The unhappy creature was positively transformed by the charge which had thus been laid upon her. The most intelligent and thoughtful nurse could not [pg 248]have done better for her patient than did the poor distracted Huldah. A physician who was called in examined Eglah, and found that though she had been sadly bruised and shaken, no bones were broken. Whether any internal injury existed was more than he could positively say; that time alone would show. Meanwhile careful attention was all that could be done for her, and attention more careful than Huldah’s it would be impossible to imagine.
The two priests who had found shelter in Eglah’s house were naturally among those whom Judas had summoned to take part in the cleansing of the Temple when he made proclamation for all such as, being of the House of Aaron, were “of blameless conversation and had pleasure in the Law.” Posts of special dignity were, indeed, conferred upon them, for both were men of high reputation for sanctity and learning, which was not a little increased by the romantic story of their long seclusion and marvellous escape. Judas assigned them quarters near to his own, and was accustomed to have frequent recourse to their advice. They thus found themselves almost constantly employed, and were unable for several days to find an opportunity of inquiring what had happened to their protectress.
When at last they found their way to the house Eglah had sufficiently recovered her strength to be able to rise from her bed. She was sitting, busy with her needle. Huldah was watching her with [pg 249]an intense look of affection that was infinitely pathetic.
The poor woman told her story with a voice that again and again was broken with sobs.
“When I was preparing your morning meal in the kitchen my husband, whom I had never before known to set foot in the place, suddenly appeared. I was greatly terrified lest he should ask for whom I was getting the food ready, but he was too much occupied with other things to notice it at all. ‘Eglah,’ he said, ‘you must come with me into the fort. Judas the Hammer has broken our army to pieces. Lysias has fled before him, no one knows whither, and within a few hours he will be in the city. I would have you here, for the fort is scarcely a place for a woman, but I fear your people. Haply they may slay you as having been yoked to a heathen. My darling,’ he went on—and here poor Eglah’s voice was choked with tears—‘I have done ill for you, I fear; but I meant it for the best. And now, I fear, you must cast in your lot with me. May the God whom you serve turn it for good.’ So I gathered a few things together, and went with him. I thought many times that we should scarcely have reached the fort alive, for the people cursed us as we went, the women especially casting many bitter words at me as one that had left her people to join herself to the heathen. But my husband had some six or seven soldiers with him; and they were brave men and [pg 250]well armed. We had not been many hours in the fort before there began a battle between the garrison and the soldiers of Judas. One of my husband’s men, who had gone in a spirit of folly and vanity to show his courage, was struck down with a stone, and my husband ran forth to drag him in. And just as he was returning, another stone from the slingers struck him on the back of his head. It was about the ninth hour of the day when he was wounded, and he lived till the beginning of the second watch, but he never spoke again.”
Here the poor creature’s story became confused and broken, and her listeners could only guess what had followed. The tale of what followed must be told for her. “ ‘Ah!’ said one of the soldiers, ‘Glaucus has it. He will never move again, I reckon. A good fellow, but overstrict.’ ‘But how about the Jewish girl whom he calls his wife?’ said the other; ‘I shall take her.’ ‘Nay, nay; let there be fair play between us, comrade, as there has always been. Why you more than I?’ ‘Because I was the first to speak.’ ‘Not so; ’twas I that first spoke of her.’ ‘Well, we won’t quarrel, comrade. No woman is good enough to separate old friends. Let us cast the dice for her, and the man that wins shall stand treat for a flagon of wine.’ And then Eglah heard them cast the dice, and count the numbers—they would have twenty throws a-piece, they said—and curse and swear when they [pg 251]threw low. And when they had finished their dice-throwing they came in to see how Glaucus fared; and just as they entered the chamber, he drew a long breath and died. One of them put his hand upon his heart and said, ‘’Tis all over with him; he will never toss a flagon or kiss a pretty girl again.’ And then he laid his hand upon Eglah’s shoulder, and said, ‘Cheer up; we will find another husband for thee as good as he.’ But the first said, ‘Nay, Timon, leave her alone. The women are not like us. You must give them a few hours to cry.’ ‘Well, well,’ said his comrade, ‘you were always soft-hearted. Let us come and have our flagon; there is no reason why we should wait for that.’ ” The comrades went on their errand and left the widow alone with her dead husband. She kissed him, and cut off a little curl of his hair, and then went forth on the wall—for the chamber in which he lay was in one of the wall-towers—and threw herself down to the ground. It was better, she thought, to die than to sin again.
“Daughter,” said Joel, “you should thank the Lord that, without your own doing, the tie that bound you to this heathen man is broken.”
“O sir,” broke out the poor woman, “do not say so. I cannot find it in my heart to thank Him, though I do try to say in my heart, ‘Thy will be done.’ ”
“Brother,” said the old Shemaiah, “you are too hard upon her. ’Tis right that a wife should mourn [pg 252]for her husband, be he Jew or Greek. Before the Lord, I had thought ill of her had she been of the temper that you would have her.”
Eglah turned to the old man a grateful look. “O sir,” she said, “you do not know how kind and good my Glaucus was. I never had an angry word from him. Nor did he ever hinder me from my prayers. Rather he would say when I went three times to my chamber to pray, ‘Speak a word for me, wife, if you will.’ And he would oftentimes speak to me about my God, and say that he liked Him better than the gods in whom he had been taught to believe. And I used to tell him stories out of the Book, and how the Lord had delivered his people out of the land of Egypt, and had brought them into the land which He sware to Abraham to give him. And he never mocked or laughed, but listened with all his heart. And, sir, I do sometimes think that if he had been spared to live longer, he would have become one of us. But he is dead, and I shall never, never see him any more.”