Hebrew Heroes: A Tale Founded on Jewish History

  CHAPTER XXXIV.

  FANATICISM.

  We will now glance at the encampment of the Hebrew warriors, upon awild expanse of undulating ground, in view of the towers of Bethsura, astrong fortress rebuilt by the Edomite settlers on the site of thatraised in former times by Rehoboam. Bethsura is now garrisoned by theSyrians, and its environs occupied by the countless tents of theirmighty host.

  On a small rising ground near the centre of the Hebrew camp stands, ason a rostrum, an old Jew clad in a camel-hair garment, with long grayunkempt hair hanging over his shoulders. His manner is excited, hisgestures vehement, and the shrill accents of his voice are so raised asto be heard to a considerable distance. A gradually increasing circleof listeners gathers around him--stern, weather-beaten men, who havetoiled and suffered much for their faith. What marvel if with some ofthese warriors religion have darkened into fanaticism, couragedegenerated into savage fierceness? It is the tendency of war,especially if it be of a guerrilla character, to inflame the passionsand harden the heart. Only terrible necessity can justify theunnatural strife which arms man against his brother man. Even the mostnoble struggle in which patriot can engage in defence of his country'sfreedom, draws along with it terrible evils, of which a vast amount ofhuman suffering is not perhaps the greatest.

  "Yea, I do charge you, Joab, I do charge you, O son of Ahijah, withhaving brought a spy, a traitor, into our camp!" almost shrieked thewild orator Jasher, as he pointed with his shrivelled finger at thesturdy muleteer, who stood in the innermost rank of the circle. "Wasnot this Greek, by your own showing, present at the martyrdom of theblessed saint Solomona?--was he not tried for his life at her grave,where he was discovered coiling like a serpent in the darkness?--is henot one of a race of idolaters, worshippers of images made by man'shand?"

  "All that I can say," replied Joab, doggedly, "is, that whateverLycidas may have been, he is not an idolater now."

  "Who are you that you should judge, you Nabal, you son of folly?"exclaimed the excited orator. "Mark you, men of Judah, mark you theblindness that falls on some men--ay, even on a reputed saint like theLady Hadassah! Joab has learned from her handmaiden the astoundingfact that for months this Lycidas, this viper, was nurtured and tendedin her home, as if he had been a son of Abraham! Doubtless it was thisact of worse than folly on the part of Hadassah that drew down ajudgment on her and her house. Mark what followed. The warmed viperescapes from her dwelling, and the next day--ay, the very nextday--Syrian dogs beset the house of Salathiel as he celebrates the holyFeast! Who guided them thither?" The question was asked withpassionate energy, and the feelings of the speaker were evidentlybeginning to communicate themselves to the audience. "Who then lay ableeding corpse on the threshold, slain by the murderous Syrians?"continued Jasher, with yet fiercer action; "who but Abishai, the brave,the faithful, he who had denounced the viper, and had sought, but invain, to crush it--it was he who fell at last a victim to itstreacherous sting!" Jasher ended his peroration with a hissing soundfrom between his clinched teeth, and the caldron of human feelingsaround him began, as it were, to seethe and boil. Fanaticism stops notto weigh evidence, or to listen to reason. Joab could hardly make hisvoice heard amidst the roar of angry voices that was rising around him.

  "Lycidas was present and helped at the burial of the Lady Hadassah; hehas risked his life to protect her daughter," cried the honest defenderof the Greek.

  "Ha! ha! how much he risked we know not, but we can well guess what hewould win!" exclaimed Jasher, with a look of withering scorn. "He hascrept into the favour of a foolish girl, who forgets the traditions ofher people, who cares not for the afflictions of Jacob, who prefers agoodly person"--the old man's features writhed with the fierceness ofhis satire--"to all that a child of Abraham should regard withreverence and honour! But what can we expect from the daughter of aperjured traitor, an apostate? Had she not Abner for a father, and canwe expect otherwise than that she should disgrace her family, hertribe, her nation, by wedding an accursed Gentile, a detestable Greek?"

  "Never! never!" yelled out a hundred fierce voices. And one of thecrowd shouted aloud, "I would rather slay her with my own hand, wereshe my own daughter!"

  "I cannot believe Lycidas false!" cried out Joab, at the risk ofdrawing the tempest of rage upon himself.

  "You cannot believe him false, you son of the nether millstone!"screamed out the furious Jasher, stamping with passion; "as if you werea match for a wily Greek, born in that idolatrous, base, ungratefulAthens, that banished her only good citizen, and poisoned her only wiseone!" The fierce prejudices of race were only too easily aroused inthat assembly of Hebrew warriors, and if Jasher were blamed by some ofhis auditors, it was for allowing that any Athenian could be eitherwise or good.

  "Yet hear me for a moment--I must be heard," cried Joab, straining hisvoice to its loudest pitch, yet scarcely able to make his wordsaudible; "Lycidas has been admitted into the Covenant by our priests;he can give proofs--"

  "Who talks of proofs?" exclaimed Jasher, stamping again on the earth."Did you never hear of the proofs given by Zopyrus? Know you not howBabylon, the golden city, fell under the sword of Darius? Zopyrus,minion of that king, fled to the city which he was besieging, showedits defenders his ghastly hurts--nose, ears shorn off--and pointed tothe bleeding wounds as _proofs_ that Darius the tyrant, by inflictingsuch injuries upon him, had won a right to his deathless hatred.[1]The Babylonians believed the proofs, they received the impostor, and yeknow the result. Babylon fell, not because the courage of herdefenders quailed, or famine thinned their numbers; not because theenemy stormed at her wall, or pestilence raged within it; but becauseshe had received, and believed, and trusted a traitor, who hadsacrificed his own members to gain the opportunity of destroying thosewho put faith in his honour! Hebrews! a Zopyrus has now come into ourcamp! Will ye open your arms, or draw your swords, to receive him?"

