thronged with people. Many of these had been especially summoned by the
Messiah Malhamah, the "Anointed for War," as the nation were content to
call their leader until such time as he was disposed to take the crown.
Here thronged priests, some greatly renowned for wisdom and piety,
but who had been long in hiding. They came wearing the rich robes of
their office which they had treasured with their lives; though some
of these were in ragged semblance of their former estate, having lost
everything while they were enrolled in the patriot army. There were
also in the crowd learned rabbis, who had been summoned to give their
counsel regarding the reorganization of the state, restoring the Temple
and reordering the grades of priests according to the ancient ritual.
The bravest of the captains were there, for Judas had announced his
intention of widening the scope of army operations, since he foresaw
that the defence of Judea depended upon the possession of far larger
areas of territory on every side.
Hours passed, and Judas did not appear, to meet those whom he had
summoned.
Simon and Jonathan at length ventured into his presence. The champion
sat by his table--an affair of ebony and gold, once the writing-desk
of the Syrian commandant, now but a fragment of its former elegance.
Its dilapidation was not out of keeping with the aspect of the man
who leaned upon it. The powerful frame of Judas was bent as if he had
lost some thought and was seeking to rediscover it somewhere amid the
scratches on the ebony polish. He gave his guests no greeting. One
might have imagined him a dead man but for the intent look upon his
face, and that his clenched hand now and then beat upon the table.
The coming even of his brethren was an evident intrusion, and they
withdrew.
"What now?" said Jonathan. "I have not seen our brother so distraught
in his moodiness since the old days in the Fort of the Rocks. There was
need of his brooding then, but not now when all things are coming our
way, as when the quails were blown by the east wind and covered the
land to feed our fathers in the desert."
"But have you not noted?" asked Simon, "how Judas comes out of his
black clouds? He is always brighter afterward, and shows us something
that none but he could have thought of. He will accept the kingship."
"Brother Simon," replied Jonathan, "I like not the look of Judas' face.
He is not meditating as is his wont. He is struggling with some rage. I
once before saw that same look on him. It was when he crushed the skull
of a Greek spy who had got within our lines at Mizpah. A word in your
ear, Simon."
"It will be as safe as under an altar."
"A man has crossed his path."
"Who?"
"Dion."
"Faugh! A feather crossing the rush of a torrent! A partridge flitting
through the lair of a lion! What cares Judas for the Greek?"
Jonathan took playfully the beard of Simon. "You are called the Wise;
and yet methinks you are dull-witted. We have insisted that Judas
should be King. That is well. But you have blocked the way of the
project by insisting that he should marry the daughter of Elkiah. This,
have I not said, he will never do."
"And you believe, Jonathan, that that Greek stands in his way?" replied
Simon. "This I would not credit unless you should tell me that you
yourself had caught them in dalliance."
Jonathan shrugged his shoulders. "Listen!" said he, "ears open and
teeth tight, for I have never breathed this to living man before. The
night before the battle in the Wady I followed her, for I feared that
her daring would bring her to harm. I tracked her into the very camp
of Apollonius. May the rising moon there shatter my wits forever if I
speak not the truth! I saw this Dion come to her. I would have slain
him and her. But when I drew to strike I overheard their words. I saw
that she was stealing this man out of the fight, lest in the vengeance
we were about to take on Apollonius he, too, should fall. She risked
her life to give us the victory--that we know; and I know that she
risked her life for this man at the same time. If ever woman loved a
man, she loves him. I saw that she accepted his love from the touch of
his lips."
Simon turned fiercely upon the speaker. "Jonathan, dare you impugn the
loyalty of the daughter of Elkiah? She is not a Glaucon, though she has
his blood."
"Her loyalty?" replied Jonathan. "I laud it. This woman is so true to
us and our people that not even her love for this man made her swerve.
And why should she not love the Greek? He is as good a fellow as any
since the day when Father Abraham was himself a heathen in the land of
the Chaldees. I have mingled much with the Greeks in Jerusalem without
giving them a chance to cut my throat. I have been more than once, as
you know, in this palace when Apollonius was its master. I have learned
much of Dion from the lips of his fellows in camp and field. He was the
pride of the Greek service; could have had high rank, but he risked
it all for the safety of Deborah. He won her gratitude by saving her
from foul dealing. I say, Jew that I am, Deborah ought to love Dion.
