weeks. The nation was summoned to a sudden life-and-death-struggle with
the Syrian Empire. Lycias, the Governor, menaced the Sacred City with
sixty thousand men. Profiting by the failure of his predecessors in
the three "Battles of the Passes"--the Wady on the north, the Heights
of Bethhoron, and the slopes of Emmaus on the west--this cautious
General passed to the south, and then swung his armies eastward to the
neighborhood of Hebron. It was a masterful stroke, since from that
region there were many roads which converged to a point not far from
the city. Upon any one of these open ways the invaders might mass,
or with their greater numbers they might advance in force by all of
them. The choice of approach being with the invaders, the defender was
forced to abide an attack very near the city walls, unless by strategic
insight he could divine his antagonist's plan almost before he began
to execute it. Judas was therefore compelled to sentinel every spot
of ground from Bethshemesh on the west to Hebron on the south. His
sharp-eyed peasant soldiers signalled by flying arrows in the day and
fire-flashes at night the slightest change in the disposition of the
Greek forces. The instant Lycias' advance turned into the open valley
of Elah, and began its wary movement northward, the Jewish leader saw
that the enemy would essay the narrow pass between the rocky slope of
Bethzur and the cliff of Halhul, some twelve miles from the city. He
therefore gathered his men secretly a little north of that gateway of
the hills and waited. Judas was mindful that these slopes and wadies
through which the Greek legions would have to approach were memorials
of the valor of David, the shepherd king of Judah, in his wars against
the Philistines. He bade his men bow for worship, and himself led the
prayer:
"Blessed art Thou, O Saviour of Israel, who didst break the violence
of the mighty by the hand of Thy servant David, and didst deliver up
the camp of the stranger into the hands of Prince Jonathan. Shut up now
this army of the invaders in the hands of this Thy people Israel, and
let them be confounded in all their host."
Scarcely had the muttered "Amens" ceased when the clatter of horsemen
was heard beyond the pass.
The Greeks were not aware of the presence of the Jews, since the latest
of their scout reports placed the patriots in unsuspicious ease behind
their city walls. They, therefore, moved incautiously into the narrow
valley of Bethzur.
Judas silently watched until their masses and armaments were at the
point where the hills gave them least freedom of movement, then his
signal poured suddenly the entire patriot army upon the advancing foe.
They struck the Greek column in front. When Lycias had succeeded in
deploying to meet the attack from that direction, his agile assailants
slipped to either side, and, scaling the hills, descended upon him as
a flood makes every depression its channel. Everywhere the Jews had
advantage of higher ground, each cubit of which was familiar to them.
They knew the outlet of every pathway, as deer know their runways to
water. Their captains had marked the rocks which companies of tens
or threes could use as breastworks. They had gauged the distance for
arrow or spear or slingstone between these natural forts and the
open spaces the foe must cross, so that their aim was unerring. The
Greeks, attempting to turn from the threatened impact in front, were
met at disadvantage by half-concealed Maccabæans, whose deadly shots
slaughtered them before they could locate the source of attack. Upon
the hastily formed roofs of linked shields, the noted phalanx of the
Greek, the Jews hurled great boulders, crashing through brass and bone.
The air was darkened with flying missiles, which dropped like a storm
of hail upon those in that open valley.
The cry "Mi-camo-ca-ba" echoed seemingly from the very sky. In their
blind rage to open ways of reaching the enemy or of flight, the Greeks
assailed one another, as the scorpion stings itself to death. Before
nightfall the army of Lycias was shattered beneath the strokes of the
Hammer of Israel.
Just previous to the battle Dion had asked permission to join in the
fray. Judas replied:
"I have no orders except for my own and kindred people. The victory
will be of the Lord, and that He will give only to the children of the
faith." He put his hand familiarly upon Dion's arm, as he added: "Had
old Gideon ben Sirach's tale ended differently, as I had hoped, I would
have given you command of a thousand men."
To this Dion responded with somewhat of resentment: "Is not your faith,
Maccabæan, mine? Do you distrust my word of honor, which I gave you at
the gate? I beg that you let me prove my sincerity in the sight of our
two nations."
"I may give you no charge," replied Judas, "but I take it that before
another sunset one who would fight for Jewry will find his own
opportunity. And I pledge you, Dion, not to forget your service, though
I may not direct it."
