"I met to-day," replied Joab, "the same stranger whom we caught lurking
amidst the olives on the night of the burial of Solomona--(that was
nigh being his last night upon earth!) He looked ghastly, as if
himself new risen from the grave, and scarcely able to drag his steps
along. I helped to raise him on my mule, and it bore him to a house in
the city which he mentioned. I doubt whether the Gentile recognized
me--his mind seemed to be strangely wandering--till I asked him where
he had been since we had met by moonlight under a tree; and then he
started, and looked fixedly into my face. He knew me, and did not
forget that I had been one to spare his life by stepping over the
spear," continued the muleteer, with a grim smile. "The Gentile is not
ungrateful. I suppose that he remembered that he owed a debt in
another quarter also, for he bade me return in a few hours; and when I
did so, charged me to bear these things to the dwelling of the Lady
Hadassah--ay, and gave me this purse of silver for her handmaid."

"The Lord Lycidas has a noble heart! Would that he were a son of
Abraham!" exclaimed the delighted Anna, as she received the gift of the
Greek. With mingled curiosity and pleasure Anna then carried up what
Joab had brought to the housetop, on which the Hebrew ladies were then
sitting, for the sake of the cooling breeze of even. At the bidding of
Hadassah, Anna removed the outer wrappings which enclosed what Lycidas
had sent, and drew forth a store of goodly gifts, selected with
exquisite taste--graceful ornaments, embroidery in gold, the lamp of
delicate workmanship, the mirror of polished steel. Anna could not
forbear uttering exclamations of admiration; but Hadassah and her
grand-daughter looked on in grave silence, until a scroll was handed to
the former, which she opened and read aloud.

"With these worthless tokens of remembrance, accept the deep gratitude
of one who has learned in a few too brief months under your roof more
than he could elsewhere have learned in a life-time, of the loftiness
of faith and the heroism of virtue."

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE PASSOVER FEAST.

Very different was the celebration of the Feast of Unleavened Bread in
the days of Antiochus Epiphanes from what it had been in the palmy
times when the children of Israel were swayed by their own native
kings. There was now no mighty gathering together of the people from
Dan to Beersheba; herdsmen driving their lowing cat