Hebrew Heroes Part 17

"Is it--can it be true--Zarah--captive--in peril?" cried the young man, whom the tidings of the attack on Salathiel's dwelling, and the capture of a maiden, had casually reached that night at Bethlehem, where he was sojourning, and whom these tidings had brought in all speed to Jerusalem. Lycidas had ridden first to the house of Cimon, where the message left by Hada.s.sah had confirmed his worst fears. Leaving his horse, which had fallen lame on the rocky road, he had hurried off on foot to the palace, with no definite plan of action before him, but resolved at any rate to seek an interview with the king.

"Zarah is prisoner in yon palace," said Hada.s.sah, "you will do all in your power to save her?"

"I would die for her!" was the reply,

Hada.s.sah in few words made known to the young Athenian her own intention to await at the palace gate the going forth of Antiochus, and plead with the Syrian king for the life and freedom of Zarah. The lady was thankful to accept the eager offer of Lycidas to remain beside her, and support her pet.i.tion with the weight of any influence which he might have with the tyrant, small as he judged that influence to be.

Hada.s.sah, thankful at having found a zealous friend to aid her, leant on the arm of Lycidas as she might have done on that of a son.

Difference in nation and creed was for awhile forgotten; the two were united by one great love and one great fear, and the Gentile could, with the soul's deepest fervour, say "Amen" to the Hebrew's prayer.

CHAPTER XXVII.

FLIGHT.

It was with a strange sense of happiness mingling with fear that Zarah followed her father out of the apartment which had been her place of confinement. The blessing of Abner lay so warm at the heart of his daughter! Zarah was no longer like one peering into depths of darkness to catch a glimpse of some terrible object below; she had discovered what she had sought, and by the cords of love was, as it were, drawing up a perishing parent into security and light. It was rapture to Zarah to reflect on what would be the joy of Hada.s.sah on the restoration of her son. The maiden could rejoice in past perils, and, with a courage which surprised herself, confront those before her; so clearly could she now perceive that her sufferings had been made a means of blessing to those whom she loved.

With a light, noiseless step, Zarah, obeying the directions of her newly-found parent, and keeping his form in sight, crossed the first court which they had to traverse. It was paved, surrounded by pillars, and open to the sky, of which the deep azure was paling into morning.

The place was perfectly silent. Zarah observed that her father glanced up anxiously towards the building which formed the south side of the court, where marble pillars, with wreathed columns and richly carved capitals, supported a magnificent frieze. Antiochus himself occupied that part of the palace. But no eye peered forth at that early hour on the forms that glided over the marble-paved court below.

Under the shadow of the colonnade now reached, Pollux awaited his daughter;--the first point of danger was happily pa.s.sed. Pollux now pointed to a broad, covered pa.s.sage to the right, lighted by lamps, of which some had already burnt out, and others were flickering. Zarah saw at the further end forms of men dimly visible. The guards, weary with the long night-watch, were apparently sleeping; for they appeared to be half sitting, half reclining on the pavement, and perfectly still.

Zarah had now to go first, and with a throbbing heart the maiden approached the soldiers, breathing an inaudible prayer, for she felt the peril to be very great. The pa.s.sage at the end of which the guards kept ward opened into one of the small gardens which adorned the interior of the extensive edifice, with a tank in the centre, from which a graceful fountain usually rose from a statuary group of marble, representing Niobe and her children. The fountain was not playing at this hour, and there was not light sufficient to throw the shadow of the statues upon the still water below.

It was impossible to reach the garden without pa.s.sing between the two guards. Zarah could not tell whether they were indeed sleeping, and the s.p.a.ce left between them was scarcely sufficiently wide to admit of her traversing it. Frightened, yet clinging to hope, Zarah, with her jar on her head walked slowly and cautiously on. Just as she was gliding by the guards, one of them started and caught hold of her dress.

"Ha! slave, what mischief are you after at such an hour as this?"

"My lord has bidden me dip my jar in yon tank," said Zarah, in as calm a tone as she could command.

"I trow your lord has heated himself with a stronger kind of drink, or he would not need water to cool him now," said the Syrian, releasing Zarah, who, wondering at her own success, rapidly hurried into the garden. She almost forgot, in her haste to escape, that it was needful to dip her jar into water, as she was still within view of the Syrian.

The maiden had to turn back one or two steps, and bend over the brink of the tank. Its cool waters refreshed her, as she dipped her slender fingers therein.

"Now," thought Zarah, "there is a long dark pa.s.sage to traverse--is it on the right or the left? I scarce can remember my father's directions; and a mistake now might be fatal both to him and to me.

Oh, may Heaven direct me!"

As Zarah glanced anxiously on either side, she perceived to the left a narrow opening in the ma.s.s of buildings which enclosed the garden. The opening was so utterly dark, that it looked to the trembling girl like the mouth of a sepulchre, and she feared to enter into it. As Zarah stood hesitating, she could hear Pollux behind her giving the pa.s.sword to the sentries. His voice strengthened the courage of his daughter; it was a comfort to know that he was near. Quitting the garden, Zarah entered the gloomy pa.s.sage. It was not quite so dark within as it had appeared from without. The maiden could dimly distinguish a niche in the wall, in which she deposited her jar, which could now only burden her in her flight.

The pa.s.sage along which Zarah was groping her way was one merely intended as a back-way, along which slaves carrying viands or other burdens might pa.s.s, though it was not unfrequently used by courtiers bound on secret errands. It conducted to a much wider pa.s.sage or corridor, which crossed it at right angles, and which led direct to a postern-door of the palace, by which four guards kept watch night and day. When Zarah reached the point where the smaller pa.s.sage opened into the larger, she became aware of the most formidable obstacle which she had yet had to encounter--the presence of these guards; and to the young fugitive the obstacle seemed insuperable. The door was strongly bolted, and the soldiers were wide awake; there appeared to the mind of Zarah not the smallest chance that they would unbar the door for her, or suffer her to pa.s.s.

