"The Lord be with thee, Glaucon!"
"And with thee, Menelaos!"
"Ha! ha! you haven't forgotten your old-time piety."
"If I had, the presence of the High Priest would revive the memory. I take it that your office has more agreeable functions, now that the King will not allow the priests to smell so much of blood and offal as formerly. A journey to Antioch, a chariot in the processions, and a symposium in the King's new banqueting-hall—though the wine has too much mastic in it—must be preferable to playing chief butcher at the Temple. Is it not so, my lord?"
"Hush, Glaucon! Your words have too much truth in them to be agreeable," replied Menelaos. "But, by Jove!—it is convenient to have an oath one can use without blasphemy—by Jove! I would rather be here hobnobbing with an old comrade than tripping up on my official skirts in Antioch."
The Priest threw himself upon the wide divan, while an attendant arranged behind him a pile of cushions.
"Wine, Ajax!" cried Glaucon. "I am sorry we must take it no cooler than the cellar, for these rebels have let no snow be brought from Hermon since they sent Apollonius across the Styx."
"The gods forbid that that ravening beast Judas cut off other supplies," replied the Priest. "Not a partridge nor a fish has been sold at the market for a fortnight. The Princess will have double cause for grief over the death of her cousin, the General, if she stays in Jerusalem. So goodly a bit of flesh should be fed better. But a fine convoy is coming down from Antioch."
"There is no doubt about her kinship to the General?" asked Glaucon.
"Oh, none whatever. Apollonius' letter to me implied as much. They say she has great riches. The tribute of a whole city in Anatolia, or Syria, or the devil may guess where, follows her; for Apollonius was as bold in robbing his enemies as he was in killing them; and he loved the woman so well that he would have let her melt off his legs had they been golden. The Princess says that a thousand shekels belonging to her were in Apollonius' military chest and fell into the hands of the damned Maccabaean."