And now it looked as though both were dying. Both were losing consciousness. The half-closed eyes were blood-shot; the lips were baked black, and hideously swollen; their mouths were open; and where the suffused blood--from the fierce knottings of the cords that bound them--showed blue and purple, the veins were swollen to the bursting point.
"The block and the axe!" commanded "_The False Prophet._" The grim things were brought.
"Loose the carrion!" came the next command.
A dozen hands were busy in a moment with the knotted cords. Miriam was the first to be fully released. Her eyes were closed; her breaths were heavy, slow throbs; her beautiful form bent and swayed; and the soldier who held her had to bear all her weight. He carried her to the block; then, waiting, glanced for instructions to where the officer of the guards, and "_The False Prophet_" stood.
An executioner, toying with his axe, stood by the side of the block.
"Off with it!" called "_The False Prophet_," laughingly.
The soldier lifted the nude, insensible form of the beautiful girl so that her neck rested in the hollow of the block. He held her in position. The axe fell. The head rolled to the stone pave. A woman close by, caught the head by the hair, twisted her fingers well into the beautiful black swathes, and swinging the gory thing around her head, let it fly from her hand, shouting, as it hurled through the air.
"A kick-off, for the _first_ team!"
The mob, among whom the head fell, began to play football with it. A moment later, the head of Isaac Wolferstein rolled to the pavement, and a second woman caught that and hurled it over the heads of the people in the opposite direction to that in which Miriam"s head had gone.
"A kick-off," shouted the hurler of the head, "for the _second_ team."
[1]
This effort to trace Cohen and the fugitives had failed, but the knowledge soon came in, in four or five different ways. One of the wireless messages had brought a clue. Some traders brought in a fuller clue, and rapidly other news came to hand.
It soon became perfectly clear that there existed some kind of evident understanding between the various fleeing crowds, and that their first place of united meeting was to be one of the agricultural colonies near to the old Kadesh-Barnea.
By this time the fugitives had had four good days start. Apleon ordered an enormous body of troops to go in pursuit, and to slay or capture the fugitives--capture, by preference, that they might be publicly tortured and beheaded.
Mad with the l.u.s.t for blood, and that fouler l.u.s.t of Religious revenge, the pursuing host sped southwards. The wondrous new motor-trains, that would career over hillocks easier than a thoroughbred hunter gallops over a turfy down, carried the expedition. There were a hundred trains of thirty cars each, besides a thousand or more single Motor-Cars, carrying from twelve to twenty persons. Worked on the then latest principle,--ether-driven--the cars and trains swept onward at the rate of a hundred miles an hour. Over head, travelling at the same rate, was a fleet of aerial war-ships, armed with infernal torpedoes, that if dropped into any town or community, would wipe out every living soul, and destroy the stoutest city, in a few minutes.
It looked as though the devoted band of Jews and Gentiles who had fled south were doomed.
Wild, exultant shouts of ironical laughter and unholy glee burst from the land and aerial pursuers, as they came within a moment or two (at their rate of travelling) of the fugitives.
The latter had seen them, heard them, and, as a body, were bowed in prayer for----. They scarcely knew what to ask, for deliverance or for fort.i.tude, so that the essence of their prayer was "_undertake for us, Lord!_"
The sky lowered over their heads. They thought it was the aerial fleet hiding the sun--but the winged warriors were not _quite_ come up over their place of gathering.
The prostrate refugees remained, to a man, upon their faces. Souls in direct dealing with G.o.d have no curiosity as to outside events.
Suddenly, like the hiss of ten thousand times ten thousand snakes, a rushing sibilation pa.s.sed through the momentarily darkened air. At the same instant the earth trembled, and there was an awful, thunderous rumbling in the nether world.
Simultaneous with both of these phenomena there came yells and screams, then,--anon--silence.
The ma.s.s of refugees raised themselves, and stood silent with awe and thankfulness. Sheets of flame had rushed out of the heavens, overwhelmed the aerial fleet of vengeful pursuers, fired the vessels, and hurled men and machines downwards into a mighty gulf. For the trembling, and thundering of the earth had been the result and accompaniments of a terrible earth-quake, that now swallowed up the whole pursuing host--land and aerial, alike.
For a moment or two no sound came from the mighty crowd of miraculously-delivered refugees. Then, suddenly, one of the late priests of the Temple, a chorister-priest, burst into song:
"_Sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously. The Lord is my strength and my song, and He is become my salvation: He is my G.o.d . . . . My father"s G.o.d, and I will exalt Him. The Lord is a Man of war: the Lord is His name. Our enemy"s chariots and his host hath He cast into the earth . . . . Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power: Thy right hand, O Lord, dashed in pieces the enemy.
And in the greatness of Thine excellency Thou hast overthrown them that rose up against Thee; Thou sentest forth Thy wrath, which consumed them._"
Almost in the instant of the starting of the song, thousands of Jews, (and Gentiles, as well) had recognized the Red Sea Triumph Song, and had joined the voice of the leader. What a swell of triumph it was!
On, on they sang:
"_The enemy said: I will pursue, I will overtake; my l.u.s.t shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, and my hand shall destroy them. Thou didst blow with Thy wind, and they were destroyed._
"_Who is like unto Thee, O Lord, among the G.o.ds! Who is like Thee, glorious in Holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders. Thou stretchedst out Thy right hand, the earth swallowed them. Thou in Thy mercy hast led forth the people which Thou hast redeemed: Thou hast guided them in Thy strength. The people shall hear, and be afraid: sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestine. Fear and dread shall fall upon them: by the greatness of Thine arm they shall be as still as a stone; till Thy people, O Lord, till the people pa.s.s over, whom Thou hast purchased._
"_Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of Thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which Thou hast made, in the Sanctuary, O Lord, which Thy hands have established. The Lord shall reign for ever and ever._"
Three times over, led by the impromptu priest-precentor, that grateful, jubilant, delivered people sang the last sentence.
