Hebrew Heroes: A Tale Founded on Jewish History

  CHAPTER XXIII.

  FOUND AT LAST.

  So profound was the slumber of the weary girl that she heard not thesound of opening the door, nor a step on the marble floor, and layunconscious of the yearning, anxious, mournful gaze that was fixed uponher she slept.

  "Lovely, most lovely--fairer even than her mother!" murmured Pollux, ashe stood beside the couch of Zarah, upon whose slumbering form softlyfell the light from a silver lamp. "Even so beautiful and so pure laymy Naomi, when the angel of death had in mercy called her soul away,and bereft me of a gift of which I was so unworthy."

  What bitter memories of early years passed through the renegade's soulas he spoke! Happy days, when there was no shame on the brow, nognawing worm in the conscience--when he had feared the face of no man,and had dared to lift his eyes towards heaven, and his heart to One whodwelt there! Blessed days, never, never to come again!

  "Hark! she speaks in her sleep. What says she?"

  Pollux bent down his head to listen, and caught the faint murmur, "Mypoor, poor father!"

  The groan which burst from the apostate's lips awoke the sleeper.Zarah started into a sitting posture, and, with a gesture of alarm,threw back the long tresses which had partly fallen over her face.

  "Fear not, poor child; I would not harm you," said Pollux, in a gentle,soothing tone, which restored Zarah's confidence at once.

  "Oh no! I will not fear you!" she cried, recognizing her protector;"it was you--the God of Jacob requite you for it!--it was you who savedme to-day."

  "And will do so again," said Pollux, as he seated himself at Zarah'sside; "but I cannot save you in spite of yourself. You must letyourself be guided by me."

  "What would you have me do?" asked Zarah.

  "Bend to the force of circumstances, humour the mighty king, give anoutward obedience to his will. I have pledged myself that you shoulddo so. There is nothing so dreadful, after all," continued thecourtier, forcing a smile, "in bowing the knee as others do, or inburning a few grains of incense. It is but a little matter."

  "A little matter!" repeated Zarah, opening wide her eyes in innocentsurprise; "is it a little matter for me to throw away my soul, andbreak the heart of Hadassah?"

  Pollux winced on hearing the name, but quickly recovering himself,observed, "The heart of no woman would be thus broken. She would feela pang less keen at your falling away for a time, than that which wouldwring her soul should you die by the executioner's hand."

  "You have never seen Hadassah; you do not know her!" exclaimed Zarahwith spirit; "she has told me herself that she would rather lose sevenchildren by death than one by apostasy from God!"

  Pollux bit his nether lip till the blood came. When he resumedspeaking, his voice sounded hoarse and strange.

  "If you care not for your own danger, maiden, think of my peril; myhead is staked upon your submission," he said.

  Zarah looked distressed and perplexed for a moment, then her fair facebrightened again. "Even cruel Antiochus," she replied, "would neverslay one of his nobles because he failed in persuading a Hebrew girl toviolate conscience. You are not--cannot be in peril through me."

  "I am, whether you believe it or not," said the courtier. "Butmethinks, when speaking to a girl like yourself in the morning of life,with so much that might make existence delightful"--Pollux glanced atthe luxurious decorations of the apartment--"one might be supposed toneed small power of persuasion to convince her that music, dance, andfeasting are better than torture; life than death; nature's sunshineand earth's love than a nameless grave. The king is munificent tothose who oppose not his will; his hand is bounteous and open. Listento me, fair maiden. Antiochus has promised, if you yield to hiscommands, to give you in marriage; it shall be my care that his choicefor you shall fall upon one gentle and noble, one who will not dealharshly with you if you choose to follow your own religion, but whowill accord to you in the privacy of your home all the freedom ofworship which you could desire." Pollux paused, turning over in hismind who would be the noble most likely to fulfil these conditions; andthinking aloud, he uttered the words, "such a one as Lycidas theAthenian."

  How the heart of Zarah bounded at the name! The temptation wasfearfully strong. She beheld life and Lycidas on the one hand; on theother the cold steel and the glowing flame, and those black fearfulministers of death, the remembrance of whom made her shudder.

  Pollux, skilful in the courtier's art of reading the thoughts of men,saw symptoms of yielding in the face of his prisoner, and pushed hisadvantage. He had appealed to Zarah's instincts, now he attempted todazzle and pervert her reason. With subtle sophistry he broughtforward arguments with which his mind was but too familiar. Polluxspoke of necessity, that artful plea of the tempter, who would try tomake the Deity Himself answerable for the sin of His creatures, ashaving placed them under circumstances where such sin could not beavoided; as if strength of temptation were excuse sufficient foryielding to the temptation! Then the courtier spoke of the differencebetween spiritual worship, the assent of the soul to a lofty creed, andthe mere outward posture of the body. The latter might bow down in thehouse of Rimmon, Pollux argued, while the spirit retained itsallegiance to the only true God. Nay, the tempter quoted Scripture (asthe devil himself can quote it) to show that what God demands is theheart, and that therefore He cares little for the homage of the knee.The courtier tried to involve the artless girl in the meshes of hisfalse philosophy, but a woman's simple faith and love burst throughthem all.

  "Leave me--leave me!" cried Zarah passionately, at the first pause madeby Pollux; "it is sinful, cruel, to tempt me thus! You would havetried to persuade the three children in Babylon to bow down to theimage of gold! I cannot argue, I cannot reason with one so learned asyou are, but I know that it is written in God's Law, _Thou shalt notbow down nor worship_, and that is enough for me."

  "But you never can endure the agonies which await you if you madly holdout in your obstinate resistance!" cried Pollux.