The heart of the young fugitive sank within her. It was terrible to be so near to liberty, and yet have that impa.s.sable barrier between her and freedom! How formidable looked the deadly weapons of the soldiers as they gleamed in the waning torch-light; how stern the weather-beaten countenances of that warriors of Antiochus Epiphanes!

Zarah leaned against the wall of the dark narrow pa.s.sage, and listened for the footsteps of her father behind her. She dared not venture out of the shadow into the lighted corridor. Presently Pollux was at her side; she felt his hand gently laid on her shoulder.

"All will be lost if you attempt to save me, father," murmured the trembling girl. "Oh, go on without me--leave me to G.o.d's care; I can never pa.s.s those guards."

"When I raise my hand, come forward and go forth," whispered Pollux.

Not like a prisoner escaping, but with the firm tread of a man who doubts not his right and power to go where he will, the courtier of Antiochus strode into the corridor and advanced towards the guards, who saluted, in Oriental fashion, a n.o.ble of high distinction, whose person was familiar to them all.

"The word is 'The sword of Antiochus.' Unbar that door, and quickly; I am on business of importance which brooks no delay," said Pollux to the guards in a tone of command.

The order was instantly obeyed. Zarah joyfully heard bolt after bolt withdrawn, and then the creaking of the door upon its hinges; and felt the freshness of outer air admitted through the opening.

Pollux seemed to be about to pa.s.s out, when he suddenly raised his hand, as his appointed signal to his daughter. Zarah, gasping with breathless anxiety, obeyed the sign, and glided forward to go forth from the palace. One of the soldiers, however, instantly barred her pa.s.sage with his weapon.

"Let the slave pa.s.s," said Pollux sternly.

The point of the guard's weapon was lowered; but another of the soldiers was about to remonstrate. "It is against orders," he began, when Pollux interrupted him.

"Methinks you are one who served under me in the force of Giorgias,"

observed the courtier, with presence of mind.

"Ay, my lord," answered the soldier.

"When we next see Maccabeus, we must come to closer quarters with him,"

observed the n.o.ble. "Here, my brave men,"--he drew forth a purse heavy with gold--"share this among you, and drink success to the brave."

The soldiers could scarcely repress a shout at the unexpected liberality of Pollux. Not one of them so much as looked at Zarah as she glided forth into the open air.

Oh, transporting sense of liberty! How delicious was the breath of early morn on the fugitive's cheek; how glorious the open vault spread above her, blushing in the first light of dawn! Pollux experienced, though in a very inferior degree, some of the pleasure felt by his daughter, as he joined her on the broad marble steps which led down from the Grecian-built palace of Antiochus to the platform on which it erected.

"This way, my child," whispered Pollux, as drew Zarah in the direction of one of the high narrow streets of Jerusalem. "We must put as much s.p.a.ce as possible between us and pursuers before sunrise. Would that we had started hours ago! Many dangers yet are before us."

One was nearer than the speaker was aware of. Scarcely had the fugitives entered the nearest street when they encountered a Syrian courtier, splendidly attired, whose unsteady gait betrayed in what manner he had been pa.s.sing the night. More than half intoxicated as he was, Lysimachus instantly recognized Pollux.

"Ha! whither bound?" exclaimed Lysimachus, standing, or rather staggering, in the narrow path directly in front of the fugitives.

"I give an account of my movements only to such as have a right to demand it," said Pollux haughtily, attempting to pa.s.s his rival, while Zarah kept close behind her father.

"The fox has caught sight of the trap--Pollux has found out that I hold his death-warrant," cried Lysimachus; "and that his head must fall at sunrise!"

Pollux started at the words of his enemy.

"He is making his escape!" continued Lysimachus, in a louder voice; "he's falling off to the Hebrews! but this shall stop him!" and with a quick, unexpected movement, the Syrian plunged a dagger into the breast of Pollux, then himself fell heavily rolling over into the dust!

Lysimachus had been struck down by a blow from the hand of Lycidas, who had been but a few paces behind him!

Zarah had caught sight of the Greek, and of the venerated form of Hada.s.sah at that momentous crisis; her eyes riveted on them, she had not seen the blow inflicted on her father, who, though mortally wounded, did not instantly fall. For Pollux also beheld his mother, and the sudden, unexpected vision of her from whom he had so long been divided, seemed to have power to arrest even the hand of death. Parent and son met--they clasped--they locked each other in a first--a last embrace!

"Oh, mother," exclaimed Zarah, "he has saved me; he is your own son again, devoted to his country--to his G.o.d!"

Did Hada.s.sah hear the joyful exclamation? If she did not, it mattered but little, for she had already grasped with ecstasy all that its meaning could convey; for the last sentence uttered by Lysimachus ere he fell had reached her ear. Her son--her beloved--was "falling away to the Hebrews," or rather was returning to the faith which he once had abjured; he was given back--he was saved from perdition--he was rescuing his child from death and his mother from despair! Hada.s.sah's mind had received all this, conveyed as it were in a lightning flash of joy. She needed to know no more;--her son was folded in her arms!

Pollux and Hada.s.sah sank together on the paved way. The sight of a few drops of blood on the stones first startled Zarah into a knowledge that Lysimachus had inflicted an injury on her father.

"Oh, he is wounded!" she exclaimed, throwing herself on her knees beside him.

"Dead!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Anna, who was vainly attempting to raise the head of Pollux.