When, after a reign of forty-five years, Manasseh died, the Prophetic Party looked eagerly to Amon, the new king, in the hope that he would change conditions in the land from those established by his father; but Amon permitted all the heathen shrines that were erected everywhere in Judah, and even in the Temple in Jerusalem, to remain.
Just why, therefore, the Court Party assassinated King Amon will never be known. The fact remains that on this particular evening in the year 639, armed men sprang up in the palace as if by magic. The royal family was completely exterminated, with the exception of the boy Josiah, who had retired with Jeremiah, his young guest, to the nursery.
Hilkiah, Jeremiah's father, who, after taking leave of his boy and seeing the two youngsters in the care of Ebed-melech, was preparing for the hour's trip to his home in Anathoth, was as completely dazed by the uprising and as unprepared for it as was the king himself.
The conspirators, however, had no design on Hilkiah's life; and so, in the pandemonium that reigned in the palace, Hilkiah stole quietly up to the nursery.
At the door he met Ebed-melech on guard. The young Ethiopian always waited just outside the little princes' apartment until he was sure that the boys' every wish was satisfied and that they were asleep, before retiring to the servants' quarters.
Hilkiah did not speak to Ebed-melech. In his excitement he probably did not see him. He opened the door, which was not locked, hurriedly, and entered, followed closely by the Ethiopian, who surmised, from Hilkiah's appearance, that something unusual had happened.
Instead of finding the boys tucked away in bed, asleep, he found them wide awake, at play. Josiah had leaned a tiny chair up against the posts at the foot of the bed, propped it up with pillows, and, with a wand in his hand, was playing at king. Jeremiah, in another part of the room, had bound and laid several toy animals upon a little table and was playing at high priest.
When Hilkiah broke into the nursery the boys stopped suddenly at their play and looked shamefacedly at the priest. They did not notice the flushed face nor the anxious, eager look in his eyes that changed immediately to hope as he snatched both lads in his arms, bade them be silent and started out of the nursery.
Ebed-melech was at his heels, asking what was wrong. Hilkiah told him of the uprising, in a few whispered words. The Ethiopian thereupon took the amazed Josiah in his brawny arms and led the way through the servants' hall to the court yard.
In the tumult that reigned within the palace Hilkiah, Ebed-melech and their burdens were not noticed by the conspirators. Unmolested, they made their way into the royal gardens. There they hid in the shrubbery with the boys, whose cries had been stopped by commands and pleading.