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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<jross his shoulders, from either extremity of which depended a bucket of water, brought up from the Pool of Siloam, while they all gazed with fixed and reverent eyes at the pseudo-prophet. Adjoin- ing to these were huddled together six of the Nethinim, or Templar servants, whose office it was to draw water for the use of the Temple,

60 ZILLAH ;

and always from the Pool of Siloam. Their buckets, which were marked with the palm and cup, the holy insignia, were placed upon the ground ; while they whispered to one ano- ther, and cast indignant looks at the stranger, as if they were scandalized that any but a regular priest should presume to set himself up for a prophet. Opposite to them was a mingled cluster of gazers, where the dark pro- truded beards and eager eyes of the men were here and there relieved by the softer and fairer character, but not less rapt expression, of female faces. Behind this little knot sate a water- carrier of the palace upon a heavily laden camel, which, protruding its lofty head over the circle, looked supinely down upon the stranger with its meek eyes. A richly clad Sadducee, mounted on a handsome mule, kept himself somewhat aloof, smelling to a small box of perfume, and smiling languidly at the whole scene ; while, still farther removed, two Geome-

A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 61

tricians, attired in long robes, and holding rods in their hands, were squatted upon their hams, angrily disputing respecting some diagram which one of them had drawn in the sandy soil with his wand.

Zillah was withdrawing from the crowd, when the self-styled prophet, advancing a few paces towards her, exclaimed in a low and gentle voice — ^' Doubtless, fair maiden, you come up to Jerusalem with your festival friends; when go you hence, and which of the cities of Judaea may boast that among its dwellers it possesses one more beautiful than Vashti, more worthy of the royal crown of loveliness than even the fflorious niece of Mordecai ?"

o

" I am a daughter of Jerusalem," replied Zillah, with a distant inclination of her head, and moving forward to leave him.

" And if I might know your name, 0 fairest of her daughters, and that of the street in which you reside, my heart would learn how

62 ZILLAH ;

to call upon its charmer, and my feet would be taught whither they should wander."

" These are questions which I answer not to a stranger; — I have perhaps said too much in telling him that I am a dweller in the Holy City."

" Call it not by that inappropriate name,'' ejaculated the figure, throwing himself into an attitude, and resuming his vehement and riiap- sodical intonation — " it is no residence for thee, who art a hind of loves and a pleasant roe ; it is an Admah and a Zeboim, upon which the fire of Heaven shall quickly be poured from every corner of the sky, for its Temple, and its palaces, and its hovels, are sinks of iniquity. Lo ! dost thou not see the angel, the destroying angel of the Lord, already hovering over the proud but guilty city ? Hark ! the thunder bellows in the distance, and it shall soon burst from the sky in a roar that shall shake down the once mighty Jerusalem into the dust from which it

A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 63

sprang I Listen to me, O ye Israelites ! I am called Esau, because I have sold my birthright for a mess of pottage; and the wild man of the mountains, because I dwell among the wild asses and the untamed goats, and hearken to the howling of wolves and the screaming of eagles. Listen to me, for this prophetical bird flies up to the sky at night, and brings me down its secrets, and whispers them into mine ear ; a}^, the secrets of the past as well as of the future ; for it is the same raven that Noah sent forth out of the ark, and which returned to him not."

Abandonino; his constrained attitude and de- clamatory style, — for Zillah, startled by his sudden energy, had hurried away from him, — he gazed after her for some time with a look of passionate intensity ; and at length exclaimed, in a subdued and melancholy tone of voice, '^ Gracious and majestic, sweet, innocent, and noble creature ! Such was the

64 ZILLAH ;

maiden whom I once loved : — she died — she gave her life to save mine — I was sprinkled with her heart's blood ! But I destroyed the villain who was jealous of our joys. I smote him to the earth with my sword — T stamped upon his dead body. Alas ! I might have beta happy in my love — guiltless in my life. What am I now ? Away ! away ! away !" Suddenly he lifted up the bough that he held in his right hand ; — the bird fluttered its wings and screamed, — and its wild bearer, as if anxious to escape from his own thoughts, ran with the look and the speed of a maniac towards the Temple.

Zillah, in the mean while, pursued her way to the bath, lost in a variety of conjectures as to the character of the man by whom she had been so strangely addressed, and his motives for wishing to discover her name and residence. Enthusiasts and pseudo-prophets of this de- scription— some the victims of delusion, others

A TALE OF JERUSALExM. 65

hypocritically assuming a part for interested purposes, and a third kind that hovered be- tween both classes — were common enough in Judaea ; but the figure in question did not appear to her to belong to either of these divi- sions. Spite of his strange garb and wild ges- ticulations, there was an occasional betrayal of cultivation, if not of elegance, as well as of self- possession in his speech and manner, which forbade the conclusion of his being in reality that which his exterior would indicate, — a con- jecture confirmed in some degree by his own statement, that he had forfeited his birthright. Hirsute and almost savage as was his appear- ance, it was impossible not to be struck with his natural comeliness and symmetry, which, combined with a latent expression of melan- choly in his voice and in his eyes, awakened an interest in Zillah that partook both of ad- miration and compassion, and occasioned her conversation with her maids to turn almost

G6 ZILLAH;

exclusively upon the subject of the young Esau, the wild man of the mountains.

On her return from the bath, she observed another and larger assemblage in front of the principal eastern gate ; and not doubting, from the occasional elevation of the raven upon his lofty perch, that the crowd were surrounding the same figure, she turned towards one of the nearer entrances of the city, in order to avoid him, and not expose herself to farther interro- gatories.— " Nay, mistress," said Deborah, one of her accompanying maids — " do, prythee, let me mingle with the rest, and Hsten to what he is saying. You can walk home with Rachel, you know, especially as you intend returning by the streets, and I will follow you in a few minutes. I warrant I will find out who and what he is. But, mistress, do you really believe what he says about the raven ? it doesn't look like such an old bird, does it?"

" Foohsh girl !'' replied Zillah — " what is

A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 6T

it to US \vho and what he is ? The poor crea- ture seems hardly in his right wits ; and his fantastical stories, therefore, deserve but little heed."

" I must confess," said Rachel, the other maid, " that I should like to know the real rights of the matter about that raven, for they do live a long time, and so I have always heard. At all events, it might be one of those that fed Elisha the prophet, for Cherith is only sixty or seventy miles off, which is nothing for a bird to fly."

" Talk not so idly, Rachel ; it is a common raven, which is an ugly and unclean bird, and what does it import us to know its age .-"'

"But the man himself,^' resumed Deborah — " nobody can say that he is ugly or old either. Perhaps I may learn his whole history. See how the people are crowding about him I There goes the raven up into the air again I and now

68 zillah;

he has taken it down. I am positively dying to know what he can be talking about."

" Why, what an inquisitive and prying girl are you become !" replied Zillah. " Well, well, rather than that you should die of curi- osity, you may even mingle awhile with the bystanders ; but linger not too long, for I am to be taken to the palace this morning, and I shall want you to assist in dressing me. And harkye, good Deborah ! if ye must ask ques- tions, make no vain inquiries about the bird ; it is even as I have told you, no better than a common crow."

Delighted with the permission thus given to her, the maid, hurrying forward, was presently lost amid the numerous passengers ; while Zillah and her remaining companion entered by the Water-gate, and, passing through the streets of the city, soon reached their abode. The ten minutes in which Deborah had pro- mised to be back were nearly extended to an

A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 69

hour, when she returned, and hastened to com- municate to her mistress the intelligence she had gleaned. As to the great object of her curiosity however, although her inquiries had been sufficiently numerous, she had not been enabled to gain the smallest information ; so that her tidings were necessarily Hmited to what he had himself uttered in his addresses to the multitude. He had predicted, in the most confident terms, the approaching belea- guerment of Jerusalem, and its capture by a cruel and ferocious enemy ; on which account he warned all his hearers, with bitter denuncia- tions against them if they neglected his ex- hortations, to purchase and carry ^vith them, on their return into the country, all such goods and merchandise as they might have occasion for, and which could only be procured in the Holy City ; urging them to take up and bring away all their own effects, and more parti- cularly to withdraw whatever monies they

70 ZILLAH ;

might have deposited in the hands of the mer* chants, or in the Treasury of the Temple, unless they wished their property to become the prey of the conqueror. He was very par- ticular in his inquiries of the respective groups that came up to the gate, as to their places of residence, and the days of their departure ; denouncing, in wild and incoherent rhapsodies, woe, bitterness, and repentance to all those who disbelieved his predictions, or shghted his advice.

This statement was not much calculated ta satisfy the curiosity of the informant, or any that might be felt by Zillah herself: but the latter had now little time to meditate upon what she had heard ; for it soon became neces- sary to make preparations for the court, which was to be held after the daily service of the morning, in order that the ministers and officers who were in rotation at the Temple might be enabled to attend at the palace. After her

A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 71

painful interview with her mother on the night before, she had hastened to her father, who had expressly enjoined that she should adhere to her original intention of arraying herself in the ancient Hebrew fashion, adding that he should blush with shame, were the Sagan's daughter to present herself before the King and High Priest in the garb of Pagans ; an d more especially in one which would serve to recall the subjection of God's chosen people, the most ancient, renowned, and valorous na- tion in the world, to the Roman barbarians. Fortified by this authority, she accordingly wore the particoloured robe, which she had herself embroidered with flowers and gold thread, and of which the sleeves were of the richest gauze, decorated with ribbons and facings curiously sewed together. These were blue, which, being a celestial colour, was in high favour, and much used for cuff's and trimmings ; though it was not deemed decorous to have the

72 ZILLAH;

whole apparel of this hue, since none more was used about the curtains and veils of the Taber- nacle. Her under-garment of fine linen, reach- ing to the ankles, and bordered also with blue, had been decorated by her own skilful needle with clouded colours, which bore the name of feather-work. Across her bosom was a pecto- ral of Byssus, a sort of silk of a golden yellow, formed from the tuft that grows on a large shellfish of the muscle species, found on the coasts of the Mediterranean, — for the great ones of the earth had not then begun to rob the silkworm of its covering. Her sandals were of badger-skin leather, secured with golden clasps. Her head-dress was of simple, and, according to modern notions, of not very be- coming form ; for her black and luxuriant locks, being drawn behind the head, were divided into several tresses, their beauty con- sisting in their length and thickness, and the extremity of each being adorned with pearls

A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 73

and jewels, or ornaments of silver and gold, of which latter metal she also wore narrow plain circlets around her wrists and ankles.

Such was the garb of a Jewish damsel of distinction, at a time when rich and even gaudy colours were considered the appropriate ac- companiments of rank. Zillah was of a form and figure calculated to confer, not to bor- row lustre, whatever might be the character of her habiliments. Her height, which exceeded the common standard of her sex, would have been more remarked, but for the fine propor- tions of her person ; so that the spectator found it difficult to account for that air of natural ma- jesty which accompanied her steps, and which was at the same time reconcilable with the most modest deportment, an unaffected simpli- city of manners, and an evident unconscious- ness of her own charms. Her large round eyes, of the darkest hazel, mild as the dove's, and yet deeply fraught with intelligence and sensi-

VOL. I. E

T4 ZILLAH;

bility, were surmounted by finely arched brows of black. Some might have been tempted to pronounce her ruddy lips too protuberant and full, but that the gracious and benignant ex- pression which was for ever lambent upon their surface imparted to them a peculiar and inef- fable charm. In its outline her face assumed the oval form, the clear warm olive of her soft and delicate complexion being seldom height- ened by any fixed roseate hue ; although the smallest emotion occasioned the blood to glow through her thin skin, and enriched her com- plexion with the mellowest autumnal tints. The expression of her countenance, as we have already intimated, was much too gracious to be termed serious, although it might be pronounced habitually serene and placid.

With some few points of resemblance, — for Salome was still handsome, and of a really dig* nified presence and carriage, — the mother offered, in her general appearance, a sufficiently marked

A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 75

contrast to her daughter. Her beauty being evidently on the wane, art had been lavishly put in requisition to conceal the deficiencies of nature and the ravages of time. Her face was painted, her eyebrows pencilled and extended so as to join one another, — one among the many Roman fashions which were then in vogue. Her hair, gathered up in tresses under her veil, and received into a gold caul behind, was con- fined by a jewelled and embroidered bandelette, which in front assumed the form of a tiara. Immense rings of wrought gold depended from her ears ; a large and valuable nose-jewel hung from the middle of her forehead; every finger sparkled with rings ; her chains, bracelets, and ornaments, were worthy the magnificence of her Roman dress ; small bells of silver decorated her scarlet sandals ; and in her hand she carried a costly tablet, filled with perfumes. There was a hauteur in her air, even when she most wished it to express affability and condescension : E 2

76 ZILLAH ;

no one could for a moment doubt that she as- serted her high rank, and challenged her place in society, not less by the splendour of her ap- pointments than the proud confidence of a de- meanour flimsily disguised beneath a superficial courtesy. For the present moment, however, all was graciousness ; her countenance wore its court-dress, and was glazed over with those flickering smiles which can so easily be assumed by a practised woman of the world, without their calling up any correspondent complacency of feeling. The imperious mandates and angry menaces of last night seemed to have been en- tirely forgotten ; nay, she even complimented her daughter upon her good looks, in a tone of amiability which was probably elicited by secret satisfaction at the fancied superiority of her own appearance.

