"Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God!" She lay some moments in almost a
trance of seraphic peace. This was changed to seraphic fury. Jehovah
had accepted her. She was to be His messenger--a messenger of fire, of
dagger, of deceit toward Israel's foes, as well as of consolation to
His people.
She rose, and stood with hands clasped behind her, her face upturned
to the glowing line of light that spanned the ravine. She drank in the
brightness as heaven's approbation.
How long she remained in that attitude of rhapsody she did not know.
The spell was suddenly broken.
"There she is! Here, Caleb, is Deborah! Give me your hand, or she will
be gone ere we reach her," cried Mephibosheth to his blind friend, as,
spying Deborah at a distance, the children tried to reach her. But thus
startled, she walked too fast for the lame boy, encumbered as he was
with the care of his comrade.
"Well, let her go. It is enough that she is safe," said Caleb.
The boys had spent an hour in a favorite haunt in a field of great
boulders that lay just at the brink of the ravine. These stones were
of volcanic origin, and a proportion of metal had entered into their
composition. The lads soon found that when they were struck with
smaller stones they emitted semi-musical sounds, and they were not long
in playing upon them crude imitations of the tunes with which they were
familiar. Caleb would sit by one that gave a deep ring, while Meph with
a stone and his crutch could reach two others.
"I thought when we played 'Awake, Deborah!' we would start her," said
Meph.
"So we did," replied Caleb, and reaching his hands up to his comrade's
shoulders, with a spring and a boost, he was instantly astride them, a
saddle that the good-natured cripple had often provided for his more
unfortunate friend when the way was rough.
In the counsel of the Fort of the Rocks Deborah that night related to
Judas, Simon and Jonathan the story of the strange sounds she had heard
in the ravine.
Simon shook his head and remained silent, glancing solicitously at
the girl, as a physician might study one suspected of dementia. Judas
quickly avowed his belief that God was again speaking to His people as
in the ancient days of faith. The after debate between these brothers
was decided by the words of Jonathan, the Crafty.
"If," said Jonathan, "Simon be right in ascribing this to the maiden's
madness, still it does not follow that Judas is wholly wrong. Does not
the Lord use even our dreams, when our minds are astray from their
waking wisdom? If He made the ass to correct the prophet, why should He
not use the vagary of this most pious woman? We need such service as
she proposes. My voice is that we put no restraint upon her becoming
our spy, lest peradventure we be found to fight against the will of Him
who, it may be, is impelling her to this duty."
XIV
THE SPY
The vale of Shechem is the fairest in Palestine. It is a long strip of
meadow scarcely two hundred yards wide, guarded, as by two sleeping
giants, by the mountains of Ebal and Gerizim, which cut the sky between
two and three thousand feet above. For four furlongs of its length the
valley lies like an emerald, broken by silver streams and sparkling
basins of water. Beyond, for an equal distance, the bright green gives
place to the gray foliage of olive groves, until the natural glory
fades into the staring white houses of the town. In shady nooks and
sunny glades the earth bursts with flowers of every hue, as if Flora
had danced and left her fabled footprints impregnate with germs of
beauty. If one be sated with the fairness that lies at one's feet,
let the eyes rest upon the terraces of olive and grape, fig and
prickly pear which relieve the precipitous sides of Ebal, the ancient
Mountain of Cursing; or upon the swelling domes of rock which make the
impressive mass of Gerizim, the Mountain of Blessing.
Even Apollonius, the desecrator of Jerusalem, with his eyes dimmed with
the rheum of many debauches, must have delighted in the prospect; for
midway the vale rose his gorgeous pavilion. From its door, when not
enamored of nature, he could feast his pride upon the white and blue
tents of his army, which gleamed far up the slopes of either mountain.
In reward for his service in desolating the Jewish capital, and in many
ways acting as a sort of procurer for the pride, greed, and lust of his
royal master, Epiphanes had made Apollonius Governor of Samaria, and
commander of all the king's forces in Syria.
Into his camp at Shechem had come not only brave warriors, but many
merchants, to purchase the prospective spoil of the invaders. Women,
too, some the wives of officers, others adventuresses, flaunted their
gay attire amid the flashing helmets and spears of the soldiery.
