“Nay, nay,” said Benjamin, “you are too confident; yours may be the side of the Lord, for I don’t know much about these things, but the side of the Lord, as far as I have been able to see, does not always win. I hate these Greeks. They robbed me of my house and everything that I had. May all the curses that are written in the Law overtake them! But they are very likely to get the best of it after all.”
“Did you see how they fled to-day?” cried Seraiah.
“Yes; you made them run,” said the robber, with a grim laugh. “It was rare sport to see them pelt helter-skelter down the pass, like so many sheep with a dog after them. But there are many more where these came from, and they will simply trample you down.”
“That will not be done so easily as you think. Is Judas the Hammer—for that is what the people call him—a likely man to be so dealt with? Nay, Benjamin, he is another Joshua, another David, and I am as sure as if a prophet had told me that the Lord of Hosts is with him, and will deliver the heathen into his hands.”
Benjamin was silent awhile. Then he said, in an altered tone, “You say the truth about Judas, the son of Mattathias. A better captain to lead, a better soldier to strike with the sword, I never saw. I would gladly follow him. And verily I would sooner fight for my people than for my own hand. But your ways are over-strict. I cannot put up with these ‘religious’ as you call them. Why should I not eat pig’s flesh if I can get it? It has a good relish, and it has never harmed me yet.”
“But ’tis forbidden, Benjamin,” gently answered Seraiah, now in good hopes of winning over this somewhat stubborn proselyte, “and you are too good a man to give up your country for a matter of meat or drink.”
“Aye,” said the man, “but there are other things.”
“Nothing surely that cannot be borne,” went on Seraiah. “Oh, Benjamin, you have saved my life to-day, and henceforth you are my brother; but I could almost wish, but for my wife and child’s sake—you remember Ruth and the babe?—that you had left me to die, if I am to see you return to the ways of death.”
The cause was almost won when, at an unhappy moment, a party of Jewish soldiers returning from the pursuit came in sight. One of them immediately recognized Benjamin, and gave the alarm [pg 205]to his companions. They rushed to arrest him, but Benjamin divined their purpose and dashed up the rocks. To overtake him was impossible, for he was fleet of foot and unencumbered; but one of the Chasidim, for the soldiers belonged to this party, let fly an arrow which struck him in the left arm. It was but a slight wound, for the barb was not covered in the flesh; but it stirred him to a furious rage, which was all the fiercer because, by a great effort, he had just brought himself to yield to Seraiah’s arguments. He tore the arrow from the wound, hurled it at his pursuers with impotent rage, and crying, “All the plagues of Egypt consume you!” disappeared among the rocks.
“You have lost a good recruit,” said Seraiah to his comrades when they returned to him.