The Sagan, arrayed in his sacerdotal robes, soon joined them; and, having affectionately kissed his daughter, declared that by the dial

A TALE OF JERUSALExM. 77

it was quite time to depart. On account of the narrowness of the streets, and the abruptness of the hills, vehicles for the mere purposes of plea- sure were very little used within the walls of Jerusalem. There were open chariots, however, for state occasions ; and as Salome would not forego any of the distinctions appertaining to her rank, she had one of this description waiting at the gates of the front court. Passing through a long file of servants and slaves, who were al- ways assembled to give eclat to her exits and entrances on days of ceremony, she stepped into the carriage, followed by the Sagan and his daughter, and they moved slowly forward to- wards the western part of the city. The streets were thronged with people, all advancing in the direction of the royal residence ; and among them were to be distinguished many of the upper classes, both male and female, some mounted on mules and horses, some on foot, arrayed in their court-dresses, and not a little

78 ZILLAH;

solicitous to preserve themselves, by the assist- ance of the servants who preceded and followed them, from any defilement, annoyance, or de- rangement of their state habiliments on the part of the mob. Some of these courtiers, particu- larly the females, were walking under a small baldachin, or canopy, supported by their ser- vants, the whole cortege forming a sort of pro- cession in the middle of the streets, so that their progress was necessarily slow. Thus our party proceeded, cheered with frequent blessings from the multitude, — for the Sagan was deservedly popular, — until, upon turninginto a wider avenue in the vicinity of the court, the crowd was ob- served to be in a state of considerable agitation, and to be visiting some obnoxious individual with opprobrious epithets, and other marks of indignity ; while they gathered, somewhat tu- multuously, around his carriage. It proved to be a farmer of the revenue, or collector of the Roman tribute-money, — one of that class who,

A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 79

under the name of publicans, became, shortly afterwards, so especially odious to the Jewish people. As the individual in question had enriched himself by the oppressive exaction of a tax which was considered a most degrading badge of national subjection, he was held in pe- culiar detestation, — a feeling which was aggra- vated, at the present moment, by the ill-judged magnificence of the car in which he rode, the general splendour of his equipage, and more particularly by the calumnious imputation of his being an idolater. Having, from his con- nexion with the Romans, acquired some portion of their taste, he had ventured to import se- cretly, and set up in his house, two or three of their favourite statues. The circumstance transpired ; and the ignorant mob, concluding that he could only keep such objects in his rooms for the purpose of consulting or wor- shipping them, as Rachel and Michal had done with the Teraphim of old, shouted fiercely out.

80 ZILLAH ;

" Down with the idolater, who, Hke Nebu- chadnezzar, and Micah the Ephraimite, dabbles with the Teraphim, and worships false gods. — Stone him ! crucify him ! away with him to the rock !" — Their hostility, however, was con- fined to clamour and vituperation, accompanied by loud hisses and the pointing of fingers ; for the object of their hatred, as if conscious of his unpopularity, had surrounded himself with an escort of armed servants and slaves, who would not have scrupled to use their weapons in their master's defence, had such a measure been ren- dered necessary.

A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 81

CHAPTER IV.

After this trifling interruption, our party arrived without farther impediment at the Palace of the Maccabees, situated to the west- ward of the town, and exhibiting more the ap- pearance of a fortress than of a residence for the purposes of state and royalty. It was surround- ed by a high and massy wall, having piazzas on the inside, and a stone platform on the top, upon which soldiers were seen marching to and fro. Three of the corners of this circumvalla- tion were fortified with turrets ; the fourth was surmounted by a lofty and strong tower over looking the city, upon the summit of which the E 5

82 ZILLAH;

Maccabee standard was displayed.* Within the court-yard, close to the gates of entrance, stood a row of large brazen lavers, constantly emptying themselves into a iishpool at a little distance, and again supplied from a capacious reservoir, in order that such of the visitants as had acci- dentally contracted any ceremonial defilement in their passage to the palace, might purify them- selves before they entered it. Here the more scrupulous pretenders to sanctity, and particu- larly the Pharisees, made a point of washing

* The celebrated Judas Maccabeus took for the motto of his standard the words, ^^ Mi camoca baelim Jeho- vah ?" (Exod. XV. 11 .) " Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods ?" This motto is said to have been written, not at length, but only by the first letter of each word, just as S. P. Q. R. for Senatus populusque Roraanus was inscribed on the Roman standard. The four initial letters of the Hebrew are supposed to have formed the anagrammatical word Maccabi ; whence this Judas has been generally called Judas Maccabeus, and those that fought under his standard were termed Maccabees.

A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 83

themselves up to the elbow; the same parties were particularly reverent in touching the sacred inscription on the door-post of the palace, and in pronouncing the accompanying prayer in a loud and solemn tone of voice.

Drawn up on either side of the enclosure were parties of the King's body-guard, mounted on showy horses. These gaudy, swaggering, and effeminate sparks, most of them young men of family, chosen for their personal beauty, and in every respect worthy of the dissolute King the}'' were to defend, corrupted the court by their licentiousness, and intimidated all good people by their occasional ferocity and excess. Their helmets, cuirasses, and back-pieces were of glit- tering brass, their cuisses and greaves of leather; their swords hung from a circular studded belt round the loins ; a quiver, bow, and arrows com- pleted their arms, and, in imitation of King- Solomon's parade soldiers, their dishevelled and flowing hair was so thickly interwoven with

84 zillak;

golden threads, that when the sun shone upon them it irradiated their heads with a kind of glory. The glittering of their drawn swords, the clank of their armour, and the rattling of the Mezilothaim, or little bells hung at the horses' ears, gave a martial effect to the whole body, in spite of the effeminate looks and tawdry embellishments by which it was individually characterised.

After passing through a handsome vestibule, the visitants were ushered into a spacious and lofty hall or audience chamber, the roof of which was supported by square columns of marble, with ornamental capitals of cedar-work. Up to a certain height, the walls were hung with rich tapestry, representing various trees, plants, and shrubs ; the remainder of the space to the ceiling was decorated with particoloured ara- besque ornaments upon a white ground. On a rich and elevated throne, in the midst of this hall, sate the King, in his royal robes of purple.

A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 85

wearing a massy golden chain around his neck, and upon his head the crown of Hyrcanus, the first of his family who had assumed the diadem and the title of King. His sword hung at the back of his seat, and a party of the dismounted guard was ranged behind him ; for, knowing himself to be an usurper, he was ever fearful of treachery or surprise, and kept himself con- stantly prepared to defend by violence that which he had snatched by fraud and bribery. In a city like Jerusalem, which frequently had more than twelve thousand priests at a time within its walls, it may be supposed that their holy order would predominate over all others at a court dramng-room. Such was the case now ; so that white robes and long black beards encountered the eye in every direction, setting off to better advantage the rich dresses of the secular and civil dignitaries, and more especially the splendid trappings of the females, or of the mihtary officers who were interspersed among

86 ZILLAH;

them. Perfumes, of which the Hebrews were extravagantly fond, were fuming from golden censers in each corner of the hall, and almost every female carried some precious ointment in her tablet ; so that the whole atmosphere was suffused with the most odoriferous exhalations. Nor was the ear regaled with a less rich and rare delight; for the King's band, consisting entirely of select musicians, and provided with male and female singers of the most melodious voices, performed at intervals during the whole ceremony.

On Zillah, to whom the scene was new, and who had lived in a state of almost cloistered seclusion, the effect was like that of enchant- ment ; and she was too much occupied in gazing with a palpitating wonderment at all she saw, to discover how much she herself was the object of general admiration. But little time was allowed her for that vague and delicious en- trancement in which her faculties were at first

A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 87

absorbed; for when the music ceased, all was again in motion ; greetings, merriment, and laughter were heard on every side ; and the party was gently impelled forward towards the throne. Armed as he was, and bristling with guards, Antigonus presented a delicate and effeminate appearance : the languor of his voice, the heaviness of his eyes, the wanness of his complexion in spite of the cosmetics with which it was known that he endeavoured to refresh it, all betrayed the effects of his debauched life. His dress was gorgeous, but neither tastefully selected, nor becomingly worn ; and he con- templated the whole scene with a look of jaded indifference, from which he was only aroused when any larger cluster than usual approached him. Upon these occasions, he would eve them, as they came up, with a quicker and more pene- trating look, as if he suspected treachery ; cast- ing at the same time a rapid glance at his sword, or upon his guard. Few met with a more

88 ZILLAH;

distinguished reception than the Sagan and his family ; for Zillah's beauty seemed to have aroused Antigonus out of his habitual listlessness. He surveyed her with an ardent and indelicate scrutiny, paid her many comphments on her charms, and added in a whisper, that, had he known what an ornament his court was about to lose, he should scarcely have selected the Sagan for his ambassador, or have consented that his daughter should accompany him. Zillah was glad to be at length dismissed, neither liking the intensity nor the expression of his gaze. Others, however, considered it an honour full of hope and promise; for the friends and acquaintance of her parents flocked around them with their congra- tulations; while some addressed their obsequi- ous flatteries to the daughter, endeavouring to ingratiate themselves with one whom they had already marked down for a royal favourite, and whose friendship it might be therefore prudent to concihate beforehand.

A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 89

Among the most sedulous of these adulators was a richly dressed old lady, of whose insinu- ating and glozing speeches Zillah had for some minutes been a passive rather than a wilHng auditress ; when her mother drew her away somewhat unceremoniously, desiring her to hold no farther colloquy with that low-born per- sonage.

*' I observed nothing vulgar in her language or appearance," said Zillah ; " but her conver- sation, I confess, was httle to my liking.''

^' I am astonished at her assurance in so fa- miliarly addressing you," continued Salome, with a look of indignant hauteur: — ^' I believe her to be a very respectable personage in her way; but is it for a woman like this, an upstart who cannot trace her family for more than three or four hundred years, to affect an intimacy with us ? We cannot indeed, like some that are recorded in our sacred chronicles, carry up our genealogy for three thousand five hundred

90 ZILLAH;

years; but your father is of the Aaronitish line, and the Asmonaeans derive from the course of Joarib, of the first class ; so that ray ancestors were contemporary with Moses. Is it for this mushroom of three centuries, therefore, to be of your associates ? or is it for you, who can trace your pedigree unbroken for fifteen hundred years, to receive her among your friends ?"

Zillah protested that she had never felt the smallest inclination so to enrol her, even if the person in question had derived her ancestry from the days of Adam ; and was about to add, that, since it was her mother's wish, she should decline her advances, when she was prevented from concluding her speech by the approach of a young and beautiful, though rather diminu- tive female, who with a dainty and affected air came swimming towards them in a magnificent Roman dress, of which the long train was held up at some distance by a female attendant. Her mincing steps occasioned the little silver

A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 91

bells at her heels to give forth a perpetual tink- ling sound ; her nose-jewel, which was a costly pear-shaped pearl, dropped first on one side, then on the other, as she conceitedly lolled her head towards either shoulder: her eyelashes had been painted with antimony, which, by darken- ing and dilating the hair, imparted a peculiar brilliancy to her eyes : with one hand she waved a feather fan so as to display to the best advan- tage the jewels with which every finger was ra- diant ; the other held a perforated cassolette, from which she sprinkled cinnamon water upon the floor as she advanced ; while her garments diffused around her an odour of myrrh, aloes, and cassia. Bridling up to Salome, she ex- claimed in a lisping voice — " Ah, my dear friend ! how^ glad I am to see you ! As I live, you look exquisitely to-day ; and you have got the Octavia mantle, I protest, — the last new im- portation from Rome. You see, the Roman dresses prevail; none but a few antiquated

92 ZILLAH;

dames and old-fashioned formalists adhere to the ancient mode. They have a regard for their garments, I suppose, because they have been bequeathed to them by their grandmothers, He ! He! That is the Sagan's daughter, I presume; a fine-looking girl, but rather on too large a scale. And how could you suffer her to be dis- figured in that odious robe ? How excessively hot it is! They say the Pentecost* will be well attended. Does not the King look charm- ingly to-day ? I never saw him in better spi- rits."— So saying, and without waiting for an answer to any of her questions, she sidled away, making the little bells at her feet " prate of her whereabout, " and displaying herself to fresh parties as she accosted them in her parade round the hall, and told each of them in an au-

* We have preserved the Greek term for this festival as that with which the reader of the New Testament is familiar ; but the Hebrews called it the Feast of "Weeks, because it was kept seven weeks after the Passover.

A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 93

dible whisper, that the Sagan's daughter, so far from being a beauty, was as tall and large as a Chaldgean idol, or one of the daughters of Anak, had lips like the Egyptian Sphinx, and wore a dress that had been evidently manufactured be- fore the Captivity.

