"No, mother. Fortunately, they listened to the counsels of my father, who implored them not to put out on the lake for that, did they do so, they would only bring misfortune and ruin upon themselves."
"And have you heard, John," Mary asked, "anything of the champion who they say has arisen? We have heard all sorts of tales of him--how he hara.s.sed the Romans before Gamala and, with his followers, burned their camp one night and well nigh destroyed them; and how, when he goes into the fight, the Roman javelins drop off without harming him; and how, when he strikes, the Romans fall before his blows like wheat before a sickle."
John burst into a laugh.
"I wonder, Mary, that the reports didn"t say also that he could fly through the air when he chose; could render himself invisible to the enemy; and could, by a wave of his hand, destroy them as the hosts of Sennacherib were destroyed. The Romans were hara.s.sed somewhat, at Gamala, by John and his followers, who crept into their camp at night and set it on fire, and had a few skirmishes with their working parties; but when you have said that, you have said all that there is to say about it."
"That is not like you, John," Mary said, indignantly, for the tales that had circulated through the province had fired her imagination.
"Everyone is talking of what he has done. He, alone of all our leaders, has checked the Romans; and has shown wisdom, as well as valor, in fighting. I should have thought you would have been one of the first to praise him. Everyone is talking about him and, since we heard of what he has been doing, mother and I pray for him, daily, as we pray for you and your father; and now you want to make out he has done nothing."
"I do not want to make out that he has done nothing, Mary, for doubtless the Lord has been with him, and has enabled him to give some trouble to the Romans; but I was laughing at the fables you have heard about him, and at the reports which had converted his skirmishes with the Romans into all sorts of marvelous actions."
"I believe they were marvelous actions," Mary said. "Why should what people say be all wrong?
"We believe in him, don"t we, mother?"
"Yes, Mary. It is true that the tales we have heard may be, as John says, exaggerated; but a.s.suredly this new champion of our people must be a man of wisdom and valor, and I see not why, as G.o.d raised up champions for Israel in the old time, he should not do so now, when our need is so great."
"There is no reason, mother," John said, more quietly, "but I fear that the champion of Israel is not yet forthcoming. We have heard of the doings of this John and, as I said, he has merely had some skirmishes with the Romans--his band being too small to admit of any regular fighting. He interrupted their work, and gave them some trouble; and his men, creeping down into the camp, set it on fire, and so caused them a good deal of loss; but more than this cannot be said of him."
"At any rate," Mary said disdainfully, "he has done more than your Josephus, John--for he brought ruin on all who took his advice, and went into the cities he had fortified. It may please you to make little of what this champion has done. Others do not think so.
Everywhere he is talked of, and praised--the old men are talking of him, the Jewish maidens are singing songs in his honor I heard them, yesterday, gathered round a well near Neve. His father must rejoice, and his mother be proud of him, if they are alive.
"What do they say down by the lake, Jonas, of this captain? Are not the tales we have heard believed, there?"
"I have heard nothing about the Roman javelins not harming him,"
Jonas said; "but he certainly got safely out of the hands of the Romans, when they had well-nigh taken him; and all say that he is brave and prudent, and men have great confidence and trust in him."
"Ridiculous, Jonas!" John exclaimed angrily, and Mary and his mother looked at him in surprise.
"Truly, John," his mother said, "what Mary said is just. This is not like you. I should have thought you would have been one of the first to admire this new leader, seeing that he is fighting in the way I have heard you advocate as being that in which the Romans should be fought, instead of the Jews being shut up in the cities."
"Quite so, mother! No doubt he is adopting the proper way of fighting, and therefore has naturally had some success. I am only saying that he has done nothing wonderful; but has given the Romans some trouble by refusing to fight, and by merely trying to hara.s.s them. If there were a thousand men who would gather small bands together, and hara.s.s the Romans night and day in the same manner, they would render it well-nigh impossible for them to make any progress. As it was, he merely aided in delaying the fall of Gamala by a day or two.
"And now, let us talk of something else. Our father has succeeded in getting in the princ.i.p.al part of the harvest, but I fear that this year you will be short of fruit. We have had no time to gather in the figs, and they have all fallen from the trees; and although we have made enough wine for our own use, there will be but little to sell."
"It matters not at all," Martha said. "G.o.d has been very merciful towards us and, so that we have but bread to eat and water to drink, until next harvest, we shall have nothing to repine about, when ruin and destruction have fallen upon so many."
That evening, when Mary and Martha had retired to their apartments, the former, who had been very silent all the evening, said:
"I cannot understand, mother, why John speaks so coldly of the doings of this brave leader; and why he was almost angry at our praises of him. It seems altogether unlike him."
"It is unlike him, Mary; but you must never be surprised at men, they do not like to hear each other praised; and though I should have thought, from what I know of my son, that he was above the feeling of jealousy, I cannot but think that he showed some signs of that feeling today."
"But it seems absurd, mother. I can understand John being jealous of any one his own age who surpa.s.sed him in any exercises--though I never saw him so for, when in rowing on the lake, or in shooting with bows and arrows, or in other sports, some of our neighbors"
sons have surpa.s.sed him, he never seemed to mind at all; and it seems almost absurd to think that he could be jealous of a great leader, who has done brave deeds for our people."
