kept green as the 
 emerald by the moisture of a pellucid lake in its centre, 
 tinged with every color of heaven. The beauty of this 
 sylvan spot was enhanced by the luxuriant profusion of 
 almond, orange, and other trees, that in every stage of pro- 
 duction, from the bud to the fruit, covered the little knolls 
 below, and formed a broad belt round the lake. 
 
 Parched as I was by the intolerable heat, this secluded 
 haunt of. the very spirit of freshness looked doubly lovely. 
 My eyes, half-blinded by the glare of the sands, and even 
 my mind, exhausted by the perplexities of the day, found 
 delicious relaxation in the verdure and dewy breath of the 
 silent valley. My barb, with the quick sense of animals 
 accustomed to the travel of the wilderness, showed her 
 delight by playful boundings, the prouder arching of her 
 neck, and the brighter glancing of her bright eye. 
 
 "Here," thought I, as I led her slowly towards the 
 steep descent, "would be the very spot for the innocence 
 that had not tried the world, or the philosophy that had 
 tried it, and found all vanity. Who coulrt dream that, 
 within the borders of this distracted land, in the very 
 hearing, almost within the very sight, of the last 
 miseries that man can inflict on man, there was a retreat 
 which the foot of man perhaps never yet defiled, and in 
 which the calamities that afflict society might be as little 
 felt, as if it were among the stars !" 
 
 A violent plunge of the barb put an end to my specula* 
 
194 8ALATBIEL. 
 
 tion. She exhibited the wildest signs of terror, snorted, 
 and strove to break from me ; then fixing her glance keenly 
 on the thickets below, shook in every limb. Yet, the scene 
 was tranquillity itself; the chameleon lay basking in the 
 sun, and the only sound was that of the wild doves, 
 murmuring under the broad leaves of the palm-trees. But 
 my mare still resisted every effort to lead her downwards ; 
 her ears were fluttering convulsively ; her eyes were starting 
 from their sockets. I grew peevish at the animal's unusual 
 obstinacy, and was about to let her suffer thirst for the day, 
 when I was startled by a tremendous roar. A lion stood on 
 the summit, which I had but just quitted. He was not a 
 dozen yards above my head, and his first spring must have 
 carried me to the bottom of the precipice. The barb burst 
 away at once. I drew the only weapon I had a dagger, 
 and, hopeless as escape was, grasping the tangled weeds to 
 sustain my footing, awaited the plunge. But the lordly 
 savage probably disdained so ignoble a prey, and continued 
 on the summit, lashing his sides with his tail, and tearing 
 up the ground. He at length stopped suddenly, listened, 
 as to some approaching foot, and then, with a hideous yell, 
 sprang over me, and was in the thicket below at a single 
 bound. 
 
 The whole thicket was instantly alive; the shade which 
 I had fixed on for the seat of unearthly tranquillity, had 
 been an old haunt of lions; and the mighty herd were 
 now roused from their noon-day slumbers. Nothing could 
 be grander or more terrible than this disturbed majesty 
 of the forest kings. In every variety of savage passion 
 from terror to fury, they plunged, tore, and yelled ; dashed 
 through the lake, burst through the thicket, rushed up the 
 hills, or stood baying and roaring in defiance, as if against 
 a coming invader; their numbers were immense, for the 
 rareness of shade and water had gathered them from every 
 quarter of the desert. 
 
 While I stood clinging to my perilous hold, and fearful 
 of attracting their gaze by the slightest movement, the 
 source of the commotion appeared, in the shape of a Roman 
 soldier issuing, spear in hand, through a ravine at the 
 further side of the valley. He was palpably unconscious 
 of the formidable place into which he was entering; and 
 the gallant clamor of voices through the hills, showed that 
 
SALATHIEL. 195 
 
 he was followed by others as bold and as unconscious of 
 their danger as himself. But his career was soon closed; 
 his horse's feet had scarcely touched the turf, when a lion 
 was fixed with fang and claw on the creature's loins. The 
 rider uttered a cry of horror, and for an instant sat help- 
 lessly gazing at the open jaws behind him. I saw the 
 lion gathering up his flanks for a second b'ound; but the 
 soldier, a figure of gigantic strength, grasping the nostrils 
 of the monster with one hand, and with the other short- 
 ening his spear, drove the steel at one resistless thrust into 
 the lion's forehead. Horse, lion, and rider fell, and con- 
 tinued struggling together. 
 
 In the next moment, a mass of cavalry came thundering 
 down the ravine. They had broken off from their march, 
 through the accident of rousing a straggling lion, and fol- 
 lowed him in the giddy ardor of the chase. But the sight 
 now before them was enough to appall the boldest intre- 
 pidity. The valley was filled with the vast herd; retreat 
 was impossible, for the troopers came still pouring in by 
 the only pass, and, from the sudden descent of the glen, 
 horse and man were rolled head foremost among the lions ; 
 neither man nor monster could retreat. The conflict was 
 horrible; the heavy spears of the legionaries plunged 
 through bone and brain; the lions, made more furious by 
 wounds, sprang upon the powerful horses and tore them 
 to the ground, or flew at the troopers' throats, and crushed 
 and dragged away cuirass and buckler. The valley was a 
 struggling heap of human and savage battle; man, lion, 
 and charger, writhing and rolling in agonies, till their 
 forms were undistinguishable. The groans and cries of the 
 legionaries, the screams of the mangled horses, and the 
 roars and bowlings of the lions, bleeding with sword and 
 spear, tearing the dead, darting up the sides of the hills 
 in terror, and rushing down again with the fresh thirst 
 of gore, baffled all conception of fury and horror. But 
 man was the conqueror at last; the savages, scared by the 
 spear, and thinned in their numbers, made a rush in one 
 body towards the ravine, overthrew everything in their way, 
 and burst from the valley, awaking the desert for many 
 a league with their roar. 
 
 The troopers, bitterly repenting their rash exploit, 
 gathered up the remnants of their dead on litters of boughs, 
 
196 SALATBIEL. 
 
 and, leaving many a gallant steed to feast of vultures, 
 slowly retired from the place of carnage. The spot to 
 which I clung, made ascent or descent equally difficult; 
 and during this extraordinary contest 1 continued im- 
 bedded in the foliage, and glad to escape the eye of man 
 and brute alike. But the troop were now gone; beneath 
 me lay nothing* but a scene of blood, and I began to wind 
 my way to the summit. A menace from below stopped me. 
 A solitary horseman had galloped back, to give a last look 
 to this valley of death; he saw me climbing the hill, saw 
 that I was not a Eoman, and, in the irritation of the hour, 
 made no scruple of sacrificing a native to the rianes of his 
 comrades. The spear followed his words, and ploughed the 
 ground at my side. His outcry brought back a dozen of his 
 squadron ; I found myself about to be assailed by a general 
 discharge. Escape on foot was impossible; and I had no 
 resource but to be speared, or to descend, and give myself 
 up to the soldiery. 
 
 It was to warn me of this hazard that the signals of my 
 strange companion were made. He saw the advance of the 
 Eoman column along the plain. My suspicions of his 
 honesty drove me directly into their road, and the chance 
 of turning down the valley scarcely retarded the capture. 
 On my first emerging from the hills, I must have been 
 taken. However, my captors were in unusual ill-temper. 
 As an Arab, too poor to be worth plundering or being made 
 prisoner, I should have met only a sneer or an execration, 
 and been turned loose; but the late disaster made the 
 turban and alhaik odious, and I was treated with the wrath 
 due to a fellow-conspirator of the lions. To my request 
 that I should be suffered to depart in peace on my business, 
 the most prompt denial was given; the story that I told 
 to account for my travel in the track of the column, was 
 treated with the simplest scorn; I was pronounced a spy, 
 and fairly told that my head was my own only till I gave 
 the procurator whatever information it contained. 
 
 Yet I found one friend, in this evil state of my expe- 
 dition. My barb, which I had given up for lost in the 
 desert, or torn by the wild beasts, appeared on the heights 
 overhanging our march, and by snuffing the wind, and 
 bounding backwards and forwards through the thickets, 
 attracted general attention. I claimed her, and the idea 
 
SALATHIEL. 197 
 
 that the way-sore and rough-clothed prisoner could be the 
 master of so noble an animal, raised scorn to its most 
 peremptory pitch. In turn I demanded permission to prove 
 my right; and called the barb. The creature heard the 
 voice with the most obvious delight, bounded towards me, 
 rubbed her head to my feet, and by every movement of 
 dumb joy showed that she had found her master. 
 
 Still my requests for dismissal were idle; I talked to 
 the winds ; the rear squadrons of the column were in sight ; 
 and there was no time to be lost. I was suffered to mount 
 the barb, but her bridle was thrown across the neck of one 
 of the troopers' horses, and I was marched along to tor- 
 ture, or a tedious captivity. My blood boiled, when I 
 thought of what was to be done before the dawn. "How 
 miserable a proof had I given of the vigilance and vigor 
 that were to claim the command of armies!" I writhed 
 in every nerve. My agitation at length caught the eye 
 of a corpulent old captain, whose good-humored visage was 
 colored by the deepest infusion of the grape. His strong 
 Thracian charger was ? movable magazine of the choicest 
 Falernian; out of every crevice of his packsaddle and ac- 
 coutrements peeped the head of a flask; and, to judge by 
 his frequent recourse to his stores, no man was less inclined 
 to carry his baggage for nothing. Popularity, too, at- 
 tended upon the captain, and a group of young patricians 
 attached to the procurator's court were content to abate 
 of their rank, and ride along Avith the old soldier, in con- 
 sideration of his better knowledge of the grand military 
 science, providing for the road. 
 
 In the midst of some camp story, which the majority 
 received with peals of applause, the captain glanced upon 
 me, and, asking "whether I was not ill," held out his 
 flask. I took it, and never did I taste draught so delicious. 
 Thirst and hunger are the true secrets of luxury. I abso- 
 lutely felt new life rushing into me with the wine. 
 
 "There," said the old man, "see how the fellow's eye 
 sparkles. Falernian is the doctor, after all. I have had 
 no other those forty years. For hard knocks, hard watches, 
 and hard weather, there is nothing like the true juice of 
 the vine. Try it again, Arab." I declined -the offer in 
 civil terms. 
 
 ''There," said he, "it has made the man eloquent. By 
 
198 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 Hercules, it would make his mare speak. And, now that 
 I look at her, she is as prettily-made a creature as I have 
 seen in Syria ; her nose would fit in a drinking-cup. What 
 is her price, at a word?" 
 
 I answered that "she was not to be sold." 
 
 "Well, well, say no more about it," replied the jovial 
 old man ; "I know you Arabs make as much of a mare as 
 of a child, and I never meddle in family affairs." 
 
 A haughty-looking tribune, covered with embroidery 
 and the other coxcombry of the court soldier, spurred his 
 charger between us, and uttered with a sneer "What, 
 captain, by Venus and all the Graces ! giving this beggar a 
 lecture in philosophy, or a lesson in politeness ? If you will 
 not have the mare, I will. Dismount, slave !" 
 
 The officers gathered to the front, to see the progress of 
 the affair. I sat silent. 
 
 "Slave ! do you hear ? Dismount ! You will lose noth- 
 ing, for you will steal another in the first field you come 
 to." 
 
 "I know but one race of robbers in Judea," replied I. 
 
 The old captain reined up beside me, and said, in a 
 whisper "Friend, let him have the mare. He will pay 
 you handsomely; and, besides he is the nephew of the 
 procurator. It will not be wise in you to put him in a 
 passion." 
 
 "That fellow never shall have her, though he were to 
 coin these sands into gold," replied I. 
 
 "Do you mean to call us robbers ?" said the tribune, with 
 a louring eye. 
 
 "Do you mean to stop me on the high road, and tak' 1 
 my property from me, yet expect that I shall call you 
 anything else?" was the answer. 
 
 "Sententious rogues, those Arabs! Every soul of thorn 
 has a point, or a proverb, on his tongue," murmured the 
 captain to the group of young men, who were evidently 
 amused, by seeing their unpopular companion entangled 
 with me. 
 
 "Slave!" said the tribune fiercely, "we must have no 
 more of this. You have been found lurking about the 
 camp. Will you be hanged for a spv?" 
 
 "A spy !" said I ; and the insult probably colored my 
 cheek. "A spy has no business among the Romans." 
 
SALATIIIEL. 199 
 
 "So," observed the captain, "the Arab seems to think 
 that our proceedings are in general pretty palpable Slay, 
 strip, and burn." He turned to the patrician tribune. 
 "The fellow is not worth our trouble. Shall I let him 
 go about his business?" 
 
 "Sir," said the tribune, angrily, "it is your business to 
 command your troop, and be silent." The old man bit his 
 lip, and fell back to the line of his men. My taunter reined 
 up beside me again. "Do you know, robber, that I can 
 order you to be speared on the spot for your lies ?" 
 
 "No ; for I have told you nothing but the truth, of both 
 of us. Such an order too would only prove that men will 
 often bid others do what they dare not touch with a finger 
 of their own." 
 
 The officers, offended at the treatment of their old favor- 
 ite, burst into a laugh. The coxcomb grew doubly indig- 
 nant. "Strip the hound," exclaimed he to the soldiers: 
 "it is money that makes him insolent." 
 
 "Nature has done it, at least for one of us, without the 
 expense of a mite," replied I, calmly. 
 
 "Off with his turban ! Those fellows carry coin in every 
 fold of it." 
 
 The officers looked at each other in surprise ; the captain 
 hardly suppressed a contemptuous execration between his 
 lips. The very troopers hesitated. "Soldiers !" said I, in 
 the same unaltered tone, "I have no gold in my turban. 
 An Arab is seldom one of those the outside of whose 
 head is better worth than the in." 
 
 The perfumed and curled locks of the tribune, sur- 
 mounted by a helmet, sculptured and plumed in the most 
 extravagant style, caught every eye; and the shaft, slight 
 as it was, went home. 
 
 "I'll pluck the robber off his horse by the beard!" ex- 
 claimed the tribune, spurring his horse upon me, and 
 advancing his Land. 
 
 I threw open my robe, grasped my dagger, and sternly 
 pronounced "There is an oath in our line, that the man 
 who touches the beard of an Arab dies." He was not pre- 
 pared for the action; hesitated, and finally wheeled from 
 me. The old captain burst out into an involuntary huzza ! 
 
 "Take the beggar to the camp," said the tribune, as he 
 rode away ; "I hate all scoundrels ;" and he glanced round 
 the spectators. 
 
200 SALATHIEL. 
 
 "Then," exclaimed I, after him, as a parting blow, "you 
 have at least one virtue, for you can never be charged with 
 self love." 
 
 This woman-war made me popular on the spot. The 
 tribune had no sooner turned his horse's head, than the; 
 officers clustered together in laughter. Even the iron 
 visages of the troopers relaxed into grim smiles. The olJ 
 jocular captain was the only one still grave. 
 
 "There rides not this day under the canopy of heaven," 
 murmured he, "a greater puppy than Caius Sempronius 
 Catulus, tribune of the thirteenth legion, by his mother's 
 morals and the emperor's taste. Why diJ not the cox- 
 comb stay at home, and show off his trappings among the 
 supper-eaters of the Palatine? He might have powdered 
 his ringlets with gold-dust, washed his hands in rose-water, 
 and perfumed his handkerchief with myrrh, as well there 
 as here ; for he does nothing else. Except," and he clenched 
 the heavy hilt of his falchion, "insult men who have seen 
 more battles than he has seen years, who know better 
 service than bowing in courts, and the least drop of whose 
 blood is worth all that will ever run in his veins. But I 
 have not done with him yet. As for you, friend," said he, 
 "I am sorry to stop you on your way; but as this affair 
 will be magnified by that fool's tongue, you must be 
 brought to the procurator. However, the camp is only a 
 few miles off; you will be asked a few questions, and then 
 left to follow your will." He little dreamed how I recoiled 
 from that interview. 
 
 To shorten the time of my delay, the good-natured old 
 man ordered the squadron to mend their pace ; and in half 
 an hour we saw the noon encampment of my sworn enemy, 
 lifting its white tops and scarlet flags among the umbrage 
 of a forest, deep in the valley at our feet. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 THE squadron drew up at the entrance of the procur- 
 ator's tent, and with a crowd of alarmed peasants captured 
 in the course of the day, I was delivered over to be ques- 
 tioned by this man of terror. The few minutes which 
 passed before I was called to take my turn were singularly 
 
SALATHIEL. 201 
 
 painful. This was not fear ; for the instant sentence of the 
 axe would have been almost a relief from the hopeless and 
 fretful thwartings sown so thickly in my path. But to have 
 embarked in a noble enterprise, and to perish without use; 
 to have arrived almost within sight of the point of my de- 
 sires, and then, without striking a blow, to be given up to 
 shame, stung me like a serpent. 
 
 My heart sprang to my lips when I heard myself called 
 into the presence of Florus. He was lying upon a couch } 
 with his never-failing cup before him, and turning over 
 some papers with a shaking hand. Care or conscience had 
 made ravages even in him, since I saw him last. He was 
 still the same figure of excess, but his cheek was hollow; 
 the few locks on his head had grown a more snowy white, 
 and the little pampered hand was as thin and yellow as the 
 claw of the vulture, that he so much resembled in his 
 soul. 
 
 With his head scarcely lifted from the table, and with 
 eyes that seemed half shut, he asked whence I had come, 
 and whither I was going. My voice, notwithstanding my 
 attempt to disguise it, struck his acute ear. His native 
 keenness was awake at once. He darted a fiery glance at 
 me, and, striking his hand on the table, exclaimed "By 
 Hercules, it is the Jew !" My altered costume again per- 
 plexed him. "Yet," said he, in soliloquy, "that fellow 
 went to Nero, and must have been executed. Ho ! send in 
 the tribune who took him." Catulus entered; and his 
 account of me was, luckily, contemptuous in the extreme. 
 I was "a notorious robber, who had stolen a handsome 
 horse, perfectly worthy of the stud of the procurator." I 
 panted with the hope of escape, and was gradually moving 
 to the door. "Stand, Slave!" cried Florus; "I have my 
 doubts of you still; and as the public safety admits of no 
 mistake, I have no alternative. Tribune, order in the 
 lictors. He must be scourged into confession." The lictors 
 were summoned, and I was to be torn by Eoman tor- 
 turers. 
 
 A tumult now arose outside, and a man rushed in with 
 the lictors, exclaiming, "Justice, most mighty Floras ! By 
 the majesty of Rome, and the magnanimity of the most 
 illustrious of governors, I call for justice against my 
 plunderer, my undoer, the robber of the son of El Hakim, 
 of his most precious treasure." 
 
202 SALATHIEL. 
 
 Floras recognized the clamorer as an old acquaintance, 
 and desired him to state his complaint, and with as much 
 brevity as possible. 
 
 "Last night," said the man, "I was the happy possessor 
 of a mare, fleet as the ostrich, and shapely as the face of 
 beauty. I had intended her as a present for the most 
 illustrious of procurators, the great Floras, whom the gods 
 long preserve! In the hour of my rest, the spoiler came, 
 noiseless as the fall of the turtle's feather, but cruel as the 
 viper's tooth. When I arose, the mare was gone. I was 
 in distraction. I tore my beard ; I beat my head upon the 
 ground ; I cursed the robber wherever he went, to the sun- 
 rising or the sun-setting, to the mountains or the valleys. 
 But fortune sits on the banner of my lord the procurator, 
 and I came for hope to his conquering feet. In passing 
 through the camp, what did I see but my treasure the 
 delight of my eyes, the drier up of my tears ! I have come 
 to claim justice, and the restoration of my mare, that I 
 may have the happiness to present her to the most renowned 
 of mankind/' 
 
 I had been occupied with the thought whether I should 
 burst through the lictors or rush on the procurator. But 
 the length and loudness of this outcry engrossed every one. 
 The orator was my friend the beggar ! He pointed fiercely 
 to me. If looks could kill, he would not have survived the 
 look that I gave the traitor in return. 
 
 "There," said Floras, "is your plunderer. Sabat, have 
 you ever seen him before?" 
 
 The beggar strode insolently towards me. "Seen him 
 before! ay, a hundred times. What! Ben Ammon, the 
 most notorious thief from the Nile to the Jordan. My lord, 
 every child knows him. Hah, bv the gods of mv fathers, 
 by my mother's bosom, by shaft and by shield, he has 
 stolen more horses within the last twenty years than would 
 remount all the cavalry from Beersheba to Damascus ! It 
 was but last night that, as I was leading my mare, the 
 gem of my eyes, my pearl " 
 
 I now began to perceive the value of my eloquent friend's 
 interposition. 
 
 "An Arab horse-thief that alters the case," said the 
 'procurator. "Ho! did you not say that the mare was 
 intended for me? Lictor, go bring this wonder to the 
 door." 
 
SAL AT HI EL. 203 
 
 The voluble son of El Hakim followed the lictor, and re- 
 turned, crying out more furiously than before against 
 me. His "pearl, the delight of his eyes, was spoiled 
 was utterly unmanageable. I had put some of my villain- 
 ous enchantments upon her, for which I was notorious.** 
 
 The procurator's curiosity was excited : he rose, and went 
 to take a view of the enchanted animal. I followed : and 
 certainly nothing could be more singular than the restive- 
 ness which the son of El Hakim contrived to make her 
 exhibit. She plunged, she bounded, bit, reared, and flung 
 out her heels in all directions. Every attempt to lead or 
 mount her was foiled in the most complete yet most ludi- 
 crous manner. The young cavalry officers came from all 
 sides, and could not be restrained from boisterous laugh- 
 ter, even by the presence of the procurator. Florus him- 
 self at last became among the loudest. Even I, accustomed 
 as I was to daring horsemanship, was surprised at the ec- 
 centric agility of this unlucky rider. He was alternately 
 on the animal's back and under her feet; he sprang upon 
 her from behind, he sprang over her head, he stood upon 
 the saddle, but all in vain; he had scarcely touched her 
 when she threw him up in the air again, amid the per- 
 petual roar of the soldiery. 
 
 At length, with a look of dire disappointment, he gave 
 up the task ; and, as scarcely able to drag his limbs along, 
 prostrated himself before Florus, praying that he would 
 order the Arab thief to unsay the spells that had turned 
 "the gentlest mare in the world into a wild beast." The 
 consent was given with a haughty nod; and I advanced to 
 play my part in a performance, of whose objects I had not 
 a conception. The orator delivered the barb to me with 
 a look so expressive of cunning, sport, and triumph, that, 
 perplexed as I was, I could not avoid a smile. My experi- 
 ment was rapidly made. The mare knew me, and was 
 tractable at once. This only confirmed the charge of my 
 necromancy. But the son of El Hakim professed himself 
 altogether dissatisfied with so expeditious a process, and de- 
 manded that I should go through the regular steps of the 
 art. In the midst of the fiercest reprobation of my unhal- 
 lowed dealings, a whisper from him put me in possession 
 of his mind. 
 
 I now went through the process used by the travelling 
 
204 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 jugglers ; and if the deepest attention of an audience could 
 reward my talents, mine received unexampled reward. My 
 
 tazings on the sky, whisperings in the barb's ear, grotesque 
 gures traced on the sand, wild gestures and mysterious 
 jargon, thoroughly absorbed the intellects of the honest 
 legionaries. If I had been content with fame, I might have 
 spread my reputation through the Koman camps as a con- 
 jurer of the first magnitude. I was, however, beginning 
 to be weary of my exhibition, and longed for the signal, 
 when Sabat approached, and loudly testifying that I had 
 clearly performed my task, threw the bridle over the ani- 
 mal's head, and whispered, "Now I" 
 
 My heart panted; my hand was on the mane: I glanced 
 round to see that all was safe, before I gave the spring, 
 when Florus screamed out, "The Jew! by Tartarus, it is 
 the Jew himself. Drag down the circumcised dog." With 
 cavalry on every side of me, forcible escape was out of the 
 question. 
 
 "Undone, undone!" were the words of my wild friend, 
 as he passed me. And when I saw him once more in the 
 most earnest conversation with Florus, I concluded that 
 the discovery was complete. I was in utter despair. I 
 stood sullenly waiting the worst, and gave an internal 
 curse to the more than malevolence of fortune. 
 
 The conversation continued so long that the impatience 
 of those around me began to break out. 
 
 "On what possible subject can the procurator suffer that 
 mad fellow to have so long an audience?" said a young 
 patrician. 
 
 "On every possible subject, I should conceive, from the 
 length of the conference," was the reply. 
 
 "Florus knows his man," said a third ; "that mad fellow 
 i? a regular spy, and receives more of the emperor's coin in 
 a month than we do in a year." 
 
 The tribune now broke into the circle, and with a look 
 of supreme scorn, affectedly exclaimed, "Come, knight of 
 the desert, sovereign of the sands, let us have a specimen 
 of your calling. Stand back, officers; this egg of Ishmarl 
 is to quit plunder so soon, that he would probably like to 
 die as he lived in the exercise of his trade. Here, slave, 
 show us the most approved method of getting possession 
 of another man's horse." 
 
&ALAT31EL. 205 
 
 I stood in indignant silence. The tribune threatened. 
 A thought struck me; I bowed to the command, let the 
 barb loose,, and proceeded according to the theory of horse- 
 stealing. I approached noiselessly, gesticulated, made mys- 
 tic movements and gibbered witchcraft as before. The 
 animal, with natural docility, suffered my experiments. I 
 continued urging her towards the thinner side of the circle. 
 "Now, noble Romans," said I, "look carefullv to the next 
 spell, for it is the triumph of the art/' 
 
 Curiosity was in every countenance. I made a genu- 
 flexion to the four points of the compass, devoted a gesture 
 of peculiar solemnity to the procurator's tent, and while 
 all eyes were drawn in that direction, sprang on the barb's 
 back, and was gone like an arrow. 
 
 I heard a clamor of surprise, mingled with outrageous 
 laughter, and, looking round, saw the whole crowd of the 
 loose riders of the encampment in full pursuit up the hill. 
 Florus was at his tent door, pointing towards me with 
 furious gestures. The trumpets were calling, the cavalry 
 mounting: I had roused the whole activity of the little 
 army. 
 
 The slope of the valley was long and steep; and the 
 heavy horsemanship of the legionaries, who were perhaps 
 not very anxious for my capture, soon threw them out. A 
 little knot of the more zealous alone kept up a pursuit, 
 from which I had no fears. An abrupt rock in the middle 
 of the ascent at length hid them from me. To gain a last 
 view of the camp, I doubled round the rock, and saw, a 
 few yards below me, the tribune, with his horse completely 
 blown. I owed him a debt, partly on my own account, and 
 partly on that of the old captain, which I had determined 
 to discharge at the earliest possible time. I darted upon 
 him. He was all astonishment: a single buffet from my 
 naked hand knocked the helpless taunter off his charger. 
 "Tribune," cried I, as he lay upon the ground, "you have 
 had one specimen of my art to-day, now you shall have 
 another. Learn in future to respect an Arab." I caught 
 his horse's bridle, gave the animal a lash, and we bounded 
 away together. The scene was visible to the whole camp ; 
 the troopers, who had reined up on the declivity, gave a 
 roar of merriment, and I heard the old corpulent captain's 
 laugh above it all. 
 
206 8ALATHIEL> 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 I HAD escaped; but the delay was ruinous. The eun 
 sank when I reached the brow of the mountain, and Ma- 
 sada lay many a weary mile forward. I cast off the trib- 
 une's horse, thus giving his insolent master evidence that 
 I did not understand the main point of my trade; and 
 stood pondering to what point of the mighty ridge that rose 
 blue along the horizon I should turn ; when, in the plunge 
 of the horse, as he felt himself at liberty, his saddle came 
 to the ground. The possibility of its containing reports 
 of the state of the enemy led me to examine its pockets; 
 they were stuffed with letters worthy of the highest circles 
 of Italian high life ; the ill-spelled registers of an existence 
 at a loss how to lose its time; of libertinism sick of in- 
 dulgence; and of pecuniary embarrassment driven to the 
 most hopeless and whimsical resource- 
 
 A glance at a few of those epistles was enough, and I 
 scattered into the air the reputations of half the high- 
 born maids and matrons of Rome, but, as I was turning 
 away with an instinctive exclamation of scorn at this com- 
 pendium of patrician life, my eye was caught by a letter 
 addressed to the governor of Masada. In opening it I 
 committed no violation of diplomacy ; for it held no secret 
 other than an angry remission of his allegiance by some 
 wearied fair one, who announced her intended marriage 
 with the tribune. 
 
 My revenge was thus to go further than my intent ; for 
 I deprived him of the personal triumph of delivering this 
 calamitous despatch to his rival. Yet, on second thoughts, 
 conceiving that some cipher might lurk under its ab- 
 surdity, I secured the paper, and, giving the rein, left the 
 whole secret correspondence of debt, libel and love to the 
 delight of mankind. I flew along; my indefatigable barb, 
 as if she felt her master's anxieties, put forth double speed. 
 But I had yet a fearful length to traverse. The night fell 
 thick and rude; but I had no time to think of rest or 
 shelter. I pushed on. The wind rose and wrapped me in 
 whirls of sand. I heard the roar of waters. The ground 
 became fractured and full of the loose fragments that fall 
 from rocky hills. I discovered only that I was at the 
 foot of the ridge and had lost my way. In this embar- 
 
SALATH1EL. 207 
 
 rassnient I trusted to the sagacity of my steed. But thirst 
 led her directly to one of the mountain torrents, and the 
 phosphoric gleam of the waters alone saved us both from 
 a plunge over a precipice, deep enough to extinguish every 
 appetite and ambition in the round of this bustling world. 
 
 To find a passage, or an escape, I alighted. The tor- 
 rent bellowed before me. A wall of rock rose on the op- 
 posite side. After long climbings and descents I found 
 that I had descended too deep to return. Oh, how I longed 
 for the trace of man, for the feeblest light that ever 
 twinkled from the cottage window ! I felt the plague of 
 helplessness. To attempt the torrent was impossible. To 
 linger where I stood till dawn was misery. 
 
 "What would be going on meanwhile? Perhaps, at the 
 very time while I was standing in wretched doubt, im- 
 prisoned among those pestilent cliffs, the deed was do- 
 ing! Constantius was, with ineffectual gallantry, assault- 
 ing the fortress ; my brave kinsmen were pouring out their 
 lives under the Eoman spears ; and I was not there !" 
 
 A fitful sound came mingling with the roar of the 
 cataract; it swelled and vanished away like the rush- 
 ings of the gale. A trumpet rang, but so feebly, that noth- 
 ing but the keenness of an ear straining to catch the 
 slightest sound could have distinguished it. I heard re- 
 mote shouts; they deepened, the echo of trumpets fol- 
 lowed. "The assault has begun ! The work of glory and 
 of death was doing. Every instant cost a life. The hail- 
 stones that bruised me were not thicker than the arrows 
 that were then smiting down my people. Yet there was 
 I like a wolf in the pitfall !" 
 
 Even where the combat was being fought baffled my 
 conception. It might be in the clouds, or underground, 
 on the opposite side of the black ridge before me, or 
 many a league beyond the reach of my exhausted linibs 
 and drooping steed; all was darkness to the eye and the 
 mind. 
 
 A light flashed down a ravine leading into the heart of 
 the mountains ; another and another blazed. Masada stood 
 upon the mountain's brow ! 
 
 I instantly plunged into the torrent was beaten down 
 by the billows was swept along through narrow channels 
 of rock, until, half -suffocated, I was hurled up against the 
 
208 SALATBIEL 
 
 opposite cliff. Wet and weary, I less climbed than tore 
 4jtny way upwards. But the torrent had borne me far 
 Vbelow the ravine. Before me was a gigantic rampart of 
 rock. But the time was flying. I dragged myself up to 
 the face of the precipice by the chance brushwood. I 
 swung from point to point by the few projecting branches 
 that yet broke away almost in my grasp; until, with un- 
 hands excoriated, my limbs stiff and bleeding and my head 
 * reeling, I reached the pinnacle. 
 
 Was I under the dominion of a spell? Was the power 
 
 of some fiend raised to mock me? All was darkness as 
 
 far as the eye could pierce: the heaviest veil of midnight 
 
 hung upon the earth. There was utter silence. Not the 
 
 ->' slightest sound touched upon the ear. 
 
 For awhile the thought of some strange illusion was 
 paramount; then came the frightful idea that the illusion 
 was in myself; that in the effort to gain the ascent I had 
 strained eye and ear until I could neither hear nor see; 
 that I was still within sight and sound of battle, but in- 
 sensible to the impressions of the external world forever. 
 Immortality under this exclusion ! A deathlcssness of the 
 deaf and blind ! The thought struck me with a force in- 
 conceivable by all minds but one sentenced like mine ! 
 
 In my despair I cried aloud. A flood of joy rushed into 
 my heart when I heard my voice answered, though it was 
 but by the neigh of my barb below, which probably felt 
 itself as ill-placed as its master. I now used my ear as 
 the guide, and cautiously descending the further side of 
 the ridge, was soon on comparatively level ground, the 
 remnant of a forest. My foot struck against a human 
 body; I spoke, the answer was a groan and an entreaty 
 that I should bear a small packet, which was put into my 
 hands, "to the Prince of Naphtali !" In alarm and as- 
 tonishment I raised the sufferer, gave him some water 
 from my flask, and, after many an effort, in which I 
 thought that life would depart every moment, he told me 
 that "he was the unfortunate leader of the assault of 
 Masada." Constantius lay in my arms ! 
 
 "Where I am/' said he, as he slowly recovered his senses, 
 "how I came here, or anything, but that we are undone, I 
 cannot conceive. My last recollection was of fixing a lad- 
 der to the inner rampart. We had made our way good 
 
SALATS1EL. 
 
 so far without loss. The garrison was weakened by de- 
 tachments sent out to plunder, for the arrival of the 
 procurator. I attacked at midnight. To surprise a Roman 
 fortress was, I well knew, next to impossible ; and no man 
 ever found a Roman garrison without bravery. But our 
 bold fellows did wonders. Everything was driven from 
 the first rampart; we made more prisoners than we knew 
 what to do with; and in the midst of all kinds of resist- 
 ance, we laid our ladders to the second wall. But the gar- 
 rison were still too strong for us. Our easy conquest of 
 the first line might have been a snare, for the battlements 
 before us exhibited an overwhelming force. We fought 
 on; but the ladders were broken with showers of stones 
 from the engines. The business looked desperate; but I 
 had made up my mind not to go back, after having once 
 got in ; and, rallying the men, I carried a ladder through a 
 storm of lances and arrows to the foot of the main tower. 
 I was bravely followed, and we were within grasp of the 
 battlement when I saw a cohort rush out from a sally-port 
 below. This was fatal; the foot of the rampart was 
 cleared at once; the ladders were flung down; and, I sup- 
 pose, it is owing to the ill-judged fidelity of some of my 
 followers that I am unfortunate enough to find myself 
 here and alive." 
 
 During the endless hours of this miserable night I la- 
 bored, with scarcely a hope, to keep life in my heroic son. 
 My coming had saved him. The exposure and his wounds 
 must have destroyed him before morning. We consulted 
 sadly on our next course. I suggested the possibility of 
 gaining the fortress by a renewal of the attack while the 
 garrison were unprepared, or perhaps indulging them- 
 selves in carousal after their success. The necessity of 
 some attempt was strongly in my mind, and I expressed 
 my determination to run the hazard if I could find where 
 the remnant of our troop had taken refuge. But this 
 was the difficulty. Signals of any kind must rouse the 
 vigilance of the Romans. The fortress was above our 
 heads; and to collect the men during the night was im- 
 possible. 
 
 While I watched the restless tossings of Constantius a 
 light stole along the ground at a distance. My first idea 
 that a Roman patrol was coming to extinguish our 
 
210 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 last remains of hope. But the light was soon perceived to 
 be in the hand of some one cautious of discovery. To 
 keep its bearer at a distance, I followed the track, and 
 grasped him. 
 
 ."I surrender," said the captive, perfectly at his ease. 
 "Long life to the Emperor!" He lifted the lamp to my 
 face and burst into laughter. "May I have a Roman 
 falchion through me," said he, "but I think we were born 
 under the same planet. By all the food that has entered 
 my lips this day, I took your highness for a thief; and, 
 pardon the word, for a Roman one. I have been running 
 after you the whole day and night." He continued to 
 talk and writhe, with a kind of mad merriment. I could 
 not obtain an answer to my questions of what led him 
 there how he could guide us out of the forest or what 
 news he brought from the procurator? He less walked 
 than danced before me through the thickets as our scene 
 with Florus recurred to his fantastic mind. 
 
 "Never was trick so capital as your escape," he ex- 
 claimed; "I would have given an eye or an arm, things 
 rather an impediment to a beggar I allow; but it would 
 have been worth a kingdom to see, as I saw, the faces of 
 the whole camp, procurator, officers, troopers and all 
 down to the horse-boys, on your slipping through their fin- 
 gers in such first-rate style. I have done clever things in 
 my time; but never, no never, shall I equal that way of 
 making five thousand men at once look like five thousand 
 fools. I own I thought that you would do something 
 brilliant; and it was for that purpose that I tried to draw 
 off the eye of that scoundrel Florus, for, sot as he is, 
 there are not ten in Palestine keener in all points where 
 roguery is concerned. I caught hold of his robe, told him 
 a ready lie of the largest size about a discovery of coin in 
 Jerusalem; and while he was nibbling at the bait I heard 
 the uproar. You were off; I could not help laughing in 
 his illustrious face. He kicked me from him, and, foam- 
 ing with rage, ordered every man and horse out after your 
 highness. But I saw at a glance that you had the game 
 in your own hands. You skimmed away like a bird; an 
 eagle could not have got up that long hill in finer con- 
 dition. Away you went, bounding from steep to steep, 
 like a stone from a sling; you cut the air like a shaft. I 
 
SALATBIEL. 
 
 have seen many a mare in my time; but as for the equal 
 of yours why, a pair of wings would be of no use to her. 
 She is a paragon, a bird of paradise, an ostrich on four 
 legs, a " 
 
 I checked his volubility and led him to the rough bed- 
 side of Constantius. I could not have found a better 
 auxiliary. He knew every application used in the med- 
 icine of the time; and, to give him credit on his own 
 showing, all diseases found in him an enemy worth all 
 the doctors of Asia. "He had travelled for his knowledge ; 
 he had fought with death from the Nile to the Ganges, 
 and could swear that the sharks and crocodiles owed him 
 a grudge throughout the world. He had cured rajahs and 
 satraps till he made himself unpopular in every court 
 where men looked to vacancies ; had kept rich old men out 
 of their graves until there was a general conspiracy of 
 heirs to drive him out of the country; and had poured 
 life into so many dying husbands that the women made a 
 universal combination against his own." 
 
 This flow of panegyric, however, did not impede his 
 present services. He applied his herbs and bandages with 
 professional dexterity, and, kindling a fire, prepared some 
 food, which went further to cheer the patient than even 
 his medicine. He still talked away, like one to whom words 
 were a necessary escape for his surcharge of animal spirits. 
 "He knew everything in physic. He had studied in Egypt 
 and could compound the true essential extract of mummy, 
 with any man that wore a beard, from the Cataracts to 
 the bottom of the Delta. He once walked to the Moun- 
 tains of the Moon to learn the secret of powdered chryso- 
 lite. On the Himmaleh he picked up his knowledge of 
 the bezoar; and a year's march through sands and snows 
 rewarded him at once with a bag of the ginseng, most 
 marvellous of roots, and the sight of the wall of China, 
 most endless of walls." 
 
 How he stooped to veil this accumulation of knowl- 
 edge in rags he did not condescend to explain. But his 
 skill so far was certainly admirable, and my brave Con- 
 stantius recovered with a suddenness that surprised me. 
 With his strength his hopes returned. "Oh," exclaimed 
 he, awaking from a refreshing sleep, "that I were once 
 again at the foot of the rampart with the ladder in my 
 hand!" 
 
SALATB1EL. 
 
 "By my father's beard/' replied the leecn, "you are 
 much better where you are; for, observe, though I can 
 go further than any doctor between the four rivers, yet I 
 never professed to cure the dead. Take Masada by scale! 
 Ha ! ha ! take the clouds by scale ! You would have 
 found three walls within the one to which they decoyed 
 you. Herod was the prince of builders and could have 
 built out everything, but the champion that carries no 
 arms but a scythe and cares as little for kings as for Sa- 
 bat the beggar." 
 
 "Then you know Masada?" interrupted I, eagerly. 
 
 "Know it, yes; every loophole, window, door, ay and 
 dungeon, from one end of it to the other." 
 
 Still, my escape from the camp was so congenial to 
 his ideas of pleasantry that it mingled with all its topics. 
 War and politics went for nothing compared with the 
 adroitness of eluding Roman insolence. "By Jove !" said 
 he, "when I played my tricks with that pearl of pearls, that 
 supreme of horseflesh, your barb, I was clumsy; I played 
 the clown; you beat me hollow; it was matchless; it was 
 my purse in prospect of your generosity to its emptiness 
 this night" he made a profound obeisance "to see those 
 fellows panting up the hill after you, nearly killed me." 
 
 "But, the fortress?" 
 
 "Oh! as to the fortress, the notion of attacking it was 
 madness. I had my doubts of your intention, and broke 
 loose from the camp, to give you the benefit of my ad- 
 vice. But the tribune ; ha ! ha ! never was coxcomb so 
 rightly served. You won the heart of the whole legion 
 by the single blow that spared him the trouble of sitting 
 his horst. The troopers could not keep their saddles for 
 laughing ; and as for the old fat captain, I was only afraid 
 that he would roar himself out of the world. I owed my 
 escape partly to him; and his last words were, 'Rascal, if 
 you ever fall in with the Arab, whom I suspect to be as 
 pleasant a rogue as yourself, tell him that I wish I had a 
 dozen such in my squadron/ " 
 
 "But is there any possibility of knowing the present 
 state of the garrison?" 
 
 "Ay, there is the misfortune. Yesterday I could have 
 got in, and got out again, like a wild cat. But, after this 
 night's visit, it is not too much to suppose th# f they may 
 
8ALATHIEL 213 
 
 be a little more select in their hospitality. The governor 
 has a slight correspondence of his own to carry on ; a trifle, 
 in the way of trade; I had the honor to be smuggler ex- 
 traordinary to his Mightiness; and, as in state secrets 
 everything ought to be kept from the vulgar, my path in 
 and out was by a portcullis, far enough from gates and 
 sentinels; through which portcullis I should have shown 
 you the way, if the attack had waited for me a few hours 
 longer. That chance is, of course, cut off now. But see, 
 yonder comes the morning." 
 
 "Then we must move, or have the garrison on us." 
 
 "I forbid that manoeuvre," interrupted the fellow, with 
 easy audacity. 
 
 Constantius and I, in equal surprise, bade him be si- 
 lent. Yet the quietness with which he took the rebuke 
 propitiated me and I asked his reason. 
 
 "Nothing more than that if you stir you are ruined. 
 The hare is safest near the kennel. The outlaw sleeps 
 sounder in the magistrate's stable than he ever slept in 
 his den. I once escaped hanging by coolly walking into 
 a jail. There stands Masada !" and he pointed to what 
 looked to me a heap of black clouds gathered on the moun- 
 tain's brow. 
 
 "Not a soul that you have left alive there will dream of 
 your being within a stone's throw. The copse is thick 
 enough to hide a man from everything but a creditor, an 
 evil conscience, or a wife; stir out of it and they are on 
 your heels. I dislike them so heartily that I hope never 
 to have the honor of their attendance. But, you are not 
 mad enough to think of trying them again?" 
 
 "Mad, fellow !" I exclaimed ; "you forget in whose 
 presence you are." He continued making some new ar- 
 rangement of the bandages on his patient's wounds; and, 
 without taking the slightest notice of my displeasure, 
 cheered his work with a song. 
 
 "Mad, or wise," said I in soliloquy, "I shall lie in the 
 ditch of that fortress, or in its citadel, before next sun- 
 rise." 
 
 "You may lie in both," said the beggar, pursuing his 
 occupation and his song. "Mad ! why not ; all the world 
 are in the same way. The emperor is mad enough to stay 
 where men have hands and knives. His people are mad 
 
214 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 enough to let their throats be cut by him. Florus is mad 
 enough to sleep another night in Palestine. You are mad 
 enough to attack his garrison; and I am mad enough 
 to go along with you." 
 
 "You are a singular being. But, will you hazard your 
 neck for nothing?" 
 
 "Custom makes everything easy," observed he, spanning 
 his muscular neck with his hand. "I have been so many 
 years within sight of the cord, and all other expeditious 
 modes of paying the only debt I ever intend to pay, 
 and that only because it is the last, that I care as little 
 about the venture as any broken gambler about his last 
 coin. Well, then I must get into the town; you must 
 gather your troop without noise, and be ready for my 
 signal, a light from one of the towers. A false attack must 
 be made on the gates, a true attack must be made by the 
 portcullis, which, if it be not stopped up, I will unlock; 
 and your highness may eat your next supper off the gov- 
 ernor's plate. There's a plan for you! I should have 
 been a general. But merit ay, there's the rub merit is 
 like the camel's lading, it stops him at the gate, while 
 the empty slip in. It is like putting wings upon one's 
 shoulders when the race is to be run upon the knees. Too 
 much brain in a man is like too much bend in a bow; the 
 bow either breaks or sends the arrow a mile beyond the 
 mark. Genius, my prince, is " 
 
 I interrupted the general in his progress into the phi- 
 losopher, and demanded whether the renewed vigilance of 
 the fortress would not require some additional expedient 
 for his entry. He struck his forehead; the thought came, 
 as the flint gives its spark, and he produced a highly orna- 
 mented tablet. "This," said he, "I ought to employ in 
 your service; for if you had not knocked down the trib- 
 une, I could never have picked it up. In making my run 
 over the mountain I struck upon his correspondence. Oh ! 
 the curse of curiosity! if I had not stopped to delight 
 myself with the whole scandal of Home, I should have 
 been here in time. But I lingered, lost an hour in laugh- 
 ing, and when I set out in the dusk, lost my way, for the 
 first time in my life. Before setting off, however, I wrote 
 a letter, ridiculing Florus in all points, burlesquing the 
 people about him, scoffing at everybody in the most heroic 
 
SALATH1EL. 215 
 
 style; and, having subscribed the name of the unlucky 
 tribune, addressed it to one of the most notorious per- 
 sonages in all Italy and placed it where it is sure to be 
 seen, and as sure to be carried to the most noble of pro- 
 curators. Now could I not begin a correspondence with 
 the governor, and act the courier myself? Yet, to hit 
 upon the subject " He paused. 
 
 The letter that I had found occurred to me. I showed 
 it to our adroit friend. He was in ecstasies. He kissed it 
 over and over, and played some of those antics which 
 had made me almost half doubt his sanity. He flung away 
 the tablet. "Go," said he; "fiction is a fine thing in its 
 way. But give me fact when I want to entrap a great 
 man. He is so little used to truth that the least atom 
 of it is a spell ; the fresh bait will carry the largest hook. 
 Ay, this is the letter for us; it has the sincerity of the 
 sex, when they are determined to jilt a man; its abuse 
 will cover me from top to toe with the cloak of a true 
 ambassador." 
 
 "But the unpopularity of your credentials," said I, 
 laughingly. 
 
 "Let the potentate by whom they are sent settle that 
 affair with the potentate by whom they are received," re- 
 plied he. 
 
 "You will be hanged." 
 
 "I shall first get in." 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 THE day passed anxiously, for every sound of the huge 
 fortress was heard in the thicket. The creaking of ma- 
 chines, brought up to the walls against future assault; the 
 rattling of hammers; the rolling of waggons loaded with 
 materials for the repair of the night's damage; the calls 
 of trumpet and clarion, and the march of patrols rang 
 perpetually in our ears. The depth of the copse justified 
 the beggar's generalship, and the son of El Hakim proved 
 himself a master of the art of castrametation. Nothing 
 could exceed his alertness in threading the mazes of this 
 dwarf forest, where a wolf could scarcely have made prog- 
 ress, and where a lynx would have required all his eyes, 
 
216 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 On my asking how he contrived to find his way through 
 this labyrinth, he told me that "for making one's way in 
 woods and elsewhere, there was nothing like a familiarity 
 with smuggling and affairs of state." 
 
 "The man," continued he, "who has driven a trade in 
 everything from pearls to pistachios, without leave of the 
 customs, cannot be much puzzled by thickets; and the 
 man who has contrived to climb into confidence at court 
 must have had a talent for keeping his feet in the most 
 slippery spots, or he never could have mounted the back 
 stairs." 
 
 He collected the scattered troop, of whom but few had 
 fallen, though nearly one-half were made prisoners; they 
 were eager to attempt the rampart again, all boldly at- 
 tributing their failure to accident, and all thirsting alike 
 for the rescue of their comrades and for revenge. The 
 letter was given to our emissary and I ascended the loftiest 
 of the mountain pinnacles to examine for myself the na- 
 ture of the ground. From the height the view was com- 
 plete; the whole interior of the fortress lay open; and in 
 the same glance I saw the grandeur of design, which Greek 
 taste could stamp even upon the strength of military ar- 
 chitecture, and the utter hopelessness of any direct assault 
 upon Masada by less than an army. 
 
 Who but he that has actually been in the same situation 
 can conceive the feelings with which I gazed ! Below me 
 was the spot in which a few hours must see me con- 
 queror or nothing! On that battlement I might, before 
 another morn be stretched in blood ! on that tower I might 
 be fixed a horrid spectacle ! Nature is irresistible, and her 
 workings, for awhile, overpowered even the belief in my 
 mysterious sentence. The thought has always terribly 
 returned; but the moment of energy has always extin- 
 guished it ; the hurrying and swelling current of my heart 
 rolled over it, as the winter torrent rushes over the tomh 
 on its brink. The melancholy memorial was there, sure to 
 reappear with the first subsiding; but, lost while the flood 
 of feeling whirled along. Every group of soldiery that 
 sang, or gamed, or gazed, along the ramparts, under the 
 bright and quiet day which followed so fearful a night ; 
 every archer pacing on his tower; every change of the 
 guard; every entering courier was visible to me, and all 
 
8ALATHIEL. 217 
 
 were objects of keen interest. At length my courier came. 
 I saw his approach from a pass of the mountains at the 
 remotest point from our cover, his well-contrived ex- 
 haustion, and the fearless impudence with which he be- 
 guiled the sulky guard at the gate, and stalked before the 
 centurion by whom he was brought to the governor. 
 
 With what eyes of impatience I now watched the sun ! 
 As the hour of fate approached the fever of the mind grew. 
 To defer the attack beyond the night was to abandon it; 
 for by morn the troops under Florus must reach Masada. 
 Yet a strange sensation, a chilliness of heart sometimes 
 came on me in which my hands were as feeble as an 
 infant's. Nothing tries the soul more deeply than this 
 concentration of its fortunes into a few moments. The 
 man sees himself standing on the edge of a precipice, down 
 which there is .no second step. But the thought of re- 
 turning errandless and humiliated, and this, too, from my 
 first enterprise, was intolerable. I made my decision. 
 
 From that instant I breathed freely, my strength re- 
 turned, hope glowed in my bosom; and, clinging to the 
 granite spire of the mountain, I looked down upon the 
 haughty stronghold, like its evil genius descending from 
 the clouds. The sun touched the western ridge. A horse- 
 man came at full speed across the plain at its foot and 
 entered the fortress. He evidently brought news of im- 
 portance, for the troops were hurried under arms, flags 
 hoisted on the ramparts and the walls lined with archers. 
 All was military bustle. 
 
 My first conception was that my emissary had betrayed 
 us and that we were about to be attacked. I plunged from 
 the pinnacle and was following the windings of the goat 
 track to our lair, when I saw the rising of a cloud of dust 
 in the distance. It moved with rapidity, and soon devel- 
 oped its contents. Intelligence of the assault had reached 
 Florus. His sagacity saw what perils turned on the loss 
 of the fortress; he shook off his indolence and came with- 
 out delay to its succor. Banners, helmets and scarlet cloaks 
 poured across the plain. A torrent of brass, burning and 
 flashing in the sunbeam, continued to roll down the defile, 
 and before the evening star glittered the whole cavalry 
 of the fifteenth legion was trampling over the drawbridge 
 of Masada. Here was the death-blow. My enterprise wa.g 
 
218 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 henceforth tenfold more hopeless; but with me the time 
 for prudence was past. If the reinforcement had arrived 
 but an hour before, I should probably have given up the 
 attempt in despair. But my mind was now fixed; I had 
 made an internal vow; and if the whole host of Rome 
 were crowded within the walls beneath me I should have 
 hazarded the assault. 
 
 I descended, found my troop collected ; and, to my alarm 
 and vexation, Constantius, enfeebled as he was, obsti- 
 nately determined to assault the rampart again. With 
 the daring f his enthusiastic heart he told me that unless 
 I suffered him to attempt the retrieval of his defeat he 
 felt it impossible to survive. 
 
 "Shame and grief," said he, "are as deadly as the 
 sword; and never will I return to the face of her whom 
 I love, or of the family whom I honor, .unless I can re- 
 turn with the consciousness of having at least deserved to 
 be successful." 
 
 Against this I reasoned, but reasoned in vain. We 
 finally divided our followers. I gave him the attack of 
 the rampart, which was to be the place of his triumph or 
 his grave; flung myself into his embrace, and listened to 
 his parting steps with a heart throbbing at every tread. 
 I then moved round the foot of the mountain towards 
 the secret passage. The night fell as dark as we could 
 wish. I waited impatiently for the signal, a light from 
 the walls. Yet no signal twinkled from wall or tower, and 
 I began to distrust again; but while I lingered a shout 
 told me that Constantius was already engaged. "Let what 
 will come," exclaimed I, "onward !" 
 
 We scrambled up the face of the rock and at length 
 found the entrance of the subterranean. It was so nar- 
 row that even in the day time it must have been invisible 
 from below. A low iron door a few yards within the fis- 
 sure was the first obstacle. To beat it down might alarm 
 the garrison. The passage allowed but of our advance 
 one by one. I led the way, hatchet in hand. A few 
 blows broke the stones round the lock; the door gave way 
 and we all crept in. In this manner we wound along for 
 a distance which I began to think endless. The passage 
 was singularly toilsome. We descended steep paths, in 
 which it was with the utmost difficulty that we coulcl 
 
SALATHIEL. 219 
 
 keep our feet; we heard the rush of waters through the 
 darkness ; blasts of bitter wind swept against us ; the thick 
 and heavy air that closed round us after them almost im- 
 peded our breathing; and from time to time sulphurous 
 vapors gave the fearful impression that we had lost our 
 way and were actually in the bowels of a burning mine. 
 
 My hunters still held on; but the mere fatigue of strug- 
 gling through this poisoned atmosphere was fast exhaust- 
 ing their courage. I cheered them with what hopes I 
 could, but never was my imagination more barren. I heard, 
 at every step I took, fewer feet following me. The pesti- 
 lential air was beginning to act even upon myself, but 
 the great stake was playing above, and onward I must go. 
 I dared not speak louder than a whisper; soon no whisper 
 responded to mine. I tottered on until overpowered by 
 the feeling that our sacrifice was in vain, a sensation like 
 that of a sickly propensity to sleep bound up my facul- 
 ties. 
 
 A roar like thunder overhead roused me. A sight, the 
 most superb, burst on my dazzled eyes; a roof of seeming 
 gold, arched so high that even its splendor was partially 
 dimmed; walls of apparent diamond, pillared with a thou- 
 sand columns of every precious gem; whole shafts of em- 
 erald; pavilions of jasper; a floor, as far as the glance 
 could pierce, studded with amethyst and ruby; apparent 
 treasures, to which the accumulated spoils of the Greek or 
 the Persian were nothing; the finest devices of the most 
 exquisite art, mingled with the most colossal forms which 
 wealth could wear; opulence in its massive and negli- 
 gent grandeur; opulence in its delicate and almost spirit- 
 ualized beauty, were before me. A slender flame burning 
 at the foot of an idol lighted up this stupendous temple. 
 
 I was alone; but the orifice by which I had entered was 
 visible ; the light shot far down into it and I soon brought 
 forward the greater number of my troop. All were equally 
 wrapped in wonder, and the superstitious feelings which 
 the presence of the Eoman and Syrian idolaters had par- 
 tially generated even in the Jewish mind began to startle 
 those brave men. 
 
 "We had, perhaps, come into forbidden ground ; the gods 
 of the earth, whether gods or demons, were powerful ; and 
 we stood in the violated centre of the mountain," 
 
220 SALATHIEL. 
 
 For the first time I found the failure of my influence. 
 A few adhered to me, but the majority calmly declared 
 that, however fearless of man, they dared go no further. 
 I threw myself on the ground before the entrance of the 
 cavern and desired them to consummate their crime by 
 trampling on their leader. But they were determined to 
 retire. I taunted them, I adjured them, I poured out 
 the most vehement reproaches. They stepped over me as I 
 lay at the mouth of the fissure; and at length one and all 
 left me to cry out in my dazzling solitude against the 
 treachery of human faith and the emptiness of human 
 wishes. 
 
 The roar again rolled above; I heard distant shouts 
 and trumpets. In the sudden and desperate conscious- 
 ness that all was now to be gained or lost, I rushed after 
 the fugitives to force them back. I plunged into the dark- 
 ness and grasped the first figure that I could overtake. 
 My hand fell on the iron cuirass of a Roman! my blood 
 ran chill. "Were we betrayed decoyed into the bowels 
 of the mountain to be massacred?" 
 
 The figure started from me. I gave a blind blow of the 
 axe and heard it crush through his helmet. The man fell 
 at my feet. I wildly demanded, "How he came there and 
 how we might make our way into the light?" 
 
 "You are undone," said he, faintly. "Your spy was 
 seized by the procurator. Your attack was known and 
 the door of the subterranean left unguarded to entrap 
 you. This passage was the entrance to a former mine; 
 and in the mine is your grave." The voice sank, he 
 groaned, and was no more. 
 
 His words were soon confirmed by the hurried return of 
 my men. They had found the passage obstructed by a 
 portcullis, dropped since their entrance. Torches were 
 seen through the fissures above and the sound of arms rat- 
 tled round us. The ambush was complete. "Now," said I, 
 "we have but one thing for it the sword, first for our . 
 enemy, last for ourselves. If we must die let us not die 
 by Roman halters." 
 
 One and all we rushed back into the mine. But we 
 had now no leisure to look upon the beauty of those spars 
 and crystals which, under the light of the altar, glittered 
 and blushed with such gem-like radiance. From that 
 
altar now rose a pyramid of fire; piles of faggots, con- 
 tinually poured from a grating above, fed the blaze to 
 intolerable fierceness. Smoke filled the mine. To escape 
 was beyond hope. The single orifice had been already 
 tried. Around us was a solid wall as old as the world. It 
 was already heating with the blaze; our feet shrank from 
 the floor. The flame, shooting in a thousand spires, coiled 
 and sprang against the roof, the walls and the ground. 
 To remain where we were was to be a cinder. The ca- 
 tastrophe was inevitable. 
 
 In the madness of pain, I made a furious bound into 
 the column of fire. All followed, for death was certain, 
 and the sooner it came the better. With unspeakable 
 feelings I saw, at the back of the mound of stone on 
 which the faggots burned, an opening, hitherto concealed 
 by the huge figure of the idol. We crowded into it; here 
 we were at least out of reach of the flame. But what was 
 our chance but that of a more lingering death? We hur- 
 ried in ; another portcullis stood across the passage ! What 
 was to be our fate but famine? We must perish in a lin- 
 gering misery of all miseries the most appalling; and 
 with the bitter aggravation of perishing unknown, worth- 
 less, useless, stigmatized for slaves or dastards! What 
 man of Israel would ever hear of our deaths? What 
 chronicler of Rome would deign to vindicate our ab- 
 sence from the combat? 
 
 We were within hearing of that combat. The assault 
 thundered more wildly than ever over our heads; the al- 
 ternate shout of Jew and Roman descended to us. But 
 where were we ? caged, dungeoned, doomed ! If the earth 
 had laid her treasures at my feet that night I would 
 have given them for one hour of freedom. Oh! for one 
 struggle in daylight to redeem my name and avenge my 
 country ! 
 
 The roar of battle suddenly sank. "Was all lost? 
 Constantius slain? for with life he would not yield. Was 
 the whole hope of Judea crushed at a blow?" I cried 
 aloud to my followers to force the portcullis. They 
 dragged and tore at the bars. But it was of a solid 
 strength that not ten times ours could master. 
 
 In the midst of our hopeless labors the sound of heavy 
 blows above caught my ear, and fragments of rock fell 
 
BALATHIEL. 
 
 in; the blows were continued. Was this but a new ex- 
 pedient to crush or suffocate us? A crevice at length 
 showed the light of a torch overhead. I grasped the axe 
 to strike a last blow at the gate and die. I heard a voice 
 pronounce my name ! Another blow opened the roof. A 
 face bent down and a loud laugh proclaimed my crazy 
 friend. "Ha !" said he, "are you there at last ? You have 
 had a hard night's work of it. But come up; I have an 
 incomparable joke to tell you about the tribune and the 
 procurator. Come up, my prince, and see the world." 
 
 I had no time to rebuke his jocularity. I climbed up 
 the rugged side of the passage, and found myself still 
 in a dungeon. To my look of disappointment he gave no 
 other answer than a laugh; and unscrewing a bar from 
 the loophole above his head, "It is my custom," said he, 
 "to make myself at my ease wherever I go; and as prisons 
 fall to a man's lot, like other things, I like to be able 
 to leave my mansion whenever I am tired of it." 
 
 "Forward, then," said I, impatiently. 
 
 "Backward," said the beggar, with the most unruffled 
 coolness. "That loophole is for me alone. I may be 
 under the governor's care again and I have shown it to 
 you merely as a curiosity. Drink, my brave fellows," 
 said he, turning to the troop below and giving them a 
 skin of wine. "Soldiers must have their comforts, my 
 gallant prince, as well as beggars. If that villain pro- 
 curator hr<d not come by express (for no man alive is 
 quicker to catch an idea where he is likely to gain), you 
 should have been by this time sleeping in the governor's 
 bed, and the governor probably supping with me. But 
 all is fortune, good and bad, in this world. The procu- 
 rator, putting your escape and mine together, began to 
 think that his presence might be useful here; and the 
 laziest rogue in Palestine came with a speed that might 
 have done honor to the quickest, who stands before you 
 in my person. I had gone on swimmingly with the gov- 
 ernor, on the strength of your love letter, angry as it 
 made him. But the first sight of Florus put an end to 
 my chance of opening the gates for your triumphal entry. 
 I was tied, neck and heels, and flung here, to be gibbeted 
 to-morrow morning. But that morning has not come yet." 
 
 He paced the cell uneasily. At length he sprang up, 
 
SALATHIEL. 
 
 and, looking from the lopohole, whispered, "Now !" A 
 low creaking sound of machinery followed. "Down into 
 the cavern," said he; "that accursed cohort has moved 
 at last. Away, my prince, and seek your fortune." 
 
 I exhibited some reluctance to be engulfed again. But 
 his countenance assumed a sudden sternness. His only 
 word was, "Down I" As we were parting he solemnly pro- 
 nounced, "May whatever power befriends the righteous 
 cause, and blasts the man of infamy and blood, send the 
 lightnings before you !" A tear stood in his uplifted eye. 
 His worn countenance flushed as he spoke the words. lie 
 seized a spear from a corner and plunged after me into 
 the cavern. 
 
 The portcullis had been drawn up by Sabat; the pas- 
 sage opened at the foot of the rampart. I could have 
 rushed upon an army. But the hand of our guide was on 
 my shoulder. "Your attack," said he, "can be nothing, 
 unless it be by a surprise. Move along unseen, if possible, 
 till you come to the flank of the first tower. There wait 
 for my signal !" He was gone. 
 
 The roar of the assault swelled again, though it was 
 palpably receding. I climbed the rampart alone. The 
 torches on a distant battlement showed me the Komans 
 in force and evidently making way. I could restrain 
 myself no longer. I gave the word concealed by the 
 shadow of the colossal wall fell upon the guard at the 
 gate and cast it open ! Constantius was the first who 
 saw me. He sprang forward with a cry of exultation. 
 The Romans on the battlements felt themselves cut off, 
 were struck with panic, and threw down their arms; but 
 we had more important objects, and rushed back to the 
 citadel. Our work was not yet done ; we were entangled in 
 the streets and lost time. The garrison was strong and 
 fought like men who had no resource but in the sword. 
 We were pressed on all sides; an arrow lodged in my 
 shoulder, and I could wield the axe no more. In a few 
 discharges, every man round me was bruised or bleed- 
 ing. I saw a Roman column hurrying along the ram- 
 part, whose charge must finish the battle at once. But a 
 blaze sprang up in the rear of the enemy. Another and 
 another followed. The governor's palace was on fire ! 
 The sight broke the Roman courage. Cries of "treach- 
 
224 BALATH1EL. 
 
 ery" rang through the ranks; they turned, flung away 
 spear and shield and I was master of the strongest 
 fortress in Palestine! 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 RESISTANCE was at an end, and we had now only to 
 prevent the conflagration from snatching the prize out of 
 'Our hands. The flames rose fiercely, and another hour 
 might see the famous arsenal beyond the power of man. 
 Leaving to Constantius the care of securing the prisoners, 
 I entered the palace, followed by a detachment. In the 
 tumult I had missed my deliverer ; yet scarcely could think 
 of him, or anything else, while the enemy were showering 
 lances and shafts upon us. Bu now, some fears of his 
 extravagance recurred to me, and I ordered strict search 
 to be made for him. The fire had seized on but a wing of 
 the palace, and was soon extinguished. I was ascending 
 the stair, when a figure bounded full against me from a 
 side-door. It was the beggar. His voice, however, was my 
 only means of recognition, for his outward man had under- 
 gone a total change. He wore a rich cuirass and helmet, a 
 Greek falchion glittered in his embroidered belt, a tissued 
 mantle hung over his shoulder, and a spear ponderous, but 
 inlaid and polished with the nicest art, was brandished in 
 his hand. "What," said he, "is all. over ? May all the fogs 
 of earth and skies cloud me, but I was born under the 
 most malignant planet that ever did mischief ; I left you, 
 only to do some business of my own; I failed there. My 
 next business was, to join and help you to give a lesson to 
 those Roman hounds; or, if they were to give the lesson 
 to us, take chance along with you, and exhibit as a soldier. 
 I ventured to borrow the governor's arms, as you see; but 
 I am always unlucky." 
 
 "If it was you who set this roof on fire, your torch was 
 worth an army." 
 
 "Ay, I never saw fire fail; no man is ashamed of run- 
 ning away from a blaze ; and I thought that the Romans 
 were tired enough, to be glad of the excuse. But I had a 
 point besides to carry. Florus is somewhere under these 
 
SALATHIEL. 225 
 
 ceilings. I determined to burn him out, and pay home 
 my long arrears, as he attempted to make his escape. But 
 you have just extinguished the cleverest earthly contriv- 
 ance for the discovery of rascal governors; and I must 
 break an oath I made long ago, against his ever dying in 
 his bed." 
 
 "Florus here ! then we must find him without delay. 
 But, who comes?" 
 
 At the word, I seized a slave of the palace, in the attempt 
 to escape. He begged hard for his life, and promised to 
 conduct us where the procurator was concealed. We hur- 
 ried on through a succession of winding passages ; a strong 
 door stopped us: "There," said the slave. 
 
 "By the beard of my fathers, the wolf shall not be long 
 in his den !" cried the son of El Hakim. "Procurator, 
 your last crime is committed." 
 
 He threw himself against the door with prodigious force ; 
 the bars burst away, and before us lay the terror of 
 Judea ! 
 
 He was to be a terror no more. A cup, the inseparable 
 amethystine cup, stood on the table besides his couch. He 
 lay writhing with pain. His countenance wore the ghast- 
 liest hue of death. I bade him surrender. He smiled, 
 took the cup in his trembling hand, and eagerly swallowed 
 the remaining drops in its bottom. 
 
 "What ! poison !" exclaimed my companion. "Has the 
 villain escaped me? Here is my planet again; never was 
 man so unlucky. But he is not dead yet." 
 
 He drew his falchion, and lifted it up with the look of 
 one about to offer a solemn sacrifice. I seized his arm. 
 "He is dying," said I; "he is beyond earthly vengeance." 
 The wretched criminal before us was nearly insensible to 
 his brief preservation. The poison, acting upon a frame 
 already broken with public and private anxieties, was 
 making quick work; and the glazed eye, the fallen coun- 
 tenance, and the collapsed limb, showed that his last hour 
 was come. 
 
 "And this is the thing," soliloquized the son of El 
 Hakim, "that men feared ! In this senseless flesh was the 
 power to make the free tremble for their freedom, and the 
 slave curse the hour that he was born. This mass of mor- 
 tality could stand between me and happiness could make 
 
SALATBIEL. 
 
 me a beggar, a wanderer, miserable, mad !" He caught up 
 the hand that hung nerveless from the couch. "Accursed 
 hand !" exclaimed he, "what torrents of blood have owed 
 their flowing to thee ! A word written by these ringers 
 cost a thousand lives. And, Heaven ! in this cruel grasp 
 was the key of thy dungeon, my Mary ! that dungeon 
 of more than the body, the hideous prison-house that ex- 
 tinguished thy mind!" He let fall the hand, and wept 
 bitterly. 
 
 To my utter surprise, the procurator started upon his 
 feet, and, with the look that had so often made the heart 
 quake, haughtily demanded who we were, and how we dared 
 to interrupt his privacy? I felt as if a spirit had started 
 up before me from the shroud. But this extraordinary re- 
 vival was merely the last effort of a fierce mind. He 
 tottered, and was falling, when my companion darted for- 
 ward, grasped him by the bosom with one hand, and waving 
 the falchion above him with the other "He hears! he 
 sees!" exclaimed he exultingly. "Who are we? Who am 
 I? Look upon me, Gessius Floras, before the sight leaves 
 your eyes forever. See Sabat the Ishmaelite ! the de- 
 spised, the insulted, the trampled, the undone ! But never 
 did you prosper from the hour of my ruin. I was your 
 spy, but it was only to bring you into a snare ; I fed your 
 pride, but it was only that it might turn the hearts of all 
 men against you ; I tempted your avarice, only that wealth 
 might make your nights sleepless, and your days, days of 
 fear; I roused your wrath into rage; I inflamed your 
 ambition into frenzy ! This night, I led your conquerors 
 upon you. But I had made all sure. In another week, 
 Gessius Floras, if you had escaped this sword, you would 
 have been seized by order of the emperor; stripped of 
 your wealth, your accursed power, and your wretched life. 
 The command for your blood is this night crossing the 
 Mediterranean !" 
 
 The dying man struggled to get free, wrenched himself 
 by a violent effort from the strong grasp that at once held 
 and sustained him, and fell. He was dead ! 
 
 The son of El Hakim stood gazing on the body in 
 silence; when the glitter of a ring on the hand, as it lay 
 spread upon the floor, struck his eye. He seized it with 
 an outcry: the man was wholly changed; his frowning 
 
visage flashed with joy. I in vain demanded the cause. 
 He pressed the signet to his lips. "Farewell, farewell," 
 he exclaimed. 
 
 "Will you not wait for your share of the spoil, your 
 ample and deserved reward?" 
 
 "Farewell !" he repeated, and burst from the chamber. 
 
 This memorable night made changes in more than the 
 Ishmaelite. Constantius was, at last, in his element. I 
 had hitherto seen him disguised by circumstances: the 
 fugitive from his country, the lover under the embarrass- 
 ments of forbidden passion, the ill-starred soldier. His 
 native vigor of soul was under a perpetual cloud. But now 
 the cloud broke away; and the consciousness of having 
 nobly retrieved his cheek, and the still prouder conscious- 
 ness of the career that this triumph laid open before him, 
 brought the character of his mind into full light. He was 
 now the lofty enthusiast that nature made him. He 
 breathed generous ambition: his step was the step of com- 
 mand ; and when he rushed to my embrace with almost the 
 eagerness of a boy, and with a voice stifled with emotion, 
 I saw in him the romance, the soaring spirit, and the pas- 
 sionate love of glory that moulded the Greek hero. 
 
 He had done his duty nobly. All were in admiration of 
 the assault. The Eomans had been fully prepared. He 
 scaled the rampart, and scaled it in their teeth. His men 
 followed gallantly. He pressed on: the second rampart 
 was stormed. I had found him at the foot of the third, 
 checked by its impregnable mass, but defying the whole 
 garrison to drive him back. When I afterwards saw the 
 strength of those bulwarks, I felt that, with such a leader 
 at the head of the troops animated by his spirit, there was 
 nothing extravagant in the boldest hope of war. 
 
 This was an eventful night, and there was still much to 
 be done before we slept. I threw over my tattered gar- 
 ments one of the many mantles that lay loose round the 
 chamber, flung another on the body of the procurator, and 
 sallied forth to give the final orders of the night. The 
 prisoners had been already secured, and I found the great 
 hall of the palace crowded with centurions. The inter- 
 view was whimsical : for a while I escaped recognition ; the 
 gashed faces and torn raiment of my hunters, which bore 
 the marks of our dreary march through the subterranean; 
 
228 SALATHIEL. 
 
 the rough heads and hands stained with the fight, a start- 
 ling contrast to the perfect equipment of the Koman under 
 all circumstances, gave them the look of the robber tribes. 
 My disguise was in the contrary way, yet complete. The 
 cloak was accidentally one of the most showy in the pro- 
 curator's wardrobe. I found myself enveloped in furs and 
 tissues ; and their Arab acquaintance was forgotten, in what 
 seemed to them the legitimate monarch of the mountains. 
 I was received by the circle of captives with the decent 
 dignity of the brave. There was but one exception, which 
 I might have guessed the tribune. He was all humilia- 
 tion, stooped to make some abject request about his baubles, 
 and was probably on the point of apologizing for his ever 
 having taken up the trade of war, when I turned on my 
 heel, and shook hands with my old friend the captain. He 
 looked in evident perplexity. At last, through even the 
 grim evidences of the night's work on my countenance, and 
 the problem of my pompous mantle, his brightening eye 
 began to recognize me ; and he burst out with, "The Arab, 
 by Jupiter!" But when I asked him what had become 
 of his baggage, I touched a tender string; and, with a 
 countenance as grave as if he had sustained an irreparable 
 calamity, he told me that his whole travelling cellar was 
 in the hands of my men ; and it was his full belief that he 
 was at that moment not worth a flask in the wide world ! 
 
