and often did Hadassah's bidding in the
upper rooms of the dwelling, even when it seemed to the maiden that she
was sent on needless errands; but the light form, in its simple blue
garment, with the long linen veil thrown back from the graceful head,
was always returning to the apartment, to which it was drawn by a new
and powerful attraction. If Hadassah sometimes appeared irritable and
imperious towards the fair young being whom she loved, it was because
her mind was disturbed, her rest broken by anxieties which she could
impart to no one. The aged lady scarcely knew which evil she most
dreaded: the discovery of Lycidas by Abishai--a discovery which would
inevitably stain her threshold with blood--or the long sojourn under
her roof of the dangerous stranger, whom she had unwillingly admitted,
and now more unwillingly retained in her home.

CHAPTER IX.

DEATH OF MATTATHIAS.

Wild was the life led by Mattathias and his followers in the
mountains--a life of danger and hardship; danger met manfully, hardship
endured cheerfully. Amongst wild rocks, heaped together like the
fragments of an elder world torn asunder by some fearful convulsion of
Nature, the band of heroes found their home. Where the hyaena has its
den, and the leopard its lair; where the timid wabber or coney hides in
the stony clefts, there the Hebrews lurked in caves, and manned the
gigantic fastnesses which no human hands had reared, and from which it
would be no easy task for any enemy to dislodge them.

The small band that had rallied round Mattathias when he withdrew from
Modin, had been soon joined by other bold and zealous sons of Abraham,
and the mountains became a place of refuge to many who fled from
persecution. As numbers increased, so did the difficulty of procuring
means of subsistence. The Asmoneans and their followers chiefly lived
upon roots. The less hardy of the band suffered severely from the
chill of the frosts, the keenness of the sharp mountain air, the sharp
winds that blew over snow-clad heights. But no voice of complaint was
heard. Frequent forays were made into the plains; idol-altars were
thrown down, forts were burnt, detachments of Syrians cut off. None of
the enemy within many miles of the rocky haunts of the Asmoneans lay
down to rest at night feeling secure from sudden attack during the
hours of darkness; and oft-times the early morning light showed a heap
of smouldering ruins where, on the evening before