  "I know that I have no strength of my own; I know that I am atrembling, feeble, cowardly girl, weak as water!" exclaimed Zarah,bursting into tears; "but God--my God--once made a firm wall of water,and He who sends the trial will send the strength to endure it!"

  "Zarah, you will drive me to madness!" exclaimed Pollux, alarmed at theconstancy shown by so timid and fragile a being; "nay, turn not away, I_will_ be heard! I command you to yield obedience to the king, and Ihave a right to command; Zarah, he who speaks to you is--your father!"

  Had not instinct suggested that before, had there not been something inthe voice, the face of the courtier of Epiphanes which had remindedZarah of Hadassah, and had strangely drawn the maiden's heart towardshim? Up sprang Abner's daughter with a cry, her arms were around hisneck, her head was pillowed on his bosom, his vest was wet with hertears; she sobbed forth, "My father! my father!" forgetting for themoment everything else in the delight of having found the lost one atlast, and of being locked in the embrace of a parent.

  And Pollux, for a brief space, could think of nothing but the fact thathis child was clasped in his arms. He drew her close to his heart,then held her back that he might gaze upon her face, and press kissafter kiss on the lips of her whom he called his darling, his pride,his beautiful child! But when the first burst of natural emotion wasover, Pollux made his daughter sit close beside him, and with his armround her slight form, resumed the conversation which had beeninterrupted by his revealing the intimate relationship in which theystood to each other.

  "You see, my child," said the courtier, "that you may now yield with aneasy conscience. A parent's commands are law to a Hebrew maiden; ifthere be any sin in what you do, it lies upon me alone."

  "And think you that I would bring sin upon your head?" said Zarah. "Ohno, that would be to wrong a parent indeed!"

  "I have such a burden of my own to carry," observed Pollux, bitterly,"that I shall scarcely be sensible of so small an addition to itsweight. Zarah, it is clearly your duty to submit, for m
y safety isinvolved in your submission. If you refuse to obey Antiochus, you sealthe doom of your father."

  In anguish Zarah clasped her throbbing temples with both her hands;even the path of duty itself seemed dark and uncertain before her.Then a thought, sudden and bright, as if it were an inspiration, cameinto the young girl's mind.

  "Oh no, I will save my father!" she exclaimed; "save him from worsethan death! Let us fly together at once," she continued; "no, nottogether, I would cumber your flight; but make your escape, O myfather, from this wicked court, this barbarous king, this life which,to a son of Hadassah, must be misery and bondage indeed! Oh, fly, fly;be safe, be free; be again what you were once! it is not too late! itis not too late!" There was intense delight to Zarah in the new-bornhope that she might draw her wretched parent from this den of infamy,this pit of destruction.

  Pollux was startled by the sudden suggestion. "Whither could I fly?"asked the renegade gloomily.

  "To Judas Maccabeus, our hero," cried Zarah; "his camp is therallying-place for all fugitives from oppression."

  "Maccabeus!" exclaimed Pollux; "he would loathe--would spurn anapostate!"

  "Oh no, he would never spurn the father of Zarah," cried the maiden,for once realizing and exulting in the secret power which she exercisedover the leader of the Hebrews; "Judas would welcome you, his bravecompanions would welcome, coming as you would come to redeem the pastby devoting your sword to your country! God would receive you; andHadassah," continued Zarah, her enthusiasm kindling into rapture as shewent on, "Hadassah, in her joy, her ecstasy, would forget all hergrief--the thought of her long-lost son being with Maccabeus wouldenable her almost to rejoice at her Zarah being--with God."

  "Impossible, impossible," muttered Pollux, rising from his seat as ifto depart; but Zarah detected indecision in his tone. She threwherself at his feet, she clasped his knees, she pleaded with passionatefervour, for she deemed that a parent's life and soul were at stake.

  "Oh, father, if you would but consent to leave for ever this horrible,horrible place, to return to your people, your mother, your God, I feelas if I could die happy, so happy; we should then meet again in abrighter world, all, all re-united, and for ever!"

  It was as the voice of his guardian angel--as if his once fondly-lovedwife had been suffered to visit Abner in mortal form, to counsel, warn,entreat; to tell him that there yet might be mercy for him if he wouldbut turn and repent! There was a terrific struggle in the renegade'smind. He could not at once decide on taking so bold and sudden a leapas that to which he was urged, though conscious of the peril as well asmisery of his present position at the court. As the deer, driven bywolves to the precipice's brink, hesitates on making the plungedown--though it give him the only chance of escape from the raveningjaws of his fierce pursuers--so hesitated the wretched Pollux.

  He would have felt no indecision had he known that, at the very timewhen Zarah was pleading in tears at his feet, Antiochus was signing, inthe presence of the exulting Lysimachus, a warrant for the execution ofPollux on the morrow. His rival had succeeded in working his ruin; theonly door of safety yet open to the apostate was that towards which hischild, with fervent entreaties, was trying to draw him; shortly--littledreamed Pollux how shortly--that door of safety would be closed.Unable to form a sudden resolution, to come to a prompt decision,seeing difficulties and dangers on every side, fearing to remain wherehe was, yet afraid to fly, Pollux wasted the precious time yet givenhim, he let the golden moments escape. In a state of strongexcitement, he at length quitted his daughter's presence, to seek thatsolitude in which his perturbed mind might become sufficiently calm toform a judgment which must be as the pivot upon which his whole futurelife would turn. Pollux left Zarah still on her knees, nor did sherise when he had torn himself from her clinging arms and left theapartment. When the daughter could no longer plead with, she pleadedfor, her father--she implored that grace and wisdom might be given tohim at this momentous crisis. There was no more sleep for Zarah onthat eventful night.