CHAPTER XII
The eleventh day after the birth of the child in the cave,about mid-afternoon, the three wise men approached Jerusalem bythe road from Shechem. After crossing Brook Cedron, they met manypeople, of whom none failed to stop and look after them curiously.
Judea was of necessity an international thoroughfare; a narrowridge, raised, apparently, by the pressure of the desert onthe east, and the sea on the west, was all she could claim tobe; over the ridge, however, nature had stretched the line oftrade between the east and the south; and that was her wealth.In other words, the riches of Jerusalem were the tolls she leviedon passing commerce. Nowhere else, consequently, unless in Rome,was there such constant assemblage of so many people of so manydifferent nations; in no other city was a stranger less strangeto the residents than within her walls and purlieus. And yet thesethree men excited the wonder of all whom they met on the way tothe gates.
A child belonging to some women sitting by the roadside oppositethe Tombs of the Kings saw the party coming; immediately it clappedits hands, and cried, "Look, look! What pretty bells! What bigcamels!"
The bells were silver; the camels, as we have seen, were of unusualsize and whiteness, and moved with singular stateliness; the trappingstold of the desert and of long journeys thereon, and also of amplemeans in possession of the owners, who sat under the little canopiesexactly as they appeared at the rendezvous beyond the Jebel. Yet itwas not the bells or the camels, or their furniture, or the demeanorof the riders, that were so wonderful; it was the question put bythe man who rode foremost of the three.
The approach to Jerusalem from the north is across a plain whichdips southward, leaving the Damascus Gate in a vale or hollow.The road is narrow, but deeply cut by long use, and in placesdifficult on account of the cobbles left loose and dry by thewashing of the rains. On either side, however, there stretched,in the old time, rich fields and handsome olive-groves, which must,in luxurious growth, have been beautiful, especially to travellersfresh from the wastes of the desert. In this road, the three stoppedbefore the party in front of the Tombs.
"Good people," said Balthasar, stroking his plaited beard,and bending from his cot, "is not Jerusalem close by?"
"Yes," answered the woman into whose arms the child had shrunk."If the trees on yon swell were a little lower you could see thetowers on the market-place."
Balthasar gave the Greek and the Hindoo a look, then asked,
"Where is he that is born King of the Jews?"
The women gazed at each other without reply.
"You have not heard of him?"
"No."
"Well, tell everybody that we have seen his star in the east,and are come to worship him."
Thereupon the friends rode on. Of others they asked the samequestion, with like result. A large company whom they met going tothe Grotto of Jeremiah were so astonished by the inquiry and theappearance of the travellers that they turned about and followedthem into the city.
So much were the three occupied with the idea of their mission thatthey did not care for the view which presently rose before them inthe utmost magnificence: for the village first to receive themon Bezetha; for Mizpah and Olivet, over on their left; for thewall behind the village, with its forty tall and solid towers,superadded partly for strength, partly to gratify the criticaltaste of the kingly builder; for the same towered wall bendingoff to the right, with many an angle, and here and there anembattled gate, up to the three great white piles Phasaelus,Mariamne, and Hippicus; for Zion, tallest of the hills, crownedwith marble palaces, and never so beautiful; for the glitteringterraces of the temple on Moriah, admittedly one of the wondersof the earth; for the regal mountains rimming the sacred city roundabout until it seemed in the hollow of a mighty bowl.
They came, at length, to a tower of great height and strength,overlooking the gate which, at that time, answered to thepresent Damascus Gate, and marked the meeting-place of thethree roads from Shechem, Jericho, and Gibeon. A Roman guardkept the passage-way. By this time the people following thecamels formed a train sufficient to draw the idlers hangingabout the portal; so that when Balthasar stopped to speak tothe sentinel, the three became instantly the centre of a closecircle eager to hear all that passed.
"I give you peace," the Egyptian said, in a clear voice.
The sentinel made no reply.
"We have come great distances in search of one who is born Kingof the Jews. Can you tell us where he is?"
The soldier raised the visor of his helmet, and called loudly.From an apartment at the right of the passage an officer appeared.
"Give way," he cried, to the crowd which now pressed closer in; and asthey seemed slow to obey, he advanced twirling his javelin vigorously,now right, now left; and so he gained room.
"What would you?" he asked of Balthasar, speaking in the idiom ofthe city.
And Balthasar answered in the same,
"Where is he that is born King of the Jews?"
"Herod?" asked the officer, confounded.
"Herod's kingship is from Caesar; not Herod."
"There is no other King of the Jews."
"But we have seen the star of him we seek, and come to worship him."
The Roman was perplexed.
"Go farther," he said, at last. "Go farther. I am not a Jew.Carry the question to the doctors in the Temple, or to Hannasthe priest, or, better still, to Herod himself. If there beanother King of the Jews, he will find him."
Thereupon he made way for the strangers, and they passed the gate.But, before entering the narrow street, Balthasar lingered to sayto his friends, "We are sufficiently proclaimed. By midnight thewhole city will have heard of us and of our mission. Let us tothe khan now."