"Sir, I am," replied Miriam, and at her words the faces of the Sanhedrim grew hard as stones, while someone watching in the crowd hurled a fragment of marble at her.
"Let it be for this time," said the judge, "as the Rabbi Benoni says, we are trying questions of treason, not of faith. Who accuses this woman, and of what?"
A man stepped forward, that captain who had wished to put Miriam to death, and she saw that behind him were Caleb, who looked ill at ease, and the Jew who had guarded Marcus.
"I accuse her," he said, "of having released the Roman Prefect, Marcus, whom Caleb here wounded and took prisoner in the fighting yesterday, and brought into the Old Tower, where he was laid till we knew whether he would live or die."
"The Roman Prefect, Marcus?" said one. "Why, he is the friend of t.i.tus, and would have been worth more to us than a hundred common men. Also, throughout this war, none has done us greater mischief. Woman, if, indeed, you let him go, no death can repay your wickedness. Did you let him go?"
"That is for you to discover," answered Miriam, for now that Marcus was safe she would tell no more lies.
"This renegade is insolent, like all her accursed sect," said the judge, spitting on the ground. "Captain, tell your story, and be brief."
He obeyed. After him that soldier was examined from whose hand Miriam had struck the lantern. Then Caleb was called and asked what he knew of the matter.
"Nothing," he answered, "except that I took the Roman and saw him laid in the tower, for he was senseless. When I returned the Roman had gone, and this lady Miriam was there, who said that he had escaped by the doorway. I did not see them together, and know no more."
"That is a lie," said one of the judges roughly. "You told the captain that Marcus had been her lover. Why did you say this?"
"Because years ago by Jordan she, who is a sculptor, graved a likeness of him in stone," answered Caleb.
"Are artists always the lovers of those whom they picture, Caleb?" asked Benoni, speaking for the first time.
Caleb made no answer, but one of the Sanhedrim, a sharp-faced man, named Simeon, the friend of Simon, the son of Gioras, the Zealot, who sat next to him, cried, "Cease this foolishness; the daughter of Satan is beautiful; doubtless Caleb desires her for himself; but what has that to do with us?" though he added vindictively, "it should be remembered against him that he is striving to hide the truth."
"There is no evidence against this woman, let her be set free,"
exclaimed Benoni.
"So we might expect her grandfather to think," said Simeon, with sarcasm. "Little wonder that we are smitten with the Sword of G.o.d when Rabbis shelter Christians because they chance to be of their house, and when warriors bear false witness concerning them because they chance to be fair. For my part I say that she is guilty, and has hidden the man away in some secret place. Otherwise why did she dash the light from the soldier"s hand?"
"Mayhap to hide herself lest she should be attacked," answered another, "though how she came in the tower, I cannot guess."
"I lived there," said Miriam. "It was bricked up until yesterday and safe from robbers."
"So!" commented that judge, "you lived alone in a deserted tower like a bat or an owl, and without food or water. Then these must have been brought to you from without the walls, perhaps by some secret pa.s.sage that was known to none, down which you loosed the Prefect, but had no time to follow him. Woman, you are a Roman spy, as a Christian well might be. I say that she is worthy of death."
Then Benoni rose and rent his robes.
"Does not enough blood run through these holy courts?" he asked, "that you must seek that of the innocent also? What is your oath? To do justice and to convict only upon clear, unshaken testimony. Where is this testimony? What is there to show that the girl Miriam had any dealings with this Marcus, whom she had not seen for years? In the Holy Name I protest against this iniquity."
"It is natural that you should protest," said one of his brethren.
Then they fell into discussion, for the question perplexed them sorely, who, although they were savage, still wished to be honest.
Suddenly Simeon looked up, for a thought struck him.
"Search her," he said, "she is in good case, she may have food, or the secret of food, about her, or," he added--"other things."
Now two hungry-looking officers of the court seized Miriam and rent her robe open at the breast with their rough hands, since they would not be at the pains of loosening it.
