“I do not think, I only trust in God and—hope. One of our faith, now long departed, who foretold that I should be born, foretold also that I should live out my life. It may be so—for that woman was holy, and a prophetess.”
As she spoke there came a rolling sound like that of distant thunder, and a voice without called:
“Rabbi Benoni, the wall is down. Tarry not, Rabbi Benoni, for they seek you.”
“Alas! I must begone,” he said, “for some new horror is fallen upon us, and they summon me to the council. Farewell, most beloved Miriam, may my God and your God protect you, for I cannot. Farewell, and if, by any chance, you live, forgive me, and try to forget the evil that, in my blindness and my pride, I have brought upon yours and you, but oh! most of all upon myself.”
Then he embraced her passionately and was gone, leaving Miriam weeping.
CHAPTER XVII
THE GATE OF NICANOR
Another two hours went by, and the lengthening shadows cast through the stonework of the lattice told Miriam that the day was drawing to its end. Suddenly the bolts were shot and the door opened.
“The time is at hand,” she said to herself, and at the thought her heart beat fast and her knees trembled, while a mist came before her eyes, so that she could not see. When it passed she looked up, and there before her, very handsome and stately, though worn with war and hunger, stood Caleb, sword in hand and clad in a breast plate dinted with many blows. At the sight, Miriam’s courage came back to her; at least before him she would show no fear.
“Are you sent to carry out my sentence?” she asked.
He bowed his head. “Yes, a while hence, when the sun sinks,” he answered bitterly. “That judge, Simeon, who ordered you to be searched, is a man with a savage heart. He thought that I tried to save you from the wrath of the Sanhedrim; he thought that I——”