In the counsel of the Fort of the Rocks Deborah that night related to Judas, Simon and Jonathan the story of the strange sounds she had heard in the ravine.
Simon shook his head and remained silent, glancing solicitously at the girl, as a physician might study one suspected of dementia. Judas quickly avowed his belief that God was again speaking to His people as in the ancient days of faith. The after debate between these brothers was decided by the words of Jonathan, the Crafty.
"If," said Jonathan, "Simon be right in ascribing this to the maiden's madness, still it does not follow that Judas is wholly wrong. Does not the Lord use even our dreams, when our minds are astray from their waking wisdom? If He made the ass to correct the prophet, why should He not use the vagary of this most pious woman? We need such service as she proposes. My voice is that we put no restraint upon her becoming our spy, lest peradventure we be found to fight against the will of Him who, it may be, is impelling her to this duty."
XIV
THE SPY
The vale of Shechem is the fairest in Palestine. It is a long strip of meadow scarcely two hundred yards wide, guarded, as by two sleeping giants, by the mountains of Ebal and Gerizim, which cut the sky between two and three thousand feet above. For four furlongs of its length the valley lies like an emerald, broken by silver streams and sparkling basins of water. Beyond, for an equal distance, the bright green gives place to the gray foliage of olive groves, until the natural glory fades into the staring white houses of the town. In shady nooks and sunny glades the earth bursts with flowers of every hue, as if Flora had danced and left her fabled footprints impregnate with germs of beauty. If one be sated with the fairness that lies at one's feet, let the eyes rest upon the terraces of olive and grape, fig and prickly pear which relieve the precipitous sides of Ebal, the ancient Mountain of Cursing; or upon the swelling domes of rock which make the impressive mass of Gerizim, the Mountain of Blessing.
Even Apollonius, the desecrator of Jerusalem, with his eyes dimmed with the rheum of many debauches, must have delighted in the prospect; for midway the vale rose his gorgeous pavilion. From its door, when not enamored of nature, he could feast his pride upon the white and blue tents of his army, which gleamed far up the slopes of either mountain. In reward for his service in desolating the Jewish capital, and in many ways acting as a sort of procurer for the pride, greed, and lust of his royal master, Epiphanes had made Apollonius Governor of Samaria, and commander of all the king's forces in Syria.
Into his camp at Shechem had come not only brave warriors, but many merchants, to purchase the prospective spoil of the invaders. Women, too, some the wives of officers, others adventuresses, flaunted their gay attire amid the flashing helmets and spears of the soldiery.