answered Nehushta sharply. "That light is from within."
As she spoke the bushes parted and they saw the Essene, Samuel, standing in front of them.
"Whom do you seek, man?" asked Nehushta, who did not know him.
"I seek the n.o.ble Roman, Marcus," he answered, "for whom I have a message. Is that he?"
"I am he," said Marcus, "and now, who sent you and what is your message?"
"The Queen of the Essenes, whose name is Miriam, sent me," replied the man.
Now both of them sprang to their feet.
"What token do you bear?" asked Marcus in a slow, restrained voice, "for know, we thought that lady dead."
"This," he answered, and drawing the ring from his robe he handed it to him, adding, "Do you acknowledge the token?"
"I acknowledge it. There is no such other ring. Have you aught else?"
"I had a letter, but it is lost. The Roman soldiers robbed me of my robe in which it was sewn, and I never saw it more. But the ring I saved by hiding it in my mouth while they searched me."
Marcus groaned, but Nehushta said quickly:
"Did she give you no message? Tell us your story and be swift."
So he told them all.
"How long was this ago?" asked Nehushta.
"Nearly five months. For a hundred and twenty days I was kept as a slave at Jerusalem, labouring at the levelling of the walls."
"Five months," said Marcus. "Tell me, do you know whether t.i.tus has sailed?"
"I heard that he had departed from Alexandria on his road to Rome."
"Miriam will walk in his Triumph, and afterwards be sold as a slave!
Woman, there is no time to lose," said Marcus.
"None," answered Nehushta; "still, there is time to thank this faithful messenger."
"Ay," said Marcus. "Man, what reward do you seek? Whatever it be it shall be paid to you who have endured so much. Yes, it shall be paid, though here and now I have no money."
"I seek no reward," replied the Essene, "who have but fulfilled my promise and done my duty."
"Yet Heaven shall reward you," said Nehushta. "And now let us hence to Ithiel."
Back they went swiftly to the caves that were occupied by the Essenes during the rebuilding of their houses. In a little cabin that was open to the air lay Ithiel. The old man was on his death-bed, for age, hardship, and anxiety had done their work with him, so that now he was unable to stand, but reclined upon a pallet awaiting his release. To him they told their story.
"G.o.d is merciful," he said, when he had heard it. "I feared that she might be dead, for in the presence of so much desolation, my faith grows weak."
"It may be so," answered Marcus, "but your merciful G.o.d will allow this maiden to be set up in the Forum at Rome and sold to the highest bidder.
It would have been better that she perished on the gate Nicanor."
"Perhaps this same G.o.d," answered Ithiel with a faint smile, "will deliver her from that fate, as He has delivered her from many others.
Now what do you seek, my lord Marcus?"
"I seek liberty, which hitherto you have refused to me, Ithiel. I must travel to Rome as fast as ships and horses can carry me. I desire to be present at that auction of the captives. At least, I am rich and can purchase Miriam--unless I am too late."
"Purchase her to be your slave?"
"Nay, to be my wife."
"She will not marry you; you are not a Christian."
"Then, if she asks it, to set her free. Man, would it not be better that she should fall into my hands than into those of the first pa.s.ser-by who chances to take a fancy to her face?"
"Yes, I think it is better," answered Ithiel, "though who am I that I should judge? Let the Court be summoned and at once. This matter must be laid before them. If you should purchase her and she desires it, do you promise that you will set her free?"
"I promise it."
Ithiel looked at him strangely and said: "Good, but in the hour of temptation, if it should come, see that you do not forget your word."
So the Court was called together, not the full hundred that used to sit in the great hall, but a bare score of the survivors of the Essenes, and to them the brother, Samuel, repeated his tale. To them also Marcus made his pet.i.tion for freedom, that he might journey to Rome with Nehushta, and if it were possible, deliver Miriam from her bonds. Now, some of the more timid of the Essenes spoke against the release of so valuable a hostage upon the chance of his being able to aid Miriam, but Ithiel cried from his litter:
"What! Would you allow our own advantage to prevail against the hope that this maiden, who is loved by everyone of us, may be saved? Shame upon the thought. Let the Roman go upon his errand, since we cannot."
So in the end they agreed to let him go, and, as he had none, even provided money for his faring out of their scanty, secret store, trusting that he might find opportunity to repay it in time to come.