And, further, I will say that Deborah ought not, and will not, marry
Judas. It was not alone for the benefit of foreign alliance that I
spoke of our brother seeking a wife from the courts of other nations;
I foresaw that he could not marry within Judaism, since he would marry
none save Deborah; and she is an impossibility, unless I know nothing
of the soul of this woman. Now mark me further, my over-wise Simon. Did
you not note that when Judas was brooding over the kingship he went to
the house of Elkiah? And since his return he has been behind what you
call his thunder-cloud. I tell you that when Judas' lightning flashes,
it will not be with the light of statecraft, but against Dion. Judas,
generous, self-yielding, patriotic, is one man; Judas in love is a
different man. I would that the Greek were far away from Jerusalem."
Judas still sat by his table. The light faded in the high window
beneath the cedar rafters of the great chamber. A star gleamed through
the aperture, then floated on to look into a million other chambers
where men and women sat with bowed heads or lay upon restless couches.
The moon looked in, and hung her white veil on this wall of the
chamber, and then on that, but evoked no response from Judas, except an
occasional smile that relieved the harshness of his features.
By and by the sun rose. Jonathan came and saw him fast asleep with his
head resting on his clasped hands. When his brother woke him, his face
showed the marks of suffering. Years seemed to have put wrinkles about
his eyes and mouth, as time cracks timber and lime walls and almost
everything else. Why not a man's face?
Judas ate a little of the meal which the servants brought, responding
only in briefest words to their questions. Then, as if a spring had
uncoiled somewhere within his body, he suddenly rose.
"Brother Jonathan, bring the Captains here at the sixth hour--and the
Priests at the ninth; for we have pressing business to-day."
Without another word he passed through the great doorway into the
palace plaza, and thence into the street.
"What news?" asked a guard. "Maccabæus is as wrathful this morning as a
starved lion. Are the Syrians marching again upon the city?"
"If not, then the devil has broken loose, and challenged our Goliath to
fight. The Lord have mercy on the man he runs against this time! Look
at him! The very stones shake under his feet."
Judas turned into a by-street. He stopped before a small building. He
did not wait to have his heavy rap on the door answered from within,
but entered, and went straight to a side chamber.
"Captain Dion!" he thundered out.
He was confronted by both Agathocles and Dion. The presence of the
Greek General seemed to remind him of his forgotten courtesy.
"Your pardon, sirs! But I would talk to this man alone."
Agathocles withdrew, but not without a wondering glance at their
unceremonious visitor and a look of inquiry at Dion, who, however, was
as amazed as his companion.
When they were alone, and the door closed, Judas said:
"Dion, I once took your oath of allegiance at the gate."
"True. And the oath has not been broken," replied the young man, with
some resentment in his tone excited by the apparent suspicion in Judas'
abrupt manner.
In loud voice Judas exclaimed: "As Dion the Greek you have kept your
oath; but that is no longer binding; for you are not Dion, but Gershom
ben Shattuck. As a Jew you have sworn no allegiance."
"Do the Jews swear allegiance to their commander?" replied he. "Are we
like the Romans? Is it not enough that our allegiance is to the Lord,
who is over us all? Did Judas ever before ask an oath of any Jew to
serve him?"
"From no other man," said Judas; "but from the son of Shattuck I would
require it. The Jews would make me King of Jerusalem."
"And rightly," responded the other. "And to King Maccabæus I will swear
to be loyal in everything that man should do for man."
Judas repeated his words, "'Everything that man should do for man.'
A wise and well-turned oath. I like it. Shattuck, they would make
Elkiah's daughter the Queen of Jerusalem."
Dion staggered as if the Maccabæan had smitten him. But he quickly
recovered his self-possession. He spoke slowly:
"Maccabæus, I will swear loyalty to Elkiah's daughter as Queen,--when
she shall ask it of me. But until she herself speaks that word no man,
though he be Maccabæus, shall exact it from me. At her feet I will take
the vow, but not under any man's hand. You have my answer."
Shattuck's form seemed swollen with his wrath until it matched that
of the giant who confronted him. Judas looked at his challenger as a
lion-tamer might have returned the wild glare of his beast which he
knows must succumb to his own dominant will. Yet there was in his eyes
the flicker as of a light that came from some deeper recess of his
soul than that of his present passion. A smile quickly overspread his
features. He laid his great hand on the shoulder of his competitor.
"Dion--Ben Shattuck--though I be King, as man to man, we stand on equal
footing. Your challenge proves it. But, if you had sworn allegiance to
me in putting the crown upon the head of Elkiah's daughter without her
command, I would have felled you in your tracks. Here we stand--man
and man; and that woman is the queen of us both. You have been her
protector. I know all the story of these years. Protect her still from
Greek and from Jew. I swear with you, Shattuck, that no will but her
own shall be over her. Come with me to her."
The two men went together into the Street of David, and entered the
house of Elkiah. As Deborah glanced from one to the other, Judas seized
her hand and placed it in Dion's,
"The God of Israel bless you both!" he said.
Before they could find voice to reply Judas was gone.
