Hebrew Heroes: A Tale Founded on Jewish History

  CHAPTER XXIX.

  THE MOURNER'S HOME.

  I shall pass lightly over the events of several succeeding months. Thesummer passed away, with its intense heat and its fierce simooms. Thencame heavier dews by night, and temperature gradually decreased by day.The harvest was ended, but few of the inhabitants of Jerusalem hadventured to observe Pentecostal solemnities. The time for the Feast ofTabernacles arrived, but none dared raise leafy booths of palm andwillow--to spend therein the week of rejoicing, according to the customof happier years.

  Early in the summer Antiochus Epiphanes had quitted Judaea for Persia,to quell an insurrection which his cupidity had provoked in the lattercountry. The absence of the tyrant had somewhat mitigated thefierceness of the persecution against such Hebrews as sought to obeythe law of Moses; but still no one dared openly to practise Jewishrites in Jerusalem, and the image of Jupiter Olympus still profaned thetemple on Mount Zion.

  Judas Maccabeus, in the meantime, still maintained a bold front inSouthern Judaea and the tract of country called Idumea; the power ofhis name was felt from the rich pasture-lands surrounding Hebron as faras the fair plains of Beersheba on the south-west--or on the south-eastthe desolate valley of salt. Wherever the Asmonean's influenceextended, fields were sown or their harvests gathered in peace; thehusbandman followed his team, and the shepherd folded his flocks;mothers rejoiced over the infants whom they could now present to theLord without fear.

  But again the portentous war-cloud was rolling up from the direction ofAntioch. Lycias, the regent of the western provinces, by the commandof Antiochus had gathered around him a very large army, a force yetmore formidable than that which had been led by Nicanor, and Syria wasagain collecting her hordes to crush by overwhelming numbers Judas andhis patriot band.

  And how had the last half-year sped with Zarah? Very slowly and veryheavily, as time usually passes with those who mourn. And deeply didZarah mourn for Hadassah--her more than mother, her counsellor, herguide--the being round whom maiden's affections so closely had twinedthat she had felt that she could hardly sustain existence deprived ofHadassah. And much Zarah wept for her father--though in rememberinghim a deep spring of joy mingled with her sorrow. A thousand times didZarah repeat to herself his words of blessing--a thousand timesfervently thank God that she and her parent had met. The words ofLysimachus had lightened her heart of what would otherwise havepainfully pressed upon it. Those words had told her that Pollux was adoomed man; that apostasy on her part could not have saved his life;that had he not fallen by the Syrian's dagger, he would have been butreserved for the headsman's axe. And had Pollux perished thus, therewould have been none of that gleam of hope which, at least in Zarah'seyes, now rested upon his grave.

  Zarah never left the precincts of her secluded dwelling, except tovisit her parents' grave--where she went as often as she dared ventureforth, accompanied by the faithful Anna. No feet but their own evercrossed the threshold of their home. Zarah's simple wants were alwayssupplied. Anna disposed in Jerusalem of the flax which her youngmistress spun, as soon as Zarah had regained sufficient strength toresume her humble labours. During the period of the maiden's severeillness, Anna had secretly disposed of the precious rolls of Scripturefrom which Hadassah had made her copies, and had obtained for them sucha price as enabled her for many weeks to procure every comfort and evenluxury required by the sufferer. The copies themselves, traced by thedear hand now mouldering into dust, Zarah counted as her most preciouspossession; her most soothing occupation was to read them, pray overthem, commit to memory their contents.

  During all this long period of time, Zarah never saw Lycidas, but shehad an instinctive persuasion that he was not far away--that, like anunseen good angel, he was protecting her still. The name of theAthenian was never forgotten in Zarah's prayers. She felt that sheowed a debt of gratitude to one who had struck down her father'smurderer, who had paid the last honours to his remains and those ofHadassah, and to whose care she believed that she owed her own freedomand life. If there was something more than gratitude in the maiden'sfeelings towards the Greek, it was a sentiment so refined and purifiedby grief that it cast no dimness over the mirror of conscience.

  But Zarah knew that her life could not always flow on thus. It was amost unusual thing in her land for a maiden thus to dwell alone,without any apparent protection save that of a single handmaid. It wasa violation of all the customs of her people, an unseemly thing whichcould only be justified by necessity. The daughter of Abner was alsoin constant peril of having her retreat discovered by those who hadsearched for herself and her father in vain, but who might at any dayor any hour find and seize her as a condemned criminal, and either puther to death, or send her as a captive to Antiochus Epiphanes.

  Often, very often had Zarah turned over the subject of her peculiarposition in her mind, and considered whether she ought not to leave theprecincts of Jerusalem, and secretly depart for Bethsura. There theorphan could claim the hospitality of her aged relative Rachel, shouldshe be living yet, or the protection of the Asmonean brothers, who,being her next of kin, were, according to Jewish customs, the maiden'snatural guardians. But Zarah shrank from taking this difficult step.Very formidable to her was the idea of undertaking a journey even ofbut twenty miles' length, through a country where she would be liableto meet enemies at every step of the way. Zarah had no means oftravelling save on foot, unless she disposed of some of the few jewelswhich she had inherited from her parents; and this she was not onlyunwilling to do, but she feared to do it lest, through the sale ofthese gems in Jerusalem, she should be tracked to her place of retreat.Anna was faithful as a servant, but could never be leaned upon as anadviser--she would obey, but she could not counsel; and her youngmistress, timid and gentle, with no one to guide and protect her, felther strength and courage alike insufficient for an adventurous journeyfrom Jerusalem to Bethsura.

  The possible necessity which might arise of her having to place herselfunder the protection of Maccabeus, should Rachel be no longer living atBethsura, greatly increased Zarah's reluctance to leave her presentabode. The maiden remembered too well what Hadassah had disclosed of aproposed union between herself and Judas, not to feel that it would bepeculiarly painful to have to throw herself upon the kindness of herbrave kinsman. Zarah could not, as she thought, tell him why the ideaof such a union was hateful to her soul--why she was averse tofulfilling the wishes of Mattathias and Hadassah. While Maccabeusoften experienced an almost irrepressible yearning once more to lookupon Zarah, whom he believed to be still with Hadassah, of whose deathhe never had heard, Zarah shrank with emotions of fear from meeting theHebrew chieftain.

  Tender affection also made the orphan girl cling to her parents' graveand the home of her youth. Dear associations were linked with almostevery object on which her eyes rested. Those to whom the present is athorny waste, and the future a prospect darkened by gloomy mists, arewont to dwell more than others on the green spots which memory yet cansurvey in the past. It is natural to youth to look forward. Zarah, asregarded this world, dared only look back. It was well for her thatshe could do so with so little of remorse or regret.

  "Not to have known a treasure's worth Till time hath stolen away the slighted boon, Is cause of half the misery we feel, And makes this world the wilderness it is."

  When winter was drawing near, when the bursting cotton-pods had beengathered, and the vintage season was over, when the leaves werebeginning to fall fast, and the cold grew sharp after sunset,circumstances occurred which compelled a change in Zarah's quietroutine of existence. She could no longer be left to indulge herlonely sorrow; the current of life was about to take a sudden turnwhich must of necessity bring her amongst new scenes, and expose her tofresh trials.