The City of Delight - A Love Drama of the Siege and Fall of Jerusalem

muthog - Elizabeth Miller

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195 pages

English

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Publié par	muthog
Publié le	08 décembre 2010
Nombre de lectures	32
Langue	English

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of The City of Delight, by Elizabeth Miller This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Title: The City of Delight A Love Drama of the Siege and Fall of Jerusalem Author: Elizabeth Miller Illustrator: F. X. Leyendecker Release Date: May 31, 2005 [EBook #15953] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CITY OF DELIGHT *** Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Stefan Cramme and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. THE CITY OF DELIGHT A Love Drama of the Siege and Fall of Jerusalem by Elizabeth Miller Author of The Yoke and Saul of Tarsus With Illustrations by F.X. Leyendecker Indianapolis The Bobbs-Merrill Company Publishers 1908 March To My Elder Brother Otto Miller CONTENTS I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. XI. XII. XIII. XIV. XV. XVI. XVII. XVIII. XIX. XX. XXI. XXII. XXIII. XXIV. A Prince's Bride On the Road to Jerusalem The Shepherd of Pella The Travelers By the Wayside Dawn in the Hills Imperial Cæsar Greek and Jew The Young Titus The Story of a Divine Tragedy The House of Offense The Prince Returns A New Pretender The Pride of Amaryllis The Image of Jealousy The Spread Net The Tangled Web In the Sunless Crypt The False Prophet As the Foam upon Water The Faithful Servant Vanished Hopes The Fulfilment The Road to Pella 1 31 56 85 108 124 148 169 189 212 233 253 274 284 300 322 337 358 374 390 408 417 427 441 THE CITY OF DELIGHT Chapter I A PRINCE'S BRIDE The chief merchant of Ascalon stood in the guest-chamber of his house. Although it was a late winter day the old man was clad in the free white garments of a midsummer afternoon, for to the sorrow of Philistia the cold season of the year sixtynine had been warm, wet and miasmic. An old woman entering presently glanced at the closed windows of the apartment when she noted the flushed face of the merchant but she made no movement to have them opened. More than the warmth of the day was engaging the attention of the grave old man, and the woman, by dress and manner of equal rank with him, stood aside until he could give her a moment. His porter bowed at his side. "The servants of Philip of Tyre are without," he said. "Shall they enter?" "They have come for the furnishings," Costobarus answered. "Take thou all the household but Momus and Hiram, and dismantle the rooms for them. Begin in the library; then the sleeping-rooms; this chamber next; the kitchen last of all. Send Hiram to the stables to except three good camels from the herd for our use. Let Momus look to the baggage. Where is Keturah?" A woman servant hastening after a line of men bearing a great divan, picking up the draperies and pillows that had dropped, stopped and salaamed to her master. "Is our apparel ready?" he asked. "Prepared, master," was the response. "Then send hither–" But at that moment a man-servant dressed in the garb of a physician hastened into the chamber. Without awaiting the notice of his master he hurried up and whispered in his ear. Costobarus' face grew instantly grave. "How near?" he asked anxiously. "In the next house–but a moment since. The household hath fled," was the low answer. "Haste, haste!" Costobarus cried to the rush of servants about him. "Lose no time. We must be gone from this place before mid-afternoon. Laodice! Where is Laodice?" he inquired. Then his wife who had stood aside spoke. "She is not yet prepared," she explained unreadily. "She needs a frieze cloak–" Costobarus broke in by beckoning his wife to one side, where the servants could not hear him say compassionately, "Let there be no delay for small things, Hannah. Let us haste, for Laodice is going on the Lord's business." "A matter of a day only," Hannah urged. "A delay that is further necessary, for Aquila's horse is lame." The old man shook his head and looked away to see a man-servant stagger out under a load of splendid carpets. The old woman came close. "The wayside is ambushed and the wilderness is patrolled with danger, Costobarus," she said. "Of a certainty you will not take Laodice out into a country perilous for caravans and armies!" "These very perils are the signs of the call of the hour," he maintained. "She dare not fail to respond. The Deliverer cometh; every prophecy is fulfilled. Rather rejoice that you have prepared your daughter for this great use. Be glad that you have borne her." But in Hannah's face wavered signs of another interpretation of these things. She broke in on him without the patience to wait until he had completed his sentence. "Are they prophecies of hope which are fulfilled, or the words of the prophet of despair?" she insisted. "What saith Daniel of this hour? Did he not name it the abomination of