ion, the queen had a private pavilion for her female
guests. But during the successive days of dissipation, the mirth waxed
loud in the apartments of the king. The flashing goblet circulated
freely, and his brain became wild with "wine and wassail." As the
crowning display of his glory, Vashti, in her jeweled robes and diadem,
must grace the banquet. The command was issued, and the messenger sent.
This mandate, requiring what at any time was contrary to custom, the
appearance of a woman, unveiled, in an assemblage of men, now when
revelry and riot betrayed the royal intoxication, overwhelmed the queen
with surprise. A thousand wondering and beaming eyes were upon her
during the brief pause before answering the summons. Her proud refusal
to appear, roused the fury of Ahashuerus, already mad with excitement.
It would not answer to pass by the indignity, for a hundred and
twenty-seven provinces were represented at his court, and the news of
his sullied honor would reach every dwelling in his realm, and curl the
lip of the serf with scorn. The nobles fanned the flame of his
indignation. Unless a withering rebuke were administered, their
authority as husbands would be gone, and the caprice of woman make every
family a scene of daily revolution.

Vashti was divorced--and to provide for the emergency, his courtiers
suggested that he should collect in his harem all the beautiful virgins
of the land, and choose him a wife. Among these was Hadassah, the
adopted daughter of Mordecai. He urged her to enter her name among the
rivals for kingly favor. It was not ambition merely that moved Mordecai.
He had been meditating upon the unfolding providence of God toward his
scattered nation, and felt that there was deeper meaning in passing
events than the pleasures and anger of his sovereign. Arrayed richly as
circumstances would permit, the beautiful Jewess, concealing her
lineage, joined the youthful procession that entered the audience
chamber of Ahashuerus, where he sat in state, to look along the rank of
female beauty, floating like a vision before him.

The character of Esther is here exhibited at the outset; for when she
went into the presence of the king, for his inspection, instead of
asking for gifts as allowed by him, and as the others did, she took only
what the chamberlain gave her. Of exquisite form and faultless features,
her rare beauty at once captivated the king, and he made her his wife.

Mordecai was a man of a noble