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MARY AND THE INFANT SAVIOl R.
PS
MARY:. ,
THE
QUEEN OF THE HOUSE OF DAVID
AND
MOTHER OF JESUS.
THK STORY OK HKR
GABRIEL. "Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee!
Blessed art thou among women.
MARY. "All generations shall call me blessed."
BY
REV. A. SI EWART WALSH, D. D.
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D. D.
ILLUSTRATED.
PUBLISHED EXCLUSIVELY BY
A. S. GRAY & CO.
SUCCESSORS TO
CENTRAL PUBLISHING HOUSE AND KEYSTONE PUBLISHING Co.
PITTSBURGH, PA.
1889.
COPYRIGHT BY H. S. ALLEN,
1886.
COPYRIGHT OWNED B
A S. GRAY.
ARGYLE PRLS3,
"RINTING ANO BOOKBINDING,
265 4 267 CHERRY ST., N. V.
CO WOMANKIND THROUGHOUT THE WORLD
THIS
STORY OF A LIFE
BEAUTIFUL, BENEFICENT, AND INSPIRING
BY THE AUTHOR.
INTRODUCTION TO
THE QUEEN OF THE HOUSE OF DAVID.
BY REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D.
HAVE been asked to open the front door
of this book. But I must not keep you
standing too long on the threshold. The
picture-gallery, the banqueting hall and
the throne-room are inside. All the fascinations
of romance are, by the able author, thrown around
the facts of Mary s life. Much-abused tradition is
also called in for splendid service. The pen that
the author wields is experienced, graceful, capti
vating, and multipotent. As perhaps no other book
that was ever written, this one will show us woman as
standing at the head of the world. It demonstrates in
the life of Mary what woman was and what woman
may be. Woman s position in the world is higher
than man s ; and although she has often been deniad
the right of suffrage, she always does vote and always
will vote by her influence ; and her chief desire ought
to be that she should have grace rightly to rule in the
dominion which she has already won.
She has no equal as a comforter of the sick.
viii Introduction.
What land, whai street, what house has not felt the
smitings of disease ? Tens of thousands of sick bedsi
What shall we do with them ? Shall man, with his
rough hand, and heavy foot, and impatient bearing,
minister? No; he cannot soothe the pain. He can
not quiet the nerves. He knows not where to set the
light. His hand is not steady enough to pour out the
drops. He is not wakeful enough to be watcher. You
have known men who have despised women, but the
moment disease fell upon them, they did not send for
their friends at the bank or their wordly associates.
Their first cry was, "Take me to my wife." The dis
sipated young man at the college scoffs at the idea of
being under home influence ; but at the first blast
of typhoid fever on his cheek he says, " Where is
mother?" I think one of the most pathetic passages
in all the Bible is the description of the lad who went
out to the harvest fields of Shunem and got sunstruck ;
throwing his hands on his temples, and crying out,
" Oh, my head ! my head ! " and they said, " Carry
him to his mother. And the record is " He sat on
her knees till noon and then died."
In the war men cast the cannon, men fashioned the
muskets, men cried to the hosts " Forward, march ! "
men hurled their battalions on the sharp edges of
the enemy, crying " Charge ! charge ! " but woman
scraped the lint, woman administered the cordials,
woman watched by the dying couch, woman wrote
the last message to the home circle, woman wept
at the solitary burial, attended by herself and four
men with a spade. Men did their work with shot
and shell, and carbine and howitzer; women did their
Introduction. ix
work with socks and slippers, and bandages, and warm
drinks, and scripture texts, and gentle soothings of the
hot temples, and stories of that land where they
never have any pain. Men knelt down over the
wounded and said, " On which side did you fight ? "
Women knelt down over the wounded and said,
" Where are you hurt? What nice thing can I make
for you to eat ? What makes you cry?" To-night,
while we men are soundly asleep in our beds, there
will be a light in yonder loft ; there will be groaning
down that dark alley ; there will be cries of distress in
that cellar. Men will sleep and women will watch.
No one as well as a woman can handle the poor.
There are hundreds and thousands of them in all our
cities. There is a kind of work that men cannot do
for the destitute. Man sometimes gives his charity
in a rough way, and it falls like the fruit of a tree
in the East, which fruit comes down so heavily
that it breaks the skull of the man who is trying
to gather it. But woman glides so softly into the
house of want, and finds out all the sorrows of
the place, and puts so quietly the donation on the
table, that all the family come out on the front steps
as she departs, expecting that from under her shawl
she will thrust out two wings and go right up to
Heaven, from whence she seems to have come down.
O, Christian young woman, if you would make your
self happy and win the blessings of Christ, go out
among the poor! A loaf of bread or a bundle of
socks may make a homely load to carry, but the angels
of God will come out to watch, and the Lord Almighty
will give His messenger hosts a charge, saying, " Look
* Introduction.
after that woman , canopy her with your wings, and
shelter her from all harm." And while you are seated
in the house of destitution and suffering, the little
ones around the room will whisper, "Who is she? is
she not beautiful ? " and if you will listen right sharply,
you will hear dripping through the leaky roof, and
rolling over the broken stairs, the angel chant that
shook Bethlehem : " Glory to God in the highest, and
on earth peace and good will to man." Can you tell
why a Christian woman, going down among the haunts
of iniquity on a Christian errand, seldom meets with
any indignity ?
I stood in the chapel of Helen Chalmers, the daugh
ter of the celebrated Dr. Chalmers, in the most aban.
doned part of the city of Edinburg; and I said to her,
as I looked around upon the fearful surroundings of
that place, " Do you come here nights to hold a
service?" " Oh, yes," she said; "I take my lantern
and I go through all these haunts of sin, the darkest
and the worst ; and I ask all the men and women to
come to the chapel, and then I sing for them, and I
pray for them, and I talk to them." I said, " Can it be
possible that you never meet with an insult while per-
forming this Christian errand?" "Never," she said;
" never." That young woman, who has her father by
her side, walking down the street, and an armed police
man at each corner is not so well defended as that
Christian woman who goes forth on Gospel work into
the haunts of iniquity carrying the Bible and bread.
Some one said, " I dislike very much to see that
Christian woman teaching these bad boys in the
mission school. I am afraid to have her instruct
Introduction. xi
them." " So," said another man, " I am afraid too."
Said the first, " I am afraid they will use vile language
before they leave the place." " Ah," said the other
man, " I am not afraid of that ; what I am afraid of is,
that if any of those boys should use a bad word in her
presence, the other boys would tear him to pieces
killing him on the spot."
Woman is especially endowed to soothe disaster.
She is called the weaker vessel, but all profane as well
as sacred history attests that when the crisis comes she
is better prepared than man to meet the emergency.
How often have you seen a woman who seemed to be
a disciple of frivolity and indolence, who, under
one stroke of calamity, changed to be a heroine.
There was a crisis in your affairs, you struggled
bravely and long, but after a while there came a
day when you said, " Here I shall have to stop ; "
and you called in your partners, and you called
in the most prominent men in your employ, and
you said, "We have got to stop." You left the
store suddenly ; you could hardly make up your
mind to pass through the street and over on the
ferry-boat ; you felt everybody would be looking at you
and blaming you and denouncing you. You hastened
home ; you told your wife all about the affair. What
did she say ? Did she play the butterfly ; did she talk
about the silks and the ribbons and the fashions ? No ;
she came up to the emergency; she quailed not under
the stroke. She helped you to begin to plan right
away. She offered to go out of the comfortable house
into a smaller one, and wear the old cloak another
winter. She was one who understood your affairs
xif Introduction.
without blaming you. You looked upon what you
thought was a thin, weak woman s arm holding you
up ; but while you looked at that arm there came into
the feeble muscles of it the strength of the eternal
God. No chiding. No fretting. No telling you
about the beautiful house of her father, from which
you brought her, ten, twenty, or thirty years ago.
You said, " Well, this is the happiest day of my
life. I am glad I have got from under my burden.
My wife don t care I don t care." At the moment
you were utterly exhausted, God sent a Deborah
to meet the host of the Amalekites and scatter
them like chaff over the plain. There are scores
and hundreds of households to-day where as much
bravery and courage are demanded of woman as was
exhibited by Grace Darling or Marie Antoinette or
Joan of Arc.
Woman is further endowed to bring us into the
Kingdom of Heaven. It is easier for a woman to be a
Christian than for a man. Why? You say she is
weaker. No. Her heart is more responsive to the
pleadings of divine love. The fact that she can more
easily become a Christian, I prove by the statement
that three-fourths of the members of the churches in
all Christendom are women. So God appoints them
to be the chief agencies for bringing this world back to
God. The greatest sermons are not preached on
celebrated platforms ; they are preached with an audi
ence of two or three and in private home-life. A
patient, loving, Christian demeanor in the presence of
transgression, in the presence of hardness, in the pres
ence of obduracy and crime, is an argument from the
Introduction. xiii
throne of the Lord Almighjy ; and blessed is that
woman who can wield such an argument. A sailor
came slipping down the ratlin one night as though
something had happened, and the sailors cried,
What s the matter?" He said, "My mother s
prayers haunt me like a ghost."
In what a realm is every mother the queen. The
eagles of heaven can not fly across that dominion.
Horses, panting and with lathered flanks, are not swift
enough to run to the outpost of that realm, and
death itself will only be the annexation of heavenly
principalities. When you want your grandest idea
of a queen you do not think of Catherine of
Russia, or of Anne of England, or Maria Theresa
of Germany : but when you want to get your grand
est idea of a queen you think of the plain woman
who sat opposite your father at the table or walked
with him, arm in arm, down life s pathway ; some
times to the Thanksgiving banquet, sometimes to
the grave, but always together ; soothing your petty
griefs, correcting your childish waywardness, joining
in your infantile sports, listening to your evening
prayer, toiling for you with needle or at the spinning
wheel, and on cold nights wrapping you up snug and
warm ; and then, at last, on that day when she lay in
the back room dying, and you saw her take those thin
hands with which she had toiled for you so long, and
put them together in a dying prayer that commended
you to the God whom she had taught you to trust
oh, she was the queen ! The chariots of God came
down to fetch her, and as she went in, all heaven rose
up. You can not think of her now without a rush of
xiv Introduction.
tenderness that stirs the deep foundations of your
soul, and you feel as much a child again as when you
cried on her lap ; and if you could bring her back to
life again to speak, just once more, your name as ten
derly as she used to speak it, you would be willing to
throw yourself on the ground and kiss the sod that
covers her, crying, " Mother ! mother ! " Ah, she was
the queen !
Home influences are the mightiest of all influences
upon the soul. There are men who have maintained
their integrity, not because they were any better
naturally than some other people, but because there
were home influences praying for them all the time.
They got a good start. They were launched on the
world with the benedictions of a Christian mother.
They may track Siberian snows, they may plunge
into African jungles, they may fly to the earth s end,
they can not go so far and so fast but the prayer will
keep up with them. Oh, what a multitude of women
in heaven. Mary, Christ s mother, in heaven. Eliza
beth Fry in heaven. Charlotte Elizabeth in heaven.
The mother of Augustine in heaven. The Countess
of Huntingdon is in heaven who sold her splendid
jewels to build chapels in heaven ; while a great
many others who have never been heard of on
earth, or known but little of, have gone into the
rest and peace of heaven. What a rest. What a
change it was from the small room with no fire
and one window, the glass broken out, and the
aching side and worn out eyes, to the " house of many
mansions." Heaven for aching heads. Heaven for
broken hearts. Heaven for anguish-bitten frames.
Introduction. xv
No more sitting up until midnight for the coming
of staggering steps. No more rough blows on the
temples. No more sharp, keen, bitter curses.
Some of you will have no rest in this world ; it will
be toil and struggle all the way up. You will have to
stand at your door fighting back the wolf with your
own hand red with carnage. But God has a crown for
you. He is now making it, and whenever you weep a
tear, He sets another gem in that crown; whenever
you have a pang of body or soul, He puts another gem
in that crown, until after a while in all the tiara there
will be no room for another splendor; and God will
say to his angel, " The crown is done ; let her up that
she may wear it." And as the Lord of righteousness
puts the crown upon your brow, angel will cry to
angel, " Who is she ? " and Christ will say, " I will
tell you who she is ; she is the one that came up out
of great tribulation and had her robe washed and made
white in the blood of the Lamb." And then God will
spread a banquet, and He will invite all the principali
ties of heaven to sit at the feast, and the tables will
blush with the best clusters from the vineyards of God
and crimson with the twelve manner of fruits from the
tree of life, and water from the fountains of the rock
will flash from the golden tankards ; and the old
harpers of heaven will sit there, making music with
their harps, and Christ will point you out amid the
celebrities of heaven, saying, " She suffered with me
on earth, now we are going to be glorified together."
And the banquetters, no longer able to hold their
peace, will break forth with congratulation. "Hail!
hail !" And there will be A handwriting on the wall;
xvl Introduction*
not such as struck the Persian noblemen with horror,
but with fire-tipped fingers writing in blazing capitals
of light and love and victory : " God has wiped away
all tears from all faces."
And now I leave you in the hands of Dr. Walsh,
the author of this book. He will show you Mary, the
model of all womanly, wifely, motherly excellence
the Madonna hanging in the Louvre of admiration for
all Christendom, and for many millions in the higher
Vatican of their worship.
T. DE WITT TALMAGE,
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I. THE QUEEN S PORTRAIT.
* A form beloved comes again " Inspired painters in I
voyage of discovery Tributes to Mary, honoring ali
womankind Guide s wish Madonnas of many climes.
Raphael s "Transfigured Woman " Savonarola s bon
fire St. Luke s picture of the Virgin The Vandal
spirit Page 29
CHAPTER II. THE PILGRIM, CRUSADER AND VIRGIN.
Life a pilgrimage Pilgrims of many faiths A struggle for
holy places between the Pilgrim-Crusaders and Mos
lem The harem and the home The rise of Chivalry
The Knights and " Our Lady " The results of the Cru
sades Page 36
CHAPTER III. ARMAGEDDON ! " THE KEY AND SICKLE."
" The wandering hermit wakes the storms of war " Acre
and Esdrselon, the "Armageddon " or " Mountain of the
Gospel " of the Scriptures The battle-field of nations
The City of Jeanne d Arc. The jewel in the sickle-haft
Prince Edward, the Crusade leader Sultan Kha-tel
The sacking of Acre Actors introduced. . Page 48
CHAPTER IV. SIR CHARLEROY ; THE SOLDIER OF FOR
TUNE AND KNIGHT OF SAINT MARY.
The flight from Acre to Nazareth The born-leader Life
estimates with Death holding the scales A prince
honors, a bishop blesses, and a mother loves An epit-
ome of paradoxes ... Page 53
x-viii The Queen of the House of David.
CHAPTER V. NAZARETH.
Nazareth, the place of Mary s nativity The choice of
a leader The coward king The Virgin s Fount
English songsters The Knights mountain Litany
Longings for home and mother Nain and Endor s
lessons. Page 61
CHAPTER VI. THE FUGITIVES.
A night bivouac amid sacred scenes The " Knight of the
Holy-Sepulcher " who fled on "a white charger with
black wings " The funeral at dawn Mary s palm-
bearing angel-guard The twelve knights separate into
two parties Will-makings and farewells By Endor
to oblivion Page 74
CHAPTER VII. ICHABOD.
Sir Charleroy s band approach Shunem, the City of Elijah
The surprise Sir Charleroy the captive of Azrael the
Mameluke The Mohammedan heaven depicted " A
hair, the bridge over hell " The odoriferous houris A
gorgeous charnel-house blasted The prodigal becomes
the herald of purity The Knight of Saint Mary and the
Jewish Spy Adversity makes the Knight and the Jew
friends The Knight instructing Ichabod " Till Shiloh
comes " " The true, refined and final Judaism" " The
east and the west embracing ; truth leading." An
honest doubt is a real prayer. ..... Page 82
CHAPTER VIII. FROM JERICHO TO JORDON.
The radiant proselyte Climbing to glory The ghostly
forms hovering over submerged Sodom Jordon s sweet
ening Siddim-angels among the willovrs and oleanders
by the Dead Sea Summonsed to fight for the Crescent
or go to the slave mart Nourahmal " The light of the
harem" becomes the disciple and friend of Ichabod
A debate concerning women A rarity and a wonder
" I told her women had souls ; she laughed like a
monkey " The flight from Jericho by night The
lightning God s torch " Canst thou dance rock*
Contents. xix
irto camels ? " A mummy s flight, and the burial of a
live man " Unclean " The solemn passage of Jor
dan Page 93
CHAPTER IX. THE FEAST OF THE ROSE.
\ breakfast of lentils and barley in the wilderness The
gloom of the Knight and the joy of the Jew Sermons on
fate and songs in flowers The poetry of Ichabod Celi
bacy a reward at Rome Kneph " The father of his
mother " The heathen and the Christian " Feast of
the Rose "-The summary of the events in Mary s life
and in the life of Jesus The Egyptian Rosary Neb-ta
the maiden sister The egg and the cross, ancient signs
of immortality The Copt priest The insights of the
Egyptians symbolized by the Sphinx. . . Page 113
CHAPTER X. AFTER EVE, ESTHER OR MARY ?
By Jabbock, in the native place of Ichabod Israelitish
maidens keeping the feast of Esther Religious love,
filial love and lover s love The poetic Jew s rhapsody
concerning affection God s voice in the Garden The
ideal women of the Old Testament and of the New The
Jew s cry for mother Vacillating Sir Charleroy
" Echo s Magic" Jewish customs. . . . Page 135
CHAPTER XI. THE FEAST OF PURIM.
A. night-scene by Jabbock Harrimai the priest, and his
daughter Rizpah The religious ceremonial and the
revel Sir Charleroy and Rizpah as " Ahasuerus and
Esther " The Knight s secret discovered Conquest of
a woman s heart through pity " Of what metals Jewish
maidens are." Page 152
CHAPTER XII. ASTARTE OR MARY?
The Knight of Saint Mary enslaved by a Hebrew beauty
The journey toward Bozrah The Mameluke attack
The hand to hand fight Sir Charleroy wounded and
Ichabod slain Rizpah s heroism in peril Espousal in
the face of death A wonderful vision. . . Page 170
xx Hie (jueen oj the fiousc of jJavict.
CHAPTER XIII. FROM RAMOTH GILEAD TO DAMAScua
Teacher and pupil become patient and nurse Perilous re
lations Delights, assurances, fears and clouds Harri-
mai s discovery and his malediction Love s debate and
decision Elopement by night the Knight and the
Jewess wedded at Damascus Page 182
CHAPTER XIV. THE THEATER OF THE GIANTS.
The death of Harrimai A honey-moon in the " Eye of the
East" To Bashan with the Mecca chaplet-seekers
Nature, art and desolation Lejah s black lava-sea The
frenzies of Gerash s passion-flower Reaction after ex
altation " A camel voyage in-sea" Rizpah s challenge
Jealous of Sir Charleroy s love for Mary " Illusion "
- The church of Saint George at Edrei Recrimination
Ridicule costly to pride Neither Christian, Jew nor
Pagan A woman with unsettled faith A babe poisoned
by its mother s passion The lamp and the palm-trees
The Knight s appeals Omens A beacon needed
Fleeing the Lejah To Bozrah Page 195
CHAPTER XV. THE REVELS OF MEN AND THE RITES OF
THEIR GODDESSES.
Kunawat at the City of Job The Shrine of Astarte The
Cyclopean image Questioning the Soul, Time and
God Hugeness, greatness ; littleness, caricature The
naked worshipers of the golden calf Sins exposed
Purity s vision Phallic mysteries Khem Female
deities Dualism Immortality by progeny and by re
generation The fire-worshiper s mystic number eight,
and the Jewish covenant number seven. . Page 212
CHAPTER XVI. A BATTLE OF GIANTS AT BOZRAH.
Houses forty centuries old The old stone-house of an
ancient giant becomes the home of the knight and his
wife How circumstances cluange people Recrimina
tions and reconciliation " The gall taken from animals
offered to Juno, goddess of marriage " Rizpah s temper
that seemed brilliant before wedlock, afterward seems to
Contents, xxi
Sir Charleroy very like that of a virago The charming
nonsense of those for the first time parents Shall she
be named Davidah, Angela, Marah or Mary ? The
Chrijtian and Jewish faith battle about the cradle The
separation of husband and wife, in anger The sick
child and the desolated, deserted wife Rizpah longs
for a mother, such as Mary of Bethlehem. . Page 224
CHAPTER XVII. RIZPAH THE ANCIENT MOTHER OF BOR
ROWS.
After many years, Rizpah dwells in Bozrah with her three
children Rizpah of Bozrah fascinated by Rizpah of
Gibeah Miriamne the daughter of Rizpah The
daughter appalled by her mother s mysterious hallucina
tions The wonders of mother-love The story of the
ancient, Jewish " Mother of Sorrows " The omen of
the bat and the parable of the stars. . . Page 245
CHAPTER XVIII. THE QUEEN PROCLAIMED IN THE GIANT
CITY.
The old and the young Jews The old Christian priest and
his Jewess proselyte Attacked by Mamelukes The
Old Clock Man " The Balsam Band Miriamne,
the Jewess proselyte, questions concerning the queen
of the old priest s heart The miraculous picture of
Mary at Damascus Silver hands and feet Crown
jewels Page 264
CHAPTER XIX. THE STORY OF MARY S CHILDHOOD.
Page 282
CHAPTER XX. THE WEDDING THE BIRTH AND THE
FLIGHT.
The birth of Jesus and the flight to Egypt Miriamne
reads to her mother a Christian account of Mary s
espousal Rizpah curious but doubtful. . Page 293
CHAPTER XXI. THE QUEEN AND HER FAMILY IN EGYPT.
Father Adolphus and Miriamne converse of the Holy
family s sojourn in Egypt Heliopolis and Ihe Temple
xxii The Queen of tJie House of David.
of the Sun Fire-worshipers At Memphis, the snrine
of Apis the sacred bull The red heifer of Israel The
Holy Family rescued in Egypt by a robber who after
ward died on the cross next to the Savior The legend
of a gipsy s prophecy concerning Jesus Zingarella
won by the Virgin Page 312
CHAPTER XXII. THE SHADOW OF THE CROSS.
Rizpah dreading heresy yet charmed by the story of the
" Girl Wife " "Behold my mother and brethren"
Christ s message to his widowed mother The " Church
of the Terror " Rizpah s vision of " Glad Tidings."
Rizpah of Bozrah allured from Rizpah of Gibeah A
hot-chase after an old love The sword that pierced
Mary The shadow of the cross horrifies Rizpah The
faith of the Nazarene denounced Miriamne driven
from home by her mother Page 322
CHAPTER XXIII. THE MISERERE AND THE EASTER AN
THEM.
Miriamne alone at night in the giant city A refuge at the
Christian priest s The midnight Miserere Penitents
Easter at Bozrah Finding the mother-love in God s
heart Page 337
CHAPTER XXIV. A HEROINE S PILGRIMAGE.
The convert s yearnings " Go and tell " When parents
oppose each other which shall the child follow? A
child of the kingdom in a new family circle Jesus,
Mary and the elect Miriamne s two great ambitions
Living apart may be as sinful as actual divorcement
Father Adolphus encourages and Rizpah opposes Miri
amne Rizpah recounts to Miriamne the story of her
love for Sir Charleroy, his madness and her own futile
visit to London in the effort to win him back The
curse of heredity " I ll disown thee with tears in my
voice and kisses in my heart." Page 351
CHAPTER XXV. COXSOLATRIX AFFLICTORUM.
Miriamne s welcome by the London Palestineans The
daughter meets her father in a mad-house Disappoint-
Contents. xxiii
merit The flight The search The White Madonna
ot the Asylum Park Love the remedy of minds per
turbed by hate Pallas-Athene the virgin of the
fteatheii Miriamne s letter to her mother and its grim
answer . . Page 367
CHAPTER XXVI. THE WEDDING AT CANA.
Sir Charleroy giving signs of recovery under Miriamne s
ministries A remarkable service in the chapel of the
Palestineans The knight interested in the story of
Cana The address of Cornelius, on " Home " and
"Marriage" "Is this London or Bozrah ? " Sir
Charleroy s sudden relapse Miriamne s adroit minis
tries Memories that awaken hopes The clouds again
lifting Mary s life motto Page 381
CHAPTER XXVII. THE STAR OF THE SEA.
Sir Charleroy, partially restored, with Miriamne and Corne
lius journeying toward Syria Passing Cyprus Olym
pus A storm rising on the Mediterranean Cornelius
presses his love suit on Miriamne Miriamne pledges
love, but pleads her mission as a barrier to marriage
Conflicts below, tempests aloft A dream ; Venus s
court and Mary s triumph Sir Charleroy in frenzy de
fying the billows An hour of peril The "Lightning
Song " of the sailors The twin stars " Mary, Star of
the Sea " The victims of fabricated consciences
Parting Page 397
CHAPTER XXVIII. THE QUEEN IN THE VALLEY OF
SORROWS.
Father and daughter at Acre The mysterious Hospitaler
From Acre to Joppa " The myths are as full of women
as the women are full of myths" The wars of men about
women At Jerusalem The wonderful words of the
Knight-Hospitaler, turned preacher The Via Dolorosa
The Valley of Jehosaphat The mountain outlook
" Soldiers Speed the Cross " Mary, the sun of women,
rising in moral grandeur above the women of the grove-
shrines The panorama of the ages, passing before
Mary s mind Tage 419
xxiv TJic Queen of the House of David.
CHAPTER XXIX. Two DEAD HEARTS UNITING Two
LIVING ONES.
From Jerusalem to Bozrah The tomb of Ichabod Sir
Charleroy argues against meeting Rizpah Miriamne s
strong argument in behalf of the lasting obligations of
marriage A husband reaching the climax of revenges
Joseph by kindness kept Mary in sweet mood and so
blessed the unborn Christ " Miriamne, I am a bundle
of contradictions ! " The news-rider A plague at Bozrah
--De Griffin s twins nigh death Miriamne meets her
mother Reconciliation A strange funeral ; only two
women as mourners and pall-bearers. . . Page 437
CHAPTER XXX. THE " KNIGHT OF SAINT MARY " AND
RIZPAH AT THE GRAVE OF THEIR SONS.
Father Adolphus and Sir Charleroy A ruined temple and
a ruined man "A woman, a woman leading in religion! "
Jesus and Magdalena The twelve appearings of the
lingering Christ The Savior s love-letter from heaven to
His mother Lucifer s attempt at suicide The kiss
befouled by treason The meeting of Sir Charleroy and
Rizpah " The tomb of giant-love grown to mad-hate."
Page 453
CHAPTER XXXI. THE ROSE, QUEEN OF HEARTS IN
BOZRAH.
A scene of domestic happiness Love the vassal of the will
Neb-ta in the " Judgment Hall of Truth " The lambs
that are offered by sectarian hates The Arcana of
glorious wedded love Rizpah transformed Miriamne s
public profession of Christ Cornelius Woelfkin again
appeals for union in wedlock An inner and an outer
Miriamne The coronation of love The solemn espousal.
Page 467
CHAPTER XXXII. THE QUEEN AND THE GRAIL-SEEKERS.
* The gold of my heart to the man that piloted me to hap
piness " Miriamne yearns for a world in sin Has the
Church or God failed ? A revolutionary reformer The
tory of the grail quest The quest of a heavenly cure
Contents, xxv
for human ills The triumphant Adam and Eve The
queenly women of patriarchal times The mother of the
Savior as the wife of a carpenter What kept her young
heart from breaking Miriamne s farewell to Bozrah.
Page 484
CHAPTER XXXIII. THE HOSPITALER S ORATION.
The secret meeting of the Knights at the house of Phebe
Swords bent sickle-like and spears crossed After war,
social victories Sunrise at midnight Each career
determined by the life that gives life The girdle of
Venus Next after God, Mary chiefly instrumental in
giving the world a Savior Page 498
CHAPTER XXXIV. MEMORIALS AT BOZRAH.
The death of Dorothea The priest of the wayside The
wedding of Cornelius and Miriamne A pilgrimage to
the tombs of Adolphus, Charieroy and Rizpah. Back-
look, and outlooks Page 510
CHAPTER XXXV. THE SISTERS OF BETHANY.
The Missioners at Bethany The site of the Home of Jesus
Miriamne s ideal society The miracle age A home, not
a throne, the place of Ascension Will Jesus so return ?
The angel bivouac Page 522
CHAPTER XXXVI. THE QUEEN OF THE HOUSE OF DAVID.
The Knight s Pentecost In the upper room of Joseph of
Arimathcea Mary s title and realm Luke, the word-
painter The smoke side and the fire side of Pentecost.
Page 529
CHAPTER XXXVII. THE CORONATION OF THE QUEEN.
The Hospitaler deemed a prophet at Bethany. The legiti
macy of Jesus as the " son of David " assured through
His mother "The reign of blood" First born
Pagan Rome made sponsor for Mary s son Doomsday
books and royal charters Page 538
xxvi The Queen oj the House oj David.
CHAPTER XXXVIII. THE " LIGHT OF THE HAREM " IN
THE " TEMPLE OF ALLEGORY."
The old church at Bethany A dedication The wonders
of symbolism Idolatry and Mariolatry. . . Page 548
CHAPTER XXXIX. CROWN JEWELS.
The Hospitaler warns the Missioners of the Sheik of Jerusa
lem s designs The son of Azrael Immunity purchased
The wedding of Beulah, Nourahmal s grand-daughter to
a Jewish convert The wedding address Juno-Moneta
Crown jewels of maidens and mothers Mary sounding
the depths of woman s miseries A malediction for lust
" Knights of the White Cross " The lost woman dreaming
of how it seems to have a mother s arms infolding her
The Virgin s potent example Page 568
CHAPTER XL. THE QUEEN S VISION OF THE AGE OF GOLD
AND FIRE.
NouraKmal wed to the Druse camel-driver the Druse con
verted The Hospitaler s message Ezekiel prophecies
fulfilled at Olivet The " Mother s pillow " Gabriel, the
" Angel of Mothers and of Victories." . . Page 581
CHAPTER XLI. A CHIME AND A DIRGE AT CHRISTMAS
TIME.
" Motherhood priced " " Thou shall be saved in child-
bearing Sylvan gods of Rome " The Miriamites,"
"In Rama, weeping and great mourning" Joachim s
bleating lamb slain Woman s supreme hour Maternity s
crucifixion " The Caesarian Section" The ebbing-tide
and the stranded wreck, at midnight. . . . Page 595
CHAPTER XLII. THE MOTHER OF SORROWS TRIUMPHANT
AT LAST.
The funeral of Miriamne The Hospitaler tells the traditions
of Mary s death and assumption What the Druse con
vert said to his camel " The beatings of mighty wings "
The tomb of Miriamne in Gethsemane. Page 6il
Contents. xxvii
CHAPTER XLIII. A COFFIN FULL OF FLOWERS, AND A
GIRDLE WITH WINGS.
Cornelius and his son at Bethany Changed scenes Undei
the lights and shadows of Chemosh A widower s grief
Azrael s putative son razes to the ground Miriamne s
home and temple The legend of Mary s coffin and girdle
The last of the new grail-knights A sad and dramatic
tableau. 618
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
i.
MARY AND THE INFANT JESUS, - - Frontispiece
(The original painted by GOODALL.)
II.
PAGE
THE BIRTH OF MARY ...... 6c
(The original painted by MURILLO.)
III.
RIZPAH DEFENDING THE DEAD BODIES OF HER
RELATIONS, - 250
(The original painted by BECKER.)
IV.
THE EDUCATION OF MARY, ... 282
(The original painted by CARL MULLER.)
V.
THE MARRIAGE OF MARY AND JOSEPH, - 294
(The original painted by RAPHAEL.)
VI.
THE SHADOW OF THE CROSS, - - 332
(The original painted by MORRIS.)
VII.
JESUS AT THE AGE OF TWELVE WITH MARY AND
JOSEPH ON THEIR WAY TO JERUSALEM - - 350
(The original painted by MENGELBURG.)
VIII.
THE YOUTH JESUS YIELDING TO THE WISHES OF
His MOTHER, - - 366
(The original painted by W. HOLMAN HUNT.)
IX.
THE WEDDING AT CANA, - 380
(The original painted by PAUL VERONESE.)
X.
MARY AND ST. JOHN, - - 43 5
(The original painted by PLOCKHORST.)
THE
QUEEN OF THE HOUSE OF DAVIP
CHAPTER I.
THE QUEEN S PORTRAIT.
" And breaking as from distant gloom,
A face comes painted on the air;
A presence walks the haunted room,
Or sits within the vacant chair.
And every object that I feel
Seems charged by some enchanter s wand,
And keen the dizzy senses thrill,
As with the touch of spirit hand.
A form beloved comes again,
A voice beside me seems to start,
While eager fancies fill the brain,
And eager passions hold the heart."
ASTER, we would see a sign from Thee,
was the cunning challenge of the Scribes
and Pharisees. They were certain that, in
this at least, the hearts of the people
would be with them. A sign, a scene, a symbol, were
the constant demand and quest of the olden times, as of
all times. Even Jehovah led forth to victory and trust,
as necessity was upon Him in leading human followers,
30 The Queen of the House of David,
" with an outstretched arm, and with signs and with wor*.
ders." The Jews, seemingly so doubtful and so quer
ulous, after all articulated the longings of the universal
humanity. The longing stimulated the effort to gratify
it, and forthwith the artist became the teacher of the
people. Presentments of Mary, as she might have been,
and as she was imagined to have been by those most
devout, were multiplied. Piety sought to express its
regard for her by making her more real to faith through
the instrumentality of the speaking canvas, but beyond
this there was the desire to embody certain charms and
virtues of character dear to all pure and devout ones.
These were expressed by pictured faces, ideally perfect.
They called each such " Mary " ; and if there had never
been a real Mary, still these handiworks would have had
no small value. Who can say that those consecrated
artists were in no degree moved by the Spirit which
guided David when " he opened dark sayings on the
harp," and rapturously extolled that other Beloved of
God, the Church ? Music and painting twin sisters
equal in merit, and both from Him who displays
form, color and harmony as among the chief rewards
and glories of His upper kingdom. These also meet a
want in human nature as God created it. The artists
did not beget this desire for presentments through
form and color of the woman deemed most blessed ;
the desire rather begot the artists. Stately theology has
never ceased truly to proclaim from the day Christ cried
" It is finished ! " that " in Him all fullness dwells ; " but
no theology, has been able to silence the cry of woman s
heart in woman and woman s nature in man which
pleads through the long years, "S/ww us the mother and
The Queen s Portrait. 31
it sufficeth us" It has happened sometimes that gross
minds have strayed from the ideal or spiritual imports
of Mary s life and fallen into idolizing her effigies. That
was their fault, and must not be taken as full proof that
nothing but evil came from the portrayings of our
queen. The facts are conclusively otherwise. The
painters that made glorious ideals shine forth from the
canvas unconsciously painted the shadows largely out
of the conditions of all women. Before this second
advent of the Virgin, the paganish idea that women
were the " weaker sex," the inferiors of men, at best
only useful, handsome animals, prevailed. The
renaissance of Mary, as the ideal woman, was an event
seeded with the germs of revolutionary impulses
socially. Like sunrise it began in the East, at first
dimly manifest, then it became effulgent and quickly
coursed westward along the pathways of Christianity s
conquests. Like sweet, grateful light then there came
to the hearts of men the braver true persuasion, that
the woman who not only bore the Christ but won
His reverent love must have been morally beautiful
and great. In the track of this persuasion, and as its
sequence, there came the conviction that the sex,
of which Mary was one, had within it possibilities be
yond what its sturdier companions had dreamed.
After this it came about that the painters, often the
interpreters of human feelings, began to represent all
goodness under the form of a Madonna. Not know
ing the contour of Mary s face they began gathering
here and there, from the women they knew, features of
beauty. They combined these in one harmonious pre
sentment. They set out to represent the ideal woman.
32 The Queen of the House of David.
but had to go to women to find her parts. It became
a tribute to womankind to do this. It was like a voy
age of discovery, and the artist voyagers depicted not
only the best things in womankind, but by putting
these things together illustrated what woman could be
and should be at her best.
It was thus that Guido produced a picture of the
Madonna which enravished all that beheld it. Once
he had said, " I wish I d the wings of an angel to
behold the beatified spirits, which I might have
copied." After, here and there, he picked out frag
ments of color and form on earth ; then put them into
one ideal composition. It was a heart-expanding
work ; the work of a prophet, since it told of what
might be in woman wholly at her best. Then he said,
"the beautiful and pure idea must be in the head " of
the artist. It was a deep saying. Given the ideal,
and the worker will need only proper ambition to pre
sent a grand composition, whether on canvas or in the
patterningsof the inner life. The presentments of the
Virgin rose in fineness when priests turned from their
exegesis to kneel and paint for men. The great Saint
Augustine, held in high honor by Christians of every
name, redeemed from a youth of darkest sinning,
revered as his guiding star two lovely women, Monica,
his mother, and Mary, the mother of Jesus. He
argues, in stalwart polemics, that through the acknowl
edgment of Mary s pre-eminence all womankind was
elevated. Her presentment, so as to be fully compre
hended, was in the beginning a blessing to every soul
in being an inspiration to purer, sweeter living. So
far as such presentment now conserves the same
The Queen s Portrait. 33
results the work is worthy and profitable. In all
times the representations of the Virgin, whether by
the historian or the master of the studio, varied ; but
the piety they awakened always seemed to be of one
type, and that lofty. Thus we have " the stern, awful
quietude of the old Mosaics, the hard lifelessness of
the degenerate Greeks, the pensive sentiment of the
Siena, the stately elegance of the Florentine Madon
nas, the intellectual Milanese, with their large fore
heads and thoughtful eyes, the tender, refined mysti
cism of the Umbrian, the sumptuous loveliness of
the Venetian ; the quaint, characteristic simplicity of
the early German, so stamped with their nationality
that I never looked round me in a room full of Ger
man girls without thinking of Albert Durer s Virgins;
the intense, life-like feeling of the Spanish, the prosaic,
portrait-like nature of the Flemish schools, and so on."
Each time and place produced its own ideal, but all
tried to express the one thought uppermost ; pious
regard for the Queen and model. All seemed to feel
that in this devotion there was somehow comfort and
exaltation and there generally were both.
The writer of the foregoing quotation, a woman of
widest culture and admirable good sense, attested the
need that many feel by her own rapturous description
of the Madonna of Raphael in the Dresden Gallery.
" I have seen my own ideal once where Raphael
inspired, if ever painter was inspired projected on
the space before him that wonderful creation."
"There she stands, the transfigured woman; at once
completely human and completely divine , an abstrac
tion of power, purity and love; poised on the
34 The Queen of the House of David.
empurpled air, and requiring no other support;
with melancholy, loving mouth, her slightly dilated
sibylline eyes looking out quite through the universe
to the end and consummation of all things; sad, as if
she beheld afar off the visionary sword that was to
reach her heart through HIM, now resting as enthroned
on that heart ; yet already exalted through the hom
age of the redeemed generations who were to salute
her as blessed. Is it so indeed? Is she so divine? or
does not rather the imagination lend a grace that is
not there? I have stood before it and confessed that
there is more in that form and face than I have ever
yet conceived. The Madonna di San Sisto is an
abstract of all the attributes of Mary."
The foregoing representation marked a step forward
in things spiritual. Before Raphael, painters number
less, under the influence of the luxurious and vicious
Medici, had filled the churches of Florence with painted
presentments of the Virgin, characterized by an allur
ing beauty which seemed next door to blasphemy.
Then came that Luther of his times, Savonarola. He
thundered for purity, simplicity and reform ; aiming
his blows at the depraving, sensuous conceptions of
the grosser artists. He made a bonfire in the Piazza
of Florence, there consuming these false madonnas.
He was, for this, persecuted to death by the Borgia
family. They could not bear his trumpet call to Flor
entines, " Your sins make me a prophet ; I have been a
Jonah warning Nineveh ; I shall be a Jeremiah weep
ing over the ruins ; for God will renew His church and
that will not take place without blood Art heard
his voice, the painters became disgusted with their
The Queen s Portrait. 35
meaner handiwork, the rude, the obscene, the mis
chievous was obliterated ; finer, more spiritual and
loftier concepts of the Virgin appeared as proof of a
reformation of morals. And Raphael, later on, seeing
these productions, felt the influence that begot them,
and then produced that masterpiece. Tradition says
Saint Luke painted a picture of the Virgin from life.
The picture, reputed to have been so painted, was
found by the Turks in Constantinople when that city
fell into their conquering hands. They despoiled it of
its princely jewel-decorations, then tramped it con
temptuously beneath their feet. The latter act was
typical, and the Turk still lives to trample in contempt
on honest efforts to portray with amplitude and fin
ished details this splendid character, whose outlines
alone are presented by the Gospels. But though the
Vandal spirit survives, there survives also the strong
yearning for the representation of that woman beyond
compare, and some will still revel amid the ideals of
painters, and some will be gladdened still more by
truth s complete presentment which words alone can
make.
CHAPTER II.
THE PILGRIM, CRUSADER AND VIRGIBL
" There is a fire
And motion of the soul which will not dwell.
In its own narrow being, but aspire
Beyond the fitting medium of desire ;
And but once kindled, quenchless ever more,
Preys upon high adventure, nor can tire
Of aught but rest."
"CJnlde Harold:
HERE is something very fascinating about
the contemplation of life as a continuous
pilgrimage, and the fascination grows on
one as the conviction of the truth of the
conception is deepened by study of it. The course of
our race has been a series of processions from continent
to continent, from age to age, from barbarism to refine
ment, from darkness toward light. Whether measuring
the little arcs of individuals from birth to dust, or follow
ing along the mighty marches of our universe with all
its grouping hosts of whirling constellations, we have
before us ever this constant truth ; man moves will
ingly or unwillingly onward, as a pilgrim amid pil
grims. " Move on " is the constant mandate and
necessity of being. Man s course is mapped ;
onward from the swaddling clothes to the shroud, from
The Pilgrim, Crusader and Virgin. 37
life to dust ; then onward again ; while all the mighty
planet fleets of which the earth-ship is but one, move
along their courses, over trackless oceans, toward des
tinations, all unknown, yet concededly in a grand as
well as in an inexorable pilgrimage. Partly because
the motions of his earth-ship makes nim restless, partly
because he is a being that hopes and so comes to try
to find by distant quests hope s fruitions, and more
largely because he is of a religious nature, which
impels him to seek things beyond himself, the man
becomes a pilgrim. He that is content as and where
he is, always, is regarded as a fool playing with the
toys of a child, by wise men ; by religionists, lack of
holy restlessness is ever adjudged to be a. sign of
depravity. Hence almost all religions, whether false
or true, have given birth to the pilgrim spirit. The
zeal to express and to utilize this spirit has been
often pitiful to behold. Multitudes, failing to grasp
the fact that life itself is a pilgrimage, have invented
other pilgrimages and gone aside to useless, needless
miseries. But all the time they attested human
nature seeking something beyond itself, better than
its present. So the tribes that lived in the lowlands
nourished traditions of descent from gods or ances
tors who. abode on the mountains, and they inaugu
rated pilgrimages to seek inspiration or a golden
age "on high places, faraway." The chosen people
of God thus constantly were allured from the worship
of the Everywhere and One Jehovah by the enthusiasm
of the heathen devotees who flocked to the mountain
fanes. Turn which way one will in the night of the
ages and the spectacle of the pilgrim is before him.
38 The Queen of the House of David.
Ancient Hinduism, followed by that of to-day, with
nessed, witnesses annually, pilgrims counted by hun
dreds of thousands to the temple of murderous Jugger
naut, the Ganga Sagor, or isle of Sacred Ganges. The
Buddhists journey to Adam s Peak in Ceylon, and the
Lamaists of Thibet travel adoringly to their Lha-Isa;
the Japanese have their pilgrim shrines amid perilous
approaches at Istje, while the Chinese, who claim to
be sons of the mountains, clamber with naked knees
the rugged sides of Kicou-hou-chan. The pilgrimages
of the Jews occupy many chapters of Holy Writ, for all
their ancient worthies " not having received the promises,
but seeing them afar off * * confessed that they vvere
pilgrims and strangers." Christ confronted the pilgrim
spirit perverted in the person of the woman of Samaria,
at the eastern foot of Gerezim. She and her people
rested their hopes in pilgrimages to their supposed
to be sacred places, but the Saviour declared to her by
Jacob s well, truths, both grand and revolutionary, in
these words : "The hour * * now is when the true
worshiper shall worship the Father in spirit * * * not
in this mountain nor in Jerusalem." " Go call thy hus
band and come hither. Whosoever drinketh the water
I shall give shall never thirst." There were volumes
in the golden sentences and they plainly said no need
to travel far to find the Everywhere God Who ever
comes where men are to satisfy their every thirst. " Go
call thy husband." Go to thy home and find the water
of life through doing God s will ; it is better to be a
missionary than a pilgrim unless the pilgrim be also
missioner. But the truths of that hour have found
tardy acceptance among many. The children of
The Pilgrim, Crusader and Virgin. 39
Jacob are pilgrims throughout the earth, and the dis
ciples of Christ, since His departure, have gone pii.
griming often, as did their fathers before them. Con-
stantine, the Roman emperor, and his mother, Helena,
by example and precept, urged Christendom to
re-embark in such pious journeys, and at the end of
the first thousand years of its existence, Christianity
had hosts of disciples actuated by the same old
passion that sent religionists everywhere to seek
shrines, fanes and blessings. Then the belief began
to be held everywhere among Christians that the
milennial period was at hand. Multitudes abandoned
friends, sold or gave away their possessions, and
hastened toward the Holy Land, where they believed
Jesus Christ was to appear to judge the world. Here
two pilgrim tides, utterly opposed to each other, met ;
the Christian and the Mohammedan. The followers of
the False Prophet, like other men, were imbued with
the pilgrim spirit. Some of these thought perfection
could be attained only within the precincts of Babylon
or Bagdad, and others sincerely believed that they
could find peculiar nearness to heaven about the stone
walled Kaaba of Mecca. It was held to be not only a
privilege but a duty, incumbent upon all, to take these
religious journeys; hence men and women, young and
old, undertook them. Even the decrepit were under
the obligation, and they must either undertake the work,
though failure by death were certain, or hire a proxy to
go in their behalf. So was rolled up stupendously the
numbers of pilgrim graves which have marked this earth
of ours. The Christian pilgrims for a time thronged
toward Palestine, first as a small stream, then as
40 I lie Queen of the House of David.
a torrent. Europe at large was aroused, and all im.
pulses converged toward the Holy Sepulcher. The
soldiers of the Cross soon added swords to their equip,
ments ; the flashing of spears outshone the altar lights,
and almost before they realized it the priests and pious
pilgrims were transformed to mailed knights. There
was a root to the impulse, and that the universally
felt need of ideals, patterns, personages of heroic mold
in all goodness, to show men how to live. The pil
grims turned their eyes to the worthies of the past, and
soon came to believe that they could best imbibe their
spirit amid their tombs and former abodes. Like
most religionists they grew to believe God their
especial friend, and they therefore soon came to feel
that, against all odds, He would help them to victory.
Then they easily grew to believe that death in their
crusades would merit the martyr s crown. Their cour
age was unbounded, for many went out with a passion
to die in the cause they had embraced. The following
crusades were marked by conflicts between Moslem
and Christian, filled with fanatical and merciless fury,
though both the opposing hosts claimed to be doing
all they did in God s name and under his especial di
rection. " Deus vutt," " God wills it," was the war-cry
of a mighty army, each of which bore on his banner and
on his breast the sign of the Cross, the emblem eter
nally exalted by the Prince of Peace, who willingly died
that others might live ; but these soldiers were bent on
slaying those they could not convert. They were in a
transitional state, passing from being pilgrims to being
missionaries, but the course was a bloody one. They
promoted their self-complacency by persuading them-
The Pilgrim, Crusader and Virgin. 41
selves that it was a heaven-offending wrong to continue
to suffer heretics to occupy the places made sacred by
the Saviour when in the world. Then multitudes of
Christian priests taught that the pious needed free course
to visit the holy places of the East, that they might up
build their faith and their grasp of theological abstrac
tions by beholding objects associated with the tenets
they had adopted. The Moslems had no interest in
these proceedings beyond a desire to thwart them.
The Christians, to be sure, had the moral disadvantage
of being invaders, but then censure of them is mitigated
by the fact that Syria was stolen property to the Turk.
The latter held it by the stern title deed of the sword.
The reader of this summary will be chiefly advan
taged by remembering that this conflict was one of
the mightiest efforts in the direction of missionary
work everattempted by man, and that being attempted
by force it failed utterly. Now the Crusaders were
believers in Christ and devoted to Mary. These
facts awaken questions as to how, since the spirits of
these twain are finally to conquer all hearts, their
champions were so defeated ? The Crusaders desired to
pro note the glory of the Man of men and the woman
of women, but sought it by aims only weakly worthy,
and means often atrocious. It never matters to Christ s
kingdom who possesses His grave if He only possesses
all hearts. The Crusaders, beginning with a warm
sentiment of respect for the Virgin, suffered their
sentimentality to run mad, and mad sentiment is ripe
for folly and defilement. An opal, they say, will
change its color when its wearer is sick; so a man
wearing a priceless virtue on the sleeve of his creed.
42 The Queen of the House of David.
will find its luster bedimmed when evil sickens his
heart. The Crusaders had grand banners, mottoes, war-
cries and ideals, but they did not know how to hon
estly and truly apply them. Their efforts and results
well serve to emphasize the truth that moral ad
vances are made with grander forces than those of the
sword ; that in the end the heroes and heroines of the
world s regeneration will appear potent and regnant
solely in the sweetness, truth and exaltation of per
sonal character. Crusader and Moslem, at heart, were
each desirous of making the world better, but they each,
in fact for a time made it fearfully worse. Probably
the followers of the Cross and the followers of the
Crescent would have been glad to have bestowed all
kindness each on the other, if only the one would have
accepted the creed of the other. But the humanity
und charity of each were as to the other eclipsed
utterly by a zeal for theories. There was need to both
that there arise a harmonizing ideal. It would seem
as if Providence suffered these opposing pilgrims to
peel each other until each in sheer disgust was driven
to seek some better way. An able historian affirms
that the Crusades did not "change the fate of a single
dynasty, nor the boundaries and relative strength of a
nation " but they did leave a history, the contempla
tion of which affords rare thought-food. The conflict
ended in the utter route and flight of the Christians.
The tragedy ended at Acre, but there were left some
things that took shape in mens thinking, and the world
was made thereby better. The populations and pro
perties of Christain Europe had been squandered to a
startling degree in these religious wars, and it was fit-
The Pilgrim, Crusader and Virgin. 4/5
ting that there be some return to compensate. The re-
suit of all others, that grew out of the Crusades, and was
indeed also a leading cause of their vigor, was the rising
of the spirit of chivalry. The dawn of chivalry first begat
brave fighting, but in time the chivalrous discovered
a theater for their activity amid the amenities of peace.
Chivalry was a rebound from the rugged, barbarous be
lief of the semi-civilized, whose trust was in brute force
and whose constant dictum was, " Might makes right."
Men became impressed with a spirit of tenderness, and,
little by little the duty and beauty of the strong s helping
the weak dawned upon humanity. To be chivalrous,
by the unwritten laws of custom, became the obligation
of every man who sought popular respect. Chivalry was
in the creed of the noble and brave, and men delighted
to become the companions of lone pilgrims, patrons of
beggars, protectors of children and defenders of women.
Toward the gentler sex, the spirit of chivalry finely
expressed itself by not only defending helpless females
amid physical perils, but by according to woman
kind distinguished courtesy, refined politeness, and
all those proper respects that so appropriately garnish
and ornament the social intercourse of the sexes in pro
perly cultivated societies. Before the advent of this
chivalric time, women had been deemed as generally
every way inferior to men ; chiefly desirable as minis
ters to the necessities or appetites of their lords ; useful
as mothers, but worthy of very little respect, confi
dence or lasting admiration. The dawn of this new
and fine gallantry was a step toward woman s disin-
thrallment. Chivalry tried to express itself in the
Crusades ; defeated, its ardor still burned, and Europe
44 The Queen of the House of David.
felt its beneficent glow long after the conflict for Syrian
sepulchers had ceased. And here it is of the utmost
importance that the reader forget not the key fact,
that before the advent of the attractive spirit of chiv
alry, men s minds in Christian communities were pro
foundly penetrated and wondrously incited by a deep
and new regard for the Queenly woman Mary, the
mother of Jesus ! She had been almost rediscovered.
By a common consent, Christian pulpits had begun
sounding her praises, as the ideal woman; a woman
worthy of the veneration and emulation of all. The
various religious communities vied with each other in
doing her honor. The Cistercians declared her purity
by wearing white, the Servi wore black to commem
orate her touching sorrows, and other bodies elected as
their distinguishing badges, various garbs or signs
solely to proclaim their allegiance to their ideal
woman. A popular moral coronation of Mary resulted.
The Crusaders outran all others in their adulation of,
and committal to, the wondrous woman. They were
the first to call her " Our Lady." She was THE Lady
of the hearts of all. These chivalrous soldiers to her
spoke their pious vows, from her besought holy favors,
and in her name, with sacred oaths, committed their
all to effort to wrest all Palestine from the enemies of
Mary s Son.* Now these millions of men were not
mad, nor in pursuit of a phantom. It was all very real
to them. They desired to express a long pent-up nat
ural feeling, and they found an object all satisfactory
in Mary. The Crusaders returned finally and for
good from battling with Moslem ; they returned
* Jamison.
The Pilgrim, Crusader and Virgin. 45
thoroughly, disastrously defeated : but with their
love for Mary all aglow. When they first called her
" Our Lady," there may have been an admixture of
irreverence and dilettante in the thought of many;
they were purged of these in the hurricane of battle
and in the terrors of that inhospitable land of their
pilgrimages. Amid trials, far away from his home,
often in severe want, frequently confronting slavery
and death, the Christian knight while adding " Ave
Marie " to his " Patre Nostre" learned to think of the
Madonna as his mother. Missing the latter keenly,
worshiping the other unfeignedly, woman took a high
throne in his esteem. Sword conquest began to seem
to the war-wearied soldier very insignificant as com
pared to a ministry of comfort, peace and good will.
The defeated Crusaders returned to scatter through all
Europe a new gospel of humanity. They exalted the
Queen of David s line and forgot to recount the for
tunes of war in the East in expounding the dawning
beauties of the woman that entranced them and the
queenship this ideal had gained over their minds. So
they prepared multitudes of the sterner sex for a last
ing belief in the worthfulness of true womanhood at
its best. The Christian world was ripe for such a
revival, when the priests began to thunder " On to
Jerusalem ! " but men needed not so much war as
conversion; not so much relics and tombs as loving
principles exemplified. It is wonderful how conver
sion womanizes some men. That is a triumph of the
spiritual over the sensual, the beautiful over the gross.
