"LI B R.ARY OF THE U N IVLR.5ITY Of ILLINOIS ai5 CENTRAL CIRCULATIOK AND BOOKSTACKS The person borrowing this material is responsible for its renewal or return before the Latest Date stamped below. You may be charged a rrinimum fee of $75.00 for each non-returned or lost item. Theft, mutilation, or defacement of library materials can be causes for student disciplinary action. All materials owned by the University of Illinois Library are the property of the State of Illinois and are protected by Article 1 6B of Illinois Criminal Law and Procedure. TO RENEW, CALL (217) 333-8400. University of Illinois Library at Urbana-Champoign MAR 1 5 2006 When renewing by phone, write new due date below previous due date. L162 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign http://www.archive.org/details/zillahtaleofholy01smit ZILLAH; A TALE OF THE HOLY CITY. BY THE AUTHOR OF BRAMBLETYE HOUSE," " THE TOR HILL,' '' REUBEN APSLEY," &c. From thee and thy ianocent beauty first came The revealings that taught him true love to adore, To feel the bright presence, and turn him with shame From the idols he darkly had knelt to before." T. MOORE. IN FOUR VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON : HENRY COLBURN, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 1828. TO BARROX FIELD, Esq. LATE JUDGE OF THE SUPRE3IE COURT. NEW SOUTH WALES, AS A TRIBUTE OF RESPECT FOR HIS VIRTUES AND HIS TALENTS, AND IN MEMORIAL OF A FRIENDSHIP WHICH NEITHER THE LAPSE OF MANY YEARS, NOR HIS LONG RESIDENCE ABROAD IN THE PERFORMANCE OF HIS JUDICIAL DUTIES, HAS EVER BEEN SUFFERED TO INTERRUPT, THESE VOLUMES ARE INSCRIBED BY HIS SINCERE FRIEND, The Author. t2.Si30 ADVERTISEMENT. The following work was placed in the Publisher's hands early in March last, with a view to its immediate publication, — an intention which, after the appearance of ^' Salathiel,'' it was deemed advisable to defer till the present season. Considering that the scene is often identical, and the aera nearly so, there are perhaps not so many coincidences between the two novels as might have been expected ; and though the author of the present work, willing to avoid any immediate comparison, still less any appearance of competition with the power- ful writer of Salathiel, postponed its publica- tion, he has not thought it necessary to make any alteration in its pages, beyond a few trifling omissions. PREFACE. In the civil wars and general confusion that ensued upon the death of Julius Caesar, the Parthiansj having made themselves masters of all Lesser Asia and Syria, took Jerusalem, car- ried off Hyrcanus, the King and High Priest of the Jews, into captivity, and settled Antigonus ■ — who had engaged them in that enterprise by a promised reward of a thousand talents and five hundred Jewish women — upon the throne of Judaea. Herod, afterwards surnamed the Great, who was at that time Governor of the a 5 X PREFACE. Palace for Hyrcanus, departed from Jerusalem, with his family and effects, and betaking him- self to Rome, laid open his affairs to Mark Antony, promising him a large sum of money, if he would procure him to be made King. Antony was favourable to his suit ; — Octavius Cassar, exasperated against Antigonus, whom he considered as a turbulent man and hostile to the Roman people, was equally desirous of obliging Herod : — by their joint influence, the Senate, then at war with the Parthian s, declared Antigonus an enemy to the Commonwealth, and in a formal vote pronounced Herod to be King of Judaea. Upon the breaking up of the Senate, Antony and Octavius Caesar, accompanied by the Consuls and Senators, conducted the newly elected King to the Capitol, where, having per- formed sacrifice, and deposited the decree, they saluted him upon his accession, and honoured PREFACE. XI him with a magnificent banquet. This hap- pened about forty years before Christ ; and the incidents recorded in the following volumes are supposed to occur between this period, and the capture of the Holy City, about three years afterwards, by Herod, assisted by the Roman general Sosius. The final destruction of Jeru- salem took place about a hundred years later. By the selection of a period thus intervening between the termination of the Old Testament and the commencement of the New, the writer has not only the advantage of an aera with which the general reader is comparatively little conversant, so far, at least, as the Jewish history is concerned ; but he is enabled to avoid all immediate contact with those personages and events which, having been made the subject of Holy Writ, could not, perhaps, be introduced, without some violation of propriety, into a work Xll PREFACE. of this nature. Most of the incidents and de* scriptions, however, with several of the cha- racters, will be found to associate themselves, either retrospectively or prospectively, with the Hebrew sacred history, which the author has humbly, and he hopes not profanely, endeavoured to recall and illustrate, whenever an opportunity presented itself; while by occasionally trans- ferring the scene to Rome and other places, he has been enabled to attempt a sketch of some of the principal events which were then being transacted upon the great theatre of the world, —events not less important from their influence upon the fate of nations, than interesting from the illustrious character of the actors concerned in producing them. As the author's subject is not exclusively a Scriptural one, he has purposely avoided that peculiar phraseology, which, however it may be PREFACE. Xlll associated in our minds with every record of ancient Jerusalem, might be held unseemly in a work of fiction ; while it would inevitably im- part an air of stiffness to the trivial details of domestic life. At the time of our tale, the Ensjlish language itself was not in existence : any antique diction that we might have as- sumed, would only have removed the phrase- ology out of the present sera, without trans- planting it into a more appropriate one ; and we have, therefore, left the interlocutors to express themselves as their several natures might seem to prompt, not shunning familiar colloquialisms when the station or character of the speaker might warrant them ; and em- ploying the loftier language of Scripture upon those occasions only when its use appeared both appropriate and decorous. In explanation of the proud, not to say arro- 4 xiv PREFACE. gant nationality, which might otherwise appear overstrained in some of the Jewish characters introduced in the following pages, the reader is requested to bear in mind, that their religion rendered it difficult to avoid a certain degree of intolerance. Holding that themselves alone had received a revelation from Heaven ; that they alone were the depositaries of the favour and will of the Deity ; that they alone had been taught by inspired prophets, confirmed by signs, portents, and prodigies, wherein the heavens themselves had become miraculous accessories to the Divine mandates, they naturally considered themselves the first people of the earth, and looked down with hatred and disdain upon all the rest of the world as heathens and barbarians. That the reader may be somewhat more conversant with the features of the celebrated City, which constitutes the principal scene of PREFACE. XY our novel, it is hoped he will excuse a few pre- liminary remarks upon its probable appear- ance at the sera we have mentioned. While the theocratical form of the Jewish Govern- ment had always rendered their Temple one of the grandest and richest in the world, and, of course, the most conspicuous orna- ment of their capital, their religious ordinances had imparted a not less marked and peculiar character to the other buildings of the city. Here was to be seen, at the time of our history, neither circus, theatre, nor hippodrome ; neither triumphal arches, nor luxurious baths and gar- dens for general resort ; no sculptured columns, or obelisks, not even a single public statue or painting. In every respect the reverse of that Roman commonalty who lived contented so long as they could enjoy bread and the shows of the circus, the Jews required no other recreation than XVI PREFACE. the feasts and festivals of their religion ; of that religion which, while it pervaded all their pubhc acts and institutions, had even affected the form of their private dwellings. Having become the residence of the symbols of the Divine presence, w4iich, in the form of a cloud, rested over the mercy-seat of the Sanctuary in the Temple, whence God gave forth His oracles from time to time in an articulate and audible voice, Jeru- salem assumed the name of the Holy City, in which quality it was common to all the tribes of Israel. Though there were dispersed syna- gogues wherever there was a sufficient population to require them, there was but one Temple for the whole nation ; and at