Before the great General's pavilion stood his steed, a gigantic
charger, with arching neck and restive eyes, now sniffing the hand of
his groom, and anon rearing as if to break from his custody. Near by
was a heavy-wheeled, but light-bodied chariot, its seat cushioned in
creamy silk. At its pole waited a span of graceful roans, glittering in
harness buckled and bossed with gold.
At the opening of the tent sat Apollonius, in full armor, except that
his head was bared. Upon a couch just within reclined a woman. At a
glance one would have said that she was of great beauty. Her features
failed perhaps of the finest proportions that mark the classic Greek
face; the nostrils too distended; the mouth too large; forehead high,
but masked with abundant auburn locks, which were braided down almost
to the eyebrows. Chiselled in marble that face would not have been an
Aphrodite; but flushed as it was at the moment with excitement, her
eyes sparkling with latent coquetry, and her slightly parted lips
curved with a sensuous suggestion, she was sufficiently fascinating to
the degenerate taste of the Greek officers passing the tent, who stole
not unwelcome glimpses at her fairness.
"And what, pray, my lord Apollonius, is to be my portion of the spoil
you are to take? I have no taste for the blood of the Jews, which you
say your sword will draw from these Maccabæan peasants. A draught of
wine--if only the cup were golden and I might keep it--would please me
better. But no golden cups and no goodly garments will you get from
these beggarly people. Some clouts and a few of the sickles they use
for swords will scarcely grace the victory of one whom the king has
honored for his valor."
"I see," replied the General, "that my fair one has grown weary of her
lord, and that I need to freshly bribe her favor. Will not the gift
of yesterday suffice to keep my Helena's patience for a day or two to
come?"
The General toyed with a silver serpent with eyes of ruby, which
encircled her arm. After a moment's pause, watching closely his
companion as if studying the effect of his words, he added:
"If the trumpery of Jewish housewives please you not, there is better
spoil in Jerusalem."
"Is anything left there?" languidly asked the woman, looking at her
shapely wrist and hand.
"Much. And it is game that will give zest to the catching. Listen!
Since my fair goddess has tired of me, I propose that she shall find
another lover more to her liking."
The woman's eyes flashed.
Apollonius continued: "You know, that by the ruling of the King, the
rich estates of Elkiah are not to be sequestered as other property of
the rebels. His son, Glaucon, having become a Greek, is recognized
as the heir. A handsome fellow he is, with a thimbleful of brains;
conceited, a prey to clever men, an easier victim of a clever
woman--such a woman as has charmed an old soldier like me, caring as
you know but little for the sex. You need but smile at Glaucon to addle
his wits."
"Are your wits addled?" queried the woman contemptuously.
"Perhaps they have been, but I am in fair way to recover, as my scheme
will prove. Should you marry this Glaucon, by Greek law it is true you
would not inherit his estates; but no law prevents the fool from giving
to you whatever you ask as the price of your favor; and you come high
at times, as my thin belt can attest. But, my dear, you must appear to
him as of princely rank, for the fellow has been flattered to believe
himself courted by the very household of the King. I think I can make
my letters sufficiently ennoble you, if your beauty does not evidence
your divinity. Will not this sound well? Ahem! 'The Princess Helena,
cousin to Apollonius!' Ah, you blush at the title. Glaucon will pay
me well for persuading your Olympian wings to fold themselves on his
dungheap. It is a scheme worthy the Jew himself, is it not? This little
finger of yours will pick the lock of Glaucon's treasure-house."
The woman laughed outright as she cried:
"Shall I go to Jerusalem and act the prude? That is an art I have never
practised. I surely had never won your love, my venerable Apollo, if I
had posed as the chaste Artemis."
"Perhaps not," replied the General, with a shrug of his shoulders, "but
you have acted the chaste goddess perfectly in the eyes of others.
That I will say; for I have had less than a score of opportunities for
jealousy during as many moons. And I will swear to this Glaucon that I
caught you in my arms as you once escaped the Grotto of Pan at Ephesus."
"Grotto of Pan? Another remembrance of your nursery; and with a moral,
I doubt not, as good as one of Æsop. Let me hear the story, but leave
off the lesson," replied she, lolling languidly upon the couch.
"Why," said Apollonius, "at Ephesus, when a woman's virtue is not
transparent, they bring her to Pan's Grotto for testing. If the god
sees no offense in her, then the doors open to heavenly music, and she
escapes. Looking one day for something in the shape of womanhood that
was immaculate, I lingered by the entrance, and you came bouncing out.