 The tribune turned away in conscious disgrace; and I 
 sent him to a dungeon, to meditate till morn on the awk- 
 wardness of insolence to strangers. With the others, I sat 
 down to such entertainment as a sacked fortress could sup- 
 ply ; but which hunger, thirst, and fatigue rendered worth 
 all the banquets of the idle. The old captain cheered his 
 soul, and grew rhetorical. "Wine," said he, flask in hand, 
 "does wonders. It is the true leveller, for it leaves no 
 troublesome inequality of conditions. It is the true sponge 
 that pays all debts at sight, for it makes us forget the 
 existence of a creditor. It is the true friend, that sticks 
 by a man to the last drop ; the faithful mistress, that for- 
 sakes no man ; and the most charming of wives, whose 
 tongue no husband hears, whose company is equally de- 
 lightful at all hours, and who is as bewitching to-day as 
 she was fifty years ago." 
 
 The panegyric was popular. The governor's cellar 
 
SALATHIEL. 
 
 flowed. The Italian connoisseurship in vintages was dis- 
 played in the most profound style; and long before we 
 parted, the great "sponge" which wipes away debt, had 
 wiped away every recollection of defeat. The idea of their 
 being prisoners never clouded a sunbeam that came from 
 the bottle. The letters scattered from the tribune's saddle 
 were an unfailing topic. The legion had picked them up 
 on the march; they had the piquancy of the scandal of 
 particular friends; and the addition made to their intelli- 
 gence by my wild associate was unanimously declared the 
 most dexterous piece of frolic, the most pleasant venom, 
 and the most venomous pleasantry, that ever emanated from 
 the wit of man. 
 
 My task was not yet done. I left those gay soldiers to 
 their wine, and with Constantius and some torchbearers 
 hastened to the Armory of Herod the forbidden ground; 
 the treasure-house of war; and, if old rumor were to be 
 believed, the place of many a mysterious celebration un- 
 lawful to be seen by human eyes. 
 
 The building was in the centre of the citadel, and was of 
 the stateliest architecture. The massive doors were now 
 thrown open. At the first step, I shrank from the blaze of 
 steel and gold that shot back against the torches. The 
 walls of this gigantic hall were covered with arms and ar- 
 mor of every nation cuirasses, Persian, Koman and Greek ; 
 the plate mail of the Gaul; the Indian chain-armor; in-: 
 numerable head-pieces, from the steel cap of the Scythian 
 to the plumed and triple-crested helmet of the Greek, that 
 richest combination of strength and beauty ever borne by 
 soldiership; shields of every shape and sculpture; the 
 Greek orb; the Persian rhomb; the Cimmerian crescent 
 all arms, the ponderous spear of the phalanx ; the Thracian 
 pike; the German war-hatchet; the Indian javelin; the 
 bow, from the Nubian, twice the height of man, to the small 
 half-circle of the Assyrian cavalry; swords, the broad- 
 bladed and fearful falchion of the Koman, every thrust 
 of which let out a life ; the huge two-handed sword of the 
 Baltic tribes; the Syrian scimitar; the Persian acinaces; 
 the deep-hilted knife of the Indian islander; the Arab 
 poniard ; the serrated blade of the African ; all were there, 
 in their richest models the collection of Herod's life. 
 War had raised him to a rank which allowed the indulgence 
 
230 SAL AT HI EL. 
 
 of his most lavish tastes of good and ill ; the sword was his 
 true sceptre ; and never king bore the sign of his sovereignty 
 more royally emblazoned. 
 
 After long admiration of this display of the wealth dear- 
 est to the soldier, I was retiring, when a slave approached, 
 and prostrating himself, told me that a hall remained, still 
 more singular, "the hall in which the Great Herod received 
 his death-warning." I gazed round the armory ; there was 
 no door, but the one by which we had entered 
 
 "Not here," said the Ethiopian, "yet it is beside us. 
 The foot of a Roman has never entered it. The secret re- 
 mains with me alone. Does my lord command that it 
 shall be revealed?" 
 
 The order was given. The slave took down one of the 
 coats of mail, pushed back a valve, and we entered a wind- 
 ing stair which led us downwards for some minutes. The 
 narrow passage and heavy air reminded me of the subter- 
 ranean. Our torches burned dimly, and the visages of my 
 attendants showed how little their gallantry was to be relied 
 on, if we were to be brought into contact with magic and 
 ghosts. 
 
 "Here," said the Ethiopian, "it was the custom of the 
 great king, in his declining years, when his heart was 
 broken by the loss of the most beloved of wives, and mad- 
 dened by the conspiracies of the princes his sons, to come, 
 and consult others than the God of Jerusalem. Here the 
 Chaldee men of wisdom came, to summon the spirits of 
 the departed, and show the fates of kingdoms. We are 
 now in the bowels of the mountain." 
 
 He loosed a chain, which disappeared into the ground 
 with a hollow noise. A huge mass of rock slowly rolled 
 back, and showed a depth of darkness through which our 
 twinkling torches scarcely made way. 
 
 "Stop," said the slave, "I should have first lighted the 
 shrine." He left us, and we shortly saw a blaze of many 
 colors on a tripod in the centre. As the blaze strengthened, 
 a scene of wonder awoke before the eye. A host of armed 
 statues grew upon the darkness. The immense vault was 
 peopled with groups of warriors, all the great military 
 leaders of the world, in their native arms, and surrounded 
 by a cluster of their captains; the disturbers of the earth, 
 from Sesostris down to Cassar and Antony, brandishing the 
 
8ALATBIEL. 231 
 
 lance, or reining the charger, each in his known attitude 
 of command. There rushed Cyrus in the scythed chariot, 
 surrounded by his horsemen, barbed from head to heel. 
 There Alexander, with the banner of Macedon waving above 
 his head, and armed as when he leaped into the Granicus. 
 There Hannibal, upon the elephant that he rode at Canna?. 
 There Caesar, with the head of Pompey at his feet. Those, 
 and a long succession of the masters of victory, each in the 
 moment of supreme fortune, made the vault a representa- 
 tive palace of human glory. But the view from the en- 
 trance told but half the tale. It was when I advanced and 
 lifted the torch to the countenance of the first group, that 
 the moral was visible. All the visages were those of skele- 
 tons. The costly armor was hung upon bones. The spears 
 and sceptres were brandished by the thin fingers of the 
 grave. The vault was the representative sepulchre of hu- 
 man vanity. This was one of the fantastic fits of a mind 
 which felt too late the emptiness of earthly honors. Half 
 pagan, the powerful intellect of the man gave way to the 
 sullen superstitions of the murderer. Egypt was still the 
 mystic tyrant of Palestine ; and Herod, in his despair, sank 
 into the slave of a credulity at once weak and terrible. 
 
 In the last hour of a long and deeply varied life, ex- 
 hausted more by misery of soul than disease, when medi- 
 cine was hopeless, and he had returned from trying the 
 famous springs of Callirhoe in vain, the king ordered him- 
 self to be brought into this vault, and left alone. He 
 remained in it during some hours. The attendants were 
 at length roused by hideous wailing; they broke open the 
 entrance, and found him in a paroxysm of terror. The 
 vault was filled with the strong odors of some magical 
 preparations, still burning on the tripod. The sound of 
 departing feet was heard, but Herod sat alone. In accents 
 of the wildest woe he declared that he had seen the statues 
 filled with sudden life, and charging him with the death of 
 his wife and children. 
 
 He left Masada instantly, pronouncing a curse upon the 
 hour in which he first listened to the arts of Egypt. He 
 was carried to Jericho, and there laid on a bed, from which 
 he never rose. Alternate bursts of blasphemy and remorse 
 made his parting moments frightful. But, tyranny was in 
 his last thought ; and he died, holding in his hand an order 
 for the massacre of every leading man in Judea. 
 
232 SALATHIEL. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 THE first decided blow of the war was given. I had in- 
 curred the full wrath of Rome ; the trench between me and 
 forgiveness was impassable; and I felt a stern delight in 
 the conviction that hope of truce or pardon was at an end : 
 the seizure of Masada was a defiance of the whole power of 
 the empire. But it had the higher importance of a tri- 
 umph at the beginning of a war, the moment when even 
 the courageous are perplexed by doubt, and the timid watch 
 their opportunity to raise the cry of ill fortune. It showed 
 the facility of conquest, where men are determined to run 
 the full risk of good or evil ; it shook the military credit of 
 the enemy, by the proof that they could be overmatched 
 in activity, spirit, and conduct. The capture of a Roman 
 fortress by assault was a thing almost unheard of. But 
 the consummate value of the enterprise was, in its declara- 
 tion to those who would fight; that they had leaders, able 
 and willing to take the last chance with them for the free- 
 dom of their country. 
 
 When day broke, and the strength of this celebrated 
 fortress was fairly visible, I could scarcely believe that our 
 success was altogether the work of man. The genius of 
 ancient fortification produced nothing more remarkable 
 than Masada. It stood on the summit of a height so steep 
 that the sun never reached the bottom of the surrounding 
 defiles. Its outer wall was a mile round, with thirty-eight 
 towers, each eighty feet high. Immense marble cisterns; 
 granaries like palaces, capable of holding provisions for 
 years; exhaustless arms and military engines, in buildings 
 of the finest Greek art; and defences of the most costly 
 skill, at every commanding point of the interior ; all showed 
 the kingly magnificence and warlike care of the most bril- 
 liant, daring, and successful monarch of Judea, since Solo- 
 mon. 
 
 By the first dawn, a new wonder struck the population, 
 whom the tumult of the night had gathered on the neigh- 
 boring hills. I ordered the great standard of Naphtali to 
 be hoisted on the citadel. It was raised in the midst of 
 shouts and hymns; and the huge scarlet folds spread out, 
 majestically displaying the emblem of our tribe, the Silver 
 Stag, before the morn. Shouts echoed and re-echoed round 
 
8ALATHIEL. 233 
 
 the horizon. The hill tops, covered as far as the eye could 
 reach, did homage to the banner of Jewish deliverance; 
 and, inspired by the sight, every man of their thousands 
 took sword and spear, and made ready for war. 
 
 My first care was, to relieve the anxieties of my family; 
 and Constantius, with triumph in every feature, and love 
 and honor glowing in his heart, was made the bearer of the 
 glad tidings. The duties of command now devolved rapidly 
 on me. An army to be raised a plan of operations to bo 
 determined on the chieftains of the country to be com- 
 bined and the profligate feuds of Jerusalem to be extin- 
 guished, were the difficulties that lay before my first step. 
 It is in preliminaries like those that the burning spirit of 
 a man, full of the manliest resolutions, and caring no more 
 for personal safety than he cares for the weed under his 
 feet, is fated to feel the true troubles of enterprise. 
 
 I soon experienced the disgust of having to contend with 
 the indolent, the artful, and the base. My mind, eager to 
 follow up the first success, was entangled in tedious and 
 intricate negotiation with men whom no sense of right or 
 wrong could stimulate to integrity. Eival interests to be 
 conciliated gross corruptions to be crushed paltry pas- 
 sions to be stigmatized family hatreds to be reconciled 
 childish antipathies, grasping avarice, giddy ambition, sav- 
 age cruelty, to be rectified, propitiated, or punished; were 
 among my tasks, before I could plant a foot in the field. 
 If those are the fruits that grow round even the righteous 
 cause, what must be the rank crop of conspiracy ! 
 
 But one point I speedily settled. The first assemblage 
 of the chieftains satisfied me of the absurdity of councils of 
 war. Every man had his plan; and every plan had some 
 personal object in view. I saw that to discuss them would 
 be useless and endless. I had already begun to learn the 
 diplomatic art of taking my own way, with the most un- 
 ruffled aspect. I desired the proposers to reduce their 
 views to writing; received their memorials with perfect 
 civility; took them to my cabinet, and gave their brilliancy 
 to add to the blaze of my fire. High station is soon com- 
 pelled to dissemble. A month before I should have spoken 
 out my mind, and treated the plans and the proposers alike 
 with scorn. But a month before, I was neither general nor 
 statesman. Freed now from the encumbrance of many 
 
234 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 councillors, I decided on a rapid march to Jerusalem 
 there was power and glory in the word. By this measure 
 I should be master of all that final victory could give, the 
 popular mind, the national resources, and the highest prize 
 of the most successful war. 
 
 Those thoughts banished rest from my pillow. I passed 
 day and night in a perpetual, feverish exaltation of mind ; 
 yet if I were to compute my few periods of happiness, 
 among them would be the week when I could neither eat, 
 drink nor sleep, from the mere overflowing of my warlike 
 reveries at Masada. We may well forgive the splenetic 
 apathy and sullen scorn of life that beset the holder of 
 power, when time or chance leaves his grasp empty. The 
 mighty monarch; the general, on whose sword hung the 
 balance of empires; the statesman, on whose council rose 
 or fell the welfare of millions, sunk into the unexciting 
 employments of common life, their genius and their fame 
 a burden and a reproach, the source of a restless and indig- 
 nant contrast between what they were and what they are ; 
 how feeble an emblem of such minds is the lion fanged, or 
 the eagle chained ! We may pass by even the frivolities 
 which so often make the world stare at the latter years of 
 famous men. When they can no longer soar to their 
 natural height, all beneath is equal to them ; our petty wis- 
 dom is not worth their trouble. They scorn the little 
 opinions of commonplace mankind, and follow their own 
 tastes contemptuously trifle, and proudly play the fool. 
 
 Before the week was done, I was at the head of a hun- 
 dred thousand men ; I was the champion of a great country ; 
 the leader of the most formidable insurrection that ever 
 contended with Eome in the east, the general of an army 
 whose fidelity and spirit were not to be surpassed on earth. 
 Could ambition ask more? Yet there was even more, 
 though too solemn to be asked by human ambition. My 
 nation was sacred ; a cause above human nature was to be 
 defended ; in that cause I might at once redeem my own 
 name from obscurity, and be the instrument of exalting 
 the name, authority and religion of a people, the regal peo- 
 ple of the Sovereign of all ! 
 
 Constantius returned. It was in vain that I had directed 
 my family to take refuge in the mountain country of 
 Naphtali. My authority was for once disputed at horce. 
 
SALATHIEL. 235 
 
 Strong affection mastered fear, and swift as love could 
 speed, I saw them enter the gates of Masada. 
 
 Such meetings can come but once in a life. I was sur- 
 rounded by innocent fondness, beauty most admirable, and 
 faith that no misfortune could shake ; and I was surrounded 
 by them, in an hour when prosperity seemed laboring to 
 lavish on me all the wishes of man. I felt, too, by the 
 glance with which Miriam looked upon her "hero," that I 
 had earned a higher title to the world's respect. Had she 
 found me in chains, she would have shared them without a 
 murmur. But her lofty heart rejoiced to find her husband 
 thus vindicating his claims to the homage of mankind. 
 
 Yet to those matchless enjoyments I gave up but one 
 day. By the next dawn, the trumpet sounded for the 
 march. I knew the importance of following up the first 
 blow in all wars; its matchless importance in a war of in- 
 surrection. To meet the disciplined troops of Rome in 
 pitched battles, would be madness. The true manoeuvre 
 was to distract their attention by variety of onset, cut off 
 their communications, keep their camps in perpetual alarm, 
 and make our activity, numbers, and knowledge of the 
 country, the substitutes for equipment, experience, and the 
 science of the soldier. 
 
 In summoning those brave men, I renewed the regula- 
 tions of the Mosaic law a law whose regard for natural 
 feelings distinguished it in the most striking manner from 
 the stern violences of the pagan levy. No man was required 
 to take up arms, who had built a house and had not yet 
 dedicated it; no man who had planted a vineyard or olive 
 ground, and had not yet reaped the produce; no man who 
 had bethrofched a wife, and had not yet taken her home; 
 and, no man during the first year of his marriage. 
 
 My prisoners were my last embarrassment. To leave 
 them to the chance of popular mercy, or to leave them im- 
 mured in the fortress, would be cruelty. To let them loose 
 would be, of course, to give so many soldiers to the enemy. 
 I adopted the simpler expedient, of marching them to 
 Berytus, seizing a squadron of the Roman provision ships, 
 and embarking the whole for Italy. To my old friend the 
 captain, whose cheerfulness could be abated only by a 
 failure of the vintage, I offered a tranquil settlement 
 among our hills. The etiquette of soldiership was formid- 
 
236 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 ably tasked by my offer, for the veteran was thoroughly 
 weary of his thankless service. He hesitated, swore that I 
 deserved to be a Koman, and even a captain of horse; but 
 finished by saying that, bad a trade as the army was, he 
 was too old to learn a better. I gave him and some others 
 their unconditional liberty ; and he parted from the Jewish 
 rebel with more obvious regret than perhaps he ever 
 dreamed himself capable of feeling for anything, but his 
 horse and his Falernian. 
 
 Eleazar took the charge of my family, and the command 
 of Masada. The sun burst out with cheerful omen on the 
 troops, as I wound down the steep road, named the Ser- 
 pent, from its extreme obliquity. The sight before me was 
 of a nature to exhilarate the heaviest heart; an immense 
 host making the air ring with acclamations at the coming 
 of their chieftain. The mental perspective of public honors 
 and the national service was still more exalting. Yet I 
 felt a boding depression, as if within those walls had begun 
 and ended my prosperity! 
 
 On the first ridge, which crossed our march, I instinc- 
 tively stopped to give a farewell look. The breeze had 
 sunk, and the scarlet banner shook out its folds to the sun 
 no more ; a cloud hung on the mountain peak, and covered 
 the fortress with gloom. I turned away. The omen was 
 true! 
 
 But sickly thoughts were forgotten, when we were once 
 fairly on the march. Who that has ever moved with an 
 army, has not known its ready cure for heaviness of heart ? 
 The sound of the moving multitude, their broad mirth, the 
 mere trampling of their feet, the picturesque lights that 
 fall upon the columns as they pass over the inequalities of 
 the ground, keep the eye and the mind singularly alive. 
 
 Our men felt the whole delight of the scene, and gam- 
 bolled like deer or horses let loose into pasture. But to 
 the military habits of Constantius, this rude vigor was 
 the highest vexation. He galloped from flank to flank with 
 hopeless diligence, found that his arrangements only per- 
 plexed our bold peasantry the more, and at length fairly 
 relinquished the idea of gaining any degree of credit by 
 the brilliancy of their discipline. But I, no more a tacti- 
 cian than themselves, was content with seeing in them the 
 material of the true soldier. The spear was carried rudely, 
 
SALATHIEL. 237 
 
 but the hand that carried it was strong; the march was 
 irregular, but the step was firm; if there was song, and 
 mirth and clamor, they were the cheerful voices of the 
 brave ; and I could read in the countenances of ranks which 
 no skill could keep in order, the generous devotedness that, 
 in wars like ours, have so often baffled the proud, and left 
 of the mighty but clay. 
 
 During the day we saw no enemy, and swept along with 
 the unembarrassed step of men going up to one of our 
 festivals. The march was hot; the zeal of our young 
 soldiers made it rapid; and we continued it long after the 
 usual hour of repose. But then sleep took its thorough 
 revenge. It was fortunate for our fame that the enemy 
 were not nigh; for sleep fastened irresistibly and at once 
 upon the whole multitude. Sentinels were planted in vain, 
 the spears fell from their hands, and the watchers were 
 tranquilly laid side by side with the slumbering. Out- 
 posts, and the usual precautionary arrangements, were 
 equally useless. Sleep was our master. Constantius ex- 
 erted his vigilance with fruitless activitv; and before an 
 hour passed, he and I were probably the sole sentinels of 
 the grand army of Judea. 
 
 "What can be done with such sluggards?" said he, 
 indignantly pointing to the heaps that, wrapped in their 
 cloaks, covered the fields far round, and in the moonlight 
 looked more like surges tipped with foam, than human 
 beings. 
 
 "What can be done? wonders." 
 
 "Will they ever be able to manoeuvre in the face of the 
 legions ?" 
 
 "Never/' 
 
 "Will they ever be able to move like regular troops ?" 
 
 "Never." " 
 
 "Will they ever be able to keep their eyes open after 
 sunset ?" 
 
 "Never, after such a march as we have given them to- 
 day." 
 
 "What, then, under heaven, will they be good for ?" 
 
 "To beat the Romans out of Palestine !" 
 
38 SALATHIEL. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIL 
 
 BEFORE the sun was up my peasants were on the march 
 again. From the annual journeys of the tribes to the great 
 city, no country was ever known so well to its whole popu- 
 lation as Palestine. Every hill, forest and mountain 
 stream was now saluted with a shout of old recognition. 
 Discipline was forgotten as we approached those spots of 
 memory, and the troops rambled loosely over the ground 
 on which in gentler times they had rested in the midst 
 of their caravans. Constantius had many an irritation to 
 encounter, but I combated his wrath, and pledged myself 
 that when the occasion arrived my countrymen would show 
 the native vigor of the soil. 
 
 "Let my peasants take their way," said I. "If they 
 will not make an army, let them make a mob; let them 
 come into the field with the bold propensities of their 
 nature unchecked by the trammels of regular warfare ; let 
 them feel themselves men and not machines, and I pledge 
 myself for their victory." 
 
 "They will soon have the opportunity: look yonder." 
 He pointed to a low range of misty hills some miles on- 
 ward. 
 
 "Are we to fight the clouds ? for I can see nothing else." 
 
 "Our troops, I think, would be exactly the proper antago- 
 nists. But there is one cloud upon those hills that 
 something more than the wind must drive away." 
 
 The sun threw a passing gleam upon the heights, and it 
 was returned by the sparkling of spears. The enemy were 
 before us. Constantius galloped with some of our hunters 
 to the front, to observe their position. The trumpets 
 sounded, and my countrymen justified all that I had said, 
 by the enthusiasm that lighted up every countenance at the 
 hope of coming into contact with the oppressor. 
 
 We advanced; shouts rang from tribe to tribe; we 
 quickened our pace; at length the whole multitude ran. 
 At the foot of the height every man pushed forward without 
 waiting for his fellow; it was a complete confusion. The 
 chief force against us was cavalry, and I saw them pre- 
 paring to charge. We must suffer prodigiously, let the day 
 end how it would. The whole campaign might hang on 
 the first repulse. I stood in agony. I saw the squadrons 
 
SALATBIEL. 39 
 
 level their lances. I saw the centurions dash out in front. 
 All was ready for the fatal charge. To my astonishment, 
 the whole of the cavalry wheeled round, and disappeared. 
 
 The panic was like miracle equally rapid and unac- 
 countable. I rode to the top of the hill, and discovered the 
 secret. Constantius, observing the enemy's attention taken 
 up with my advance, had made his way round the heights. 
 ilis trumpet gave the first notice of the manoeuvre. Their 
 rear was threatened, and the cavalry fled, leaving a cohort 
 in our hands. 
 
 Never was successful soldier honored wit'i a more clam- 
 orous triumph than Constantius. Nature speaks out among 
 her untutored sons. Envy has nothing to do in such fields 
 as ours. He was applauded to the skies. 
 
 "Well," said I, as I pressed the gallant hand that had 
 planted the first laurel on our brqws, "you see that, if 
 ploughmen and shepherds make rude soldiers, they make 
 capital judges of soldiership. You might have conquered 
 a kingdom without receiving half this panegyric in Rome." 
 
 "The service is but begun, and we shall have another 
 lesson to get or give to-morrow. Those fellows are grateful, 
 I allow," said he, with a smile; "but you must allow that 
 for what has been done, we have to thank the discipline 
 that brought us into the Roman rear." 
 
 "Yes, and the discipline that made them so much 
 alarmed about their rear, as to run away, when they might 
 have charged and beaten us." 
 
 This little affair put us all in spirits, and the songs and 
 cheerful clamors burst out with renewed animation. But 
 the symptoms of the enemy soon became thicker. We 
 found the ruined cottage, the torn-up garden, the burnt 
 orchard; those habitual evidences of the camp. As we 
 advanced, the tracks of waggons and of huge wheels of 
 the military engines were fresh in the grass, and from time 
 to time some skeleton of a beast of burden, or some half- 
 covered wreck of man, showed that desolation had walked 
 there; the cavalry soon showed themselves on the heights 
 in larger bodies ; but all was forgotten in the sight that at 
 length rose upon the horizon we beheld, bathed in the 
 richest glow of a summer's eve, the summits of the moun- 
 tains round Jerusalem, and glorious above them, like an- 
 other sun, the golden beauty of the Temple of temples! 
 
240 KALATHIEL. 
 
 What Jew ever saw that sight, but with homage of 
 heart ? Fine fancies may declaim of the rapture of return- 
 ing to one's country, after long years. Kapture ! to find 
 ourselves in a land of strangers, ourselves forgotten, our 
 early scenes so changed that we can scarcely retrace them, 
 filled up with new faces, or with the old so worn by time 
 and care that we read in them nothing but the emptiness 
 of human hope; the whole world new, frivolous and con- 
 temptuous of our feelings. Where is the mother, the sister, 
 the woman of our heart? We find their only memorials 
 among the dead, and bitterly feel that our true country is 
 the tomb ! But the return to Zion was not of the things of 
 this world. The Jew saw before him the city of prophecy 
 and power. Mortal thoughts, individual sorrows, the mel- 
 ancholy experiences of human life, had no nlace among 
 the mighty hopes that gathered over it, like angel's wings. 
 Eestoration, boundless empire, imperishable glory, were 
 the writing upon its bulwarks. It stood before him the 
 Universal City, whose gates were to be open for the rev- 
 erence of all time ; the symbol to the earth of the returning 
 presence of the Great King ; the promise to the Jew of an 
 empire, triumphant over the casualties of nations, the 
 crimes of man, and even the all-grasping avarice of the 
 grave. 
 
 The multitude prostrated themselves ; then rising, broke 
 forth into the glorious hymn sung by the tribes on their 
 journeys to the Temple : 
 
 "Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, in the 
 city of our God, the mountain of his holiness. 
 
 "Beautiful, the joy of the earth is Mount Zion, the city 
 of the Great King! 
 
 "God is known in her palaces for a refuge. 
 
 "We have thought of thy loving-kindness, God, in the 
 midst of thy temple. 
 
 "Walk about Zion, tell the towers thereof. Mark ye her 
 bulwarks, consider her palaces. For her God is our God, 
 forever and ever ; he will be our guide in death ; his 
 praise is to the ends of the earth. Glory to the king of 
 Zion." 
 
 The harmony of the adoring myriads rose sweet and 
 solemn upon the air ; the sky was a canopy of sapphire ; the 
 breeze rich with the evening flowers ; Jerusalem before me ! 
 
8ALATHIEL. 
 
 I felt as if the covering of my mortal nature were about 
 to be cast away, and my spirit to go forth, on a bright and 
 boundless career of fortune. 
 
 But recollections never to be subdued saddened my mem- 
 ory of the Temple ; and when the first influence of the hom- 
 age passed, I turned from the sight of what was to me 
 the eternal monument of the heaviest crime of man. I gave 
 one parting glance, as day died upon the spires. To my 
 surprise, they were darkened by more than twilight; I 
 glanced again, smoke rolled cloud on cloud over Mount 
 Moriah; the distant roar of battle startled us. "Had the 
 enemy anticipated our march, and was Jerusalem about to 
 be stormed before our eyes ?" 
 
 We were not left long to conjecture. Crowds of fright- 
 ened women and children were seen flying across the 
 country. The roar swelled again ; we answered it by shouts 
 and rushed onward. Unable to ascertain the point of at- 
 tack, I halted the multitude at the entrance of one of the 
 roads ascending to the great gate of the upper city, and 
 galloped forward with a few of my people. 
 
 A horseman rushed from the gate with a heedless rapid- 
 ity which must have flung him into the midst of our ranks, 
 or sent him over the precipice. His voice alone enabled 
 me to recognize in this furious rider my kinsman Jubal. 
 But never had a few months so altered a human being. 
 Instead of the bold and martial figure of the chieftain, I 
 saw an emaciated and exhausted man, apparently in the 
 last stage of life or sorrow: the florid cheek was of the color 
 of clay ; the flashing glance was sunken ; the loud and cheer- 
 ful voice was sepulchral. I welcomed him with the natural 
 regard of our relationship : but his perturbation was fearful ; 
 he trembled, grew fiery red, and could return my greet- 
 ing only with a feeble tongue and a wild eye. 
 
 But, this was no time for private feelings. I inquired 
 the state of things in Jerusalem. Here his embarrass- 
 ment was thrown aside, and the natural energy of the man 
 found room. "Jerusalem has three curses at this hour," 
 said he, fiercely, "the priests, the people, and the Eomans ; 
 and the last is the lightest of the three : the priests bloated 
 with indulgence, and mad with love of the world ; the peo- 
 ple pampered with faction, and mad with bigotry ; and the 
 Romans availing themselves of the madness of each to 
 crush all," 
 
242 8ALATBIEL. 
 
 "But has the assault been actually made? or is there 
 force enough within to repel it ?" interrupted I. 
 
 "The assault has been made, and the enemy have driven 
 everything before them, so far as has been their pleasure. 
 Why they have not pushed on, is inconceivable; for our 
 regular troops are good for nothing. I have now been 
 sent out to raise the villages; but my labor will be useless 
 for, see, the eagles are already on the wall." 
 
 I looked; on the northern quarter of the battlements I 
 saw, through smoke and flame, the accursed standard. 
 Below, rose immense bursts of conflagration ; the whole of 
 the new city, the Bezetha, was on fire. My plan was in- 
 stantly formed. I divided my force into two bodies; gave 
 one to Constantius, with orders to enter the city, and drive 
 the Romans from the walls; and with the other, threaded 
 the ravines towards their position on the hills. I had to 
 make a long circuit. The Roman camp was pitched on the 
 ridge of Mount Scopas, seven furlongs from the city. 
 Guided by Jubal, I gained its rear. My troops, stimulated 
 by the sight of the fugitive people, required all my efforts 
 to keep them from rushing on the detachments, which we 
 saw successively hurrying to reinforce the assault. 
 
 Night fell : but the signal for my attack, a fixed number 
 of torches on the tower of the Temple, did not appear. Our 
 troops, ambushed in the olive-groves skirting the ridge, had 
 hitherto escaped discovery. At length they grew furious, 
 and bore me along with them. As we burst up the rugged 
 sides of the hill, like a huge surge before the tempest, I 
 cast a despairing glance towards the city: the torches at 
 that moment rose. Hope lived again. The sight added 
 wings to our speed; and, before the enemy could recover 
 from their astonishment, we were in the centre of the 
 camp. Nothing could be more complete than our success. 
 The legionaries, sure of the morning's march into Jeru- 
 salem, and the plunder of the Temple, were caught leaning 
 in crowds over the ramparts, unarmed, and making abso- 
 lute holiday. Caius Cestius, their insolent general, was 
 carousing in his tent, after the fatigues of the evening. 
 The tribunes followed his example ; the soldiery paw noth- 
 ing to require their superior abstemiousness ; and the wino 
 was flowing freelv in healths to the next day's rapine, when 
 our roar opened their eyes. To resist was out o* the ques- 
 
SALATftlfiL. 243 
 
 tion. Fifty thousand spearmen, as daring as ever lifted 
 weapons, and inflamed with the feelings of their harassed 
 country, were in their midst, and they fled in all directions* 
 I pressed on to the general's tent ; but the prize had escaped ; 
 he was gone, on the first alarm. My followers indignantly 
 set it on fire : the blaze spread, and the flame of the Koman 
 camp rolled up, like the flame of a sacrifice to the god of 
 battles. 
 
 The seizure of this position was the ruin of the cohorts, 
 abandoned between the hill and the city. At the sight of 
 the 'flames, the gates were flung open; and Constantius 
 drove the assailants from point to point, until our shouts 
 told him that we were marching upon their rear. The 
 shock then was final. The Eomans, dispirited and sur- 
 prised, broke like water ; and scarcely a man of them lived, 
 to boast of having insulted the walls of Jerusalem. 
 
 Day arose; and the Temple met the rising beam, un- 
 stained by the smoke of an enemy's fire. The wreck of the 
 legions lay upon the declivities, like the fragments of a 
 fleet on the shore. But this sight, painful even to an 
 enemy, was soon forgotten in the concourse of the rescued 
 citizens, the exultation of the troops, and the still more 
 seducing vanities that filled the heart of their chieftain. 
 
 Towards noon, a long train of the principal people, 
 headed by the priests and elders, was seen issuing from the 
 gates to congratulate me. Choral music, and triumphant 
 shouts, announced their approach through the valley. My 
 heart bounded with the feelings of a conqueror. The whole 
 long vista of national honors; the popular praise, the per- 
 sonal dignity, the power of trampling upon the malignant, 
 the clearness of my character, the right to take the future 
 lead on all occasions of public service and princely re- 
 nown, opened before my eye. 
 
 I was standing alone upon the brow of the promontory. 
 As far as the eye could reach, all was in motion, and all 
 was directed to me: the homage of soldiery, priests, and 
 people centred in my single being. I involuntarily uttered 
 aloud "At last, I shall enter Jerusalem in triumph." I 
 heard a voice at my side "Never shalt thou enter Jeru- 
 salem, but in sorrow !" 
 
 An indescribable pang smote me. There was not a living 
 soul near me to have uttered the words. The troops were 
 
244 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 standing at a distance below, and in perfect silence. The 
 words were spoken close to my ear. But I fatally knew 
 the voice, and conjecture was at an end. I called Jubal \\p 
 the peak to assist me. But the blow that smote my frame 
 seemed to have smote his mind. His eyes rolled wildly ; 
 his speech was the language of a fierce disturbance of 
 thought, altogether unintelligible. A lunatic stood before 
 me. 
 
 Was this to be the foretaste of my own afflictions ? Was 
 I to see my kindred and friends put under the yoke of 
 bodily and mental misery, as a menace of the punishment 
 that was to cut asunder my connection with human 
 nature ? 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 IN pain and terror I drew my unfortunate kinsman 
 from the gaze of the troops ; and entreated him to tell me 
 by what melancholy chance his feelings had been thus 
 disturbed. He looked at me with a fierce glance and 
 half unsheathed his dagger. But I was not to be re- 
 pelled, and still labored to soothe him. He hurriedly 
 grasped the weapon, flung it down the steep, and, sink- 
 ing at my feet, burst into tears. 
 
 An uproar in the valley roused me from the con- 
 templation of this wreck of youth and hope. The enemy, 
 though defeated, had suffered little comparative loss. The 
 pride of the legions could not brook the idea of defeat, 
 by what they deemed the rabble of the city and the fields. 
 Cestius, under cover of the broken country on our flanks, 
 had rallied the fugitives of the camp ; and now, between 
 me and the city, were rapidly advancing in columns, forty 
 thousand men. 
 
 The manoeuvre was bold. It might either force us to 
 fight at a ruinous disadvantage or to leave the city to- 
 tally exposed. But, like all bold games, it was perilous; 
 and I determined to make the Roman feel that he had 
 an antagonist who would not leave the game at his dis- 
 cretion. 
 
 From the pinnacle on which I stood the whole cham- 
 paign lay beneath me. Nothing could be lovelier. The 
 
SAL AT HI EL. 245 
 
 grandest combinations of art and nature were before the 
 eye Jerusalem on her hills, a city of palaces, and, in 
 that hour, displaying her full pomp; her towers stream- 
 ing with banners; her battlements crowded with troops; 
 her priesthood and citizens in their festal habits, pour- 
 ing from the gates and covering the plain with the pa- 
 geant; that plain itself, colored with the richest produce 
 of the earth; groves of the olive; declivities, purple with 
 the vine, or yellow with corn, gleaming in the sun, sheets 
 of vegetable gold. 
 
 My plan was speedily adopted. On the right spread 
 the plain; on the left lay the broken and hilly country, 
 through which the enemy were moving by. its three prin- 
 cipal ravines. I felt that if they could unite, success, 
 with our undisciplined levies, was desperate. The only 
 hope was that of beating the columns separately as they 
 emerged into the plain. Cavalry had now begun to ride 
 down upon the processions, which, startled at the sight, 
 were instantly scattered and flying towards Jerusalem. 
 
 I heard Jubal utter in a loud voice : "Enter Jerusalem 
 and you are undone." 
 
 I looked upon him with astonishment. But there was 
 in his eye a sad humility, a strangely imploring glance, 
 which formed the most singular contrast to the wildness 
 of his words. "Be warned !" said he, pressing close, as if 
 he dreaded that his secret should be overheard. "I have 
 seen horrid things, I have heard horrid things since I 
 last entered the city. Beware of Jerusalem! I tell you 
 that things there have fearful power, that their hate is 
 inexorable, and that you are its great object !" 
 
 "This is altogether beyond my conception. How have 
 I offended, and whom ?" I asked. 
 
 He seemed to have recovered the tone of his mind. 
 "You are charged with unutterable acts. Your abandon- 
 ment of the priesthood; sights seen in your deserted 
 chambers, which not even the most daring would venture 
 to inhabit ; your escape from dangers that must have ex- 
 tinguished any other human being, have bred fatal ru- 
 mors. It has been said that you worshipped in the bowels 
 of the mountain of Masada, where the magic fire burns 
 eternally before the image of the Evil One; nay, that 
 you even conquered the fortress, impregnable as it was to 
 
246 SALATHIEL. 
 
 man, by a horrid compact; and that the raising of your 
 standard was the declared sign of that compact, dread- 
 fully to be repaid by you and yours !" 
 
 "Monstrous and incredible calumny! Where was their 
 evidence ? My actions were before the face of the world !" 
 
 "If your virtues were written in a sunbeam envy would 
 darken and hatred destroy," exclaimed my kinsman, with 
 the bold countenance and manly feeling of his better 
 days. "They have in their secret councils stained you 
 with a fate more gloomy than I can comprehend they 
 say that you are sentenced, even here, to the miseries of 
 guilt beyond the grave." 
 
 I felt as if he had stricken a lance through my heart. 
 Fiery sparkles shot before my eyes. I instinctively put 
 my hand to my brow to feel if the mark of Cain were 
 not already there. I gave one hurried glance at heaven, 
 as if to see the form of the destroying angel stooping 
 over me. Again, the presence of the multitude compelled 
 me to master my feelings. I commanded Jubal to be 
 ready with his proofs of those calumnies against the 
 time when I should confound my accusers. But I now 
 spoke to the winds. The interval of reason was gone. He 
 burst out into the fiercest horrors. 
 
 "They pursue me !" exclaimed he ; "they come by thou- 
 sands, with the poniard and the poison ! They cry for 
 blood ! They would drive me to a crime black as their 
 own !" 
 
 He flung himself at my feet, and, clasping them, pre- 
 vented every effort to save him from this degradation. 
 He buried his face in my robe, and, casting up a scared 
 look from time to time, as if he shrank from some object 
 of terror, apostrophized his vision. 
 
 "Fearful being," he cried, "spare me! Turn away 
 those searching eyes ! I have sworn to do the deed and it 
 shall be done. I have sworn it against the ties of nature, 
 against the laws of Heaven ; but it shall be done. Now, 
 begone ! See !" He cowered, pointing to a cloud that 
 floated across the sun ; "see ; he spreads his wings ; he 
 hovers over me; the thunders are flaming in his hands. 
 Begone, Spirit of evil! It shall be done! Look where 
 he vanishes into the heights of his kingdom ! The prince 
 of the power of the air." 
 
SALATHIEL. 247 
 
 The cloud which fed the fancy of my unfortunate 
 kinsman dissolved, and with it his fear of the tempter. 
 But he lay exhausted at my feet, his eyes closed, his limbs 
 shuddering the emblem of weakness and despair. I 
 tried to rouse him by that topic which would once have 
 shot new life into his heroic heart. 
 
 "Kise, Jubal, and see the enemy. This battle must not 
 be fought without you. To-day neither magic nor chance 
 shall be imputed to the conqueror, if I shall conquer. 
 Jerusalem sees the battle ; and before the face of my coun- 
 try I will show the leader, or will leave the last drop 
 of my blood upon those fields." 
 
 The warrior kindled within him. He sprang from the 
 ground and shot down an eagle glance at the enemy, who 
 had now made rapid progress and were beginning to show 
 the heads of their columns in the plain. He was un- 
 armed. I gave him my sword; and the proud humility 
 with which he put it to his lips was a pledge to me that 
 it would be honored in his hands. 
 
 "Glorious thing!" he exclaimed, as he flashed it before 
 the sun, "that raises man at once to the height of hu- 
 man honors or sends him where no care can disturb his 
 rest; the true sceptre that graces empire; the true talis- 
 man, more powerful than all the arts of the enchanter! 
 What, like thee, can lift up the lowly, enrich the desti- 
 tute, and even restore the undone? What talent, knowl- 
 edge, gift of nature, nay, what smile of fortune can, 
 like thee, in one hour bid the obscure stand forth the 
 hero of a people or the wonder of a world? Now, for 
 glory !" he shouted to the listening circle of the troops, 
 who answered him with shouts. "Now for glory!" they 
 cried, and poured after him down the side of the moun- 
 tain. 
 
 The three gorges of the valleys through which the enemy 
 moved opened into the plain at wide intervals from each 
 other. I saw that the eagerness of Cestius to reach the 
 open ground was already hurrying his columns; and that, 
 from the comparative facilities of the ravine immediately 
 under my position, the nearest column must arrive un- 
 supported. The moment came. The helmets and spears 
 were already pouring from the pass, when a gesture of 
 my left hand let loose the whole human torrent upon 
 
248 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 them. Our advantage of the ground, our numbers, and 
 still more, our brave impetuosity, decided the fate of this 
 divison at once. The legionaries were not merely re- 
 
 Eulsed, they were absolutely trampled down; there they 
 ly as if a mighty wall, or fragment of the mountain, had 
 fallen upon them. 
 
 The two remaining columns were still to be fought. 
 The compact and broad mass of iron that rushed down 
 the ravines seemed irresistible; and when I cast a glance 
 on the irregular and waving lines behind me I felt the 
 whole peril of the day. Yet I feared idly. The enemy 
 charged and forced their way into the very centre of the 
 multitude, like two vast wedges crushing all before them. 
 But, though they could repel, they could not conquer. 
 The spirit of the Jew fighting before Jerusalem was more 
 than heroism. To extinguish a Roman, though at the in- 
 stant loss of life; to disable a single spear, though by 
 receiving it in his bosom; to encumber with his corpse 
 the steps of the adversary, was reward enough for the 
 man of Israel. 
 
 I saw crowds of those bold peasants fling themselves 
 on the ground, creep in between the feet of the legion- 
 aries, and die stabbing them; others casting away the 
 lance to seize the Roman bucklers and encumber them with 
 the strong grasp of death; crowds mounting the rising 
 grounds, to leap down upon the spears. The enemy, 
 overborne with the weight of the multitude, at length 
 found it impossible to move further; yet, their strength 
 was not to be broken. Wherever we turned there was 
 the same solid wall of shields, the same thick fence of 
 levelled lances. We might as well have assaulted a rock. 
 Our arrows rebounded from their impenetrable armor; 
 the stones that poured on them from innumerable slings 
 rolled off like the hail of a summer shower from a roof. 
 But to have stopped the columns and prevented their 
 junction was in itself a triumph. I felt that thus we 
 had scarcely to do more than fix them where they stood 
 and leave the intense heat of the day, thirst, and weari- 
 ness, to fight our battle. But my troops were not to be 
 restrained. They still rolled in furious heaps against 
 the living fortification. Every broken lance in that im- 
 penetrable barrier, every pierced helmet was a trophy; 
 
8ALATHIEL. 249 
 
 the fall of a single legionary roused a shout of exulta- 
 tion, and was the signal for a new charge. 
 
 But the battle was no longer to be left to our unas- 
 sisted efforts: the troops in Jerusalem moved down, with 
 Constantius at their head. In the perpetual roar of the 
 conflict their shouts had escaped my ear; and my first 
 intelligence of their advance was from Jubal, who had 
 well redeemed his pledge during the day. Hurrying with 
 him to one of the eminences that overlooked the field, I 
 saw with pride and delight the standard of Naphtali 
 spreading its red folds at the head of the advancing mul- 
 titude. "Who commands them?" asked Jubal eagerly. 
 
 "Who should command them, with that banner at their 
 head," replied I, "but my son, my brave Constantius?" 
 
 He heard no more, but, bending his turban to the 
 saddle bow, struck the spur into his horse, and, with a 
 cry of madness, plunged into the centre of the nearest 
 column. The stroke came upon it like a thunderbolt; 
 the phalanx wavered for the first time; an opening was 
 broken into its ranks. The chasm was filled up by a 
 charge of my hunters. To save or die with Jubal was 
 the impulse ! That charge was never recovered ; the col- 
 umn loosened, the multitude pressed in upon it, and 
 Constantius arrived, only in time to see the remnant of 
 the Eoman army flying to the disastrous shelter of the 
 hills. 
 
 The day was won I was a conqueror! The invincible 
 legions were invincible no more ! I had conquered under 
 the gaze of Jerusalem ! Where was the enmity that 
 would dare to murmur against me now? What calumny 
 would not be crushed by the force of national gratitude? 
 A flood of absorbing sensations filled my soul. No elo- 
 quence of man could express the glowing and superb con- 
 sciousness that swelled my heart in the moment when I 
 saw the Eomans shake, and heard the shouts of my army 
 proclaiming me victor ! After that day I can forgive the 
 boldest extravagance of the boldest passion for war. That 
 passion may not be cruelty, nor the thirst of possession, 
 nor the longing for supremacy; but something made up 
 of them all, and yet superior to all the essential spirit 
 of the stirring motives of the human mind ambition, 
 kindled by the loftiest objects and ennobled by them a 
 
250 SALATHIEL. 
 
 game where the stake is an endless inheritance of renown, 
 a sudden lifting of the man into the rank of those on 
 whose names time can make no impression immortals, 
 without undergoing the penalty of the grave ! 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 I DETERMINED to give the enemy no respite, and ordered 
 the ravines to be attacked by fresh troops. While they 
 were advancing, I galloped in search of Jubal over the 
 ground of the last charge. He was not to be seen among 
 the living, or the dead. 
 
 The look of the field, when the first glow of battle 
 passed, was enough to shake a sterner spirit than mine. 
 Our advance to the gorges of the mountain had left the 
 plain naked. The sea of turbans and lances was gone 
 rolling, like the swell of an angry ocean, against the foot 
 of the hills. All before us was the cliff or the rocky pass, 
 thronged with helmets and spears. But all behind was 
 death, or misery worse than death; hundreds and thou- 
 sands groaning in agony, crying out for water to cool their 
 burning lips, -or imploring the sword to put them out of 
 pain. The legionaries lay in their ranks, as they had 
 fought; solid piles of men, horses, and arms, the true 
 monuments of soldiership. The veterans of Rome had sus- 
 tained the honors of her name. 
 
 I turned from this sight toward the rescued city. The 
 sun was resting on its towers; the smoke of the evening 
 sacrifice was ascending in slow wreaths from the altar of 
 the sanctuary. The trumpets and voices of the minstrels 
 poured a stream of harmony on the cool air. The recollec- 
 tion of gentler times came upon my heart. Through what 
 scenes of anxious feeling had I not passed, since those 
 gates closed upon me. The tramping of horses roused me 
 from this unwarlike reverie. Constantius came up, glow- 
 ing to communicate the intelligence, that the last of the 
 enemy had been driven in, and that his troops only awaited 
 my orders to force the passes. I mounted, heard their 
 shouts, and was again the soldier. 
 
 But the iron front of the enemy resisted our boldest 
 attempts to force the ravines the hills were not to be 
 
8ALATHIEL. 251 
 
 turned; and we were compelled, after innumerable efforts, 
 to wait for the movement of the Romans from a spot which 
 thirst and hunger must soon make untenable. This day 
 had stripped them of their baggage, their beasts of burden, 
 and their military engines. 
 
 At dawn the pursuit began again. We still found the 
 enemy struggling to escape out of those fatal denies. The 
 day was worn away in perpetual attempts to break the 
 ranks of the legionaries. The Jew, light, agile, and with 
 nothing to carry but his spear, was a tremendous antagonist 
 to the Roman, perplexed among rocks and torrents, famish- 
 ing, and encumbered with an oppressive weight of armor. 
 The losses of this day were dreadful. Our darts com- 
 manded their march from the heights ; every stone did exe- 
 cution among ranks whose armor was now shattered by 
 the perpetual discharge. Still they toiled on, unbroken. 
 We saw their long line laboring with patient discipline 
 through the rugged depth below ; and in the face of our at- 
 tacks they made way till night again covered them. 
 
 I spent that night on horseback. Fatigue I never felt in 
 the strong excitement of the time. I saw multitudes sink 
 at my horse's feet, in sleep as insensible as the rock on 
 which they lay. Sleep never touched my eyelids. I gal- 
 loped from post to post, brought up reinforcements to my 
 wearied ranks, and longed for morn. 
 
 It came at last. The enemy had reached the head of the 
 defile, but there a force was poured upon them that nothing 
 could resist. Their remaining cavalry were driven into the 
 torrent ; the few light troops that scaled the higher grounds 
 were swept down. I looked upon their whole army as in 
 my hands, and was riding forward with Constantius and 
 iny chief officers, to receive their surrender, when they were 
 saved by one of those instances of devotedness that dis- 
 tinguished the Roman character. 
 
 Wearied of perpetual pursuit and evasion, I had rejoiced 
 to see at last symptoms of a determination to wait for us, 
 and try the chance of battle. An abrupt ridge of rock, 
 surmounted with a lofty cone, was the enemy's position, 
 long after famous in Jewish annals. A line of spearmen 
 were drawn up on the ridge ; and the broken summit of the 
 cone, a space of a few hundred yards, was occupied by .1 
 cohort. Italian dexterity was employed to give the i 
 
252 SALATHIEL. 
 
 that Cestius had taken his stand upon this central spot ; an 
 eagle and a concourse of officers were exhibited ; and upon 
 this spot I directed the principal attack to be made. 
 
 But the cool bravery of its defenders was not to be 
 shaken. After a long waste of time in efforts to scale the 
 rock, indignant at seeing victory retarded by such an 
 obstacle, I left the business to the slingcrs and archers, an. I 
 ordered a perpetual discharge to be kept up on the cohort. 
 This was decisive. Every stone and arrow told upon tlvj 
 little force crowded together on the naked height. Shield 
 and helmet sank one by one under the mere weight of 
 missiles. Their circle rapidly diminished, and, refusing 
 surrender, they perished to a man. 
 
 But when we took possession, the army were gone. The 
 resistance of the cohort had given them time to escape ; and 
 Cestius sheltered his degraded laurels behind the ramparts 
 of Bethhoron, by the sacrifice of four hundred heroes. 
 
 This battle, which commenced on the eighth day of tho 
 month Marchesvan, had no equal in the war. The loss to 
 the Romans was unparalleled since the defeat of Crassus. 
 Two legions were destroyed; six thousand bodies were left 
 on the field. The whole preparation for the siege of Jeru- 
 salem fell into our hands. Then was the hour to have 
 struck the final blow for freedom; then was given that 
 chance of restoration which Providence gives to every 
 nation and every man. But our crimes, our wild feuds, 
 the bigoted fury and polluted license of our factions, rose 
 up as a cloud betAveen us and the light ; we were made to 
 be ruined. 
 
 Such were not my reflections when I saw the gates of 
 Bethhoron closing on the fugitives; I vowed never to rest 
 until I brought prisoners to Jerusalem the last of the sacri- 
 legious host that had dared to assault the Temple. 
 
 The walls of Bethhoron, manned only with the wreck of 
 the troops that we had routed from all their positions, could 
 offer no impediment to hands and hearts like ours. I or- 
 dered an immediate assault. The resistance was desperate, 
 for beyond this city there was no place of refuge nearer 
 than Antipatris. We were twice repulsed, and I headed the 
 third attack myself. The dead filled up the ditch, and I 
 had alroadv arrived at tho foot of the rampart, with the 
 fscaling-ladder in my hand, when I heard Jubal's voice 
 
SALA'fHIEL. 253 
 
 behind me. He was leaping and dancing, in the attitudes 
 of utter madness. But there was no time to be lost. I 
 sprang upon the battlements, tore a standard from its 
 bearer, and waved it over my head, with a shout of victory. 
 The plain, the hills, the valleys, covered with the host rush- 
 ing to the assault, echoed the cry; 1 was at the summit 
 of fortune ! 
 
 In the next moment I felt a sudden shock. Darkness 
 covered my eyes, and I plunged headlong. 
 
 I awoke in a dungeon. 
 
 CHAPTEK XXXV. 
 
 IN that dungeon I lay for two years ! How I lived, or 
 how T bore existence, I can now have no conception, i was 
 not mad, nor altogether insensible to things about me, nor 
 e\vn without occasional inclination for the common objects? 
 of our being. I. used to look for the glimmer of daylight, 
 that was suffered to enter my cell. The reflection of the 
 moon in a pool, of which, by climbing to the loophole, T 
 could gain a glimpse, was waited for with some feeble feel- 
 ing of pleasure ; but my animal appetites were more fully 
 alive than ever. An hour's delay of the miserable provision 
 1hat was thrown through my bars made me wretched. I 
 devoured it like a wild beast, and then longed through the 
 drejivy hours for its coming again ! 
 
 I made no attempt to escape. I dragged myself once to 
 the entrance of the dungeon, found it secured by an iron 
 door, and never tried it again. If every bar had been 
 broken, I scarcely know whether I should have attempted 
 to pass it. Even in my more reasoning hours, I felt no 
 desire to move. Destiny was upon me. My doom was 
 mfiiked in characters which nothing but blindness could 
 fail to read ; and to struggle with fate, what was it, but to 
 prepare for new misfortunes? 
 
 The memory of my wife and children sometimes broke 
 Ihrovgh the icy apathy with which I labored to incrust 
 my mind. Tears flowed ; nature stung my heart; I groaned, 
 and made the vault ring with the cries of the exile from 
 earth and heaven. But this passed away, and I was again 
 the self -divorced man, without a tie to bind him to transi- 
 
254 SALATH1EL. 
 
 tory things. I heard the thunder and the winds; the 
 lightnings sometimes startled me from my savage sleep. 
 But what were they to me ! I was dreadfully secure from 
 the fiercest rage of nature. There were nights when I con- 
 ceived that I could distinguish the roarings of the ocean, 
 yiul, shuddering, seemed to hear the cries of drowning men. 
 But those, too, passed away. I swept remembrance from 
 my .mind, and felt a sort of vague enjoyment in the effort 
 to defy the last power of evil. Cold, heat, hunger, waking, 
 sleep, were the calender of my year, the only points in 
 which I was sensible of existence ; I felt like some of those 
 torpid animals which, buried in stones from the creation, 
 live on until the creation shall be no more. 
 
 But this sullenness was only for the waking hour ; night 
 had its old, implacable dominion over me; full of vivid 
 misery, crowded with the bitter-sweet of memory, I wan- 
 dered free among those forms in which my spirit had found 
 matchless loveliness. Then the cruel caprice of fancy would 
 sting me; in the very concord of enchanting sounds there 
 would come a funereal voice; in the circle of the happy, 
 I was appalled by some hideous visage uttering words of 
 mystery. A spectral form would hang upon my steps, and 
 tell me that I was undone. 
 
 From one of those miserable slumbers I was roused by a 
 voice pronouncing my name. I at first confounded it with 
 the wanderings of sleep. But a chilling touch upon my 
 forehead completely aroused me. It was night, yet my 
 eyes, accustomed to darkness, gradually discovered the first 
 intruder who ever stood within my living grave; nothing 
 human could look more like the dead. A breathing skeleton 
 stood before me. The skin clung to his bones ; misery was 
 in every feature : the voice was scarcely above a whisper. 
 
 "Rise," said this wretched being, "prince of Naphtali, 
 you are free ; follow me." 
 
 Strange thoughts were in the words. Was this indeed 
 the universal summoner the being whom the prosperous 
 dread, but the wretched love? Had the King of Terrors 
 stood before me, I could not have gazed on him with more 
 wonder. "Bise," said the voice impatiently; "we have 
 but an hour till daybreak, and you must escape now, or 
 never/' The sound of freedom scattered my apathy. The 
 V'orld opened upon my hoart; country, friends, children, 
 
SALATBIEL. 55 
 
 were in the word ; and I started up with the feeling of one 
 to whom life is given on the scaffold. 
 
 My guide hurried forward through the winding way to 
 the door. He stopped: I heard him utter a groan, strike 
 fiercely against the bars, and fall. I found him lying at the 
 threshold without speech or motion; carried him back; 
 and, by the help of the cruse of water, left to moisten my 
 solitary meal, restored him to his senses. 
 
 "The wind," said he, "must have closed the door, and 
 we are destined to die together. So be it ; with neither of 
 us can the struggle be long. Farewell !" He flung himself 
 upon his face. A noise of some heavy instrument roused 
 us both. He. listened, and said, "There is hope still. The 
 slave who let me in is forcing the door." We rushed to 
 assist him, and tugged and tore at the massive stones in 
 which the hinges were fixed ; but found our utmost strength 
 as ineffectual as an infant's. The slave now cried out that 
 he must give up the attempt; that day was breaking, and 
 the guard were at hand. We implored him to try once 
 more. By a violent effort he drove his crowbar through 
 one of the panels ; the gleam of light gave us courage ; and 
 with our united strenglh we heaved at the joints, which 
 were evidently loosening. In the midst of our work the 
 slave fled; and I heard a plunge into the pool beneath. 
 "He has perished/' said my companion. "The door is on 
 the face of a precipice. He has fallen, in the attempt to 
 escape, and we are now finally undone." 
 
 The guard, disturbed by the noise, arrived; and in the 
 depths of our cell we heard the day spent in making the 
 impassable barrier firmer than ever. 
 
 For some hours my companion lay in that state of ex- 
 haustion which I could not distinguish from uneasy slum- 
 ber, and which I attributed to the fatigue of our common 
 labors. But his groans became so deep, that I ventured to 
 rouse him, and even to cheer him with the chances of 
 escape. 
 
 "I have not slept," said he; "I shall never sleep again, 
 until the grave gives me that slumber in which the wretched 
 can alone find rest. Escape ! No for months, for years, 
 I have had but one object. I have traversed mountain and 
 sea for it ; I have given to it day and night, all that I pos- 
 sessed in the world; I could give no inre but my life; and 
 
256 8ALATHIET*. 
 
 that too I give. I stood within sight of that object. But 
 it is snatched from me; and now, the sooner I perish the 
 better." He writhed with mental pain. 
 
 "But what cause can you have for being here? You 
 have not fought our tyrants. Who are you?" 
 
 "One whom you can never know a being born to honor 
 and happiness; but who perverted them by pride and re- 
 venge, and whose last miserable hope is, that he may die 
 unknown, and without the curses that fall on the traitor 
 and the murderer. Prince of Naphtali, farewell !" 
 
 I knew the speaker in those words of woe. I cried out: 
 "Jubal, my friend, my kinsman, my hero ! is it you then, 
 who have risked your life to save me ?" I threw myself be- 
 side him. He crept from me. I caught his meagre hand; 
 I adjured him to live, and hope. 
 
 He started away wildly. "Touch me not ; I am unfit to 
 live. I I have been your ruin; and yet, He who knows 
 the heart, knows that I alone am not to blame. I was a 
 dupe to furious passions, the victim of evil counsellors, the 
 prey of disease of mind. On my crimes may Heaven have 
 mercy ! They are beyond the forgiveness of man." 
 
 By the feeble light, which showed scarcely more than 
 the wretchedness of my dungeon, I made some little prep- 
 aration for the refreshment of this feverish and famished 
 being. His story agitated him; and, strongly awakened 
 as my curiosity was, I forbore all question. But it lay a 
 burden on his mind, and I suffered him to make his con- 
 fession. 
 
 "I loved Salome," said he; "but I was so secure of ac- 
 ceptance, according to the custom of our tribe, that I never 
 conceived the possibility of an obstacle to our marriage. 
 My love and my pride were equally hurt. The new dis- 
 tinctions of her husband made my envy bitterness. To 
 change the scene, I went to Jerusalem. I there found 
 malice active. Your learning and talents had made you 
 obnoxious long before; your new fame and rank turned 
 envy into hatred. Onias, whose dagger you turned from 
 the bosom of the noble Eleazar, remembered his disgrace. 
 He headed the conspiracy against you, and nothing but the 
 heroic vigor with which you stirred up the nation could 
 have saved you long since from the last extremities of fac- 
 tion. My unhappy state of mind threw me into his hands, 
 
SALATHIEL. 
 
 1 was inflamed against you by perpetual calumnies. It was 
 even proposed that I should accuse you before the San- 
 hedrin of dealing with the powers of darkness. Proofs were 
 offered which my bewildered reason could scarcely resist. 1 
 was assailed with subtle argument; stimulated by sights 
 and scenes of strange import, horrid and mysterious dis- 
 plays, which implicate the leaders of Jerusalem deeply in 
 the crime of the idolaters. Spirits, or the semblances of 
 spirits, M r ere raised before my eyes; voices were heard in 
 the depths and in the air, denouncing you, even you, as the 
 enemy of Judea and of man ; I was commanded, in the 
 midst of thunders, real or feigned, to destroy you." 
 
 Here his voice sank, his frame quivered; and wrapping 
 his head in his cloak, he remained long silent. To relieve 
 him from this confession, I asked for intelligence of my 
 family and of the country. "Of your family I can tell you 
 nothing," said he, mournfully ; "I shrank from the very 
 mention of their name. During these two years, I had but 
 one pursuit the discovery of your prison. I refused to hear, 
 to think, of other things. 1 felt that I was dying, and I 
 dreaded to appear before the great tribunal with the groans 
 from your dungeon rising up to stifle my prayers." 
 
 "But is our country still torn by the Roman wolves ?" 
 
 "The* whole land is in tumult. Blood and horror are 
 under every roof from Lebanon to Idumea. The Roman 
 sword is out, and it falls with cruel havoc ; but the Jewish 
 dagger pays it home, and the legions quail before the naked 
 valor of the peasantry. Yet what are valor or patriotism 
 to us now ? We are in our grave !" 
 
 The thought of my family, exposed to the miseries of a 
 ferocious war, only kindled my eagerness to escape from 
 this den of oblivion. It was evening, and the melancholy 
 moon threw the old feeble gleam on the water, which had 
 so long been to me the only mirror of her countenance. I 
 suddenly observed the light darkened by a figure stealing 
 along the edge of the pool. It approached, and the words 
 were whispered "It is impossible to break open the door 
 from without while the guard are on the watch; but try 
 whether it cannot be opened from within." A crowbar 
 was pushed into the loophole; its bearer, the slave, who 
 had escaped by swimming, jumped down and was gone. 
 
 I left Jubal where he lay, lingered at the door till all ex- 
 
258 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 ternal sounds ceased, and then made my desperate attempt. 
 I was wasted by confinement; but the mind is force. I 
 labored with furious effort at the mass of bolt and bar, 
 and at length felt it begin to give way. I saw a star, the 
 first for long years, twinkling through the fracture. An 
 hour's labor more unfixed the huge hinge, and I felt the 
 night air cool and fragrant on my cheek. I now grasped 
 the last bar, and was in the act of forcing it from the wall 
 when the thought of Jubal struck me. There was a struggle 
 of a moment in my mind. To linger now might be to give 
 the guard time to intercept me. I was ravening for liberty. 
 It was to me at that moment what water in the desert is 
 to the dying caravan the sole assuaging of a frantic thirst, 
 of a fiery and consuming fever of the soul. If every grain 
 of dust under my feet were diamonds, I would have given 
 them to feel myself treading the dewy grass that lay waving 
 on the hill-side before me. 
 
 A tall shadow passed along. It was that of a mountain 
 shepherd, spear in hand, guarding his flock from the wolves. 
 He stopped at a short distance from the dungeon, and, 
 gazing on the moon, broke out with a rude, but not unsweet, 
 voice, into song. The melody was wild, a lamentation over 
 the fallen glories of Judea, "whose sun was set, and whose 
 remaining light, sad and holy as the beauty of the moon 
 must soon decay." The word freedom mingled in the strain 
 and every note of that solemn strain vibrated to my heart. 
 The shepherd passed along. 
 
 I tore down the bar, and gazed upon the glorious face of 
 heaven. My feet were upon the free ground ! I returned 
 hastily to the cell, and told Jubal the glad tidings ; but he 
 heard me not. To abandon him there was to give him up 
 to inevitable death, either by the swords of the guard, or by 
 the less merciful infliction of famine. I carried him on my 
 shoulders to the entrance. A roar of ridicule broke on me 
 at the threshold. The guard stood drawn up in front of 
 the dilapidated door: and the sight of the prisoner en- 
 trapped in the very crisis of escape was the true food for 
 ruffian mirth. Staggering under my burden, I yet burst 
 forward; but I was received in a circle of levelled spears. 
 Resistance was now desperate; yet even when sunk upon 
 the ground under my burden, I attempted to resist, or 
 gather their points in my bosom and perish. But my feeble 
 
SALATHIEL. 259 
 
 efforts only raised new scoffing. I was unworthy of Eoman 
 steel; and the guard, after amusing themselves with my 
 impotent rage, dragged me within the passage, placed Ju- 
 bal, who neither spoke nor moved, beside me, blocked up 
 the door, and wished me "better success the next time." 
 
 I spent the remainder of that night in fierce agitation. 
 The apathy, the protecting scorn of external things, that 1 
 had nurtured, as other men would nurture happiness, was 
 gone. The glimpse of the sky haunted me; a hundred 
 times in the night I thought that I was treading on the 
 grass ; that I felt its refreshing moisture ; that the air was 
 breathing balm on my cheek; that the shepherd's song was 
 still echoing in my ears, and that I saw him pointing to a 
 new way of escape from my inextricable dungeon. In one 
 of those half-dreams I flung the crowbar from my hand. 
 A sound followed like the fall of stones into the water. 
 The sound continued. Still stranger echoes followed, which 
 my bewildered fancy turned into all similitudes of earth 
 and ocean the march of troops, the distant roar of thun- 
 der, the dashing of billows, the clamor of battle, boisterous 
 mirth, and the groaning and heaving of masts and rigging 
 in storm. The dungeon was as dark as death, and I felt 
 my way towards the sound. To my surprise the accidental 
 blow of the bar had loosened a part of the wall, and made 
 an orifice large enough to admit the human body. The 
 pale light of morning showed a cavern beyond, narrow and 
 rugged. It branched into a variety of passages, some of 
 them fit for nothing but the fox's burrow. I returned to 
 the lair of my unhappy companion and prevailed on him 
 to follow, only by the declaration that if he refused, I must 
 perish by his side. My scanty provisions were gathered up. 
 I led the way, and, determined never to return to the place 
 of my misery, we set forward to tempt in utter darkness 
 the last chances of famine pilgrims of the tomb. 
 
 We wandered through a fearful labyrinth for a period 
 which utterly exhausted us. I was sinking, when a low 
 groan struck my ear. I listened pantingly ; it came again. 
 It was evidently from some object close beside me. I put 
 forth my hand and pushed in the door of a large cavern ; H 
 flash of light illumined the -passage. Another step would 
 have plunged us into a pool a thousand feet below. 
 
260 8ALATB1EL. 
 
 CHAPTEK XXXVI. 
 
 THE cavern thus opened to us seemed to be the maga- 
 zine of some place of trade. It was crowded with chests 
 and bales, heaped together in disorder. What dangerous 
 owners we might meet cost us no question; life and lib- 
 erty were before us. I cheered Jubal till his scattered 
 senses returned and he clasped my feet in humiliation and 
 gratitude. 
 
 We were now like men created anew. We forced our 
 way through piles that but an hour before would have 
 been mountains to our despairing strength. The cavern 
 opened into another, which seemed the dwelling of some 
 master of extraordinary opulence. Silken tissues hung on 
 the walls ; the ceiling was a Tyrian canopy ; precious vases 
 stood on tables of citron and ivory. A large lyre, superb- 
 ly ornamented, was suspended in an opening of the rock, 
 and gave its melancholy music to the wind. But no hu- 
 man being was to be seen. Was this one of the true 
 wonders which men classed among the fictions of Greece 
 and Asia? The Nereids with their queen could not have 
 sought a more secluded palace. Onward we heard the 
 sounds of ocean. We followed them ; and saw one of those 
 scenes of grandeur which nature creates, as if to show 
 the littleness of man. 
 
 An arch three times the height of the loftiest temple 
 and ribbed with marble, rose broadly over our heads. 
 Innumerable shafts of the purest alabaster, rounded with 
 the perfection of sculpture, rose in groups and clusters to 
 the solemn roof: wild flowers and climbing plants of 
 every scent and hue gathered round the capitals, and 
 hung the gigantic sides of the hall with a lovelier decora- 
 tion than ever was wrought in loom. The awful beauty 
 of this ocean temple bowed the heart in instinctive hom- 
 age. I felt the sacredness of nature. But this grandeur 
 was alone worthy of the spectacle to which it opened. 
 The whole magnificence of the Mediterranean spread be- 
 fore our eyes, smooth as polished silver, and now reflecting 
 the glories of the west. The sun lay on the horizon in 
 the midst of crimson clouds, like a monarch on the 
 funeral pile, sinking in the splendors of a conflagration 
 that lighted earth and ocean. 
 
BALATHIEL. 261 
 
 But at this noble portal we had reached our limit. The 
 sides of the cavern projected so far into the waters as to 
 make a small anchorage. Access or escape by land was 
 palpably impossible. Yet here at least we were masters. 
 No claimant presented himself to dispute our title. The 
 provisions of our unknown host were ample, and, to our 
 eager tastes, were dangerous from their luxury. The 
 evening which we passed at the mouth of the cave, ex- 
 hilarated with the first sensation of liberty, and enjoy- 
 ing every aspect and voice of the lovely scene, with the 
 keeness of the most unhoped-for novelty, was a full rec- 
 ompense for the toils and terrors of the labyrinth. 
 
 The sun went down. Still all before us was peace. 
 The surge that died at our feet murmured peace; the 
 wheeling sea birds, as their long trains steered home- 
 ward, pouring out from time to time a clangor of wild 
 sounds that descended to us in harmony; the little white- 
 sailed vessels, that skimmed along the distant waters like 
 summer flies; the breeze waving the ivy and arbutus that 
 festooned our banquet hall; alike spoke to the heart the 
 language of peace. 
 
 "If/' said I, "my deathbed were to be left to my own 
 choice, on the edge of this cavern would I wish to take 
 my last farewell." 
 
 "To the dying all places must be indifferent," replied 
 my companion : "when Death is at hand and his shadow fills 
 the mind. What matters it to the exile, who in a few mo- 
 ments must leave his country forever, on what spot of 
 its shore his last step is planted? Perhaps the lovelier 
 that spot the more painful the parting. If I must have 
 my choice, let me die in the dungeon, or in battle; in the 
 chain that makes me hate the earth, or in the struggle 
 that makes it forgotten." 
 
 "Yet," said I, "even for battle, if we would acquit our- 
 selves as become men, is not some previous rest almost 
 essential? And for the sterner conflict with that mighty 
 enemy before whom our strength is vapor, is it not well 
 to prepare the whole means of mental fortitude? I would 
 not perish in the irritation of the dungeon; in the blind 
 fury of man against man ; nor in the hot and giddy whirl 
 of human cares. Let me lay my sinking frame where 
 nothing shall intrude upon the nobler business of the 
 
262 SAL AT HI EL. 
 
 mind. But those are melancholy thoughts. Come, Ju- 
 bal, fill to the speedy deliverance of our country." 
 
 "Here, then, to her speedy deliverance, and the glory 
 of those who fight her battles!" The cup was filled to 
 the brim; but just as the wine touched his lips he flung 
 it away. "No," exclaimed he, in bitterness of soul, "it is 
 not for such as I to join in the aspirations of the patriot 
 and the soldier. Prince of Naphtali, your generous na- 
 ture has forgiven me, but there is an accuser here" and 
 he struck his withered hand wildly upon his bosom 
 "that can never be silenced. Under the delusions, the 
 infernal delusions of your enemies, I followed you through 
 a long period of your career unseen. Every act, almost 
 every thought, was made known to me; for you were sur- 
 rounded by the agents of your enemies. I was driven on 
 by the belief that you were utterly accursed by our law, 
 and that to drive the dagger to your heart was to re- 
 deem our cause. But the act was against my nature, and 
 in the struggle my reason failed. When I stood before 
 you on the morning of the great battle, you saw me in 
 one of those fits of frenzy that always followed a new 
 command to murder. I reached Bethhoron in the midst 
 of the assault. Still frantic, I thought that in you I 
 saw my rival victorious. It was this hand, this parricidal 
 hand, that struck the blow." He covered his face and 
 wept convulsively. 
 
 The mystery of my captivity was now cleared up, and, 
 feeling only pity for the ruin that remorse had made, I 
 succeeded at last in restoring him to some degree of calm- 
 ness. I even ventured to cheer him with the hope of better 
 days, when in the palace of his fathers I should acknowl- 
 edge my deliverer. With a pressure of the hand and a 
 melancholy smile, "I know," said he, "that I hzive not 
 long to live. But if a prayer of mine is to be answered 
 by that greatest of all Powers whom I have so deeply 
 offended, it would be to die in some act of service to my 
 prince and my pardoner ! But hark !" 
 
 A groan was uttered close to the spot where we sat. I 
 perceived, for the first time, an opening behind some 
 furniture; entered, and saw lying on a bed a man ap- 
 parently in the last stage of exhaustion. He exclaimed : 
 "Three days of misery three days loft alone to die 
 
SALATHIEL. 263 
 
 without food, without help, abandoned by all. But I have 
 deserved it. Traitor and villain as I am, I have deserved 
 a thousand deaths !" 
 