It will make a man of brutal, selfish fiber, in time, as
tender as a mother toward her child and as self-deny-
46 The Queen of the House of David.
ing as a maid toward her lover. The Crusaders started
out to rescue the tomb of the dead Saviour from un
believers and failed, but they returned to herald the
rennaissance of Mary, the disenslaving of woman ;
to call the state, the home and individuals to all the
refinements which the exaltation of such an ideal of
necessity offered. Toward this advening the rising
spirit of chivalry was bending the finest hearts when
the clarions of war, sounded from altar and baptistry,
summoned all to raise the red banner against the
Moslem. Right here it is worthy of notice that God s
providence presented other, though allied, principles in
the conflict against the Orientals. Two pilgrim hosts,
thinking to choose their own ways, were wisely led to
better goals than they knew. The Turk presented the
throng of the harem as his family; the Christian was
committed to the union of only two in holy wedlock.
One party presented a banner with a Cross, forever the
emblem of self-sacrifice ; the other the Crescent,
emblem of youthfulness increasing, a hint ever of the
hope of endless lust, whether borne of the master of a
harem or by the heathen follower of the ancient moon-
horned Astarte. The last at Acre, by the Syrian bor
der of the Mediterranean Sea, the Saracen hugged
victory and the Cross-bearers were utterly routed. So
reads human history, but in truth the defeat was only
apparent and local. The followers of the Crescent,
holding the creed of lust and making pleasure of sense
their end came surely toward their destruction when suc
cesses encouraged them in their courses ; the followers
of the Cross, on the other hand, had within some
germs of truth, life-giving in themselves and toobeauti-
Fhe Pilgrim, Crusader and Virgin. 47
ful to be suffered to die from the earth. Trial and defeat
watered these germs and the knightly hosts returned
to Europe by thousands to proclaim finer doctrines
than those by which the priest had incited them to
war. The returning soldiers were transformed from
pilgrims to missionaries, from being taught to teach
ing, from restorers of Palestine s graves to restorers of
European society. Of the " Teutonic Knights of Saint
Mary," a fine and representative order, an impartial
historian writes: " They defended Christianity against
the barbarians of Eastern Europe." "After many
bloody encounters introduced German manners, lan
guage and morals." Of the Knighthood, as a whole,
says another, " the institution that could breed such
characters as these, obviously rendered an enduring ser
vice to humanity. Itsspirit lives on, offering examples
which the young still welcome in their joyous, dreamy
days. The ideal still remains, purified by time, freed
from its frailties, and aids in fashioning modern senti
ment to the conception and admiration of the Chris
t an gentleman."
CHAPTER III.
ARMAGEDDON , THE KEY AND SICKLE.
"From the moist regions of the western star,
The wandering hermits wake the storm of war;
Their limbs all iron, their souls all flame ;
A countless host the Red Cross warriors came."
REGINALD MEBER.
IS a traveler climbs the mountain to see the
sunrise, so he that would overlook the past
or present must needs clamber to some
lofty point of vision in a significant era or
historic location. There are two plains in Syria ; one
lying along the Mediterranean, the other jutting out
from the base of the former toward Jordan ; the two
together, in shape very like a sickle, have witnessed
events wonderfully instructive and determinate to the
student of the philosophy of time s course. These
two plains are known respectively as Esdraelon and
Acre. The sea and the mountains give these plains
their sickle shape, and the geographical outlines are
constantly suggestively before the mind as one remem
bers these plateaus not only as the highways but the
battle-fields of the ancient nations. For while, as one
says, " the face of nature smiles " " no spot on earth
more fertile," he also says "no field on earth was so
Armageddon ; :Jie Key and Sickle. 49
fattened by the blood of the slain." There the Philis
tines, the Ptolemys, Antipchus, the Maccabees, Herod,
Baldwin, King of Jerusalem, Salah-ed-din, Cceur-de-
Lion, Melek-Seruf and Napoleon, each in turn, put
their ambitions and their beliefs to the stern arbitra
ment of swords. There the kingdom of the House of
David struggled for life ; there the splendid dream of
the Crusaders ended as a nightmare.
As a jewel in the haft of the sickle, at the northerly
end of the plain by the sea, sits the city of Acre. This
city compels the attention of the preacher and student
of history and gives theme to him who blends symbol
into song. Acre gave its name to its adjacent country
round about, and though both city and plain witnessed
many a change of master in the past, those changing
masters, to gratify their whims or strengthen their
policies from time to time, giving the places various
names. The Knights of Saint John made it their elect
city, honoring it as Saint Jean de Acre, the martyr maid
of France. From the city itself one may look out over
the sea-highway of natious ; from the drear and lofty
mountains of its surrounding country one may look
over many memorable places. Acre was often called
the " Key of Palestine " by the soldier strategists and
by the chroniclers of events. To their testimony is
added that of the inspired writers and prophets who
made it their key and mountain of outlook frequently.
These plains, dotted all about by sacred places,
memorable for two great victories ; Barak over the
Canaanites and Gideon over the Midianites ; and two
50 The Queen of the House of David.
great disasters, the death of Saul and the death of
Josiah, became to the Jews the symbol of the conflict
of right and wrong. Prophetically, and in the serene
hope that righteousness at last would prevail, the plain
was called Armageddon, "the Mountain of the Gos
pel." We hear the rapt Zechariah thus descanting:
" The Lord also shall save the glory of the house of
David and the house of Davad shall be as God." " And
it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to
destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of sup
plications; and they shall look upon me whom they
have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one
mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for
him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born."
The prophet looked forth to the Pentecostal day of
salvation and the assured victories of David s great
successor. Following this ancient seer, John the be
loved, in the Visions of the Apocalypse repeats, these
oracles. During the wars of the Crusaders, Acre was
sometimes in their possession and sometimes held by
their Turkish foes. In the year 1191 Richard the Lion
Heart wrested it from the infidel leader Salah-ed-din.
The Christians held it firmly until 129 , the time when
the last wave of the Crusader advance ebbed, in bloody
defeat, from the shores of the Holy Land. For two
hundred years the believer of the West and the Moslem
grappled with each other in deadly conflict ; war s for
tunes often changing, but the awful price in human
misery and human blood was inexorably exacted at
very stage of the conflict. Acre was the focus toward
Armageddon; the Key and Sickls. 51
which the eddying tides ever and anon moved; therefore
it saw not only the end but the worst of the Crusades.
Our story begins A. D. 1291 at Acre, the Key of Pal
estine, in Armageddon, "the mountain of the Gospel."
The situation may be briefly depicted : Acre was filled
with a mixed and un-homogeneous population. There
were the ubiquitous Galilean traders, without politics ;
shrewd to the last degree in traffic and courtly as a
Parisian ; there some secret, sullen, silent enemies of
the Christian invaders, awaiting the coming end ; there
hundreds of those camp-following nondescript " good
lord and good devil " characters, and there the rem
nants of the Crusader armies. The latter were not
only diminished as to numbers but greatly degraded in
moral tone. Their warfare had been belittled to a de
fense and a retreat. The adventurers were uppermost ;
courts-martial, intrigues and fanfaronade were their oc
cupation daily. Prince Edward, the Christian leader,
had made a sworn treaty with the Moslems long before
this time ; but his pious followers had quickly, wickedly
violated it. Thereupon the Sultan, Kha-tel, had made
an irrevocable treaty with himself, sealed with the most
awful oath he could register, that he would never tire
until he had exterminated the last of the Western
invaders now circumscribed and besieged in Acre.
With 200,000 dusky followers the Sultan besieged the
last stronghold of the Crusaders. The hearts of the
defenders sank within them, and scores sought safety
in homeward flight, loading down every vessel bound
for Europe. Among the first fugitives was the chief
leader, Hugh de Lusignan, who wore the phantom title,
" King of Jerusalem." He preferred the safety of dis-
52 The Queen of the House of David.
tant Cyprus to the doubtful regality which was over
shadowed with nearing death. Only 12,000 were left
to represent the Crusade cause which once mustered
millions. May 18, 1291, the devoted, city was stormed
by the Turks ; an entrance was effected and a murder
ous carnage, heaping the streets with the dead, and red
ding the foam of the moaning sea, followed. But there
was no easy victory to the Moslem, for the steady, vig
orous, brilliant, desperate fighting of the knights, lay
ing low piles of their foes for every one of themselves
that fell, compelled the respect of the Sultan s host.
The Turks attempted to gain a surrender by offering
bribes ; these failing, terms were offered. The latter,
which included permission for the Crusade remnant to
depart the country in peace, were accepted. But the
Sultan, taught, if he needed the lesson, by the perfidy
of Prince Edward s Christian truce-breakers, quickly
broke his promise of safe conduct. Though the re
treating band was in no way party to the wrong he
sought to avenge, they were mercilessly ambuscaded.
There followed another struggle to the death, a hand
ful against a host and but few succeeded in cutting
their way through the cordon of death. History has
often recounted the preceding events up to the point ;
from this point it is proposed to lead the reader along
the career of a fragment tossed out of the foregoing
-.vhirlpool of disaster.
CHAPTER IV.
SIR CHARLEROY; THE SOLDIER OF FORTUNE AND
KNIGHT OF SAINT MARY.
" Tis quickly seen,
Whate er he be, twas not what he had been ;
That brow in furrowed lines had fixed at last,
And spoke of passion but of passion past."
******
Chained to excess, the slave of each extreme,
How woke he from the wildness of his dream ?
Alas ! he told not, but he did awake,
To curse the withered heart that would not break."
"Lara."
HE course of the knights fleeing from Acre
was turned toward Nazareth. There being
but one way open to them, they took that
way quickly and with one accord. The
fugitives from Acre represented various knightly
orders, but they were disorganized, without any definite
destination and without an authorized leader. Among
them was Sir Charleroy de Griffin, a knight famed for
valor, a central and commanding personage ; one that
would have attracted attention in almoct any assembly
of men. As he went, so went the rest of the fleeing
Christians, and when he reined in his panting steed
54 The Queen of the House of David.
after a time, at the top of a fir-crested knoll not fat
from Nazareth, the knights following him did likewise.
Then they drew around him in a semi-circle, without
command, and simultaneously, as if to solicit his
direction. They had followed the course he took
because he took it, and now with one accord they
halted because he had done so. There is to some a
subtile influence that makes them leaders of men ; so
the disorganized Crusaders, by an unvoiced but fully
expressed concession, admitted the leadership of this
dashing horseman. Some may designate this a
triumph of personal magnetism, but be that as it may,
it was a fact that Sir Charleroy was chief. Sir Char-
Icroy, just at the time of the foregoing incident, pre
sented an admirable study for the philosopher or
painter. From his saddle he was able to overlook
leagues of bright landscape, but he could not claim the
protection of a foot of it ; for the first time in his life
he yearned for home, now a spreading sea, and a wall
of death shut it out from him apparently for ever ; by
circumstances absolute sovereign almost of the men
about him, but doubt and danger were confounding all
his ability to give commands. He fell into a train of
thought, leaving his comrades to converse with their
pawing steeds and to questionings witlijn themselves
as to the future. Sir Charleroy had reached an
eminence in life, one of those points of out-look where
a man s past meets him and demands review, that it
may explain the present. He believed that he had
reached very nearly the end of his career, and in that
belief he began to weigh it for what it was worth.
In imagination he saw one writing the story of his life.
Sir Cliarlcroy ; the Suldicr of Fortune, 55
Sir Charleroy, the refugee, began faithfully to review
Sir Charleroy, the wayward youth, pleasure-seeker and
reckless man. The former dictated mentally to the
imaginary scribe : "Write, Charleroy de Griffin was
the son of a stalwart French Baron, used to duels and
trained to war. The boy inherited from his father a
splendid physique, of which he was unduly proud, and
a restless disposition that he never sincerely asked God
to control. By the death of the baron, his son, an
infant, was left to the sole tutelage of his English
mother. The latter was of high birth, by nature a
noble woman, and in every way worthy of a better son
than the one whom he had turned out to be. She had
idolized her brawny spouse in his Lfetime, and when
she had recovered from the shock his death caused, her
yearning heart, little by little, turned from the idol in
the tomb to the child he had left her. Ere long she
lived again in the rapture of a love all absorbing, all
bestowing, all ruling. She lavished her affection on
the youth, not because he was particularly lovable, for
he was not, but because he was the only one left her
to love, and she was so constituted that she must love;
the necessity of loving to her made it easy.
"Then there were many things in the features and
form of her son that reminded her of the man who, in
brighter days, had won entirely her maiden heart and
her young wife love. The child was wont to wonder
why his mother embraced him as she did sometimes,
with a wandering, startled, wild, passionate embrace ;
but when he got older he discerned the: meaning of
these outbreaks. He knew that the mother-heart was
having a vision of past wifehood, memory s grace-given
j6 rhe Queen of the House of David.
solace of widowhood. Besides this the embraces were
her appealings or warnings to death ; her heart sud
denly seizing as if to shelter and save her last and only
idol ; for the thought would sometimes come with
shadows deep enough, that perhaps the boy might
also die. Such love would have been a prized wealth
and blessing to some ; but in this case, on the one hand,
it unfitted this mother for the proper disciplining of this
son, and this son though, sometimes, when his conceit
permitted it, realizing that the love was given, not won,
began to expect it as his due or despise it for its lavish-
ness. In due time he entered the period expressively
designated, The monster age. This is the time
when expanding young life has outgrown the tender
ness of infancy and failed of putting on manly and
womanly graces ; a time when there is a mighty ambi
tion to put on the characteristics of adult life and a
mighty lack of ability gracefully to wear them. At this
period, perhaps, the majority of youths of both sexes,
are interesting chiefly for what they have been, or what
it is hoped they will be. They feel, conscious of their
growing powers, great self-conceit, and with their
growth comes an expansion of their capacities and wants.
The plenitude of their wantings makes them avaricious,
hence parsimonious toward others of every thing, espe
cially of gratitude. Reverence for elders, respect for
fathers, holy regard for mothers, tenderness toward
women, chief charms of youth, are buried in the tomb of
other virtues by great, selfish, ugly demons of desire.
The monster age came to Charleroy in its full virulence,
but his mother discerned little of his monstrosity ;
what she did discern, all unasked, she condoned. She
Sir Charleroy ; the Soldier of Fortune. 57
believed all things, hoped all things good of him,
although seldom comforted by an expression or act of
gratitude on his part. She was to be pitied; but it
may be said that the lad was to be pitied almost as
much as herself. It was the old story over ; she uncon
sciously went about destroying her own happiness and
though she would have willingly died if need be in his
behalf, she harmed him beyond estimate by her indul
gent loving. Then the youth was surrounded by those
who sought the favor of the baroness by constantly
sounding in her ears, and in the ears of the boy, praises
of the dead baron. They told of his daring, they des
canted upon his adventures, his powers, his wisdom.
He was the widow s idol, and the incense was grateful
to her, but the worst of it was that they befooled the
lad by continually assuring him that he was the image
of his father, and surely destined to equal, if not sur
pass, his sire in deeds of valor. A dangerous burden is
wealth ; whether it come as great name or great intel
lect, great physical strength or as much gold, it is a
fateful load which few can gracefully support. The
youth had wealth in all the foregoing directions; if he
had had a mother whose love loved wisely enough to
save, if it need be by pain, he might have been saved ;
but her love infatuated her. The youth s folly brought
him frequently into shameful entanglements ; but she
extricated him each time. Nobody ever heard of her
even rebuking him ; as to chastising him, that were a
thing abhorrent to her thoughts. His face always
bespoke his pardon in advance with her. She would
have smitten her husband s corpse, as it lay in its
coffin, as soon as she would have smitten the one
58 /^ Queen of the House of David.
whose features constantly reminded her of him her
heart had held most dear. Then she hoped, with a
mother s large-hearted faith, that each escapade would
be the last. But as the youth grew older his acts were
bolder. Again and again, without notice and with
heartless inconsiderateness, he left his home to pursue
some adventure, and again and again, mother s love
followed him, ever to find him at last in some sore
plight, and then quickly to forgive him. By the time
Charleroy had reached his majority, the family fortune
had been severely tried and depleted in paying the
penalty of his follies. He himself had become an old
young man, with too many gray hairs and too much
experience for one of his years.
" At that time, a few enthusiasts having determined
to make one last effort to secure the Holy Sepulcher,
Charleroy de Griffin ardently enlisted in the pre-
doomed enterprise, allured largely by its very desper-
ateness. The crusade spirit was then a fitful dying
flame throughout Europe. England and France were
left practically alone to furnish the men and the money
for the last crusade. Prince Edward of France was its
leader, and De Griffin, having in his veins the blood of
both of the supporting nations, a French name, a
splendid physique, together with a fearless, dashing
temperament, was enthusiastically hailed to the enlist
ment and pushed forward to leadership. Sir Cnar-
leroy de Griffin ! smilingly called out Prince Edward,
the day of review, before the one set for departure.
The young man s comrades, many of whom had been
his associates in former days of wassail, hearing the
Prince s word, shouted out with one accord, Knighted I
Sir CJiarleroy ; the Soldier of Fortune. 59
The prince has knighted de Griffin ! Hurrah for Sir
Charleroy ! The day following Sir Charleroy bowed
his head, as he stood on the quay ready to embark, to
receive the benediction of a bishop. As the sacrist
laid his hands on the young man s head, the latter,
throwing back his cloak, reverently touched the cross
he had attached to his bosom with his jeweled sword-
hilt. The young knight for a little while was very
complacent ; for he was enjoying a sentimental emo
tion of virtue, arising from sophistries with which his
mind toyed. Some way he felt he had become a sol
dier of the holy Christ, and somehow it seemed to
him he was making atonement for past follies by now
placing himself side by side with the pious and
noble. Though in reality only bent on seeking excite
ment, adventure, change, he looked forward to the re
wards of conscience belonging alone to the penitent,
and to a possible public canonizing as one going forth
to die for God. A little piety paralleling one s own
desires is of en made to do great service in silencing
the clamors from within. His proud, tearful mother
was by his side. Passionately she kissed his cross,
then his brow, then his eyes and then his lips; leaving
on the brow the glistening, dewy jewels that told the
story of the heart which bade him stay, yet go. The
young knight was for once in his Hfe very serious, but
tearless. After all this, in rapid steps, followed the
disaster at Acre; the desperate struggle outside the
city ; the flight toward Nazareth. Sir Charleroy finally
stands between the sea and the city, a mother s idol
ready to be broken ; at twenty-five, near the apparent
apex and end of a life, having had great opportunities.
6o The Queen of the House of David.
now, with all lost, he stands there an epitome of par
adoxes. He had made life a pursuit of pleasure only
to find the pursui ending in misery ; he had enlisted
to serve the Prince of Peace, but that service he had
undertaken with the sword ; he had championed, as he
said, the cause of Christ, the all-conquering, but he
meets utter defeat. He had taken for his patron saint
Mary, after years of libertinism. He elected Mary, he
said, because his mother was so like her. But Sir
Charleroy s mother demoralized her son by over-in
dulgence, while Mary, though informed by Gabriel
that her offspring was divine, followed her child as a
true mother, with the divinely appointed authority of
a mother, serenely, constantly directing his career up
to the feast of Jerusalem, where he began to reveal his
divine commission. Even then, motherhood affirmed
its rights in the very presence of God manifest, in the
question : Son, why hast thou dealt thus ? Nor was the
right challenged, for he went down and was subject to
father and mother! " At this point Sir Charleroy ceased
mentally tracing his own career, and lifting his eyes
looked intently toward Nazareth. "Ah," he said, but
so that none could hear his words, " my mother loved
as many another, in part selfishly, for the joy of
abandoned love, and I squander that patrimony like a
spendthrift, to my harm. Mary s love for her son
was like his for the world, a constant self-abnegation.
That love survives as an inspiration to the world. By
these contrasts I explain my failure in life, and the
present is the natural sequence of the past."
CHAPTER V.
NAZARETH.
This is indeed the blessed Mary s land,
Virgin and Mother of our dear Redeemer!
All hearts are touched and softened by her name;
Alike the bandit with the bloody hand,
The priest, the prince, the scholar and the peasant.
The man of deeds, the visionary dreamer,
Pay homage to her as one ever present."
LONGFELLOW " Golden Legend."
I walked along the top of the hills overlooking Nazareth. A
glorious scene opened on the view. The air was perfectly serene
and clear. I remained for some hours lost in contemplation of the
wide prospect and the events connected with the scene. One of
the most beautiful and sublime prospects on earth,"
ROBINSON S Biblical Researches.
HE avenging Turks easily persuaded them
selves that they could serve God better by
participating in the sacking of fallen Acre
than by pursuing the conquered, fleeing
Christian knights ; so they let the latter escape
inland, while they themselves returned to the pillage.
Ere long, by stealth, good fortune and Providen
tial leading, the fugitives arrived unmolested at
the top of a hill, overlooking the little city of
Nazareth, forever memorable as having been once the
earthly abiding place of Jesus and Mary. On the way
62 The Queen of the House of David.
thither scarcely a sentence had been spoken, for each
felt that murmuring would be harmful, mirth inoppor
tune. They chose their course indifferently, all fol
lowing Sir Charleroy de Griffin because he rode bravely
and onward. The fugitives paused, partly sequestered
by the shrubbed hillock, forgetting for a time all else in
admiration of the outspreading panorama in view.
Heaven and earth were smiling at each other; thou
sands of leagues of sky were filled with the raptured
songs of larks, while as echo and challenge of the
songs from above, the thrush and robin of the grass
knoll and thicket responded. From the plains of
El Battaf on the north to Esdraelon on the south
Nature, God s flower queen, had decked the earth every
where with blossoms of pinks, tulips and marigolds.
"Those dusky cowards," spoke Sir Charlerey,
" though numbering ten to one, will not seek us here ;
they ll wait an opportunity to ambuscade us."
We ve broken our knight s pledge, never to flee
more than the distance of four French acres from
a foe, and yet methinks we ve made them respect
our swords ; that s something to say, though we ve
not made them respect our creed." It was a Knight
of the Golden Cross that spoke.
Sir Charleroy continued, while his eyes turned
toward the city : " I thirst for the waters of a fount
in Nazareth as did David once for one in Bethlehem."
" For all of our getting at it, Nazareth s water might
as well be in Ethiopia," spoke a Hospitaler.
" I ve a yearning that comes near to sending me on
a charge into the city."
"That would be a hot pursuit of death surely."
Nazareth. 63
" A fair one, then, since death has been long
pursuing us." After a moment s pause Sir Charleroy
continued :
" Ah, death ! None can escape, none overtake him ;
see we are his prisoners now, yet he tantalizes us by a
show of immunity. As a sarcophagus is let down by
suspending ropes in tedious stages, with jogglings and
pauses, into the grave, so passes each through perils and
sickenings from life to death. No, no, an undue fear
of death intoxicates us until phantasmagoria possess
the brain. We call these hopes ; they are delusive !
But will any of you follow for a charge down to the
Virgin s fountain ? We can not more than die ; that
we must soon, in any event. I think I could die more
complacently, having cooled my thirst where she was
wont to cool hers."
" Ugh," exclaimed the Templar, with a shudder of
disgust, " the fountain flows out through an old stone
coffin! By my plume! while drinking there I d be
fancying that the ghost of the one robbed of his last
house were leering at me and reveling in the thought
that I d soon be poor and thirstless as he. Verily
the flavor of a drink depends much on the goblet ! "
We may have plenty of miserable fancies, if we
only court such ; for me, Templar, I prefer to comfort
myself by cheerier thoughts ; while I drank there, I d
think of the coolings of death s streams ; of her, that
at this fountain slaked her body s thirst and from the
chalice of death drank serenely at last. My sword,
the gift of my king, after having shed torrents of
blood, hangs uselessly at my side. It seems cruel as
powerless; ay, tis hateful ! My mother gave me, on
64 The Queen of the House of David.
my departure, better gifts by far; tears, kisses, undy
ing love, and the charge to call on Mary if ever evil
befell me. The latter I know not how to do ; but
still my weak faith, methinks, would be helped to
cry Mother to God, if I could only stand where
that mother stood who won the first love of the
infant Jesus, the last anxious thoughts of the God
man."
"Sir Charleroy is unusually pious to-night; but
alas, though I ve been taught to say our church s
Litany, calling on the Virgin most faithful, Virgin
most merciful, Help of the Christian, Lady of
Victories, I can not use those phrases here. Where s
the help, the mercy, the victory now? The Litany,
belongs to England ! "
" We are in our present plight because we have
won heaven s neglect through having more vices than
graces, probably."
" Whatever the cause, the mocking disappointment
is apparent. It is nigh thirteen hundred years since
the Holy son and His mother began proclaiming and
exemplifying the White Kingdom here. Now in all
this land of theirs, we thirteen, fateful number, alone
are left of those who openly own His cause. Yea, and
the city where He grew in favor, these nature-blessed
plains whose flowers gave Him picture sermons, are
all filled with burrowing monsters eternally at war
with Him and His."
" Faith will rest until assured that the Promiser is
dead, and that can never be, Sir Knight."
" My faith staggers at the sights of Nazareth. Chief f
look yonder."
Nazareth. 65
The knights all now called Sir Charleroy chief, when
addressing him.
- " At what ? "
" The ruins ! "
" Ah, all that s left of our Crusader church. They
say it was built on the very spot where Mary fell
fainting, when she saw the Nazarenes in wrath drag
ging her son away to cast him down from the precipice
to death. But He escaped, though the church since
built did not! "
" True ; therefore it seems to me that the hand
on time s dial turns backward. This city is filled
with creatures having hearts as hard as the lime
stone walls of the cave-like houses they fittingly
inhabit. If Christ and His Mother were again on
earth as before, mercy s ministers, the present inhabi
tants of Nazareth would surpass His ancient persecu
tors in the zeal with which they would drag not only
Him but His mother to the cliffs."
" Over the door of yon ruined church, some hand
of faith carved the word Victory ! The word is there
yet, and though the hand that carved it is dead, the
faith which prompted it hath victory assured it."
" Victory, in ruins ! A meaningless boast, as it
seems to me, Sir Charleroy. Such victory as ours;
shadowy and very distant ! "
At that moment one of the Templars, who had been
secretly praying behind a cactus hedge, drew near and
the Hospitaler addressed him:
" Brother, any token ? "
J< Praise Jehovah ! yes, of peace."
" How came it ? "
f)6 The Queen of the House of David.
" In my communings, God brought to my mind how
the wondrous Deborah, not far from here, pushed the
pusillanimous Barak from his refuge among the pista-
cas and oaks, from waverings to courage and to glorious
victory over God s foes."
"A happy thought ; the stars on their course fought
against Sisera !
" Barak was called the thunderbolt/ but Deborah
was the lightning, The lightning gave force to the
bolt and God to the lightning."
Sir Charleroy, catching the last sentence, joined in
the debate :
" Gentlemen, there is another lesson on the brow of
that history; it is, that women, having more trust,
cleave closer to God in peril than do men. Men are
in a panic when their devices fail ; women have fewer
devices to fail, hence are less easily confounded. For
that reason God sent out our race in pairs."
" Hermon s breast holds the last ray of the setting
sun," remarked the Golden Cross.
" And the Transfiguration of Christ is recalled ! 1
think some angel of God is holding the sunlight there
for our instruction, now," exclaimed the chief.
" Our instruction ? " queried the Templar. " I do
not discern its meaning; campaigning I fear has
dulled my brain."
" The Son of Mary, on yon mount, met Elijah, repre
sentative of the prophets, Moses, representative of the
law; both called from the deathless land to proclaim
the fulfillment of all prophecy and law through His
coming passion.
" And still I question how this applies to us ?"
Nazareth. 6}
"A Knight of the Red Cross should easily discern
that suffering unto death for truth s sake is the way,
all prophecy declares that a reign of law transforming
things to spiritual splendor shall at last come to earth."
"Ah, Sir Charleroy, the interpretation is entrancing ,
but why did the glory need to fade into night, and to
be followed by Gethsemane and Calvary?"
" Life is but a series of temporary glimpses of the
glory that shall be revealed. Night and cloud come
and go, yet the sun never dies."
" But, Sir Charleroy, was it not hard that the loving
Immanuel should be forced to bide these pangs though
ever pursuing true righteousness?"
" Yea, Templar, but the glory of the Transfiguration
came to all that group while Jesus prayed ; as the
angel hastened to minister when Gethsemane was
darkest. These things teach that heaven watches its
own, with succor according to want ; great light at
hand to baffle great darkness and royal answers for
anxious prayers ! "
"You mean, Sir Charleroy, that we few, surrounded
by a sea of enemies, in an inhospitable land, far from
home, should despise each despairing thought ? "
" Good Templar, I am certain of this, anyway :
Suffering for the right has full reward, for after passion
as Christ s, so to His followers there comes the
ascension."
" Amen," fervently ejaculated several surrounding
knights, and Sir Charleroy felt the glow that he felt
that time the English bishop blessed him.
As they thus communed, the sun had quietly suns,
down into the far-off Mediterranean, flooding the west
68 The Queen of the House of David.
with light like molten gold. Doubtless one thought
came to each at the sight ; for all smiled sadly when
one remarked; " The West is very beautiful to-night ! "
They thought with deep yearnings of home. But the
darkness quickly drew over the scene and the song ot
the baleful nightingales began to start forth here and
there from thickets which, in the darkness, appeared
like plumes of mourning on acres of black velvet.
One knight, for a while entranced by the grim, gloomy
spectacle, shuddered ; then looked up as if to say :
"When will the moon rise? the darkness is oppres
sive ! " Another tried to cheer his comrades by cry.
ing : " England s songsters know us and come to sing
us into hopefulness ! "
" Men, to rest; you ll need it." It was Sir Charleroy
who spoke. Responsibility made him motherly.
" Let us revel awhile in memories of better days,"
replied the Templar.
"But listen; do you not hear afar off" something
like the moaning of the winds before a storm?"
"What of it ? A storm could add little to our
misery."
" The sound you hear is the cry of jackal and wolf;
our omens. Forget now all unnerving thoughts of
home and steel yourselves to meet hard fortune.
For a while rest. Rest is now our wisdom ; night,
our mother ; for a time in safety she will swaddle us
within her black garments. And then
" Even so, good Sir Charleroy, and I m think
ing this is her last visit to us. She has corne, I
guess, to lead us to the portals of eternal day."
"When I say good-night to you. comrades, it will be
Nazareth. 69
with the expectation of next saying good-morning
where the wicked cease from troubling," solemnly said
the Golden Cross.
" But," interrupted the Hospitaler, "while the pulse
beats we have a mortgage on time and a duty to plan
to live."
" Bravely said ; now tell us how to plan," exclaimed
several knights.
" Merge all our orders into one, for the present ; elect
a leader, and The Hospitaler paused, for he
could not guess the needs or course of the future.
But the knights quickly acquiesced in the unity of
action proposed.
" Who shall lead ? " was the next question.
"I nominate," shouted the Hospitaler, "the one
whom we all believe must be under the especial care
of the good angels of these places sacred to all rever
ing mother Mary."
The knights, with one voice, responded, " Sir Char-
leroy de Griffin, Teutonic Knight of the Order of St.
Mary!"
The little band dared their danger for a moment by
a spontaneous cheer.
" We have no priest to anoint the chief of the
Refugees, but with God to witness, let each who would
ratify the choice place hilt to shield, as an oath of
service and defense."
Every hilt rang against Sir Charleroy s shield, as the
Hospitaler ceased speaking.
"Comrades," said Sir Charleroy, " I thank you for
your confidence in this hour when the issue is life or
deatb Let us seek the God of battles." The knights
/o The Queen of the House of David.
formed a hollow square about their leader, and al!
kneeled upon the earth.
Their wondering steeds seemed to catch the spirit
of their riders, and, drawing near, drooped their heads.
For a few moments there was awing silence, and then
in deep measured tones the Hospitaler began chanting,
" Kyrie Eleison " (Lord have mercy). The companions
responded, " Christi Eleison." Then, amid those
scenes of sacred history, the kneeling soldiers, together,
and without command, with only the stars for altar-
lights, solemnly chanted a portion of the sublime
Litany of their church. Galilee never before, nor since,
heard a more sincere orison: " Pour forth, we beseech
Thee, oh, Lord, Thy grace into our hearts, that we to
whom the incarnation of Christ, Thy Son, was made
known by the message of an angel, may by His passion
and His cross be brought to the glory of His resur
rection, through the same Christ, our Lord. Amen."
As they arose, a Templar spoke : " Companions, if it
so please you, put a seal, the seal of the Red Cross
Knights, upon our act." So saying, the knight crossed
his feet, then spread out his arms horizontally; simili
tude of the crucifixion. All reverently imitated the
action, meanwhile, their swords being in hand with
blades crossing, forming a fence of steel.
"Comrades," spoke Sir Charleroy, with emotion, "I
accept the trust, and vow by Him that gave the single-
handed Elijah on yonder far-off wrinkled Carmel, sign
by fire, that confounded Baal and its regal hosts, to
lead you to liberty and home or to glorious graves "
" /;/ hocsignovinceS) living or dead," was the chorused
response. Just then the rising moon flooded their
Nazareth. Ji
interlaced swords with light, and, as they glittered, the
knights took it for an omen that there was a blessing
in the union of their swords.
" Sir Charleroy, I proclaim thee king of Jerusalem ;
what say you, comrades? " exclaimed a hitherto silent
Knight of St. John. Once more every knight s sword
touched the leader s shield.
"Nobly proclaimed!" remarked the Templar.
" When De Lusignan deserted us, ceasing to be kingly,
he ceased to be king."
"Have charity, men," interrupted their chief; "it
takes a world of courage to fall with a falling cause
when a way of escape is open."
"Oh, we ll have charity ; the same that Tancred had
for that brave preacher and craven soldier, Hermit
Peter; the latter ran from peril and Tancred raced him
back. We can not reach Lusignan to whip him to duty,
but we can vote him dethroned and dead. All coward3
are dead to the brave."
" But, companions. I must decline the presumptuous
title and phantom throne. Jerusalem shall have, to
us, but one king ; the Son of Mary. For the future, to
you, let me be simply Sir Charleroy. Now let us be
moving."
" Whither? " anxiously inquired several knights in a
breath.
" Over the valley to the cactus hedges against the
limestone cliffs before us, where runs along the great
highway from Damascus to Egypt. We shall not
need the route to either point, probably ; but those
hills are full of caves for the living and tombs for the
dead." All obeyed.
72 The Queen of the House of David.
" Why so thoughtful ? " said the Hospitaler to the
Knight of the Golden Cross, who marched along with
his cloak partly shielding his face.
" I m living in the past," he sententiously answered.
" The past? Ah, to make up by a back journey for
an expected briefing of thy future ? "
" No, raillery here, Hospitaler. I was just wishing
that since we are so near Endor, Saul s witch would
call up some saintly Samuel to tell us where w r e shall
be this time to-morrow."
" Oh, Golden Cross, know we can best bear the good
or evil of the future by seeing it only as it comes ;
for me, I prefer to think of another place, near us, but
having a more helpful incident for the memory of such
as we."
" Dost thou mean Nain ? "
" The same. There a dead only son was raised from
the bier to comfort a widowed mother."
" Well said, Hospitaler," responded Sir Charleroy,
and let us not forget that it was a mother s, tearful
prayers that won the working of the miracle."
" Alas, knight," sighed the Templar, " we have no
mothers to so petition for us here, if we be quenched
ere long."
"Some of us have living mothers who never cease to
pray for us, nor will until their breath ceases. In this
land, where God appeared through motherhood, I
have a strong confidence that our mothers prayers,
re-enforced by our appealing but unvoiced needs, will
move the motherhood of God, if such I may call His
tenderest lovings. I ll trust to-night my mother s
prayers, reaching from England to Heaven and from
Nazareth. 73
thence to here, further than all the sympathy forgetful
Europe will vouchsafe us. A nation cheered us to bat
tle, and yet it will never seek for the fragments defeat
has left ; but the man never lived, no matter what his
ill deserts, whom true mother love and eternal God
love ever forgot." After this long address, Sir Char-
leroy again felt the glow within ard the approvings
that he felt on the quay when the bishop s hands were
on his head.
CHAPTER VI,
THE FUGITIVES.
Tis not in mortals to command success;
But we ll do better, Sempronius ; we ll deserve H.~
Cafe,
HE fugitives slept, some in the obliviousness
of complete fatigue and others restlessly,
their minds perturbed by dreams of their
impending perils. Dawn summoned all to
renewed activity, but its coming was not greeted joy
fully by the knights.
" Sir Charleroy," mournfully spoke a Hospitaler to
the former, as they met at the outskirts of the camp
ing place, "our comrade, the Knight of the Holy
Sepulcher, made good his escape from this woeful
country during the early morning, before dawn, as our
comrades were sleeping!"
"Why, impossible!" questioningly responded the
chief.
" Alas, twas rather impossible for him riot to go ! "
" I m in no humor for such petty jesting ! See, his
steed is there yet," and Sir Charleroy turned on his
heel impatiently as he spoke.
" Pardon, companion, he that departed was born*
away by the white charger with black wings ! "
The Fugitives. 7^
"Dead?"
Mortals say dead of such, but it were better to
say he is free."
" Peace to his soul," fervently spoke Sir Charleroy.
" Ah, knight, thou canst not imagine the peacefulness
of his going ! "
" But why were we not summoned ? We might have
consoled him at least ; perhaps we might have healed.
W. iat was his malady ? "
A poisoned, arrow wounded him in the retreat from
Acre. He did not realize his peril until the agonies of
the end we /e wracking his >ody. Then he said, Too
late ; it s useless to attempt resistance of the inevi
table. "
" Now this is pitiful a humiliation of us all.
Heavens, Hospitaler! there s not a knight among us
who would not have periled his life in effort in the
dying man s behalf."
"But he cautioned me against disturbing any one on
his account. Poor men, he said, they ll need all the
rest they can get for the struggles of the day to come.
Only once did he seem to yearn for a remedy, and that
time he spoke mostly as one dreaming. I remember
his every word I wish I could bathe these hot and
bleeding wounds in the all-healing nards said to exude
exhaustlessly from the image of the Virgin Most
Merciful at Damascus. I roused him, then, with an
appeal for permission to summon thee, but he forbade
me."
" Thou shouldst have overridden all protests of his !
By my tokens! I d have emulated faithful Elenora,
who sucked the poison from the dagger stab given her
76 The Queen of the House of David.
spouse, our knightly Prince Edward, by the would-be
assassin at Acre."
" I could not resist him ; his face shone in the moon
light with heavenly brightness; mine was covered with
tears. Oh, chief, the dying man spoke like an angel.
Once he said : It is sweet to go out here, nigh where
the resurrection angel, Gabriel, gave Mary the glad
tidings that her humanity was to join with the Good
Father to bring forth One capable of sounding each
human sorrow here and hereafter. He overcomes the
dread last enemy of all our race ! I watched as he
fixed his dying gaze upon the golden cross he wore ;
his last words still fill and inflame my soul : Brother,
good-night say this to each for me. I feel great
darkness creeping in to possess this broken, weary
body. It comes to stay, but my soul moves forth out
of its dungeon. I see gates most lofty, all glorious,
and oh, so near! They open to an eternal day. Then
he breathed his last, murmuring tenderly: I m going;
good-night; good-morning! The Hospitaler ended
his recital with a great sob, then burying his face in his
cloak, was silent.
Presently the knights formed a hollow square about
an old tomb in the hillside. The Hospitaler sup
ported tenderly the head of the dead comrade in his
lap. On the naked breast of the corpse lay the many-
pointed golden cross of the Knights of the Sepulchcr,
while round the body was wrapped a Templar s ban
ner, with its significant emblem, two riders on one
horse ; symbol of friendship and necessity.
" Let the one who received the dying prayer of our
brave companion speak," said Sir Charleroy. The
The Ftigitives. 77
knights all knelt, and the Hospitaler still reverently
supporting the head of the dead, spoke. " Knight of
Christ, sleep ; the clamors of war shall no more dis
turb thee. The dead at least r.re just and merciful.
Israelite, Mohammedan and Christian may lie together
in these vales, reconciled at last. They that would not
share a loaf to save life to one another, in death share
quietly all they have, their beds. The ashes of the
long sleepers have no contentions ; here are no
crowdings of each other; no misunderstandings; no
alarms. Sleep, soldier, thy worthy warfare finished ;
thy cause appealed to the Judge of All ! Sleep and
leave us to battle on mid perils and pain. Sleep
thy body, while thy soul fathoms the mysteries to us
inscrutable. Rest now, and leave us here a little
longer to wonder why it is that human creatures must
needs inhumanly oppose and slay each other for the
enthroning of Truth, the friend, the quest of all !
Sleep, and leave us to wonder why death and conflict
are the openers of the gates of life and peace." Some
of those kneeling wept, but they were too much de
pressed to speak. Quietly they laid the body within
its resting place ; quietly they sealed up the tomb s
entrance. Then they mounted their steeds at their
chief s command.
" There are but twelve of us left ; a lucky number.
Perhaps the breaking of the fateful spell believed to
follow the number thirteen, was death s beneficence ! "
It was the Templar who so spoke.
"It is said, Templar," responded Charleroy, "that
our Mary, in her girlhood, was escorted ever by an in
visible heavenly guard, a thousand strong. In the guard
78 TJic Queen of the House of David.
there were twelve palm-bearing angels of rare splendor,
commissioned to reveal charity."
" A worthy companionship, chief! "
"I m inclined to pray heaven to send again to these
parts the beautiful twelve, to assure us good fortune
and victory."
" Surely the prayers of us all join thine, Sir Charle-
roy ; but methinks we have forgotten how to pray aright,
or heaven has forgotten to answer us. We have been
praying and fighting for months only to find at last
that our prayers and our battlings are alike vain, 1
fear there are no palm-bearing angels at hand."
The horsemen slowly wended their way back to fne
hill-top, overlooking Nazareth, on which they first
paused the night before. Again they halted to aa-
mire the prospect, as well as to look for a route or
safe retreat. Nazareth was astir. The little band on
the hill could hear the morning trumpeters calling the
Moslem to worship.
" Gentlemen," said the leader of the band on the
hill, " it is wisdom to divide into two parties, and
make for the sea by different routes. At Caesarea we
may find some vessels wth which to leave these to us
fateful shores. If we Yieet the foe anywhere, the
odds against us now are so great that death or en
slavement must be the result. Perhaps if there be
two parties one may escape." The knights paused
about their leader a few moments in affectionate de
bate ; all opposing at first the plan that was to scatter
them, but all, finally, convinced that it was the highest
wisdom to go on their ways apart. Lots were cast by
the leven, De Griffin not participating. Four were
The Fugitives. 79
grouped in one party and seven in the other by the
result.
"I ll join the weaker party, remembering the five
wounds of Jesus," said SirCharleroy, reining his steed
to the smaller company. A moment after he contin
ued : "Now, good souls, away with grief; part we
must : here and now. May God go tenderly with the
seven, a covenant number. Now make your wills;
then a brief farewell; then use the spur. "
"Wills?" said a Templar, and they all smiled in a
sickly way at the word. " We knights, boasting our
poverty, our holding of all we have in community,
know nothing of will-making."
" True, the pelf we each have is small enough ; a
few keep-sakes,our arms and such like ; but our love is
something. Let s will that, and if we ve aught to say
before we die, we d better say it now. There is work
ahead, and plenty of it. There will be no time for
ante-mortcm statement when we meet the cimeters of
the Crescent." So spoke Sir Charieroy. He con
tinued, " My slayer will take good care of my jewels."
Me commenced writing upon a bit of parchment,
using for rest the pommel of his saddle. In a few
moments he paused.
"Wilt thou read thine, that we may know how to
make ours, chief ? " inquired one near him.
" A message to my mother; that s all."
" Enough; that s sacred."
"Yes but no. Misery has knit us into one fam
ily. I feel to confide." So saying, he read his
writing, omitting only the portion that recited their
recent vicissitudes :
8o The Queen of the House of David.
" And now, beloved mother, we turn from Naza
reth toward the sea with only a forlorn hope of
reaching it. I long to meet thee, but the longing
must, I fear, content itself in reaching out my heart s
best love across the distant ocean toward thyself. It
is all I can give in return for the mysterious conscious
ness that thine is a constant presence. My memory
teems with records of my life-long ingratitude toward
thyself, that gave me birth and all a loving heart
could bestow, and now I m tasting bitterest remorse
for all those selfish days of mine. I wish I could
recall their acts. Take these words as my request for
pardon. I shall bind this little parchment scrap in my
belt in a vague hope that some way, some time, it may
reach thee. If it do, remember it is sent to bear to
thee, beloved mother, the assurance that thy once way
ward boy remembers now, as he has for months, as the
brightest, best, most exalting and blessed things of all
his life, thy loving words, thy patient trust in him and
all thy pious exhortations. I thank God now for all
my trials and perils. They have brought me to full
prizing of thy goodness and near to the religion thou
dost profess."
The reader paused, and the companion knights at
once began begging him to inscribe messages for them
each, he being the only one in all the company
having the priestly gift of the pen. Most of them
said, "To my mother" or "To my sister, write ;"
but one blushed as he said, " I ve no mother nor
sister." His comrades rallied him at once: "Name
her, the other only woman ! "
"A heart as brave as thine, knight," said the Hos
pitaler to the blushing youth, " has a queen on its
throne, somewhere."
The youth blushed more and drew away a little.
The Fugitives, 81
" Only a lover," said the Templar. " Lovers, absent;
assuage their pinings by new mating! They forget;
mothers never do. Write for us, Sir Charleroy. "
The blush of the youth deepened to anger, evincing
his heart s high protest against any hint of doubt
being aimed at his queen ; but he was self-restraining,
silent. " I ll not reveal her by defense even," was his
whispered thought.
The writing was finished. " Farewell ! Forward.
The chief suited the action to the commands, and
soon his steed was dashing swiftly away with its
rider, followed by the others of his party. The seven
departed toward Nain ; perhaps it was an ominous
choice, for their route led them toward the cave of
incantation, where Endor s witch called up for Saul the
shade of Samuel. Most likely the words or the dead
prophet to the haunted warrior. "To-morrow thou
shalt be with me," would have told the fate of the
seven that morning fittingly, for thev were never
heard from by any of their earthly rnends.
CHAPTER VI!.
ICHABOD.
" Oh. that many may know
Thfc end of this day s business, ere it come ;
But it sufficeth that the day will end,
And then the end is known."
Julius Ccesar.
TEDIOUS ride brought the five knights
nigh Shunem, the City of Elijah.
" We ll find no prophet s chamber here
for such as we," remarked Sir Charleroy.
" Perhaps," said a comrade, " we may by force or
cajoling find a breakfast ; a cake or cruse of oil."
"Anyhow," replied the chief, "we must try for a
little food. We can neither fight nor flee with gaunt
hunger on our flanks. Who knows, after all, but that
we may happen on a humane being in these parts."
" Well, good captain, if we should find a Shulamite,
black, but comely, she might be as loving to thee as
that one of old was to Solomon, although
The sentence was broken off by the interrupting
command of Sir Charleroy, " Men, quick to cover ; to
the lemon-tree grove on the right ! "
A glance back revealed a host of armed men behind
the knights.
" All saints defend !" cried the Templar, as the little
band wheeled toward the refuge.
Icliabud. 83
The tale of the battle to the death that ensued, is
quickly told.
Sir Charlcroy, though he had fought with reckless
bravery, as one hotly pursuing death, alone survived.
A bludgeon blow felled him ; when he recovered
consciousness, he beheld standing by his side a
gorgeously bedecked Moslem. The clangor of the
conflict was over; the blood in which he weltered, and
the vicious eyes that watched him, were all that re
minded the knight of what had recently transpired.
Presently the latter addressed the one that stood
guard :
" Why is the infidel so tardy in finishing his work?"
" Is the Crusader in a hurry to reach night ? sen-
tentiously replied the man of gorgeous trappings.
" He would like to stay long enough to execute a
murderer the chief of thy horde."
"My here 1 "? Thou knowest me?"
" Oh, ye; Azrael, Angel of Death, thy minions call
thee ; but i defy thee as I loathe thee."
The chief s brow darkened ; his sword rose in air,
and he exclaimed : " Hercules was healed of a ser
pent bite, ages ago, at Acre; Islamism in the same
place recently ; I must finish the hydra by cutting off
thy hissing head, Christian."
Sir Charleroy steadily met his captor s gaze, eye to
eye, and was silent.
The chief paused ; then lowering his sword, toyed
its point against the cross on the prostrate man s
breast.
"Bitter tongue, thou dost worship a death sign 5
dost thou so love death?"
8^. The Queen of the House of David.
" Death befriends those who wear that sign in truth ;
this is my comfort standing now at the rim of earth s
last night."
"Thy bright red blood and unwrinkled brow be
speak youth, the power to enjoy life. Youth and such
power is ever a prayer for more time ; thou liest to thy
self and me by professing to seek thy end."
" How wonderful ! The Angel of Death is a soul-
reader as well as a murderer!" bitterly rejoined Sir
Charleroy.
" Well, then, refute me ! Here s thy greasy, blood
stained sword ; now go, by thine own hands, if thou
darest, to judgment."
"Trusting God, I may defy thee ; yet not hurry
Him!"
"I like the Christian s metal. I might let him live."
" Life would be a mean gift now ; a painful depart
ure from the threshold of Paradise, to renew weary
pilgrimages."
" I may be merciful."
" I do not believe it."
" Thou shalt."
" When I believe in the tenderness of jackals and
tigers, in the sincerity of transparent hypocrisy, I ll
praise the mercy of Azrael."
" Our holy Koran reveals a bridge finer than a hair,
sharper than a sword, beset with thorns, laid over hell.
From that bridge, with an awful plunge, the wicked go
eternally down ; over it safely, swiftly, the holy pass
to happiness. Art ready to try that bridge? "
"Ready for the land of forgetfulness ; no swords nor
crescents are there."
Ichabod. 85
" No, thou wouldst only reach Orf, the partition of
Aell, where the half-saints tarry ; thy bravery merits that
much; but I ll teach thee to reach better realms."
" Turk, Mameluke, tis fiendish to prejudge a dying
soul ; leave judgment to God, and share now all that is
within thy power, my body, with thy fit partners, the
vultures ! "
" A living slave is wort r more to me than a dead
knight ; I ve an humor to let thee live."
" Oh, most merciful hypocrite ! I did not think thou
couldst tell the truth so readily ; but let me, I beseech
thee, be the dead knight."
" What if I save thy life, teach thee the puissant
faith of Islam, give thee leadership, and with it oppor
tunity to win entrance to that highest Paradise, whose
gateway is overshadowed by swords of the brave?
There thou mayest dwell forever with Allah and the
adolescent houris."
" Enough ; unless thou dost aim to torture me ! I m
a Knight of Saint Mary, and thou full well knowest
the measure of my vows ; how throughout this land my
Order has warred against thy hateful polygamy, thy
gilded lusts here, thy Harem heaven hereafter! Ye
thrive by luring to your standards men aflame now
with the fire that burns such souls at last in black per
dition. I tell thee to thy teeth, thou and thine are
living devils. But ye war against the wisdom of the
world and the law of God ; though triumphing now, ye
will rot amid your riots and victories."
The chief s face grew black as night for an instant,
but recovering himself, he continued, sarcastically at
first, then with the zeal of a proselyter:
86 The Queen of the House of David.
" Speak low, thou, last dying vestige of a wan faith !
Thou mightst make my solemn followers yell with ridi
culing laughter! I tell thee of life and of a faith as
natural as nature herself. Listen ; there is for the brave
and faithful a Paradise whose rivers are white as milk
as odoriferous as musk. There are sights for the eye
fetes most delicious and music never ceasing to ravish ;
these lure the brilliantly-robed faithful to the black-
eyed daughters of Pleasure. One look at them
would reward such as we for a world-life of pain ; and
the children of the prophet s faith are given the
eternities to companion these splendid creatures whose
forms created of musk know no infirmity, but survive,
always, as adolescent fountains. The heaven of
Islamism is eternal youth, eternally luxurious."
" It befits the Angel of Death to gild a deformed
hell with bedazzling words. Thou and thine glorify lust,
and thy heaven, like thy harem, is but a brothel after
all. Now let me blast thy gorgeous charnel-house
with the lightning of God s Word : Blessed are the
pure in heart for they shall see God !
Sir Charleroy had raised himself up as he was speak
ing; now he fell back, exhausted. He again felt the
glow in his heart that he felt on the quay when the
English bishop blessed him ; but it seemed more real
now than then, and the approvings of conscience some
way came with rebukes that caused tears to flow. He
felt something akin to real penitence fora life that had
not been always up to the ideal that this debate had
caused him to exalt. As he fell back he closed his
eyes and turned his face from- his captor ; the act was a
prayer to be helped to shut out of his mind the pic-
Ichabod. 87
ture of gilded lust depicted by the false teacher that
stood by. For a few moments the wounded man was
left to his own thoughts, and then his heart went out
toward home crying like a sick or lost child in the
night, for " Mother! " Once more he returned to that
duality of existence which comes when one enters into
personal introspections. There seemed to be two Sir
Charlcroys, one writing the history of the other, and
the writer was recording such estimates as these : "As
he lay there, nigh death, he drew near to God. He
had once been a rover, seeking the wildest pleasures of
the European capitals; but meeting passion, presented
as the ultimate of life, for all eternity, his soul recoiled
from it and he became the herald of purity. Ofice he
had friends, wealth and physical prowess; but he
squandered them as a prodigal ; when he lay bleeding,
powerless in body, amid strangers, a slave, he rose to
the majesty of a moral giant." The Sir Charleroy that
was thus reviewed was comforted, and he stood oft
from the picture in imagination to admire it, as one
standing before a mirror. Just then he thought of his
mother and Mary, his ideal, standing on either side of
him, before the same presentment. It might have been
a dream; but he believed they smiled through tears,
pressed their beating hearts to his and upheld him by
their arms with tenderness and strength. His captor
left him for a few moments only, undisturbed. At a
sign from Azrael, he was soon carried away by a guard ;
the parley was ended and he that had so bravely spoken
doomed to confront that that is to the vigorous mind
the worst of happenings, uncertainty. For months the
captive mechanically submitted to the fortunes of the
88 TJie Queen of the House of David.
Sheik s caravan ; in health improving ; in spirit de
pressed, numbed. The knight had constantly before
him three grim certainties, escape impossible ; rebel
lion useless ; each day hope darkened by further depar
ture from the sea. The captive s treatment from the
Sheik was not unkind. The latter met him by times
with a sort of courtly condescension, varied only by an
occasional penetrating, questioning glance. They had
little conversation, yet the Sheik s looks plainly said:
" When thou art subdued, sue for favors; they ll be
granted." De Griffin nursed his pride and firmness and
prevented all familiarity on Azrael s part. The latter
was puzzled sometimes, sometimes angered ; but he
was too polite to show his feelings. For months the
only conversation between the two alert, strong men
might be summed up in these words on the Sheik s
part : " Slave, freedom and heaven are sweet." " Knight,
Allah knows only the followers of the Prophet as
friends." On the knight s part a look of scorn or an
expression of disgust was the sole reply.
In the Sheik s retinue was another captive, a Jew.
He was constantly near the knight ; for being more
fully trusted than the latter, the Sheik had made the
Israelite in part the custodian of the Christian. The
knight discerned the relationship very quickly; though
both Jew and chief endeavored to conceal it. Sir
Charleroy, at the first, treated his companion captive
with loathing and resentment, as a spy. After a time,
the " sphinx, eyes open, mouth shut," as Azrael
described Sir Charleroy. deemed it wise and politic to
make the Jew his ally. The resolution once formed,
he found many circumstances to aid in bridging the
Icliabod. 89
gulf that separated the captive and his guard ; the cul
tured Teutonic leader and the wandering Israelite.
