CHAPTER V
MIRIAM IS ENTHRONED
Presently Nehushta found herself out of sight of the sea and amongcultivated land, for here were vines and fig trees grown in gardensfenced with stone walls; also patches of ripening barley and of wheatin the ear, much trodden down as though horses had been feeding there.Beyond these gardens she came to a ridge, and saw beneath her a villageof many houses of green brick, some of which seemed to have beendestroyed by fire. Into this village she walked boldly, and there thefirst sight that met her eyes was that of sundry dead bodies, upon whichdogs were feeding.
On she went up the main street, till she saw a woman peeping at her overa garden wall.
"What has chanced here?" asked Nehushta, in the Syrian tongue.
"The Romans! the Romans! the Romans!" wailed the woman. "The head of ourvillage quarrelled with the tax-gatherers, and refused to pay his duesto Caesar. So the soldiers came a week ago and slaughtered nearly allof us, and took such sheep and cattle as they could find, and with themmany of the young folk, to be sold as slaves, so that the rest are leftempty and desolate. Such are the things that chance in this unhappyland. But, woman, who are you?"
"I am one shipwrecked!" answered Nehushta, "and I bear with me anew-born babe--nay, the story is too long to tell you; but if in thisplace there is any one who can nurse the babe, I will pay her well."
"Give it me!" said the woman, in an eager whisper; "my child perished inthe slaughter; I ask no reward."
Nehushta looked at her. Her eyes were wild, but she was still young andhealthy, a Syrian peasant.
"Have you a house?" she asked.
"Yes, it still stands, and my husband lives; we hid in a cave, but alas!they slew the infant that was out with the child of a neighbour. Quick,give me the babe."
So Nehushta gave it to her, and thus Miriam was nurtured at the breastof one whose offspring had been murdered because the head of the villagehad quarrelled with a Roman tax-collector. Such was the world in thedays when Christ came to save it.
After she had suckled the child the woman led Nehushta to her house, ahumble dwelling that had escaped the fire, where they found the husband,a wine-grower, mourning the death of his infant and the ruin of histown. To him she told as much of her story as she thought well, andproffered him a gold piece, which, so she swore, was one of ten she hadabout her. He took it gladly, for now he was penniless, and promisedher lodging and protection, and the service of his wife as nurse to thechild for a month at least. So there Nehushta stayed, keeping herselfhid, and at the end of the month gave another gold piece to herhosts, who were kindly folk that never dreamed of working her evil orinjustice. Seeing this, Nehushta found yet more money, wherewith theman, blessing her, bought two oxen and a plough, and hired labour tohelp him gather what remained of his harvest.
The shore where the infant was born upon the wrecked ship, was ata distance of about a league from Joppa and two days' journey fromJerusalem, whence the Dead Sea could be reached in another two days.When Nehushta had dwelt there for some six months, as the babe throveand was hearty, she offered to pay the man and his wife three morepieces of gold if they would travel with her to the neighbourhood ofJericho, and, further, to purchase a mule and an ass for the journey,which she would give to them when it was accomplished. The eyes of thesesimple folk glistened at the prospect of so much wealth, and they agreedreadily, promising also to stay three months by Jericho, if need were,till the child could be weaned. So a man was hired to guard the houseand vines, and they started in the late autumn, when the air was cooland pleasant.
Of their journey nothing need be said, save that they accomplished itwithout trouble, being too humble in appearance to attract the notice ofthe thieves who swarmed upon the highways, or of the soldiers who wereset to catch the thieves.
Skirting Jerusalem, which they did not enter, on the sixth day theydescended into the valley of the Jordan, through the desolate hills bywhich it is bordered. Camping that night outside the town, at daybreakon the seventh morning they started, and by two hours after noon came tothe village of the Essenes. On its outskirts they halted, while Nehushtaand the nurse, bearing with them the child, that by now could wave itsarms and crow, advanced boldly into the village, where it would appearmen dwelt only--at least no women were to be seen--and asked to be ledto the Brother Ithiel.
The man to whom they spoke, who was robed in white, and engaged incooking outside a large building, averted his eyes in answering, asthough it were not lawful for him to look upon the face of a woman.He said, very civilly, however, that Brother Ithiel was working in thefields, whence he would not return till supper time.