this universal altar was every male Hebrew bound to present himself, with offerings to his God, at the three great an- nual festivals, of the Passover, the Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles, — to which some others PREFACE. XVll were added, at a later period of tlieir history. Of the prodigious influx into the city upon these occasions, an estimate may be formed from the statement of Josephus, that, during the final siege by Titus, which commenced while there was a general assemblage for the celebration of the Passover, not less than eleven hundred thousand of the Jews perished, while ninety-seven thou- sand were made prisoners of war. From the natural peculiarities of its site, which scarcely admit of change or error, it is conjectured, that the ancient city could hardly have exceeded four miles in circumference, while some assign to it a still narrower mea- sixrement ; so that, to accommodate such a mul- titude of occasional visitants, even in the rudest manner, it was indispensable that the whole area should be thickly covered with close streets and lofty houses, containing numerous small XVlll PREFACE. chambers. Within the walls, as has been al- ready observed, there were no public gardens, and with the exception of the space occupied by the Temple, (which also had its inhabitants,) and the four principal markets, which formed so many open areas, we may presume that the en- closed ground constituted a vast mass of houses, intersected by narrow lanes, rising and falling with the inequalities of the surface. The entire city, built upon abrupt hills, rising amphithea- trically from east to west, was surrounded on three sides by steep precipices surmounted by walls ; while the fourth, which was to the north, and extended along a plain, was defended by a triple line of bulwarks, so that the whole wore the air of an inexpugnable fortress, of which the castle of David, upon the hill of Zion, might be said to resemble the keep. The strongly fortified Temple, from the loftiness of its dimen- PREFACE. XIX sions, as well as from the commanding elevation upon which it was placed, w^ould, of course, form the pre-eminent object ; the numerous towers and battlements of the city walls, were the next most conspicuous buildings. The palaces, at the period of our history, were rather remarkable for their strength than their magnificence ; the Jews had no nobility who could emulate kings and pontiffs in their sumptuous mansions ; and thus the remainder of Jerusalem would present little to the eyes of the spectator but an un- distinguishable aggregate of private dw^ellings. These, for the reason we have mentioned, being generally lofty, the builders were compelled, by the law, to put a battlement or balustrade at the top, to prevent accidents. On the roofs, which were flat, and occasionally provided with cisterns to collect the rain water, the inhabitants would sometimes be seen drying flax^ perform- XX PREFACE. ing their devotions in little closets, or oratories, set up for that purpose, or conversing with their neighbours, while they enjoyed the cool of the evening. And here, too, since their mode of construction, especially in the higher part of the city, rendered them private places, we are told by Jeremiah, that his contemporaries would sometimes burn incense, and pour out drink- offerings to false gods. They formerly would not allow the beams of a floor to jut out into the street, lest, if there should be any person dead upon that floor, they who walked be- neath the beams should be polluted without knowing it. " But although the size of Jerusalem was not extensive,*" says a recent traveller,* " its very situation, on the brink of rugged hills, encircled by deep and wild valleys, bounded by eminences * Carne's Letters from the East, vol. i. p. 332. PREFACE. XXI whose sides were covered with groves and gar- dens, added to its numerous towers and its Temple, must have given it a singular and gloomy magnificence, scarcely possessed by any other city in the world." In the earlier ages, the pious inhabitants, viewing their countrymen, who came up to cele- brate the three great yearly festivals, as brethren acting in obedience to the law, engaged in the same religious duties, and making offerings to the same God of Unity as themselves, made it a point of conscience, not only to provide accommo- dations for as many as they could, but to refuse all remuneration for the lodgings thus afforded. The style of the more ancient domestic archi- tecture attested the prevalence of this custom; for the citizens, wishing to be as little incommo- ded as possible by the irruption of strangers, for whom tTity held themselves thus bound to XXU PREFACE. provide a gratuitous habitation, continued to occupy the lower apartments, which had no in- ternal communication with the upper rooms. The latter were left open to the visitants, who chose for themselves, according to their liking, or as they found them empty; and the inha- bitants took care to provide them with beds. These apartments could only be reached by means of a ladder, with or without a handrail, which being placed diagonally against the out- side of the building, and communicating with a projecting landing-place at each story, was some- times a fixture, and sometimes removable at pleasure. The law was severe against broken ladders, but this rude mode of climbing to the upper rooms was in time succeeded by an ex- ternal staircase of wood or brick, such as we occasionally see in some of our own rural build- ings, and of which specimens were doubtless PREFACE. XXUl Still remaining in the more ancient parts of Je- rusalem at the time chosen for our narrative though the pious custom in which they origi- nated had long since fallen into desuetude. With the enlargement of the nation, the in- crease of luxury and refinement, and the dimi- nution of the primitive hospitality, — inns and caravanseras had sprung up, where the com- mon class of votaries were doubtless obliged to leave their offerings, before they could make their oblations at the Temple ; while, for the accommodation of the richer visitants, lodging- houses were provided, whose owners, especially if they resided in the vicinity of the sacred building, we may presume to have been as well skilled in asking high prices, at the period of the annual festivals, as are any of their modem English brethren of the same trade, during the height of the fashionable season at Brighton, Bath, or Cheltenham. Z I L L A H. CHAPTER I. It was about the beginning of the month Si van, answering to part of our May and June, on the sixth day of which the Feast of the Pen- tecost was to be celebrated, that the widow Dinah quitted her house in the street known by the name of " The Cheesemongers " at Jeru- salem, and bent her way on the shady side of the ravine which, parting Mount Sion from the Hill of Moriah, leads down to the Pool of Siloam. Being of a thrifty and provident turn, she took VOL. I. B 2 zillah; especial care, before she departed, to affix a mark to her door, signifying that lodgings were to be let ; ordering her only maid servant, at the same time, not to quit the premises even for a moment ; and strictly charging her to urge the great con- veniency of the situation, on account of its easy distance from the Temple, should any strangers present themselves in search of apartments. This was indeed the sole recommendation of her house ; for it was a poor tenement, and of diffi- cult access on account of the steepness of the ac- clivity upon which it stood. It was her purpose to call on her friend Martha, who resided near the Wood-market, in the northern quarter of the city ; but as the widow piqued herself upon her forethought, and never performed the most in- significant action without calculation, she consi- dered that, as it was now evening, and the sun was to the westward, it would be cooler and plea- santer to go outside the city walls, under the shade of the height upon which the Temple was A TALE OF JERUSALEM. S placed, than to toil through the hot and crowd- ed streets of the town. She accordingly pur- sued her way in this direction, and was not dis- appointed of the shade she had anticipated, es- pecially when she skirted the base of Mount Moriah and the sacred edifice, whose spacious and lofty mass, intercepting the rays of the de- clining sun, threw a broad outline of shadow even across the brook Cedron, and into the Valley of Jehoshaphat. But, in other respects, the wary widow, as was indeed not unfrequently the case, had been deceived by her own calcula- tions, and betrayed into annoyance from her over anxiety to avoid it ; for the road that ran along the banks of the Cedron, and all those leading down into the Valley from the opposite Mount of Olives, were crowded with wayfarers, some mounted on mules or asses, some in carts and low open