"See," cried one of them, "here are pearls, fit wear for so fine a lady.
Shall we take them?"
"Fool, let the trinkets be," answered Simeon angrily. "Are we common thieves?"
"Here is something else," said the officer, drawing the roll of Marcus"s cherished letter from her breast.
"Not that, not that," the poor girl gasped.
"Give it here," said Simeon, stretching out his lean hand.
Then he undid the silk case and, opening the letter, read its first lines aloud. ""To the lady Miriam, from Marcus the Roman, by the hand of the Captain Gallus." What do you say to that, Benoni and brethren?
Why, there are pages of it, but here is the end: "Farewell, your ever faithful friend and lover, Marcus." So, let those read it who have the time; for my part I am satisfied. This woman is a traitress; I give my vote for death."
"It was written from Rome two years ago," pleaded Miriam; but no one seemed to heed her, for all were talking at once.
"I demand that the whole letter be read," shouted Benoni.
"We have no time, we have no time," answered Simeon. "Other prisoners await their trial, the Romans are battering our gates. Can we waste more precious minutes over this Nazarene spy? Away with her."
"Away with her," said Simon the son of Gioras, and the others nodded their heads in a.s.sent.
Then they gathered together discussing the manner of her end, while Benoni stormed at them in vain. Not quite in vain, however, for they yielded something to his pleading.
"So be it," said their spokesman, Simon the Zealot. "This is our sentence on the traitress--that she suffer the common fate of traitors and be taken to the upper gate, called the Gate Nicanor, that divides the Court of Israel from the Court of Women, and bound with the chain to the central column that is over the gate, where she may be seen both of her friends the Romans and of the people of Israel whom she has striven to betray, there to perish of hunger and of thirst, or in such fashion as G.o.d may appoint, for so shall we be clean of a woman"s blood. Yet, because of the prayer of Benoni, our brother, of whose race she is, we decree that this sentence shall not be carried out before the set of sun, and that if in the meanwhile the traitress elects to give information that shall lead to the recapture of the Roman prefect, Marcus, she shall be set at liberty without the gates of the Temple. The case is finished. Guards, take her to the prison whence she came."
So they seized Miriam and led her thence through the crowd of onlookers, who paused from their wanderings and weary searching of the ground to spit at or curse her, and thrust her back into her cell and to the company of the cold corpse of Theophilus the Essene.
Here Miriam sat down, and partly to pa.s.s the time, partly because she needed it, ate the bread and dried flesh which she had left hidden in the cell. After this sleep came to her, who was tired out and the worst being at hand, had nothing more to fear. For four or five hours she rested sweetly, dreaming that she was a child again, gathering flowers on the banks of Jordan in the spring season, till, at length, a sound caused her to awake. She looked up to see Benoni standing before her.
"What is it, grandfather?" she asked.
"Oh! my daughter," groaned the wretched old man, "I am come here at some risk, for because of you and for other reasons they suspect me, those wolf-hearted men, to bid you farewell and to ask your pardon."
"Why should you ask my pardon, grandfather? Seeing things as they see them, the sentence is just enough. I am a Christian, and--if you would know it--I did, as I hope, save the life of Marcus, for which deed my own is forfeit."
"How?" he asked.
"That, grandfather, I will not tell you."
"Tell me, and save yourself. There is little chance that they will take him, since the Jews have been driven from the Old Tower."
"The Jews might re-capture the tower, and I will not tell you. Also, the lives of others are at stake, of my friends who have sheltered me, and who, as I trust, will now shelter him."
"Then you must die, and by this death of shame, for I am powerless to save you. Yes, you must die tied to a pinnacle of the gateway, a mockery to friend and foe. Why, if it had not been that I still have some authority among them, and that you are of my blood, girl though you be, they would have crucified you upon the wall, serving you as the Romans serve our people."
"If it pleases G.o.d that I should die, I shall die. What is one life among so many tens of thousands? Let us talk of other things while we have time."