As she had called her mother her dear friend, an epithet which had been received with evident complacency, Zillah took it for granted that this personage at least must be of an illustrious and remote ancestry, and ventured an opinion to that effect. '' I know nothing of her pedi- gree, child,'' was the reply. — '' It is Lydia, the King's favourite concubine, -vvho has more influ- ence in the palace than any other, and disposes every thing as it pleases her/'

Unable to comprehend the court morality which could seek friendship with an upstart of this stamp, and yet repudiate acquaintanceship with a respectable female, because her pedigree was comparatively modern, Zillah preserved a

94 ZILLAH;

bewildered silence, revolving these strange dis- tinctions in her mind, until her thoughts were most unpleasantly dissipated by the approach of Tubal the Pharisee, whom her mother had so urgently pressed upon her acceptance as a lover, and from whom she herself had ever felt so insuperable an aversion. He advanced draw- ing down the sleeves of his under-garment, to show that he had washed himself to the elbow, as he entered the palace, the great length and ostentatious singularity of his dress, humble in its materials, and yet eccentric in its fashion, sufficiently attesting that its wearer was a sanc- timonious coxcomb, " a praying synagogue- frequenting beau." As an evidence that he had been at the morning prayers, he retained across his forehead and his left arm his phylacteries, or parchment labels, containing a portion of the Law, which \vere of a more than ordinary breadth, as if his holiness and devotion were of a greater magnitude than those of other men.

A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 95

The tufts or fringes of blue on the four corners of his upper garment, were of such an unusual length that they trailed upon the ground ; and so ingeniously had numerous knots been inter- woven with them, that they served to remind him of some hundreds of different precepts of the Law, which he was enabled to repeat by fingering this ancient species of bead-roll as he walked along the streets ; just as a modern Ca- tholic numbers his prayers by the assistance of his rosary. In these knotted memoranda he had inserted sharp thorns, that by pricking him as he walked they might the more pointedly re- mind him of the Divine commandments ; and he had taken due care so to hold his garment in his progress through the streets, as that the goads should strike . against his legs till they drew blood, to the prodigious advancement of his fame with the multitude for austerity, piety, and mortification. Upon his entrance into the palace, however, he suffered these religious sti-

96 ZILLAH;

mulants to trail innocuously upon the ground ; for the power of the Pharisees was entirely de- rived from their factious influence with the lower orders, who looked upon them as saints; and although Tubal would not omit any of the more common ceremonial observances in the prevSence of the aristocracy, especially when they cost him nothing, he knew that the favourable opinions of this class would be little conciliated by such palpably hypocritical acts of penance, and he therefore spared himself their infliction. The sour and sanctified countenance, too, which had been most scrupulously preserved during his public progress to the palace, was now exchanged for a smickering leer, as he exclaimed in a soft and fawning voice—" O most beautiful Zillah ! I was weary and way- worn; for I have toiled even as far as Mount Gareb, to care for the building up of one of the tombs of the Prophets ; and I am fasting, for I taste no food on the sixth day, since on

A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 97

this day Moses, as you well know, went up into the Mount ; nor indeed upon the third, for upon that day he came down ; but the sight of thee has refreshed me, as the night-dew of Her- mon refreshes the wild cummin that has been parched by the sun. O rose of Sharon and lily of the valley !" thou who art fairer than Esther the virgin, or Susannah the wife, or Judith

the widow (I pray thee, step this way, lest I

touch Gabriel of Bethzacara, who is cominor to- wards us, for he is a known sinner, — or him that

leans upon his arm, for he is a tax-gatherer )

Wilt thou not listen to my suit ?"

" I have already repeatedly given you my answer," said Zillah, moving towards her friends, for she had been standing somewhat apart when he thus addressed her — " and I must implore you to spare me this painful and useless importunity.''

" Who talks of Lydia, the King^s chosen one ?" resumed the Pharisee—'' her eyes are

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98 ZILLAH;

sparkling, and her feet are like twin stars ; but compared to thee, she is a scarecrow in a garden of cucumbers. Thou art like a cluster of cam- phor in the vineyards of Engedi ; thy lips "

"I can hear no more of this," interposed Zillah ; " let me pass, and visit not mine ears with fulsome flatteries, to which it becomes me not to listen."

'' Harkye, proud damsel," said the Pharisee, detaining her and altering his voice — *' as you have an Asmonaean for your mother, she may perhaps have told you that when the Maccabee king, Alexander Jannaeus, lay on his death-bed, aad his wife Alexandra was exceedingly troubled with fear on account of the hatred which our sect bore towards her and her family, he advised her by all means to reconcile herself to the Pharisees, as the only method to secure herself upon the throne and win the affections of the nation ; adding, that there were no such friends where they loved, and no such enemies where they

A TA.LE OF JERUSALEM. 99

hated; and whether they spoke true or false, good or evil of any person, they would be alike believed by the common people. This she did, and thereby established herself as Queen."

•' And why am I to be told of Alexandra's humiliation ?''

" To remind you, unthinking maiden, that if you would retain the throne of beauty and good fame upon which you are now seated, it may become you not to offend a Pharisee by refusing the offer of his hand."

"Avaunt, bold hypocrite!" said Zillah in- dignantly— '* I have already told you that I loathe your love, and I have now to add that I defy your menaces !"

So saying, she walked hastily towards her parents; while Tubal, in order to divert the attention of the bystanders, and prevent their noticing the agitation of her looks, pounced suddenly upon a young man who was passing at the moment in a gay garment that had been

F 2

100 ZILLAH;

brought from Rome, exclaiming in a loud voice, as he grappled the object of his sanctimonious indignation — '' O holy father Abraham ! O blessed Isaac ! O devout Aaron ! is it thus that we keep the commandment of Moses ? Lo ! what have we here ? a mixed cloak of linen and wool, which is interdicted to every man unless he be a priest. What ! are we to fly in the face of the Law, both of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, which forbid these mixtures lest we fall into abomination by thus mingling to- gether the produce of plants and animals ? Know ye not that it is lawful to fall upon an Israelite thus violating the commandment, and to tear him in pieces, even although he were the master at whose feet we sate, and who taught us wis- dom ? What, ho ! my brother Pharisees, and men of Israel ! shall we suffer this profanation even in the presence of our King and High Priest ? Nay, struggle not, thou shalt not escape. O thou heathenish and obscene trans-

A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 101

gressor ! O thou seed of Canaan, and not of Ju- dah ! Thou Ishbosheth, thou man of shame I"'

At this outcry, a troop of the Pharisees flocked around the culprit ; lifting up their hands and eyes, uttering ejaculations, and as- suming such looks of horror that one would have thought some most dire and enormous atrocity had been perpetrated. Priests too of everv rank quickly joined the assemblage, all ea- ger to express abhorrence of the crime, as well as to lend assistance in hauling off the linsey-wolsey offender, in their eagerness to accomplish which they jostled and prevented one another, so that their object was not effected without consider- able disturbance and confusion.

Scarcely had the bustle occasioned by this incident subsided, when two figures sauntered towards Zillah, offering in their appearance a conspicuous contrast to the demure-looking and precisely clad formahst by whom she had been just annoyed. These were Jesse, a hand-

102 ZILLAH ;

some young man of distinction, one of the King's favourite companions, leaning on the arm of a friend ; the former a foppish courtier, dressed in the Roman style, affecting Latinisms in his speech, and exhibiting a levity, not to say in- solence, in his discourse and manner, which "he mistook for a dashing and fashionable nonchalance. His locks were most curiously crisped and curled; the outside of his beard was plaited from beneath his ears into a fillet, the two ends of which united together under the chin, the whole being plentifully bedewed with myrrh. As the sleeves of his tunic only reached to his elbow, he had deco- rated his wrists with bracelets like a woman ; and, to distinguish himself from the vulgar herd, he carried a glittering girdle, an article of dress that was hardly every worn within doors, into which he had inserted a perfumed purse and a little scent-bag. " Salve ! Rab Malachi," he exclaimed, advancing famiharly towards him —

A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 103

" allow me to kiss the fifth corner* of your Saganship's beard." Putting the extremity of it to his lips, a mode of salutation which was sometimes practised, he continued — " You fully observe the precept, I see, not to cut it ; though I cannot say I like stooping so low, for it is apt to make one red in the face. I wonder you can find time to be at court, when you must have so much to do in preparing for the Pentecost. Any news stirring? What has become of Herod ? Traitorous knave ! where should we find a king to keep up the festivities of the court half so well as the noble Antigonus ? Hope the ladies were not frightened by the mob when they hooted and insulted the Exactor Vectigalis. Insolent raggamuffins ! they ought to be served as Amaziah treated his Edomitish prisoners. The Exactor is a friend of mine,

* The Jews reckoned five corners to their beards — one on either cheek, one on either lip, and one below on the chin, — all of which a priest was forbidden to shave.

104 zillah;

and an excellent fellow, for he imports fat pea- cocks from the East, Maltese cranes, and wine from the Greek Islands."

Contenting himself with coldly stating that his family had suffered no alarm from the dis- turbance in the streets, the Sagan turned aside, and addressed himself to one of his friends. — " Foohsh affair this of Tubal the Pharisee," resumed the courtier, " to make such an out- cry about a linsey-woolsey dress ! As I live, the fellow deserved punishment nevertheless. Can- not conceive how any man of taste could wear a single thread of woollen next his skin. Feel this tunic of mine, Joel : it is of Egyptian linen, woven without seams, a shade coarser than a cobweb, a thought thicker than the filmy gossamer. Didst ever finger one of a more deli^ cate texture ?"

The obsequious companion declared that it surpassed all that he had ever seen. " And this pallium," continued the courtier, " for I

A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 105

shall keep my toga for the festival— how like you the Damascus wool ? It is of the true dye, the magisterial colour, neither the conchylian, the amethystine, nor the Tyrian purple, but an inimitable intermixture of them all. Eli ! what a fine girl spoilt ! The Sagan's daughter, I presume ?"

Salome, to whom the latter words were ad- dressed, answered in the affirmative, and gladly introduced him. " As I live," continued the fop, " the beautiful Zillah must be of a cruel disposition, both towards herself and others, to enshroud her charms in this antiquated robe, especially when she has before her so elegant and perfect a sample of a better taste. Ah ! have you seen the dress lately sent to the Exactor's wife from Rome.^ A veil of the real opus Phrygium ; a pectorale embroi- dered with bombycina silk, and an exquisite

pyxis filled with jewels came out to her in the

same box.^'

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106 zillah;

Fortunately for Zillah, who was already tired of this coxcomb's babbling, he was beck- oned away towards the throne, and presently afterwards numerous servants came round through the hall distributing refreshments. These consisted of snow from Mount Lebanon, preserved since the winter, and flavoured with perfumes, so that it bore a pretty close resem- blance to our modern ices ; — pomegranate and other light wines, into which spices had been in- fused ; to which were added cakes, and almost every variety of fruit. From these delicacies the Pharisees scrupulously refrained, holding themselves apart in ostentatious observance of their self-imposed fast ; and wearing repugnant and distasteful looks, as if the very odour of the passing salvers was an abomination to their nostrils. After the rest of the company had regaled themselves, and been again delighted with the performances of the musicians and singers, they fell into little parties, some amus-

A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 107

ing themselves with conversation, but the ma- jority, especially those in which the females predominated, were deeply engaged in pro- pounding and solving parables and riddles, forfeits being imposed upon those who failed to discover them. This was a most ancient re- creation ; for problems and enigmas, with a simi- lar penalty attached to them, had passed between Solomon and Hiram the King of Tyre, as well as the celebrated Queen of Sheba ; and the custom was still sedulously kept up at everv marriage festival. Seldom had it been pursued with more joyousness and hilarity than on the present occasion : merriment and laughter re- sounded through the spacious and crowded hall ; the eyes of the men sparkled, the white teeth of the young beauties were perpetually displayed, and many a long beard was seen to wag to the accompaniment of a deep-toned chuckle, when a sudden movement and bustle v%as observed at the remoter end of the hall ; some of the visitants

108 ZILLAH ;

retiring on one side with demonstrations of sur- prise and apprehension, others gathering around a strange figure which had mingled with the assemblage, and many voices exclaiming at once — " It is Nabal the Black Shadow ! Nabal the madman ! Nabal ! Nabal !"