carriages, some on foot, and all making their way towards the city, to be ready for the celebration of the approaching Pentecost. B 2 4 ZILLAH ; Market-people of every description, and flocks of sheep and kids for the supply of the expected multitude, were crowding in the same direc- tion ; while an east wind blew such a cloud of dust from the mingled assemblage towards the rocky sides of the Temple Mount, that Dinah, half-blinded by the minute sand, stumbled over a root and fell. Though she sustained no in- jury, she considered the occurrence as of evil omen, and began to entertain sad misgivings as to the chance of her procuring lodgers at the festival. These presentiments were confirmed, when a smaU stone, detached by some work- men who were employed in repairing the city walls, bounded down the steep sides of the Mount, and, striking her upon the arm, in- flicted a slight bruise. All her hopes now va- nished away, dispersing with them her confi- dent anticipations that, by the produce of her apartments, added to the pot of silver shekels, and the seven double Maccabees which she had A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 5 buried under her kitchen-floor, she should be enabled to purchase the tenement in which she resided, and have the satisfaction of calling; her house her own. Accelerating her pace in no very gracious mood, and jostling aside the other passengers without much courtesy, she hurried into the city by the Sheep-gate, and, making her way to the Wood-market, presently reached the abode of her friend. The Hebrews were commanded by Moses to write the Law upon the posts of their houses, and upon their gates. The inscription, called Mesu- sah, was generally fixed upon the right side of their gates, sometimes written upon Httle rolls, and hung up, or put into a hole in the wall, and occasionally written upon the door-post itself; but all who pretended to religion, upon entering or quitting the house, laid their hands upon the place, and said, " The Lord preserve my going out and my coming in." Though there were no- thing but a few illegible remains of letters left ZILLAH ; upon her friend's door, the widow touched them, uttered the prescribed ejaculation, and, entering the apartment, found the industrious Martha bu- sily employed in grinding corn with a hand-mill. " You come in the nick of time," said Mar- tha, wiping the perspiration from her brow with the hem of her garment, and pointing to the other handle of the mill, which was calculated for two persons, — " there is but little more to grind ; with your assistance it will quickly be despatched, and you shall then help me to finish a dish of lentiles and onions which are now boiling on the fire." " Climoh he ! Shame upon you, dame !" re- plied Dinah, seating herself; " I came not so far, I promise you, to do Samson's work. We poor women might as well be still at Babylon, if this is to be our task ; and if I had a husband, as you have, who was a Levite and one of the porters of the Temple, he should buy me an ass to grind the corn, ay, and to take me to market, A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 7 and the gardens in the Valley too, or I would know the reason why. What ! are the weakest always to be the heaviest laden ? Are we wo- men to inherit for ever the curse of Eve— to bring forth in pain, and to live in slavery and sorrow ? We are to be burthened with trials and penalties, payments and purifications of all sorts, and yet, forsooth, we are not to attend the three great festivals ; we are at times for- bidden even to enter the Temple ; those who are married are to wear a veil, in token of sub- jection to their husbands; and our testimony is not to be received in a court of law." " Who can say that it is because we are now prone to levity, and apt to talk at random, whatever we might have been in the days of Moses ?" asked Martha, looking archly at her companion. " If we are not called to the festivals our- selves," resumed Dinah, without noticing her friend's inquiry, " we are not yet, thank 8 ZILLAH ; Heaven ! prevented from making money by those that do attend them; though we shall have a thin Pentecost, I reckon, and but slen- der chance of letting our lodgings, while the Holy City is thus to be constantly beleaguered and bedeviled. Eli ! what sieges, and ravages, and robberies have we witnessed in the last few months ! What with Parthians, and Herodians, and Antigonians, pillaging us by turns, we might as well but, hist ! — there are so many spies and eavesdroppers abroad, that a poor wo- man can scarcely wag her tongue now-a-days, which is the greatest hardship of all."" *' Remember, good Dinah, that the city is at present open and the ways safe ; and as so few were able to come up to the Passover, on ac- count of the troubles, we may expect the fuller Pentecost." *' If I were sure of this, I would ask a bekah more for the daily rent of my lodgings : and that reminds me of the purport of my visit. A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 9 You know, my old and approved friend, that at this season there is apt to issue an unsavoury odour from the cheesemongers' shops in our street, which might prevent the letting of my apartments. Now, if you would spare me, good Martha, some of that little pot of Arabian frank- incense which was given to you by Lebid Ben Rabiat, the merchant, I would burn a morsel of it in my window, and thus '* " Alas ! Dinah, why did you not sooner speak to me ? I have now made a Corban of it, and vowed it to the use of the Temple ; for what should poor folks, like us, do with real Arabian frankincense ?" " But the vows of a married woman are not binding, unless when confirmed by the hus- band.^' " True, Dinah ; and mine has been ratified by my good man Simon."" '' At all events, you have not sent it away, for I can still smell it in the cupboard.'* B 5 10 ZILLAH ; "But 1 have sworn by Issar ; and surely you would not have the wife of one of the Temple porters, and a Levitess ^^ " Well, well, Martha, I wanted the perfume, not a sermon. Methinks every thing is Corban that I ever ask you for; and, for fear the lentiles and onions should share the same fate, we may as well pounce upon them at once, for they must needs be boiled by this time." " You shall share them with me, and wel- come," said Martha, who had not any wish to save her pottage ; though it is by no means im- possible that she had had recourse to a practice which was then common, and had urged the pre- text of her frankincense being Corhan, for the mere purpose of protecting so valuable an oint- ment from the solicitation of importunate friends. She accordingly drew out the table from the wall, washed it, and proceeded to a little closet which contained her crockery and platters; when she started back with a shudder of mingled A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 11 aversion and anger, exclaiming — ** El emanu ! was there ever any thing so provoking ? it is but an hour since I washed and wiped every dish, and lo ! there is a dead mouse lying on the topmost pan." " Tush ! dame, what signifies? Throw it out of window, and take another plate.'' " Impossible ! it is a dead animal, and one' moreover, that is declared to be unclean. The pan must be broken in pieces, and every article beneath it must be washed afresh.'' " You will not surely be so squeamish : the lentiles will be boiled to a pulp." " How ! «'ould you have the wife of a Levite and one of the porters of the Temple disobey the Law ? Suppose our betters were to do the ."^ame, what might become of the tithes, fruits, and offerings, and to whom should my husband look for his pay and perquisites .