"There are no stars now, little brother; it is daytime."
"A star! A star! There it floats over Moab. Now it passes over Jordan. There! There! A star out of Jacob, which Balaam saw."
The thin hands were stretched out, the eyes fixed, the whole frame of the child shook with convulsion.
Judas gazed into Caleb's eyes—his fountain of divination—but the depths were covered, as when a spring is frozen over. Tears from his own eyes dropped upon the face of the child, which gave back no response. He pressed his lips against those of the lad. Was it to breathe into them his own abundant life? or to take from them the sweetness of the life that was failing? Judas had been called to ponder great problems, questions involving the fate of a nation, the solution of which he believed to be the fulfilment of prophecy and the turning of the highways of history. But here was a deeper study than statecraft or war—that of the issue of a child's life. Whither was it going? On what wings would the spirit rise as now it was disentangling itself from the frail flesh which had held it down for a little while? "What," he thought, "is love—the love by which this little one has held my soul close to his, calming my turbid nature, taming my ferocity, and making me think of and feel the nearness of God himself!"
A slight tremor ran through the tiny frame. Judas carried Caleb within the upper chamber, and laid him upon the couch. Then, burying his face in the pillow, this strongest of men wept with a breaking heart over a dead child.
Deborah quickly came, and Dion too; for the tidings sped. As they gazed upon the beautiful face, which seemed but the shadow of the soul that still hovered over it, Judas repeated Caleb's last words, about the star.
"It is prophecy," said Deborah. "What saith the Scripture of these words of Balaam? 'He hath said which heard the word of God, and knew the knowledge of the Most High, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open,' even as Caleb did, 'I shall see Him soon, but not now. I shall behold Him, but not nigh. There shall come a star out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel.' Of whom are these things said, son of Mattathias?"
"I know not, Deborah." For a long time Judas sat with his head bowed upon his hands. Neither spoke, but worshipped silently by the altar of their grief. At length Judas said: "But I know that He shall come. I too 'shall see Him, but not now. I shall behold Him, but not nigh.' Of whom the words are spoken God knows. It is enough for us that we be found faithful."
Dion stood by. He looked from the champion to the heroine as they spoke thus together. Then he, too, kissed the dead child, and without a word went away.
That day, as the sun was going down, a long procession wound its way through the streets, and out of the north gate to the rock-hewn tomb where lay many generations of the house of Elkiah. There they placed the body of the "little Prophet of Israel," as the people fondly called him. As they rolled the stone back in its groove, and thus covered the mouth of the sepulchre, the multitude gazed upon the giant form of their chieftain. But Judas turned away, and laying his hand upon the shoulder of Dion, as they walked together back to the city, said: