n was on his lips, Judas with a bound sprang over
the javelin, and stood at the side of Zarah.

"He lives--the Merciful be praised!" cried Hadassah. Abishai, with a
muttered curse, thrust back his thirsty blade into its sheath.

"Captive, depart in peace," said the son of Mattathias; "but ere you
quit this spot, solemnly vow silence as to what you have witnessed
here."

Lycidas instantly obeyed. "May I share the torments of those whose
grave--but for your mercy--I should have shared, if I ever prove false
to my oath," cried the Greek.

The chief waved his hand to bid him depart, and leave the Hebrews to
complete the solemn work which his appearance had interrupted.

Lycidas, however, showed no haste to escape. He glanced towards
Hadassah and Zarah. "May I not speak my gratitude," he began,
advancing one step towards them; but the widow by a gesture forbade his
nearer approach.

"Live your gratitude, speak it not, stranger," said she. "If ever you
see son or daughter of Abraham in peril, remember this night; if ever
your enemy stand defenceless before you, remember this night. And when
next you would bow down before an idol, and pray--as your people
pray--to the deaf wood and the senseless stone, pause and reflect first
upon what you have learned on this sacred spot of the faith of the
Hebrews," Hadassah pointed to the open grave as she spoke, "how it can
nerve the weak to suffer, and induce the strong to spare!"

CHAPTER IV.

FOLLOWING BEHIND.

As he quitted that place of burial, which he had little expected to
leave alive, Lycidas felt like one under an enchanter's spell. Joy at
almost unhoped-for escape from a violent death was not the emotion
uppermost in his mind, and it became the less so with every step which
the Athenian took from the olive-grove. Strange as the feeling
appeared even to himself, the young poet could almost have wished the
whole scene acted over again, notwithstanding the painfully prominent
part which he had had to play in it. Lycidas would not have been
unwilling to have heard again the fierce cries and execrations, and to
have seen once more the flashing weapons around him, for the sake of
also hearing the soft appeal, "Have mercy, spare him!" and to have had
another glimpse of Zarah's form and face, as, with a halo of moonlight
and loveliness around her, she dropped her tribute of living flowers
into the grave of the dead.

"These Hebrew women are not as the women o