They both hated the same man, their captor; both
loathed the religion he was covertly aiming to lure
them to ; both were anxious for freedom. They gave
voice to these feelings when together, alone, and ere
long sympathy made them friends. The next step was
natural and easy ; the stronger mind took the leader
ship of the two, and Sir Charleroy became teacher ; his
keeper became his pupil 3&& prottgt.
The twain one day, after this change of relation,
walked together conversing, on a hill overlooking Jeri
cho, by which place the Sheik s caravan was encamped.
" Ichabod, thou wearest a fitting name."
" I suppose so, since my mother gave it. But why
say so now ? "
" Ichabod, glory departed, thou art like thy people
despoiled."
" Oh, Lord ! how long? " piously exclaimed the Jew.
"Till Shiloh comes!"
" Verily it is so written," was the Jew s reply.
" But He has come, Israelite ! "
"Where?" the startled Jew questioned, drawing
back as if he expected his, to him mysterious, com
panion to throw back his tunic and declare : " I am he ! "
" In the world and in my heart."
"Ah, Sir Knight, Israel s desolation refutes all that."
Jew, thine eyes are veiled. I ll teach thee to see
Him yet."
The Jew was puzzled.
The twain fell into prolonged converse, and then
in that lone place the Crusader waxed eloquent, preach-
90 The Queen of tJic House of David.
ing Christ and Him crucified to one of Abraham s
seed.
When the two captives descended to their tents,
each was conscious of a new, peculiar joy. One had the
joy of having proclaimed exalted truth, faithfully, to the
almost persuading of his hearer; the other was mov
ing about in the growing delight and wonder of a new
dawning faith.
At frequent intervals Ichabod besought the knight
to take him " to the mountain."
Each visit thither was a delight to the new inquirer.
On such a journey one day spoke Ichabod : " Chris
tian, I am consumed with anxiety to hear thy words
and another anxiety lest they do me harm. I am
thinking, thinking, by day, and, what little time my
thoughts permit sleep, I m filled with wondrous dreams !
I fear to lose my old faith, and yet it becomes like
Dead Sea apples under the light of this new way. So
new, so infatuating. None I ve met, and I ve met
many, ever so moved me. Why, knight, I ve traversed
half the world ; sometimes as wealth s favorite, some,
times of necessity in misfortune ; I ve seen the faiths
of Egypt and India in their homes, and walked amid
the temples of great Rome, but with abiding contempt
for all not Israelitish. Not so this creed of the knight
affects me."
"And for good reason; I offer thee the true, new,
refined and final Judaism ! "
"It seems so, and yet I tremble. I dare not doubt ;
that s sin ; but here s the puzzle that harasses me :
What if, in doubting these things I m now told, I be
doubting the very truth, the Jewish faith "
Ichabod. 91
" Ichabod, thy heart has been a buried seed await
ing the spring. It has come."
" OX knight, I m trusting my dear soul to thee.
As a dog his master, a maid her lover, so blindly I
follow thee. I can not go back : I can not pause nor
can I go onward alone. I m in the misery of a joy too
great to be borne, almost, and yet too much my master
to be given up. Oh, knight, thou art so wise, so
strong! Steady me ; hold me up! I can only pray
and adjure thee to be sincere with me; only sincere;
that s all; as sincere as if thou wert ministering to the
ills of a sick man battling death."
The child of Abraham, with a sudden movement,
flung his arms with all vehemence about Sir Charleroy.
The East and the West embracing, truth leading, love
triumphant.
" Poor Ichabod, if thou hads t no soul, thy clingings
and yearnings would bind me to thee faithfully. Thou
hast tried to give me charge over that that is immortal.
A Higher Being has it in loving trust; were it not so,
I d turn in dread from thy confiding ! "
" Is mine so bad a soul, master? "
" Indeed, no. Its preciousness to Him that created
it, is what would make me dread its partial custody."
" Thou lt help me, master, now ? "
"For three objects I ll willingly die ; my mother;
our lady, and the soul of one who abandons himself, as
thou, to my poor pilotage."
" Then, thou strangely lovest me. Oh, this but more
persuades me that thy faith is right ; it makes thee so
good to a stranger, a slave, a hated Jew ! "
But then we are so apart and so unlike each other I
92 The Queen of r/ie House of David.
" No, Jew, I want to show that humanity is one.
The very creed I m trying to teach theeand would fain
have all thy race, ay, all mankind fully understand, is
full of love, joy, peace. These follow it as naturally as
the flower the stem, the humming the flying wing
made to fly and be musical."
" Oh, my dear light, with thee I m in joy and wilder-
ment. Thy presence seems to bring me hosts of
crowned truths, all seeking to enter my being. I feel
like a tired runner ready to faint when thou rt absent,
but when thou talkest the tired runner is plunged into a
cooling ocean, whose circling waves, as it were charged
with the stimulus of tempered lightnings, glowing with
a million rainbows, overwhelm, lift up and rest him.
I m floating thereon now !"
" Thy strange fancies make me wonder, Ichabod."
" Wonder ; why my strength dies from over wonder.
I was ill for hours yesterday. Light to my sweat-
blinded, feverish eyes, all calm and healing, comes
when I yield to thy will ; but still all my joy is
haunted by ghosts which rise in day-mare troops,
pointing rebukingly to labyrinths into which I seem
to be pushed. I sometimes wonder if I m seeing real
spirits or going mad."
" Dost pray, Jew?"
" I dare not live without praying! "
"Then tell the All Pitiful what thou hast this day
told to me. He loves the sincere, down to the deep
est hell of doubt, and from it all, at last, will lead
tumulted souls safely. An honest doubt is a real
prayer, well winged ; quickly it reaches heaven, at
whose portal it dies to rise again all peace."
CHAPTER VIII.
FROM JERICHO TO JORDAN.
Through sins of sense, perversities of will,
Through doubt and pain, through guilt and shame and ill
Thy pitying Eye is on Thy creature still."
Wilt Thou not make, eternal Source and Goal,
In thy long years life s broken circle whole,
And change to praise the cry of a lost soul ? "
WHITTIER.
EW and Crusader came to love each other
after the manner of David and Jonathan,
and they were both made stronger and
happier men on account of this loving.
" Sir Charleroy, a year gone to day, thou and I climbed
to glory."
"Thou hast a prolific imagination or I a poor mem
ory. I have no remembrance of either climbing or
glory of a year ago."
" I may well remember the greatest day of my life ;
the day thou tookst me up yon hill over against Jericho ;
I saw, as Elisha, in the presence of his great master
Elijah, the mountains, that day, full of the chariots
and angels of God."
" But, Jew, the chariot separated Elijah and Elisha ;
we were, in thy great day, made one."
" True, but I got the prophet s insight and power. Oh
94 The Queen of the House of David.
now 1 see Shiloh coming in the redemption of Jew and
Gentile."
" Radiant proselyte, give God, not me the glory."
" I ll call thee, knight, Jordan my Jordan."
" The Jew rambles amid strange conceptions. Why
am I like that mighty stream ? "
" Its bed and banks, God s cup ; they nobly serve,
catching the pure waters of mountain springs and
heaven s clouds, to bear them, mingled with sweet Gali
lee, to the black burning lips of Sodom s plains below.
X was a dead sea, alive alone to misery ; nothing to me
but my historic past, and that sin-stained. I m now
refreshed and purified ; sometime there ll be life grow
ing about me ! "
"The highlands of Galilee gather from heaven,
oceans of sweet, pure water, which Jordan, year after
year, night and day, hurries down to the Asphalt
sea; but still that sea remains lifeless and bitter.
Even so, the clean, white truth comes to some, life
long, yet vainly. I think I m little like Jordan, but
much like that sea."
And yet, knight, all is not vain that seems so. I
learned this once, long ago, in the vale of Siddim, by
the sea of Lot. As I entered that place of desola
tion I thought of Gehenna! The lime cliffs about, all
barren and pitiless as the walls of a furnace, shut out
the breezes, and intensified the sun s scorching rays.
A solemn stillness, unbroken by wind, wave or voice of
life, was there ; suffocating, plutonic odors ladened the
air, and a fog hung over that watery winding sheet of
the cities of the plain. I watched that overhanging
cloud until my heated brain shaped it into a vast com-
From Jericho to Jordan. 95
pany of shades ; the ghostly forms of the overwhelmed
denizens of those accursed habitations, now in mute
terror and confusion, holding to one another desper
ately ; fearing to go to final judgment. Once I thought
they were together trying to look down into the depths,
perchance to seek for vestiges of their ancient, earthly
habitations. These fancies grew and grew upon me,
mad dreamer that I was, until I was nigh to desperate
fright ; but I found some little angels on the shore
who comforted."
" Angels at Sodom ? "
" Even so. The first was light and liquid silver; it
sang a bar of nature s tireless, varied melody by my foot
steps Ah, the little, fresh spring that burst forth
through the rim of the crystalline basin, was an angel to
me. Then I found others here and there. At first I was
glad, then I began to pity them, and to wish I could
change their courses. They all wended their ways to
the desolate sea, and their sweet currents were swal
lowed up in the yawning gulf of death. Vainly, I
said at first. Then I saw other angels in the forms of
bending willows, and gorgeous oleanders. Just then it
all came to me; the springs, though small and few,
were not in vain. The oleanders and the willow, whose
roots kissed their fresh life, were evidences that the
springs had been for good. Aye, more, the flowers re
joiced me in those desolations more than could the
rose gardens of the Temple in days of happiness.
Yea, knight, thou hast been a rivulet to Ichabod in a
d^y when he wandered as among arid mountains and
deau seas/
" Blest child of Abraham, thy faith is great, though
96 The Queen of the House of David.
I be but a pitiable guide ; yet I ll adopt thy similes,
Be thou and I, to each other, Jordan, rivulet and
flower by turn ; the fresh current gives life to plant and
blossom, while plant and blossom both shade and beau
tify the streams. With both it shall be well, if we well
learn to seek deep for the hidden springs of the life
that can never die. Already thou hast blessed me very
greatly, gathering truths I failed to find. Thou re-
turn st to me multiplied all I bestow."
" Would I could gather for all ; for my race, so
blinded ! Oh, it is a tristful thought that the nearer I
get to God, the further I get from them 1 love next
after Him. Even my mother was wont to say to me,
when, as a questioning boy, I inquired beyond the
traditions of the Rabbis, that she d disown me to a!!
eternity as a heretic. My belief has made me an out
cast to her, and yet the thought of her hating me tears
my heart."
" I ll love thy orphaned heart."
" Me ? Love me ; so far beneath thee and with such
pauper power of payment ? "
" Thy desolation makes thee rich ; having none other
to love, thou canst love me the more. Thou know st
this open secret of loving ; its selfishness demands all ;
getting that it gives all. Fear not Ichabod, but that
thou lt find the hunger of thy heart well fed. It is as
natural for us to love those we have helped as to hate
those we have harmed. Thou know st how men won
der that the Infinite can love the finite, but they for
get, or never realized, that one may love because he
has loved. So is it with God. He loves, and that He
loves becomes therefore rich and worthful to Him."
From Jericho to Jordan. 97
The morning after the betrothal, shall we call it, of
these two men to each other, long before dawn the
knight was wakened by a cautious step on the stone
floor of his sleeping place. Sir Charleroy was at once
all alert and leaped from the couch, sword in hand,
expecting to confront some gipsy thief, for there had
been a band of these wanderers hovering near the day
before.
"Who s there?" sternly he demanded, advancing,
on guard meanwhile.
" Ichabod, Ichabod ! " with trembling voice and in a
half whisper. It was the Jew.
" I did not mean to fright thee," he hurriedly
explained, when he had recovered from his fear of
being thrust through, "but I ve news; bad news that
would not wait ! "
"What is the bad? Is it near ?"
" Oh, knight, speak low the news is bad enough
and the ill, though not on us, close after us! "
" Thou art excited, my friend ; sit down and then
unfold the matter. Meanwhile I ll light a faggot.
" In truth, I can t sit, and I ve reason to be nervous."
Then the man spread out his arms and his fingers as if
he would stand all ready to fly ; his eyes wide open,
staring as he talked.
" Our Sheik leaves Jericho to-morrow ; summoned by
the sheriff of Mecca. The sheriff is supreme to
Moslem. The command is for war toward the east.
Blood, blood ; when will the world be done shedding
blood ! "
" Well, my loving alarmist," replied Sir Charleroy,
coolly, " that s not very bad news. If the Shiek leaves
9? The Queen of the House of David,
us, we ll be free ; if he takes us, there will be a change
and for that I could almost cry Blessed be Allah ! I
am sickened, crushed, dry-rotted by this hum-drum
life; this slavery; dancing abject attendance on a glut
tonous master, whose sole object seems to be eating o^
dallying about the marquees of his harem"
" Oh, Sir Charleroy, the change has dreadful things
for us ! "
" Why ? "
" I heard that the runner bringing the mandate from
Mecca brings also command that all prisoners, such as
we, must be made to embrace Islamism, enlist to die,
if need be, in this so-called holy war, or be sent to the
slave mart."
"This is a carnival for the furies! Why, Ichabod,
the latter is burial alive ; the former death with a dis
honored conscience!"
"Sir Charleroy, I prefer the slavery."
" Well, I prefer neither. Is the mandate final?"
" Yes ; I ve an order to commence packing at sun
rise ; by noon we will be enlisted or in chains."
" Who gave thee these state secrets, so in detail ?
Perhaps tis only camp-fire gossip recounted for lack of
novel ghost stories."
"Ah, tis too true. I d swear my life on it !"
" Rash, credulous; but which now, comrade, I can
not tell."
" Master, I had this from one that loves me as I love
thee ; the young Nourahmal, light of the harem,
favorite of the Shiek."
" Well, now it seems to me that this light of the
harem is thy favorite rather than the Shiek s."
From Jericho to Jordan, 99
" She adores me."
" Doubtless ! Where a woman unfolds her mind
there she brings all else an offering easily possessed.
She seals her change of allegiance by scattering the
secrets of the dethroned to the enthroned lover.
Nourahmal ? Is she as charming in form as in name?"
"Hold, now! If thou lov st me thou will st not
continue thus to wound. I love that girl, but not the
way thou meanest ! "
" So ? Is there an elopement pending ! "
" Unworthy gibe ! Say no more like it, but answer
this : Is it not possible for a man and woman to be knit
ted together in soul, as I and thou have been, without
the shadow of a remembrance that they are animals of
different sexes ? "
" Possible? Really I do not know. It may be pos
sible, but so very rare that I have failed to hear of any
such relationship."
Then thou shalt hear of it now in Nourahmal and
me."
"I ll take both to Paris! Another wonder of the
tvcrld ! But explain further."
"My Nourahmal is a captive; hates the man to
whom she must submit as we hate him, and loves me
with the new love that you have revealed to me,
because I ve shown her that I love her that way ; so
different from any thing she ever knew before."
" Well, there are many women yoked to men for
whom they feel no great affection, yet they glorify
womanhood by their unfaltering loyalty. Loyalty is
woman s glory; the hope of society. If the women
be traitors, then, alas i "
ioo The Queen of the House of David.
" Nourahmal is not a wife! The man that parcels
out his heart to a dozen favorites buys but scraps in
return. A woman in misery s chains, without the
bands of the confiding, utter love of her lord, will talk ;
she must talk, or go mad. I tell, thee, knight, such gos
sip is the panacea of suicidal bent. There s many a
woman kills herself for lack of a confidant ! "
" Thou hast learned much philosophy going around
the world. Jew, but perhaps not this bitter truth ; the
woman who is traitor to one man will be to another.
Thou mayst be the next. What if she set us fleeing for
the sake of laughing at our forced return ? "
" Impossible, knight ; she reveres me truly ; even
as she does God ; just as I did Sir Charleroy when he
brought me light and rest. I was to her what thou
art to me. One day I told her women had souls, as
dear to heaven as the souls of men ! She laughed at
me like a monkey, at first, and reminded me that were I
a true desciple of Islam I d know that only young and
beautiful women go to heaven, and they even there
have a lowly place. Thou knowest these infidels be
lieve that the large majority of hellians are women."
" Not strange Jew ; they treat women as pretty or
useful animals, and so degrade, not only themselves, but
these very women. A woman so demeaned does not
become heavenly, to say the least. But I think, if I
were a Turk, I d keep only argus-eyed eunuchs to
guard my harem; in faith, I d even have the tongues
out of those guards."
" There, now, thou dost jest again."
" Well, go on, in seriousness. Tell us the pipings o
this seraglio beauty."
Prom Jericho to Jordan. IOI
I ve won her over completely."
" This is not strange. Poets are always valiant, vic
torious orators with women. The female heart is
emotionally moved up to belief with little logic, if the
speaker be fair, or musical, or brave ! "
" I was none of these ; I told her of the Friend of
Publicans and Sinners ; that fed her soul. I do not
believe there is a woman on earth that can resist that
story."
"Oh, well, I m not going to forget that the first
woman outran her mate in evil, nor that she exchanged
the All Beautiful for the snaky demon."
" It would be nobler for a knight, truer for all, to
judge, if judge they will, by wider circles. Do not re
member the sin of one, or a few, to the disparagement
of all ! "
" Eve, the best made of all, fell ; then her weaker
sisters are more likely to follow in her way," said the
knight.
"She found a sin and fell: thousands of her daugh
ters have fallen by sins that men invented and thrust
on them. Thou knowest that most women who go
wrong, go in ways they would not without the temp-
tings of the stronger will. The sin that ruins most is
that to woman s nature abhorrent, until honeyed over
by the tongue of man."
" Dexterous lance, art thou, Jew ; but, anyway, some
women are born bad."
"No; I m not able for one so wise as the knight,
unless I ve the strength of truth. I ve heard that our
wise men say that if we could trace the ancestry of any
one evil, from birth, we would find somewhere, up the
IO2 The Queen of the House of David.
line, a father, preeminent in wickedness. Say, women
are weak to resist evil ; then, say men are strong to
propagate it. Now, which way turns f he scale ?
" Oh, I say always, dogmatically, if need be, in man s
favor."
" Let me see : Eve s humanity that sinned was out of
the finest part of Adam s body, and the serpent which
betrayed her was a male."
" I ll parry the thrust by asking why the Holy Writ
ings reveal no female angels? I think there are none."
" I ve a wiser reason, knight. It is this : Man has so
foully dealt with the angels in the flesh that God s
mercy reserves their finer spiritual counterparts for the
sole companionships of heaven, which justly appre
ciates these holy, pure and tender creations. Heaven
would not be perfectly beautiful without them and,
methinks, can not spare one for a moment ! "
"Not even to minister to a needy world?"
"Woman s life is here, generally, all service, all min
istry ; her return to earth after death would be a work
of supererogation. God sends back the male spirits
to help restore the world their sex did most to ruin."
Then both the debaters laughed out as heartily as
they dared, but there was in the tones of the knight s
laughter a part-confession of defeat. After a time
Sir Charleroy spo^e again : " Thou art calm now, after
this diversicn, Ichabod ; proceed with thy story of
danger."
" Well, Nourahmal "
" Oh, yes, begin again with Nourahmal. Samson was
a pretty good man for a giant, but he had a betraying
Delilah ! "
From Jericho to Jordan. 103
44 True enough ; but he had also a noble mother. Re-
member the better, rather than the worse/
" I remember her peers, Mary and my mother."
" So, then, when sweepingly condemning all the sex,
please except the mothers, at least of those who may
be thy hearers."
" Good Jew, I ll not wound thee ! "
" No pity for me ; pity thyself. Such thoughts as
thou hast spoken wound thine own soul. We Jews
have an order called Tumbler Pharisees ; they affect
humility, shuffle as they walk and stumble on pur-
pose that they may not seem to walk with confidence.
Akin to them we have the Bleeding Pharisees; they
walk with shut eyes, lest they should see a woman, and,
stumbling against many a post, are soon covered with
their own blood, receiving real harm in flying from
imaginary dangers.."
" Maya, Maya, Ichabod," laughing aloud, exclaimed
Sir Charleroy.
The latter, catching the knight s arm, hoarsely
whispered: "Hush! Thou mayst be heard. What
dost thou mean by Maya ? "
" Perhaps, Nourahmal ! Maya was the reputed wife
of the supposed god Brahm of the Hindus. It is
reported that she was in form like unto fog and her
name means illusion. A subtle truth, Jew; even a
god, in love, is near a fog bank! "
" Thou dost not know Nourahmal and dost discredit
her; that s slander; thou dost know me and ridiculesr
me; that s but I ll not say it."
" I d not pain my Ichabod."
" Nor discredit Nourahmal ?"
IO4. The Queen of the House of David.
" No ; but did this angel, or Syren of thine, having
shown the peril, present a map to a city of refuge?"
" Ah, poor, helpless girl ! she has none for herself,
much less for us. She just told me all and wept and
kissed me a farewell, praying me to flee. I could think
of no question in the delight of hearing her say, she
hoped I d meet her in Heaven, in peace away from
Moslem and wars. Only think of her faith ! All new ;
just a little while ago she did not know there was a
heaven for women. I felt I could die then in peace.
I ve taught one woman that she is more than a pretty
Animal!"
" Then, Jew, to thee, life is worth living?"
" Oh truly ! Oh, if this light could only spread over
Egypt and all my own Syria ! "
" Thy desire is akin to that of Mary s son and noble.
Certain it is that we can not spread that light by fight
ing to sustain the fateful Crescent."
" By the glory of God, I never will."
" Nor I, son of Abraham ; so let s decline."
" And go to the slave mart ? "
" Oh, no, not while I ve a sword, Ichabod."
" Then to flee is the word ? "
" The eastern campaigning with the sheik, would
be a little longer route to Paradise?"
" Perhaps not ; I am assured that we are needed of
God by the use He has recently made of us. He will
keep us in our flight from bloody persecutingwar, and
possible apostacy."
" I hate the last word ! A knight enchanted of Mary
can never become a renegade ; not I, at least. I was
born October ninth. Tradition says that the holy St.
From Jericho to Jordan. 105
John Damascene, having had his hand cut off by the
Saracens that day, was by Our Lady miraculously
made whole, and lived long after to wield a powerful,
facile pen in her behalf. I ll trust my head and saber
hand, used for her, to her protection."
" And I ll trust Him that led the wandering hosts
of Moses ; for in all their affliction, He was afflicted
with them, and the angel of His presence saved
them ; and He bore them and carried them all the
days of old. Oh, master, I ve comfort I can not tell,
when I feel orphaned, by thinking of my Maker,
not only as a Father, but as a Mother ! God is
our Mother when we, bereft of mother-love, most
feel our need of it. So thou toldst me in the moun
tains."
" True ; but shall we try our escape now ? "
"Nay, we had better wait till a little before dawn;
the camp patrol is then withdrawn ; then we ll em
brace freedom."
" The Jew seems very confident."
"Oh, I spent the hour after I met Nourahmal (God
keep her), amid the palms for which Jericho is fitly
named, and got a token."
"A token?"
" My eyes were touched in the darkness"
" Sweet Nourahmal followed thee ? "
" No, but He that opened the eyes of blind Bartimeus
near here."
"What didst thou see?"
" Elisha healing the streams about this palm city,
type of God healing the floods of bitterest fates; after
that I saw Jericho s walls falling at the blasts of
io6 The Queen of the House of David.
Joshua s trumpets, and remembered that his God then
is ours now."
" Didst thou see two poor men fleeing in the dark
from peril to peril, pursued by a hundred horsemen,
who saber-lashed them ; a little further two corpses, one
of a Christian the other of a Jew, on which fed fighting
jackals? "
" I saw no such horror ! I saw two led forth from
their captors, as Peter from his dungeon ; the angels
that blinded the eyes of the monstrous men, who of
old sought to defile Lot s house, blinded the eyes of
the pursuers of the two ; and the angel of Peter gave
them guidance and light. But come, the night-guard
has retired; between now and the call to morning
prayers is our opportunity."
Out of the old stone stable silently knight and Jew
glided, threading their way amid splendors they be
lieved to be, but could not see. The ministering
spirits were over and around them, their path was
through the Kelt, the sublimest waddy of Palestine ;
but night shrouded the latter ; their weak faith dimly
discerned the other.
" Can t thou see any way-marks, Jew?"
" I discern but few. Yet, what matter? It is enough
that He who leads us sees ? "
" The night is getting blacker and blacker ; the omen
makes my heart shiver as it beats."
As the knight spoke there came a terrific crash of
thunder and a succession of blinding lightning flashes.
Sir Charleroy clasped the Jew s arm and in startled
voice questioned :
"Dost thou not fear these?"
From Jericho to Jordan. 10;
j Why should I ? The angel guides swing the torches
of the unchangeable Father to give us glimpses of our
way. All is well ; I saw by the lightning flash that we
are passing safely the camp lines of our captors."
A few miles were over-past. The storm had abated
a little, and the first streaks of dawn, like spears, were
rising in the east.
"Would God, good Jew," said the now wearied Sir
Charleroy, " that the Prophet of the Moslem, who, near
by here, is said once by a stamp of his foot to have
brought forth from the rock a camel, were present to
dance for us now."
" He is not here, so we must help ourselves, knight."
"Ah, my dear man, canst thou dance rocks into
camels? "
" No, but there are houses nigh, and each thou
knowst has it s stable-yard in front."
" But there is the thorny nubk tree, surrounding the
herds."
" I ve faith to try my faith when all I have is
faith."
"What for; to steal a camel?"
" Oh, no ; I d not steal a camel but I d borrow a
couple of them. Two ; for I m not one of the knights
who exhibit poverty, by riding double, thou dost
know."
" Borrow ? Well so be it ; the black infidels owe us
for two years service. They borrowed us ! "
" It s pious to take the beasts; for we pay so honest
debts of these heathens and shorten the list of their
souls sins by removing from them, in ou; escape, the
opportunity for our murder. "
lo8 The Queen of the House of David.
"If this be sophistry, Ichabod, it is so sweet that it
is taken as delightful truth."
"Thou art persuaded?"
" No man can out run me, be he rabbi or priest, in
condemning vices, if they be such as I do not care to
practice, and I am a profound believer in every creed
that s sweet to my desires. Here acticti treads the
heels of persuasion."
On beasts, borrowed without formality, the fugitives
hurried toward Jordan, only there to find a barrier to
their progress in the angry torrent swelled by the
recent storms. It was clearly futile to attempt a pas
sage, and to tarry, waiting the ebb of the waters, was
to bring certain detection. They turned the heads of
their borrowed camels toward their master s homes and
waited the sunrise, meanwhile moving about to find
some means of safety.
"Well, my comrade, I think it will not be long until
those Turks will give our souls an Elijah-like ascen
sion except that there will be no chariot. The morning
shimmering on his mountain makes me think of this,
Ichabod."
" The tracks of our returning camels in the wet
earth will guide our pursuers."
" Suppose we climb a tree asZacchaeus, since we can
not have a chariot. By my plume! which I ve not
seen for a year, I think that would be safety ; the
Turks never look up except in prayer, and the wolf
Azrael seldom prays. But God pity us! there they are
coming.
From Jericho to Jordan. 109
"To the tombs, master ! On the left."
" Refuge for jackals? "
11 Yes, but also for the miserable, living and dead !
Now haste!"
Sir Charleroy obeyed quickly, but recoiled with a
groan of disgust as he suddenly pushed against an
entombed body. He touched his hilt, a* if determined
to abandon attempt at flight, and then, overcoming the
rash impulse to confront the pursuers, turned about,
seized the corpse, and dragging it from its place, hurled
it over the river bank into the torrent. He was in the
dispoiled nich in an instant. A cry from the pursuers
drew him forth. " See, Ichabod, the Turks are running
along the river banks watching the mummy bobbing
along in the torrent. See, it sinks. Ah, the
brutes, how they shout ! They think that body
alive, and that one poor slave is hounded to death."
" Jehovah Jeireh, now help us; they ll soon be back,"
cried Ichabod.
"Ah, I forgot; they ll remember there were two of
us."
" Calm, Sir Knight, By this sign I conquer/ quot
ing thy words of another. I ll go forth; the only one
left; at least so they ll think."
Sir Charleroy turned and looked at the Jew, and was
amazed to see him binding in front of himself a board
having the ominous words, " Unclean " upon it.
" What ; thou, a Jew, and touch that foul thing, worn
to festering death by some leper ! "
" Better night and a clean soul, though in a body
burned by the cursed leprosy, than life in Moslem
slavery
no The Queen of the Hoiisc of David.
" But what if the disease cleave to thee, and we
escape?"
"Sir Knight, thou wilt live to tell others that a once
hated Jew was led of thee to truth, and after died a
living death, that his benefactors might survive. I
think such deeds cause noble lights to glow in human
souls."
" God bless and pity thee, Ichabod."
"Ah, he does; even now. I see the scarlet line of
Rahab, and it binds the pestilence that walketh by
noonday.
The furious pursuers spurred their steeds up toward
the tombs, but as they beheld the solitary man, sitting
in painful attitude with beggar-like palm extended and
wearing the dread sign, they rapidly wheeled their
steeds about and galloped away. The Moslem had
heard that a Jew would suffer any torture rather than
ceremonial pollution ; hence judged that the object
before them could not be the refugee they sought.
" I wonder not that the demoniac cut himself madly
when among the tombs, good Jew. Sure it s like going
to glory to get out once more. Methinks freedom is
only sweet when taken with fresh air! Well, we are
out and the enemy thwarted."
"Methinks, master, that the leper that died here,
leaving no legacy but the sign of his death, did some
good in unknowingly making me his heir."
"And the corpse I disposed of so unceremoniously
left me a house of safety, though small and musty.
I ve a bitter thought.
" So, Sir Charleroy, tell it me, perhaps I can sweeten
it."
From Jericho TO Jordan. ill
" I, the heir for a little time of that soulless clay, am
like it."
" Not much being here and alive."
" I rather think like it. See me tossed about by
strangers, robbed of my rights, helpless to resist fate s
tides, begrudged the room I occupy, and not one who
once knew me to weep over my besetments.
" Sir Knight, the miracles of our frequent preserva
tion should make our murmurings dumb."
In the evening Jordan ebbed a little and the two
wanderers passed over. Nor did they regret the con
sequent immersing in its flood. No word was spoken
as they passed through the current, for, before they
entered, having remembered that at this Bethabara
ford man s Savior was baptized, they were each busy
with his own meditations. When they stood on the
other shore, Sir Charleroy reverently said : " Comrade,
I prayed as we passed that we might have the dove of
peace henceforth above our souls at least."
"I prayed on my part that God would accept the act
as the Christian s typical burial to the world and separ
ation from its sins."
" How like death and birth is that beautiful type.
They level all life."
"Are our lives leveled? knight."
"Henceforth ; and we are brethern."
And our King and Savior was baptized here by the
herald of His Kingdom, John "
"Yea; here the new Judaism was formally inaugu
rated. Tradition says also that Jesus baptized his
mother afterward at this ford."
"How filial; how beautiful; how expressive! He
112 The Queen of the House of David.
was her God, yet her son, she his mother and disciple ;
and each by all ties and forms bound together in a fel.
lovvship of helpfulness.
" The Jew s an interpreter."
" Sir Charleroy sweetens my trust as Jordan
ens the bitter waters of Bahr Lut.
CHAFFER IX.
THE FEAST OF THE ROSE.
They arise now like the stars before me
Through the long, long night of years ;
Some are bright with heavenly radiance,
And others shine out through our tears.
They arise, too, like mystical flowers,
All different and all the same
As they lie on my heart like a garland
That is wreathed around MARY S name,"
OOD morning and a blessing, comrade." It
was the greeting of fche Jew to the knight
who lay asleep under a palm the day after
the flight. The sleeper slowly rising,
murmured :
" I m half vexed at thee, Ichabod ; thou hast dis
solved a dream filled with sights of home and mother. "
"I ve brought lentils, barley, and grape-clusters
they are better than dreams when the sun is up."
" To those sad when awake, joyful dreams are wel
come."
" There are real joys just before us."
41 Real joys, just before us? Grim sarcasm ; a sorry
jest, Jew ! "
**No; oh.no. r m telling thee the smiling, clear-
H4 The Queen of the House of David.
faced truth. We ll be safe at Jabbock s city by sun
set! "
"Safe? safe? I m unused to that word; almost
afraid of it. What does it mean in this country ? "
" Oh, these cavalrymen ! always on the charge ; now
here, now there. Thy thoughts go by habit, some
times racing forward, sometimes retreating. A while
ago thou wert as full of faith as Gideon, now thou art
as timorous as Canaan s spies."
" My habits have grown fat by feeding on piebald
experiences."
" Experience is a lying prophet, when it counts with
out reckoning God."
" I can not see a step ahead. That s certainty to
me, though thou callest it doubt. I know not how to
hang rainbows upon the ghostly brows of the future
when I ve no power to lay hand on the griostly form
and have no rainbows."
" He that lifted the burdens of the past from off us
holds the changing winds of the future in His fists.
One second of life goes ever with only one second of
care. I learned this of Sir Charleroy long ago. Now
he forgets his own teachings. Shall I call him Reuben,
never excelling because unstable as water? "
" Call me slave: Uncertainty s slave! Thou didst
waken me from a dream of home, to the shock of
remembering again that I was homeless, dead to all
that once made life worth living. The gorgeous hopes
of thy fertile mind are mocked by stern present facts."
"Odd talk from one just dreaming of his mother; a
good woman didst say? then very hopeful ; all good
women are. Then remember how thou didst lift me
The Feast of the Rose. 1 1 5
to the very gates of heaven yesterday. Thou canst not
see a step ahead ? Well, then look back; miles; years.
Was not our God in thy battles in the thickets; in the
mountains; in Jordan ? My poor reasoning tells me
that lie has wrought too much for us to drop us
now. He must get His reward in keeping us to the
end."
"Some of the past makes me shudder, Tchabod."
" Pick out the best, not the worst. We escaped the
very Gehenna at Jericho, following murderers, the
storm, slavery ; now free, fed, rested, the eastern air
washed and sunned to a tonic. I m drinking lotus balm
out of it."
" There it is ; the sun s in thy brain, poet-preacher."
" No, I m only giving thee back some of thine own
sermon^. I draw from my own heart no monster
memories. If I ve fought hard battles it sufficeth
that I have fooght them once. I ll not recall their
bloody sweat and tears for the sake of refighting them.
No, I m going back to the sweet, happy hours of baby
hood ; for I tell thee, knight, there is a world of joy to
a man, scorched by stern experience, to forget himself
sometimes back to the lullabys and warblings of the
days of his innocence."
. " I can t do it,"
" I can t help doing it, especially in this place! My
whole beHg feeds on a present scent of home."
" Thou knowest the country hereabouts ? "
"My soul laughs in friencliy converse with these
irocuscs, pinks, and asphodels, turning the velvet,
grassy plains to palace carpets. I m saying to myself
these blossoms must know me, their bowing heads
1 1 6 The Queen of the House of David.
and offered odors being my reward for nursing theit
mothers when I was a boy."
" Well, flowers are sincere friends ; they never change
and are all charitable. That s why they are deemed fit
presents to those in prison, or proper offering to be laid
on the breast of the dead Magdalene."
" Ah, dead Magdalene ; for even the symbol of a
broken promise; born to be a queen of love, by per
verted love dethroned ! Woman, man s ward, by man
betrayed; the guide star setting in black night; the
savior of human purity befouling all purity ! Given
the power by which Eve was to crush the serpent s
head and using it to Dreed all serpentine ills. This is
Eve turning a volcano upon Eden. Put flowers upon
her once passionate, now dead, heart, in awful contrast !
Nature at her worst is intensified anguish ; at her best
an ocean of joy, an universe of light and song. So I
learn of nature under man. Listen to nature s per
fumed throb now : these thousands of feathered song
sters, millions of lesser creatures, whose melody is
larger than themselves and more perceptible. Hear
tha humming, thrumming, buzzing, trumpetings.
Oh, this is life as the All-Saving tuned it to utter
joy! It widens, deepens, thickens; getting sweeter,
louder, happier all the way. A tempest, set to music,
knight. I m caught in it s whirl and join in its prais
ings. It comes over me as an insight of what nature
really is. God cares for it all and made it thus, to
throb and exult ! " Ichabod paused in transport.
" But I sometimes think there s a great waste of these
things ; there is so much in places where there is no
human ear or eye to hear or see."
The Feast of the Rose. 1 1/
" Reuben is narrow-viewed just now. Man ;s not
rfill; God makes happiness because He i:? so full of
goodness He must. Our rabbis call Him The Foun
tain. There is no waste ! He makes these things for
His own joy, and, methinks, looks down from the circle
of the heavens to say to what is in the desert or wild
erness, Very good. Then, beyond this, I ve sometimes
thought He kept the processions of joy and beauty
moving along ; coming, going, dying, living, ending and
beginning again, as a sort of practice ; by action keep
ing all fresh and new. He causes things of beauty and
power to pass through His divine alchemy from one
glory to another, as the general causes his squadrons
to move through the evolutions of the battle before
the conflict. The Father is awaiting man s hour, man s
return from sinning; the time for millennial advent;
then all delights, as if fresh born, all goods newly har
vested, will appear tc be multiplied, intensified, trans
figured. That will be the beginning of hereafter."
" Oh, Israel, the sun is in thy brain. I forget all
logic of contention, charmed out of words, by feasting
on thy orisons, Go on, Jew."
"Then I ll say twas God, not chance, nor fate, that
brought us to wander alone with nature. Read well
nature s book that lies open in the lap of the Great
Teacher ! Only stand close to Him and He will hold
the torch, turn the pages and give the sure interpreta
tions of the sweetness that feeds quiet, the picturesque-
riess which evokes smiles and the stately grandeurs
f/hich beget faith."
44 Israel, thou climbest the sun-ladder to rhapsody! "
41 Whether soaring, climbing, or creeping, I know
1 1 8 The Queen of the House of David.
not; but this I know, I m tasting in these wanderings
God s kisses. They are in the flowers ; my spirit rests
on His as my body on the balm of the fresh breezes.
Then, animate nature seems so contented and happy!
Why, I ve been ravished by the songsters; as I ve said
to myself, they echo the angelic anthem of heaven,
peace. Had any such doubt as haunts thee, come to
me, since passing Jordan, it would have been sung out
of countenance by the winged warblers or dragged
from my heart captive in floral fetters by Him that
hath two staves, beauty and bands."
" Oh, Ichabod, do not pause. Go on, I pray thee."
" Then thou art glad to hear that nature is not a
beautiful widow mourning her dead bridegroom
through the ages ? "
" I love to listen to thee."
" Listen to a wiser. See those stately heliotropes.
They stand above all of their kind with shining faces ;
great in aspiration, great in devotion. All day they
turn toward the sun and when their blossoms fade they
leave a hardy seed. The winter may bury it, but it
springs forth in vernal days, strong in the life it won
by loving the summer sun."
* Ichabod, I m charmed ! Let s abide here always
amid these joys of nature."
"What, be hermits? "
" Yes ; life s troubles are made by its people ; the
fewer people the fewer troubles."
" While sharing their troubles may we not lessen
them. No man may live to himself ; we re wedded to
each other.
" Yes, wedded to life. A royal phrase ; since I ve
The Pcast of me Rose. 119
been constantly either hating or loving it ; fearing to
live and then fearing to die. Wedded ! ah, ha, ha; the
wedded are those who most madly love and then most
bitterly hate."
"Say sometimes; then thou lt be like the stopped
horologue, telling the true time once in twenty-four
hours, at least."
"Thy poetry runs into caustic quality. What hast
thou been lunching on since morn?"
" At least not on Dead Sea apples, fair without, ashes
within. My poetry, if I have any, always sings in
accord with the company it keeps."
" How many more arrows in thy quiver, hast thou ? "
" Only one, and that a question ; does my master in
tend to foreswear marriage himself? He ridicules it."
" I have already done so."
" Well, tis well thou didst not live in Rome, for its
citizens that dared to live amid the temptations and
soul-crampings of voluntary bachelorhood were highly
taxed for their disregard of the claims of society and
the state."
"Yet even the Romans ever deemed bachelorhood
a blessing. In this opinion royal Claudius decreed that
the sailors who brought to Rome a ship loaded from
the wheat graneries of Egypt in the time of Agabus s
famine, should be as a reward permitted to remain un
married. If I were a Roman and a sailor I d pray for
a famine and a Claudius."
" A world without wives ? What a world ! :
So saying Ichabod caught up a stick and began
marking on the earth.
" How now, Israel; some sorcery?"
I2O The Queen of the House of David.
" No yet, may be, yes. I ll picture a world with
out women."
The Jew outlined the Egyptian deity, " Kneph?
" What have we, man or beast ? "
"Truly, I think partly both. The knight has de
scribed his Elysium and I have here pictured a fit king
for it. Behold thy god, sworn celibate. Egypt s
adored Kneph. Is this hideous enough ?
" A god ! well he s not handsome ; a ram s head ;
four horns ; two up, two down ; armed as both ram and
goat ? "
" Both were sacred to him in Egypt ; also the horned
snake with which Cleopatra put out her life ; poor, un
fortunate man-wrecked beauty."
" But, Jew, thou dost dawdle ! What of this play ? "
" Oh, nothing, only Kneph would do well for a sailor,
at Rome, under Claudius, in famine time ! "
" My poet wanders, but yet stings."
" So ? Kneph was a god that boasted, or rather his
spokesmen did, that he was the fatJicr of his mother.
What economy ! No need to be grateful to or love a
mother ; no need to wear a wife on the heart. The
folly of a dark age by folly darkened in the mad at
tempt to lift up man without his purer better part."
" How strange, Jew, whenever we touch a new
belief, or an old one, new to us, we find peoples fol
lowing an idea or ideal. There has been a crying
through the world ever for a some one for pilgrim
man to follow. How passing strange ; our century
wails the self-same cry ; and somehow it always hap
pens that this matter has something to do with woman.
See; K)icph was the monstrous b : rth of those who
The Feast of tlie Rose. 12 1
thought man superlative, and greatness to be by being
all man. How sharply the devotion to the Madonna
cuts across this! She was mother of the noblest, and
man in the begetting left out. Oh, my head s full of
thoughts, but they tumble along toward my lips with
out system or leader. I talk like a madman, though I
think like a Seraph."
" I think, Sir Charleroy, that a healthy son of Adam
sneering at all women, publicly, reproaches himself as
being one who never knew a true one."
" More javelins ! I d swear, anyhow, that if I d been
Adam, no winged serpent of gaudy colors and honey
tongue could have lured me from Paradise, Eve or no
Eve!"
" If thou hadst been there thou wouldst have been
lonesome with the speechless herds ; finding the new
woman, would have loved her like the boy who mates
just to see how it seems."
"Oh, likely!"
" Then if thy ward or angel attempted to elope
with the devil thou wouldst have gone along, too,
from curiosity, as lad to a hippodrome, just to see the
finish ; or as thousands of men since Adam, tied to
wayward women, have gone down with them to dark-
nees, preferring hell with their idols to heaven with-
L.
out.
" I suppose so. Oh, how strangely are the fates of
men and women interwoven."
"Then thou dost not now elect to live a hermit,
without the companionship of the frail, fair and faithful
sex which are said to double our joys? "
" Yes and multiply our sorrows ! "
122 Tlie Queen of the House of David,
" I suspect thou lt change thy late creed very soon/
" Why so ? "
" I expect ere long that we ll meet some living bios
soms."
" By my token, that s good news, Ichabod."
"So, then, thou art ready to recant?"
Evening came, and the pilgrims supped on the mea
ger meat they were able to procure in the fields.
" Now poet of the Palm Land mellow my dreams by
possessing me of thy meditations. What fixes thy
gaze ? "
"The monarch of the sky; after a day such as this
has been, he seems to me to take his departure with a
peculiar sort of triumphal sweep of his trailing splen
dors."
" Horusexulting over prostrate Set."
" But night, not the green-colored son of Osiris, con
quers now, master.
"Night never conquers. It merely lives by suffer
ance ; often routed by the invincible spears of the sun.
Darkness creeps forth here because the golden charger
in masterful strategy has gone elsewhere to rout other
armies of the dark kingdom. Lay this to thy heart,
good Jew.
" I do, as precious ointment to a blister. Enlarge me.
"There, Jew; see the fleecy clouds over Jordan.
How grand ! "
"Yea, as I ve often seen them ; some like alabaster
thrones, and others like ships on fire, while others are
like silver castles, banded with cornelian and gold, with
here and there hyacinthian shields hung on their bat
tlements, all fresh as the stones in heaven s foundation
The Feast of the Rose. -. 123
walls! How they career and float along the empur
pled oce:in of the west ! I forget myself even
now into their midst. Oh, knight, such pictures,
such visions make my soul shout in peals of holy
laughter."
" My Israel, the sun which woos the earth into making
love to him with flowers never sets in thy brain ; thou
livest in the poet s constant noon."
" But we both are changing. Even the knight gets
mellow. Hardship, the sun and faith are working in
us both for good."
"Getting to be? No; thou wert and art poet,
painter and singer; all in one. If the world does not
hear thee the Seraphim will, by and by."
I ve noticed that souls unbent from some long, twisting
pain, run, aspire and play. It is mercy s rest, reward."
44 God fits some especially to catch passing joys, Icha-
bod."
41 Yea, and it all comes from a serene faii-h that all
is very good as He made it. I m just opening to the
Sun Eternal, at whose right hand are pleasures ever
more. I love thy wakening touch, my guide."
44 Ah, I m a bungling player on the harp of thy soul,
but I love thy melody. Child of nature, speak more
and more to me."
44 I can but ill tell all. I m dumb amid the waves of
peace which enhalo, the hopes that thrill, the views of
cruth that fill my being."
44 I believe thce on my soul, Jew. I d stop now to
remember a little, perhaps to sleep, since so I can follow
dreams that would craze me to contemplate awake ; but
if we now sleep, pray God our day-dreams go on and on
1 24 The Queen of the House of David.
I think we are pilgrims following spiritual tiuths,
They ll lead us on high; let s not miss their direction."
" One may sleep, master, when he can not think ; for
me, now, I d rather court, awake, my mind s guests, for
a time, meanwhile gainsaying the lullabys of cricket
and nightingale now floating out from every bush."
" So be it. How shall we proceed to pass the time ? "
" Can we set up an Ebenezer? God hitherto hath
helped us."
" I have it; we ll to the feast."
"Well, we have what some great kings have not, and
eo shall find joy in a feast. We have appetite ! "
" Thou dost miss my meaning, though thy point is
prime. We seldom think to thank the Giver for the
power to enjoy as well as for the enjoyable. I knew a
French prince, once, who said he d give his birthright
for one good dinner, and he was no Esau, either. He
had dinners and dinners, but what were they along
with premature decay gnawing at his vitals like a rat,
while he himself could eat less than a babe ? "
"I see; the knight would have us thankfully com
memorate to-day s enjoyment of nature."
" Just so ; I think, in loving nature, because we begin
to understand her, we will be on our way to all the nat
ural joy of which she is God s interpreter."
" But our feast ? "
" The stars are out on the blue ; their queen will
soon come up from the sea, then I ll induct thce into
the feast of the Rose. The rose is the queen of
flowers, and flowers the thoughts of God I "
"The feast of the Rose! I ve heard it was a licen-
cious, heathen orgy ! "
The Feast of t he Rose. *. 125
" It was then a shameful misnomer. My Mary found
it j transformed it. Out of it, through reverence of her,
comes a beautiful observance. See here, Jew."
So saying, the knight took from his bosom a string
of precious stones and arranged them, as they glowed
under the moonlight, on the ground heart-shaped.
The knight then questioningly observed the Jew.
The latter shook his head and remarked :
" I ve seen such often among the Arabs. They have
a prayer for each bead to be said the night after the
death of one of their number, believing the shade de
parts not to Hades till the prayers are said. Thou
dos-t not practice their enchantments?"
" Bah ! Never. My gemmed circle has a deeper,
holier significance. Each pendant is to recall to mind
some virtue or event in the saintly Mary s life. Then
there are guilds called, Brothers of the Rosary. I
belong to one such ; each member is sworn to pray for
all the others wherever scattered. The Turks may
have had a praying string, but the Crusaders have
appropriated and applied it to nobler uses."
"Tell me more of it, if there be more."
" There are but fifteen in my brotherhood."
" Only fifteen, no room for me? " said the Jew.
" Fifteen ; to suggest the fifteen great events- in
Mary s life; namely, the Annunciation; Gabriel an
nounc^d to Mary that she was to be the Mother of
Jesus ; the Visitation ; Mary in the Gospel spirit went
quickly to tell her kinswoman of her promised favor ; the
Bir tJi oj Jesus, this was the crowning joy ; then here is the
gem thwt recalls the Presentation of Jesus \nthe. Temple.
Thou koowest, Jew, thy fathers often wondered how ;
126 The Queen of tJie House of David.
after all, a lamb, an animal, could stand between
offended Deity and man. Jesus in the Temple was
the fulfillment or explanation of the mystery ! "
"Yea, truly, I ve seen this. Oh, that all my people
could also see it ! "
" Then, here is the jewel that reminds us of the
Scourging at the pillar of Him by whose stripes we
are healed.
" Israel reads Isaiah with darkened mind > my loving
guide. I ve seen this. Oh, that my people could."
" Here is the jewel that recalls the Crowning with
thorns of Him that hath to give, at His right hand,
pleasures forever more. He wore that thorny coro
net that His redeemed should return with singing,
crowned with everlasting joy."
" I ve felt it ; feel it now. Hallelujah ! "
"This one is to commemorate l Jesus bearing the
Cross; this one His crucifixion} and this His resur
rection.
" The hope of hopes by our Saducees denied ! "
"Then we have here another to remind us of our
Saviour s Ascension, with His pregnant promise of a
royal return to take at last His children home."
" Come, Lord Jesus, even so, quickly ! " cried Ichabod.
" Wait patiently for Him and He will give thee the
desire of thy heart, oh, heir of faithful Abraham ! "
" I weary sometimes, my loved teacher/
" So do we, of our brotherhood ; but here is a thought
of rest ; this bead recalls Pentecost We are led of
the Spirit, which guides to all truth and comforts by
the way."
" But what has all this to do with Mary?
The Feast of the Rose, 127
"Oh, here are t\vo beads; one reminds us of her
^Assumption into heaven, the other of her Crowning "
" \Vas she crowned ? "
- Yea, in heaven, for the Son of Mary promised to
His faithful ones this exaltation; / appoint unto you a
Kingdom as my Father hath appointed unto me, ye which
have continued with me in my temptation. Surely,
she that followed him from the pains of parturition,
as an outcast, to the Cross and the sepulcher, CON
TINUED ! "
" I would I could have been there to enter the race
for such crowning."
" He hath made us kings and priests unto God ;
if we suffer we shall also reign with Him, Jew."
" Hallelujah! would I could shout it to heaven ; no,
I do ; but rather to all Jewry ! " exclaimed the Is
raelite.
" John was only a voice crying in the wilderness, as
he thought, but he was heard at the palace and down
the ages. Even now I voice his words in this lone
place."
"Thou didst not tell me of the meaning of that black
and red pendant," said Ichabod, interrupting.
"Oh, Gcthsemane, Jesus, the intercessor for the
world, who ever lives to intercede. The black sign
is of that."
" Then I ve a Saviour in glory praying for me. Oh,
this is balm and water to me ! Why do I dare to think of
myself as a poor Jew ! God pity ; no, forgive me ! I, re
pining sometimes and yet defended in glory; honored
by royal adoption, elected of God, called to kingship ! "
" How we do go up and down ; sometimes thou, some-
128 The Queen of the House of David
times I. Now I m leading, awhile ago twas thou.
Yea, we are all dependants; but this is healthful med
itation, Ichabod, and thy confession rebukes me as well."
" Is this all of the feast ? "
" Oh , no. Here are some tokens to remind us of
Mary s life ; so brief, so useful. See, here, five gems
that remind us of the wounds of her son ; her wounds
as well, for the sword that pierced Him pierced through
to her soul also. At each of these emblems we Ros
ary Brothers repeat the Lord s Prayer. Last of all,
reverently clasping this crucifix, we sacredly repeat
the Apostle s Creed, the same as I taught thee at
Jericho."
" I remember, as I do the watercourses, when thirsty."
" What think st thou of all this formality? Is it like
the Arabic mummeries ? "
" No, they are mocking devils, are they not ? "
" I am not to judge of their sincerity, nor their needs }
nor art thou."
" Master, I wish I could be a Rosary Brother. Me-
thinks it would help my ambling faith sometimes, if I
could touch a token."
" He above is all tender of baby faiths that can do
no better than amble. Remember the words of thy
own Hosea : I drew them with cords of a man, with
bonds of love, I taught Ephriam to go ; taking them
by the arms ; just as a mother teaches her babe to walk.
is it not ? "
" Even so. Does the Rosary help some to walk?"
" I believe it does."
" Tell me more about it."
" The Crusaders were the first to call Mary The Rose.
The Feast of the Rose. 1 29
To almost all mankind that flower has ever been the
emblem of pure, unselfish love, and when the soldiers
of the Cross grew to understand the character of her
that gave the world its Saviour, they could think of no
title more fitting for that queenly woman."
" I ve an Egyptian rosary, knight. See, I wear it
on this golden chain, next my heart, for its safety
" To ward off witchcraft ?"
" Bah ! Tis a toy in usefulness. I keep it, think
ing it may work incantation with the money-lender,
and so save me sometime from starvation." Then the
Jew laughed aloud at his own wit. It seemed very
ridiculous to him to liken his talisman to the real
rosary or its saint."
"Wouldst thou let me examine it, Jew?"
The latter handed to the knight a chain and image.
" Egyptian? "
" An image of Neb-ta, sister of Isis, the wife of the
Sun God Osiris. It was given me by a Copt priest,
whom I saved from drowning in the Nile."
"A Copt?"
"A Copt. He was a professed Christian ; but, like
some of the ancestral Egyptians, sought to be right by
being a little of every thing. He was very supersti
tious, though he thought himself very broad-minded.
He was quite certain that Coptic Christianity was true,
though not equally certain that his pagan ancestors
were in faith all false. He thought he d be on the safe
side by mixing a little of all creeds with his own, and
so he prayed in Christ s name and also Neb-ta s."
" A pretty fool, Jew/
"Yea. He had a story about the goddes? ; very
1 30 The Queen of the House of David.
pretty when not absurd, running somehow thu , : When
Osiris was cut to pieces by Set, a type (A clay slain by
night, I think, Neb-ta went round the world with her
widowed sister, Isis, to gather up the fragments of her
spouse. Isis is the moon above ; below, reproduction.
She is pictured in Egypt, as all the female deities, \vith
two eggs and a half-circle at the side, to express the
latter idea. Isis has in her hand also this sign a
cross supporting an egg, to typify immortality. The
old Egyptian priest told me this sympathetic Neb-ta,
if I trusted her, would reward me for saving his life, by
defending my case in Hades. There is a good deal of
mysticism in all this, but I rather prize the gift, since
it reminds me that I once saved a man."