^" " Psha ! the priests will always take good care to have their own, especially when their 12 ZTLLAH ; spies and proctors go about with a guard of soldiers, as I have seen them within these three days, and carry off the tithes from the barns and granaries by main force. But come, if you must needs be so squeamish, the quicker we wash the platters, the sooner shall we have our supper." "A plague upon the tiresome animal!" ex- claimed Martha : " this is the third pan I have been obliged to break since the Passover — it were cheaper to buy brass at once, for it is bet- ter to wash than to destroy :" — and so saying, she smashed the defiled utensil, and threw the pieces out of the window. In the hall, or entrance chamber, of every Jewish house, there were generally placed pitch- ers of water, that the inhabitants might comply with the numerous ablutions and purifications enjoined in the Pentateuch, and which had been so absurdly multiplied by the traditionary and ceremonial law, as to be absolutely burthensome A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 13 and vexatious. A vessel for this purpose stood in the corner of Martha's apartment; and as Dinah, though she had declined turning the mill, by which she was to gain nothing, had no objection to assist in that process upon which her supper was made dependent, she dipped, and rinsed, and wiped with great alacrity. So liberal, indeed, was she in dispersing the contents of the pitcher, that her hostess was obliged to remind her of the distance from Avhich she was obliged to toil with a heavy bucket on her head whenever they wanted water ; adding, moreover, that they might be again obliged to pay for it at the well, as they had done during the last siege. Every thing being at length satisfac- torily arranged, they sate down to their pottage, to the perfection of which Dinah declared that nothing was requisite but the addition of a little salt and oil. — " Alas !" exclaimed Martha, as she produced a small remnant of the latter in a leathern bottle, " was ever such an unlucky 14 ZILLAH ; child as ours ! Well might we call him Jabez, for he has truly been grief and sadness to his parents ; and though he is no bigger than the letter Jod, he is as mischievous as the wild Ishmaelite. He hung up the bottle yesterday so close to the fire, that the leather shrank, and the oil, as you see, has nearly all leaked out. Nor was that the worst, for it fell upon his Sabbath garment, which he had thrown upon the floor beneath ; so that all the nitre and vinegar in the world will never get out the stains." "Boys, Martha, will be boys. Ishmael him- self, wild as he was in his youth, became a great man in his old age ; and who knows but that Jabez, though he carries stained clothes now, may come to wear purple and fine linen one of these days .?" " Alas .' ' there is no fruit in autumn when there is no budding in the spring,' says the pro- verb. The young scapegrace will never be A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 15 worth his ransom-money, nor even the oil that he has thus wasted." " But you have plenty more in the house," said Dinah, who seemed to entertain a shrewd suspi- cion that this story was akin to that of the Cor- ban, and had been trumped up extempore for the purpose of saving the oil. In this respect, how- ever, she did injustice to her friend, who retort- ed in a somewhat indignant tone — " What ! do you think that, like the tribe of Aslier, we can suck oil out of the flinty rock ? Plenty in the house, indeed ! what sort of plenty is one of the poor porters of the Temple likely to possess ?" " Well, good Martha, well," resumed the guest, emptying upon her own platter all that remained in the bottle — ^" there is enough, you see, and enough is a feast ; — ^but this barley- bread is burnt, and it has fitches in it, which I never could abide. You were wont to have some cracknels in the upper cupboard."" These were produced ; and, a small flagon of cheap 16 ZILLAH; Ephraim wine, with two horn cups, being placed upon the board at the same time, the friends finished their meal with much more cordiality than it had been commenced. Humble as was the beverage, it produced its usual effect in opening the heart and promoting communi- cativeness ; so that, by the time the flagon was emptied, Martha informed her friend, as a pro- found secret, that she herself was likely to be a widow for some months to come ; since Simon her husband was about to make a long journey, and betake himself to no less distant and celebrated a place than Rome. " To Rome !'' ejaculated Dinah, with a look of unfeigned astonishment ; " upon what errand, and in whose company can he be going ?" Here Martha whispered a few words in her com- panion's ear ; but as the amazement of the latter was too great to be kept within the same pru- dent bounds, she exclaimed aloud, " How ! Rab Malachi, the Sagan — the second High A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 17 Priest ! is he going among the idolaters and the worshippers of Baal ?" " Hush, Dinah, hush ! did I not tell you it was a secret ? If Jabez were to return and over- hear you, the little urchin would spread it all over the town, from the Fish-gate to the King's Aqueduct. But I have still stranger news to tell you ;" — and she again put her mouth to her visitant's ear. " Climoh he ! Shame, shame !" exclaimed Dinah, as soon as she had heard her ; " I will never believe it. Tush ! dame : would you persuade me that the pious Sagan would take his beautiful daughter Zillah — my Zillah — her whom I nursed from the time she was three years old — that he would take her, good and lovely as she is, among the children of Be- lial, to a city of reprobation, a den of savages, an Ashdod, a Hebron, a capital of Philistines and Edomites ?" " Nevertheless, it is true, Dinah,— true as the Pentateuch. Why he takes her with him, I 18 ZILLAH ; cannot tell ; but the Sagan goes upon some public business of importance, by command of King Antigonus ; and my good man Simon, who is to have double wages while he is absent, and a handsome gratuity at his return, accompanies them as their servant." " And who is to pay me my pension, I wonder ?" asked Dinah, with an alarmed look ; " the pittance that has been allowed me ever since I left the family. Miserable as it is, I cannot afford to lose it.'^ " I should call it a comfortable stipend, Dinah, were I in the receipt of it ; and there is little doubt that the good Rab Malachi will leave orders with his wife for continuing the payment/' " He is more accustomed to take orders from his wife than to give them ; and if I am to depend upon his proud dame for my supply, who is as stiff-necked as one of the kine of Bashan, I may chance to eat the wind and drink the vapour. To Rome ! And how long must God's people con- A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 19 tinue to bow the knee to such idolaters? Is it not enough that we pay tribute-money to these northern savages ? must we send our High Priests and our noblest daughters to sue for fa- vour at their hands ; for such, I suppose, is the object of this embassy? A curse upon them all !" '* Beware, Dinah — curse not the King, no, not in thy conscience ; and curse not the rich, no, not in thy bedchamber ; for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall '' " Nay, Martha, nay," interposed the widow, somewhat startled at this quotation ; " Heaven forbid that I should speak ill either of kings or rich men ; but as to the enemies of our country, and the oppressors of Israel, who would lay us under tribute, I say again, that I would not give them a single brass gerah. The Jews acknow- ledge no king but God; to him they pay tribute in tithes, offerings, and soul-money ; and King 20 ZILLAH; Antigonus is his vicegerent. As for these wolf- suckled Romans, I never see their coinage but I spit upon it ; and I marvel how any of the children of Abraham can put such an abomi- nation into their girdles, unless, indeed, it comes in the payment of lodgings; and then I would hurry with it to the money-changer's, lest the hand that held it should be suddenly withered like that of Jeroboam. However," she conti- nued, looking cautiously around, " I am sorry I spoke so loud, and I hope no one could over- hear me ; for, though there be few Romans in the Holy City at present, Jthere is no knowing what may happen hereafter ; and, if they are to become our governors, it may be as well to be upon civil terms with them." " God forbid, Dinah, that their eagle should ever spread its wings over the Temple of Je- hovah !" " Amen ! amen ! Selah ! — Oh, Martha, how deliciously that frankincense smells when one A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 21 gets nearer to the cupboard ! Ah ! there is no- thing like the real Arabian, after all." Having snufFed up the odour two or three times with great complacency, she continued — '* Are you quite sure that you did not put aside a small portion, a little fragment, before you made your vow — just a tiny thimbleful that I could pop under the lattice, and so let the wind disperse the perfume through my apartments ?'' Martha declared that she liad not even unpacked it. *' And yet it smells for all the world as if the cover were off," resumed her visitant; " but you can, at all events, spare me a drop of the healing balsam of which the mischievous Jabez has such frequent need, for my arm smarts sore- ly from the blow of the unlucky stone that fell upon it, and I have perhaps used it too freely in washing your crockery and platters." As there was no resisting this insinuation, the balsam was quickly produced, and applied to the bruised arm ; when the calculating Dinah, S2 ZILLAH; finding that nothing more was to be gotten, soon after took her departure, muttering to her- self as she crossed the Wood-market — " I don't beheve a word about the Corban ; for nobody would be such a fool as to vow away a pot of real Arabian frankincense. — I wonder whether any one has been to look at my lodgings ! — a thin Pentecost ! a thin Pentecost ! — And my pen- sion from Rab Malachi — I must see about it immediately : — he shall not stir from Jerusalem till I know who is to pay it in his absence."