"It is enough," rejoined the Captain, as he hastened toward the battle,
divining at a glance where it would be thickest.
No spot in all the bloody field was more hotly contested than a little
green glade about a spring. Jew and Greek fought desperately for
possession of its cooling waters. The holders of the ground at one
moment were slaughtered at the next by new assailants. More than a
score of times the spring alternated its owners. Its veins seemed to
spurt out blood, so thickened had the water become.
At this spot toward the close of the day two men glared at each other
over their sword points. One was Dion; the other wore the badge of high
honor among Lycias' officers. He was faint from long exertion; but even
Dion, master of sword-play though he was, could not find a spot in his
antagonist's body unguarded by his quick ward. It was evident, however,
that Dion would soon get from his foe's exhaustion what he could not
wrest by his skill.
"Yield!" he cried.
The man slightly lowered his sword.
"That voice is not a Jew's," came from the Greek helmet.
"The sword is," was Dion's reply.
"Yet played as never was a Jew's," came the response between wards and
panting breaths. "If I am to fall, thank the gods it is by a Greek's
hand, though he be a traitor to his blood!"
"Traitor!"
The taunt fired all the fiend in Dion's soul. With one stroke he sent
his opponent's sword ringing among the stones, and his body backward
to the ground, while a tremendous blow on his head completed his
discomfiture.
The displaced helmet revealed white hair and beard. Dion did not strike
again.
"I will not take the life of one of your years. So valiant an arm must
have done better service than this in which it is now engaged. Rise!
You are my prisoner."
"I will not be prisoner to a Jew," said the prostrate man. "But I swear
by all the gods, that stroke was of no Jew's arm."
"Taunt me not again," shouted the victor, "or, by Jove! the sword, be
it Jew or Greek, will find your heart."
"'By Jove!' Why, man, you have not been Jew long enough to learn new
oaths. Now strike if you will. My life is yours, but first"--the man
assumed an utter indifference of tone and manner--"first I would have a
drink of the spring. It is hard to let out one's last breath through a
throat so parched."
"That boon is well earned," said Dion, his rage tempered instantly by
the man's grim humor.
He helped unclasp his antagonist's helmet, and gave his hand as he
tottered over the dead bodies which lay in heaps about the spring, and
through the mud made by the many feet that all day had trampled the
ground soaked with water and blood.
"Faugh!" said the man. "I cannot drink this stuff. It is not wise to
mix wines, and mixed bloods are worse. Cut my veins, my friend, and let
me drink something at least clean and pure. A draught of life--good
Greek life--to die by--ha! ha! Help me, ghost of Socrates!"
Dion cleared the surface of the fountain on the side where it came
trickling up from the earth and mingled its white beads with the red
foulness. Using his helmet for a vessel, he dipped a quantity.
"I have seen a fairer goblet at a feast," said he, offering it with a
courtesy that was real for all its seeming mockery.
"Which again proves that you are a Greek," was the stranger's response.
"Why repeat that?" said Dion.
"Because," said the old man, "it is true. Would you know how I detected
it?"
The two became interested in each other's faces.
"Go on," said Dion.
"Why, as I said, I knew you by your sword play. And not only are you
a Greek, but I swear you are a Greek of Macedonia. Do I not know it?
Never before was my sword tricked out of my hand either in play or
fight. No man could have done that, had he the strength of Heracles,
but in one way--and that way you learned in the school of Philippi."
"The Jews travel far. They learn what pleases them," said Dion, with
suppressed amazement.
"But no Jew ever learned that guard and thrust in one movement." The
stranger imitated the motion with his hand. "It was my own invention."
"You!" gasped Dion in amazement. "You! If you take that man's name
falsely, you die like a dog! Who are you?"
The officer sprang to his feet. He put his hands upon the young man's
shoulder.
"Gods! Can this be?"
A swirl in the battle-tide brought others to the spring. Dion and the
stranger moved away. They were closely watched by a party of Jews, some
of whom were ordered to keep them under constant surveillance.
"It is that Greek," said their officer. "See, he is in communion with
the enemy. Take them alive, but if they try to escape kill them both."
The two turned from the open glade to a covert among the rocks.
Scarcely had they begun to converse when they were seized by
overpowering numbers, who could not have more stealthily performed the
exploit if they had been leaves of the overhanging trees which turned
into men as they fell. The arms of the captives were quickly pinioned
behind their backs, and under guard they were marched to the city.
