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It was one of the few nights when the Gischalan kept vigil, for he refused to contribute fatigue to the prospering of his cause. Sometime in mid-morning he appeared in the house of Amaryllis and sent a servant to her asking her to breakfast with him.
"Doubtless he will allow you to remain here until you can provide yourself with other shelter." Laodice heard this cold sentence with a chill of fear that was new to her. Faint pictures of hunger and violence, terrifying in the extreme, confronted her. Yet not any of them frightened her more than the offered favor of the Gischalan.
The stranger stayed only a dramatic instant on the threshold and then disappeared into the corridor which led up into the Temple. When he had gone the startled actress retained a picture of a face, fearless, beatified, mystic to the very edge of the supernatural. "Who was that?" she asked of the Gischalan, who was gazing at the color of his wine, sitting in a shaft of sunlight. "Seraiah!
They stood within a few paces of Laodice and she heard the soldier address the man as John, and heard him deliver a report of the day. When the soldier withdrew to his place, Laodice stepped forward and called to the Gischalan. He stopped, noted that she was beautiful and waited. "I would speak with the Lady Amaryllis," she hesitated. "Have you the countersign?" he asked.
But more than that, no one knows. He appeared with the slaying of Zechariah the Just. He haunts the garrisons. Hence his name Soldier of Jehovah!" "He did not speak; why did he come?" "He never speaks; he goes where he will; no one would dare to stop him!" Then suddenly realizing that he was showing disinterest the Gischalan drew himself up and smiled. "He is mad; I believe he is mad.
From her position, she saw running toward them John of Gischala, with his long garments whipping about him, wrapping his tall figure in live cerements. He was disarmed and bleeding. She saw next Amaryllis, with compassionate uplifted hands stop in his way; saw next the Gischalan thrust her aside with a blow and the next instant disappear as if the earth had swallowed him.
Even the Greek's sympathy was hateful to him. Yet when Laodice had first entered the house of Amaryllis, the woman had been obliged to dismiss John from her presence for his own welfare and the welfare of the city. Why this change? Amaryllis was no less beautiful, no less brilliant, no less attractive than she had once been; but the Gischalan had wearied of her.
"No; else I should have entered. But Amaryllis will know me." "Enter then," the Gischalan said. In a moment she was admitted at the solid doors and led into a vestibule. Here, a porter took charge of Momus and showed him into a side passage, while Laodice followed her conductor through a corridor into an interior hall of splendid simplicity.
And I am still as I was, but " He looked down on the triple bands of the ampyx that bound her gold-powdered hair and said: "It is you who have grown weary; not I." She astutely drew back from the ground upon which she had entered. It lay in the power of this Gischalan to refuse further protection to her out of sheer spite if she made her disaffection too patent.
"I seek Amaryllis, the Seleucid," he said. The eye of the Jew traveled over him, with some disapproval. "The mistress of the Gischalan?" was the returned inquiry. The Maccabee assented calmly. The young man indicated a broad street moving with people which led with tolerable directness toward the base of Moriah.
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