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Updated: June 21, 2025
Costobarus remained for a space sunk in glorified meditation. But presently he raised himself, with signs of his recent feeling showing on his face. "Send hither thy mother; bid Aquila and our servants stand here before me a little later." She bowed and withdrew. As she passed out a servant stepped aside to give her room and at a sign from his master approached.
"Thou shalt have the portion of the wise-hearted man in this kingdom. And this yet further, my friend. If perchance the uncertainties of travel in this distressed land should prove disastrous and I should not return, I shall leave a widow here " "And in that instance, be at peace. I am thy brother." Costobarus pressed Philip's hand. "Farewell," he said; and Philip embraced him and went forth.
He was angry because she had come; he hated her for her stateliness; he found himself looking for defects in her and belittling her undeniable graces. Confused and for the moment without plan, he looked at her frowning, and with cold astonishment the woman gazed back at him. "Thou art Laodice, daughter of Costobarus?" he asked, to gain time. She inclined her head.
Costobarus looked after her and struggled with rising emotion. But the curtain dropped behind her and left him alone. A moment later the curtains over the arch parted and a middle-aged Jew, richly habited, stood there. He raised his hand for the blessing of the threshold, then embraced Costobarus with more warmth than ceremony. "What is this I hear?" he demanded with affectionate concern.
"How, then," Costobarus asked, with a keen look, "came Philadelphus to appoint you to conduct Laodice to the city?" "His retinue is small; he could not come himself, and he chose me as safer than the other member of his party," was the direct reply. Costobarus studied this reply before he questioned his son-in-law's courier further. "Jerusalem, they say, is in disorder.
"This," he said, "is Laodice, daughter of Costobarus." Laodice blazed at the insolent beauty who stared at her with curious eyes. "That!" she cried. "The daughter of Costobarus!" The fine brown eyes of the woman smoldered a little, but she continued to gaze without the least discomposure. "Who is this, sir?" she asked of Philadelphus.
It seized upon healthy victims, rent them, blasted them and cast them dead and distorted in their tracks, before help could reach them. It passed like fire on a high wind through whole countries and left behind it silence and feeding vultures. As Costobarus turned from his window to pace up and down his chamber, Hannah's argument came back to him with new energy.
Meanwhile, Keturah, who sat huddled on the floor of Laodice's howdah, had not moved since they had left the doorway of Costobarus' house. Momus, on the neck of Laodice's camel, had observed her once or twice, and now he reached back and touched her. He jerked his hand away and brought up his camel with a wrench.
"Because it is the only secure house in Jerusalem. She stands in the good graces of John of Gischala and she is safe." Costobarus ruminated. "There is too much detail; too many people to depend upon and therefore too many who may fail you. Aquila!" "Sir?" "I am going to Jerusalem with you."
The vultures flew up hastily and Costobarus saw them for the first time. A chill rushed over him; revulsion of feeling showed vividly on his face. He shut the window. Noon was high over Ascalon and Pestilence was Cæsar within its walls. It was the penalty of warfare, the long black shadow that the passage of a great army casts upon a battling nation. Physicians could not give it a name.
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