Claudia was impressed by the vehemence of her friend's manner; but she regarded all her hopes as vain delusions, and, after a pause, she replied:
"Naomi, your wild religion blinds and deceives you, and in these visionary expectations you forget the danger of the present time. Instead of indulging in such idle dreams, your wisest course would be, to use all your influence in persuading your father to abandon this city while yet there is time, and throw himself on the clemency of Vespasian. Zadok's character stands high, both among the Romans and his own people, for wisdom, integrity, and courage; and if he were to take so prudent a step, and recommend it to his countrymen, his example would probably be followed by many, if not all; and oh! Naomi, what bloodshed and misery would be averted! Your nation would be restored to peace and security, and plenty would again be seen in those districts which our legions have already reduced to desolation. Had you witnessed all the horrors of war and massacre that I have done, I think even your courage would shrink from drawing such fearful calamities upon your beloved city. My blood curdles when I remember the miseries of which I was an unwilling spectator, while I accompanied my father in Vespasian's camp. Truly I believe the sight of sufferings which she could not relieve, added to the fatigue and constant excitement of our military life, hastened the death of my dear mother. Would that the gods had permitted her and me to remain in Jerusalem when my father was called to join the army! Then I should not thus early have had to weep over her grave: but it was her fate, and I must submit."
The tears rolled down the fair countenance of Claudia as she spoke of her beloved mother, and ineffectually sought consolation for her death in the cold maxims of philosophy, which were all that the heathen system of religion could afford her. Naomi endeavoured, as she had often done before, to awaken in her dark mind the belief in one Almighty God, by whose superintending Providence all events are governed; but her friend was too firmly convinced of the truth of her own religion to be thus easily shaken, or induced to listen to the despised doctrines of a Jew; she therefore hastily resumed the subject of the war, and, in spite of Naomi's indignant replies, continued to urge upon her the necessity of submission to the overwhelming and resistless power of Rome.
"Claudia," said Naomi at length, rising from her mossy seat, and extending her hand towards the lofty walls and towers of the city, now dark in the shades of evening; "Claudia, I would rather, oh! ten thousand times rather perish beneath those sacred walls, if it be the will of Jehovah that the spoiler should again possess them, than live to see my people once more subject to the Roman power. We have nobly shaken it off, and never till we are exterminated will we cease to resist their oppressions, and assert our freedom. You wonder at my enthusiasm, as you call it; but be assured the same spirit animates every son and every daughter of Israel: and when your proud legions advance beneath these impenetrable walls, they will be received with such a welcome as shall prove that in Jerusalem at least the soul of our fathers still survives."
"May the gods preserve us from beholding the conflict!" answered Claudia, with a shudder, as she rose to accompany her friend towards their home: "I should regret then that I had persuaded my father to send me here, after my poor mother's death, instead of to Cæsarea, as he proposed; but my heart was with you, Naomi, and I felt that in your company, and that of your gentle mother, I should find comfort in my sorrow. My father's strong regard and high esteem for Zadok induced him to consent to my returning to your house, as your mother's letter so kindly proposed; and at that time he had no idea that the war would continue so long, or spread from Galilee into Judea. Should Vespasian bring his army against Jerusalem—as my father's last letter seemed to announce—he will of course send for me, and place me at Cæsarea, with his friends who dwell there, and from thence I could easily embark for Rome, and join my brother Marcellus. He has been residing in the capital with our uncle Sulpitius ever since we left Jerusalem two years ago; and he writes me glowing descriptions of the splendour and magnificence of the imperial city. You know we were both so young when we came from our native land to Judea, that we had forgotten all her glory and beauty. Marcellus tells me that he is very soon to be enrolled among the emperor's troops, and then he will probably be sent into this country, if the war is not concluded. Now I shall rejoice to see my dear, kind brother again; and you too, Naomi, will not you welcome him? You were always the greatest friends; and every letter he writes is full of inquiries and kind messages to you. But, alas! I forget myself. If Marcellus comes to Judea, it will probably be as the enemy of your land and people; and this cruel war will separate those who have been brought up together, and loved each other as brother and sister from childhood."
