than a score of years later Herod the Great
governed Judea, under the Roman emperor. This Herod, whose reign closed
the ancient annals of Palestine, was an Edomite--a cruel and ambitious
man.

Less than thirty years passed, and one of the darkest, bloodiest acts of
any sovereign since time began, disgraced the reign of Herod.

Jerusalem was astonished by the arrival of three sages from the distant
east, inquiring for a new-born king, saying that they had seen "his
star," and had come to offer him their gifts and homage. They found him
in the manger at Bethlehem: and then repaired to their own country
without returning to Jerusalem, as Herod had desired. The jealousy of
that tyrant had been awakened by their inquiry for the "King of the
Jews;" and as their neglect to return prevented him from distinguishing
the object of their homage, he had the inconceivable barbarity to order
that all the children in Bethlehem under two years of age should be put
to death, trusting that the intended victim would fall in the general
slaughter; but Joseph had previously been warned in a dream to take his
wife and the infant to the land of Egypt, whence they did not return
till after the death of Herod.

That event was not long delayed. In the sixty-ninth year of his age.
Herod fell ill of the disease which occasioned his death. That disease
was in his bowels, and not only put him to the most cruel tortures, but
rendered him altogether loathsome to himself and others. The natural
ferocity of his temper could not be tamed by such experience. Knowing
that the nation would little regret his death, he ordered the persons of
chief note to be confined in a tower, and all of them to be slain when
his own death took place, that there might be cause for weeping in
Jerusalem. This savage order was not executed. After a reign of
thirty-seven years, Herod died In the seventieth year of his age.

Sir Walter Scott's beautiful "Hebrew Hymn" will fittingly close these
sketches of Palestine:

When Israel, of the Lord beloved,
Out from the land of bondage came,
Her father's God before her moved,
An awful guide, in smoke and flame.
By day along the astonished lands,
The cloudy pillar glided slow;
By night Arabia's crimsoned sands
Returned the fiery columns' glow.

There rose the choral hymn of praise,
And trump and timbrel answered keen;
And Zion's daughters poured their lays,
With priests' and warriors' voice