Glaucon is up in our Greek legends, and will understand me, even if you
did not."
"But if the woman could not pass inspection?" his companion asked
nonchalantly.
"Well, in such an unusual case for the town of Ephesus, where Artemis
has her temple, the pipes in Pan's cave screech out a wail for the
damned, and the tainted woman drops through the rock floor into the
river Styx. I will swear that I did not fish you out of the river Styx."
"Paugh!" sneered the woman. "It is time that you sold me out to another
after that speech."
The tears shot into her eyes, but they were quickly dried by her hot
rage; and as quickly again the livid fury gave place to a forced smile.
"I warn you, my lord, that I myself will be the judge of my new
purchaser, as I was of you."
This woman was well aware that anger did not become her type of
countenance; it changed her beauty into hideousness. Whatever age-marks
were latent in her face, smoothed by practised smiles, or masked
by cosmetics, were brought out by ill temper--as sunburn develops
freckles. She was as self-conscious when gazed at by others as when
she was alone before her mirror, and as ready with her arts. She,
therefore, instantly suppressed the rising displeasure.
Indeed, the displeasure would itself have died as Apollonius further
disclosed his schemes; for any fondness she may have felt for the
present owner of her affections was less than her innate cupidity,
and less than that passion for intrigue and adventure which she had
developed by much practice on many fields. In her, deceitfulness
reached the rank which in men is called diplomacy. Though now at home
in the tent of the Syrian commander, she was not unwilling to enlarge
the sphere of her conquest in any direction. Perhaps her eagerness
for the spoil of such a house as that of Glaucon was as laudable,
certainly as natural, as Apollonius' own ambition to fame himself as
the conqueror of Palestine.
The conversation of the General and the woman was interrupted by a
lad, whose basket of fruit, deftly balanced on his head, had gained
him admission to the camp; for while strict guard was kept against the
intrusion of peasant men and women, the children were allowed freedom
to sell their delicacies for the coins, though often they received only
the cuffs, of the soldiers.
The boy was stretched at full length upon the ground, counting the bits
of money he had taken, and sorting the figs, dates, and grapes which
were left in his basket. His head was covered with a mass of unkempt
black hair, his body with a single garment, which might have been an
inverted corn sack, tied with a string at the waist, while his head
protruded through a hole in the bottom. His legs and feet were bare
except for the dirt which hosed them, and striped with scratches made
by bramble bushes.
So engrossed was the boy in his business calculations that he did
not seem aware of his undue proximity to the General's tent, until a
sentinel prodded him in the calf of the leg with his spear-point, and
bade him "Begone!"
The General, looking up at the outcry, recalled the lad and bought of
his fruit, tossing some of it into the lap of his companion.
"Faugh! The Jew's filth soils them," cried she, as the clusters were
laid upon the rug.
"Let them be well cleansed then," said the General; "but in this
country we must be less particular. The Jews believe that Adam, their
first father, was made out of the ground, and surely the race seems
fond of its original stock. But in one respect the Jews are cleaner
than most people; vermin cannot abide their vile blood; it poisons even
the fleas."
"The lad is finely formed," said the woman, eyeing him as a
connoisseur. "His ankles are trim enough for a girl's, and his feet are
not flattened and ill-shapen as those of most peasants are. And what a
face! Ganymedes was not fairer. Look out, my lad, that the eagle does
not fly away with you and make you cup-bearer to the gods."
"Why not make him your own Ganymedes, my divinity?" cried the General.
"You have no Hebe of your own begetting to be jealous of him. What say
you, my lad, would you like to be dressed in spangles and wait at the
hand of the fairest of Astartes? And perhaps, being only a child, you
might drink at her lips, since my goddess has lost her liking for an
old soldier's kisses."
With a look of stupid inquiry the boy replied in the Samaritan patois,
"An as for a bunch; three bunches for two ases; all for an obolo.
Give me drachma and I bring you so much"--extending his arms as if to
enclose a bushel.
The Greeks burst into laughter.
"Your learned wit is wasted on a Samaritan, as I am afraid mine would
be on that Jerusalem Jew," said the mistress.