  A wild yell of fury arose from the listening throng, so fierce, soloud, that it drew towards the spot Hebrews from all parts of theencampment. It drew amongst others the young proselyte, who came eagerto know the cause of the noise and excitement, quite unconscious thatit was in any way connected with himself. As Lycidas made towards thecentre of the crowd, it divided to let him pass into the immediatepresence of Jasher, his accuser and self-constituted judge, and thenominously closed in behind him, so as to prevent the possibility of hisretreat.

  Lycidas had come amongst the Hebrew warriors with all the frankconfidence of a volunteer into their ranks; and the Greek's firstemotion was that of amazement, when he found himself suddenly theobject of universal indignation and hatred. There was no mistaking theexpression of the angry eyes that glared upon him from every direction,nor the gestures of hands raising javelins on high, or unsheathing keenglittering blades.

  "Here he is, the traitor, the Gentile, led hither to die the death hedeserves!" exclaimed Jasher.

  "What mean ye, Hebrews--friends? Slay me not unheard!" cried Lycidas,raising on high his voice and his hand. "I am a proselyte; I renouncemy false gods,--"

  "He has their very effigies on his arm!" yelled out Jasher, pointingwith frenzied action to the silver bracelet of Pollux worn by theGreek, on which had been fashioned heads of Apollo and Diana encircledwith rays.

  Here was evidence deemed conclusive; nothing further was needed. "Hedies! he dies!" was the almost unanimous cry. The life of Lycidas hadnot been in greater peril when he had been discovered at the midnightburial, or when he had wrestled with Abishai on the edge of the cliff.In a few moments the young Greek would have lain a shapeless trampledcorpse beneath his murderers' feet, when the one word "Forbear!"uttered in a loud, clear voice whose tones of command had been heardabove the din of battle, stayed hands uplifted to destroy; and with theexclamation, "Maccabeus! the prince!" the throng fell back on eitherside, and through the ranks of his followers the leader strode into thecentre of the circle. One glance sufficed to inform him sufficientlyof the nature of the disturbance; he saw
that he had arrived on thespot barely in time to save his Athenian rival from being torn inpieces by the crowd.

  "What means this tumult? shame on ye!" exclaimed Maccabeus, sternlysurveying the excited throng.

  "We would execute righteous judgment on a Greek--an idolater--a spy!"cried Jasher, pointing at Lycidas, but with less impassioned gesture;for the fanatic quailed in the presence of Maccabeus, who was the oneman on earth whom he feared.

  "He is a Greek, but neither idolater nor spy," said the prince. "He isone of a gallant people who fought bravely for their own independence,and can sympathize with our love of freedom. He has come to offer usthe aid of his arm; shame on ye thus to requite him."

  "I doubt but he will play us false," muttered one of the warriors,giving voice to the thoughts of the rest.

  "We shall soon have an opportunity of settling all such doubts," saidMaccabeus; "we shall attack the enemy at noon, and then shall thisGreek prove in the battle whether he be false man or true."

  The prospect of so soon closing with the enemy was sufficient to turnthe attention of every Hebrew warrior present to something of morestirring interest than the fate of a solitary stranger. Jasher,however, would not so easily let his intended victim go free.

  "He's an Achan!" exclaimed the fanatic; "if he fight amongst us, hewill bring a curse on our arms!"

  "He is a proselyte," replied Maccabeus in a loud voice, which was heardto the farthest edge of the crowd; "our priests and elders havereceived him--and I receive him--as a Hebrew by adoption, companion inarms, a brother in the faith!"

  The words of the prince were received with respectful submission, ifnot with satisfaction. Maccabeus was regarded with enthusiasm by hisfollowers, not only as a gallant and successful leader, but as onewhose prudence they could trust, and whose piety they must honour. Noman dare lay a finger upon him over whom the chief had thrown theshield of his powerful protection.

  Lycidas felt that for the second time he owed his life to JudasMaccabeus. There was a gush of warm gratitude towards his preserver inthe heart of the young Athenian; but something in the manner of theprince told Lycidas that he would not listen to thanks, that theexpression of the Greek's sense of deep obligation would be regarded asan intrusion. Lycidas therefore, compelled, as it were, to silence,could only with fervour ask Heaven for an opportunity of showing hisgratitude in the coming fight by actions more forcible than words.

  "Now, sound the trumpets to arms," exclaimed Maccabeus, "and gather mytroops together. If God give us the victory to-day, the way toJerusalem itself will be open before us! Here will I marshal our ranksfor the fight." Maccabeus strode to the summit of the rising groundfrom which Jasher had just been addressing the crowd, and beckoned tohis standard-bearer to plant his banner behind him, where it could beseen from all parts of the camp. Here, with folded arms, Maccabeuswatched the movements of his warriors as, at the signal-call of thetrumpet-blast, they hastened from every quarter to be marshalled inbattle-array, by their respective captains, under the eye of theirgreat commander. With rapid precision the columns were formed; butbefore they moved on to the attack, Maccabeus, in brief but earnestsupplication, besought the Divine blessing on their arms.

  [1] The student of history need not be reminded that the fall ofBabylon through the stratagem of Zopyrus was quite distinct from andsubsequent to its conquest by Cyrus. (See Rollins's "Ancient History.")