" But, Nourahmal ? Since thou knew of Mary thou
hast saved a woman, Jew."
The Jew was silent. The knight continued:
" These philosophic, inseeing, sign-writing, symbol-
making Egyptians were pilgrims, too; a nation of
graal-seekers ; after an idea, example. I see always the
huge Sphinx coming before me when I think of
them."
" The Sphinx ! Well, that s strange. I d never think
of that, unless I happened upon something very big
and very meaningless ! "
" No, no ; the people that rocked the cradle of re
ligions in their infancy, wrought all their theology into
that one mighty symbol, to endure and challenge com
pare with all that man should find beside."
"I do not see how ! "
"The Sphinx faces the East light 1"
" True ! "
The Feast of the Rose. - . 131
" It can not reach that light toward which it looks.
neither could the Nubians."
"All true."
" It was part man, part beast ; but the upper part
was man, and this is what we think we know, and all
of man ? "
"Oh, knight, Phthah, the beautiful-faced, secret-
opener of the Nile gods has touched thee."
" The Sphinx was like man s thought ; too great foi
words ; at least such words as men can now fit to their
lips."
" I see ; it s all coming into my mind, master."
" It sat still and was silent, but the world went on ;
the thought it expressed reached hearts after the men
that formed the image had passed away. The truth
fives ever, and can not die until it completes its pur
pose."
" Thou art a magician, ^vho pleases, astonishes,
excites, instructs, and at the same time plays with
me as if I were a pigmy ! "
"It s not I, but the truth. The Sphinx again! Its
hugeness, truth expressed, appears mighty when placed
by our sides."
" Tell me where I am ! Shall I fling Neb-ta away as
a bauble, or beg its pardon for hanging so much mean
ing to a fool s neck? "
" Vehement ! The sun is in thy head ! "
" But shall I sit and look as a Sphinx, or run mad
because I can t?"
" Be calm, and let me tell thee that the dwellers by
the mighty Nile plagued themselves with lasting dark
ness when they banished the people whose leader s face
132 The Queen of the House of David.
shone from communion with Jehovah. They clung to
some half truths, left them by the progeny of Joseph,
but the half was dimmed by courted lusts."
"But my people had no Neb-ta, no women divinities
to leave in Egypt."
" No, yet Egypt, aiming to exalt the tender, the beau
tiful, the mother, incarnated certain virtues, and lo, a
woman deity ! It was an effort to find the Rose.
The nation was in a vast, serious pilgrimage through all
their dynasties after an idea, a pattern ; an opportunity
to reach and to express the best things. I tell thee,
Jew, the heathen nations sit in darkness; this side
and that, along the track of time, holding here and
there a torch, waiting through the night whose hours
are tolled off at century intervals, for something, Some
One. There have passed before them like phantoms,
gods and gods; man invented, man evolved ; but none
of these tarried, none satisfied. Oh, the Isles wait for
thee, Jesus, Thou Ideal Man, and also for the true con
ception of Mary the ideal woman ! "
" For two Gods? Is Mary divine? "
" Did I say that? Nay, as the child Jesus was sub
ject to her, so she was subject to the Christ, at
last. Christ was the Word, Mary His blessed echo;
Christ the Sun, Mary the Moon that reflected that
light, showing its beauty in woman s life ! "
" But now, what shall I do with my beautiful fright,
Neb-ta, Sir Charleroy ? "
" Put her away, in mind, amid the galaxies of
woman deities; mythical in all but the pitiful sincerity
of the adoration of their devotees and in the greatness
of the truths they vaguely articulated. See, I ll inter-
The Feast of the Rose. 133
pret : Isis going round the world to gather up the
fragments of her dismembered husband. Woman s
ministry; the restoration of man ; wife consecration to
an only love. Then there was not only beautiful wid
owhood, second only to beautiful wifehood, but also
the spinister sister. Hail Egypt ! Thy Sphinx saw
further than our peoples of boasted civilizations. At
our best we never rose so near to a just altitude as to
attempt the deification of the maiden sister, the omni
present angel; who mothers other people s children as
if they were her own. Egypt worshipped mother
hood, perhaps grossly, in adoring the earth s fructifica
tions, but she did not overlook those pious souls who
in a glorious self-abnegation play waiting-maids to the
real queens of earth, the child-bearers. I d never
tire praising the child-bearers, or all who love them,
for they that bring forth a life are greater than the
greatest kingly man-slayer on earth. The world is
upside down ; no religion is wholly false that aids to
right it in any degree. Hail, ciceds of Egypt, or any
other land, that seek to efface from fame s pages the
names of life-destroyers that thereon may chiefly
shine the names of those who give or save life."
"Oh, oscillating Sir Charleroy, thou art just and
courtly now."
"Praise me, then! Mankind would average better
by far than it does if all were right half the time."
" Would I could gather all the threads of to-day s
blessed communings into a golden band to support
over my heart faith s breastplate/ 1
" I can give thee its summary: God, a beauty Crea
tor, out of all things hideous in His good Providence
134
The Queen of the House of David.
will emerge the fine, tender and loving. Neb-ta, Egypt s
ideal, carried the lotus, the flower of unrestrained
pleasure, as her scepter ; Neb-ta-like the influences
that sway most human hearts to-day; but the Rose of
the world has blossomed. Mary, the flower of women.
They that love and serve, as that warm, red-hearted
woman, shall at last reign in eternal bliss within the
ruby walls of the New Jerusalem."
"I m with the knight, to proclaim thy Rose!"
A good profession! It will be well if we remember
that woman is as essential to religion as religion to
women. As for man he needs the one as the inter
preter of the other. Therefore, it was that God sent
to earth a flower that could talk."
CHAPTER X.
AFTER EVE, ESTHER OR MARY?
Still slowly passed the melancholy day,
And still the stranger wist not where to stray:
The world was sad the Garden was a wild ;
And man, the hermit, sighed till woman smiled."
MILTON,
HE Israelites, along Jabbock, were all aglow
with preparation for celebrating one of
their feasts. Sir Charleroy and his com
rade journeying along, in the early morn
ing, were apprised of the advent of the festivities
by the passing near them of a company of maidens,
marching and chanting. The pilgrims drew apart and
sequestered themselves behind a clump of nubt trees
that they might observe, themselves unobserved, the
graceful processsion of singers.
" Well, my poet, didst thou conjure up these fairies,
or have we come on the musk-born houri ? " Sir Charle
roy spoke in an absent-minded manner, perhaps, with
an affectation of a lack of very much interest. In fact,
long privation of the presence of women had somehow
rusted from his bearing, in their vicinage, most of the
confident courtier. In a word, he was now bashful in
their presence. He spoke with a small witticism to sub-
136 The Queen of the House of Davia.
due, his own embarrassment. His words were unheard,
for the Jew was all engaged in contemplating the
passing women.
In truth, the latter made a striking picture ; garbed
as they were, in holiday attire ; all young, oriental in
beauty, and fresh in face, form and action. They were
rural maidens and that says all. It had been a long
time since either Ichabod or Sir Charleroy had met
such types of womanhood ; all free from affectation ;
all natural and graceful in motion ; a band of women,
as sisters, bent to one purpose and that a lofty one,
the proper observance of a joyous, pious, religious cere
monial.
Presently Ichabod drew a long breath and raptur
ously exclaimed : " Praise be to the Patriachs, my
people ! "
"I d rather say, Ichabod, praise the Patriarch s
daughters, if these be human !
" Ha, ha ! flesh, indeed ! Our Hebrew maidens cele
brating the Feast of Esther ! "
" Are they praying God for Adams, so that each
Esther and Vashti may have one all to herself? If so,
we are part answers to their prayers."
" Hush such jest ! These be holy maidens, now hon
oring our Esther. Thou knowest about her?"
" Certainly ; she was my heroine before Our Lady
dethroned in my heart all others. I was wont to wish
I d been about in Hainan s time. I d have aroused
that old dotard, Ahasuerus, right quickly. By the
sackcloth of Mordecai, if I d been the king, the
hanging would have put the Haman family into
mourning long before it did."
After Eve, Esther or Mary. 137
"Oh, how like angels ! It syears since I saw a woman
other than as deflowered by harem life. Heavens,
what a spoiler man is at his worst ! "
" Dost forget Nourahmal ? But no matter ; I admire,
and wonder that some roving band of Arabs, with
less piety, or more force than we, does not swoop down
upon these innocents for seraglio prizes. Perhaps
these have the liveried angels about, that are said ever
to guard saintly purity."
oubtless; and besides them, with all the practical
providence which belongs to the Jew, thou mayst be
sure that the groves, not far away, are full of fathers,
brothers, lovers."
" I wish I were a brother to some of them."
" Then thou dst be a Jew."
" I d forget that in being a lover to the others."
" Thou wouldst not change thy faith for a woman ?"
" Now, I d swear I would not. If like most men,
and in love, I d swear I would ; and then, having gotten
my new priestess, in a little while, backslide and drag
her with me, or make her heart weep. My comfort in
the last estate being my consistency, if not my con
stancy. What a mad rout it is when religion and love,
born twins, cross purposes?"
" That s a very true, yet bitter speech. I ll tell the
Hebrew maidens to beware."
" Better tell me to beware, now. It s the beginning
that makes the trouble. No beginning, then no after
folly."
The procession glided past and the pilgrims fol
lowed at a distance.
" We are within an arm of dear old Jabbock," re-
138 The Queen of the House of David.
marked Ichabod, as they came to a river-bank, later.
" Ah, ha ! my chartless pilot, does the current whis
per its name to thee, in Hebrew? I d not wonder if it
did, since every thing is clannish in this country. I
hope there is no more swimming for us to do."
" Its tumbling waters are full of voices tome, blend
ing with echoes of things of the past ; but one who
spoke a thousand times more tenderly than ever spoke
murmuring waters, told me its name, knight."
" Nourahmal ? No ! rather some one of those pious
beauties we passed not long ago. Oh, roguish Icha
bod, I remember thou wert away a long time in the
morning after our breakfast of peas and grapes. But,
dear Ichabod," continued Sir Charleroy, feigning
rebuke, " didst thou so soon forget thy little convert
of Jericho? I wonder if thou lifted up thy voice
and wept when thou kissed the maid that told thee
the river s name ? Come, confess, and I ll call thee
Isaac."
" Raillery of prime quality, knight ; but raillery and
ridicule, though keenly pointed, are generally bad ar
rows for long range."
" Well, no matter. I m glad thou knowest the place,
if thou dost know it. Who told thee the name of this
water ? "
" One with a voice to me sweeter, kinder than that
of any betrothed lover s ever can be."
" Very, very eloquent thou art. Indeed, if we were
in Italy, I d guess twas a syren had communed with
thee; in France, a Crusader troubadour ; in Rhineland,
the water sprite, Lurline ; but, being in this wondrous
country of revelations, apparitions, prophets, angels
After Eve, Esther or Mary. 1 39
and the like, I can only as a catechumen, ask thy duL
cot informer s name?"
" How oddly thou dost talk when thou talkest as z
double man; half sneering infidel; half Christian
preacher."
" A truce, Ichabod. That may be a home-thrust well
aimed, but it s enough that one of us be bitter. It s
sometimes natural to me, but not to thee."
"A bee-sting will redden the high priest s brow."
; Well, I ll not sting thee. Who gave the name of
the river? "
" Master, one to me alone of all the world an angel,
my mother. I was born near here, and the memories
of a youth made happy by one all patient, all loving,
rises above and survives all changes."
" My noble friend, forgive my repartee. I m glad,
truly, that we are ?.o lucky as to have this knowledge."
"Lucky? Then all is not fate ; there is some chance,
if no Providence? "
" Pardon more ; the bee-sting is still on thy brow.
Ichabod, I can not help my feelings, which sometimes
make me think that only God can tread the hidden,
narrow line between stern fate and happy accident.
They say the Sybil wrote her prophetic decrees upon
leaves and flung them recklessly to the inconstanf
winds. Just so we re in decreed courses, swirled by
chance gusts."
"Yet we two are getting on well together."
" So do chance and fate ; the pity is to the waif that
falls between them."
" I wonder how here, in Holy Land, thou canst think
of any control but Providence."
140 The Queen of the House of David.
6 Wonder? So do I. I m a bundle of wonderings."
" Listen to Jabbock."
" I do, more attentively than Jabbock to me. What
of it?"
" Grander rivers are forgotten ; why is it so remem
bered?"
" We re forgotten, meaner men remembered."
"This river sings through the centuries of history
the song of a fugitive of pale heart, who in sheer
desperation, long, long ago, seized a fleeting hope and
became a prince, having power to prevail with God."
" Ah, Jacob, who worked fourteen years to win a
woman. It was, I m sure, the woman that nerved him
to attempt greatness. Such a woman ! Had she been
like our moderns she would have jilted him, or eloped
with him, before the end of one of the fourteen years."
"I ll not tilt with thy sarcasms. It were much bet
ter to remember that he, a pigmy, the night in his soul,
as that about him, black as Erebus, grappled with the
mighty, unknown, unseen apparition to find he was
holding Deity. The mysteries of crossing fates and
chances are as open nut-bur compared to that of ail
weakness prevailing with Omnipotence, my good mas
ter, I think."
" But ever after that joust, Jacob was a cripple ! "
" Oh, but remember, as he halted on his thigh the
sun rose over Penuel, the place of seeing God/ by inter
pretation. He was stronger for his laming ! "
"A very Timor-lame, this prince of great chances
and mean ways."
" Time and trial repaired Jacob s spotted soul."
There was much room for the mending, I do vow."
After Eve, Esther or Mary. 141
" His weightings bespeak some charity. Think ; a
weak mother, one designing wife, and plenty of wealth ! "
"Well, tis true, these were enough to have undone
St. Anthony, if the devil had only thought to have tried
them all at once upon him ! "
" Sir Charleroy swings back to his old bitterness to
ward women ; did he never love one ? "
" No, not as a lover. I was never tried except by
designing coquetries that nauseated finally."
" Perhaps, like most solitary men, thou so revered
thyself by habit that there was no room for other per
son in thy heart."
" I never met one I deemed perfect and available."
" Better to have loved some one far from perfect
than none. If thy heart-fount had been once touched
it would have set thy imaginations to weaving halos
about the one touching. Thou wouldst have enthroned
her by a love that would have transformed both. She
would have become in time what she was in love s
young dream ; while thou wouldst have grown by the
experience to be twice the man thou hadst been or
art."
"The sun in thy head is settling down into thy
heart, Jew."
" Is that so, Charleroy? "
" Yes, but not to harm ; heart sunsets ripen heart
fruits ; that s the reason the autumn suns run low; the
low suns ripen. But after all, I m not so very miserable
in heart. I ve loved some women ; mother and my
Mary
" Filial love, religious love ! somewhat akin and
blessing him that feels their mellow, exalting influences :
142 The Queen of t lie House of David.
but, oh, Sir Charleroy, they do not fill completely the
heart s temple. There are places there for the expres
sion of ruddy, glorious lover s love. The three make
up an all-comprehending trinity, and fill the man as
Deity the universe. I see religious love in adoration of
God s Fatherhood, mother love in the tender leading
of the Spirit, lover s love in the priceless self-surren
der of our Saviour. That made the angels sing, and in
the being of each of our race there is room, aye need,
of the melody which only the experiencing of this pas
sion in full can produce. In love-mating is a won
drous thrill which can be but faintly voiced even by
those who have experienced it.
" There are other passions which ebb with time, or,
being well fed, wax gross; not so with this one. In
spired by the potencies of life, which lie at the very
core of being, it wells up in rills, rivers and torrents of
pleasurable sensations. Out from the heart it goes to
the remotest members, only to double on its courses
and dash again through the beating heart, heat
ing its flame by its doubling and hasting, making the
beatings wilder by its Hastings, and then hasting more
because of the wilder beatings. Of all emotions love
is the most tireless. It increases by giving, grows
stronger by action and proclaims the secret of its heav
enly birth, its immortality, by the way in which it
deepens and ripens with every movement of its life.
Aye, more, it proclaims itself the power of the resur
rection by the way it transforms the lives it possesses.
A man may be a lout, ever so crude in fiber, but this
musical flame passing through his being, burns up his
dross, making him all brave, courteous, tender, poetic,
After Eve, Esther or Mary 143
religious! Yea, religious ! If it do not utterly redeem
a sinner possessed by it, it will take him nearer to sal
vation than any other power known on earth, except
the Spirit of Grace. It is as the opening of the eyes
of the blind man, for it opens the doors of a new sense
to the realizing of a world as new as delightful. As
the thrummings on the harp-strings someway leave
a lasting sonorousness and tenderness in the sup
porting woods about the lyre, so leaves this passion,
through the beatings of every wave of it, wealth. Its
devotee by it is inducted into exhaustless new realms
and possessions, unalterably secured to him, and at
the same time beyond all computation. He ever gath
ers treasures, as a prince from incoming fleets, and is
made affluent beyond all counting. He surpasses all
in wealth-getting, and yet is infinitely apart from the
littleness of avarice. It \-> to him the advent of char
ity s full-orbed day. It may be fancy in him, but it s to
him very real ; the world about, as if having learned his
secret, seems to be dressing for the wedding feast,
while all things appear to becoming very confidentially
to him to whisper the divine mandate, marry and mul
tiply. He is trusted, yet trusts; leads, yet follows. He
is proud to display, a little, his conquest, but does so
with a sort of alert charming selfishness, which gives
notice to tl;e world that he alone is to wear the chosen
one upon his heart. He realizes the paradox of giving
all and receiving all ; the mystery of two lives merged
into one by an utter surrender, each to each, which
leaves both infinitely richer than the sum of all their
ownings could make either if possessed by the one
apart from the other. Oh, how almost imperiously each
144 The Queen of tJic House of David.
demands that the other shall surrender all and then
how great the joy each feels in leading the chosen mate
to surprises at the munificence and completeness of the
giving up of all by the one who just now demanded all
I do not know the woman s heart, but can readily be
lieve it far surpasses the man s in its consecration, en
joyment and aspiring. I know the man s, but my
words are ragged in description. I know that this
grand passion makes him wondrously weak and wond-
rously strong. Sometimes these inner feelings come
nigh overwhelming him; sometimes they fall upon his
life like the musical ebb-waves on resonant shores. I
can not word it all, nor is it strange, since I am speaking
of a life of heavenly flights, and best expressed by
voiceless signs, embraces. In love s hour the man real
izes, as never before, his lordliness and his pride and
ambition are fed by a growing conviction that all
the world is small beside himself and his ; proud as a
conqueror of untold wealth, he yields to the tender
ties that unrelentingly bind him and crucifies his native
roughness that he may be more like, more worthy her
he rules and obeys. He is made finer ; she stronger.
Has she virtues, he appropriates them ; at the same time,
by the homage implied by his appropriation, makes
them to shine more brightly on the brow and heart
of his queen. He touches the fires on the altar she has
erected within herself to love alone, and the altar-fires
blaze until her whole being is illuminated as a temple on
fete days. She puts on his best parts, and then he rev.
els in delight as he beholds his virtues refined and so
beautifully framed. There arc times when, like a mighty
anthem, his passion passes over and through him. Then
After Eve, Esther or Mary. 145
is he nigh to madness, being in the mood to slay him
self, or another doing aught to check the rapture of thd
mighty swellings of the music that pours over every
nerve from head to heart, to limb. Then it is he em<
braces and kisses and embraces again ; as an inspired
artist of music, exhausting himself to prolong this joy,
almost materialized. Indeed, I saw one who said this
is tangible music. I feel it ; taste it ; see it! It seems
to thicken the air until I rise unvvinged, and yet in a
flight that seems to me as free and brilliant as that of
the golden oriole s. If the enchanted enchanter be
pure and true, she leads her captive king, made tended
and yet more manly by his captivity, surely upward from
tumultous passion s sway to the ambrosial table-lands ol
higher affection where both may reign tenderly, bravely,
hopefully, forever. I tell thee, knight, the finest speo
tacle on earth is a man in his prime, creation s lord at
his best, sincerely, completely in love with a queenly
woman. Next after getting God into a man s heart,
the greatest blessing is the getting of a woman of genu-
ine parts therein."
" Oh, child of the sunny palm land, thou hast imbibed
wondrous eloquence. But thou sayest truly. Now, for
the women that are so to queen us men. No woman
that I ever knew of could so intoxicate, transform and
translate me."
" One like Eve, the gift of God ? "
" The first woman, like the first man, was pure with
out virtue, until tried ; then she fell. I think of her
chiefly as being a splendid animal, yet, as Adam was
not left for man s example, neither was she. I still think
Eve passed by in history to be cnly what she was full
146 The Queen of the House of David.
proof that love which rises no higher than to give all
to and for that which was like the fruit of the tempting
tree, good for food and pleasant to the eyes, is not like
the love that at last hung on the tree of Calvary. Oh,
child of Abraham, I hear the -voice of God walking in
the garden in the cool of the day saying to a world of
flitting, false ideals, and those yearning for pilots and
patterns, Where art thou ? I don t know, for one,
exactly where I am, but I m going forward and upward
someway."
" Sir Charleroy thou dost dazzle me by thy corre
spondences and insights, if I do thee by my pictures.
We are quits."
" But we ll not quit. This pilgrim idleness has value.
I never knew what I believed until, thus flung out of
life s hurly burly, I had little company but my thoughts.
There was method of reason in God s taking His proph
ets to lone places, to fit them for understanding the
rapturing visions with which He filled them."
" Tis so, true; but what thinks the knight of Esther,
the beautiful Queen ? She s the idol and ideal in
Israel in all times and places."
" Wondrous woman ! A girl, petted, ill-trained, from
poverty suddenly exalted, surrounded by the skilled
intriguants of court, a jealous, exacting, conceited,
harem-demoralized old king for a spouse, she was then
burdened with the salvation of a nation. I ve so pitied
her that I ve forgotten to admire how well she did in
her trying lot."
"Can the world ever have a finer figure or present
ment of all that is womanly? I do not challenge thy
Mary, but may I not put the two side by side?"
After Eve, Esther or Mary. 147
"Israel has two great women in their way. The
one, Esther, exemplifying all sweetness and the mild
strength of a suddenly developed woman, doing grandly
in one emergency when great peril and great love
aroused her from only being an entrancing, petted
beauty, to be the heroine of an hour. But she was not
tried by the searching test of a lifetime. She never
meets the needs of mothers seeking an ideal. Rizpah,
your other grand woman, was the mother, even the
mother of sorrows, of the Old Testament. It takes
these two to make an ideal, and yet the pattern is
incomplete. God walks yet in the garden where men
live, with only these two before them, and ever and
anon they hear the unanswerable, Where art tJiou ?
" Why, my mentor, master, thou hast touched our
Scriptures with the rod that budded; the whole opens
to me as if for the first time. Methinks, if I were per
mitted to lay hands now upon one of our sacred volumes,
I d be fairly overcome by the light that would break
out on me from within it."
" The entrance of the word giveth light, Ichabod."
" I m moved, master, along lines I can not turn from,
to the one woman of all, Mary. She is thy ideal
queen of hearts? "
" I m a pilgrim and follow her, seeing none better."
" Then thou wouldst be willing to wed such as Mary ? "
"Hold! This is sacrilegious! I ll not think of
Mary in any such comparison. Leave my patron saint
upon her high pedestal. I save her for my soul s health,
as every man should save some noble woman, for an
inner enshrining, to be all that woman may be at her
best, his beloved, his inspirer, and yet touching no
1 48 The Queen of the House of David.
spring of his life save such as responds to things of
moral grandeur."
" Ah, master, I ve not yet been enamored fully of
this woman. I feel a stranger to her, but I feel the
meaning of the finer things thou hast just spoken. I
have the need of which thou dost speak, and my life,
like a babe, often now goes out crying, Mother,
mother. As we lay, yesterday night, beneath the
quiet firmament, I gazed up and asked a sign of God
in prayer. It was a baby cry I know, but I saw one
star that staid and staid above me. It seemed to be
warmed with reddish tintings, and I thought that its
glitterings were proof that it was taking part in some
anthem of the morning stars. Then I dreamed that
my mother was in the star all luminous, holy, happy,
looking down in constant guardianship of her outcast
boy! Oh, can a child ever be outcast utterly to
mother ? Can it be that she, who so loved me and so
loved God, can hate me now, loving her and loving God
as I do ? God knows my heart ! Will he not tell her
all ? Her constant mandate to me was, keep a loyal
heart, an undefiled conscience. I ve tried to do both,
but then her soul loathed apostacy. Does she loathe
me for leaving Israel s fold ? My heart all torn, cries
to-day, Mother, mother ! I m sure she can not hate
me. To-morro\v I hope I shall pray at her grave."
Then the vehement Israelite fell on the ground in
an ecstasy, utterly unconscious of his companion, and,
kissing the earth as if already he was by that parent s
resting place, wildly called, "Mother! my mamma!
oh, I m so lonely, so unhappy! Let me come ! God,
God, let me go to mother! Mother, I did it as thou
After Eve, Esther or Mary. 149
jaidst. I m no leper. I m not a heretic ! I love thee.
I love God. I ve kept pure. I ve trusted God s care
in all my trouble. Mamma, my mamma, let Ichabod
embrace thee! " Exhausted and quivering he there lay.
The knight was silent. It was holy ground, and the
whole thicket about seemed to be glowing with the fire
that burns without consuming.
The travelers were encamped again under the sky,
and it was now night. A shooting star sped through
the constellation of Orion and fell down toward the
Dead Sea.
" An omen, Jew."
" Explain, brother knight."
" Life ; bright, short, ending in gloom."
" Look at the fixed stars."
" They preach fate."
" Perhaps, but they have the majority. Few fall ; I
think, too, Someone holds them."
"Thy hopefulness colors thy faith."
" Thy inurmurings run toward fina 1 madness, knight ;
the Rabbis, good men, so taught me."
"If one star falls may not all? If Providence hold
them, why does one escape ? "
" Thou hast heard that the giant Orion having lost his
eyes, afterward regained his sight by turning his
sockets toward the rising sun ; that meteor we saw shot
through the constellation Orion. Look up."
" A happy simile and pungent thrust, Jew."
" He that sent the lightnings to show us our way
out of dread Jericho, most likely now commissioned
some angel to swing a meteor across the sky as a
torch or beacon for our guidance. The trail of flame
150 The Queen of the House of David.
teaches me that God is writing His royal signature on
some great message."
" This world is too vast and too thronged with in-
significants, such as we, for such especial carings on
God s part. There are too many kings, too many
shepherds, too many follies for Him to constantly
watch any one or two."
"Backward, forward ; now good, now bad. What a
charging, changing knight ! Pray God to get thee
right and then fix thee."
Their converse was interrupted by a prolonged
trumpet blast, echoing from hill to hill. Sir Charle-
roy sprang to his feet and clasping his sword hilt, cried
eagerly, " We re ambuscaded ! "
" No, by the glory of God, twas the temple call !
How grand it sounds away in this wilderness ! "
" No, no, Jew, I ve heard that call ; this one had six
responses."
" Twas echo s magic ! Didst thou not notice how
the sound spread as it traveled in a sort of sheet
of melody ? Then it rose and fell from low hill
to high. One blast ; seven responses. Nature pro
claiming against fate and chance ; the covenant num
ber."
" I m not so confident that it s a miracle ; what if it
were some Mamelukes or Druses, planning one of
their pious immolations of heretics with us for the
victims?"
" Nay, brother, It s Purim \ that feast is now due,
and always begins at early starlight. I know it.
Come, I ll put it to the proof."
" Hold ; poets are more rash than knights in a
After Eve, Esther or Mary. -. 151
charge, but not so skillful in retreat ! Whither wouldst
thou ?"
"I ll spy out the trumpeters and report."
" Not alone. I ll go, too. This camp will care for
itself if they beyond be friends ; if enemies, why then,
without consulting us. they will care for all we have.
But this," said the knight, toying with his sword,
" was blessed by a priest to preach to infidels
CHAPTER XI.
THE FEAST OF PURIM.
TEALTHILY Ichabod, followed by Sit
Charleroy, approached the place from
which the trumpet call had sounded. The
foliage was dense, the necessary way some
what winding, and these circumstances, together with
the fact that it was expedient to move with great
caution, made the progress of the explorers very slow.
The last ray of day had faded, sung away by the even
ing bird and insect chorusers, whose concert strains,
like the vanishing notes of aeolian harps swept by
dying breezes, were now blending, without a line to
mark the place of transition, into the lull of the night.
Nature s lullaby to tired, drowsy life. It was a witch
ing hour in the woods, and the scene that lay just
beyond the pilgrims in an opening by Jabbock was an
enchantment. The river, reflecting the moon rays and
the lights of torches borne by many intermingling
feasters, flowed silently along like a stream of mingled
silver and fire, while tree and shrub along its sides, as
green as green could be, bore as fruits lights of many
colors. In the opening, surrounded by beacons, ban
ners and the lamp-bearing trees, the beauty as well as
the center of all was a magnificent patriarchal tent,
made of costly materials. About the pavilion were
mounds of earth, elevated upon high tripods, seven
The Feast of Pur im. 153
in all, in symbols of the seven temple candle-sticks.
On each mound there blazed a fire fed by resinous fag
gots, and the lights of the fires falling upon the folds
of the tent, caught up here and there by bands of blue
and gold, made the whole glisten like jeweled silk.
" Hallelujah," with suppressed joy, exclaimed Icha-
bod, " the tabernacle of God with men ! "
" Hush, rash man, and watch !" rebukingly replied
Sir Charleroy.
"Watch? Why, my soul is in my eyes. I m as
cne famished for years smelling a feast! "
As they looked on the beautiful scene, they per
ceived that the front of the pavilion was lifted up and
stretched forward as a canopy over an altar, richly
decorated with twined olive branches and blood-red
blossoms. A little way off, and yet partly encircling
the altar, were little walnut trees, each tree having on
its branches glistening lamps, half hidden by wreaths of
hollyhocks and asters.
The moon sank behind the hills the night dark
ened, but the fires and lamps burned still more
brightly.
11 It s like fairy-land, Jew," after little, spake Sir
Charleroy.
" More beautiful, knight. Wait and see."
There was a burst of music, instantly followed by
the entrance of youths and old men ; some singing,
others vigorously playing ugabs, reed-flutes, and tam
bourines. Somewhere near, though unseen by the
watchers, were happy women ; they recognized their
voices in refrains, choruses, and merry peals of laughter.
"Well, this is not warlike, but what is it, Jew?"
queried Sir Charleroy.
154 The Queen of the House of Dai id.
"Wait a little."
There came a commanding trumpet blast. Its tones
died away in the melody- \vaves of a score of viols y
managed by unperceived musicians. Then silence ;
presently the huge blue curtain that hung across the
tent, just back of the outstretching front canopy, parted,
and there emerged an aged man of stately form, wear
ing an Aaronic mitre and priestly robes; rich as well as
ample. He paused before the altar a moment, as if in
prayer, and then suddenly the air far and wide
quivered with a sound like a cyclone hail. There were
also cornet blasts mingling therewith.
" Heavens, Jew, explain ! "
" Selah ! These the drums and waking clappers ; the
signal to be given. Now for Purim in earnest."
The groves about seemed to be alive and moving,
for from every direction toward the center gathered
men and boys, bearing palm branches and torches ;
these, as they advanced, moved with speeded pace ,
presently they were in a perfect maze, the music of
every kind growing louder and louder, then seeming to
die away.
"They re carrying the edicts of Ahasuerus to the
Jews to defend themselves, master."
" A fine play, Jew ! "
Now the blue curtain parted again, and from thc-
pavilion emerged another stately form, in all except that
he lacked priestly robing, the very counterpart of the
aged man first at the altar.
" Glory to Shaddah ! again I see the holy brothers,
Harrimai," cried Ichabod.
The second patriarch motioned silence ; all in the
assembly bent their heads in breathless attention and
The Feast of Purim. 1 5 5
the patriarch spoke : " Brethren of Israel, hearken and
give God all the gloiy who this hour permits us, His
chosen people, to celebrate in peace, with joy, our
glad Furim feast. This day, Jehovah granted me the
most wholesome comfort of hearing from a pashaw of
our scourge that the last of the armies of the Moslem,
beaten by want and internal discord, were melting out
of our land like fog banks before the rising sun. He
certified to me for a handful of barley (for which he
had come to stand in need) that those hated cross-
bearing invaders, the knights, were gone, never to re
turn. So God has worked in our behalf as in the days
of Esther, setting our enemies to destroying one another
and then compassing the slinging out of His holy
places, the abominable remnants. So may His thun
ders, as of old, forever beat on the heads of all who lift
themselves against our Israel ! "
There was a murmur of applause ; first like the buzz
of the noonday insects of the groves, then like a ca
reering hurricane. The applause swelled up, drowning
all sounds, causing the fires to flicker and flame, mak
ing the pavilion s sides sway and wave as if all were
feeling the joy present. The musical instruments
quickly now caught up the strain of the cheery voices,
and all was in a perfect whirl of excitement with one
thought, praise. It was free and fluent, because it
came from hearts practiced in the ultimate swings
from joy to sorrow and then from sorrow to joy. For
half an hour nearly, the rhapsody continued, nor did it
temperate until sheer exhaustion fell on the revelers.
Presently, after an interval of comparative quiet,
there came a flourish of cornets and a roar of the rat
tling clappers. It was a signal followed by the uplift-
156 The Queen of the House of David.
ing of the old priest s hands as if in benediction. All
heads were bowed ; some of the congregation knelt,
and then he spoke in sonorous, yet soothing voice,
words of benediction : " Blessed art thou, Oh Lord
our God, King of the Universe, who hath wrought all
miracles for our fathers and also for us, at this time."
Then the people stood up, and the second patriarch,
advancing to the front of the altar, began reading from
the holy Kcthubim of the Jews, the story of the Purim.
At each mention of Esther s name the congregation
murmured " how beautiful is goodness; " at each men
tion of Raman s name all in the congregation stamped
their feet, also making gurgling noises with their
throats, to imitate the false prince s strangling ; the
whole being made more hideous by the shriek of dis
cordant cornet notes and the springing of rattles.
The foregoing scene suddenly changed ; a procession
of maidens, in graceful evolutions, emerging from the
surrounding groves, presenting a living picture, really
entrancing. They were all richly robed in garments
of graceful flow, caught round their waists by flowered
girdles. Some wore sashes of jassamine, while others
were crowned with lillies or asters or violets. Their
arms and ankles were clad only with circlets from
which pendant bells gave forth music at every motion.
Seven of the foremost maidens bore lamps ; behind
each of these followed one with a harp ; behind
each harper two with tambourines and cymbals.
Seven times this maiden train, with a step in time,
half march, half dance, waltzed around the canopied
altar. Then were given seven cornet blasts, the pro
cession leaders waving their lamps with each blast,
after which there was perfect silence. Now the old
The Feast of Purim. 157
priest moved forward a little toward the procession ;
the congregation meanwhile gathering in a semi-circle,
just outside of all, and he addressed the assembly:
" Brethren and children, I would speak to you a little
of the Virtuous Woman. Daughters of Israel, hearts
of homes to be, hopes of the nation looking for a De
liverer and deliverers yet to be born ; hear me ! Israel
knows no queen of all womanly perfections like unto
Esther, the beautiful. Evermore take her for your
meditation by day and your dreams by night. Then
shall you all realize to yourselves, your fathers, broth
ers, husbands, all that the holy Proverbs of our Kcthu-
bim declares of the true woman. Then the priest tak
ing the parchment, solemnly and in mellow tones, read
the last chapter of the book, the birth-day chapter, a
verse prophetic for every day of the longest month, as
the Jews believe."
When the reader ceased, the encampment was dim,
many of the lights having been quenched. Then the
congregation joined in chanting a soft-aired Jewish
hymn.
" The devotions are ended ; now for the sports;" so
spoke Ichabod ; the first words spoken between him and
the knight during their observation of the last part of
the proceedings before the pavilion. He had scarcely
made the announcement when the second patriarch ap
peared, dressed in somber black, leading by the hand
a maiden of wondrous beauty, wearing also black, in
heavy trails ; on her head a golden crown. As they
appeared the applause as at first burst forth, but now
blended with distinguishable cries of " Hail Esther! "
Hail Mordecai ! "
" It s the play, knight. Watch that pair."
158 The Queen of the House of David.
"No fear, Jew, such a wondrous beauty ! Had I
been Hainan and she Esther, I never could have
crossed her. Heavens, Jew, it is well said the people
of promise produce the most beautiful women of earth.
That s why Deity elected one of them, through whom
to be incarnate, I think."
" I think I heard the knight say, awhile ago, that the
revolution of all religions was to come when men s ad
miration for women rose far above rapture over out
ward form. Is it not so?"
"Ah, it s thy remembering and my forgetting that
keeps us crossing each other ! But no matter ; am I
looking at an angel or not ? "
"That s the priest s only daughter; his idol, ay,
the idol of every youth in all these parts of Israel.
No nation can be dead while it produces such flowers."
Suddenly the camp blazed with re-illumination, and
then began a carnival. Games and dancers were
everywhere. Some, evidently men, were dressed as
women, and others, evidently women, were garbed as
men. For one season, Purim, the command against
the interchange of garments between the sexes, was
suspended. Each reveler carried a little box. If he
asked a favor or a question, the reply was a challenge
to try lots. Partners were so chosen, tasks given and
predictions made. Laughter was everywhere, and
wine was flowing.
" Ichabod, I haven t tasted wine since Acre! Why
dost thou not introduce me yonder?"
"Wait; they will all be mellow, soon. They may
be, too, for it s a law that a Jew is not deemed drunk
at Purim so long as he can discern between a bless*
ing for Mordacai and a curse for Haman.
The Feast of Purim, 159
:< Heavens ! how they do imbibe."
" It s natural for doves to twitter after a thunder
storm. They remember the past troubles."
"Ay; but I fear they will consume all the bever
age before we are with them. We have had plenty of
trouble ; now take me in to twitter with those doves."
Ichabod started, as if to lead the way, and then drew
back and moaned, " no, no ; it cannot be. I m forever
anathema here, to them ! I could bear their hate, not
their contempt. They may call me renegade, but
never spaniel nor hypocrite ! If I appeared among them
they would soon know, if they do not already, that
Ichabod is changed. Then they d sneer and tell me
that I tried to play double, or thinking my people s
faith not good enough for me, I yet hungered for their
feasts. No, no ; it must not be ! To-morrow, I hope
to pray at my mother s grave. I d choke then if I had
to remember I d done aught that she, living, would have
thought mean."
"Now, I ll not persuade thee, Jew, but go alone."
"That s reckless! thou mayst regret it. They may
become riotous, being half drunk, and beat thee as a
Hainan. No, stay away."
" No dissuasion, Jew, but just change garments. It s
the fashion to-night." The Jew complied, remarking
as he did :
"Will the knight wear this leather thong?"
" Heavens ! no, nor the brand on thy neck."
" Christian knights commanded me to wear one, and
burned into my flesh the other years ago ; they deemed
it necessary to mark all Jews for hatred."
" Dear Ichabod, I never counseled branding any
man ! "
160 Tlie Queen of the House of David.
" I believe it. I have forgotten all bitterness about
these marks and have borne them as my cross.
But, Sir Charleroy, don t wear thy cross in their
sight ! "
" For once, I ll cover it." So saying he hid the
emblem.
The comrades parted, and Sir Charleroy quickly
found himself by the maiden who personated Esther,
lie approached unnoticed until he pleasantly said:
" Queen of Shushan, a man out there behind a clump
of Sharon roses, played me a game of lots. I lost the
game, and he has put it on me to come to the Queen
to fix the forfeit I shall pay." The maiden turned her
head haughtily and examined the speaker from head to
foot with repelling gaze. It was her way of freezing
off the amorous swains who constantly aimed to pay
her court. But when her eyes met those of the self-
possessed stranger, she gave a little start. Perhaps
she caught sight, by some omen, of her fate ; perhaps
she felt the magnetism of the strong will which for the
first time presented itself. In any event, it was the first
time she had ever been alone, face to face, with such
as he ; a stalwart man, all reverential, yet all self-
possessed. They were well matched, and they both
felt it, intuitively, instantly.
"Who art thou ?"
"A child of God."
"Of Israel?"
" By faith, most holy of Abraham s seed," responded
Sir Charleroy.
" Thy speech bewrayeth thee as lacking out shib
boleth."
" I ve been a life long wanderer. Thou wouldst not re-
The Feast of Purim. 161
ject one whom involuntary exile had robbed of
tokens *"
" But I can not be free with an uncertified stranger.
I m afraid I err in tarrying here till now."
" Hospitality is the boast of pious Hebrews who
3bey Him that loveth the stranger in giving him food
and raiment. Thou hast the Great Father s law :
Love ye therefore the stranger, for ye were strangers
in the land of Egypt. Some have by hospitality una
wares entertained angels, thou knowst."
" I d like to entertain an angel ; are they ever so
human-like as thou ? " she smiled.
" Had I known the Esther of to-night long enough
to convince her that my freedom was sincere, I d say
that she was a fine example of the union of the angelic
in the human."
The maiden laughed. The insense was agreeable,
and the freedom of this feast-time justified her accept
ance of this novel, bold flattery. Your proud, daring
woman is very vulnerable to such assaults. The world
often wonders why such women so often, after all, sur
render ; but that s because the world does not appre
ciate the dexterity in such jousts of such skilled men
of the world as Sir Charleroy ; or how grateful to
self-admiring beauties the admiration of superior intel
lects is.
"Well, will thou give me thy name?"
"Certainly. For to-night, Ahasuerus?"
" A presumptious jest, sir."
"No, for I admire and respect Esther, that s here.
"And then?"
" I plead for help ; gain me admittance to the festivi
ties, and escape from inquiry further, as to my identity.
1 52 The giteen of the House of David.
"And afterward, be called by my people brazen
;)y thee, a little fool ! "
" Art thou driven from right, the claim of hospitality,
by fear of a lie ? "
" What if thou wert a Bedouin spy, or a hated cros*
follower? "
"Thou art a noble hearted maiden."
" Ah, who told thee so ? "
" Thy face."
" What is that to thee, if true?" she blushed a little.
" Could st thou drive from thy bosom a fleeing kid f
there seeking refuge from pursuing lions?"
" I do not know till tried. Thou art at any rate no
kid . there is no lion. If thou desirest refuge, see the
path of departure is the one by which thou cam st
hither."
"Well, then, farewell."
The knight made as if he would go, but he knew he
would not. The motion gave him excuse for looking
sad, and he knew that next to a handsome face a sad
one most easily conquers a woman.
"Tarry a moment till I think. Can I trust thee?"
she was hesitating.
" I ve trusted thee, and that s ever the best proof of
fidelity." Women like to think they are especially
trusted.
" Well but, see, my father comes ; there s no
time for argument ; let me speak ! "
As the aged priest drew near, Esther saluted him,
and said, " Father, let me take this Galileean stranger
to the youths and their games? He claims our hospi
tality."
The priest, wont to be on the alert, was disarmed by
The Feast of Pur im. 163
Mie magic word hospitality; then, too, for a long time
before, having been wifeless, he had been wont to put
his daughter forward, according large confidence to
her; hence his reply:
" If thou knowest him, Rizpah."
"I do."
" Welcome, brother, what is thy name?" said Harri-
mai.
Rizpah, his daughter, quickly made reply, " Ahasue-
rus, and I ve laughed at the coincidence until he has
been ashamed to repeat it."
" Tis strange, surely, and not like a Jewish one. I
must examine the family rolls to-morrow. Peace be
unto thee, son," and the old man turned toward his
pavilion. Esther plucked a lily from her crown and
handed it to Sir Charleroy saying: "Here, king, a
token."
"Of what?"
" Shushan ; in our tongue, the name of the flower
signifies surrender. "
" They say, Esther, that Judith wore a crown of lil
ies when she assassinated Holophernes. Is there any
danger to me impending? "
" Thou hast a lily. It is said to ward off enchant
ments, too."
" I am enchanted. I do not want to awaken. In
Egypt they call this the lotus, flower of unrestrained
pleasure."
" For now then, we ll call it lotus."
"All gods, even Osiris, bless thee, Esther."
So the twain were charmed comrades, till watch fires
were dim and the palm shadows were creeping in, like
mneral attendants, to carry away the spirit of the
164 The Queen of the House of David.
dying revel. Here and there was heard anon the voices
commending this one and that to pleasant slumbers.
The stars were withdrawing behind dawn s feathery
curtains, and over all, at intervals, was heard the voice
of the chanticleer, triumphantly proclaiming the com-
ing day.
Charleroy and Rizpah were left alone with each
other at the end of the last game.
The maiden gave a coy, furtive glance and tardily
drew away from the knight. The language of the
drawing-room of the day, is as old as the centuries, and
that maid of the wilderness used it as finely as a queen,
to say without words, " it s time we part ; please say so
first, nor leave to me, the hostess, the first suggestion
of a wish to have thee go
Still the knight spake not.
He was delighted and averse to breaking the first
pleasure spell of years.
The Jewish maiden, with fine courtesy, renewed the
subject: " King, methinks, thou art anxious to exchange
the grove for the palace."
" I can never think of weariness when restful Esther
is nigh."
" But thy life is precious to thy subjects ; care for it,
and go with freshness to to-morrow s cares of state.
" Ah, queen, I too keenly realize that with thy de
parture my kingdom fades to nothingness."
"A truce, my liege."
" Granted, and any thing else, to the half of my king
dom."
Rizpah startled the birds in the shrubbery to prema
ture morning song, with a merry laugh. It was a fin
ishing charge, that laufjh. by which she carried her
The Feast of Purim. 165
point, for the knight quickly questioned "Why
this?"
" I was only thinking how odd thou wouldst appear if
thou didst wear away my pepelum. Thy subjects would
think their king mad, if he met them veiled as a
woman."
" Pardon, queen, I ve been so absorbed, I forgot my
self So saying, he gracefully transferred from his
shoulder to hers the shawl she had permitted him for
the night to wear. As the maiden adjusted it,
something fell out of its folds, glittering to her feet.
" Findings keepings ; " she laughed, and stooped to
pick up the object. As she arose she turned it slowly
toward the setting moon the better to inspect the
find.
The knight was alarmed, but it was too late to pre
vent her examinination now of his Teutonic cross and
chain.
At a glance, Rizpah saw it was an emblem, of all
others, hated by her people, and with a low, startled cry
she made a motion as if to huri it from her, but she
checked herself with a powerful effort ; suddenly turning
her black, piercing eyes upon her companion she took
a step back. She stood there the embodiment of an
imperative question.
The knight quietly said : " Be calm, dear maid."
Over her countenance passed a cloud which to the
man all too plainly said : " How darst thou use such
terms to me ?" and then the face hardened again to im
perative interrogation.
"Thou trustedst me four hours ago, under the lotus,
try now my sincerity by any sterner test.
Turning her eyes full on his, with a voice without a
1 66 The Queen of the House of David.
quaver, but in deep, measured tones indicative of sup
pressed emotion, she questioned as she held out to
ward him his emblem, "What s this?"
" Concealment from thee, having trusted me as thou
hast, would be futile not only, but hateful ; thou knowst
the meaning of the sign."
"Who art thou then?"
"A Christian knight!"
" An enemy of my people everywhere ; a spy here ! "
she exclaimed.
" No, never a spy ! a true Christian knight never was
such ! Our warfare is open and equal. I m degraded
by the defense from such an odious charge ! "
" Why debate thy methods ; tis enough for me to
know thou art a foe to me and mine."
" No enemy of thine, but rather the friend of all hu
manity, woman."
" Bloody friends I ve heard ! "
No! Each one of my order is sworn, by awful
vow, to protect the traveler, the poor, the weak and
woman with our last drop of blood ! If we two were
all alone here and one of our lives must be forfeited to
save the other s, mine would joy to go first."
44 Words are cheap, and thou can st use them finely,
knight."
"Thou knowst, maiden, to what that cross alludes."
" The Nazarene Imposter ! "
44 His followers revere Him ? "
" Like madmen, they follow their phantom ! "
41 Didst ever hear of one wearing that sign, being
untrue to it?"
" No, it s their dread black-art."
: Wouldsc thou trust me if I swore by it ? "
The Feast of Purim. 167
- * I might ; but I d fear that devils would flock out of
the airy deep to witness thy vowing. Spare me that
horror ! "
" Maiden, thou lt craze me by thy distrust and wild
words. In God s name tell me what to do ! "
" Swear, but wave back the evil spirits, if thou art
wont to have them."
"That sign is their lasting terror; but the silent
palms and the stars alone shall witness, ay, the God
of all, as well. Here, make thou the words as thou
wilt. Now, I kiss the cross I love, and am ready. He
suited the action to the words. The maid-en drew
near to him, looking down into his eyes searchingly
and seemed assured by their serene frankness."
"Go on, Rizpah, I ll bind my soul with any words
coined, and, remember that I believe that perjury would
consign me to misery untold here ; eternal woe here
after ! "
" I ll trust thy solemn asseverations; they say that 3
superstition on the right side will make even a Philis-
tine bearable. Repeat, * I swear never to harm any
of Rizpah s kin or clan, except in self-defense."
He complied.
"Again," I swear to depart peacefully at once, and
no more seek companionship with the people this
night met."
He complied, but murmured " cruelty."
" And how ? " she questioned.
"Wilt add a little?"
"Add what ?"
"Add this except by permission of the one ordain,
ing my vow.
" It is so fixed."
1 68 The Queen oj the House of David.
"I then swear it all."
" Well, now go," and she pointed to the hills.
" I obey, but yet plead delay."
She hesitated and fell from being master to being
mastered.
" Why, what benefits delay ? "
" Oh, woman, I yearn as only a lonely heart can, to
enjoy a little while the fellowship and hospitality of
thy people ! For years homeless ; for months friendless,
I ve come to feel worthless. This is the first bright
hour in my life for many a day. Perhaps, maiden of
Israel, thou mightst make life worth living to me."
It was a charge on her sympathy, and he knew it
would succeed.
" A Crusader, one of the armies of God, boasting a
divine call to conquer and convert the world, so talk-
ing?"
" Our armed crusades are ended forever; my occu
pation s gone."
She had hesitated, now she pitied the man, and
woman-like, again surrendered while she protested.
" I do not think there could come great harm from
thy staying until sunrise repast."
" Bless thee, the nine sun gods bless thee, Esther."
" Heathen ! "
" Well ; an Egyptian-Christian-Jew taught me to say
this when too cheerful to be solemn, and pious enough
not to be frivolous."
"An Egyptian-Hebrew-Christian! He must have
been an Arab. That name means the mixed. But
go to the men s tents ; to-morrow I ll have more wis
dom. Peace and grace to thee; good night, Christian-
Heathen-Hebrew-Arabic-Egyptian ! * She laughingly
The Feast of Purim. 169
spoke and the unbending made the knight, bold. He
addressed her :
" I d sleep in perfect peace, if Rizpah would give
me a token."
" 1 ? what ? " and the maiden drew back, offended.
Her innocency remembered no token then, but such
solicited by her maiden friends, or given at times to
her father, a kiss.
"Place thy hand in mine, Rizpah." She quickly
complied, glad she was mistaken, as to her suspicion
and blushing within, as she thought how strangely,
easily, her mind had had the thought, " Well, now what,
knight ? "
" Promise me that while I m permitted to tarry among
thy people, I shall have thy heart s friendship ; as
freely, as loyally bestowed as if I were thy brother."
"Canst trust me, a woman, a girl, almost a stran-
ger?"
" I trust thy woman s heart as Joshua s men of old
trusted Rahab, a wreck, but still a woman. Thou art
infinitely more noble than she."
" But men think us weak, fitful, garrulous."
" Responsibility makes the weakest of thy sex hero
ines and pity is the gateway to their hearts. Thou
hast my life and my happiness as thy responsibility ;
dost pity me ?"
" Yes : go now. A Gentile hater of my people shall
see of what metals Jewish maidens are. *
CHAPTER XII.
ASTARTE OR MARY?
B Who could resist ; who in the universe f
She did breathe ambrosia ; so immerse
My existence in a golden clime,
She took me like a child of sucking time,
And cradled me in roses. Thus condemned
The current of my former life was stemmed :
I bowed a tranced vassal."
KEATS.
HE Teutonic Knight of Saint Mary, through
all his changing fortunes from the time of
his knighthood s vow, preserved his moral
integrity, his loyalty to the lofty pattern
of life set forth by the Queenly exemplar, Mary, the
mother of Jesus. Crusader days had so far improved
his life as to make him the outspoken denouncer of all
impurity of life. He thought his creed and his commit
tal thereto complete. A change came over him. He that,
in the storm of battle, had often cried as his law and his
delight " Den s Vult" "God wills," now feared to seek
to know, much less to do, that will. The intoxications
of a new love were upon him ; unconsciously he was
suffering his queen to be veiled, eclipsed ; and he yielded
to the tide that swept him toward the Jewish maiden.
Sometimes his conscience smote him, but he parleyed
with it, called it a fool, or placated it by the assurance
that this whole matter could be stopped any time at
Astarte or Mary ? 171
will. Like many another man, forgetting all else ex
cept that he was a refined animal, he passed away from
the beacons of Bethlehem to the chambers of Im
agery, the gods of Egypt. In chains of roses, though
with many fine Christian sentiments on his lips, he
went heart first, head first, into an utter committal of
all his being to the possession of his enchanter. He
expected to regard the laws of the land and society,
but nothing more. He was led by his tempting
spirit to Ramoth Gilead, now sometimes called
Gerara or Gerash. There it was that Rizpah s family
took up its abode. With them, and of them, was Sir
Charleroy, a welcome guest, his welcome secured by
his own personal efforts to please, in part ; but more
through \\\Q finesse of Rizpah, who having promised to
be a sister, was permitting her mind to wonder what
he might become if only her friend were a Hebrew.
Such day dreams were sinless, but impolitic if she
really meant to keep herself free and painless, when the
parting time came. But it so happens that the ques
tions and problems of the heart are thrust ever on life
when most responsive, least experienced. The won
der is not that so many decide them ill, but that
youth so pressed, so ardent, so callow, as a whole
decide so fairly well the master social problem. The
life of Harrimai and his following was very Jewish at
Gerash. There was an unusual amount of national
pride evinced in that locality for the times. Sir Char
leroy was interested deeply in the place because of its
splendid ruins, he said, but as need not be explained,
chiefly on account of its natural beauties amid which
Rizpah was peerless. The Israelitish colony revered
the place for its ancient part in Jewish history, and be-
1 72 The Queen of the House of David.
cause they believed no Moslem invader had ever defiled
the place. The knight and the Jewish father and
daughter were in frequent companionship. They were
becoming very intimate, meanwhile gaining power each
to make the other eventually very miserable.
Rizpah was pushing out in a new experience to her.
If she were enamored she did not fully know it. She
only knew that the knight s companionship was very
delightful. If she had any misgivings as to the pro
priety of her course she silenced them by saying to
herself : " Sir Charleroy has sworn to leave us forever
when I say he shall. I can end this matter any time.
