XLIVA WIFE?
Thefollowing day the excitement in Jerusalem was intense and clamorous. As band after band of the Jewish heroes returned from the pursuit of the Greeks they were met at the city walls with such cheers that the Kedron valley echoed as if the generations of the dead entombed along its rocky sides had awakened to greet the valor of the living. Companies vied with one another in relating the marvels of prowess they had performed; but through all the boasting ran a vein of reverent recognition of the heavenly leading of affairs, and almost as worshipful praise of the strange man by whose hand Jehovah had wrought this new deliverance.
Those who had captured Dion at the spring of Bethzur gave full credit to their own shrewdness and courage in that exploit.
"All Greeks are treacherous," was one comment. "Judas is so true himself that he suspects no one else; but he ought not to have allowed the Macedonian to remain in the city after the rest of his kind had been chased out by their own heels."
"Think of his impudence! He even asked for a command. To command us—us! Jonathan was for trusting him; but Simon, the Wise, advised caution. No doubt this Greek traitor had planned an ambush for us. The other Greek is of high rank;his face would show that without the gold in his sword-hilt."
"But Captain Dion fought splendidly," interjected another. "I myself saw him make five Greeks bite the dust."
"That is true," observed one, "and but for his advice at one time it might have gone hard with my company. We were wedged in between the hills, and the Greeks were about to link shields—and when they do that they will move through the gate of hell—but Captain Dion gave me the hint, and himself posted us so that we took them on the flank, and buried them under their own metal. But, as I have thought of it since, I remember that I didn't move our men exactly as Dion advised me, or we might have come out right in front of the phalanx and been trampled to pieces. It must have been a trick on the part of the traitor."
"No doubt," was the response. "The Greek has been playing us false throughout; but his toes are in the trap now."
This popular estimate of Dion was repeated in higher places.
Judas took no part, except as a listener, in the council of his brethren as they debated the matter.
Simon repeated his former warnings, which now seemed justified. Eliezar recalled several other instances in which Dion's actions might have had a sinister intent. John attributed to him some secret advice which he must have sent to Lycias, and which led the Greek General to make the assault upon Jerusalem from the south, the only direction in which Judas had looked with any fear. That plan was shrewdly laid, and but for the swiftnesswith which Judas made his counter plan, and the rapid succession of his blows upon the enemy before they got through the hills of Bethzur, the Greeks had surely taken the city.
These insinuations brought to the face of Judas no sign of his being influenced by them; but a certain word that fell from Jonathan was met by a quick flash in the champion's eyes.
"If Captain Dion proved treacherous, perhaps the daughter of Elkiah can explain it. She could have made the Greek a Jew with a breath."
Jonathan touched Simon's hand as he said this. Judas mused a moment, his face reddening as it did only under deep emotion, generally of some resentment. His response was laconic:
"The Greek shall have justice."
"Justice should not go with lagging feet," said Simon.
"Nor leap," replied the chieftain. "Only God can give judgment with lightning."
"True, but men should be quick to see a storm coming, my brother," said Simon. "Let the men be summoned at once. There may be other treasons for aught we know. We have caught but two serpents in the nest. If others are there we will start them to squirming. I will have the prisoners brought."
"Let them wait," was Judas' decision.
"Wherefore wait, my brother? We can discover who and what these men are very quickly."
"Perhaps," said Judas; "but it may take time to know ourselves."
"Going into one of his moods again," remarked Eliezar, and the brethren went away.
The two prisoners were generally forgotten in the popular excitement of a few days immediately following the victory of Bethzur. Mountains of spoil had been brought into the city and distributed—for Judas insisted that his men should share equally the fruits of their bravery. Bethzur was fortified against the possible return of Lycias, who raged in his disgrace like a wounded tiger. Even if he should not repeat his venture, the nomadic people to the south were making hostile demonstration; indeed, all the tribesmen, south, east, and north were in commotion. Yusef, the Arab, had stirred up all tentdom to avenge the insult which Nadan had reported, and even the defeat of Lycias did not altogether discourage the purpose which the coming of that General had led them to make.
Said Yusef one day, watching a fight of insects:
"Let the Greeks bite the Maccabæans; we will come later and be the sting."
The black tents of the Bedouins were again seen on all sides, like mildew on a fair fabric. Couriers with long lances and head cloths streaming in the wind circled about Jerusalem at a safe distance, as Meph sagely remarked, "Like a lot of spiders webbing in a big bug they dare not yet attack."
These things would have sufficiently engaged the time of the Maccabæan leaders had not very different matters also claimed their attention. The far-flashing fame of Judas startled the nations. Envoys from various kingdoms came to Jerusalem to study the meaning of the new power, which seemed to rise as mysteriously as the armed men who sprang from the ground sown with the fabled dragon's teeth. The Governor of Phœnicia and Cœle-Syriaproposed terms of alliance with Judas. Demetrius, a nephew of King Antiochus, an aspirant for the succession to the Syrian throne, now a hostage in Rome, sent secret emissaries pledging the independence of Palestine as the price of Judas' assistance in accomplishing his ambition. From Athens, on the other hand, came those who would bribe this new sword for the help of Greece against the Romans. These, again, were met on their way by the agents of Rome, who were also coming to offer rank and power to the new kingdom of Israel as a province of the great republic of the West.
Judas and his counsellors had thus to consider many wider problems than that of manœuvring an army. It was clear that Jerusalem was to become again a capital, and the scattered people a nation.
"Judas must be our King," said Jonathan.
To this all agreed, with a solitary exception. Judas indignantly replied:
"I am but as the hand of a Gideon; would you have me play the part of Abimelech? A bramble king, indeed, would you find me. I am fit only to be a scourge to the enemies of the Lord. Let me be but as a soul within a sword until the Lord sheathes me, as I know He soon will. Are we not near the time of the coming of Him who is promised as the Prince of Peace? Search the records, Simon; the books of the prophets, and the genealogies of families of Judah, for Messiah is to be a branch of David—that surely is not of the house of Mattathias."
Jonathan replied:
"The words of the Prophets are hard to interpret, my brother, while the events of Providence lie open,like these hills in the sunshine. Only the blind fail to see the signs of the times. Woe to the man among us who cannot recognize the trumpet call of the Lord, when every blast of it has already destroyed an army of the enemy, as the rams' horns made the walls of Jericho fall down. Least of all should Judas shut his eyes to the light because it happens to fall in front of his own feet."
When Judas was not present his brethren spoke together freely, assuming the kingship to be inevitable. They concerned themselves only with schemes for founding and strengthening the new monarchy.
"Judas must marry," said Simon. "The nation can be built upon no one man."
"Surely not upon a single man like Judas," replied Jonathan, "whose life must be in perpetual hazard of battle; for well I see that war will be our condition for many years to come. The little land of Judea is not wide enough for a kingdom. We must conquer all the ancient lands of our fathers."
"And Syria, Phœnicia, Cœle-Syria also," rejoined Simon, "until Solomon's empire, 'from the river to the end of the earth,' from the Euphrates to the Great Sea, shall have been restored. Judas must found a family to whom this work shall be committed."
"It will be possible to make alliance by marriage with one of the great powers," suggested Jonathan. "I would not despair of a princess of Egypt even."
"It were a sin to think of such a thing," replied Simon, indignantly. "Did not the Lord rebuke Solomon for his foreign wives? The men who sit upon the Maccabæan throne must be of blood as pure asthat of Judas himself, untainted, as we know, in a thousand years. There is but one woman for Queen of Jerusalem, the daughter of Elkiah. The glory of the High Priests' house has departed. What house comes next? Is it not that of the last Nasi, Elkiah the martyr? Besides, Judas has already set his heart upon the maiden."
"She will never be the wife of Judas," said Jonathan.
"Deborah not the wife of Judas? What woman in Jewry would refuse such honor?"
"One woman."
"To utter such suspicion is treason," cried Simon, in a towering rage.
"Not to speak as one sees would be treason far worse."
"And you have seen—what?" cried both Simon and Eliezar.
"I have seen—well, I have seen a cat play with a dog, and both forget that they were made to tear each other."
"This is no matter for mirth, nor for silly parables, in which Jonathan is given to hiding his thoughts. What have you seen?"
"Well, then, I have seen a Jewess and a Greek. Ask me no more," and Jonathan turned away.
For a while neither of the remaining men spoke. At length Simon said:
"Do you believe this?"
"I have heard it on the street," replied Eliezar. "And it is said that, since the taking of that Dion in the very act of treachery, Deborah has not been beyond her house. She certainly has had no part in any public rejoicing over our great victory. Nota scrap of color has been hung from her parapet."
"Does Judas suspect such a thing?"
"He has not been within the house of Elkiah since the battle. And that is strange. He was always there."
"It is well," added Simon, "that the Greek must die. Whatever favor the daughter of Elkiah has shown him, the clear evidence we have of his villainy will open her eyes. But Jonathan's thought is beyond credulity. It is a trick of him they well call the Wily. Jonathan is bent upon our making alliance with the heathen, and would divert us from the course which patriotism and religion demand; aye, and that which Judas' own inclination would favor. Did you not notice his manner when Jonathan mentioned the name of the Greek in connection with Deborah? I tell you, Judas will make a quick end of this proselyte when he learns what men are saying of the traitor's friendship for the maiden."
"And I shall see to it that he hears it," replied Eliezar.