desolation? Said he not that the city and the sanctuary should be destroyed, that there should be a flood and that unto the end of the war desolations shall be determined? Desolations, Costobarus! And Laodice is but a child and delicately reared!" "All these things may come to pass and not a hair of the heads of the chosen people be harmed," he assured her. "But Laodice is too young to have part in the conflict of nations, the business of Heaven and earth and the end of all things!" A courier strode into the hall and approached Costobarus, saw that he was engaged in conversation and stopped. The merchant noted him and withdrew to read the message which the man carried. "A letter from Philadelphus," he said over his shoulder, as he moved away from Hannah. "He hath landed in Cæsarea with his cousin Julian of Ephesus. He will proceed at once to Jerusalem. We have no time to lose. Ah, Momus?" He spoke to a servant who had limped into the hall and stood waiting for his notice. He was the ruin of a man, physically powerful but as a tree wrecked by storm and grown strong again in spite of its mutilation. Pestilence in years long past had attacked him and had left him dumb, distorted of feature, wry-necked and stiffened in the right leg and arm. His left arm, forced to double duty, had become tremendously muscular, his left hand unusually dexterous. Much of his facial distortion was the result of his efforts to convey his ideas by expression and by his attempts to overcome the interference of his wry neck with the sweep of his vision. "Whom have we in our party, Momus?" Costobarus asked. As the man made rapid, uncouth signs, the master interpreted. "Keturah, Hiram and Aquila–and thou and I, Momus. Three camels, one of which is the beast of burden. Good! Aquila will ride a horse; ha! a horse in a party of camels –well, perhaps–if he were bought in Ascalon. How? What? St–t! The physician told me even now. Let none of the household know it–above all things not thy mistress!" The last sentence was delivered in a whisper in response to certain uneasy gestures the mute had made. The man bowed and withdrew. A second servitor now approached with papers which the merchant inspected and signed hastily with ink and stylus which the clerk bore. When this last item was disposed of, Hannah was again at her husband's side. "Costobarus," she whispered, "it is known that the East Gate of the Temple, which twenty Levites can close only with effort, opened of itself in the sixth hour of the night!" "A sign that God reëntereth His house," the merchant explained. "A sign, O my husband, that the security of the Holy House is dissolved of its own accord for the advantage of its enemies!" Costobarus observed two huge Ethiopians who appeared bewildered at the threshold of the unfamiliar interior, looking for the master of the house to tell them what to do. The merchant motioned toward a tall ebony case that stood against one of the walls and showed them that they were to carry it out. Hannah continued: "And thou hast not forgotten that night when the priests at the Pentecost, entering the inner court, were thrown down by the trembling of the Temple and that a vast multitude, which they could not see, cried: 'Let us go hence!' And that dreadful sunset which we watched and which all Israel saw when armies were seen fighting in the skies and cities with toppling towers and rocking walls fell into red clouds and vanished!" "What of thyself, Hannah?" he broke in. "Art thou ready to depart for Tyre? Philip will leave to-morrow. Do not delay him. Go and prepare." But the woman rushed on to indiscretion, in her desperate intent to stop the journey to Jerusalem at any cost. "But there are those of good repute here in Ascalon, sober men and excellent women, who say that our hope for the Branch of David is too late–that Israel is come to judgment, this hour–for He is come and gone and we received Him not!" Costobarus turned upon her sharply. "What is this?" he demanded. "O my husband," she insisted hopefully, "it measures up with prophecy! And they who speak thus confidently say that He prophesied the end of the Holy City, and that this is not the Advent, but doom!" "It is the Nazarene apostasy," he exclaimed in alarm, "alive though the power of Rome and the diligence of the Sanhedrim have striven to destroy it these forty years! Now the poison hath entered mine own house!" A servant bowed within earshot. Costobarus turned to him hastily. "Philip of Tyre," the attendant announced. "Let him enter," Costobarus said. "Go, Hannah; make Laodice ready–preparations are almost complete; be not her obstacle." "But–but," she insisted with whitening lips, "I have not said that I believe all this. I only urge that, in view of this time of war, of contending prophecies and of all known peril, that we should keep her, who is our one ewe lamb, our tender flower, our Rose of Sharon, yet within shelter until the signs are manifest and the purpose of the Lord God is made clear." He turned to her slowly. There was pain on his fa