Whence this man came, or what was his real appellation, no one had been able to discover. It was but lately that he had been seen at Jeru- salem, or rather amid the caves and sepulchres of the valleys that immediately surrounded it, whence he was rarely known to emerge until the dusk of the evening, — a circumstance which, being coupled with his enveloping garment of sable sackcloth, had procured for him the name of the Black Shadow. That of Nabal, a term synonymous ^vith madman, had been bestowed upon him from his habit of wandering about during the night in tombs, caverns, or amid the rocky solitudes, avoiding all converse of man, muttering to himself, praying in the lonely

A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 109

moon light, or apostrophising the Holy City from the summit of some neighbouring crag, in dark and dread denunciations. How he procured his food, or where he concealed himself during the day, remained a mystery ; but as he sometimes haunted one quarter, sometimes another, he had been the subject of much conversation, and his existence, as well as the names bestowed upon him, were matters of general notoriety. His apparition at court, and in broad daylight, excited a proportionate amazement ; and al- though some, as we have stated, shrank away from him with a vague apprehension, the curi- osity of others so far vanquished any feeling of dismay, that they crowded eagerly around him, not however without evident manifestations of deep and thrilling emotion. His almost gigan- tic proportions, indeed, would have inspired awe, even if every lineament of his face, and every movement of his limbs, had not been expressly calculated to awaken it. They who have seen

110 ZILLAH;

the sublime statue of Moses by Michael Angelo may form some notion of his figure. Time had duff numerous and venerable furrows down his cheeks, and across his broad forehead ; and his eyebrows beetled umbrageously over the orbs that flashed beneath them, like lightning from a dark cloud ; but he had none of the decrepi- tude of age ; he walked erect ; his hair retained its sable hue ; and his head, seen high above the surrounding crowd, with its profuse locks mingling with his beard, and streaming down to his middle, looked like a rock rising from the ocean, and covered on all sides with dark flowing sea-weeds. Nothing could be conceived of ancient patriarch or prophet more august and awful than his countenance ; while his stern silence, with his majestic and noiseless march, for his feet were bare, imparted to his move- ments an almost supernatural character, as if some vast and portentous apparition were stalk- ing through the hall.

A TALE OF JERUSA.LEM. Ill

Many footsteps and all eyes followed him, the whole assemblage now as silent as himself, for the exclamations had ceased, and every spectator seemed anxiously waiting to know what was his purpose, where he would pause in his progress, and what he would utter. Even Lydia, flippant and unabashed as she generally was, felt daunted as she encountered him ; and yet wilhng to conceal her trepidation beneath an assumed air of confidence, not to say audacity, she broke the thrilling silence by exclaimino: in an arros^ant tone—" What hide- ous and horrid man is this, who, in such un- seemly garb, dares to thrust himself into the presence of the King ? Who admitted him ? and why is he suffered thus to sadden our festivities?"

" Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldaeans !" said the figure, raising up his right arm, and speaking in a deep and solemn voice — " roll thy gilded locks m the dust, and howl with a doleful cry, thou

112 ZILLAH;

who hast sate in the presence of the King, and sang songs to him with a harp ; for thou art one of those whose end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword, whose feet take liold on hell. And ye, O ye vainglorious daughters of Sion, hath not Isaiah forewarned ye that the Lord shall smite ye with a sore upon the scalp of the head, and take away the bravery of your tinkling ornaments about your feet, and your cauls, and your round tires like the moon; and the ornaments of your legs, the head-bands, the tablets and the ear-rings, the rings and the nose-jewels, the changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping pins, the glasses and the fine linen, the hoods and the veils ? And it shall come to pass that instead of sweet smell there shall be ill savour ; and instead of well-set hair, baldness ; and instead of a stoma- cher, a girding of sackcloth ; and burning in- stead of beauty."

A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 113

Lydia bit her lips, and endeavoured to toss her head with an air of defiance ; but she was silent ; she turned pale ; it was evident that her heart was sinkincr within her. Of the surround- ing females, some shrank away, some w^hispered together, some looked angry, and some aghast ; all, however, were obviously affected except Salome, who, with an unaltered countenance, said in a low voice to the Sagan : " This is some crazy enthusiast, or solemn fool, who fan- cies himself a prophet ; unless, indeed, it be a traitor, who, like David at the court of Achish, feigns himself to be mad for some hidden and insidious purpose. I will seek the King's ser- vants, that they may drag him forth from the hall." She departed with this intention ; when the figure, addressing himself to Zillah, whose eyes were fixed upon the ground, con- tinued : " Be not thou abashed and cast down, O pious and worthy daughter of Salem, for such thy looks and garb bespeak thee ; not to

114 zillah;

thee did I address my warning voice. And yet thou shalt be acquainted with many trou- bles : a snare is set for thee upon Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor ; but thou shalt wear a charm around thy neck that shall save thee from many enemies. Behold her, and blush, ye that are clad in the garments of the heathen. O women w^orthy to be slaves, O illegitimate children of Jerusalem ! how are ye sunk and fallen ! When your ancestors were in captivity, they hung up their harps upon the willows, for that they would not sing the songs of Israel in a strange land. They sate themselves down by the waters of Babylon, and wept ; while ye, self-branded as ye are, glory in the badges of your slavery, and impiously wear the garments of your idolatrous conquerors, and rejoice and make merry in your Baalitish raiment, even in the bosom of the Holy City. Shall not the Lord visit ye for these things ? shall He not be avenged on such a nation as this ?'^

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No one ventured a reply ; silence and con- fused looks were upon the whole assemblage, when Antigonus was seen approaching, leaning on the arm of his favourite companion Jesse, and surrounded by a knot of courtiers. " And thou, O King," continued Nabal, shaking at hini his forefinger, and elevating his voice — " art thou indeed a Maccabee, descended from the great and valiant Judas, who put on a breastplate as a giant, and girt his warlike harness about him, and made battles, protect- ing the host with his terrible sword ; who in his acts was like a lion, and like a lion's whelp roaring for his prey ? His banner floats from thy palace tower ; but where is his mighty heart, that panted for the sound of trumpets and the clashing of spears ? Lo ! thou art listening to the melody of the lute and the voices of sino-inQ: women, and feastinp^ with thv courtiers and concubines, even as was Belshaz- zar when the miraculous handwriting on the

116 ZILLAH;

wall glared before his eyes to warn him of his ■ fate, until his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one another with the greatness of his panic. And yet the warriors are making ready the bow against thee. The war-horse shakes his terrible mane, fire lightens from his eyes, he tosses his foam to the wind, as he paws upon the ringing rock, and calls on the echo to do his bidding. The Roman, who is God's battle-axe wherewith he breaketh in pieces the nations, is making ready to dash thee down from thy throne, and the hour is rushing on

when "

" What ranting rhapsodist, what fustian spouter have we here ?'''' interposed Antigonus, turning pale from the mingled emotions of fear and rage. '' Audacious mountebank ! thou hast been set on to ape this prophet strain, and beard me in my very palace. Thou art some Herodian, some traitorous knave, whom stripes and chains shall quickly cure of this disloyal

A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 117

mouthing. Seize me the caitiff, gag him, bind him with cords, and drag him to the guard- house ! "

As this order was not addressed to any indi- vidual in particular, no one seemed disposed to obey it ; and Nabal continued in a calm tone, and ^vith an undismayed look — " Not by Herod have I been set on, O blind and doomed An- tigonus, but by a greater King than thou art, — by Him ^vllo puts a seal upon the tides of the ocean by His terrible and glorious voice, and rocks the solid earth in the cradle of the sea, and hushes it to sleep with a south wind, and hangs the moon above it like a lamp, and calls forth the twinkling stars, that they may gaze upon it as it slumbereth. O vanity of vanities ! The Maccabees, have they not built a tomb by Joppa for descendants that shall never be born ? Thou shalt be the last of thy race, and the marble niclies of the sepulchre shall gape for the bodies of those who shall never fill them ;

118 ZILLAH;

for Asmonaeans who shall neither bear the name nor breathe the vital air."

'' Cowards and slaves !" cried the King, cast- ing an indignant look at his irresolute courtiers, " are ye all in league with this traitorous im- postor, that ye fell him not to the ground ?

Then I myself " He laid his hand upon

his sword, and was about to rush forward ; when suddenly wavering in his purpose, and looking rapidly behind him, as if he feared some plot upon his life, he shouted out — " What ho ! my guards ! my guards ! Where be these lag- gards ? They shall make an Agag of the lying brawler; my feet shall be red with his blood, and the dogs shall eat his tongue !'' — Thus say- mg, he hurried off in search of his guards, for he seemed to distrust all those that surrounded him ; and while the assemblage he had left be- hind were gazing at one another with bewildered looks, not knowing what to say, or how to act, the mysterious author of the disturbance wrap-

A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 119

ped his capacious mantle of sackcloth around him, folded up his arms, fixed his eyes upon the ground, and stalked slowly forth through a side-door at a little distance from the scene of the occurrence.

Scarcely had he disappeared, v/hen, as they recovered from their surprise, it occurred to several of the group that they should have de- tained him ; for v/hich purpose they were about to commence an instant pursuit, when the King, wielding his drawn sword, and closely followed by his guards, hurried to the spot. Emboldened by the presence of his armed followers, enraged by the public insult he had received, and irri- tated against his whole court for their back- wardness in executing his orders and seizing the offender, he inquired, in a voice of fury, what had become of him, and which way he had escaped. All were now as eager to evince their loyalty, and wipe off the suspicion of being his accomplices, as they had before been paralysed

120 ZILLAH ;

and passive. They pointed to the door by which the unwelcome visitant had retired. Desiring; his guards to draw their swords, and keep close to him, the King rushed through the entrance, followed by his soldiers ; and the greater por- tion of the courtiers, hastening after them, dis- persed themselves through the vestibules, outer chambers, passages, and court-yards, calling out on all sides to arrest Nabal the Black Shadow, in the name of the King. Vain were their out- cries, unavailing was the strictest search, fruit- less was the proffered reward of Antigonus, who promised fifty golden shekels to the man that should arrest him. Nabal was nowhere to be found ; it seemed as if he had vanished into his familiar appellation, and become indeed the black shadow that he was habitually designated. " There is treason in the palace !" cried the infuriated King, grasping his sword, and looking malignantly around him, as if in search of some object on which to wreak his vengeance — " this

A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 121

is a plot of Herod's ; the villain is in league with conspirators, even in my very household. Let the outer gates be closed; not a soul shall pass till this matter be sifted, and the lurking traitor be discovered."

The royal orders were strictly obeyed. The gatekeepers, on being examined, declared that no such figure had passed either in or out, — a point upon which the remarkable stature, and still more singular garb of the stranger, w^ould not admit of their being mistaken. From this statement a conclusion was drawn that he must be still within the walls ; and a new and more rigorous scrutiny was made into all the most secret recesses of the building, during which none of the visitants were allowed to depart. Strict and unremitting as it was, this search was not attended with any better success than the former. The King, having ordered his guards to be doubled, retired in mingled rage and dismay to his private apartment, whence he

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122 ZILLAH;

at length despatched his friend Jesse, with au- thority for opening the gates, and dismissing the court. All seemed anxious to make their escape, and in half an hour the palace wore its ordinary aspect, except that small knots of people were seen gathered together in corners, whisper- ing over the occurrence of the morning, and endeavouring to recall, as exactly as possible, the precise words uttered by Nabal the Black Shadow.

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CHAPTER V.

Upon a mind so susceptible and reflective as Zillah's, the occurrences 'of this eventful day could not fail to make a deep and solemn impression. Much as she had been struck in the morning by the wild character and savage beauty of the youth whom she had encountered under the great sycamore tree, and strange as had appeared the substance, as well as the tone and mode of his address to herself, and his de- meanour towards others, there was yet some- thing in the extravagance of his gestures, and the vehemence of his apostrophes, which con- vinced her that he was merely acting a part for G 9,

12 t ZILLAH ;

the moment, though with what design it was impossible to surmise. Other observations, as we have already hinted, corroborated the con- viction of his being an impostor — a character on which her recollection could not dwell with any respect. Her curiosity, however, as to his motives for thus disguising himself remained undiminished, especially as the occasional cour- tesy of his manner, and the graces of his figure, which not even neglect and the rudest ac- coutrements could degrade, convinced her that he v/as of gentle, and perhaps of illustrious blood.

Far different were the reflections elicited by the mysterious apparition at the court. The aged and yet majestic Nabal was a being on whom it was impossible to fix a single look without sentiments of veneration, and even awe; to whose calm, yet deep, sonorous, and soul- thrilling voice, few could listen without a trans- fixed and reverent attention ; whose denun-

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ciations, whatever might be the event, awoke a solemn response in the heart, because they evidently sprang from a profound conviction of their truth, on the part of him who uttered them. There was no vehemence, no enthusiasm in his manner; calm, grave, and irresistibly impressive, it exhibited every characteristic of veracity. False prophets, indeed, abounded in the land ; Judaea had always swarmed with them ; and notwithstanding the punishment of strangling attached to this offence, (which was justly considered a flagrant profanation,) it was by no means extirpated from Jerusalem and its purheus. Sometimes it was exceedingly diffi- cult to decide upon the pretensions of those who laid claim to the gift of prophecy, espe- cially when their predictions, having- reference to a future epoch, were not capable of being brought to any immediate test. In these cases, the life and character of the individual, together with the nature of his vaticinations, formed the

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sole criteria by which an opinion could be formed as to the validity of his claim ; for though there was a college in the Holy City for the express purpose of training up young prophets, it did not pretend to imbue its pupils with any divine afflatus, but merely to qualify them the better for the reception of inspiration, should they be selected for that honour ; nor was it deemed indispensable that any one ex- ercising, or asserting that he possessed, the power of divination, should have been educated at this institution. To all, therefore^ was this high distinction opened. That it sometimes generated a spurious enthusiasm, — that it was arrogated by man}^ who had no title to it what- ever, the frequent cautions against false pro- phets, which are interspersed throughout the Holy Scriptures, sufficiently attest : unfortu- nately, there was no infalhble touchstone, no spear of Ithuriel, by which to ascertain their truth ; so that the question was necessarily left

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to collateral evidence and the judgment of in- dividuals.