 I looked upon this outcryias but the raving of pain, and 
 brought him some wine. He swallowed it with avidity, 
 but even while I held the cup to his lips, he sank back 
 with a cry of horror. "Ay," cried he, "I knew that I 
 could not escape you; you are come at last. Spirit, leave 
 me to die ! Or if," said he, half rising and looking in 
 my face with a steady yet dim glare, "you can tell the 
 secrets of the grave, tell me what is my fate. I adjure 
 you, fearful being, by the God of Israel ; by the gods of the 
 Pagan; or if you acknowledge any god beyond the dreams 
 of miserable man, tell me what I am to be." 
 
 I continued silent and struck with the agony of his 
 features. Jubal entered, and the looks of the dying man 
 were turned on him. 
 
 "More of them !" he exclaimed, "more tormentors ! More 
 terrible witnesses of the tortures of a wretch whom earth 
 casts out ! What I demand of you is the fate of those 
 who live as I have lived? The betrayer, the plunderer, 
 the man of blood? But you will give me no answer. 
 The time of your power is not come." He lay for a short 
 period in mental sufferings; then, starting upon his feet 
 by an extraordinary effort of nature, and with furious 
 execrations at the tardiness of death, he tore off the 
 bandage which covered a wound on his forehead. The 
 blood streamed down and made him a ghastly spectacle. 
 "Ay," cried he, as he looked upon his stained hands, 
 "this is the true color; the traitor's blood should cover 
 the traitor's hands. Years of crime, this is your reward. 
 The betrayal of my noble master to death, the ruin of his 
 house, the destruction of his name; these were the right 
 beginnings to the life of the robber." 
 
 A peal of thunder rolled over our heads, and the gush 
 of the rising waves roared through the cavern. 
 
 "Ay, there is your army," he cried, "coming in the 
 storm. I have seen your angry visages at night in the 
 burning village; I have seen you in the shipwreck; I 
 have seen you in the howling wilderness; but now I see 
 you in shapes more terrible than all." 
 
 The wind bursting through the, long vaults, forced open 
 
264 SAL ATE I EL. 
 
 the door. "Welcome, welcome to your prey," he yelled, 
 and, drawing a knife from his sash, darted it into his 
 bosom. The act was so instantaneous that to arrest the 
 blow was impossible. He fell, and died with a brief, fierce 
 struggle. 
 
 "Horrible end," murmured Jubal, gazing on the silent 
 form; "happier for that wretch to have perished in the 
 hottest strife of man or nature, trampled in the charge or 
 plunged into the billows! Save me from the misery of 
 lonely death !" 
 
 "Yet," said I, "it was our presence that made him feel. 
 He was guilty of some crime, perhaps of many, which 
 the sight of us awoke to torment his dying hour. I saw 
 that he gazed upon me with evident alarm, and not im- 
 probably my withered face and those rags of my dungeon 
 startled him into recollections too strong for his decaying 
 reason." 
 
 "Have you ever seen him before?" 
 
 "Never." I gave a reluctant look to the hideous dis- 
 tortion of a countenance still full of the final agony. I 
 turned away in awe. 
 
 "Now, Jubal, to think of ourselves. We shall have 
 soon our own experiment fairly tried. A few days must 
 exhaust our provisions. The surges roll on the one hand; 
 on the other we have the rock." 
 
 "But we shall die at least in pomp," said he. "No 
 king of Asia will lie in a nobler vault, nor even have sin- 
 cerer rejoicings at his end; the crows and vultures are no 
 hypocrites." 
 
 The dead man's turban had fallen off in his last vio- 
 lence, and I perceived the corner of a letter in its folds. 
 I read it; its intelligence startled me. It was from the 
 commandant of the Eoman fleet on the coast, mention- 
 ing that a squadron was in readiness to "attack the pi- 
 rates in their cavern." 
 
 A heavy sound, as if something of immense weight 
 had rushed into the entrance of the arch, followed by 
 many voices, stopped our conversation. "The Romans 
 have come," said I, "and you will be now indulged with 
 your wish, for never will I go back to the dungeon." 
 
 "I hear no sound but that of laughter," said Jubal, 
 listening; "those invaders are the merriest of cut-throats. 
 
SALATHIEL. 265 
 
 But before we give ourselves actually into their hands, 
 let us see of what they are made." 
 
 We left the chamber, and returned to the recess from 
 which we had originally emerged. It commanded a view 
 of the chief avenues of the cavern; and while I secured 
 the door, Jubal mounted the wall and reconnoitred the 
 enemy through a fissure. "These are no Romans," whis- 
 pered he, "but a set of the most jovial fellows that ever 
 robbed on the seas. They have clearly been driven in by 
 the storm, and are now preparing to feast. Their voy- 
 age has been lucky, if I am to judge by the bales that 
 they are hauling in; and if wine can do it, they will be 
 in an hour or two drunk to the last man." 
 
 "Then we can take advantage of their sleep, let loose 
 one of their boats, and away," said I. 
 
 I mounted to see this pirate festivity. In the various 
 vistas of the huge cavern, groups of bold-faced and athletic 
 men were gathering, all busy with the work of the time; 
 some piling fires against the walls and preparing pro- 
 visions; some stripping off their wet garments and bring- 
 ing others out of heaps of every kind and color in the re- 
 cesses of the rock: some wiping the spray from rusty hel- 
 mets and corslets. The vaults rang with songs, boister- 
 ous laughter, the rattling of armor, and the creaking and 
 rolling of chests of plunder. The dashing of the sea under 
 the gale filled up this animated dissonance; and, at inter- 
 vals, the thunder, bursting directly above our heads, min- 
 gled with all, and overpowered all. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 THE chamber whose costly equipment first told us of 
 the opulence of its masters, was set apart for the chief 
 rovers, who were soon seated at a large table in its centre, 
 covered with luxury. Flagons of wine were brought from 
 cellars known only to the initiated ; fruits piled in silver 
 baskets blushed along the board ; plate of the richest work- 
 manship, the plunder of palaces, glittered in every form; 
 tripods loaded with aromatic wood threw a blaze up to 
 the roof; and from the central arch hung a superb Greek 
 lamp, shooting out light from a hundred mouths of ser- 
 
266 SALATHIEL. 
 
 pents twined in all possible ways. The party before me 
 were about thirty, as fierce-looking figures as ever toiled 
 through tempest: some splendidly attired, some in the 
 rough costume of the deck; but all jovial, and evidently de- 
 termined to make the most of their time. Other men 
 had paid for the banquet; and there was probably not a 
 vase on their table that was not the purchase of personal 
 hazard. They sat, conquerors, in the midst of their own 
 trophies; and not the most self-indulgent son of opulence 
 could have more luxuriated in his wealth, nor the most 
 exquisite student of epicurism have discussed his lux- 
 uries with more finished and fastidious science. Loung- 
 ing on couches covered with embroidered draperies too 
 costly for all but princes, they lectured the cooks without 
 mercy: the venison, pheasants, sturgeon and a multitude 
 of other dishes were in succession pronounced utterly 
 unfit to be touched; and the wine was tasted and often, 
 dismissed with the caprice of palates refined to the high- 
 est point of delicacy. Yet the sea air was not to be trifled 
 with; and a succession of courses appeared and were de- 
 spatched with a diligence that prohibited all language 
 beyond the pithy phrases of delight or disapointment. 
 
 The wine at length set the conversation flowing; and, 
 from the merits of the various vintages, the speakers di- 
 verged into the general subjects of politics and their 
 profession; on the former of which they visited all par- 
 ties with tolerably equal ridicule, and on the latter de- 
 clared unanimously that the only cause worthy of a man 
 of sense was the cause for which they were assembled 
 round that table. The next stage was the more hazard- 
 ous one of personal jocularity; yet even this was got over 
 with but a few murmurs from the parties suffering. 
 Songs and toasts to themselves, their loves, and their en- 
 terprises in all time to come, relieved the drier topics ; 
 and all was good fellowship, until one unlucky goblet of 
 spoiled wine soured the banquet. 
 
 "So this you call Chian," exclaimed a broad-built fig- 
 ure, whose yellow hair and blue eyes showed him to be a 
 son of the North; "may I be poisoned," and he made a 
 hideous grimace, "if more detestable vinegar ever was 
 brewed ; let me but meet the merchant, and I shall teach 
 him a lesson that he will remember when next he thinka 
 
SALATHIEL. 267 
 
 of murdering men at their meals. Here, baboon, take it; 
 it is fit only for such as you." He flung the goblet point- 
 blank at the head of a negro, who escaped it only by 
 bounding to one side with the agility of the ape, that 
 he much resembled. 
 
 "Bad news, Vladomir, for our winter's stock, for half 
 of it is Chian," said a dark-featured and brilliant-eyed 
 Arab, who sat at the head of the table. "Ho ! Syphax, 
 fill round from that flagon, and let us hold a council of 
 v/ar upon the delinquent wine." 
 
 The slave dexterously changed the wine; it was poured 
 round, pronounced first-rate, and the German was laughed 
 at remorselessly. 
 
 "I suppose I am not to believe my own senses," re- 
 monstrated Vladomir. 
 
 "Oh ! by all means, as long as you keep them," said one, 
 laughing. 
 
 "Will you tell me that I don't know the difference be- 
 tween wine and that poison?" 
 
 "Neither you nor any man, friend Vladomir, can know 
 much upon the subject after his second dozen of gob- 
 lets," sneered another at the German's national propen- 
 sity. 
 
 "You do him injustice," said a subtle-visaged Chiote 
 at the opposite side of the table. "He is as much in 
 his senses this moment as ever he was. There are brains 
 of that happy constitution which defies alike reason and 
 wine." 
 
 "Well, I shall say no more," murmured the German, 
 sullenly, "than, confound the spot on which that wine 
 grew, wherever it lies; the hungriest vineyard on the 
 Ehine would be ashamed to show its equal. By Woden, 
 the very taste will go with me to my grave." 
 
 "Perhaps it may," said the Chiote, irritated for the 
 honor of his country, and significantly touching his dag- 
 ger. "But were you ever in the island?" 
 
 "Xo, nor ever shall, with my own consent, if that flagon 
 be from it," growled the German, with his broad eye 
 glaring on his adversary. "I have seen enough of its 
 produce, alive and dead to-night." 
 
 The wind roared without, and a tremendous thunder- 
 peal checked the angry dialogue. There was a general 
 pause. 
 
268 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 "Come, comrades, no quarrelling," cried the Arab. 
 "Heavens, how the storm comes on ! Nothing can ride 
 out to-night. Here's the captain's health, and safe home 
 to him." The cups were filled, but the disputants wert> 
 not to be so easily reconciled. 
 
 "Ho ! Memnon," cried the master of the table, to a sal- 
 low Egyptian richly clothed, and whose scimitar and dag- 
 ger sparkled Avith jewels. He was engaged in close coun- 
 cil with the rover at his side. "Lay by business nov,-; 
 you don't like the wine, or the toast?" 
 
 The Egyptian, startled from his conference, professed 
 his perfect admiration of both, and, sipping, returned to 
 his whisper. 
 
 "Memnon will not drink, for fear of letting out his 
 secrets; for instance, where he found that scimitar, or 
 what has become of the owner," said a young and hand- 
 some Idumean, with a smile. 
 
 "I should like to know by what authority you ask me 
 questions on the subject. If it had been in your hands, 
 I should have never thought any necessary," retorted the 
 scowling Egyptian. 
 
 "Ay, of course not, Memnon: my way is well known. 
 Fight rather than steal; plunder rather than cheat; and, 
 after the affair is over, account to captain and crew 
 rather than glitter in their property," was the Idumean's 
 answer, with a glow of indignation reddening his striking 
 features. 
 
 "By the bye," said the Arab, in whose eye the gems 
 flashed temptingly, "I think Memnon is always under a 
 lucky star. We come home in rags, but he regularly re- 
 turns the better for his trip : Ptolemy himself has not a 
 more exquisite tailor. All depends, however, upon a 
 man's knowledge of navigation in this world." 
 
 "And friend Memnon knows every point of it, but plain 
 sailing," said the contemptuous Idumean. 
 
 The Egyptian's sallow skin grew livid. "I may be 
 coward or liar or pilferer," exclaimed he; "but if I were 
 the whole three, I could stand no chance of being distin- 
 guished in the present company." 
 
 "Insult to the whole profession," laughingly exclaimed 
 tho Arab. "And now I insist, in the general name, on 
 your giving a plain account of the proceeds of your last 
 cruise. You can be at no loss for it." 
 
BALATB1EL. 
 
 "No, for he has it by his side, and in the most bril- 
 liant arithmetic," said Hanno, a satirical-vlsaged son of 
 Carthage. 
 
 "I must hear no more on the subject," bitterly pro- 
 nounced the Egyptian. "Those diamonds belong to neither 
 captain nor crew. I purchased them fairly ; and the seller 
 was, I will undertake to say, the better off of the two." 
 
 "Yes, I will undertake to say," laughed the Idumean, 
 "that you left him the happiest dog in existence. It is 
 care that makes man miserable, and the less we have to care 
 for, the happier we are. I have not a doubt you left the 
 fellow at the summit of earthly rapture !" 
 
 "Ay!" added the Arab, "without a sorrow, or a shekel, 
 in the world." 
 
 Boisterous mirth followed the Egyptian, as he started 
 from his couch and left the hall, casting fierce looks in 
 his retreat like Parthian arrows on the carousal. The 
 German had, in the meantime, fallen back in a doze, from 
 which he was disturbed by the slave's refilling his gob- 
 let. 
 
 "Ay, that tastes like wine," said he, glancing at the 
 Greek, who had by no means forgotten the controversy. 
 
 "Taste what it may, it is the very same wine that you 
 railed at half an hour ago," returned the Chiote. "The 
 truth is, my good Vladomir, that the wine of Greece is 
 like its language; both are exquisite and unrivalled to 
 those who understand them. But Nature wisely adapts 
 tastes to men, and men to tastes. I am not at all sur- 
 prised that north of the Danube they prefer beer/' 
 
 The German had nothing to give back for the taunt 
 but the frown that gathered on his black brow. 
 
 The Chiote pursued his triumph, and, with a languid, 
 lover-like gaze on the wine, which sparkled in purple 
 radiance to the brim of its enamelled cup, he apostrophized 
 the produce of his fine country. "Delicious grape ! Es- 
 sence of the sunshine and of the dew ! What vales but 
 the vales of Chios could have produced thee? What tint 
 of heaven is brighter than thy hue? What fragrance of 
 earth richer than thy perfume?" 
 
 He lightly sipped a few drops from the edge, like a li- 
 bation to the deity of taste. "Exquisite draught !" 
 breathed he; "unequalled but by the rosy lip and melt- 
 
270 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 ing sigh of beauty! Well spoke the proverb, 'Chios, 
 whose wines steal every head, and whose women every 
 heart.' * 
 
 "You forget the rest," gladly interrupted the German: 
 " 'and whose men steal everything/ " A general laugh fol- 
 lowed the retort, such as it was. 
 
 "Scythian I" said the Greek, across the table, in a voice 
 made low by rage and preparing to strike. 
 
 "Liar!" roared the German, sweeping a blow of his 
 falchion, which the Chiote only escaped by flinging him- 
 self on the ground. The blow fell on the table, where it 
 caused wide devastation. All now started up; swords 
 were out on every side; and nothing but forcing the an- 
 tagonists to their cells prevented the last perils of a dif- 
 ference of palate. 
 
 The storm bellowed deeper and deeper. "Here's to the 
 luck that sent us back before this northwester thought of 
 stirring abroad," said the Arab. "I wish our noble cap- 
 tain were among us now. Where was he last seen?" 
 
 "Steering westward, off and on Ehodes, looking out for 
 the galley that carried the procurator's plate. But this 
 wind must send him in before morning," was the answer 
 of Hanno. 
 
 "Or send him to the bottom, where many as bold a 
 fellow has gone before him," whispered a tall, haggard- 
 looking Italian to the answerer. 
 
 "That would be good news for one of us at least," said 
 Hanno. "You would have no reckoning to settle. Your 
 crew made a handsome affair of that Alexandrian prize; 
 and the captain might be looking for returns, friend Ter- 
 tullus." 
 
 "Then let him look to himself. His time may be near- 
 er than he thinks. His haughtiness to men as good as 
 himself may provoke justice before long," growled the 
 Italian, in memory of some late discipline. Hanno laughed 
 loudly. 
 
 "Justice ! is the man mad ? The very sound is high 
 treason in our gallant company. Why, comrade, if jus- 
 tice ever ventured here, where would some of us have 
 been these last six months?" 
 
 The sound caught the general ear; the allusion was 
 understood, and the Italian was displeased. 
 
SALATHIEL. 271 
 
 "1 hate to be remarkable," said he; "with the honest it 
 may be proper to be honest; but beside you, my facetious 
 Hanno, a man should cultivate a little of the opposite 
 school, in mere compliment to his friend. You had no 
 scruples when you hanged the merchant the other day." 
 
 A murmur arose in the hall. 
 
 "Comrades," said Hanno, with the air of an orator, 
 "hear me too on that subject; three words will settle the 
 question to men of sense. The merchant was a regular 
 trader. Will any man who knows the world, and has 
 brains an atom clearer than those with which fate has 
 gifted my virtuous friend, believe that I, a regular liver 
 by the merchant, would extinguish that by which I live? 
 Sensible physicians never kill a patient while he can 
 pay; sensible kings never exterminate a province when it 
 can produce anything in the shape of a tax; sensible 
 women never pray for the extinction of our sex until they 
 despair of getting husbands ; sensible husbands never wish 
 their wives out of the world while they can get anything 
 by their living: so sensible men of our profession will 
 never put a merchant under water until they can make 
 nothing by his remaining above it. I have, for instance, 
 raised contributions on that same trader every summer 
 these five years; and, by the blessing of fortune, hope to 
 have the same thing to say for five times as many years 
 to come. No, I would not see any man touch a hair of 
 his head. In six months he will have a cargo again, and 
 I shall meet him with as much pleasure as ever." The 
 Carthaginian was highly applauded. 
 
 "Malek, you don't drink," cried the Arab to a gigantic 
 Ethiopian towards the end of the table. "Here, I pledge 
 you in the very wine that was marked for the emperor's 
 cellar." 
 
 Malek tasted it and sent back a cup in return. 
 
 "The emperor's wine may be good enough for him," 
 was the message; "but I prefer the wine yonder, marked 
 for the emperor's butler." 
 
 The verdict was fully in favor of the Ethiopian. 
 
 "In all matters of this kind," said Malek, with an air 
 of supreme taste, "I look first to the stores of the regular 
 professors the science of life is in the masters of the 
 kitchen and the cellar. Your emperors and procurators, 
 
SALATHIEL. 
 
 of course, must be content with what they can get. But 
 the man who wishes to have the first-rate wine should be 
 on good terms with the butler. I caught this sample on 
 my last voyage after the imperial fleet. Nero never had 
 such wine on his table." 
 
 He indulged himself in a long draught of this exclusive 
 luxury, and sank on his couch with his hand clasping the 
 superbly-embossed flagon a part of his prize. 
 
 "The black churl," said a little shrivelled Syrian, "never 
 shares: he keeps his wine as he keeps his money." 
 
 "Ay, he keeps everything but his character," whispered 
 Hanno. 
 
 "There you wrong him," observed the Syrian ; "no man 
 keeps his character more steadily. By Beelzebub ! it is 
 like his skin; neither will be blacker the longest day he 
 has to live." 
 
 A roar of laughter rose round the hall. 
 
 "Black or not black," exclaimed the Ethiopian, with a 
 sullen grin that showed his teeth like the fangs of a wild 
 beast, "my blood's as red as yours." 
 
 "Possibly," retorted the little Syrian; "but as I must 
 take your word on the subject till I shall have seen a drop 
 of it spilt in fair fight, I only hope I may live and be 
 happy till then ; and I cannot put up a better prayer for a 
 merry old age." 
 
 "There is no chance of your ever seeing it," growled 
 the Ethiopian; "you love the baggage and the hold too 
 well to leave them to accident, be the fight fair or foul." 
 
 The laugh was easily raised, and it was turned against 
 the Syrian, who started up and declaimed with a fury of 
 gesture that made the ridicule still louder. 
 
 "I appeal to all," cried the fiery orator; "I appeal to 
 every man of honor among us, whether by night or day, 
 on land or water, I have ever been backward." 
 
 "Never at an escape," interrupted the Ethiopian. 
 
 "Whether I have ever broken faith with the band?" 
 
 "Likely enough ; where nobody trusts, we mav defy trea- 
 son." 
 
 "Whether my character and services are not known and 
 valued by our captain?" still louder exclaimed the irri- 
 tated Syrian. 
 "Ay, just as little as they deserve." 
 
8ALATH1EL. 
 
 "Silence, brute!" screamed the diminutive adversary, 
 casting his keen eyes, that doubly blazed with rage, on 
 the Ethiopian, who still lay embracing the flagon at his 
 ease. "With heroes of your complexion I disdain all con- 
 test. If I must fight, it shall be with human beings; not 
 with savages not with monsters." 
 
 The Ethiopian's black cheek absolutely grew red : this 
 taunt was the sting. At one prodigious bound he sprang 
 across the table, and darted upon the Syrian's throat with 
 the roar and the fury of a tiger. All was instant con- 
 fusion: lamps, flagons, fruits were trampled on; the 
 table was overthrown ; swords and poniards flashed in all 
 hands. The little Syrian yelled, strangling in the grasp 
 of the black giant; and it was with the utmost difficulty 
 that he could be rescued. The Arab, a fine athletic fel- 
 low, achieved this object and bade him run for his life; a 
 command with which he complied unhesitatingly, fol- 
 lowed by a cheer from Hanno, who swore that if all 
 trades failed he would make his fortune by his heels at 
 the Olympic games. 
 
 Our share of the scene was come. The fugitive, nat- 
 urally bold enough, but startled by the savage ferocity of 
 his antagonist, made his way towards our place of refuge. 
 The black got loose and pursued. I disdained to be 
 dragged forth as a lurking culprit, and, flinging open 
 the door, stood before the crowd. The effect was marvel- 
 lous. The tumult was hushed at once. Our haggard 
 forms, seen by that half intoxication which bewilders the 
 brain before it enfeebles the senses, were completely fitted 
 to startle the superstition that lurks in the bosom of every 
 son of the sea; and, for the moment, they evidently took 
 us for something better, or worse, than man. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 BUT the delusion was short-lived; my voice broke the 
 spell; and perhaps the consciousness of their idle alarm 
 increased their rage. "Spies" was then the outcry; and 
 this dread sound brought from beds and tables the whole 
 band. It was in vain that I attempted to speak ; the mob 
 have no ears, whether in cities or caves; and we were 
 
274 SALATHIEL. 
 
 dragged forward to undergo our examination. Yet, what 
 was to be done in the midst of a host of tongues, all ques- 
 tioning, accusing, and swearing together? Some were 
 ready to take every star of heaven to witness that we were 
 a pair of Paphlagonian pilots, and the identical ones hired 
 to run two of their ships aground, by which the best ex- 
 pedition of the year was undone. Others knew us to have 
 been in the regular pay of the procurator, and the means 
 of betraying their last captain to the axe. But the ma- 
 jority honored us with the character of simple thieves, 
 who had taken advantage of their absence to plunder the 
 baggage. 
 
 The question next arose "how we could have got in?" 
 and for the first time the carousers thought of their senti- 
 nel. I told them what I had seen. They poured into his 
 chamber, and their suspicions were fixed, in inexorable re- 
 ality "We had murdered him." The speediest death for 
 us was now the only consideration. Every man had his 
 proposal; and never were more curious varieties of escape 
 from this evil world offered to two wretches already weary 
 of it; but the Arab's voice carried the point. "He dis- 
 liked seeing men tossed into the fire ; ropes were too useful, 
 and the sword was too honorable to be employed on rogues. 
 But as by water we came, by water we should go." The 
 sentence was received with a shout; and amid laughter, 
 furious cries, and threats of vengeance, we were dragged to 
 the mouth of the cave. 
 
 There was a new scene! The tempest was appalling. 
 The waves burst into the anchorage in huge heaps, dash- 
 ing sheets of foam up to its roof. The wind volleyed in 
 gusts, that took the strongest off their feet ; the galleys at 
 anchor were tossed as if they were so many weeds on the 
 surface of the water. Lamps and torches were useless; 
 and the only light was from the funereal gleam of the 
 billows, and the sheets of sulphurous fire that fell upon the 
 turbulence of ocean beyond. Even the hardy forms round 
 me were startled, and I took advantage of a furious gust 
 that swung us all aside, to struggle from their grasp, and 
 seizing a pike, fight for my life. Jubal seconded me with 
 the boldness that no decay could exhaust; and setting our 
 backs to the rock, we for awhile baffled our executioners. 
 But this could not last against such numbers. Our pikes 
 
BALATHIEL. 
 
 Were broken ; we were hemmed in, and finally dragged again 
 to the mouth of the cavern, that with its foam and the 
 howl of the tumbling billows looked like the jaws of some 
 huge monster ready for its prey. 
 
 Bruised and overpowered, I was on the point of deny- 
 ing my murderers their last indulgence, and plunging head- 
 lo^ng, when a trumpet sounded. The pirates loosed their 
 hold, and in a few minutes a large galley with all her oars 
 broken, and every sail torn to fragments, shot by the mouth 
 of the cavern. A joyous cry of "The captain ! the captain !" 
 echoed through the vaults. The galley, disabled by the 
 storm, tacked several times before she could make the 
 entrance; but at length, by a masterly manoeuvre, she was 
 brought round, and darted right in on the top of a moun- 
 tainous billow. Before she touched the ground, the cap- 
 tain had leaped into the arms of the band, who received 
 him with shouts. His quick eye fell upon us at once, and 
 he demanded fiercely what we were. "Spies and thieves," 
 was the general reply. "Spies !" he repeated, looking con- 
 temptuously at our habiliments "impossible. Thieves, 
 very likely, and very beggarly ones." 
 
 I denied both imputations alike. He seemed struck with 
 my words, and said to the crowd, "Folly ! Take them away, 
 if it does not require too much courage to touch them ; 
 and let them be washed and fed for the honor of hospital- 
 ity and their own faces. Here, change my clothes, and 
 order supper." 
 
 I attempted to explain how we came. 
 
 "Of course of course," said the captain, pulling off his 
 dripping garments, and flinging his cloak to one, his cuirass 
 to another, and his cap to a third. "Your rags would 
 vouch for you in any port on earth. Or, if you carry on 
 the trade of treachery, you are very ill paid. Why, Mem- 
 Lon, look at these fellows ; would you give a shekel for 
 their souls and bodies? Not a mite. When I look for 
 spies, I expect to find them among the prosperous. How- 
 ever, if you turn out to be spies, eat, drink, and sleep your 
 best to-night, for you shall be hanged to-morrow." 
 
 He hurried onwards, and we followed, still in durance. 
 The banquet was reinstated, and the principal personages 
 of the band gathered round, to hear the adventures of the 
 voyage. "All has been ill luck/' said he, tossing off a 
 
&ALATB1EL. 
 
 bumper. "The old procurator's spirit was, I think, abroad, 
 either to take care of his plate, or to torment mankind, 
 according to his custom. We were within a boat's length 
 of the prize, when the wind came right in our teeth. 
 Everything that could, ran for the harbor; some went on 
 the rocks, some straight to the bottom ; and that we might 
 not follow their example, I put the good ship before the 
 wind, and never was better pleased than to find myself 
 at home. Thus you see, comrades, that my history is brief ; 
 but then it has an advantage that history sometimes denies 
 itself every syllable of it is true." 
 
 As the light of the lamps fell on him, it struck me that 
 his face was familiar to my recollection. He was young, 
 but the habits of his life had given him a premature man- 
 hood ; his eye flashed and sparkled with Eastern brilliancy, 
 but his cheek, after the first flush of the banquet, was pale ; 
 and the thinness of a physiognomy naturally masculine 
 and noble, showed that either care or hardship had lain 
 heavily upon his days. He had scarcely sat down to the 
 table, when, his glance turning where we stood guarded, 
 he ordered us to be brought before him. 
 
 "I think," said he, "you came here but a day or two ago. 
 Did you find no difficulty with our sentinels?" 
 
 "Ha !" exclaimed the Arab, "how could I have forgotten 
 that? I left Titus, or by whatever of his hundred names 
 he chose to be called, on guard, at his own request, the day 
 I steered for the Nile. He was sick, or protended to be 
 so; and as I gave myself but a couple of days for the 
 voyage, I expected to be back in time to save him from the 
 horrors of his own company. But the wind said otherwise 
 the two days were ten ; and on my return we found the 
 wretched fellow a corpse whether from being taken ill, 
 and unable to help himself, or from the assistance of those 
 worthy persons here, whom we discovered in attendance." 
 
 "On that subject I have no doubt whatever," inter- 
 posed the Egyptian ; "those villains murdered him." 
 
 The crowd pressed closer upon us, and I saw the dagger 
 pointed at my breast, when I recollected the letter. I gave 
 it to the captain, who read it in silence, and then, with 
 the utmost composure, desired it to be handed over to the 
 Egyptian. "Comrade?." paid he, "I have to apologize for a 
 breach of the confidence that should always subsist between 
 
SALATHIEL. 277 
 
 men of honor. I have here accidentally read a letter which 
 the cipher shows to have been intended for our trusty friend 
 Memnon; but since the subject is no longer confined to 
 himself, he will doubtless feel no objection to indulging 
 us all with the correspondence." 
 
 The band thronged round the table; expectation sat on 
 every face, and its various expression in the crowded circle 
 of those strong physiognomies the keen, the wondering, 
 the angry, the contemptuous, the convinced, the triumphant 
 would have made an incomparable study for a painter. 
 The Egyptian took the letter with a trembling hand, and 
 read the fatal words. 
 
 "The fleet will be off the northern promontory by mid- 
 night. You will light a signal and be ready to conduct 
 the troops into the cavern." 
 
 The reader let the fatal despatch fall from his hands. 
 
 "Come," said the captain, rising, "as we are not likely 
 to gain much information from the living, let us see 
 whether the dead can give us any: lead on, prisoners." 
 
 I led the way to the recess. The dead man lay un- 
 touched ; but in the interval, the features had returned, as 
 is often the case in death, to the expression of former 
 years. I uttered an exclamation ; he was the domestic who 
 had betrayed me to the procurator. 
 
 "Conscience !" cried the Egyptian. 
 
 "Conscience !" echoed the crowd. 
 
 The captain turned to me. "Did either you or your 
 companion commit this murder? I will have no long 
 stories. I know that this fellow was a villain, and if he 
 had lived until my return, he should have fed the crows 
 within the next twelve hours. One word yes or no." 
 
 I answered firmly. 
 
 "I believe you," said the captain. He took the hand of 
 the corpse, and called to the Egyptian. "Take this hand, 
 and swear that you know nothing of the treason. But, ba ! 
 what have we here?" As he lifted the arm, the sleeve of 
 the tunic gave way, and a slip of papyrus fell on the bed. 
 He caught it up, and exclaiming, "What ! to-night ? per- 
 nicious villain !" turned to the astonished band. 
 
 "Comrades, there is treachery among us. We are sold 
 sold by that accursed Egyptian. Strip the slave, and 
 fling him into the dungeon until I return ; no, he shall 
 
278 SALATHIEL. 
 
 come with us in chains. Call up the men. Every galley 
 must put to sea instantly, if we would not be burned in 
 our beds." 
 
 The trumpet sounded through the cavern, and rapid 
 preparations were made for obeying this unexpected com- 
 mand. The fires blazed again ; arms and armor rang ; men 
 were mustered; and the galleys swung out from their 
 moorings, in the midst of tumult and volleys of execrations 
 against the treachery that "could not wait, at least, for 
 daylight and fair weather." 
 
 "And now," said the captain, "I think that it is time for 
 me to sup. Sit down, and let us hear over our wine what 
 story the prisoners have to tell." 
 
 I briefly stated our escape from the dungeon. 
 
 "It may be a lie ; yet the thing hangs not badly together. 
 Your wardrobe speaks prodigiously in favor of your verac- 
 ity. Ho, Ben Ali! see that the avenue into the ware- 
 house is stopped up. We must have no visits from the 
 garrison of the tower." 
 
 He had soon a group of listeners round the table. "As 
 I was lying off and on, waiting to catch that galley, a cor- 
 respondent on shore let me partly into the secret of that 
 Egyptian dog's dealings. Eich as the knave was and how 
 he came by his money Tartarus only knows Roman gold 
 had charms for him still. In fact, he had been carrying 
 on a very handsome trade in information during the last 
 six months, which may best account for the escape of two 
 fleets from Byzantium, and not less for the present safety 
 of the procurator's plate, which, however, I hope, by the 
 blessing of Neptune, to see, before another week, shining 
 upon this table." Then turning to me, he laughingly said, 
 "Though I should not trust you for pilotage, your dis- 
 covery was of use. That an attack upon us was intended I 
 was aware ; but the how, and the when, were the difficulty. 
 The time of the attack was announced in the papyrus, and 
 but for the storm we should probably be now doing other 
 things than supping." 
 
 "The sea is going down already, and the wind has 
 changed," said the Arab. "We can haul off the shore with-, 
 out loss of time." 
 
 "Then the sooner the better. We must seal up the 
 Romans in their port; or, if they venture out ou such a 
 
SALATHIEL. 279 
 
 night, give them sound reason for wishing that they had 
 stayed at home. Their galleys, if good for nothing else, 
 will do to burn." 
 
 This bold determination was received with a general 
 cheer: the crews drank to the glory of their expedition; 
 and all rushed towards the galleys, which, crowded with 
 men, lay tossing at the edge of the arch. 
 
 I followed, and demanded what was to be our fate. 
 
 '"What will you have?" 
 
 "Anything but abandonment here. Let us take the 
 'chances of your voyage, and be set on shore at the first 
 place you touch." 
 
 "And sell our secret to the best bidder? No. But I 
 have no time to make terms with you now. One word for 
 all : ragged as you both are, you are strong, and your faces 
 would do no great discredit to our profession. You prob- 
 ably think this no very striking compliment," said he, 
 laughing. "However, I have taken a whim to have you 
 with us, and offer you promotion. Will you take service 
 with the noble company of the Free-trade?" 
 
 Jubal was rashly indignant; I checked him, and merely 
 answered that I had purposes of extreme exigency which 
 prevented my accepting his offer. 
 
 "Ha, morality !" exclaimed he, "you will not be seen 
 with rogues like us?" He laughed aloud. "Why, man, 
 if you will not live, eat, drink, travel, and die with rogues, 
 where upon earth can you expect to live or die ? The differ- 
 ence between us and the world is that we do the thing with- 
 out the additional vice of hypocrisy." 
 
 The bold fellows who waited round us felt for the honor 
 of their calling, and but for their awe of the captain, we 
 stood but slight chance of escape. 
 
 "A pike might let a little light into their understand- 
 ings," said one. 
 
 "If they would not follow on the deck, they should swim 
 at the stern," said another. 
 
 "The hermits should be sent back to their dungeon," 
 .said a third. 
 
 The boat was now run up on the sand. "Get in," said 
 the captain. "I have taken it into my head to convince 
 you by fact of the honor, dignity and primitiveness of our 
 profession, which is ; in the first place, the oldest, for it was 
 
280 SALATHIEL. 
 
 the original employment of all human hands; in the next 
 place, the most universal, for it is the principle of all trades, 
 pursuits and professions, from the emperor on his throne, 
 down through the doctor, the lawyer, and the merchant, to 
 the very sediment of society." 
 
 A "loud laugh echoed through the cavern. 
 
 While he was arranging his corslet and weapons round 
 him, the captain proceeded : "The Free-trade is the essence 
 of the virtues. For example, I meet a merchantman loaded 
 with goods for what is the cargo meant! To purchase 
 slaves ; to tear fathers from their families husbands from 
 their wives ; to burn villages, and bribe savages to murder 
 each other. I strip the hold ; the slave-market is at an end ; 
 and none suffer but fellows who ought to have been hanged 
 long ago." 
 
 The captain's doctrine was more popular than ever. 
 
 "I meet a rich old rogue," continued he, "on his voyage 
 between the islands. What is he going to do? To marry 
 some young creature, who has a young lover, perhaps a 
 dozen. The marriage would break her heart, and raise a 
 little rebellion in the island. We capture the old Cupid, 
 strip him of his coin, and he is a Cupid no more; fathers 
 and mothers abhor him at once; the young lover has his 
 bride, and the old one his lesson : the one gets his love and 
 the other his experience ; and both have to thank the gallant 
 crew of the Scorpion, which may Neptune long keep above 
 water." 
 
 A joyous shout and the waving of caps and swords hailed 
 the captain's display. "The Free-trade for ever!" was 
 cheered in all directions. 
 
 "And now, my heroes of salt water, noble brothers of 
 the Nereids, sons of the starlight, here I make libation to 
 fortune." He poured a part of his cup into the wave, and 
 drank to the general health with the remainder. 
 
 "Happiness to all ! Let our work to-night be what it will, 
 I know, my heroes, that it will be handsomely done. The 
 enemy may call us names; but you will answer them by 
 proofs that, whatever we may be, we are neither slaves nor 
 dastards. If I catch the insolent commander of the Koman 
 fleet, I will teach him a lesson in morals that he never knew 
 before. He shall flog, fleece and torture no more. I will 
 turn the hard-hearted tyrant into tenderness from top to 
 
8ALATHIEL. 281 
 
 toe. His treatment of the crew of the Hycena was infa- 
 mous ; and, by Jupiter ! what I owe him shall be discharged 
 in full. Now, on board, and may Neptune take care of 
 you !" 
 
 The trumpets flourished, the people cheered, the boats 
 pushed off, the galleys hoisted every sail, and in a moment 
 we found ourselves rushing through the water under the 
 wildest canopy of heaven. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 WE stretched out far to sea, for the double purpose of 
 falling by surprise upon the Roman squadron and avoiding 
 the shoals. The wind lulled at intervals so much, that we 
 had recourse to our oars ; it would then burst down with a 
 violence that all but hurled us out of the water. I now saw 
 more of the captain, and was witness to the extraordinary 
 activity and skill of this singular young man. Never was 
 there a more expert seaman. For every change of sea or 
 wind he had a new expedient; and when the hearts of the 
 stoutest sank, he took the helm into his hands, and carried 
 us through the chaos of foam, whirlwind, and lightning, 
 with the vigor of one born to sport with the storm. 
 
 As I was gazing over the vessel's side, at the phosphoric 
 gleams that danced along the billows, he came up to me. 
 
 "I am sorry," said he, "that we have been compelled to 
 give you so rough a specimen of our hospitality ; and this is 
 not altogether a summer sea ; but you saw how the matter 
 stood. The enemy now would have been upon us; and the 
 whole advantage of our staying at home would be to have 
 our throats cut in company." 
 
 Odd and rambling as his style was, there was something 
 in his manner and voice that had struck me before, even in 
 the boisterousness of the convivial crowd. But now, in the 
 solitary sea, there was a melancholy sweetness in his tones, 
 that made me start with sad recollection. Yet, when by the 
 lightning I attempted to discover in his features any clue to 
 memory, and saw but the tall figure wrapped in the sailor's 
 cloak, the hair streaming over his face in the spray, and 
 every line of his powerful physiognomy at its full stretch in 
 the agitation of the time, the thought vanished again. 
 
282 SALATHIEL. 
 
 "I hinted," said he, after an interval of silence, "at your 
 taking chance with us. If you will, you may. But the 
 hint was thrown out merely to draw off the fellows about 
 me; and you are at full liberty to forget it." 
 
 "It is impossible to join you," was my answer; "my life 
 is due to my country." 
 
 "Oh ! for that matter, so is mine, and due a long time 
 ago; my only wonder is, how I have evaded payment till 
 now. .But I am a man of few words. I have taken a sort 
 of liking to you, and would wish to have a few such at hand. 
 The world calls me pirate, and the majority, of course, 
 carries the question. For its opinion I do not care a cup 
 of water: a bubble would weigh as heavy with me as the 
 rambling, giddy, vulgar judgment of a world, in which the 
 first of talents is knavery. I never knew a man fail who 
 brought to market prostitution of mind enough to make 
 him a tool; vice enough to despise everything but gain: 
 and cunning enough to keep himself out of the hands of the 
 magistrate, till opulence enabled him to corrupt the law, 
 or authority to defy it. But let that pass. The point be- 
 tween us is, will you take service with us?" 
 
 "No I I feel the strongest gratitude for the manliness 
 and the generosity of your protection. You saved our 
 lives, and our only hope of revisiting Judea in freedom is 
 through you. But, young man, I have a great cause in 
 hand. I have risked everything for it. Family, wealth, 
 rank, life, are my stake ; and I look upon every hour given 
 to other things, as so far a fraud upon my country." 
 
 I heard him sigh. There was silence on both sides for 
 a while, and he paced the deck; then suddenly returning, 
 laid his hand on my shoulder. "I am convinced of your 
 honor," said he, "and far be it from me to betray a man 
 who has indeed a purpose worthy of manhood, into our 
 broken and unhappy ay, let the word come out, infamous 
 career. But you tell me that I have been of some use to 
 you ; I now demand the return. You have refused to take 
 service with me. Let me take service with you !" 
 
 I stared at him. He smiled sadly and said, "You will not 
 associate with one stained like me. Ay, for me, there is no 
 repentance ! Yet, why shall the world" and his voice was 
 full of anguish "why shall an ungenerous and misjudging 
 world be suffered to keep forever at a distance those whom 
 
SAL AT HI EL. 283 
 
 ii has first betrayed ?" His emotion got the better of him, 
 and his voice sank. He again approached me. "I am 
 weary of this kind of life. Not that I have reason to com- 
 plain of the men about me, nor that I dislike the chances 
 of the sea ; but, that I feel the desire to be something better 
 to redeem myself out of the number of the dishonored; 
 to do something which, whether I live or die, will satisfy 
 me that I was not meant to be the outcast that I am." 
 
 "Then join us, if you will," said I. "Our cause demands 
 the bold; and the noblest spirit that ever dwelt in man 
 would find its finest field in the deliverance of our land, the 
 land of holiness and glory. But can you leave all that you 
 have round you here?" 
 
 "Not without a struggle. I have an infinite delight in 
 this wild kind of existence. I love the strong excitement 
 of hazard ; I love the perpetual bustle of our career ; I love 
 even the capriciousness of wind and wave. I have wealth 
 in return for its perils: and no man knows what enjoyment 
 is, but he who knows it through the fatigue of a sailor's 
 life. All the banquets of epicurism are not ?ialf so deli- 
 cious, as even the simplest meal, to his hunger; nor the 
 softest bed of luxury half so refreshing as the bare deck, 
 tc his weariness. But I must break up those habits; and, 
 whether beggar and slave, or soldier, and obtaining the 
 distinction of a soldier's success, I am determined on try- 
 ing my chance among mankind." 
 
 A sheet of lightning at this instant covered the whole 
 horizon with blue flame ; and a huge ball of fire springing 
 from the cloud, after a long flight over the waters, split 
 upon the Shore. The keenness of the seaman's eye saw what 
 had escaped mine. "That was a lucky sea-light for us," 
 said he. "The Eomans are lying under yonder promon- 
 tory; driven to take shelter by the gale, of course; but for 
 that fire-ball they would have escaped me." 
 
 All the crew were now summoned on deck; signals were 
 made to the other galleys ; the little fleet brought into close 
 order ; pikes, torches, and combustibles of all kinds gath- 
 ered upon the poop ; the sails furled, and with muffled oar? 
 we glided down upon the enemy. The Roman squadron, 
 with that precaution which was the essential of their match- 
 less discipline, were drawn up in order of battle, though 
 they could have had no expectation of being attacked on 
 
284 BALATHIEL. 
 
 such a night. But the roar of the gale buried every other 
 sound, and we stole round the promontory unheard. 
 
 The short period of this silent navigation was one of 
 the keenest anxiety. All but those necessary for the work- 
 ing of the vessel were lying on their faces; not a limb was 
 moved, and, like a galley of the dead, we floated on, filled 
 with destruction. We were yet at some distance from the 
 twinkling lights that showed the prefect's trireme; when, 
 on glancing round, I perceived a dark object on the 
 water, and pointed it out to the captain. 
 
 "Some lurking spy," said he, "who was born to pay for 
 his knowledge." With a sailor's promptitude he caught up 
 a lamp and swung it overboard. It fell beside the object, 
 a small boat, as black as the waves themselves. 
 
 "Now for the sentinel," were his words, as he plunged 
 into the sea. The act was as rapid as the words. I heard 
 a struggle, a groan, and the boat floated empty beside me 
 on the next billow. 
 
 But there was no time to wait for his return. We were 
 within an oar's length of the anchorage. To communicate 
 the probable loss of their captain (and what could human 
 struggle do among the mountainous waves of that sea?) 
 might be to dispirit the crew and ruin the enterprise. I 
 took the command upon myself, and gave the word to fall 
 on. A storm of fire, as strange to the enemy as if it had 
 risen from the bottom of the sea, was instantly poured on 
 the advanced ships. The surprise was complete. The 
 crews, exhausted by the night, were chiefly asleep. The 
 troops on board were helpless, on decks covered with spray, 
 and among shrouds and sails falling down in burning 
 fragments on their heads. Our shouts gave them the idea 
 of being attacked by overwhelming numbers; and, after a 
 short dispute, we cleared the whole outer line of every 
 sailor and soldier. The whole were soon a pile of flame, 
 a sea volcano, that lighted sky, sea, and shore. 
 
 Yet only half our work was done. The enemy were now 
 fully awake, and no man could despise Roman preparation. 
 I ordered a fire-galley to run in between the leading ships; 
 but she was caught half-way by a chain, and turned round, 
 scattering flame among ourselves. The boats were then 
 lowered, and our most desperate fellows sent to cut out, or 
 board. But the crowded decks drove them back ? and the 
 
BALA.TUIEL. 285 
 
 Roman pike was an overmatch for our short falchions. 
 For a while we were forced to content ourselves with the 
 distant exchange of lances and arrows. The affair now 
 hecame critical. The enemy were still three times our 
 force; they were unmooring; and our only chance of de- 
 stroying them was at anchor. I called the crew forward 
 and proposed that we should run the galley close on the 
 prefect's ship, set them both on fire, and, in the confusion, 
 carry the remaining vessels. But sailors, if as bold, are as 
 capricious as their element. Our partial repulse had al- 
 ready disheartened them. I was met by clamors for the 
 captain. The clamors rose into open charges that I had, 
 to get the command, thrown him overboard. 
 
 I was alone. Jubal, worn out with fatigue and illness, 
 was lying at my feet, more requiring defence than able to 
 afford it. The crowd were growing furious against the 
 stranger. I felt that all depended on the moment, and 
 leaped from the poop into the midst of the mutineers. 
 
 "Fools," I exclaimed, "what could I get by making away 
 with your captain ? I have no wish for your command. I 
 have no want of your help. I disdain you i bold as lions, 
 over the table; tame as sheep on the deck; I leave you to 
 be butchered by the Romans. Let the brave follow me, if 
 such there be among you." 
 
 A shallop that had just returned with the defeated 
 boarders, lay by the galley's side. I seized a torch. Eight 
 or ten, roused by my taunts, followed me into the boat. 
 We pulled right for the Roman centre. Every man had a 
 torch in one hand and an oar in the other. We shot 
 along the waters, a flying mass of flame; and while both 
 fleets were gazing on us in astonishment, rushed under the 
 stern of the commander's trireme. The fire soon rolled up 
 her tarry sides, and ran along the cordage. But the de- 
 fence was desperate, and lances rained upon us. Half of 
 us were disabled in the first discharge; the shallop was 
 battered with huge stones; and I felt that she was sink- 
 ing. 
 
 "One trial more, brave comrades, one glorious trial 
 more ! The boat must go down ; and unless we would go 
 along with it, we must board." 
 
 I leaped forward, and clung to the chains. My example 
 was followed. The boat went down ; and this sight, which 
 
286 8 AL AT HI EL. 
 
 was just discoverable by the livid flame of the vessel, raised 
 a roar of triumph among the enemy. But to climb up the 
 tall sides of the trireme was beyond our skill, and we re- 
 mained, dashed by the heavy waves, as she rose and fell. 
 Our only alternatives now were to be piked, drowned, or 
 burned. The flames were already rapidly advancing ; showers 
 of sparkles fell upon our heads; the clamps and iron- work 
 were growing hot to the touch ; the smoke was rolling over 
 us in suffocating volumes. I was giving up all for lost, 
 when a mountainous billow swept the vessel's head round, 
 and I saw a blaze burst out from the shore the Roman 
 tents were on fire! 
 
 Consternation seized the crews, thus attacked on all 
 sides ; and, uncertain of the number of the assailants, they 
 began to desert the ships, and, by boats or swimming, make 
 for the various points of the land. The sight reanimated 
 me. I climbed up the side of the trireme, torch in hand, 
 and with my haggard countenance, made still wilder by 
 the wild work of the night, looked a formidable apparition 
 to men already harassed out of all courage. They plunged 
 overboard and I was monarch of the finest war-galley 
 on the coast of Syria. 
 
 But my kingdom was without subjects. None of my 
 own crew had followed me. I saw the pirate vessels bearing 
 down to complete the destruction of the fleet; and hailed 
 them, but they all swept far wide of the trireme. The fire 
 had taken too fast hold of her to make approach safe. I 
 now began to feel my situation. The first sense of triumph 
 was past, and I found myself deserted. The deed of dev- 
 astation, meanwhile, was rapidly going on. I saw the 
 Roman ships successively boarded, almost without resist- 
 ance, and in a blaze. The conflagration rose in sheets and 
 spires to the heavens, and colored the waters to an im- 
 measurable extent with the deepest dye of gore. I heard 
 the victorious shouts, and mine rose spontaneously along 
 with them. In every vessel burned, in every torch flung, I 
 rejoiced in a new blow to the tyrants of Judea. But my 
 thoughts were soon fearfully brought home. The fire 
 reached the cables; the trireme, plunging and tossing like 
 a living creature in its last agony, burst away from her 
 anchors : the wind was off the shore ; a gust, strong as the 
 jjlow of a battering-ram, struck her; and, on the back of 
 a huge wave, she shot out to sea, a flying pyramid of fire. 
 
&ALATHIEL. 287 
 
 CHAPTEE XL. 
 
 NEVER was man more indifferent to the result than the 
 solitary voyager of the burning trireme. What had life 
 for me? I gazed round me. The element of fire reigned 
 supreme. The shore moimtain, vale, and sand was 
 bright as day, from the blaze of the tents and the floating 
 fragments of the galleys. The heavens were an arch of 
 angry splendor every stooping cloud swept along, red- 
 dened with the various dyes of the conflagration below. 
 The sea was a rolling abyss of the fiercest color of slaugh- 
 ter. The blazing vessels, loosened from the shore, rushed 
 madly before the storm, sheet and shroud shaking loose 
 abroad, like vast wings of flame. 
 
 At length all disappeared. The shore faded far into a 
 dim line of light; the galleys sank, or were consumed; tho 
 sea grew dark again. But the trireme, strongly built, and 
 of immense size, still fed the flame, and still shot on through 
 the tempest, that fell on her the more furiously as she lost 
 the cover of the land. The waves rose to a height that 
 often baffled the wind, and left me floating in a strange cairn 
 between two black walls of water, reaching to the clouds, 
 and on whose smooth sides the image of the burning vessel 
 was reflected as strongly as in a mirror. But the ascent to 
 the summit of those fearful barriers again let in the storm 
 in its rage. The tops of the billows were whirled off in 
 sheets of foam ; the wind tore mast and sail away, and the 
 vessel was dashed forward like a stone discharged from an 
 engine. I stood on the poop, which the spray and the wind 
 kept clear of flame, and contemplated, with some feeling 
 of the fierce grandeur of the spectacle, the fire rolling over 
 the forward part of the vessel in a thousand shapes and 
 folds. 
 
 While I was thus careering along, like the genius of fire 
 upon his throne, I caught a glimpse of sails scattering in 
 every direction before me I had rushed into the middle 
 of one of those small trading fleets that coasted annually 
 between the Euxine and the Nile. They flew, as if pursued 
 by a fiend. But the same wind that bore them bore me; 
 and their screams, as the trireme bounded from billow to 
 billow on their track, were audible even through the roar- 
 ings of the storm. They gradually succeeded in spreading 
 
238 BALATBIEL. 
 
 themselves so far that the contact with the flame must be 
 partial. But on one, the largest and most crowded, tho 
 trireme bore inevitably down. The hunted ship tried every 
 mode of escape in vain; it manceuvred with extraordinary 
 skill; but the pursuer, lightened of every burthen, rushed 
 on like a messenger of vengeance. 
 
 I could distinctly see the confusion and misery of the 
 crowd that covered the deck; men and women kneeling, 
 weeping, fainting, or, in the fierce riot of despair, strug- 
 gling for some wretched spoil, that a few moments more 
 must tear from all alike. But among the fearful mingling 
 of sounds, one voice I suddenly heard that struck to my 
 soul. It alone roused me from my stern scorn of human 
 suffering. I no longer looked upon those beings as upon 
 insects, that must be crushed in the revolution of the 
 great wheel of fate. The heart, the living, human heart, 
 palpitated within me. I rushed to the side of the tri- 
 reme, and with voice and hand made signals to the crew 
 tc take me on board. But at my call a cry of agony rang 
 through the vessel. All fled to its further part, but a few, 
 who, unable to move, were seen dropped on their knee?, 
 and in the attitudes of preternatural fear, imploring every 
 power of heaven. Shocked by the consciousness that, even 
 in the hour when mutual hazard softens the heart of man, 
 I was an object of horror, I shrank back. I heard the 
 voice once more, and once more resolving to get on board, 
 flung a burning fragment over the side to help me through 
 the waves. 
 
 But the time was past. The fragment had scarcely 
 touched the foam, when a sheet of lightning wrapped sea 
 and sky; the flying vessel was gone. My eye looked but 
 upon the wilderness of waters. The flash was fatal. It 
 had struck the hold of my trireme, in which was stowed a 
 large freightage of the bitumen and nitre of the desert. 
 A column of flame, white as silver, rose straight and 
 steadily up to the clouds; and the huge ship, disparting 
 timber by timber, reeled, heaved, and plunged headlong 
 into the bosom of the ocean. 
 
 I rose to the surface from a prodigious depth. I was 
 nearly breathless. My limbs were wasted with famine 
 and fatigue; but the tossing of the surges sustained and 
 swept me on. The chill at last benumbed me, and my 
 
SALA'l'tilEL. 289 
 
 limbs were heavy as iron, when a broken mast rolling by 
 entangled me in its cordage. It drove towards a point of 
 land, round which the current swept. Strongly netted in 
 the wreck, I was dragged along, sometimes above the bil- 
 low, sometimes below. But a violent shock released me, 
 and with a new terror I felt myself go down. I was en- 
 gulfed in the whirlpool ! 
 
 Every sensation was horridly vivid. I had the full con- 
 sciousness of life, and of the unfathomable depth into which 
 1 was descending. I heard the roar and rushing of the 
 waters round me; the holding of my breath was torture; 
 1 strained, struggled, tossed out my arms, and grasped 
 madly around, as if to catch something that might retard 
 my hideous descent. My eyes were open. I never was 
 less stunned by shock or fear. The solid darkness, the 
 suffocation, the furious whirl of the eddy that spun me 
 round its huge circle like an atom of sand, every sense of 
 drowning, passed through my shattered frame with an 
 individual and successive pang. I at last touched some- 
 thing, whether living or dead, fish or stone, I know not; 
 hut the impulse changed my direction, and I was darted up 
 to the surface, in a little bay sheltered by hills. 
 
 The storm had gone, with the rapidity of the south. The 
 sun burned bright and broad above my head; the pleasant 
 breath of groves and flowery perfumes came on the waters ; 
 a distant sound of sweet voices lingered on the air. Like 
 one roused from a frightful dream, I could scarcely believe 
 that this was reality. But the rolling waters behind gave 
 me sudden evidence. A billow, the last messenger of the 
 storm, burst into the little bay, filled it to the brim with 
 foam, and tossed me far forward. It rolled back, drag- 
 ging with it the sedge and pebbles of the beach. I grasped 
 Lhe trunk of an olive, rough and firm as the rock itself. 
 The retiring wave left me ; I felt my way some paces among 
 the trees, cast myself down, and, worn out with fatigue, 
 had scarcely reached their shade, when I fainted. 
 
 I awoke in the decline of the day, as I could perceive by 
 the yellow and orange hues that colored the thick branches 
 above me. I was lying in a delicious recess, crowded with 
 fruit trees ; my bed was the turf, but it was soft as down ; a 
 solitary nightingale above my head was sending forth 
 snatches of that melody which night prolongs into the very 
 
290 BALATHIEL. 
 
 voice of sweetness and sorrow; and a balmy air from the 
 wild thyme and blossoms of the rose breathed soothingly, 
 even to the mind. 
 
 I had been thrown on one of the little isles that lie off 
 Anthaedon, a portion of the Philistine territory, before it 
 was won by our hero the Maccabee. The commerce which 
 once filled the arm of the sea near Gaza had perished in 
 the change of masters ; and silence and seclusion reigned in 
 a spot formerly echoing with the tumult of merchant and 
 mariner. The little isle, the favorite retreat of the opulent 
 Greek and Syrian traders, in the overpowering heats of 
 summer, and cultivated with the lavish expenditure of 
 commercial wealth, now gave no proof of its ever having 
 felt the foot of man, but in the spontaneous exuberance 
 of flowers, once brought from every region of the East and 
 West, and the exquisite fruits that still glowed on its slopes 
 and dells. In all things else nature had resumed her rights ; 
 the gilded pavilions, the temples of Parian and Numidian 
 stone, were in ruins, and buried under a carpef of roses and 
 myrtles. The statues left but here and there a remnant of 
 themselves, a lovely relic, wreathed over in fantastic spirals 
 by the clematis and other climbing plants. The sculptured 
 fountain let its waters loose over the ground; and the 
 guardian genius that hung in marble beauty over the 
 spring, had long since resigned his charge, and lay muti- 
 lated and discolored with the air and the dew. But the 
 spring still gushed, bounding bright between the gay 
 fif-sures of the cliff, and marking its course through the 
 plain by the richer mazes of green. 
 
 To me, who was as weary of existence as ever was galley- 
 slave, this spot of quiet loveliness had a tenfold power. 
 My mind, like my body, longed for rest. 
 
 Through life I had walked in a thorny path ; my ambi- 
 tion had winged a tempestuous atmosphere. Useless haz- 
 ards, wild projects, bitter sufferings were my portion. 
 Those feelings in which alone I could be said to live, had 
 all been made inlets of pain. The love which nature and 
 justice won from me to my family, was perpetually 
 thwarted by a chain of circumstances, that made me a 
 wretched, helpless, and solitary man. What then could 
 I do better than abandon the idle hope of finding happi- 
 ness among mankind; break off the trial, which must be 
 
8ALATBIEL. 291 
 
 prolonged only to my evil; and elude the fate that des- 
 tined me to be an exile in the world ? Yes ! I would no 
 longer be a man of suffering, in the presence of its happi- 
 ness; a wretch stripped of an actual purpose, or a solid 
 hope, in the midst of its activity and triumph; the ab- 
 horred example of a career miserable with defeated pursuit, 
 and tantalized with expectations, vain as the ripple on the 
 stream ! 
 
 In this stern resolve, gathering a courage from despair 
 as the criminal on the scaffold scoffs at the world that re- 
 jects him I determined to exclude recollection. The spot 
 round me was, henceforth, to fill up the whole measure of 
 my thoughts. Wife, children, friends, country, to me must 
 exist no more. I imaged them in the tomb ; I talked with 
 them as shadows, as the graceful and lovely existences of 
 ages past as hallowed memorials; but labored to divest 
 them of the individual features that cling to the soul. 
 
 Lest this mystic repose should be disturbed by any of the 
 sights of living man, I withdrew deeper into the shades 
 which first sheltered me. It was enough for me that there 
 was a canopy of leaves above, to shield my limbs from the 
 casual visitations of a sky whose sapphire looked scarcely 
 capable of a stain, and that the turf was soft for my couch. 
 Pruits, sufficient to tempt the most luxurious taste, were 
 falling round me; and the waters of the bright rivulet, 
 scooped in the rind of citron and orange, were a draught 
 that the epicure might envy. I was still utterly ignorant on 
 what shore of the Mediterranean I was thrown, further than 
 that the sun rose behind my bower, and threw his western 
 lustre on the waveless expanse of sea that spread before it 
 to the round horizon. 
 
 CHAPTER XLI. 
 
 BUT no man can be a philosopher against nature. With 
 my strength the desire of exertion returned. My most vo- 
 luptuous rest became irksome. Memory would not be re- 
 strained ; the floodgates of thought opened once more ; and, 
 to resist the passion for the world, I was driven to tha 
 drudgery of the hands. I gathered wood for the winter's 
 fuel, in the midst of days when the sun poured fire from 
 
292 KALATHIEL. 
 
 the heavens; I attempted to build a hut, beside grottos 
 that a hermit would love; I trained trees, and cultivated 
 flowers, where the soil threw out all that was rich in both 
 with exhaustless prodigality. 
 
 Yet no expedient would appease the passion for the ab- 
 sorbing business of the world. My bower lost its enchant- 
 ment ; the delight of lying on beds of violet, and, with my 
 eyes fixed on the heavens, wandering away in rich illusion, 
 palled upon me: the colors of the vision had grown dim. 
 I no longer saw shapes of beauty winging their way 
 through the celestial azure ; I heard no harmonies of spirits 
 on the midnight winds; I followed no longer the sun, 
 rushing on his golden chariot-wheels to lands unstained by 
 human step ; or plunged with him at eve into the depths, 
 and ranged the secret wonders of ocean. 
 
 Labor in its turn grew irksome. I began to reproach 
 myself for the vulgar existence which occupied only the 
 inferior portion of my nature; living only for food, sleep, 
 and shelter, what was I better than the seals that basked 
 on the shore at my feet ? Night, too that mysterious rest, 
 interposed for purposes of such varied beneficence to 
 cool the brain, fevered by the bustle of the day to soften 
 mutual hostility, by a pause to which all alike must yield 
 to remind our forgetful nature, by a perpetual sem- 
 blance, of the time when all things must pass a\Vay, and 
 be silent, and sleep to sit in judgment on our hearts, and, 
 by a decision which no hypocrisy can disguise, anticipate 
 the punishment of the villain, as it gives the man of virtue 
 the foretaste of his reward night began to exert its old 
 influence over me; and, with the strongest determination 
 to think no more of what had been, I closed my eyes, but 
 to let in the past. I might have said that my true sleep 
 was during the labors of the day ; and my waking, when I 
 lay, with my senses sealed, upon my bed of leaves. 
 
 It is impossible to shut up the mind ; and I at last 
 abandoned the struggle. The spell of indolence once broken 
 I became as restless as an eagle in a cage. My first object 
 was to discover on what corner of the land I was thrown. 
 Nothing could be briefer than the circuit of my island, and 
 nothing less explanatory. It was one of those little allu- 
 vial spots that grow round the first rock that catches the 
 vegetation swept down by rivers. Ages had gone by, while 
 
SALATHIEL. 293 
 
 reed was bound to reed, and one bed of clay laid upon an- 
 other. The ocean had thrown up its sands on the shore; 
 the winds had sown tree and herb on the naked sides of the 
 tall rock ; the tree had drawn the cloud, and from its roots 
 let loose the spring. Cities and empires had perished 
 while this little island was forming into loveliness. Thus 
 nature perpetually builds, while decay does its work with 
 the pomps of man. From the shore I saw but a long line 
 of yellow sand across a broad belt of blue waters. No 
 sight on earth could less attract the eye, or be less indic- 
 ative of man. 
 
 Yet within that sandy barrier what wild and wondrous 
 acts might be doing, and to be done ! My mind, with a 
 pinion that no sorrow or bondage could tame, passed over 
 the desert, and saw the battle, the siege, the bloody sedi- 
 tion, the long and heart-broken banishment, the fierce con- 
 flict of passions irrestrainable as the tempest, the melan- 
 choly ruin of my country by a judgment powerful as fate, 
 and dreary and returnless as the grave ! But the waters 
 between me and that shore were an obstacle that no vigor 
 of imagination could overcome. I was too feeble to at- 
 tempt the passage by swimming. The opposite coast ap- 
 peared to be uninhabited, and the few fishing-boats that 
 passed lazily along this lifeless coast evidently shunned 
 the island, as I conceived, from some hidden shoal. I 
 felt myself a prisoner, and the thought irritated me. That 
 ancient disturbance of my mind, which rendered it so 
 keenly excitable, was born again; I felt its coming, and 
 knew that my only resource was to escape from this cir- 
 cumscribing paradise, which was become my dungeon. Day 
 after day I paced the shore, awaking the echoes with my 
 useless shouts, as each distant sail glided along close to 
 the sandy line that was now to me the unattainable path 
 of happiness. I made signals from the hill, but I might 
 as well have summoned the vultures to stop as they flew 
 screaming above my head to feed on the relics of the Syrian 
 caravans. 
 
 What trifles can sometimes stand between man and en- 
 joyment ! Wisdom would have thanked Heaven for the 
 hope of escaping the miseries of life in the little enchanted 
 round, guarded by that intrenchment of waters, filled with 
 every production that could delight the sense, and giving 
 
294 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 to the spirit, weary of all that the world could offer, the 
 gentle retirement in which it could gather its remaining 
 strength, and make its peace with Heaven. 
 
 I was lying during a fiery noon on the edge of the island, 
 looking towards the opposite coast, the only object on which 
 I could now bear to look, when, in the stillness of the hour, 
 I heard a strange mingling of distant sounds, yet so 
 totally indistinct that, after long listening, I could con- 
 jecture it to be nothing but the rising of the surge. It died 
 away. But it haunted me: I heard it in fancy. It fol- 
 lowed me in the morn, the noon, and the twilight; in the 
 hour of toil, and in the hour when earth and heaven were 
 soft and silent as an infant's sleep when the very spirit 
 of tranquillity seemed to be folding his dewy wings over 
 the world. 
 
 Wearied more with thought than with the daily toil that 
 I imposed on myself for its cure, I had one night wandered 
 to the shore, and lain down under the shelter of those thick- 
 woven boughs that scarcely let in the glimpses of the 
 moon. The memory of all whom later chances brought in 
 my path passed before me the fate of my gallant kins- 
 men in Masada, of the wily Ishmaelite, of the pirate cap- 
 tain, of that unhappy crew whose danger was my involun- 
 tary deed, of my family scattered upon the face of the 
 world. Arcturus, bending towards the horizon, told me that 
 it was already midnight, when my reverie was broken by 
 the same sounds that had once disturbed my day. But 
 they now came full and distinct. I heard the crashing of 
 heavy axles along the road, the measured tramp of cavalry, 
 the calls of the clarion and trumpet. They seemed beside 
 me. I started from my sand, but all around was still. I 
 gazed across the waters; they were lying, like another 
 sky, reflecting star for star with the blue immensity above ; 
 but on them was no living thing. 
 
 I had heard of phantom armies traversing the air, but 
 the sky was serene as crystal. I climbed the hill, upon 
 whose summit I recollected to have seen the ruins of an 
 altar: gathered the weeds, and lighted them for a beacon. 
 The flame threw a wide and ruddy reflection on the waters 
 and the sky. I watched by it until morn. But the sound 
 had died as rapidly as it rose ; and when, with the first 
 pearly tinge of the east, the coast shaped itself beneath my 
 
SALATUIEL. 295 
 
 eye, I saw with bitter disappointment but the same solitary 
 shore. The idea of another day of suspense was intoler- 
 able ; I returned to my place of refuge, gave it that glance 
 of mingled feeling, without which perhaps no man leaves 
 the shelter which he is never to see again; collected a few 
 fruits for my sustenance, if I should reach the desert ; and, 
 with a resolution to perish, if it so pleased Providence, but 
 not to return, plunged into the sea. 
 
 The channel was even broader than I had calculated by 
 the eye. My limbs were still enfeebled ; but my determina- 
 tion was strength. I was swept by the current far from the 
 opposite curve of the shore, yet its force spared mine ; and 
 after a long struggle, I felt the ground under my feet. I 
 was overjoyed; though never was scene less fitted for joy. 
 To the utmost verge of the view spread the sands, a sullen 
 hcrbless waste, glowing like a sheet of brass in the almost 
 vertical sun. 
 
 But I was on land! I had accomplished my purpose. 
 Hope, the power of exertion, the chances of glorious future 
 life, were before me. I was no longer a prisoner, within 
 the borders of a spot which, for all the objects of manly 
 existence, might as well have been my grave. 
 
 I journeyed on by sun and star in that direction which 
 to the Jew is an instinct to Jerusalem. Yet what fearful 
 reverses, in this time of confusion, might not have occurred 
 even there ! What certainty could I have of being spared 
 the bitterest losses, when sorrow and slaughter reigned 
 through the land ? Was I to be protected from the storm, 
 that fell with such promiscuous fury upon all ? I, too, the 
 marked, the victim, the example to mankind ! I looked 
 wistfully back to the isle that isle of oblivion. 
 
 While I was pacing the sand, that actually scorched my 
 feet, I heard a cry, and saw on a low range of sand-hills, at 
 some distance, a figure making violent gestures. Friend or 
 enemy, at least here was man; and I did not deeply care 
 for the consequences, even of meeting man in his worst 
 shape. Hunger and thirst might be more formidable en- 
 emies in the end; and I advanced towards the half-naked 
 savage, who, however, ran from me, crying out louder than 
 ever. I dragged my weary limbs after him, and at length 
 reached the edge of a little dell, in which stood a circle of 
 tents. I had fallen among the robbers of the desert; but 
 
296 SALATHIEL. 
 
 there was evident confusion in this fragment of a tribe. 
 The camels were in the act of being loaded ; men and women 
 were gathering their household matters with the haste of 
 terror; and dogs, sheep, camels, and children, set up their 
 voices in a general clamor. 
 
 Dreading that I might lose my only chance of refresh- 
 ment and guidance, I cried out with all my might, and 
 hastened down towards them; but the sight of me raised a 
 universal scream; and every living thing took flight, the 
 horsemen of the colony gallantly leading the way, with a 
 speed that soon left the pedestrians far in the rear. But 
 their invader conquered only for food. I entered the first 
 of the deserted tents, and indulged myself with a full feast 
 of bread, dry and rough as the sand on which it was baked, 
 and of water, only less bitter than that through which I 
 had swum. Still, all luxury is relative. To me they were 
 both delicious, and I thanked at once the good fortune 
 which had provided so prodigally for those withered mon- 
 archs of the sands, and had invested my raggedness with 
 the salutary terror, that gave me the fruits of triumph 
 Without the toil. 
 
 At the close of my feast, I uttered a few customary 
 words of thanksgiving. A cry of joy rang in my ears; 
 I looked round ; saw, to my surprise, a bale of carpets walk 
 forward from a corner of the tent, and heard a Jewish 
 tongue imploring for life and freedom. I rapidly developed 
 the speaker; and from this repulsive coverture came forth 
 one of the loveliest young females that I had ever seen. 
 Her story was soon told. She was the grand-daughter of 
 Ananus, the late high-priest, one of the most distinguished 
 of his nation for every lofty quality; but he had fallen 
 on evil days. His resistance to faction sharpened the 
 dagger against him, and he perished in one of the merci- 
 less feuds of the city. His only descendant was now before 
 me; she had been sent to claim the protection of her rela- 
 tives in the south of Judea. But her escort was dispersed 
 by an attack of the Arabs, and in the division of the spoil, 
 the sheik of this little encampment obtained her as his 
 share. The robber-merchant was on his way to Caesarea, 
 to sell his prize to the Roman governor; when my arrival 
 put his caravan to the rout. To my inquiry into the cause 
 of this singular success, the fair girl answered, that the 
 
SALATHIEL. 297 
 
 Arabs had taken me for a supernatural visitant, "probably 
 come to claim some account of their proceedings in the late 
 expedition." They had been first startled by the blaze in 
 the island, which, by a tradition of the desert, was said to be 
 the dwelling of forbidden beings. My passage of the 
 channel was seen, and increased the wonder; my daring 
 to appear alone, among men whom mankind shunned, com- 
 pleted the belief of my more than mortal prowess ; and the 
 Arabs' courage abandoned a contest, in which "the least 
 that could happen to them was, to be swept into the surge, 
 or tossed piecemeal upon the winds." 
 
 To prevent the effects of their returning intrepidity, no 
 time was to be lost in our escape. But the sun, which 
 would have scorched anything but a lizard or a Bedoween 
 to death, kept us prisoners until evening. We were ac- 
 tively employed in the meantime. The plunder of the 
 horde was examined, with the curiosity that makes one of 
 the indefeasible qualities of the fair in all climates; and 
 the young Jewess had not been an inmate of the tent, nor 
 possessed the brightest eyes among the daughters of women, 
 for nothing. With an air between play and revenge, she 
 hunted out every recess in which even the art of Arab 
 thievery could dispose of its produce ; and at length rooted 
 up from a hole in the very darkest corner of the tent that 
 precious deposit for which the sheik would have sacrificed 
 all mankind, and even the last hair of his beard a bag of 
 shekels. She danced with exultation, as she poured the 
 shining contents on the ground before me. 
 
 "If ever Arab regretted his capture," said she, "this 
 most unlucky of sheiks shall have cause. But I shall teach 
 him at least one virtue repentance to the last hour of 
 his life. I think that I see him at this moment frightened 
 into a philosopher, and wishing from the bottom of his soul 
 that he had, for once, resisted the temptation of his trade." 
 
 "But what will you do with the money, my pretty 
 teacher of virtue to Arabs ?" 
 
 "Give it to my preserver," said she advancing, with a 
 look suddenly changed from sportiveness to blushing ti- 
 midity ; "give it to him who was sent by Providence to res- 
 cue a daughter of Israel from the hands of the heathen." 
 
 In the emotion of gratitude to me there was mingled a 
 loftier feeling, never so lovely as in youth and woman ; she 
 
298 SAL ATE I EL. 
 
 threw up a single glance to heaven, and a tear of piety 
 filled her sparkling eye. 
 