Then, as their song of praise finished, the leaders took counsel together as to what they should do next. It was the unanimous feeling, and expressed opinion, that Apleon would send forth other expeditions to destroy them, if he learned that they had escaped the fate of his aerial and land pursuit.
"I do not believe," cried Cohen, the chief spokesman among the Jews, "that G.o.d Jehovah has permitted one of our pursuers to escape. G.o.d"s judgments, like His mercies, are full and complete. Will Apleon, the Traitor to his covenant-word, ever know the fate of our pursuers? I believe not, unless anyone of us here retrace his steps to Jerusalem to tell him, and that would mean public torture and death to the tale-bearer."
He paused, and glanced around on the throng nearest to him, as he asked:
"Does anyone present know anything in the Scriptures relating to this present position, that will serve as a guide to our movements now?"
A tall, fine-looking man responded by lifting his right arm. He was asked to speak. He came forward and stood upon the hillock where Cohen stood. Holding aloft a Bible, he cried:
"Men and Brethren, of the stock of Israel, and Gentiles a.s.sociated with them. I was a Christian minister, so-called, in Australia, when the "Rapture" took place. I was _left behind_, because, though I could preach eloquently enough, and could keep my church filled to over-flowing. I was not a converted man; I had been trained for the church, as my only brother had been trained for the bar. I never realized the need of conversion, my soul was filled with pride in my gifts, hence I was left behind when Christ came for His own,--and, among His own, thank G.o.d, were many "Israelites indeed," as well as Gentiles.
"Since my conversion, friends, (and though too late for the Rapture, yet still the glorious event took place within forty-eight hours of the Rapture) I have _studied_ my Bible, to see what should happen.
Everything _has_ happened according as the New Testament has laid it down: The "people of G.o.d," the Jews, have built their Temple. They made their seven-year covenant with Apleon. The Anti-christ, the Scripture calls him. At the end of the three and a half years (_half_ of the covenant time) he orders the Sacrifice to cease in the Temple at Jerusalem--and everybody here knows how _literally_ all this has happened.
"He has set up his own image to be worshipped, as was foretold, and G.o.d"s ancient people, with those of us here who are Gentiles, have fled. We are here, to-day, here at this moment, living out exactly what the New Testament had all along prophesied would come to pa.s.s. In that wonderful book, which deals with these times in which we are now living,--Revelation twelve, it says, that the faithful Jews, and others, "_were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time_, (three and a half years from now,) friends, which period will complete the seven years of Apleon"s (Anti-christ"s) reign.
"Now listen again to that same prophesy, friends: "_And the Serpent_ (Apleon) _cast out of his mouth water as a flood, after_ (the fugitives, us who are here today) _that he might cause them to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped_ (the fugitives) _and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth._" Has not every item of this been actually fulfilled, has not G.o.d opened the earth and swallowed up the flood, and delivered us? Then that wonderful prophecy goes on:
"_And_ (the fugitives) _fled into the wilderness, where they had a place prepared of G.o.d, and where they should be fed for twelve hundred and sixty days_, (three and a half years.)
"I do not pose as a prophet, friends, but I cannot help thinking from all I read, some of which I have quoted to you, that G.o.d"s mind for us is that we should make our way into the wilderness beyond here, where G.o.d"s people of old time went, after G.o.d had swallowed up Pharoah"s hosts, even as He has just swallowed up Apleon"s hosts. For, did you notice, in the word I quoted to you just now, it not only said "_the_ wilderness," but "_her place_." It was the wilderness yonder there----"
He pointed Southwards with his finger. "In Sinai; where Moses fled from the wrath of Pharoah; where Israel fled when pursued by the Egyptians; where Elijah fled from b.l.o.o.d.y Jezebel, and where, again and again, G.o.d"s people have found shelter, so that G.o.d calls it "_her_ place." It comes to me, as I speak thus, that since Apleon"s attempt to destroy us has failed, (whether he will learn that, or not, he will know that his punitive expedition does not return to him) his rage will be fixed against all, in every part of the world, who will not Worship him, and his image. So that the persecuted ones, in each land, against whom his rage shall blaze, will probably flee to some wilderness in their own land, while thousands of those who cannot flee will meet martyrdom.
"But wheresoever the wilderness shall be, whether down there in Sinai, or in that vast desert in my wonderful land of Australia, or in one or other of America"s deserts, or the desert of whatever land it may be.
G.o.d will, I believe, miraculously feed, as He miraculously fed the fugitive millions of Israel with manna, and fed Elijah with food from Heaven by ravens. He could send "manna" again, or any other food he pleased. Or he could as readily feed if he pleased, with one meal to last the three and a half years, as he could make his servants of old "go in the strength of one meal for forty days.""
There was a little more in this strain, then there followed a kind of general conference upon the matter in hand. The whole thing was too serious to be delayed, or trifled with, and, eventually, it was agreed to travel as swiftly as might be to the "Wilderness of Sinai," where waiting upon G.o.d, they would hope to be directed in any future movement, or be sustained by his wonder-working hand.
[1] May G.o.d arouse readers of this scene to reflect that there must be thousands living to-day, who will suffer thus hideously. Some, too, who to-day are members of churches, others, children of Christian Parents, many too, of the "Almost persuaded" among us.