*' A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 23 CHAPTER II. Malachi Ben Lachish, the Sagan, or second High Priest of the Jews, whose mission to Rome had excited so much surprise and indig- nation in the widow Dinah, although of the ancient Aaronitish Kne, was the son of a poor man, and in all probability would never have attained his elevated situation, but from his knowledge of the Latin tongue. So great was the contempt of the Hebrews for all other nations, whom they indiscriminately considered as infidels and barbarians, that most of them disdained to acquire their languages ; while there were some who even held it an abomina- 24 ZILLAH ; tion to speak any other tongue than that which had been consecrated by God himself, both in his revelation of the Law to Moses, and in the subsequent oracles that he had given forth from the cloud that hovered between the Cherubim of the Sanctuary. Theirs was the only language that had been uttered by angels and spirits in their communications with the chosen people; — it was that in which the only Heaven-inspired prophets had ever spoken ; — it was that in which the Divine will was recorded and embalmed : and being thus hallowed to their recollections, it is little wonderful that they should deem it a degradation to use the strange speech of the idolatrous Gentiles. Some of the upper classes, however, had been induced to acquire the Greek i and Latin languages from a love of the literary " treasures which they contained ; others, from the necessity occasioned by political relationship, for the Jews had long since formed treaties with both those nations ; but their number was still A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 25 SO small, when Jerusalem was taken by Pom- pey, that it was not easy to find a person com- petent to maintain that regular correspondence with the Roman government, which was ren- dered necessary by the new situation of the kingdom. Malachi Ben Lachish was upon this occasion, and solely from his superior fami- liarity with the Latin tongue, promoted to an office corresponding in some degree with that of the modern Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Of this he had continued to discharge the functions for a series of years, and in times of great trouble and difficulty, with not less credit to himself than benefit to his country ; when in an evil hour, and after he had passed the meridian of life, he was led to form a second marriage. Injudicious as was the step, or at least the choice he made, his motive was most amiable, and did honour to his heart, however it might derogate from his judgment. Zillah, the only VOL. I. C 26 ZILLAH; child bequeathed to him by his first wife, was now in her sixteenth year; and being the sole claimant of his love, he bestowed it upon iier with all the intensity of an ardent and affec- tionate temperament. Educating her himself, he had not only instructed her in Greek, but had rendered her a perfect mistress of the Latin tongue. Selections from the best writers in both languages had been placed at her disposal ; so that at this early age she was a scholar, such as it would not have been very easy to parallel among her male contemporaries, and perhaps impos- sible in her own sex. The occasional falsehood and folly of this Pagan lore in a religious and moral point of view, the cautious father had not failed to point out and to stigmatise ; but it was unnecessarv : a much less penetrative and acute faculty than Zillah's could discover the thorns that were too palpable to be hidden by the most lavish profusion of roses, and she was content to imitate the bee by extracting A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 27 harmless honey from bitter and even poisonous flowers. Never, indeed, was there a being less liable to contagion of this or of any sort. To one of so pure and sensitive a mind, thus cloister- ed, as it were, in a holy sanctuary, religion be- came a vital and ineradicable portion of her being. It might be said, indeed, to grow sponta- neously in the moral soil of Jerusalem, to form the very atmosphere of the Holy City, in which the souls of its inhabitants must be necessarily steeped and saturated ; for, who among the young and ardent Israelites could grow up in the daily sound of the sacred trumpets call- ing the chosen people to the worship of its God; who could witness the solemn processions of the priests, and the devotions of the assembled na- tion ; who could contemplate the grandeur of the Temple, with all its awful reminiscences ; who could walk along the streets, where almost every house was lifted out of its materiality by some divine association, where " the stone cried c 2 28 zillah; out of the wall, and the beam answered it ;" who could wander around the town, where the sound of every footfall called up some august or miraculous event, and the very dust had been hallowed by the tread of angels and of pro- phets ; — who could stray among the surround- ing deserts and fruitful valleys, the rocks and precipices, the caverns, sepulchres^ and monu- ments, each ennobled by its own particular re- cord, and all conjuring up the most remote ages from the dark abysses of time, while they uni- ted earth to Heaven by a continued succession of revelations, prodigies, and prophecies ; — who could be encompassed by such visions of super- natural glory, and not feel himself ready to spring out of his humanity, and become sub- limised, as it were, in the fervour of religious enthusiasm ? Such were the scenes, and such the solemn meditations, to which Zillah had, from her childhood, been accustomed ; and as the came- A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 29 ieon assumes the hue of the objects by which it is surrounded, so had her character assimilated itself to the locaHty in which she moved. No other soil could have produced her ; she might emphatically be termed a Daughter of Jeru- salem, — of that holy city whose children might justly consider piety and patriotism as almost synonymous and interchangeable terms. A mind thus formed would be naturally sedate and me- ditative ; but there was a graciousness, a suavity in her temperament, which redeemed her at once from the feeling and the appearance of any severity that might be incompatible with her youth and innocence. If she was deeply, she was yet calmly religious ; for hers was not the enthusiasm which, being suddenly enkindled, may as rapidly evaporate. It had " grown with her growth, and strengthened with her strength ;'' it was an impulse and a pervading feeling long before her developed reason had given it the sanction of a principle ; and she 30 ZILLAH; dreamed not of assuming merit for that which she beheved to be a common and inherent ten- dency of our nature. How the chosen people of the olden times, with so many solemn and trumpet-tongued monitors to corroborate them in the true faith, should have so repeatedly lapsed into idolatry, it was beyond her power to apprehend; but she trusted that they had atoned for these errors by their steadfastness since the Captivity ; and her limited intercourse with her countrymen had not yet afforded her any opportunities for discovering that there were hypocrites and pretenders within the purlieus of the Holy City, if not in the very bosom of the Temple itself. Educated in the strictness of that seclusion which was then common to all the young un- married females of the Hebrews, and which was rendered still more solitary by the early loss of her mother, she had few companions, and not many recreations to vary the monotony of her A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 31 life. Among the latter, that to which she was most passionately addicted was music ; which, while it formed the distinguishing feature of their religion, might be termed the favourite enjoyment of the whole Jewish nation, — one to which they had been devoted since the time of Moses and David, as it is one to which their modern descendants continue their marked attachment. Zillah was a proficient on the psaltery, the national instrument, of which the grave and solemn tones produced by the pecu- liar form in which it was then fashioned, admi- rably adapted it for sacred music. The harp, or lyre, of more simple construction, as repre- sented on the medals of Simon Maccabeus, was, of course, familiar to her, as well as the cythern and the sackbut, for these were all stringed in- struments, which, though they might vary in their tone and compass, differed little in the mode of playing them. To these she often sang, her sweet and mellow, though somewhat S2 ZILLAH; plaintive notes, giving an appropriate expression to the psalms or sacred