Naomi was saved the embarrassment of a reply by their reaching her father's house; and she was glad of the circumstance, for the theme interested her feelings more than she wished Claudia to discover. Rufus the centurion had resided for many years at Jerusalem, holding a command in the imperial army, and his band composing part of the guards stationed in the city. Mutual obligations, and a respect for each other's character, had created a sincere friendship between him and Naomi's father Zadok, who, though he was a priest, and devotedly attached to the Jewish faith, was not blind to the generous and excellent qualities which distinguished the Roman soldier. Their families had constant intercourse, and their children grew up together in habits of familiar friendship. Naomi and Claudia regarded each other as sisters; nor did the difference of their religion or the contrast in their dispositions ever cause a disagreement between them. Marcellus was their constant companion, and their protector in their rambles among the verdant hills, and luxurious meadows and gardens which surrounded the city; and the mutual attachment which grew up between him and Naomi was remarked and smiled at by their parents while they were yet children. But as they advanced in years, it caused some uneasiness to Zadok and his amiable wife Salome, who could not allow themselves to contemplate the possibility of a union between their beloved daughter and an idolater. Nor was such an intention ever entertained by Naomi her soul was peculiarly susceptible to feelings of piety, and she worshipped the God of her fathers with a sincerity and fervency of devotion which was not common in the days of degeneracy and hypocrisy in which she lived. Idolatry she regarded with unfeigned abhorrence; and while she loved her Roman friends with all the natural warmth of an affectionate heart, she grieved for their profane and impious creed, and many were the attempts she made to convince them of its folly. Hitherto her efforts had been entirely unavailing, and she could gain no further concession from her young companions than an acknowledgment that Jehovah, the God of Israel, might certainly be a Deity; but they looked upon him merely as one of that host of deities in whom their religion taught them to believe, and by no means superior to their own false gods. This being the case, Naomi would have preferred death to a connexion with a Gentile idolater; and she persuaded herself that her attachment to Marcellus was nothing more than friendship.
When, however, Rufus and his family were called away from Jerusalem, and his son was sent to Rome to perfect his military education, she felt a void in her heart which convinced her that she had allowed too much of her happiness to depend on Marcellus, and she resolutely determined to check every thought and extinguish every hope that was connected with him. At the time of which we are now speaking he had been absent for two years; and her praiseworthy efforts had been so far successful that she had recovered her spirits, and entered into all her duties and occupations with interest and animation. She was gifted with a strong mind, and a proud, independent spirit, which enabled her to command her feelings to a great degree; and even her mother, who was usually her confident in all her joys and sorrows, believed that she had entirely forgotten the brave and amiable young Roman.
The return of her friend Claudia, to seek protection in Zadok's house, when the death of her own mother rendered it impossible for her to remain with Rufus in the camp, a source of great delight to Naomi; but it revived many recollections which she had long been endeavouring to banish from her mind, and she found herself listening with pleasure to Claudia's often-repeated praises of her brother, and the kind messages which his letters contained to herself; but she never spoke of him except as the friend of her childhood, whom, in all probability, she should never see again.
Perhaps the contrast between Marcellus and her own brother Javan had exalted the good qualities of the former in her eyes. Javan, even as a child, had manifested a cruel and unhumbled disposition; and his domineering spirit had been the frequent cause of disputes between him and Marcellus, who invariably took the part of the oppressed, and defended those whom Javan would have annoyed or injured. The affection which Naomi entertained for Marcellus excited his jealousy and indignation; and he often upbraided her with her friendship for idolaters, and used very opprobrious language to the young Roman himself, which, but for the interposition of their sisters, would have ended perhaps in fierce and fatal contests.
As Javan arrived at years of manhood, this unamiable temper rather increased than lessened; and it was greatly aggravated by the spirit of fanaticism which took possession of his soul, and rendered his religion a motive to fierce and arrogant conduct, instead of having the effect of softening his heart, and leading him to such holy and gentle and charitable dispositions as are most acceptable to the God of love and mercy. His father Zadok was of the sect of the Pharisees, and was therefore a strict and rigid observer of the ceremonial law,—not only of every point which was enjoined by the lawgiver Moses, but also of all those customs which were derived from the traditions of the Elders. He did not, however, fall into the grievous error which was so severely rebuked by our blessed Saviour; he did not, like so many of his self-righteous brethren, "wash merely the outside of the cup and platter, while inwardly their hearts were full of extortion and violence;" neither did he "make broad his phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of his garments," merely "to be seen of men." It is true that such erroneous motives did to a certain degree influence his conduct, but he was nevertheless a man of sincere piety and devotion; and his prayers in secret were not less frequent and regular than the public acts of worship which, according to the custom of the priests and Pharisees, be performed in the streets and marketplaces.