She thought she could, but the shield of her safety was
already too heavy for her. She could not have said
go, had she tried. Time deepened the perplexity by
multiplying the enmeshings of the trio. The knight
and Rizpah were much in each other s society. They
spoke of this as being a happy circumstance, as youths
usually-do. " We shall understand each other so well
too well to misunderstand." Some of the Jewish
young men were jealous and made some very natural
remarks, under the circumstances, though the remarks
were rather bitter with jealousy. The older people,
some of them, anxious for an alliance by marriage with
the rich and powerful Harrimai family, took up the
undertone complaints of the young people of their race.
Of course, the murmurings were cloaked with declara
tions that they were all for the sake of righteousness !
Harrimai, in heart far from assured, was yet compelled
to defend the two secretly loving, in order to defend his
daughter s fair fame. The two young people wore the
armor of teacher and pupil ; the young woman con
stantly bepraising the knight s wondrous knowledge
Astarte or Mary ? 173
of the antiquities, etc., of all the out-of-the-way places
they visited. So the meshes multiplied, though
the caviling was in part silenced. As teacher and
pupil they went on, and Harrimai knew, as did Sir
Charleroy, that the relationship had its peril, as it ex
isted between a man and woman who could love yet
ought not to love. Rizpah did not at first know how
easily a woman s heart surrenders to a man to whom
she is accustomed to look upward. In fact she drifted
in a delight in all pertaining to the knight ; her only
outlook and watchfulness being toward her father.
The way the latter at times keenly, silently observed
her and the knight made her uneasy. She knew in
tuitively that not far away there was impending on her
father s part an investigation. She determined to delay,
if not prevent it. One day she bounded into her
father s presence, aglow with enthusiasm over the won
ders unfolded to her by Sir Charleroy during a visit to
the ruins of Gerash s temple of the sun. The old man
was charmed by her description, and when she declared
her intention to pursue her investigations beyond their
city he hesitated to forbid.
"And now, father, I m going to that old city of the
Giants, Bozrah."
The father, with an effort at firmness, dissuadingly
replied :
"We may all go there, but not now. It is better
to bide here quietly, until we learn that the perils
of receding war have left assured peace."
"Why, father, I m not afraid ! "
" I know it ; so much the more need for me to be;
these over-daring daughters need over-careful guard
ians. Some of us aged oper are suffered to tarry long
1^4 The Queen of the House of David.
from paradise, in order that we may see our darlings
in the right path thither."
" Give me my swift white dromedary and two at
tendants and I ll defy the miserables who ambuscade
along the way."
Just then, there dashed toward them, over the olean
der-fringed road which passed due north along the
little river and across the city, a rider on panting
steed.
" It s the news runner! " said the patriarch.
" Shall we signal him? " she questioned.
" No, daughter, we will meet him yonder, where the
two great streets cross. He will await me."
When the father and daughter arrived, a crowd had
already gathered about the horseman. Some pressed
him for news, but he looked straight ahead at his
horse, now slaking its thirst, and merely snapped out ;
" News? My beast is thirsty!
When Harrimai drew near the rider saluted him and
at once unfolded his budget : " Father, I m this day
from Bozrah. Its ruins are not ruined. All around
there, and from there to here, the herds sleep in the
shade, and the carrion birds that have so. long been
hovering around us for human food have fled back
to Egypt and Europe and Hadesl "
" Praised be the Father of Israel ! I shall live then,
as I prayed I might, to see the infidels slung out of
our holy places ! " So spoke the priest, and as he affec
tionately embraced some aged Israelites who gathered
about him, the horseman responded :
" God reigns and Israel has peace." He put spurs to
his horse then, and dashed away across the river to
spread to other hamlets the glorious news.
A starte or Ma ry? 175
Next morning Rizpah, having carried her point, was
ready to depart for Bozrah. She had taken silence
on her father s part for consent, and pursued her prepa
rations as if it were so ordered. All things being ready
she silenced protest by a good-by kiss.
" But daughter ! What escort ? "
" Ah," she thought, " victory ! I can go if well at
tended." She continued aloud ; " Perhaps Sir Charle-
roy s Egyptian might attend me, since our servants art-
busy in the groves." The maiden called to her Icha-
bod, who had found a home in Harrimai s establish
ment, his identity hidden under the assumed name
Huykos, a name from the Nile land, meaning " Shep
herd King." "I ll take it," said Ichabod, one day to
Sir Charleroy, " that all unknown I may follow my
pilgrim comrade and perhaps honor my new found
Shepherd King.
"One will be a meager escort daughter," interposed
Harrimai.
" Oh, fear for me nothing, father. I ll quickly be at
Bozrah, where there are Israelites not a few who will be
proud to aid thy daughter."
" No, daughter it must not be. I ll call the young
men from the vineyard, if thou must go."
" Another victory," her heart whispered ; then
quickly turning to Sir Charleroy she exclaimed, "My
father must not call the workmen from their tasks;
what sayst thou ? Wilt serve us both by joining my
body-guard, Ahasuerus ? Come, to please my father ? "
The knight had hoped for and expected the sum
mons, so needed no urgency and was instantly preparing
for the start.
Harrimai was not pleased by the arrangement, and
176 The Queen of the House of David.
yet he was forced to thank the knight for consenting.
His native courtliness compelled this much, and Riz-
pah s genius had precluded all gainsaying on his part.
And so they rode away, Rizpah in a delight, which she
could not clearly define ; Sir Charleroy blinded already
by the cry that at last led to giant Samson s blinding,
nameiy : " Get her for me." Ichabod masked under
his name, Huykos, followed after, knowing that the
knight was captive to the maid and feeling very happy
over the circumstance. As he rode, his mind ran for
ward to the wedding, and he laughed again and again
at the witty things he imagined himself saying at that
wedding. Suddenly the scene changed from one of
careless delight to one filled with the frights of impend
ing peril. At a turn in the road, from behind a wall,
there rose up a company of Mamelukes. Rizpah saw
them the instant her companion did and exclaimed,
as she half turned her camel :
"Let s race back toGerash!"
But four dusky sentinels were behind them. They
were surrounded.
" Tis fight or flight, the latter futile," whispered the
knight. They paused, and Ichabod joined them. Sir
Charleroy drawing his sword again spoke : " Comrade
it s a desperate chance; a dozen to two ; but we have
taken such before together ! "
" Let the knight say a dozen to three," exclaimed
Rizpah, as she drew from the folds of her garments a
saber before unseen and touched the edge expert-like
with her thumb.
" Oh, brave, pure girl ! I don t fear death ; I d court
it for thce, but" Sir Charleroy paused and looked un
utterable misery ; then instantly recovering and em-
Astarte or Mary f 177
boldened by the danger that threatened to soon end
all, he exclaimed :
" Rizpah, thou rememberest my knight-vow at
Purim ; thou shalt see how I ll keep it ; if I perish, re
member I have loved thee as I never loved any other
being." The words were very vehement, but probably
very true. Rizpah blushed, brushed a tear from her
eyes and then, in the frankness that such an hour en
genders, replied: "And I thee " the rest was drowned
in the wild shout of the Turks as they close about the
three. But they had not counted upon such a recep
tion as those two men and that one woman gave them.
Ichabod fought like a roused mastiff, without a thought
of fear for himself. He struck vehemently, but a
calm settled smile was on his countenance. Sir Char-
leroy saw it and years after said, recalling the incident,
" amidst the greatest perils there s a wondrous peace
to one who feels he is striking for God, close to the por
tals of death and judgment." The knight himself
fenced with the rapidity of lightning. Again and again
by ones and twos and threes, the enemies charged down
upon him, but he fought with the prowess of a crusader,
the fire of a lover. Those parts had never before wit
nessed such splendid swordsmanship. As the attack
had been sudden, so was its ending. Two Turks fell
beneath Sir Charleroy s weapon in quick succession,
and a third fell under his own horse, which was desper
ately wounded by a sweeping blow from the knight.
At the same instant, almost, Ichabod and one of the foe-
men, whom he was engaging, fell in significant silence,
while another struggled to drag Rizpah to his steed
that he might make her captive. Sir Charleroy,
wounded and faint, dealt the latter miscreant a stag.
178 The Queen of the House of David.
gering blow and the maiden, plucking a small dagger
from the folds of her garment, finished with a single
thrust her captor s earthly career.
Those of the marauders that were able, in fright took
flight, wheeling away more quickly than they had
come.
" Rizpah, wilt thou go to Ich Huykos? I can t,"
softly called out Sir Charleroy.
The maiden flew to the Jew s side, but quickly started
back, crying: " Oh, knight, come quickly ! He s dead!"
Just then, looking back, a sudden horror fell upon her,
for she saw Sir Charleroy half reclining against a rock,
bleeding and pale. Like lightning she thought : " Both
dead ; I alone ; home miles away ; the Turks hovering
near."
But the thought of her own peril was only momen
tary, and after it there came more rapidly than can be
written the thought that one dear as her life was dead,
dead for her sake. Instantly, on feet that seemed
winged, she was at Sir Charleroy s side. All her being
merged into one great, instant impulse to save her
lover. Over him she bent, and with passionate sorrow
tried with her garments to staunch the flow of blood.
In the sincereity and frankness that the presence of
death ever brings, she arose above all prudishness and
impulsively kissed the cold lips of the knight. His
eyes opened, and he faintly murmured :
" I m so happy, dear Rizpah. I know now it is well."
A little later he murmured : " Flee now for home.
Thou lt reach it by sun down. Leave me. To tarry is
to court a harem prison."
" Hush," impatiently responded she ; " see this dag
ger?" and she held it close to his half-closed eyes.
Astarte or Mary f i?p
" My pious father gave it me when I was but a girl,
lie told me it might sorrie time save me from dis
honor. It did so to-day, once. If those black demons
return, sure as my name is Rizpah, it will do so again,
even though I turn it toward my own heart."
" Better flee, my love."
" Not till thou can st go, too."
" 1 may die."
" Then, I ll go into the shadow land with thee."
The knight was silent. The pain of his wounds was
forgotten in the joy of that lone companionship. But,
after all, his mind, perturbed by the shock, the pain,
the dangers, was unable to rest. He tried to say to
himself the prayer of the dying crusader, but the words
were confused. He could not remember many of them ;
those he remembered, seemed to be unwilling to go
heavenward for mercy. Some way in the clearness of
judgment as to simple right and wrong that comes to
a mind on the confines of death, he found himself con
demned. He was haunted by a vision that came to his
mind first the day he decided against conviction, at all
hazard, to follow the family of Rizpah and Harri-
mai to Gerash. The vision was that of the false
prophet Zedekiah, making himself horns of iron, and
with them appearing before the wicked King of Israel,
Ahab, to proclaim, not the things of God, but the
things the prophet knew would meet the desires of
his royal masfr*". The wounded often fall asleep ;
it s nature s way of recovering from a shock and of
chaining pain in forgetfulness. Sir Charleroy knew
not whether he was sleeping or not ; but the vision
passed in painful vividness over his mind. He heard
the prophet s voice saying : " Go up to Ramoth
1 80 The Queen of the House of David.
Gilead, and prosper." Then he saw a true prophet
of God standing nigh, with sorrowful countenance,
and the face was that of the Madonna. The latter
moaned in his ear, warningly ; " Who shall persuade,
that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead? Then
there came forth a spirit and said, I will persuade "
The spirit was black-garbed, in a blood-spotted gan
ment, and wore, as Sir Charleroy seemed to see the
apparition, a scarlet crescent, and the knight thought
of Astarte. He heard in his vision the beatings as
of mighty wings, rising to flight, and tried to turn
and see who the departing one was. It seemed as
if the spirit of Astarte-like countenance transfixed
him with a gaze, so he could not turn ; but a lone
liness and darkness, almost palpable, came over him, and
he knew it was the Madonna-faced prophet that had
departed. The knight started up as if to rise, but,
awakening, found Rizpah s restraining arms about him.
"Stay," she soothingly said. "Thou art feverish,
and too weak to rise. Thou lt be better presently;
the blood has ceased flowing."
"Oh," he groaned; "I had such a dream!"
Just then Rizpah beheld coming in the distance,
from toward Gerash, a horseman, at rapid pace. Her
first thought, "The enemy returns." Her second
brought her hand swiftly to her reeking dagger, as
she soliloquized: "He s only one, and I m one; if
but a woman."
The rider drew nearer, and she was almost over
come with the revulsion from fear and despair ; for
the comer was Laconic, the " news runner." He
knew the maiden, and wheeling his steed to her side
with his usual brevity, cried out:
Astarte or Mary? 181
Why, didst thou kill both?"
" Shame on thee ; twas the Arabs ! "
" I thought so. I met two horsemen and two rider
less steeds, galloping away down the road. I knew
they d been at some devilment."
" Good runner, in the the name of God, speed thee
to Bozrah, or somewhere, for help, and bring it quickly."
" Bring? not so ; send. / come not till my set day !"
" Any thing ; but hurry ! "
" Hurry! Yes, hurry ! I love hurry."
He was away like an arrow, in his course. His steed
leaped over one of the dead miscreants and Laconic
shouted back : " Carrion dinners ! Thank God ! "
CHAPTER XIII.
FROM RAMOTH GILEAD TO DAMASCUS
Daughters of Eve ! your mother did not well:
* * * * * * *
The man was not deceived, nor yet could stand :
He chose to lose for love of her, his throne,
With her could die, but could not live alone."
Daughters of Eve ! it was for your dear sake
The world s first hero died an uncrowned king :
But God s great pity touched the great mistake
And made his married love a sacred thing ;
For yet his nobler sons, if aught be true,
Find the lost Eden in their love of you."
JEAN INGELOW.
OR many days Sir Charleroy lay wounded at
the house of the Patriarch Harrimai, and
she for whom he had periled his life was
his constant attendant. He sorely needed
her services, and all Gerash, the priest included, con
ceded the fitness of Rizpah s rendering the aid she was
able to render. The maiden was all willing to minister,
and as she ministered her interest m the man deep
ened. When she began to look up to him as her teacher
before the battle with Mamelukes, she began a sort of
worship ; when she saw him fighting to the death in her
behalf, her worship became an engrossing adoration.
If there had been any thing more required in order to
From RamotJi Gilcad to Damascus. 1 83
enlist all the affection of which her being was capable,
these opportunities of administering to her suffering
lover furnished it. As God loves because He has
helped a needy one, so a woman s heart easily flows out
toward the object for whom she has performed pious
services. On the other hand, Sir Charleroy was more
and more enchanted, for there is life and charm beyond
all description to the touch of the queen of a man s
heart when he is in trouble or pain.
Rizpah, in woman s most queenly garb, the one ap
pointed her at her creation, that of " help-mate," was
beautiful indeed, and queenly indeed, to the man whose
heart had enthroned her. When alone, they treated
each other with the frank, earnest tenderness, fitting as
well as natural, to the betrothed. Though they did
not admit it even to themselves, they had fully deter
mined to be one, at all peril, in spite of any opposition,
reason approving or disapproving. They often said to
one another, " Our betrothal taking place at the very
gates of death was therefore a very solemn one that
nothing on earth can annul." The sentiment was per
fect and very agreeable; and with the.rn a beautiful
and agreeable sentiment became as controlling as if it
were a revelation from heaven. In this, they were
perfectly human. They even persuaded themselves of
God s favor, thanking Him for what they were pleased
to call His Providence, namely the peril and long sick
ness leading to the betrothal and days of love-life to
gether. They were right in conceding that God s hand
was in the battle ; but they were impious in interpret
ing His Providence to be fully in accord with their
desires. In this, too, they were very human. But there
were shadows about them ; for while at times they
1 84 The Queen of the House of David.
drifted along on prismatic tides of Lethean delights,
there were other times when they remembered that
there was to come a day of explanation, with probable
following storms. Both were glad and sorry at once, in
view of each day s improvement of the knight s physi
cal condition. Convalescent, they both realized, meant
a great change in their relationship ; perhaps a long
separation. Their anxiety was deepened by a change in
the demeanor of Rizpah s father. His eyes no longer
questioningly followed the young people ; but his words,
uttered in tones of steelly coldness and very deliber
ately, bespoke discovery, conviction, conclusion and
determination. One sentence often addressed to the
lovers, was to them like the rumblings of an approach
ing, gathering storm. " Our friend is improving, and
I m very glad that he will be able soon to go to his
own dear people." The lovers discerned a peculiar
emphasis on the words " I m glad " and " his own dear
people." The politic priest, having read, as from an
open book, the heart-secret of the young people, was
awaiting with self-confidence an opportunity to con
found them utterly. The crisis came one Sabbath
morning, just after the morning meal of the convales
cent. Harrimai had paid his usual visit and uttered his
steelly sentences. This time the words seemed espe
cially cruel to Rizpah, for she was nervous, indeed ill;
the prolonged services and anxieties she had experi
enced of late were telling on her strength. As Harri
mai departed, she gave way to a flood of tears. Riz
pah was not wont to weep, nor was Sir Charleroy
skilled in comforting; but both he and she were lovers,
hence it seemed very natural to her frankly to pillow
her head on the knight s shoulder, and very natural to
From Ramoth G Head to Damascus. 185
him to seek to comfort with a tenderness all new to
him. Had one asked Rizpah if she were going back to
babyishness, or forward toward heaven, she could
not have answered. Had one asked the knight if he
were becoming motherly, or turning priest, he could not
have answered. He felt very tender, and his work of
comforting seemed like an an act of high piety. Both
were glad of the tears which brought the joy of com
forting and being comforted, then, there and that way.
They were passing into a superb mood when quite un
expectedly to them, but quite expectedly to himself,
Harrimai suddenly re-entered the apartment. He
expected to surprise them and he did so, thoroughly.
The scene following was exciting, dramatic and
decisive.
Rizpah, with a slight scream, disengaged herself
from Sir Charleroy s embrace, and hid her face in her
hands. The eyes of the knight and priest met ; neither
quailed ; both remained for a few moments silent ; but
their fixed gaze said plainly enough, each to each, " We
must have a settlement here and now ! " Harrimai
spoke first, addressing himself to his daughter : " Young
woman, this conduct is immodest and disgraceful! In
a Hebrew maiden, heaven defying ! I ll speak to thee
further of this presently. Now, begone, and leave me
to deal with this man ! " Harrimai made arrogant by
his profession and the implicit obedience he had been
wont to receive from his followers, expected to fill the
young people with dismay by the suddenness of his
assault. But Rizpah, though young, was no tongue-tied
spring, and Sir Charleroy of Gerash was still Sir Charle-
roy of Acre.
The words " dishonorable," "immodest," stung the
T/ie Queen of the I Tense of David.
maiden ; sullenly, defiantly almost, she settled bad-,
in her seat and leaned toward the knight, as if to say,
" I cast my lot with this man." Her eyes plainly, an
grily said to the man whom all her life hitherto she
had reverently obeyed, Now do thy worst." It was
impious, passionate, love going headlong from filial
duty and religious instruction to the shrine of Astarte.
The parent was chagrined at this unexpected repulse,
but with his usual adroitness pretending not to notice
it, he turned to the knight. " Stranger, this outrage ex
cuses abruptness on my part ; who art thou ? "
Sir Charleroy arose from his hammock, the excite
ment and shock of the rencounter finishing his recov-
1 cry, by rousing all the machineries of his system into
normal activities.
" Sir Priest, I ve nothing to conceal. I love the truth
and this maiden too well to lie I am a Christian
knight."
" I knew it ; but thy confession shortens our parley.
Now, Christian knight, tell me why thou didst attempt
to allure to thyself the affections of a mere girl ; a
Jewish maiden whom thou canst never hope to wed?
Dost thou so pay our hospitality; setting at defiance
parental authority and our Jewish laws? Dost thou
under the favors of this house intrigue to quench all
its light ? "
" Thou brandst that girl and me with the epithet dis
honorable ; and thou a priest! Men of thy holy call
ing should never slander, especially not their own
kin and strangers." The knight was livid, but not with
fear.
"Can an Israelite slander Crusaders? these profes
sors of high religion, these followers of an impostor,
From RamotJi Gilcaa to Damascus. -. 187
these enemies of my people, these practicers of
intrigues, races, jousts, gluttonies and drunkenness ;
men whose sole serious business is murderous war?
Tell me? "
The knight s face flushed a little, but with complete
self-control he replied :
" Some of my comrades have been unworthy men }
"tis true; but some Jews have fallen to every crime
and violence. Have all fallen? Thou hast not, per
haps ! Shall all be maligned for the few ? What says
Harrimai ? "
" Thou art of those, who come to thrust us out of
our land and thrust in here a hated creed !"
<l I am of those who live to serve the needy and erring."
"To the proof; I ve heard from thy clans only of
bloodshed."
" Our order sprung up four hundred years ago, under
the stirring appeals of religionists as pious and hu
mane as thou ; or any of thy kind since Aaron. We
were begotten in a time when grim famine made the
well-fed wondrous kind. Those hours that make men
universally akin."
" Go on ; Christian knight, I d like a lesson of
that sort."
Then remember Noah s covenant of peace. On
our banners often we have our spirit expressed by a
dove flying toward a tempest-tossed ark ; in the mes
senger s beak an olive branch ; around the whole the
bow of promise."
" Well what of all this
" The ark is the world ; the rest is plain."
" Oh, a charming theory," sarcastically responded
Harrimai.
1 88 The Queen of the House of David.
" I wear it next my heart;" so saying the knight
threw aside his cloak and drew from around his body a
banner he had hitherto concealed. "See here, cJias-
tity, temperance, courtesy. Our mottos in peace or
war ! Women, children and pilgrims, in a word the
needy the world around, are the wards of all true
Christian knights ! "
" Mottoes! words! Oh, yes, words ! But then the
Crusaders have used swords ! Their words I ll meet
with words to their confounding, nor while I live will I
forget their cruel weapons." So saying the priest swept
out of the sick chamber in manifest rage.
He returned in a moment, and with the self-com
mand of wrath, conscious of power, said : " Thou
wouldst make all men akin / Thou and thine are
dreamers, the world thinks ; to-day it laughs to scorn
this bootless pursuit of a chimera. Leave us forth
with and in the peace that thou foundst here. When
the kinship is reality, thou mayst come to us for fur
ther talk ; till then remember thou art a Christian, I
a Jew ! "
"Thou art religious! Heavens! what " tender
shepherd."
Harrimai was very much angered, but he retorted
with self-control ; " Oh, yes, and the God of all hath
seven garments. In creation, honor and glory ; in
providence, majesty ; as lawgiver, might and whiteness ;
of spotless light when he appears as a Saviour. He is
clad with zeal when he punishes, and with blood red
when He revenges. I would be like Him. By the
glory of God ! thou follower of Nazereth s Impostor,
sooner than suffer thy blood to contaminate my family
iines, I d hew thee to pieces as Agag was hewn ! Riz-
From Ramoth Gilcad to Damascus. - 1 89
pah, thou knowest me ; \ved him and thou lt be wid
owed, though carrying the unborn ; though widow-hood
broke thy heart. I d rather a thousand times see thee
lying dead by thy true Jewish mother than ."
The priest, in a tumult of fanatical passion mingled
with the grief of offended pride, lacked for words to
express the climax of his feelings; so covering his
tearless eyes, as one weeping, he rushed out from
those he had assailed. He persuaded himself that he
had spoken all for the glory of God ; the lovers thought
of their solemn betrothal and their love which they
were certain was as fine as any earth ever knew, and
they felt that they were martyrs. Both sides appealed
to God and in a spirit very ungodly, but very human,
braced themselves for opposing war.
When the maiden became somewhat calm, Sir
Charleroy found words to question :
" Harrimai cannot find heart to blast his idol s hap-
ness ! H e does not mean all he said ? "
" Alas, he does. It s part of the Patriarch s religion
to hate such as thou, as he does. He means more, if
possible, than he spoke. Our people unveil the bosom
and cover the mouth ; thine cover the bosom and unveil
the mouth. Ye talk, we burn."
" Has pure love like ours no sanctity in his sight ?
"Alas, he can not believe any love pure that is be
tween Gentile and Israelite. He was sneering at ours
a few evenings ago, when he remarked as we were
looking at the stars, Hyperius or Venus of the even
ing is mistakenly called the star of love. Lucifer of the
morning is the true emblem of most young love. It
rises in maddening brightness, but fades out of sight
190 The Queen of the House of David.
Grim omen! We took Venus for our betrothal
star; they say it is so bright at times that it casts a
shadow. I feel its shadow now," said the knight, med
itating.
"Yes, shadows and shadows!" exclaimed Rizpah.
with a flood of tears, and she swayed back and forth
as she wept. She was driven by tempests of fear that
made her ready to flee, and held by anchors of passion
ate loving that made her ready to brave all fears;
therefore the swaying and weeping. At intervals the
two communed and debated concerning the one all-
engrossing theme, their future course.
"Rizpah," comfortingly spoke the knight, " when
in the greatest peril of our lives, we were drawn, by
danger, closer to each other." There was a glance of
entreaty in her eyes as if to say, " Go save thy life and
let the Jewish maiden die alone ;" but the knight drew
her to his bosom, and she responded by an embrace of
passionate clinging.
" I go from Rizpah only at her command or death s,"
said the knight solemnly.
The maiden shuddered, and again passionately clung
to her lover. He interpreted her action, and again
comfortingly spoke:
" Fear not ; earth has somewhere a refuge for us
until death call us ! "
" Somewhere ? What, go away ?"
" Yes. It is that or separation."
She knew that full well. But to flee from home with
the knight, the alternative presented to her mind,
startled her. At first thought it seemed a reckless-
perilous, unfilial, God-defying act ; then it seemed at
tractive because so daring. A tumult of arguments.
From RamotJi Gilead to Damascus.. 191
questionings, fears and yearnings mingled in her mind.
She had never learned to arrange arguments, pro and
con, judicially. What woman whose feelings were
aroused ever did that ?
He pressed on her flight, enforcing each reason pre
sented with an affectionate embrace ; her tongue spoke
not, but her embraces replied to each of his. She had
a conscience, and it asserted itself until she placated it
by a half formed resolution to be very prudent and do
nothing rashly. The resolution comforted her at first ;
then she began to follow it, mentally, to its sequence.
She thought of her father praising her piety as her
purpose was disclosed. Something within, coming like
a voice from her heart, mockingly whispered " Go on."
She pursued the meditations, and heard, in imagina
tion, her neighbors praising her as a martyr of love for
faith s sake. Again the mocking inner voice said, "Go
on." Again her thoughts moved forward until she saw
that conscience was driving her to separation from
Sir Charleroy ; in a word, making her walk in a funeral
procession, her own dead heart on the bier. The
thought made her shudder and recoil; then the
knight s arms encircled her more closely than before.
Again and again she took the foregoing mental jour
ney, again arid again recoiled, shuddering from the
alternative of separation from her lover, and at each
recoil felt his grateful embrace. Each time she trav
ersed the mental course the journey toward duty by
the privation of love seemed more onerous. Distaste
was followed by repugnance ; then utter weariness. At
last, utterly wretched, her purposes and perceptions fell
into hopeless confusion, and she exclaimed " Charle
roy, Charleroy, save me ! "
192 The Queen of the House of David.
The knight was at a loss to divine fully her mean-
ing, yet tenderly he answered :
"Save Rizpah ? She knows I d do that in death s
teeth!"
"Oh, Charleroy, tis not death, but life, that I fear.
How shall I live? "
Quickly he ejaculated :
" With me, forever, and safe ! "
The maiden remembering many an admonition she
had heard concerning the inconstancy of lovers, yet
driven forward by the all-abandoning love of her
woman s heart, gave voice to all she felt and feared in
one vehement interrogation :
" Oh, Charleroy, if I forsake all for my love of thec
shall I ever be discarded by ?
The knight interpreted her meaning in advance, and
answered by an embrace that was all-assuring, He
was rejoiced beyond words, for he knew full well that
hesitation and questionings like hers were on the rim of
full surrender. Suddenly he became very serious and
felt that peculiar glow that came over him the day of
his departure from England when the bishop blessed
him. He appreciated in a measure the responsibility
following such a committal of another s life to himself
us Rizpah was making, and he embraced her with an
Anxious reverence, such as a pietist feels clasping an
ideal of his God. It was well for both that the man
:vas thus impressed by the committal of that maiden
of her soul and body to his pilotage. Pity the woman
who ^:ches the extremity Rizpah had reached if her
conquer r be not white-souled and sincere.
RizpaV an incarnation of passion, a wreath of lotus
flowers or. a sea of delight, tossed by the winds, borne
From Ra-inotli Gil cad to Damascus 193
by the tides, surrendered all thoughts that might
disturb, that she might enjoy what she had embraced
as her fate to the full.
Sir Charleroy constantly prayed within himself,
" My mother s God help me to deal as purely with my
sacred charge as I would with the Virgin Patron of my
knightly order, were she here now to seek my knightly
services." The prayer was effectual, for the Knight
sincerely sought to make it so.
Decisive action followed this interview between the
lovers. That very night they fled together from Gerash,
and with only one trusty servant ; after many vicissi-
tude3 they reached Damascus. For a time Rizpah
placated her conscience by asserting that she would
not consent to the wedding ceremonial until it could
have her father s approval, or that of some Jewish
Rabbi. Finding it impossible to obtain these, she irre
solutely suggested the advisablity of delaying until
some change, quite vaguely apprehended, might come.
But there were two Rizpah s one that wanted to be a
faithful Jewess, and one that wanted only and con
stantly a darling idol. Sir Charleroy sided with the
latter; it was two to one, and the one surrendered.
Ere long a Christian missionary at Damascus sealed the
vows. They confided their story to him, as if to ask
his advice as to what they had best do, but with the
impetuosity of lovers they had decided their course
before they asked advice, and did not even ask it
until they had pledged their vows before this priest.
But it was a balm to conscience to ask advice. And
the Sacrist answered them briefly : " Venus and Mer
cury, fabled deities of love and wisdom. They are
much alike in the firmament, and revolve in orbits in
IQ4 The Queen of the House of David.
accord with the earth s. Methinks it is wisdom to love
in the earth. But, children, Venus sets sooner than
Mercury; see to it that you make it your wisdom to
love as long as you go round with the world." Then
they both said "Amen." For a moment Sir Charleroy
heard within him that impressive sound as of the beat
ing of mighty, departing wings. Me dragged his at
tention quickly from the introspection to gaze into
the eyes of his bride. He was glad that a Chris
tian priest had prayed for a blessing upon himselv
and her, but all sophistry aside, the truth remained.
\starte s was the presiding spirit at that wedding,,
CHAPTER XIV.
THE THEATER OF GIANTS.
Once more we look and all is still as night,
All desolate ! Groves, temples, palaces
Swept from the sight and nothing visible,
* * * * Save here and there
An empty tomb, a fragment like a limb
Of some dismembered giant."
ct Og, the King of Bushan, came out against us to batt!? a
Edrei, and the Lord said unto me, Fear him not: for I will deliver
him, anil all his people, and his land, into thy hand. And we took
* * * * three-score cities of the Kingdom of Og, in Bashan."
Deut. iii.]
" Bashan is the land of sacred romance." " His mission [Paul s,
Gal., i : 15] to Bashan seems to have been eminently successful.
Heathen temples were converted into churches, and new churches
built in every town." " In the fourth century nearly the whole of
the inhabitants were Christian." " The Christians are now nearly
all gone." " Nowhere else is patriarchal life so fully exemplified."
" Bashan is literally crowded with towns, the majority of them
deserted, but not ruined." " Many are as perfect as if finished
only yesterday." PORTER S " Giant Cities. 1
OR a brief period the delightful seasons, the
famed rivers, the stately surrounding moun
tains, the paradisiacal plains, the antiqui
ties, the pleasure gardens and palaces of the
city of Damascus, whose name by interpretation is
change," offered sought-for gratification to the knight
196 The Queen of the House of David.
and his bride. Harrimai died suddenly after the
elopement of his child, the only person on earth whom
he truly loved, the only one that had ever successfully
defied his mandates. He had purposed disinheriting
her for her act, but before he could execute that pur
pose, death disinherited him. Some said that he died
of a broken heart ; the physicians said he was taken off
by a fit ; Sir Charieroy said he died because his proud
will was crossed. Rizpah inherited a fortune that
helped both her and her husband to forget the old
priest s maledictions by enabling them to enjoy all
there was to be enjoyed in Damascus, " the eye of the
East." They gave up unreservedly to pleasure, and
centered the world more and more in themselves. Sir
Charieroy did this easily, reasoning that, having had
so many pains, he was entitled to compensating pleas
ures. He heard from England ; and the news was to
the effect that there had been changes and changes in
his native land., Many of those he once knew, includ
ing his mother, were dead ; and he himself was forgot
ten as dead. Sententiously, bitterly he summed up
his feelings: "They thought me dead, and, my mother
and her fortune being gone, did not care to find out
whether I was dead or not ; therefore let them think
as they thought." Rizpah feared the lashings of con
science, and, having given up every thing once dear to
enter the life she had, courted forgetfulness of the past,
pleasure for the present. The two had within them
selves exuberant youth, a wealth of possibilities of
happiness ; the elements that, like the abundance of
the volcano, paints the sky gorgeously when rising
heavenward ; like it, in the downward course, followed
by darkness and disaster. The two, differing in almost
Tue Theater of Giants. 197
^very thing but fervor of temperament, were in accord
in pursuit of change; they persuaded themselves that
they were growing to be like each other, when they
were only exalting the one thing, love of excitement ;
in which they were alike.
Damascus, naturally, in time, became uninteresting
and vapid to them both. They wore it out ; they
wanted new scenes. They heard that a caravan of
Mohammedan pilgrims was to pass through their city
on the way to Mecca to procure besim balm and holy
chaplets, and promptly determined to journey with it ;
but not to Mecca. The caravan was to pass through
Bashan i and the t\vo excitement-seekers desired to visit
the latter land of wonders. They readily garbed
themselves as Mohammedans, though once they would
have loathed such garbing as a defilement. They
desired company toward Bashan, and since the time
they defied their consciences in order to be wedded to
each other, their consciences had been wont to be very
submissive in the face of their desires. They explained
to themselves the absence of qualms of conscience in
the face of a pretense of being Moslems, as the result
of a growth toward liberality on their part. The
explanation made them comfortably complacent,
although the fact was that they had passed far beyond
liberalism toward nothingism.
Passing Musmeth and Khubat of the Argob, they
tarried after a time at Edrei, just inside the shore line
of that mysterious black, lava sea, the Lejah. They
were in a country where nature, art and desolation had
done their greatest. Following a passing impulse
seemed to them to have brought them thither, but one
believing in God s constant providence will readily
198 The Queen of the House of David.
believe that they were led thither as to a school. There
were omen and prophecy confronting them. These
fervent souls had gone from hymen s altar filled with
romancings, under a glow of prismatic auroras, never
pausing to perceive that from each wedding time there
winds a troop of serious years burdened with many a
commonplace duty. Their love had been volcanic,
their impulses ecstatic, their aims toward things filled
with commotion. The wine in their cup was to leave
dregs; after the fire there was to be ashes, and it was
fitting that they contemplated a specimen of great des
olation and dreariness, the result of great fires and
great storms. So they were within that wonder of the
world, three hundred and fifty square miles of awful
plain, filled with ruined towns and cities. Heaved up
here and there by jutting basalt rocks, the plain seemed
filled with black ice-bergs ; ridged at intervals the plain
suggested an ocean wave-tossed. Therein is many a
cave and cranny place, fit abode for the wild beast or
robber ; fit abode for ghosts, if one seeks to believe
there are such. But therein were only a few green
spots, oases, to bid the traveler welcome. Ere long
the knight and his consort wore out the Lejah, and, in
so doing, in part, wore out themselves They had a
fullness of the pleasure of the kind which lacks recrea
tion. As it was, they stayed there longer than it was
well for them to stay.
Rizpah, the passion flower ot Gerash, experiencing
the supreme exaction of womanhood now, began to
droop. Months spent in pursuit of excitement, the
great change in her manner of life, as well as the
oppressive desolations of her surroundings, had drawn
heavily upon her resources physically. Reaction after
The TJieater of Giants. 199
exaltation, and nervous discord after nervous tension
are natural results, always.
The knight discerned the change of temper, and as
an anxious novice went about correcting the matter.
He knew little concerning woman, except that love of
her intoxicates ; delighting in the intoxication he
sought to stimulate Rizpah s flagging energies by
pushing her onward into the feverish brilliancy that
was so delightful to himself. It was an attempt
to cure physical impoverishment by the renewal of its
causes. She was at times complacent, because incom
petent to resist ; passive, because enervated. He was
most selfish, though not realizing the fact, when trying
to be most tender. In fact, the twain were on the rim
of a test period in their married life and being unskilled
in its common places, unfitted to stand the test. Sir
Charleroy had recourse to the only physician he deemed
adequate ; one whom on account of his dress he called
" Old Sheepskin." This xvas a guide, with a motly
group of Druses assistants, and an unpronouncible
name.
" Come, Rizpah, Old Sheepskin Jacket has put on
his red tunic and leathern girdle to carry us a camel
voyage in-sea ; if we do not give the man a job he ll fall
to stealing again."
Rizpah languidly shook her head,
" But we must patronize the man to keep up jvhat
little honesty he has, and he has some. He told me
but yesterday he d rather work than rob though the
pay be less, so is the danger less."
The knight was telling the truth as well as trying tc
be facetious.
Again Rizpah replied with a weary shake of the
2OO The Queen of the House of David.
head, her hands rising deprecatingly, then falling into
her lap as if almost nerveless.
" But, Rizpah, while we are here we ought to fully
explore the changeless cities of this dead, black, lava
sea, There are none other like this on earth ! Tis
nature s desperate effort to outrun phantasmagoria,"
Rizpah shook her head and waved her hands ; this
time vehemently, as if to repel a horror.
" What ? A fixed no ? "
" No more excursions into this counterpart of hades
for me."
"Well, so be it to-day, at least," with surrendering
tones, the knight replied.
" To-day ? All days ! Oh, God, remove me from
this nightmare? "
So exclaiming, the woman covered her eyes, shud
dered and wept hysterically.
Sir Charleroy was almost overcome with sudden
amazement. The tears, the terror, the complete
change before him, were beyond his comprehension.
After a time he again spoke : " Why, this is a sudden
freak or frenzy. I thought Rizpah fascinated here ! "
" I ve had my notice from the dread sprits that in
fest the place to go ! Didst thou note what dark and
threatening clouds dipped down like vultures upon me
when we were last there ? " vehemently Rizpah replied.
" I only saw a threatening of rain that came not. It
seldom rains in the Lejah."
" There was rain enough in my poor, shivering, weep
ing heart ! "
" But, I wonder, Rizpah, thou didst not tell me of
these feelings before!"
" I could not confide then ; I was too jealous!"
The Theater of Giants. 201
"Jealous? What a word! But of whom, me?"
" I can never forget that thy union with me has
made thee alien to thy people and in part neglectful of
the faith for which thou didst once fight bravely. I
can no t forget that the Teutonic knight was the devotee
of a bepraised Lady Mary. I thought of this that black
day, and I felt as if those dry, grim clouds were her
frowns. It was thou, my Christian husband, who named
the Lejah, Tartarus, and it has been such for some
time to me. Its sight has constantly burned me with
remorse ! That day it seemed to me thy Mary pitied
thee and blamed me ! I writhed under the thought!
I, for a moment, hated her. I felt like climbing some
height, and, club in hand with defiant curses, challeng
ing her right to have a finer care of thee than I have.
I d have done it, if thou hadst not been here to laugh
at the folly of my frenzy. Ah, husband, if she is or was
all that thou dost depict her, she can not love me, and
thou must contrast us to my disparagement. I can not
forget that thou wert a Christian soldier ; sworn to war
for her and her son; now thou art wedded to me, a
daughter of her and His persecutors! "
"Why, Rizpah, thy changing moods are appalling;
thou dost beat the magicians who conjure up the dead,
since thou dost create out of nothing the most hideous
ghosts to haunt thyself Maya ! Maya ! "
"Oh, yes, I know Maya, wife of Brahm, by inter-
pretation illusion. A myth, as a gibe, has a sharp
point, effective because so difficult to parry. But, alas,
ridicule, though it easily tear to pieces delusion, is power
less to disperse the gloom that sits in a soul as mine."
" I ll not ridicule my Rizpah, but I would bring her
light."
2O2 The Queen of the House of David.
"Ah? That is, resurrect the peace thou didst mur
der?"
"Show me one wound my hand has made and I !.
abjectly beg all pardons, attempt any atonement ! "
" Dost thou, knight, remember the ruins of the Chris
tian church of Saint George, at Edrei ? "
" Certainly."
"And thy conversation there?"
" Yes, that Saint George was England s patron saint^
famed for having slain the dragon which imperiled a
king s daughter."
"More thou didst say; thou didst expatiate on the
princess, saying her name was Alexandra, meaning,
friend of mankind ; further, thou saidst there was a
queenly woman by name, Mary, daughter of the King
of Kings, friend beyond all women of humanity, for
whom every true knight was willing to be a Saint
George."
"True enough; but to what purport now is this
reminiscence? "
" Thou saidst Saint George was loyal to the death
to his faith, and died a martyr! "
" True again. What of it ? "
" Was the Teutonic knight thinking of himself as a
martyr because wed to a Jewess? I followed thy
thoughts, though they were not all spoken. How nat
urally that day thou didst tell me of thy visions which
thou hadst between Gerash and Bozrah when wounded
nigh to death. The English saint, knight, very loyal to
creed, rebuked in his dreams, by the beating of mighty
wings, the departing of his heart s rose ! Oh, why
didst thou not tell me this before it was too late ! I
would have helped thee escape the ingenuous Jewess
The Theater of Giants. 203
Thou didst awaken then with dread bleeding, to find
thyself pillowed upon the bosom of a simple-hearted
loving girl ; I now awaken, wounded indeed, but with
none to staunch the wounding! Why, de Griffin,
didst thou keep this secret so long ? Why unfold it
now ? "
"I d be the Saint George of Rizpah and slay her
dragon, gloom."
" Poor comfort to offer since the gloom is beyond
thy powers ! Flout my mood as thou mayst ; what
use? I vainly denounce it. Thou hast had thy
dream ; now I m having mine. I ll not mock thy in
sights ; thou canst not by bantering jeer change mine.
My Lejah omens assure me that I m to have a rain of
tears and more ; some way thy Mary will be their
cause."
" Rizpah errs ; the queen I revere was a living epistle
of good will ; her character the joy and inspiration of
all women, especially of those in tribulation. But
enough ! Rizpah, being a Jew, should abhor the necro
mancy of omens ! "
" Jew ! Ah, yes ; I was once ! But the valiant Eng
lish knight lured me into his Christian love and my
race s hate. I had once the luxurious faith of a pious
girl; all feeling, all flowers; too young to reason, but
young enough to love the good and beautiful unto sal
vation. The knight poisoned the blossoms before
they ripened by the acids of ridicule ! There is a loss
beyond repair and a bitter memory, that of a broken
promise; under our love-star thou didst swear thou
wouldst never lightly treat my believing. Venus has
set, Mercury is rising; but wisdom brings a burning
glare. The promise that the knight failed to keep was
204 The Queen of the House of David,
made when I was, he said his idol ; now I m only his
wife ! "
" Rizpah exchanges die glory of the rose for the bit
ter gray of the wormwood."
"I m thy handiwork; now mock the result, if to do
so comforts thee."
" My handiwork ! "
" Yes, fool ! "
" These words are awful."
" I think so and I hate them ; though I can not check
them. I hate my temper and even myself when in
such present moods. De Griffin, pray as thou didst
never pray before, that I do not learn to hate thee. I
pity thee, because I ve some love left."
"Pity?"
"Yes, when I imagine thee wriggling beneath the
malignant detestation of which I know I shall soon be
capable."
" My wife, in God s dear name, banish these moods !
They are impious, unnatural ; the crisis of thy being
falsely accuses thy heart. Be calm ! "
" Calm ? Be calm ! Very good ; calm me, please,
if thou canst. Oh, why didst thou make me thus?"
" The God of all peace forgive me if I did, Rizpah
" Thou wert the elder and shouldst have known?"
" What ? "
" That to unsettle a woman s faith, if she be such as
I, is to let loose a bundle of blind vagaries and to
tumble her, like a drifting wreck, on unknown shores.
"Oh, wife, as thou hopest for heaven and lovest our
unborn child, restrain these moods. Thou lt mark the
one to be, with germs of all evil ; for such outbursts of
mothers re-act with awful effect upon their offspring.
The Theater of Giants. 205
Thou knowest how the old nurse, at Damascus, killed
a babe in an instant, merely by giving it her breast
after she had yielded to .an outbreak of passion. Such
tempers hurl poison through all the being!"
" Alas, knight, that all this prudence ever comes just
a little too late! "
"What could I have done better?"
"Left the little maid of Harrimai s home free from
thy enchantments and to the quiet of her people s
state."
"But I loved thee so. That atones for all."
"Thou thoughtst thou lovedst, but twas my form
which fascinated thee, not my mind nor soul!" Riz-
pah s face became ashen pale, her eyes had a far-off
gaze and were steelly, as she began plaintively to repeat
the words, There ^vere giants in the earth * * .
They saw the daughters of men, AdamisJi, that they
were fair and they took tJiem for ivives of all they chose,
and they bore children and it repented the Lord that He
had made man, for He saw that the wickedness was
great in the earth. Thou wast my giant-lofty. Thou
stolest my heart and body. Now for a flood to punish
the sin, and my tears are already its first droppings."
" We are wed ; shall we ,iot now make the best of it ?
Even when into this mystic alliance unmated lives
converge, they can still with wisdom extract from it at
least peace. Go fervently, firmly, back to the faiths
of thy girlhood ; become again all thou wert, except
that thou be ever mine."
" Ah, ha ! how little, after all, thou knowest of woman s
heart? Thou wouldst command it do and be ; and go
and come, wouldst thou ? Thinkst thou, thou canst
make such heart as mine wild with the strange intoxi-
206 The Queen of the House of David.
cations of unholy fire, filling the brain above it with ail
the clouds, weird longings, doubtings and misgivings,
that fume up from that fire, and then send that heart
back without a compass, chart, sail or helm, to find the
haven ? Send it lashed by remorse part of the time,
part of the time half dead to all feeling, and all the
time blind, to hunt up lost creeds."
"But God provided an ark; let us ask Him to aid us
build one in a home, with happy parents and happy
children, Thou readst to me, but yesterday, the
Prophets beautiful description of a lamp burning with
oil supplied from two palm trees ; one on either side.
I ll interpret; the trees are parents, the lamp the light
of home, manifest in posterity, reproduction ; a pro
phecy of the resurrection."
"Beautiful mysticism. But the giantesque men rose
to play at lust, just beside Sinai of the law."
" Not so I, the Teutonic knight, now the husband.
Rizpah; thy desperate misery appeals to all my man
hood. I swear to thee I d turn my heart s blood into
the oil to cause our home to glow with the serene
light of holy happiness."
" Words, words ; how sad, because so beautiful, yet
so vain ! "
" Oh Rizpah," cried the knight, too anxious to be
angry, though the woman s words were stinging, " thy
looks startle me ! Pray God to rest and hold thy wor
ried soul."
" Pray? I have tried, often of late, to pray, but I
do not know how. I fear thou hast stolen even that
power from me! Ugh! the last time I prayed, my
words seemed like black cormorants rising with loads of
carrion ; then falling struck dead by the sun, into great
The Theater uj Giants. 207
black caves, such as abound in our Lejah hell ! I
heard my words flung back at me in mockery. Pray? I
dare not, lest God strike me dead fora hypocrite and a
heretic ! "
" But my poor, dear wife," soothingly said Sir Char-
leroy, " He is merciful."
"Oh, yes, to the good and the faithful; I m neither!
I gave Him up for a man, ?s the Adamish men gave
h m up for women. I madest thou my God, and now
have none other; for He of the heavens is very holy,
but very jealous! "
" Rizpah, Rizpah, do not thus give way to these wild
imaginations."
"Give way? Alas, all is already given away; soul
and body were on an idolatrous altar long ago. I m
buried in the ashes ! "
"But Rizpah, trust my love: I ll help thee back to
peace and usefulness."
" Bah ! the masculine great I
Heavens ! woman, is there any love in a heart that
so hurls javelins?"
" I don t know! I suppose so, for I pity thee."
" Pity me? "
" Yes ; when I think as I do at times, that thy wife is
turning into a devil, a very devil ! Sir Charleroy de
Griffin, knight of St. Mary, dost hear me ? A devil, a
raging devil, and one that will pity while she assails."
The last sentence was almost screamed, then the woman
fell on the rug of their apartment and wept convulsively.
After a little there was the silence of exhaustion, of
chagrin, of shame. Sir Charleroy stood by the prostrate
form and with words ru .lf commanding said : " Let us
ride out a little way." He was trying a new strategy.
208 The Queen of the House of David.
"No, no, no! Thou lt take me to the Lejah, and I
shall see that dr f ;ad omen again."
"What?" As he questioned he raised the woman
tenderly from the floor.
" The lava desert, in long rolling waves, black and
drear."
"Ah, Rizpah, thou knowest that it was only thy un
reined fancy, heated by morbid broodings, that changed
the eternally-fixed furrows of the plain, overshad
owed by running clouds into threatening billows ! God
and the sun are above all clouds and behind every
anxious heart. Look up ; look in, until thy soul finds
Him ; then the horror of darkness will die away."
" Oh, how thy comfortings hurt me, because I do not
believe in thee, nor believe thee ! Thou sayst that thou
didst abandon thy Christian, perfect queen of women,
for me. I know thou must be chagrined at the bad
exchange! I can not honor nor trust the faithfulness
of one so fickle. No matter for that, but what comes
after is worse. Those black sky-drapings were over the
Lejah that day because I was there. I know I know
there s a tide of sorrow rolling toward me. I see it
as 1 saw those black, serpent-like, lava waves. But, oh,
the suspense ! It s awful ; let the worst come if only
soon ! " The knight, sworn to protect helpless women,
saw himself disarmed and powerless to aid the one
woman of earth for whom he would have died.
Two giants at bay in Giant Land, where another
mold of gianthood had died leaving nothing but
monuments to attest the greatness of the failure. The
two knew only this, that they were very miserable and
powerless, by any means accustomed, to extricate
themselves.
The Theater of Giants. 209
Sir Charleroy wished and wished, in his soul, that his
patron saint and queen of women would appear and
tell both what to do. He unconsciously was turning
his mind s eye in the right direction. Husband and
wife both believed there was a right way, a pattern of
right, and an ideal of heaven, but they could not lay
hold of them. Giant, crusader and husband, each in
turn strove in his day at the same spot, and at the
same point failed.
Sir Charleroy, in mind, went out along a strangely
beset line of thinking. Sometimes he pitied himself,
and that brought the balm of conceit. He remem
bered it was a fine thing to be a martyr, forgetting that
some, rewardless, suffer as sinners. Sometimes he
heard those beatings of mighty wings, as if some won
drous holy one were departing. Then he became very
penitent and full of the entreatings of prayer. Either
mood was brief enough to him not yet converted ; a
very Peter in vacillations. Whether he would finally
follow the beating wings or sit down nigh to the gates
of certain insanity, the gates that those who over-much
pity themselves are sure to reach, was the issue in his
life then. The bugles of war call few to the hero
ism of the field, but millions are daily called by God s
bugle to the better achievements which make for glory
amid the duties of common life. That latter bugle was
calling him, but he was slow to obey, or understand
even.
The events recorded in the foregoing pages roused
Sir Charleroy to an anxious effort to do something to
change the currents of his wife s thoughts. Necessity
quickened his discernment, and though he had had but
little experience in dealing with those ill ir the body or
2 io The Queen of the House of David.
mind, he quickly concluded that a change of place and
a change of pursuit would be beneficial. In truth, his
own feelings attested this much. He himself was weary
of the pursuit of excitement as a sole and constant
occupation.
"Shall we leave the Lejah, Rizpah?" he ques
tioned, a few days after the outbreak before men
tioned.
"Yes, I say! I m leaving it! See here," and she
pointed to her cheeks, once ruddy, now haggard. " Oh,
Charleroy, take me away or death will ! "
"Enough! We ll go. But where?"
"Any place under heaven ; say the word and I ll run
out of the place instantly, leaving all here."
What, our effects ! "
"Any thing to get away. I feel like a child ap
proached by some monster terror, hour by hour! For
days I ve been transfixed by my fear or I would have
run away, even alone, before this. Now thy words
break the spell! Come, Jet us go before I m overcome
again ! "
" There, now, be calm. No more of this undue nerv
ousness. We ll go, and soon. What says Rizpah to
Bozrah, southward of Bashan ? "
"Yes, to Bozrah ; historic Bozrah ! " and the face of
the woman brightened as she went on : " It was the
fairy land of my youth. I ve wanted to go there since
I was a wee little thing, scarce able to walk." Then
the woman unbent and talked with the rapture of a
child :
" Oh ; I ve wanted to see Bozrah all my life, since
the days when my old nurse used to talk me to sleep
with stories of Og and his bedstead nine cubits long
The TJicatcr of Giants. 211
and how our little Hebrew, Moses, overcame those
Rephaim."
" Thy prophets and psalmists, as well as thy nurses,
were wont to go into rapturous descriptions of the lofty
oaks, loftier mountains, ragged plains, marvelous pas-
t jres and goodly herds of the Hauran and Trachon-
"tis.
Rizpah continued in gleeful strain: "Oh, those
herds ; if I can t see old Og, I d like to see the famous
bulls of Bashan ! Show me something huge, no matter
how huge, if alive and not black! I m becoming in
fatuated with the strong and the large. If ever I lose
my soul it will be by worshiping, pagan-like, some
thing mightier than I can imagine ; of body or muscle.
Yes, yes, I ll be a thorough pagan since I can not be a
Jew nor a Christian ! Now, I forewarn thee." So say
ing she laughed merrily. The knight was rejoiced to
hear the musical, natural laughter again, and encour
aged the play of her wit, which attested a mind un
bending to rest.
" Woman-like, adoring the huge when the grand
can not be found. Thank God, the giants are all dead ;
there are none at Bozrah, at least. I ll not fear the
littk <iirty Arabs, or pigmy Druses as supplanters."
CHAPTER XV.
THE REVELS OF MEN AND RITES OF THEIB
GODDESSES.
" Rude fragments now
Lie scattered where the shapely column stood.
Her palaces are dust. In all the streets the sprightly chords
Are silent. Revelry and dance and show
Suffer a syncope and solemn pause ;
While God performs upon the trembling stage
Of His own works His dreadful part, alone."
COWPER.
" Then shall ye know that I am the Lord, when their slain
shall be among their idols, round about their altars * * * upon
every high place * * * under every thick oak." Ezekiel vi.
|ASSING from Edrei toward Bozrah the pil
grim knight and his wife with their con
voy reached Kunawat, the Kenath of Scrip
ture, once the dwelling place of Job. Here
tor a time they abode. The number and variety of
castles, temples, theaters and palaces in ruins, were
sufficient to engage the attention of the travelers for
many days. Rizpah was more cheerful than she was
at Edrei, but yet restless to reach Bozrah, on which
place her heart was set.
One day standing before an old Roman temple in
Kunawat, Rizpah, somewhat interested by its well pre
served Corinthian columns, and Sir Charleroy deeply
engrossed in contemplation of an huge stone image, the
former asks: " Has the knight recognized an old Eng
The Revels of Men and Rites of their Godesses. 2 \ 3
lish or a new Bashan love ? " The woman was finding
the oft-repeated and prolonged visits to this particular
place monotonous. She was annoyed, but modified
her rebuke into raillery.
