t it was not Zarah, but
Zarah's father, whom she clasped in her arms! It was strange that
dreams of joy should come in the midst of so much anguish, so that a
smile should actually play on the grief-worn features of Hadassah. Was
some good spirit whispering in her ear, "While you are sleeping your
son is praying. Your supplications for him are answered at last?"

But Hadassah lost little time in sleep. While the stars yet gleamed in
the sky, the lady aroused Anna, who was slumbering heavily at her feet.
The handmaid arose, and without awakening the household, Hadassah and
her attendant noiselessly quitted the hospitable dwelling which had
afforded them shelter, and turned their steps again in the direction of
the stately palace of Antiochus Epiphanes.

As the two women traversed the silent, narrow, deserted streets, they
suddenly, at the angle formed by a transverse road, came upon a young
man, whose rapid step indicated impatience or fear. He was moving with
such eager speed that he almost struck against Hadassah, before he
could arrest his quick movements.

"Ha! Hadassah!"

"Lycidas! Heaven be praised!" were the exclamations uttered in a
breath by the Greek and the Hebrew.

"Is it--can it be true--Zarah--captive--in peril?" cried the young man,
whom the tidings of the attack on Salathiel's dwelling, and the capture
of a maiden, had casually reached that night at Bethlehem, where he was
sojourning, and whom these tidings had brought in all speed to
Jerusalem. Lycidas had ridden first to the house of Cimon, where the
message left by Hadassah had confirmed his worst fears. Leaving his
horse, which had fallen lame on the rocky road, he had hurried off on
foot to the palace, with no definite plan of action before him, but
resolved at any rate to seek an interview with the king.

"Zarah is prisoner in yon palace," said Hadassah, "you will do all in
your power to save her?"

"I would die for her!" was the reply,

Hadassah in few words made known to the young Athenian her own
intention to await at the palace gate the going forth of Antiochus, and
plead with the Syrian king for the life and freedom of Zarah. The lady
was thankful to accept the eager offer of Lycidas to remain beside her,
and support her petition with the weight of any influence which he
might have with the tyrant, small as he judged that influence to be.
Hadassah, thankful at having found a zealous friend to aid her, leant
on the arm of Lyc