“You have done tenfold worse,” was the answer. “I know your works. You sell our youths to the mines, where the young man grows old and decrepit before he has reached to middle age, and the maidens you sell to shame; and the old and sick you slay with the sword or poison. Take them away.”
“Listen once more, my lord,” cried the man, in an agony of despair. “We have money; not here, of course, but with those whom we represent; if [pg 224]you should want a loan, we can find it for your Excellency, and at low interest, lower than you will find elsewhere.”
“Take them away!” thundered Judas.
And taken away they were, still screaming out, as they were dragged off, offers of ransom, or loans at five per cent. interest, or no interest at all.
The next day Judas and his army, richly laden with spoils of every kind, returned to the sanctuary among the hills.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE BATTLE OF BETH-ZUR.
Several months have passed since the scenes described in the last chapter. During the winter Judas has been increasing and consolidating his army, and he has now a force both more numerous and better equipped than any that he had hitherto commanded. Again he has marched to encounter the Greeks, but he has no easy task before him. Lysias in person commands the Syrian army. Antiochus has sent him some veteran troops from the capital; he has raised fresh levies of his own, and he has enrolled in his ranks the remnants of the armies of Seron and Nicanor. Altogether he has collected an army of sixty thousand men, and must out-number his antagonists at least five times. The struggle will be of a critical kind, and the victory, if won at all, can hardly be won without grievous loss. The Greeks are fighting for their last stake. If they lose this they are disgraced.
The experience of a soldier’s wife had not lessened [pg 226]the anxiety with which Ruth waited for news of the battle. This time all that were especially near and dear to her had gone with the army—her husband, her brother, and Azariah—all had run or were even then running deadly peril of their lives. When the news came it might find her utterly desolate, a widow indeed.