XIVTHE SPY
Thevale of Shechem is the fairest in Palestine. It is a long strip of meadow scarcely two hundred yards wide, guarded, as by two sleeping giants, by the mountains of Ebal and Gerizim, which cut the sky between two and three thousand feet above. For four furlongs of its length the valley lies like an emerald, broken by silver streams and sparkling basins of water. Beyond, for an equal distance, the bright green gives place to the gray foliage of olive groves, until the natural glory fades into the staring white houses of the town. In shady nooks and sunny glades the earth bursts with flowers of every hue, as if Flora had danced and left her fabled footprints impregnate with germs of beauty. If one be sated with the fairness that lies at one's feet, let the eyes rest upon the terraces of olive and grape, fig and prickly pear which relieve the precipitous sides of Ebal, the ancient Mountain of Cursing; or upon the swelling domes of rock which make the impressive mass of Gerizim, the Mountain of Blessing.
Even Apollonius, the desecrator of Jerusalem, with his eyes dimmed with the rheum of many debauches, must have delighted in the prospect; for midway the vale rose his gorgeous pavilion. From its door, when not enamored of nature, he could feast hispride upon the white and blue tents of his army, which gleamed far up the slopes of either mountain. In reward for his service in desolating the Jewish capital, and in many ways acting as a sort of procurer for the pride, greed, and lust of his royal master, Epiphanes had made Apollonius Governor of Samaria, and commander of all the king's forces in Syria.
Into his camp at Shechem had come not only brave warriors, but many merchants, to purchase the prospective spoil of the invaders. Women, too, some the wives of officers, others adventuresses, flaunted their gay attire amid the flashing helmets and spears of the soldiery.
Before the great General's pavilion stood his steed, a gigantic charger, with arching neck and restive eyes, now sniffing the hand of his groom, and anon rearing as if to break from his custody. Near by was a heavy-wheeled, but light-bodied chariot, its seat cushioned in creamy silk. At its pole waited a span of graceful roans, glittering in harness buckled and bossed with gold.
At the opening of the tent sat Apollonius, in full armor, except that his head was bared. Upon a couch just within reclined a woman. At a glance one would have said that she was of great beauty. Her features failed perhaps of the finest proportions that mark the classic Greek face; the nostrils too distended; the mouth too large; forehead high, but masked with abundant auburn locks, which were braided down almost to the eyebrows. Chiselled in marble that face would not have been an Aphrodite; but flushed as it was at the moment with excitement, her eyes sparkling with latent coquetry, andher slightly parted lips curved with a sensuous suggestion, she was sufficiently fascinating to the degenerate taste of the Greek officers passing the tent, who stole not unwelcome glimpses at her fairness.
"And what, pray, my lord Apollonius, is to be my portion of the spoil you are to take? I have no taste for the blood of the Jews, which you say your sword will draw from these Maccabæan peasants. A draught of wine—if only the cup were golden and I might keep it—would please me better. But no golden cups and no goodly garments will you get from these beggarly people. Some clouts and a few of the sickles they use for swords will scarcely grace the victory of one whom the king has honored for his valor."
"I see," replied the General, "that my fair one has grown weary of her lord, and that I need to freshly bribe her favor. Will not the gift of yesterday suffice to keep my Helena's patience for a day or two to come?"
The General toyed with a silver serpent with eyes of ruby, which encircled her arm. After a moment's pause, watching closely his companion as if studying the effect of his words, he added:
"If the trumpery of Jewish housewives please you not, there is better spoil in Jerusalem."
"Is anything left there?" languidly asked the woman, looking at her shapely wrist and hand.
"Much. And it is game that will give zest to the catching. Listen! Since my fair goddess has tired of me, I propose that she shall find another lover more to her liking."
The woman's eyes flashed.
Apollonius continued: "You know, that by theruling of the King, the rich estates of Elkiah are not to be sequestered as other property of the rebels. His son, Glaucon, having become a Greek, is recognized as the heir. A handsome fellow he is, with a thimbleful of brains; conceited, a prey to clever men, an easier victim of a clever woman—such a woman as has charmed an old soldier like me, caring as you know but little for the sex. You need but smile at Glaucon to addle his wits."