Nehushta asked where these fields were, since she desired to speak withhim at once. The man answered that if they walked towards the greentrees that lined the banks of Jordan, which he pointed out to them, theycould not fail to find Ithiel, as he was ploughing in the irrigated landwith two white oxen, the only ones they had. Accordingly they set outagain, having the Dead Sea on their right, and travelled for the half ofa league through the thorn-scrub that grows in this desert. Passing thescrub they came to lands which were well cultivated and supplied withwater from the Jordan by means of wheels and long poles with a jar atone end and a weight at the other, which a man could work, emptying thecontents of the jar again and again into an irrigation ditch.
In one of these fields they saw the two white oxen at their toil,and behind them the labourer, a tall man of about fifty years of age,bearded, and having a calm face and eyes that were very deep and quiet.He was clad in a rough robe of camel's hair, fastened about his middlewith a leathern girdle, and wore sandals on his feet. To him they went,asking leave to speak with him, whereon he halted the oxen and greetedthem courteously, but, like the man in the village, turned his eyes awayfrom the faces of the women. Nehushta bade the nurse stand back out ofhearing, and, bearing the child in her arms, said:
"Sir, tell me, I pray you, if I speak to Ithiel, a priest of high rankamong this people of the Essenes, and brother to the dead lady Miriam,wife of Benoni the Jew, a merchant of Tyre?"
At the mention of these names Ithiel's face saddened, then grew calmagain.
"I am so called," he answered; "and the lady Miriam is my sister, whonow dwells in the happy and eternal country beyond the ocean with allthe blessed"--for so the Essenes imagined that heaven to which they wentwhen the soul was freed from the vile body.
"The lady Miriam," continued Nehushta, "had a daughter Rachel, whoseservant I was."
"Was?" he interrupted, startled from his calm. "Has she then been put todeath by those fierce men and their king, as was as her husband Demas?"
"Nay, sir, but she died in childbirth, and this is the babe she bore";and she held the sleeping little one towards him, at whom he gazedearnestly, yes, and bent down and kissed it--since, although they saw sofew of them, the Essenes loved children.
"Tell me that sad story," he said.
"Sir, I will both tell it and prove it to be true"; and Nehushta toldhim all from the beginning to the end, producing to his sight the tokenswhich she had taken from the breast of her mistress, and repeating herlast message to him word for word. When she had finished, Ithiel turnedaway and mourned a while. Then, speaking aloud, he put up a prayer toGod for guidance--for without prayer these people would not enter uponanything, however simple--and came back to Nehushta, who stood by theoxen.
"Good and faithful woman," he said, "who it would seem are not fickleand light-hearted, or worse, like the multitude of your sex--perchancebecause your dark skin shields you from their temptations--you have setme in a cleft stick, and there I am held fast. Know that the rule of myorder is that we should have naught to do with females, young or old;therefore how can I receive you or the child?"
"Of the rules of your order, sir, I know nothing," answered Nehushtasharply, since the words about the colour of her skin had not pleasedher; "but of the rules of nature I do know, and something of the rulesof God also, for, like my mistress and this infant, I am
a Christian.These tell me, all of them, that to cast out an orphan child who is ofyour own blood, and whom a cruel fortune has thus brought to your door,would be an evil act, and one for which you must answer to Him who isabove the rules of any order."
"I may not wrangle, especially with a woman," replied Ithiel, who seemedill at ease; "but if my first words are true, this is true also, thatthose same rules enjoin upon us hospitality, and above all, that we mustnot turn away the helpless or the destitute."
"Clearly, then, sir, least of any must you turn away this child whoseblood is your blood, and those dead mother sent her to you, that shemight not fall into the power of a grandfather who has dealt so cruellywith those he should have cherished, to be brought up among Zealots asa Jew and taught to make offering of living things, and be anointed withthe oil and blood of sacrifice."
"No, no, the thought is horrible," answered Ithiel, holding up hishands. "It is better, far better that she should be a Christian than oneof that fanatic and blood-spilling faith." This he said, because amongthe Essenes the use of oil was held to be unclean. Also above allthings, they loathed the offering of life in sacrifice to God; who,although they did not acknowledge Christ--perhaps because He was neverpreached to them, who would listen to no new religion--practised themost of His doctrines with the greatest strictness.
