Part 34 (1/2)

”Then I needs must carry you,” and stooping down he lifted her in his strong arms as though she had been but a child, and, bidding the soldiers bring the Jew Simeon with them, slowly and with great care descended the staircase up which Miriam had been taken more than sixty hours before.

Pa.s.sing through the outer doors into the archway where the great gate by which the Romans had gained access to the Temple stood wide, the captain turned into the Court of Israel, where some soldiers who were engaged in dividing spoil looked up laughing and asked him whose baby he had captured. Paying no heed to them he walked across the court, picking his way through the heaps of dead to a range of the southern cloisters which were still standing, where officers might be seen coming and going.

Under one of these cloisters, seated on a stool and employed in examining the vessels and other treasures of the Temple, which were brought before him one by one, was t.i.tus. Looking up he saw this strange procession and commanded that they should be brought before him.

”Who is it that you carry in your arms, captain?” he asked.

”That girl, Caesar,” he answered, ”who was bound upon the gateway and whom you have orders should not be shot at.”

”Does she still live?”

”She lives--no more. Thirst and heat have withered her.”

”How came she there?”

”This writing tells you, Caesar.”

t.i.tus read. ”Ah!” he said, ”Nazarene. An evil sect, worse even than these Jews, or so thought the late divine Nero. Traitress also. Why, the girl must have deserved her fate. But what is this? 'Is doomed to die as G.o.d shall appoint before the face of her friends, the Romans.' How are the Romans her friends, I wonder? Girl, if you can speak, tell me who condemned you.”

Miriam lifted her dark head from the shoulder of the captain on which it lay and pointed with her finger at the Jew, Simeon.

”Is that so, man?” asked Caesar. ”Now tell the truth, for I shall learn it, and if you lie you die.”

”She was condemned by the Sanhedrim, among whom was her own grandfather, Benoni; there is his signature with the rest upon the scroll,” Simeon answered sullenly.

”For what crime?”

”Because she suffered a Roman prisoner to escape, for which deed,” he added furiously, ”may her soul burn in Gehenna for ever and aye!”

”What was the name of the prisoner?” asked t.i.tus.

”I do not remember,” answered Simeon.

”Well,” said Caesar, ”it does not greatly matter, for either he is safe or he is dead. Your robes, what are left of them, show that you also are one of the Sanhedrim. Is it not so?”

”Yes. I am Simeon, a name that you have heard.”

”Ah! Simeon, here it is, written on this scroll first of all. Well, Simeon, you doomed a high-born lady to a cruel death because she saved, or tried to save, a Roman soldier, and it is but just that you should drink of your own wine. Take him and fasten him to the column on the gateway and leave him there to perish. Your Holy House is destroyed, Simeon, and being a faithful priest, you would not wish to survive your wors.h.i.+p.”

”There you are right, Roman,” he answered, ”though I should have been better pleased with a quicker end, such as I trust may overtake you.”

Then they led him off, and presently Simeon appeared upon the gateway with Miriam's chain about his middle and Miriam's rope knotted afresh about his wrists.

”Now for this poor girl,” went on t.i.tus Caesar. ”It seems that she is a Nazarene, a sect of which all men speak ill, for they try to subvert authority and preach doctrines that would bring the world to ruin. Also she was false to her own people, which is a crime, though one in this instance whereof we Romans cannot complain. Therefore, if only for the sake of example it would be wrong to set her free; indeed, to do so, would be to give her to death. My command is, then, that she shall be taken good care of, and if she recovers, be sent to Rome to adorn my Triumph, should the G.o.ds grant me such a thing, and afterwards be sold as a slave for the benefit of the wounded soldiers and the poor.

Meanwhile, who will take charge of her?”

”I,” said that officer who had freed Miriam. ”There is an old woman who tends my tent, who can nurse her in her sickness.”

”Understand, friend,” answered t.i.tus, ”that no harm is to be done to this girl, who is my property.”