 "But, temptress and teacher at once," said I, "by what 
 right am I to seize on the sheik's treasury? May it not 
 diminish my supernatural dignity with the tribe, to be 
 known as a plunderer?'* 
 
 "Ha!" said she, with a rosy smile; "who is to betray 
 you but your accomplice? Besides, money is reputation 
 and innocence, wisdom and virtue, all over the world." 
 
 Touching, with the tip of one slender finger, my arm as 
 it lay folded on my bosom, she waved the other hand, in 
 attitudes of untaught persuasion. 
 
 "Is it not true/' pleaded the pretty creature, "that next 
 to a crime of our own, is the being a party to the crime of 
 others? Now, for what conceivable purpose could the 
 Arab have collected this money ? Not for food or clothing ; 
 for he can eat thistles with his own camel, and nature has 
 furnished him with clothing as she has furnished the bear. 
 The alhaik is only an encumbrance to his impenetrable 
 skin. What, then, can he do with money but mischief, fit 
 out new expeditions, and capture other fair maidens, who 
 cannot hope to find spirits, good or bad, for their protect- 
 ors? If we leave him the means of evil, what is it but 
 doing the evil ourselves? So," concluded this resistless 
 pleader, carefully gathering up the spoil, and putting it 
 into my hands, "I have gained my cause, and have now only 
 to thank my most impartial judge for his patient hearing." 
 
 There is a magic in woman. No man, not utterly de- 
 graded, can listen without delight to the accents of her 
 guileless heart. Beauty, too, has a natural power over the 
 mind; and it is right that this should be. All that over- 
 comes selfishness the besetting sin of the world is an 
 instrument of good. Beauty is but melody of a higher 
 kind ; and both alike soften the troubled and hard nature 
 of man. Even if we looked on lovely woman but as on a 
 rose, an exquisite production of the summer hours of life, 
 it would be idle to deny her influence, in making even those 
 summer hours sweeter. But, as the companion of the mind, 
 as the very model of a friendship that no chance can shake, 
 the pleasant sharer of the heart of heart, the being to 
 whom man returns after the tumult of the day, like the 
 worshipper to a secret shrine, to revive his nobler tastes 
 
8ALATHIEL. 299 
 
 and virtues at a source pure from the evil of the external 
 world ; where shall we find her equal ? or what must be our 
 feelings towards the mighty Disposer of earth, and all 
 that it inhabit, but of admiration, and gratitude for that 
 disposal, which thus combines our fondest happiness with 
 our purest virtue ! 
 
 CHAPTEL XLIL 
 
 THE evening came at last; the burning calm was fol- 
 lowed by a breeze breathing of life ; and on the sky sailed, 
 as if it were wafted by that gentle breeze, the evening 
 star. The lifeless silence of the desert now began to be 
 broken by a variety of sounds, wild and sad enough in 
 themselves, but softening by distance, and not ill suited 
 to that declining hour which is so natural an emblem of 
 the decline of life. The moaning of the shepherd's horn ; 
 the low of the folding herds ; the long, deep cry- of the 
 camel; even the scream of the vulture wheeling home 
 from some recent wreck on the shore; and the howl of 
 the jackal venturing out on the edge of dusk, came with 
 no unpleasing melancholy upon the wind. We stood gaz- 
 ing impatiently from the tent door at the west, that still 
 glowed like a furnace of molten gold. 
 
 "Will that sun never go down?" I exclaimed. "We 
 must wait his leisure, and he seems determined to tanta- 
 lize us." 
 
 "Yes, like a rich old man, determined to try the pa- 
 tience of his heirs, and more tenacious of his wealth, the 
 more his powers of enjoyment decay," said the Jewess. 
 
 "Philosophy from those young lips ! Yet the desert is 
 the place for a philosopher." 
 
 "That I deny," said my sportive companion. "Philoso- 
 phy is good for nothing where it has nothing to ridicule, 
 and where it will be neither fed nor flattered. Its true 
 place is the world, as much as the true place of yonder 
 falcon is wherever it can find anything to pounce upon. 
 Here your philosopher must labor for himself and laugh 
 at himself; an indulgence in which he is the most tem- 
 perate of men. In short, he is fit only for the idle, ga}^ 
 ridiculous and timid world. The desert is the soil for a 
 
300 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 much nobler plant. If you would traima poet into flower, 
 set him here." 
 
 "Or a plunderer." 
 
 "No doubt. They are sometimes much the same." 
 
 "Yet the desert produces nothing but Arabs." 
 
 "There are some minds, even among Arabs: and some 
 of their rhapsodies are btauty itself. The very master 
 of this tent, who fought and killed, I dare not say how 
 many, to secure so precious a prize as myself; and who, 
 after all his heroism, would have sold me into slavery for 
 life; spent half his evenings sitting at this door chant- 
 ing to every star of heaven, and rhyming, with tears in 
 his eyes, to all kinds of tender remembrances." 
 
 "But perhaps he was a genius, a heaven-born accident; 
 and his merit was the more in being a genius in the midst 
 of such a scene." 
 
 "No, everything round us this hour is poetry. The si- 
 lence those broken sounds that make the silence more 
 striking as they decay those fiery continents of cloud, the 
 empire of that greatest of sheiks, the sun, lord of the 
 red desert of the air the immeasurable desert below ! 
 Vastness, obscurity and terror, the three spirits that work 
 the profoundest wonders of the poet, are here in their 
 native region. And now," she said with a look, that 
 showed there were other spells than poetry to be found 
 in the desert, "to release you, I know, by signs infallible, 
 that the sun is setting." 1 could not avoid laughing at the 
 mimic wisdom with which she announced her discovery; 
 and asked whence she had acquired the faculty of solving 
 such rare problems. 
 
 "Oh, by my incomparable knowledge of the stars." She 
 pointed to the eastern sky, on which they began to cluster 
 in showers of diamond. "I have to thank the desert for 
 it, and," she added with a slight submission of voice, "for 
 everything. I am a daughter of tbe desert ; the first sight 
 that I saw was a camel; my early, my only accomplish- 
 ments were to ride, sing Bedoween songs, tell Bedoween 
 stories, and tame a young panther. But my history draws 
 to a close. While I was supreme in the graces of a sav- 
 age, had learned to sit a dromedary, throw the lance, make 
 alhaiks, and gallop for a week together, love, resistless 
 love came in my way. The son of the sheik, heir to a 
 
SALATH1EL. 301 
 
 hundred quarrels and ten thousand sheep, goats and horses, 
 claimed me as his natural prey. I shrank from a hus- 
 band, even more accomplished than myself, and was med- 
 itating how to make my escape, whether into the wilder- 
 ness or into the bottom of the sea, when a summons came, 
 which, or the money that came with it, the sheik found ir- 
 resistible. And now my history is at an end." 
 
 "And so," said I, to provoke her to the rest of her 
 narrative, "your story ends, as usual, with marriage. You, 
 of course, finding that you had nothing to prevent your 
 leaving the desert, took the female resolution of remain- 
 ing in it; and, as you might discard the young sheik at 
 your pleasure, refused to have any other human being." 
 
 "Can you think me capable of such a horror?" She 
 stamped her little foot in indignation on the ground ; then, 
 turning on me with her flashing eye, penetrated the strat- 
 agem at once by my smile. 
 
 "Then, hear the rest. I instantly mounted my drome- 
 dary, galloped for three days without sleep, and at length 
 saw the towers of Jerusalem glorious Jerusalem. I passed 
 through crowds that seemed to me a gathering of the 
 world, streets that astonished me with a thousand strange 
 sights, and, overwhelmed with magnificence, delight and 
 fatigue, arrived at a palace, where I was met by a host 
 of half-adoring domestics and was led to the most ven- 
 erable and beloved of wise and holy men, who caught me 
 to his heart, called me his Naomi, his child, his hope ; and 
 shed tears and blessings on my head as the sole survivor 
 of his illustrious line." She burst into tears. 
 
 The recollection of the good and heroic high-priest was 
 strong with us both; and in silence I suffered her sor- 
 rows to have their way. A faint echo of horns and voices 
 roused me. 
 
 "Look to the hills," I exclaimed, as I saw a long black 
 line creeping, like a march of ants, down the side of a 
 distant ridge of sand. 
 
 "Those are our Arabs," said she, without a change of 
 countenance. "They are, of course, coming to see what 
 the angel, or demon, who visited them to-day has left in 
 witness of his presence. But, from what I overheard of 
 their terrors, no Arab will venture near the tents till 
 night; night, the general veil of the iniquitous of this 
 amusing and very wicked world." 
 
302 SAL AT HI EL. 
 
 "Yet how shall we traverse the sands on foot ?" 
 
 "Forbid it, the spirit of romance," said she. "I must 
 see whether the gallantry of the sheik has not provided 
 against that misfortune." She flew into the tent, and, 
 drawing back a curtain, showed me two mares of the most 
 famous breed of Arabia. 
 
 "Here are the Koshlani," said she, with playful malice 
 dancing in her eyes. "I saw them brought in, in triumph, 
 last night, stolen from the pastures of Achmet Ben Ali 
 himself, first horse-stealer and prince of the Bedoweens, 
 who is doubtless by this time half dead of grief at the 
 loss of the two gems of his stud. I heard the achievement 
 told with great rejoicings; and a very curious specimen of 
 dexterity it was. Come forth," said she, leading out two 
 beautiful animals, white as milk. "Come forth, you two 
 lovely orphans of the true breed of Solomon; princesses 
 with pedigrees that put kings to shame, unless they can 
 go back two thousand years; birds of the Bedoween, with 
 wings to your feet, stars for eyes, and ten times the sense 
 of your masters in your little tossing heads." 
 
 She sprang upon her courser and winded it with the 
 delight of practiced skill. The Arabs were now but a few 
 miles off and in full gallop towards us. I urged her to 
 ride away at once; but she continued curvetting and ma- 
 noeuvring her spirited steed that, enjoying the free air of 
 the desert after having been shut up so long, thre\v up 
 its red nostrils in the wind and bounded like a stag. 
 
 "A moment yet," said she. "I have not quite done with 
 the Arab. It is certainly bad treatment for his hospital- 
 ity to have plundered him of his dinner, his money and his 
 horses." 
 
 "And of his captive, a loss beyond all reparation.'' 
 
 "I perfectly believe so," was the laughing answer; "but 
 I have been thinking of making him a reparation which 
 any Arab on earth would think worth even my charms. I 
 have been contriving how to make his fortune." 
 
 "By returning his shekels ?" 
 
 "Not a grain of them shall he ever see. No, he shall 
 not have the sorrow 'to think that he entertained only a 
 princess and a philosopher. As a spirit you came, and as 
 a spirit you shall depart, and he shall have the honor of 
 telling the tale. The national stories of such matters are 
 
BALATBIEL. 03 
 
 worn out; he shall have a new one of his own, and every 
 emir in the kingdoms of Ishmael through the fiery sands 
 of Ichama, the riverless mountains of Zayd, Hejaz, the 
 country of flies and fools ; and Yemen, the land of lo- 
 custs, lawyers, and merchants, will rejoice to have him at 
 his meal. Thus the man's fortune is made, for there is no 
 access to the heart like that of being necessary to the din- 
 ners and dulness of the mighty." 
 
 "Or on the strength of the wonder," said I, "he may 
 make wonders of his own, turn charlatan of the first mag- 
 nitude, profess to cure the incurable, and get solid gold for 
 empty pretension; sell health to the epicure, gaiety to the 
 old, and charms to the repulsive; defy the course of na- 
 ture, and live like a prince upon the exhaustless revenue 
 of human absurdity." 
 
 A cloud of smoke now wreathed up from the sheik's 
 tent ; fire followed ; and even while we looked on, the wind, 
 carrying the burning fragments, set the whole camp in a 
 blaze. The Arabs gave a universal shriek and fled back, 
 scattering with gestures and cries of terror through the 
 sands. 
 
 "There there," said my companion, clapping her deli- 
 cate white palms in exultation ; "let them beware of making 
 women captives in future. In my final visit to the tent I 
 put a firebrand into the very bundle of carpets in which 
 I played the part of slave." 
 
 "Not to be your representative, I presume." 
 
 "Yes, with only the distinction that in time I should 
 have been much the more perilous of the two. If that 
 unlucky sheik had dared to keep me a week longer in his 
 detestable tent, I should have raised a rebellion in the 
 tribe, dethroned him, and turned princess on my own ac- 
 count. As to burning him out, there was no remedy. But 
 for those flames the tribe would have been upon our road. 
 But for those flames we might even have been mistaken 
 for mere mortals, and your spirits always vanish as we 
 do, in fire and smoke. How nobly those tents blaze ! 
 Now, forward!" 
 
 She gave the reins to her barb, flung a triumphant 
 gesture towards the burning camp, and, under cover of 
 a huge sheet of fiery vapor, we darted into the wilder- 
 ness. 
 
304 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 CHAPTER XLIII. 
 
 OUR flight lay in the road to Masada. The stars were 
 brilliant guides, and the coolness of the Arabian night, 
 which forms so singular a contrast to the overpowering 
 ardors of the day, relieved us from the chief obstacle of 
 desert travel. At daybreak we reached a tract, whose 
 broken and burnt-up ground showed that there had lately 
 encamped the army the sound of whose march had startled 
 my reveries in the island. 
 
 It was evening when I caught the glimpse of the fortress. 
 My heart trembled at the sight. An impressian of evil was 
 upon me. Yet I must go on, or die. 
 
 "There," said I, "you see my home, and yours while 
 you desire it. You will find friends delighted to receive 
 you, and a protection that neither Roman nor Arab can 
 insult. Heaven grant that all may be as when I left 
 JVlasada !" The fair girl gratefully thanked me. 
 
 "I have been long," said she, "unused to kindness, and 
 its voice overpowers me. But if the duty, the gratitude, 
 the faithful devotedness of the orphan to her generous 
 preserver can deserve protection, I shall yet have some 
 claim. Suffer me to be your daughter." 
 
 She bowed her head before me with filial reverence; I 
 took the outstretched hand, that quivered in mine, and 
 pressed it to my lips. The sacred compact was pledged in 
 the sight of the stars. More formal treaties have been 
 made, but few sincerer. 
 
 We rapidly advanced to the foot of the ridge, that, now 
 defining and extending, showed its well-known features in 
 all their rugged grandeur. But to come within reach of 
 the gates, I had still one of the huge buttresses of the 
 mountain to go round. My companion, with the quick 
 sympathy that makes one of the finest charms of women, 
 already shared in my ominous fears, and rode by my side 
 without a word. My eyes were fixed on the ground. I was 
 roused by a clash of warlike music. The suspense was 
 terribly at an end. 
 
 The spears of a legion were moving in a glittering lin-> 
 down the further declivity. Squadrons of horse in march- 
 ing order were drawn upon the plain. The baggage of a 
 littte army lay under the eye, waiting for the escort now 
 
8ALATBIEL. 305 
 
 descending from the fortress. The story of my rain was 
 told in that single glance. All was lost ! 
 
 The walls of the citadel, breached in every direction, 
 gave signs of a long siege. The White Stag of Naphtali no 
 longer lifted its blazon on the battlements: dismantling 
 and desolation were there. But what horrors must have 
 been wrought before the Eomans could shake the strength 
 of those walls ! In what grave was I to look for my noble 
 brother and my kinsmen? First, and most fearful, what 
 had been the fate of Miriam and my children ? 
 
 Conscious that to stay was to give myself and my 
 trembling companion to the cruel mercy of Rome, I yet 
 was unable to leave the spot. I hovered round it, as the 
 spirit might hover round the tomb. Maddening with bitter 
 yearnings of heart, that intense eagerness to know the worst, 
 which is next to despair, I spurred up the steep by an 
 obscure path that led me to a postern. There was no 
 sound within. I dashed through the streets. Not a living 
 being was to be seen; piles of fire-wood lighted under the 
 principal buildings and at the gates, showed that the 
 fortress was destined to immediate overthrow. War had 
 done its worst. The broad sanguine plashes on the pave- 
 ments showed that the battle had been fought, long and 
 desperately, within the walls. The famous armory was a 
 heap of ashes. Ditches dug across the streets, and strewed 
 with broken weapons, and the white remnants of what once 
 was man ; walls raised within walls, and now broken down ; 
 stately houses loopholed and turned into little fortresses; 
 fragments of noble architecture blocking up the breaches; 
 graves dug in every spot where the spade could open a few 
 feet of ground; fragments of superb furniture lying half 
 burnt where the defenders had been forced out by confla- 
 gration ; all gave sad evidence of the struggle of brave men 
 against overpowering numbers. 
 
 But where were they who had made the prize so dear to 
 the conquerors? Was I treading on the clay that once 
 breathed patriotism and love? Did the wreck on which I 
 leaned, as I gazed round this mighty mausoleum cover the 
 earthly tenement of my kinsmen, and, still dearer, the last 
 of my name ? Was I treading on the grave of these gentle 
 and lovely natures, for whose happiness I would rejoicingly 
 have laid down the sceptre of the world? 
 
306 8ALATBIEL. 
 
 In ray agitation I cried aloud. My voice rang through 
 the solitude round me, and returned on the ear with a start- 
 ling distinctness. But living sounds suddenly mingled with 
 the echo. A low groan came from a pile of ruins beside 
 me. I listened, as one might listen for an answer from the 
 sepulchre. The voice was heard again. A few stones from 
 the shattered wall gave way, and I saw thrust out the 
 Avithered bony hand of a human being. I tore down tho 
 remaining impediments, and beheld pale, emaciated, and at 
 the point of death by famine, my friend, my fellow-soldier, 
 my fellow-sufferer, Jubal ! 
 
 Joy is sometimes as dangerous as sorrow. He gave a 
 glance of recognition, struggled forward, and, uttering a 
 wild cry, fell senseless into my arms. On his recovering, 
 before I could ask him the question nearest to my heart, 
 it was answered. "They are safe all safe," said he. "On 
 the landing of fresh troops from Italy, the first efforts of 
 the legions were directed against the fortress. The pi- 
 rates, in return for the victory to which you led them, had 
 set me at liberty. I made my way through the enemy's 
 posts ; Eleazar, ever generous and noble, received me, after 
 all my wanderings, with the heart of a father; and we 
 determined on defending this glorious trophy of your 
 heroism to the last man. But with the wisdom that never 
 failed him, he knew what must be the result, and at the 
 very commencement of the siege, sent away your family 
 to Alexandria, where they might be secure of protection 
 from our kindred." 
 
 "And they went by sea?" I asked, shudderingly, while 
 the whole terrible truth dawned upon my mind. They 
 were in the fleet which I had followed. 
 
 "It was the only course. The country was filled with 
 the enemy." 
 
 "Then they are lost! Wretched father, now no father! 
 man marked by destiny ! the blow has fallen at last ! 
 They perished 1 saw them perish. Their dying shrieks 
 rang in these ears. I was their destroyer. From first to 
 last I have been their undoing !" 
 
 Jubal looked on me with astonishment. My adopted 
 daughter, without any idle attempt at consolation, only 
 bathed my hand with her tears. "There must be some 
 misconception in all this," said Jubal "Before we left 
 
BALAfHlEL. 307 
 
 that accursed dungeon, they had embarked with a crowd 
 of females from the surrounding country, in one of the 
 annual fleets for Egypt. Before we sailed from the pirates' 
 cavern they were probably safe in Alexandria." 
 
 "No ! I saw them perish. I heard their dying cry, I 
 drove them to destruction," was the only voice that my 
 withering lips could utter. I remembered the horrors of 
 the storm; the desperate efforts of the merchant galley to 
 escape ; its fatal disappearance. Faintly, and with many a 
 successive agony, I gave the melancholy reasons for my 
 belief. My auditors listened with fear and trembling. 
 
 "There is now no use in sorrow," said Jubal sternly, 
 "and as little in struggle. I too have lived, until the light 
 that lightened my dreary hours is extinguished. I too have 
 known the extremities of passion. If suffering could have 
 atoned for my offences, I have suffered. A thousand years 
 of existence could not touch me more. Here let us die." 
 He unsheathed his poniard. 
 
 My young companion, in the anxiety of the moment, for- 
 getting the presence of a stranger, flung back the veil 
 which had hitherto covered her face and figure, and clasp- 
 ing my raised arm, said in a tone, so low, yet penetrating, 
 that it seemed the whisper of my own conscience 
 
 "Has death no fears?" She fixed her eyes on me, and 
 waited breathless for the answer. 
 
 "Daughter of beauty," said Jubal, as a smile of admira- 
 tion played on his sad features, "thoughts like ours are not 
 for the lovely and the young. May the Heaven that has 
 stamped that countenance be your protection through 
 many a year ! But to the weary, rest is happiness, not 
 terror. Prince of Naphtali, this fair maiden's presence 
 forbids darker thoughts; we must speed her on her way 
 to security, before we can think of ourselves and our mis- 
 fortunes." 
 
 "The daughter of Ananus," said she, in a tone of heroic 
 pride, "has no earthly fears. The boldest warrior of Israel 
 never died more boldly than that venerable parent. Within 
 his sacred robes was the heart of a soldier, a patriot, and a 
 king. Let me die for a cause like his; at the foot of the 
 altar, let my blood be poured out for my country; let this 
 feeble form sink in the ruins of the Temple ; and death will 
 be of all welcome things the most welcome. But I would 
 
308 &ALATBIEL. 
 
 not die for a fantasy, for idleness, for nothing. Put up that 
 weapon, warrior, and let us go forth, and see whether great 
 things are not yet to be done." 
 
 She significantly pointed towards Jerusalem. 
 
 "It is too late," said Jubal, glancing with a sigh at his 
 own wasted form. 
 
 "What ?" said the heroine ; "is it too late to be virtuous, 
 but not too late to be guilty ? too late to resist the enemies 
 of our country, but not too late to make ourselves worthless 
 to our holy cause? If Heaven demands an account of 
 every wasted talent and misspent hour, what fearful ac- 
 count will be theirs who make all talents and all hours 
 useless at a blow?" 
 
 "Maiden, you have not known what it is to lose every- 
 thing that made earth a place of hope," said I, gazing with 
 wonder and pity on the fine enthusiasm which the world is 
 so fatally empowered to destroy. "May not the tired trav- 
 eller hasten to the end of his journey without a crime ?" 
 
 "May not the slave," said Jubal, "weary of his chain, 
 escape unchidden from his captivity?" 
 
 "And may not the soldier quit his post, when caprice 
 disgusts him with his duty ?" was the maiden's answer, with 
 a lofty look. "Or, may not the child break loose from the 
 place of instruction, and plead his dislike to discipline ? As 
 well may man, placed here for the service of the highest of 
 beings, plead his own narrow will against the supreme 
 command; daringly charge Heaven with the injustice of 
 petting him a task above his strength; and madly insult 
 its power, under the petext of relying on its compassion." 
 
 She paused, as if surprised at her own earnestness, and 
 blushing said "This wisdom is not my own. It was the 
 last gift of an illustrious parent, when, in my agony at 
 the sight of his mortal wounds, I longed to follow him. 
 'Live,' said he, 'while you can live with virtue. The God 
 who has placed us on earth best knows when and how to 
 recall "as. If self-destruction were no crime in one in- 
 stance, it would be no crime to universal mankind; the 
 whole iTame of society would be overthrown by a permis- 
 sion to evade its duties, on the easy penalty of dying. Our 
 obligations to country, family, man, and Heaven, would 
 bo perpetually flung off. if they were to be held at the ca- 
 price of human nature." 
 
SALATHIEL. 309 
 
 Jubal looked intently on the young oracle; and, though 
 bending with Oriental deference, was yet unconvinced ! "Is 
 there to be no end to the mind's anxiety but the tardy 
 decay of the frame?" 
 
 Naomi turned to me with a look imploring my aid. But 
 I was broken down with the tidings that had now reached 
 me. Jubal wrapped his cloak round him, and was striding 
 into the shadow of the ruin. Naomi, terrified at the idea 
 of death, seized the corner of his mantle. "Will you shrink 
 from the evils of life," she adjured, "and yet have the 
 dreadful courage to defy the wrath of Heaven? Shall 
 worms like us, shall creatures covered with weaknesses and 
 sins, whose only hope must be in mercy, commit a crime 
 that by its very nature disclaims supplication, and makes 
 repentance impossible ?" 
 
 With the energy of terror she threw back the folds of 
 the cloak, and arrested the hand, with the dagger already 
 uplifted. She led back the reluctant, yet unresisting, step, 
 and said in a voice still trembling: "Prince of Naphtali, 
 save your brother !" I held out my arms to Jubal ; the 
 sternness of his soul was past, and he fell upon my neck. 
 Naomi stood, exulting in her triumph, with the counte- 
 nance that an angel might wear at the return of a sinner. 
 
 "Prince of Naphtali," said she, "if those who were dear 
 to you have perished, which Heaven avert ! you may have 
 been thus but the more marked out for the instrument of 
 solemn services to Israel. The virtues that might have 
 languished in the happiness of home may be summoned 
 into vigor for mankind. Warrior," and she turned her 
 glowing smile on Jubal, "this is not the time for valor 
 and experience to shrink from the side of our country. 
 Perfidy may still be repelled by patriotism; violence put 
 down by wisdom; the power of the people roused by the 
 example of a hero ; even the last spark of life may be made 
 splendid by mingling with the last glories of the people of 
 God." 
 
 JubaPs wasted cheek reddened with the theme; but his 
 emotion was too deep for language. He led the way ; we 
 passed in silence through the silent streets; and, without 
 seeing the face of a human being, reached the dismantle^ 
 gates of Masada, 
 
310 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 CHAPTER XLIV. 
 
 JUBAL guided us down the declivities among ramparts 
 and trenches; and, after long windings, where every step 
 reminded me of havoc, brought us to a little hamlet in the 
 recesses of the valley, so secluded that it seemed never to 
 have heard the sound of war. The thunder of the falling 
 masses of fortification as the fire reached their props kept 
 us waking all night, and I arose from my humble couch 
 to taste the delicious air that makes the summer niglit 
 of Asia the time of refreshing alike to the frame and to 
 the mind. I found Jubal already abroad and gazing on the 
 summit of the mountain, where the sullen glare of the 
 sky and the crash of buildings showed that the work of 
 devastation was rapidly going on. 
 
 He gave me some details of the siege. The Romans 
 had found the fortress so hazardous to the advance of 
 their reinforcements, that its possession was essential to 
 the conquest of Judea. Cestius, my old antagonist, so- 
 licited the command to wipe off his disgrace, and the 
 whole force of the legions was brought up. But the gen- 
 eralship of Eleazar and the intrepidity of the garrison 
 baffled every assault, with tremendous loss to the enemy. 
 The siege was next turned into a blockade. Famine and 
 disease were more formidable than the sword; and the 
 brave defenders were reduced to a number scarcely able 
 to man the walls. 
 
 "We now," said Jubal, "fought the battle of despair: 
 we saw the enemy's camp crowded every day with fresh 
 troops, and the provisions of the whole country brought 
 among them in profusion, while we had not a morsel to 
 eat, while our fountains ran dry, and while our few troops 
 were harassed with mortal fatigue. Yet no man thought 
 of surrender. Eleazar's courage a courage sustained by 
 higher thoughts than those of the soldier, the fortitude 
 of piety and prayer inspired us all; and we went to our 
 melancholy duties with the calmness of men to whom the 
 grave was inevitable. 
 
 "At last, when our reduced numbers gave the enemy a 
 hope, we were attacked by their whole force. But, if they 
 expected to conquer us at their ease, never were they more 
 deceived. When the walls gave way before their ma* 
 
fSALATHIEL. 311 
 
 chines, they were fought from street to street, from house 
 to house, from chamber to chamber. Eleazar, active as 
 wise, was everywhere; we fought in ruins in fire. Mul- 
 titudes of the enemy perished; and more deaths were 
 given by the knife than the spear, for our arms were 
 long since exhausted. The last effort was made on the 
 spot where you found me. When every defence was mas- 
 tered by the perpetual supply of fresh troops, Eleazar, 
 passing through the subterranean to attack the Roman 
 rear, left me in command of the few who survived. We 
 intrenched ourselves in the armory. For three days we 
 fought, without tasting food, without an hour's sleep, 
 without laying the weapons out of our hands. At length 
 the final assault was given. In the midst of it we heard 
 shouts which told us that our friends had made the 
 concerted attack, but we were too few and feeble to sec- 
 ond it. The shouts died away we were overpowered ; and 
 my first sensation of returning life was the combined 
 agony of famine, wounds, and suffocation, under the 
 ruins that I then thought my living grave." 
 
 "By dawn," said I, "we must set out for Jerusalem.'* 
 
 "It has been closely invested," was the answer, "for the 
 last three months; and famine and faction are doing 
 their worst within the walls. Titus is without, at the 
 head of a hundred thousand of the legionaries and aux- 
 iliaries. To enter will be next to impossible; and when 
 once entered what will be before you but the madness 
 of civil discord, and finally, death by the hands of an 
 enemy utterly infuriated against our nation?" 
 
 "To Jerusalem, at all risks," I exclaimed; "my fate is 
 mingled with that of the last stronghold of our fallen 
 people. What matters it to one whose roots of happi- 
 ness are cut up like mine, in what spot he struggles with 
 man and fortune? As a son of Judea, my powers are 
 due to her cause, and every drop of my blood shed for 
 any other would be treason to the memory of my fathers. 
 The dawn finds me on my way to Jerusalem." 
 
 "Spoken like a prince of Naphtali," sighed Jubal; "but 
 there I must not follow you. The course of glory is cut 
 off for me; alone, something may still be done by col- 
 lecting the fugitives of the tribes and harassing the 
 Roman communications. But, Jerusalem, though every 
 
312 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 stone of her walls is precious to my soul, must not re- 
 ceive my guilty steps. I have horrid recollections of 
 things seen and done there. Onias, that wily hypocrite, 
 will be there, to fill me with visions of terror. There too 
 are others." He was silent; but suddenly resuming his 
 firmness, "I have no hostility to Constantius; I even 
 honor him; but my spirit is still too feverish to bear his 
 presence I must live and die far from all whom I have 
 ever known." 
 
 He hid his face in his mantle; but the agitation of his 
 form showed his anguish, more than clamorous grief. He 
 walked forth into the darkness. I was ignorant of his 
 purpose, and lingered long for his return I saw him no 
 more. 
 
 Disturbed and pained by his loss, I had scarcely thrown 
 myself on the cottage floor, my only bed, when I was 
 roused by the cries of the village. A squadron of Roman 
 cavalry marching to Jerusalem had entered, and was 
 taking up its quarters for the night. The peasantry could 
 make no resistance, and attempted none. I had only 
 time to call to my adopted daughter to rise, when our 
 hut was occupied, and we were made prisoners. 
 
 This was an unexpected blow; yet it was one to which, 
 on second thoughts, I became reconciled. In the dis- 
 turbed state of the country, travelling was totally inse- 
 cure; and even to obtain a conveyance of any kind was a 
 matter of extreme difficulty. The roving plunderers who 
 hovered in the train of the camp were, of all plunderers, 
 the most merciless; while, falling into the hands of the 
 legionaries, we were at least sure of an escort ; I might 
 obtain some useful information of their affairs, and, 
 once in sight of the city, might escape from the Roman 
 lines with more ease as a prisoner, than I could pass them, 
 as an enemy. 
 
 The cavalry moved at daybreak; and before night we 
 saw in the horizon the hills which surround Jerusalem. 
 We had full evidence of our approach to the centre of 
 struggle, by the devastation that follows the track of 
 the best-disciplined army; groves and orchards cut down, 
 cornfields trampled, cottages burnt, gardens and home- 
 steads ravaged. Further on, we traversed the encamp- 
 ments of the auxiliaries, barbarians of every color and 
 language within the limits of the mightiest of empireSi 
 
SALATHIEL. 313 
 
 To the soldier of civilized nations, war is a new state 
 of existence; to the soldier of barbarism, war is but a 
 more active species of his daily life. It requires no di- 
 vorce from his old habits, and even encourages his old ob- 
 jects, cares, and pleasures. We found the Arab, the Ger- 
 man, the Scythian, and the Ethiop, hunting, carousing, 
 trafficking, and quarrelling, as if they had never stirred 
 from their native regions. The hordes brought with them 
 their families, their cattle and their trade. In the rear of 
 every auxiliary camp was a regular mart, crowded with 
 all kinds of dealers. Through the fields the barbarians 
 were following the sports of home. Trains of falconers 
 were flying their birds at the wild pigeon and heron. 
 Half-naked horsemen were running races, without saddle 
 or rein, on horses as wild and swift as the antelope. Groups 
 were lying under the palm groves asleep, with their spears 
 fixed at their heads ; others were seen busy decorating them- 
 selves for battle ; crowds were dancing, gaming, and drink- 
 ing. 
 
 As we advanced, we could hear the variety of clam- 
 ors and echoes that belong to barbarian war the bray- 
 ing of savage horns, the roars of mirth, rage, and feast- 
 ing; the shouts of clans moving up to reinforce the be- 
 siegers; the screams and lamentations of the innumerable 
 women, as the wains and litters brought back the wounded ; 
 the barbarian bowlings over the hasty grave of some chief- 
 tain; the ferocious revelry of the discoverers of plunder, 
 and the inextinguishable sorrows of the captives. 
 
 We passed through some miles of this boisterous and 
 bustling scene, in which even a Eoman escort was scarcely 
 a sufficient security. The barbarians thronged round us, 
 brandished their spears over our heads, rode their horses 
 full gallop against us, and exhausted the whole language 
 of scorn, ridicule, and wrath, upon our helpless condi- 
 tion. 
 
 But the clamor gradually died away, and we entered 
 upon another region a zone of silence and solitude, in- 
 terposed between the dangerous riot of barbarism and 
 the severe regularity of the legions. Far within this circle, 
 we reached the Roman camp, the world of disciplined war ! 
 The setting sun threw his flame on the long vistas of 
 shield and helmet drawn put, according to custom, for 
 
314 SALATHIEL. 
 
 the hour of exercise before nightfall. The tribunes were 
 on horseback in front of the cohorts, putting them through 
 that boundless variety of admirable movements, in which 
 no soldiery were so dexterous as those of Rome. But all 
 was done with characteristic silence. No sound was heard 
 but the measured tramp of the manoeuvre, and the voice 
 of the tribune. The sight was at once absorbing to the 
 eye of one, like me, an enthusiast in soldiership; and ap- 
 palling to the lover of his country. Before me was the 
 great machine, the resistless energy, that had levelled the 
 strength of the most renowned kingdoms. With the feel- 
 ing of a man who sees the tempest at hand; in the imme- 
 diate terror of the bolt, I could yet gaze with wonder and 
 admiration at the grandeur of the thunder-cloud ! Before 
 me was at once the perfection of power and the perfection 
 of discipline. Here were no rambling crowds of retainers, 
 no hurrying of troops startled by sudden rumor, no mil- 
 itary clamors. All was calm, regular, and grand. In 
 the centre of the most furious war ever waged, I might 
 have thought that I saw but a summer camp in an Italian 
 plain. 
 
 As the night fell, the legions saluted the parting sun 
 with homage, according to a custom which they had 
 learned in their eastern campaign. Sounds, less of war 
 than of worship, arose; flutes breathed in low and sweet 
 harmonies from the lines; and this iron soldiery, bound 
 on the business of extermination, moved to their tents in 
 the midst of strains made to wrap the heart in softness 
 and solemnity. 
 
 I rose at dawn. But was I in a land of enchantment? 
 I looked for the immense camp it had vanished. A few 
 soldiers collecting the prisoners sleeping about the field, 
 were all that remained of an army. Our guard explain" 
 the wonder. An attack on the trenches, in which the 
 besiegers had been driven in with serious loss, determined 
 Titns to bring up his whole force. The troops had moved) 
 with that habitual silence which eluded almost the waking 
 ear. They were now beyond the hills, and the hour was 
 come at which the prisoners were ordered to follow them. 
 But, where was the daughter of Ananus? I had placed 
 her in a tent, with some captive females of our nation. 
 The tent was struck, and its inmates were gone ! On the 
 
SALATHIEL. 315 
 
 spot where it stood, a flock of sheep were already grazing, 
 with a Eoman soldier leaning drowsily on his spear, for 
 their shepherd. 
 
 To what alarms might not this fair girl be exposed? 
 Dubious and distressed, I followed the guard, in the 
 hope of discovering the fate of an innocent and lovely 
 being, who seemed, like myself, marked for misfortune. 
 
 In this march we traversed almost the whole circuit 
 of the hills surrounding Jerusalem; and I thus had, for 
 three days, the opportunity that I longed for, of seeing 
 the nature of the force with which we were to contend. 
 The troops were admirably armed. There was nothing 
 for superfluity; yet those who conceived the system, knew 
 the value of show; and the equipment of the legions was 
 superb. The helmets, cuirasses, and swords, were fre- 
 quently inlaid with the precious metals; and the superior 
 officers rode richly caparisoned chargers, purchased at an 
 enormous price from the finest studs of Europe and Asia. 
 The common soldier was proud of the brightness of his 
 shield and helmet : on duty both were covered ; but on 
 their festivals the most cheering moment was when the 
 order was given to uncase their arms. Then, nothing 
 could be more magnificent than the aspect of the legion. 
 
 One striking source of its pomp was the multitude of 
 its banners. Every emblem that mythology could feign, 
 every animal, every memorial connected with the history 
 of soldiership and Eome, glittered above the forest of 
 spears. Gilded serpents, wolves, lions, gods, genii, stars, 
 diadems, imperial busts, and the eagle paramount over 
 all, were mingled with vanes of purple and embroidery. 
 The most showy pageant of civil life was dull and color- 
 less to the crowded splendor of the Eoman line. 
 
 Their system of manoeuvre gave this magnificence its 
 full development. With the modern armies the principle 
 is the avoidance of fire. With the ancient armies, the 
 principle was the concentration of force. All was done 
 by impulse. The figure by which the greatest weight could 
 be thrown against the enemy's ranks, was the secret of 
 victory. The subtlety of Italian imagination, enlight- 
 ened by Greek science, and fertilized by the experience of 
 universal war, was occupied in the discovery; and the 
 field exercise of the legions displayed every form, into 
 
316 SALATHIEL. 
 
 which troops could be shaped for victory. The Komans 
 always sought to fight pitched battles. They left the 
 minor services to their allies, and haughtily reserved 
 themselves for the master strokes by which empires are 
 lost or won. The humbler hostilities, the obscure skir- 
 mishings and surprises, they disdained; observing that, 
 while "to steal upon men was the work of a thief, and to 
 butcher them was the habit of a barbarian, to fight them 
 was the act of a soldier." 
 
 XLV. 
 
 AT the close of a weary day we reached our final station, 
 upon the hill of Scopas, seven furlongs from Jerusalem. 
 Bitter memory was busy with me there. From the spot on 
 which I flung myself in heaviness of heart, huddled among 
 a crowd of miserable captives, and wishing only that the 
 evening gathering over me might be my last, I had once 
 looked upon the army of the oppressors, marching into my 
 toils, and exulted in the secure glories of myself and my 
 country. But the prospect now beneath the eye showed only 
 the fiery track of invasion. The pastoral beauty of the 
 plain was utterly gone. The innumerable garden-houses 
 and summer dwellings of the Jewish nobles, glowing in 
 every variety of graceful architecture, among vineyards and 
 depths of aromatic foliage, were levelled to the ground; 
 and the gardens were turned into a sandy waste, cut up by 
 trenches and military works in every direction. In the 
 midst rose the great Eoman rampart, which Titus, in de- 
 spair of conquering the city by the sword, drew round 
 it to extinguish its last hope of provisions or reinforce- 
 ments ; a hideous boundary, within which all was to be the 
 sepulchre. 
 
 I now saw Jerusalem only in her expiring struggle. 
 Others have given the history of that most memorable 
 siege. My knowledge was limited to the last hideous daya 
 of an existence long declining, and finally extinguished in 
 horrors beyond the imagination of man. 
 
 I knew her follies, her ingratitude, her crimes : but the 
 love of the city of David was 6"een in my soul ; her lofty 
 privileges, the proud memory of those who had made her 
 
SALATH1EL. 317 
 
 courts glorious, the sage, the soldier, and the prophet, 
 lights of the world, to which the boasted illumination of 
 the heathen was darkness, filled my spirit with an im- 
 mortal homage. I loved her then I love her still. 
 
 To mingle my blood with that of my perishing country 
 was the first wish of my heart. But I was under the 
 rigor of the confinement inflicted on the Jewish prisoners. 
 My rank was soon known; but, while it produced offers of 
 new distinction from my captors, it increased their vigi- 
 lance. To every temptation to serve, I gave the same de- 
 nial, and occupied my hours in devices for escape. Mean- 
 while, I saw, with terror, that the wall of circumvallation 
 was closing ; and that a short period must place an impass- 
 able barrier between me and the city. 
 
 I was aroused at midnight by the roaring of one of those 
 tempests which sometimes break in so fiercely upon an 
 eastern summer. The lightning struck the tower in which 
 I was confined, and I found myself riding on a pile of ruins. 
 Escape, in the midst of a Roman camp, seemed as remote 
 as ever. But the storm which shook walls made its way at 
 will among tents, and the whole encampment was broken 
 up. A column of infantry passed where I was extricating 
 myself from the ruins. They were going to reinforce the 
 troops in the trenches, against the chance of- an attack 
 during the tempest. I followed them. The night was 
 terrible. The lightning that blazed with frightful vivid- 
 ness, and then left the sky to tenfold obscurity, alone led us 
 through the lines. The column was too late, and it found 
 the besieged already mounted upon the walls of circumval- 
 lation, and flinging it down in huge fragments. The as- 
 sault and defence were alike desperate. At the moment of 
 our arrival, the night had grown pitchy dark, and the only 
 evidence that men were round me was the clang of arms. 
 
 A sudden flash showed me that we had reached the foot 
 of the rampart. The besieged, carried away by their native 
 impetuosity, poured down in crowds. Their leader, cheer- 
 ing them on, was struck by a lance and fell. The sight 
 rallied the Romans. I felt that now or never was the mo- 
 ment for my escape. I rushed in front, and called aloud 
 my name. At the voice, the wounded leader uttered a cry 
 which I well knew. I caught him from the ground. A 
 gigantic centurian darted forward, and grasped my robe. 
 
318 8ALATBIEL. 
 
 Embarrassed with my burden, I was on the point of being 
 dragged back; the centurion's sword glittered over my 
 head. With my only weapon, a stone, I struck him a 
 furious blow on the forehead. The sword fell from his 
 grasp; I seized it, and keeping the rest at bay, and in the 
 midst of shouts from my countrymen, leaped the trench, 
 with the nobler trophy in my arms; I had rescued Con- 
 stantius ! 
 
 Jerusalem was now verging on the last horrors. I could 
 scarcely find my way through her ruins. The noble build- 
 ings were destroyed by conflagration, in the assaults of the 
 various factions. The monuments of our kings and tribes 
 were lying in mutilation at my feet. Every man of former 
 eminence was gone.. Massacre and exile had been the 
 masters of the higher ranks; and even the accidental dis- 
 tinctions into which the humbler were thrown by the few 
 past years, involved a fearful purchase of public hazard. 
 Like men in an earthquake, the elevation of each was only 
 a sign to him of the working of an irresistible principle of 
 ruin. But the most formidable characteristic was the 
 change wrought in the popular mind. 
 
 A single revolution may be a source of public good ; but 
 a succession of great political changes is always fatal, alike 
 to public and private virtue. The sense of honor dies, in 
 the fierce pressures of personal struggle. Humanity dies, 
 in the sight of hourly violences. Conscience dies, in the 
 conflict where personal safety is so often endangered, that 
 its preservation at length usurps the mind. Eeligion dies, 
 where the religious man is so often the victim of the un- 
 principled. Violence and vice are soon found to be the 
 natural instruments of triumph in a war of the passions; 
 and the more relentless atrocity carries the day, until 
 selfishness the mother of treachery, rapine, and carnage 
 is the paramount principle. Then the nation perishes, or 
 is sent forth in madness and misery, an object of terror and 
 infection, to propagate evil through the world. 
 
 The very features of the popular physiognomy were 
 changed. The natural vividness of the countenance was 
 there, but hardened by habitual ferocity. I was surrounded 
 by a multitude, in each of whom I was compelled to see the 
 assassin. The keen eye scowled with cruelty; the cheek 
 wore the alternate flush and paleness of desperate thoughts. 
 
&ALATHIEL. 319 
 
 The hurried gatherings the quick quarrel the loud blas- 
 phemy, told me the infuriate temper that had fallen, for 
 the last curse, on Jerusalem. Scarcely a man passed me 
 of whom I could not have said, "There goes one from a 
 murder to a murder." 
 
 But even more open evidences startled me, accustomed 
 as I was to scenes of military violence. I saw men stabbed, 
 in familiar greeting in the streets ; mansions set on fire and 
 burned in the face of day, with their inmates screaming for 
 help, and yet unhelped; hundreds slain in rabble tumults, 
 of which no one knew the origin. The streets were covered 
 with the wrecks of pillage, sumptuous furniture plundered 
 from the mansions of the great, and plundered for the mere 
 love of ruin; mingled with the more hideous wrecks of 
 man unburied bodies, left to whiten in the blast, or to 
 be torn by the dogs. 
 
 Three factions divided Jerusalem, even while the Eoman 
 battering-rams were shaking her colossal towers; three ar- 
 mies fought night and day within the city. Streets under- 
 mined, houses battered down, granaries burned, wells pois- 
 oned, the perpetual shower of death upon each other from 
 the roofs, made the external hostility trivial; and the Eo- 
 mans required only patience to have been bloodless masters 
 of a city which yet they would have found only a tomb 
 of its people. 
 
 I wandered, day by day, an utter stranger through Jeru- 
 salem. All the familiar faces were gone. At an early 
 period of the war many of the higher ranks, foreseeing the 
 event, had left the city ; at a later, my victory over Cestius, 
 by driving back the enemy, had given a free passage to a 
 crowd of others. It was at that time remarked that the 
 crowd were chiefly Christians; and a singular prophecy of 
 their Master was declared to be the warning of their escape. 
 It is certain that, of his followers, including many even of 
 our priests and learned men, scarcely one remained. They 
 said that the evil day, menaced by the Divine Wisdom, 
 through Moses (may he rest in glory!) was come; that 
 the death of their Master was the consummate crime ; and 
 that the Romans, the predicted nation of destroyers, the 
 people "of a strange speech," flying on "eagle wings from 
 the ends of the earth," were already commissioned against 
 a land stained with the blood of the Messiah, 
 
320 XALATHIEL 
 
 Fatally was the word of the great prophet of Israel ac- 
 complished^ fearfully fell the sword, to smite away root 
 and branch; solemnly, and by a hand which scorned the 
 strength of man, was the deluge of ruin let loose against the 
 throne of David. And still, through almost two thousand 
 years, the flood of desolation is at the full ; no mountain- 
 top is seen rising above; no spot is left clear for the sole 
 of the Jewish foot; no dove returns with the olive. 
 
 Eternal King, shall this be forever? Wilt thou utterly 
 reject the children of him whom thy right hand brought 
 from the land of the idolater ? Wilt thou forever hide thy 
 glory from the tribes whom it led through the burning 
 wilderness? Wilt thou never raise the broken kingdom of 
 thy servant Israel? Still we wander in darkness, the ten- 
 ants of a prison, whose chains we feel at every step; the 
 scoff of the idolater; the captive of the infidel. Have we 
 not abided without king or priest, or ephod or teraphim, 
 "many days" when are those days to be at an end ? 
 
 Yet, is not the captivity at last about to close? Is not 
 the trumpet at the lip to summon thy chosen? Are not 
 the broken tribes now awaiting but thy command to come 
 from the desert from the dungeon from the mine like 
 the light from darkness? I gaze upon the stars, and 
 think, countless and glorious as they are, such shall yet be 
 thy multitude and thy splendor, people of the undone! 
 The promise of the King of kings is fulfilling; and even 
 now, to my withered eyes, to my struggling prayer, to the 
 deeper agonies of a supplication that no tongue can utter, 
 there is a vision and an answer. On the flint, worn by my 
 knees, I hear the midnight voice; and, weeping, wait for 
 the day that will come, though heaven and earth shall pass 
 away. 
 
 CHAPTER XLVI. 
 
 MY first object was to ascertain the fate of my family. 
 From Constantius I could learn nothing; for the severity 
 of his wound had reduced him to such a state that he 
 recognized no one. I sat by him day after day, watching 
 with bitter solicitude, for the return of his senses. He 
 raved continually of his wife, and of every other name that 
 
SALATHIEL. 321 
 
 I loved. The affecting eloquence of his appeals sometimes 
 plunged me into the deepest depression ; sometimes drove 
 me out to seek relief from them even in the horrors of the 
 streets. I was the most solitary of men. In those melan- 
 choly wanderings, none spoke to me ; I spoke to none. The 
 kinsmen whom I had left under the command of my brave 
 son were slain or dispersed; and on the night when I saw 
 him warring with his native ardor, the men whom he led 
 to the foot of the rampart were an accidental band, excited 
 by his brilliant intrepidity, to choose him at the instant for 
 their captain. In sorrow, indeed, had I entered Jeru- 
 salem. 
 
 The devastation of the city was enormous during its 
 tumults. The great factions were reduced to two; but in 
 the struggle a large portion of the Temple had been burned. 
 The stately chambers of the priests were dust and embers. 
 The cloisters which surrounded the sanctuary were beaten 
 down, or left naked to the visitation of the seasons, which 
 now, as by the peculiar wrath of heaven, had assumed a 
 fierce and ominous inclemency. Tremendous bursts of tem- 
 pest constantly shook the city; and the popular mind was 
 kept in perpetual alarm at the accidents which followed 
 those storms. Fires were frequently caused by the light- 
 ning ; deluges of rain flooded the streets, and, falling on the 
 shattered roofs, increased the misery of their famishing 
 inhabitants; the sudden severity of winter in the midst of 
 spring, added to the sufferings of a people doubly unpro- 
 vided to encounter it by its unexpectedness and by their 
 necessary exposure on the battlements and in the field. 
 
 Within the walls all bore the look of a grave, and even 
 that grave shaken by some great convulsion of nature. 
 From the battlements the sight was absolute despair. The 
 Eoman camp covered the hills, and we could see the soldiery 
 sharpening the very lances that were to drink our blood. 
 The fires of their night-watches lighted up the horizon 
 round. We hourly heard the sound of their trumpets and 
 their shouts, as the sheep in the fold might hear the roar- 
 ing of the lion and the tiger, ready to leap their feeble 
 boundary. Yet the valor of the people was never wearied 
 out. The vast Mound, whose circle was to shut us up 
 from the help of man, or the hope of escape, was the grand 
 object of attack and defence ; and, though thousands of my 
 
322 SALATHIEL. 
 
 countrymen covered the ground at its foot with their 
 corpses, the Jew was still ready to rush on the Roman 
 spear. This valor was spontaneous, for subordination had 
 long been at an end. The names of John of Giscala, and 
 Simon, influential as they were in the earlier periods of 
 the war, had lost their force in the civil fury and desperate 
 pressures of the siege. No leaders were acknowledged, but 
 hatred of the enemy, iron fortitude, and a determination 
 not to survive the fall of Jerusalem ! 
 
 In this furious warfare I took my share with the rest; 
 handled the spear, and fought and watched without think- 
 ing of any distinction of rank. My military experience, 
 and the personal strength which enabled me to render prom- 
 inent services in those desultory attacks, often excited our 
 warriors to offer me the command ; but ambition was dead 
 within me! 
 
 I was one day sitting beside the bed of Constantius, and 
 bitterly absorbed in gazing on what I thought the progress 
 of death, when I heard a universal outcry, more melan- 
 choly than human voices seemed ever made to utter. My 
 first thought was that the enemy had forced the gates. I 
 found the streets filled with crowds hurrying forward with- 
 out any apparent direction, but all exhibiting a sorrow 
 amounting to agony; wringing their hands, beating their 
 bosoms, tearing their hair, and casting dust and ashes on 
 their heads. A large body of the priesthood came rushing 
 from the Temple with loud lamentations. The DAILY SAC- 
 RIFICE had ceased ! The perpetual offering, which, twice 
 a day, burned in testimonial of the sins and the expiation 
 of Israel, the peculiar homage of the nation to Heaven, 
 was no more ! The siege had extinguished the resources 
 of the Temple, the victims could no longer be supplied; 
 and the people must perish, without the power of atone- 
 ment ! This was the final cutting off the declaration of 
 the sentence the seal of the great condemnation. Jeru- 
 salem was undone ! 
 
 Overpowered by this fatal sign, I was sadly returning 
 to my worse than solitary chamber; for there lay, speech- 
 less and powerless, the noblest creature that breathed in 
 Jerusalem when I was driven aside by a new torrent of 
 the people, exclaiming "The prophet! the prophet! woe 
 to the city of David!" 
 
SALATHIEL. 323 
 
 They rushed on in haggard multitudes, and in the midst 
 of them came a maniac, bounding and gesticulating with 
 indescribable wildness. His constant exclamation was 
 "Woe ! woe ! woe !" in a tone that searched the very heart. 
 He stopped from time to time, flung out some denuncia- 
 tion against the popular crimes, and then recommenced his 
 cry of "Woe !" and bounded forward again. 
 
 He at length came opposite to the spot where I stood; 
 and his features struck me as resembling one whom I had 
 seen before. But they were full of a strange impulse 
 the grandeur of inspiration, mingled with the animal 
 fierceness of frenzy. The eye shot fire under the sharp 
 and hollow brows; the nostrils contracted and opened like 
 those of an angry steed; and every muscle of a singularly 
 elastic frame was quivering and exposed from the effects 
 alike of mental violence and famine. 
 
 "Ho ! Prince of Naphtali ! we meet at last !" was his 
 instant outcry. His countenance fell; and a tear gushed 
 from lids that looked incapable of a human feding. "I 
 found her," said he, "my beauty, my bride ! She was in 
 the dungeon. The ring that I tore from that villain's 
 finger was worth a gold-mine, for it opened the gates of 
 her prison. Come forth, girl !" With these words he 
 caught by the hand and led to me a pale creature, with the 
 traces of loveliness, but evidently in the last stage of mortal 
 decay. She stood silent as a statue. In compassion I took 
 her hand, while the multitude gathered round us in curi- 
 osity. I now remembered Sabat the Ishmaelite and his 
 story. 
 
 "She is mad," said Sabat, shaking his head mournfully, 
 and gazing on the fading form at his side. "Worlds would 
 not restore her senses. But there is a time for all things." 
 He sighed, and cast his large eye on heaven. "I watched 
 tier day and night," he went on, "until I grew mad too. 
 Bui the world will have an end and then all will be well. 
 Come, wife, we must be going. To-night there are strange 
 things within the walls, and without the walls. There will 
 'be feasting and mourning; there will be blood and tears; 
 then comes the famine then comes the fire then the 
 sword; and then all is quiet, and forever!" 
 
 He paused, wiped away a tear, thon began again, wilder 
 than ever. "Heaven is mighty ! To-night there will be 
 
324 SAL ATX ML. 
 
 wonders ; watch well your walls, people of the mined city ! 
 To-night there will be signs; let no man sleep, but those 
 who sleep in the grave. Prince of Naphtali ! have you too 
 sworn, as I have, to die?" He lifted his meagre hand. 
 "Come thunders ! come fires ! vengeance cries from the 
 sanctuary. Listen, undone people! listen, nation of sor- 
 row ! the ministers of wrath are on the wing. Woe ! woe ! 
 woe!" 
 
 In pronouncing those words with a voice of the most 
 sonorous, yet melancholy power, he threw himself into a 
 succession of strange and fearful gestures; then beckon- 
 ing to the female, who submissively followed his steps, 
 plunged away among the multitude. I heard the howl of 
 "Woe ! woe ! woe !" long echoed through the windings of 
 the ruined streets, and thought that I heard the voice of 
 the angel of desolation. 
 
 CHAPTER XLVIL 
 
 THE seventeenth day of the month Tamuz, ever memo- 
 rable in the sufferings of Israel, was the last of the Daily 
 Sacrifice. Sorrow and fear were on the city; and the 
 silence of the night was broken by the lamentations of the 
 multitude. I returned to my chamber of affliction, and 
 busied myself in preparing for the guard of the Temple, 
 to withdraw my mind from the gloom that was begin- 
 ning to master me. Yet when I looked round the room, 
 and thought of what I had been, of the opulent enjoy- 
 ments of my palace, and of the beloved faces which sur- 
 rounded me there, I felt the sickness of the heart. 
 
 The chilling air that blew through the dilapidated walls, 
 the cruse of water, the scanty bread, the glimmering; 
 lamp, the comfortless and squalid bed, on which lay in 
 the last stage of weakness, a patriot and a hero a being 
 full of fine affections and abilities, reduced to the help- 
 lessness of an infant, and whom in leaving for the night, 
 I might be leaving to perish by the poniard of the rob- 
 ber unmanned me. I cast the scimitar from my hand, 
 and sat down with a sullen determination there to linger 
 until death, or that darker vengeance which haunted me, 
 should do its will. 
 
BALATHIEL. 
 
 The night was a storm, and the wind howled in long and 
 bitter gusts through the deserted chambers of the huge 
 mansion. But the mind is the true place of suffering, and 
 I felt the season's visitation, in my locks drenched about 
 my face, and my tattered robes swept by the freezing 
 blasts, as only the natural course of things. 
 
 I was sitting by the bedside, moistening the fevered 
 lips of Constantius with water, and pressing on him the 
 last fragment of bread which I might ever have to give, 
 when I, with sudden delight, heard him utter, for the 
 first time, articulate sounds. I stooped my ear to catch 
 accents so dear and full of hope. But the words were a 
 supplication he prayed to the Christian's God ! 
 
 I turned away from this resistless conviction of his be- 
 lief. But this was no time for debate; and I was won to 
 listen again. His voice was scarcely above a whisper, 
 but his language was the aspiration of the heart. His 
 eyes were closed; and evidently unconscious of my pres- 
 ence, in his high communion with Heaven, he talked of 
 things of which I had but imperfect knowledge, or none; 
 of blood shed for the sins of man; of a descended Spirit 
 to guide the servants of Heaven; of the unspeakable love 
 that gave the Son of God to mortal suffering for the 
 atonement of that human guilt which nothing but such a 
 sacrifice could atone. He finished by the names dear to 
 us both ; and praying "for their safety, if they still were in 
 life, or for their meeting beyond the grave, declared him- 
 self resigned to the will of his Lord." 
 
 I waited in sacred awe until I saw, by the subsiding 
 motion of the lips, that the prayer was done; and then, 
 anxious to gain information of my family, questioned him. 
 But with the prayer the interval of mental power had 
 passed away. The veil was drawn over his senses once 
 more; and his answers were unintelligible. Yet even the 
 hope of his restoration lightened my gloom; my spirits, 
 naturally elastic, shook off their leaden weight; I took 
 up the scimitar, and pressing the cold hand of my noble 
 fellow victim, prepared to issue forth to the Temple. The 
 etorm was partially gone, and the moon, approaching to 
 the full, was high in heaven, fighting her way through 
 masses of rapid cloud. The wind still roared in long blasts, 
 as the tempest retired, like an army repulsed, and indig- 
 
326 SAL AT HI EL. 
 
 nant at being driven from the spoil. But the ground 
 was deluged, and a bitter sleet shot on our half-naked 
 bodies. I had far to pass through the streets of the up- 
 per city; and their aspect was deeply suited to the mel- 
 ancholy of the hour. 
 
 Vast walls and buttresses of the burned and overthrown 
 mansions remained, that in the spectral light looked like 
 gigantic spectres. Kanges of inferior ruins stretched to 
 the utmost glance; some yet sending up the smoke o 
 recent conflagration, and others beaten down by the storms,, 
 or left to decay. The immense buildings of the hierarchy,, 
 once the scene of all but kingly magnificence, stood roof- 
 less and windowless, with the light sadly gleaming through 
 their fissures, and the wind singing a dirge of ruin through 
 their halls. I scarcely met a human being; for the sword 
 and famine had fearfully reduced the once countless pop- 
 ulation. 
 
 But I often startled a flight of vultures from their 
 meal; or, in the sinking of the light, stumbled upon a 
 heap that uttered a cry, and showed that life was there; 
 or from his horrid morsel, a wretch glared upon me, as 
 one wolf might glare upon another, that came to rob him. 
 of his prey; or the twinkling of a miserable lamp in the 
 corner of a ruin, glimmered over a knot of felony and. 
 murder, reckoning their hideous gains, and carousing with. 
 the dagger drawn. Heaps of bones, whitening in the' 
 air, were the monuments of the wasted valor of my coun- 
 trymen ; and the oppressive atmosphere gave the sensation. 
 of walking in a sepulchre. 
 
 I dragged my limbs with increased difficulty through 
 those long avenues of death. On the summit of the hill. 
 I found a crowd of unhappy beings, who came, like my- 
 self, actuated by zeal to defend the Temple from the 
 insults to which its sanctity was now nightly exposed. 
 Faction had long extinguished the native homage of the 
 people. Battles had been fought within its walls; and 
 many a corpse loaded the sacred floors, that once would 
 have required solemn ceremonies to free them from the 
 pollution of an unlicensed step. 
 
 And what a bafid were assembled there ! Wretches mu- 
 tilated by wounds, worn with sleeplessness, haggard with 
 want of food; sheering together on the declivity, whose 
 
SALATHIEL. 327 
 
 naked elevation exposed them to the whole inclemency of 
 the night; flung, like the dead, on the ground, or gath- 
 ered in little knots among the ruined porticos, with death 
 in every frame, and despair in every heart. 
 
 I was sheltering myself behind the broken columns of 
 the Grand gate, from the bitter wind which searched every 
 fibre, and was sinking into that chilling torpor which 
 benumbs body and mind alike, when a clash of military 
 music and the tramp of a multitude assailed my ear. I 
 and my miserable companions mustered, from the various 
 hollows of the hill, to our post on the central ground of 
 Mount Moriah, whence the view was boundless on every 
 side. A growing blaze rose up from the valley, and flashed 
 upon the wall of circumvallation. The sounds of cymbal 
 and trumpet swelled; the light advanced rapidly; and 
 going the circuit of the wall, helmets and lances were seen 
 glittering through the gloom; a crowd of archers pre- 
 ceded a dense body of the legionary horse, at whose head 
 rode a group of officers. On this night the fatal wall had 
 been completed, and Titus was going its round in triumph. 
 Every horseman carried a torch, and strong divisions of 
 infantry followed, bearing lamps and vessels of combustible 
 matter on the points of their spears. As the whole moved, 
 rolling and bending with the inequalities of the ground, I 
 thought that I saw a mighty serpent coiling his burning 
 spires round the prey that was never to be rescued by the 
 power of man. 
 
 But the pomp of war below, and the wretchedness round 
 me, raised reflections of such bitterness, that, when Titus 
 and his splendid troop reached the mountain of the Temple 
 one outcry of sorrow and anticipated ruin burst from us 
 all. The conqueror heard it, and, from the instant ma- 
 noeuvring of his troops, was evidently alarmed: he had 
 known the courage of the Jews too long not to dread the 
 effect of their despair. And despair it was, fierce and un- 
 tamable ! I started forward, exclaiming, "If there is a 
 man among you ready to stake his life for his country, let 
 him follow me." 
 
 To the last hour the Jew was a warrior! The crowd 
 seized their .spears, and we sprang down the cliffs. As 
 we reached the outer wall of the city, I restrained their 
 exhaustless spirit, until I had singly ascertained the state 
 
328 BALATH1EL. 
 
 of the enemy. Titus was passing the well-known ravine 
 near the Fountain gate, where the ground was difficult for 
 cavalry, from its being chiefly divided into gardens. I 
 flung open the gate, and led the way to the circumval- 
 lation. The sentinels, occupied with looking on the pomp, 
 suffered us to approach unperceived ; we mounted the wall, 
 overthrew everything before us, and plunged down upon 
 the cavalry entangled in the ravine. It was a complete 
 ourprise. 
 
 The bravery of the legions was not proof against the 
 fury of our attack. Even our wild faces and half-naked 
 forms, by the uncertain glare of the torches, looked scarce- 
 ly human. Horse and man rolled down the declivity. 
 The arrival of fresh troops only increased the confusion; 
 their torches made them a mark for our pikes and arrows ; 
 every point told ; and every Roman that fell armed a Jew. 
 The conflict now became murderous, and we stabbed at 
 our ease the troopers of the emperor's guard, through 
 their mail, while their long lances were useless. The de- 
 file gave us incalculable advantages, for the garden walls 
 were impassable by the cavalry, while we bounded over 
 them like deer. All was uproar, terror, and rage. We 
 actually waded through blood. At every step I trod on 
 horse or man ; helmets and bucklers, lances and armor, 
 lay in heaps ; and the stream of the ravine soon ran purple 
 with the proudest gore of the legions. 
 
 At length, while we were absolutely oppressed with the 
 multitude of dead, a sudden blast of trumpets, and the 
 shouts of the enemy, led me to prepare for a still fiercer 
 effort. A tide of cavalry poured over the ground; Titus, 
 a gallant figure, cheering them on, with his helmet in his 
 hand, galloped in their front ; I withdrew my wearied fol- 
 lowers from the exposed situation into which their suc- 
 cess had led them, and, posting them behind a rampart 
 of Eoman dead, awaited the charge. It came with the 
 force of thunder; the powerful horses of the imperial 
 squadron broke over our rampart at the first shock, and 
 bore us down like stubble. Every man of us was under 
 their feet in a moment ; and yet the very number of our 
 assailants saved us. The narrowness of the place gave no 
 room for the management of the horse; the darkness as- 
 sisted both our escape and assault; and, even lying on 
 
BALATHIEL. 329 
 
 the ground, we plunged our knives in horse and rider 
 with terrible retaliation. 
 
 The cavalry at length gave way; but the Eoman gen- 
 eral, a man of the heroic spirit that is only inflamed by 
 repulse, rushed forward among the disheartened troops, 
 and roused them, by his cries and gestures, to retrieve 
 their honor. After a few bold words, he again charged 
 at their head. I singled him out, as I saw his golden 
 helmet gleam in the torchlight. To capture the son of 
 Vespasian would have been a triumph worth a thousand 
 lives. Titus was celebrated for personal dexterity in the 
 management of the horse and lance, and I could not with- 
 hold my admiration of the skill with which he penetrated 
 the difficulties of the field, and the mastery with which 
 he overthrew all that opposed him. 
 
 Our motley ranks were already scattering, when I cried 
 out my name, and defied him to the combat. He stooped 
 over his charger's neck to discover his adversary, and 
 seeing before him a being as blackened and beggared as 
 the most dismantled figure of the crowd, gave a laugh of 
 fierce derision, and was turning away, when our roar of 
 scorn recalled him. He struck in the spur, and couching 
 his lance, bounded towards me. To have waited his at- 
 tack must have been destruction; I sprang aside, and 
 with my full vigor flung my javelin: it went through his 
 buckler. He reeled, and a groan rose from the legionaries 
 who were rushing forwards to his support. He stopped 
 them with a fierce gesture, and casting off the entangled 
 buckler, charged again. But the hope of the imperial 
 diadem was not to be thus cheaply hazarded. The whole 
 circle of cavalry rolled in upon us; I was dragged down 
 by a hundred hands, and Titus was forced away, indignant 
 at the zeal which had thwarted his fiery valor. 
 
 In the confusion I was forgotten, burst through the 
 concourse, and rejoined my countrymen, who had given 
 me over for lost, and now received me with shouts of vic- 
 tory. The universal cry was to advance ; but I felt that the 
 limit of triumph for that night was come: the engage- 
 ment had become known to the whole range of the enemy's 
 camps, and troops without number were already pouring 
 down. I ordered a retreat, but there was one remaining 
 exploit to make the night's service memorable. 
 
330 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 Leaving a few hundred pikemen outside the circumval- 
 lation, to keep off any sudden attempt, I set every hand 
 at work to gather the dry weeds, rushes, and fragments 
 of trees from the low grounds into a pile. It was laid 
 against the rampart. I flung the first torch, and pile and 
 rampart were soon alike in a blaze. Volumes of flame, 
 carried by the wind, rolled round its entire circuit. The 
 Eomans rushed down in multitudes to extinguish the fire. 
 But this became continually more difficult. Jerusalem had 
 been roused from its sleep, and the extravagant rumors 
 that a great victory was obtained, Titus slain, and the 
 enemy's camp taken by storm, stimulated the natural spirit 
 of the people to the most boundless confidence. Every 
 Jew who could find a lance, an arrow, or a knife, hurried 
 to the gates, and the space between the walls and the 
 circumvallation was crowded with an army, which, in that 
 crisis of superhuman exultation, perhaps no disciplined 
 force on earth could have outfought. 
 
 Nothing could now save the rampart. Torches innu- 
 merable, piles of faggots, arms, even the dead, all things 
 that could burn, were flung upon it. Thousands, who at 
 other times might have shrunk, forgot the name of fear, 
 leaped into the very midst of the flame, and, tearing up 
 the blazing timbers, dug to the heart of the rampart, and 
 filled the hollows with sulphur and bitumen; thousands 
 struggled their way across the tumbling ruins, to throw 
 themselves among the Eoman spearsmen, and see the blood 
 of an enemy before they died. 
 
 War never had a bolder moment. Human nature, roused 
 to the wildest height of enthusiasm, was lavishing life like 
 dust. The ramparts spread a horrid light upon the havoc : 
 every spot of the battle, every group of the furious living 
 and the trampled and deformed dead, were keenly visible. 
 The ear was deafened by the incessant roar of flame, the 
 falling of the huge heaps of the rampart, and the agonies 
 and exultations of men revelling in mutual slaughter. 
 
 In that hour came one of those solemn signs that marked 
 the downfall of Jerusalem. The tempest, that had blown 
 at intervals with tremendous violence, died away at once; 
 and a surge of light ascended from the horizon, and rolled 
 up rapidly to the zenith. The phenomenon instantly 
 fixed every eye. There was an indefinable senae in the 
 
SALATHIEL. 331 
 
 general mind that a sign of power and providence was 
 about to be given. The battle ceased; the outcries were 
 followed by utter silence; the armed ranks stood still, in 
 the very act of rushing on each other; all faces were 
 turned on the heavens. 
 
 The light rose pale and quivering, like the meteors of 
 a summer evening. But in the zenith it spread and 
 swelled into a splendor that distinguished it irresistibly 
 from the wonders of earth or air. It swiftly eclipsed every 
 star. The moon vanished before it; the canopy of the 
 sky seemed to be dissolved, for a view into a bright and 
 infinite region beyond, fit for the career of those mighty 
 beings to whom man is but the dust on the gale. 
 
 As we gazed, this boundless field was transformed into 
 a field of battle; multitudes seemed to crowd it in the 
 fiercest combat; horsemen charged, and died under their 
 horses' feet ; armor and standards were trampled in blood ; 
 column and line burst through each other. At length, 
 the battle stooped towards the earth; and, with hearts 
 beating with indescribable feelings, we recognized in the 
 fight the banners of the tribes. It was Jew and Eoman 
 struggling for life; the very countenance of the combat- 
 ants became visible, and each man below saw a repre- 
 sentative of himself above. The fate of Jewish war was 
 there written by the hand of Heaven; the fate of the 
 individual was there predicted in the individual triumph 
 or fall. What tongue of man can tell the intense interest 
 with which we watched every blow, every movement, every 
 wound, of those images of ourselves? 
 
 The light now illumined the whole horizon below. The 
 legions were seen drawn out in front of the camps, ready 
 for action; every helmet and spear point glittering in the 
 radiance; every face turned up, gazing in awe and terror 
 on the sky. The tents spreading over the hills; the thou- 
 sands and tens of thousands of auxiliaries and captives; 
 the little groups of the peasantry, roused from sleep by 
 the uproar of the night, and gathered upon the knolls 
 and eminences of their fields; all were bathed in a fiood 
 of preternatural lustre. But the wondrous battle ap- 
 proached its close. The visionary Romans seemed to 
 shake; column and cohort gave way; and the banners of 
 the tribes waved in victory over the celestial field. Then, 
 
332 BALATBIEL. 
 
 first, human voices dared to be heard. From the city and 
 the plain burst forth one mighty shout of triumph ! 
 
 But our presumption was soon to be checked. A peal 
 of thunder that made the very ground tremble under 
 our feet, rolled from the four quarters of the heaven. 
 The conquering host shook, broke, and fled in utter con- 
 fusion over the sapphire field. It was pursued ; but by no 
 semblance of the Koman. 
 
 An awful enemy was on its steps. Flashes of forked 
 fire, like myriads of lances, darted after it ; cloud on cloud 
 deepened down, as the smoke of a mighty furnace; globes 
 of light shot blasting and burning along its track. Then, 
 amid the double roar of thunder, rushed forth the chivalry 
 of heaven. Shapes of transcendent beauty, yet with looks 
 of wrath that withered the human eye; armed sons of 
 immortality descending on the wing by millions; mingled 
 with shapes and instruments of ruin, for which the mind 
 has no conception. The circle of the heaven was filled with 
 the chariots and horses of fire. Flight was no more: the 
 weapons were seen to drop from the Jewish host: their 
 warriors sank upon the splendid field. Still the immor- 
 tal armies poured on, trampling and blasting, until the 
 last of the routed were consumed. 
 
 The angry pomp then paused. Countless wings were 
 spread, and the angelic multitudes, having done the work of 
 vengeance, rushed upward, with the sound of ocean in the 
 storm. The roar of trumpets and thunders was heard, 
 until the splendor was lost in the heights of the empy- 
 rean. 
 
 We felt the terrible warning. Our strength was dried 
 up at the sight; despair seized upon our souls. We had 
 seen the fate of Jerusalem. No victory over man could 
 now save us from the coming of final ruin ! 
 
 Thousands never left the ground on which they stood ; 
 they perished by their own hands, or lay down and died 
 of broken hearts. The rest fled through the night, that 
 again wrapped them in tenfold darkness. The whole mul- 
 titude scattered away, with soundless steps, and in silence, 
 like an army of spectres. 
 