"The matter is too hard for me," he went on. "I must lay it before afull Court of the hundred curators, and what they decide, that willbe done. Still, this is our rule: to assist those who need and to showmercy, to accord succour to such as deserve it, and to give food tothose in distress. Therefore, whatever the Court, which it will takethree days to summon, may decide, in the meanwhile I have the right togive you, and those with you, shelter and provision in the guest-house.As it chances, it is situated in that part of the village where dwellthe lowest of our brethren, who are permitted to marry, so there youwill find company of your own sex."
"I shall be glad of it," answered Nehushta drily. "Also I should callthem the highest of the brethren, since marriage is a law of God, whichGod the Father has instituted, and God the Son has blessed."
"I may not wrangle, I may not wrangle," replied Ithiel, declining theencounter; "but certainly, that is a lovely babe. Look. Its eyes areopen and they are beautiful as flowers"; and again he bent down andkissed the child, then added with a groan of remorse, "Alas! sinner thatI am, I am defiled; I must purify myself and do penance."
"Why?" asked Nehushta shortly.
"For two reasons: I have touched your dress, and I have given way toearthly passion and embraced a child--twice. Therefore, according to ourrule, I am defiled."
Then Nehushta could bear it no more.
"Defiled! you puppet of a foolish rule! It is the sweet babe that isdefiled! Look, you have fouled its garments with your grimy hand andmade it weep by pricking it with your beard. Would that your holy ruletaught you how to handle children and to respect honest women who aretheir mothers, without whom there would be no Essenes."
"I may not wrangle," said Ithiel, nervously; for now woman was appearingbefore him in a new light; not as an artful and a fickle, but as anangry creature, reckless of tongue and not easy to be answered. "Thesematters are for the decision of the curators. Have I not told you so?Come, let us be going. I will drive the oxen, although it is not timeto loose them from the plough, and do you and your companion walk at adistance behind me. No, not behind--in front, that I may see that you donot drop the babe, or suffer it to come to any harm. Truly it is sweetto look at, and, may God forgive me, I do not like to lose sight of itsface, which, it seems to me, resembles that of my sister when she wasalso in arms."
"Drop the babe!" began Nehushta; then understanding that this victim ofa rule already loved it dearly, and would suffer much before he partedwith it, pitying his weakness, she said only, "Be careful that you donot frighten it with your great oxen, for you men who scorn women havemuch to learn."
Then, accompanied by the nurse, she stalked ahead in silence, whileIthiel followed after at a distance, leading the cattle by the hideloops about their horns, lest in their curiosity or eagerness to gethome, they should do some mischief to the infant or wake it from itsslumbers. In this way they proceeded to the lower part of the village,till they came to a good house--empty as it chanced--where guests wereaccommodated in the best fashion that this kind and homely folk couldafford. Here a woman was summoned, the wife of one of the lower order ofthe Essenes, to whom Ithiel spoke, holding his hand before his eyes,as though she were not good to look at. To her, from a distance, heexplained the case, bidding her to provide all things needful, andto send a man to bring in the husband of the nurse with the beasts ofburden, and attend to his wants and theirs. Then, warning Nehushta to bevery careful of the infant and not to expose it to the sun, he departedto report the matter to the curators, and to summon the great Court.
"Are all of them like this?" asked Nehushta of the woman,contemptuously.
"Yes, sister," she answered, "fools, every one. Why, of my own husbandI see little; and although, being married, he ranks but low among them,the man is forever telling me of the faults of our sex, and how they area snare set for the feet of the righteous, and given to the leadingof these same righteous astray, especially if they be not their ownhusbands. At times I am tempted indeed to prove his words true. Oh! itwould not be difficult for all their high talk; I have learned as muchas that, for Nature is apt to make a mock of those who deny Nature, andthere is no parchment rule that a woman cannot bring to nothing. Yet,since they mean well, laugh at them and let them be, say I. And now comeinto the house, which is good, although did women manage it, it would bebetter."
So Nehushta went into that house with the nurse and her husband, andthere for several days dwelt in great comfort. Indeed, there was nothingthat she or the child, or those with them, could want which was notprovided in plenty. Messages reached her even, through the woman, to askif she would wish the rooms altered in any way, and when she said thatthere was not light enough in that in which the child slept, some ofthe elders of the Essenes arrived and pierced a new window in thewall, working very hard to finish the task before sunset. Also even thehusband of the nurse was not allowed to attend to his own beasts, whichwere groomed and fed for him, till at length he grew so weary of doingnothing, that on the third day he went out to plough with the Essenesand worked in the fields till dark.
