uring silence; would you yourself--with the grave of those martyrs
before you--be able to reproach us with cruelty should we decide on
taking that way?"

Lycidas met without blenching the calm sad eyes of the speaker, but he
could not answer the question. He knew that under like circumstances
neither Syrian nor Greek would feel hesitation before, or remorse
after, what would be deemed a stern deed of necessity. The eloquent
lips of the poet had no power to plead now for life.

"Why waste words!" exclaimed fierce Abishai; "why do you hesitate,
Judas? One would scarce deem you to be the descendant of that Phineas
who won deathless fame by smiting Zimri and Cosbi through with a dart.
'Thine eye shall not pity, nor thine hand spare.' Guilt lies on your
head if you let Agag go. Was not the Canaanite to be rooted out of the
land? Who dare bid us draw back when the Lord hath delivered the prey
to our swords?"

"I dare--I do," cried Hadassah, advancing with dignity to the edge of
the grove which separated her and her grand-daughter Zarah from the
Hebrew men and their captive. "Shame on you, Abishai, man of blood.
Yea, though you be the husband of my dead daughter, I repeat, shame on
you to bring the name of the Lord to sanction your own thirst for
vengeance! Hear me, son of Mattathias; ye men of Judah, hear me. The
Merciful bids me speak, and I cannot refrain from speaking the words
which He puts into my mouth."

The matron was evidently regarded with reverence by those who were
present. Judas was related to her by blood, Abishai by marriage; two
of the other five Hebrews had been her servants in her more prosperous
days. But it was chiefly the dignity of Hadassah's character that gave
weight to her speech; the widowed lady was regarded in Jerusalem almost
as a prophetess, as one endued with wisdom from on high. Her pleading
might not be effectual, but would at least be listened to with respect.

"The Canaanite was swept from the land," said Hadassah; "Zeba and
Zalmunna were slain; Cosbi and Zimri were smitten through with a dart;
but these were sinners whose cup of iniquity was full, and the swords
of Israel executed God's righteous vengeance upon them, even as the
waves of the sea overwhelmed Pharaoh, or the flood a world of
transgressors. But the God of justice is the God also of mercy, slow
to anger and plenteous in goodness. He calleth vengeance--though His
work--His _strange work_ (Isa. xxviii. 21). He