As he came out into the street Meph met him with the great news.
"Dion is a Jew! Dion is a Jew! My old Sirach was right. Deborah herself
told me. And, Judas, she was as glad as I was to find it out, almost."
LI
A KING, INDEED
When Judas returned to his palace he found his brethren in waiting.
Their manner told the anxiety with which they anticipated his decision
of the momentous question of the kingship. Judas relieved them of the
necessity of putting their thoughts into words.
"Do you still believe that I should be King?"
"It is the will of the nation," said Simon.
"And yours?"
"And ours," said all, making low obeisance.
"You swear me absolute obedience?"
"Obedience absolute. There can be no other sort of kingship."
One by one his brethren took his hand; then ranged in a circle about
him. There was no need of a crown to give majesty to this man: his form
towering; his face imperious; and around him the very atmosphere almost
visibly radiant with the prestige of victories such as Heaven had never
before given to man. Nor did his brethren need princely robing to make
them feel due pride in this hour of the founding of the new Dynasty.
"I thank you, my brothers, worthy all of the blood of our father
Mattathias. Hear, then, my command. I exact no vow, but trust your love
to guard your loyalty."
"Our brother's word is our law," said Simon.
"His word our law," went round the little circle.
"Gather close about me," said Judas.
Then lowering his voice: "This is my will. Let the word King never
again be heard in our council. Nor let the daughter of Elkiah be spoken
of except as the wife of Gershom ben Shattuck."
"Ben Shattuck!"
The exclamation burst vehemently from all lips.
Judas had no need to explain his words; for at the moment Meph's voice
rang across the plaza:
"Dion is a Jew! Dion is a Jew! The son of Agathocles is the son of
Shattuck."
* * * * *
Judas left little time for any to dispute his decision. His tremendous
energy was imparted to every man about him. Priests were loaded with
questions regarding their ancient customs, which absorbed their study
day and night, for Judas would immediately reorganize their order
according to the Aaronic ideal. Such artisans as were still to be found
among the people, builders in stone, carvers of wood, and women skilled
in needlework, were given their part in the problem of the renovation
of the Temple. The city walls were to be strengthened, new citadels
built in the surrounding villages, cordons of forts placed around the
entire land, the army to be reorganized for more systematic defence,
and new campaigns planned to effectually awe the surrounding tribesmen.
Every day saw the mark of the master-hand of their leader. The rubbish
heaps outside the gates were ornamented with the shattered pieces of
pagan statuary. The sacred courts on Mount Moriah were purged of every
stain of the heathen Abomination. A new altar rose on the site of the
ancient one. Its stones were untouched by chisel, only laid together
symmetrically, as befitted a memorial to Him who created all things
without the help of human hands. The stones of the ancient altar, which
had been desecrated by the foul offerings of the Greeks, were laid away
until the great Messiah should come.
The crowning act of Greek pollution had taken place three years before,
on the twenty-fifth day of the month Chisleu, which corresponds with
the Roman month of December. Judas appointed the same date for the
Feast of Dedication, which has been annually repeated ever since
throughout the Jewish world.
For eight days the streets of the city and all the highways leading to
its gates from valley and hill were thronged with processions bearing
palm branches, and shouting the old Hallel psalms. In many groups
were those who had not touched hands for years; men who had come
out of hiding-places where they had taken covert from the incessant
persecution. Some came laden with their goods, making willing offerings
of coins and jewels to swell the fund for the glorious work.
At each nightfall every house gleamed like a constellation with crowded
lights in doorway and window, and on parapet and dome. The Temple plaza
blazed with great fires which sent beams of hope far over the Judean
hills, and by the glare in the sky proclaimed the triumph of Israel to
the camps of the enemy beyond the borders.
One house outshone all other private dwellings on the third night of
the Feast of Dedication. It stood near to the western gate, close by
the Tower of David, with the city's breadth separating it from the
Temple. The fires on the roof of this house saluted as with waving
hands of flame the blazing glory of the Temple Mount. This was the old
mansion of Shattuck, for years deserted, but now reoccupied by its
new-found inheritor.
Between this house and that of Elkiah the streets were densely crowded
on that third night. At the middle hour a cry rent the air:
"She comes! She comes!"
Close back against the houses the people were massed. There was no need
of official command, for the populace was moved by a common gladness
and reverence.
There was but one instance of what would have seemed to a stranger a
breach of decorum. Down the street came Meph waving his crutch like the
baton of a marshal, and shouting:
"Make way! Make way for the Daughter of Jerusalem! Way for the bride of
Ben Shattuck!"
No one rebuked the lad, for the story of his part in bringing about the
regeneration of the popular Greek into a Jew was well known. "Bless the
boy!" was the only comment heard as his heels conducted both himself
and the pageant that followed.