"It will not be wasted there. Glaucon speaks Greek well, as do all
the better sort in the city. Besides, his head is just now as full as
a pedlar's pack of all the scraps of our philosophy, poetry, and art
that he can hear. He is specially interested in our Greek goddesses,
and in making his hair curl. With his head in your lap you can arrange
his locks and give him a lesson in the worship of Aphrodite at the same
time. Glaucon will be as good a pupil of Helena as Pericles was of
Aspasia."
The fruit-seller, impervious to their wit at his expense, gathered
up the remnant of his wares, and started away; but quickly turning,
he threw himself down upon his belly in the shadow of the tent, and
resumed counting his coins, tallying each one with a jerk of his
heels, as those dirty but graceful appendages waved over his back.
"The boy's legs talk as freely as the arms and face of Pharetes, the
pantomimist. He would make an actor, if trained," observed Apollonius.
"Or a dancer," replied the woman. "Let us see if he has learned to
wiggle his calves rhythmically."
She sang a rollicking run of notes, accompanied with snapping her
fingers and waving her arms, which tempted even Apollonius to give a
few steps in his jingling armor. The boy only stared and grinned.
"Pshaw!" said the General, "the religion of these people is so dull
that it rusts even their sinews. A Greek child would have danced on
his hands and head at such singing. But, my dear, you should start
to-morrow for Jerusalem. I will strike the miserable spawn of that
priest Mattathias--Apollo, my namesake, being willing--within three
days. Some ten thousand of us, each as valiant as Alexander himself,
are only waiting to conquer these sand-hills in lieu of a larger
world. We will drive the Jews into their holes and drown them in their
own blood, and then move to the city. I fear that Menelaos, the High
Priest, is scraping the bottom of every strong-box the Jews left, and
if we do not hasten there will not be an obolo for us to buy grapes
with."
His companion had become curiously interested in the lad.
"Do the boys and girls dress alike in this country?" she asked. "That
child has the hips and shoulders of a woman."
The boy had evidently completed his bookkeeping, and hastily
swallowing some of his wares, moved away. He sauntered awhile in the
direction of the town, trying to keep two figs at a time in the air
or to catch one in his mouth; then suddenly turned southward toward
the eastern slope of Mount Gerizim, and, depositing his basket under a
clump of bushes, ran southward as fast as his legs could carry him.
XV
THE BATTLE OF THE WADY
The gray light of the following morning, breaking between the cliffs of
Moab, revealed two figures not far from the Fort of the Rocks.
One was the stalwart form of Judas, his red hair glowing like a sunrise
on a mountain pinnacle as compared with the tiny body of his companion,
the lame Mephibosheth. The boy's strength was utterly exhausted, so
that he could scarcely stand with the aid of his crutch; but his
tongue, as usual, was "like a strong man rejoicing to run a race."
"Up on my shoulder, Meph!" said Judas. "You can better whisper in my
ear what I judge it were not well for even the trees to hear. She was
unharmed? And you met her in the Wady? That is a good seven hours from
here, Meph. And you have trudged all night to bring me tidings? The
Lord bless you!"
"Amen!" responded Meph. "And General Apollonius moves at once upon
us. He will attack us to-morrow or next day. Deborah bade me say that
he would surely come by the Wady. They must move up the dry water-bed
if they would reach us so soon, for it will take thrice the hours to
march over the hills; and she says that one man on the cliff above is
worth a score hemmed in by the walls of the great chasm they must pass
through."
"God be praised! And is this all?" asked Judas.
"Except," added Meph, "that a rich convoy has already started from
Shechem for Jerusalem by the direct road. In it are many merchants and
women of rank."
"We want neither their pelf nor their women," said Judas. "Let them go
their way, if they only keep out of ours. But this Apollonius I would
have. He is the biggest hawk of them all. Oh, Meph! Meph! if we could
only get his claws tangled in the Wady as you get the birds fastened in
your nets!"
"I generally have to pull the string myself," said the boy. "You must
pull just then and just so, but you get them."
Judas laughed and assured Meph that he would make a strategist if not a
champion some day; and with gigantic strides he went over the hills.
