Seraiah told him briefly the story of recent events, and described the present condition of affairs, the other listening with an eager attention, and breaking [pg 308]in now and then with an exclamation of wonder and admiration.
“Come, Benjamin,” he said, when he had finished, “why will you not throw in your lot with us? Things look dark just now; but they will brighten. He who has helped us so far will not desert us now.”
“Sir,” said the man, “I would gladly follow the captain, whether he led me to life or to death. No man could ask a better lot than to be his soldier. But I like not all that are with him. They are over-strict, and make no allowance for such as have not their zeal. Once they beat me; another time they had stoned me to death but that I slipped out of their hands; and both for some miserable trifles which no man of sense would care about. No, sir; Judas I honour and love, but these bigots who give a man no peace I cannot away with. And now the day is beginning to break, and I must go. I am sorry that you will not take my poor gifts.”
The next moment he had disappeared.
And now came a time of grievous trouble for Ruth and her young charges, for she had naturally taken charge of Azariah’s two daughters. She did not question her husband’s refusal to share any longer the illicit gains of Benjamin, but she could not shut her eyes to the fact that the children were suffering grievously. For herself she could endure, as women can; the girls, too, were old enough to understand [pg 309]the cause of their suffering, though they could not enter into the reasons of what seemed so strange an observance—the Sabbatical year; but little Daniel was too young to know much beyond the fact that he was always terribly hungry, and though he was often brave enough to check his crying when he saw how it distressed his mother, there were times when the pangs of hunger were more than he could bear in silence. Poor Ruth denied herself everything but the few scraps that were absolutely necessary to keep body and soul together, and her physical weakness did not make it easier to keep up her hope and courage. Her hardest task, perhaps, was to hide, as far as it was possible, the true state of things from her husband. His strength must be kept up, for so much depended upon it; but the children, not to speak of herself, had to have their scanty share diminished that it might be so. This, of course, he was not allowed to know, and Ruth was at her wits’ end again and again to keep it from him.
Within the Temple fortress, meanwhile, things had become almost desperate. A few shekels’ weight of flour was given out to each man daily, for Judas insisted that all should share alike. That even this scanty allowance might hold out the longer, numbers of the garrison made their escape every night under the cover of darkness that the remainder might prolong their resistance for yet a few days more.
Before long came a time when absolutely nothing was left. “Their vessels were without victuals,” and Judas and the few that still remained with him met to hold a final deliberation.
“My friends,” said the great captain, “you see the straits into which we are brought. There is no need to tell you of them, or to prove by words what we all know too well in fact. What, then, shall we do? Shall we stay here and perish slowly by hunger, or shall we fall upon our swords, or shall we sally forth from the gates, and, having slain as many of the heathen as we may, so perish ourselves? I had hoped that the Lord would give deliverance to Israel by my hand, and by the hand of my brothers. But if it be not so, His will be done. For He is not shut up to do that which it pleaseth Him by one man or another. He can call whomsoever He will, and give him strength for the work.”
He paused for a moment, and Azariah broke in, “It is well said, O captain of the host. The Lord hath helped His people hitherto, and He will help them to the end. Only let us trust in Him, for”—and here, with an impetuous gesture, he struck his foot upon the rock—“they that put their trust in the Lord shall be even as this mountain, which may not be removed, but standeth fast for ever.”
Judas was just rising to announce his resolve when the sound of a trumpet was heard at the gate [pg 311]of the fortress. It was a herald bringing a message from the young King.