"There is something very fascinating in the Cyclo
pean face."
" A broken stone fascinate a man ? But I see tis
that of a woman ; the brain part gone. Would that
the English knight had wed such ; then he might have
been loyal to creed, and not a martyr!"
ASTARTE.
" Rizpah knows that I could never have loved a
brainless face, nor any one akin to this Kunawat
goddess."
"Not if she echoed thy aye and nay consist
ently? Be careful ; as many strong men have fallen by
having their conceit gratified as there have fallen
women through flattery."
2 14 The Queen of the House of David.
" How absurd to hint that I could be so lured."
" But the knight says Astarte fascinates ! "
" I said so, meaning that I m fascinated by the
train of thoughts that the image awakens. Think a
moment ; we, the living of to-day confronting the
acme of the thought of the ages long gone. Looking
at this, I seem to be seeing over rolling centuries, right
into the hearts of humanity that lived thousands of
years ago."
"All this might have been taken in at a glance!
Having seen it, what use is it ? "
" Use ? To aid in finding a key to life s problems.
I m filled with questionings ; do not yearnings, such as
b^at through the being of the ancients pulse in those
of to-day? Are not humanity s temptations and needs
ever the same ? "
" Since the ancients did not tarry to compare with
us, I, being only a woman, of Gerash, of to-day, can
give only the shallow answer, I suppose so."
"Oh, I m not questioning Rizpah ; but the ruins, the
air, time, my soul, God ! "
" And their reply ?"
" Bewildering echoes of each question?"
"Audit s alia mystery to Sir Charleroy?"
" I know a little ; something, next to nothing."
" Possess curious me of that little, and I ll help thee
wonder why so much greatness came to naught."
" That wondering is easily met ; they had, as god, one
whose head could be broken as this one s was ; they
that would survive must be sheltered by the Invin
cible."
Rizpah, meanwhile had drawn close to the huge stone
face and placing one hand beneath the mouth, the
The Revels of Men and Rites of their Goddesses. 215
other on the portion of the head just above the moon
crown, her arms stretched \vell nigh to their limits
quizically remarked :
" Those that dined with her must have had pyramids
for chairs. What dost thou think they were like?"
" Crusaders ? "
"Now, I m tantalized. Crusaders two or three
thousand years ago ? How absurd ! "
" Oh, certainly they were not known by the name >
Crusaders: but they that followed Astarte and such
like deities, whether called Kenaihites, Rephaim, Mos
lem, Christians, or by other appellation are all soldier-
pilgrims, dominated by an ideal. There have been
many female deities among the pagans and there is a
deal of paganism left in humanity."
" That s because half the race are men. Astarte
would be very popular to-day with thy sex, if she were
here in living form, a whole woman, instead of a frag,
ment and beautiful also
"Thou dost not care to hear more of the female
deities? "
" Oh, yes ; I ll be fearfully jealous if thou dost
keep any thing back. Tell me what madmen the
ancients were?" She paused, slapped the face of the
image, ejaculating " Virago /" then continued, " Why
did they make their effigy both hideous and huge?
Ugly things should be dwarfed \ "
"The ancients, who knew not the grandeur of moral
])ower. gave their deities terribleness in their physical
proportions, and a mountain of flesh became their ideal
of greatness men ever try to make their objects of
worship greater than themselves, thou knowest. Hast
forgotten what Ichabod once told us of the Egyptians:
2 1 6 The Queen of the House of David.
How they expressed their reverence by piling up pyr
amids and made that very diminutive which they would
caricature ? Oh, how our true religion, having at its
heart an only, all-beautiful, Almighty God, rises above
these human devices. "
" I wonder that it did not, at its first appearing on
earth, instantly overthrow all others."
" And it is a still more wonderful thing that those
who embraced it, having known, should have sometimes
gone back to paganism? Thou dost remember that
God s chosen people, after enjoying marvels of His
Providence, plunged headlong into idolatry in the very
presence of His splendor at Sinai?"
" With shame I remember it. I marvel as well that
this record, which evokes the ridicule of the grosser
heathen, was made part of our Holy writings."
" God s compensation ! The people stripped them
selves of their jewels to make the calf ; then of their
garments to worship it according to the lewd rites of
Apis. God since has lashed them naked around the
world, as it were, by giving their history to all times.
Be sure your sin will find you out, is a stern truth
haunting the conscience of the evil doer; but though
exposure is a bitter medicine it is a saving one. God
as such applies it."
" I think the devil crazed the people at Sinai."
"Yes, Rizpah, but Human Desire was his name.
The revelers made their devil as well as their calf,
that day."
" But it is said they rose to play. If so disobedi
ent and heaven-defying how could they have found
*ieart to play ? "
"Odious, significant worH that one is, here. It was
The Revels of Men and Rites of tlicir Goddesses. 217
a l play that engulphed all purity. No wonder they
ceased to observe the burning mountain ! Only the
pure in heart can see God."
" Thank God ! that thy people and mine have finally
escaped, my husband."
" So far as we have escaped, I thank Him ; but, alas,
the evangels of Egypt s scarlet heresies still go about,
and there are many, everywhere, led away in chains that
seem of flowers at first, but are found to be of galling
iron at last."
" T did not know this ? "
" Oh, these modern perverters disguise their horrible
tenets with many refined phrases ; yet He that over
whelmed gross Sodom and the jewelless, naked dancers
about the golden bull, sees through all their thin drap-
ings and will judge the free lover, corrupt socialist and
libertine as He did those ancients. The Assyrian and
Egyptian representations of Venus generally appeared
holding a serpent ; a sort of bitter admission of the
curse in the hand of perverted love and the fierce lash
ings that follow it."
" I fail to connect the ancient with the present here
sies, my good teacher."
" I pause to-day here, reminded of their common
origin and consequences. God put it into the hearts
of His creatures to love women, honor motherhood,
and worship Him. Read Sinai s law, and this is all
manifest. There came a perversion ; the love of woman
was degraded, motherhood was denied its honor, and
men became God-defying. There was a confusion
worse than that of Babel, and the worshiping was
transferred, first, to symbolized lust ; then degraded.
They that adored Venus, knowing how her adoration
2 1 8 The Queen of tlic House of David.
had depraved themselves, came to believe that she scan
c alized the heaven they imagined. Then came a time
when her earthly rites even scandalized the wiser
pagans."
" My husband leads me along strange ways. Is it
wise to do so ? "
" I see a grand end ; follow me. There is a deep
significance in the fact that among the pagans there
constantly appeared this adoration of woman on
account of her power of motherhood. I take this
adoration as proof of a conscious need feeling after a
vaguely discerned truth. The yearning is suggested by
the paired gods. Assyria had its Beltis, consort of
Bel-nimrud ; and there were Allelta of the Arabians,
the many-breasted Diana of the Ephesians, the Aphro
dite of the Greeks, Ceres and Venus of Rome, this
. Astarte of the Giants; beyond all, in utter odiousness
Khem.the Phallic god of Egypt. Amid all these false
ideals, the divine home with its pure love and our im
mortality by grace s mystery, were overslaughed in hu
man thought. The glaring passions, that were unwill
ing to believe in other immortality than that that comes
through posterity, other heaven than that of sensuous
pleasure, fascinated and dominated hearts and souls."
"And worshiping women-gods did this."
" Worshiping beings with the form of women did
it ! Reverence for true womanhood ever exalts and
never degrades. But these ancients adored very gor-
gons with snakes for hair, and having tearing, brazen
claws. They set these gorgons with the Harpies, in
their mythologies, at the gates of dark Pluto s palace.
Alas, where men are led by ill-flavored women, is ever
more Pluto s gateway."
The Rcirls of Men and Rites of their Goddesses. 219
" The up-digging of these ancient soils, knight, give
forth foul odors. Did they not dread a just and jeal
ous God ^ "
" No. It is the constant voice of history that false
belief concerning these things of which I have spoken,
brings both blindness and degradation. Unbelief comes
swiftly in the wake of impurity. The gorgons had but
one eye and that had the malign power of turning to
stone all upon whom its glance fell. When men deify
a fallen woman then look for a cataclysm of evils. Riz-
pah has seen little of the world, but this in time she ll
find true ; the man whose cult or faith bends toward
the libidinous is on the way to utteratheism. So these
old-time free-lovers, like those of to-day, push out
of the universe in their belief, the Great, Beautiful.
First Cause. The pure in heart see God ; the impure
can not even pray to Him. The latter must be aided
by an Immaculate One. They make a gulf betwixt their
souls and heaven, which Great Mercy alone can bridge."
"Ah, knight, I d dread a return of those gross idol
atries, knowing mankind s trend, but that I knew that
Shiloh was to corne as a Reformer." The knight
caught at the words of his wife to lead her toward his
own dear belief.
" If He came to Rizpah in the form of a man, unique
because of his virgin purity, unlike any other in being
all unselfish, and accompanied by a peerless woman,
exemplifying all that is best in the gentle sex ; between
Himself and that woman a love deep to love s last depth,
pure as a sunbeam, enduring as eternity itself, would
Rizpah welcome Him ! "
"That would be a wondrous coming; but I d wel
come Him."
22O The Queen of the House of David.
" Docs Rizpah believe such an appearing desir.
able ? "
"Oh, on my soul, yes! If he should so come, me-
thinks the rites which have gone on in the secrecy of
the groves, under the uncertain light of the moon, would
be driven from the earth, and men come to worship
God, taking that man for the ideal of manhood, that
woman as woman s pattern."
" Dost thou see that stone with eight lines crossing,
lying just there by the image of Astarte?"
" I see it and the lines ; but what of them ? "
" In the far East, the land of the Fire Worshipers,
on almost all the handiwork of man that symbol is
placed. It is to represent an eight-pointed star, the
Assyrian sign of immortality."
"Eight lines crossing to represent immortal life?
This is inane ! "
"Not quite. I had its explanation from my wander
ing Jew, Ichabod, learned by much travel in the lore
of many peoples. He thus interpreted the symbol
as the Assyrians understood it ; man, a four-pointed
star; his four radiate limbs suggesting that likeness.
Thou knowest that the Israelites have been wont to call
men stars? The Assyrians, not having the sure word,
were led to seek by human philosophy a theory of
immortality, and they got no further than twice four,
two human beings in union ; so eight or a double
star, their symbol of marriage, represented the only
immortality they were able to find ; that that comes
from reproduction. At least that was the only reality,
the rest being very vaguely believed, and believed only
because they thought that the mystery of a new life
coming forth, was a hint of a spiritual method analo-
The Revels oj Men and Rites of their Goddesses. 221
gous to the material. They then fell to worshiping the
sun, the great fructifier and light of nature ; fire, the
essence of passion, became their highest god. It is
said that those Magi of the East, that arrived long ago
at Bethlehem, were fire worshipers, and that in answer
to a cry for light, constantly uttered by their race, they
took their journey to Judah, seeking it."
" The world must turn to Israel ever for the truth,
Sir Charleroy."
" For some truth ; not all ; but there is a tradition
that the star the wise men followed was a double one,
two planets in conjunction. There is a fitness in the
legend, for the seekers of light were brought to the cave
where lay a mother and babe ; the latter God s finest
presentment of immortality, the Incarnation ; the fruit
of the Divine in union with the human. I stand over
come, with wonder and reverence when I remember
that they of the East had some light from the Jews
they held captive ages before. They lost most of what
they had, then, longing for its return, God answered
their prayer by taking them to the finest of schools, a
blessed home circle. Behold all the East looking for
light at Bethlehem ! "
Rizpah evaded her husband s graceful attempt to
impress on her Christian tenets, by replying: " I prefer
the Jewish choice number Seven, though I can not give
it fine interpretations, as thou to the Eight of the East."
<% Rizpah prefers it because it is Jewish, and I prefer
Seven because I read therein a covenant ; for Seven is
the sacred covenant number of God s Word. Let me
interpret: There is a Triune God, symbolized by
Three ; then man, the child of chance, the being tossed
hither and thither by the four winds, a complex union
The QHCCH of the House of David.
himself of body, mind, animal life and immortal spirit.
Four is his representative number, or symbol. The
Assyrians paired fours; the Jews vaguely discerned a
grander path to eternal felicity through the con
junction of God and man, the Three and the Four.
From this they derived their covenant number.
Seven."
" These are charming explanations, Sir Charleroy ;
especially so, if sure ones ! "
" But the truths are fairer than my poor words. I
read that at creation the morning stars meaning the
beings that know no night, the very sons of God -
shouted for joy ! They saw an immortality having its
springs in the being of the Eternal, and were glad.
Since then the race has diverged into two lines. The
gross and unbelieving, seeking to effect the apotheosis
of human lust, have gone their ways reveling under the
moonlight, and building their fanes in the groves
which fade, while the believing and God-taught have
walked in a covenant toward Him, Who only hath im
mortality dwelling in light. Rizpah, some day that
home group at Bethlehem, a father, mother, and child,
surrounded by angels, overshadowed by God, will come
to be thought the finest ideal of this life. Yea, a pic
ture of Heaven itself ! "
The knight s wife fixed her piercing, dark eyes on his ,
there were expressed in her countenance admiration
and fearfulness. She was charmed by his lofty senti
ments, yet apprehensive of being led into some dan
gerous, Christian heresy. Fanaticism always has a
terror of heresy, so-called, even though it seemed to
be full of white truth. Presently she question"
" So Og, great as a mountain o f ri - u j ...,u Astarte,
The Revels of Men and Rites of their Goddesses. 223
goddess of the pleasure that kills, only, of all Kunawat s
.ancients, have left enduring names? "
" One other name endures, the ages brightening its
luster Job, loyal to the last, in spite of the devil and
a virago wife."
" Poor woman ! say I of Job s wife. None have told
her side of her family troubles. May be Job haunted
the grove of the moon-crowned ? "
"Maybe? Never! His splendid orations bespoke
a man walking nigh Jehovah. Listen : If I beheld the
moon walking in brightness, if my heart hath been
secretly enticed, or my mouth kissed my hand, let
thistles grow instead of wheat. He said this amid
the votaries of the Lust-Queen."
" And Job may be praised, not only as proof that
there has been one patient man on earth, but as proof
that a good man will stand. pure to the last, though the
world about acclaim the praise of delightful sins ? "
" He stood because entranced by his beautiful ideal.
He loved Him whose name is Holiness."
" Heaven comes at last to such."
"Job was God s best friend on earth in his day, and
his Heavenly Father gave him as his reward His best
earthly gift a new, pure, happy, fruitful home."
" Are we through now with the fascinating image,
knight ? "
" Yes, Rizpah, if we take to heart its warnings. May
we preserve our integrity, and have a home as our re
ward finer than that of the Man of Uz; yea, verily, as
fine in its tempers and virtues as that of Bethlehem."
So saying, the knight led Rizpah toward their abode.
CHAPTER XVI.
\ BATTLE OF GIANTS AT BOZRAH
Sleep the ghostly winds are blowing !
No moon abroad no star is glowing.
The river is deep and the tide is flowing
To the land where you and I are going !
We are going afar,
Beyond moon or star,
To the land where the sinless angels are !
I lost my heart to your heartless sire
( Twas melted away by his looks of fire),
Forgot my God, and my father s ire,
All for the sake of a man s desire ;
But now we ll go
Where the waters flow,
And make our bed where none shall know."
" The Mothers Last Song. 1 1 BARRY CORNWAL*,
" How shall we order the child, and how shali we do."-
judges xiii. 12.
IR CHARLEROY and his consort took up
their abode in one of the many deserted
ancient stone houses of the city of Bozrah.
The latter, situated in one of the most
fertile plains of earth, once having upward of one
hundred thousand inhabitants, several times having
risen to metropolitan splendor, ages ago sank into
neglect, decay and desolation. But with wonderful
persistence that city preserves the records, or relics, of
A Battle of Giants at Bozrah. 225
what it was in better, greater days. The antiquarian
to-day finds in and around Bozrah the dwellings,
palaces and temples of many and various peoples,
some piled in strata-like courses, one above the other,
<:ach layer the tombstone of its predecessor; some
is fine as they were forty centuries ago. The
innalist there has at hand as an open book the
achievements of some of the mightiest men of earth,
physically. The latter were contemporary with that
line of God s moral giants, of which Abraham, Moses
and David were representative leaders first, and Christ
finally. The strata of Bozrah tell of differing policies,
politics, religions; all alike in one thing the attempt
to build upon the buttresses of giant force ; but they
present in the end the one result failure; all being
equally dead at the last, if not equally herculean at
the first. Sheer robustness in the armies of Rome,
the Turk, Alexander, and Og wrought out their best
about the Bashan cities, and in that theater played
the eternally losing game of all such. It seems as if
God had chosen that part of all the world to illustrate
this great lesson of His providence. The Roman,
Mohammedan, Greek, and others like them, there had
their brutal and sensuous existence. There the Cru
sader carried also his banners; but the end of the
Rephaim was the forerunner and prophecy of all the
other giantesque gatherings that followed after them.
E.ach passing race and dynasty left its monuments
and tokens of possession ; but of all, those of the
first, the giants, are the most enduring, most wonder-
ful. These dateless, huge, rugged, fort-like dwellings,
standing just as they did four thousand years ago, ex
cept that they are mostly unoccupied, are impressivp
226 The Queen of the House of David.
monuments and reminders of the mighty denizens
who once abode within them. There are ruins of
temples, palaces, houses of commerce and places of
amusement, but chiefly of homes; the latter, sig-
riificantly, instructively, being the best preserved of
all. Sir Charleroy observed this circumstance, and
casually remarked to Rizpah, as they bestowed their
effects in one of the ancient domiciles:
" If ever I take to building, I ll build abiding places
for people, only. Such are the most lasting."
But while he came thus near to a royal truth, he did
not make it his own. It passed through his mind and
he felt its light, as one might that from the wing of a
ministering spirit, while his eyes were holden and his
back turned. He immediately left the angelic thought,
to go wandering through years of misery, before com
ing back face to face with it again. Sir Charleroy and
Rizpah, a western soldier and a woman of Israel, two
giants in their way, began a new career at Bozrah. It
was providential. Measuring power by the only avail
able test at hand, namely, what it accomplishes, it was
manifest long ago to all that the brawn of the Cyclops
was not the master force of the word. Hercules
cleansed the earth of mythical, not real evils. Sir
Charleroy and Rizpah are fittingly brought to the thea
ter of the giants for the purpose of testing the potency
of giantesque sentimentality and stubborn, mighty
ardor. To this end, two will do as well as a nation,
and a decade will be as conclusive as a score of gene
rations. The husband and wife entered Bozrah gladly,
and quickly adapted themselves to their new surround
ings. They were both very impressible, and there
were many things in their new environments that im
A Battle cf Giants at Bozrah. . 22-j
pressed and stimulated them. Nature s face and loca
tions may be changed by man, but he can not change
her heart. She, on the other hand, is invincible in her
conquests of both his face and inner being. Climate
and environments determine the characters and careers
of the majorities. The sleets of the North, in time,
will goad the sensuous Turk or Hottentot to high
activity, while the Cossack or Esquimaux, under tropi
cal suns soon fall into luxuriousness and laziness. Boz-
rah began its molding of the knight and his wife.
Rizpah and Sir Charleroy were at first attracted to
Giant Land by the hugeness of its monuments and
ghostly greatness of its record. They received at Boz-
rah their first impulse to settle and make a home.
Probably they were largely influenced by the con
viction tiiat, in its way, there was nothing more
entrancing or majestic beyond. For the best results,
to them, the second selection was altogether unfortu
nate. They had made their home in the midst of
battle-fields, and the atmosphere that hung over all
things was like that over a defeated army, sullenly sub
mitting. The new coiners from the beginning, in their
new home, were immersed in ghostly memories, and
that atmosphere so like the breath of a bound yet
struggling giant. They were affected more than they
realized by all these things.
" No more tours, no more worlds, for us to conquer ! "
exclaimed the knight.
Rizpah, her cheerfulness of mind largely recovered,
replied to this remark of Sir Charleroy with a ban
tering laugh, at the same time pointing upward.
Quickly, and with retort cruel as a giant s javelin, he
cried :
228 The Queen of the House of David.
" Aias, so soon Rizpah seeks my final departure
from her! "
The cavalier was no more ; it was the brusque and
gross within him that spoke. Had he been courtly, even
without being Christian, he would have been consider
ate enough not to have cruelly jested concerning that
which lay in his wife s heart as a possible and sad fact.
Often the thought of eternal separation from her hus
band, even from eternal hope, haunted her now.
Her husband knew this.
For a moment his answer seemed to stun her; then
the affectations of pouting on her mobile face, coming
when she pointed upward, changed into lines of anger.
A hot flush mounting up to the roots of her hair, hung
out the warning signal.
The knight, pretending not to observe the change,
twined his arms about his wife and mockingly sighed :
" Poor girl ! I can find no wings on thee. I once
thought thou hadst such. They must have dropped
off."
There was no reply. He then began to retreat, to
placate, and to that intent drew her closer and closer
to his heart, until, embracing her, his hands clasped ;
but, for the first time since the event near Gcrash,
when the Arabs were vanquished, his caress was with
out response. He tried a thrust thus:
" Well, beloved, since thou dost banish me, bestow
a kiss of long farewell."
Quickly, Rizpah flung aside his embracing arms and
cried: " Shechemite ! I m no Dinah, won by false
professions! "
" Shcchcm was more honorable than all the house of hi
^ quoted the knight in reply.
A baffle of Giants at Bosrah. 229
" He loved himself, his passions ; to these gods he
gave up with all devotion, and they immolated him.
That was good ! "
" Why, Rizpah, thou art pettish."
" Rizpah ! Thou art adroit in using bitter similes ; a
brutalizing power, when brutally used ! Now, call me
Jarnsaxa. Thou toldst me, yesterday, how that
mighty male god of the Norse, Thor, while hating her
people, to the death, stole Jarnsaxa. Yea, and how
many giants fell for women. Perhaps thou didst want
me to pity thee. We are in Giant Land now, and thou
canst begin to play Colossus !"
The knight was startled, and quickly entreated :
"My queen, lets drop the masks; no more of this;
forget my sarcasm, and I ll forgive the recriminations.
A truce and pardon, in the name of love. What says
Esther?"
" Esther? Thou calledst me that when cavalier,
turning lover. Thou art neither now!" The sen
tence ended in a petulant sob.
" Oh, stay now. It was playfulness. I there, now !
Canst thou not brook a little playfulness from me?"
Playfulness? Bah! Ye men play so like lions,
forgetting to keep the claws cushioned ! But, no\v
thou hadst better be going, saint the only one hen
Go, now, right along to heaven. They want thee there
They want thee, not me." Then she choked back
another sob, but instantly thereafter, dashing the rising
:ear from her eyes, she bitter-ly exclaimed : "At any
rate, thou lt have company ! "
"Whom, pray?"
The begetter and chief of all restless vagabonds ! "
So; I never heard of him. Has he a name, my dear?"
230 The Queen of the House of David,
The knight was sarcastic, because he was nettled.
Rizpah s eyes glittered with the fire of offended
pride, and she quickly began in measured tone, as if in
soliloquy, and alone, to quote Job s record of satan s
joining the assembly of the sons of God :
" There was a day when the sons of God came to pre
sent themselves before the Lord, and sat an came also.
And the Lord said whence earnest tJiou ? Then sat an
said from going to and fro in the earth and from walk
ing up and down in it."
" My wife responds to my penitence with bitterness ;
but even the pagans were wiser. They ever took the
gall from the animals offered to Juno, goddess of wed
lock."
" Thy wife promised to be thy helpmate and give
thee all she had. Now, just forget thy fine paganism,
being a Christian long enough to remember that I m
thy helpmate in all things, even in bitterness. I give
thee all, even returning thy giving."
"Thou shouldst not make so much of my little mis
step."
" Nothing is little with which one must constantly
live. Great breaks grow from little fractures. One
may stand a blow, but its the constant fretting that
roughs the heart-strings to woe unendurable. Thou
hast a habit of playfully hurting."
" Well, this has been a day at school ; there ought to
be a school for husbands ! We do not half understand
the fine, sensitive creatures that companion us."
" Oh, thou thoughtst thou wcrt a woman-reader!"
" Were I to see an angel with a body like a harp,
eyes like the unsearchable ocean, heart of flame, arms
like flowering vines, covered with prismatic wings, I d
A Battle of Giants at Bozrali. 231
be no more puzzled and abashed than I ?.m now by
my high-strung, fine-tempered Rizpah."
"Puzzled! abashed! I d help thee pity thy wounded
conceit, but that I know that thou art soon to ascend.
Art thou going now ! "
" I am afraid not, since I ve so many more sins than
graces. When elephants soar with butterfly wings,
thou mayst look for my departure. Till then I ll stay
here and practice the patience of Job, beset with his
rambling devil."
" How elegantly the cavalier uses simile in coining
epithets."
"Heavens! Rizpah, thou dost twist my meanings !
Why distort, instead of pardoning my blunders, making
both of us miserable ! "
" Oh, then, thou hast grace enough not to liken me
to thy besetting, evil spirit, at least in words? "
" No, no, tis refined cruelty to put me on the de
fense as to that. Believe it or not, Rizpah of Gerash
and Rizpah of Bozrah are the same. My heart to its
co r e says so ! "
This second quarrel, that should not have been be
gun, had the merit of ending, as it should, in reconcili
ation, tears, embraces and a great many excellent
pledges. Yet Sir Charleroy did not greatly profit by
the experience. He failed to perceive that these first
breaks in the rythmic flow of conjugal love are great
shocks to a deeply affectionate woman. He knew that
men easily recover from rebuffs, and so did not stop to
consider that young wife-hood was the highest expres
sion on earth of utter clinging to one sole support.
He knew his own feelings ;md took them for the stand
ard. He set himself up as the pattern, quite uncon-
232 The Queen of the House of David.
sciously, perhaps: ; and after the conflict in which he
came off conceded victor, he was condescending in his
manner. This was unfortunate. Rizpah did not need
to be told that her husband was wiser and stronger
willed and more self-possessed and more able to endure
life s trial than herself. All this she believed, abso
lutely, when she surrendered her heart to the man at
the first. Woman-like, these were the very circum
stances that caused her to love him as she did. A
woman never loves completely until her love is supple
mented by adoration. She must believe the man, who
would make full conquest, is one to whom she can
look up ; one some way her superior. But while a
loving woman will give a devotion almost religious, she
vill be pained amid her delights of committal by a
haunting fear that he whom she adores may rise away
from her. In the very plenitude of her fullest love-
worship she will deny the reverence, sometimes, in a
seeming inconsistency, rebuff and even ridicule her
idol. It is with her a sort of hysteria, a confession of
secret terror, lest she and he grow apart in mind, and
so come to part in body. Hence it is a giant cruelty
on the part of a husband, sometimes, to enforce, or
thrust forward, his size or his lordship. They may be
facts, but God has set over against them as their equal
that love which clings, stimulates and supplements,
without which the finest man is far less than the half
of the united twain. Sir Charleroy blundered along
in his error ; Rizpah tried to be happy and failed.
She did not know how to make the best of her sur
roundings, and Sir Charleroy did not know, because he
did not seek religiously to find out how to help her
make the best of them. They had some periods of
A Battle of Giants at Bozrah. 233
pleasure, but they continually grew briefer and were
more frequently interrupted as time went on. She was
ill, he suffered himself to think her at times ill-tem
pered. As a lover, he admired her outbreaks as very
brilliant, and flattered her by remarking that she had
the metal of an Arabian steed ; as a husband, he thought
her very disagreeable when pettish or angry. Indeed,
though he never said so to her, he did say to himself that
at times she was very like a virago. The only steed
that came to his mind then was the ass, to which he
likened himself when he considered himself the perfec
tion of submissive patience.
A new event radically changed the picture and situ
ation in this troubled home.
The prayer of prayers was heard in Bozrah ; the cry
of a baby ; a bundle of needs and helplessness, with no
language but a cry. Processions of silent centuries had
passed through those halls since they echoed the hoarse
voices of the brawny beings who built them. One
could not hear the infant cry without remembering the
contrasts. A baby ; a puny one at that, and of the
gentler sex, besides being of a race pigmy compared to
the stalwarts who builded those abodes. Sir Charleroy
and his consort had set up their household gods, and for
a goodly period had occupied as theirs a Rephaim
home.
The little stranger came, though they did not discern
it, with power to bless them both. A poetic visitor,
happening on this baby s hammock there and then,
might have gone in raptures, to some truths, after this
fashion : " It will be the golden tie, angel of peace and
hope, to the home!" The philosopher, seeing the
little bundle of helplessness, might have said- "Here
234 The Queen of the House of David.
is a giant, the home is immortal through its offspring,
the babe requiring so much, richly repays its loving
care-takers by inducting them into the soul expansions
of unselfish service." But then poets and philosophers
often miss the mark, attempting prophesy.
The parents followed the usual course of those for
the first time in that relation. Their love for each
other, very intense, and by its sensitiveness witnessing
after all that it was very selfish, got a new direction.
They soon drifted into the charming fooleries of their
like. Sometimes they petted the child unceasingly,
and one was anon jealous of the other if surpassed in
this. They each struggled for a recognition from the
innocent, and debated as to whether the first babble of
the little one was "mamma" or "papa." Then there
were times when they handled baby very rever
ently, as if it were something from God, or likely to
break.
At such times they each, in heart, thanked God and
gave the child, at least in part, to Him. Sometimes
they called it " Davidah " or "darling," and laughed
?.s they assured each other, to assure themselves, that
the baby looked wise as if understanding. Sometimes
they played with it as if they were children and it a
toy ; sometimes they ministered to it with anxious
care, while all the time they felt quite sure it was some
how of finer mold and fiber than any babe before on
earth. They were just like all for the first time par
ents, and their raptures were now for good, being cen
tered around the thought expressed by the sweet word
home. Of course, the question of naming the child
was discussed, and, of course, no name they could think
of seemed quite good enough. Some days the child
A Battle of Giants at Boz; ah . 235
was given a dozen, and some days it had none ; for all
the time they kept trying to fit it.
In one thing, both parents were Jewish, namely, the
desire to give their darling an appellation expressive
of what it was or what they hoped it w r ould be. They
first agreed on " Angela," but that was discarded as
being a sort of advertisement of the quality of their
treasure. In the constant selfishness of love they
would keep it all secretly, sacredly to themselves, they
said. They sought for many days some significant
token or name that should be fully expressive of their
thought, and yet by the three only be ever fully under
stood. One day Rizpah, always abrupt, still nursing an
old superstition, said : " Call her Marah, a mournful,
sweet, expressive title."
" Why, wife, that means bitterness. "
" Bitterness, since I believe that somewhere, some
how, there is bitterness enough in store for her and
me with her "
" I d prefer Mary, my wife; surely this little angel
is to be all like that blessed one."
Then there was more strife, but of a rather patient
kind, which ended in a compromise, they calling the
child Miriamne, each in mind meaning different from
che other ; the one Marah, the other Mary. But on
the heels of this came soon the graver problem, How
should the babe be reared, in Jewish faith or Christian ?
It was the old, old story of a difficulty seemingly easily
adjusted to ail, except to those who have actually met
it, and in this case, as usual, the two parties fanatically
opposed each other. In the name of sweet religion
they loyally served the devil fora time. The highest
achievement of a creed or faith is the soothing and
2 $6 Tkd Queen of the House of David.
elevation of a home here, or the exalting of it hea<ren
ward for hereafter. That is a travesty of piety which
wrecks the substance of joy for the shell of a dogma
This stricture is easily written and may pass without
dissent, the reader immediately falling into the error
denounced. Of course, as usual, these two parents
began the discussion of the subject. At intervals they
cautiously pressed their arguments, but each unwaver
ingly moved toward his or her point. They were like
advancing armies, firing occasional shots, but surely
approaching a mighty issue. They pretended to argue
the matter by times, but it was a farce, for each in
mind irrevocably had predetermined the conclusion.
Time sped on a year or more, then the conflict fully
came.
" Rizpah, we were wed by a Christian, let us take
the fruit of that compact to Christian baptism."
"The first act was an error; we shall not atone for
it by repetitions in kind ! The child i? mine ; I de
cline."
" And mine, so I request."
"A mother imperils her whole life for her child, and
unreservedly gives to it part of herself ; justice, hu
manity, should give the child to the mother, so far as
may be."
" But even und^r thy faith, I, the father, am the
head of the house."
" Under my faith the nurture and training of chil
dren belong chiefly to the mother, and my faith has
been the finest society-builder of the world in the past.
Thou hast often recounted to me the deeds of that
golden, heroic time of my people, when the great Mac-
cabean family led us and inspired us. Well, then, the
A Battle of Giants at Bozrah. 237
mothers had exclusive control of the daughters until
they were wed, and so they had grand daughters among
the Maccabees."
" Well, we differ in belief ; we had better compro
mise."
"We dare not barter a little soul to do it."
" Well, briefly then, being lord of this home, I com
mand that the grace-giving sacrament be sought for
our Mary."
" My faith, to which thou didst first appeal, forbids
fathers to command their children to walk through
idolatrous fires. Marah shall not."
" Hush ; I only want the loved one inducted into
the true faith."
" Mine is the older and truer."
" With thee argument is futile ; I insist -
"If the father is a foreigner, Jewry s rule is that the
children are to be called by the mother s name and
regarded as of her family. Make such law as thou
choosest for thy family but not for mine."
" I ll end this," cried Sir Charleroy, seizing the child,
as if to hasten then to seek some priest s ministry.
Rizpah s eyes glittered with sullen purpose. She
sprang before him, and hissed :
"Our fathers escaped at all cost from Egypt. I ll
not go back, nor Marah."
The knight was surprised, and his looks expressed it
as he said :
" Dost thou rave ? "
" Oh, no, I was just remembering that a bearded
serpent was the Egyptian symbol of deity ; something
like a man. You Christians would have all husbands
gods to their families ! No bearded serpent for mine ! "
23 3 The Queen of the House of David.
" Heavens, woman ! thinkest thou thy scorn and vi
tuperation can stay me?" So saying he pushed, or
rather half flung the woman from him. He had no
conception of the rage that any thing like a blow
evokes in the heart of a woman that could love as once
did Rizpah. On his part it was intended as a master
piece of strategy, in the hope that the woman would
swoon, then surrender in the weakness of following
hysteria. The act was hateful to him, but he justified
it by the end sought, yet missed that end.
Rizpah was a tigress roused, and like many another
mother, beast or human, when the fight is once for
offspring was endowed with sudden, supernatural
strength. She sprang toward the hammock, plucking
her dagger meanwhile from its hiding-place.
" Heaven defend us, woman ! " cried Sir Charleroy,
glancing about for a means of prevention, " thcu
wouldst not do murder f "
" Oh, no, thou art not fit to die ; but hear me ; this
blade, consecrated to defense from dishonor, saved me
once. Dost thou remember? It will do it again, if
need be. The giver sleeps, but his stern charge haunts
me still. Protect at any cost from dishonor !
" Wouldst thou shed blood of any here ! "
" Sir Charleroy saw me slay the Turk. Had I failed,
thou falling, this blade would have found my own
heart. Push me onward by thy imperiousness and I
will slay the babe and then myself ! Methinks, it
would be an atonement for which my parent would for
give my breaking of his heart. Ah, then sweet rest ;
life s tumults over! God would pity the tempest-
tossed soul that, through such bitterness, flung itself
on Him."
A Battle of Giants at Bozrah. 239
Dost mean all this, Rizpah ? "
"Can I trifle? Ask thyself. Have I ever? My
desperate sincerity made me thy wife, but now it im
pels me to defy all thy attempts to make me thy min
ion, unthinking echo or slave ; or worse, the ruiner of
that girl."
" Well, then, woman, since thou or I must yield and
I can not, thou wilt not, I execute my before announced
purpose to have my lawful authority acknowledged
with thee or
" Say the rest, find peace away from me
" Which ? " sternly demanded the knight.
" As thou dost wish, only I ll not give up my child
to Christian sacrifice."
"Then we can not live in peace together."
" To which I reply, that God never ordained mar
riage to bind people to the home when they can only
for each other in that home make a very Tartarus ! "
The knight was humiliated. He had believed that
the woman s heart could not bear the thought of sepa
ration, and now to find her willing to give him up,
rather than her will, her faith, hurt his pride. But
they had made an utter crossing of purposes. He ran
out of their stone house, his heart as stony. A little
way off he paused, looked back, and said, " For the last
time, Rizpah, what dost thou say?"
" Go ; once for love I gave up all. Again I do it ; }
give thee up for the highest of all love, the love of a
mother for her child !
Caressingly Rizpah embraced the infant, and then
fell on her knees with her face averted from her hu c -
band. He took one glance, and realizing the defeat of
his strong will by that kneeling woman, angrily hurried
240 The Queen of the House of David.
away. The die was cast. He turned his back on Riz
pah, swearing that he would never more return.
For a few days Rizpah lived in a crazy dream ; now
laughing as she thought of her victory ; again letting
her maiden love re-assert itself ; then assuring her heart
that all was over and well as it was. But a woman who
imagines that reproach or even open violence can ut
terly extirpate love that once completely possessed her,
knows not her own heart. Especially is this true if to
that heart, she at times, press, lovingly, a child begot
ten in that love, and the form bearing the impress of
that man for whom sometime she would have willingly
died.
One flight libe baby cried piteously, being ill, and
Rizpah was fueling very lonely because so anxious for
it. She had sometimes, since Sir Charleroy s departure,
prattled with the bat/y calling " papa " and " Charle-
roy," mother-like, woman-like. Self-condemning, for
this was a half confession that she would have the
little one think, if it thought at all, that she, the
mother, was not to blame for ^he absence. The baby
had caught some names and :n its moaning, feverishly
cried : "Abbaroy, Abbaroy ; I wan*, jny Abbaroy." The
cry was piercing to the mother s hea/t and conscience.
She even then wished for the husband s return. In
deed, some hot tears fell as she prayed God to send
" papa Charleroy back." The tie of marri&ge, potent
beyond all of earth, now drew her away toward the
absent one, and she then began to marvel how easily
they had separated ; how lightly they had regarded
the bonds which after all tightly held them. When
A Battle of Giants at Bozrah. 241
lives have blended and been tied together by other
lives, it is indeed a prophesy of union " until death do
us apart."
"Abbaioy, Abbaroy ! I want my Abbaroy," still
piteously cried the sick child. The night without was
raging; the little lamp sent dancing shadows over the
black walls of her room and an unutterable loneliness
took possession of the woman. One by one thoughts
like these arose ; " Father dead, mother dead ; husband
as good as dead ; perhaps really so, and my child like
\^j die ! What if she should die thus crying for her
father! Oh, God spare me this ! I d go mad by her
corpse. " Abbaroy, I want my Abbaroy," sobbed tne
child in her sleep. The mother heard the waving
palms without. Her vivid imagination turned them
into persons, spirits. They seemed to be her dead an
cestors and they caught up the cry of her child rebuk-
ingly " Abbaroy, I want my Abbaroy." She swooned
now and slept. In the sleep there came a dream. She
thought she saw her daughter, grown to woman
hood, but pale and sad. She had the hand of her
mother and was drawing her toward the sea. When
ever the mother drew back the daughter wailed " Abba
roy, I want my Abbaroy." Presently their feet touched
the water edge, she saw a ship, floating at anchor, but
with sails spread partly ; on its stern was the name,
"England." The captain stood by the vessel s side,
observing her. At last he cried: "Well, how long
must we wait for thee?" A wave seemed to dash
against her face and she awakened. The heavy win
dow blind of stone had swung open, the rain was beat
ing in on her. She started up and felt for her child,
half fearfully lest a corpse should meet her touch. But
242 The Queen of the House of David.
she found her hands clasping a little form with fast
beating heart and burning skin. The liglu had gone
out, but there alone in that desolate home amid the
ruins of past ages, the woman bowed in agonizing
prayer. The balm of broken hearts was sought and
she for a time was clothed and in her right mind. She
arose, serenely, in the morning the cry of the sea cap
tain of her dream in her ears, and the firm resolve in
her heart to seek her husband even in far-off England ;
with him to try for the things that make for peace.
Then she opened the iron-bound chest that had come
to her from her father and took therefrom a roll of the
Kethrubim " and read. And it so happened that seek
ing to refresh her mind as to the story of how the
giant Sampson got honey out of the slain lion s car
cass, that she might more fully apply the meaning to
her own experience, she came to the story of his birth.
That story fixed her attention for days. It was like a
new revelation to her. And she read and read these
words over and over:
" And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the
Danites, whose name was Manoah.
" And the angel of the LORD appeared unto the
woman, and said unto her, Behold now, thou shalt con
ceive and bear a son.
" Then the woman came and told her husband, say
ing, A man of God came unto me, and his counte
nance was like an angel of God, and he said unto me,
Behold thou shalt bear a son.
" Then Manoah entreated the Lord and said, O my
Lord, let the man of God which thou didst send come
igain unto us, and teach us what we shall do unto the
child.
A Battle of Giants at Bozrah. 243
" And God hearkened to the voice of Manoah ; and
tlie angel of God came again unto the woman.
" And the woman made haste, and ran, and shewed
her husband.
"And Manoah arose, and went after his wife and
came to the man.
" And Manoah said, Now let thy words come to
pass. How shall we order the child, and how shall we
do unto him ?
"And the angel of the Lord said unto Manoah, Of
all that I said unto the woman let her beware.
" So Manoah took a kid with a meat offering, and
offered it upon a rock unto the Lord : and the angel
did wondrously ; and Manoah and his wife looked on.
" For it came to pass, when the flame went up to
ward heaven from off the altar, that the angel of the
Lord ascended in the flame of the altar: and Manoah
and his wife looked on it, and fell on their faces to the
ground."
And as Rizpah read, little by little, the truth and
beauty of the scene and its words dawned upon her.
Thusshe meditated : " This is the way God brought
forth His giant deliverer, Samson ; God appeared to the
woman first, but she hasted to tell of the promised
blessing to her husband. When she thought of how
that angel-led wife led her husband, she remembered
her own fanatical bitterness and was condemned.
Then she remembered how Manoah and his wife,
together, asked how they should order their child and
how, as together they bowed before the Spirit, he
ascended in glory over them. " Oh," she moaned
within herself, " if we had only put aside our differ
ences and. forgetting all else, just so sought together
244 The Queen of the House of David.
the Divine directings ! " It was evening as she medi
tated, and she said within herself: " If ever I can get
nigh Sir Charleroy s heart I ll tell him all this, and be
fore the altar of a new consecration we ll give our
selves and ours to God, just this way." There came a
wondrous joy to her heart and the palms that seemed
to moan rebukingiy without that other night, " Abba-
roy, Abbaroy, I want my Abbaroy," this night
reminded her some way vaguely of the beating of
mighty wings, approaching nearer and nearer. She
felt no longer rage, as she thought about the often be-
praised Mary of her husband, but on the other hand,
wished she knew more about her, were more like her,
It was the woman in her, yearning for a mother.
CHAPTER XVII.
JRLZJA.H, THE ANCIENT "MOTHER OF SORROWS.
" Oh say to mothers, what a holy charge
Is theirs ! With what a queenly power, their love
Can rule the fountain of a new-born mind.
Warn them to wake at early dawn and sow
Good seed before the world has sown its tares ;
Nor in their toil decline, that angel bands
May put their sickles in and reap for God
And gather in his garner."
EARLY a score of years passed away, each
having wrought its changes, and Rizpah de
Griffin is dwelling quietly with her three
children at Bozrah. She is companionless
though not a widow. Care has left its stern impress on
her every feature ; the roses have gone from her cheeks
and the snows that tarry, baffling all springs, are on
her head. But time that has worn has also ripened.
Rizpah has become a self-possessed, stately matron ;
her form is erect, her eye as bright as ever. Bozrah
has not changed ; the city sits in its sullen, fixed
gloom, seemingly unconscious of the ravages that
time works elsewhere. But there have been changes
and changes among the people since first the woman
of Gerash arrived there. Many former inhabitants have
wandered away ; some to be swallowed up by the tides
of peoples of other climes ; some have gone to judg
ment. But new comers have taken the places of those
246 The Queen of the House of David.
that had departed and speeded the swift enough for-
getting of the absent ones. Rizpah was in high honor,
for although she lived in seclusion, mixing very little
with any of the people about her, all respected her.
Hers was a well-ordered house ; Druses, Turks and
Hebrews joined in affirming this. She ruled her child
ren firmly and they obeyed her implicitly, for they loved
her loyally. We meet her now amid active prepara
tion for the observance of the approaching Jewish Sab
bath. With her are two boys, twins, born in London,
as like each other as could be, and Miriamne. The lat
ter is in the full possession of her roses, and in the en
joyment of that splendor of personal charm seemingly
belonging to all the maidens of Abrahamic descent
under " the covenant of the stars and the sand." For
are not Israel s women not only plenteous and bright
and lofty like the stars, and her men numberless, rugged
and restless as the surf-washed sands on every shore ?
Does not this race, in all history, continually attest the
persistence and pre-eminence of all good to those who
walk under the Divine covenants?
Miriamne not only is seen to possess a gracefulness
like unto that of the palm, nature s pattern of beauty
in the East, but she has such robustness of form as might
be expected in one born of such a Hebrew mother and
such a Saxon father. In her temper, poetic, emotional,
oriental, like her mother; in feature and mind more
like her father ; she was a better, more evenly balanced
result than either. It often so happens ; the child by
some natural selection or some mercifulness, inheriting
a character, the resultant of the union of two sets of
parental forces, yet finer than either apart. The scien
tific man in such cases will say, herein we bchoM, in a
Rizpah, the Ancient "Mother of Sorrows." 247
new being, physical and spiritual forces in action, the
latter gaining the advantage; a prophesy without
mystery that at last the fittest only shall survive. The
theologian, on the other hand, will see Providence elect
ing the best and preparing choice characteristics for
superior works to be done.
At a call of the mother, the children gathered about
her, and the group was charming; a picture full of ex
pression and contrasts. The matron cast a look of
yearning affection upon her offsprings, and the emotion
possessed her until the hard face-lines faded into a sweet
smile. Just then she would have been a satisfactory
model for an artist painting Madonna. :i Thank God,
children, the emblem of rest and of hope in ages to
come is at hand. I have joyed to-day, in full prepara
tion that this next Sabbath may be piously and earn
estly celebrated with all the religious exactness of our
people." Then, patting the boys on their heads with
playful tenderness, she continued : " Run away now up
to the synagogue-ruin on the hill. Don t forget your
duty in play, lads ; be true little Israelites ! When ye
see the sun go down back of Gilead s mountains, give
us warning of the Sabbath s beginning. Now mind,
1< ;ep your eyes toward Jerusalem."
The lads sped away, and Rizpah following them with
her eyes prayed in heart : " God bless them, and though
in this place of desolation, make them little Samuels
in faith and service." A little after her face glowed
with triumphant joy, for there came back to her ears
the boys voices, mingling in sacred song. It was the
psalm of the "Captives Return " that they sang. The
declining sun began to throw its last rays through the
open windows of the huge stone home, flooding tne
The Queen of the Hcrisc of David.
black basalt walls and pavement with golden tints
Slowly the mother s eyes wandered from the scene
without to objects within, until they rested on a huge
painting that covered nearly half the opposite wall. One
glance and her whole being seemed transformed. In
an instant her reverential and weary attitude was
changed to one of excited attention. She grew pale,
her body swayed with a waving motion, suggestive of
the panther creeping toward a victim. Then her form
became rigid like one preparing for some great muscu
lar effort, or endeavoring to suppress some inner tem
pest. Her face, made habitually calm by the school
ings of adversity, became a theater for expression of the
changing emotion within; the mouth-lines putting on
a firmness almost hideous; her eyes glittered like a
serpent s in the act of charming ; contrasting with the
forehead that shone like a silver shield. She was as
one under a spell or in a trance ; but for a few moments
only. There came a light footfall ; then a quick, half
frightened, piteous cry and Miriamne stood beside her.
" Oh, mother, don t! mother, mother; thou dost ter
rify me ! " The young woman stopped half way between
the open door and her parent. Now she was passing
through a great transition. She had seen all that was
happening, often before ; had often run away from the
spectacle to hide it from herself. Now she was trying
to nerve herself to penetrate the mystery in the hope
of preventing its painfulnesss. She was at the turning
point, where a girl changes to the woman within the
circle of parental influences.
But so complete was the absorption of the one gaz
ing; upon the spectacle upon the wall, at first the cry
was unheeded. In a sort of sudden, trembling despe;-
Rizpah, the Ancient "Mother oj Sorrows." 249
ation the young woman quickly bounded between
her mother and the picture. Then, as if realizing the
unfilial imprudence of the act, but still unwilling to
recede from efforts to break the spell that bound her
parent, she fell upon her knees before the seeming dev
otee and burst into tears. The mother started up a
little as one awakening from a dream ; then said, with
perfect control of voice and manner ; " Marah, what
ails thee? Art ill ? Are the Bedouin coming?"
"No, no," replied the other; "the picture; the
picture ! "
" What is it child ? "
" I do not know. I only know that your strange,
wild gaze upon its hideous group terrifies me ! For
years I ve learned to feel a mingled disgust and
fright in the presence of the woman in that pre
sentment. When I came in, your face looked like
hers. You did not seem to be my own tender mother,
but an angry virago. Oh, why do you shadow all our
Sabbath eves, by this mysterious, cruel staring and
moaning before this imagery of death ? You ve made
me to dread the approaching Holy- Day, promise of all
delight to our people, as the advent of all pain to us."
" Marah, this is wickedness in thee. Thou shouldst
learn to wrap thy soul about with the joys thou knowest,
and leave all this that thou dost not understand, most
likely terrible to thee chiefly because thou dost not
understand it, to go its way."
" I ve tried and tried for months to reason thus; but
how little comfort to be saying over and over, it s
all right, its nothing, to a fear that stops the very
beatings of the heart. Oh, that I could fly from this
land of desolations. Its loneliness and shadows keep
250 The Queen of tJie House of David.
coming and coming around me until I dread, lest they
enter my very being and become part of me. I ve leaned
hitherto alone on my mother s greater strength for
rest. If I come to fear her, I ll lose my reason ! "
" Marah," said the mother, with enforced calmness,
* thou art feverish to-day ; thou hast wrought too much.
Now retire and say this pillow Psalm ; He that divel-
leth in the secret place of the Most High, abidcth Tinder
the shadow of the Almighty. Thou lt be peaceful in
the morning ; as are those ever who abide under the
shadow of the King."
But only the more passionately the daughter clung to
her mother, and again she renewed her plaint : " Ah,
mother, I have nt strength to take these promises! Oh
forgive me, I can not help it ; I feel as if something
awful were impending ; something coming between us!
A curse is on this land. Is it any way over the De-
Griffins ? Tell me, I beseech you, what is that painted
thing? Sometimes I run out of the room when
alone, as if those men hanging there were still alive, in
death s agony. I ve dreamed sometimes that they
came down in bodily form charging you and me with
murdering them ; and when I go out at evening, I im
agine that the Ismaelitish woman in the foreground is
flitting about my path, while in every thicket I hear
the flapping wings of her carrion birds. Oh, mother!
let us tear down that sole defilement of our own
little, only home, and give it to the pilgrim Rabbi,
now in Bozrah, that he may burn it with exorcising
rites."
"Then thou thinkest there s witchery hereabouts,
Marah," said the mother, severely.
" I ? I do not know what I think, beyond this, that
RizpaJi, the Ancient "Mother of Sorrows" 251
I in overcome, terrified, made miserable, and you, under
some spell for a time, cease to be my mother."
" My daughter profanes her faith by permitting un
reined imaginations to rule her so."
" Oh, tell me all about this hateful thing ! Why it so
moves you. You said long ago you would when I was
able to bear it. I am no longer a child. Mother, you
say you read me like an open book, now look into my
heart and see that it is bursting with fright and worry !
You say you know woman s nature ; if so, you know
that I can suffer when I understand, but shall go mad
in the suspense of constant fear of some threatening ill
unseen." Thus speaking and clinging to her mother,
with a twining, almost desperate embrace, such as
among women implies unerringly that a supreme mo
ment and demand has fallen upon the questioner, she
burst forth in tearless sobs. The mother s face was a
study and told of a succession of weighty thoughts ;
parental authority brooked; infringed ; new surprised
realization that the daughter was no longer a child, but
a wise, earnest woman. Then there was a degree of
fcarfulncss springing from deep love. The elder wo
man perceived the crisis, and knew full well that in such
times denials to a woman meant a dead heart, or worse.
Then her manner softened, and drawing her child to
her bosom with an embrace passionate in fervor, she
tenderly, soothingly spoke to her:
" My most dearly beloved Marah ! dismiss all thy
fears at once and forever. They are needless. Rest,
now and always, as thou never canst elsewhere, in all
the world, upon this heart of mine. Rest thou in thy
present young womanhood, as calmly, as trustingly, as
thou didst in baby-hood. That heart guarded thee
252 The Queen of the House of David
more tenderly than its own life then, through storm*
within and without that nearly broke it. In part thou
dost know this; remembering what it has been in
loyalty to God and thyself, canst thou pain it by one
distrusting thought now?"
" Oh, mother, I know, I know ; I do not mean to
doubt you, and I remember, with a gratitude beyond
all my poor power of speech, your toiling, patient,
constant, loving care for me and my brothers. I never
can forget that you are a Hebrew indeed, proud to
emulate the noble mothers of our nation in its olden,
golden days; but after all I must think. I think,
sometimes, with anguish, that that awful picture may
some way come between us ! "
" Why, Marah, impossible ! thou art my other self;
a fairer copy ; as I was at thy age." Then Rizpah spoke
in unusual, confiding tenderness: "We mothers have
our vanities and take a secret pride in wearing our
daughters on our hearts as precious jewels. When
nature gratifies that pride by giving us daughters in
form, features and mind, mirrors or glad reminders of
ourselves, as we were in the days of young beauty,
romancings and hopes, we hug these in our souls in a
way thou canst never realize until thou hast been such a
mother. Change ? I change toward thee ? Ah, girl,
not being a mother, thou canst not begin to fathom
the ocean-depth, the heaven-height, the eternity-like
unchanging endurance of a woman s love, once it has
been quickened into the channels of maternal affection.
Thou art a womrm to all the world, but not so to me.
I love thee now as I loved thee when thou wert a
babe. To me thou wilt always be a little, lovely,
needy creature an angel teaching the fountains of
Rizpah, the Ancient "Hlofher of Sorrows." 253
my inmost nature. All earthly friendships change ;
lover s love, at first fierce, generally dies as the tides of
years roll over it ; but, mother-love, in all loving, is the
exception. Believe this as thou dost believe the ten
ets of our faith and thou ll find thy troubling thoughts
fleeing away like mists of Hermon, before the conquer
ing banners of the morning." There followed a pro
longed embrace and a mutual kiss ; impassioned, affec
tionate ; an action expressing volumes to one skilled
in interpreting the signs, all unvoiced and unwritten,
yet, by some constant intuition, known to all woman
kind as the language of the finest, sincerest loving.
