won, or fair prize gained by adhesion to it?

"The most remote hope of winning Zarah," mused Maccabeus, "were enough
to make a man espouse the cause of her people, and renounce all
idolatry--save idolatry of herself. I must question this Athenian
myself. I must examine whether he have embraced the truth
independently of earthly motives, and, as a true believer, can indeed
be trusted with the most priceless of gems. If it be so, let him be
happy, since her happiness is linked with his. Never will I darken the
sunshine of her path with the shadow which will now rest for ever upon
mine."

It was with no small anxiety that Lycidas obeyed the summons of the
prince, and entered his presence alone, in one of the apartments of the
fortress which he had aided to capture. The Greek could not but
conjecture that his fate, as regarded his union with Zarah, might hang
on the result of this interview with his formidable rival.

The interview was not a long one: what occurred in it never transpired.
Not even to Zarah did Lycidas ever repeat the conversation between
himself and the man whose earthly happiness he had wrecked. As the
Greek passed forth from the presence of Maccabeus, he met Simon and
Eleazar, who had just returned from escorting their young kinswoman to
the dwelling of Rachel.

The Asmonean brothers frankly and cordially greeted the stranger whom
they had seen for the first time in the thick of the conflict of the
preceding day. The bandage round his temples, the sling which
supported his left arm, were as credentials which the Athenian carried
with him--a passport to the favour and confidence of his new associates
in the field.

"You have leaped into fame with one bound, fair Greek!" cried Eleazar.
"You had reached the highest round of the ladder ere I could plant my
foot on the lowest. I could fain envy you the honour you have won."

Eleazar, accompanied by Simon, then passed on into the presence of
Maccabeus, while Lycidas pursued his way. The smile with which the
young Hebrew had spoken was still on his lips when he entered the
apartment in which the prince sat alone, but the first glance of
Eleazar at Judas banished every trace of that smile.

"You are ill!" he exclaimed anxiously, as he looked on the almost
ghastly countenance of his brother; "you have received some deadly
hurt!"

The chief replied in the negative by a slight movement of the head.

"The weight of responsibility, the lack of sle