Cheer after cheer rent the air. Just as the shouting was beginning to subside it burst out anew, for upon the parapet of the house Nicaso appeared. Her black hair and flushed cheeks made a superb contrast with her white mantle and the jewels that flashed about her brow and neck. The apparition lasted but for a moment, yet long enough to make many a swain declare that he too would leave Jerusalem if he could have so fair an attendant, and so comfortable a residence in exile as the palace of Sanballat among the hills of Samaria.
During the day the house of Ioiada was thronged with friends who came to utter within its walls such imprecations against the governor as they would not have dared to express more openly, and to pledge their personal loyalty to Manasseh during his absence. Among the visitors was the Phœnician merchant.
"Make no preparation for equipage on the morrow," said Marduk, "for I, too, am summoned northward."
"I cannot go to-morrow," replied Manasseh.
"But that is your agreement with the governor, is it not, on condition of his allowing you to retire from the city without the show of force?"
"That is my compact; yet I must seek delay, for I have a higher compact."
"There can be no compact higher than that of a man's fairly given word," said Marduk.
"I can take no offence at your rebuke," replied the young exile, "because you will not blame me, when I tell you that I have given my word of honor to one who is of higher rank than the Tirshatha. I have pledged this person to discharge a certain obligation in Jerusalem, and I cannot discharge it before to-morrow's light."
"Who is above the governor in rank?"