songs which had been composed for the use of the Temple, and set to music, some by King David himself, by the chief musicians Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, or by more recent masters. Her father gene- rally accompanied her ; for he possessed a fine voice, and was scarcely less fond of the recreation than herself. At other times her needle fur- nished her employment ; and such was her skill, that she had not only embroidered the robes and girdle which her father wore upon festivals, but had obtained the high and envied honour of decorating, with work of colours and gold thread, one of the hangings of the Sanctuary in the Temple. In these occupations, varied now and then by the religious festivals, by excursions to the baths, or to the gardens without the walls, whither she was always attended by two of her maids, Zillah was content to pass her time, without - A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 33 feeling in the smallest degree oppressed by the monotony and seclusion of her life. But when she was entering upon her sixteenth year, — a period of more advanced maturity in the East than it would be reckoned in our colder clime, — her father thought it necessary that she should move in a more extended sphere. Her consti- tutional sedateness he could not help attribut- ing in some degree to melancholy, arising from the peculiar gloominess of the house in which she resided, and the sequestered nature of her existence ; and as his own studious and recluse habits, combined with his official duties, un- fitted him for the task of introducing her into the world, and more particularly into female society, he considered that he could not do better than provide her with a stepmother, whose birth and connexions might quahfy her for that office. Salome, the widow lady whom he married witli this view, was well adapted for his wishes in point of rank and family ; for she c 5 34 zillah; was related to the Asmonaean race, and con- nected by blood with Antigonus, the present King. Nor was there any disproportion in age ; but, in almost every other respect, she proved an incongruous partner, and an unhappy choice. Beneath a smooth and courteous demeanour she concealed great pride of her high descent, much arrogance of temper, and an almost boundless ambition, which led her to meddle in all the political factions and intrigues of which Jerusalem was too apt to be the scene, and of which, at that particular juncture, it constituted a turbulent focus. Restless and aspiring, it appeared to her that to be stationary was to re- trograde in rank and consequence : — she had married in the hope of acquiring importance ; and it was therefore her first anxiety to secure her husband''s promotion. To Malachi himself nothing could be less desirable, or indeed more repugnant, than any proceedings of this sort. Though he was im- A TALE OF JERUSALEM. S5 petuous in his temper, he was as easily appeased as offended ; and his natural love of tranquillity indisposing him to change of any sort, particu- larly if it were to be attended with trouble and contrivance, he would not support any of his wife's proposed measures for his advancement. Perseverance and importunity, though they could not extort his co-operation, at length se- cured his neutrality ; and, in perfect ignorance of the cabals and manoeuvres by which the appoint- ment had been procured, he saw himself ulti- mately nominated to the important office of Sagan Haccoanim, or second Ruler of the Priests, to the exclusion of others more con- versant, perhaps, with the laws and ritual, but less powerfully seconded by court influence. As Antigonus united in his own person the joint dignities of King and High Priest, and from his dissolute and effeminate character, passed most of his time in the profligate plea- sures of his palace, without the smallest dis- m ZILLAH; position to exercise the pontifical functions, unless when necessity enjoined it ; the Sagan, who was his ecclesiastical Suffragan, or vice- gerent, became a person of very considerable importance, and might justly be deemed the second magistrate of the kingdom. Much as this surpassed his own expectations, and even his wishes, it did not satisfy the ambition of his wife; who, having thus rendered her husband conducive to her own ulterior views of aggran- dizement, which we shall hereafter have occa- sion to develope, next wished to make the daughter instrumental to the same purpose. At this time the Pharisees, a turbulent and factious sect, which had more than once ren- dered itself formidable even to their kings, constituted the popular and most powerful party in Jerusalem ; on which account, Salome was anxious to bring about a marriage between one of their leaders, a crafty intriguing character, and her stepdaughter. Malachi resolutely re- A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 37 fused to impose any restraint upon the incli- nations of his child : Zillah, despising the sect, and disliking the individual proposed to her, utterly rejected his suit : the propounder of the alliance, irritated at this act of disobe- dience, reminded her of the absolute authority which the Jewish law gave to parents over their children, and haughtily insisted upon compli- ance. Discord was thus introduced into the Sagan's family at no very long period after his second marriage, and almost immediately sub- sequent to his being invested with his present dignity. Thus were affairs circumstanced when Anti- gonus determined on despatching a secret em- bassy to Rome. By means of his spies and emissaries, he had discovered that Herod, the rival candidate for the throne, had fled thither ; and as he himself had purchased the sceptre which he now usurped by bribing the Parthians, he naturally concluded that the most effectual 38 zillah; method of securing himself in its possession was to buy a confirmation of his royalty from the Romans, not being at this time aware that they had already sold the Jewish crown to Herod. No person appeared to Antigonus more eligible for this delicate mission than the Sagan, not only from his intimate knowledge of the Latin lan- guage, but because his high station would render his selection the more complimentary to the Re- mans ; and Malachi himself, who at any other period would have recoiled from a commission so little consonant to his tastes and habits, was induced to accept it by considerations of both a public and a private nature. As a patriot and a Jew, he was most anxious to put an end to the distractions that agitated his country, by pro- curing the all-powerful interference of the Ro- mans ; while he was not the less solicitous to withdraw his beloved daughter from the per- secutions of a stepmother who seemed inflexibly and irresistibly bent upon her object ; as well as A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 39 from Jerusalem itself, which he began to foresee would not improbably be exposed to the horrors of another siege. The massacre perpetrated by Pompey's soldiers, when it had formerly been taken by assault ; the atrocities of which he had so recently been an eyewitness, when the Parthians, although they entered the place as allies, had committed every species of excess, and when Antigonus himself had bitten off the ear of Hyrcanus, the deposed King, that he might be disqualified by the mutilation from ever afterwards resumincp the office of High Priest — the recollection of these, and a thou- sand other enormities, instigated him to remove his child from a city in which there was too much reason to apprehend that similar or worse scenes might again be shortly acted. In the present disturbed state of the world, Rome seemed to be almost the only asylum that was secured against the ravages of war ; and as he had a kinsman, a pious Jew, and the father of 40 ZILLAH ; a large family, settled in that city, it oc- curred to him that Zillah might be placed in his house, and enjoy the society of his daughters, until the tranquillization of her own country should allow her to return to Jeru- salem. Such were the considerations that influenced him to accept the appointment, and to take Zillah with him, — a resolution which, as it would tend to remove from his journey all appearance of a public embassy, was not displeasing to the King, who wished to keep the whole proceeding as secret as possible. Salome, finding that her husband, so far from being disposed to forward her views of ulterior ambition, would decidedly oppose them, was not sorry that he should ab- sent himself for a time from the scene of action, while she would enjoy in her own person much of the influence to be derived from his high office. Zillah, indeed, she most strenuously endeavoured to retain, that she might bend her A TALE OF JERUSALExM. 