The procession was more artistically heralded by bands of players
on flute and tabor, succeeded by those leading the multitude in the
ancient marriage song of the people.
Amid a hundred torches was seen the gigantic form of Judas together
with his brethren. For this hour at least all traces of solemnity
and care were banished from his face, as he led the "friends of
the bridegroom," who, according to the time-honored custom, were
conducting the bride to the house of her husband.
As Deborah appeared surrounded by her maidens the cries, "Long live
Judas Maccabæus!" were quickly changed.
"Joy! joy to the daughter of Elkiah! Long live Deborah, the Daughter of
Jerusalem!" rang from a thousand lips.
The happy crowd hurried along as if impelled by their own huzzas, until
the bride disappeared within the portal of the house of Shattuck.
* * * * *
An hour later Judas sat alone in his chamber in the palace on Sion.
The stars as they floated by looked through the high window, but did
not disturb the soul which at that hour was moving through depths as
profound as theirs. The gray dawn alone aroused him--in which there
was a poetic propriety; for since the day-spring summons all nature to
activity, why should it not awaken the tremendous forces of this great
heart for its work in resurrecting a nation?
Judas reached out his hand and struck the bronze gong--the same that
Apollonius had rung three years before when he was vanquished by the
spirit of Deborah in this same hall.
"Call the Captains!"
His chief officers came with evidence of hasty toilet--for celerity
never waited upon formality in the councils of Judas. His sentences, as
he addressed them, were laconic, as if he assumed that his hearers had
listened at his brain and already knew his thoughts.
"Friends, I learn that the men of Edom are moving from their camps
on the south. The tribesmen of the Jordan and beyond are preparing to
strike us. Tyre and Sidon are enrolling their trained bands. Every man,
then, in readiness by the turn of the moon!"
With a wave of his hand he dismissed them.
The result of this order belongs to history, which tells how the
invincible men of Judas, beginning on the south, swung to east, then
from east to north, then from north to west, and then from west to
south again--the swing of the mighty Hammer of Israel--crushing a
hostile tribe at every stroke, until Judah lay quiet within all its
desolate borders.
No sword gleamed brighter in those days than that of Gershom ben
Shattuck, and no foeman gave more desperate battle than Nadan, son of
Yusef, Sheikh of Jericho.
_Printed in the United States of America_
NOTE.--Judas fell in battle three years later. The still sceptreless
rule was then taken by Jonathan, who, with the title of High Priest,
consolidated the religious and secular orders, and laid wide and
deep the foundation of the Asmonean power--a title taken from the
family name of Mattathias, the father of the Maccabees. On the death
of Jonathan, Simon the Wise accomplished his purpose of kingship for
Israel, and crowned himself. In the seed of Simon the dynasty endured
until the last diluted drops of Maccabæan blood drained from the veins
of the Herods, and the eyes of the world were turned to one whom they
called, not Messiah Malhamah, "The Anointed for War," but Christ, "The
Prince of Peace."
For the descriptions of the battles of Judas mentioned in this book
the writer has been compelled to supplement with his own imagination
very meagre historic materials. The place of the fight with Apollonius
(The Wady) is unidentified by chroniclers. The affair at Bethhoron
follows only the general topography of the region. The stratagem
of Judas at Emmaus is, however, well known, and was imitated by
Bonaparte. The method of "The Hammer" at Bethzur cannot have differed
greatly from that described. The result of all these battles is as
historic as it was marvellous.
If injustice has been done to any of the real characters involved,
Antiochus Epiphanes, Mattathias and his five sons, the priest
Menelaos, or the various generals commanding the hosts overthrown
by the heroic patriots, the writer is prepared to make the personal
_amende honorable_ if he should ever meet them in the shades.
For the other characters, Deborah and Dion, Caleb and Meph, it is
sufficient to say that they are the children of his own fancy, over
whom he exercises the ancient paternal right of absolute disposal. Of
Glaucon and Clarissa, the report that Agathocles, on his return to
Antioch, met them as the keepers of a wine shop near the bridge over
the Orontes, is as true as were all the other declarations of that
veracious Greek.
The student of the Maccabæan period may profitably consult the Books
of the Maccabees in the Apocryphal Bible (for traditional accounts);
"The Histories of Polybius" (for contemporaneous history of other
nations); Prideaux's "Connections of Old and New Testaments" (for
relation of Jews and Gentiles); Stanley's "Jewish Church," volume
iii. (for summary of men and events); Conder's "Judas Maccabæus" (for
topography); Church's "The Hammer" (for local color, customs, etc.);
Riggs' "Jewish People."
IN OTHER LANDS
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