That moment these two women passed onward, up
ward together to a higher, lighter, stronger relation
ship than they had enjoyed before. They entered the
temple where daughter and mother begin the feast of
the new revelation ; when to the love of parent and
child is added that of real companionship. That is a
sunny, fruity hour, when a girl is received as a woman
by a woman ; that woman her mother.
The two sat embracing and happy for a long time ;
but the old pain suddenly revived Miriamne s eyes
chancing to stray to the picture. She shuddered, then
looked pleadingly into her parent s eyes. The mother,
quickly interpreting the look, tenderly replied : " Some
time."
" No, oh, no ; tell me, mother, all, now ! Who,
and what are those hanging forms ; the horror-frighted,
bludgeon-armed woman ; the birds of black, hovering
over the crosses? Oh! my mother, you trust me ; now
tell me all or tear that down ! You know it s not lawful
for us Jews to have any image of things in Hades."
The last words moved the mother more than all else
1 54 The Queen of the House of Dai id,
that Miriamne had hitherto spoken. Heresy, she
abominated ; and the chief aim of her life had been to
make her children true Israelites by precept and ex
ample. To her thinking, Israel alone was right ; all
others were heathen, to whom was reserved perdition.
To an apostate, in her belief, there came a final judg
ment of misery, beggaring all attempt at description.
A little while she hesitated, and then came to quick
resolve to tell her daughter all. She arose, walked
rapidly back and forth over the stone floor of the
abode, and, then stopping before the daughter, said :
"Thy wish shall be granted. In love of thee, for lo,
these many years I ve hidden from thee one miserable
and dark chapter of our family history. I have drank
the bitter waters alone. But too much I love thee to
bear the piteous appeal of thy lips, or the look of
doubt that sometimes flits in thy questioning eyes.
Canst thou bear knowledge that is full of bitterness?"
" Yea, mother," said Miriamne, there is no bitterness
in reality like that our imaginations conjure up, when
fed by mysteries that hang on pictures of such hideous
mien -
" Thou dost force me to the explanation, but, daugh
ter blame me not, if, like Saul of old, who fainted at
the sight he compelled Endor s witch to reveal, thou
art given now some knowledge that kills thy sunshine."
" I m the daughter of Rizpah and Sir Charleroy. Did
they either of them ever fear?"
" Ah ! but I have been the very mother of sorrows,
ever since thy birth, child. God knows it ; and it
were best to leave it all to Him alone."
" But, mother, I d gladly share your sorrows. Sor
row shared is ever lightened by the sharing. Let us
Rizpah, the Ancient " Mother of Sorrows" 255
bear the corpse between us, and in this lonely life we
shall be made more than ever companions, through a
common grief."
" So be it then. Thou shalt know all."
And Rizpah, going to a seldom-used iron-bound
chest, drew therefrom a parchment roll; handing the
same to her daughter, she said : " Read. It s part of
Father Harrimai s Ketliubim. The place opened to
the story of the famine in David s time, which endured
three years, because of wrongs done to the Gibeonites
by the children of Israel. As Miriamne read onward,
Rizpah from time to time gave explanations:
" Dost perceive, daughter, that Jehovah, though
not revengeful, is a God of recompenses?"
" lie was the friend of the Gibeonites though they
were not of his chosen people ; because they had no
other friend, I think," said Miriamne.
" Yes, and He held all Israel responsible for what
they were willing to let their blood-thirsty Saul per
form. As he had been, so had been the people ; they
were guilty, and God needed to punish them. How
just! Oh ! God is sure to press men to a conclusion.
Read what David said to the stranger Gibeonites ;"
Miriamne continued:
" And he said, what ye shaJl say, that will I do for
you.
" And they answered the king, the man that con
sumed us, and that devised against us ;
" Let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and
we will hang them up unto the Lord in Gibeah.
"And the king said, I will give them.
" But the king spared Mephiboseth, the son of Jon-
athan the son of Saul.
256 77ie Queen of the House of David*
" But the king took the two sons of Rizpah, the
daughter of Aiah, whom she bare unto Saul, Armoni
and Mephiboseth ; and the five sons of Michal the
daughter of Saul, whom she brought up for Adriel.
"And he delivered them into the hands of the Gib-
eonites, and they hanged them in the hill before the
Lord : and they fell all seven together, and were put to
death in the beginning of barley harvest."
Miramne paused; then addressed her parent:
" Mother, I d not be an heretic, and yet I can not see
the justice of hanging the sons for the father s sins ? "
" Perhaps they were parties to the murder ; perhaps
publicly, or in heart, defended it. At any rate, from
the beginning it has been so. Thou and thy brothers
are living here fatherless on account of him that begat
you
" Shall I stop reading this bloody story?" quoth
Miriamne.
" It pains thee. Thou must go on now, though thou
shouldst fall fainting, as Saul at Endor. Read."
The daughter complied, and with quickly revived in
terest, for she came to the name " Rizpah " the second
time, but before she had not noticed it in reading.
" And Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, took sackcloth
and spread it for her upon the rock, from the begin
ning of harvest until water dropped upon them out
or heaven, and suffered neither the birds of the air to
rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by
night.
" And it was told David what Rizpah, the daughter
of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done.
%: And David went and took the bones of Saul
and the bones of Jonathan, his son, from the men of
Rizpah, the Ancient " Mother of Sorrows" 257
Jabesh-gilead, which had stolen them from the street
of Beth-shan.
"And he brought up from thence the bones of Saul
and the bones of Jonathan his son ; and they gathered
the bones of them that were hanged.
"And the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son
buried they in the country of Benjamin, in Zelah, in
;he sepulcher of Kish, his father : and they performed
all that the king commanded. And after that God
was entreated for the land."
When the last clause was finished, Miriamne cast a
glance at the huge painting on the wall.
" I understand in part; that is Rizpah and her cruci
fied children ? "
" It is well, daughter. Behold her; this is mother
hood of strongest type ! Humanity is no where per.
feet, but of all the erring ones of life, I most believe in
those, who, among many perversions of judgment and
blemishes of character, have some one or more of lofty
virtues. Methinks a soul may be drenched by many
sins, and yet, if within its very core it carry sincerely
and sacred as its life some noble, dominating passion,
like the holy love of parent for a child, that soul will
ever have thereby a gate open to the Holy Spirit, a
handle for the grasp of saving angels, and, while life
lasts, an ever-flying signal lifted toward heaven. Such
prayer unspoken is a beseeching, not vainly for the in
terceding love of Him that weighs the spirits."
"But, mother, you re not such a tigress? Not like
that woman ?"
" How proud I d be to be indeed all she was. The
exact interpretation of Rizpah is a living coal/ but
her name interpreted by her life is better called the
258 The Queen of the House of David.
flaming beacon. We mutually lament the dispersion
of our people ! Dost thou remember how last Sab
bath thou wepst while thou didst read to me the words
of the blessed Isaiah foretelling the long-delayed but
Divinely-promised regathering of all our tribes ?"
" Oh ! that the hills of Judea would glow with the
beacons of that day ! "
"Daughter, God s beacons are chiefly noble spirits,
such as Moses of the Exode, Samson, the giant, David,
Nehemiah and Cyrus. The world has not yet inter
preted Rizpah, the burning coal, the beacon fire.
Once I was frail, timorous, wavering, but devotion to
that character has transformed me. When the world s
mothers look to her pattern, there will be a new order
of motherhood ; then look for heroic men and an heroic
age!"
" But was not Rizpah a Hivite, a descendant of
Ham, and so of those forever under God s curse?"
" My child, ancestry is not always the test of worth
The consequences of sin may pass down from sire to
son, but never so as to bar the way to hope, nor clam
up the stream of ever-pitying mercy of heaven. Riz
pah had some true Jewish blood within her heart, and
in the long run God s providence doth work to make
the better part, of admixed good and ill, dominate. Be
sides all this, the lovely Ruth, thou dost emulate so well,
was foreign to our people. So, too, was Rahab ; and our
Rabbis tell us she was in the royal line of David, from
which at last the Messiah shall arise. Those women,
with Rizpah, were beacons to the world ! While man
kind revere true love, constancy, loyalty and faith,
those names will be remembered."
" But, mother, Rizpah was the concubine of Saul,
Rizfiah, tJie Ancient "Mother of Sorrows"
and as I think of how you oft denounce the harems of
our neighboring Bedawin, my very soul blushes at hear
ing you admire this woman so."
Ah, daughter, methinks she was more sinned against
than winning. Recall the unequal struggle : Rizpah, a
foreigner, of a nation subdued by kingly Saul ; he a
man, strong of mind, a king, hedged with a sort of
divinity that in the minds of the simple ever hedges
kings about ; making their words and deeds seem
always right and just. If women made the laws and
customs there never would have been known on earth
unclean polygamy, but ever instead thereof the union
only, in holy wedlock, of two lives, mutually conse
crated, serviceful and constant. Under wrong teach
ing and tyranny, a woman may do that which purer
societies condemn, and yet retain a conscience white
and clean before God.
"Within that book of Samuel, which I hold, it is re
corded that Ishbosheth, a son of Saul, who for a time
reigned in a rebellious confederacy, a horseman s day s
journey from here, at Mahanaim, charged Rizpah once
with an act of impurity.
" The record makes no mention of Rizpah s reply.
Like thousands of women before and since her time,
she was defenseless against slander. Men, the stronger,
may malign without evidence, and often it doth out
weigh, to ears ripe to feast upon the carrion of a scandal,
the indignant denial of outraged purity, accompanied
even with evidences which make the thought of crime
upon the part of the one belied, seemingly an impossi
bility. But leave all that ; I appeal in behalf of my re-
vered Rizpah to her wondrous loyalty as a mother. Tell
me not that this sublimely heroic woman, who patiently
?.6o The Queen of ike House of David.
watched the corpses of her sons and other kin from
April, through all the lonely nights and through all
those burning days, until October rains wept them to
their burial, ever did an act that could let loose upon
them living or dead the hounds of scandal ! They may
have suffered death as malefactors, in God s sight, but
still her mother-love clung to them. She who kept
those long vigils, lest beast or bird of prey should harm
or mar or pollute the bodies precious to her if to no
one else, I am assured, beyond all cavil, never did
aught that could have stung their brows or embittered
their hearts ! Such motherly devotion as hers doth
fully purify a woman. He who planned society, with
its sacred foundations resting so largely on the integrity
of its child-bearers, has planted in the bosom of woman
this all-possessing love of her offspring, as her safe-
guard. It s her wall of fire by day and by night, and
verily more restraining to her than any law of man,
command of God, or fear of hell ! "
"And are loving mothers never unchaste? "
" The Jews hated swine and the monster deities of
Chaldeans, because both destroyed their young, and
our holy Talmudists declare that Mary of the Chris
tians, not being as pure as the Nazarene s followers
affirm, is doomed to bide even in lowest Hades with
the bar of hell s gate through her ear. No ; I, as a
Jewish woman, believe that one of my sex being a
mother and impure is neither loving, nor a woman ! "
" How I revere the noble sentiments of Rizpah of
Bozrah ! "
" For all I am, after God, praise that ancient, fervent
beacon, Rizpah of Gibeah ! "
"I am in part reconciled to her, but yet I wish, in
Rizpah, the Ancient "Mother of Sorrows." 261
frightened agony often, that you would renounce this
historic Rizpah ; lioness-like in her devotion to her off
spring, but full of murderous fury toward any that
crossed her love. Our holy book must have sweeter,
nobler ideals for our inspiration."
" I judge this Hebrew heroine mother by her in-
fluence upon me, and that has been for good. The
hypocrite or romancer may call the passer-by to prayer
and have no more soul in it than the Moslem trumpet.
Only those who have some God-like saintliness of
character, can win effectually, unceasingly. There is
mighty power in the unspoken sermons of such a life.
I cherish Rizpah, whose touch of moral power, coming
where and when I was weak to callowness, girded me
with purpose for wavering and thews of steel for rosy
softness. I was once like thee, a fragile flower, but the
example of that patient woman s heroism, ever before
me, has fitted me to meet my awful trials and worthily
inhabit this giant-built house. Thou dost remember,
Miriamne, at last Passover time they wish, as thou
didst read to me of Jacob, that even now a ladder with
communicating angels might be set up from earth to
heaven? "
"Ah, that would be a feast; angels in burning
bushes, or by fountains as in Hagar s time ! I often
worship in the thicket and pray for heaven s messen
gers from Paradise to fan the flames of our devotion,
as Gabriel did the orisons of Daniel. But I d be afraid
to meet an angel like your Rizpah."
"Not so with me, Marah. Indeed, I often think of
Rizpah and Jacob together. Thou rememberest how,
not far away, at Mahanaim, Jacob of old met a host of
angels? They came to cheer him in an hour of sad
262 The Queen of the House of David.
depression, the saddest kind indeed ; for in that hour
he remembered amid his repentings that he was soon
to face the brother whom long years before he had
wronged. Well, when Rizpah, by the death of Saul,
was released from that domineering madman-king,
she made her home at Mahanaim, the place near which
Jacob counseled with the angels. Methinks she there
also communed with the spirits that do excel in strength.
She may have been weak before, but in that angel
school she outgrew her master. Ay, my child, it is
marvelous how a woman rises under the impulses of a
noble love, holy companionship and plenty of sorrow.
Many a male brute has flattered himself he was crush
ing into fawning servitude by his imperious, selfish will,
his weaker child-burdened mate, only some day to find
the victim asserting her individuality with power un
earthly. The partridge skulks, terrified amid lowly
grasses from the hunter, little by little gathering cour
age for her pinions, then she suddenly departs to
return no more, meanwhile luring the hunter from her
treasures."
" That is, an abused wife should run away?"
"Oh, perhaps not; but she may rise above her
tyrant."
" I can t but remember the woman s rough strength."
"Tome the all-controlling love of Rizpah for her
children condones her former errings, her Philistine
ancestry, her craggedness. I believe she soars with the
angels now, and to Israel she must be a pattern until
some more saintly and finer woman arises to take the
leadership of woman."
"Will such an one appear, mother?"
God s dial is a circle, with a sweep like eternity,
Rizpah, the Ancient Mother of Sorrows" 263
He knows no hurry; yet, though never weary, is never
belated. We are not waiting for him, but He is for us.
When man is ready to take up his pilgrim march to the
highlands of a living, all light, all beautiful, there ll be
beacons and beacons from the valleys to the hills."
Just then the lamp by which they had been sitting,
for some time having only flickered, was suddenly
quenched, and there was a sound of the fluttering of
wings in the room. Mariamne screamed and clung to
her mother, her thoughts on the vultures of the picture.
" T\vas only a bat, daughter ! "
" Oh, this ghostly place ! " the young woman cried.
"Ghosts and bats are very harmless; would men
were like them ! " bitterly spoke Rizpah.
" A bat putting out our light ; it s like an omen ! "
" Yes, wrongs do put cut the light of human joy, but
only for a little while; look out to the firmanent, my
clinging other self, as I do, for comfort by times. See,
the stars are immovable; all bright and in seemingly
everlasting calm. Never forget in any long trial, or
sudden terror, that when our human-made lights expire
we are to turn our eyes toward heaven. In truth, God
Himself often quenches our lights to make us look up
to His." The mother, approaching the stone case
ment, and looking out on the sky, continued : "The
heavens are full of beacons and lamps. They shall
light us to bed as His truth lights those who will to
serene, long rest. Good night, my child."
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE QUEEN PROCLAIMED IN THE GIANT CITY.
" Half-hearted, false-hearted ! Heed we the warning !
Only the whole can be perfectly true ;
Bring the whole offering, all timid thought scorning,
True-hearted only if whole-hearted too."
HAVERGAL.
NOTHER Passover season was at hand, and
the few Israelites in and about Bozrah, not
being permitted to celebrate the feast, at
Jerusalem were gathering for a " Little
Passover " at the Giant City. There was sadness, mur-
murings and fears in the hearts of the people. Sad
ness in remembering the decadence of Israel ; fears, for
there were Mamelukes hovering threateningly in large
numbers near the city; murmurings, because fault
findings, the last stage to indifference, flourish when
religion is decaying. Faith and doubt waged their
eternal battle ; and at Bozrah, doubt appealing to pres
ent facts, had the easier part against faith, appealing
to past providences or unseen hopes. There was
clamor for a change, but the leaders of the people were
purblind to any new light. They crushed their own
secret doubts and continued to enforce what they be
lieved, because they had believed it. They felt a sense
of responsibility, and that made them very conserva
tive. Before the sun had reached high-noon Bozrah
The Queen Proclaimed in the Giant City. 265
was all astir. There were but two principal streets
in the city ; these ran by the four great points of the
compass and crossed at its center. Two companies of
Jews of very different make-up, each moving along one
of those streets, met, and, in passing, quite accidentally,
the two processions formed a cross. One of the com
panies was made up of priests and serious old men, the
true elders of the people. They tried to appear very
wise and very pious, and succeeded. They tried as well
to cheer and comfort all, and did not succeed very well.
The other company was made up of young Israelitish
men. They were going eastward ; the old men walked
northward, away from the sun, now a little more than
southeast. By the side of the elders glided a row of
shadows of their own making. But they were as
unconscious of these as of the shadows their musty
traditions flung over the people.
The youths felt like singing, so they sang. The
sadness that \vas so general was not very deep with
them. They would have liked to have sung a sort
of convivial song; but, that being forbidden, they com
promised with their consciences and the situation
by singing the one hundred and twenty-second Psalm,
with the vigor of a madrigal. They had a surplus
age of vitality, and they let it flow out in the pious
canticle. Certainly they conserved outward propriety;
as to their inward feelings, they themselves hardly
knew what they were; hence, it would be unjust,
for one without, to pass judgment. The Psalm was
appointed to be sung at this feast. They say the return
ing captives, coming from Babylon, centuries before,
sang this song as they ascended to a sight of Jeru
salem.
266 The Queen of the House of David.
Now, some of the elders had come to think it piety
to morbidly nurse their sorrows. They were never
happy except when they were miserable. One of these
paused and addressed the young singers :
" Children, cease. Your time is too much like a
dancer s."
Then all eyes turned toward the leader of the
youths, a man with a Saul-like neck, large mouth, wet,
thick lips, and burning eyes ; all bespeaking a person
who is never religious beyond the drawings of religicus
excitement, for excitement s sake, and never self-
restraining, except as checked by fear of a very mate
rial hell. Such an one, if he have any regularity in
his piety, will have it because somebody opposes, or
because, having swallowed, with one lazy gulp, a heavy
creed, he thereafter goes about condoning by habit his
petty vices, in trying to force others to be better than
he himself ever expects to be. Such are never spiritual,
and seldom martyrs ; but they make good persecutors,
and so do a work that compels others, by suffering, to
be spiritual, and, may be, good martyrs. This leader
made sharp retort, thrusting out his chin to enforce it :
" The Psalm is all right, and, if the old men sang
more, they would have less time for moaning. Sing
ing and moaning are much alike, only the former
cheers men, the latter, devils ! "
" Son," replied the patriarch, " revile not the fathers,
We do not condemn thy joy as sin ; but yet it now
seems inopportune. We are entering captivity, not
liberation. Our holy and our beautiful temple is in
ruins ; our people like hunted quail."
" But, this is feast time," said the youth.
" What a feast ! I remember it as it was when the
The Queen Proclaimed in the Giant City. 267
.lation gathered at Jerusalem, to the number of
nigh 3,000,000, and offered 250,000 lambs. Ah,
now, a handful, in this grim old city surrounded by
aliens ! "
The elder, so speaking, bowed his head, threw his
mantle over his eyes and wept ; meanwhile his fellow-
elders gathered about him, very reverently, and waved
their hands rebuking toward the youths. Just then
there drew near a beautiful Jewess, led by an aged
man, the latter garbed partly as an Israelite, and partly
as one of the Druses. He had a saintly mien, and fixed
the attention of the elders ; but, the young men, \vith
one accord, youth-like, at once erected, in silent wor
ship, an unseen altar of devotion to the new goddess.
The grouping was striking and suggestive. The
stranger was silent, and seemed to be intent on passing
by so ; but the elders felt their responsibility. It is
the fate of the religious leader to be expected to
explain everything. He must talk to everybody, and
about every matter. He cannot, when he will, keep
quiet and so get the credit for fullness of wisdom, as do
some. He must express an opinion, for silence is
deemed a greater sin in such than insincerity or words
out of ignorance. The foremost of the elders felt
called to act, and so confronting the two new comers,
sternly addressed the maiden:
" I perceive that thou art of my people ; wherefore
comest thou here, and in this companionship? Know-
est thou not that women are forbidden to be at the
first of the feast ?"
The young men were not in accord with the elder;
they stood apart, and some whispered to others
" It is Miriamne de Griffin. "
268 The Queen of the House of David.
The maiden shrank back a little ; but the saintly man
with her, advancing a step, replied :
" I am the maiden s guardian to-day, fathers, and
responsible for her act. Say on! "
The elder, though knowing full well who the speaker
was, and also fully understanding the import of his
challenge; pretended to have neither heard nor seen
him. He looked past the speaker, who was champion
ing the maiden, and continued :
" Do thy people at home know of these indiscreet
acts?"
" Hold, Rabbi ! no insinuations." The saintly man s
voice was commanding, and compelled silence. He
continued : " We go our way, ye yours. Ye can not
help yourselves out of your miseries ; then presume
not to direct us." He checked his rising anger, re
membering that he was a religious teacher, and
launched out in a wayside sermon. "Ye children of
Abraham, hear me, though I came not to counsel. Ye
have stopped my progress, now hear God s truth !
There are dangers without, but greater ones within ;
though your eyes, being veiled, ye perceive not these
things. I noticed as I was coming this way that the
tombs and grave-stones every where have been whitened
recently. They tell me this was done so as to enable
your people plainly to see them and so avoid them.
Yet fleeing defilement of the dead, ye live in a grave,
all of you. All your prefiguring feasts have ripened
into a glowing present that treads out into a full
day!"
The old men seemed puzzled and angry; the young
men puzzled but glad. They welcomed any sermon if
rt came with novelty. They reasoned within them-
The Queen Proclaimed in the Giant City. 269
selves that the old teachings were dead, and that a new
creed could be no worse. If it were novel, it would
have at least a temporary freshness.
The speaker proceeded, for the congregation before
him, being divided in sentiment, invited him, so far, to
pioceed.
" Oh, nation, called to be the light of the world,
ye bear but phantom torches. Ye move sorrowfully,
surrounded by walls of cloud, but just beyond there
lies a glorious firmament, aglow with suns of hope and
a thousand golden-arched doors made of realized pro
phecies and promises ripened. Can ye make these
ruined habitations of mighty men, now sleeping in the
cliffs and valleys about us, again teem with their former
life? No, no ! yet less readily can ye make your dead,
finished, vanishing types take new life. Ye are puz
zled and partially angry, but hold in check the hot
blood. I ll soon depart ; yet before I go, I ll tell ye,
all, this for your deepest thinking : Ye can never cele
brate again the Passover ! God shut ye from your
Temple long ago to teach you this; these traveling
ceremonials of yours are but mockeries. The last real
passover was celebrated when your fathers slew the
Nazarenc "
" Let us stone him ! " vehemently cried the brawny
leader of the youths, and the elders turned their backs,
as if to give approval to the violence, but not incur lia
bility by witnessing.
The brawny youth seized a boulder as if to begin ;
the saintly man did not move, and another youth
seized the arm of the youth of brawn.
"Young men, I ll show you an entrancing picture,"
was the saintly man s calm words. They were in
270 The Queen of the House of David,
stantly intent. " Look, you and your old men
make the sign of the cross by your ranks.
Look again, by the cross stands this damsel, simple,
pure and loving ; an ideal woman. Her name, Miri-
amne, or Mary. Do not delude yourselves into the
belief that it will be safe or possible for you to silence
truth by murdering me. I d despise your attempt if I
did not pity your thoughtless rage. Do not forget the
picture of this hour. The Passover will be fully cele
brated when the power of the cross and the presence
of purity is universally felt in earth. Only your men at
tend this your sacrifice. It is well ; and when men
truly bear the burden of sacrifice, women will be at
their feast. Now, then, take heed. Farewell, an
cients ! "
So saying the saintly man of strange garb suddenly
turned away, drawing the Jewess with him. The elders
were confounded ; they could not find words at the
moment for reply ; they were stung by the pleased and
approving glances that the young men gave the de
parting couple. The elders would have been pleased
to have taken the Jewish maiden from her escort with
violence, but the latter was a brawny man. The elders
knew the youths would not aid ; to attempt it them
selves would be likely to be a failure, certainly undig
nified. They deemed it wise, in any event, to con
serve their dignity, and being unable to do any thing
more terrific, they hissed an orthodox malediction after
the departing man and woman. That made the elders
feel a little better. The two companies at the cross
ing of the streets fell to musing and conversing, but in
different groups. The old men talked as old men, de
ploring the present and be-praising the past ; the youths
The Queen Proclaimed in the Giant ttty. 271
deplored the present and be-praised the future ; some
of them trying to interpret the words of the saintly man.
They all wanted to be very orthodox Jews, and yet
they all felt that the stranger s words were full of
sweetness and good cheer. Some of the youths, like
others of their age, had unconsciously sided with the
strangers on account of the woman s influence. They
admired her, and the side she was on was charmingly
invincible.
" The Arabs are coming ! "
It was a cry starting up from all directions, and
passed from lip to lip like the tidings of fire at night.
The city was soon in confusion and panic ; then mixed
crowds surged toward the crossing of the streets like
terrified sheep. They needed leaders or shepherds.
But the elders so lavish in advice usually, were dumb
with fright now. Yet every body looked toward them
for direction. Suddenly, the saintly man and the
Jewess reappeared ; as suddenly transformed to a self-
reliant leader, she cried out: "Youths of Israel, to the
defense ; the enemy rome in by the wall toward the Sun
Temple s ruins ! "
" Perhaps it s the Angel of Death, " cried the thick-
necked leader of the youths.
" The All-Father of the covenant forefend ! " groaned
some of the elders.
" Fathers," cried the Jewess, " pray as you can, but
we younger ones must fight as well as pray. Pray the
men to go to a charge ! "
" A Deborah ! " shouted the thick-necked youth,
Now lead and we ll follow !
" Shame ! " cried the saintly man. " Lead your,
selves ! "
272 The Queen of the House of David,
There was no need of argument ; the thick-necked
youth waved his hand to the other young men and
the / all dashed away to\vard the advance of the
enemy; all of the city having a mind to fight, becom
ing instant volunteers. But the elders, with a piety en
forced by prudence concluded to stay at the crossing
and pray. Perhaps in their hearts they reasoned that
if the enemy were repulsed they might claim the
glory of having sustained the fighters, as Aarons and
Hurs ; if the youths and their followers were overcome,
then they, the elders, might claim prescience and say
at the end : " We knew it were vain to resist."
Soon there were heard the shouts and clangor of
conflict. The fight was on. Miriamne breathlessly
carried the news to her mother.
The matron laid her hand on her bosom, not to still
a fluttering heart, but affectionately to toy with the
handle of her faithful dagger.
" Oh, mother, when will these troublous times end ?
what shall we do ? "
"Daughter, fight ! if need be."
" But we are only women ! "
" But this is woman s time ; remember Sisera ! "
Rizpah began dressing for departure.
"Oh, mother, wait! Let us send the boys for news
into the city. Perhaps the worst has not come, when
the mothers must take arms."
Rizpah silently assented. The boys were sent, and
in half an hour returned with hot and beaming faces.
" The Mamelukes are all slung out of the city ! Lots
of them killed," both exclaimed, between their pant-
ings.
* How brothers : is it all over? "
The Queen Proclaimed in the Giant City. 273
" Yes, all over ! They re gone ! Oh, you ought to
have seen how our young men and the Druses raced
them," interposed one.
" If it hadn t been for the Druses we d all been mur
dered !" cried the other. Then the brothers caught up
the narrative in turn.
"And, Miriamne, some of the young soldier-like
men, after the fight, went about shouting cheer s for the
the flag of Maccabees and the maid of Bozrah ! They
say the maid of Bozrah means you. What do they
intend ? "
Miriamne seemed not to hear the question. She was
engrossed with her own thoughts and thus was meditat
ing : " It s just as the Old Clock Man said ! The Druses
by their needed aid prove it ; the Jews need a Saviour ! "
" Boys," presently questioned Rizpah, "Were many
of the heretics killed?"
" Oh, ever so many ! Yes, and we want cloths for
the wounded," said the questioned lads.
" Now, may the alien dead rot ! "
"But we must bring cloths."
"Who says it?"
" The Old Clock Man told every body to help the
hurt."
"And who, pray, is this Old Clock Man ?"
Rizpah was quickly answered by Miriamne.
" I know him, mother. He s the leader of the
Christians here, and a wondrously good old man who
heals the sick, feeds the poor, teaches the ignorant and
gives the true time of day to every body by the bell of
his religious house ! "
The mother fixed her eyes penetratingly upon Miri
amne for a moment, then frigidly questioned:
2/4 The Queen of tJie House of David.
"And since them hast disobeyed me in making the
acquaintance of a stranger, thou wilt now explain why
thou hast never mentioned to me this Old Clock
Man of whom thou dost seem to know so much!
Who is he? "
" Why, he s the Old Clock Man who mends poor
people s clocks, plays with the children and is doing
every body kindness ! "
" Some Christian witchery ! "
" Oh, mother, he s an angel if ever there was one on
earth ! "
" Is he a Jew?" almost hissed Rizpah.
" I ve forgotten to ask about that ; but I m cer
tain he is, if only Jews are good, for he is a saint
of God."
Rizpah s face wore a sneer as she again spoke :
" How canst thou tell, Inexperience ? "
" By acts. He goes nbout seeking poor people to
clothe and feed, and ne is their physician as well, and
will take no pay."
"Some Christian perverter, trying to seduce the
unthinking by pretended service. Beware of such,
Miriamne ! "
4< But healing the sick and setting people s clocks
right can t do harm! I m certain of that?"
" How sly; he would set all Jewry to Christian time
and faith at the same instant ! "
" I love his way, mother ; it is so good ; more I do
not know."
" The old knave ! "
" Oh ! mother, he is old, but no knave. Ought we
not to be reverent to the hoary head in the way of right
eousness?"
The Queen Proclaimed in the Giant City. 275
"Yet an old man may poison women and children.
I told thee the story of Agag once, daughter."
" Yes."
" I mean now to tell thee if this man be not a Jew }
let him be like Agag, hewn to pieces. Flee him as a
leper."
"He don t talk so. He says all mankind are broth
ers. Only to-day, he cried, to the men in the begin
ning of the fight, save your families as best you may/
kill the wounded Moslem with kindness ! " The rapid
converse of the two women was interrupted by the im
patient cry of the boys for wraps and lint. As they
started away, Miriamne darted after them, saying : " I ll
go and help those caring for the wounded."
" Wayward " called after her the mother, " remember
my commands. Keep away from the old Perverter,
and minister to suffering Israelites, only. God can
spare the rest ! Let them die."
In the midst of the suffering ones, Miriamne soon
found herself, and as might be expected ; there, too
was the " Old Clock Man." As they met he said,
laconically, " It is fitting that woman s tender hands
minister thus."
" Thanks," was her reply.
Presently Miriamne questions, with an unaffected
diffidence, her companion.
" Will you tell me your name ? "
"Call me father, that s enough."
" Ah ! but I can not, you are not my father."
"I may be."
" What jest is this ! I ve a father living ? "
" I am father to multitudes, but after the flesh, child
less,"
276 The Queen of the House of David.
" Oh, thy children are dead, then ? "
" Nay, some dead and some living , but, living or
dead, they are my children."
" This is a wilderment to me. Where is your wife ? "
" Everywhere. In early youth, with vows unuttera
ble, I wed my church. She is Humanity s mother, and
I the father of all of her children, who will let me serve
them."
" And is this the Christian faith ? "
" It is mine, anyway."
" I like it. I m sure it must be safe ; being so good,
and so you may be my father that way. Are ihere
many fathers like you ? "
" Many, and many needed, else sin will make all or
phans."
" And you have no wife, no home ? "
"A home most beautiful, which, at sunset, I ll enter
through a door, once shut, not possible to be opened
by my hands, though its fastenings be but grass and
daisies."
"You mean death?" As she said it, tears welled
in Miriamne s eyes.
" Weep not, my child, death is beautiful, at least
to me."
" O R , good man father. I do not yet know how to
think about you or these things that you say. What
made you so different from the people I know? "
" A woman, a lovely woman."
" Your mother? "
" Not as you think."
" Oh, then pardon my curiosity. You had some
love ? "
" Thou hast said it."
The Queen Proclaimed in the Giant City. 277
" Why did you not wed her ? Did she die ? "
11 A woman s question ? I ll tell thee all some other
time. I hear approaching voices."
" Tell me just a little more now ; do ? "
"Are the wounded all attended properly? Mercy
first, stories and sermons after."
" Ah, here come my brothers. I ll inquire ; " and
away ran Miriamne to a group of youths, singing a
roundelay, of which she caught but a few lines ;
"Jew and Gentile, Christian, Turk,
Equally shall share our work.
For Adolphus good
We d shed our blood,
For we have joined the balsam band,
To cure all troubles in our land.
We love the man,
We love the band.
We love the brothers of our balsam band."
Miriamne comprehended the situation in a moment,
and all radiant with smiles, bounded to the side of her
aged friend, crying : " Father, oh, you ve a bonny fam.
ily coming; over fifty youths and maidens ; some Jews,
some Gentiles. They ve been comforting the wound
ed and now have spontaneously formed some sort of
friendly guild.
" That s praiseworthy so far," the saintly man replied.
" And don t blush ; when I asked the leader what
were their purposes and name, a dozen cried out at
once ; We re Father Adolphus s angels of mercy ?
"They could easily have found a better title, but
youth in its frank celerity interprets human need. We
ail must have a pattern or hero. That s the reason there
are pagans; not finding the true God, some invent one.
Anyway, God blesses the merciful."
278 The Queen of the House of David.
"Oh, these angels are splendid ; so earnest ; so happy ;
so every thing good ! They all wear balsam-twig
crowns, and are singing improvised ditties about chanty
and humanity, and such like."
" Praised be God if they mean them, daughter."
" Mean them ? Why they ll make the ancients groan
if they go to the crossways with their enthusiastic sing
ing. Black-frowns ! if they disturb the Passover sol
emnities, won t there be trouble?
"And Bozrah will never understand the meaning of
the ceremonial, the phantom of which meaning some
to-day are pursuing, until it beholds sweet charity
sincerely applied, rising with healing and life in its
wings to pass over savingly where humanity has pains
and death."
The old priest looked away toward Jerusalem, as he
spoke his voice meanwhile becoming very tender,
almost tremulous. Had one been able to enter his
heart, there would have been seen a memory picture of
Calvary. Miriamne was awed for a few moments ; the
old man was lost in thought ; presently she recalled his
attention : " Father, the band is just at hand. Shall I
introduce you ?"
" It is needless ; I formed that Band of Charity,
though I gave them not the name ; most all except
the recruits of to-day know me."
The singers went by, saluting the priest as they
passed ; obeying his signal to them not to tarry.
Miriamne turned to her comrade with quickened con
fidence, and with her usual impetuosity exclaimed :
I want to be what you like. Make me a Balsam-
ite ! "
" Thou hast a mother who might object."
The Queen Proclaimed in the Giant City. 279
"Oh, no, no; not if she knew all, as do I. :
"Some have called my work witchcraft."
" I don t care, since I know better. Make me a
Balsamite, now, please?"
" So be it, child. Put thy hand on thy heart and
repeat : I promise my Merciful Fatlier always to show
heartfelt kindness to all His creatures, especially those in
misery, because of His everlasting goodness toward my
self
" I promise that gladly. Is that all ? "
" Yes ; thy badge, a sprig of the evergreen balm*
shrub, shall teach thee the rest."
" Teach me the rest ? "
"Puzzled again, child? Well, I ll teach thee, and
the shrub shall recall my lessons. As thou dost
learn to love nature, as thou wilt when getting back
to a more child-like faith, nature will talk to thee
all the time. See, this is unfading; so is mercy.
When torrid suns make the shrub suffer, it sweats or
weeps these healing gums. Trials make all good souls
fruitful. Then see, this little shrub gives to the world
all it receives, transforming its earthy nourishments,
sunshines and showers, into a medicament for sufferers.
It is a type of the All-Giver. It has but three flowers,
and I read in these the signature of a Triune God.
This thou wilt, perhaps, read some time for thyself,
when thou hast learned the mystery of the Unspeaka
ble Gift."
" My father, your wisdom is very beautiful."
" Would, my child, that my words ever be to thee
as the nuts of this little evergreen emblem, though
rough-coated, still filled with liquid of honey sweet
ness."
280 The Queen of the House of David.
The maiden yearned to embrace the priest. Had
she done so, her feelings would have been like those
of a daughter toward a father, or a devotee toward
God. She yearned to express love for father. The
fountain of that affection, hitherto unevoked, was full.
But she restrained herself, and said, as she clasped the
old man s arm : " May I be crowned? "
" Yes, daughter ; having served the bleeding as thou
didst to-day, thou mayst." The priest twined together
some of the balsam bows and placed them upon her
brow. " I saw once, at Damascus, a painted present
ment of the mother of our Lord, on wood, from which,
continuously, there exuded a precious nard, of all
healing virtue. So they said, at least ; and more than
this, I was assured it had power to heal even the
wounds of infidels."
" Is this really so?"
" I believe a Christian kindness to an unbeliever a
medicine to the soul of the blesser and blest. That s
why I m merciful to Moslem."
"But you court dangers, do you not? I remember
your telling me once, that fanatics, or men with a false
religion, falsely practiced, were like mad dogs one
could never tell when they might bite the kindest
master."
" True, some forgetting the essence of all religion
worth the name, Charity, to propagate their theories,
easily befool their consciences and murder gratitude.
But ingratitude is a Christian and Jewish, as well as a
heathen fault. In this all are alike. Still, though a
man spoil all the good I try to do him, there s one
thing he can not spoil."
"And that is what?"
77/e Queen Proclaimed in the Giant City. 281
The bird of sunny plummage that sings in my
heart because of the good I attempt. I met a
French pilgrim, a while ago, who spent his time mostly
in helping, as he could, to make the Mohammedan
children he met, happy. He sang to them, gave them
presents, acted as umpire in their sports, and if one got
hurt he mothered it (that s what he called his tender,
odd ways). Some called him wrong in his head, but
when I knew him I believed that one sane, amid thou
sands crazed."
" Who and what was he ? "
" I asked him, and for reply got only this : I m
Melchisedec, a priest of the wayside, seeking to win
silver hands, silver feet, and crown jewels.
" Well, he would have frightened me, if I d met him
speaking that way and in such moods?"
" Oh, no ; he was not frightful ; he seemed to attract
even the birds, and the ownerless curs ran to him when
others spurned them He once, when sick, told me
that he came from Toul, in Lorraine, where was en
shrined an image of Madonna with a silver foot. He
believed that tradition, which declared that that pre
sentment of Mary gave a sign by taking a step, on a
certain time, which warned some of great impending
danger, and thereupon the member was changed to the
precious metal."
" It s a pretty story."
" At least the lesson is honey-like. No being can
strive to help another without finding the All-Shining
often in his own soul. So our crowns are made."
CHAPTER XIX.
THE QUEEN S CHILDHOOD.
* Now raise thy view,
Unto the vision most resembling Christ s."
DANTE.
Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God.
GABRIEL.
IRIAMNE, all aglow with pleasurable ex
citement and filled with a curiosity which
at times rose to very serious questioning
as to her own faith, anxiously sought to
compass an early meeting with the "Old Clock Man."
She could not content herself to wait a chance oppor
tunity, and so, remembering that it was his custom at
evening time to visit, alone, for meditation various old
ruins like those of the Reservoir, she determined to
seek him there; it being not very far from her home.
With beating heart she repaired thither at sunset, the
day after the Mameluke attack. Having traversed the
Reservoir s side some two or three hundred feet, she
was on the point of returning, for the place was very
lonely, when a voice startled her.
"Oh, Father Adolphus, how you frighten me! I m
so glad you came ! "
"Looking for me, yet frightened at finding me.
Glad I came, though I scared you?"
"Well, men and women when frightened are glad or
the fellowship of any thing seemingly strong. It s
easy for the terrified to believe or trust."
THE EDUCATION OK MARY.
The Queen s Childhood. 283
"There s rare philosophy in thy head, little woman."
" So? What were you saying when I startled so? "
"That the silvering of the moon brought out thy
person beautifully. So she that sits above the moon, a
queen in heaven, would beautify thy soul if thou
shouldst elect to put on the character she ever wore."
I can t do that, knowing so little of her."
"A woman s way of saying, tell me more."
"You would not torment your Mary with such rep-
artee."
"Woman again. Art thou jealous already?"
"Fie."
" Say that again ! Once the foil of one of thy sex
is penetrated, not having arguments, she can at least
say fie ! Well, even ducklings hiss when helplessly
entangled."
Adolphus Von Gombard, I ll not call you father
again, if you approach me any more in this courtier
fashion."
" Again, I say, an old head ; but I d plead privilege."
"At least old enough to discern the sacred line that
bounds all proper commerce between the sexes. You
plead privilege ; I grant you the noblest any woman
can give, the privilege of guiding my immortal soul ;
but I remember to have heard that he who would shep
herd such as I, must be to her as a woman. The rela
tionship between us must be as that between the
angels of heaven who neither marry nor are given in
marriage."
" Some young women receive teachings most will
ingly from fine-favored and patronizing instructors."
" I know it ; but let none patronize me so. I ve be
gun to adore the Sacrist of Bozrah, but if a breath or
284 The Queen of the House of David.
word passes that makes me think of him chiefly as
being a man, then I shall sit in his presence in fright,
or flee as I would were I to find the place changed into
a lonely night-draped waddy, my only company an
image of some leering, giant Bacchus. But this un
equal defence is painful."
" Then desist and tell me what I m to do."
"You have been my ideal man, for heaven s sake rob
me not by changing ! "
" Right nobly spoken, daughter. Now pardon me,
for I was putting thee to a test."
"A test?"
"Yes. It s forbidden, by customs hereabout, for
man and woman, as we, alone to converse face to face;
perhaps wisely, if one be bad and the other weak.
Yet the cus f om is heathenish low moral tone engen
dering mighty suspicions ! "
" Did my priest think me a heathen ? "
" No, not that ; but they say the moon makes lovers
and others mad. I was wondering whether I was deal
ing with a bundle of romancings or an earnest girl?"
Delicately the maiden avoided the query with
another:
"You loved Mary; why did you not wed her?"
" Woman again ; doomed to make all vistas end in
wedlock. With your sex love, beginning to give, gives
all readily, and seems to find no rest until there s con
jugal union."
" I have not desired to give all that way to those
I ve loved!"
" It is all or nothing. Ye women love only relatives,
and never cease to desire to make all relatives whom
ye want to love. Why, girl, my Mary is a sain i ; she
The Queen s Childhood. 285
died ages ago, after the flesh ; but as a model for all
womankind lives forever."
" How was she your Mary, then?"
" She belongs to every noble minded man as his
inspirer."
" Mary you call her Mary. I thought all the holy
and the great had uncommon names?"
" In fiction they do; in reality the name is nothing."
" Was she wise and beautiful? "
" One of our most holy teachers, Epiphanius, who
lived less than four hundred years after Mary, spent
many years at Bethlehem and gathered facts that
caused him thus to write. She was of middle stature,
her face oval, her eyes brilliant and of an olive tint ;
her eyebrows arched and black, her hair a pale brown,
her complexion fair as wheat. She spoke little, but she
spoke freely and affably. She was grave, courteous,
tranquil. In her deportment was nothing lax or feeble.
Saint Denis, the Areopagite, who is said to have seen
this queen of David s house in her lifetime, declared
that she was a dazzling beauty, that he would have
adored her as a goddess had he not known that there was
but one God! Of this much I m certain, my Bozrah
Miriamne, one so serene of character, and so pure,
must have reflected her inner, imperishable beauties in
her features."
" Father Adolphus, you mention strange names.
There are none that sound like those revered by my
people. Do you ever hate my race? If you do you
must not teach me any doctrine."
" Hate? Why, I love all peoples, and by faith I am
made a child of Abraham."
" Then you are a proselyte ? "
286 The Queen of the House of David.
" Not by any forms. I believe in the God of Abra
ham and His Messiah. That makes me a perfect Jew."
This is strange. My mother never unfolded it to
me."
"Ah, she has not yet looked into these royal mys
teries ? "
"But, good father, is your name among our chronol
ogies?"
" Thanks to the God of the Patriarchs, yes ; it is
with that of Moses, David, Elijah, and all the rest, in
the Lamb s Book of Life."
"Where?"
" In Heaven."
" How wonderful; yet I m afraid to hear more."
"Shall I take thee home?"
" No ; tell me more of Mary. You say she made
you lonely and a father ? "
" I must then begin her history, and show thee how
and why she lived?"
" Do you think it will tire me? "
j< Fear not ! Her story is a poem, a picture, a trag
edy ; it s one long delight."
"Then tell it to me, I pray you."
So the priest proceeded :
" When the world was very wicked, and therefore
very sad, God in His goodness was drawn to send from
heaven a light-bearer some one to tell man his duty
and able to win back to the Great Father mankind s
straying affections. Thou dost know this much, and
hast read in thy sacred Scriptures how God called to
the universe, all chaotic and dark, to come forth into
beautiful form ; how he said to the darkness, Let tJiere
be light That history bears within it a fine sermon.
The Queen s Childhood. 287
it s a picture of God s. Out of sin, darkness, confu
sion, there emerged a perfect man in a Paradisiacal
home, with a perfect, beautiful woman as a help-mate
by his side. That was God s ideal of perfection and
happiness. It delighted the Father of Joys to make
it. This is ever true ; behind all clouds in God s Provi
dence is sunshine, and beyond all disorders somewhere
at last will walk forth unalloyed pleasure, a Sabbath-
like rest, and fullness of harmony."
" Oh, can you make me believe and feel this?"
" Wait patiently."
" I try to do so; but I m discouraged by the present
miseries in my family and in all our nation."
" God mourns over all our sorrows before they or we
are born, but His wisdom and power of cure are fault
less. Wait. Times are mending, and the moral sphere
is dipping into the rim of light s oceans. I think the
angels perceive the world now, as thou perceivest the
new moon."
" The poetry of the words I can not interpret."
" The moon s a dark globe, with a ribbon of silver
across it."
" And things have been worse ; now are bettering?"
"Assuredly so. Believe there is a God, and thou lt
rest in hope. Go back a little in history to when Caesar
Augustus, of awful pagan Rome, ruled the world, hav
ing won dominion through desolating wars. The
most educated Romans then believed in no hereafter,
and sought openly, without restraint, the grossest
pleasures. The ignorant believed in fabled monstrosi
ties. Rome set the fashions of all the world. The
Jews, thy people, God s people, were lower, morally,
then, than ever they had been before. They were
288 The Queen of the House of David.
divided into warring families and sects, holding a few
forms and traditions, but having little heart in religion.
The rest of mankind was barbarous. Thou hast heard
how the Roman Titus overthrew Jerusalem, slaughter
ing thy people by thousands, defiling their holy Temple
and seeming to blot out nearly the whole of thy race.
That time of Titus was midnight ; since that the day
has been slowly advancing. Before that awful culmi
nation of sorrows, the Divine Trinity held august
council, and, as say the traditions of my church, deter
mined to bring a holy sunrise to the earth s midnight.
The trouble of all creation was that man had fallen.
The Divine Council decreed to confound the devil, who
broke up the first home and ruined the first pure pair
by causing to emerge from another home, another pair.
They came, this time mother and Son, to be the moral
patterns for the race, the beginning of a new, sin-con
quering dispensation. The fathers hand down these
sayings : The august, regal Triune Council thus de
creed : " Let us make a pure creature, dearer to us than
all others." They say she was begotten upon the Sab
bath, the birth-day of the angels, whose queen she
was to be. Then one thousand of the ministering
spirits were commissioned to defend her; while Gabriel
was sent to announce the glad tidings of the birth of a
Saviour s mother, in Hades. Her angels appeared as
young men, of majestic mien, of marvelous beauty and
pure as crystals. Their garments were like gold, richly
colored, and could not be touched any more than could
be the light of the sun."
"How charming! But is this all true?" exclaimed
the maiden.
Without reply, the priest continued : " They were
The Queen s Childhood. 289
crowned with diadems, exhaling celestial perfumes; in
their hands they bore interwoven palms ; on their arms
and breasts were crosses and military devices. They
were swift of flight, some of them six-winged, like the
angels of Isaiah s vision."
"How dazzling! But is this all true?" Miriamne
persisted.
" Well, it s not in thy sacred books nor in mine so
written."
" Then you are giving me your imaginings?"
" Oh, no ; but after the manner I have spoken, it is
recorded in revered traditions of my church, and none
can very well disprove the sayings."
"I wonder if such honors made Mary proud?"
" A strange query."
" I d like to love one such as she, but could not if she
were haughty or lofty, like the great of earth."
" It would have made such as thou proud, perhaps;
but there was none of the serpent in her whose Off
spring was to crush the serpent s head."
" Is there any of the serpent in me? "
" I m not thy judge."
"Then she was immaculate? "
" Ah, that s a question for the doctors. I m too
simple to know beyond what is written. I m glad to
know that she rejoiced in her son, as a God and a Sa~
viour ! " " She was of noble family, though her parents
were poor," the priest continued. " Her mother was
by name Anna, and worthy of the name, which is by
interpretation gracious! Traditions of her goodness
are many, and the good and great have honored her
memory. I paid Anna homage, that of a youth respect
ful of worthy motherhood, at Constantinople, in a
290 The Queen of the House of David.
church erected in the year 710 to commemorate that
saint. Among others, also Justinian, the Emperor,
in the year 550, dedicated a sacred place to Mary s
mother."
"Then she had her meed of praise, at last?"
" Tradition, though tardy, has been just ; but I trust
not tradition alone. I easily reason that there must
have been much of goodness and womanly beauty in
the mother that bore such a woman as Mary. I know
that God can bring forth angels from the offscourings,
but that is not His way. He works by steps upward.
I tell thee, girl, the mother gives her life to her off-
spring, and in spite of training, almost in spite of
regeneration, the characteristics of this parent will
reappear in the child. But to my story about Mary s
parents, Jehoikim and Anna.
" Blessed be God, Anna and Jehoikim were un
tainted by the pride of life, and, though living in a
time of loose morals, walked lovingly, constantly with
each other, through all their days. I talk to thee as
to a prudent, but not prudish, young woman. Society
is well rotted when divorce is about as common as
marriage ; it was that way in Anna and Jehoikim s
time. Why, even the exacting Pharisees then taught
that a man might divorce a wife who had lost her per
sonal beauty, or badly cooked her husband s meat. Jeho
ikim might have left Anna, for she was childless; that
was reason enough for divorcement to tl? average Jew,
then. But their love was beautiful. The man, as was
his duty, clung tenderly to his wife; her misfortune
making her all the more in need of his tenderness.
Dost thou not think so?"
" I suppose so. I don t know."
The Queen s Childhood. 291
"Pardon my earnestness; it made me forget thy
inexperience !
" Well, God rewarded their constancy, and they
became the parents of my Mary. The father had a
noble ancestry; but, what is better, within himself a
royal heart. He bore by right the priestly office ; but
that was not much to such a man, in respect to worldly
gain. Honest priests in his time were generally poor ;
the priestly preferments went, most richly laden, to
those who dealt corruptly, and truckled to the ruling
powers. Mary s father was above sordidness and sin>
ony. He had little to give or to leave to his beloved,
but he left his child a good name and the remem
brance of the blessed. So while God chose the humble
to confound the mighty, and serenely exalted those of
low estate, He was mindful to choose His elect from
the ranks of the mort.lly great. Such are found in all
places and times, and \vhen surrounded, as were these
pious parents, by the gross, low and selfish, they shine
with transcendent spl< ndor. In Tisri, the first month
of the Jewish civic y^ ir, while the smoke of the holo
causts were ascending, to invite heaven s pardon, Mary,
who was to bring for .h the world s greatest offering
for sin, was born at Nazareth. Her career was fore
ordained, and she was soon walking her course of piety
and sorrow. Though inexperienced and tender-hearted,
sorrows in heaviest, grimmest forms fell upon her.
Her father died when she was, it is said, only nine
years of age ; not lorg after, the girl knelt, a mourner,
by the bier of her rr other ; the golden hairs of youth
mingling, in the disheveling of utter grief, with the
gray, which crowned the queen and guide of her heart,
her mother. On the threshhold of her life Mary s
292 The Queen of tJie House of David.
parents were called away from her, leaving her no hen-
tage but their precepts and example. They say that
Jehoikim s hands were stretched out, as in benediction,
when he died, and so remained until his burial, remind
ing all that his last act was a commendation of his
little daughter to Him who carries the lambs in his
bosom ! The picture of these outstretched hands, and
of the girl embracing the aged dead mother, are often
in my mind ; they never fail to deeply move me
Poor orphaned lamb ! "
Miriamne brushed away a tear, a sort of self-pitying
tear. She ran forward in mind, to the day when she,
herself, would be orphaned, without a benediction, or,
perhaps, a cheering memory. Then she questioned :
" Did your Mary have other friends?"
"Yea, her Heavenly Father. It is said, also, that
she was cared for by the elders of the people, and religi
ously trained under the very shadows of the Temple.
We may readily believe this; for, in her after life, she
evinced a self-possession in adversity that witnessed of
a thorough religious culture. If there was no other
evidence, her splendid poem, the Magnificat would
convince any seeking proof, that Mary had had sur
passing benefits and privileges in the study of God s
words, as well as in the best learning of her people,
the Jews. But, Miriamne, I ll weary thee ; let us turn
toward thy home." Presently they stood not far from
the old stone house of Rizpah ; then Von Gombard drew
from under his mantle a roll of writings. " Here, take
and read. After its perusal I ll see thee again." So
saying, the old priest lifted a hand in blessing, and
then moved away toward his abode.
CHAPTER XX.
THE WEDDING, THE BIRTH AND THE FLIGHT
" Seraph of heaven ; too gentle to be human,
Veiled beneath the radiant form of woman.
Sweet benediction of the eternal curse ;
Veiled glory of the lampless universe !
Thou moon beyond the clouds, thou living form ;
Thou wonder and thou Beauty
Thou harmony of nature s art."
SHELLEY.
" Take that one hour at Bethlehem out of human history, and
eighteen centuries of hours are left but partially explained."
PROF. NEWMAN SMYTH.
HAT so engages thee, daughter?" ques
tioned Rizpah, as they sat together at even
ing in the old stone house.
" I m reading the story of a lovely orphan
girl. I wish I were, in heart, as lovely as she."
"Was she a white citadel, pure and strong?"
" Peerless, indeed ; the very queen of women, I
think."
" Oh, then thou must be reading of glorious Rizpah ?
Now fill me with this matter! I thirst to hear."
Miriamne, though fearful of further exposing her
thoughts and study, obeyed, knowing full well that
nothing would so stimulate her mother s curiosity as
attempted evasion.
* I ve been reading of the orphan girl s marriage,,
Shall I go back, or continue from that period? Her
294 The Queen of the House of David.
name was Mary, and she was a Jewess ; that s the
sum of the beginning."