Weighed by this standard, Zillah saw every reason to conclude that Nabal was indeed in- spired with a supernatural insight into futu- rity, and that his prophecies would receive the seal of accomplishment. Nor let her judgment be impeached, as if a weak and hasty creduhty had wrought this conviction. In our days, when so many centuries have elapsed since Heaven conferred this miraculous power, that we may reasonably infer its total cessation, we should have excusable warrant for our scepticism, and for withholding our credence from any self-styled prognosticator until his predictions should have been fulfilled. But at the period of which we are writing, less than four hundred years had elapsed since Zechariah and ^laiachi, univer- sally acknowledged as inspired prophets, had poured forth their warnings to the Israelites. The subsequent writings, by us termed the

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Apocrypha, though they were not received by the Jews as the oracles of God, and evidently wanted the majesty of inspired scripture, kept up the continuous line of sacred narrative, or holy maxims, so as to connect the present with the past; for Ecclesiasticus is supposed to have been written only two hundred years before the time of Zillah ; and such books of the Mac- cabees as had then appeared, related to the ex- ploits of her own family, or at least of her step- mother's, and came nearly down to her own times. Numerous prophets, whose writings have perished, and the legitimacy of whose claims was maintained by some and denied by others, filled up the interval; while the Jews universally asserted the existence as well as the authority of the Bath-kol, or daughter of the voice — a name by which they distinguished a continued revelation from God, after verbal prophecy had ceased in Israel. Upon this were founded the generahty of their traditions and

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ceremonial observances, which they affirmed to have been revealed to their elders, not by the gift of prophecy, but by dreams and visions, or by the secret and mysterious inspiration, which they termed the " daughter of the voice." As at this period, therefore, the appearance of a prophet implied little or no deviation from the ordinary course of events, the belief in his predictions was one to which the highest order of intellect might lend itself without any impu- tation of credulity. Naturally religious, and prone to put confidence in others from the singleness and truth of her own heart, Zillah harboured not a doubt as to the character of all that Nabal had uttered, — a conviction which the mysterious manner of his apparition and disap- pearance strongly tended to confirm. Why might he not constitute a link of that unbroken chain of prophecy to which we have referred ? Who more likely, from the superior age, sanc- tity, and wisdom stamped upon his features, to G 5

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have been favoured with celestial admonitions and whisperings, and to give oral birth in con- sequence to the Bath-kol, the daughter of the voice ? With these impressions, every word that he had uttered in reference to herself had become rooted in her memory, and deeply engraven upon her heart. The import of his speech was at once consolatory and alarming. It was gratifying to know that her adherence to the ancient garb of the Hebrews had found favour in his eyes ; it filled her with dismay to be told that she should be acquainted with many troubles, that her path should be beset with snares and nets ; again it was satisfactory to receive assurance that she should escape from many dangers ; while it was startling to reflect, that he had not assured her final de- liverance ; and that thus, after passing tlu'ough many trying ordeals, she might ultimately fall a victim to the enemies she would have to en- counter. Enemies ! how could she have any — she who had never cherished anger against a

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human being, — who had never hurt or harmed a breathing creature ? What was the nature of the dangers with which she was threatened? — what were the unrevealed means by which she was to defeat them ? These were questions she could not refrain from asking herself, though she knew that it was utterly vain to hope for their solution. Nor could she derive assistance from others, or even enjoy the satisfaction of con- versing upon a subject which so entirely ab- sorbed her own thoughts ; for the Sagan, how- ever he might doubt their proceeding from a divine impulse, found the denunciations of the Black Shadow, so far as they related to the King, too much in accordance with his own secret misgivings — too likely, from every exter- nal sign of the times, to receive their speedy accomplishment, not to feel a deep-rooted con- viction of their truth. So perilous a belief, however, he was too prudent to avow, even to his daughter : for he knew that both their lives

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might be endangered, should such treasonable insinuations ever come to the knowledge of the cruel and hasty Antigonus ; and he therefore recommended her to be silent, and avoided the subject whenever she ventured to allude to it. As to Salome, she treated the whole occurrence with contemptuous ridicule, as the freak of some half-crazy zealot, who having discovered a hid- ing hole in the palace, or procured a confederate vvithin its walls, probably a partisan of Herod's, had adopted this device for the mere purpose of frightening the King, or of giving increased confidence to the Herodians, of whom there were many in the town. Zillah's thoughts, from their being thus locked up within her own bo- som, became the more intensely, and even pain- fully, fixed upon this one object : it absorbed every faculty during the remainder of the day, and it was late at night before the busy work- ings of her mind would allow her to forget her- self in sleep.

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Radiant and sparkling rose the sun on the following morning, flooding with a golden efful- gence the summit of every hill in the direction of Jericho and the heights beyond the Jordan, and shooting its glad beams upon the topmost pinnacles of the Temple of Jerusalem, as if eager to lay its own first offerings of light upon that lofty altar. Proudly, rejoicingly, tri- umphantly did it usher in the day which began the Pentecost, and call up the inhabitants of the Holy City to celebrate that festival which was to commemorate and render thanks to God for the Law given upon Mount Sinai, fifty days after the coming of the Israelites out of Egypt ; as well as to evince their gratitude to the great and beneficent bestower of all their blessings by solemnly offering up to Him the first-fruits of their harvests. In the stationary cities round about Jerusalem, where the whole collected neighbourhood was lodged and encamped in the streets, he who first awoke in the morning called

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out with a loud voice, " Arise, let us go up to Sion, to the house of the Lord our God ;*" when the assemblage began their march. No such summons was required by the joyous and wakeful dwellers in Jerusalem ; for, long before the rocky crests of the eastern mountains had begun to blush with light ; before the priests deputed for that purpose had given notice from the towers upon the city walls that the festival had begun; before the same glad tidings had been proclaimed from the four corners of the Temple by the loud triumphant clangour of the silver trumpets, shivering their echoes afar off over hill and valley, and awaking a gladsome thrill in the hearts of all who heard them ; the citizens had started from their beds, and were already busy in all quarters preparing for the celebration of the festive day. Streams of people, decked with nosegays and attired in their holiday garb, were passing to and fro in various directions : some hastening towards the

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gates, to meet and welcome the friends whom they expected from the country ; others hurry- ing to the places they had secured for best viewing the spectacle and the procession ; a third set getting ready their own offerings, and pre- paring for the part they were themselves to take in the solemnity : all saluting their acquaintance with glad faces, and even strangers v/ishing one another joy of the happy day. To denote the verdure that flourished around Mount Sinai when the Law was given, every window and door was profusely decorated with roses and garlands of flowers ; from each balcony and house-top white linen was suspended, surmounted by boughs, crowns, or wreaths ; so that, when morning at length lighted up the streets in all their floral garniture, they looked like continuous bowers and arbours, pleached and engrailed with nosegays.

But when the sun was fairly above the hori- zon, and flooded the valleys with light, as well as the whole amphitheatre of hills by which Jeru-

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salem was surrounded, the spectacle became infinitely more animated and glorious. Every height was thickly studded with men, women, and children : for, though females were not called by the Law to attend the festivals, most of the Jews brought some portion of their families with them, to visit their friends, to witness the spec- tacle, or to make purchases and sales at the great Fair which was always held during these anni- versary assemblages. On gaining the summit of the eminence, the greater part fell upon their knees, or threw up their hands to Heaven, at first sight of Jerusalem-hakdoshoh, the Holy City ; and all sang in chorus a psalm selected for that purpose, of which the distant echoes floated faintly from all quarters at once, fiUing the air with commingled and indistinguishable, though solemn and impressive, tones of praise and thanksgiving. Having previously taken off their shoes,— for they now considered themselves to be upon consecrated ground, — they renewed the

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chanting of the sacred song, and poured down the sides of the mountains, like a living inunda- tion, spreading themselves over the fields, and leaving scarcely a single spot untenanted ; while the roads were almost choked up with a moving mass of cattle of all sorts, asses, mules, and camels, wdth innumerable vehicles heavily laden with first-fruits, and off'erings, and merchandise of all sorts. Not only did it seem the conven- tion of a great, numerous, and wealthy people, all converging at one moment towards the one glorious focus of the Holy City, crowned in its centre with the Temple of the One true God ; but it might almost have been deemed that the earth herself was a participator in the solemn festivity, and threw^ up from her inex- haustible bosom the rarest of her vegetable riches, and cried out from her innermost depths, — '' These are my first-fruits, — lay them, O my children, upon the altar of Him who made me."

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A heavy rain had fallen on the previous night, — an unusual, and therefore doubly wel- come occurrence on the present occasion, — so that the view of the spectacle was not in any direction impeded by the dust. By the flash- ing of their weapons in the bright, pellucid atmosphere, it was evident that all these parties were armed,— a melancholy evidence of the dis- turbed state of the country, and of the general insecurity and distrust. During the celebra- tion of these anniversary festivals, there had been always in the olden times a suspension of hostihties, and a sacred truce, as at the Olym- pic Games of the Greeks. Moses, indeed, had assured the Hebrews* that, from whatever dis- tance they might come to the yearly meetings, '* no man should desire their land" during their absence, — a plain intimation that it should be a period of universal truce ; but this had ceased to be the case even so far back as the Separa- * Exod. xxxiv. 24.

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tion, when Jeroboam set up the golden calves at Dan and Bethel, to deliver the ten tribes from going up to Jerusalem to worship ; and, in the times of which we are writing, the con- vulsions occasioned by foreign and domestic war were such as abundantly to justify the precaution adopted by the parties now trooping up to the celebration of the Pentecost.

As these various groups descended into the valleys, and came near enough to be separated from the general mass, it was seen that the majority of them were arranged in companies of four-and-twenty persons, marching in an orderly and ceremonious manner. An ox ap- pointed for the sacrifice, with a crown of olives on his head, and his horns gilded, preceded them, and a player on the flute led the pro- cession as it advanced towards Jerusalem. The first-fruits, varying from a fortieth to a sixtieth part of the produce, consisted of wheat, barley, grapes, figs, apricots, olives, and dates.

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Each man carried a basket, — those of the rich being of gold or silver filagree-work ; those of the poor of wicker, and all hung round with flowers, as well as turtles and pigeons for offerings. As they drew near to Jerusalem, the citizens came out to welcome and to salute them ; when the whole assemblage walked in pomp towards the Temple, singing songs.

It had been intended that Antigonus him- self should officiate, upon this most public and important occasion, in his character of High Priest, — a duty which political considerations imperatively called upon him to perform, for the illegitimateness of his tenure rendered it indispensable that he should court popularity ; and the Hebrews, attaching greater considera- tion to the proper discharge of the sacerdotal than of the regal functions, yielded a much more devoted allegiance to the first minister of God, than to the chief magistrate of his people. Conscious of this fact, Antigonus was most

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anxious to ingratiate himself with the nation by assuming the pontifical robes ; but his fears and suspicions outweighed all the dictates of policy. Impressed with a conviction, from the occurrences at the court, and the mysterious disappearance of Nabal, that there were con- spirators in the city who only waited a proper opportunity for making an attempt upon his hfe, he shrank from exposing himself in his capacity of High Priest ; and more especially from trusting himself within the walls of the Temple, where he could not be accompanied by his guards. Assigning, therefore, the plea of sudden illness for the non-performance of his sacred duty, he had sent orders to the Sagan, on the night before, desiring him to officiate as his vicegerent, and to explain the cause of his compulsory absence.

Nothing could be more acceptable than this arrangement to the ambitious Salome, who had projects of her own for advancing her husband

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permanently to the dignity which he was now to assume for the day, and who was most anxious, therefore, that he should present such an appearance to the people, and discharge the functions which he was now to exercise, (for the first time upon a festival,) in such a manner as to win favour in the public eye, and evince his competency for the office. As it was contrary to custom that any female should be present at the time of his investiture by the priests, she retired with Zillah to a strong fortress called Baris, overlooking the Temple, within which the Asmonaean princes had fitted up a vestry for the better preserva- tion and security of the sacred habiliments; and waiting in an adjoining apartment till the ceremony had been completed, she had at length the pleasure of seeing the Sagan in his pontifical state robes, upon which she gazed for some time with evident complacency, and

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even assisted with her own hands in arranging them in the most becoming manner.