SALATHIEL. 333 
 
 CHAPTER XLVIII. 
 
 IN the deepest dejection that could overwhelm the hu- 
 man mind, I returned to the city, where one melancholy 
 care still bound me to existence. I hastened to my com- 
 fortless shelter; but the battle had fluctuated so far round 
 the walls, that I found myself perplexed among the ruins 
 of a portion of the lower city, a crowd of obscure streets 
 which belonged almost wholly to strangers and the poorer 
 population. 
 
 The faction of John of Giscala, composed chiefly of the 
 more profligate and beggared class, had made the lower 
 city their stronghold before they became masters of Mount 
 Moriah; and some desperate skirmishes, of Avhich confla- 
 grations were the perpetual consequence, laid waste the 
 principal part of a district built, and ruined, with the 
 haste and carelessness of poverty. To find a guide through 
 this scene of dilapidation was hopeless, for every living 
 creature, terrified by the awful portents of the sky, had 
 fled from the streets. The night was solid darkness. No 
 expiring gleam from the burnt rampart, no fires of the 
 Roman camps, no touch on the Jewish battlements, broke 
 the pitchy blackness. Life and light seemed to have per- 
 ished together. 
 
 To proceed soon became impossible, and I had no other 
 resource than to wait the coming of day. But to one 
 accustomed as I was to hardships, this inconvenience was 
 trivial. I felt my way along the walls to the entrance of a 
 house that promised some protection from the night. But 
 the destruction was so effectual that this was difficult to 
 discover; and I was hopelessly returning to take my 
 chance in the open air, when I observed the glimmer of a 
 lamp through a crevice in the upper part of the building. 
 My first impulse was to approach and obtain assistance. 
 But the abruptness of the ascent gave me time to consider 
 ihe hazard of breaking in upon such groups as might be 
 gathered at that hour, in a period when every atrocity 
 under heaven reigned in Jerusalem. 
 
 My patience was put to but brief trial; for, in a few 
 minutes, I heard a low hymn. It paused, as if followed 
 by prayer. The hymn began again, in accents so faint as 
 evidently to express the fear of the worshippers. But the 
 
334 SALATHIEL. 
 
 sounds thrilled through my soul. I listened, in a struggle 
 of doubt and hope. Could I be deceived? and if I were,, 
 how bitter must be the discovery ! I sat down at the foot 
 of the rude stair, to feed myself with the fancied delight, 
 before it should be snatched from me forever. 
 
 But my perturbation would have risen to madness, had 
 1 stopped longer. I climbed up the tottering steps; half- 
 way I found myself obstructed by a door ; I struck upon it, 
 and called aloud. After an interval of miserable delay, a 
 still higher door was opened, and a figure, enveloped in a. 
 veil, timidly looked out, and asked my purpose. I saw, 
 glancing over her, two faces, that I would have given the 
 world to see. I called out "Miriam !" Overpowered with 
 emotion, my speech failed me. I lived only in my eyes. I 
 ;saw Miriam fling off the mantle with a scream of joy, and 
 j-nsh down the steps. I saw my two daughters follow her 
 with the speed of love; the door was thrown open, and I 
 fell fainting into their arms. 
 
 Tears, exclamations, and gazings, were long our only lan- 
 guage. My wife hung over my wasted frame with endless 
 embraces and sobs of joy. My daughters fell at my feet, 
 bathed my cold hands with their tears, smiled on me in 
 speechless delight, and then wept again. They had thought 
 me lest to them forever. I had thought them dead, or 
 driven to some solitude which forbade us to meet again on 
 this side of the grave. For two years, two dreadful years, 
 a lonely man on earth, a wifeless husband, a childless 
 father, tried by every misery of mind and body; here 
 here I found my treasure once more! On this spot, 
 wretched and destitute as it was, in the midst of public 
 misery and personal woe, I had found those whose loss 
 would have made the riches of mankind beggary to me. 
 My soul overflowed. Words were not made to tell the 
 feverish fondness, the strong delight, that quivered 
 through me. I wept with woman's weakness; I held my 
 wife and children at arm's length, that I might enjoy the 
 full happiness of gazing on them ; then my eyes would 
 grow dim ; and I caught them to my heart, and in silence, 
 the silence of unspeakable emotion, tried to collect my 
 thoughts, and convince myself that my joy was no dream. 
 
 The night passed in mutual inquiries. The career of 
 my family had been deeply diversified. On my capture 
 
&ALATHIEL. 335 
 
 in the great battle with Cestius, in which it was said that 
 I had fallen, they were on the point of coming to Jerusa- 
 lem to ascertain their misfortune. The advance of the 
 Romans to Masada precluded this. They sailed for Alex- 
 andria, and were overtaken by a storm. 
 
 "In that storm/' said Miriam, with terror painted on 
 her countenance, "we saw a sight that appalled the firmest 
 heart among us, and to this hour recalls fearful images. 
 The night had fallen intensely dark. Our vessel, laboring 
 through the tempest during the day, and greatly shattered, 
 was expected to go down before morn, and I had come 
 upon the deck, prepared to submit to the general fate, when 
 I saw a flame in the distance, and pointed it out to the 
 mariners; but they were paralyzed by weariness and fear, 
 and instead of approaching what I conceived to be a beacon, 
 they left the vessel to the mercy of the wind. I watched 
 the light ; to my astonishment, I saw it advancing over the 
 waves. It was a large ship on fire, and rushing down upon 
 us. Then, indeed, there was no insensibility among our 
 mariners ; they were like madmen through excess of fear 
 they did everything but make an effort to escape the 
 danger. 
 
 "The blazing ship came towards us with terrific rapidity. 
 As it approached, the figure of a man was seen on the deck., 
 standing unhurt in the midst of the burning. The Syrian 
 pilot, hitherto the boldest of our crew, at this sight cast the 
 helm from his hands in despair, and tore his beard, ex- 
 claiming that we were undone. To our questions, he would 
 give no other answer than by pointing to the solitary beir r 
 who stood calmly in the centre of conflagration, more like 
 a demon than a man. 
 
 "I proposed that we should make some effort to rescue 
 this unfortunate man. But the pilot, horrorstruck at the 
 thought, then gave up the tale that it cost him agonies 
 even to utter. He told us that the being whom our frantic 
 compassion would attempt to save was an accursed thing; 
 that for some crime, too inexpiable to allow of his remain- 
 ing among creatures capable of hope, he was cast out from 
 men, stricken into the nature of the condemned spirits, and 
 sentenced to rove the ocean in fire, ever burning and never 
 consumed !" 
 . I felt every word, as if that fire were devouring my flesh. 
 
336 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 The sense of what I was, and what I must be, was poison. 
 My head swam; mortal pain overwhelmed me. And thi* 
 abhorred thing I was; this sentenced and fearful wretch I 
 was, covered with wrath and shame, this exile from human 
 nature I was; and I heard my sentence pronounced, and 
 my existence declared hideous, by the lips on which I hung 
 for confidence and consolation against the world. 
 
 Flinging my robe over my face to hide its writhings, I 
 seemed to listen, but my ears refused to hear. In my per- 
 turbation, I once thought of boldly avowing the truth, and 
 thus freeing myself from the pang of perpetual conceal- 
 ment. But the offence and the retribution were too real 
 and too deadly to be disclosed, without destroying the last 
 chance of happiness to those innocent sufferers. I mas- 
 tered the convulsion, and again bent my ear. 
 
 "Our story exhausts you," said Miriam ; "but it is done. 
 After a long pursuit, in which the burning ship followed 
 us, as if with the express purpose of our ruin, we were 
 snatched from a death by fire, only to undergo the chance 
 of one by the waves, for we were sinking. Yet it may have 
 been owing even to that chase that we were saved. The 
 ship had driven us towards land. At sea we must have 
 perished; but the shore was found to be so near that the 
 country people, guided by the flame, saved us, without the 
 loss of a life. Once on shore, we met with some of the 
 fugitives from Masada, who brought us to Jerusalem, the 
 only remaining refuge of our unhappy nation." 
 
 To prevent a recurrence of this torturing subject, I 
 mastered my emotion so far as to ask some question of the 
 siege. But Miriam's thoughts were still busy with the sea. 
 After some hesitation, and as if she dreaded the answer, 
 she said, "One extraordinary circumstance made me take 
 a strong interest in the fate of that solitary being on 
 board the burning vessel. It once seemed to have the most 
 striking likeness to you. I even cried out to it under that 
 impression ; but fortunate it was for us all that my heedless 
 cry was not answered ; for when it approached us, I could 
 see its countenance change ; it threw a sheet of flame across 
 our vessel that almost scorched us; and then, perhaps 
 thinking that our destruction was complete, the human 
 fiend ascended from the waters in a pillar of intense fire." 
 
 I felt deep pain in this romantic narrative. My myg- 
 
SALATHttiL. 337 
 
 feriotis sentence' was the common talk of mankind! My 
 frightful secret, that I had thought locked up in my own 
 heart, was loose as the air. This was enough to make life 
 bitter. But to be identified in the minds of my family 
 with the object of universal horror, was a chance which I 
 determined not to contemplate. My secret there was still 
 safe ; and my resolution became fixed, never to destroy that 
 safety by any frantic confidence of my own. 
 
 CHAPTEE XLIX. 
 
 WHILE, with my head bent on my knees, I hung in the 
 misery of self-abhorrence, I heard the name of Constan- 
 tius sorrowfully pronounced beside me. The state in which 
 he must be left by my long absence flashed upon my mind; 
 I raised my eyes, and saw Salome. It was her voice that 
 wept; and I then first observed the work of woe in her 
 form and features. She was almost a shadow ; her eye was 
 lustreless, and the hands that she clasped in silent prayer 
 were reduced to the bone. But before I could speak, 
 Miriam made a sign of silence to me, and led the mourner 
 away; then returning, said, "I dreaded lest you might 
 make any inquiries before Salome for her husband. Re- 
 ligion alone has kept her from the grave. On our arrival 
 here we found our noble Constantius worn out by the fa- 
 tigue of the time; but he was our guardian spirit in the 
 dreadful tumults of the city. When we were burnt out of 
 one asylum, he led us to another. It is but a week since he 
 placed us in this melancholy spot, but yet the more secure 
 and unknown. He himself brought us provisions, supplied 
 us with every comfort that could be obtained by his im- 
 poverished means, and saved us from famine. But now," 
 the tears gushed from her eyes, and she could not proceed. 
 
 "Yes now," said I, "he is a sight that would shock 
 the eye; we must keep Salome in ignorance as long as 
 we can." 
 
 "The unhappy girl knows his fate but too well. He left 
 us a few days since, to obtain some intelligence of the 
 siege. We sat, during the night, listening to the frightful 
 sounds of battle. At daybreak, unable any longer to bear 
 the suspense, or sit looking at Salome's wretchedness, I 
 
338 SALATBIEL. 
 
 ventured to the Fountain gate, and there heard what I so 
 bitterly anticipated our brave Constantius was slain !" 
 
 She wept aloud, and sobs and cries of irrepressible an- 
 guish answered her from the chamber of my unhappy 
 child. 
 
 The danger of a too sudden discovery prevented me from 
 drying those tears; and I could proceed only by offering 
 conjectures on the various chances of battle, the possibility 
 of his being made prisoner, and the general difficulty of 
 ascertaining the fates of men in the irregular combats of 
 a populace. But Salome sat fixed in cold incredulity. 
 Esther sorrowfully kissed my hand, for the disposition to 
 give them a ray of comfort; Miriam gazed on me with a 
 sad and searching look, as if she felt that I would not 
 tamper with their distresses, yet was deeply perplexed for 
 the issue. At last the delay grew painful to myself; and 
 taking Salome to my arms, and pressing a kiss of parental 
 love on her pale cheek, I whispered, "He lives." 
 
 I was overwhelmed with transports and thanksgivings. 
 Precaution was at an end. If battle were raging in the 
 streets, I could not now have restrained the generous im- 
 patience of friendship and love. We left the mansion. 
 There was not much to leave besides the walls; but such 
 as it was, the first fugitive was welcome to the possession. 
 Night was still within the building, which had belonged to 
 some of the Eoman officers of state, and was massive and of 
 great extent. But at the threshold the gray dawn came 
 quivering over the Mount of Olives. 
 
 We struggled through the long and winding streets, 
 which even in the light were nearly impassable. From th<; 
 inhabitants we met with no impediment ; a few haggard 
 and fierce-looking men stared at us from the ruins ; but we, 
 wrapped up in rude mantles, and hurrying along, wore too 
 much the livery of despair to be disturbed by our fellows in 
 wretchedness. With a trembling heart I led the way to the 
 chamber, where lay one in whose life our general happiness 
 vas centred. Fearful of the shock which our sudden ap- 
 pearance might give his enfeebled frame, and not less of the 
 misery with which he must be seen, I advanced alone to 
 the bedside. He gave no sign of recognition, though he 
 was evidently awake ; and I was about to close the cur- 
 tains, and keep, at least, Salome from the hazardous sight 
 
8ALATBIEL. 339 
 
 of this living ruin, when I found her beside me. She took 
 his hand and sat down on the bed, with her eyes fixed on 
 his hollow features. She spoke not a word, but sat cherish- 
 ing' the wasted hand in her own, and kissing it with sad 
 fondness. Her grief was too sacred for our interference; 
 and in sorrow scarcely less poignant than her own, I led 
 apart Miriam and Esther, who, like me, believed that the 
 parting day was come ! 
 
 Such rude help as could be found in medicine at a 
 time when our men of science had fled the city, and a few 
 herbs were the only resource had not been neglected even 
 in my distraction. But life seemed retiring hour by hour ; 
 and if I dared to contemplate the death of this beloved 
 being, it was almost with a wish that it had happened be- 
 fore the arrival of those to whom it must be a renewal of 
 agony. 
 
 Still, the minor cares, which make so humble yet so 
 necessary a page in the history of life, were to occupy me. 
 Food must be provided for the increased number of my 
 inmates ; and where was that to be found in the circle of a 
 beleaguered city? Money was useless, even if I possessed 
 it: the friends, who would once have snared their last meal 
 with me, were exiled or slain ; and it was in the midst of a 
 fierce populace, themselves dying of hunger, that I was to 
 glean the daily subsistence of my wife and children. The 
 natural pride of the chieftain revolted at the idea of sup- 
 plicating for food; but this was one of the questions that 
 show the absurdity of pride; and I must beg, if I would 
 not see them die. The dwelling had belonged to one of 
 the noble families extinguished, or driven away, in the 
 first commotions of the war. The factions which perpet- 
 ually tore each other, and fought from house to house, had 
 stripped its lofty halls of everything that could be plun- 
 dered in the hurry of civil feud; and when I took refuge 
 under its roof it looked the very palace of desolation. But 
 it was a shelter, undisturbed by the riots of the crowd, too 
 bare to invite the robber; and even in its vast and naked 
 chambers, its gloomy passages, and frowning casements, 
 congenial to the mood of my mind. With Constantius 
 insensible and dying before me, and with my own spirit 
 darkened by an eternal cloud, I loved loneliness and dark- 
 ness. When the echo of the winds came round me, as J 
 
sat during my miserable midnights watching the counte- 
 nance of my son, and moistening his feverish lip with 
 the water, that even then was becoming a commodity of 
 rare price in Jerusalem; I had communed with memories, 
 that I would not have exchanged for the brightest enjoy- 
 ments of life. I welcomed the sad music, in which th n 
 } beloved voices revisited my soul; what was earth now to 
 me but a tomb? pomp nay, comfort, would have been a 
 mockery. I clung to the solitude and obscurity that gave 
 me the picture of the grave. 
 
 But the presence of my family made me feel the wretch- 
 edness of my abode. And when I cast my eyes round the 
 squalid and chilling halls, and saw wandering through 
 them those gentle and delicate forms, and saw them trying 
 to disguise by smiles and cheering words the depression 
 that the whole scene must inspire, I felt a pang that might 
 defy a firmer philosophy than mine; the despair that 
 finds its only relief in scorn. 
 
 "Here," said I to Miriam, as I hastened to the door, "1 
 leave you mistress of a palace. The Asmonean blood once 
 flourished within these walls; and why not we? I have 
 seen the nobles of the land crowded into these chambers. 
 They are not so full now; but we must make the most of 
 what we have. Those hangings that I remember, the 
 pride of the Sidonian who sold them, are left to us still; 
 if they are in fragments, they will but show our handi- 
 work the more. We must make our own music; and, in 
 default of menials, serve with our own hands. The pile 
 in that corner was once a throne sent by a Persian king 
 to the descendant of the Maccabee ; it will serve us at least 
 for firing. The walls are thick; the roof may hold out 
 a few storms more ; the casements, if they keep out noth- 
 ing else, keep out the daylight, an unwelcome guest, which 
 would do anything but reconcile us to the state of the 
 mansion : and now, farewell for a few hours." 
 
 Miriam caught my arm, and said, in that sweet tone 
 which always sank into my heart, "Salathiel, you must not 
 leave us in this temper. I would rather hear } r our open 
 complaints of fortune than this affectation of contempt 
 for your calamities. They are many and painful, I allow ; 
 though I will not dare not repine. They may even be 
 such as are beyond human cure; but who shall say that 
 
BALATHIEL. 341 
 
 lie has deserved better; or, if he has, that suffering may 
 not be the determined means of exalting his nature? Is 
 gold the only thing that is to be tried in the fire ?" 
 
 She waited my answer, with a look of dejected love. 
 
 "Miriam, I need not say that I respect and honor your 
 feelings; but no resignation can combat the substantial 
 evils of life. Will the finest sentiments that ever came 
 from human lips make this darkness light, turn this bitter 
 wind into warmth, or make these hideous chambers but the 
 dungeon ?" 
 
 "My husband, I dread this language," was the answer, 
 with more than usual solemnity ; "it is, must I say it, even 
 unwise. Shall the creatures of the Power by whom we 
 are placed in life either defy His wrath, or disregard His 
 mercy? Might we not be more severely tasked than we 
 are? Are there not thousands at this hour in the world 
 who, with at least equal claims to the divine benevolence 
 (1 tremble when I use the presumptuous phrase), are 
 undergoing calamities to which ours are happiness ? Look 
 from this very threshold ; are there not thousands within 
 the walls of Jerusalem groaning in the pangs of unhealed 
 wounds, mad, starving, stripped of every succor of man, 
 dying in hovels, the last survivors of their wretched race? 
 and yet we, still enjoying health, with a roof over our 
 heads, with our children round us safe, when the plague 
 of the first-born has fallen upon almost every house in 
 Judea, can complain ! Be comforted, my love ; I see but 
 one actual calamity among us; and, if Constantius should 
 survive, even that one would be at an end." 
 
 I left my gentle despot, and hurried through the echoing 
 walls of this palace of the winds. As I approached the 
 great avenues leading from the gates to the Temple, un- 
 usual sounds struck my ears. Hitherto nothing in the 
 sadness of the besieged city was sadder than its silence. 
 Death was lord of Jerusalem; and the numberless ways 
 in which life was extinguished, had left but the remnant 
 of its once proud and flourishing population. 
 
 But now shouts, and, still more, the deep and perpetual 
 murmur that bespeaks the movements and gatherings of a 
 crowded city, astonished me. My first conception was, 
 that the enemy had advanced in force; and I was turning 
 towards the battlements to witness, or repel the general 
 
342 BALATHIEL. 
 
 fate, when was involved in the multitude whose voices 
 had perplexed me. It was the season of the Passover. The 
 Roman barrier had hitherto kept back the tribes; but the 
 victory that left it in embers opened the gates; and from 
 the most death-like solitude, we were once more to see the 
 sons of Judea filling the courts of the city of cities. 
 
 CHAPTEE L. 
 
 NOTHING could be more unrestrained than the public 
 rejoicing. The bold myriads that soon poured in, hour by 
 hour, many of them long acquainted with Roman battle, 
 and distinguished for the successful defence of their strong- 
 holds; many of them even bearing arms taken from the 
 enemy, or displaying honorable scars, seemed to have come, 
 sent by Heaven. The enemy, evidently disheartened by 
 their late losses, and the destruction of the rampart which 
 had cost them so much labor, remained collected in their 
 camps; and access was free from every quarter. The 
 rumors of our triumph had spread with singular rapidity 
 through the land; and even the fearful phenomenon that 
 wrote our undoing in the skies, stimulated the national 
 hope. No son of Abraham could believe, without the 
 strongest repugnance, that Heaven had interposed, and yet 
 interposed against the chosen people. 
 
 A living torrent had come, swelling into the gates; and 
 the great avenues and public places were quickly impass- 
 able with the multitude. Jerusalem never before contained 
 so vast a mass of population. Wherever the eye turned 
 were tents, fires and feasting; still the multitude wore an 
 aspect not such as in former days. The war had made its 
 impression on the inmost spirit of our country. The shep- 
 herds and tillers of the ground had been forced into the 
 habits of soldiership; and I saw before me, for the gentle 
 and joyous inhabitants of the field and garden, bands of 
 warriors, made fierce by the sullen necessities of the time. 
 
 The ruin in which they found Jerusalem increased their 
 gloom. Groups were seen everywhere climbing among the 
 fallen buildings to find out the dwelling of some chief of 
 their tribe, and venting furious indignation on the hands 
 that had overthrown it. The work of war upon the famous 
 
SALATHIEL. 343 
 
 defences of the city was a profanation in their eyes. Crowds 
 rushed through the plain to trace the spot where their 
 kindred fell, and gather their bones to the tardy sepulchre. 
 Others rushed exultingly over the wrecks of the Roman 
 soldiery; burning them in heaps, that they might not mix 
 with the honored dead. But it was the dilapidation of the 
 Temple that struck them with the deepest emotion. The 
 singularly nervous sensibility and unequalled native rever- 
 ence of the Jew were fully awakened by the sight of the 
 humiliated sanctuary. They knelt and kissed the pave- 
 ments, stained with the marks of civil feud. They sent 
 forth deep lamentations for the dismantled beauty of gate 
 and altar. They wrapped their mantles round their heads, 
 and, covering themselves with dust and ashes, chanted 
 hymns of funereal sorrow over the ruins. Hundreds lay, 
 embracing pillar and threshold as they would the corpse 
 of a parent or a child, or, starting from the ground, 
 gathered on the heights nearest to the enemy, and poured 
 out curses upon the "Abomination of desolation" the idol- 
 atrous banner that flaunted over the Roman camps, and by 
 its mere presence polluted the Temple of their fathers. 
 
 In the midst of this sorrow and never was there more 
 real sorrow was the strange contrast of an extravagant 
 spirit of festivity. The Passover, the grand celebration 
 of our law, had been, until now, marked by a grave hom- 
 age. Even its recollections of triumphant deliverance and 
 illustrious promise were but slightly suffered to mitigate 
 the general awe. But the character of the Jew had under- 
 gone a signal change. Desperate valor, and haughty con- 
 tempt of all power but that of arms, were the impulse of 
 the time. The habits of the camp were transferred to every 
 part of life; and the reckless joy of the soldier when the 
 battle is done, the eagerness of the multitude of the disso- 
 lute for immediate indulgence, and the rude and unhal- 
 lowed resources to while away the heavy hour of idleness 
 were powerfully and repulsively prominent in this final 
 coming-up of the nation. 
 
 As I struggled through the avenues, in search of the 
 remnant of my tribe, my ears were perpetually startled by 
 sounds of riot ; I saw, beside the spot where relations were 
 weeping over their dead, crowds drinking, dancing, and 
 clamoring. Songs of wild exultation were mingled with 
 
344 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 the laments for their country ; wine flowed ; and the board, 
 loaded with careless profusion, was surrounded by revellers, 
 with whom the carouse was perpetually succeeded by the 
 quarrel. The pharisee and scribe, the pests of society, were 
 once more as busy as ever, bustling through the concourse 
 with supercilious dignity, canvassing for hearers in the 
 market-places as of old, offering up their wordy devotions 
 where they might best be seen, and quarrelling with the 
 native bitterness of religious faction. Blind guides of the 
 blind ; vipers and hypocrites ; I think that I see them still, 
 with their turbans pulled down upon their scowling brows ; 
 their mantles gathered round them, that they might not be 
 degraded by a profane touch; and every feature of their 
 acrid and worldly physiognomies, wrinkled with pride, put 
 to the torture by the assumption of humility. 
 
 Minstrels, far unlike those who once led the way with 
 sacred songs to the gates of the holy city, now flocked round 
 the tents; and companies of Greek and Syrian mimes, 
 dancers, and flute-players, the natural and fatal growth of 
 a period of military relaxation, were erecting their pavil- 
 ions, as in the festivals of their own profligate cities. 
 
 Deepening the shadows of this fearful profanation stood 
 forth the traders in terror ! the exorcist, the soothsayer, the 
 magician girdled with live serpents, the pretended proph- 
 et, naked and pouring out furious rhapsodies; impostors 
 of every color and pursuit, yet some of those abhorred and 
 frightful beings probably the dupes of their own imposture ; 
 some utterly frenzied ; and some declaring, and doing, won- 
 ders that showed a power of evil never learned from man. 
 In depression of heart I gave up the effort to urge my 
 way through scenes that, firm as I was, terrified me; and 
 turned towards my home, through the steep path that 
 passed along the outer court of the Temple. There all 
 wore the mournful silence suited to the sanctuary that was 
 to see its altars kindled no more. But the ruins were 
 crowded with kneeling and woe-begone worshippers, who, 
 from morning until night, clung to the sacred soil, and 
 wept for the departing majesty of Judah. I now knelt 
 with them, and mingled my tears with theirs. 
 
 Prayer calmed my spirit; and before I left the height I 
 stopped to look again upon the wondrous expanse below. 
 The dear atmosphere of the Ea?t singularly diminishes? 
 
8ALATHIEL. 345 
 
 distance, and I seemed to stand close by the Roman camps. 
 The valley at my feet was living with the new population 
 of Jerusalem, clustering thick as bees, and sending up the 
 perpetual hum of their mighty hive. The sight was superb ; 
 and I involuntarily exulted in the strength that my country 
 was still able to display in the face of her enemies. 
 
 "Here were the elements of mutual havoc: but might 
 they not be the elements of preservation?" The thought 
 occurred that now might be the time to make an effort for 
 peace. "We had, by the repulse of the legionaries, shown 
 them the price which they must pay for conquest. Even 
 since that repulse a new national force had started forward, 
 armed with an enthusiasm that would perish only with the 
 last man, and tenfold increasing the difficulties of the war." 
 
 I turned again to the ruins, where I joined myself to 
 some venerable and influential men, who alike shuddered at 
 the excesses of the crowd below and the catastrophe that 
 prolonged war must bring. My advice produced an im- 
 pression. The remnant of the Sanhedrin were speedily 
 collected, and my proposal was adopted that a deputation 
 should immediately be sent to Titus, to ascertain how far 
 he was disposed to an armistice. The regular pacification 
 might then follow with a more solemn ceremonial. 
 
 From the top of Mount Moriah we anxiously watched the 
 passage of our envoys through the multitude that wandered 
 over the space from Jerusalem to the foot of the enemy's 
 position. We saw them pass unmolested, and enter the 
 Roman lines; and from the group of officers of rank who 
 came forward to meet them we gladly conjectured that their 
 reception was favorable. Within an hour we saw them 
 moving down the side of the hill on their return ; and, at 
 some distance behind, a cluster of horsemen slowly advanc- 
 ing. The deputation had executed its task with success. 
 It was received by Titus with Italian urbanity. To its 
 representations of the power subsisting in Judea to sustain 
 the war, he fully assented; and giving high praise to the 
 fortitude of the people, only lamented the necessary havoc 
 of war. To give the stronger proof of his wish for peace, 
 his answer was to be conveyed formally by a mission of his 
 chief councillors and officers to the Sanhedrin. 
 
 The tidings were soon propagated among the people ; and 
 proud of their strength, and irritated against the invader 
 
346 BALATHIEL. 
 
 as they were, the prospect of relief from their Innumerable 
 privations was welcomed with undisguised joy. The hope 
 was as cheering to the two prominent leaders of the factions 
 as to any man among us. John of Giscala had been stimu- 
 lated into daring by circumstances alone; nature never 
 intended him for a warrior. Wily, grasping, and selfish, 
 cruel without personal boldness, and keen without intel- 
 lectual vigor; his only purpose was to accumulate money 
 and to enjoy power. The loftier objects of public life were 
 beyond his narrow capacity. He had been rapidly losing 
 even his own objects ; his followers were deserting him ; 
 and a continuance of the war involved equally the personal 
 peril which he feared, and the fall of that tottering author- 
 ity whose loss would leave him to insulted justice. 
 
 Simon, the son of Gioras, was altogether of a higher class 
 of mankind. He was by nature a soldier, and might have 
 in other times, risen to a place among the celebrated names 
 of war. But the fierceness of the period inflamed his spirit 
 into savage atrocity. In the tumults of the city he had dis- 
 tinguished himself by that unhesitating hardihood which 
 values neither its own life nor those of others; and his 
 daring threw the hollow and artificial character of his rival 
 deeply into the shade. But he found a different adversary 
 in the Eoman. His brute bravery was met by intelligent 
 valor; his rashness was baffled by the discipline of the 
 legions ; and, weary of conflicts in which he was sure to be 
 defeated, he had long left the field to the irregular sallies 
 of the tribes, and contented himself with prowess in city 
 feud and the preservation of his authority against the 
 dagger. 
 
 Peace with Home would thus have relieved both John 
 and Simon from the danger which threatened to overwhelm 
 them alike: to the citizens it would have given an instant 
 change from the terrors of assault to tranquillity, and to the 
 nation the hope of an existence made splendidly secure by 
 its having been won from the master of the world. 
 
 CHAPTER LI. 
 
 THE movement of the Roman mission through the plain 
 marked by loud shouts, As it approached the gates 
 
SALATHIEL. 347 
 
 our little council descended from the temple-porch to meet 
 it, where one of the open places in the centre of the city 
 was appointed for the conference. The applauding roar of 
 the people followed the troops through the streets, and 
 when the tribunes and senators entered the square, and 
 gave us the right hand of amity, universal acclamation 
 shook the air. A gleam of joy revisited my heart, and I 
 was on the point of ascending an elevation in the centre, to 
 announce the terms of this fortunate armistice, when, to 
 my astonishment, I saw the spot preoccupied. 
 
 Whence came the intruder no one could tell; but there 
 he stood, a figure that fixed the universal eye. He was of 
 gigantic stature, brown as an Indian, and thin as one worn 
 to the last extremity by disease or famine. Conjecture was 
 5usy. He seemed alternately the fugitive from a dungeon 
 one of the half-savage recluses that sometimes came from 
 their dens in the wilderness to exhibit among us the last 
 humiliation of mind and body a dealer in forbidden arts, 
 attempting to impose on the credulity of the populace, and 
 a prophet armed with the fearful knowledge of our ap- 
 proaching fall. To me there was an expression in his 
 countenance that partook of all ; yet there was a something 
 different from all in the glaring eye, the livid scorn of the 
 lip, and the wild and yet grand outline of features, which 
 appeared alike overflowing with malignity and majesty. 
 
 No man thought of interrupting him. A powerful in- 
 terest hushed every voice of the multitude, and the only 
 impulse was eagerness to hear the lofty wisdom or the 
 fatal tidings that must be deposited with such a being. He 
 himself seemed to be overwhelmed with the magnitude of 
 the thoughts that he was commissioned to disclose. He 
 stood for a while with the look of one oppressed by a fear- 
 ful dream, his bosom heaving, his teeth gnashing, every 
 muscle of his meagre frame swelling and quivering. He 
 strongly clasped his bony arms across his breast, as if to 
 repress the agitation that impeded his words; he stamped 
 on the ground, in apparent wrath at the faculties which 
 thus sank under him at the important moment; at last 
 the tempest of his soul broke forth: 
 
 "Judah ! thou wert a lion thou wert as the king of the 
 forest, when he went up to the mountains to slay, and from 
 the mountains came down to devour, Thou wert as the 
 
3 18 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 garden of Eden, every precious stone was thy covering ; the 
 sardine, the topaz, and the beryl were thy pavements; thy 
 fountains were of silver, and thy daughters that walked in 
 thy groves, were as the cherubim and the seraphim. 
 
 "Judah ! thy temple was glorious as the sun-rising, and 
 thy priests were the wise of the earth. Kings came against 
 thee, and their bones were an offering; the fowls of the air 
 devoured them ; the foxes brought their young, and feasted 
 them upon the mighty. 
 
 "Judah ! thou wert a fire in the midst of the nations a 
 fire upon an altar; who shall quench thee? A sword over 
 the neck of the heathen; who shall say unto thee, Smite 
 no more ! Thou wert as the thunder and the lightning : 
 thou earnest from thy place, and the earth was dark. Thou 
 didst thunder, and the nations shook; and the fire of thy 
 indignation consumed them." 
 
 The voice in which this extraordinary being uttered those 
 words was like the thunder. The multitude listened with 
 breathless awe. The appeal was to them a renewal of the 
 times of inspiration, and they awaited with outstretched 
 hands and quivering countenances the sentence that their 
 passions interpreted into the will of Heaven. 
 
 The figure lifted up his glance, which had hitherto been 
 fixed on the ground ; and, whether it was the work of fancy 
 or reality, I thought that the glance threw an actual beam 
 of fire across the upturned visages of the myriads that 
 filled every spot on which a foot could rest roof, wall, and 
 ground. 
 
 Bowing his head, and raising his hands in the most 
 solemn adoration towards the Temple, he pursued, in a 
 voice scarcely above a whisper, yet indescribably impres- 
 sive: 
 
 "Sons of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob! people elect 
 and holy ! will you suffer that house of holiness to be the 
 scoff of the idolater? Will you see the polluted sacrifice 
 laid upon its altars ? Will you be slaves in the presence of 
 the house of David?" 
 
 A rising outcry of the multitude showed how deeply they 
 felt his words. A fierce smile lightened across his features 
 at the sound. He erected his colossal form, and cried out 
 like the roar of a whirlwind, "Then, men of Judah ! be 
 strong, and follow the hand that led you through the sea 
 
8ALATB1EL, 349 
 
 and through the desert. Is that hand shortened, that it 
 cannot save ? Break off this accursed league with the sons 
 of Belial. Fly every man to arms, for the glory of the 
 mighty people. Go, and let the sword that smote the 
 Canaanite smite the Roman." 
 
 He was answered with furious exultation. Swords and 
 poniards were brandished in the air. The safety of the 
 Roman officers became endangered, and I, with some of the 
 elders, dreadiiig a result which must throw fatal obstacles 
 in the way of pacification, attempted to control the popular 
 violence by reason and entreaty. But the spirit of the 
 Romans, haughty with conquest and long contempt of the 
 multitude, disdained to take precautions with a mob, and 
 they awaited with palpable contempt the subsiding of this 
 city effervescence. This silent scorn, which probably stung 
 the deeper for its silence, was retorted by clamors of un- 
 equivocal rage. The mysterious disturber saw the storm 
 coming, and flinging a furious gesture towards the Roman 
 camps, which lay glittering in the sunshine along the hills, 
 he rushed into the loftiest language of malediction. 
 
 "Take up a lament for the Roman," he shouted. "He 
 comes like a leviathan; he troubleth the waters with his 
 presence, and the rivers behold him, and are afraid. 
 
 "Thus saith the king, he who holdeth Israel in the hol- 
 low of his hand: I will spread my net over thee, and my 
 people shall drag thee upon the shore; I will leave thee to 
 rot upon the land; I will fill the beasts of the earth with 
 thee, until they shall come and find thee, dry bones and 
 dust even thy glory turned into a taint and a scorn. 
 
 "Lift up a cry over Rome, and say, Thou art the leopard ; 
 thy jaws are red with blood, and thy claws are heavy be- 
 cause of the multitude of the slain ; thy spots are glorious 
 and thy feet are like wings for swiftness. But thy time 
 is at hand. My arrow shall smite through thee ; my .sword 
 shall go through thee; I will lay thy flesh upon the hills; 
 thy blood shall be red in the rivers ; the pits shall be full 
 of thee. 
 
 "For thus saith the king : I have not forsaken my chil- 
 dren. For my pleasure I have given them over for a little 
 while to the hands of the oppressor; but they have loved 
 me they have come before me, and offered up sacrifices; 
 and shall I desert the land of the chosen, the sons of the 
 
350 SALATBIEL. 
 
 glorious, my people Israel !" A universal outcry of wrath 
 and triumph followed this allusion to the national venge- 
 ance. 
 
 "Ho !" exclaimed the figure. "Men of Israel hear the 
 words of wisdom. The burden of Rome. By the swords of 
 the mighty will I cause her multitude to fall ; the terrible 
 and the strong shall be on thee, city of the idolater; they 
 shall hew off thy cuirasses as the hewer of wood, and of 
 thy shields they shall make vessels of water. There shall 
 be fire in thy palaces, and the sword. Thy sons and thy 
 daughters shall they consume, and thy precious things shall 
 be a spoil when "the king shall give the sign from the sanc- 
 tuary." He paused, and, lifting up his fleshless arm, stood, 
 like a giant bronze, pointing to the Temple. 
 
 To the utter astonishment of all, a vapor was seen to 
 ascend from the summit of Mount Moriah, wreathing and 
 white like the smoke that used to mark the daily sacrifice. 
 Our first conception was, that this great rite was resumed ; 
 and the shout of joy was on our lips. But, the vapor had 
 scarcely parted from the crown of the hill, when it black- 
 ened, and began to whirl with extraordinary rapidity; it 
 thenceforth less ascended than shot up, perpetually dark- 
 ening and distending. The horizon grew dim ; the cloudy 
 canopy above continued to spread and revolve; lightning 
 began to quiver through; and we heard, at intervals, low 
 peals of thunder. But no rain fell, and the wind was life- 
 less. Nothing could be more complete than the calm; not 
 a hair of our heads was moved, yet the heart of the count- 
 less multitude was penetrated with the dread of some im- 
 pending catastrophe that restrained every voice; and the 
 silence itself was awful. 
 
 In the climate of Judea we were accustomed to the rapid 
 rise and violent devastations of tempests. But the rising 
 of this storm, so closely connected with the appearance of 
 the strange summoner, that it almost followed his com- 
 mand ; invested a phenomenon, at all times fearful, with a 
 character that might have struck firmer minds than those 
 of the enthusiasts round him. To heighten the wonder, the 
 progress of the storm still seemed faithful to the com- 
 mand. Wherever this man of mystery waved his arm, there 
 rushed a sheet of cloud. The bluest tract of heaven was 
 as black as night, at the moment when he turned his om- 
 
351 
 
 inous presence towards it, until there was no more sky 
 to be obliterated, and, but for the fiery streaks that tore 
 through, we should have stood under a canopy of solid 
 gloom. 
 
 At length, the whirlwind, that we had seen driving and 
 rolling the clouds like billows, burst upon us; scattering 
 fragments of the buildings far and wide, and cutting a 
 broad way through the overthrown multitude. Then, super- 
 stition and terror were loud-mouthed. The populace, 
 crushed and dashed down, exclaimed that a volcano was 
 throwing up flame from -the mount of the Temple; that 
 sulphurous smokes were rising through the crevices of the 
 ground; that the rocking of an earthquake was felt; and, 
 still more terrible, that beings not to be looked on, nor 
 even to be named, were hovering round them in the storm. 
 
 The general rush of the people, in which hundreds were 
 trampled, and in which nothing but the most violent efforts 
 could keep any on their feet, bore me away for awhile. The 
 struggle was sufficient to absorb all my senses, for nothing 
 could be more perilous. The darkness was intense; the 
 peals of the storm were deafening; and the howlings and 
 fury of the crowd, trampling and being trampled on, and 
 fighting for life in blindness and despair, with hand, foot, 
 and dagger, made an uproar louder than that of the storm. 
 In this conflict, rather of demons than of men, I was 
 whirled away in eddy after eddy, until chance brought 
 me again to the foot of the elevation. 
 
 There I beheld a new wonder. A column of livid fire 
 stood upon it, reaching to the clouds. I could discern the 
 outline of a human form within. But, while I expected to 
 see it drop dead, or blasted to a cinder, the flame spread 
 over the ground, and I saw its strange inhabitant making 
 signs like those of incantation. He drew a circle upon the 
 burning soil, poured out some unguent which diffused a 
 powerful and rich odor, razed the skin of his arm with a 
 dagger, and let fall some drops of blood into the blaze. 
 
 I shuddered at the sight of those palpable appeals to 
 the power of Evil ; but I was pressed upon by thousands, 
 and retreat was impossible. The strange being then, with 
 a ghastly smile of triumph, waved the weapon towards the 
 Eoman camps. "Behold," he cried, "the beginnings of 
 vengeance!" A thunder-roll that almost split the ear, 
 
352 &ALATBIEL. 
 
 echoed round the hills. The darkness passed away with it. 
 Above Jerusalem the sky cleared, and cleared into a trans- 
 lucence and blue splendor unrivalled by the brightest sun- 
 shine. The people, wrought up to the highest expectancy, 
 shouted at this promise of a prouder deliverance, and ex- 
 claiming, "Goshen ! Goshen !" looked breathlessly for the 
 completion of the plague, upon the more than Egyptian op- 
 pressor. They were not held long in suspense. 
 
 The storm had cleared away above our heads, only to 
 gather in deeper terrors round the circle of hills on which 
 we could see the enemy, in the most overwhelming state of 
 alarm. The clouds rushed on, ridge over ridge, until the 
 whole horizon seemed shut in by a wall of night, towering 
 to the skies. I heard the deep voice of the orator; at the 
 utterance of some strange words, a gleam played round his 
 dagger's point, and the wall of darkness was instantly a 
 wall of fire. The storm was let loose in its rage. While 
 we stood in daylight and in perfect calm, the lightning 
 poured like sheets of rain, or gushes of burning metal from 
 a furnace, upon the enemy. The vast circuit of the camps 
 was instantly one blaze. The wind tore everything before 
 it with irresistible violence. We saw the tents swept off 
 the ground, and driven far over the hills in flames, like 
 meteors; the piles of arms and banners blown away; the 
 soldiery clinging to the rocks, flying together in helpless 
 crowds, or scattering like maniacs, with hair and garments 
 on fire; the baggage and military machines, the turrets 
 and ramparts sinking in flames; the beasts of burthen 
 plunging and rushing through the lines, or lying in smould- 
 ering heaps where the lightning first smofe them. All 
 was conflagration! 
 
 CHAPTER LIT. 
 
 THE Roman embassy had hitherto remained in stern 
 composure. The visitations of nature they were accus- 
 tomed to sustain ; the perturbations of a Jewish mob were 
 beneath the notice of the universal conquerors. But the 
 sight of the havoc among their countrymen shook their 
 stoicism ; and the cavalry that formed the escort burst into 
 indignant murmurs at the exultation of the multitudes; 
 
8ALATHIEL. 353 
 
 until the commander of the troop, whose arms and bear- 
 ing showed him to be of the highest rank, unable to 
 restrain his feelings, spurred to -the front of the embar- 
 rassed mission. 
 
 "How long," exclaimed he, "senators, shall we stand 
 here to be scoffed at by these wretches? The imperial 
 guard feels itself disgraced by such a service. Will you 
 have the squadron openly mutiny? If they should ride 
 away and leave us to ourselves, who could blame them? 
 What will the noble Titus say, when we return to tell him 
 that we stood by and listened to the taunts of those cooped- 
 up slaves, on him, the army, and Rome ?" 
 
 It was fortunate for the speaker that he spoke in a 
 language but little known to our bold peasantry. The sen- 
 ators held their peace, and waited for the subsiding of the 
 popular effervescence. 
 
 "Noble ^Emilius !" exclaimed the fiery youth, to a grave 
 and lofty-countenanced man, at the head of the mission, 
 "to remain here is only to risk your safety, and the honor 
 of the emperor. Treaty with this people is out of the 
 question. Give me the order to disperse this rabble, and a 
 single charge will decide the affair." 
 
 He threw himself forward on his horse's neck, and fixed 
 his look eagerly on the senator's countenance. But the 
 old Roman was immovable. The man of prophecy, who 
 had stood, with his robe wrapped round his arms, in an 
 attitude of contemptuous ease, awaiting the result of the 
 demand, burst into loud laughter. The young soldier's 
 indignation was roused by this new object. He turned to 
 the scorner, and crying out, "Ho ! is it you, miscreant ? 
 you at least shall not escape me," flung his lance full 
 against his bosom. I saw the weapon strike with pro- 
 digious force ; but it might as well have struck a rock. It 
 flew into splinters. 
 
 The Roman rushed at him with his drawn falchion. 
 His strange antagonist stood without moving a limb, and 
 only raised his cold, large eye. The charger, in his fiercest 
 bound, instantly swerved, and had nearly unseated his 
 rider. Nothing could bring him forward again. Spur 
 and voice were useless. The animal, a magnificent jet 
 black, of the largest Arab breed, strong as a bull and 
 bold as a lion, could not abide that stern eye. He galloped 
 
354 
 
 madly round and round, but the attempt to force him 
 against the stranger stopped him, as if he were stabbed. 
 Then, with every muscle in his frame palpitating, his 
 broad chest heaving, his nostrils breathing out vapor, and 
 the foam flying over his front like snow, he would plunge 
 and rear; until, mastering his powerful rider, he wheeled 
 round, and darted away. 
 
 The shouts of scorn that rose from the populace at every 
 fresh failure, doubly enraged the young Roman. He made 
 a final effort, and grasping the bridle in both hands, and 
 dashing in the spur, at length succeeded in forcing the 
 wearied charger on. The noble creature, at one immense 
 leap, reached the fatal spot. But, there he was fixed as 
 if some power had transformed him into stone. He no 
 longer staggered nor swerved, but crouching down, with 
 his feet thrust forward, his crest stooped, his nostrils on 
 the ground, and his bright eye strained and filmy, as if 
 he were growing blind, stood gazing with a look of almost 
 human horror. The furious rider struck him on the 
 head with the flat of his falchion. The charger gathered 
 tip his limbs at the blow, reared straight as a column, and 
 bellowing, plunged upon his head. There was a general 
 cry of terror, even among the multitude, and they rushed 
 forward to help him to rise. But he rose no more. He 
 rolled over and over his rider, and stretching out his 
 limbs in a convulsion, died. 
 
 The tumult was on the point of being renewed ; for the 
 soldiery pushed forward to bear away their officer, who 
 lay like a corpse; but the crowd had already covered the 
 ground, and blows were given on both sides. Indignant 
 at the interruption of the armistice, and the injury that 
 threatened the sacred person of ambassadors, I dashed 
 my way through the crowd; by exerting a strength with 
 which few could cope, rescued the young Roman; and 
 delivering him to the mission, protested against their con- 
 struing the casual violence of rioters into the determina- 
 tion of the people. 
 
 I had partially succeeded in calming their resentment, 
 and in restraining the bloodthirsty weapons that were 
 already glittering in numberless hands, when a sound like 
 that of a trumpet, distant, but blown with tremendous 
 force, struck every ear at once. 
 
SALAT8IEL. 355 
 
 I looked involuntarily to the man, who had already 
 been lour disturber. He pointed to the heavens. A frag- 
 ment of cloud, that seemed to have escaped from the mass 
 of the tempest, was floating along the zenith. He took up 
 his parable: "Have I not covered the heavens with a 
 cloud? saith the Mighty One. Have I not said to the 
 sun, Be dark; and to the moon and stars, Be ashamed? 
 Have I not hidden mine enemies in the shroud, and said 
 to the whirlwind, Go forth and slay?" 
 
 Whether by the proverbial sagacity of the wanderers of 
 the desert, by one of those coincidences which so curi- 
 ously come to sustain the credit of daring conjecture, or by 
 knowledge from some darker sources, the little orbed va- 
 por began to lengthen, and rapidly assumed the shape of a 
 sword ! 
 
 Dreading the popular power of imposture, and the uses 
 to which it would inevitably be applied, I was glad that 
 this extraordinary being had thus put himself upon his 
 trial ; and I stood gazing in eager expectation that some 
 passing gust would dissipate at once the cloud and the 
 reputation of the prophet. Yet, utterly scorning the com- 
 mon pretensions of the rambling practisers of forbidden 
 arts, I knew that awful things had been done; that, most 
 of all, in these latter days of our country, strange in- 
 fluences were let loose, perhaps to plunge into deeper 
 ruin a people guiltily prone to take refuge in delusions. I 
 had heard prophecies, hideous and unholy, which were 
 never taught by man; I had seen a command of the ele- 
 ments, that utterly defied philosophy to account for them; 
 if, in the last vengeance of Heaven, evil spirits were ever 
 suffered to go forth, and give their power to evil men, 
 for the purpose of binding in the faster chains of false- 
 hood a race who loved a lie; it was, in those hours of 
 signs and wonders, which might, if possible, deceive the 
 very elect. 
 
 To my astonishment, the cloud suddenly changed its 
 color: from white it became intensely red; and, in a few 
 moments more, it burst into a flame, that threw a broad 
 reflection upon the whole atmosphere. It was, palpably, 
 a vast falchion of fire. And from that hour, to the last 
 of the glorious and unhappy city of David, that flaming 
 sword the sign of a wrath, predicted a thousand years 
 before, blazed, day and night, over Jerusalem ! 
 
356 BALATHIEL. 
 
 Its instant effect was terrible. The multitude, already 
 indignant against the Eomans, and restrained only by my 
 desperate efforts, were now roused to the highest pitch of 
 presumption. To doubt of the help of Heaven was im- 
 piety, after this open wonder; to spare an hour between 
 this divine command and the extermination of the idola- 
 ter, was sacrilege. They poured round the unfortunate 
 troop, and instantly overwhelmed them, as an earthquake 
 would have overwhelmed them. A mass of human life, 
 dense as the ground it trod upon, broke over them. The 
 Eomans struggled heroically: I saw their charges often 
 make fearful way; and their swords and lances dripping 
 with blood every time that they were whirled round their 
 heads. But the conflict was too unequal: one by one 
 those brave men were torn down; I saw them swept along 
 by the torrent, fewer and fewer still above the living wave ; 
 gradually separated more widely from each other; each 
 man faintly struggling for himself, flinging his feeble 
 arms to the right and left, till, dizzy with fatigue and 
 despair, at last he went down, and the roaring tide closed 
 over him. 
 
 All perished; and a day of hope was closed in supersti- 
 tion, treachery, and inexpiable murder. 
 
 The dreadful uproar sank as suddenly as it had risen. 
 The Roman troop lay a heap of dead. I turned away from 
 the sight ; but at the instant of turning, I saw the prophet 
 of evil, whether impostor or magician, whether man or 
 demon, spring into their midst with a roar of laughter. 
 I shrank away. But I heard that terrible laugh ringing 
 through all the streets of Jerusalem! 
 
 CHAPTER LIII. 
 
 IT was night, and the greater portion of the city lay 
 between me and home. To traverse it was still a matter 
 of danger. Furious festivity had succeeded to furious con- 
 flict: the roving mountaineers made little difference be- 
 tween a stranger and an enemy; and whether inflamed 
 with wine or triumph, the carousers, on that night, were 
 the masters of Jerusalem. I kept my course through the 
 less frequented ways; and leaving on either side the great 
 
BALATHIEL. 357 
 
 avenues, crowded with tents and glittering with illumi- 
 nation, committed myself to the quiet light of the moon. 
 
 But, in choosing the more solitary streets, I was, without 
 recollecting it, led into the open place where the late dis- 
 turbance had begun; and I felt some vague dread of pass- 
 ing a spot on which had appeared a being so singular as 
 the leader of the tumult. 
 
 By a compromise with my prudence, I kept as far from 
 the hillock as possible, and was moving rapidly by the wall 
 of one of the huge buildings of Herod, when I heard a 
 groan. In the nervousness of the time, and doubtful from 
 what region of earth or. air, my antagonist, in that place 
 of spells, might come, I drew my dagger, with a sensation 
 that I had never felt in the field, and setting my back 
 against the wall, stood on my defence. But a wounded 
 man, the utterer of the groan, now tottered into the light, 
 and fell before me. I recognized the commander of the 
 escort. The dying struggles of his charger had crushed 
 him; and the multitude had abandoned him to his fate. 
 
 To leave him where he was, was to leave him to perish. 
 I owed something to the survivor of the unfortunate mis- 
 sion; and my short consultation closed by carrying him 
 on my shoulders to the door of my comfortless dwelling. 
 
 The Roman had formidably learned to distrust Jewish 
 fidelity. The gloom inside the entrance looked the very 
 color of secret murder. Even the dismantled appearance 
 of the exterior was enough for suspicion; and he firmly 
 ordered that I should terminate my good offices at the 
 threshold. Irritated by his obvious meaning, I left him to 
 his wish ; and placing him in the fullest enjoyment of such 
 security as the open street and the moonlight could give, 
 took my farewell, bidding him in future to have a better 
 opinion of mankind. 
 
 Yet I was to be startled in my turn. As I rather 
 climbed than ascended the broken staircases, I saw an 
 unusual light in the chambers above. Accustomed as I 
 was to reverses, I felt tenfold alarm, from the precious- 
 Bess of my stake. The ferocious bands that crowded the 
 streets, inflamed with wine and blood, could have no 
 scruples where plunder tempted them; and in the strong 
 persuasion that some misfortune had happened in my long 
 absence, I lingered in doubt whether I should not return 
 
358 SAL ATE I EL. 
 
 to the streets, collect what assistance I could find among 
 the passers-by, and crush the robbers by main force. But 
 sudden exclamations, and hurried feet above, left me no 
 time; I darted up the shattered steps, and breathlessly 
 threw open the door. 
 
 Well might I wonder. I saw a superb room, hung 
 with tapestry, a table in the centre covered with plate 
 and viands, a rich lamp illuminating the chamber, stately 
 furniture, a fire blazing on a tripod, and throwing a cheer- 
 ing warmth and delicious odor round; yet, to enjoy all 
 this, not a living creature. But whatever my anxieties 
 might be, they were delightfully scattered by the voice of 
 Esther, who came flying towards me with outstretched 
 arms, and a face bright with joy. From an inner chamber 
 followed more messengers of good tidings Miriam and 
 Salome leading Constantius ! They had watched over 
 him from the time of my departure with a sickly alter- 
 nation of hope and fear; as the evening approached he 
 seemed dying. Salome, with the jealousy of deep sorrow, 
 desired to be left alone with him; and the two sad lis- 
 teners at the door expected at every moment the burst 
 of agony announcing his irreparable loss. They heard a 
 cry of joy; the torpor was gone, and Constantius was sit- 
 ting up, raised to new life, wondering at all round him, 
 and uttering the raptures of gratitude and love ! 
 
 The sound that had impelled me to my abrupt en- 
 trance was the joy of my family at bringing the recovered 
 patient in triumph from his weary bed into view of the 
 comforts provided for him and for me. The change 
 wrought in the chamber itself was explained by the pres- 
 ence of two old domestics, who, in the flight of the former 
 possessors, had been overlooked, and suffered to hide, rather 
 than live, in a corner of the ruin. They had contrived in t 
 the general spoliation, to secrete some of the precious 
 things, which the haste of plunder had not time to seize. 
 The presence of a noble family under the honored roof 
 once more brought out their feelings and treasures to- 
 gether ; and by the graceful dexterity of Miriam and Esther 
 were those sad walls converted into an apartment not un- 
 worthy to be inhabited by themselves. 
 
 While I was indulging in the luxury which those gentle 
 ministers provided, the thought of the unfortunate Roman 
 
SALATHIEL. 359 
 
 occurred to me. I slightly mentioned him, and every voice 
 was raised to have him brought in from the hazards of the 
 night. Constantius, feeble as he was, rose from his couch 
 to assist in this work of hospitality; but he was under a 
 fond tyrant, who would not suffer her commands to be 
 questioned. Salome's orders were obeyed; and to the old 
 domestics and me was destined the undivided honor. 
 
 I found the wounded officer lying on the spot where I 
 had parted with him, gazing on the moon, and humming 
 a gay air of Italy, in a most melancholy tone. He had 
 palpably made up his reckoning with this world; and 
 calmly waiting until some Jewish knife should put an 
 end to his troubles, he determined to save himself from 
 the trouble of thinking, and die like a man who had noth- 
 ing better to do. But the struggle was against nature; 
 and as I slowly felt my way along the obscure passages, I 
 had time to hear the song flutter, and now and then a groan 
 supersede it altogether. My step now caught his quick 
 ear, and I heard in return the ringing of a sword plucked 
 sharply from the scabbard. 
 
 The bold Koman, reckless as he was of life, was evi- 
 dently resolved not to let it go without its price; and it 
 was probably fortunate for me, or my old and tottering 
 fellow philanthropist, that the ruinous state of the pas- 
 sages compelled us to take time in our advance. 
 
 "Three of them," I heard him utter, as we gradually 
 worked our way towards the light; "three, and perhaps 
 twenty at their backs." He tried to raise himself up, lean- 
 ing on one hand, and with the other feebly pointing the 
 falchion to keep us off. "Thieves," said he, "let us un- 
 derstand each other. If you must cut my throat, you 
 must fight for it; and after all, I have nothing to make 
 it worth your trouble. By Jove and Venus," and he 
 laughed with the strange jocularity that sometimes be- 
 sets the bold in the last peril, "the cleverest robber in Jeru- 
 salem could make nothing of me." I stood in the shadow, 
 while he again tried his expostulation. "My clothes would 
 not sell for the smallest coin in your sashes; I could not 
 furnish out a scarecrow yet Jewish patriots, or thieves, 
 or saints, or all together, I will tell you how you can make 
 money of me. Take me to the Roman camp, and I an- 
 swer for your fortune on the spot." I laughed in my turn. 
 
360 8 AL AT HI EL. 
 
 "By all that's honest, I never was more serious in my life," 
 said he. "Far be it from me to trifle with heroes of your 
 profession ; you shall have my helmet full of gold Ves- 
 pasians." 
 
 "Well, then," said I, coming forward, "you shall live 
 at least for to-night; but there is one condition which I 
 
 cannot give up " 
 
 *"0f course, that I give you two helmets full instead of 
 one. Agreed." 
 
 "The condition from which nothing can make me re- 
 cede is " 
 
 "Three times the money; or ten times the money?" 
 
 I pondered. The old domestics stared at us both. 
 
 "Why, you extravagant Jew, have you no conscience? 
 Recollect how little the lives of half the generals in the 
 service are worth half the sum. But say anything short 
 of the military chest out with the condition at once." 
 
 "That you come instantly with me to supper." 
 
 The formidable stipulation was gaily acceded to. The 
 old domestics and I supported him up the stairs, whose 
 condition, as he afterwards allowed, led him still to nur- 
 ture shrewd doubts of Jewish hospitality. But when I 
 opened the door of the chamber, and he saw the striking 
 preparations within, he uttered a cry of surprise ; and 
 turning, bowed with Italian grace, in tacit acknowledg- 
 ment of the wrong that he had done me. 
 
 As I led him forward, and the light fell on his features, 
 I saw Esther's countenance glow with crimson. The Ro- 
 man pronounced her name, and flew over to her. Miriam 
 we all, in the same moment, recognized the stranger, 
 and every lip at once uttered "Septimius !" 
 
 A few campaigns in the imperial guard had changed the 
 handsome Italian boy, the friend and favorite of Con- 
 stantius, into the showy officer, the friend and favorite of 
 everybody ; with the elegance of the court, and the freedom 
 of the camp, he had inherited from nature the easy light- 
 ness and animation of temper that neither can give. 
 Nothing could be more amusing than the restless round 
 of anecdote that he kept up through the night. The circle 
 in which he found himself, contrasted with the wretched- 
 ness of the few hours before, let his recollections flow 
 with wild vivacity. His stories of the imperial tent were 
 
SALATHIEL. 361 
 
 new to us, and he told them with the taste of a man of 
 high breeding, and the sarcastic finish of a keen observer 
 of the absurdities that will creep in, even among the 
 mighty and the wise of the world. 
 
 In our several ways he delighted us all. Constantius 
 seemed to gain new health in laughing at the histories of 
 his military friends. Salome's face glistened with the 
 vividness so long chased away by sorrow, as the manners 
 of Rome passed before her in the liveliest colors of pleas- 
 antry. Esther treasured every word, with an emotion that 
 fluctuated across her beauty like the opening and shutting 
 of a rose under the evening breeze. I was interested by 
 the pungent sketches of public character, which started 
 up in the midst of sportive description. Miriam alone was 
 reluctant, and her glance frequently rested with pain on 
 Esther's hectic cheek. But even Miriam at times gave 
 way to the voice of the charmer; her fears were forgotten, 
 and she joined in the general smile. 
 
 When the females retired, we held a short consultation 
 on the means of restoring our guest to his friends. In 
 the immediate temper of the city, to be seen was certain 
 death; and no pacific intercourse with the besiegers could 
 be expected after our enormous infraction of treaty. Con- 
 stantius urged the despatch of a private messenger to the 
 camp, with the proposal of a plan for his escape. To my 
 surprise, and certainly to my gratification, Septimius him- 
 self flatly negatived the measure. 
 
 "It has too much hazard for my taste," said he, sport- 
 ively. "Your messenger will probably be caught by the 
 people, and as probably hanged; or, if he reach the camp, 
 he will be hanged there inevitably. Jewish credit, I re- 
 gret to say, will not stand high, within these twelve hours, 
 with my countrymen. If the fellow die here, like a wom- 
 an with a story in his mouth, you will all be brought 
 under the justice of your sovereign lord the mob. If my 
 countrymen inflict the axe, you are not the safer, for 
 every peasant about the camp is a spy, and the news will 
 travel here in the next half hour ; and, after all, your trou- 
 ble will be thrown away. Titus has good nature enough, 
 and probably would not wish to see me hoisted on the 
 top of a pike on your gates; but he is a furious discipli- 
 narian, swears by the law of honor and arms, and is, I can 
 
362 SALATHIEL. 
 
 well believe, chafing like a roused lion against every one 
 who has had a share in this day's business. I myself should 
 have a chance of hanging, for an example, if I returned 
 before his imperial displeasure had time to cool. So 1 
 must trespass on your hospitality for a day or two." 
 
 "But what is to be finally done?" said I. "The armis- 
 tice can never be tried again." 
 
 "Why not? Do you think that the loss of a few troop- 
 ers can make any difference? Out of twenty thousand 
 cavalry we can easily spare a hundred. Those things have 
 happened once a week since the beginning of the cam- 
 paign. They agree with our notions admirably. The 
 survivors get promotion; and whatever libation they may 
 offer for their good luck, it is certainly not tears. A stu- 
 pid officer, and on this occasion I fairly reckon myself 
 among the number, is taken off the muster-roll, before he 
 might have the opportunity of doing mischief, by some 
 blunder on a larger scale. Experience is gained; we are 
 entrapped no more, at least in the same way; and a group 
 of Unfortunates, who have spent half their lives in being 
 browbeat by their superiors, suddenly start into rank, be- 
 'come superiors themselves, and learn to browbeat in their 
 turn. You will have the armistice again in a week." 
 
 This confession of soldiership repelled me a little; but 
 its air of frankness, and disregard of chance and care, 
 carried it off showily. I too was but a peasant-soldier, 
 with my heart in everything. The man before me was a 
 son of the camp, the professional warrior, whose business 
 it was to stifle all feelings but those of the camp. Yet, 
 heroism and hard-heartedness ! I could not join them. 
 I had still something to learn ; and the gay philosopher of 
 the sword lost ground with me. 
 
 I was retiring for the night, when I felt the soft hand 
 of Miriam on my shoulder. "I have been anxious," she 
 said, "to ask your opinion about this Roman." Her fine 
 countenance, which reflected every emotion of her spirit 
 like a mirror, showed that the subject was one of deep 
 interest. "Is misfortune always to pursue us, Salathiel?" 
 "In what new shape now?" said I. "We have spent some 
 hours, as amusing as I ever remember. What can have 
 occurred since this morning, when your philosophy made so 
 light of our actual evils ?" "For external evils I have but 
 
SALATHIEL. 363 
 
 little feeling," was her answer; "but I see in the chance 
 that brought the Eoman here to-night something of the 
 fate which you have so often thought to follow your house. 
 I tremble for Esther's peace of mind. What if she should 
 be attracted by this idolater?" 
 
 "Esther! my darling Esther! love an alien? a Roman, 
 an idolater ? What an abyss you open before me !" I 
 exclaimed, with a sudden sense of evil. There was a pause ; 
 my wife again spoke. 
 
 "While Septimius remained among us, in the mountains, 
 I saw with terror that Esther's beauty attracted him. His 
 Italian elegance was even then a dangerous charm for a 
 mind so inexperienced and so sensitive as hers. I knew 
 the impossibility of their union, and rejoiced when his 
 recovery allowed of his leaving the palace. But, for a 
 long period after, Esther was evidently unhappy; her 
 cheerfulness gave way ; she became fonder of solitude ; and 
 I believe that nothing but extreme care, and the change 
 of scene which followed, preserved her from the grave." 
 
 "Miriam ! I have no comfort to offer. I am a stricken 
 man; misfortune must be my portion. But if anything 
 were to bereave me of that girl, I feel that my heart would 
 break. We must delay no longer. By the first light the 
 Roman shall quit this house this city. He shall not stay 
 another hour to poison the peace of my family; the only 
 peace that I now can possess in this world." 
 
 "Yet, rashness must not disgrace what is true wisdom, 
 my Salathiel. The Roman is here protected by the laws 
 of courtesy. You cannot send him forth without giving 
 him over to the horrid temper of the populace. A few 
 days may make that escape easy which would now be im- 
 possible. Besides, I may have done him injustice, and 
 mistaken the common pleasure of seeing unexpected friends 
 for the attempt to mislead the affections of our innocent 
 and ardent child." 
 
 "No ! By the first light he leaves this roof. The truth 
 glares on me. I might have seen it in his looks. His lan- 
 guage, however general, was perpetually directed to Esther 
 by some personal allusion. His voice lost its ease when 
 he answered a syllable of hers. After she spoke, he af- 
 fected abstraction an old artifice. His manner is too 
 well calculated to disturb the mind of woman and most 
 
364 SAL ATE I EL. 
 
 of all, of woman cursed with feeling and genius. Esther 
 has already imagined this showy stranger into a wonder ! 
 I must break the spell. What is to become of her? of 
 me ? man of misery ! By the first dawn the Roman takes 
 his departure." 
 
 In the bitterness of soul I turned from the chamber, 
 where the lamps still burning, and the glittering table, 
 looked too bright for the gloomy spirit of the hour. The 
 cool air that breathed through a casement led me towards 
 it; and, disinclined to speak, and holding Miriam's gentle 
 hand, I listened to the confused murmurs of the city far 
 below. I suddenly felt the hand in mine tremble con- 
 vulsively. Miriam's face was pale with fear; she stood 
 with lips apart and breathless, brows raised, eyes straining 
 upwards. In utter alarm I asked the cause. She lifted 
 the hand, which had fallen by her side, and slowly, like 
 the staff of the soothsayer, pointed it to the heavens. The 
 cause was there. The ominous sword had for the first 
 time met her eye. The blaze, which even in noonday was 
 fearfully visible, in midnight was tremendous. A blade 
 of the deepest hue of gore stretched to the horizon, pour- 
 ing from its edge perpetual showers of crimson flame, that 
 looked like showers of fresh blood. Boundless slaughter 
 was in the emblem. Beyond it the circle of the sky was 
 wan; the stars sickened; and the moon, though at the 
 full, hung like an orb of lead. The mighty falchion, the 
 pledge of an inevitable judgment, extinguished all the 
 beneficent splendors of heaven. 
 
 "There, there is the Sign that I have seen for months 
 in my dreams," said Miriam in an awed voice; "that has 
 haunted me when I laid my head upon the pillow; that 
 has been before my mind, in the day, wherever I moved ; 
 that I have seen coloring every object, ever/ moment of 
 my life since I entered these fated walls. I have strug- 
 gled to drive away the horrid image; I have wept and 
 prayed. But it was where nothing could unfix it. It was 
 pictured on my soul; and with it came other images, 
 fearful, though they brought me no terrors; melancholy 
 sights to those who have no hope but here, yet glorious to 
 the servants of the truth, Salathiel. I have had warn- 
 ings. I must never leave the city of David." She knelt 
 in the deep prayer of the soul. 
 
SALATBIEL. 365 
 
 Her words came on me with the power of prophecy. 
 "King and protector of Israel I" I exclaimed, "is this to 
 be the suffering of thy people? On me let thy wrath be 
 done; but spare her who now kneels before thee. Are the 
 pure to be given into the hands of the merciless, and 
 thy children to be trampled as the ashes of the unholy ?" 
 
 My impatient voice caught Miriam's ear, and she rose 
 with a countenance beaming piety and love. 
 
 "Salathiel, we must not murmur. Even that sight of 
 awe, that terrible emblem, has taught me the selfishness 
 of my anxieties. What are our personal sorrows to the 
 weight of affliction figured in that instrument of supreme 
 justice? The woe of millions, the blood of a nation, the 
 ruin of the glorious Law, built by the hands of the Eternal, 
 for the good of mankind, are written in words of flame 
 before our eyes; and can I complain of the perils which 
 may fall to my share? Henceforth, my husband and my 
 love," and she threw herself into my willing arms, "you 
 shall never be disturbed with my sorrows; exercise your 
 own powerful understanding, guard against evil by your 
 talents and knowledge of life, as far as it can be guarded 
 against by man ; and beyond that cease to repine or fear. In 
 my supplication I have committed our darling child into 
 the hands of Him who sitteth on the circle of eternity !" 
 
 Quivering with every finer feeling of the heart, maternal 
 love, matron faith, and grateful adoration, she hung upon 
 my neck; until, as if a portion of her noble spirit had 
 passed into mine, I felt a confidence, and a consolation, 
 like her own. 
 
 CHAPTER LIV. 
 
 I WAS spared the ungraciousness of urging the young 
 soldier's departure ; for when I met him on the next morn- 
 ing his first topic was escape. He had been since daybreak 
 examining from my turrets the accessible passages of the 
 fortifications, and had even, by the help of a peasant, 
 despatched a letter to his friends, requesting either a for- 
 mal demand of his person from the Jews, or some private 
 effort to extricate him. 
 
 But this glow of society was transient. In the fall of 
 
366 
 
 his charger, he had been violently bruised. He now com- 
 plained of inward suffering, and his pallid face and feeble 
 words gave painful proof that he had much still to under- 
 go- 
 
 Three days passed thus drearily. At home I was sur- 
 rounded by sickness, or vexed by suspicion the worse 
 sickness of the mind. Septimius lay in his chamber, strug- 
 gling to laugh, talk and read away the heavy hours; and 
 finally, like all such stragglers, giving up the task in de- 
 spair. His thoughts were in the Roman camp. He pro- 
 fessed gratitude of the deepest nature, for the service that 
 I had done him now for the second time, "if saving so un- 
 important a life was a service either to him, or any one 
 else. Yet, he almost wished that he had been left where 
 he was found." 
 
 His voice then would sink, and he was evidently think- 
 ing of subjects near to his heart. 
 
 Then his soldiership would come again. "A man could 
 not finish his course better than among his gallant com- 
 rades; and with all his anxiety to return, he felt no trivial 
 concern as to the view which Titus might take of the 
 whole unfortunate affair. Of justice he was secure; but, 
 to be questioned for his military conduct, was in itself a 
 degradation. In short," said he, "on my sleepless couch 
 I have turned true penitent for the foolish curiosity which 
 prompted me to solicit the command of an escort, which 
 would have been, by right, put under the care of some 
 mere tribune." 
 
 I tried to cheer him, by saying that his had been only the 
 natural desire of an active mind, to see so singular a scene 
 as our city offered; or the honorable wish of a soldier to 
 be foremost wherever there was anything to be done. 
 
 "It was more than either," said he; "there was actual 
 illusion in the case. I now feel that I was practiced upon. 
 You know the strange concourse of all kinds of people that 
 follow a camp for all kinds of purposes plunderers, trad- 
 ers, and jugglers, crowding on our movements as regularly 
 as the vultures, and with nearly the same objects. For a 
 week past, I had found myself beset by an old gibbering 
 slave, of this class. Wherever I rode, the fellow was before 
 my eyes ; he contrived to mingle with my servants, and be- 
 came a sort of favorite, by selling them counterfeit rings 
 
SALATiiltiL 367 
 
 and gems, at ten times their value. The wretch was clever, 
 too; and as my tent-hours began to be disturbed by the 
 unusual gaiety of the listeners to his lies, I ordered him to 
 be flogged out of the lines. But twelve hours had not 
 passed before I found him gambolling again; and was 
 about to order the instant infliction of the discipline, when 
 he threw himself on the ground, and implored 'a moment 
 of my secret ear/ Conceive who the fellow was?" 
 
 "The impostor, who harangued in the square !" 
 
 "The very man. He told me that there were certain 
 contrivances on foot to bring me into disfavor with the 
 general; which I knew to be the fact. He gave me the 
 names of the parties, which I felt to be sufficiently prob- 
 able; and finished by saying, that having so long eaten of 
 my bread (a week), and enjoyed my liberality (the 
 scourge), he longed to show his gratitude by giving me an 
 opportunity of putting my enemies to silence on the spot. 
 This opportunity was, to solicit the command of the escort 
 required for the mission. How he gained his wisdom I 
 know not; but I took the advice, went at once to Titus, 
 found that an armistice was being debated in council, that 
 there was some difficulty in the choice of an officer for the 
 service (by no means likely to be a sinecure, in point of 
 either judgment or hazard), stepped forward, and, to the 
 surprise of everybody, disclaimed the privileges of my rank, 
 and insisted on marching at the head of this handful, this 
 outpost-guard, into the formidable city of Jerusalem." 
 
 "His object, of course," said I, "was your destruction. 
 I now see the cause of the harangue that roused the people ; 
 he was in the pay of the conspirators against you. Yet, his 
 appearance was striking; there was a vigor about his look 
 iind language, a fierce consciousness of power somewhere, 
 that distinguished him from his race. He came too, and 
 has disappeared, without my being able to discover whence 
 or whither." 
 