"Are your wits addled?" queried the woman contemptuously.
"Perhaps they have been, but I am in fair way to recover, as my scheme will prove. Should you marry this Glaucon, by Greek law it is true you would not inherit his estates; but no law prevents the fool from giving to you whatever you ask as the price of your favor; and you come high at times, as my thin belt can attest. But, my dear, you must appear to him as of princely rank, for the fellow has been flattered to believe himself courted by the very household of the King. I think I can make my letters sufficiently ennoble you, if your beauty does not evidence your divinity. Will not this sound well? Ahem! 'The Princess Helena, cousin to Apollonius!' Ah, you blush at the title. Glaucon will pay me well for persuading your Olympian wings to fold themselves on his dungheap. It is a scheme worthy the Jew himself, is it not? This little finger of yours will pick the lock of Glaucon's treasure-house."
The woman laughed outright as she cried:
"Shall I go to Jerusalem and act the prude? That is an art I have never practised. I surely had never won your love, my venerable Apollo, if I had posed as the chaste Artemis."
"Perhaps not," replied the General, with a shrug of his shoulders, "but you have acted the chaste goddess perfectly in the eyes of others. That I will say; for I have had less than a score of opportunities for jealousy during as many moons. And I will swear to this Glaucon that I caught you in my arms as you once escaped the Grotto of Pan at Ephesus."
"Grotto of Pan? Another remembrance of your nursery; and with a moral, I doubt not, as good as one of Æsop. Let me hear the story, but leave off the lesson," replied she, lolling languidly upon the couch.
"Why," said Apollonius, "at Ephesus, when a woman's virtue is not transparent, they bring her to Pan's Grotto for testing. If the god sees no offense in her, then the doors open to heavenly music, and she escapes. Looking one day for something in the shape of womanhood that was immaculate, I lingered by the entrance, and you came bouncing out. Glaucon is up in our Greek legends, and will understand me, even if you did not."
"But if the woman could not pass inspection?" his companion asked nonchalantly.
"Well, in such an unusual case for the town of Ephesus, where Artemis has her temple, the pipes in Pan's cave screech out a wail for the damned, and the tainted woman drops through the rock floor into the river Styx. I will swear that I did not fish you out of the river Styx."
"Paugh!" sneered the woman. "It is time that you sold me out to another after that speech."
The tears shot into her eyes, but they were quickly dried by her hot rage; and as quickly again the livid fury gave place to a forced smile.
"I warn you, my lord, that I myself will be the judge of my new purchaser, as I was of you."
This woman was well aware that anger did not become her type of countenance; it changed her beauty into hideousness. Whatever age-marks were latent in her face, smoothed by practised smiles, or masked by cosmetics, were brought out by ill temper—as sunburn develops freckles. She was as self-conscious when gazed at by others as when she was alone before her mirror, and as ready with her arts. She, therefore, instantly suppressed the rising displeasure.
Indeed, the displeasure would itself have died as Apollonius further disclosed his schemes; for any fondness she may have felt for the present owner of her affections was less than her innate cupidity, and less than that passion for intrigue and adventure which she had developed by much practice on many fields. In her, deceitfulness reached the rank which in men is called diplomacy. Though now at home in the tent of the Syrian commander, she was not unwilling to enlarge the sphere of her conquest in any direction. Perhaps her eagerness for the spoil of such a house as that of Glaucon was as laudable, certainly as natural, as Apollonius' own ambition to fame himself as the conqueror of Palestine.
The conversation of the General and the woman was interrupted by a lad, whose basket of fruit, deftly balanced on his head, had gained him admission to the camp; for while strict guard was kept against the intrusion of peasant men and women, the children were allowed freedom to sell their delicacies for the coins, though often they received only the cuffs, of the soldiers.
The boy was stretched at full length upon the ground, counting the bits of money he had taken, and sorting the figs, dates, and grapes which were left in his basket. His head was covered with a mass of unkempt black hair, his body with a single garment, which might have been an inverted corn sack, tied with a string at the waist, while his head protruded through a hole in the bottom. His legs and feet were bare except for the dirt which hosed them, and striped with scratches made by bramble bushes.
