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Updated: June 7, 2025
"More, by thousands, than there are men who merit it," answered Zarah.
Zarah thought, though she did not say so, that the heart struggle would last as long as her earthly existence. "You will obey me, my daughter?" asked the widow; "you will shun the too attractive society of the stranger?" The maiden bowed her head in assent, and murmured, "Pray for me, mother; I am so weak." "My life shall be one prayer," said Hadassah.
"The word is 'The sword of Antiochus. Unbar that door, and quickly; I am on business of importance which brooks no delay," said Pollux to the guards in a tone of command. The order was instantly obeyed. Zarah joyfully heard bolt after bolt withdrawn, and then the creaking of the door upon its hinges; and felt the freshness of outer air admitted through the opening.
And it was here that the gentle Ruth gleaned barley amongst the reapers of Boaz." The young Greek was well pleased to show his recently-acquired knowledge of sacred story. "Yes; my mother was wont to point out to me the very spots where events took place which must ever render them dear to the Hebrews," observed Zarah.
So profound was the slumber of the weary girl that she heard not the sound of opening the door, nor a step on the marble floor, and lay unconscious of the yearning, anxious, mournful gaze that was fixed upon her she slept. "Lovely, most lovely fairer even than her mother!" murmured Pollux, as he stood beside the couch of Zarah, upon whose slumbering form softly fell the light from a silver lamp.
Have you no friends, no relatives, in Galilee, or on the sea-coast?" Zarah shook her head. "I know not of one," she replied. "Rachel dwells not in Bethsura but near it, and in a spot so retired that the enemy is scarcely likely to find it out. If the country be infested by armed bands they are the followers of Maccabeus, and from them we have nothing to dread."
If there was something more than gratitude in the maiden's feelings towards the Greek, it was a sentiment so refined and purified by grief that it cast no dimness over the mirror of conscience. But Zarah knew that her life could not always flow on thus. It was a most unusual thing in her land for a maiden thus to dwell alone, without any apparent protection save that of a single handmaid.
He tried to persuade her to fly; but even his entreaties could not draw the mourner from the dead bodies of Hadassah and Pollux. It seemed as if Zarah could understand nothing but the greatness of her bereavements. A terrible fear arose in the mind of the Greek that all that the maiden had undergone during the last two days had unsettled her reason.
"Oh, mother, think you that the stranger will live?" "He may; youth can swim through stormy waters," replied Hadassah; "but may I be forgiven the inhospitable thought! I would that the Greek had come to any other house rather than to mine." "So few visitors ever seek this spot so few strangers ever pass it we lead lives so retired we can, better than most, conceal a guest," observed Zarah.
The guards obeyed. Zarah approached the king, but with timid, faltering steps; how different from the firm tread with which a captive Maccabeus would have drawn nigh to the oppressor who might slay but never subdue him!
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