 "Oh, the commonest contrivance of his trade," was the 
 reply. "Those fellows always come and go in a cloud, if 
 they can. He was probably beside you half the day, before 
 and after. You saw how little he thought of the lance, that 
 I sent to bring out his hidden secrets. He doubtless wore 
 armor; otherwise, there would have been one juggler the 
 less in the world. The truth is, I have been duped, but I 
 
368 SALATHIEL. 
 
 have made up my mind to think nothing about the dupery. 
 The slave is certainly clever, perhaps to an extraordinary 
 degree a villain, undoubtedly, and of the first magnitude. 
 But he has the secret of the cabal against me: and that 
 secret makes him at once fit to be employed, and dangerous 
 to be provoked. The blow of the lance yesterday showed 
 him that I am not always to be trifled with. In fact, prince, 
 you might find it advantageous to employ him occasionally 
 yourself. It was he who conveyed my letter to the camp 
 this morning I" 
 
 My look probably expressed my dislike to this species 
 of envoy. 
 
 "You may rely on my honor," said the Roman, "not to 
 involve you in any of the fellow's inventions. Slippery as 
 he is, I have a hold on him too, that he will not venture to 
 shake off. And now, to let you into full confidence, I 
 expect him back this very night, when he will relieve your 
 city of an inhabitant unworthy of remaining among so 
 polished a people ; and your house, my prince, of an inmate 
 than whom none on earth can be more grateful for your 
 hospitality." 
 
 He concluded this mixture of levity, address, and frank- 
 ness, with a smile; and in a tone of elegance, that com- 
 pelled me to take it all on the more favorable side. But 
 against suffering the step of his strange emissary to pollute 
 the threshold in which I lived : I expressed my plain deter- 
 mination. 
 
 "For that too I have provided," said he. "My inter- 
 course with the reprobate is to take place at another quarter 
 of the city, as far as possible," and he laughed, "for rea- 
 sons equally of mine and yours, from this dwelling. I have 
 managed matters, so as not to compromise any of my 
 friends; and, to make my arrangements on that point still 
 more secure, may I express a wish that neither Constantius 
 nor any other person of your house may be acquainted with 
 my intention of leaving them, and, I may sincerely say, 
 leaving everything that could gratify my best feelings 
 this very evening." 
 
 This was an easy and graceful avoidance of the diffi- 
 culties which his longer residence threatened. I gave him 
 the promise of secrecy, cautioning him against reposing 
 any dangerous confidence in his emissary, of whom I had 
 
BALA'i'tilEL. 309 
 
 an irrepressible abhorrence; and was about to leave the 
 chamber, when he caught my hand, and said in unusual 
 emotion : 
 
 "Prince of Naphtali, I have but one word more to say. 
 You are a man of the world, and can make allowance for 
 the giddiness of human passions. Some of them are un- 
 controllable, or at least, which I have never learned to 
 control, and in me perhaps they belong to inferiority of 
 mind. But if, on my departure, you should hear calumnies 
 against me " 
 
 "Impossible, my young friend ; or, if I should, you may 
 rely on my giving the calumniators a very brief answer." 
 
 "Or, if even yourself should be disposed to think severely 
 of me, you know the circumstances under which a man of 
 birth and fortune must be placed in our profession." 
 
 "Fully; and am much more disposed to regret, than to 
 wonder at the consequences." 
 
 "If you should hear that I had been assailed in an evil 
 hour, by an unexpected temptation, which I had long 
 labored to resist; assailed by it under the most powerful 
 circumstances that ever yet tasked the human mind; cir- 
 cumstances to which, from the beginning of the world, 
 wisdom has been proverbially folly, and resolution weak- 
 ness; if it should have mastered my whole being, soul and 
 body; if I were willing to give up the brightest prospects 
 for its possession to hazard life, hope, honors " 
 
 The thought of Esther smote me. I started from him, 
 where he stood; with his fine head drooping like the An- 
 tinous, and his figure the very emblem of passionate de- 
 jection. "Roman, you are here as my guest; and as such 
 I have listened to you with patience until now. But if 
 any member of my family is concerned in what you say, I 
 demand, in the most distinct terms, that the subject shall 
 be mentioned no more. The daughters of Israel are sacred. 
 Never shall a child of mine wed with those who now lord 
 it over my country." 
 
 He spread his hands and eyes in the broadest astonish- 
 ment. "Prince, can it be possible that you have so totally 
 mistaken me ? My perplexities are of an entirely different 
 nature. The chain with which I am bound is not of roses, 
 but of iron ; a chain of invisible, yet stern influences, that 
 haunt my night, and even my day." His voice faltered, 
 
370 BALATHIEL. 
 
 and he turned away with a shudder, as from a visionary 
 tormentor. 
 
 "What ! has that man of desperate arts, if he be man, 
 involved you too in his net? Dares the impostor soar so 
 high !" 
 
 He clasped his hands. "You saw how he defied, how 
 he mocked me, how he spurned me, when my abhorrence 
 rose to the madness of attempting to strike him. I might 
 as well have flung the weapon at the clouds. You saw the 
 instinctive terror of my charger. That animal was cele- 
 brated in our whole cavalry for its bold, nay, fierce cour- 
 age. Yet, before the eye of that man of power and evil, 
 it cowered like a hare, and died of his glance. By him the 
 temptation has been offered ; of its nature I dare not speak ; 
 but it is dazzling, fearful, and must I feel it finally be 
 fatal/' 
 
 "Then cast it from you at once. Be a man a hero." 
 
 "It is hopeless I must be the victim; I am bound 
 irretrievably. Farewell, prince; we shall see each other 
 no more." 
 
 He flung himself upon the couch. I offered him assist- 
 ance, advice, consolation, in vain. The spirit of the soldier 
 was extinguished. The victim of fantastic illusion lay 
 before me. I left him to the care of the old domestics; 
 and when I closed the door, thought that I had closed the 
 door of the grave. 
 
 CHAPTER LV. 
 
 DURING this period the city presented the turbulent 
 aspect that must result from the concourse of vast warlike 
 multitudes, known only by hereditary bickerings. The 
 clansman of Judah looked down upon every human being, 
 and his countrymen among the rest. The Benjamite re- 
 torted it, boasted of the inheritance of David, and looked 
 down upon the men of the Galilees as rioters and plunder- 
 ers. These, too, had their objects of scorn; and the rem- 
 nants of Dan and Ephraim were held in merciless disdain, 
 as the descendants of rebels and idolaters. To deepen those 
 ancient feuds, were thrown in the mutual injuries of the 
 factions of John and Simon. Their leaders were now but 
 
SALATHlBL. 371 
 
 the shadow of what they had been; yet the memory of 
 their mischiefs survived, with a keenness aggravated by 
 the public discovery of the insignificance of the instru- 
 ments. 
 
 Genius in the tyrant offers the consolation, that if the 
 chain have galled us, it has been bound by a hand made for 
 supremacy. But the last misery of the slave is, to have 
 been bound by a creature even more contemptible than 
 himself; to have given to folly the homage due to talent; 
 to have stooped before the base, and trembled under the 
 feeble. 
 
 The obvious alarm of the enemy, who had now totally 
 withdrawn from the plain, and were occupied with raising 
 rampart on rampart round their several camps; the tri- 
 umph over the unfortunate troop ; and the excitement of a 
 crowd of pretended prophets and frantic visionaries, filled 
 the populace with every vanity of conquest. The constant 
 exclamation in the streets was, "Let us march to storm the 
 camps, and drive the idolater into the sea !" But the new 
 luxuries of the city were too congenial not to act as for- 
 midable rivals to the popular ambition. No leader ap- 
 peared; the boastings passed away; and the boiling tem- 
 perament of the warrior had time to run into the safer 
 channel of words and wine. 
 
 Still, one melancholy remembrancer was there. Through 
 the wildest festivity, through the groups of drinking, danc- 
 ing, bravadoing, and quarrelling, Sabat, the Ishmaelite, 
 moved, day after day, from dawn till evening, pouring out 
 his sentences of condemnation. Nothing could be more 
 singular, or more awful, than his figure, as the denouncer 
 of ruin hurried along, like a being denuded of all objects 
 in life but the one. The multitude, in their most extrava- 
 gant excesses, felt undissembled fear before him. I have 
 seen the most ferocious tumult stilled by the sound of his 
 portentous voice ; the dagger instantly sheathed ; the head 
 buried in the garment; the form often prostrate, until he 
 passed by. Where he went, the song of license was dumb ; 
 the dance ceased ; the cup fell from the hand ; and many 
 a lip of violence and blasphemy quivered with long-for- 
 gotten prayer. 
 
 How he sustained life none could tell. He was reduced 
 to the thinnest anatomy; his eye had the yellow glare of 
 
SALATBIEL. 
 
 blindness ; his once raven hair was of the whiteness of flax 
 he was an animated corpse. But he strode onward with 
 a force which, if few attempted to resist, none seemed able 
 to withstand; his gestures were rapid and nervous in an 
 extraordinary degree, and his voice was overwhelming. It 
 had the rush and volume of a powerful blast. Even in 
 the clamor of the day, through the innumerable voices of 
 the streets, it was audible from the remotest quarters of 
 the city. I heard it through the tread and shouts of fifty 
 thousand marching men. But, in twilight and silence, the 
 eternal, "Woe ! woe ! woe !" howled along the air, with 
 a sound that told of nothing human. 
 
 His unfortunate bride still followed him ; never uttering 
 a word, never looking, but on him. She glided along with 
 him in his swiftest course, as bound by a spell to wander 
 where he wandered, an unconscious slave ; her form almost 
 a shadow ; without a sound, a gesture, or a glance ; her feet 
 alone moved. 
 
 I often attempted to render this undone pair some as- 
 sistance. Sabat recognized me, and returned brief thanks ; 
 and perhaps I was the only man in Jerusalem to whom he 
 vouchsafed either thanks or memory. But he uniformly 
 refused aid of every kind, and, reproaching himself for 
 the moment given to human recollections, burst away, and 
 again began his denunciation of ''Woe woe ! woe !" 
 
 The hope of treaty with the besiegers was now nearly 
 desperate; yet I felt so deeply the ruin that must follow 
 protracted war, that I had labored with incessant anxiety 
 to bring the people to a sense of their situation. My name 
 was high; my decided refusal of all command gave me an 
 influence which threw more grasping ambition into the 
 shade; and the leading men of Jerusalem were glad to 
 delegate their power to me, with the double object of 
 relieving themselves from an effort to which they were 
 unequal, and from a responsibility, under which even their 
 covetousness had begun to tremble. 
 
 But Jerusalem was not to be saved ; there was an op- 
 posing fatality an irresistible, intangible power, arrayed 
 against all efforts. I felt it at my first step. If I had 
 been treading on a volcano, and heard it roar under me, I 
 could not have been made more sensible of the hollownop?, 
 and hopelessness, of everv effort to save the nation. In the 
 
SALATHIEL. 373 
 
 midst of our most according council, some luckless impedi- 
 ment was sure to start up. While we seemed on the verge 
 of conciliating and securing the most important interests, 
 to that verge we were suddenly forbidden all approach. 
 Communications, actually commenced with the Eoman gen- 
 eral, and which promised the most certain results, were 
 hroken off, none could tell how. There was an antagonist 
 somewhere, but beyond our grasp; a hostility as powerful, 
 as constant, and as little capable of being counteracted, as 
 the hostility of the plague. 
 
 After my final conversation with Septimius, I had spent 
 the day in one of those perplexing deliberations, and was 
 returning with a weary heart, when, in an obscure street 
 leading into the Upper City, I was roused from my reverie 
 by the sound of one of our mountain songs. Music has 
 ibeen among my chief solaces through existence, and the 
 song of Naphtali, in that moment of depression, keenly 
 moved me. I stopped to listen in front of the minstrel's 
 tent, in which a circle of soldiers and shepherds from the 
 Galilees were sitting over their cups. His skill deserved 
 a higher audience. He touched his little harp with elegance 
 to a voice that reminded me of the sportiveness and wild 
 melody of a bird in spring. The moonlight shone through 
 the tent: and, as the boy sat under its large white folds 
 in the fantastic dress of his art a loose vermilion robe, 
 helted with sparkling stones, and turban of yellow silk, that 
 drooped upon his shoulder like a golden pinion, he resem- 
 hled the Persian pictures of the Peri embosomed in the 
 bell of the lily. The rude and dark-featured listeners 
 round him might well have sat for the swart demons sub- 
 missive to his will. 
 
 But thoughts soon returned that were not to be soothed 
 hy music ; and, throwing some pieces of money to the boy, 
 I hastened on. The departure of the young Roman, and 
 the influence that it might have on my family, and pecu- 
 liarly on the mind of a creature doubly endeared to me by a 
 strange and melancholy similitude to the temper of my 
 own excitable mind, deeply occupied me; and it was even 
 with some presentiment of evil that I reached home. 
 
 The first sound that I heard was the lamentation of the 
 old domestics. But I could not wait to solve their unin- 
 telligible attempts to explain the disaster. I flew to my 
 
374 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 family. Miriam was absorbed in profound sorrow ; Salome 
 was in loud affliction. Dreading everything that could be 
 told me, yet with that sullen hardihood which long mis- 
 fortune gives, I took my wife's hands, and, in a voice strug- 
 gling for composure, desired her to tell me the worst at 
 once. 
 
 "Esther is gone !" was her answer. She could articulate 
 no more; the effort to speak this shook her whole frame. 
 But Salome broke out into loud reprobation of the base- 
 ness of the wretch who had turned our hospitality into a 
 snare; and whose life, twice saved, was employed only to 
 bring misery on his preserver. 
 
 The blow fell upon me with the keenness of a sword. 
 "Was Esther, was my daughter, my innocent, darling 
 Esther, consenting to this flight?" 
 
 "I know not," said Miriam. "I dare not ask myself the 
 question. If she can have forgotten her duty, to follow the 
 stranger; if she can have left her parents; no; it must 
 have been through some horrid artifice. But the thought 
 is too bitter. Eaise no more such thoughts in my mind." 
 
 She sank in silence. But Salome was not to be re- 
 strained. She asserted the total impossibility of Esther's 
 having thrown off her allegiance to religion and filial duty. 
 "She must have been either," said this generous and en- 
 thusiastic being, "subjected to those dreadful arts in which 
 the idolaters deal, or carried away by force. Constantius 
 has gone already in search of her ; feeble as he is, he deter- 
 mined to discover the robber; and though his steps were 
 weak, and the effort may hazard his life, he would not be 
 restrained, nor would I restrain him where I should have 
 so mucji rejoiced to hazard my own." 
 
 I rose to depart. Miriam clung to me. "Must I lose 
 all, Salathiel?" 
 
 "I am the guilty one, wife! I should have guarded 
 against this. I alone am to blame. I will recover Esther. 
 Without her we all should be miserable. The Koman 
 general is just. I will demand her of Septimius in his 
 presence. Miriam ! you shall see your child. Salome ! you 
 shall see your sister. And now, come to my heart come 
 both ; my last hope of happiness, the remnant of all that 
 once promised to fill my declining days with peace and 
 prosperity. Weep no more, Miriam! Salome! I must not 
 
SALATHIEL. 375 
 
 be unmanned at this time of trial. Go to your chambers, 
 and pray for me Farewell \" 
 
 It was nearly midnight, and the city sounds were hushed, 
 except where the crowds, which still poured in, struggled 
 for their quarters. The very fear of being thus disturbed 
 kept up the disturbance of the population; and in the 
 leading avenues the tents showed fierce watchers against 
 this violence sitting round their tables, until wine either 
 sent them to sleep, or roused them into daggers-drawing. 
 Subordination was now at an end ; plunder and blood were 
 to be dreaded by every man who ventured among those 
 champions of freedom and prosperity ; and more than once 
 this night I was compelled to show that I wore a weapon. 
 
 Yet the disorder which left the city a seat of dissolute 
 riot was not suffered to interfere with its actual defence. 
 That singular mixture of rabble giddiness and sacred care 
 which distinguished my countrymen above all nations was 
 fully displayed in those final hours, and the walls that in- 
 closed a million of rioters and robbers weie guarded with 
 the solemn vigilance of a sanctuary. 
 
 No argument could prevail with the peasantry at the 
 gates to let me pass. My rank and even my public name 
 went for little in the scale against the possibility of my 
 renewing the treaty with an enemy whom they now scorned, 
 and I was doubting whether I must not lose the night by 
 the reluctance of those rough but honest sentinels, when 
 I was cheered by seeing one of the head men of their tribe 
 arrive. He had been a furious partisan; honor and hon- 
 esty were his declared worship; and his horror of humbler 
 motives was fierceness itself. This was enough for me. 
 1 knew what public vehemence rneans. I took him aside, 
 without ceremony put gold into his grasp, and saw the 
 gate thrown open before rne by the immaculate hand of the 
 patriotic Jonathan. 
 
 While I had scarcely congratulated myself on having 
 passed this formidable barrier, and was still within the 
 defences, the trampling of horse echoed on the road. The 
 rngiit was clear, and there was no hope of avoiding them. 
 A large body of Idumean horsemen came on, escorting 
 waggons of provisions. The foremost riders were half 
 asleep, and I was in strong hope of eluding them all, when 
 one of the drivers, in the wantonness of authority, laid his 
 
376 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 whip on me. I rashly returned the blow, and the man fell 
 off his horse. I was surrounded, charged with murder; 
 was brought before their chieftain, and found that chieftain 
 Onias ! 
 
 My old enemy recognized me instantly, and with undy- 
 ing revenge firing every feature, demanded whither I was 
 going. 
 
 "To the Roman camp," was the direct answer. 
 
 "The purpose?" 
 
 "To have an interview with the Roman general." 
 
 "You come, deputed by the authorities!" 
 
 "By not one of them." 
 
 "I long ago knew you to be a daring fellow, but you 
 exceed my opinion. We cannot spare heroes from Jeru- 
 salem at this time; you must turn back with us." 
 
 "By what right ?" ' 
 
 "By the right of the stronger." 
 
 ^With what object?" 
 
 "That you may be hanged as a deserter. It will save 
 you the trouble of going to Titus, to be hanged as a spy." 
 
 I disdained reply, and in the midst of a circle of barba- 
 rians exulting over their capture, as if they had taken the 
 chief enemy of the state, was marched back to the walls. 
 
 There, I was not the only person disturbed by the ad- 
 venture. The first glimpse of me caught by Jonathan 
 exhibited everything that could be ludicrous in the shape 
 of consternation. To the inquiries how I was suffered to 
 pass, he answered by an appeal to his "honor," which he 
 again valued, in my presence too, "as the most invaluable 
 possession of the citizen soldier." He said the words with- 
 out a blush, and I even listened to them without a smile. 
 He probably trembled a little for his bribe; but he soon 
 discovered by my look that I considered the money as too 
 far gone to be worth pursuing. 
 
 Yet Onias, who seemed to know him as well as I, fixed 
 on him a scrutinizing aspect, of all others the most hateful 
 to a delicate conscience, and his only resource was to heap 
 opprobrium upon me. "How I had contrived to escape the 
 guard," said Jonathan, "was totally inconceivable, unless it 
 
 was by " I gave him an .assuring glance "by imposing 
 
 on the credulity of some of the ignorant peasants ; possibly 
 even by direct corruption. But, to put the matter out of 
 
8ALATHIEL. 377 
 
 further possibility, he would proceed to examine the pris- 
 oner's person." 
 
 He proceeded accordingl}', and from my sash took my 
 purse, as a public precaution. He was a vigilant guardian 
 of the state, for the purse was never restored. 
 
 Onias looked at him, during his harangue, with a coun- 
 tenance between contempt and ridicule. 
 
 "I must go forward now," said he, "but, captain, see 
 to your prisoner. He must answer before the council to- 
 morrow, and as you have so worthily disabled him from 
 operations with the guard, your own head is answerable for 
 his safe keeping." My enemy, to make all sure, himself 
 saw me lodged within the tower over the gate, comforted his 
 soul by a parting promise that my time was come, and rode 
 off with his Idumeans to the boundless satisfaction of the 
 scrupulous and much-alarmed Jonathan. 
 
 The tower was massive, and there was no probability 
 that anything less than a Koman battering-ram would ever 
 lay open its solid sides. The captain had recovered his 
 virtue at the instant of my losing my purse, and I now 
 could no more dream of sapping his integrity than of sap- 
 ping the huge blocks of the tower. Whether I was to be 
 prisoner for the night, or for the siege, or to glut the axe 
 by morning, were questions which lay in the bosom of 
 as implacable a villain as long-delayed revenge ever made 
 malignant; but what was to become of my child, of my 
 family, of my share in the great cause, for which alone life 
 was of value? 
 
 The chamber to which I was consigned was at the top 
 of the tower, and overlooked a vast extent of country. 
 Before me were the Eoman camps, seen clearly in the moon- 
 light, and wrapped in silence, except when the solitary 
 trumpet sounded the watch, or the heavy tread of a troop 
 going its rounds was heard. The city sounds were but the 
 murmur of the sinking tide of the multitude. The spring 
 was in her glory. The air came fresh and sweet from the 
 fields. All was tranquillity ; yet what a mass of destructive 
 power was lying motionless under that tranquillity ! Fire, 
 sword, and man were before me elements of evil that a 
 touch could rouse into tempest, not to be allayed but by 
 torrents of blood and the ruin of empires. 
 
378 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 CHAPTER LVI. 
 
 WHILE my mind was wandering away in thoughts of the 
 madness of ambition in so brief a being as man, I heard a 
 loud clamor of voices in the chambers below. The rustic 
 guard had been enjoying themselves, but their wine was 
 already out, and they set their faces boldly against the dis- 
 cipline which pretended to limit the wine of patriots so 
 true and thirsty. The clamor arose from the discovery that 
 the cellars of the tower had been examined by a previous 
 guard, who provided for the temperance of their success- 
 ors by taking the whole temptation to themselves. High 
 words followed between the abettors of discipline and the 
 partisans of the vintage; and if my door were but un- 
 barred, I might have expeditiously relieved the captain of 
 his charge. But its bolts were enormous, and I tried them 
 in vain. As I was giving up the effort, a light footstep 
 ascended the stairs ; a key turned in the ponderous wards, 
 and the minstrel of the tent stood before me. 
 
 "If you wish to escape from certain death," he whis- 
 pered, "do as I bid you." He looked from the casement, 
 sang a few notes, and, on being answered from without, 
 pulled up a rope, which we hauled in together. The task 
 v as of some difficulty, but at length a weighty basket ap- 
 peared, loaded with wine. He took a portion of the con- 
 traband freight in his hands, and without a word disap- 
 peared. I heard his welcome proclaimed below with loud 
 applause. Half the guard were instantly on the stairs to 
 assist him down with the remainder; but against this he 
 firmly protested, and threatened, in case of a single at- 
 tempt to interfere with his operations, that he would awake 
 the captain, and publicly give back this incomparable pri- 
 vate store to the legitimate hand. The threat was effect- 
 ive; the unlading of the basket was left to his own dex- 
 terity, and at length but one solitary flask lay before us. 
 
 "You deserve some payment for your trouble," said he, 
 with Ihe careless and jovial air of his brethren. "Here's 
 to jour night's enterprise, whatever it be," pouring out a 
 few d^ops and tasting them, while he gave a large draught 
 tc my feverish lips. "And now, good-night, my prince, 
 unless you love the tower too much to take leave of thig 
 gallant guard by a window." 
 
SALATHIEL. 379 
 
 "But, boy, if you should be detected in assisting my 
 escape ?" 
 
 "I have no fear of that," said he. "I have been detected 
 in all sorts of frolics in my time, and yet here I am. The 
 truth is, my prince, I have travelled in your country, and 
 have an old honor for your name. No later than to-day 
 you gave me the handsomest present I have got since I 
 came within the walls. I know the noble captain of the 
 guard to be a thorough knave, and the mighty Onias to 
 want nothing for wickedness but the opportunity ; in short, 
 the thought occurred to me, on seeing you, to help the 
 honest revellers below to a little more wine than was good 
 for their understandings, the contraband being a com- 
 modity in which, between ourselves, I deal; and further, 
 to break the laws by assisting you to leave captain, senti- 
 nels, and all behind." 
 
 I asked what was to be done. "If you value your life, 
 be the substitute for the empty flasks, and make your way 
 through the air like a bird. I shall be safe enough. You 
 need have no fears for me." 
 
 I coiled the rope round a beam, forced myself through 
 the narrow casement, and launched out into air, at a 
 height of a hundred feet. If I felt any distrust, it was; 
 brief. I was rapidly lowered down, passing the successive- 
 casements, in which I saw the successive watches of the: 
 guard drinking, sleeping, singing, and discussing public- 
 affairs with village rationality. Luckily, no eye turned. 
 upon the fugitive, and the ground was touched at last. 
 
 In another moment the minstrel came, rather flying than- 
 eliding, down the rope. I said something in acknowledg- 
 ment of this service; but he laid his finger on his lip, and 
 pointing to the rampart, where a moving torch showed me 
 that we were still within observation, led on through paths 
 beset with thickets that no eye could penetrate, but, as he 
 laughingly said, "that of a supplier of garrisons with con- 
 traband." But their intricacy offered no obstruction to 
 this stripling: and, after amusing himself with my per- 
 plexities, he led me to the verge of the plain. 
 
 "I have detained you," said he, "in these brambles for 
 the double purpose of avoiding the look-out from the bat- 
 tlements, and of giving the moon time to hide her blush- 
 ing beauties." She lay reddening with the mists on the. 
 
380 SALATHIEL. 
 
 horizon. "She has been often called our mother, and, a? 
 her children, the minstrels are allowed the privilege of 
 keeping later hours and being madder than the mob of 
 mankind. But like other children, we are sometini* 
 gaged in matters which would dispense with the maternal 
 eye; and to-night I wished that she was many a fathom 
 below the ocean. Mother," said he, throwing himself into 
 an attitude, "take a child's blessing, and begone." The 
 words were spoken to a touch on his little harp rambling, 
 but singularly sweet. "Do you know," said he, with a 
 sigh, as he turned and saw me gazing in admiration of 
 his skill, "I am weary to death of my profession." 
 
 "Then why not leave it? you are fit for better things; 
 your skill is of the very nature that makes its way in the 
 world." 
 
 "Why not leave it? For a hundred reasons. In the first 
 place, I should be more wearied of every other. I should 
 be the bird in the cage, fed, sheltered, and possibly a 
 favorite. But what bird would not rather take the chance 
 of the open air, even to be scorched by the summer and 
 frozen by the winter? No; let me clap my pinions, and 
 sing my song under the free canopy of the skies; or be 
 voiceless, and wingless, and dead." 
 
 He hung his head over the harp, and let his fingers 
 stray among the strings. The moon was now touching the 
 mountains. "We must be gone," said I. "I owe you 
 something for your night's service, which shall be repaid 
 by taking you into my household, should the siege be 
 raised ; if not, you are but as you were." 
 
 He was all nervous excitement at the offer, wept, 
 laughed, danced, rang a prelude upon the strings, kissed 
 my hand, and finally bounded away before me. I called 
 to him, repeating my wish that he should go no further. 
 
 "Impossible," said he ; "you would be lost in a moment. 
 If I had not crossed the ground hundreds of times, I 
 should never be able to find my road. Half a mile forward, 
 ii, is all rampart, trench, and ravine. You would be 
 stopped by a myriad of sentinels. Nothing on earth could 
 get to the foot of vonder hills, but an armv or a min- 
 strel." 
 
 He ran on before me, and ran with a rapidity that tasked 
 even my foot to follow. We soon came into the fortified 
 
SALATHIEL. 381 
 
 ground, and I then felt his value. He led me Over fosse 
 and rampart, up the scarp and through the palisade, with 
 the sagacity of instinct. But this was not all. I re- 
 peatedly saw the sentinels within a few feet of us, and 
 expected to be challenged every moment; but not a syl- 
 lable was heard. I passed, with patrols of the legionary 
 horse on either side of me; still not a word. I walked 
 through the rows of tents, in which the troops were pre- 
 paring for the duties of the morning. Not an eye fell upon 
 me; and I almost began to believe myself, like a hero of 
 the heathen fables, covered with a cloud. 
 
 The boy still continued racing along, until, on reach-- 
 ing the summit of a mound at some distance in front of 
 me, he uttered a cry and fell. I had heard no challenge; 
 and hurried towards him. A flight of arrows whizzed 
 over my head; and the black visages of a mob of Ethio- 
 pian riders came, bouncing up a hollow between us. It 
 was not my purpose to fight, even if I had any hope of 
 success against marksmen who could hit an elephant's 
 eye. I surrendered in every language of which I was 
 capable. But the Ethiopians only shook their woolly 
 heads, laid hands on me, and began an investigation of 
 my riches, creditable to polished society. Barbarians, with 
 a tongue and physiognomy worthy only of their kindred 
 baboons, probed every plait of my garments, with an 
 accuracy that could have been surpassed only in the most 
 civilized custom-houses of the empire. A succession of 
 shrieks, which I mistook for rage, but which were the 
 mirth of those sons of darkness, were the prelude to meas- 
 ures which augured more formidable consequences. A rope 
 was thrown over my arms, and I was led towards the out- 
 posts. 
 
 Yet even the neighborhood of their Eoman friends did 
 not seem the most congenial to my captors. More than 
 one consultation was held, in which their white teeth were 
 bared to the jaw with rage, and their scimitars were 
 whirled like so many flashes of lightning about each 
 other's turbans, before they could decide whether my 
 throat was to be cut on the spot, to get rid of an incum- 
 brance: or they were to try how far the emptiness of my 
 purse might not be made up by the reward for the cap- 
 ture of a spy, in the trappings of a chieftain. 
 
SAL ATE I EL. 
 
 I gave up remonstrance, where, if I had all the tongues' 
 of Babel, none of them seemed likely to answer my pur- 
 pose; and reserving the nice distinction between an am- 
 bassador and a spy for more cultivated ears, quietly walked 
 onward in the midst of this troop of thieves ; the more in- 
 sensible to honesty or argument, as they were privileged 
 according to law. But our approach to the camp bred an- 
 other difficulty. The troop felt an obvious disinclination 
 to come too close to the legionaries. Untutored as the 
 negroes were, they had acquired a knowledge of the official 
 conscience; and they bowed to the mastery of the white in 
 plunder, as among the accomplishments of an advanced 
 
 age 
 
 All could not venture to the camp; yet, who was to be 
 intrusted with receiving the reward? The discussion was 
 carried on chiefly by gesture, which sometimes proceeded to 
 blows; and at last was wound up to such vigor that a 
 brawny ruffian, to preserve the peace, seized the rope, and 
 dragging me out of the circle, began sharpening his scimi- 
 tar, to extinguish the controversy. But, at the instant a 
 horrid outcry arose; and a figure, hideous beyond concep- 
 tion, not a foot high, blacker than the blackest, and dart- 
 ing flames from its mouth, bounded in among us, mounted 
 upon a wild beast of a horse that kicked and tore at every- 
 thing. The Ethiopians shrieked with terror, and scattered 
 on all sides at the first shock; but the ground was so cut 
 up by the military operations, that they stumbled at every 
 step; some were unhorsed; some probably had their necks 
 broken, and others carried home the tale, to spread it 
 through the land of lions. I heard it long after, exciting 
 the utmost amaze in a venerable circle, round one of the 
 fountains of the Nile. 
 
 I was now saved from being thus summarily made the 
 victim of peace, but was as far as ever from freedom. 
 While I was endeavoring to loose the rope, a patrol of the 
 legionary horse came galloping from the camp; and I was 
 seized, with this badge of a bad character upon me. But 
 the flying negroes were the more amusing object. There 
 was just light enough to see them rolling about the plain ; 
 turbans flying off in the air ; and the few riders, who could 
 boast of keeping their seats, whirled away over brake and 
 brier, at the mercy of their frightened horses. This dis- 
 
&ALATHIEL. 383 
 
 play, which had been, at first, taken for the prelude to an 
 assault on the lines, was now a source of pleasantry; and 
 the horsemanship of the savages was honored with many 
 a roar. 
 
 My case came next under consideration. "I was found 
 at the edge of the Eoman entrenchments, where to be 
 found was to die; I was besides taken with the mark of 
 reprobation upon me." I pleaded my own merits loudly, 
 and appealed to the rope as evidence that I was not there 
 by my own will. The legionaries were better soldiers than 
 logicians, and my defence perplexed them : until some pro- 
 founder one thought of inquiring what brought me there 
 at all. The troop flocked round to hear my answer to 
 this overwhelming question. I told my purpose in a few 
 words. The scale again turned in my favor, and I began 
 to think victory secure, when a young standard-bearer, 
 who was probably destined to rise in the state, declared, 
 with a splenetic tongue and brow of office, that "in this 
 land of cheating, too much precaution could not be adopted 
 against cheats of all colors; that the more plausible my 
 story was, the more likely it was to be a falsehood; and 
 finally, that as my escape might do some kind of mischief, 
 while my hanging could do none whatever, it was ad- 
 visable to hang me without delay/' 
 
 The orator spoke the words of popularity; and my fate 
 was sealed. But a new difficulty arose. By whom was the 
 sentence to be put in execution; for the duty would have 
 sullied the legionary honor for life. A trampled African, 
 who lay groaning in a ditch beside me, caught the sound 
 of the debate, dragged himself out, and offered, mangled 
 a;- he was, to perform the office for any sum that their gen- 
 erosity might think proper to give. Never was man nearer 
 to paying the grand debt, than I was at that moment. The 
 African recovered his vigor as by magic; and the young 
 statesman took upon himself the superintendence of this 
 service to his country. I raised my voice loudly against 
 this violence to a "negotiator;" but the troopers of the 
 Imperial horse had been roused from their sleep on my 
 account, and they were not to return, liable to the ridicule 
 of having been roused by a false alarm. I still endeavored 
 to put off the evil hour, when the tramping of a large body 
 of cavalry was heard. "The general I" exclaimed the 
 
384 8ALATBIEL. 
 
 young officer, who evidently had an instinctive sensibility 
 to the approach of rank. 
 
 "Let Titus come," said I, "or any man of honor, and he 
 will understand me." I tore the badge of disgrace from my 
 arms, and stepped forward to meet the great son of Ves- 
 pasian. My confidence alarmed the troop, and the stand- 
 ard-bearer made way for the man who dared to speak to 
 the heir of the throne. But the general was not Titus; a 
 broad, brutal countenance, red with excess, glared haught- 
 ily round. I recognized Cestius: a whisper from one of 
 the officers put him in possession of the circumstances, and 
 he rode up to me. "So, rebel ! you are come to this at 
 last ! You have been taken in the fact, and must undergo 
 your natural fate." 
 
 "I demand to be led to your general. I scorn to defend 
 myself before inferiors." 
 
 "Inferiors !" he bit his vivid lip. "Traitor, you are not 
 now on the hill of Scopas, at the head of an army." 
 
 "Nor you," said I, "on the plain, at the bead of an 
 army; and so much the more fortunate for both you and 
 them. But I scorn to talk to men whose backs I have seen. 
 Lead me to your master, fugitive !" 
 
 The troops, unaccustomed to this plain speaking, looked 
 on with wonder. Cestius himself was staggered; but the 
 nature of the man soon returned ; and in a voice of fury 
 he ordered a body of Arab archers, who were seen moving at 
 a distance, to be brought up for the extinction of a 
 "traitor unworthy of a Eoman sword." The Arabs, ex- 
 hilarated at the prospect of employment, came up,, shout- 
 ing, tossing their lances, and shooting their arrows. As a 
 last resource, I solemnly protested against this murder, 
 which I pronounced to be the work of a revenge disgrace- 
 ful to the name of soldier; and, taunting Cestius with his 
 defeat, demanded that, if he doubted my honor, he should 
 try, on the spot, "which of our swords was the better." 
 
 He answered only by a glare of rage, and a gesture to 
 the archers, who instantly threw themselves into a half- 
 circle round me, with the expertness of proficients in the 
 trade of justice, and bended their bows. Determined to re- 
 sist to the last, I flung out upbraidings and scorn upon the 
 murderer, which drove him to hide his head behind the 
 troops. Another disturbance arose. Scimitars waved, tur- 
 
SALATHIEL. 385 
 
 bans shook, horses plunged; the deep order was broken; 
 and at length a horseman, magnificently apparelled and 
 mounted, burst into the ring, and looked fiercely round. 
 
 "What, you miscreants," he shouted, "who dares to take 
 the command out of my hands; down with your bows. 
 Commit murder, and I not present ! The first man that 
 pulls a string shall leave an empty saddle. Draw off, cut- 
 throats, or if you want to do the world a service, shoot 
 one another." 
 
 I seemed to remember the voice; but I gazed in vain 
 on the splendid figure. The turban that, blazing with gems, 
 hung down on his forehead, and the beard that, black as 
 the raven's wing, curled full round his lip, completely 
 baffled me. He looked at me in turn, thrust out a sinewy 
 hand, and, clasping mine, exclaimed with a loud laugh : 
 
 "Prince, does the plumage make you forget the bird? 
 What can have brought you into the hands of my culprits ? 
 I thought that you were drowned, burned, or a candidate 
 for the imperial diadem by this time." 
 
 I now knew him. "My friend of the free trade!" said 
 I, in a low tone. 
 
 He spoke in a fearless one. "By no means. I have re- 
 formed am a changed man captain of the seas no more ; 
 but a loyal plunderer in the service of Vespasian, and 
 in command of a thousand Arab cavalry, that will ride, 
 run away, and rob, with any corps in the service; and the 
 word is a bold one." 
 
 Our brief conference was broken up by the return of 
 Cestius, who, outrageous at the delay, and coming to in- 
 quire the cause, found fresh fuel for his wrath in the sight 
 of the Arab captain, turned into my protector. With an 
 execration, he demanded, "why his orders had been dis- 
 obeyed." The captain answered, with the most provoking 
 coolness, that "no Roman officer, let his rank be what it 
 might, was entitled to degrade the allies into execution- 
 ers." The Roman grew furious with the slight in the face 
 of the troops, who highly enjoyed it. The Arab grew more 
 sarcastic; till Cestius was rash enough to lift his hand, 
 and the Arab anticipated the blow, by dashing his charger 
 at him, and leaving the general and his horse struggling 
 together on the ground. An insult of this kind to the 
 second in command was, of course, not to be forgiven. The 
 
886 SALATHIEL. 
 
 Arabs bent their bows to make battle for their captain, 
 but he forbade resistance; and when the legionary tribune 
 demanded his sword, he surrendered it with a smile, say- 
 ing, that "he had done service enough for one day, in 
 saving an honest man, and punishing a ruffian," and that 
 he should justify himself to Titus alone. 
 
 My fate was still undetermined. But the legionaries 
 soon had more pressing matters to think of. The clangor 
 of horns and shouts came in the direction of the city. The 
 plain still lay in shade; but I could see through the dusk 
 immense crowds moving forward, like an inundation. The 
 legions were instantly under arms, and I stood a chance of 
 being walked over by two armies ! 
 
 But I was not to encounter so distinguished a catas- 
 trophe. Some symptoms of my inclination to escape at- 
 tracted the eye of the guard, and I was marched to the 
 common repository of malefactors, in the rear of the lines. 
 
 CHAPTER LVII. 
 
 MY new quarters were within the walls of one of those 
 huge country mansions which the pride of our ancestors 
 had built, to be the plague of their posterity ; for those the 
 enemy chiefly employed for our prisons. Their solid 
 strength defied desultory attack; time made little other 
 impression on them than to picture their walls with in- 
 numerable stains ; and the man must be a practised prison- 
 breaker who could force his way out of their depths of 
 marble. But if my eyes were useless, my ears had their full 
 indulgence. Every sound of the conflict was heard. The 
 attack was furious, and must have often been close to the 
 walls of my dungeon. The various rallying-cries of the 
 tribes rang through its halls ; then a Roman shout, and tho 
 heavy charge of the cavalry would roll along; until, after 
 an encountering roar and a long clashing of weapons, the 
 tumult passed away, to be rapidly renewed by the obstinate 
 bravery of my unfortunate countrymen. 
 
 I felt as a man and a leader must feel during scenes in 
 which he ought to take a part, yet to which he was virtually 
 as dead as the sleeper in the tomb. My life had been 
 activity; my heart was in the cause; I had knowledge, 
 
BALATHIEL. 387 
 
 zeal and strength, that might, in the chances of battle, 
 turn the scale. I even often heard my name among the 
 charging cries of the day. But here I lay, within impass- 
 able barriers. A thousand times during those miserable 
 hours I measured their height with iny eye; then threw 
 myself on the ground, and, closing my ears with my 
 hands, labored to exclude thought from my soul. 
 
 But my fellow-prisoners were practical philosophers to a 
 man; untaught in the schools, 'tis true, yet fully trained 
 in that great academe, worth all that Philosophy ever 
 dreamed in experience. In all my wanderings through 
 mankind, I never before had so ample an opportunity of 
 studying variety of character. War is the hotbed that 
 urges all our qualities, good and evil, into their broadest 
 luxuriance. The generous become munificent; the mean 
 darken into the villainous; and the rude harden into bru- 
 tality. The camp is the great inn at which all the dubious 
 qualities set up their rest; and a single campaign perfects 
 the culprit to the height of his profession. There were 
 round me, in these immense halls, about five hundred 
 profligates, any one of whose histories would have been 
 invaluable to a scorner of human nature. 
 
 Among the loose armies of the East, those fellows exer- 
 cised their vocation as regular appendages; often lived in 
 luxury, and sometimes shot up into leaders themselves. 
 But robbery, in the Roman armies, required master-hands. 
 The temptation was strong, for the legionary was the grand 
 ravager; and, like the lion, he left the larger share of the 
 prey to the jackal. Yet justice, inexorable and rapid, was 
 his rule in all cases but his own ; and the jackal, sus- 
 pected of trespassing within the legitimate distance from 
 the superior savage, ran imminent hazard of being dis- 
 qualified for all encroachment to come. Three-fourths of 
 my associates had played this perilous game, and its pen- 
 alties were now awaiting only the first leisure of the troops. 
 Peace, at all times vexatious to their trade, had thus a 
 double disgust for them ; and the most patriotic son of 
 Israel could not have taken a more zealous interest in the 
 defeat of the legions. But philosophy still predominated ; 
 hope was at an end, hilarity took its place; and the prison 
 rang with reckless exhibitions of practical glee, riotous 
 :songs, and mockeries at rods and axes. In the idleness of 
 
388 SALATB1EL 
 
 the lingering hours, the professional talents of those sons 
 of chance were brought into play. The mimic collected 
 his audience, burlesqued the pompous officials of the army, 
 and gathered his pence and plaudits, as if he were under 
 the open sky, and could call his head his own. The nos- 
 trum-vender had his secrets for the cure of every ill, and 
 harangued on the impotence of brand, scourge, and blade, 
 if the patient had but the wisdom to employ his irresisti- 
 ble unguent. The soothsayer sold fate at the lowest price, 
 and fixed the casualties of the next f our-and-twenty hours ; 
 an easy task with the principal part of his audience. The 
 minstrel chanted the pleasures of a life unencumbered by 
 care or conscience; and the pilferer, with but an hour to 
 live, exercised his trade with an industry proportioned to 
 the shortness of his time. 
 
 In the whole gang, I met with but one man thoroughly 
 out of spirits. He had obviously been no favorite of for- 
 tune, for the human form could scarcely be less indebted 
 to clothing. His swarthy visage was doubly blackened by 
 hunger and exhaustion, and even his voice had a prison 
 sound. Driven away from the joyous groups, by the nat- 
 ural repulsion which the careless feel at visages that remind 
 them of trouble, he took refuge in the corner where I lay, 
 tormented by every echo of the battle. Not unwilling to for- 
 get the melancholy scenes in which every moment was 
 draining the last blood of my country, I turned to the 
 wretch beside me, and asked the cause of his groans. 
 
 "Ingratitude," was the reply. "This is a villainous 
 world ; a man may spend his life in serving others, and 
 what will he gain in the end? Nothing. There is, for in- 
 stance, the prince of Damascus wallowing in wealth ; yet 
 the greatest rogue under this roof has not a more pitiful 
 stock of honor. Witness his conduct to me. He was out 
 of favor with his uncle, the late prince; was not worth 
 more than the raiment on his limbs, and as likely to finish 
 his days on the gibbet as any of the knot of robbers that 
 helped him to scour the roads about Sidon. In his distress 
 he applied to me. I had driven a handsome share of the 
 free-trade between Egj^pt and the north, and now and then 
 gave him a handsome price for his booty. The idea of 
 bringing his uncle to terms was out of the question. I 
 named my price; it was allowed to be fair. I made my 
 
8ALATH1EL. 389 
 
 M*ay into the palace, was exalted to the honors of cup- 
 bearer, and on my first night of office gave the old man a 
 cup which cured him of drunkenness forever. And what 
 do you think was my reward?" 
 
 "I could name what it ought to have been." 
 
 "You conclude, half the old man's jewels, at the least. 
 No; not a stone not a shekel. 1 was thrown into chains, 
 and finally kicked out of the city, with a promise, the only 
 one that he will ever keep, that if I venture there again, 
 shall leave it without my head ! There's gratitude ! There's 
 honor for you !" 
 
 He had found a listener, and indulged his recollection; 
 after a variety of events, in which he cheated everybody, he 
 came to one that had some interest for myself. 
 
 "At last a showy adventurer changed the scene. Some 
 insult had stirred up his blood, and in revenge he sailed 
 away with the prefect's galley, and set up on his own ac- 
 count. Not a sail, from a shallop to a trireme, could touch 
 the water from the Cyclades to Cyprus without being over- 
 hauled by the captain. I was set by the prefect upon his 
 track, and got into his good graces by lending him a little 
 of my information; of which he made such desperate use, 
 that the Roman swore my destruction as a traitor. To 
 make up the quarrel, I tried a wider game, and was bring- 
 ing his fleet upon the pirates in their very nest, when ill- 
 luck came across me. A pair whom, to the last hour of my 
 life, nothing will persuade me to think anything but de- 
 mons sent expressly to do me mischief, spoiled one of the 
 finest inventions that ever came into the head of man. 
 
 "The consequence was that the pirates, instead of being- 
 attacked, burned the Roman's trireme round him, and 
 would have burned himself if he had not thought a watery 
 end better than a fiery one, leaped overboard, and gone 
 straight to the bottom. The whole blame fell upon me, 
 and my only payment was the cropping of my ears, and a 
 declaration, sworn to in the names of Romulus and Re- 
 mus, that if I ever ventured again within a Roman camp 
 or city, I should not get of! so well. Ingratitude again ! 
 never was man so unfortunate." 
 
 "Quite the contrary; it appears to me that seldom was 
 man so lucky. If one in a hundred would have your tale 
 to tell, not one in a thousand would have lived to tell it." 
 I had already recognized the Egyptian of the cavern. 
 
390 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 "But justice, honor!" 
 
 "Say no more about them. Whatever the Romans may 
 be in the matter of justice, your case is an answer to ail 
 charges on their mercy." 
 
 He looked at me with a ghastly grimace, and as he threw 
 back the long and squalid locks that covered his counte- 
 nance, showed what beggary had done to the sleek features 
 of the once superbly clothed and jewelled sea-rover. "But 
 what," said I, "threw a man of your virtue among such a 
 gang of caitiffs as are here?" 
 
 "Another instance of ingratitude. I had been for twenty 
 years connected with one of the leading men of Jerusalem, 
 and I will say, that in my experience of mankind, I have 
 known no individual less perplexed with weakness of con- 
 science. He had a difficult game to play, between th.? 
 liomans, whom he served privately, the Jews, whom he 
 served publicly, and himself, whom he served with at least 
 as much zeal as either of his employers. The times were 
 made for the success of a man who has his eyes open, and 
 suffers neither the fear of anything on earth, nor the hope 
 of anything after it, to shut them. He succeeded accord' 
 ingly ; got rid of some rivals by the dagger ; sent others to 
 the dungeon ; bribed where money would answer his pur^ 
 pose ; threatened where threats would be current coin ; and 
 by the practice of those natural means of rising in public 
 affairs, became the hope of a faction. But on his glory 
 there was one cloud the prince of Naphtali !" 
 
 I listened all ear. I had deeply known the early hostility 
 of Onias, but his devices were too tortuous for me to trace, 
 and until the past night I had lost sight of him for years. 
 I asked what cause of bitterness existed between those 
 personages. 
 
 "A hundred, as generally happens where the imagination 
 becomes a party, and the accuser is the judge. The prince, 
 in his youth, and before he attained his rank, had the 
 insolence to fall in love with the woman marked by Onias 
 for his own. He had the additional insolence to win her; 
 and the completion of his crimes was marriage. Onias 
 thenceforth swore his ruin. Public convulsions put off the 
 promise; and, while he was driven to his last struggle to 
 keep himself among the living, he had the angry indulgence 
 of seeing the young husband shoot up r without any trouble, 
 into rank, wealth' and renown." 
 
SALATH1EL. 391 
 
 "But has not time blunted his hostility ?" I asked. 
 
 "Time, as the proverb goes, blunts nothing but a man's 
 wit, his teeth, and his good intentions," said the knave, with 
 a sneer on his grim visage. "The next half of the proverb 
 is, that it sharpens wine, women, and wickedness. What 
 Onias may have been doing of late I can only guess; but, 
 unless he is changed by miracle, he has been dealing in 
 every villainous contrivance, from subordination to sorcery. 
 I had my own affairs to mind. But, unless Satan owes him 
 a grudge, he is now not far from his revenge." 
 
 I thought of our meeting at the city gates ; and, alarmed 
 at the chance of his discovering my family, anxiously asked 
 whether Onias had obtained any late knowledge of his 
 rival ? 
 
 "Of that I know but little," said he; "yet, quick as his 
 revenge may be, unless my honest employer manages with 
 more temper than usual, he will rue the hour when he set 
 foot on the track of the prince of Naphtali. If ever man 
 possessed the mastery of the spirits that our wizards pretend 
 to raise, the prince is that man. I myself have hunted him 
 for years, yet he always baffled me. I have laid traps for 
 him that nothing in human cunning could have escaped; 
 yet he broke through them as if they were spiders' webs. 
 I saw him sent to the thirstiest lover of blood that ever sat 
 on a throne. Yet he came back; ay, from the very clutch 
 of Nero. I maddened his friends against him, and he con- 
 trived to escape even from the malice of his friends : a mat- 
 ter which, you will own, is among the most memorable. I 
 had him plunged into a dungeon ; where I kept him alive, 
 for certain reasons, while Onias was to be kept to his bar- 
 gain by the prisoner's reappearance. Yet he escaped; and 
 my last intelligence of him is, that he is at this moment 
 living in pomp in Jerusalem, the spot where I have been for 
 the last month in close pursuit of him. Time, or some 
 marvellous power, must have disguised him. And yet, if I 
 were to meet him this night " 
 
 "Look on me, slave !" I exclaimed, and, grasping him by 
 the throat, unsheathed my dagger. "You have found him, 
 and to your cost. Villain ! it is to you then that I owe so 
 much misery. Make your peace with Heaven, if you can ; 
 for it would be a crime to suffer you to leave this spot 
 alive." 
 
392 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 He was dumb with terror. I held him with an iron 
 grasp. The thought that if he escaped me, it must be only 
 to let loose a murderer against my house, made me feel his 
 death an act of justice. 
 
 "Let me go," he at last muttered; "let me live; I am, 
 not fit to die. In the name of that Lord whom you wor- 
 ship, spare me !" He fell at my feet, in desperate and howl- 
 ing supplication. "You have not heard all; I have ab- 
 jured your enemy. Spare me, and I will swear to pass 
 my days in the desert ; never to come again before the face 
 of man; to lie upon the rock to live upon the weed to 
 drink of the pool, until I sink into the grave !" 
 
 I paused in disgust at the abject eagerness for life in a 
 wretch self-condemned! While I held the dagger before 
 him, his senses continued bound up by fear. He gazed 
 on it with an eye that quivered with every quivering of 
 the steel. With one hand he grasped my uplifted arm as 
 he knelt, and with the other gathered his rags round his 
 throat to cover it from the blow. His voice was lost in 
 horrid gaspings; his mouth was wide open and livid. I 
 sheathed the weapon, and his countenance instantly re- 
 turned into its old grimace. A ghastly smile grew upon it 
 as he now drew from his bosom a small packet. 
 
 "If you had put me to death," said the wretch, "you 
 would have lost your best friend. This packet contains a 
 correspondence for which Onias would give all that he is 
 worth in the world; and well he might, for the man who 
 has it in his hands has his life. The world is made up of 
 ingratitude. After all my services slandering here, plun- 
 dering there, hunting down his opponents in every direc- 
 tion, till they either put themselves out of the world, or 
 he saved them the trouble ; he had the baseness to throw me 
 off. At the head of his troops he kicked me from his horse's 
 side, ordering me to be turned loose ; 'to carry my treachery 
 to the Romans, if they should be fools enough to think me 
 worth the hire.' I took him at his word. I was watching 
 my opportunity to enter Jerusalem, and stab him to the 
 heart, when I was taken by some of the plunderers that 
 hover round the camp, and am now probably to suffer, for 
 the benefit of Roman morality, as a robber and assassin, as 
 soon as the legions shall have murdered every man and 
 robbed every mansion in Jerusalem." 
 
SALATHIEL. 393 
 
 The packet contained a correspondence of Onias with the 
 Romans. A sensation of triumph glowed through me I 
 held the fate of my implacable enemy in my hand. I could 
 now with a word strike to the earth the being whose arti- 
 fices and cruelties had waylaid me through life; and the 
 traitor to my country would perish by the same blow that 
 avenged my own wrongs. My nature was made for passion. 
 In love and hatred, in ambition, in revenge, my original 
 spirit knew no bounds. Time, sorrow, and the conviction 
 of my own outcast state, had partially softened those haz- 
 ardous impulses, and I found the value of adversity. Mis- 
 fortune comes with healing on its wings to the burning 
 temper of the heart, as the tempest comes to the arid soil : 
 it tears up the surface, but softens it for the seeds of the 
 nobler virtues; even in its feeblest work it cools the with- 
 ering and devouring heat for a time. I had yet to find 
 with what fatal rapidity the heart gives way to its old 
 overwhelming temptations. 
 
 "I spare your life," said I, "but on one condition that 
 you henceforth make Onias the constant object of your 
 vigilance; that you keep him from all injury to me and 
 mine; and that, when I shall seize him at last, you shall 
 be forthcoming to give public proof of his treachery." 
 
 "This sounds well," said the Egyptian, as he cast his 
 eyes round the lofty hall; "but it would sound better if 
 we were not on this side of the gate. All the talking in 
 the world will not sink these walls an inch, nor make that 
 gate turn on its hinges; though for that, and for every 
 other too, there is one master-key. Happy was the time" 
 and the fellow's sullen eye lighted up with the joy of 
 knavery "when I could walk through everv cabinet, cham- 
 ber and cell, from the emperor's palace in Rome down to 
 the emperor's dungeon in Cassarea." 
 
 I produced a few coins which I had been enabled to con- 
 ceal, and flung them into his clutch. The sum rekindled 
 life in him; avarice has its enthusiasts as well as super- 
 stition. He forgot danger, prison and even my dagger, 
 in the sight of his idol. He turned the coins to the light 
 in all possible ways ; he tried them with his teeth ; he tasted, 
 he kissed, he pressed them to his bosom. Never was lover 
 more rapturous than this last of human beings at the touch 
 of money, in the midst of wretchedness and ruin. His 
 
394 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 transports taught me a lesson ; and in that prison, and from 
 that slave of vice, I learned long to tremble at the power 
 of gold over the human mind. 
 
 It was past midnight, and the noise of the criminals 
 round me had already sunk away. The floor was strewed 
 with sleepers, and the only waking figure was the sentinel, 
 as he trod wearily along the passages, when the Egyptian, 
 desiring me to feign sleep, that his further operations 
 might not be embarrassed, drew himself along the ground 
 towards him. The soldier, a huge Dacian, covered with 
 beard and iron, and going his rounds with the insensibility 
 of a machine, all but trod upon the Egyptian, who lay 
 crouching and writhing before him. I saw the spear lifted 
 up and heard a growl that made me think my envoy's career 
 at an end in this world. He still lay on the ground, writh- 
 ing under the sentinel's foot, as a serpent might under the 
 paw of a lion. 
 
 I was about to spring up and interpose ; but his time was 
 not yet come. The spear hung in air, gradually turned its 
 point upwards, and finally resumed its seat of peace on the 
 Dacian's shoulder. That art of persuasion which speaks 
 to the palm, and whose language is of all nations, had 
 touched the son of Thrace; I heard the sound of the coin 
 on the marble; a few words arranged the details. The 
 sentinel discovered that his vigilance was required in an- 
 other direction, broke off his customary round, and walked 
 away. The Egyptian turned to me with a triumphant 
 smile on his hideous visage, the gate rolled on its hinge, 
 and he slipped out like a shadow. 
 
 At the instant my mind misgave me. I had put the fate 
 of my family into the hands of a slave, destitute of even 
 the pretence of principle. In my eagerness to save, might 
 I not have been delivering them up to their enemy? He 
 had sold Onias to me; might he not make his peace by 
 selling me to Onias? The gate was still open. A few 
 steps would put me beyond bondage. Yet I had come to 
 claim Esther. If I left the camp, what hope was there of 
 my ever seeing this child of my heart again? Would not 
 every hour of my life be embittered by the chance that she 
 might be suffering the miseries of a dungeon, or borne 
 away into a strange land, or dying, and calling on her 
 father for help in vain? 
 
SALATHIEL. 395 
 
 Those contending impulses passed through my mind 
 with the speed and almost with the agony of an arrow. 
 The more 1 thought of the Egyptian, the more I took his 
 treachery for certain. But the present ruin of all pre- 
 dominated over the possible sufferings of one ; and with 
 a heart throbbing almost to suffocation, and a step scarcely 
 able to move, I dragged myself towards the portal. 
 
 CHAPTEK LVIII. 
 
 BUT I was not to escape. As I reached the gate a loud 
 sound of trampling feet and many voices drove me back. 
 By that curious texture of the feelings which prefers 
 suffering to suspense, I was almost glad to have the ques- 
 tion decided for me by fortune, and flung myself on the 
 ground among a heap of the undone, who lay enjoying a 
 slumber that might be envied by thrones. In another mo- 
 ment, in burst a living mass of horror, a multitude of be- 
 ings in whom the human face and form were almost oblit- 
 erated; shapes gaunt with famine, black with dust, with- 
 ered with deadly fatigue, and covered with gashes and 
 gore. 
 
 The war had gone on from cruelty to cruelty. To the 
 Eoman, the Jew was a rebel, and he had a rebel's treat- 
 ment; to the Jew, the Eoman was a tyrant, and dearly 
 was the price of his tyranny exacted. Quarter was sel- 
 dom given on either side. The natural generosity of the 
 son of Vespasian had attempted, for a while, to soften this 
 furious system. But the slaughter of the mission exas- 
 perated him; he declared the Jews a people incapable of 
 faith, and proclaimed a war of extermination. The bat- 
 tle of the day had furnished the first opportunity of sweep- 
 ing vengeance. The people, stimulated by the arrival of 
 Onias, had made a desperate effort to force the Eoman 
 lines. The attacks were reiterated with more than valor 
 with rage and madness; the Jews fought with a disre- 
 gard of life that appalled and had nearly overwhelmed 
 even the Eoman steadiness. The loss of the legions was 
 formidable; all their chief officers were wounded, 
 many were killed. Titus himself, leading a column 
 from the Decuman gate of the camp, was wounded by a 
 
396 . SALATHIEL. 
 
 blow from a sling; and the state of its ramparts, as I 
 saw them at daybreak, torn down in immense breaches, 
 and filling up the ditch with their ruins, showed the im- 
 minent hazard of the whole army. Another hour of day- 
 light would probably have been its ruin. But Judea would 
 not have been the more secure, for the factions, relieved 
 from the presence of an enemy, would have torn each other 
 to pieces. 
 
 The loss of the Jews was so prodigious as to be ac- 
 counted for only by their eagerness to throw away life. 
 Not less than a hundred thousand corpses lay between the 
 camp and Jerusalem. No prisoners were taken on either 
 &ide> and the crowds that now approached were the wound- 
 ed, gathered off the field, to be crucified in memory of the 
 mission. The coming of those victims put an end to the 
 possibility or the desire of sleep. The immense and gloomy 
 hall, one of those in use for the stately banquets customary 
 among the leaders of Jerusalem, was suddenly a blaze of 
 torches. The malefactors and captives were thrown to- 
 gether in heaps, guarded by strong detachments of spear- 
 men that lined the sides, like ranges of iron statues, over- 
 looking the mixed and moving confusion of wretched life 
 between. Guilt, sorrow, and shame were there in their 
 dreadful undisguise. The roof rang to oaths and screams 
 of pain, as the wounded tossed and rolled upon each oth- 
 er; to bitter lamentation, and, more bitter still, to those 
 self-accusing outcries which the near approach of violent 
 death sometimes awakens in the most daring criminals. 
 For, stern as the justice was, it still was justice; the Jew- 
 ish character had fearfully changed. Rapine and blood- 
 shed had become the habits of the populace; and among 
 the panting and quivering wretches before me, begging a 
 moment of life, I recognized many a face that, seen in 
 Jerusalem, was the sign of plunder and massacre. 
 
 Repulsive as my recollections were, I spent the greater 
 part of the night in bandaging their wounds, and reliev- 
 ing the thirst which, scarcely less than their wounds, wrung 
 them. There were women too among those wrecks of the 
 sword; and now that the frenzy of the day was past, they 
 exhibited a picture of the most heartbreaking dejection. 
 Lying on the ground, wounded, and with every lineament 
 of their former selves disfigured, they cried from that 
 
BALATH1EL. 397 
 
 living grave alternately for vengeance and for mercy. 
 Then, tearing their hair, and flinging it, as their last mark 
 of hatred and scorn, at the legionaries, they devoted them 
 to ruin, in the name of the God of Israel. Then, passion 
 would give way to pain, and in floods of tears they called 
 on the names of parent, husband, and child, whom they 
 were to see no more ! 
 
 It was known that, at daybreak, the prisoners were to 
 die ; and the din of hammers, and the creaking of waggons 
 bearing the crosses, broke the night with horrid intima- 
 tion. At length, the stillness terribly told that all was 
 prepared. The night, measured b}' moments, seemed end- 
 less, and many a longing was uttered for the dawn, that 
 was to put them out of their misery. Yet, when the first 
 gray light fell through the casements, and the trumpets 
 sounded for the escort to get under arms, nothing could 
 exceed the fury of the crowd. Some rushed upon the 
 spears of the reluctant soldiery; some bounded in mad an- 
 tics through the hall; others fell on their knees, and of- 
 fered up horrid and shuddering prayers ; many flung them- 
 selves upon the floor and, in the paroxysm of wrath and 
 fear, perished. 
 
 Shocked and sickened by this misery, I withdrew from 
 the gate, where the tumult was thickest, as the soldiery 
 were already driving them out, and returned to my old 
 lair, to await the will of fortune. But I found it occu- 
 pied. A circle of the wounded were standing round a 
 speaker, to whom they listened with singular attention. 
 The voice caught my ear; from the crowd round him I 
 was unable to observe his features ; but, once drawn within 
 the sound of his words, I shared the general interest in 
 their extraordinary power. He was a teacher of the new 
 religion. 
 
 In my wanderings through Judea I had often met with 
 those Nazarenes. Their doctrines had a vivid simplicity 
 that might have attracted my attention as a philosopher; 
 but philosophy was cold to their power. The splendor and 
 strength of their preaching realized the boldest tradi- 
 tions of oratory. Yet their triumph was not that of 
 oratory; they disclaimed all pretension to eloquence or 
 learning; declaring that, even if they possessed them, they 
 dared not sully by human instruments of success, the glory 
 
398 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 due to Heaven. They carried this self-denial to the singu- 
 lar extent of divulging every circumstance calculated to 
 deprive themselves and their doctrines of popularity. They 
 openly acknowledged that they were of humble birth and 
 occupation, sinners, like the rest of mankind, and, in some 
 instances, guilty of former excesses of blind zeal, perse- 
 cutors of the new religion, even to blood. Of their Master 
 they spoke with the same openness. They told of his 
 humble origin, his career of rejection, and his death by 
 the punishment of a slave. To the scoffer at their hopes 
 of a kingdom to be given by the sufferer of that igno- 
 minious death, they unhesitatingly answered, that their 
 hope was founded expressly upon his death; and that 
 they lived and rejoiced in the expectation that they were, 
 like him, to seal their faith with their blood ! 
 
 I had often seen enthusiasm among my countrymen; 
 but this was a spirit of a distinct, and a loftier, birth. It 
 had the vigor of enthusiasm without its rashness; the 
 gentleness of infancy, with the wisdom of years; the sol- 
 emn reverence of the Jew for the Divine Will, free from 
 his jealous claims to the sole possession of truth. The 
 Law and the Prophets were perpetually in their hands ; and 
 they often embarrassed our haughty doctors and acrid 
 Pharisees, with questions and interpretations to which no 
 reply could be returned, but a sneer or an anathema ! But, 
 in the power of conviction, in the master art of striking 
 the heart and understanding with sudden light, like the 
 bolt from heaven, I never heard, I never shall hear, their 
 equals. To call it eloquence, were to humiliate this stu- 
 pendous gift: the most practised skill of the rhetorician 
 gave way before it, like gossamer, like chaff before the 
 whirlwind. It broke its way through sophistry by the 
 mere weight of thought. It had a rapid reality that swept 
 the hearer along. In its disdain of the mere decorations 
 of speech, in the bold and naked nerve of its language, 
 there was an irresistible energy the energy of the tempest, 
 giving proof, in its untamable rushings, of its descent 
 from a region beyond the reach of man. I never listened 
 to one of these preachers, but with a consciousness that he 
 was the depository of mighty knowledge. He had the 
 whole mystery of the human affections bare to his eye. 
 Among a thousand hearts, one word sent conviction at the 
 
8ALATHIEL. 399 
 
 game instant. All their diversities of feeling, sorrow and 
 error were shaken at once by that universal language. It 
 talked to the soul! 
 
 Of these overwhelming appeals, which often lasted for 
 hours together, and to which I listened overwhelmed, noth- 
 ing is left to posterity but a few fragments, and those 
 letters which the Christians still preserve among their sa- 
 cred writings great productions, and giving all the im- - 
 pression that it is possible to transmit to the future. But, 
 the living voice, the illumined countenance, the frame 
 glowing and instinct with inspiration ! what can trans- 
 mit them? "Here," said I, as I often stood, and heard 
 their voices thundering over the multitude, "here is the 
 true power that is to shake the temples of heathenism. 
 Here is a new element, come to overthrow, or to renovate 
 the world." I saw our holy law struggling to keep itself 
 in existence, compressed on every side by idolatry ; a little 
 fountain feebly urging its way through its native rocks, 
 but exhausted and dried up at the moment it reached the 
 plain. But here was an ocean ! an inexhaustible depth and 
 breadth of power, made to roll round the world, and be, 
 at the will of Providence, the illimitable instrument of its 
 bounty. I saw our holy law feebly sheltering, under its 
 despoiled and insulted ordinances, the truth of Heaven. 
 But here was a religion scorning a narrower temple than 
 the earth and the heaven ! 
 
 Yet I turned away from those convictions. A thousand 
 times I was on the point of throwing myself at the feet 
 of the men who bore this transcendent gift, and asking, 
 "What shall I do?" A thousand times I could have cried 
 out, "Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian." But, 
 my doubting heart ! I make no attempt to account for 
 myself or my career I have felt as strongly driven back 
 as if there were an actual hand forcing me away. The 
 illusion was a willing one, and it was suffered, like all 
 such, to hold me in its captivity. But, even when I 
 shrank away, I have said, "Whence had those men this 
 knowledge? If angels from God were to come down to 
 reclaim the world, could they tell us things different, or 
 tell us more?" 
 
 I looked round upon the labors of ancient wisdom; and 
 I saw how trivial a space its utmost vigor had cleared, 
 
400 SALATHIEL. 
 
 and how soon even that space was overrun by the rank- 
 ness of the world; and I said, "Here is the central fire, 
 the mighty reservoir of light, awaiting but the divine com- 
 mand, to burst up in splendor, consume the impurities of 
 the world at once, and regenerate mankind." But the veil 
 was upon my face. I labored against conviction; and, 
 shutting out the subject from my thoughts, sternly deter- 
 . mined to live and die in the faith of my fathers. 
 
 I now heard but the few and simple closing words of 
 the speaker in this group of the devoted. "He was sor- 
 rowful, that the Gospel had been so long committed to his 
 hands in vain. He had, through fear of his own inad- 
 equacy, and in remaining deference to the prejudices of 
 his people, suffered the truth to decay; and seen the illus- 
 trious labors of the apostles, without following their ex- 
 ample. But," said he, "I was rebuked; the opportunity 
 once neglected, was refused even to my prayers. I was 
 thenceforth in perils, in civil war, in domestic sedition. I 
 am but now come from a dungeon. But, in my bonds, it 
 pleased Him, in whose hand are the heavens, to visit me. 
 I knelt and prayed, acknowledging my sin, and beseech- 
 ing him, that before I died, I might proclaim his truth be- 
 fore Israel. In that hour, came a voice, bidding me go 
 forth ; and lo ! my chains fell from my hands, and I went 
 forth. And when I came to the gates of the dungeon, I 
 willed to go forward to the city of David. But I was for- 
 bidden; and my steps were turned here, to awake my 
 brethren to knowledge, before they perish." 
 
 The trumpets rang again, as a new crowd were drained 
 off to execution. My heart sank at the melancholy sound ; 
 but among tke converts there was not a murmur. "Kneel," 
 said the preacher ; "the hour is come !" They knelt, and 
 he poured out his spirit aloud in prayer. 
 
 "Now go forth," he said, rising alone; "go forth, re- 
 deemed of the Lord. This night have ye known that he is 
 gracious. Those things that God before hath showed by 
 the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, 
 he hath fulfilled. But ye have heard, but ye have been 
 converted, that your sins may be blotted out when the 
 times of refreshing shall come. But ye have been called 
 but ye have been justified but ye shall be glorified. Our 
 hope of you is steadfast knowing that, as you have been 
 
SALAT3IEL. 40l 
 
 partakers of his cross, so shall ye be of his kingdom. Now 
 be grace unto you, and peace from the Kings of Kings !" 
 
 He laid his hands upon the kneeling converts, and went 
 slowly round, blessing them. His face had been hitherto 
 turned from me, and I was too much impressed by his 
 words, and the awful circumstances in which he stood, 
 even to conjecture who he was. At length, in moving 
 round, he came before me. To my inexpressible surprise 
 and sorrow, the teacher was Eleazar! I had lost every 
 trace of him since we parted in the fortress, and with 
 sorrow of heart had concluded him a sacrifice to the com- 
 mon atrocities of our ferocious war. His long absence 
 was now explained; but no explanation could account for 
 the extraordinary change that had been wrought upon his 
 countenance. Always generous and manly, yet the soft- 
 ness of a nature made for domestic life had concealed the 
 vigor of his understanding. He was the general reconciler 
 in the disputes of the neighboring districts, the impartial 
 judge, the unwearied friend; and his features had borne 
 the stamp of this quiet career. But the man before me 
 bore uncontrollable energy in every tone and feature. The 
 failing flame of the torch that burned over his head was 
 enough to show the transformation of his countenance 
 into grandeur; his glance was a living fire; the hair that 
 floated over it, changed by captivity to the whiteness of 
 snow, shaded a forehead that seemed to have suddenly 
 expanded into majesty. If I had met such a man in a 
 desert, I should have augured in him the founder or the 
 subverter of a throne. 
 
 While I stood absolutely awed by his presence, a cohort 
 of spearmen poured in to gather up the gleanings of the 
 hall. Then was renewed the scene of misery. Wretches 
 whom I had thought dead, started from the ground, and 
 flung themselves at their feet, or rushed against the 
 ranks, tore the weapons out of their hands,, and broke 
 them in fury through the hall. Others dashed their fore- 
 heads against the walls and floor, and died upon the 
 spot. Others sprang up the projections of the sculpture, 
 and climbed with the agility of leopards to the roof, to 
 force the casements. But additional troops poured in, 
 and the crowd were overwhelmed, and driven out to un- 
 dergo their destiny. 
 
402 SALATBIEL. 
 
 During this long tumult, the Christian converts con- 
 tinued kneeling, and evidently absorbed by thoughts that 
 extinguished fear. Even the sounds from without, that 
 terribly told what was going on, and every tone of which 
 pierced me to the heart, produced only a deeper supplica- 
 tion that light would be given to the souls of the sufferers. 
 This patience probably induced the soldiery to leave them 
 to the last, while they drove out the more untractable at 
 tha point of the spear, like cattle to the slaughter. I 
 still stood aloof. The sacredness of the moments that 
 came before death were not to be interrupted. The trans- 
 formed Eleazar had already passed away from the things 
 of this world. I would not force them on him again, nor 
 vainly and cruelly disturb the holy serenity of one at peace 
 alike with man and Heaven. 
 
 At length the order came. "Now, my beloved brothers, 
 beloved in the Lord, go forth," said Eleazar, with a noble 
 exultation glowing in his countenance. "Quit ye like 
 men ; be strong ; fear not them who can kill only the body. 
 Even this night saw you still in your sins the wisdom 
 that was before all worlds, hidden from you. But He 
 that calleth light out of darkness hath wrought in you. 
 He hath poured upon you that Spirit which is an earnest 
 of your inheritance, holy, incorruptible, eternal in the 
 heavens. Now, sons of Abraham, redeemed of Christ, 
 kings and priests of God forever; go, where He is gone 
 to prepare a place for you go to the house of many man- 
 sions go to the kingdom of glory!" 
 
 With tears and blessings, Eleazar took water and bap- 
 tized the converts. They sang a hymn, and then rising, 
 moved towards the gate, the soldiers standing at a dis- 
 tance, and looking on at this more than heroic resigna- 
 tion, with eyes of respect and wonder. 
 
