“Fly? Where to?”
“To the Romans, who will spare you because of what you did yesterday—and me also.”
“Because of what you did yesterday?”
“No—because you will say that I am your husband. It will not be true, but what of that?”
“What of it, indeed?” asked Miriam, “since it can always become true. But how is it that you, being one of the first of the Jewish warriors, are prepared to fly and ask the mercy of your foes? Is it because——”
“Spare to insult me, Miriam. You know well why it is. You know well that I am no traitor, and that I do not fly for fear.”
“Yes,” she answered, in a changed tone, for his manly words touched her, “I know that.”
“It is for you that I fly, for your sake I will eat this dirt and crown myself with shame. I fly that for the second time I may save you.”
“And in return you demand—what?”
“Yourself.”