nce-heads?"

"And are none but the Romans to be permitted to use iron?"

"Nay--but I should hesitate to supply a friend with arms if he proposed
to use them against an irresistible antagonist, who will inevitably
annihilate him!"

"The Lord of Hosts is stronger than a thousand legions!"

"Be cautious uncle," said Ben Jochai again in a warning voice.

Gamaliel turned wrathfully upon his nephew, but before he could retort
on the young man's protest, he started in alarm, for a wild howling and
the resounding clatter of violent blows on the brazen door of the house
rang through the hall and shook its walls of marble.

"They are attacking my house," shouted Apollodorus.

"This is the gratitude of those for whom you have broken faith with the
God of your fathers," said the old man gloomily. Then throwing up his
hands and eyes he cried aloud: "Hear me Adonai! My years are many and I
am ripe for the grave; but spare these, have mercy upon them."

Ben Jochai followed his uncle's example and raised his arms in
supplication, while his black eyes sparkled with a lowering glow in his
pale face.

But their prayers were brief, for the tumult came nearer and nearer;
Apollodorus wrung his hands, and struck his fist against his forehead;
his movements were violent--spasmodic. Terror had entirely robbed him
of the elegant, measured demeanor which he had acquired among his Greek
fellow-citizens, and mingling heathen oaths and adjurations with appeals
to the God of his fathers, he flew first one way and then another. He
searched for the key of the subterranean rooms of the house, but he
could not find it, for it was in the charge of his steward, who, with
all the other servants, was taking his pleasure in the streets, or over
a brimming cup in some tavern.

Now the newly-purchased kitchen-slave--the Jew to whom the keeping of
the Dionysian feast was an abomination--rushed into the room shrieking
out, as he plucked at his hair and beard:

"The Philistines are upon us! save us Rabbi, great Rabbi! Cry for us
to the Lord, oh! man of God! They are coming with staves and spears
and they will tread us down as grass and burn us in this house like the
locusts cast into the oven."

In deadly terror he threw himself at Gamaliel's feet and clasped them in
his hands, but Apollodorus exclaimed: "Follow me, follow me up on to the
roof."

"No, no," howled the slave, "Amalek is making ready the firebrand to
fling among our tents. The heathen