 I could restrain myself no longer. I grasped Eleazar; 
 he instantly recognized me, and the color that shot through 
 his cheek showed that with me came a tide of memory. 
 I was speechless: I embraced him; tears of old friend- 
 ship dimmed my eyes. He was overpowered, like myself, 
 and could only exclaim "Salathiel! my brother what 
 misfortune has brought you here? Where is Miriam 
 where are your children? You cannot be a prisoner? 
 Fly from this dreadful place." 
 
SALATHIEL. 403 
 
 "Never, my brother, unless I can save you. The tyrants 
 shall have the curse of both upon their heads." 
 
 "This is madness, Salathiel impiety! Oh that you 
 were this moment even as I am ! in all but death. It is 
 your duty to live; you have many ties to the world." He 
 paused ; and with a look upwards, said, in a tone of prayer, 
 "Oh that you were at this moment awake to the truths, the 
 holy and imperishable consolations, that make the cross 
 to me more triumphant than a throne !" 
 
 The theme was a painful one. He instantly saw my per- 
 turbation, and forebore to urge me ; but fixing his humid 
 eyes on heaven, and with uplifted hands, he gave me his 
 parting benediction. "May the time come," said he, "when 
 the veil shall be taken away from the face of my unhappy 
 kindred, and of my undone country ! When the days of 
 the desolation of Israel come to be accomplished, let her 
 kneel before the altar ! let her weep in sackcloth, and repent 
 of her iniquities; so shall the sun of glory arise upon her 
 once more." Then, as if a flash of knowledge had darted 
 into his soul, he fixed his solemn gaze on me. "Salathielj 
 you are not fit to die ; pray that you may not now sink into 
 the grave. You have fierce impulses, of whose power you 
 have yet no conception. Supplicate for length of years; 
 rather endure all the miseries of exile; be alone upon the 
 earth weary, wild, and desolate; but pray that you may 
 not die until you know the truths that Israel yet shall know. 
 Let it be for me to die, and seal my faith by my blood. 
 Let it be for you to live, and seal it by your penitence. 
 But live in hope. Even on earth, a day bright beyond 
 earthly splendor, lovely beyond all the visions of beauty, 
 magnificent and powerful beyond the loftiest thought of hu- 
 man nature, shall come, and we, even we, my brother, shall 
 on earth meet again." 
 
 CHAPTER LIX. 
 
 THERE was a thrilling influence in the words of Eleazar 
 that left me without reply, and for awhile I stood ab- 
 sorbed. When I raised my eyes again, I saw him following 
 the melancholy train down the valley of slaughter. I 
 rushed after him. He would not listen to my entreaties; 
 
404 BALATHIEL. 
 
 he would suffer no ransom to be offered for his life. I sup- 
 plicated the tribune of the escort for a moment's delay, 
 until I could solicit mercy from Titus. The officer, him- 
 self deeply pained by the service on which he was ordered, 
 "had no authority/' but sent a centurion with me to the 
 general commanding. 
 
 I hurried my guide through the immense force drawn 
 out to witness the offering to the shades of the Roman 
 senators and soldiers. The morning was stormy, and clouds 
 covering the ridges of the hills, darkened the feeble dawn 
 so much that torches were necessary to direct the move- 
 ment of the troops. The wind came howling through the 
 spears and standards; but with it came the fiercer sounds 
 of human agony. As we reached the entrance of the valley, 
 the centurion pointed to a height where the general stood, 
 in the midst of a group of mounted officers wrapped in 
 their cloaks against the snows that came fuiiouslv whirling 
 from the hills. I darted up the steep with a rapidity that 
 left my companion far below, and implored the Roman hu- 
 manity for my countrymen, and for my noble and inno- 
 cent brother. On my knee, on the knee that I had never 
 before bowed to man, I besought the muffled form, whom I 
 took for the illustrious son of Vespasian, to spare men 
 "whose only crime was that of having defended their coun- 
 try." I adjured the heir of the empire "to rescue from an 
 ignominious fate subjects driven into revolt only by vio- 
 lences which he would be the first to disown." "If," ex- 
 claimed I, "you demand money for the lives of my country- 
 men, it shall be given even to our last ounce of silver; 
 if you would have territory, we will give up our lands, 
 and go forth exiles. If you must have life for life, take 
 mine, and let my brother go free !" 
 
 The form slowly removed the cloak, and Cestius was 
 before me. "So," said he, with a malignant smile, "you 
 can kneel, Jew, and play the rhetorician : however, as you 
 are here, your having escaped me once is no reason why 
 you should laugh at justice a second time. Here, Tor- 
 quatus," he beckoned to a centurion, "take this rebel to 
 the crosses, and bring me an account of the way in which 
 he behaves. You see, Jew, that I have some care of your 
 reputation. A fellow careless as you are would probably 
 have died like a slave, in a skirmish; but you sfiall now 
 
8ALATHIEL. 405 
 
 figure before your countrymen as a patriot should, and die 
 with the honors of a native rebel." 
 
 I disdained to answer. The officer came up, attended by 
 his spearmen; and I was led down the valley. A storm 
 of extraordinary violence, long gathering on the sky, broke 
 forth as I descended, and it was only by grasping the rocks 
 and shrubs on the side of the declivity that we could avoid 
 being blown away. We staggered along, blinded, and half- 
 frozen. The storm fell heavily upon the legions, and the 
 heights were quickly abandoned for the shelter of the 
 valley. The valley itself was a sheet of snow, torn up by 
 blasts that drifted it hazardously upon the troops, and 
 threw everything into confusion. But the sight that 
 opened on me as I passed the first gorge, effaced storm and 
 soldiery, and might have effaced the world, from my mind. 
 Through the whole extent of the naked and rocky hollow 
 were planted crosses. The ravine, dark even in sunshine, 
 was now black as midnight; and its only light was from 
 the scattered torches, and the fires into which the bodies of 
 the victims were flung as they died, to make room for 
 others. On those crosses hung hundreds, writhing in mis- 
 eries made only to show the hideous capability of suffering 
 that exists in our frame. I was instantly recognized, and 
 many a hand was stretched out to me, imploring that I 
 should mercifully hasten death. I heard my name called 
 on, as their prince, their leader, their countryman, to re- 
 member and revenge ! And horrow-struck, I raved at the 
 legionaries and their tyrant master, until I sank upon the 
 ground in exhaustion, covering my head with my mantle, 
 that I might exclude alike sight and sound. 
 
 A voice at my side aroused me; a cross had just been 
 fixed on the spot, and at its foot stood, preparing for 
 death, the man who had spoken. I looked upon his face, 
 and gave an involuntary cry. For seven-and-thirty years 
 I had not seen that face; but I had seen it on a night 
 never to be erased from my remembrance, or my soul ! I 
 knew every feature of it though all the changes of years ! 
 
 Manhood had passed into age; the bold and sanguine 
 countenance was furrowed with cares and crimes. But I 
 knew at once the man who had on that night been fore- 
 most at my call; the daring rabble-leader who had first 
 shouted at my fatal summons; and maddened the multi- 
 
406 SAL ATE I EL. 
 
 tude, as I had maddened myself and him. He turned hia 
 glance upon me at the cry. His pale visage grew black 
 as death. The past flashed upon his soul. He shook from 
 head to foot with keen convulsion. He gasped, and tried 
 to speak; but no words came. He beat his breast wildly, 
 and pointed to the cross with dreadful meaning. The 
 executioner, a brutal slave, scoffed at him as a dastard. He 
 heard nothing; but with his pallid eyes staring on me, and 
 his hand pointed upwards, stood stiffening. Life departed 
 as he stood! The executioner, impatient, laid his grasp 
 upon him ; but he was beyond the power of man. He fell 
 backward, like a pillar of stone ! 
 
 I started from the corpse, and, utterly unnerved, looked 
 wildly round for some way of escape from this scene of 
 despair. As I tried to penetrate the dusk towards the 
 bottom of the valley, Eleazar was seen at the head of his 
 little band, standing at the foot of a cross, surrounded by 
 soldiers. I thought no more of safety, and plunging into 
 the valley, forced my way through the rocks and snow- 
 drifts, until I reached the foot of the declivity on which this 
 true hero was about to die. But there an impenetrable 
 fence of spears stopped me. I implored, execrated, strug- 
 gled; Eleazar's eye fell on me; and the smile on his up- 
 lifted countenance showed at once how much he thanked 
 me, and how calmly he was prepared to bid the world fare- 
 well. My struggles were useless, and I had but one resource 
 more. I flew, with a swiftness that baffled pursuit, to the 
 camp ; passed the intrenchments by the breaches left sirvv 
 the battle; and, before I could be stopped or questioned, 
 entered the tent of Titus. 
 
 The supper lamps were burning, and three stately-look- 
 ing men still lingered over the table, one of the few un- 
 popular luxuries of the general. A large packet of letters 
 was being distributed by a page ; and, while I stood in the 
 shade of a tent-curtain a moment, until I should ascertain 
 whether Titus was among the three, I was made the un- 
 willing sharer of the secrets of Eome. 
 
 "All is going on well," said one of the readers. "Here 
 that truest of courtiers, my showy friend Statilius, sends, 
 compiled by his own hand, an endless list of the pomps and 
 processions, games and congratulations, in the emperor's 
 progress through Italy. The intelligence is not the newest 
 
8ALATHIEL. 407 
 
 in the world ; but it would break my courtly friend's heart 
 to think that he had not the happiness of giving it first. 
 So let him think, and so let him worship the rising sun, 
 until another dynasty comes, and he discovers that if this 
 sun have risen in the east, a much finer one may rise in the 
 west. Thus runs the world." 
 
 "War with the Britions," read another. "They have 
 marched a hundred of their naked clans from the hills. 
 The remnant of the Druids are busy again with their 
 incantations; and it is more than suspected that the whole 
 is stirred up by our incomparable governor of western 
 Gaul, who affects the diadem, like all the ridiculous gov- 
 ernors of the age." 
 
 "Well, then, he shall have his wish," said a third. "The 
 emperor will give him, of course, a court fit for a rebel ; 
 his councils, lictors; and his palace, the Mamertine. But 
 as to the Britons, I doubt their caring one of their own 
 leather pence whether he wears the diadem or the halter. 
 The savages have probably been vexed by some new at- 
 tempt to squeeze money from them the quickest way to 
 try the national sensibilities. They have the spirit of trade 
 in them already, and are as keen in the barter of their wolf- 
 skins and bulls'-hides as if they supplied the world with 
 Tyrian canopies and Indian pearls." 
 
 "A letter from Sempronius!" was the next topic "its 
 exquisite intaglio and elaborate perfumes would betray it 
 all the world over; full of scandals, as usual, and full of 
 discontent. He seems quite dismantled, and complains that 
 the sex are growing ugly, the seasons comfortless, and 
 mankind dull; a certain sign that my emptiest of friends, 
 and the best dresser in Italy, is growing old." 
 
 "So much the better for his circle," said another, sipping 
 his goblet. "As for himself, while he can flourish in curls 
 and calumny, he will be happy, the true man of high life, 
 a prey to tailors, a figure for actors to burlesque, and an 
 inveterate weariness to the world." 
 
 "But here is a private despatch from the emperor, and, 
 unfortunately for human eyes, written in his own most 
 unreadable hand." The speaker stood up to the lamp, and 
 gave me an opportunity of observing him. His countenance 
 and figure struck me as what no other word could express 
 than princely. The features were handsome, and strongly 
 
408 SAL ATE I EL. 
 
 marked Italian ; and the form, though tending to breadth, 
 and rather under the usual stature, was eminently digni- 
 fied. His voice, too, was remarkable. I never heard one 
 that more completely united softness and majesty. Here I 
 could have but the shadow of a doubt that I had found 
 Titus! yet I had that shadow. Our meeting in the field, 
 where we had fought hand to hand, gave me no recollection 
 of the man before me. Titus might not even be among 
 the three; and nothing but seizure and ruin could be the 
 consequence of discovering myself to subordinates. 
 
 "Good news, it is to be hoped," said both the listeners 
 together, as they deferentially watched his perusal. 
 
 "None whatever; a mere private chronicle in the em- 
 peror's usual style; all kinds of oddities together. He 
 laughs at me for complaining of the want of intelligence 
 from Rome, and says that unless we send him some, the 
 politicians of the city will die of emptiness, or raise a re- 
 bellion ! and that he is the most ill-used personage in the 
 empire, in being obliged to supply brains for so many block- 
 heads, and keep up the reputation of an honest man, in the 
 midst of so many knaves. But he mentions, and for that 
 I am deeply grateful, that he has just erected the golden 
 statue which I vowed so long ago to the memory of my 
 unfortunate friend Britannicus; and is about to dedicate 
 a bronze equestrian one to me, to be placed in the Circus. 
 He concludes the epistle with saying that, unless the British 
 insurrection speedily blows over, he shall be a beggar, and 
 must turn tribune for a livelihood; defends his impracti- 
 cable manuscript, which, he says, I am imitating as fast as 
 I can ; and repeats his old jest, that if I were not born to 
 be a prince and an idler, I might have made by bread by 
 my talents for forgery." His hearers repaid the imperial 
 merriment by its full tribute of loyal laughter. 
 
 Doubt was now at an end, and I advanced. My stop 
 roused the party, and they started up, drawing their swords. 
 But the quick eye of Titus recognized me, and satisfying 
 his companions by a gesture, I heard him pronounce to 
 them: "My antagonist, the prince of Naphtali." There 
 was no time for ceremony, and I addressed him at once. 
 
 "Son of Vespasian, you are a soldier, and know what is 
 due to the brave. I come to solicit your mercy; it is the 
 first time that I ever stooped to solicit man. My brother, 
 
8ALATHIEL. 409 
 
 a chieftain of Israel, is in your hands, condemned to the 
 horrid death of the cross ; he is virtuous, brave, and noble ; 
 save him, and you will do an act of justice more honorable 
 to your name than the bloodiest victory." 
 
 Titus looked at me in silence, and evidently perplexed; 
 then returned to his chair, and having consulted with his 
 companions, hesitatingly pronounced: "Prince, you know 
 not what you have asked. I am bound, like others, by the 
 emperor's commands; and they strictly are, that none of 
 your countrymen, taken after the offer of peace, must 
 live." 
 
 "Hear this, God of Israel!" I cried. "King of Ven- 
 geance, hear and remember !" 
 
 "You are rash, prince," said Titus, gravely; "yet I can 
 forgive your national temper. With others, even your 
 venturing here might bring you into hazard. But the per- 
 fidy of your people makes truce and treaty impossible. They 
 leave me no alternative. I lament the necessity. It is the 
 desire of the illustrious Vespasian to reign in peace. But 
 this is now at an end." 
 
 He paused, and advancing towards me, offered his hand, 
 with the words, "I know that there are brave and high- 
 minded men among your nation. I have been astonished 
 at the valor, nay, I will call it the daring and heroic con- 
 tempt of suffering and death, that this siege has already 
 shown. I have been witness, too," and he smiled, "of the 
 prince of Naphtali's prowess in the field, and I would most 
 willingly have such among my friends." I waited for the 
 conclusion. "Why not come among us," he said ; "give up 
 a resistance that must end in ruin; abandon a cause that 
 all -the world sees to be desperate ; save yourself from popu- 
 lar caprice, the violence of your rancorous factions, and the 
 final fall of your city ? Be Caesar's friend, and name what 
 possession, power, or rank you will." 
 
 The thought of deserting the cause of Jerusalem was 
 profanation. I drew back, and looked at the majestic 
 Roman, as if I saw the original tempter before me. 
 
 "Son of Vespasian, I am at this hour a poor man; I 
 may, in the next, be an exile or a slave. I have ties to life 
 as strong as ever were bound round the heart of man; I 
 stand here a suppliant for the life of one whose loss would 
 embitter mine! Yet, not for wealth unlimited,, for the 
 
410 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 safety of my family, for the life of the noble victim that is 
 now standing at the place of torture, dare I abandon, dare 
 I think the impious thought of abandoning the cause of 
 the City of Holiness." 
 
 The picture of her ruin rose before my eyes, and tears 
 forced their way; my strength was dissolved; my voice 
 was choked. The Eomans fixed their looks on the ground, 
 affected by the sincerity of a soldier's sorrow. I took the 
 hand that was again offered. 
 
 "Titus ! in the name of that Being, to whom the wisdom 
 of the earth is folly, I adjure you to beware. Jerusalem is 
 sacred. Her crimes have often wrought her misery often 
 has she been trampled by the armies of the stranger. But 
 she is still the City of the Omnipotent ; and never was blow 
 inflicted on her by man that was not terribly repaid. Hear 
 me a moment." He stood. 
 
 "The Assyrian came, the mightiest power of the world; 
 he plundered her temple, and led her people into captivity. 
 How long was it before his empire was a dream, his dynasty 
 extinguished in blood, and an enemy on his throne ? The 
 Persian came; from her protector he turned into her op- 
 pressor; and his empire was swept away like the dust of 
 the desert ! The Syrian smote her ; the smiter died in 
 agonies of remorse; and where is his kingdom now? The 
 Egyptian smote her ; and who now sits on the throne of the 
 Ptolemies? Pompey came; the invincible conqueror of a 
 thousand cities; the light of Eome; the lord of Asia, 
 riding on the very wings of victory. But he profaned her 
 Temple; and from that hour he went down down, like a 
 millstone plunged into the ocean! Blind counsel, rash 
 ambition, womanish fears, were upon the great statesman 
 and warrior of Eome. Where does he sleep ? What sands 
 were colored with his blood? The universal conqueror 
 died a slave, by the hand of a slave ! Crassus came at the 
 head of the legions ; he plundered the sacred vessels of the 
 sanctuary. Vengeance followed him, and he was cursed 
 by the curse of God. Where are the bones of the robber, 
 and his host? Go, tear them from the jaws of the lion and 
 the wolf of Parthia their fitting tomb ! 
 
 "You, too, son of Vespasian, may be commissioned for 
 the punishment of a stiff-necked and rebellious people. You 
 may scourge our naked vice by the force of arms ; and then 
 
8ALATHIEL. 411 
 
 you may return to your own land, exulting in the con- 
 quest of the fiercest enemy of Rome. But shall you escape 
 the common fate of the instrument of evil ? Shall you see 
 a peaceful old age ? Shall a son of yours ever sit upon the 
 throne ? Shall not rather some monster of your blood efface 
 the memory of your virtues, and make Rome, in bitterness 
 of soul, curse the Flavian name?" 
 
 Titus grew pale, and, shuddering, covered his eyes with 
 his mantle. His companions stood gazing on me with the 
 aspect of men gazing on the messenger of fate. "Spare 
 Eleazar," was all that I could utter. Titus made a sign to 
 a tribune, who flew to bear, if not too late, the command of 
 mercy. 
 
 While we continued in a silence that none of us felt 
 inclined to break, a door opened behind me, and an officer 
 entered. It was Septimius. I seized him by the throat: 
 "Villain ! give me back my child ; base hypocrite ! give up 
 my innocent daughter. Where have you taken her ? Lead 
 me to her, or die." 
 
 Titus rose, in evident surprise and indignation. "What 
 do I hear, Septimius? Have you been guilty of this of- 
 fence? Prince, let him loose, until his general shall hear 
 what he has to say for himself." 
 
 Septimius affected the most extreme and easy ignorance. 
 "Most noble Titus, I have to thank you for having saved 
 my neck from the grasp of this hasty personage; but, 
 beyond that, I have nothing to say for myself, or for any 
 one else. I never saw this man before. I know no more 
 of his daughter than of the queen of Abyssinia, or the 
 three-formed Diana; and, by the goddess, I swear that I 
 believe him to be perfectly under her influence, and either 
 a lunatic or a most excellent actor. Be honest, Jew, if 
 you car^ and acknowledge that you never saw me before 
 in your life." 
 
 I stood in astonishment; his effrontery struck me dumb. 
 "You perceive, most noble Titus," he went on, "how a 
 plain question puts an end to this public accuser's charges. 
 But, in his present state, whether affected or real, he should 
 not be suffered to go at large : suffer me to send him to my 
 quarters, where he shall be guarded, until we at least find 
 out what brought him here." 
 
 "Ingrate/' I exclaimed, "you make me hate human 
 
412 SAL AT HI EL. 
 
 nature ! Better that I had left you to be trampled like the 
 viper that you are." 
 
 The dark eye of the general, again turned on Septimius, 
 seemed to require a graver explanation. 
 
 "Ingrate I" retorted he. "By Jupiter, the fellow's inso- 
 lence is superb. For what should I be grateful? but for 
 my escape from his detestable hands. Very probably he 
 figured among the rabble that would have murdered me as 
 they did the rest of us. Grateful, yes, I ought to be, for 
 the lesson never to venture within his walls on the faith 
 of the traitors that hold them. But let me be allowed to 
 say, most noble Titus, that you condescend too much in 
 listening to any of this rabble; nay, that you hazard the 
 safety of the state in hazarding your person within the 
 reach of one of a race of assassins." 
 
 Titus smiled, and waved back his companions, who, on 
 the surmise, were approaching him. 
 
 "Let me be honored with your commands," urged Sep- 
 timius, "to take this person in charge: felon or insane, I 
 shall speedily put him in the way of cure." 
 
 A tribune, breaathless with haste, came in at the moment 
 with a letter, which he gave to Titus, and retired to a dis- 
 tant part of the tent to await the answer. The color rose 
 into the Roman's cheek as he looked over the paper; he 
 showed it to his companions, and then put it into my 
 hand. I read the words: 
 
 "An assassin, hired by the chiefs of Jerusalem, yester- 
 day passed the gates. His object is the life of the Roman 
 general. He goes, under pretence of recovering one of his 
 family, supposed to be carried off from the city, but who 
 has never left his house. He has communications with the 
 camp, by which he can enter at pleasure, and the noble 
 Titus cannot be too much on his guard." 
 
 The note was in an enclosure from Cestius, stating that 
 it had been just transmitted to him from a high authority 
 in Jerusalem. I flung it on the ground with the scorn due 
 to such an accusation, declaring that it was unnecessary 
 for "my enemy Cestius to have put his name to a document 
 which so easily revealed its writer." 
 
 "You, of course, Septimius," said the general, fixing his 
 penetrating gaze on him, "could know nothing of this 
 letter," 
 
BALATHIEL. 413 
 
 Septimius entered on his defence with seriousness; and 
 showed that, from the time and circumstances, no share in 
 it could be attached to him. Titus retired a few steps, and 
 having consulted with the officers, who I perceived were 
 unanimous for my being instantly put to death, addressed 
 me in that grave and silver-toned voice which character- 
 ized the singular composure of his nature. 
 
 "We have exchanged blows and pledges of honor, prince, 
 and I will not suffer myself to believe that a man of your 
 rank and soldiership could stoop to the crime charged 
 here. In truth, were none but personal considerations in 
 question, I should instantly set you free. But there are 
 weighty interests connected with my life, which make it 
 seem fitting to my friends and advisers that in all cases 
 precautions should be taken, which otherwise I should dis- 
 dain. To satisfy their minds, and the spirit of the emper- 
 or's orders, I must detain you for a few days. Your treat- 
 ment shall be honorable." 
 
 Septimius advanced again to demand my custody ; but a 
 look repelled the request, and I was directed to follow one 
 of the secretaries of Titus. 
 
 CHAPTER LX. 
 
 A TROOP of cavalry were at the tent door. We set off 
 through the storm, and a few miles from the camp reached 
 a large building peopled with a crowd of high functionaries 
 attached to Titus as governor of Judea. 
 
 "You must be a prodigious favorite with the general," 
 said my companion as we passed through a range of 
 magnificent rooms, furnished with Italian luxury, "or he 
 would never have sent you here. He had these chambers 
 prepared for his own residence, but your countrymen have 
 kept him too busy, and for the last month he is indebted 
 to them for sleeping under canvas." 
 
 I observed that "peace was the first wish of my heart; 
 but that no people could be reproached with contending too 
 boldly for freedom." 
 
 "The sentiment is Roman," was the reply. "But let us 
 come to the fact. Titus, once fixed in the government, 
 would be worth all the fantasies that ever fed the de- 
 
414 8ALATBIEL. 
 
 claimers on independence. His character is peace, and if he 
 ever comes to the empire, he will make the first of mon- 
 archs. You should try him, and reap the first fruits of 
 his talent for making people happy. There; look round 
 this room: you see every panel hung with a picture, a 
 lyre, or a volume ; what does that tell ?" 
 
 "Certainly not the habits of a camp; yet he is dis- 
 tinguished in the field/' 
 
 "No man more. There is not a rider in the legions who 
 can sit a horse or throw a lance better. He has the talents 
 of a general besides; and more than all, he has the most 
 iron perseverance that ever dwelt in man. If the two 
 armies were to slaughter each other until there was but 
 half a dozen spearmen left between them, Tftus would head 
 his remnant, and fight until he died. But whether it is 
 nature, or the poison that he drank along with Britannicus, 
 he wants the eternal vividness of his father. Ay, there was 
 the soldier for the legions. Look, prince, at this picture, 
 and tell me what you think of the countenance." 
 
 He drew aside a curtain that covered a superb portait 
 of the emperor. I saw a countenance of incomparable 
 shrewdness, eccentricity, and self -enjoyment. Every fea- 
 ture told the same tale, from the rounded and dimpled chin 
 to the broad and deeply-veined forehead, overhung with 
 its rough mat of hair. The hooked nose, the deep wrinkles 
 about the lips, the thick dark eyebrow, obliquely raised, as 
 if some new jest was gathering, showed the pereptual hu- 
 morist. But the eye beneath that brow an orb black as 
 charcoal, with a spot of intense brightness in the centre, as 
 if a breath could turn that coal into flame belonged to the 
 supreme sagacity and determination that had raised Ves- 
 pasian from a tent to the throne. 
 
 The secretary, whose jovial character stongly resembled 
 that of the object of his panegyric, could not restrain his 
 admiration. "There," said he, "is the man who has fought 
 more battles, said more good things, and taken less physic 
 than any emperor that ever wore the diadem. I served 
 with him from decurion up to tribune, and he was always 
 the same, active, brave, and laughing from morn to night. 
 Old as he is, day never finds him in his bed. He rides, 
 swims, runs, out-jests everybody, and frowns at nothing on 
 earth but an old woman and a physician. He loves money, 
 
SALATHIEL. 415 
 
 'tis true; yet what he squeezes from the overgrown, he 
 scatters like a prince. But his mirth is inexhaustible; a 
 little rough, so much for his camp education ; but the most 
 curious mixture of justice, spleen, and pleasantry in the 
 world." My companion's memory teemed with examples. 
 
 "An Alexandrian governor was ordered to Rome, to ac- 
 count for a long course of extortion; immediately on his 
 arrival he pretended to be taken violently ill, which of 
 course put off the inquiry. The emperor heard of this, ex- 
 pressed the greatest interest in so meritorious a public serv- 
 ant, paid him a visit the next day in his bed, ordered him 
 a variety of medicines, which the unfortunate governor was 
 compelled to take, renewed his visit regularly every day. 
 and every day charged him an enormous fee ! Beggary 
 stared the governor in the face, and never was a complica- 
 tion of disorders so rapidly cured ! 
 
 "I was riding out in his attendance one day, a few 
 miles from Rome, when we saw a fellow beating his mule 
 cruelly; and, on being called to, insisting on his right to 
 torture the animal. I was indignant, and would have 
 fought the mule's quarrel. But the emperor laughed at my 
 zeal, and after some jesting with the brutal owner, bought 
 the mule, only annexing the condition that the fellow 
 should lead it to the stable. He actually sent him with the 
 mule five hundred and fifty miles on foot, to one of his 
 palaces in Gaul, and with a lictor after him, to see that the 
 contract was fairly performed. 
 
 "One of his chamberlains had been soliciting a place 
 about court for, as he said, his brother. The emperor found 
 out the fact that it was for a stranger, who was to lay 
 down a large sum. He sent for the stranger, ratified the 
 bargain, gave him the place, and put the money in his own 
 pocket. The chamberlain was in great alarm on meeting 
 the emperor some days after. 'Your dejection is natural 
 enough,' said Vespasian, 'as you have so lately lost your 
 brother; but then you should wish me joy, for he has be- 
 come mine !' 
 
 "By the altar of Momus, and the brass beard of the god 
 Ridiculus, I could tell you a hundred things of the same 
 kind," said the jovial and inexhaustible secretary. "Take 
 but one more. 
 
 "One of our great patricians, an yEmilian, and as vain 
 
416 SALATHIEL. 
 
 and insolent a beast as lives, had ordered a quantity of a 
 particularly striped cloth, which it cost the merchant in- 
 finite pains to procure. But the great man's taste had 
 altered in the meantime, and he returned the cloth without 
 ceremony; threatening besides, that if the merchant made 
 any clamors on the subject, his payment should be six 
 months' work in the slave-mill. The man, on the verge of 
 ruin, came tearing his hair and bursting with rage to lay 
 his complaint before the emperor, who, however, plainly 
 told him that there was no remedy, but desired him to 
 send a dress of the same cloth to the palace. Within the 
 week, the patrician was honored with a message that the 
 emperor would dine with him, and the message was ac- 
 companied with the dress, and an intimation that Ves- 
 pasian wished to make it popular. Rome was instantly 
 ransacked for the cloth, but not a yard of it was to be 
 found, but in the merchant's hands. The patrician's 
 household must be equipped in it, cost what it would. The 
 dealer, in pleasant revenge, charged ten times the value, 
 and his fortune was made in a day. 
 
 "Now, Titus, with many a noble quality, is altogether 
 another man. He abhors the emperor's rough-hewn jocu- 
 larity; he speaks Greek better than the emperor does his 
 own tongue; is a poet, and a clever one besides, in both 
 languages; extemporizes verse with elegance; is no mean 
 performer on the lyre; sings; is a picture-lover, and so 
 forth. I believe from my soul that, with all his talents for 
 war and government, he would rather spend his day over 
 books, and his evenings among poets and philosophers, or 
 telling Italian tales to the ears of some of your brilliant 
 orientals, than ride over the world at the head of the 
 legions. And now," said my open-hearted guide, "having 
 betrayed court secrets enough for one day, I must leave 
 you, and return to the camp. Here you will spend your 
 time as you please, until some decision is come to. The 
 household is at your service, and the officer in command 
 will attend your orders farewell !" 
 
 Captivity is wretchedness, even if the captive trod on 
 cloth of gold. My treatment was imperial ; a banquet that 
 might have feasted a Roman epicure was laid before me; 
 a crowd of attendants, sumptuously habited, waited round 
 the table; music played, perfumes burned, and the whole 
 
SALATHIEL. 417 
 
 ceremonial of princely luxury was gone through, as if 
 Titus were present, instead of his heart-broken prisoner. 
 But to that prisoner, bread and water, with freedom, would 
 have been the truer luxury. 
 
 I wandered through the spacious apartments, dazzled by 
 their splendor, and often ready to ask, "Can man be un- 
 happy in the midst of these things?" yet answering the 
 question in the pang of heart which they were so powerless 
 to soothe. I took down the richly-blazoned volumes of the 
 Western poets, and while, at every line that I unrolled, I 
 felt how much richer were their contents than the gold and 
 gems that incased them, I yet felt the inadequacy of even 
 their beauty and vigor to console the spirit stricken by real 
 calamity. I strayed to the crystal casements, through 
 which the sun of spring had begun, to pour in a tide of 
 glory. The landscape was beautiful a peaceful valley, 
 shut in with lofty eminences, on whose marble foreheads 
 the sunbeams wrought coronets, as colored and glittering 
 as ever were set with chrysolite and ruby. The snow was 
 gone as rapidly as it had come; and the green earth, in 
 the freshness of the bright hour, might almost be said 
 "to laugh and sing." The air came, fanning and warm 
 from the reviving flowers. There was a light and joyous 
 beauty in even the waving of the shrubs, as they shook off 
 the moisture in sparkles at every wave; birds innumerable 
 broke out into song, and fluttered their little wet wings 
 with delight in the sunshine ; and the rivulet, still swell t d 
 with the snows, ran dimpling and gurgling along, with a 
 music of its own. 
 
 But the true sadness of the soul is not to be scattered 
 even by the loveliness of external things. I turned from 
 the sun and nature, to fling myself on my couch, and feel 
 that where a man's treasure is there his heart is also. 
 
 "What might not, in those hours, be doing in Jerusalem ? 
 What fanatic violence, personal revenge, or public license 
 might not be let loose while I was lingering among the 
 costly vanities of the pagan? My enemy, at least, was 
 there, in the possession of unbridled authority;" and the 
 thought was in itself 9, history of evil. "And where was 
 Esther, my beloved, the child of my soul, the glowing and 
 magnificent-minded being, whose beauty and whose 
 thoughts were scarcely mortal? Might she not be in the 
 
418 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 last extremity of suffering, upbraiding me for having for- 
 gotten my child; or in the hands of robbers, dragging her 
 delicate form through rocks and sands; or dying, without 
 a hand to succor, or a voice to cheer her, in the hour of 
 agony?" 
 
 Thought annihilates time, and I had lain one day thus 
 sinking from depth to depth, I know not how long, until I 
 was roused by the entrance of the usual endless train of 
 attendants ; and the chief steward, a venerable man of my 
 country, whom Titus had generously continued in the office 
 where he found him, came to acquaint me that the banquet 
 awaited my pleasure. The old man wept at the sight of 
 a chieftain of Israel in captivity; his heart was full, and 
 when I had dismissed the attendants with their untasted 
 banquet, he gave way to his recollections. 
 
 The palace was once the dwelling of Ananus, the high- 
 priest, whose death under the cruelest circumstances was 
 the leading triumph of the factions, and the ruin of Jeru- 
 salem. In the very chamber where I sat, he had spent 
 the last day of his life ; and left it only to take charge of 
 the Temple, on the fatal night of the assault by the Idu- 
 means. He was wise and vigorous; but what is the wis- 
 dom of man? A storm, memorable in the annals of dev- 
 astation, had raged during the night. Ananus, convinced 
 that all was safe from human hostility in this ravage of 
 the elements, suffered the wearied citizens to retire from 
 their posts. The gates were opened by traitors; the Idu- 
 means, furious for blood and spoil, rushed in; the guard, 
 surprised in their sleep, were massacred; and by daylight 
 eight thousand corpses lay on the sacred pavements of the 
 Temple; and among them the noblest and wisest man of 
 Judea, Ananus. 
 
 "I found," said the old man, "the body of my great and 
 good lord under a heap of dead, but was not suffered to 
 convey it to the tomb of his fathers, in the Valley of 
 Jehoshaphat. I brought his sword and his phylactery here, 
 and they are now the only memories of the noblest line 
 that perished since the Maccabee. In these chambers I 
 have remained since, and in them it is my hope to die. The 
 palace is large; the Roman senators and officers reside in 
 another wing, which I have not entered for years, and shall 
 never enter ; mild masters as the Romans have been to me, 
 
I cannot bear to see them masters, within the walls of a 
 chief of my country." 
 
 The story of Naomi occurred to me ; but she was so much 
 beyond my hope of discovery that I forbore to renew the 
 old man's griefs by her name. A sound of trumpets and 
 the trampling of cavalry was now heard from the portal. 
 
 "It is but the nightly changing of the troops," said the 
 steward, "or perhaps the arrival of officers from the camp ; 
 they often ride here after nightfall to supper, spend a few 
 hours, and by daybreak are gone. But of them and their 
 proceedings I know nothing. No Jew enters, or desires to 
 enter, the banquet-hall of the enemies of his country." 
 
 A knocking at the door interrupted him, and an officer 
 appeared, with an order for the prisoner in the palace to be 
 removed into strict confinement. The venerable steward 
 gave way to tears at the new offence to a leader of his 
 people. I felt some surprise, but merely asked what new 
 alarm had demanded this harsh measure. 
 
 "I know no more," replied the officer, "than that the 
 general has arrived here a few minutes since ; and that, as 
 some attempts have been lately made on his life, the 
 council have thought proper to put the Jewish poniards as 
 much out of his way as they can. The order is universal; 
 and I am directed to lead you to your apartment." 
 
 "Then let them look to my escape," said I. "I thank 
 the council for this service. While I continued above sus- 
 picion, they might have thrown open every door in their 
 dungeons. But since they thus degrade me, you may tell 
 them that their walls should be high, and the bolts 
 strong, to keep me their prisoner. Lead on, sir." 
 
 The council seemed to have been aware of my opinion, 
 for my new chamber was in one of the turrets. The lower 
 floor being occupied by the guard, there could be no under- 
 mining; the smallness of the building laid all the oper- 
 ations of the fugitive open to the sentinel's eye; and the 
 height was, of itself, an obstacle that, even if the bars were 
 forced, might daunt the adventurer. The steward fol- 
 lowed me to my den, wringing his hands. Yet the little 
 apartment was not incommodious ; there were some obvious 
 attempts at rendering it a fitter place of habitation than 
 usual; and a more delicate frame than mine might have 
 found indulgence in its carpets and cushions. Even my 
 
420 SALAT31EL. 
 
 solitary hours were not forgotten, and some handsome vol- 
 umes from the governor's library occupied a corner. There 
 was a lyre too, if I chose to sing my sorrows ; and a gilded 
 chest of wine, if I chose to drink them away. The height 
 was an inconvenience only to my escape, but a lover of 
 landscape and fresh air would have envied me; for I had 
 the range of the horizon and the benefit of every breeze 
 from its four quarters. A Chaldee would have chosen it for 
 his commerce with the lights of heaven; for every star, 
 from the gorgeous front of Aldebaran to the minutest dia- 
 mond spark of the sky, shone there in all its brightness. 
 And a philosopher would have rejoiced in the secluded com- 
 fort of a spot, which in the officer's parting pleasantry, 
 was in every sense "so much above the world." 
 
 CHAPTER LXI. 
 
 To me the prison and the palace were the same. No be- 
 liever in fate, and a strong believer in the doctrine that, in 
 the infinite majority of cases, the unlucky have to thank 
 only themselves, I was yet irresistibly conscious of my own 
 stern exception. That there was an influence hanging over 
 me, I deeply knew; that I might as well strive with the 
 winds, was the fruit of my whole experience ; and with the 
 loftiest calculation of the wonders that human energy may 
 work, I abandoned myself, on principle, to the chances of 
 the hour. I was the weed upon the wave; and, whether 
 above or below the surface, I knew that the wave would 
 roll on, and that I must roll on along with it. I was the 
 atom in the air ; and whether I should float unseen forever, 
 or be brought into sight by the gilding of some chance sun- 
 beam, my destiny was to float and quiver up and down. I 
 was the vapor, and whether, like the evening cloud, my 
 after-years were to evolve into glorious shapes and colors, 
 or I should creep along the pools and valleys of fortune 
 till the end of time yet, there I was still in existence, and 
 that existence bound by laws incapable of the choice or 
 the caprices of man. 
 
 I had yet to learn the true burden of my great maledic- 
 tion; for the circumstances of my life were adverse to its 
 fated solitude of soul; its bitter conviction that there was 
 
SALATHIEL. 
 
 not a being under the canopy of heaven whose heart was 
 towards me. I Avas still in the very tumult of life, and 
 battling it with the boldest. Public cares, personal inter- 
 ests, glowing attachments, the whole vigorous activity of 
 the citizen and the soldier, were mine. I was still husband, 
 father, friend, and champion; my task was difficult and 
 grave, but it was ardent, proud, and animating. I was 
 made for this energy of the whole man ; master of a power- 
 ful frame, that defied fatigue, and was proof against the 
 sharpest visitations of nature; and of an intellect, which, 
 whatever might be its rank, rejoiced in tasking itself with 
 labors that appalled the multitude. 
 
 Idle as I knew the praise of man, and sovereign as was 
 my scorn for the meanness which stoops to the vulgar pur- 
 chase of popularity, I felt and honored the true fame 
 that renown whose statue is devoted, not by the suspicious 
 and clamorous flattery of the time, but by the solemn and 
 voluntary homage of the future; whose splendor, like that 
 of a new-born star, if it take ages to reach mankind, is sure 
 to reach them at last, and shines for ages after its fount is 
 extinguished; whose essential power, if it be coerced and 
 obscured, like that of man while his earthly tenement still 
 shuts him in, is thenceforth to develop itself from strength 
 to strength the mortal putting on immortality. 
 
 In the whirl of such thoughts, I was often carried away, 
 to the utter oblivion of my peculiar fate ; for man and his 
 associations were strong within me, in defiance of the com- 
 mand. The gloom often passed away from my soul, as the 
 darkness does from the midnight ocean in the dash and 
 foam of its own waters. Nature is perpetual, and drives 
 the affections, sleeping or waking, as it drives the blood, 
 through the old channels. It was only at periods, produced 
 by strong circumstance, that I felt the fetter; but then, the 
 iron entered into my soul ! To this partial pressure belongs 
 the singular combination of such a fate as mine with an in- 
 terest in the world, with my loves and hates, my thirst of 
 human fame, my reluctance at the prospect of the common 
 ills and injuries of life. I was a man ; and this is the whole 
 solution of the problem. For one remote evidence that I 
 was distinct from mankind, I had ten thousand, direct and 
 constant, that I was the same. But, for the partiality of 
 the pressure, there was a lofty reason. The man who feels 
 
422 SALATHIEL. 
 
 himself above the common fate, is instantly placed above 
 the common defences of mankind. He may calumniate 
 and ruin; he may burn and plunder; he may be the rebel 
 and the murderer. Fear is, after all, the great defence. 
 But what earthly power could intimidate him? What 
 were chains, or the scaffold, to him who felt instinctively 
 that time was not made for his being; that the scaffold was 
 impotent; that he should yet trample on the grave of his 
 judge; on the mouldered throne of his king; on the dead 
 sovereignty of his nation? With his impassiveness, his 
 experience, his knowledge, and his passions, concocted and 
 blackened by ages, what breast could be safe against the 
 dagger of this tremendous exile? what power be secure 
 against the rebel machination or the open hostility of a 
 being invested with the strength of immortal evil? What 
 was to hinder a man made familiar with every mode of in- 
 fluencing human passions the sage, the sorcerer, the fount 
 of. tradition, the friend of their worshipped ancestors 
 from maddening the multitude at whose head he willed to 
 march, clothed in the attributes of almost a divinity ? But 
 I was precluded, or saved, from this fearful career, by the 
 providential feeling of the common repugnances, hopes, 
 and fears of human nature. Pain and disease were instinct- 
 ively as much shunned by me, as if I held my life on the 
 frailest tenure; death was as formidable as my natural 
 soldiership would suffer it to be ; and even when the thought 
 occurred that I might defy extinction, it threw but a darker 
 shade over the common terrors, to conceive that I must 
 undergo the suffering of death, without the peace of the 
 grave. Man bears his agony for once, and it is done. Mine 
 might be borne to the bitterest extremity, but must be 
 borne with the keener bitterness of the knowledge that it 
 was in vain. 
 
 I was recalled from those reveries to the world, by a paper 
 dropped through a crevice in the rafters above my head. 
 On seeing its signature, "Septimius," my first impulse was 
 to tear it in pieces; but Esther's name struck me, and I 
 read it through. 
 
 "You must not think me a villain, though, I confess, 
 appearances are much in favor of the supposition. But I 
 had no choice between denying that I knew you and being 
 instantly beheaded. This comes of discipline. Titus is a 
 
8A.LATHIEL. 423 
 
 disciplinarian of the first order; and the consequence is, 
 that no man dares acknowledge any little irregularity before 
 him: so far, his morality propagates knaves. But I must 
 clear myself of the charge of having acted disingenuously 
 by your admirable daughter. I take every power that binds 
 the soul to witness, that I know not what is become of her ; 
 nay, I am in the deepest anxiety to know the fate of one so 
 lovely, so innocent, and so high-minded. 
 
 "And now, prince, that I am out of the reach of your 
 frown, let me have courage to disburden my heart. I have 
 long known Esther, and as long loved her. From the time 
 when I was first received within your palace in Naphtali 
 and I have not forgotten that to your hospitality I then 
 owed my life I was struck with her talents and her beaut} r . 
 When the war separated us, and I returned to Home, 
 neither in Eome, nor in the empire, could I see her equal. 
 To solicit our union, I gave up the honors and pleasures of 
 the court for the campaign in your hazardous country. I 
 searched Judea in vain ; and it was chiefly in the vague hope 
 of obtaining some intelligence of Esther that I solicited the 
 command of our unfortunate mission. There, I felt all 
 hazard more than repaid by her sight, to me lovelier than 
 ever. I will acknowledge that I prolonged my confinement, 
 to have the opportunity of obtaining her hand. But her 
 religious scruples were unconquerable. I implored her 
 leave to explain myself to you. Even this, too, she refused, 
 'from her knowledge of your decision.' What then was I 
 to do? Loving to excess, bewildered by passion, oppressed 
 with disappointment, and seeing but one object on earth, 
 my evil genius prompted me to act the dissembler. 
 
 "Under pretext of disclosing some secrets connected with 
 your safety, I induced her to meet me, for the first and the 
 last time, on the battlements. There I besought her to fly 
 with me to be my bride to enjoy the illustrious rank and 
 life that belonged to the imperial blood; and, when we 
 were once wedded, to solicit the approval of her family. 
 I was sincere; I take the gods to witness, I was sincere. 
 But my entreaty was in vain ; she repelled me with resolute 
 scorn; she charged me with treachery to you, to her, to 
 faith, and sacred hospitality. I knelt to her ; she spurned 
 me. In distraction, and knowing only that to live without 
 her was wretchedness, I was bearing her away to the gate, 
 
424 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 when we were surrounded by armed men. My single at- 
 tendant fled: I was overpowered, and I saw Esther, my 
 lovely and beloved Esther, no more." 
 
 There was an honesty in this full confession, that did 
 more for the writer's cause than subtler language. The 
 young Koman had been severely tried; and who could ex- 
 pect from a soldier the self-denial, that it might have been 
 hard to find under the brow of philosophy ? Stern as time 
 and trial had made ine, I was not petrified into a contempt 
 of the generous weaknesses of earlier years; and to love a 
 being like Esther what was it but to be just? while I 
 honored the high sense of duty which repelled a lover so 
 dangerous to a woman's heart, I pitied and forgave the 
 violence of a passion, lighted by unrivalled loveliness of 
 form and mind. 
 
 It was growing late ; and the steward, who made a virtue 
 of showing me the more respect the more I was treated 
 with severity, came in, to arrange my couch for the night ; 
 "he would suffer no inferior hands to approach the person 
 of one of the leaders of his fallen country. In truth," 
 added he, "if I were not permitted to be your attendant to- 
 night, my prince might have been forgotten, for every hu- 
 man being but myself is busy in the banquet-gallery." 
 
 Sounds of instruments and voices arose. "There," said 
 he, "you may hear the music. Titus gives a supper in 
 honor of the emperor's birthday, and the palace will be 
 kept awake until daylight; for the Romans, with all their 
 gravity, are great lovers of the table; and Titus is re- 
 nowned for late sittings. Or, would you wish to see the 
 banquet?" So saying, he unbarred the shutters of a case- 
 ment, commanding a view along the gallery; of which 
 every door and window was thrown open for the breeze. 
 
 If an ancient Eoman could start from his slumber into 
 the midst of European life, he must look with scorn on its 
 absence of grace, elegance and fancy. But it is in its fes- 
 tivities, and, most of all, in its banquets, that he would feel 
 the incurable barbarism of the Gothic blood. Contrasted 
 with the fine displays, which made the table of the Eoman 
 noble a picture, and threw over the indulgence of appetite 
 the colors of the imagination, with what eyes must he 
 contemplate the tasteless and commonplace dress, the 
 coarse attendants, the meagre ornament, the want of mirth, 
 
8ALATHIEL. 425 
 
 music and intellectual interest the whole heavy ma- 
 chinery, that converts the feast into the mere drudgery of 
 devouring ! 
 
 The guests before me were fifty or sixty splendidly-attired 
 men, attended by a crowd of domestics equipped with 
 scarcely less splendor; for no man thought of coming to 
 the banquet in the robes of ordinary life. The embroidered 
 couch, itself a striking object, allowed the ease of position, 
 at once delightful in the relaxing climates of the south, and 
 capable of combining with every grace of the human figure. 
 At a slight distance, the table, loaded with plate, glittering 
 under a profusion of lamps, and surrounded by couches 
 covered with rich draperies, was like a central source of 
 light radiating in broad shafts of every brilliant hue. All 
 that belonged to the ornament of the board was superb. 
 The wealth of the patricians, and their perpetual inter- 
 course with Greece, made them masters of the finest per- 
 formances of the arts. The sums expended on plate were 
 enormous, but its taste and beauty were essential to the re- 
 fined enjoyment of the banquet. The table was covered 
 with copies of the most famous statues and groups of sculp- 
 ture, in the precious metals; exquisite tiophies of Greek 
 and Eoman victory; models of the celebrated temples; 
 mingled with vases of flowers and burning perfumes; and, 
 covering and coloring all, was a vast scarlet canopy, which 
 combined the groups beneath the eye, and threw the whole 
 scene into the light that a painter would love. But yet 
 finer skill was shown in the constant prevention of that 
 want of topic which turns conversation into weariness. 
 There was a perpetual succession of new excitements. Even 
 the common changes of the table were made to assist this 
 purpose. The entrance of each course was announced by 
 music, and the attendants Avere preceded by a procession of 
 minstrels, chaplet-crowned, and playing Grecian melodies. 
 Between the courses a still higher entertainment was 
 offered, in the recitations, dramas, and pleasantries, read 
 or acted by a class of professional satirists of the absurdi- 
 ties of the day. 
 
 It is easy to imagine how fertile a source of interest this 
 must have been made by the subtle and splenetic Italian, 
 moving through Eoman life; the most various, animating, 
 and fantastic scene, in which society ever shone. The reci- 
 
426 BALATHIEL. 
 
 tations were always looked to as the charm of the feast. 
 They were often severe ; but their severity was reserved for 
 public men and matters. The court supplied the most 
 tempting and popular ridicule ; but the reciter was a privi- 
 leged person, and all the better-humored Cajsars bore the 
 castigation without a murmur. No man in the empire was 
 more laughed at than Vespasian, and no man of tener joined 
 in the laugh. One of his morning's sports was to collect 
 the burlesques of the night before, give them new pungency 
 by a touch of the imperial pen, and then despatch them to 
 make their way through the world. The strongheaded 
 sovereign knew the value of an organ of public opinion, and 
 used to call their perusal, "sitting for his picture." The 
 picture was sometimes so strong that the courtiers trem- 
 bled. But the veteran, who had borne thirty years of bat- 
 tle, laid it up among "his portraits," laughed the insult 
 away, and repeated his popular saying, "that, when he was 
 old enough to come to years of discretion, and give up the 
 emperor, he should become reciter himself, and have his 
 turn with the world." The recitations again were varied 
 by a sportive lottery, in which the guests drew prizes; 
 sometimes of value, gems and plate ; sometimes merely an 
 epigram, or a caricature. The banquet generally closed 
 with a theatric dance by the chief public performers of the 
 day; and the finest forms and the most delicate art of 
 Greece and Ionia displayed the story of Theseus and 
 Ariadne; the flight of Jason; the fate of Semele, or some 
 other of their brilliant fictions. In the presence of this 
 vivid display, sat, tempering its sportiveness by the majesty 
 of religion, the three great tutelar idols of Home Jove, 
 Juno, and Minerva, of colossal height, throned at the head 
 of the hall ; completing, false as they were, the most singu- 
 lar and dazzling combination that man ever saw of the 
 delight of the senses, with the delight of the mind. 
 
 To me human joy was always a source of enjo3'ment ; and 
 in the sounds of the harps and flutes, and the pleasant mur- 
 mur of cheerful voices, I was not unwilling to forget the 
 spot from which I listened. But the prisoner cannot long 
 forget his cell ; and closing the casement, I walked away. 
 
 "Little I ever thought," sighed the old steward, "of 
 seeing that sight. But all nations have fallen in their time, 
 and perhaps the only wonder is, that Israel should have 
 
8ALATHIEL. 427 
 
 stood so long. It is still stranger to my eyes to see that 
 gallery as it is to-night. It is fifteen years this very day 
 since I saw the light of lamp, or the foot of man, within 
 those casements." 
 
 "Yet," said I, "the great Ananus lived as became his 
 rank; and there were then no dangers to disturb him in 
 the midst of his people." 
 
 "But there was one terrible event which made those walls 
 unhallowed; nay, even in this spot, I would not remain 
 alone through the night, to have the palace for my own." 
 
 A rich strain of music that ushered in some change in the 
 displays of the banquet, interrupted my question ; while the 
 old man's countenance assumed something of the alarm 
 which he described. 
 
 "That sound," said he, shuddering, "goes to my heart. 
 It is the same that I heard on the night of death. On that 
 night, Matthan, the only son of my great master, was to be 
 wedded to the daughter of the Prince of Hebron ; and that 
 gallery was laid out for the wedding feast. All the leaders 
 of Jerusalem were there, all the noble women, all the chief 
 priesthood; all the grandeur, wealth, and beauty of our 
 tribe. But Matthan was not the son of his father's mind. 
 He had fled from his father's roof years before, and taken 
 refuge in the mountains. The caravan passing through 
 Galilee dreaded the name of Matthan, for he was bold; the 
 chief of the hills saw his followers flying from his side, for 
 deadly was the spear of Matthan ; but he was generous, and 
 often the slave rejoiced in the breaking of his chains, and 
 the peasant saw his flocks cover the valley again by the arm 
 and the bounty of Matthan. 
 
 "I saw him on the day when he returned; danger or 
 sorrow had wrought a change in him like the passing from 
 youth to age. His strength was gone, and his voice was 
 broken, like the voice of him that treads on the brink of the 
 timely grave. His noble father wept over him, but gave 
 him welcome ; and the palace was filled with rejoicing for 
 the coming back of the first-born. Yet he took no delight 
 in the feast, neither in the praises of men., nor in the voice 
 of the singer. He wandered through his father's halls, even 
 as the leopard, chained, and longing to escape to the desert 
 and the prey again. He grew more lonely day by day; 
 withdrew from the amusements of his rank, and shut him- 
 
428 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 self up in the wing of the palace, ending in this tower. In 
 this room I have seen his lamp burning through the live- 
 long winter nights, and grieved over the sleeplessness that 
 sho\ved he was among the unhappy. 
 
 "At last a change was wrought upon him. He went 
 forth; he took delight in the horse and the chariot, in the 
 chase, and the feast, and the die. His father, that he might 
 bless his posterity before he died, counselled him to take to 
 wife Thamar, the noblest of the daughters of Hebron. The 
 day of the marriage was appointed. On that day I saw him 
 come from the council-hall, after receiving the congratula- 
 tions of his friends. I saw him passing along to his cham- 
 ber ; but I dared not cross him on his way. He thought that 
 he was alone, and then he gave way to his agony. Never 
 did I behold such a countenance of wrath and woe. He 
 tottered towards me, and I dreaded his rage ; but I saw at 
 a glance that his mind was gone. He was talking to the 
 air; he clasped his hands wildly; his face was covered with 
 tears ; he implored for mercy, and fell. I hastened to bear 
 him to a couch ; he saw me not, but cried out against him- 
 self as a betrayer and a murderer, the fugitive from honor, 
 the criminal marked by the hand of Heaven. 
 
 "The evening fell, and I saw him ride forth at the head 
 of his kindred to bring home the bride. I watched for his 
 return with anxiety, for I deemed him unhallowed. 
 
 "But all was well; the bridal train returned. Matthan, 
 glittering in jewels, came proudly reining a steed, white as 
 the snow. The harp and trumpet the chorus of the singers 
 the light of the torches and the glitter of the youths 
 and maidens who danced before the bride, made me forget 
 everything but the joy of seeing peace among us once more ! 
 But at the banquet the wonder of all was the bridegroom 
 himself. Loud as they were, his voice was the loudest ; 1i j 
 laughted at everything, as if he had never known a care in 
 the world, or was never to know one again. The jest was 
 never out of his lips ; and when he pledged the cup to the 
 health of the company, or the fair bride and often he 
 pledged it that evening, he always said something that 
 raised shouts of applause. I once or twice passed near him, 
 but he had wiped everv siim of grief from his features; and 
 if he seemed to be mad with anything, it was with joy. 
 "I was standing, in the train of the high-priest, near the 
 
&ALATHIEL. 
 
 Central casement, through which you now see the throne of 
 Titus. My eyes, I know not why, strayed to this tower ; I 
 marked a feeble lamp, a form rushing backwards and for- 
 wards, in gestures of violent sorrow. A foot beside me made 
 me turn. There stood Matthan, with his eyes fixed upon 
 the tower. But his mind was gone. He looked like a man 
 stricken into stone. He saw me not ; he saw not the guests ; 
 he saw nothing but the feeble lamp, the hurrying form. 
 
 "The chorus of the singing women announced that the 
 bride was about to come. I looked up at the tower; the 
 lamp was twinkling its last; and the form was still seen 
 wringing its hands. The hymn began that denotes the 
 veiling of the bride. But my eyes were fixed on the dying 
 light, and the form, which now held a cup in its hand. A 
 shriek was heard, so wild that the guests sprang from their 
 seats in alarm and astonishment. My eye turned upon 
 Matthan. 
 
 "Clasping his hand upon his brow, he abruptly turned 
 from the window, and demanded why the bridal attendants 
 delayed the 'coming of the princess of Hebron.' The lamp 
 had now disappeared, and the tower was in darkness again. 
 The portals were at length thrown open, and the bride was 
 led up to the canopy beneath which the bridegroom stood. 
 He raised the veil. His countenance was instantly trans- 
 formed into horror. He uttered no voice, but stood gazing. 
 The bride let fall the veil again, and taking his hand, led 
 him slowly, and without a word, down the hall. 
 
 "None checked this strange ceremony; none dared to 
 check it. We were deprived of all power by astonishment. 
 The high-priest himself stood with his venerable hands 
 lifted up to heaven, as if he felt that evil was come upon 
 his house. The wedded pair walked in silence through the 
 long range of chambers to the tower; and as they passed, 
 the numberless attendants felt themselves bound by mys- 
 terious awe. But our senses at length returned, and Ananus, 
 in the full dread of misfortune, yet bold to his dying hour, 
 suffered none to go before him. We found the door of the 
 tower barred, and long summoned Matthan to come forth 
 and relieve our fears lest some desperate invention of sor- 
 cery had been played upon him. No answer was returned, 
 and we forced the door. 
 
 "What a sight was there ! Two corpses lay, side by side. 
 
430 SAL ATE I EL 
 
 The blood still trickled from the bosom of the unfortunate 
 Matthan. I raised the veil of the bride ; the hue of poison 
 was upon the lips ; but they were not the lips of the princess 
 of Hebron. The countenance was Arabian, and of exceed- 
 ing beauty, but wan and wasted by sorrow." 
 
 "Who, then, was his strange companion in the hall?" I 
 asked. 
 
 The answer was given with a shudder. "I know not 
 but it seemed scarcely a being of this world. A new con- 
 fusion arose. The mountaineers, on hearing of the death 
 of their lord, and still more of that noble creature in whom 
 they honored the race of their chieftains, demanded venge- 
 ance: they were too fierce to listen to reason, and our 
 attempts to explain the unhappy truth only kindled their 
 rage. Scimitars were drawn, blood was shed ; and though 
 the barbarians were repelled, yet they plundered the wing 
 of the palace, and bore off the infant offspring of their dead 
 mistress ; the last scion of an illustrious tree, that was itself 
 so soon to feel the axe. 
 
 "I saw the unfortunate and guilty Matthan laid in the 
 sepulchre of his fathers the last that ever slept there ; for 
 his great sire, worthy of being laid in the monument of 
 kings, was denied the honors of the grave by his murderers. 
 Yet he sleeps in the noblest of all graves; his memory is 
 treasured in the love and sorrows of his country. 
 
 "It was discovered that Matthan, during his wanderings 
 in the desert, had wedded the daughter of a sheik. He 
 loved her with the violence of his nature; but the prospects 
 which opened to him on his return to his country made 
 him shrink from the acknowledgment of his Arabian bride. 
 Yet, to live without her he found impossible; and he 
 brought her to the tower. Surrounded by his mountaineers, 
 this portion of the palace was inaccessible. The Arabian 
 knew of the intended marriage, and pined away before his 
 eyes. Eemorse and ambition alternately distracted him. 
 The bridal procession was seen by the unhappy wife, and 
 she swallowed poison. The rest is beyond my power to 
 account for. But it is rumored among the attendants that 
 strange sights have since been seen, and sounds of a bridal 
 throng heard in the' chambers through which their last 
 melancholy procession was made; though, whether it be 
 truth, or the common fear of the peasantry, I know not, 
 nor indeed wish too curiously to inquire." 
 
&ALATHIEL. 431 
 
 CHAPTER LXIL 
 
 As the old man spoke, sounds arose not unsuited to his 
 tale. But my faith in the legend did not amount to so 
 sudden a realization, and I looked towards the banquet. 
 There, from whatever motive, everything was in sudden 
 disturbance. The guests were hurrying from the tables. 
 Many had thrown the military cloak over their festal robes ; 
 some were in the adjoining apartments, hastily equipping 
 themselves with arms and armor. A group were standing 
 round Titus, evidently in anxious consultation. In the 
 spacious grounds below horsemen were mounting, and at- 
 tendants hurrying in all directions. The calls of the clarion 
 echoed through the courts: shortly after, a large body of 
 cavalry came wheeling round to the portal of the gardens ; 
 and Titus went forth, conspicuous among the bustling 
 crowd, for his manly composure. He gave some orders, 
 which were despatched by tribunes galloping as for their 
 lives; then, mounting his charger, rode slowly through the 
 gates at the head of his stately company, himself the most 
 stately of them all. 
 
 The woods surrounding the palace soon intercepted the 
 view of the imperial troop ; and, after straining my eyes as 
 long as I could see the glitter of a helmet by the waning 
 moon, I turned to my casement, to make that prayer for the 
 peace of Jerusalem which had been nightly on my lips, from 
 the hour when they first could pronounce the name. From 
 the dungeon has that supplication risen; from the mine; 
 from the sands of the wilderness; from the shores of the 
 farthest ocean ; from the bosom of the rolling waters ; from 
 the fires of the persecutor ; from the field before the battle ; 
 from the field covered with its dead ; from the living grave 
 of the monk; from the cavern of the robber; from the 
 palace ; even from the scaffold ! 
 
 While I continued in this outpouring of the soul, with 
 my eyes fixed on the cloudy world above, a pale reflection 
 spread over the masses of rolling vapor ; it lingered, faded, 
 and night covered the earth ; suddenly, a fierce lustre turned 
 the low and heavy clouds into the color of conflagration. 
 
 "There is an attack on either the enemy's camp, or the 
 city," I exclaimed to my companion. '^Daybreak it cannot 
 be, for the middle watch has not been half an hour sounded. 
 
432 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 Help me to escape ; be but my guide through the chambers, 
 and name your recompense." 
 
 The steward wrung his helpless hands, and offered his 
 life to my service; but described the precautions of my 
 jailors so fully, that I gave up the idea. Still, I was tossed 
 by anxious thoughts. I heard the treading of the guard, 
 until its recurrence irritated me. The meanings of the 
 wind through the trees told that a storm was rising ; and to 
 get rid of the uneasy conflict between the desire of sleep 
 and the difficulty of shutting out thought, I rose, and 
 watched the progress of the tempest. 
 
 The lightnings flashed in broad beams through the 
 clouds, and the rain fell with the violence of the southern 
 storm. But through the flash, deepening again, shone the 
 red illumination above the city; and neither the roar of 
 the wind, nor the dash of the descending deluge, could ex- 
 tinguish the shouts that, remote as they were, I knew to be 
 shouts of battle. I measured the tower with my eye; I 
 tried the strength of the bars; but the attempt only served 
 to disturb my companion, who had survived his sorrows 
 long enough to sleep as soundly as if there were not a woe 
 on earth. "I am glad," said he, "that you awoke me; for 
 I was dreaming the story of my unfortunate lord and his 
 son over again." 
 
 "The natural result of your having so lately renewed its 
 recollection." 
 
 "Ay, there is perhaps scarcely a room under the palace 
 roof, where some heart is not trembling to-night with 
 ghostly fear; nor a peasant's thatch where the death of 
 Matthan and the Arabian has not made pale faces; and 
 men tell of the bridegroom stricken in his hour of pride. 
 But powers of Heaven preserve us ! look there !" 
 
 I looked; but it was to the old man, whose countenance 
 alarmed me with the idea that he had wrought his imagi- 
 nation to a hazardous extreme. I took his cold hand : and 
 telling him that I felt unable to sleep, gently laid his 
 stiffened limbs on the couch, and bade him try to reft. But 
 his eye stared through the casement, till I followed its 
 direction, yet with only the added belief, that he was over- 
 come by the common terrors of the household ; for, to me, 
 tenfold darkness lay upon every object, from the ground 
 to the battlements. 
 
&ALATBIEL. 433 
 
 I accidentally glanced at the gallery, and there I saw a 
 figure, slight and shadowy, passing backward and forward 
 in front of a quivering lamp ! My surprise was more start- 
 ling than I would venture to communicate to my com- 
 panion, already almost paralyzed with fear. But if I had 
 conjured up a phantom to give force to the tale, none could 
 have been more closely similar. The figure was enveloped 
 in robes whose richness I could perceive even across the 
 court ; the gestures, the wild hurry of the pacings through 
 the chamber, the general air of woe and distraction, were 
 not to be mistaken. In the midst of the silence, I heard 
 the creaking of bolts and the fall of chains, that seemed to 
 be at my side. A single word followed; but that word was 
 terribly comprehensive "Death !" The sound was uttered 
 in a sepulchral tone, that left the imagination free to shape 
 the picture with what sullenness it willed ! 
 
 The old man was convinced that the vengeance which 
 had stricken his master's house was still abroad, and that 
 he had beheld its minister. 
 
 I tended him, with the more interest, from my being not 
 altogether unimpressed with the possibility that his alarms 
 were just. I was no believer in the vulgar narratives of 
 superstition. But nature has her mysteries ! 
 
 While I sat beside the couch, and watched the ebbs and 
 flows of life, in a frame that I sometimes expected to see 
 utterly give way, a jarring of bolts again struck my ear. I 
 listened with a strange emotion. The old man had heard 
 it, and in a new convulsion grasped both my hands, and 
 held me close. The sound returned; it increased; I saw 
 the wall of the tower open, and the figure stand before me. 
 "It is she, it is she," suddenly murmured my companion, 
 fixing his eyes on it, and holding me with the clasp of 
 agony. The heart beat thick within me; but I interposed 
 myself between the corpse-like being whom I held in my 
 arms and the unearthly visitant, and demanded "for what 
 purpose it had come." The figure started as I spoke ; then, 
 gazing intently on me as I turned to the light, threw the 
 mantle from its forehead, and fell at my feet. The lovely 
 Naomi was the spectre ! Yet, perfectly guiltless of the 
 ghostly potency of her presence, and the unfilial alarm 
 into which she had thrown her adopted father, whom she 
 was delighted to find, but whom she candidly acknowledged 
 "she never dreamed of finding there." 
 
434 BALATHIEL. 
 
 "The tower contains a prisoner," said she tremblingly, 
 "who must be saved this night ; for to-morrow at daybreak 
 is his dreadful hour. I knew that he would be condemned ; 
 and we agreed on a signal, by which I was to learn when 
 the time was fixed. I have watched all night for it, and 
 almost betrayed myself by a cry of horror that I could not 
 suppress, at t<he sight of that signal just now. I had no 
 resource but to bear my own message, and assist him myself 
 in escaping from this place of sorrow." 
 
 "But, my child, who is the prisoner, or where ?" 
 
 She blushed, and said, "One who saved me when the 
 world was against me. He rescued me from the hands of 
 barbarians; and could I leave him to perish?" 
 
 "Lead on then, and without delay; for daybreak is not 
 far. But how shall we find our way to his dungeon?" 
 
 "I paid high," said she, "for my knowledge of this tower ; 
 and it has no concealments from me. Remove this bar." 
 I drew out a slender iron rod; a door, deep in the wall, 
 gave way, and disclosed a winding stair, by which we de- 
 scended. We found the prisoner writing, and so earnestly 
 occupied that our footsteps did not interrupt him. 
 
 "There," soliloquized he, as he ran his eye down the 
 epistle ; "I think, my masters, if not the better, some of you 
 will be the wiser for my labors. Home truths are the 
 truths after all. Titus will learn what a set of incurable 
 reprobates he has about him; and by this time to-morrow, 
 when I shall care as little for mankind as mankind ever 
 cared for me, I shall do the state service; from my gibbet 
 turn reformer, and make the scaffold popular. And now, 
 for the farewell to my lady and my love." 
 
 He sighed, and threw down the pen. "No, I can say 
 nothing half so fond, or half so bitter, as my feelings at 
 this moment. Would that I had never seen you, if we are to 
 part so soon. Yet why should I regret to have known in- 
 nocence and beauty in their perfection ? No, my love, rosy 
 was the hour when I first saw you, and proud is even the 
 parting hour that tells me I could have loved so noble a 
 being." He sighed. "But all is better as it is. How could 
 I have borne to see you following the fortunes of a wan- 
 derer, of a man without a country or a name ? Then fare- 
 well, my Naomi ; dearest, farewell ; you were the gleam of 
 eunshine in my cloudy day, the star in my dreary night ; and 
 
8ALATHIEL. 435 
 
 while my heart beats, you shall be there. Your name shall 
 be the last upon my lips; and if there be thought beyond 
 the grave, you shall be remembered, and oh, how deeply 
 loved !" 
 
 I had been on the point of disturbing his meditation ; but 
 Naomi, with the fine avarice of passion, would not lose a 
 syllable. She held me back, and implored me by her coun- 
 tenance to let her have the full confession of her lover's 
 faith. That beautiful countenance ran through all the 
 shades of feeling, and was covered with blushes and tears, 
 while the unconscious worshipper poured out his devotion. 
 But the time was flying; I insisted on interrupting this 
 epicurism of the soul ; and when Naomi found that she 
 must hear no more, she would allow none but herself the 
 pleasure of the surprise. A sigh which swelled from the 
 prisoner's heart was echoed. He turned suddenly, and pro- 
 nounced her name with a loudness of delight that nothing 
 but the chance that protects the imprudent could have pre- 
 vented from bringing the guard upon us. His quick eye 
 soon caught me where I stood in shadow, and he sprang 
 forward to extinguish the intruder. But the lamp saved 
 us from the encounter; and lifting his hands and eyes in 
 amazement, he laughed as loudly as he had spoken. 
 
 "In the name of all the wonders of the world," exclaimed 
 he, "are you here too? Where are we to meet next? We 
 have met already in water, fire, and earth, and nothing is 
 left for us now but the clouds. Come, be honest, prince, 
 and tell me whether it was not for the sake of some such 
 experiment that you ventured here; for if another hour 
 finds us within these four walls we shall know the grand 
 secret as assuredly as Titus wears a head and has a traitor 
 at his elbow." It was the Arab captain ! 
 
 I was rejoiced to find that in attempting to save the life 
 of Naomi's lover, I was discharging a debt to the preserver 
 of my own. To my mention of this service, he replied with 
 soldier-like frankness, that "I owed him no obligation 
 whatever; he had long hated the intolerable cruelty of 
 Cestius, and the debt was on his side, as I had indulged 
 him with an opportunity that every officer in the service 
 would have been happy to use." 
 
 Naomi hung upon me, pale, and anxiously listening to 
 every sound abroad. "This little trembler," said he sport- 
 
436 SALATHIEL. 
 
 ively, as he took her passive hand, "I am destined to meet 
 always in alarm. I first found her flying from a troop of 
 human brutes who were robbing the baggage of the Roman 
 camp; I thought her worth something better than to keep 
 goats on the Libanus, and weave turbans for some Syrian 
 deserter ; she was of the same opinion, and fell in love with 
 me on the spot." Naomi exclaimed against this version of 
 the story. "No matter for the mode," said he, "I give the 
 facts. I dazzled her ambition by the promise of a palace 
 in the air ; bribed her avarice by the display of a purse un- 
 conscious of gold; and bewitched her senses by a speech, 
 a smile, and a figure, that for the first time in my life I 
 found to be irresistible/"' 
 
 Naomi again protested, and the dialogue might have con- 
 sumed half the night without their discovering the lapse of 
 time, had I not interposed, and inquired what further 
 means of escape were in our power. The lovely girl started 
 from her waking dream, and pointed to a ring in the wall. 
 I tried it, but it resisted my force. At length we all strove 
 at it together. But no door opened. Naomi wrung her 
 hands. "The unfortunate lord of this tower in former 
 times," said she, and the tear stood in her eye, "always pre- 
 dicted that it would be fatal to his family. To escape his 
 own fate, he pierced its walls with passages in every direc- 
 tion, but they did not save my noble, my unfortunate 
 father." She sat down weeping, while I tore at the ring, 
 which finally broke off in my hands. The lover stood with 
 folded arms, gazing in sad delight on the beautiful being 
 from whom he was so soon to part forever, and whose face 
 and form wore almost the shadowy loveliness of a vision. 
 
 The chance of their escape now devolved on me solely, 
 for neither would have desired to disturb that strange and 
 melancholy luxury of contemplation. But as the concealed 
 door must be given up, the only resource was to return to 
 my cell, and thence make our way through the passage by 
 which Naomi had arrived. A glance from the casement 
 showed me the court filled with soldiery, and lights moving 
 through the palace. This hope was gone ! 
 
 There was now no alternative but to be seized and die, or 
 to make a bold rush for life, and take our chance. I carried 
 the fainting Naomi up the stairs; and suppressing the 
 infinite risk of the attempt to penetrate through a building 
 
8ALATHIEL. 437 
 
 in which its inmates were still awake and busy, and which 
 was guarded by the vigilance of Koman patrols, I advised 
 that we should do anything rather than remain wher.e we 
 were. She was timid and submissive; but, to my surprise, 
 the bold seaman, the haughty leader of men harder to be 
 ruled than the elements, the gallant despiser of death but a 
 day past, was now totally unnerved. The novelty of pas- 
 sion absorbed the spirit of the man; he lingered near his 
 mistress, and gazed on her with an intenseness that told his 
 world was there. To my questions he gave no answer, but 
 obeyed without a word, or a glance turned from the ex- 
 quisite countenance that sank and blushed under his gaze. 
 If the actual power of enchantment had been wrought upon 
 him, he could not have been more fixed, helpless, and 
 charmed. 
 