Although somewhat deficient in height, the Sagan's figure was by no means wanting in a reverent and becoming dignity; for his dark beard was of a venerable length, his countenance grave and impressive, his general appearance such as might well beseem the solemn magnifi- cence of his vestments. Unsolicitous of dignities and distinctions, he felt rather depressed than elated by the gorgeous vestments in which he was clad : — recollection suggested, and his apprehen- sions brought the warning home to himself, that, in the present times, high posts had been seldom unaccompanied with danger ; and the look of thoughtful anxiety which sate upon his brow, intimated that he felt his distinctions to be at least as perilous as they were honour- able. Not such was the character of Salome's countenance : her eyes sparkled, her head was

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held erect, and the corners of her mouth were drawn down with a triumphant expression, which sufficientlj'^attested the ambitious thoughts passing through her mind, as she feasted her eyes with the badges of spiritual sovereignty in which her husband was arrayed. As for Zillah, she no longer looked upon the Sagan as her father, but as the High Priest of the He- brew nation, the first minister of God ; and her fihal feelings merged in religious reverence. The awful name of Jehovah inscribed upon his forehead ; the mystery attached to the Urim and Thummim of the breast-plate, of which the precious stones had so often been miracu- lously illuminated when the Lord chose that method for declaring his oracles ; the holy Ephod, recalling that which Gideon had made, and which the Israelites had idolatrously wor- shipped ; the tinkling golden bells with which the bottom of his robe was fringed ; the solemn recollections suggested by every portion of the

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dress, not less than by the grandeur and sanctity of the office itself, — all conspired to imbue her naturally religious mind with such a deep sen- timent of veneration, that she withdrew her eyes and cast them reverently upon the ground, as if she stood in the presence of some superior being.

The priests now entered the apartment, that they might accompany the Sagan to the Temple ; when Salome and her daughter betook them- selves to one of the galleries of the sacred build- ing, in a situation which commanded a view of the eastern entrance, through which the greatest number of the people generally came up to worship. The various companies that had now assembled under the walls of Jerusalem having wreathed their wheat-sheaves with lilies, crown- ed their first-fruits with garlands, and decked them out in as much pomp and glory as they could, entered the city in procession, — each divi- sion having a banner, on which was inscribed the

VOL. I. H

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name of the town or station to which the party belonged, each individual wearing a wreath of flowers, and the whole being headed by some of the chief men, high officers, and treasurers of the Temple. As they passed through the streets, the shopkeepers and inhabitants of all ranks, as well as those in the balconies and upon the house-tops, stood up and saluted them. The pipes continued playing before them till they came to the Mount of the Temple ; when every man, without distinction of rank, took his bas- ket upon his shoulder, and went forward till he came to the court. The sacred music then struck up, and the Levites sang the first verse of the thirtieth Psalm. At its conclusion, the offerer made his confession from the twenty- sixth chapter of Deuteronomy ; and when he came to the words, " A Syrian ready to pe- rish was my father," he cast down the bas- ket from his shoulders, and held his lips, while the priest took it up and waved it hi-

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ther and thither towards the four quarters of the earth, to intimate that the whole world was the Lord's, and that from every corner it should send up to him its first-fruits. The chapter being recited to the tenth verse, the offerer placed his basket before the altar, 'ss'or- shipped, and went out. The turtles, or pige- ons, were left as an offering : the fruits them- selves belonged to the priests of the course that was then in service : the party who brought them was obliged to lodge in Jerusalem all the night after he had presented them, and the next morning he was allowed to return home.

In the open court, at a small distance from the east end of the Temple, stood the great altar of the burnt-offerings, — a large pile of unhewn stones, in order that no architecture might be employed but that which God's own hand had wrought. It was about sixty feet on each side at the bottom, and forty-five at the top, to which there was an easy slop- h2

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ing ascent on the east side, the four corners being surmounted with horns. Around this were gathered the animals selected for sacri- fice, consisting of bullocks, rams, lambs, and kids, for burnt and peace-offerings, over which the silver trumpets were solemnly blown as they came up to the altar. At the appointed hour, a band of priests stationed beyond the altar, and looking towards it, so as to face the court, blew their trumpets, first giving a long plain blast, then a blast with breathing and quaverings, then a long blast again, as a signal that the service and the thanksgivings were about to commence; and a deep silence having immediately pervaded the whole assembled multitude, the numerous choir of sacred mu- sicians, consisting mostly of the Levites in their silken stoles, the players upon the harp, clarion, and hautboy, the shawm, the dulci- mer and the psaltery, the cymbal, pipe, and tabret, came forward from the interior of the

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Temple, performing a grand and cheerful cho- rus upon their instruments ; and moving along the court in a slow dance at once joyous and majestical, they at length arranged themselves on either side of it. The exquisite skill with which they played, — for every performer was devoted from early youth to the particu- lar instrument which had been allotted to his family for a long succession of generations, — combined wdth the graceful and stately move- ments of the dance in accordance to the music, filled the bosoms and animated the looks of the spectators with a manifest delight.

To these succeeded the male singers, who came forward in a numerous band, chanting an anthem, celebrating the Deity and His boun- ty; their cultivated voices, embracing every variety of age and tone, swelling and melting and dying away together, sometimes filling the air with a loud sonorous fulness of grave sounds, then subsiding into gentle mellifluous

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cadences, and preserving at all times a rich, ra- vishing, and symphonious harmony.

The anthem was concluded, their voices were hushed, and, after a short pause, soft mu- sic was again heard floating from a distance, which, as it drew nearer, was found to proceed from the female singers, the daughters of the Levites, who advanced in a separate company, striking their small portable harps, and warb- ling a hymn in sweet and low-voiced plaintive- ness. Suddenly they smote their instruments with a sharp sound, and, falling back to the right and left, discovered a company of female dancers, some of whom began playing upon a sort of tambourine provided with shells, which rattled as the instrument was whirled round in the air ; others had small bells in their hands, which they used like the modern castanets; and the whole moved together for some time in a solemn and decorous dance.

The priests of the Temple, who were ranged

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at their desks, like a numerous choir, on either side of the court, now chanted the service for the day, selected from such portions of the Law and the Prophets as had especial reference to the festival.* It was divided into several por- tions; at the end of each, the music struck up : after this had ceased, the trumpets blew a flourish, and the priests resumed their singing. The Jews having imbibed the strange notion, that the gates of Heaven would be opened to him who answered Amen with all his might, the whole immense multitude chanted this word, at the conclusion of every prayer, with such a stentorian energy, that the solemn roar of their innumerable voices, reverberating from the lofty front and encircling walls of the Temple,

* The lessons for the first day of the festival were. Lev. chap. xxvi. ver. 3. to the end of the book, Jer. xvi. ver. 19, to ver. 15. of chap. xvii. Those for the last day of the festival were, Numb. chap. i. 1. to chap. iv. ver. 21. Hosea chap. i. from ver. 10, to ver. 21 of chap. ii.

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sounded like a rolling peal of thunder, and seemed even to shake the very foundations of the sacred edifice.

At various times, the Sagan, in his pontifical robes, had come forward to officiate in the solemnities, according to established usage ; and when at length the tinkling of the bells upon the hem of his garment announced that he had retired into the Sanctuary to make offerings upon the altar of incense, the whole mass of the people sank down upon their knees, and with their faces upturned to Heaven, reve- rently joined him in ejaculatory whispers, or silent mental devotion.

It is impossible to contemplate any vast and condensed assemblage of people without an involuntary feeling of awe, either from a sense of its irresistible though quiescent power, or perhaps from that opposite impression of its evanescency and absolute nothingness, which made Xerxes weep at the reflection, that in a

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few years the whole of his mighty host would be dust. If such be the effect of an ordinary multitude collected for any trivial purpose, how sublime must have been the sensation produced by the spectacle of a whole people gathered together, not only from all parts of their com- mon country, but from remote settlements and colonies, " coming out of every nation under Heaven," (as the apostle says, speaking of this identical festival at a later period,) and thus falUng upon their knees together as one congre- gation, and sending up their voices in worship towards the dwelling of that Deity, who had singled them out from the whole earth to be His chosen people, and the depositaries of His revealed Will.

That the reader may picture to himself the more vividly the scene we have been at- tempting to describe, let him bear in mind that on account of the frequent ablutions and puri- fications prescribed by their Law, the Jewish H 5

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commonalty either wore garments of white, or of the natural colour of the unbleached wool ; and that, although they had no habitual cover- ing for the head, they considered it a mark of respect to the Deity to wear a hat during their devotions. This was of the Grecian form, such as Antiochus Epiphanes had first compelled the chief young men to wear, as the Maccabean his- tory relates. Those who were unprovided with this appendage wrapped their heads in their mantles. Imagine the contrast offered by these white dresses, and the bronzed and bearded visages of their wearers ! Even in our northern latitudes, and in spite of their physical de- terioration, we see that the Jews exhibit the most marked and striking physiognomies : what must they have been in the days of their glory, and in such an assemblage as this, where there were countenances cast in nature's noblest mould, and burnt to every variety of deep and rich tint by the different sunny

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climates of the East, and every chin was dig- nified by the badge of manhood, from the dark glossy curl of youth, to the white and long- flowing beard of age, and every lineament wore the impress of a fervent, and even pas- sionate devotion !

What a spectacle must this have presented to the mind of Zillah, sensitive as it was at all times to impressions of grandeur and mag- nificence from without, and to religious whis- perings from within ! The innumerable mul- titudes crowding the courts and galleries ; the priests in their white garments; the Levites and their daughters at a distance, disposed into separate companies, some playing on instru- ments, others singing and dancing in a grave and solemn manner ; the victims surrounding the altar, on the top of which was blazing the sacred fire, that fire which having originally come down from Heaven upon Solomon's sa- crifice, and having been renewed in the same

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miraculous manner after the Captivity, was now sending up a long undissipated column of smoke towards the sky, as if to unite earth and Heaven together ; — the tremendous peal of the people's voices as they shouted " Amen !" the sight of her father in the pontifical robes, with the awful inscription encircling his forehead ; the fumes of the incense escaping from the altar of the invisible Sanctuary, and stimulating the imagination as to what was then passing within the interdicted Holy of Hohes ; the noble back-ground of the Temple, sombre and fijigantic in the massiveness of its Egyptian architecture ; the solemn religious and histo- rical associations connected with it ; the Mac- cabee standard upon its lofty summit, which the awe-stricken zephyrs seemed to keep broadly and steadily displayed with their wings, that the sunbeams might emblazon the sacred name of Jehovah, inscribed upon it in gold

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letters ; — can it be a subject of wonder, when Zillah was gazing upon this most magni- ficent, affecting, and sublime scene, that the tears should unconsciously roll down her cheeks, that her bosom should heave with irrepressible emotion, that she should sympa- thise with the enthusiasm of the multitude, and join their exclamation at the conclusion of every prayer with a loud and vehement ecstasy ?

In an exhortation with which the Sagan terminated the present ceremonies of the morn- ing's service, but which was of course only audible by that part of the assemblage imme- diately surrounding him, he reminded them of the purposes for which this solemn festival was instituted ; recalled to their recollection their departure out of Egypt ; the miraculous pas- sage of the Red Sea ; the forty-five days that elapsed before their arrival at Mount Sinai ;

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the two days when Moses went up to the Mount, and reported to the people the mes- sage of God, and the thr^e given to them to prepare for his coming down among them, which completed the fifty days from the first passover to the giving of the Law ; and admonished them to be grateful for such an inestimable benefit, conferred upon them, to the exclusion of the rest of the world, by the Deity himself in His visible presence and glory. He then adverted to the blessings they enjoyed in the promised land, flowing as it was with milk and honey, where the hill-tops were covered with vines, and the valleys replenished with fatness, where the ploughman overtakes the reaper, and the sower of seed him that treadeth out the grapes ; and reminding them that they themselves were the first fruits of the Lord, he urged them to evince their gra- titude by offering to Him a portion of His

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bounties, and faithfully bringing up to the Temple the first-fruits of their harvests ; finally, he pronounced a solemn benediction upon the people, and retired into the sacred building.

160 zillah;

CHAPTER VI.

To prevent confusion from the perpetual ingress and egress of such a prodigious muUi- tude, the people were instructed to go out by the side gates of the Temple, those of the east and west being left for the principal points of entrance. It is pretended indeed by the Rab- binical writers, among the other miraculous privileges of the Holy City, that no accident ever happened, nor was even the smallest in- convenience ever experienced, from the crowd- ing together of such immense numbers, at the annual festivals, within the comparatively nar- row confines of the sacred building. If such

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were the fact, it is surely more reasonable to attnbute it to the precaution we have men- tioned, although Salome and Zillah, even with the benefit of this arrangement, found con- siderable difficulty in making their exit ; since, as it was forbidden to eat on a festival before the time of noon, all those who had completed their offerings, many of whom had been jour- neying from an early hour, were naturally anxious to reach their lodging-houses, or have access to the refreshments they had brought with them, and deposited with their friends, that they might break their fast. In their im- patience to attain this object, there was occa- sionally some pressure and a little confusion at the gates, to the infinite displeasure of Salome, who forgot that all parties assembled for the performance of a common duty, considered themselves to be equal in the eye of the Lord, and therefore felt privileged to jostle the Sa- gan's wife herself, in spite of her gorgeous

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habiliments, if she happened to come in contact with them as they made their way out. At length, however, they both reached the outer court, and proceeding slowly along the streets, which were still thickly thronged, they entered their own residence.

