then held her back that he might gaze upon her face, and press kiss
after kiss on the lips of her whom he called his darling, his pride,
his beautiful child! But when the first burst of natural emotion was
over, Pollux made his daughter sit close beside him, and with his arm
round her slight form, resumed the conversation which had been
interrupted by his revealing the intimate relationship in which they
stood to each other.

"You see, my child," said the courtier, "that you may now yield with an
easy conscience. A parent's commands are law to a Hebrew maiden; if
there be any sin in what you do, it lies upon me alone."

"And think you that I would bring sin upon your head?" said Zarah. "Oh
no, that would be to wrong a parent indeed!"

"I have such a burden of my own to carry," observed Pollux, bitterly,
"that I shall scarcely be sensible of so small an addition to its
weight. Zarah, it is clearly your duty to submit, for my safety is
involved in your submission. If you refuse to obey Antiochus, you seal
the doom of your father."

In anguish Zarah clasped her throbbing temples with both her hands;
even the path of duty itself seemed dark and uncertain before her.
Then a thought, sudden and bright, as if it were an inspiration, came
into the young girl's mind.

"Oh no, I will save my father!" she exclaimed; "save him from worse
than death! Let us fly together at once," she continued; "no, not
together, I would cumber your flight; but make your escape, O my
father, from this wicked court, this barbarous king, this life which,
to a son of Hadassah, must be misery and bondage indeed! Oh, fly, fly;
be safe, be free; be again what you were once! it is not too late! it
is not too late!" There was intense delight to Zarah in the new-born
hope that she might draw her wretched parent from this den of infamy,
this pit of destruction.

Pollux was startled by the sudden suggestion. "Whither could I fly?"
asked the renegade gloomily.

"To Judas Maccabeus, our hero," cried Zarah; "his camp is the
rallying-place for all fugitives from oppression."

"Maccabeus!" exclaimed Pollux; "he would loathe--would spurn an
apostate!"

"Oh no, he would never spurn the father of Zarah," cried the maiden,
for once realizing and exulting in the secret power which she exercised
over the leader of the Hebrews; "Judas would welcome you, his brave
companions would welcome, coming as you would come to redeem the past
by devoting your sw