 I heard the voice of pain, and thought of the ancient 
 follower of the house of Ananus. My cooler judgment had 
 acquitted him of betraying me into the enemy's hands. A 
 part of the cell was filled up with remnants of a canopy 
 removed from the statelier apartments. The groan came 
 from behind them. I flung them away, and saw a door 
 open by which he must have entered. I returned, desired 
 the captain and Naomi to follow, wrapped myself in a 
 cloak, and sword in hand led the way through the darkness. 
 A strong light at length flashed* up the stairs, and, taking 
 Naomi's hand, I led her down this steep and narrow outlet 
 of the grand gallery. As she came towards the light, a 
 wild cry was given; a man rushed back, and exclaiming, 
 "It is she risen from the grave, the Arabian !" darted 
 through the vast hall, in which were still a number of do- 
 mestics setting it in order after the banquet. Every eye 
 instantly turned to the spot from which we emerged. 
 Naomi's white-robed form, followed by her lover's and 
 mine wrapped to the brow in our dark mantles, formidably 
 verified the superstition. The crowd were already pre- 
 pared to witness a wonder on this night of woe ; they fled or 
 fell on their faces. The man, still rushing on, propagated 
 terror before us; and through the long vista of lighted 
 chambers, where to be seen might have been ruin, we moved 
 unquestioned until we reached the portal. It, too, had been 
 thrown open by some of the fugitives ; the gardens were de- 
 serted, the troops had been drawn to another quarter of 
 
438 SALATHIEL. 
 
 the palace. Before us was welcome solitude, and we were 
 soon winding through the wood-paths by the light of the 
 stars. 
 
 CHAPTER LXIII. 
 
 WHILE we traversed the grounds, the heaving of the 
 branches under the wind, which rose in strong gusts from 
 time to time, and the rush of the rivulets from the hill- 
 sides, which retained the swell of the meltiner snows, pre- 
 vented our hearing other sounds; but when we emerged 
 from this little forest of every plant that yields fruit or 
 fragrance, and began to climb the surrounding ridge, the 
 sights and sounds to which I had been so long accustomed 
 broke upon us. To the south a long line of light showed 
 where Jerusalem was struggling against a midnight as- 
 sault, and the uproar of battle came wildly on the wind. 
 The Roman camp-fires blazed round the promontory 
 Scopas, like the innumerable crevices of a huge volcanic 
 hill breathing flame from root to summit. But a more 
 immediate peril lay behind us. The first height from which 
 we could see the palace showed us the well-known fire-sig- 
 nals of the enemy, flaming on its battlements. Our escape 
 had been discovered. The signals were answered from 
 every point of the horizon. Where was a signal, there 
 was an enemy's post ; we could not advance a step without 
 the most imminent chance of seizure; and in those times, 
 death, by the shaft or the sword, was the instant conse- 
 quence. The signals were followed by the trumpet; and 
 every blast from the palace-roof was answered for miles 
 round. The whole horizon was alive with enemies; and 
 yet, if in every call captivity and death had not been the 
 language, this circling echo of the noblest of all instru- 
 ments of sound, coming in a thousand various tones from 
 the varied distances, softened by the dewv softness of the 
 night, and breathing from sources invisible, as if they 
 were inspired only by the winds, or poured from the clouds, 
 might have seemed sublime! 
 
 But a new alarm rose in the direction of the forest, which 
 now lay beneath us, like a sea slightly silvered on its thou- 
 sand billows by the sinking moon. The trampling of 
 
SALATHIEL. 439 
 
 cavalry was distinctly heard in pursuit, and torches were 
 seen rushing through the trees. The pursuit had turned 
 into the very path by which we came; and the baying of 
 a bloodhound up the ridge was guiding the cavalry to 
 our inevitable capture, if we remained. I was resolved not 
 to be taken while I could fight or fly, and pointing out to 
 my fellow-fugitives the horsemen, as they scoured the foot 
 of the hills, I plunged down into a ravine, where I could 
 expect to find only some torrent too deep for us to pass. 
 But it was at least protracted fate. I had given Naomi 
 into the hands of her lover, and, while they slowly de- 
 scended the precipice, returned to its edge to ascertain 
 whether the enemy were still upon our steps. The rock, 
 towards the summit, was splintered into a number of little 
 pinnacles, grasping one of which, I clung, listening and 
 gazing with indescribable nervousness. The sounds of pur- 
 suit had perished or were so mingled with the common 
 sounds of nature, as to be unheard, and I was congratu- 
 lating myself upon our total safety, and about to return 
 to the spot where I had left my companions, when the 
 torch-light shot up from the dell immediately below me. 
 I gave a hurried glance along the ravine, but Naomi was 
 not there. A detachment of archers were climbing over 
 the huge rocks that filled up its depth, and flashing their 
 torches through every hollow where a human being could 
 lie. To rescue my unfortunate charge was my first resolve, 
 and I began to let myself down the abrupt side of the hol- 
 low, before the torches disappeared. They at last seemed 
 to be completely gone; but as I hung within a few feet 
 of the path, a growl and a dash at my throat nearly over- 
 threw my steadiness. I knew that a precipice of immense 
 depth lay underneath, and in the utter darkness I could 
 have no certainty that my next step might not carry me 
 over it. My sole expedient was to grasp the rock with one 
 hand, and defend myself to the last with the other. The 
 bloodhound had tracked me, and he flew again at my 
 throat, but I was now prepared ; I caught him in the bound, 
 and whirled him down the ravine. His howl as he fell 
 from crag to crag detected me at once. A hundred torches 
 rushed upwards. I climbed the pinnacle, sprang from 
 its top into a pine thicket, and winding over a long extent 
 of broken ground, gradually lost torches and outcries to- 
 gether. 
 
440 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 After a pause, to consider in what quarter final escape 
 was most probable, a glimmering light through the thicket 
 at a considerable distance towards the city determined me. 
 My pursuers must be far behind; the loss of the blood- 
 hound diminished still more their chance of reaching my 
 track through a remarkably wild and broken district ; and 
 come what would, whether that light was kindled by friends 
 or enemies, I should see them before they could discover me. 
 I struggled on, until I reached the base of a ridge, on whose 
 further side the light gleamed. To ascend it was beyond 
 my powers ; but by gliding along the base, I found a crevice, 
 which, enlarged whether by nature or the human hand, led 
 through the hill. My way in darkness was brief; I had 
 not gone a third of the distance, when the light shone 
 strongly through. At its mouth I stood overwhelmed 
 I had strayed into the memorable valley of the Crosses! 
 
 Thousands of men, besmeared with blood, dust, and clay, 
 half-naked, brandishing weapons still dripping with gore, 
 whirling torches; shouting our roars of triumph; howling 
 in desperate lamentation; kneeling and weeping over the 
 dead with the most violent affliction ; wrapping themselves 
 in robes and armor ; tearing away their raiment, and fling- 
 ing sword and spear into the flames ; throwing hundreds of 
 corpses into one promiscuous burning, round which they 
 danced with furious exultation ; carrying away on litters 
 of lances and branches corpses that they seemed to hallow 
 as more than mortal ; every strange variety of human pas- 
 sion, wound up to its wildest height, was pictured before 
 me, and all was thrown into the most living distinctness, 
 by the blaze of an immense central heap of timber. 
 
 The horrid cruelties of the execution had been heard of 
 in Jerusalem, and the spirit of the people was roused to 
 vengeance. With that imperishable courage which dis- 
 tinguished them above all nations, a scorn of hazard, that 
 in those unhappy days only urged them to their ruin, they 
 determined to make the enemy pay in slaughter for the 
 memory of their warriors. A multitude, without a leader, 
 but among whom served, with the simple spear, manv a 
 leader, poured out from the gates to attack an enemy flushed 
 with victory, and secured in intrench ments impregnable to 
 the naked strength of my unfortunate countrymen. They 
 divided into two armies, one of which assaulted the lines, 
 
SALATHIEL. 441 
 
 while the other marched to the valley of the Crosses. The 
 assault on the lines was repelled, after long and desperate 
 displays of intrepidity. It was the intelligence of this 
 attack that had broken up the banquet. The Romans sus- 
 tained heavy losses in the early part of the night; their 
 outposts in the plain were sacrifice, and the chief part of 
 their cantonments burned. 
 
 But the "army of vengeance," a name given to it alike 
 by Jew and Eoman, accomplished its purpose with dreadful 
 retribution. The legionaries posted to defend the valley 
 were trampled down and destroyed at the first charge. 
 Troop on troop, sent to extricate them, met with the same 
 fate. One of the few prisoners described the valley, when 
 his cohort reached its verge, as having the look of a living 
 whirlpool, a vast and temptestuous rolling and heaving of 
 infuriate life, into which the attempt to descend was instant 
 destruction. "Every cohort that entered it," said the cen- 
 turion, "was instantly engulfed and seen no more. Last 
 night our legion, the fifteenth, lay down in their tents five 
 thousand strong; to-night there are not ten of us on the 
 face of the earth." The conflict was long, and the last of 
 the enemy were under the Jewish sword, when I reached 
 the mouth of the fissure. But in the first intervals of the 
 struggle, the remains of our tortured people had been 
 taken down from the accursed tree, tended with solemn 
 sorrow, and given up to their relatives and friends to be 
 borne back to Jerusalem. The crosses were thrown into a 
 heap, and set on fire; the fallen legionaries underwent the 
 last indignities that could be inflicted by scorn and rage; 
 and when even those grew weary, were flung into the blaz- 
 ing pile. 
 
 The fate of the noble Eleazar was still unknown ; and to 
 obtain the certainty of his preservation, or to render the 
 last honor to his remains, I forced my way towards the 
 spot on which I had seen him awaiting death. But my 
 researches were in vain; the witnesses on both sides were 
 now where there is no utterance. Guard, executioner, and 
 victim were clay; the battle had raged chiefly round that 
 spot, and the ground, trampled and deep in blood, gave 
 melancholy evidence of the havoc. Daybreak was now at 
 hand, and the sounds of the enemy's movements made our 
 retreat necessary. We heaped the last Roman corpse on. 
 
442 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 the pile, covered it with the broken spears, helmets, and 
 cuirasses of the soldiery, and then left the care of the con- 
 flagration to the wind. From the valley to Jerusalem,. our 
 way was crowded with the enemy's posts; but the keen 
 eye and agile vigor of the Jew eluded or anticipated the 
 heavy-armed legionaries, by long experience taught to dread 
 the night in Judea; and we reached the Grand Gate of 
 Sion as the sun was shooting his first rays on the pinnacles 
 of the Temple ! 
 
 In those strange and agitated days, when every hour pro- 
 duced some extraordinary scene, I remember none more 
 extraordinary than that morning^ marching into the city. 
 It was a triumph, but how unlike all that bore the name ! 
 It was no idle, popular pageant; no fantastic and studied 
 exhibition of trophies and treasures; no gaudy homage to 
 personal ambition; no holiday show to amuse the idleness, 
 or feed the vanity of a capital secure in peace and pam- 
 pered with the habits of opulence and supremacy. It was 
 at once a rejoicing, a funeral, a great act of atonement, a 
 popular preservation, and a proud revenge on the proudest 
 of enemies. 
 
 On the night before, not an eye had closed in Jerusalem. 
 The Romans, quick to turn every change to advantage, had 
 suffered the advance of our irregular combatants only until 
 they could throw a force between them and the gates. The 
 assault was made, and with partial success; but the popu- 
 lation, once roused, were terrible to an enemy fighting 
 against walls and ramparts, and the assailants were, after 
 long slaughter on both sides, drawn off at the sight of 
 our columns moving from the hills. We thus marched in, 
 unassailed, a host of fifty thousand men, as wild and 
 strange-looking a host as ever trod, to acclamations from 
 voices unnumbered. Every casement, roof, battlement, and 
 wall, in the long range of magnificent mansions, leading 
 round by the foot of Sion to Mount Moriah, was crowded 
 with spectators. Man, woman, and child, of every rank, 
 were there, straining their eyes and voices, and waving 
 hands, weapons, and banners, in honor of their deliverers 
 from the terrors of massacre. Our motley ranks had 
 equipped themselves with the Roman spoils, wherever they 
 could ; and among the ragged vestures, discolored turbans, 
 and rude pikes, moved masses of glittering mail, helmets and 
 
8ALATH1EL. 443 
 
 gilded lances. Besides the torn flags of the tribes, were toss- 
 ing embroidered standards with the initials of the Caesars, 
 or the golden image of some deity, mutilated by our scorn 
 of the idolater. The Jewish trumpets had scarcely sent 
 up their chorus, when it was followed by the clanging of 
 the Roman cymbal, the long and brilliant tone of the 
 clarion, or the deep roar of the brass conch and serpent. 
 Close upon ranks exulting and shouting victory, came ranks 
 bearing the honored dead on litters, and bursting into 
 bitter sorrow; then rolled onward thousands, bounding, 
 showing the weapons that they had torn from the enemy; 
 then passed groups of the priesthood for they, too, had 
 long taken the common share in the defence singing one 
 of the glorious hymns of the Temple; then again followed 
 litters, surrounded by the wives and children of the dead, 
 wrapped in inconsolable grief. Bands of warriors, who had 
 none to care for, the habitual sons of the field; armed 
 women; chained captives; men covered with the stately 
 dresses of our higher ranks; biers heaped with corpses; 
 wagons piled with armor, tents, the wounded and the 
 dead; every diversity of human circumstance, person, and 
 equipment, that belongs to a state in which the elements 
 of society are let loose; in that march successively moved 
 before .the eye. With the men were mingled the captured 
 horses of the legionaries; the camels and dromedaries of 
 the allies ; herds of the bull and buffalo, droves of goats and 
 sheep; the whole one mighty mass of misery, rejoicing, 
 nakedness, splendor, pride, humiliation, furious and savage 
 life, and honored and lamented death; the noblest patriot- 
 ism and the most hideous abandonment to the excesses 
 of our nature. 
 
 As soon as I could extricate myself from the concourse, 
 I hastened to appease the anxieties of my family, who 
 had suffered the general terrors of the night, with the ad- 
 dition of their own stake in my peril and that of Constan- 
 tius. My first inquiry was for Esther. To my boundless 
 delight, she had returned, but was still in nervous alarm. 
 On the night of her being led, through filial zeal, to meet 
 Septiinius, she was seized by a party of armed men, and by 
 them conveyed to a dungeon, where questions had been 
 put to her tending to charge me at once with magic and 
 correspondence with the enemy. But this persecution 
 
444 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 ceased, and she found herself as unexpectedly set at liberty 
 as she had been seized. At the gate of her prison the min- 
 strel had met her, and through the midst of the city, then 
 in its fiercest agitation, had with singular dexterity con- 
 ducted her safely home. 
 
 A service of this kind was not to go unrewarded, and he 
 had been suffered to remain under our roof until my re- 
 turn. But by that time he had made his ground secure by 
 such zealous service, and so many graceful qualities, that 
 even Miriam, sensitive and sagacious as she was, desired 
 that he should be retained. From his knowledge of the 
 various dialects of Asia, and his means of unsuspected 
 intercourse, few events could occur of which he had not 
 obtained some previous knowledge. His adroitness in avail- 
 ing himself of his knowledge, I had already experienced 
 in my escape from the gates, and it was to him that was due 
 the flight of the negroes. A stray charger, a mask, and the 
 common juggler's contrivance of breathing flames, made up 
 the demon, that defrauded the Ethiopian exchequer. But 
 his dexterity in the arts of elegance and taste was singular : 
 his pencil was dipped in nature ; and the sketches which he 
 was perpetually making, of the wild and picturesque popu- 
 lation that now filled our streets, were incomparable. He 
 sculptured, he modelled, he wove, he wrought the gold 
 filigree and chainwork for which our artists were famous, 
 with a skill that the most famous of them might have en- 
 vied. His knowledge of languages seemed the natural 
 result of his wanderings, but it was extraordinarily vari- 
 ous and pure. The dance and song were part of his pro- 
 fession ; but, from the little imperfect harp in use among 
 the minstrels he drew tones that none other had ever 
 delighted me with; sounds of such alternate spirit and 
 sweetness, such tender and heart-reaching power, that they 
 were like an immediate communication of mind with mind. 
 And the charm of those acquirements was enhanced by the 
 graceful carelessness with which he made his estimate of 
 their value. To my questions, how he could, at his age, 
 have mastered so many attainments, his reply was, that, 
 with his three teacher?, "everything might be learned ; 
 common sense alone exeoptod, the peculiar and rarest gift 
 of Providenco ! Those throe teachers were, Necessity. 
 Habit, and Time. At his starting in life, Necessity had 
 
8ALATHIEL. 445 
 
 told him that if he hoped to live he must labor ; Habit had 
 turned the labor into an indulgence ; and Time gave every 
 man an hour for everything unless he chose to sleep it 
 away." 
 
 But he had higher topics ; and the sagacity of his views, 
 in a crisis that was made to shake the wisdom of the wise, 
 often held me in astonishment. The fate of Constantius 
 deeply perplexed me. He had now been absent long; and 
 no tidings of him could be heard among the returning 
 warriors, further than that he had joined them in the 
 march to the valley of the Crosses, had distinguished him- 
 self by the intrepidity of his attack on the legionary guard 
 at the entrance, and was seen for a short time, with a cap- 
 tured standard in his hand, leading on the people. Un- 
 able to endure the silent anguish of those round me, silent 
 only through fear of giving me pain, I had determined on 
 passing the walls again, to seek my brave and unfortunate 
 son among the fallen. But Miriam's quick affection de- 
 tected me, and, with weeping prayers, she implored that 
 "I should not risk a life on which hung her own and those 
 of her children." 
 
 The sound of the lyre came suddenly upon the air, and 
 to dissipate the cloud that was gathering on my mind, I 
 wandered to a balcony, where, in the light of the evening 
 sun and the pleasant breathing of the breeze, the minstrel 
 was touching the strings to the song that had first attracted 
 me. I flung my wearied frame on a couch, and listened 
 until memory became too keen, and I waved my hand to 
 him to change the strain. He obeyed; but his heart was 
 in the harp no more; his touch faltered, the song died 
 away, and he approached me, with a soothingness of voice 
 and manner that none would have desired to resist. "My 
 prince," said he, "you are unhappy ; and if your sorrows can 
 be lightened by any service of mine, why not command 
 me ?" He waited ; but I was too much absorbed in gloomy 
 speculation. "I can pass the gates," he timidly continued, 
 "if such be my lord's will." I made a sign of dissent ; for 
 the enemy, since their late surprise, had begun to urge 
 the siege with increased vigilance. Yet my anxiety for 
 the fate of Constantius, and scarcely less for that of Naomi 
 and her lover, must have been visible. 
 
 He still lingered nigh, watching the indications which 
 
446 SALATHIEL. 
 
 inward struggle so forcibly paints upon the external man. 
 "Prince of Naphtali," said he, in a steadier tone, "among 
 my teachers, I forgot to mention one, and that one the 
 most effective of all Self-determination ! not the mere 
 disregard of personal risk, but the intrepidity of the mind. 
 I loved knowledge, and I pursued it without fear. Nature 
 is boundless, wise, and wonderful ; but prejudice bars up 
 the gate of knowledge. The man who would learn, must 
 despise the timidity that shrinks from wisdom ; as he must 
 hate the tyranny of opinion that condemns its pursuit. 
 Wisdom is like beauty, to be won only by the bold." 
 
 I looked up at the young pronouncer of the oracle. His 
 countenance, animated by the topic, wore an expression of 
 power, in which I should never have recognized the delicate 
 and dejected being that he always appeared, except in some 
 moment of sportiveness, come and gone, with the quick- 
 ness of lightning. "Minstrel, apply this to our people, or 
 their bigoted and ignorant leaders. I have no prejudices." 
 
 "All men have them, my prince; and the only distinc- 
 tion is, that in some they are mean, dark, and malignant; 
 in others they are lofty, generous and sensitive; yet they 
 are but the stronger for their nobleness. The mind itself 
 struggles to throw off the vile and naked fetter. But how 
 many forget the incumbrance of the chain of gold in its 
 preciousness !" He hesitated, and then, with a still more 
 elevated air, again began : "You despise, for instance, the 
 little ingenuities of our profession, and I own that, in 
 general, they deserve nothing eles. But if there were to 
 come before you some true lover of nature, a disciple of that" 
 sublimer philosophy which holds the secrets of her opera- 
 tions; a master of those superb influences which rule the 
 frame of things, and yet more, guide the fates of men and 
 nations; would not your prejudices and noble ones they 
 are lead you to repel the offer of his mysteries ?" 
 
 Thoughts, tending to those mysteries, had so often oc- 
 curred to me, and my mind was by its original constitu- 
 tion so fond of the abstruse and the wild, that I listened 
 with interest to the romance of philosophy. The figure 
 before me was not unsuited to the illusion ; slight, habited 
 in the fanciful dress of his art, a tunic of purple cloth, 
 bound round the waist with a girdle; the turban, a mere 
 band of scarlet silk, lightly laid upon his curls. There was 
 
SALATHIEL. 447 
 
 in all this nothing that was not to be seen at every hour in 
 the streets ; but round his waist, instead of the usual girdle 
 of the minstrels, he wore to-night a large golden serpent, 
 embossed and colored with a startling resemblance to life, 
 and a broad golden circlet wrought with devices of serpents 
 clasping his brow. The countenance was vividness itself; 
 not without that occasional wandering and touch of melan- 
 choly that showed where early care has been ; yet redeeming 
 the gloom by a smile, that had the sweetness and sudden- 
 ness of the sunbeam across an April shower. 
 
 The evening music of the Eoman camps roused me, as 
 their ranks were drawn out for the customary exercise. I 
 turned from them to glance upon the battlements, that 
 were now crowded with stragglers of the tribes inhaling 
 the air of the fields, and like myself gazing on the move- 
 ments of the enemy. The thought pressed on me, how soon, 
 and how terribly, all this must end ; what were the multi- 
 tudes to be, that now lived and breathed beneath my glance ? 
 The thought was too painful. I turned from earth to look 
 upon the east, where the evening star was lying on a rosy 
 cloud, like a spirit sent to bring back tidings from this 
 troubled world. "There, boy," said I, "will your wisdom 
 tell me the story of that star? Are its people as mad as 
 we ? Is their ambition on one side, and folly on the other ? 
 are their great men the prey of a populace, and their 
 populace the fools of their great men ? Have they orators 
 to inflame their passions; lawyers to beggar them in pur- 
 suit of justice ; traders, to cheat them ; heroes, to give them 
 laurels at the price of blood; and philosophers, to be the 
 worst plagues among them?" 
 
 "Even that knowledge," said the minstrel, "may not be 
 beyond the flight of the human intellect; but prejudices 
 must be first overcome ; we must learn to scorn idle names, 
 defy idle fears, and use the powers of nature to give us the 
 mastery of nature ! There are virtues in plants, in metals, 
 even in words, that, to seek, alarms the feeble, but to pos- 
 sess, constitutes the mighty. There are influences of the 
 air, of the stars, of even the most neglected and despised 
 things, that may be gifted to confer the sovereignty of 
 mankind." 
 
 I listened with the passive indulgence of one listening 
 under a spell : his voice had the sweetness and the flow of 
 
448 SALAT8IEL. 
 
 song, and his language was made impressive by gestures of 
 striking intelligence and beauty. He pointed to the skies, 
 to the flowers, to the horizon, that glowed like an ocean of 
 amber; and his fine countenance assumed a changing 
 character of loftiness, lovliness, or repose, as he gazed on 
 the sublime or the serene. 
 
 "Boy," said I, faintly, "are not such the studies by 
 which the pagan world is made evil?" 
 
 He smiled. "Xo ! Light is not further from darkness, 
 than wisdom from the superstition of the pagan. Home is 
 filled with the madness that falls upon idolatry for its curse 
 that has fallen since the beginning of the world that 
 shall fall, until its end. She is the slave of ghostly fear. 
 This hour, among the proudest, boldest, wisest, within the 
 borders of paganism, there lives not a man unenslaved by 
 the lowest delusion. The soothsayer, the interpreter of 
 dreams, the sacrificer, the seller of the dust of the dead, the 
 miserable pretender to magic; those are the true rulers of 
 the haughty empire those are the sceptre-bearers to whom 
 the emperor is a menial ; those are the men of might, who 
 laugh at authority, set counsel at naught, and are sapping 
 the foundations of the state, were they deep as the centre, 
 by sapping the vigor of the national mind." 
 
 While he spoke, he was, with apparent unconsciousness, 
 sketching some outlines on one of the large marble slabs of 
 the wall. My eyes had followed the sun, until the balcony, 
 darkened by an old vine, was in the depth of twilight. To 
 my surprise, the marble began to be covered with fire, but 
 fire of the softest and most silvery hue. The surprise was 
 increased by seeing this glow-worm lustre kindle into form. 
 I saw the portrait of Constantius; and by his side, Naomi 
 and her lover. As the lines grew clearer still, I saw them 
 in chains and in a dungeon ! The extraordinary information 
 which the minstrel had the means of obtaining made me 
 demand, in real alarm, whether the picture told the truth ; 
 and that, if it did, I should be instantly acquainted with 
 whatever might enable me to save them. 
 
 "And trifles like those fires can excite your astonish- 
 ment ?" he replied. "What if I were to tell you of wonders 
 such as it has not entered into the mind of the world to 
 imagine; yet, which are before us in every hour of our 
 lives, are mingled with everything, are grasped in our in- 
 
SALATHIEL. 449 
 
 sensate hands, are trodden by our careless feet? See these 
 crystals" he scraped a portion of the nitre exuding from 
 the wall "in these is hidden a power to which the strength 
 of man is but air to which the bulwarks round us are but 
 as the leaf on the breeze at whose command armies shall 
 vanish, mountains shake, empires perish the whole face 
 of society shall change; yet, by a sublime contradiction, 
 combining the greatest evil with the greatest good the 
 most lavish waste of life, with the most signal provision for 
 human security I" 
 
 "Look on this metal," said he, pointing to some of the 
 leaden ornaments of the balcony; "and think, what is the 
 worth of human judgment. Who would give the pearl or 
 the diamond, the silver or the gold, for this discolored 
 dross ? Yet, here is the king of metals the king of earth ; 
 for it can create, subdue, and rule, all that earth pro- 
 duces of power. Within this dross are treasures hidden, 
 more than earth could buy truth, knowledge and freedom. 
 It can give the dead a new life, and the living a new im- 
 mortality. It can stoop the haughtiest usurper that ever 
 sinned against man, into the lowest scorn. It can raise 
 the humblest son of obscurity into pre-eminence ; and, even 
 without breaking in upon the seclusion that he loves, set 
 him forth, crowned, to every future age, with involuntary 
 glory. It can flash light upon the darkest corners of the 
 earth; light never to be extinguished. It can civilize the 
 barbarian; it can pour perpetual increase of happiness, 
 strength, and liberty, round the civilized. It can make feet 
 to itself, that walk through the dungeon-walls ; wings that 
 the uttermost limits of the world cannot weary; eyes, to 
 which the darkest concealments of evil are naked as the day ; 
 intellect, that darts through the universe, and solves the 
 mightiest secrets of nature and of mind ! But in it, too, is 
 a fearful power of ruin." He gazed on me with a glance 
 that seemed to shoot fire. "Holding the keys of opulence 
 and empire, it can raise men and nations to the most daz- 
 zling height; but it can stain, delude, and madden them, 
 until they become a worse than pestilence to human 
 nature." 
 
 While he spoke his form assumed a grandeur commen- 
 surate to his lofty topics ; the power of his voice awoke with 
 the awaking power of his mind. My faculties succumbed 
 
450 SALATHIEL. 
 
 under his presence, and I could only exclaim: "More of 
 those wonders; give me more of those noble evidences of 
 the supremacy of man I" 
 
 "Man !" said my strange enlightener ; "look upon him as 
 he is, and what more helpless thing moves under the can- 
 opy of heaven? The prey of folly, the creature of acci- 
 dent, the sport of nature; the surge whirls him where it 
 will ; the wind scorns his bidding ; the storm crushes him ; 
 the lightning smites him. But look upon man when 
 knowledge has touched him with her sceptre." The circlet 
 on his brow seemed to quiver and sparkle with inward 
 lustre, the golden serpent that clasped his robe seemed to 
 writhe and revolve. I felt like one under fascination. A 
 strange sense of danger thrilled through me, yet mixed 
 with a dreamy and luxurious sense of enjoyment. The 
 air seemed heavy with fragrance, and I sat listening in 
 powerless homage to a lip moulded by beauty and dis- 
 dain. 
 
 "Man, the sport of nature !" said he, pointing to a bead 
 of dew that hung glittering on a leaf of the vine. "Say 
 man, the sovereign of nature! With but so feeble an in- 
 strument as this dew-drop he might control and scorn the 
 wind and the wave! Or, would you defy the storm in 
 darkness, without sun or star speed through the unknown 
 ocean, and add a new world to the old ? Within this frag- 
 ment lies the secret." He struck off a brown splinter from 
 the stone of the balcony. "Or would you behold regions 
 to which the stars that now bkze above our heads are but 
 the portal ; kingdoms of light never penetrated by mortal 
 vision; generations of worlds? By what splendid influ- 
 ence, think you, that the miracle is to be wrought ? Even 
 by this dust !" He took up a few grains of the sand at 
 his feet and poured them into my robe. He saw his time. 
 "Would you," exclaimed he, "be master of those magnificent 
 secrets? But bind this girdle round you, and invoke the 
 name that I shall name." 
 
 I shuddered; the arts of the diviner flashed upon me. 
 But I had listened too long not to be enfeebled by the 
 temptation. I felt the passion which lost us paradise the 
 thirst of forbidden knowledge. Still I resisted. The 
 young deceiver pressed me with more distinct promises. 
 "In your fate/' said he, "the fate of your nation is bound 
 
SALATHIEL. 451 
 
 up. Has it not been declared that a great deliverer is to 
 come, by whom the face of the enemies of Judah is to be 
 withered, and the sceptre of the earth given to the hand 
 of Israel ? Pledge yourself to me, and be that deliverer ! 
 You shrink! know then that, even while I speak, every 
 creature of your blood is in chains; your house is deso- 
 late; your fortunes are overthrown; you are cut off root 
 and branch ; you are exiled desperate undone !" 
 
 I felt a dreadful certainty that his words were true. 
 My heart bled at the picture of ruin. I wavered. The 
 temptation tingled through my veins. "What were the 
 sacrifice of myself," thought I, "wretched and sentenced 
 as I was, to the preservation of beings made for happi- 
 ness? Or was I to hesitate, let the risk be what it might, 
 when virtue, patriotism, and boundless knowledge were 
 added to that preservation? For the trivial honors that 
 man could give to man, the highest intellects of the earth 
 had been influenced; but the honors of the restorer of 
 Judah were an immortal theme the old splendors of tri- 
 umph were pronounced vain and dim, the old supremacy 
 of thrones weakness, to the domination and grandeur of 
 the sovereign who should sway the returning tribes of 
 Sion." 
 
 The figure approached me, and in a voice that sank with 
 subtle force through every nerve, pronounced the vow that 
 I was to utter. I was terror-struck ; a cloud came over my 
 sight; strange lights moved and glittered before me. I 
 felt the unspeakable dread that my faculties should be- 
 tray me, and that I should unconsciously yield to a temp- 
 tation which yet I had no strength to withstand. 
 
 While I sat helpless, and almost blind, I was aroused 
 by a majestic voice. I looked up. Eleazar was at my side. 
 I would have flung myself into his arms; I would have 
 cast myself at his feet, but an indescribable sensation 
 told me that my noble brother was to be so approached 
 no more. "Well and wisely hast thou resisted," were his 
 solemn words, "for in thee are the last fortunes of thy 
 people. Judea must fall; but fallen with her as thou 
 shaft be, and desolate, despairing, and wild as shall be 
 thy sojourn, the last blow of ruin to both would be given, 
 hadst thou yielded to the adversary." I glanced at the 
 minstrel. His visage was horror; he stood deformed, like 
 
452 SALATHIEL. 
 
 one dead in the moment of torture. I closed my eyes 
 against the hideous spectacle. A sound of hurrying steps 
 made me open them, after how long an interval I know 
 not. I was alone ! 
 
 CHAPTEK LXIV. 
 
 THE sounds of the footsteps thickened. Overwhelmed 
 as I was by the trial that my mind had just undergone, 
 I sat nearly unconscious of external things, till I was 
 roused by a strong grasp from behind, and saw myself 
 surrounded by armed men. I was passively bound ; and, in- 
 different to fortune, was flung into a litter, and conveyed 
 to the Tower of Antonia. In this vast circle of fortifica- 
 tions, the citadel of the former Roman garrison, the Jew- 
 ish government was now held, or rather Onias lorded it 
 over the population. He had discovered my dwelling; 
 and the first fruit of his knowledge was my seizure and 
 that of my family. He was now playing the last throw 
 of that desperate game to which his life had been given. 
 Power was within his reach, yet there I stood to thwart 
 him once more, and he was resolved to extinguish the first 
 source of his danger. Yet I was popular, and with all his 
 daring he desired to cast the odium of my death on the 
 Sanhedrin. I was to be tried on the ground of treating 
 with the enemy ; my family were seized, to shake my cour- 
 age by their peril; and I was to be forced to an igno- 
 minious confession, as the price of saving their lives. 
 
 At the mouth of a dungeon a torch was put into my 
 hands. I was left to make my way, and the iron door 
 was closed that had shut out many a wretch from light 
 and life. At the bottom of the steps I found a man sleep- 
 ing tranquilly on the stone. The glare of the torch dis- 
 turbed him; he started up, and looking in my face, ex- 
 claimed in the buoyant and cheerful tone by which I should 
 have recognized him under any disguise, "By Jupiter! I 
 knew that we were to meet! If I had to sleep to-night 
 at the bottom of the sea, I should wager my scimitar to a 
 straw that our bodies would be found lying side by side. 
 I presume we mount the scaffold together to-morrow for 
 the benefit of Jewish morality. Well, then, since our fates 
 
8ALATHIEL. 453 
 
 are to be joined, let us begin by supping together." It 
 was the captain ! He laid his store on the ground ; but I 
 was heartsick, and could only question him of Naomi, and 
 the misfortune which had betrayed him into the hands of 
 the tyrant. "Our history is the briefest in the world," 
 was the answer. "We found ourselves pursued, and we 
 fled. The pursuers followed faster than my fair mistress 
 could run, or I could carry her. So we were overtaken 
 before we could clear the rocks ; and our captors were forth- 
 with carrying us to the Koman camp, in great joy at their 
 prize. But it was intended to be an unlucky day for the 
 legions. We came across a Jewish troop, headed by a fine 
 bold fellow, who dashed upon the captors, and fluttered 
 them like a flight of pigeons. Nothing could promise bet- 
 ter than the affair; for my new captor turned out to be 
 an old friend, and one of the most gallant that ever com- 
 manded a trireme. Many a day the Cypriot and I chased 
 (Nemesis forgive us for it!) the pirates through the Cy- 
 clades : I, however, did not know then what pleasant per- 
 sonages the brothers of the free-trade might be." He 
 smiled; and the sigh that followed the smile told how 
 little he had since found to compensate for his old ad- 
 ventures. 
 
 "A Cypriot. Your captor was my son, my Constantius !" 
 I exclaimed. 
 
 "The very man. When he had found me out under my 
 Arab trappings, he was all hospitality, and invited me to 
 share the honors of his princely father's house. His troop 
 soon scattered, every man to his home; and I was gazing 
 at the head of an incomparable knave and early acquaint- 
 ance, Jonathan, nailed up over the gate for some villainy, 
 which he had not been as adroit as usual in turning to 
 profit; when Constantius, myself, and that lovely girl, 
 whom I shall never see more" he stooped his brow at the 
 'ecollection "were seized by the guard, separated, and sent, 
 I suppose, alike to the dungeon." 
 
 Shortly after midnight I was brought before the tri- 
 bunal. Onias was my accuser, and I was astonished at the 
 dexterity, number and plausibility of his charges magic, 
 treachery, the betrayal of my army, the refusal to push 
 the defeated enemy to a surrender, lest by the cessation of 
 the war my ambition should be deprived of its object ; and 
 
454 SAL ATE I EL. 
 
 last, and most astonishing, the assassination of my kinsman 
 Jubal, through fear of his testimony ! 
 
 I made my defence with the fearlessness of one weary 
 of life. Some of the charges I explained ; others I prompt- 
 ly repelled. To the imputation of treachery, I answered 
 in a single sentence "Read that correspondence with the 
 enemy, and judge which is the traitor." I took the Egyp- 
 tian's papers from my sash, and flung them on the table. 
 But the judges themselves were in visible perplexity : they 
 looked over the papers, held them to the lamps, and ex- 
 amined them in all imaginable ways, until the chief of the 
 Sanhedrin rising, with a frown that fixed all eyes on me, 
 flung the papers at my feet. The deepest silence was round 
 me, as I took up the rejected proofs. To my astonish- 
 ment, they were utterly blank ! 
 
 I now recollected that on my entrance I had been 
 pressed upon by the crowd. In that moment, the false 
 papers must have been substituted. I saw the Egyptian 
 gliding away from the side of Onias, and saw by the coun- 
 tenance of my accuser that the tidings of the robbery had 
 just reached him. He now declaimed against me with 
 renewed energy. He was eloquent by nature; the habit 
 of public affairs had given his speaking that character 
 of practical vigor and reality which is essential to great 
 public impression; his fortunes hung in the scale per- 
 haps his life; and he poured out the whole collected im- 
 pulse in a torrent of the boldest and most nervous decla- 
 mation upon my head. Still my name was high ; my rank 
 was not to be lightly assailed ; my national services were 
 felt; and even the corrupt judicature summoned for my 
 ruin were not so insensible to popular feeling as to vio- 
 late the forms of law to crush me. The trial lasted during 
 the night. I had the misery to see my wife, my children, 
 Constantius, Naomi, my domestics, my fellow warriors, 
 every human being whom there was a chance of perplex- 
 ing, or terrifying into testimony brought forward against 
 me. As a last resource, on the secret suggestion of the 
 Egyptian, who had his own revenge to satisfy, the ad- 
 ventures of the pirates' cavern were declaimed upon; and 
 the captain was summoned from his cell. His figure and 
 noble physiognomy made him conspicuous, and a general 
 murisur of admiration arose on his advance to the tribunal. 
 
SALATHIEL. 455 
 
 Miriam was at my side. I felt her tremble; her color 
 went and came; and she drank in every tone of his voice 
 with an intense anxiety. But when, in answer to the 
 questions of Onias, he detailed his story, and in answer to 
 the charge of his being an enemy, denied that he was either 
 Eoman or Greek, Miriam's spirit hung upon every word. 
 
 "A soldier's best pedigree/' said he, concluding, "is 
 his sword. I know no more than that I was reared in the 
 house of a Cypriot noble, to whom I had been brought by 
 a trader of Alexandria. My protector made me a sailor, 
 and would have made me his heir; but Koman insolence 
 disgusted me, and I left myicommand, bearing with me no 
 other inheritance than a heart too proud for slavery, my 
 scimitar, and this signet, which I have worn from my in- 
 fancy." He took from his bosom a large sculptured gem, 
 fastened to a chain of pearls. Miriam put forth her 
 trembling hand for it, read, with a starting eye, her own 
 name and mine, and exclaiming, "My son ! my son !" tot- 
 tered forward, and fell fainting into his arms. 
 
 I flew to them both, and never did a woe-worn heart 
 beat with keener joy than when I too clasped my son, my 
 long-lost, my first-born. Yet the cloud gathered instantly. 
 Was he not come to take the earliest embrace of his 
 parents, in the crisis of their fate the promise of an 
 unbroken lineage, found only in the day when my coun- 
 try was in the jaws of destruction; the father awaking 
 to those loveliest and happiest ties of our nature, only 
 when the axe of the traitor, or the sword of the enemy, 
 was uplifted to cut them asunder forever; the prince, the 
 patriot, the warrior, summoned to the first exercise of his 
 noble rights and duties when in the next hour a heap of 
 dust might be all that was left of his family and his peo- 
 ple ! 
 
 I clung to my son with a fondness thirsting to repay its 
 long arrear. His desertion in the hands of strangers; 
 the early hardships; the loss of a mother's love and a 
 father's protection; the insults and privations that the 
 straggler through the world must bear; the desperate haz- 
 ards of his life; even the errors into which necessity and 
 circumstance had driven him, rose up in judgment against 
 me; I reproached myself even for the accident, perhaps 
 the irresistible accident, that gave my infant to the roar- 
 
456 8ALATHIEL. 
 
 ing waters. But the tears and exclamations of the people 
 round us recalled us. I might then have walked from 
 the hall, without any man's daring to lay a hand upon 
 me; for the public feeling, touched by the discovery of 
 my son, was loud for my instant liberation. But I was not 
 to be satisfied with this imperfect justice, and I demanded 
 that the tribunal should proceed. 
 
 The presence of my family was felt too strong for the 
 fears of my persecutor, and he demanded that they should 
 retire. An impression, like the warning of a superior 
 spirit, instantly told me that the parting was forever ! 
 The same impression was evidently on their minds, for 
 their parting was like an eternal farewell. The whole 
 group at once gathered round me! Constantius and Sa- 
 lome knelt before me for final forgiveness. My son and 
 his betrothed bowed their heads to ask my blessing. Mir- 
 iam and Esther came last, and silently hung upon my 
 neck, dissolved in tears of matchless anguish and love. I 
 lifted my eyes and heart to Heaven; and, though op- 
 pressed with the terrible conviction of my own fate, put 
 forth my hands, and blessed them in the name of the 
 God of Israel. I saw them pass away. My firmness could 
 bear no more: I wept aloud. But, with my sorrow there 
 was given a hope a light across the gloom of my soul. 
 When . I saw their stately forms solemnly move along 
 through the fierce and guilty multitude, and the distant 
 portal shut upon them, I thought of the sons and daugh- 
 ters of the great patriarch, passing within the door of the 
 ark from the midst of a condemned world. 
 
 The night wore on ; the people, exhausted by the length 
 of a trial, protracted for the purpose, had left the hall 
 nearly empty ; and Onias, now secure of a tribunal that 
 dreaded nothing but the public eye, urged the decision. 
 The judges were his creatures, through corruption or fear ; 
 his followers alone remained. Sure to be crushed, the 
 fluctuations of hope were gone ; and I listened to the pow- 
 erful and high-wrought harangue of my enemy without a 
 feeling but of admiration for his extraordinary powers, or 
 of pity for their perverter. While he stood, drinking in 
 with ears and eyes the wonder and homage of the audi- 
 ence, I myself called for sentence. "Scorning," said I, 
 "to reason with understandings that will not comprehend, 
 
8ALATHIEL. 457 
 
 and consciences that cannot feel, I appeal from the man 
 of blood to the God of mercies; from the worse than man 
 of blood, from the corrupter of justice, to HIM who shall 
 judge the judge; to Him, who shall yet pass sentence on 
 all, in the sight of earth and heaven." 
 
 The chief of the tribunal rose; my condemnation was 
 upon a lip quivering and pale: he had already in his 
 hand the border of the robe which he was to rend, in 
 sign that the accused was rent from Israel. A confusion 
 at the portal checked him ; and the words resounded,. "Shed 
 not the innocent blood." The voice was as a voice from 
 the sepulchre, melancholy, but searching to the very heart. 
 The guard gave way, and a man, covered from head to 
 foot with a sepulchral garment, rushed up the immense 
 hall. At the foot of the tribunal he flung off the garment, 
 and disclosed a face and form that well might have ranked 
 him among the dwellers of the grave. 
 
 "I have come from the tombs," exclaimed he: "I had 
 lain down to die in the resting place of my fathers, in 
 the Valley of Jehoshaphat. A man in white raiment stood 
 beside me, and commanded me to come, and bear witness 
 of the truth. The Eomans were round me he led me 
 through them ; the battlements were before me he led me 
 through them; riot, fury, and frenzy stood in my path 
 through your city he led me through them ; and lo ! here 
 I come, and proclaim by his command, 'Shed not the in- 
 nocent blood.' '' Onias stood paralyzed. No memory of 
 mine could recall the haggard features of the stranger. 
 The chief of the tribunal, in manifest confusion, required 
 his name. "My name," he answered, with a wild wave of 
 his hand, "is nothing air is gone. What I was, is past ; 
 what I shall be, the tomb alone must tell ; but what I am, 
 is the witness, commissioned to proclaim Onias the be- 
 trayer of the blood of your nobles the slave of Eome 
 the traitor to his country, the apostate to his religion." 
 All hands were lifted up in astonishment. Onias, sick at 
 heart, made a feeble gesture of denial. "Dares the traitor 
 deny his own handwriting ?" was the indignant reply. 
 "Let him read his treason, committed within these twelve 
 hours." He stalked over to the guilty Onias, and held 
 his letters to the Roman general before his shrinking eye. 
 
 While my eyes were fixed on the portal through which 
 
458 BALATHIEL. 
 
 had vanished my last hope of happiness, I was startled 
 by an outcry; and I saw the gleam of steel at my throat. 
 Onias, in despair of smiting me by the arm of the law, 
 had made a frenzied effort to destroy me by his own. 
 Quick as lightning the stranger threw himself between us, 
 and grasped the assassin; they struggled they were in- 
 volved in the large and loose robe, and fell together. I 
 sprang forward to separate them. But the deed was done. 
 Onias lay rolling upon the ground; the dagger was in 
 the stranger's grasp, and it was crimson to the hilt. I 
 could feel no vindictiveness against the dying, and I of- 
 fered him my hand. He threw a violent expression of 
 scorn into his stiffening features, and cried at convulsive 
 intervals "No compassion no hypocrisy for me I die 
 as I lived. I hated you, for you thwarted me. You have 
 the best of the game now; but if I had lived till to-mor- 
 row, I should have been lord of Jerusalem. The Eomans 
 will settle all. You and yours would have been in my 
 power. You shall perish. That boy is your son; he was 
 brought to me in his infancy; I hated you as my rival; 
 and I swore that you should never see your first-born 
 again. I sold him to the Alexandrian. You shall not live 
 to triumph over me; your dungeon shall be your tomb; 
 another night, and you sleep no more, or sleep forever.'' 
 He gathered his mantle over his face and died. 
 
 His followers, after the first consternation, demanded 
 vengeance on the stranger. But it was now my time to 
 protect him, and I declared that no man should strike him 
 but through me. "This is noble and generous," inter- 
 rupted ha, "but useless. I too am dying; but I rejoice 
 that I am dying by the wound meant for you. Have I at 
 last atoned? Have you forgotten? Can you forgive? 
 Then, prince of Naphtali, lay your hand upon this heart, 
 and while it beats, believe that there you are honored. Time 
 has changed me; misery has extinguished the last trace 
 of what I was. Farewell, my kinsman, friend, chieftain; 
 and remember Jubal." 
 
 I caught him in my arms; my heart melted at his suf- 
 ferings his generous attachment his heroic devotion 
 his deep repentance. "You have more than atoned," I 
 exclaimed ; "you are more than forgiven. Live, my manly, 
 kind, high-hearted Jubal ; live for the honor of your race 
 
SALATHIEL. 459 
 
 of your country of human nature." He looked up 
 with a smile of gratitude, and faintly uttering, "I die 
 happy/' breathed in my arms the last breath of one of the 
 most gallant spirits that ever left the world. 
 
 Loud shouts abroad, and blazes that colored the roof 
 with long columns of lurid light, put an end to the de- 
 liberation of the tribunal. The enemy were assaulting the 
 citadel, and the mockery of justice was summarily closed 
 by returning me to my dungeon, to await times fitter for 
 the calmness of judicial murder. The assault continued 
 for some hours; but to my cell, sunk in the very founda- 
 tions of the fortress, day never came; and I lay, still 
 buried in darkness, when I heard sounds like the blows 
 of pickaxes; and from time to time the fall of heavy 
 bodies, followed by a roar. The air grew close; and, chill 
 as the dungeon had been, I experienced a sensation of heat 
 still more painful. The heat increased rapidly. I tried 
 to avoid it by shifting my place in the vault. But the evil 
 was not to be baffled; the air grew hotter and hotter. I 
 flung myself on the pavement to draw a cool breath from 
 the stones; they began to glow under me. I ran to the 
 door of the dungeon; it was iron, and the touch scorched 
 me. I shouted, I tore at the walls, at the massive rings in 
 the floor, less perhaps from the hope of thus escaping than 
 from the vague eagerness to deaden present pain by vio- 
 lent effort. But I tore up the pavement, and broke down 
 the fragments of the walls in vain. The walls themselves 
 began to split with the heat; smoke eddied through the 
 crevices of the immense stones, and the dungeon was filled 
 with fiery vapor. My raiment encumbered me; I tore it 
 away, and on the floor saw it fall in ashes. I felt the ago- 
 nies of suffocation ; and at last, helpless and hopeless, 
 threw myself down, like my raiment, to be consumed. 
 
 I had scarcely touched the stone when I felt it shake 
 and vibrate from side to side. A hollow noise like distant 
 thunder echoed through the vault; the walls shook, col- 
 lapsed, opened, and I was plunged down a chasm, and 
 continued rolling for some moments in a whirl of stones, 
 dust, earth, and smoke. 
 
 When it subsided, I found myself lying on the green 
 sward, in noonday, at the bottom of a valley, with the 
 tower of Antonia covered with the legionaries, five hun- 
 
460 SALATHIEL. 
 
 dred feet above me. The remnants of huge fires round 
 pillars of timber explained the mystery. The enemy had 
 undermined the wall; and, by burning the props, had 
 brought it down at the moment of the assault. Onias, the 
 planner of the attack, for which he was to be repaid with 
 the procuratorship of Judea, had placed me in the spot 
 where ruin was to begin, and cheered his dying moments 
 with the certainty that, acquitted or not, there I must be 
 undone ! 
 
 I long lay contused and powerless beside my dungeon! 
 But the twilight air revived me; and I crept through 
 the deserted intrenchments of the enemy, until I reached 
 one of the gates; where I announced my name, and was 
 received with rejoicings. The heart of my countrymen 
 was heroic to the last, and deeply was its heroism now de- 
 manded; for the whole force of the enemy had been 
 brought up for final assault; and when I entered, every 
 portion of the walls was the scene of unexampled battle. 
 Where the ground suffered the approach of troops, the 
 enemy's columns, headed by archers and slingers innumer- 
 able, rushed to the rampart, climbing up the breaches, with 
 their shields covering their heads. Against the towers were 
 wheeled towers filled with troops, who descended on the 
 wall and fought us hand to hand. We felt the perpetual 
 blows of the battering rams, shaking the battlements under 
 our feet. Where the ground repelled direct assault, there 
 the military machines poured havoc, and those were the 
 most dreaded of all. 
 
 The skill of man, exerted for ages on the arts of com- 
 pendious slaughter, has scarcely produced the equals of 
 those horrible engines. They threw masses of unextin- 
 guishable fire, boiling water, of burning oil, of red hot 
 flints, of molten metal, from distances that precluded de- 
 fence, and with a force that nothing could resist. The 
 catapult shot stones of a hundred weight from the distance 
 of furlongs, with the straightness of an arrow, and with 
 an impulse that ground everything in their way to pow- 
 der. The fortitude that scorned the Roman spear, and 
 exulted in the sight of the columns mounting the scaling 
 ladders, as mounting to sure destruction, quailed before the 
 tremendous power of the catapult. The singular and om- 
 inous cry of the watchers, who gave notice of its discharge, 
 
SALATHIEL. 461 
 
 "The son cometh," was a sound that prostrated every man 
 upon his face, until the crash of the walls told that the 
 blow was given. 
 
 Every thought that I had now for earth was in the 
 Tower of Antonia ! But there the legions rendered ap- 
 proach impossible; and I could only gaze from a distance, 
 and see, in the bitterness of my soul, the enemy gradually 
 forcing their way from rampart to rampart. It was in 
 vain that I strove to collect a few who would join me in a 
 desperate attempt to succor its defenders. I was left alone ; 
 and sadly sitting on the battlements, I took the chance 
 of some friendly spear or stone. Through all the roar I 
 heard the voice of Sabat the Ishmaelite ; the eternal "Woe ! 
 woe ! woe !" loud as ever, and in appalling unison with the 
 hour. He now came rushing along the wall, with the same 
 rapid and vigorous stride as of old; but his betrothed no 
 longer followed him. She was borne in his arms ! The 
 stones from the engines thundered against the wall; they 
 tore up the strong buttresses like weeds ; they struck away 
 whole ranks of men, and whirled their remnants through 
 the air. They levelled towers, and swept battlements away 
 with their defenders at a blow. But Sabat moved un- 
 shrinking on his wild mission. His cry, now, was terrible 
 prophecy. "A voice from the east, a voice from the west, 
 a voice from the four winds, a voice against Jerusalem 
 and the holy house, a voice against the bridegroom and the 
 bride, a voice against this whole people." 
 
 He stopped before me, and pointing to the face of his 
 bride, said with sudden faltering and tears, "She is gone, 
 she is dead. She died last night. I promised to die, too. 
 She follows me no more; it is I that must follow her/' 
 Death was in his face; and my only wonder was, that a 
 form so utterly reduced could live and move. I offered 
 him some provision from the basket of a dead soldier at 
 my feet. For the first time he took it, thanked me, and 
 ate. Not less to my surprise, he continued gazing round 
 him on the movements of the enemy, on the temple, the 
 tower of Antonia, and the hills. But his station was emi- 
 nently perilous, and I pointed out one of the military 
 engines taking its position, to play upon the spot where 
 we were. He refused to stir. "The look may be long/' 
 said he, "when a man looks his last." I heard the roar of 
 
462 SALATHIEL. 
 
 the engine, and leaped from the rampart to escape the dis- 
 charge. Sabat stood, and again began his cry: "Woe to 
 the city, and to the holy house, and to the people !" The 
 discharge tore up a large portion of the battlement. Sabal 
 never moved limb or feature. The wall was cut away 
 on his right and left, as if it had been cut with an axe. He 
 stood calmly on the projecting fragment, with his lips to 
 the lips of his bride. I saw the engine levelled again, and 
 again called to him to escape. He gave me no answer but 
 a melancholy smile ; and crying out, with a voice that filled 
 the air, "Woe to myself!" stood. I heard the rush of the 
 stone. It smote Sabat and his bride into atoms ! 
 
 The fall of our illustrious and unhappy city was su- 
 pernatural. The destruction of the conquered was against 
 the first principles of Roman polity ; and, to the last hour 
 of our national existence, Kome held out offers of peace, 
 and lamented our frantic determination to be undone. But 
 the decree was gone forth from a mightier throne. During 
 the latter days of the siege a hostility to which that of man 
 was as the grain of sand to the tempest that drives it on, 
 overpowered our strength and senses. Fearful shapes and 
 voices in the air; visions startling us from our short and 
 troubled sleep; lunacy in its most hideous forms; sudden 
 death in the midst of vigor; the fury of tla jlements let 
 loose upon our unsheltered heads ; we had every terror and 
 evil that could beset human nature but pestilence; the 
 most probable of all in a city crowded with the famishing, 
 the diseased, the wounded, and the dead. Yet, though the 
 streets were covered with the unburied; though every wall 
 and trench was streaming with gore; though six hundred 
 thousand corpses lay flung over the rampart, naked to the 
 sun pestilence came not; for, if it had come, the enemy 
 would have been scared away. But the "abomination of 
 desolation," the pagan standard, was fixed; where it was 
 to remain- until the plough passed over the ruins of Jeru- 
 salem ! 
 
 On one night, that fatal night! no man laid his head 
 upon his pillow. Heaven and earth were in conflict. Me- 
 teors burned above us; the ground shook under our feet; 
 the volcano blazed ; the wind burst forth in irresistible 
 blasts, and swept the living and the dead in whirlwinds, 
 far into the desert. We heard the bellowing of the distant 
 
SALATH1EL. 463 
 
 Mediterranean, as if its waters were at our side, swelled 
 by a new deluge. The lakes and rivers roared, and in- 
 undated the land. The fiery sword shot out tenfold fire. 
 Showers of blood fell. Thunder pealed from every quar- 
 ter of the heaven. Lightning, in immense sheets, of an in- 
 tensity and duration that turned the darkness into more 
 than day, withering eye and soul, burned from the zenith 
 to the ground, and marked its track by forests of flame, 
 and the shattered summits of the hills. 
 
 Defence was now unthought of ; for the mortal hostility- 
 had passed from the mind. Our hearts quaked for fear; 
 but it was to see the powers of heaven shaken. All cast 
 away the shield and the spear, and crouched before the 
 descending judgment. We were conscience-smitten. Our 
 cries of remorse, anguish, and horror, were heard through 
 the uproar of the storm. We howled to the caverns to hide 
 us; we plunged into the sepulchres to escape the wrath 
 that consumed the living; we would have buried ourselves 
 under the mountains ! I knew the cause, the unspeakable 
 cause; and knew that the last hour of crime was at hand. 
 A few fugitives, astonished to see one man among them 
 not sunk into the lowest feebleness of fear, came round 
 me, and besought me to lead them to some place of safety, 
 if such were now to be found on earth. I told them openly 
 that they were to die, and counselled them to die in the 
 hallowed ground of the Temple. They followed me, through 
 streets encumbered with every shape of human suffering, 
 to the foot of Mount Moriah. But, beyond that, we found 
 advance impossible. Piles of cloud, whose darkness was 
 palpable, even in the midnight in which we stood,, covered 
 the holy hill. Still, not to be daunted by anything thai 
 man could overcome, I cheered my disheartened band, and 
 attempted to lead the way up the ascent. But I had scarce- 
 ly entered the cloud, when I was swept downward by a 
 gust that tore the rocks in a flinty shower round me. 
 
 Now came the last and most wondrous sign that marked 
 the fate of Israel. While I lay helpless, I heard the whirl- 
 wind roar through the cloudy hill; and the vapors began 
 to revolve. A pale light, like that of the rising moon, 
 quivered on their edges; and the clouds rose, and rapidly 
 shaped themselves into the forms of battlements and tow- 
 ers. The sound of voices was heard within, low and dis- 
 
464 SALATHIEL. 
 
 tant, yet strangely sweet. The lustre brightened, and the 
 airy building rose, tower on tower, and battlement on bat- 
 tlement. In awe that held us mute, we knelt and gazed 
 upon this more than mortal architecture, which continued 
 rising and spreading, and glowing with a serener light, 
 still soft and silvery, yet to which the broadest moonbeam 
 was dim. At last, it stood forth to earth and heaven the 
 colossal image of the first Temple, the building raised by 
 the wisest of men, and consecrated by the visible glory. 
 All Jerusalem saw the image; and the shout that, in the 
 midst of their despair, ascended from its thousands and 
 tens of thousands, told what proud remembrances were 
 there. But a hymn was heard that might have hushed the 
 world. Never fell on my ear, never on the human sense, 
 a sound so majestic, yet so subduing ; so full of melancholy, 
 yet of grandeur. The cloudy portal opened, and from it 
 marched a host, such as man had never seen before, such 
 as man shall never see but once, again; the guardian 
 angels of the city of David! they came forth glorious, 
 but with woe in all their steps; the stars upon their hel- 
 mets dim; their robes stained; tears flowing down their 
 celestial beauty. "Let us go hence," was their song of 
 sorrow ; "Let us go hence," was answered by the sad echoes 
 of the mountains. "Let us go hence,'' swelled upon the 
 night, to the farthest limits of the land. The procession 
 lingered long on the summit of the hill. Then, the thun- 
 der pealed ; and they rose at the command, diffusing waves 
 of light over the expanse of heaven. Their chorus was 
 heard, still magnificent and melancholy, when their splen- 
 dor was diminished to the brightness of a star. The thun- 
 der roared again; the cloudy temple was scattered on the 
 winds ; and darkness, the omen of her grave, settled upon 
 Jerusalem ! 
 
 I was roused from my consternation by the voice of a 
 man. "What I" said he, "sitting here, when all the world 
 is stirring ? Poring over the faces of dead men, when you 
 should be the foremost among the living? All Jerusalem 
 in arms, and yet you scorn your time to gain laurels?" 
 The haughty and sarcastic tone was familiar to my recol- 
 lection ; but to see, as I did, a Eoman soldier within a few 
 feet of me, was enough to make me spring up, and draw 
 my scimitar, careless of consequences. "You ought to 
 
SALATH1UL. 465 
 
 know me," said he, without moving a muscle ; "for, thougn 
 it is some years since we met, we have not been often 
 asunder. And so, here you have been sitting these twelve 
 hours among corpses, to no better purpose than losing your 
 time and your memory, together I" 
 
 I looked round ; the sun was in his meridian ! The little 
 band that I had led to the foot of the mountain were 
 lying dead to a man. "Are you not a Boman?" I ex- 
 claimed. 
 
 "No ; but I conclude that nearly as much absurdity and 
 mischief may be committed under these trappings, as under 
 any other; and therefore I wear them. But you may ex- 
 change with me if you like. This cuirass and falchion 
 will help you to money, riot, violence, and vice ; and what 
 more do nine-tenths of mankind ask for in their souls? 
 Take my offer, and you will be on the winning side ; another 
 thing that men like. But be expeditious, for before this 
 sun dips his forehead in the Asphaltites, the bloodshed 
 and robbery will be over." His laugE, as he uttered the 
 words, was bitterness itself; and I felt my flesh instinct- 
 ively shudder. But a glance towards the Temple told me 
 that the words were true. The legions had forced their 
 way to the foot of the third and weakest rampart, which I 
 now saw flying in pieces under the blows of the battering 
 rams. They must have marched by the very spot where 
 I had sat since midnight ; and I probably escaped only by 
 being taken for one of the dead. I wrung my hands in 
 agony. He burst into a wild roar of derision. "What 
 fools you lords of the creation are! What is the loss of 
 life to the naked wretches that you see running about like 
 frightened children on those battlements ? or to the clothed 
 wretches that you see ready to massacre them, for the 
 honor and glory of a better-clothed wretch? a dinner 
 too much will revenge them on the emperor of the earth. 
 The spear, or the arrow comes ; and quick as thought their 
 troubles are at an end. Man ! the true misery is to live, 
 to be constrained to live, to feel the wants, weariness, and 
 weaknesses of life, yet to drag on existence; to be what 
 I am." 
 
 He tore the helmet from his forehead, and, with a 
 groan of agony, flung it to a measureless distance in the 
 air. In amaze and terror I beheld Epiphanes ! The same 
 
466 BALATHIEL. 
 
 Greek countenance, the same kingly presence, the same 
 strength and heroic stature, and the same despair, were 
 before me, that, in the early years of my woe, I had seen 
 on the shores of the Dead Sea. "I told you," said he, with 
 a sudden return to calmness, "that this day would come ; 
 and to tell you so required no spirit of prophecy. There 
 is a time for all things, long-suffering among the rest; 
 and your countrymen had long ago come to that time. But 
 one grand hope was still to be given; they cast it from 
 them! Ages on ages shall pass, before they learn the 
 loftiness of that hope, or fulfil the punishment of that re- 
 jection. Yet, in the fulness of time, shall the light break 
 in upon their darkness. They shall ask, Why are we the 
 despised, the branded, the trampled, the abjured, of all 
 nations? Why are the barbarian and the civilized alike 
 our oppressors? Why do contending faiths join in crush- 
 ing us alone? Why do realms, distant as the ends of the 
 earth, and diverse as day and night alike those who have 
 heard our history and those who have never heard of us. 
 but as the sad sojourners of the earth unite in one cry of 
 scorn? And what is the universal voice of nature, but 
 the voice of the King of nature ?" 
 
 I listened in reverence to language that pierced my 
 heart with an intense power of truth, yet with a pang that 
 made me writhe. I longed, yet dreaded, to hear again the 
 searching and lofty accents of this being of unwilling 
 wisdom. "Man of terrible knowledge/' said I, "canst 
 thou tell for what crime this judgment shall come?" 
 
 His mighty brow was stooped in awe, and his features 
 quivered as he slowly spoke. "Their crime? There is no 
 name for it. The spirits of heaven weep when they think 
 of it. The spirits of the abyss tremble. Man alone, the 
 man of Judea alone, could commit that horror of horrors." 
 
 He paused, and prostrated himself at the words; then 
 rising, rapidly uttered: "Judge of the crime by its pun- 
 ishment. From the beginning Israel was stubborn, and 
 his stubbornness brought him to sorrow. He rebelled, and 
 he was warned by the captivity of a monarck, or the 
 slaughter of a tribe. He sinned more deeply, for he was 
 the slave of impurity; then was his kingdom divided; yet 
 a few years saw him powerful once more. He sinned more 
 deeply still, for he sought the worship of idols. Then came 
 
SALATHIEL. 46? 
 
 his deeper punishment, in the fall of his throne,, and the 
 long captivity of his people. But even Babylon sent back 
 the forgiven. 
 
 "Happy, I say to you, happy will be the hour for Israel 
 for mankind, for creation, when he shall take into his 
 hand the records of his fathers, and, in tears, ask, What 
 is that greater crime than rebellion? than blasphemy? 
 than impurity? than idolatry? which, not seventy years, 
 nor a thousand years, of sorrow have seen forgiven ; which 
 has prolonged his woe into the old age of the world 
 which threatens him with a chain not to be broken, but 
 by the thunder-stroke that breaks up the universe !" 
 
 "And still," said I, trembling before the living oracle, 
 "still is there hope ?" 
 
 "Look to that mountain," was the answer, as he pointed 
 to Moriah. Its side covered with the legions advancing to 
 the assault, shone in the sun, like a tide of burning brass. 
 "It is now a sight of splendid evil !" exclaimed he. "But 
 upon that mountain shall yet be enthroned a Sovereign 
 before whom the sun shall hide his head, and at the lifting 
 of whose sceptre the heaven and the heaven of heavens 
 shall bow down ! To that mountain shall man, and more 
 than man, crowd for wisdom and happiness. From that 
 mountain shall light flow to the ends of the universe ; and 
 the government shall be the Everlasting !" 
 
 The roar of the assault began, and my awful companion 
 was recalled to the world. "I must see the end of this 
 battle," said he, in his old mixture of sarcasm and melan- 
 choly. "Man's natural talent for making himself miser- 
 able may go far, but he is still the better for a teacher. 
 On the top of that hill there are twenty thousand men 
 panting for each other's blood, like tigers ; and yet without 
 me, they would leave the grand business undone, after all." 
 
 "But one word more," I cried, giving my last look to 
 the tower of Antonia, on which the eagles now glittered. 
 
 He anticipated me. "All are safe they are in the hands 
 of Septimius, who will deal with them in honor. He solic- 
 ited the command, that he might provide for their security. 
 They comfort themselves with the hope that you will re- 
 turn. But return you will never. They will be happy in 
 the hope until sorrow is too long shut out, to find room 
 when it comes; they love you, and will love you long, but 
 there is an end of all things. And now, farewell/' 
 
468 SALATHIEL. 
 
 "And now, onward/' said I. "But every spot is crowded 
 with the Eoman columns. How am I to pass those 
 spears ?" 
 
 He laughed wildly, flung his arm round me, as of old; 
 and ran, with the speed of a stag, round the foot of the 
 hill, to an unobstructed side. The ascent was nearly per- 
 pendicular ; but he bounded up the crags without drawing a 
 breath, placed me on a battlement, and was gone ! 
 
 Below me war raged in its boundless fury. The enemy 
 had forced their way; and the exasperated Jews, con- 
 temptuous of life, fought them with the rage of wild 
 beasts. When the lance was broke, the knife was the 
 weapon; when the knife failed, they tore with their hands 
 and teeth. Masses of stone, torches, even dead bodies, 
 everything that could minister to destruction, were hurled 
 from the roofs on the assailants, who were often repulsed 
 with deadly havoc. But they still made way; the courts 
 of the Gentiles, of the Israelites, and of the priests, were 
 successively stormed ; and the legions at length established 
 themselves in front of the Sanctuary. A howl of wrath, 
 at the possible profanation of the Holy of Holies, rose from 
 the multitude. I rushed from the battlement, and, show- 
 ing myself to the people, demanded "who would follow 
 me?" The crowd exulted at the sight of their well- 
 known chieftain; and in the impulse of the moment, we 
 poured on the enemy, and drove them from the court of the 
 sanctuary. Startled by the sudden reverse, the Eoman 
 generals renewed their proposal for a surrender, and Titus 
 himself, at the most imminent hazard, forced his way to 
 the portal, and besought me to surrender, and save the 
 Temple. 
 
 But Jerusalem was marked for ruin. While I was in 
 the very act of checking the shower of spears, I heard 
 the voice of one of those extraordinary beings who, by 
 mad predictions of the certain succor of Heaven, kept up 
 the resistance while there was a man to be slaughtered. 
 He was standing on the roof of a vast cloister, surrounded 
 with a crowd of unfortunate men, whom his false prophe- 
 cies were infuriating against the offer of life. I recog- 
 nized the impostor, or the demon, by whom the Roman 
 mission had been destroyed. The legionaries pointed, in 
 vain, to the flames already rising round the cloisters. The 
 
SALA.THIEL. 469 
 
 predictions grew bolder still, and the words of truth were 
 answered by showers of missiles. The flames suddenly 
 burst out through the roof; and the whole of its defend- 
 ers, to the number of thousands, sank into the conflagra- 
 tion. When I looked round after the shock, this fearful 
 being, without a touch of fire on his raiment, was ha- 
 ranguing in a distant quarter, and whether man or fiend, 
 urging the multitude to their fate ! 
 
 This was the day of days, the ninth day of the month 
 Ab, the anniversary of the burning of the Temple by the 
 King of Babylon. One thousand one hundred and thirty 
 years, seven months, and fifteen days were past, from its 
 foundation by our great King Solomon ! My attack had 
 repelled the legionaries; and Titus, exhausted and dis- 
 pirited, began to withdraw the routed columns from the 
 front of the Temple. It was the fifth hour; the sun was 
 scorching up their strength ; and I looked proudly forward 
 to victory and the preservation of the Temple ! 
 
 As I was standing on the portal of the court of the 
 sanctuary, and gazing at the rout of the troops towards 
 the tower of Antonia, I heard a voice close to my ear "I 
 told you that this day would end in nothing without me." 
 I turned, but he was already far away among the crowd; 
 and before I could even speak, I saw him, torch in hand, 
 bound into the Golden window, beside the veil of the Holy 
 place. The inner Temple was instantly in a blaze. Our 
 cries, and the sight of the flames, brought back the enemy 
 at full speed. I saw that the fatal hour was come; ami, 
 collecting a few brave men, took my post before the veil, 
 to guard the entrance with my blood. 
 
 But the legions rushe'd onward, crying out that "they 
 were led by the Fates," and that "the Uod of the Jews had 
 given his people and city into their hands." The torrent 
 was irresistible. Titus rushed in at its head, exclaiming, 
 that "the Divinity alone could have given the stronghold 
 into his power, for it was beyond the hope and strength of 
 man." My devoted companions were torn down in an in- 
 stant. I was forced back to the veil of the Holy of Holies, 
 fighting at random in the midst of the legionaries, who 
 now saw no enemies but each other. In the fury of plunder 
 the deluged the Portico and the Sanctuary with blood. 
 
 The golden table of Pompey, the golden vine, the tro- 
 
8ALATBIEL. 
 
 phies of Herod, were instantly torn away. Subordination 
 was lost. The troops trampled upon their officers. Titus 
 himself was saved only by cutting his way through those 
 madmen. But I longed to die, and give my last breath, 
 and the last drop of my veins to the seat of Sanctity and 
 Glory. I fought I taunted I heaped loud scorn on the 
 profaners I was covered from head to foot with gore; 
 but it was from the hearts of Eomans I toiled for death ; 
 but I remained without a wound. Yet, woe to the life 
 that came within the sweep of my scimitar. The last 
 blow that I struck was at an impious hand, put forth to 
 grasp the veil that shut the Holy of Holies from the hu- 
 man gaze . The hand flew from the body, and the spoiler 
 fell groaning at my feet. He sent up an expiring look, 
 and I knew the countenance of my persecutor, Cestius ! 
 
 But a new enemy was come, conqueror alike of the vic- 
 tor and the vanquished fire. I heard its roar round the 
 sanctuary. The Eomans, appalled, fled to the portal ; but 
 they were doomed. A wall of fire stood before them. They 
 rushed back, tore down the veil, and the Holy of Holies 
 stood open. The blaze melted the plates of the roof in a 
 golden shower above me. It calcined the marble floor; it 
 dissipated in vapor the inestimable gems that studded the 
 walls. All who entered lay turned to ashes. So perish the 
 profaners ! But on the sacred Ark the flame had no 
 power. It whirled and swept in a red orb round the un- 
 touched symbol of the throne of thrones. Still I lived; 
 but I felt my strength giving way: the heat withered my 
 sinews the flame extinguished my sight. Bleeding, blind, 
 frantic, I still fought, until I sank under a heap of dead. 
 In defiance of all prediction, I nw believed my death in- 
 evitable. At once I heard the shouts of the conquerors 
 and the fall of the pillars of the Temple. I welcomed 
 the living grave! In all the wildness of the uproar, I 
 heard the voice, "TARRY THOU, TILL i COME !" The world 
 disappeared from me! 
 
 Here I pause. I had undergone that portion of my 
 unhappy career which was to be passed among my people. 
 My life, as father, husband, and citizen was at an end. 
 Thenceforth I was to be a solitary being. The ties of so- 
 ciety were to be cut from me. I was to see wondrous 
 
8ALATHIEL. 471 
 
 things, and do wondrous things; to see, and to share, in 
 the rise and fall of empires; to let loose and ride on the 
 torrent of mighty changes; to command those elements of 
 passion and folly which shake the world. To see all die, 
 and yet to live. 
 
 I have still the strangest, and the stateliest, of all histo- 
 ries to tell. 
 
 THE END. 
 
UCS8 LIBRARY 
 
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