Zadok had accompanied his daughter to the prison, and with several of his attendants he now waited for her in the porch. The state of the city was not such as to admit of any person traversing the streets alone and unprotected, after the shades of night had spread a veil over the sin and violence that continually defiled that once holy place; and Zadok also felt a vague apprehension that the same persons who had so successfully conspired against Theophilus, might also seek to rob him of his beloved child. He therefore had watched and guarded her with redoubled care ever since her conversion to Christianity had become more generally known; and both he and Salome lived in constant dread of a calamity which they felt would be the death-blow to all their earthly happiness.
Naomi leaned on her father's arm, and they slowly descended the steep and narrow street that led from the eminence on which the prison stood. From that situation they had an extended view of the lower city, now clearly visible in the moonlight, and looking so calm and so beautiful, that it was difficult to believe how much of vice and misery and crime was lurking amid the silent streets beneath them. The sight of a vast assemblage of human habitations without the sounds of human life has always something in it that is melancholy, and Naomi especially felt it so on this occasion, when her own spirits depressed and exhausted by the effort which she had made to sustain them during her trying interview with Theophilus. The city of Zion seemed sunk in sleep; and she thought with sadness how profoundly her inhabitants were also buried in the sleep of sin and false security, and how, by their impiety and hardness of heart, and by the oppression and murder of the innocent they were daily filling up the measure of their guilt, and provoking their long-suffering God to bring upon them the fierceness of his threatened wrath. Her father did not interrupt her reflections, for he sympathised in her feelings at parting with Theophilus; and his own mind was occupied with sad thoughts also, though they differed greatly from those of his daughter, and were unmixed with the holy consolations and triumphant hopes that cheered her while she contemplated her cousin's approaching fate.
The silence was broken suddenly and fearfully. The wild deep voice of the son of Ananus made Naomi start, and a sensation of terror ran through her frame as she saw his unearthly form approaching with his usual rapid strides, and heard his yet more unearthly cry, "Woe, woe to the city! woe to Jerusalem!"
She shrunk back, and would have drawn her father into the shade of a deep archway by which they were passing; but the mysterious prophet had fixed his glaring eye upon them, and came directly towards the spot where they stood.
"Woe to thee, Zadok, thou son of Aaron!" he cried. "Woe to all thine house! and woe to thee also gentle maid of Zion. Thy star shall set—but it shall rise again." He turned away, and would have passed on, but Zadok caught him by his loose and tattered garment, and addressed him in a voice of kindness:
"Come home with me, thou son of Ananus; and let me give thee clothes and food. You utter unceasing woes against our city and our families; but I will return thy curses with blessings, for it pains my heart to behold a fellow creature so desolate and so miserable. Hunger and fatigue have made you mad. Come home with me, and cease to terrify the women and children, and scare away their sleep by night with such doleful sounds."
The prophet looked at Zadok, and his haggard countenance relaxed from its usual severity and abstraction; but it was pity for him who offered him kindness and shelter that made him pause, and not a thought of relaxing his almost miraculous exertions, or giving repose to his worn-out frame.
"Seek not to detain me," he exclaimed; "I have yet more woes to proclaim. I must tell it in the ears of every inhabitant of Zion that woe is coming! I see the gathering clouds—I hear the distant thunders of Jehovah's wrath—and I must forewarn my countrymen of the coming storm. Save yourselves, oh ye that be wise! But it is too late—the decree is gone forth! I hear it now—A voice from the east! A voice from the west! A voice from the four winds—crying, Woe, woe, to Jerusalem!"
He broke from Zadok's grasp with the unnatural strength of a maniac, and wildly fled up the street till he reached the prison walls, when again he took up his fearful note, and woke the inmates of the gloomy pile from their temporary forgetfulness of care and sorrow. This encounter did not cheer the spirits of Naomi: she remembered the denunciations which the son of Ananus had addressed so pointedly to Claudia, and felt how the woes which he had prophesied had been fulfilled; and she could not banish from her mind the impression that further sorrows were hanging over her father and her family. Claudia was anxiously waiting to receive her on her return, and with Amaziah and Judith she was cheered, though deeply affected, at the account of Theophilus's peace and resignation. His message of forgiveness and love to poor Claudia awoke all her sorrow, though it relieved her heart of a heavy burden, and animated her to resolutions of future devotion to the cause for which Theophilus was about to resign his life.
The morning dawned, and found the anxious party still assembled together and still conversing on the same deeply interesting subject. The final appearance of the prisoner before his hard-hearted judges was to take place at noon; and long before that hour Amaziah left the house, telling Judith that he was going to make the last effort for the preservation of their son, but warning her to cherish no hopes of his success. Zadok also went forth with Javan and Isaac, to be present at the meeting of the council, which was to be held in a large hall adjoining the prison; and Mary once more declared to her affianced husband, privately and solemnly, that if he did not return to announce the acquittal of Theophilus, she would never see him more. She had lately begun to doubt the sincerity of his affection, and she resolved that he should give her this proof of his devotion to her wishes, or lose the prize he so eagerly coveted.