"Here is a military exigency which I fear the tactics of neither Greek nor Jew is equal to," laughed Jonathan. "We should have brought up our battering rams."
It is difficult to surmise what would have been the issue of this impending collision between a noted warrior and the puissant Huldah, had not little Caleb appeared at the instant the battle was about to be joined. Recognizing the voice of his friend of the Rocks, he ran to him with a delighted cry:
"Jonathan! Jonathan!"
"My child!" cried the Maccabæan with equal eagerness, as he caught the lad to his arms. "And Deborah, where is she?"
"Why, Deborah is gone two hours since," exclaimed the child. "She is now far away as Mizpah, or maybe Bethel. But, Jonathan, have we taken the city yet? And was Gorgias killed as I saw in my dream?"
"The Lord grant that your dream may be as that of Gideon's soldiers the night before the destruction of the Philistines, when a barley cake overturned a tent," said Jonathan, kissing the blind eyes. "Deborah is gone? Where then, Captain Dion, is your boasted protection of this woman, whom you say you were ordered to guard? If she could go and come without your permission, why might not others have captured her? It is well that I, a Jew, have been ordered to relieve guard here to-night, since you, a Greek, have not kept it."
"Your words are deserved," replied Dion, bewildered by Caleb's news. "I cannot account for it. Deborah has not passed out by the court gateway into the street, that I can swear. Nor do I think she has flown through the air."
"For aught you know, Sir Greek, she may have done so. Remember that you are in the Jews' land. Here you must be prepared to believe such things as were never dreamed of by your people. This is, as you have doubtless heard, a land of miracles. Every hill and cave has a story, as true as that Deborah has outwitted your senses. But pardon my mirth, Captain. I see that your head sits lightly on your shoulders for having let your bird break cage, and I suggest that, if you do not care to submit your neck to the whim of your superior officer, you go with us. I doubt not we can put you again in charge of your fair captive, or at least where you will risk nothing if you avow that she escaped with your connivance. I think, Captain, that you will have to go with us. Come."
Captain Dion put forth his hands.
"You may bind me."