res, and the bride so lately
exalted to a throne was no longer an object of envy. Many bitter tears
have been shed by the victims of family pride or state policy, when thus
allied to greatness and splendour. The sacred rite has often been
prostituted to purposes of ambition and selfishness, and has thus become
a source of guilt and misery. Esther, in her elevation, may have shed as
bitter tears as fell from Vashti in her banishment and disgrace.

Thus each state has its own trials and its own griefs--and it has its
peculiar alleviations too. Perhaps the progress of the narrative will
show us the source of that influence which seems early to have
estranged Ahasuerus from his bride.

Among the courtiers of the king there was the descendant of a race long
at variance with the Jews. The Amalekites had been the enemies of the
Israelites from the infancy of the nation. When the tribes came up from
Egypt, faint and weary in the desert, the Amalekites had fallen upon
them and attempted to destroy them; and during a series of ages there
had been a war of extermination between the races. Nor had Amalek been
subjected until Saul was raised to the throne and Israel had become a
kingdom.

When Israel and Judah had been destroyed or carried captive by the hosts
of the Assyrians, the remaining Amalekites seem likewise to have been
carried into the east, either as prisoners or allies. And now, from
among all his courtiers, Ahasuerus had chosen, as his chief favourite
and counsellor, Haman, the son of Hammedatha, a descendant of Agag--that
king of Amalek who, as the prisoner of Saul, was condemned to death by
Samuel, the judge of Israel. The descendant of a royal line and of an
ancient race, Haman was as crafty as he was unprincipled and malignant,
and his evil influence seems to have first drawn the king's favour from
Esther. He did not know her lineage, but by plunging the king in every
excess, by keeping all safe counsellors at a distance, he intended to
increase his own influence and perpetuate his own power, while he was
accumulating great wealth from the prodigality of his master and from
the presents offered as bribes to obtain his favour.

As he did not know the lineage of Esther, he did not persecute her; but
as he feared an influence that might compete with his own, he strove to
alienate the heart of Ahasuerus from her. Haman was advanced to honours
far above all the native princes of the kingdom; even to the first seat
in