41 to her ambitious views ; but upon this point the father was inflexible ; and his daughter, terrified at the very thought of being left in the sole power of her imperious stepmother, gladly con- sented to accompany her parent. All parties had been enjoined not to divulge these arrange- ments ; but the Sagan, on engaging Simon, one of the Temple porters, who was in the habit of attending occasionally upon his person, and whom he considered a particularly valiant and trustworthy man, had been obliged to state the destination, though not the object, of their jour- ney, charging him at the same time not to reveal it. Simon had been under a similar necessity of communicating it to his wife, who, without any necessity whatever, had imparted it to her friend Dinah, simply satisfying her conscience, as is usual in such cases, by declaring at the time that it was a profound secret. To the widow, who had indeed rightly guessed the object of the embassy thus confidentially imparted to her, 42 ZILLAH; it appeared of much more consequence to clear up the doubt as to the payment of her pension, than to speculate upon the absence of the par- ties from whom she had usually received it; and, resolving to lose no time in the elucidation of this urgent affair, she hastened to the Sagan's private residence, which was immediately to the northward of the Temple. On account of the frequent seditions and in- surrections occasioned by the great number and turbulent character of the inhabitants, most of the considerable mansions were built for the purpose of defence as well as of domestic con- venience, and immured within high walls. In such an enclosure stood the official dwelling of the Sagan, an extensive but low structure of great antiquity, surrounded by a cloister of Gopher wood, completely blackened by the breath of ages. The columns that supported the latter were the trunks of low trees, rudely sculptured at top so as to represent a capital, A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 43 but of no very definite configuration. Above the ground-floor there was but a single story, the windows of which, deeply sunk in the solid wall for the benefit of shade, and provided with lattice-work and curtains, — for glass, or at least window-glazing, was unknown, — communicated with a gallery over the wooden colonnade. By means of hooks inserted into the top of the pil- lars and the opposite wall of enclosure, an awn- ing was extended over the whole of the front court, beneath the shade of which, or walking to and fro within the cloisters, Dinah, at her entrance, beheld a numerous collection of bare- footed priests, some of them holding censers, who had come to receive instructions, or make communications respecting the approaching fes- tival. The two Katholikin, or overseers of the Treasury, were comparing their accounts to- gether; the seven Immarcalim, with the keys of the seven rooms of the Temple, wherein the holy vessels and vestments were laid up ; the 44 ZILLAH; three Gizbarin, or sub-collectors of the offer- ings; the various officers of the Consistory; the elders of the Sanhedrim, with the Levites, the overseers of the singers, of the guards, of the seals, of the drink-offerings, of the incense, and other inferior ministrants, all in their re- spective robes of office, constituted a reverend assemblage which might have well daunted any female of less self-possession than the widow. Making her way with very little ceremony through the priestly assemblage, she hastened to a side-door in the partition which divided the front court from the private dwelling-rooms at the back of the mansion. Passing through this entrance, she was admitted, after a little de- lay, into the apartment occupied by Zillah. It was up-stairs; and the portion of the gallery into which it opened, being railed off and en- closed, was decorated with flowers and shrubs, so as almost to give it the appearance of a mo- dern conservatory, and to plant out in some A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 45 deo^ree the high blank wall that encircled the mansion ; while the back-court beneath it was formed into a little garden of roses, this being a hortulan luxury which had existed in Jerusa- lem from the time of the early prophets, though groves and larger enclosures were not allowed. She was so busy in tending her flowers when her visitant entered, that she would not have been aware of her presence, had not Dinah burst out in a voice that was rendered energetic by the mingled feelings of selfish alarm about her pension, and real attachment to the child whom she had nursed — '^ Oh, Zillah, my daughter, my daughter ! for such I shall ever call you, am I indeed to lose you } — are you indeed about to quit Jerusalem-hakdoshoh, the Holy City, and the Temple of the Lord, of which your father is the ruler, — (I hope his Saganship is well, God bless him, and Amen!)— to go forth among the children of Belial, the accursed Ro- mans, who are worse than the Chaldeans, and 46 ZILLAH; Egyptians, and Ethiopians; and worship an Eagle, as well they may, since they are them- selves universal ravagers and murderers, and make every thing their prey ! — An unclean bird, my daughter, think of that !— ont that has claws, and preys upon carrion and garbage. Oh that I should have lived to see this unhappy day !"*' — Dinah was so overcome by her bigoted hatred of all foreign nations, and the idolatrous horrors which her imagination had thus con- jured up, that she actually burst into tears; and Zillah was scarcely less surprised at this unexpected discovery of her intended journey, than at the emotion which it had excited. A few questions having elicited the source whence the information had been derived, she blamed Dinah for her indiscretion in revealing it ; cau^ tioned her good nurse, for so she always termed her, not to divulge the matter to others ; and assured her that she had not forgotten her, since she had prepared written orders for her father's A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 47 steward to continue the regular payment of her pension. — " Bless you, my child, bless you V cried Dinah, whose tears ran the faster at this proof of kindness and consideration — " your mother, who is now in Heaven, always promised it should be paid to me till my dying day. I would not for the world say any thing to lower your spirits, especially at such a time as this, but you will never recover the loss of her. Ah ! she was not such another as Madam Salome '' " No more of this, good nurse : you can come to me again during the festival, but for the pre- sent I must bid you farewell.'' — She kissed her with great condescension as she spoke; but Dinah, who was in vain trying to dry up her tears, and had evidently something else weighing heavily upon her mind, showed no disposition whatever to depart. " Ah ! my kind and dear daughter," she resumed, " it will be a heavy time with me when I can no longer set eyes upon your sweet 48 ZILLAH; face. What shall I do in the dreary days of winter, when you would sometimes come with your handmaids to call upon me ; ay, and would order me a measure of wood, that I might dress ray little bit of victuals, and not be cold and comfortless. It was the Feast of the Dedica- tion, I remember, and the streets were covered with snow, when you were last good enough to think of me ; and, welladay ! be as saving as you can, wood will burn, for not a log of it is now left. Heigho !" " Before I go, I will order two measures to be sent into your cellar ; so, be of good cheer, nurse; and once more, farewell." " Blessings ! blessings on your head !" ejacu- lated Dinah, with a new gush of emotion — '' but the cellar — the cellar " Her sobs would not allow her to proceed. " What of the cellar ?" inquired Zillah. " It will hold,— it will hold,— it will hold three measures" — blurted out the widow, as A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 49 soon as she could find her voice. Zillah promised that it should be filled, and quitted the apartment ; while Dinah took her departure in a state of tears and agitation, wherein it would be difficult to decide whether selfishness, sincere gratitude to her benefactress, or un- affected sorrow and alarm at the prospect of her meditated journey, formed the predominant feehng. A few minutes after thus parting from her nurse, Zillah encountered her stepmother ; who, having already informed her that she was to be presented at court on the following after- noon, now inquired in what manner she pro- posed to attire herself. " In the particoloured robe which I myself worked with flowers and gold thread, and which I wore at the last festi- val," was the reply. ^' And which is much such another, daughter, as might have been worn upon holidays by Re- bekah's nurse Deborah, or by the good Rut' VOL. L D 50 ZILLAH, when she went a-gleaning. I have told you, child, that the fashion of such garments has long