Before the great General's pavilion stood his steed, a gigantic charger, with arching neck and restive eyes, now sniffing the hand of his groom, and anon rearing as if to break from his custody. Near by was a heavy-wheeled, but light-bodied chariot, its seat cushioned in creamy silk. At its pole waited a span of graceful roans, glittering in harness buckled and bossed with gold.
At the opening of the tent sat Apollonius, in full armor, except that his head was bared. Upon a couch just within reclined a woman. At a glance one would have said that she was of great beauty. Her features failed perhaps of the finest proportions that mark the classic Greek face; the nostrils too distended; the mouth too large; forehead high, but masked with abundant auburn locks, which were braided down almost to the eyebrows. Chiselled in marble that face would not have been an Aphrodite; but flushed as it was at the moment with excitement, her eyes sparkling with latent coquetry, and her slightly parted lips curved with a sensuous suggestion, she was sufficiently fascinating to the degenerate taste of the Greek officers passing the tent, who stole not unwelcome glimpses at her fairness.
"And what, pray, my lord Apollonius, is to be my portion of the spoil you are to take? I have no taste for the blood of the Jews, which you say your sword will draw from these Maccabæan peasants. A draught of wine—if only the cup were golden and I might keep it—would please me better. But no golden cups and no goodly garments will you get from these beggarly people. Some clouts and a few of the sickles they use for swords will scarcely grace the victory of one whom the king has honored for his valor."
"I see," replied the General, "that my fair one has grown weary of her lord, and that I need to freshly bribe her favor. Will not the gift of yesterday suffice to keep my Helena's patience for a day or two to come?"
The General toyed with a silver serpent with eyes of ruby, which encircled her arm. After a moment's pause, watching closely his companion as if studying the effect of his words, he added:
"If the trumpery of Jewish housewives please you not, there is better spoil in Jerusalem."
"Is anything left there?" languidly asked the woman, looking at her shapely wrist and hand.
"Much. And it is game that will give zest to the catching. Listen! Since my fair goddess has tired of me, I propose that she shall find another lover more to her liking."
The woman's eyes flashed.
Apollonius continued: "You know, that by the ruling of the King, the rich estates of Elkiah are not to be sequestered as other property of the rebels. His son, Glaucon, having become a Greek, is recognized as the heir. A handsome fellow he is, with a thimbleful of brains; conceited, a prey to clever men, an easier victim of a clever woman—such a woman as has charmed an old soldier like me, caring as you know but little for the sex. You need but smile at Glaucon to addle his wits."