It was on the fourth morning that the full Court gathered in the greatmeeting-house, and Nehushta was summoned to appear before it, bringingthe babe with her. Thither she went accordingly, to find the placefilled with a hundred grave and reverend men, all clad in robes of thepurest white. In the lower part of that large chamber she sat alone upona chair, while before her upon benches ranged one above the other, sothat all could see, were gathered the hundred curators.
It seemed that Ithiel had already set out the case, since the Presidentat once began to question her on various points of her story, all ofwhich she was able to explain to the satisfaction of the Court. Thenthey debated the matter among themselves, some of them arguing thatas the child was a female, as well as its nurse, neither of them couldproperly be admitted to the care of the community, especially as bothwere of the Christian faith, and it was stipulated that in this faiththey should remain. Others answered that hospitality was their firstduty, and that he would be weak indeed who was led aside from their ruleby a Libyan woman of middle age and an infant of a few months. Further,that the Christians were a good people, and that there was much intheir doctrines which tallied with their own. Next, one made a strangeobjection--namely, that if they adopted this child they would learnto love it too much, who should love God and their order only. To thisanother answered, Nay, they should love all mankind, and especially thehelpless.
"Mankind, not womankind," was the reply; "for this infant will grow intoa woman."
Now they desired Nehushta to retire that they might take the votes.Before she went, however, holding up the child that all could see it asit lay smil
ing in her arms, she implored them not to reject the prayerof a dead woman, and so deprive this infant of the care of the relativewhom that departed lady had appointed to be its guardian, and of theguidance and directing wisdom of their holy Order. Lastly, she remindedthem that if they thrust her out, she must carry the infant to itsgrandfather, who, if he received it at all, would certainly bring it upin the Jewish faith, and thereby, perhaps, cause it to lose its soul,the weight of which sin would be upon their heads.
After this Nehushta was led away to another chamber and remained therea long while, till at length she was brought back again by one of thecurators. On entering the great hall her eyes sought the face of Ithiel,who had not been allowed to speak, since the matter having to do with agreat-niece of his own, it was held that his judgment might be warped.Seeing that he smiled, and evidently was well pleased, she knew hercause was won.
"Woman," said the President, "by a great majority of this Court wehave come to an irrevocable decision upon the matter that has been laidbefore it by our brother Ithiel. It is, for reasons which I need notexplain, that on this point our rule may be stretched so far as to admitthe child Miriam to our care, even though it be of the female sex, whichcare is to endure until she comes to a full age of eighteen years, whenshe must depart from among us. During this time no attempt will be madeto turn her from her parents' faith in which she has been baptised. Ahouse will be given you to live in, and you will be supplied with thebest we have for the use of our ward Miriam and yourself. Twice a weeka deputation of the curators will visit the house, and stay there foran hour to see that the health of the infant is good, and that you aredoing your duty by it, in which, if you fail, you will be removed. It isprayed that you will not talk to these curators on matters which do notconcern the child. When she grows old enough the maid Miriam will beadmitted to our gatherings, and instructed also by the most learnedamongst us in all proper matters of letters and philosophy, on whichoccasions you will sit at a distance and not interfere unless your careis required.
"Now, that every one may know our decision, we will escort you back toyour house, and to show that we have taken the infant under our care,our brother Ithiel will carry it while you walk behind and give him suchinstruction in this matter as may be needful."
Accordingly a great procession was formed, headed by the President andended by the priests. In the centre of the line marched Ithiel bearingthe babe Miriam, to his evident delight, and Nehushta, who instructedhim so vigorously that at length he grew confused and nearly let itfall. Thereon, setting this detail of the judgment at defiance, Nehushtasnatched it from his arms, calling him a clumsy and ignorant clown onlyfit to handle an ox. To this Ithiel made no answer, nor was he atall wroth, but finished the journey walking behind her and smilingfoolishly.
Thus was the child Miriam, who afterwards came to be called the Queen ofthe Essenes, royally escorted to her home. But little did these good menknow that it was not a house which they were giving her, but a throne,built of the pure gold of their own gentle hearts.
Pearl-Maiden: A Tale of the Fall of Jerusalem Page 5