Overcome by her emotions, and the deep impressions of the solemnity she had been witnessing, Zillah was little able to partici- pate in the repast that had been provided for them, and retired to her own apartment, where she remained for some time meditating upon what she had seen and heard, contrasting the assemblage she had just left with the gaiety of the brilliant court on the previous morning, and occasionally reverting to the mysterious Nabal, whose figure and whose predictions were seldom long absent from her mind. Descend- ing from her chamber, after having for some time indulged in these reveries, she betook her- self to the little garden of roses, formed in

A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 163

the enclosure of the back court, in the midst of which a large hemisphere had been hollowed out of the stone pavement, which being marked with degrees, and having a column in its centre, constituted a sun-dial. It was of great antiquity, having, according to tradition, been formed upon the model of the dial of Ahaz, whereon Isaiah had wrought the memorable miracle, by making the shadow of the sun suddenly go back ten degrees. The recollec- tions suggested by this circumstance accorded with the present tone of her mind, while they were vivified and embodied by local association. From the spot where she stood she could see the hill upon which the Assyrians were en- camped when the destroying Angel slew their mighty host in one night by a blast of the south wind, and Sennacherib fled to Nineveh in dismay : — as she gazed upon the dial, she beheld in imagination the dying Hezekiah bending his pale features over it, and with

164 ZILLAH;

starting eyes intently watching for the appear- ance of that prodigy which was to assure him that fifteen years would be added to his life : — she conjured up also before her mind's eye the prophet himself, pointing to the receding shadow, unconsciously assigning to the creation of her fancy the figure and the form of Nabal ; and she recited to herself, in the abstraction of the moment, the song of thankssjiving which the recovered king had composed upon the occasion, and which he sang to the stringed instruments in the house of the Lord.

So completely were her faculties absorbed in this day-dream, that she did not notice the approach of her mother, until she suddenly started on hearing her exclaim, — " Truly, daughter, methinks you are already sufficiently dark and tawny without thus standing un- sheltered in the sun, muttering to yourself, like one of the monthly prognosticators at the city gates. Wish you to be as swarthy as an

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Egyptian water-carrier, or one of the daugh- ters of Ham ? If you must needs stare at the stone pavement in the noon-day sun, are there not slaves and servants enouo^h whom you might order to hold a canopy over your head ? Go, seek your maids, Rachel and De- borah, and desire them to bring the canopy of byssus with the green fringe. I purpose walking down into the Valley, and if it suits you to put on your wimple, and to cease poring on this dazzling pavement, I shall be glad to have your company." — Notwithstanding the taunting tone of this speech, to which Zillah was now pretty well accustomed, there was such an unusual appearance of kindness in the con- cluding invitation, that she hesitated not to accept it, and went immediately to command the attendance of her maids. The canopy, which was very gaily decorated, constituted a sort of oblong umbrella, supported at each ex- tremity by a long crooked cane, which the

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servants held as they walked behind their mis- tresses.

Thus defended against the heat of the sun, Salome and Zillah went down into the Valley of Jehoshaphat, which was still crowded with people in all directions, some making their way towards the Temple in companies, with their first-fruits, cattle, and music, as we have before described ; others walking singly with their loaded baskets hung round with -garlands and doves ; while the numerous parties who had completed their offerings, and returned from the Temple, were seen scattered about upon the declivities of the Mount of Ohves, in the Gar- den of Gethsemane, under the sycamore trees on the banks of the Cedron, or wherever shade was to be found, sitting in circles, crowned with flowers, and regahng themselves with great glee upon the provisions they had brought with them for that purpose. A few, who had been more provident, or were better enabled to afford the

A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 167

luxury, had supplied themselves with tents, which being pitched upon the banks of the brook, with little banners flying at the top, as- sumed a very gay and picturesque appearance ; while the parties enjoying themselves within side, as they sent the echoes of their cheerful songs floating down the stream, became the envy of many a heated and weary pilgrim, who was still trudging forward under the weight of his basket. Carts, waggons, caravans, and vehicles of all sorts, were dispersed confusedly about, but more especially on the margin of the rivulet, for the conveniency of watering the cattle. Many of these carriages, containing merchandise for the approaching fair, remained unladen, for the first day of the festival was always observed as a Sabbath, on which it was unlawful to do any regular work, although the preparation of food, or any thing that related to the due ob- servance of the festival, was fully allowed. Asses, mules, horses, and camels, were huddled

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together in the scanty shade of these vehicles, eating their provender ; swarthy slaves and half- naked drivers, being interspersed among them, outstretched upon the ground in sleep. Ex- cluded from the benefit of the shade by these more powerful occupants, the little flocks of sheep, which some of the peasants had brought with them for the fair, were gathered together on the outside, holding down their heads in a circle, that they might afford to one another the comfort of a meagre shelter from the burning rays, while the quick motions of their tails, and the frequent stamping of their feet, attested their impatience of the flies that were assailing them. The dog, in whose custody each of these separate flocks had been left, knew his duty too well to imitate the example of his master, or of his fellow-servants, by falhng asleep ; but hav- ing secured to himself a sufficient portion of the shade, he kept his eye steadily upon his charge, as if with a grave sense of the trust confided to

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him, though he never exposed himself to the sun, unless when it became necessary to prevent his flock from intermingling with others.

Salome and her daughter were proceeding along the Valley, and had nearly reached the road leading to the principal eastern gate, when they found themselves deprived of the shade from the canopy, and on looking round, the maids were seen still holding it up as they loitered behind, but their heads were turned on one side, as if in fixed gaze upon some dis- tant object, while they were talking together so rapidly and so earnestly as not to hear Salome's voice calling to them, in no very subdued tones, to come on. *' How now, ye negligent and saucy sluggards !" she at length exclaimed, as she struck one of them on the shoulder with her fan ; " is it thus ye mind your duty ? Are we to give you of our flock, our floor, and our wine-press, with silver shekels besides at every new year, that ye may leave me to scorch in the VOL. I. I

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sun, while ye send your wanton eyes gadding after gapesights and mountebanks ?"

" Nay ! mistress," replied Deborah, adjust- ing the canopy so as to shelter the parties for whom it was intended, '' we were only just looking at Esau, the wild man of the mountains ; — not that we can get a peep at him — I wish we could ; — but don't you see a large bird upon a bough, above the heads of the crowd, yonder by the eastern gate ? Well, that 's his wonderful raven. There it goes — flap ! flap ! flap ! Well, it must be a monstrous strong bird, if it 's only half so old as he pretends."

" I 'm sure, mistress," added Rachel, ^' I thought we w'ere holding the canopy right over you all the time ; but I was just saying to my fellow-servant, Deborah, said I, as sure as ever there are fish in the Jordan, yonder is the won- derful raven, and I warrant his master is be- neath him. What a thousand pities it is that such a handsome young man shouldn't be

A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 171

spruced up, and dressed like a decent Israelite, and made a little tidy ; for if he were, I 'm sure he would be as comely and as genteel- looking as Jesse himself, or any of the fine courtier sparks that go parading about the streets.''

" Cease this impertinent babbling," said Sa- lome ; '' follow me, and give more heed to your duty, or ye shall dearly rue your neghgence. Overbold wenches that ye are! the jubilee year, that once set ye all free to flout your betters, is no longer observed, and if it were, this is not one of them. At your peril repeat this negligence and disrespect !"

ZiUah did not choose to explain to her mo- ther, especially in her present chafed mood, the fabulous history attributed to the raven, nor the character assumed by its owner; but as her curiosity made her anxious to gain some farther insight, if possible, into his real objects, she was not sorry w^hen Salome voluntarily turned her steps towards the crowd surrounding

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him, which was collected immediately under the precipitous sides of the Mount. No sooner had the maids ascertained the direction she was taking, than they ran the risk of offending her by their eagerness to press forward, as much as they had done by their previous loitering. Standing on tiptoe, and peering first over one shoulder, then over another, they trod repeat- edly on Zillah's heels, and had she not cau- tioned them by a silent look, they would pro- bably, by offering the same indignity to Salome, have induced her, in the petulance of the mo- ment, to turn instantly homewards. Avoid- ing this casualty, they drew near to the knot of gazers, and could already hear the elevated voice of Esau, though his person remained enveloped by the encircling auditory. At this moment, the retirement of a horseman from the party occasioning a momentary opening in its ranks, Zillah's eyes encountered the dark bright orbs of Esau, who had no sooner caught a

A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 173

glimpse of her, than he started back with ap- parent surprise, and even dismay, pierced sud- denly through the surrounding people, and scudding rapidly away under the walls, pre- sently disappeared behind the projecting cliff of Ophel, not less to the surprise of those who had been previously listening to his discourse, than of Zillah, who had so unaccountably scared him from his post.

" Well !" exclaimed Deborah, forgetting all considerations of respect in the bitterness of her disappointment — " was there ever such a strange creature, to serve us such a shabby trick as this ? Just as we had got up to him too !""

*^ The most ungentlemanlike behaviour I ever beheld," added Rachel ; — '' I really took him for a decent person ; but I see now, that he is no better than a vagabond."

" Silence !" exclaimed Salome, casting at them a look of angry reproof. She again walked forward, while Zillah accompanied her.

17i zillah;

almost unconscious of her movements, for she was lost in reveries. That Esau, or who- ever the figure might be, had distinctly seen her, and probably recollected their previous in- terview under the sycamore-tree, she could not doubt, for their eyes had too unequivocally en- countered ; for the look of alarm, however, that accompanied this recognition, for the instant and agitated flight that followed it, she was ut- terly at a loss to assign a motive. The dark forebodings of Nabal came across her mind, and she could not help surmising that this strange man was in some way to be instrumental in the troubles with which she was destined to strug- gle ; but these were shadowy and vain conjec- tures, unsusceptible of any distinct configura- tion, although she could not altogether dismiss them from her thoughts. When they had pre- viously met, this strange figure had been most anxious to detain and converse with her ; now, the very sight of her seemed to fill him with ap-

A TALK OF JERL'SALEM. 175

prehension — a contradiction so inexplicable, that inadvertently giving utterance to her thoughts, she ejaculated aloud, — " How extraordinary that he should thus fly away, as if he dreaded my approach !"

" Your approach, child," exclaimed Salome ; '' more likely that he caught a glimpse of some jailor, and fled, lest he should make acquaint- ance with the dungeon in the court of the King's prison, the proper home of these cheats and false prophets ; for such, I see, is his cha- racter. Every festival are we now pestered with such wild vagrants and ranting impostors as this young scamperer, and Nabal the Black Shadow ; for both of whom the pillory and the stocks were too slight a penalty, since their offence might well warrant their being stoned to death."

" But if Nabal should be, indeed, a true pro- phet "

'^ Tush ! child ! talk not so weakly — the seal

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was put upon the mouth of prophecy when the youth Malachi died. No angels of the Lord have appeared since, to stand beside the pro- phet, as they did in his time; and it were a perilous folly to yield credence to the ravings of the crazy Nabal. Did he not prate, in his idle and fatuous wanderings, of some troubles where- with you were to be assailed ?"

" He did, indeed, and his forebodings have dwelt most heavily upon my mind."

*' Simpleton ! have you forgotten what the Lord said to Jeremiah ? — ' The prophets pro- phesy lies in my name ; a false vision and a divination ; a thing of nought, and the deceit of their own heart.' Lay this to your heart, and let me hear no more of these credulous fooleries, which would disgrace a Galilean peasant."

Thus rebuked, Zillah held her peace, and they proceeded in silence until they reached the Water-gate ; when passing under the bridge that connected the Temple with Mount Sion, they

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continued along the narrow ravine by which the city was intersected. Skirting the waters of Gihon, and passing the Tower of Ophel, the King's house, and the Middle-gate, until they came to the gate of Sion, they entered it, and made their way to that part which was called the City of David, stopping at last before a large mansion, surrounded with a wall. At the open gates the owner's servants were seen distribut- ing alms, in rather an ostentatious manner, to a crowd of cripples, mendicants, and sick people ; and tables were spread out in the court-yard, at which others of the same description were re- galing themselves. By the blessings which they loudly invoked upon their pious and generous benefactor, Zillah learnt that this was the residence of Tubal, the Pharisee, who had adopted this public method of displaying his charity, for the purpose of ingratiating himself with the lower orders. She was not a little sur- prised at her mother's bringing her to his dwell- I 5

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ing, and felt an equal degree of repugnance against entering it ; but it was now too late to recede ; nor did she wish to give offence by starting objections, which would probably be deemed fastidious, and perhaps impertinent.

