ly with thee; and the Angel of
Death hath bidden thee come forth, naught harmed by the fire, save the
bonds of flesh which thy free spirit hath left behind.

"To touch a dead body is counted pollution; to touch thine is rather
consecration; for it is a holy thing which thou hast freely offered to
God."

With peculiar tenderness the matron breathed her requiem over the
seventh body as it was laid by the rest.

"Youngest and best-beloved of thy mother; thou flower of the spring,
thou shalt slumber in peace on her bosom. Ye were lovely and pleasant
in your lives, in your deaths ye are not divided."

It was with calm chastened sorrow that the last farewell had been
spoken as the bodies of the martyred brethren had been placed in their
quiet grave; but there was a bitterness of grief in the wail of the
Hebrew woman over their mother, which made every word seem to Lycidas
like a drop of blood wrung from the heart of the speaker.

"Blessed, oh, thrice blessed art thou, Solomona, my sister, richest of
mothers in Israel! Thou hast borne seven, and amongst them not one has
been false to his God. Thy diadem lacks no gem--thy circle of love is
unbroken. Blessed she who, dying by her martyred sons, could say to
her Lord: _Lo, I and the children whom Thou hast given me;_" and as the
matron ended her lament, she tore her silver hair, rent her garments,
and bowed her head with a gesture of uncontrollable grief.

All the bodies having been now reverentially placed in the grave, the
chief rose from it, and joined his companions. Abishai then thus
addressed him:--

"Hadassah hath made her lament. Son of Phineas, descendant of Aaron
the high-priest of God, have you no word to speak over the grave of
those who died for the faith?"

The chief lifted up his right hand towards heaven, and slowly repeated
that sublime verse from Isaiah, which to those who lived in that remote
period must have seemed as full of mystery as of consolation,--_"Thy
dead shall live! My dead body shall they arise! Awake and sing, ye
that dwell in dust: for thy dew the dew of herbs, and the earth, shall
cast out the dead._"[1]

The sound of that glorious promise of Scripture seemed to rouse
Hadassah from her agonizing grief; she lifted up her bowed head, calm
and serene as before. Turning to the veiled woman near her, she said,
"We may not burn perfumes over these our honoured dead, but you, Zarah,
my child, have brought living flowers for the buria