"At length," he added, "I have been successful; but I regret to say that he has not fallen into the hands of the Zealots or the Idumeans, who might be induced to restore him on the payment of a large ransom; but he has been seized by the arm of justice. His criminal apostasy has been discovered to some of our most holy and zealous priests; and their righteous indignation has led them to take this step as a salutary warning to others who may be inclined to the same heresy, and as a wise precaution to prevent his disseminating the errors which have perverted his mind. I grieve for his fate, but it was only what I dreaded would be the result of his folly."
"Javan," cried Claudia, "it is you who have betrayed him! None but you and Rabbi Joazer were acquainted with his opinions; and the Rabbi had sworn to Zadok that he would never reveal them. You have brought all this evil on your house, and now you seek to hide your cruelty under the mask of sorrow."
"Silence, Claudia!" replied Javan indignantly; "and remember that though I cast back your passionate accusations with contempt, yet I have power and influence which it would be your wiser course to conciliate by submission, and not thus by your unfounded taunts to provoke me to use them against the object of your affection. But I act from higher motives than personal love or hatred; and I shall pursue the course which I see to be for the real good of my cousin, and the honour of my family, without any regard to the ravings of a heathen girl."
Claudia shrunk away from the look of fierce determination with which Javan accompanied this rebuke. She feared that by her unguarded exclamations she had only exasperated him still more against both Theophilus and herself; and she resolved in future to restrain her feelings, and if possible to conceal from him her horror and dread of his character, and the personal dislike which she had always felt for him. She could not reply to him, for her heart was too full; but Naomi approached him, and in a gentle voice endeavoured to move him to better feelings.
"My brother," she said, "do not speak thus harshly to Claudia. She is overwhelmed with grief, and knows not what she utters; and you should pity rather than blame her. You say that you have power and influence over those who have carried off our unfortunate cousin. Will you not exert them in his favour? He is your near kinsman—he never injured you. He formed the happiness of his parents, and of my poor Claudia too; and his character was never sullied by an act that could reflect shame on his family. What though he now differs from you in his religious opinions? That is a matter between him and his God, whom he serves in sincerity; and before whom he must stand or fall. O Javan, join not with those who seek his life; but restore him—for I know you can—to those whose life is bound up in his life, and let not the grey hairs of your father's brother be brought down to the grave in sorrow."
As Naomi finished speaking, she laid her hand on her brother's arm, and looked into his countenance with a look of moving entreaty; her mother, with Judith, Claudia, and Mary, had gathered round her, and with eloquent gestures joined their supplications to hers. But Javan turned on her a look of scorn, and shaking off her gentle hand, he exclaimed,
"Well may you plead for the life and liberty of an apostate!—for the same blasphemous creed that has marked him for eternal shame has branded you also! I know it all, Naomi. Your guilt, your hypocrisy, are all revealed. And here, in the presence of your parents, I denounce you as a Nazarene. Nay, cling not to me, and look not so imploringly,"—and Javan turned away his face that he might not meet his sister's sweet and tearful eyes,—"I am not going to give you up to the arm of justice. Cruel as I know you think me, I will not give your body to be mangled by the executioner. For our parents' sake I spare you this; and because I believe the power of the Lord God will yet be sent to cast forth the evil spirit that now possesses you, and make you again what once you were. But till that time arrives I renounce you as a sister; and I leave it to your father, to the just, the righteous Zadok, to take such steps as may speedily wipe away this stain, and remove the pollution from our house!"
Javan looked with astonishment at Zadok and Salome. He expected to have seen surprise and horror depicted in their countenances at the disclosure which he had just made; but sorrow mingled with pity was the only emotion they betrayed.
Naomi was about to reply to her brother, but Zadok interrupted her.
"Javan," he said, in a tone of calm authority, "the error into which your sister has unhappily fallen, has long been known both to your mother and me. It has been the source of profound grief to us; and many have been the prayers which we have offered up before the throne of the Almighty that he would vouchsafe to restore her to the true faith. Hitherto, alas! no answer has been given, and her soul is still in darkness. Why should we have told our sorrow and our shame to you, my son! We knew your zeal for the Lord, and we knew the anguish it would give you to find that Naomi, your only sister, had been beguiled from the way of holiness and truth to follow this new and most accursed heresy. Therefore we have concealed it from you and from the world; and, Javan, as your father, I now command you to follow the same course. Use all your efforts, all your prayers to bring her back; but breathe not her disgrace in any human ear. I would not have her despised; and, oh! for worlds I would not have her fall into the power of my zealous, but hard-hearted brethren. She is my child, my most beloved daughter; and though my heart condemns her, yet there she shall find a refuge, even though all the powers of earth and hell were combined together to tear her from me!"