Leaving the servants below, Salome and her daughter entered the house door, which, as well as the posts on either side, was profusely covered with written extracts from the Bible, and pro- ceeded up-stairs. Astonished as Zillah was at the sounds of merriment and loud laughter which reached her ears as she advanced, she was still more amazed on entering the apartment, to which her mother escorted her, at finding that they proceeded from a large party of Pharisees, dressed in all the sanctimonious and precise fop- pery of their sect, with Tubal at their head ; while Lydia, the King's concubine, and other painted and tawdrily dressed females, who seem- ed to be of the same stamp, were interspersed among them ; the whole company being busily

A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 179

employed upon a splendid repast. All became suddenly silent as the unexpected visitants made their appearance : the men resumed tlieir cus- tomary sour, mortified, and woe-begone looks, occasionally casting suspicious glances at one another, and then at Zillah, as if to inquire the meaning of her introduction ; while the wo- men, after a momentary pause, began to giggle, and then burst out a-laughing in malicious en- joyment of the confusion of their companions. — " You are welcome," said Tubal, advancing towards his visitants with a lackadaisical ex- pression of visage, compounded partly of so- lemn suddenly-assumed demureness, and partly of confusion : — '' we have said over our Shema Israel, our phylactery sentences, from day-break till sun-rise, as well as the eighteen prayers of Esdras ; we have been up to the Temple of the Lord to worship, and have offered the best of our increase, the top of every heap, the flower of the wheat, and the first of our mint, cum-

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min, and aniseed, from our gardens in the Val- ley ; we have given alms to the poor, and food to the hungry ; we have thrice washed ourselves from every ceremonial impurity ; and the fast being now over, we were refreshing ourselves with viands and innocent cheerfulness, as it be- comes all good Israelites to do on this auspicious day. The pious and worthy Saganess does ho- nour to our repast by her presence ; she is wel- come to share our homely cheer, and not less so is the virtuous and the beautiful Zillah.*'

Lydia gave a toss of the head at the conclu- sion of this speech, and throwing a scornful glance at the object of Tubal's eulogy, said in a loud whisper to one of her female companions, '^ If the Sphinx were as large, it would be quite as beautiful/^

*' We came not to share your homely cheer,'^ said Salome, laying an accent upon the term, and eyeing the rich viands with a derisive smile ; " we have already broken our fast ; but I had

A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 181

occasion to consult you upon an affair of some moment, which I thought might excuse my in- truding myself thus uninvited."

" Call it not intrusion," replied Tubal in a fawning accent, and with a corresponding servility of look ; " for the Saganess must ever be the most welcome when least expected. Shall I attend you to my oratory ?"

Salome bowed acquiescence, and they left the apartment, greeted at their exit by a half-sup- pressed giggle from the females. After pass- ing through two chambers, they came to a study fitted up with books, where Zillah was desired by her mother to remain until she re- turned to her, which would not be long, as her consultation with Tubal would only last a few minutes. Zillah accordingly seated herself at a small table on which were lying several collections and treatises on the traditionary law, both in Chaldee and Hebrew, with margi- nal annotations, which appeared to have been

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written by some recent expositor, if not by Tubal himself. She had been for some short time occupied in perusing them, when the Pha- risee entered, unaccompanied by her mother, and shutting the door after him advanced to- wards the table. " You are well and wisely employed, fair maiden," he exclaimed, " for it is the study of these oral traditions, not of the written law, which is all obscurity and darkness without them, that shall alone entitle the reader to the blessings of another world. The words of the traditional law are joy to the heart, and health to the bones ; the Bible is as water, the traditions are as wine and hippocras ; the scrip- ture is as salt, but the oral rules are like sweet spices and the oozing honeycomb."

" I cannot so consider them," said Zillah calmly, not wishing to exhibit any apprehension at the non-appearance of her mother ; " for that which is written cannot be mistaken or perverted, whereas men's memories may be

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treacherous, or their passions, prejudices, or evil designs may make the Deity speak whatever they themselves wish."

" Not so, my lovely Zillah, for you must be well aware that when Moses descended into his tent from Mount Sinai, he repeated first to Aaron, then to Ithamar and Eleazar his sons, then to the seventy elders, and lastly to all the people, the traditionary law which he had received from Heaven at the same time as the written. This oral law, Moses, on his death- bed, repeated to Joshua, who delivered it to the elders, they to the prophets, the prophets to the wise men, who have handed it down unim- paired to our times."

" Such, I know, are the doctrines of your sect," said Zillah. '' Perilous as they ap- pear to me, I pretend not to attempt their refutation, but my reason forbids me to believe them.^'

'• Let it not forbid you to believe my asser-

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tions when I declare to you, you whom my soul loves, you who are beautiful as the full moon, you who are like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of spices, that if I offended you yesterday at the palace, I am sorry for my transgression. The Saganess has sent me that I might entreat your pardon."

" If you can obtain your own forgiveness, you may be assured of mine," said Zillah coldly ; " our conference, therefore, need not be prolonged. I will rejoin my mother."

" Nay, flee not from me thus, like the hind from the panther, for you will soon be afar off, beyond the great sea, among hea- thens and idolaters, and I would fain have a promise from you, ere you depart, that at your return you will listen more favourably to my suit."

" Hope not for any such promise. I have already given you my answer more than once. It is final, irrevocable, unalterable."

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" How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights ! my heart is caught in thy dark locks, as a stag is entangled by night in the thickets of Engaddi !" Fixing his gloating, half- shut eyes upon her as he spoke, he took her hand, and was pressing it tenderly, when Zillah, snatching it from him, and recoil- ing as if she had been touched by a serpent, exclaimed, *' Avaunt ! thou art hateful to my sight ! presume not to lay thy hand upon me — dare not come a step nearer — offer not to prevent my departure from this cham- ber ^ — Hypocrite ! I command thee to stand aside."

Calm and placid as was the general demean- our of Zillah, there was a latent spirit and innate dignity in her temperament, which, when once elicited, imparted a corresponding character to her countenance, and plainly testi- fied that she was as resolute when aroused, as she was sedate and gracious in her ordinary

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mood. Cowering beneath the energy of her tones, and the decision of her look, the Pha- risee drew back abashed;, his hps pale, and his features quivering with suppressed rage, though he endeavoured to conceal his wrath beneath a forced and fawning smile.

" Fair damsel, you do me wrong, and, I doubt not, you will live to regret the injury," he exclaimed in a soft tone, but at the same time with a malignant sneer, which seemed to inti- mate that his rejected love might be exchanged for hatred, and future revenge afford him some consolation for present disappointment. Dark as was the expression of his countenance, it was but transient ; his Hneaments almost in- stantly resumed their habitual demureness and servility, as he exclaimed to Salome, who now re- entered the apartment, " Truly, the daughter partakes not the gentle spirit of the mother : she is as a wild and fierce bird coming out of a dove's nest. I have sought to make peace

A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 187

with her, but verily she is quick to anger, and entreateth me despitefully.""

" Heed not her petulance, good Tubal," replied Salome ; " Zillah is young and thoughtless; when she becomes of more dis- creet years, she will know better than to offend the leader of the Pharisees. Doubt not that you will find her, at her return, more acqui- escent to your wishes."

" This I hope, for my own sake," said Tubal, " and still more for hers." There was an equivocal smile upon his countenance as he uttered the last words, although tlieir import, and the tone in which they were pronounced, imparted to them a menacing character. Zillah disdained to make any reply. To her great relief the Pharisee almost imme- diately left the room ; Salome departed from the house, without repassing through the apart- ment in which the company were assembled ; and she was delighted to find herself again

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walking in the streets of Jerusalem. Her mother, having desired the maids to keep at some distance behind, while they walked in the shade of the houses, reproved her daughter sharply for what she termed her affected pru- dery, desired her to be less distant and repul- sive in her manner, and warned her that an offended Pharisee was the most implacable and deadly of all enemies. " Would you have me conciliate such a man as my friend ; above all, would you have me receive him as a husband .?" inquired Zillah.

'* Child ! child ! may you not love his power, though you love not the man ? In our rank of life, marriages are made for more important considerations than the momentary phantasies of a love-sick girl. You know not how you may advance your family by conquering your groundless repugnance to the powerful Tubal."

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'* Is not our family already illustrious by high dignities ? When will you deem it suffi- ciently advanced ?"

'* When there is nothing above us !" ex- claimed Salome, speaking in a triumphant tone, and throwing her arm above her head, while her eyes sparkled and her cheeks glowed with ambitious anticipations. Suddenly recollecting herself, however, she continued in her usual voice : ^' I spoke but at random ; these are idle dreams ; but your compliance with our wishes, touching this affair with the good Tubal, should he remain in the same dispo- sition at your return from Rome, is not the less essential to the prosperity of your race, and perhaps to your own safety."

Wishing to avoid a subject which had already proved a too prolific source of alter- cation, Zillah made no reply, but walked on in silence, though her thoughts were not

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the less busily occupied. That an unusual degree of confidence existed between Tubal and her mother was manifest, by her having communicated to him the intended embassy to Rome, which all parties had been so strictly enjoined to keep secret. What could be her motives for this intimacy ; what the subject of their recent conference ; why she herself had been taken to his house, only to be exposed to his fulsome and offensive soli- citations ; and why her safety should be en- dangered by refusing him, — she could not possibly conjecture. His enmity, and, per- haps, his malignant machinations, on account of her rejection of him, slie saw, however, every reason to apprehend : probably they would constitute a portion of those trials and troubles which had been predicted by Nabal ; but she was, at all events, about to quit the scene of his insidious intrigues for some months.

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and it reconciled her the more to her projected journey, when she reflected that it would at once remove her from the importunities, as well as the vindictive designs, from the love, as well as the hatred, of the detested Pharisee.

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CHAPTER VII,

" Come, my child," said the Sagan to his daughter on his return next morning from the Temple, " I have completed the service of the day, gladly do I again see myself attired in my plain robes. I am chilled even to numb- ness, by standing so long barefoot upon the cold marble ; let my sandals be brought, and I will walk down into the Valley with you. Perhaps it may restore warmth to my feet, which, for want of early practice, are not yet reconciled to the frigid pavement: at all events, we may behold the innocent recreations of the people, which will assuredly impart new

A TALE OF JERUSALEM. 193

warmth to my heart." Zillah hastened for his sandals, and herself fastened them on, when they proceeded into the eastern valley, follow- ing nearly the same direction that Salome had taken on the preceding morning, though the scene was now altogether changed. Tents, stalls, booths, and arbours formed of boughs, were thickly scattered along the banks of the Ce- dron ; the various vehicles and carts had been all unpacked ; the multifarious merchandise they had contained was temptingly displayed in every variety of material and arrangement ; the cattle were enclosed in pens for the pur- pose of sale ; the valley was thronged with people decked out in nosegays and crowns of flowers, and the business of the fair had begun. Nor w^ere pleasure and amusement less actively pursued: music, songs, and hymns, sounded on every side ; parties were dispersed in all directions, entertaining, or regaling them- selves ; and under the shade of trees, various . VOL. I. K

194 ZILLAH;

companies were seen dancing to the cheerful notes of the pipe, the sackbut, and the timbrel with its rattling shells. At the same moment were heard the rich-floating melodies of the sacred band accompanying the dancers in the Temple ; for, though that portion of the ser- vice was concluded which required the pre- sence of the High Priest, the festive solemni- ties were still continued. *' These are, indeed, goodly sights and pleasant sounds,*" exclaimed the Sagan, while a benignant smile diffused itself over his features : — " The Holy City is glad with the greeting of friends, and the cheer of hospitable entertainment in all its streets; the Temple echoes with sacred songs, and the music of the dancers ; the valleys and the hill- sides round about it repeat the happy strains ; the poor and the slaves are participators in the general gaiety and enjoyment; the universal air is filled with the jocund sounds of mirth and glee. This is indeed to obey the dictates

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of the sweet Psalmist of Israel : 'To be joyful in the Lord, to serve him with gladness, and come before his presence with a song." "

" And look, my father," said Zillah, " at yonder column of smoke from the altar of the Temple, how majestically and unbroken it arises, illuminated by the sun-beams, but un- dissipated by the wind ! May we not consider this a token that our holy festivities are accept- able, and that the Creator looks down with complacency upon the happiness of his crea- tures ?*"

''^ Such, my child, is, doubtless, the most wel- come worship we can offer to Him who, through MoseS; has termed these banquets a ** rejoi- cing before Jehovah ;" who, when he named them festivals, meant them to embrace every description of pleasure and gratification that

* It is maintained by the Talmudists, that the rains never put out the fire of the altar, nor did the wind ever prevail over its pillar of smoke. K 2

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could be united with, and sanctioned by, reli- gion. Of a truth, ' cheerfulness is the best hymn to the Divinity.'"

" And yet many of our Pharisees and zea- lots," said Zillah, "object to the innocent recreation of dancing ; nay, there are not want- ing some, who even hold it to be sinful."

" If they cannot indulge in it themselves, or