THE LAST BATTLE.
It was the night before the battle. Day by day and hour by hour the
contagion of doubt and disaffection had been spreading through the little
army that followed Judas. He had had three thousand men when he pitched
his camp at Eleasa, and the three thousand had now dwindled down to less
than one.
Judas was sitting by one of the camp-fires with Azariah and Seraiah, when
two soldiers came up, bringing bound between them a man who had
endeavoured, they said, to make his way into the camp. He wore his hat
drawn down over his forehead, and little of his face could be seen, but
there was something in his figure that seemed familiar to Azariah.
“Who are you?” said Judas, “and what want you in the camp? Are you for us
or for our enemies?”
“My lord,” said the man, “my name is Benjamin, and—for I will hide nothing
from you—I am a robber. Once I was a soldier in your army, but I broke the
law, and I fled lest I should be put to death. Now I am come, of my own
accord, to make such amends for my transgression as I may. Slay me, if you
will, as I stand here. There is no need of a trial. I have been tried and
condemned, and I acknowledge that I deserve to die. But if you will be
merciful, let me fight in the morning by your side; and on the morrow, if
I yet live, let me suffer the due punishment. Life I ask not, but only
that I may strike a blow for you before I die.”
“Unbind him,” said Judas to the soldiers.
The command was obeyed.
“You are free to go or stay. But I would gladly have you at my side
to-morrow, for I have forgotten all but that you are a brave man.”
Benjamin stepped forward, and raising the hem of the captain’s robe to his
lips, kissed it. He then knelt, and putting his head to the ground made as
though he would have placed Judas’s foot upon his neck.
“Nay,” said the captain, “we want not slaves, but brothers.” And he raised
him from the ground. “And now,” he went on, “sit down and tell us what you
know, for I make sure that you have not come empty of news.”
Benjamin did indeed know all that could be known about the enemy, and,
indeed, about the situation of affairs. To a question from Seraiah he
replied that a surprise was impossible. The camp was too well guarded and
watched.
“Do they know our real numbers?” asked Judas.
“Yes,” was the answer, “the deserters have told them.” And he proceeded to
give a number of names of those who had gone over to the enemy, with a
readiness and a precision that showed how diligent had been his watch.
When he had told all his story, and understood that there was nothing more
for him to do before the morrow, he wrapped himself in his cloak, and with
characteristic indifference to the future, fell immediately into a
profound and dreamless sleep.
As soon as the first rays of light were seen Judas mustered his soldiers
and hastily numbered them. There were about eight hundred in all, while
the army of Bacchides, according to the calculations of Benjamin, which
seemed to have been carefully made, could not be less than twenty
thousand.
Judas was not dismayed by this disparity of numbers, but was still true to
his old strategy of attack. “Let us go up against our enemies,” was the
exhortation that he addressed to the remnant that was still faithful to
him. At first they shrank back. The odds were too vast; the attempt too
desperate. An old soldier who had proved his valour on more than one
battle-field was put forward as their spokesman.
“This, sir,” he said, “will be to tempt God. Let us now save our lives.
Hereafter we will return again, and fight with them. But now we are too
few.”
But Judas did not waver for a moment. “God forbid,” he cried, “that I
should do this thing, and flee away from them. Not so; if our time is
come, let us die manfully for our brethren, and not stain our honour.”
His words roused once more an answering echo in the hearts of those who
heard him. They replied with a cry of assent. Victory they could not hope
for, but their captain they would follow whithersoever he should lead
them, and as long as he lived they would guard his life with theirs.
The little host was then divided into five companies, commanded by Judas
and his two brothers, Simon and Jonathan, by Seraiah and Micah
respectively. Azariah, whose standing in the army would have entitled him
to a separate command, had made a special request that he might be allowed
to fight by the side of Judas. Benjamin had begged and obtained the same
privilege.
On both sides the trumpets sounded, and both armies moved forward. It was
with nothing less than astonishment that the Greeks saw the slender
proportion of the force that was opposed to them. Most laughed aloud at
the thought that such a handful of men should venture to stand up against
their own well-appointed and numerous host. Others, who had before crossed
swords with Judas’s men knew that that day’s battle, end as it might,
would be no laughing matter. And indeed they were right. The little
company of Jewish heroes fought as three centuries before Leonidas and his
men had fought at Thermopylae.(28) The Greeks came on with the same
arrogant confidence in their numbers as did the picked Persian force
against the defenders of Greece, and met with a like disastrous repulse.
Such was the fury of the Jewish soldiers, such their agility and strength,
that they kept the attacking force in check during the whole day. When
night approached the Greeks had made, it might almost be said, absolutely
no way.
But the resistance, successful as it had been, had cost lives, and Judas
saw his force dwindling before his eyes. Then he made his last desperate
effort. He threw himself on the right wing, where Bacchides commanded in
person, broke the line, and drove it in confusion before him. Possibly he
was too rash in his pursuit, but on such a day, when such odds are to be
encountered, it is scarcely possible to distinguish between rashness and
courage. Anyhow, it was but a brief success. The left wing closed in upon
his rear, and he and his gallant band were surrounded. Judas was the mark
of a hundred swords and spears. For a time he seemed to bear a charmed
life. Azariah and Benjamin, at his right hand and his left, beat down the
blows aimed at him, wholly careless of their own lives, while he with the
long sweep of his fatal sword—the same that he had taken from the dead
Apollonius on his first battle-field—dealt blow after blow, till the
ground was covered with the corpses of his enemies. But a spear pierced
the stout heart of Benjamin, and a sword-stroke laid Azariah in the dust;
and just as the sun sank behind the rugged hills, the hero who had smitten
the enemies of his country at Bethhoron and Emmaüs, at Elah and at Adasa,
had struck his last blow. The Hammer lay broken on the rock.