"It does seem so, Mary, and I wonder myself; but it has been ever one of our national faults to be jealous of our leaders. From the time the people vexed Moses and Aaron, in the wilderness, it has ever been the same. I grieve to see it in John, who has distinguished himself greatly for his age, and of whom we are proud; but no one is perfect, my child, and you must not trouble because you find that your betrothed husband is not free from all weaknesses."
"I don"t expect him to be free from all weaknesses, mother; but this is one of the last weaknesses I should have expected to find in him, and it troubles me. When everything seemed so dark, it was a pleasure to think that a hero, perhaps a deliverer, had arisen; and now John seems to say that he has done nothing."
"My dear child," Martha said, "something may have occurred to vex John on the way and, when men are put out, they will often show it in the strangest manner. Probably John will, another time, speak just as warmly in praise of our new leader as you would, yourself."
"Perhaps it may be so, mother," Mary a.s.sented. "I can hardly believe that John is jealous--it does seem so unlike himself."
"I would not speak on the subject again, Mary, if I were you; unless he, himself, brings it up. A wise woman keeps silence on subjects which may lead to disagreement. You will learn, when you have married, that this is the easiest and best way."
"I suppose so, mother," Mary said, in a tone of disappointment; "but somehow it never seemed to me, before, that John and I could have any subject on which there would be disagreement."
"My dear Mary," Martha said, smiling, "John and you are both mortal; and although you may truly love each other--and will, I trust, be very happy as husband and wife--subjects will occur upon which you will differ; and then, as you know, the wisest plan is for the wife to be silent. It is the wife"s duty always to give way to the husband."
Mary gave a little shrug of her shoulders, as if to intimate that she did not regard altogether favorably this view of a wife"s duties; however, she said no more, but kissed Martha, and retired to bed.
The next morning they started early, and journeyed to Capitolias, where they stayed at the house of some friends. In the evening, the talk again turned upon the new leader, who had burned the Roman camp. When they did so, John at once made some excuse, and went out. He regretted, now, that he had not at once told his mother what he had been doing. He had intended, in the first place, to give her a little surprise; but had no idea of the exaggerated reports that had been spread about and, when Mary broke out into praise of the unknown leader, it seemed to him that it would have been absurd to say that he, himself, was the person of whom she had formed so fantastically exalted an opinion. Not having said so at first, he did not see how he could say so, afterwards; and so left the matter as it stood, until they should return home.
While John was out, he heard news which caused him some uneasiness.
It was said that parties of Roman horse, from Scythopolis, had been scouring the country; burning many villages--under the pretext that some Roman soldiers, who had straggled away marauding on their own account, had been killed by the peasants--slaughtering the people, and carrying off as slaves such young women and men as were likely to fetch good prices.
He told his mother what he had heard; and asked her whether she did not think that it would be better to stay where they were, for a time, or return to Neve. But Martha was anxious to be at home, again; and the friend with whom they were stopping said that these reports were a week old, and that doubtless the Romans had returned to their camp. She determined, therefore, that she and Mary would continue their journey; but that the maids should remain with their friend, at Capitolias, until the Roman excursions ceased.
They accordingly set out in the morning, as before--the two women riding, and John and Jonas walking by the side of the donkeys.
Following the road by the side of the Hieromax they kept on, without meeting anything to cause alarm, until they reached the angle of the stream, where the road to Hippos branched off from that which followed the river down to Tarichea. They had gone but a short distance, when they saw a cloud of dust rising along the road in front of them, and the sparkle of arms in the sun.
"Turn aside, mother," John exclaimed. "Those must be the Romans ahead."
Turning aside, they rode towards some gardens and orchards at no great distance but, before they reached them, two Roman soldiers separated themselves from the rest, and galloped after them.
"Fly, John!" Martha said, hurriedly. "You and Jonas can escape."
"It would only ensure evil to you if we did, mother. No, we will keep together."
The Roman soldiers rode up, and roughly ordered the party to accompany them back to the main body, which consisted of fifty men.
The leader, a young officer whose garments and armor showed that he belonged to a family of importance, rode forward a few paces to meet them.
"Some more of this accursed race of rebels!" he exclaimed.
"We are quiet travelers," John said, "journeying from Capitolias to Tarichea. We have harmed no one, my lord."
"You are all the same," the Roman said, scowling. "You speak us fair one day, and stab us in the back the next.
"Pomponius," he said to a sergeant, "put these two lads with the rest. They ought to fetch a good price, for they are strong and active. As to the girl, I will make a present of her, to the general, to send to his wife in Rome. She is the prettiest Jewess I have seen, since I entered the country. The old woman can go. She is of no use to anyone."
Ill.u.s.tration: Mary and the Hebrew Women in the Hands of the Romans.
Martha threw her arms round Mary; and would have striven to resist, with her feeble strength, the carrying out of the order, when John said in Hebrew:
"Mother, you will ruin us all, and lose your own life! Go home quietly, and trust to me to save Mary."