passed away, and that all people of dis- tinction nowadays adopt the Roman modes. You have too good a figure to be concealed be- neath that antediluvian robe. A low-cut tunic, with an embroidered stomacher, and a mantle with a border of gold and purple, would not only display your person to advantage, but give you a modish and a Roman look." " My father has repeatedly told me that the daughters of Jerusalem should pride themselves in wearing the same garb as their illustrious an- cestors, and disdain to imitate the fashions of the Gentiles, especially of their Roman con- querors.'' " I hate the idolatrous Romans as bitterly as he does ; but I have no quarrels with their modes, or with any that are more becoming than our own ; nor do I know why females of rank should wear raiment of the same form as the A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 51 wives and daughters of the rabble. And were our ancestors, whom you would make your mo- del, so wedded to the primitive simplicity ? Think you, that when Abimelech gave Sarah, then in her ninetieth year, a thousand pieces of silver to buy her a veil, he wished it not to surpass all that had been previously worn ?" " But when it is known that we have a Ro- man party in the city, would it become the Sagan's daughter ?" •* Psha ! fashion is of no party, the mode is omnipotent, and beauty may pay tribute to the whole world in adorning itself, without any im- putation upon its patriotism. Prythee, there- fore, let me not see you attired like a pigeon- seller's bride on her wedding day, or a vine- dresser'^s girl at the vintage feast." *' I would willingly obey your wishes, but my father has expressly desired " Hitherto Sa- lome had preserved a gracious countenance, and a correspondent suavity of tone, which at these D 2 52 ZILLAH; words were succeeded by flashing eyes, reddened cheeks, and a taunting contemptuous accent, as she exclaimed — " What ! is there no other who calls you daughter, and whose wishes and com- mands it might become you to obey ? Am I ever to be thwarted and disregarded ? Have you not read that Rehoboam's little finger was thicker than his father's loins? Ponder upon this, proud and unyielding girl; for you may chance to learn that the intimations of Salome may be less safely slighted than the most im- perative orders of others."^ — So saying, she walked out of the room in slow and scornful state; while the gentle Zillah, little used to such imperious mandates and menacing looks, followed her, with tears in her eyes, and a heavy heart, that she might communicate what had passed to her father, and receive his instructions how she should act. A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 53 CHAPTER III. On the following morning, at an early hour, Zillah quitted the house, accompanied by her maids, for the purpose of visiting the bath at Enrogel, near the King's Garden, whither she generally went two or three times in the week. It was her intention, for the sake of the shade, to go round the back of the Temple, to cross the bridge that connected it with Mount Sion, and so down into the Valley by the Water-gate ; but, on attempting to pass by the Pool of B e- thesda, she found it in a state of the greatest disturbance. As this was not the season in which the celestial visitant was expected to de- 54 ZILLAH; scend and impart a healing virtue to its waters, a number of sheep and lambs had been driven thither from the adjoining market, that they might be washed preparatory to their being of- fered at the Temple on the approaching feast- day. The surrounding piazzas were crowded ; many of the affrighted animals were swimming to and fro in the water ; peasants, drovers, and some of the inferior Templar Levites, were loudly wrangling and quarrelling about their respective properties, which it was almost im- possible to separate, especially when the distin- guishing marks had been washed out ; while dogs, fiercely barking around the margin, or plunging into the pool, in spite of all efforts to prevent their thus defiling it, only rendered the intermixture more inextricable, and increased the general hubbub and confusion. To avoid this tumultuous scene, Zillah turned back, skirted the north of the Temple, and, passing \ TALE OF JERUSALEM. 55 out of the Sheep-gate, descended into the Valley, along which Dinah had taken such an ominous and inauspicious walk on the preceding day. Some of the annoyances to which the widow had been exposed upon that occasion, were now inflicted upon her young and beautiful mistress, for the weather was still more sultry, the num- ber of votaries, pilgrims, wayfarers, and cattle of all sorts, converging from various quarters, was increased by the nearer approach of the great festival, and the dust from the thronged road enveloped her from time to time in a white and dense cloud. Still, however, she pro- ceeded for some distance, receiving and return- ing salutations from the numerous passengers who crossed her path, until, almost overcome by the heat, she turned aside to enjoy a short res- pite beneath the shade of an immense sycamore tree that stood upon the banks of the Cedron, and under whose gigantic boughs there was an 56 ZILLAH; assemblage which seemed to have been collected for some other purpose than that of mere pro- tection from the rays of the sun. Familiar as was the eye of Zillah with scenes such as that presented to her upon reaching the spot, it was one sufficiently charac- teristic of the age and of the locality to justify a description. The prominent object, around which the majority of the little crowd had sta- tioned themselves in a ring, was a wild-looking, half-naked young man, whose hairy skin seemed to have been burnt to a hue of the swartest brown by constant exposure to the elements. The hide of some strange animal, belted around his loins, and scarcely hanging to his knees, con- stituted his only clothing. Around his throat was slung a large bottle formed of a goat^s skin, the hair being turned inwards, and the exterior pitched together in such a way that the neck of the animal served also for that of the vessel; while behind him hung a pouch, or scrip, of A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 5i wolfs fur, SO arranged as that the gaping mouth of the beast became the aperture at top. The stranger's head and beard, neglected and dishe- velled, and yet naturally and even picturesquely crisp and curling, displayed one dense mass of dark hair, whose black depths appeared to assume a still deeper hue from the contrast of the chalky road-dust, which had settled here and there upon the outer curls. His features and form, so far as this hirsute investiture allowed them to be seen, were remarkably handsome ; his eyes of surpassing brilhancy, his limbs cast in a mould of the finest symmetry ; and though there was something savage in his look, he exhibited in no respect the aspect of a vulgar ruffian, or of any low-born enthusiast. His gestures and attitudes were graceful ; his voice, though he sometimes muttered, and anon burst into great vehemence of articulation, was far from unmelodious; and his language was not that of a rude or unedu- cated person. In his right hand he held a tall D 3 58 ZILLAH ; branch of the wild fig-tree, in the fork of which was perched a large bird of the ra\en species, whose piercing eyes seemed to rival those of its master. Anticipating the cunning device of Mahomet, he had secreted some sort of food in his ear, which was overshadowed by his umbra- geous hair ; pretending that when the bird thus fed itself, it was whispering to him the dark re- velations of futurity. A figure of this description, advancing such pretensions, and addressing himself to the cre- dulous and superstitious vulgar of Jerusalem, was tolerably sure, in whatever direction he wandered, to gather an eager auditory around him. As Zillah approached, he ceased speak- ing; and having fixed his eyes upon her for some time with an intent and ardent look, that seemed to express both surprise and ad- miration, he at length slowly withdrew them, and gazed vacantly at the crowd around him. It was indeed a motley group. Here stood a A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 59 mother, whose infant, terrified at the wild aspect and frightful bird of the stranger, urged her to be gone, by its averted face and loud cries ; while her older son, though he still clung to her for protection, was anxious to delay her, that he might obtain another peep. There, was seen a little knot of Pharisees, their right hands in their bosoms, their left grasping their beards, offering a striking contrast by the affected gravity of their dress, their solemn gestures, and mortified looks, as well as by the con- temptuous incredulity that lurked in their eyes to the band of half-clad Egyptian slaves beside them, each bearing a yoke a