So engrossed was the boy in his business calculations that he did not seem aware of his undue proximity to the General's tent, until a sentinel prodded him in the calf of the leg with his spear-point, and bade him "Begone!"
The General, looking up at the outcry, recalled the lad and bought of his fruit, tossing some of it into the lap of his companion.
"Faugh! The Jew's filth soils them," cried she, as the clusters were laid upon the rug.
"Let them be well cleansed then," said the General; "but in this country we must be less particular. The Jews believe that Adam, their first father, was made out of the ground, and surely the race seems fond of its original stock. But in one respect the Jews are cleaner than most people; vermin cannot abide their vile blood; it poisons even the fleas."
"The lad is finely formed," said the woman, eyeing him as a connoisseur. "His ankles are trim enough for a girl's, and his feet are not flattened and ill-shapen as those of most peasants are. And what a face! Ganymedes was not fairer. Look out, mylad, that the eagle does not fly away with you and make you cup-bearer to the gods."
"Why not make him your own Ganymedes, my divinity?" cried the General. "You have no Hebe of your own begetting to be jealous of him. What say you, my lad, would you like to be dressed in spangles and wait at the hand of the fairest of Astartes? And perhaps, being only a child, you might drink at her lips, since my goddess has lost her liking for an old soldier's kisses."
With a look of stupid inquiry the boy replied in the Samaritan patois, "An as for a bunch; three bunches for two ases; all for an obolo. Give me drachma and I bring you so much"—extending his arms as if to enclose a bushel.
The Greeks burst into laughter.
"Your learned wit is wasted on a Samaritan, as I am afraid mine would be on that Jerusalem Jew," said the mistress.
"It will not be wasted there. Glaucon speaks Greek well, as do all the better sort in the city. Besides, his head is just now as full as a pedlar's pack of all the scraps of our philosophy, poetry, and art that he can hear. He is specially interested in our Greek goddesses, and in making his hair curl. With his head in your lap you can arrange his locks and give him a lesson in the worship of Aphrodite at the same time. Glaucon will be as good a pupil of Helena as Pericles was of Aspasia."
The fruit-seller, impervious to their wit at his expense, gathered up the remnant of his wares, and started away; but quickly turning, he threw himself down upon his belly in the shadow of the tent, and resumed counting his coins, tallying each onewith a jerk of his heels, as those dirty but graceful appendages waved over his back.
"The boy's legs talk as freely as the arms and face of Pharetes, the pantomimist. He would make an actor, if trained," observed Apollonius.
"Or a dancer," replied the woman. "Let us see if he has learned to wiggle his calves rhythmically."
She sang a rollicking run of notes, accompanied with snapping her fingers and waving her arms, which tempted even Apollonius to give a few steps in his jingling armor. The boy only stared and grinned.
"Pshaw!" said the General, "the religion of these people is so dull that it rusts even their sinews. A Greek child would have danced on his hands and head at such singing. But, my dear, you should start to-morrow for Jerusalem. I will strike the miserable spawn of that priest Mattathias—Apollo, my namesake, being willing—within three days. Some ten thousand of us, each as valiant as Alexander himself, are only waiting to conquer these sand-hills in lieu of a larger world. We will drive the Jews into their holes and drown them in their own blood, and then move to the city. I fear that Menelaos, the High Priest, is scraping the bottom of every strong-box the Jews left, and if we do not hasten there will not be an obolo for us to buy grapes with."
His companion had become curiously interested in the lad.
"Do the boys and girls dress alike in this country?" she asked. "That child has the hips and shoulders of a woman."
The boy had evidently completed his bookkeeping,and hastily swallowing some of his wares, moved away. He sauntered awhile in the direction of the town, trying to keep two figs at a time in the air or to catch one in his mouth; then suddenly turned southward toward the eastern slope of Mount Gerizim, and, depositing his basket under a clump of bushes, ran southward as fast as his legs could carry him.