Part 22 (1/2)

”Never! never!” yelled out a hundred fierce voices. And one of the crowd shouted aloud, ”I would rather slay her with my own hand, were she my own daughter!”

”I cannot believe Lycidas false!” cried out Joab, at the risk of drawing the tempest of rage upon himself.

”You cannot believe him false, you son of the nether millstone!”

screamed out the furious Jasher, stamping with pa.s.sion; ”as if you were a match for a wily Greek, born in that idolatrous, base, ungrateful Athens, that banished her only good citizen, and poisoned her only wise one!” The fierce prejudices of race were only too easily aroused in that a.s.sembly of Hebrew warriors, and if Jasher were blamed by some of his auditors, it was for allowing that any Athenian could be either wise or good.

”Yet hear me for a moment--I must be heard,” cried Joab, straining his voice to its loudest pitch, yet scarcely able to make his words audible; ”Lycidas has been admitted into the Covenant by our priests; he can give proofs--”

”Who talks of proofs?” exclaimed Jasher, stamping again on the earth.

”Did you never hear of the proofs given by Zopyrus? Know you not how Babylon, the golden city, fell under the sword of Darius? Zopyrus, minion of that king, fled to the city which he was besieging, showed its defenders his ghastly hurts--nose, ears shorn off--and pointed to the bleeding wounds as _proofs_ that Darius the tyrant, by inflicting such injuries upon him, had won a right to his deathless hatred.[1]

The Babylonians believed the proofs, they received the impostor, and ye know the result. Babylon fell, not because the courage of her defenders quailed, or famine thinned their numbers; not because the enemy stormed at her wall, or pestilence raged within it; but because she had received, and believed, and trusted a traitor, who had sacrificed his own members to gain the opportunity of destroying those who put faith in his honour! Hebrews! a Zopyrus has now come into our camp! Will ye open your arms, or draw your swords, to receive him?”

A wild yell of fury arose from the listening throng, so fierce, so loud, that it drew towards the spot Hebrews from all parts of the encampment. It drew amongst others the young proselyte, who came eager to know the cause of the noise and excitement, quite unconscious that it was in any way connected with himself. As Lycidas made towards the centre of the crowd, it divided to let him pa.s.s into the immediate presence of Jasher, his accuser and self-const.i.tuted judge, and then ominously closed in behind him, so as to prevent the possibility of his retreat.

Lycidas had come amongst the Hebrew warriors with all the frank confidence of a volunteer into their ranks; and the Greek's first emotion was that of amazement, when he found himself suddenly the object of universal indignation and hatred. There was no mistaking the expression of the angry eyes that glared upon him from every direction, nor the gestures of hands raising javelins on high, or unsheathing keen glittering blades.

”Here he is, the traitor, the Gentile, led hither to die the death he deserves!” exclaimed Jasher.

”What mean ye, Hebrews--friends? Slay me not unheard!” cried Lycidas, raising on high his voice and his hand. ”I am a proselyte; I renounce my false G.o.ds,--”

”He has their very effigies on his arm!” yelled out Jasher, pointing with frenzied action to the silver bracelet of Pollux worn by the Greek, on which had been fas.h.i.+oned heads of Apollo and Diana encircled with rays.

Here was evidence deemed conclusive; nothing further was needed. ”He dies! he dies!” was the almost unanimous cry. The life of Lycidas had not been in greater peril when he had been discovered at the midnight burial, or when he had wrestled with Abishai on the edge of the cliff.

In a few moments the young Greek would have lain a shapeless trampled corpse beneath his murderers' feet, when the one word ”Forbear!”

uttered in a loud, clear voice whose tones of command had been heard above the din of battle, stayed hands uplifted to destroy; and with the exclamation, ”Maccabeus! the prince!” the throng fell back on either side, and through the ranks of his followers the leader strode into the centre of the circle. One glance sufficed to inform him sufficiently of the nature of the disturbance; he saw that he had arrived on the spot barely in time to save his Athenian rival from being torn in pieces by the crowd.

”What means this tumult? shame on ye!” exclaimed Maccabeus, sternly surveying the excited throng.

”We would execute righteous judgment on a Greek--an idolater--a spy!”

cried Jasher, pointing at Lycidas, but with less impa.s.sioned gesture; for the fanatic quailed in the presence of Maccabeus, who was the one man on earth whom he feared.

”He is a Greek, but neither idolater nor spy,” said the prince. ”He is one of a gallant people who fought bravely for their own independence, and can sympathize with our love of freedom. He has come to offer us the aid of his arm; shame on ye thus to requite him.”

”I doubt but he will play us false,” muttered one of the warriors, giving voice to the thoughts of the rest.

”We shall soon have an opportunity of settling all such doubts,” said Maccabeus; ”we shall attack the enemy at noon, and then shall this Greek prove in the battle whether he be false man or true.”

The prospect of so soon closing with the enemy was sufficient to turn the attention of every Hebrew warrior present to something of more stirring interest than the fate of a solitary stranger. Jasher, however, would not so easily let his intended victim go free.

”He's an Achan!” exclaimed the fanatic; ”if he fight amongst us, he will bring a curse on our arms!”

”He is a proselyte,” replied Maccabeus in a loud voice, which was heard to the farthest edge of the crowd; ”our priests and elders have received him--and I receive him--as a Hebrew by adoption, companion in arms, a brother in the faith!”

The words of the prince were received with respectful submission, if not with satisfaction. Maccabeus was regarded with enthusiasm by his followers, not only as a gallant and successful leader, but as one whose prudence they could trust, and whose piety they must honour. No man dare lay a finger upon him over whom the chief had thrown the s.h.i.+eld of his powerful protection.