" Go forward," sententiously replied the elder.
Miriamne complied :
" The guardians and relatives of Mary determined that
she should early wed some proper person to be her pro
tector, and so, according to Jewish custom, they went about
the selection of a husband for her as soon as she had
reached her fourteenth year. This selection was deemed
a pious and serious duty by all the participants therein ;
therefore it was made by an appeal to the Lord with lots.
Zacharias, the presiding priest, managed the proceeding,
as follows : He first inquired God s will in prayer. An
angel brought reply, saying : Go forth ; call together
all the widowers among the people, and let each bring
his rod.
" In truth here is refreshment ! If all weddings were
contrived under the wisdom of older heads, there would
be fewer rnad marriages." Rizpah swayed back and
forth as she spoke. She was remembering, now,
the curse of Harrimai that day in Gerash, long
years before. She thought him a monster then, but
now she was enshrining him in mind by the Angel of
the Lots.
" Shall I go on, mother? "
"Goon."
" He to whom the Lord shall show a sign, let him
be husband of Mary," read Miriamne.
"Ah, the Lord would not trust the youths to draw!
He knows that a man is like to harass the life out of
one woman before he learns to care for another rightly.
God was good to Mary in hedging her in to a widower
f needs be that she must marry."
Rizpah did not sway back and forth now ; she sat
;rect and laughed bitterly.
By Raphael.
THE MARRIAGE OF MARY AND JOSEPH.
The Wedding, the Birth and the Flight. 295
Miriamne continued :
" There were many splendid youths who rejoiced to be
permitted to bring their wands.
" Oh, ho ! then they were suffered to draw for the
girl? But what matter the Angel of Lots presided!
He d not let the youths succeed!" Again Rizpah
laughed, and as mockingly as before.
Miriamne again read :
" After praver each deposited his almond tree with the
aged Temple priest. In the early morning they anxiously
sought the verdict. It was found that all the rods were
dead, except that of Joseph, the son of Jacob, the son of
Mathan ; but his blossomed as that which, ages before, con
firmed miraculously the priesthood of Aaron s sons. Then
there appeared another miracle, for as Joseph reached forth
his hand to take his blooming branch, there issued from
among its luxurious blossoms, miraculously, a white dove,
dazzling as snow. For a moment the dove gracefully sus
pended itself in the air, turning its eyes from one to another
of the competitors ; then it alighted on Joseph s head.
Thou art the person chosen to take the Virgin and keep
her for the Lord, said the priest, solemnly, to Joseph. All
the rivals responded Amen, and then the dove flew away
toward heaven. Joseph was thirty-three years old, of pleas
ing countenance, very modest, graceful, and of comely
figure, and a widower.
" When all was told to Mary she modestly replied : I
knew it, for the Lord has been with me. Zacharias told
Mary that Joseph was a true, honest Jew, a carpenter by
trade, and trained by a father who fully believed the adage
of Rabbins, which said that He who would not make his
son a robber makes him a mechanic. Besides this, said
the Temple priest, thy espoused one is like thyself, of the
royal house of David. The blood of twenty kings mingle
in the veins of you both. God grant that to that house of
David there soon be born another, greater than all before,
to deliver our holy nation from foreign masters. Mary
made no reply, but as a blush of hopefulness passed over
her face, she looked very earnestly toward heaven and
296 The Queen of the House of David.
seemed to be repeating the prayer of the priest to the
All Father. The formal betrothal then took place. Joseph
presented his chosen bride a small token of silver, saying -
If thou consentest to be my bride, accept this. She
took it, smiling affectionately, and then the witnesses signed
the usual Jewish compact, which read as follows :
" I Joseph, said to Mary, daughter of Jehoiakim, become
my wife under the law of Moses and Israel. I promise to
honor thee ; to provide for thy support ; thy food and thy
clothing ; according to the custom of Hebrew husbands,
who honor their wives, as is befitting. I give thee at once
thy dowry and promise thee besides nourishment, and
clothing, and whatsoever shail be necessary for thee, also
conjugal friendship, a thing common to all nations of the
world. Mary consents to become the wife of Joseph. The
two signed the document."
" See Miriamne, the Jews were wise ; they made the
husbands do most of the promising. They knew that
the wives would be all wifely without such pledging."
And Rizpah again bitterly laughed.
" Shall I proceed ?"
" Yes, oh, proceed ; it s a Jewish poem."
" Thereupon Joseph placed a jeweled ring upon Mary s
fourth finger, with a smile and a blush, saying, the physi
cians say, my beloved, that a nerve and a vein, reaching the
heart together, lay close to the surface of that finger. And
she understood and was happy. A benediction was pro
nounced, and then the espoused pair were ready to depart
to Joseph s house. He was to be the guardian of the maiden
from that hour forth. The hereditary servants of the fami
lies took up the line of march, bearing flaming torches ;
immediately after these followed a procession of women,
richly garbed and wearing golden tiaras and pearl bedecked
girdles. Behind these attendants of the virgin, followed a
goodly company of dexterous musicians and singers, dis
coursing rapturously the significant canticles of Solomon.
As the latter went on from time to time they broke out of the
line of march and disported themselves in the eastern star-
dance, saying as they did so, to one another, the morning
stars sang at creation ; the dawn of a new home coming by
The Wedding, the Birth and the Flight. 297
love, is next to creation the most joyous of all events. So
the dancers went on, and as they rejoiced in poetic motions,
they thought of the stars which yet tremble as if with the
thrilling of that first delight they shouted. Of all, the sweet
orphan girl now companioned was the center. She was be
decked with costly jewels, the glad tributes of those that loved
her ; over her was the significant veil, and, so beneath the
wedding canopy, she entered Nazareth to be a wife. Her sky
had become very bright, for her s was a heart that took
exquisite joy from the honeyed petals of affection s flower.
No bride ever more fully entered into that supreme state,
the all exalting, entrancing, expanding, thrilling period of
new married life. She went forward in the proud con
sciousness that her weakness had overcome a giant, and
that while she lead a royal captive, she was supremely happy
in her utter bestowal of her all upon the one only man now
became almost next to God in the temple of her soul."
Miriamne paused, and Rizpah wept a little
" Shall I go on or pause, mother ? "
" Go on, dear."
" But you weep, are you ill ? "
" Oh, no, except in memory. This is sweet sorrow,
that beats us back and forth ; contrasting dark endings
with bright beginnings; heaven high hopings with
black disappointments, and happy lives with our own,
all interwoven with miseries. I walked once in the sweet
illusions of bridal days, but an utter widowhood came
before death called. That s the worst bereavement."
" But some marriages are all happiness, are they
not?" queried the daughter.
" Some, but not many. That s the rule. Most of
them begin well enough, but wedded mates are not
as wisely tender as lovers ; they too soon entomb
all their joys in graves of selfishness and lust. So
then the dove flies from the blossom of espousal never
to return."
298 The Queen of the House of David.
"Perhaps, sucn as they did not love enough to begin
with and so separated ? "
" Some who would die for each other before mar-
riage, would die to be quit of each other, after. Hence
the brood of suicides, and that blackest crime of all,
murder, which often raises its treacherous, cruel head
within the marriage chamber."
" How comes this error, trouble, horror?"
" In wedding bodies, without consents or courtings of
the souls, if those, who, though mismated, happen to
join lives, were only wise, they might yet be happy,
growing together. But read more daughter."
" In the fullness of time, the angel Gabriel, known amid
the Seraphim as God s champion, the chosen of Jehovah and
His messenger of comfort and sympathy from heaven to
man, was commissioned to carry the glorious news to earth.
He spread his rainbow pinions, and with his own radiance
to lighten his course, passed from the confines of the august
court of the Divine Presence, the companionship of his fel
low archangels, Michael, Raphael, Uriel, to go out across
the planet-lightened realms of everlasting space. His
course was watched with throbbing interest by the spirits of
mercy appointed for ministering to man. Gabriel sped on,
with sweeps of power which almost devoured distances, nor
paused to bask for a moment in the many colored lights of
the golden and silvery shielded planets or constellations
that he passed in his rapid flight. The wheeling suns and
rushing worlds, marching and charging along the shoreless
oceans of eternal space, had no splendors nor powers with
which to challenge his high mission ; though theirs was
grand, his was grander. He traveled at love s behest, on
mercy s work, to carry to this little earth, rolling along,
mostly in shadows, the mandate of glory, the news of
heaven s great saving device. He bore proclaim -lion in its
substance and its realizations forever the manifold wisdom of
God ; the wonder of all who know to think or reason. And
so that voyage passed into the pages of history and the
records of eternity as well.
The Wedding, the Birth and the Flight. 299
" Mary, whom Gabriel sought, was engaged in evening
prayer as was her wont, with her face toward Jerusalem s
Temple."
Miriamne paused ; she perceived that she had ar
rived at a part of the manuscript which Father Adol-
phus had marked with a red line to remind her it was
from his Christian Bible. She feared to read this por
tion to her mother.
" Read on, daughter, the words are precious ; they
are as songs in the night to my soul."
Miriamne continued:
"And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent
from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,
" To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was
Joseph, of the house of David ; and the virgin s name
was Mary
"And the angel came in unto her and said, Hail!
thou art highly favored, the Lord is with thee : blessed
art thou among women.
"And when she saw him, she was troubled at his
saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation
this should be.
"And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for
thou hast found favor with God.
" And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb,
and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS."
Miriamne read the last word "Joshua."
She proceeded :
" He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of
the Highest ; and the Lord God shall give unto him
the throne of his father David.
" And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for
ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
3OO The Queen of the House of David.
"Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be,
seeing I know not a man?
"And the angel answered and said unto her, The
Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of
the Highest shall overshadow thee : therefore also that
Holy Thing which shall be born of thee shall be called
the Son of God."
"Hold! hold!" cried Rizpah. "What is this? the
faith of the Nazarene?"
Miriamne was awed. She feared she had proceeded
too far ; but quickly remembering an explanation of
Father Adolphus, replied: "Be content, mother, I
read but that that appears in our holy prophets, Isaiah,
the poetic and vehement ; his words you so much prize
have here an echo."
Rizpah gazed at her daughter, with a puzzled, ques
tioning expression for a moment, and then senten-
tiously said, " Read on." She was alert, though severe.
Her curiosity was ruling, but her prudence was con
served, at least in her own mind. The daughter was
anxious, but could not retreat ; she knew she must
read further or make a futile effort to explain her
reluctance. The two were a study ; each afraid of the
other : each anxious to aid the other to truth ; both on
guard, and, while professing to be all love for each
other, attempting to move forward to a fuller fellow
ship by indirection. The outlines of the cross were
appearing in that household, and never was there to be
complete accord until there it ruled all hearts.
Miriamne continued to read, but confined herself
chiefly to notes made by the old priest on the margin
of her manuscript.
" Presently Joseph, the affianced husband of Mry > dis.
The Wedding, the Birth and the Flight. 301
covered that his beloved was to become a mother. At first
the discovery was like a dagger in his heart, for as yet the
marriage had not been consummated. It was a crisis of
great import and trial to husband and wife. Joseph, though
now a plain man and a mechanic, carried in his veins the
noblest blood of his race, being descendant of the ancient
kings and in the line of Solomon and David. Besides that,
he had all the abhorrence of the better Jews for adultery,
that their awful law of death as its penalty, implied."
" Did he help the mob to stone her?" cried Rizpah.
Miriamne was startled by her mother s angry earn
estness.
" Oh ! we ll see."
She continued reading:
" He met his affianced in the evening on her return from
Hebron s rosy hills, whither she had gone to visit her kins
woman, the mother of John, by name Elizabeth. The inter
view of those two noble women had prepared Mary to tell
her betrothed all that troubled and rejoiced her. When her
espoused met her privately and for the last time, as he in
tended, he found her sweetly, serenely singing, as was her
wont, a Davidic psalm. He was at first astonished, not
knowing how she could be so happy under such stigma as
seemed to rest upon her. His patrician blood was roused,
and for a moment he was ready to denounce her to the
Sanhedrim as an adulteress. Then he looked at her, piti-
? ully, questioningly. It could not be, he meditated, that
>ne so young could be so depraved as to sing God praises,
being a criminal. She must be insane ! He tore himself
from her presence, but instantly returned when she called
;>ut : Joseph, God knows all ; touch not His anointed.
" Woman ! he cried explain ! explain ! Thy seeming
sin hangs scorpions over my eyes, and turns my heart to
ashes. Thy calmness is a wonderment !
" Then Mary quietly recited to him the wondrous story of
Gabriel s visit.
" Joseph was pale, and reverently attentive ; but still the
sadness of his countenance betokened his incredulity.
" Mary, self-possessed, confident in her own integrity,
continued : For three months I have been secluded with
The Queen of the House of David.
my kinswoman, Elizabeth. She knows I saw no man, and
thou canst testify of the manner of my living since our
espousal ; but 1 got words from God, at Hebron. When I
first went into my kinswoman s house."
" Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost :
" And she spake out with a loud voice, and said,
Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the
fruit of thy womb.
"And whence is this to me, that the mother of my
Lord should come to me ?
" For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation
sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb
for joy.
" And blessed is she that believed : for there shall be
a performance of those things which were told her
from the Lord."
" No sooner had Elizabeth finished that salutation, than
the Spirit of the Most Holy Ghost possessed me and I,
thus, without premeditation prophetically said :
" My soul doth magnify the Lord.
" And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
" For he hath regarded the low estate of his hand
maiden : for, behold, from henceforth all generations
shall call me blessed.
" For He that is mighty hath done to me great
things ; and holy is His name.
" And His mercy is on them that fear him from gen
eration to generation.
" He hath shewed strength with his arm ; He hath
scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
" He hath put down the mighty from their seats,
and exalted them of low degree.
v He hath filled the hungry with good things ; and
the rich He hath sent empty away.
The Wedding, the Birth and the Flight. 503
" He hath holpen his servant Israel, in remembrance
of his mercy.
" As He spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his
seed forever."*
" I tarried until Elizabeth s son was born. He is to be the
herald of mine ! Joseph was amazed. The wisdom and
stately cnaracter of her magnificent description and ascrip
tion were unaccountable. But he doubted still her integ
rity. Yet his wrath was softened into pity a little He
hesitated, and then, being a just man and not willing to make
her a public example, was minded to put her away privately."
" Ha, ha ;" laughed Rizpah, bitterly ; " I see now,
tis a beautiful fable thou art reading! Put her away
privately ! a man do that under such circumstances !
Bah ! rather would a real man parade the woman s
guilt from the house tops. In truth, to show that he
was sinless because he was such a Nemesis of sin ; or to
get the pity of light-headed fools, who would gladly
take the place of the discarded ! A pretty, baby face
can catch unerringly the man who pities himself well, if
she will only gush with real or affected pity for him. Pity
and flatter a man and he ll be a Lucifer! But read
it all. This is refreshing; its so absurdly uncommon!"
The girl continued :
" But while bethought on these things, behold, the
angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, say
ing, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto
thee Mary thy wife : for that which is conceived in her
is of the Holy Ghost.
"And she shall bring forth a son, thou shalt call his
name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their
sins.
" Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled
which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,
* The Magnificat.
304 The Queen of the House of David,
" Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring
forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel,
which being interpreted is, God with us.
"Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the
angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him
his wife.
Miriamne again read "Joshua" for Jesus, but yet
felt assured that her mother was in heart, recognizing
the source of the story. Rizpah, by silence, pretended
not to know she was listening to parts of the Christian
Bible, for she was very curious now. Miriamne was
willing the harmless pretense should continue. But
they furtively observed each other.
" I see ; this is a story based upon some of the
Christian s heresies," interrupted Rizpah. "If the
stories be so unnatural, I d never fear their sacred
books ! "
Miriamne was rejoiced, for her mother was becoming
interested, and that was nigh being fully persuaded
that their home was not contaminated by the hated
Christian s Bible. Miriamne read again :
" Mary now was contented. She had the approval of
God and her conscience, and that for which hei young
heart greatly yearned the approval of the one man of earth
whom she loved. It mattered little to her that few others
knew her wondrous secret. She knew her position was
one of peril, and yet she felt certain God would be with
her to the end. The joy of Joseph was full, and the revul
sion of feeling from crushing shame, to lofty hope was
unutterable. A while before he was ready to die, as he
began tearing from his heart its idol, and attempting to
consign her to the tomb like that of death, forgetfullness
Now he perceived himself elect of God to defend, vouch
for and shelter the woman of women, the highly favoied of
Deity.
The Wedding, the Birth and the Flight. 305
"And it came to pass in those days that there
went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the
world should be taxed.
"And all went to be taxed, every one into his own
city.
" And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the
city of Nazareth, into Judea, unto the city of David,
which is called Bethlehem, (because he was of the
house and lineage of David,)
" To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife.
"And so it was, that, while they were there, the
days were accomplished.
"And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrap
ped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a man
ger ; because there was no room for them in the inn."
" How barbarous ! They surely could not have been
Jews who kept that inn, or a woman in bearing would
have had tender welcome. They must have been
Christians ; they are the people whose women blush
when carrying little life, and, as if ashamed, forgetting
that God had royally privileged them, hide themselves.
Bah, I m sick of the thought ! I ve seen Christian
husbands ashamed of their pregnant wives ; " so solilo
quised Rizpah.
" There were no Christians at the time of these
events, mother. But shall I read of the company
Mary had, to comfort her?"
" Yes, do; I d like to have been there, just to rai] at
the inn s folks."
Miriamne continued,
" And there were in the same country shepherds
abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by
night.
306 The Queen of the House of David.
"And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them,
and the glory of the Lord shone round about them ;
and they were sore afraid.
" And the angel said unto them, Fear not : for, be-
hold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which
shall be to all people."
" It is said that even the cave, where Mary was, was
filled with supernal light," remarked Miriamne di-
gressingly.
"I believe it on my word. If angels ever come to
earth, it must be surely to hold glad torches about the
couches where beings, to be at last perchance like
themselves, are coming forth to life," said Rizpah.
" It is thus reported," continued Miriamne :
"Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea
in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came
wise men from the east to Jerusalem,
" Saying, Where is he that is born King of the
Jews ? for we have seen his star in the east, and are
come to worship him."
Miriamne substituted Joshua for Jesus in the read
ing.
" Joshua, Joshua, what Joshua is that ? "
"Joshua means "deliverer;" this one was to be
such ; for the rest, I ve not before read it, mother."
" Read on, again," tritely, Rizpah spoke.
"When Herod the king had heard these things, he
was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
"And when he had gathered all the chief priests and
scribes of the people together, he demanded cf them
where Christ should be born.
"And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judea:
for thus it is written by the prophet,
The Wedding, the Birth ard the Flight. 307
" And them Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not
the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee
shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people
Israel.
" Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise
men, inquired of them diligently what time the star
appeared.
"And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and
search diligently for the young child ; and when ye
have found him, bring me word again, that I may come
and worship him also.
" When they had heard the king, they departed
and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went be
fore them, till it came and stood over where the young
child was.
" When they saw the star, they rejoiced with ex
ceeding great joy.
"And when they were come into the house, they
saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell
down, and worshiped him : and when they had
opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts ;
gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.
" And being warned of God in a dream that they
should not return to Herod, they departed into their
own country another way."
Miriamne read The Annointed where the text
said Christ.
" Miriamne, who could these men have been, Rab
bins ? "
"I think not, mother ; I see upon the margin of my
t nugellah* a note which says, These were light or fire-
worshipers of Persia. They, or rather their ancestors
had heard, centuries before, from the Jews, then their
308 The Queen of the House of David.
captives, that there was an expectation, based on
wondrous prophecies, that some time, there was to
be on earth a man, born of woman, in character
like God and in mission the bringer in of the golden
age. These Magi were seeking that person, like pious
pilgrims."
" Oh, the Messiah. Alas ! we all long for His com
ing ! " Then Rizpah fell into a revery from which
Miriamne roused her with the question : "Art too
weary to hear more ? "
" No, no ; read, on. These things strangely move
and rest me."
Miriamne continued :
" When eight days were fulfilled, they circumcised the
Child, calling him Joshua, offering, according to the law, a
pair of turtle doves."
" Circumcised ? Ah, I m glad ! They were good
Jews, though poor ones, since they offered the gifts of
the poor, two pigeons," exclaimed Rizpah.
Miriamne read onward :
"There was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was
Simeon ; and the same man was just and devout, wait
ing for the consolation of Israel.
"And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost,
that he should not see death, before he had seen the
Lord s Christ.
" And he came by the Spirit into the Temple ; and
when the parents brought in the child.
" Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God
and said :
"Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace 3
according to thy word :
" For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,
The Wedding, the Birth and the Flight. 309
" Which thou hast prepared before the face of all
people ;
" A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of
thy people Israel.
And Joseph and his mother marveled at these
things which were spoken of him.
" And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his
mother, Behold this child is set for the fall and rising
again of many in Israel ; and for a sign which shall be
spoken against ;
" (Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul
also ;) that the thoughts of many hearts may be
revealed."
" How mysterious and contradictory, and yet how
true the old man s word, Miriamne? He blessed the
parents amid their pious services toward their offspring,
yet predicted a sword thrust for the mother. Ah, the
sword for the mother is ever impending ! But read
further."
Miriamne continued :
" And Anna, a prophetess, who was a widow of
about fourscore and four years, which departed not
from the temple, but served God with fastings and
prayers night and day.
"And she coming in that instant gave thanks like
wise unto the Lord, and spoke of him to all them that
looked for redemption in Jerusalem."
"What a finished picture, Miriamne," interrupted
Rizpah. "See, a young mother committing her child
to God ; a blessing and a sword of pain revealed ;
then the finest human sympathy in the form of
motherhood chastened by years coming to encourage
her. Oh, the years have sadly wrecked a true woman
310 Tlie Queen of the House of David.
if they have put her beyond saying, from her heart ;
Poor girl, I love thee, to her younger sister in hef
hour of maternal trial. But what followed ? "
Miriamne replied by again reading:
"The angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a
dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his
mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I
bring thee word : for Herod will seek the young child
to destroy him."
"Ha! the jealous old hypocrite! But I remember,
Herod murdered his wife. A man brute enough to do
that could easily seek the life of an innocent babe. It"
Apollyon ever be dethroned because of the appear
ing of one more devilish than himself, the dethroner
will be a wife-murderer ! " exclaimed Rizpah, almost
in a passion.
Miriamne continued:
"Joseph took the young child and his mother by
night, and departed into Egypt.
" And was there until the death of Herod."
"So Jewry, our Jewry, gave one of its young
mothers a stable for a bed chamber, a manger for her
babe ; then refused her these by making her an exile.
Cruel Israel said go or be childless! Oh, Israel ! how
Pagan Rome defiled thee ! " passionately exclaimed the
Jewish matron.
Miriamne paused until the mother questioned :
" Was there a pursuit ? "
"A hot one, though a vain one; my manuscript
reads as follows :
" Herod had charged the Magi to tell him, on their
return from their quest, the abode of the Child born under
the star. He pretended to desire to pay it homage, but in
The Wedding, the Birth and the Flight. 311
heart he was intending to murder it. The Magi, impressed
by the goodness and sanctity of mother and Infant, never
returned to Herod to betray them."
" Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of
the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth and
slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all
the coasts thereof, from two years old and under,
according to the time which he had diligently inquired
of the wise men.
" Then was fulfilled that which v/as spoken by
Jeremy, the prophet, saying:
" In Ramah there was a voice heard, lamentation,
and weeping, and a great mourning, Rachel weeping
for her children, and would not be comforted, because
they are not."
" So a dark wave of misery rolled over Bethlehem.
Hundreds of women, weeping over their ovn dead, were led
to understand the cruel injustice of the spirit that drove the
Virgin and her child into exile, and that, until the end of
time, there will be sorrow in the homes of the land that
does despite to the virtues and characteristics exemplified,
so well, by that mother and that Child."
With these words Miriamne rolled up her parchment,
saying: " This is all there is written here."
"All? It is well, for thou art weary child. We ll
now retire ; to-morrow I must speak with thee about
the book. Good-night, now."
" Good-night, mother."
CHAPTER XXI.
THE QUEEN WITH HER FAMILY IN EGYPT.
" It is curious to observe, as the worship of the Virgin mothei
,xpanded and gathered to itself the relics of many an ancient faith,
.low the new and the old elements became amalgamated. . . .
The Madonna assumed the characteristics . . . of the types of
fertility." ANNA JAMISON.
" Babe Jesus lay on Mary s lap,
The sun shone in His hair,
And so it was she saw, mayhap,
The crown already there."
GEORGE MCDONALD.
HE day following Miriamne s readings to her
mother, she eagerly sought Father Adol-
phus that she might receive more of the
narrative, delightsome to herself and evi-
dently interesting to her parent.
Finding the priest at dawn in one of his accustomed
walks amid the ruins, she scarcely waited for his
"Peace, daughter," until she exclaimed, "More! I
want more of the story ! "
" Hast finished that I gave thee so soon ? "
" Yes, and read it all to my mother! Is that not
wonderful ?"
" Temerity ! "
" No ; it charms her. She has fallen in love with
the child-wife. Oh, what if rny mother should come
to think and believe as you then I would ! "
The Queen with her family in Egypt. 313
" Thou mayst alone ; but what part of the story de-
sirest thou ? "
" All ! Nothing less than all ! What became of
the Holy Family in Egypt?"
" Now sit down on this shattered column and I ll
recount to thee the traditions in order, leaving thee to
judge which is true."
" Tell me what you believe and I ll believe it.
That s enough "
" I scarcely am able to do that, not knowing whether
to believe or disbelieve some of the things reported.
But I remember them, and perceiving that though they
are only traditions, they are very beautiful and very
natural, I remember them with delight, that is very
near to giving them full credence."
" Then, so will I do."
" It may be the wise way, for I ve believed that the
good angels who, under God, watched over the little
outcast family drifting about in strange places, have
also watched over the drifting stories of their wander
ings, letting the facts profitable for us to kncw^, come
safely to us, though they have come without the seal
of authenticated history."
" Now, I believe all this, too."
" Well, then, ardent catechumen, listen. For three
years the queenly Mary, with her consort and child,
tarried in Egypt "
" How did they subsist ?"
" Oh, the God of the outcasts Ishmael and Elijah,
who provided water for one and bread for the other of
those two, was the One who sent the Holy Family to
Egypt with the charge that they be there until He
brought them word. Now. thou hast learned that
314 The Queen of the House of David.
when God sends any on His work He charges Himseli
with their support."
" Did they find friends in Egypt ?
" Thou wilt learn in time, daughter, that two of that
family had, as none on earth before, the secret of mak
ing friends. They had the love-enchantment from on
high, which has been winning its way ever since over
the world. But I ll proceed. There were in Egypt
at that time multitudes of Israelites who had sought
its refuge from the persecutions practiced toward them
nearer home. Doubtless these exiles received Joseph s
family kindly. Also, in all the East at that time there
were many artizan leagues, banded together to aid
their fellow-craftsmen. Joseph being a carpenter, I
doubt not, found among these sympathy and help."
" At what place did the family abide ? "
"Tradition says they tarried for a considerable per
iod at Heliopolis, the city celebrated the world over
for its splendid temple, where centered the Egyptian
Sun worship. To me this tradition seems most reason
able, when I remember that the child of that family
was pointed out before, by a miraculous star, which
led the Fire worshipers of Persia to his cradle. The
Fire worshipers of the far East and the Light wor
shipers of Egypt were much alike in their beliefs.
They were all seeking light, and, impelled by the ne
cessity of man s nature for some religion, revealed or
man-made, able to do no better, looked up to the sun,
the greatest light of which they knew. God s hand
was in that meeting of the old and the new. There is
a tradition that when the Holy Family arrived at
Heliopolis all the idols in the Sun Temple fell on their
faces. Be that as it may, the pathos of the poor
The Queen witli Her Family in Egypt. 315
prayers of the Light worshipers moved the Divine
Mercy to send them the Sun of Righteousness, and all
the handiwork of Rhameses, at On, lies in great, grim
silent ruins, while the faith that had its germ in that
little outcast family is overspreading the earth. Alas,
poor Egypt ! "
"Why poor Egypt ?" questioned Miriamne, wonder-
ingly.
" Those living now are so like their ancients who, in
fright and helpless doubt, sought to save themselves
by placating both good and evil ; the light struggles in
Egypt to-day, entering slowly and often retiring. Yea,
poor Egypt, I pity thee ! But I digress. It is said
that the Holy Family also tarried for a season at Mem
phis, on the Nile, the city where chiefly was practiced
the worship of Apis, the sacred bull. Thou remem-
berest how Israel was nearly ruined by doing homage
to a golden calf at Sinai ? That calf-worship was the
same as the Apis-worship of Egypt. The Egyptians,
in common with all mankind of old, earnestly looked
for a manifestation of God in visible form an incar
nation. Their priests practiced on their pitiful yearn
ings and credulity, and taught them to believe that
their greatest god appeared from time to time undef
the form of a bull, which Avatars they, the priests,
claimed that they only could discover. The
Egyptians, highly esteeming endurance and pas
sionate vigor, readily accepted the animal pre-emi
nent in these things as the abiding place and ex
pression of their god. The Child Jesus, the
token of a better faith, was fittingly brought, there
fore, to Egypt s Temple of Apis. Thus the LigJit and
Immortality confronted that typified grossly at Mem-
316 The Queen of the House of David.
phis, and the incarnations that were as false as they
were offensive, were brought face to face with the In
carnation sung by the angels. The devotees at the
fanes of Memphis degraded man by preferring the
beast. He that made man a little lower than the angels
first, afterward exalted him to sonship by appearing
garbed in the likeness of a man. Christ, at Memphis,
was to do what Moses did at Sinai."
" I do not comprehend these words ! "
" As Moses ground the golden image worshiped by
Israel to powder, so Christ came to overthrow and blot
out of the world every vestige of the religions or be-
lievings that exalts the animal and degrades the spirit
ual in man. He heralded the age of gold and fire."
" And was Apis overthrown by the child? "
" Not immediately ; that is not the way of Him who
knows no haste ; but in His own good time its fall
came. Egypt, hoar with deep thinkings on the master
problems of life, death, eternity, did much in distant
times to color and express the beliefs of all peoples. It
became a school of religious as well as the theater of
some of their greatest, bloodiest conflicts. Let me re
call some of the steps. First, I ll begin with the re
vival of the true faith under Moses, which was the
revival of escape, the only way to preserve God s peo
ple from utter defilement. Thou hast read in thy
Holy writings how the conflict began between the king
and Israel s leader:
And PJiaraoh called for Moses and for Aaron, and
said, Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land.
And Moses said, It is not meet so to do ; for we shall
sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord
our God: lo. shall we sacrifice the abomination of
Tlie Queen with Her Family in Egypt. 3 1 7
the Egyptians before their eyes, and zvill they not
stone us ?
We will go three days journey into the wilderness, and
sacrifice to the Lord our God, as he shall command us.
"Why was Moses so anxious to get away so far! "
"I ll show thee ; that was then a mystery, now ex
plained. Egypt worshiped a bull devoutly ; the
Israelites were commanded to sacrifice to God a red
heifer. The color, red, was an antetype of the saving
blood to be shed on red Calvary. Moses, methinks,
desired to get away that he might reveal this sacred
mystery, so far as he discerned it, to those to whom it
was sent. Follow me now with pious, frank heart.
The Israelites antagonized the customs of Egypt
sharply by offering before God the finer, weaker ani
mal, and now, girl, as I read of Mary and her child
waiting about Memphis, I discern the past and that
present meeting. It seems to me that He who thun
dered to Pharoah let my people go reappears in the
form of the child, the pitying shepherd, seeking the
lost sheep amid earth s offscourings. More, as I think
of Mary, the beautiful outcast, following the fortunes
of her Divine Child down into that dark land, and also
remember how His blood finally crimsoned her life, I
recall the red heifer offered on Israel s ancient altars.
Mary, for the world s sake, through her maternity, was
laid on the altar."
" Father Adolphus, you dazzle and yet convince me.
How wonderful all this seems! "
"I see the Holy Child in Egypt, the building nation
of earth, as the founder of a new order of building.
Now follow me, child. After the garden and the wilds,
where primitive man abode, there came the Tabernacle
3 1 8 The Queen of the House of David.
and Temple. When man enters into the benign influ
ences of social life, he begins building a house to shelter
and seclude his own. When he takes God or a god
into his society he builds a temple. If there be growth
and culture he decorates his buildings, hideously at
first, aesthetically after practice. Presently he becomes
a scientific builder and a philosopher. Then to him
life is all building. He grasps the thought that he is
the architect of himself, of his character, of his future.
If his religious life is deepened he expresses all his
philosophy, all his aspirations in monuments and tem
ples. Moses and Solomon, in tabernacle and temple,
but repeated the deeds of Egypt. But Egypt built
under the sun, the patriarchs under the Spirit. Egypt
had done its best, reached the end of its resources,
having filled the land from the Delta to the cataracts
of the Nile with pyramidial monument and august
fanes. But building under the sun, in the light of na
ture only, was building in the dark, at least half the
time. Christ, the architect of all that is enduring, con
fronted the achievements of those ancients as a merci
ful destroyer. He came to them to turn and overturn
that, after the ruins, their mind be turned to a building
upon and with the precious living Corner-Stone ! Try
to remember all this. Christianity is on the eve of a
new building age. The crusades are ended. Now for
religious palaces! But these in turn will be thrust
aside, that all may give themselves to build souls up
for eternity ! "
" I am dazzled good father, indeed ; but oh, I ca*
not remember all these things ! I m like a child in my
love for stories, and I can re-tell such to my mother, as
I can not these deeper things you utter."
The Queen with Her Family in Egypt. 319
" I forgot, child. But we priests preach by habit
everywhere ! "
"Tell me more of Mary and Joseph and Jesus. Were
the Egyptians kind to them?"
"As kind as the followers of the Pharaohs to the
descendants of Joseph ! No more. There was no more
room in Egypt for Jesus at His coming than there was
among His own people. But the God of Moses, ever
the living God, though opposed, may never be thwarted
nor killed ! "
" Oh, now do not tell me these things, too deep for
me ; just tell me the simple story of the sojourn in that
strange land."
" So be it, girl. If I digress, recall me. They say
that the Holy Family found in that land a few to accept
them kindly. One such was a robber, who, happening
upon them, was at first about to do them violence ; but
he was restrained by the demeanor of the saintly
mother, and his heart was all changed toward compas
sion of the little company. Instead of robbing, he gave
them a temporary home in his mountain retreat. It is
said that he was the one to whom the child of Mary,
long after, while dying on the cross, companion in
death with that same robber, gave repentance, with the
promise of Paradise."
" How good and natural ! "
"Then there s another legend. It is that Mary and
her loved ones were met in that strange country by
one of the world s pilgrims of pilgrims a gipsy, who
was a sorceress. There s a charming little dialogue,
part in prose and part in verse, all about that meeting,
which I have hei e. I ll read it. The sorceress begins
chanting:
320 TIic Queen of the House of David.
GlPSY I come, I come from the land of the sun,
From the dim, dim past of the far-off dawn ;
The waif of the world, the froth of the sea,
Of a clan that has been and ever shall be.
MARY God give thee grace and forgive thee thy
sins.
GlPSY Ye are pilgrims, too ; no lodge for to-night,
Ye are outcasts here in a flight of fright !
But the mother charms and my heart say come.
Ye may come ; shall come to my gipsy s home.
" The gipsy, Zingarella, took the babe in her arms,
but then suddenly broke forth into a mournful chant t
as she held the hand of the infant :
Here s a cradle song, and a tear and a moan ;
Here s a crown of thorns and a cross, when grown.
Here s a vale of blood and a black, black night.
Here s a flocking world and a rising light.
" And then suddenly falling upon her knees, the
gipsy asked alms ; but this time, as never before,
with both palms extended and craving neither silver
nor gold, but eternal life. It was granted. "
" Oh, father Adolphus, I ll never forget this story."
" Forget not, either, its simple lesson ; the gospel
comes to the very waifs of life, and so there is help
for the sinning, wherever found, in the Holy Child ; en
couragement to all holy longings in the meanest breast
of the meanest woman, once within that circle, all
radiant with the beautiful virtues of that Saviour ?
mother."
" Surely, I ll treasure this lesson, which is both balm
and heart s ease."
" I must go now, so must thou. I ll send at noon to
The Queen with Her family in Egypt. 321
the Reservoir, another parchment. Let one of the lads
meet the messenger. It will be suitable for reading to
thy mother, Rizpah. Be not so soon over-hopeful.
We must proceed with her slowly. Those most need
ing the light will curse it if, corning too suddenly, it
chance to dazzle. Israel still goes down all uncon
sciously to Egypt for gods, and the spectacle of man
changing the invisible down, down, continues every
where. Slowly, we who would be faithful, must raise
up His only true presentment. We must allure after
us, with all wisdom and tenderness, those we would
win, while striving ourselves to rise toward Divine ideals
ever beyond and above us. God bless my little mis
sionary. "
They parted ; and there were tears on Miriamne s
; but not of anguish.
CHAPTER XXII.
THE SHADOW OF THE CROSS.
Day followed day, like any childhood passing;
And silently Mary sat at her wheel
And watched the boy Messiah as she span ;
And as a human child unto his mother,
Subject the while, He did her low-voiced bidding-
Or gently came to lean upon her knee
And ask her of the thoughts that in him stirred,
4 And then, all tearful-hearted, she paused,
Or with tremulous hand spun on
The blessing that her lips instructive gave,
Asked Him with an instant thought again :
OTHER, I ve another volume of that charm
ing story, full of wonderful things. Shall
we peruse them to please our woman s
curiosity, to-night ? "
"Woman s curiosity?" angrily ejaculated Rizpah,
" They say all women are inquisitive ; do they not?"
"They! The fling of the lords of earth ! Eater
up with anxiety solely concerning themselves, they
plunge into introspections and questionings pertaining
to their own worth ; the ultimate of their own precious-
ness, that they call philosophy. Our sex, in self-for-
getfulness, ask questions out of sympathy, and with
desire to help others ; that s curiosity! Faugh, the
fling is sickening! "
The Shadow of the Cross. 323
" My book is both curious and philosophical ; it s in
teresting to both sexes therefore. Shall I read ?"
" On thy promise to tell me later whence it came,
who its author, thou mayst read it to me."
Miriamne, perceiving that her mother was curious to
hear the whole story, though the former placated her
conscience by a show of indifference, responded : " I ll
begin with the return of the wanderers. " So saying,
she read :
" But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the
Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, say-
ing, arise, and take the young child and his mother,
and go into the land of Israel : for they are dead which
sought the young child s life.
" And he arose, and took the young child and his
mother, and came into the land of Israel.
" Being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside
into the parts of Galilee :
" And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth :
that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the
prophets. He shall be called a Nazarene.
" Nazarene ! " Rizpah ejaculated, interrupting the
reader. " Does the word not taste like wormwood,
girl?"
The maiden replied, adroitly : " We read the pagan
inscriptions on the monuments about us without
being harmed ! Surely we may safely read these
nobler peoples words and deeds." So saying, the
maiden continued :
" Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at
the feast of the passover.
" And when He was twelve years old, they went up
to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast.
324 The Queen of the House of David.
" And when they had fulfilled the days, as they re
turned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem ;
and Joseph and His mother knew not of it.
" ; But they, supposing Him to have been in the com
pany, went a day s journey; and they sought Him
among thevr kinsfolk and acquaintance.
" And when they found Him not, they turned back
again to Jerusalem, seeking Him.
" And it came to pass that after three days they
found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the
doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions.
" And all that heard Him were astonished at His un
derstanding and answers.
" And when they saw Him, they were amazed : and
His mother said unto Him, Son, why hast thou thus
dealt with us ? Behold, Thy father and I have sought
Thee sorrowing.
" And He said unto them, How is it that ye sought
me? Wist ye not that I must be about my Father s
business ?"
"That was rude, was it not, daughter? Was not his
father s business his mother s ? He was young for such
philosophy, so like that of tyrant husband."
" He meant God s business ! "
" Then his earnestness was just. God first, kin
after mother or husband say I. Did the mother
gain-say him ?"
"It is thus recorded," replied the maiden.
" And they understood not the saying which He
spake unto them.
" And he went down with them, and came to Naza
reth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kcpf
ail these sayings in her heart.
The Shadow of the Cross. 325
" And He increased in wisdom and stature, and in
favor with God and man.
" Daughter, there was a fine spirit in that house ; it
was enhaloed by the girl-wife s character! No wonder
that the son increased in favor with God and man !
He was able to cope with the doctors mentally, yet
subjected himself to his mother. I ll certify that he
was wonderfully like his mother. The traits of the
woman that bore him are prominent in every man of
fine measure."
"And are fine daughters, like their fathers," laugh
ingly questioned Miriamne, as she glanced at a reflec
tion of herself in a metalic mirror suspended on the
wall before her.
"Ah, that depends on whether they have wholesome
fathers." Then, turning her eyes affectionately toward
her daughter, Rizpah continued : " Thou hast enough
of Hebrew in thee to leaven thee. Yet, let me plant
this in thy memory, my lamb, destined most likely
some time to lie in anguish on the altar of maternity:
Mothers determine beyond all else the fate of the world
by determining beyond all else the characters of their
offspring. Yea, girl, in the homes of industry, the bugle-
calls of the soldier, the moving orations of the holy
teacher, there are ever heard echoes of their cradle
days." Rizpah paused, drew a long sigh, and again
broke forth : " But, alas ! men and women walk in
pairs. How can the gentler of the two, alone, or
opposed by the stronger, succeed? I ve seen paired
birds battle the sly serpent, creeping toward their bird-
lings, victoriously; paired weakness triumphant over
huge danger; and I ve seen the lords of creation drop
ping serpents upon their own mates and their own
326 The Queen of the House of David.
nestlings ! If one would find a monstrous cruelty, he
must needs seek in human homes ! " Then the speaker,
pausing, bowed herself, and sat swaying from side to
side, with her hands over her eyes. Miriamne, accus
tomed to such action on her mother s part, and know
ing it was best when she was in such moods to leave
her to herself, withdrew quietly. Yet, Rizpah seemed
not alone to herself, for her mind was peopled with
ghostly forms from her gloomy past ; all painful com
panions, but still courted by the woman in her periods
of morbidness. Presently she slept ; the sleep of sor
row, that mercy balm of nature which comes to pained
or wounded humanity as the power to grieve or ache
is exhausted. The sleeper passed from consciousness
of things about her, followed by the forms that had
haunted her memory, and was soon among the wonders
of dream land. Then came to her the sound of
mighty contentions, and it seemed as if opposing forces
were in conflict concerning herself. Rizpah, of the
ancient, seemed to be trying to drag the dreamer
toward seven crosses supporting seven stark forms.
The babel of contending voices was silenced by others,
exu ting, as if in victory. There was a change; the
sleeper seemed to be lifted up from caverns unutterably
deep, and suffocating, upon a ruby cloud, soft as down to
the touch, but irresistible in uplifting. She was borne
swif! ly, over vast realms of space, toward a golden
gate way with tomb-like arch, whose cross-shaped
portal swung invitingly open. A river of light spread
ing to a sea, and vibrating with sense-entrancing
melody, flowed outward through the mighty gate-way.
On either side of the portals, and moving along the
river, were many glorious beings. The latter soared
The Shadow of the Cross. 327
on wings of mighty sweep, whose motions seemed to
beat in accord with the melody of the flowing light,
while, from within and without the gate-way, there came
the sound of countless voices, all, as it were, mingling
in the triumphant swellings of a grand anthem. The
dreamer discerned in the anthem two words, repeated
over and over, tirelessly: " Glad Tidings! 1 "Glad
Tidings ! " " Glad Tidings ! " The golden gate became
rose-tinted ; the color deepening to purple and gold
as down the stream of light there floated an island of
gardens, and on the island appeared two human forms;
a youth and a maiden. The anthem " Glad Tidings"
continued ; but sweeter, louder, deeper than before.
And the sleeper perceived that on the wings of the
glorious beings there were emblems; red crosses, about
each cross a ring of fire ; above the crosses, bejeweled
silver cups ; then she knew that the twain on the island
were bride and groom. The scene changed ; there was
a consciousness of a flight of time. She looked again,
and on the island she beheld a mother lovingly bend
ing over a babe ; over mother and babe tenderly bended
a man, by the pride and the affection he expressed,
attesting himself the husband and father. Rizpah was
enraptured, and in her <3ream she prayed the scene
might tarry. She was nigli being envious of that
happy mother. But her prayer was denied her, for
soon she was startled by a voice at her side, saying, in
tones of mournful rebuke : " Farewell, forever! "
The dreamer, looking about, beheld in her vision, her
ideal, Rizpah ; but the latter was wonderfully changed.
Her eyes were dim and sunken ; her form dwarfed,
bowed and age-shriveled. Suddenly the whole vision
faded into thin air, and Rizpah, of Bozrah, awakened
328 The Queen of the House of David.
filled with condemnation. Before she fully realized
that she had been dreaming, she cried out:
" Rizpah, oh, Rizpah, tarry a moment ! "
Silence was her sole reply. Little by little, as she
collected her thoughts, she comprehended that her
vision, while sleeping, expressed the facts of her life
while waking. The heroine girl-wife of Nazareth, the
newer, finer, surer, truer ideal of womanhood, was
demolishing in the mind of the woman of Bozrah her
former idol, the lioness of Gibeah s hill. She knew
this, for she found herself contrasting the two ideals,
and in mind lingering by preference and with the
greater delight about conceptions of the younger.
Then began the struggles of the giants in her con
science ; clean truth against hoar prejudices; sweet
mercy against bitter revenge ; Mary of Bethlehem
against Rizpah of Gibeah. The matron of Bozrah,
usually hitherto so self-sufficient, was changing. She
felt that yearning inevitable in the career of most
women for a confidant. She could not sleep ; she
could not now go down to get inspiration by standing
before the grim Rizpah-painting, in the lower room ;
she was miserable, lonely and restless.
Mechanically, she moved toward her daughter s cham
ber, some way feeling that even a sleeper would be
company to one so lonely as herself. Rizpah, alone,
at night, in the grim, giant house, groping her way
toward Miriamne s sleeping place, was unconsciously
illustrating her soul s quest. She was in heart seeking
alone, and in the dark, some one to take the place of
her demolished ideal. Had the queen of women been
there, in person, Rizpah, then, would have welcomed
her. She groped her way to the maiden s couch, feel-
The Shadow of the Cross. 329
ing that, as she believed, her daughter was pure and
good and loving. Could the matron have analyzed her
own feelings, she would have found that she was in
part led toward Miriamne because the latter some
way seemed like, or near to, the girl-wife who was sup
planting in the heart of Rizpah of Bozrah, the wild
Rizpah of Gibeah. A cloud passing let a flood of
silvering moonlight full on the sleeper s couch, and
Rizpah, feasting her eyes, murmured : " I wonder
if that woman of Bethlehem were not very like this
maiden ? " As the mother gazed on her offspring she
presently began noting features in the sleeper s face
that reminded her of the absent father and husband.
She recalled him as he appeared under the palms that
night at Purim, and as he was that day he lay pale and
bleeding in her all-giving arms. The whole past, that
was delightful, came trooping up, and with it there
came the full light of an old love revived ; a renaissance
of that she had supposed buried forever. Soon the
aged woman, all youthful again within, was mentally
in hot chase after the pleasure she had parted from so
hastily long years before. She was glad of her thoughts,
for they were rejoicing; glad she was alone, for the
thoughts seemed sacred. It was no use, had she willed,
to resist ; so she just gave up to the impulse, and with
a half-suppressed cry, passionately twined her arms
about the sleeping girl, and covered the face of the
latter with burning kisses.
The maiden started up in affright, breaking the spell
that swayed her mother, but only in part at first.
Rizpah was almost angered by the awakening, which
caused the vision her soul was embracing to take swift
flight. Her first glance seemed to say to the now
330 TJie Queen of the House of David.
awakened girl : " Begone, intruder ! Leave me for a
time alone with " but she recovered herself, and was
silent. Yet her mind ran on after the vision. She had
not been embracing the girl, but the girl s father, in
heart. Had he happened there then, he would have
been all-forgiven, all-welcome. So wonderful the heart
of one capable of deep loving as well as deep hating;
so wonderful the nature of such a woman as Rizpah,
when her emotions, aroused, spread their throbbing
pinions to soar at the behest of revived affection.
"Human passion," sneeringly some may say, and
truly. But human passion is a gift of grace. When
it travels along right lines, it quickens the one enriched
by it to the noblest deeds. He whose name is Love
came to earth through the Incarnation to show the
splendor of human affection, working at its best in the
kingdom of its finest displays the home circle. The
fate of Eden made men believe a lie, but Bethlehem
refuted that lie for all time. Rizpah turned bitterly
from the fiery, disappointing love she had experienced
to stamp all loving, except parent love, a mockery.
She had nursed her false creed, and suppressed her rebel
heart by adoration of the wintry ideal of Gibeah.
Now she was touched by a new influence, and it was to
her as the touch of spring to winter-prisoned nature.
For a few moments daughter and mother contemplated
each other; the one as if dreaming, the other full of
wilderment. Then the former quietly said: "I ve
been very nervous to-night. I m quieter now, and will
go to rest. Sweet dreams follow thee, daughter."
The maiden composed herself to sleep, and the elder
woman passed out of the room. The latter, in going,
perceived on the floor-slab a parchment, and bore it
The Shadow of the Cross, 331
away with her. She said within herself as she did so:
" It is best for Miriamne that I know of her reading."
But, after all, she was very curious to know all about
the new matter, of which she had recently heard a
part, on her own account. The writing, that of a mas
culine hand, ran as follows :
" MIRIAMNE : As I promised, I have herein recorded, for
the help of thy memory, further facts about the Bethlehem
Mother, MARY. Keeping constantly in heart the wonderful
words of the angel Gabriel, she followed with constancy the
wanderings of her Son as He went forth to heal and preach.
She heard with pride and joy that a Dove of Peace from
heaven overshadowed Him at His baptism in Jordan ; but
immediately she was plunged into anxiety, for he disap
peared from the haunts of men in a prolonged absence.
This was during the time of His temptation in the wilderness.
He returned to gladden her, but immediately set forth to new
trials, labors and dangers. The young Miracle-Worker was
denounced and driven from among the people of His youth.
Tradition points to the very place where his mother fell
fainting, when she saw the people of Nazareth dragging her
Son to a precipice by the city, with intent to cast Him down
to death. At that place of the mother s overcoming the
Empress Helena builded the sanctuary called the Church of
the Terror. But that loyal mother never wavered in her
allegiance to her Son, but, shortly after these things formally,
publicly, bravely, received baptism at His hands in Jordan,
at Bethabara. Indeed, this act on her part evinced not only
the faith of a disciple, but the zeal of motherhood ; her
Son s cause seemed to be failing, and she espoused it to
strengthen it in its most trying hour. She was willing to
dare all things to win for her Beloved a possible gain, how
ever small.
" The gathering storm grew darker about the Carpenter s
Son, and the leaders of the people were planning His destruc
tion ; but He pursued his work of healing and teaching
serenely ; His mother constantly hovering near him to en
courage Him. She heard that John the Baptist, son of
Elizabeth, the herald of her own Child, had been slain be
cause he had been true to God. The harlots of the Court
332 TJie Queen of the House of David.
of He: - od had procured John s death, because that holy man
had rebuked their vices. But even this shocking event did
not overawe the mother of the Founder of the New Kingdom.
She stood in splendid contrast with the murderers of the
prophet. It was purity, almost single-handed, against lust
corseleted by the nation ; two phalanxes ; one of few, the
other of many ; but, as common in this world, each led by
a woman. Mary, like a parent bird fluttering over her
nestling, sought by the fowler, hovered around her off
spring. She exemplified the finest, fullest utterance of
faith, Jusus only, by determining to break up the home in
Nazareth, in order that all the family might keep near the
beloved One in His journeys. So it happened that when He
was near Capernaum, working Himself nigh unto death,
they visited Him to persuade Him to rest. Of this it is
written :
1 While He yet talked to the people, behold, His mother
and His brethren stood without, desiring to speak with
Him.
Then one said unto Him, Behold, thy motJicr and Thy
brethren stand without, desiring to speak with Thee.
But He answered and said unto him, Who is my
mother f and zvho are my brethren ?
A nd He stretched forth His hand tozvard His dis
ciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren !
For ^v ho so ever shall do the will of my Father which is
in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother
"To all He herein proclaimed the doctrines of His king
dom, self-denial, and though the words seem harsh, they were
most kind, for by them He said, as it were, to His disciples :
Behold these all-sacrificing relatives of mine are twice rela
ted to me; by blood and by sufferings. It was, on Jesus part,
a public adoption of His own family. As He had been pub
licly adopted from on high when He typically submitted to
death in His baptism, so when He beheld His mother, having
forsaken all to be with Him, he proclaimed those that had
elected to share His sufferings His kin indeed. The sword
of His suffering bitterly wounded her when the :;.bble howled
The Shadoiv of. the Cross. 333
after the Healer, " Thou wast born in fornication." But He,
amid all His engrossments, never forgot to minister to His
mother as a courtly, reverent, loving Son. These words of
a holy book not only speak of the workings of the provi
dence of God, but assure us that He that uttered them was
prompted to comfort His own widowed mother : But I tell
you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of
Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six
months, when great famine was throughout all the land ;
" But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sa-
repta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.
" And now for the present I close with all holy salutations.
"A. VON G."
Rizpah was so engrossed with the matter of the let
ter that she scarcely observed the initials at its end.
As she turned the letter over there fell into her lap a
pictured parchment. It represented a woman, half
kneeling and with arms outstretched toward a beauti
ful child, the latter balancing, and, as it were, taking a
first lesson in walking. "That woman s face is some
way very like that of my Mariamne s in beauty and
thoughtfulness," soliloquized Rizpah. Then observing
a tent in the picture, at one side and under the tent,
the form of a strong, dignified man, she again scrutin-
izingly exclaimed, "In truth, that face is Harrimai s!
How like my father! " For some time she sat consid
ering the group, and then again spoke to herself : "Ah,
I see, these are none other than the girl wife, husband
and child of whom Mariamne has been reading! But
what an improper legend at the bottom ? A sword
shall pierce through thine own soul also ! A sword has
no place in that happy group ! " And Rizpah still
gazed at the charming presentment. Suddenly she
started from her seat. "What s this ?" she cried as
she traced a dark cross made by the shadow of the
TJie Shadow o/ the Cross. 333
after the Healer, " Thou wast born in fornication." But He,
amid all His engrossments, never forgot to minister to His
mother as a courtly, reverent, loving Son. These words of
a holy book not only speak of the workings of the provi
dence of God, but assure us that He that uttered them was
prompted to comfort His own widowed mother : But I tell
you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of
Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six
months, when great famine was throughout all the land ;
" But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sa-
repta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.
" And now for the present I close with all holy salutations.
"A. VON G."
Rizpah was so engrossed with the matter of the let
ter that she scarcely observed the initials at its end.
As she turned the letter over there fell into her lap a
pictured parchment. It represented a woman, half
kneeling and with arms outstretched toward a beauti
ful child, the
