"How many in your party?"
"But myself."
"Have you ever been to Jerusalem?"
"Never."
"How, then," Costobarus asked, with a keen look, "came Philadelphus to appoint you to conduct Laodice to the city?"
"His retinue is small; he could not come himself, and he chose me as safer than the other member of his party," was the direct reply.
Costobarus studied this reply before he questioned his son-in-law's courier further.
"Jerusalem, they say, is in disorder. How will you get my daughter to shelter when you have reached the city?"
"Philadelphus hath instructed me that there will be a Greek at the Sun Gate daily, awaiting us. He will wear a purple turban embroidered with a golden star. He will conduct us to the house of Amaryllis the Seleucid, who is pledged to the Maccabee's cause. Philadelphus will be in her house."
"Why hers?" Costobarus persisted.