Within an hour the Fort of the Rocks was deserted by all save the
women, the aged, the sick, and children. In single bands the armed men
moved northward, following the depression between the hills, filing
like ants close to the clumps of rock so that no eye less sharp than
an eagle's would have detected a moving army. As night fell, the Jews,
who had been scattered during the daylight, gathered in among the rocks
bordering the great Wady. In the darkness they felt their way each to
such couch as he might find between the boulders. Soon all was silent,
except for the coming and going of Judas and his brethren, giving
encouragement or command.
At the same time the army of Apollonius was approaching, a league to
the west. A squadron of horsemen led the van. These followed the
roadway, whose white line was extinguished by the clouds of dust raised
by thousands of hoofs. Lance-point and helmet gleamed dimly through the
darkness answering the stars, as when heavenly bodies are reflected
in rippling water. The command to move in silence did not prevent the
clicking of weapons and the low rumble of horses' feet on the beaten
road.
Foot soldiers, armed with pikes, bows, and swords, followed the
horsemen. Then came camels and asses, laden with provisions and heavier
weapons. To the rear struggled hundreds of camp followers; merchants to
purchase the spoil; and those of baser sort to revel in the expected
rapine. The usual swarm of women were there to make their Circean camp
wherever the troops should halt.
It was past midnight when the van of the Greeks reached the opening
of the Wady. The soldiers needed rest after their rapid march. Each
company scattered to right or left, maintaining only relative order.
Then silence fell upon the host. Ten thousand men were scarcely
distinguishable from the rocks and bushes amid which they slept. The
sharp challenge of a sentinel, the accidental clash of a weapon against
a stone, mingled with the hoot of an owl or the bark of some jackal as
he found his usual path of marauding blocked by the strange forms of
men.
Yet other eyes than those of night-prowling birds and beasts penetrated
the darkness. Judas and his brethren had taken oversight of the Greek
host almost as comprehensive as was that of Apollonius and his staff.
"I fear," said Judas to a comrade, "lest something untoward has
happened the maiden; for this is the spot, and the stars mark the
hour. God forbid that we have erred in sending her upon this unwomanly
venture!"
"Yet," said Jonathan, "the information she has sent us is worth the
sacrifice of a life."
"But not such a life, my brother. If she has been ensnared, I know not
how to rejoice in any victory so dearly bought. Meph says she was at
the very tent of Apollonius."
"You think overmuch of the daughter of Elkiah," replied Jonathan.
"Besides, she would have her own way."
"Aye, and has it. List!"
The three whistling notes of a quail floated from a long distance, and
were scarcely answered by the same signal when a woman stood beside
them.
"God be praised!" and the two Maccabees each raised in turn her hand to
his lips.
"But why this attire, Deborah? We looked for a Greek helmet at least,"
said Judas, touching her long flowing robe, which even the night showed
to be of a gaudy color.
"The Greek women have the freedom of their camps," replied Deborah.
"No greater dangers than insulting words have threatened me there, and
words do not harm if the soul does not hear them."
"Still, for every such word a Greek life shall pay before another night
comes," said Jonathan.
"Not in my revenge, brave men," replied Deborah. "We must not think
of such things. What shall we care for insults when our cause is so
shamed? But to my account. Apollonius rides with the middle division.
The squadron of Syrian horse under Syron leads. Philip has sent a
detachment from Jerusalem to join in the fray. The whole army moves
into the valley at daybreak. God grant it may be to them the 'valley of
the shadow of death.' But yet, how can I wish such things? Sometimes my
woman's heart cries out against the cruelty of our most righteous war.
But I am woman no longer. My heart has bled so much that my nature has
turned to blood. Have you any order for me?"
"None, but that you rest. Do not stay near the battle, for though we
pray for victory we are but a handful against a multitude. Our armor is
little more than our courage; theirs is brass and iron."
"It matters not," said Deborah. "Did you hear my Caleb's dream? It was
of a little hole in the sandy beach which drank up the sea."
"The Lord grant that this Wady be the hole," responded Judas. "If He
forsake us not, few of the Greeks will come out at the other end. But
to your rest, my daughter! You will need great strength of body and
soul to comfort those in the Fort of the Rocks, who will mourn for many
of us to-morrow. God watch between us!"
Deborah went a little way in the direction of the Fort of the Rocks.
Jonathan accompanied her until she insisted upon lying down to rest
in a secure spot, feeling too fatigued to resume her journey before
to-morrow.
But no sooner had Jonathan's form disappeared through the night than
she rose.