Deborah - A tale of the times of Judas Maccabaeus by James M. Ludlow

Author:James M. Ludlow [Ludlow, James M. (James Meeker)]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anboco
Published: 2016-12-30T23:00:00+00:00

XXIII

THE GREED OF GLAUCON

had not gone out with the crowd to welcome General Seron. His curiosity for the pageant and his fascination by the Princess were just then secondary to his cupidity. This native trait in his character had been excited into spasmodic activity by a certain discovery. He had spent the day before searching the mansion of Ben Shattuck, that grand house by the Tower of David. With the avidity of an old-clothes dealer he had ransacked chests of the cast-off wearing apparel of dead generations of Shattucks, now and then perforating with his fingers the moth-eaten linings of pockets and pouches. He had tested drawers for false bottoms, and pried into secret closets between walls which the mortar, cracked by sinking beams, had exposed. He had been rewarded by a handful of forgotten gems, but more by a crumpled bit of papyrus in a leathern wallet which he found in the bosom pocket of the shirt which Ben Shattuck must have discarded the very day of his departure from Jerusalem, the journey from which he never returned. This was a letter and read:

"To Hosea ben Shattuck, greeting:

"The business committed to my care has been, I believe, both faithfully and wisely adjusted. It were better for the trade between Sidon and this port if you resided either here or there. There is another reason for your speedy visit, if not abiding sojourn, in Alexandria. The lady to whom I hold that you were legally wedded has given birth to a son. The little lad is sound of limb, of comely face, and, if the midwife's experience pronounce good judgment, the child is of soul as bright as the star that shone the night of his birth.

"I beg that you endeavor to be in Alexandria the eighth day hence, when the child will be circumcised according to our sacred rite.

"I am the faithful servant of the house of Shattuck,

"GIDEON BEN SIRACH."

The discovery that an heir of Shattuck had been born complicated the matter of title to his estate in Jerusalem. Was this child living? If so, he would now be about the thirtieth year of life. Glaucon spent the day in instructing a faithful envoy, and commissioning him to Alexandria to ferret out the facts.

This messenger had scarcely gained the south road leading to Gaza when the crowds of panic-driven citizens burst through the northern and western gates, some going to their houses, but many hastening to the citadel, deeming the city walls too weak to withstand the Maccabæan deluge they imagined to be pouring after them.

The bewilderment of Seron, and his declaration that his defeat was brought about by unearthly agencies, which neither generalship nor numbers could resist, while designed to save his own reputation, added to the consternation of the people. Renegade Jews began to repent of their apostacy. They increased the alarm of the foreigners by the sudden revival of their own faith in the marvels of Jewish history, and their Scriptural accounts of the waves of the Red Sea, and the magic in the hands of Aaron and Hur when they upheld the arms of Moses.

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