That night Marcus and Nehushta bade farewell to Ithiel.
"I am dying," said the old Essene. "Before ever you can set foot in Rome the breath will be out of my body, and beneath the desert sand I shall lie at peace--who desire peace. Yet, say to Miriam, my niece, that my spirit will watch over her spirit, awaiting its coming in a land where there are no more wars and tribulations, and that, meanwhile, I who love her bid her to be of good cheer and to fear nothing."
So they parted from Ithiel and travelled upon horses to Joppa, Marcus disguising his name and rank lest some officer among the Romans should detain him. Here by good fortune they found a ship sailing for Alexandria, and in the port of Alexandria a merchant vessel bound for Rhegium, in which they took pa.s.sage, none asking them who they might be.
Upon the night of the burning of the Temple, Caleb, escaping the slaughter, was driven with Simon the Zealot across the bridge into the Upper City, which bridge they broke down behind them. Once he tried to return, in the mad hope that during the confusion he might reach the gate Nicanor and, if she still lived, rescue Miriam. But already the Romans held the head of the bridge, and already the Jews were hacking at its timbers, so in that endeavour he failed and in his heart made sure that Miriam had perished. So bitterly did Caleb mourn, who, fierce and wayward as he was by nature, still loved her more than all the world besides, that for six days or more he sought death in every desperate adventure which came to his hand, and they were many. But death fled him, and on the seventh day he had tidings.
A man who was hidden among the ruins of the cloisters managed to escape to the Upper City. From him Caleb learned that the woman, who was said to have been found upon the roof of the gate Nicanor, had been brought before t.i.tus, who gave her over to the charge of a Roman captain, by whom she had been taken without the walls. He knew no more. The story was slight enough, yet it sufficed for Caleb, who was certain that this woman must be Miriam. From that moment he determined to abandon the cause of the Jews, which, indeed, was now hopeless, and to seek out Miriam, wherever she might be. Yet, search as he would, another fifteen days went by before he could find his opportunity.
At length Caleb was placed in charge of a watch upon the wall, and, the other members of his company falling asleep from faintness and fatigue, contrived in the dark to let himself down by a rope which he had secreted, dropping from the end of it into the ditch. In this ditch he found many dead bodies, and from one of them, that of a peasant who had died but recently, took the clothes and a long winter cloak of sheepskins, which he exchanged for his own garments. Then, keeping only his sword, which he hid beneath the cloak, he pa.s.sed the Roman pickets in the gloom and fled into the country. When daylight came Caleb cut off his beard and trimmed his long hair short. After this, meeting a countryman with a load of vegetables which he had licence to sell in the Roman camp Caleb bought his store from him for a piece of gold, for he was well furnished with money, promising the simple man that if he said a word of it he would find him out and kill him. Then counterfeiting the speech and actions of a peasant, which he, who had been brought up among them down by the banks of Jordan, well could do, Caleb marched boldly to the nearest Roman camp and offered his wares for sale.
Now this camp was situated outside the gate of Gennat, not far from the tower Hippicus. Therefore, it is not strange that although in the course of his bargaining he made diligent inquiry as to the fate of the girl who had been taken to the gate Nicanor, Caleb could hear nothing of her, seeing that she was in a camp situated on the Mount of Olives, upon the other side of Jerusalem. Baffled for that day, Caleb continued his inquiries on the next, taking a fresh supply of vegetables, which he purchased from the same peasant, to another body of soldiers camping in the Valley of Himnon. So he went on from day to day searching the troops which surrounded the city, and working from the Valley of Himnon northwards along the Valley of the Kedron, till on the tenth day he came to a little hospital camp pitched on the slope of the hill opposite to the ruin which once had been the Golden Gate. Here, while proffering his vegetables, he fell into talk with the cook who was sent to chaffer with him.
"Ah!" said the cook handling the basket with satisfaction, "it is a pity, friend, that you did not bring this stuff here a while ago when we wanted it sorely and found it hard to come by in this barren, sword-wasted land."
"Why?" asked Caleb carelessly.
"Oh! because of a prisoner we had here, a girl whose sufferings had made her sick in mind and body, and whose appet.i.te I never knew how to tempt, for she turned from meat, and ever asked for fish, of which, of course, we had none, or failing that, for green food and fruits."