"Do the Jews swear allegiance to their commander?" replied he. "Are we like the Romans? Is it not enough that our allegiance is to the Lord, who is over us all? Did Judas ever before ask an oath of any Jew to serve him?"
"From no other man," said Judas; "but from the son of Shattuck I would require it. The Jews would make me King of Jerusalem."
"And rightly," responded the other. "And to King Maccabæus I will swear to be loyal in everything that man should do for man."
Judas repeated his words, "'Everything that man should do for man.' A wise and well-turned oath. I like it. Shattuck, they would make Elkiah's daughter the Queen of Jerusalem."
Dion staggered as if the Maccabæan had smitten him. But he quickly recovered his self-possession. He spoke slowly:
"Maccabæus, I will swear loyalty to Elkiah's daughter as Queen,—when she shall ask it of me. But until she herself speaks that word no man, though he be Maccabæus, shall exact it from me. At her feet I will take the vow, but not under any man's hand. You have my answer."
Shattuck's form seemed swollen with his wrath until it matched that of the giant who confronted him. Judas looked at his challenger as a lion-tamer might have returned the wild glare of his beast which he knows must succumb to his own dominant will. Yet there was in his eyes the flicker as of a light that came from some deeper recess of his soul than that of his present passion. A smile quickly overspread his features. He laid his great hand on the shoulder of his competitor.
"Dion—Ben Shattuck—though I be King, as man to man, we stand on equal footing. Your challenge proves it. But, if you had sworn allegiance to me in putting the crown upon the head of Elkiah's daughter without her command, I would have felled you in your tracks. Here we stand—man and man; and that woman is the queen of us both. You have been her protector. I know all the story of these years. Protect her still from Greek and from Jew. I swear with you, Shattuck, that no will but her own shall be over her. Come with me to her."
The two men went together into the Street of David, and entered the house of Elkiah. As Deborah glanced from one to the other, Judas seized her hand and placed it in Dion's,
"The God of Israel bless you both!" he said.