XLIV
A WIFE?
The following day the excitement in Jerusalem was intense and
clamorous. As band after band of the Jewish heroes returned from
the pursuit of the Greeks they were met at the city walls with such
cheers that the Kedron valley echoed as if the generations of the dead
entombed along its rocky sides had awakened to greet the valor of the
living. Companies vied with one another in relating the marvels of
prowess they had performed; but through all the boasting ran a vein of
reverent recognition of the heavenly leading of affairs, and almost as
worshipful praise of the strange man by whose hand Jehovah had wrought
this new deliverance.
Those who had captured Dion at the spring of Bethzur gave full credit
to their own shrewdness and courage in that exploit.
"All Greeks are treacherous," was one comment. "Judas is so true
himself that he suspects no one else; but he ought not to have allowed
the Macedonian to remain in the city after the rest of his kind had
been chased out by their own heels."
"Think of his impudence! He even asked for a command. To command
us--us! Jonathan was for trusting him; but Simon, the Wise, advised
caution. No doubt this Greek traitor had planned an ambush for us. The
other Greek is of high rank; his face would show that without the gold
in his sword-hilt."
"But Captain Dion fought splendidly," interjected another. "I myself
saw him make five Greeks bite the dust."
"That is true," observed one, "and but for his advice at one time it
might have gone hard with my company. We were wedged in between the
hills, and the Greeks were about to link shields--and when they do
that they will move through the gate of hell--but Captain Dion gave me
the hint, and himself posted us so that we took them on the flank, and
buried them under their own metal. But, as I have thought of it since,
I remember that I didn't move our men exactly as Dion advised me, or we
might have come out right in front of the phalanx and been trampled to
pieces. It must have been a trick on the part of the traitor."
"No doubt," was the response. "The Greek has been playing us false
throughout; but his toes are in the trap now."
This popular estimate of Dion was repeated in higher places.
Judas took no part, except as a listener, in the council of his
brethren as they debated the matter.
Simon repeated his former warnings, which now seemed justified. Eliezar
recalled several other instances in which Dion's actions might have
had a sinister intent. John attributed to him some secret advice which
he must have sent to Lycias, and which led the Greek General to make
the assault upon Jerusalem from the south, the only direction in which
Judas had looked with any fear. That plan was shrewdly laid, and but
for the swiftness with which Judas made his counter plan, and the
rapid succession of his blows upon the enemy before they got through
the hills of Bethzur, the Greeks had surely taken the city.
These insinuations brought to the face of Judas no sign of his being
influenced by them; but a certain word that fell from Jonathan was met
by a quick flash in the champion's eyes.
"If Captain Dion proved treacherous, perhaps the daughter of Elkiah can
explain it. She could have made the Greek a Jew with a breath."
Jonathan touched Simon's hand as he said this. Judas mused a moment,
his face reddening as it did only under deep emotion, generally of some
resentment. His response was laconic:
"The Greek shall have justice."
"Justice should not go with lagging feet," said Simon.
"Nor leap," replied the chieftain. "Only God can give judgment with
lightning."
"True, but men should be quick to see a storm coming, my brother," said
Simon. "Let the men be summoned at once. There may be other treasons
for aught we know. We have caught but two serpents in the nest. If
others are there we will start them to squirming. I will have the
prisoners brought."
"Let them wait," was Judas' decision.
"Wherefore wait, my brother? We can discover who and what these men are
very quickly."
"Perhaps," said Judas; "but it may take time to know ourselves."
"Going into one of his moods again," remarked Eliezar, and the brethren
went away.
The two prisoners were generally forgotten in the popular excitement
of a few days immediately following the victory of Bethzur. Mountains
of spoil had been brought into the city and distributed--for Judas
insisted that his men should share equally the fruits of their bravery.
Bethzur was fortified against the possible return of Lycias, who raged
in his disgrace like a wounded tiger. Even if he should not repeat
his venture, the nomadic people to the south were making hostile
demonstration; indeed, all the tribesmen, south, east, and north were
in commotion. Yusef, the Arab, had stirred up all tentdom to avenge the
insult which Nadan had reported, and even the defeat of Lycias did not
altogether discourage the purpose which the coming of that General had
led them to make.
Said Yusef one day, watching a fight of insects:
"Let the Greeks bite the Maccabæans; we will come later and be the
sting."
The black tents of the Bedouins were again seen on all sides, like
mildew on a fair fabric. Couriers with long lances and head cloths
streaming in the wind circled about Jerusalem at a safe distance, as
Meph sagely remarked, "Like a lot of spiders webbing in a big bug they
dare not yet attack."
These things would have sufficiently engaged the time of the Maccabæan
leaders had not very different matters also claimed their attention.
The far-flashing fame of Judas startled the nations. Envoys from
various kingdoms came to Jerusalem to study the meaning of the new
power, which seemed to rise as mysteriously as the armed men who
sprang from the ground sown with the fabled dragon's teeth. The
Governor of Phœnicia and Cœle-Syria proposed terms of alliance with
Judas. Demetrius, a nephew of King Antiochus, an aspirant for the
succession to the Syrian throne, now a hostage in Rome, sent secret
emissaries pledging the independence of Palestine as the price of
Judas' assistance in accomplishing his ambition. From Athens, on the
other hand, came those who would bribe this new sword for the help of
Greece against the Romans. These, again, were met on their way by the
agents of Rome, who were also coming to offer rank and power to the new
kingdom of Israel as a province of the great republic of the West.
Judas and his counsellors had thus to consider many wider problems than
that of manœuvring an army. It was clear that Jerusalem was to become
again a capital, and the scattered people a nation.
"Judas must be our King," said Jonathan.
To this all agreed, with a solitary exception. Judas indignantly
replied:
"I am but as the hand of a Gideon; would you have me play the part of
Abimelech? A bramble king, indeed, would you find me. I am fit only
to be a scourge to the enemies of the Lord. Let me be but as a soul
within a sword until the Lord sheathes me, as I know He soon will. Are
we not near the time of the coming of Him who is promised as the Prince
of Peace? Search the records, Simon; the books of the prophets, and
the genealogies of families of Judah, for Messiah is to be a branch of
David--that surely is not of the house of Mattathias."
Jonathan replied:
"The words of the Prophets are hard to interpret, my brother, while the
events of Providence lie open, like these hills in the sunshine. Only
the blind fail to see the signs of the times. Woe to the man among us
who cannot recognize the trumpet call of the Lord, when every blast of
it has already destroyed an army of the enemy, as the rams' horns made
the walls of Jericho fall down. Least of all should Judas shut his eyes
to the light because it happens to fall in front of his own feet."
When Judas was not present his brethren spoke together freely, assuming
the kingship to be inevitable. They concerned themselves only with
schemes for founding and strengthening the new monarchy.
"Judas must marry," said Simon. "The nation can be built upon no one
man."
"Surely not upon a single man like Judas," replied Jonathan, "whose
life must be in perpetual hazard of battle; for well I see that war
will be our condition for many years to come. The little land of Judea
is not wide enough for a kingdom. We must conquer all the ancient lands
of our fathers."
"And Syria, Phœnicia, Cœle-Syria also," rejoined Simon, "until
Solomon's empire, 'from the river to the end of the earth,' from the
Euphrates to the Great Sea, shall have been restored. Judas must found
a family to whom this work shall be committed."
"It will be possible to make alliance by marriage with one of the great
powers," suggested Jonathan. "I would not despair of a princess of
Egypt even."
"It were a sin to think of such a thing," replied Simon, indignantly.
"Did not the Lord rebuke Solomon for his foreign wives? The men who sit
upon the Maccabæan throne must be of blood as pure as that of Judas
himself, untainted, as we know, in a thousand years. There is but one
woman for Queen of Jerusalem, the daughter of Elkiah. The glory of the
High Priests' house has departed. What house comes next? Is it not that
of the last Nasi, Elkiah the martyr? Besides, Judas has already set his
heart upon the maiden."
"She will never be the wife of Judas," said Jonathan.
"Deborah not the wife of Judas? What woman in Jewry would refuse such
honor?"
"One woman."
"To utter such suspicion is treason," cried Simon, in a towering rage.
"Not to speak as one sees would be treason far worse."
"And you have seen--what?" cried both Simon and Eliezar.
"I have seen--well, I have seen a cat play with a dog, and both forget
that they were made to tear each other."
"This is no matter for mirth, nor for silly parables, in which Jonathan
is given to hiding his thoughts. What have you seen?"
"Well, then, I have seen a Jewess and a Greek. Ask me no more," and
Jonathan turned away.
