Part 21 (1/2)
A homely care occupied the mind of Zarah on her way to the hut.
”Anna,” she said to her attendant, ”we are much beholden to Joab, and I have no shekels wherewith to pay for the hire of the litter and horses, or to requite him for his faithful service. It is not meet that the Lord Lycidas should be at charges for me. Let Joab speak to me when I quit the litter, or do you give him this jewel from me.”
The jewel was a ma.s.sive silver bracelet, which had been worn by the unhappy Pollux. Zarah had selected this from the other ornaments which had belonged to her parents, on account of the weight of metal which it contained. There was also something heathenish in the fas.h.i.+on of the bracelet itself, which made the Hebrew maiden care not to keep it as a remembrance of her father.
”Joab is not here,” said Anna, glancing from between the curtains; ”he has given up the guidance of the horses to one of the Hebrew warriors.”
Joab had in fact gone off with Saul, being eager to be the first to carry to Judas Maccabeus intelligence of what had occurred in Jerusalem since they had parted beside the martyrs' grave, and especially of the momentous events which had occurred in the family of Hada.s.sah.
”If I cannot see Joab himself,” observed Zarah, ”I must ask the Lord Lycidas to find him and do this my errand, for the muleteer must not go unrewarded by me.”
Accordingly, after the maiden, a.s.sisted by Lycidas, had descended from her litter, and explored with Anna the goatherd's abode, she bashfully asked her protector to execute for her this little commission, and with the heavy silver bracelet requite her obligation to Joab. ”To yourself,” added Zarah with downcast eyes, ”I can proffer but heartfelt thanks.”
The spirits of Lycidas had risen: with him, as with nature, the gloom of night was now succeeded by the brilliance of morning. The rebound of a mind lately weighed down with intense anxiety and the pressure of heavy responsibility was so great that it seemed as if every care were flung off for ever. Lycidas had accomplished his dangerous mission; he had placed his beloved charge under the care of her relatives; and he felt a.s.sured that her heart was his own. The clang of martial preparation which he now heard around him was as music to the ardent spirit of the Greek. He was now going to join in a brave struggle under a heroic commander, to deserve Zarah, and then to win her! The heart of the gallant young Athenian beat high with hope.
”Nay, Zarah,” said Lycidas gaily, in reply to the maiden's words; ”I may one day claim from you something better than thanks. As for the bracelet, rest a.s.sured that I will well requite faithful Joab; he shall be no loser if I keep the jewel in pledge, and never part with it, save to my bride.” Lycidas clasped the bracelet on his arm, as with a proud and joyous step he quitted the goatherd's hut.
”Stay, Lycidas,” expostulated Zarah, following him over the threshold; but then arresting her steps, and watching his receding form for a moment with a smile as radiant as his own. ”How could he fear a rival!” was the thought flitting through Zarah's mind as she gazed.
She then turned to re-enter the hut, and saw before her--Judas Maccabeus!
CHAPTER x.x.xIII.
THE LEADER AND THE MAN.
In the unsettled state of the Holy Land, where its brave sons had to maintain a kind of guerrilla warfare against the powerful enemy who held its strongholds and ruled in its capital--where communication between places not far remote from each other was difficult and dangerous, and a written letter was a thing almost unknown--the Asmonean brothers had been in ignorance of many events which have occupied a large s.p.a.ce in these pages. Joab, therefore, on his arrival in the camp of the Hebrews, had much to tell that was to them entirely new.
Judas with thrilling interest had listened to the muleteer's account of Zarah's peril and escape from the palace of Antiochus, and the deaths of Hada.s.sah and Pollux. The fount of tenderness which lay concealed under the chief's usually calm and almost stern exterior was stirred to its inmost depths. Grief, admiration, love, swelled his brave heart.
Maccabeus could hardly wait to hear the end of Joab's narration. Zarah was near him--his beauteous, his beloved, his chosen bride--she who had so suffered and so mourned--the tender orphan maiden bereaved of all love, all protection save his own--but dearer in her poverty and desolation than she could have been had she brought him the dowry of an empire!
It was thus that Maccabeus thought of Zarah, as, with an eagerness of impatience which could not have brooked an instant's longer delay, he strode rapidly towards the hut which sheltered his treasure. He soon beheld her--could it indeed be she? No desolate, weeping, trembling fugitive met the gaze of the chief; but a maiden bright and fair as the morn, with a blush on her cheeks and a smile on her lips, her whole countenance beaming with hope, and her eyes fixed with a lingering look on a Greek who was disappearing from view in a direction opposite to that by which Judas had approached her! The depths of the leader's feelings were again stirred, but this time as by a bar of glowing red-hot iron.
”Who is yon Gentile?” was the sudden fierce exclamation which burst from the warrior's lips.
Never before had her kinsman looked so terrible to Zarah as when he startled her then by his sudden appearance. It was not because she now saw Maccabeus for the first time arrayed in the harness of battle, his tall powerful frame partly sheathed in glittering steel, and a plumed helmet on his head, giving him a resemblance to the description which she had heard from Lycidas of the fabled G.o.d of war; it was the eye, the manner, the tone of Judas that changed the smile of the maiden in a moment to a look of embarra.s.sment and fear. Antiochus himself, on his judgment-seat, had scarcely appeared more formidable to the trembling captive before him, than did the kinsman who had come to welcome her, and who would have died to s.h.i.+eld her from wrong!
Maccabeus repeated his stern question before Zarah found courage to reply. ”That is Lycidas, the Athenian lord,” she faltered; ”he whom you spared by the martyrs' tomb. He has well requited your mercy. He protected and aided Hada.s.sah to the end, and paid the last honours to her dear remains; he struck down the Syrian who slew my father.
Lycidas has embraced the Hebrew faith, and has come to fight, and, if need be, to die in the Hebrew cause!”
The maiden spoke rapidly, and with a good deal of nervous excitement.
She did not venture to glance up again into the face of her kinsman to see the effect of her explanation, for all the false hopes regarding his indifference with which she had buoyed herself, had vanished like a bubble at a touch. Maccabeus did not at once reply. Silently he led Zarah back into the hut, and motioned to her to take her seat upon a low heap of cus.h.i.+ons which Anna had removed from the litter, and placed on the earthen floor for the accommodation of her young mistress. He then dismissed the attendant by a wave of his hand. The profound gloomy silence of her kinsman was by no means re-a.s.suring to Zarah, who felt much as a criminal might feel in presence of a judge--albeit in regard to her conduct towards Lycidas her conscience was clear.
Maccabeus stood before Zarah, the shadow of his form falling upon the maiden, as he towered tween her and the light, gloomily gazing down upon her.
”Zarah,” he said at last, ”there must be no concealment between us.
You know in what relation we stand to each other. You have told me what that Gentile has been to Hada.s.sah, and to Abner your father; tell me now, What is he to _you_?”
Zarah struggled to regain her courage, though she knew not how deeply her evident fear of him wounded the spirit of her kinsman. She did not dare to answer his question directly. ”Lycidas is not a Gentile,” she said; ”he is, as you are, a servant of G.o.d, a true believer; he has been fully admitted into all the privileges held by our race.”