For a while neither of the remaining men spoke. At length Simon said:
"Do you believe this?"
"I have heard it on the street," replied Eliezar. "And it is said that,
since the taking of that Dion in the very act of treachery, Deborah has
not been beyond her house. She certainly has had no part in any public
rejoicing over our great victory. Not a scrap of color has been hung
from her parapet."
"Does Judas suspect such a thing?"
"He has not been within the house of Elkiah since the battle. And that
is strange. He was always there."
"It is well," added Simon, "that the Greek must die. Whatever favor
the daughter of Elkiah has shown him, the clear evidence we have of
his villainy will open her eyes. But Jonathan's thought is beyond
credulity. It is a trick of him they well call the Wily. Jonathan is
bent upon our making alliance with the heathen, and would divert us
from the course which patriotism and religion demand; aye, and that
which Judas' own inclination would favor. Did you not notice his manner
when Jonathan mentioned the name of the Greek in connection with
Deborah? I tell you, Judas will make a quick end of this proselyte
when he learns what men are saying of the traitor's friendship for the
maiden."
"And I shall see to it that he hears it," replied Eliezar.
XLV
THE TRIAL
The morning after this conversation the two prisoners were summoned.
The court was held in the open portico of the gymnasium on Ophel.
Captain Dion and his companion were brought there, their arms still
bound. Judas had been pacing the portico, absorbed with his own
thoughts.
"The prisoners, sir," said their custodian.
Judas sat down upon a fallen statue of Hermes, near it a rusted discus.
Slowly he raised his head, as if loath to so much as look upon one
taken in such shame as that of Captain Dion. He glanced first into the
face of the older prisoner. In spite of his unkempt condition this man
was imposing. His erect attitude belied his wrinkles as a token of age.
The blood from an undressed wound still clotted his brow, but this
could not hide the rare nobility of his features.
Judas studied the man a long time in silence. He seemed fascinated
by the stranger's appearance. If what the Greek orators had on this
very spot declaimed were true, that a goodly physical endowment is the
outweaving of goodness of soul, Judas' decision had been an instant
discharge of the prisoner.
He turned to Dion. Before his eyes rested upon the Captain, Judas
forced a look of severity, knitting his features into hardness. As
when a soldier puts a chain corselet over his breast, so Judas had
evidently determined to guard his sense of strict and merciless justice
against any temptation that might come from his former liking for the
culprit. The muscles of his face were set like linked steel.
Captain Dion returned his judge's gaze with perfect self-possession.
There was neither blush nor pallor, nor flicker of fear, nor sign of
resentment.
"Take off those ropes," commanded Judas. Then, turning to a soldier:
"Your report, Captain Jacob!"
Captain Jacob related the events attending the capture, as he himself,
in charge of the company that made the arrest, had witnessed them. He
stated that Dion and his accomplice were caught in apparent hiding,
engaged in conversation which betokened familiarity and mutual
understanding. Several others confirmed Captain Jacob's evidence, and
added details which deepened the color in the picture of the plotters,
and, at the same time, brought out the shrewdness and courage of their
captors.
The clouds massed more heavily on Judas' brow as he listened. There
were moments with this strange man when, without uttering a word, his
aspect became almost as terrible as when shouting his battle-cry,
"Mi-camo-ca-ba!" At such times his friends would turn away, dreading
the outburst when the hot lava of his soul should reach his lips.
When the testimony against the prisoner was ended, Judas remained for a
long time silent. At length he spoke. The words came slowly, as if each
were compelled to halt and answer the challenge of a sentinel placed
before the door of his lips.
"Has Captain Dion any explanation of what is charged against him?"
Dion's coolness matched that of his interrogator. There was neither
stoical bravado nor shame in his confession:
"Maccabæus, every word these men have spoken is true."
A murmur of rage at the prisoner's audacity ran through the crowd, as
they pressed close about him.
"Is not this enough?" cried Simon, putting his hand to his sword as if
he himself would serve as executioner on the spot.
Judas raised his hand. The angry multitude moved back, yet every man
stood ready to be the minister of Judas' vengeance the moment the
signal should be given.
"Captain Dion," said the judge, "I did not ask you to either confirm or
deny what these true men of Israel have said. Your confirmation would
not add a feather's weight to their veracity, nor would the denial
of ten thousand Greeks shake our confidence in them. I ask not your
testimony, but your explanation."