Pearl-Maiden: A Tale of the Fall of Jerusalem
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Not a hundred paces away from the carpenter's shop where the mastercraftsman, Septimus, worked, was another manufactory, in which vases,basins, lamps, and all such articles were designed, moulded and baked.The customers who frequented the place, wholesale merchants for the mostpart, noted from and after the day of this interview a new workwoman,who, so far as her rough blouse permitted them to judge, seemed to beyoung and pretty, seated in a corner apart, beneath a window by thelight of which she laboured. Later on they observed also, those of themwho had any taste, that among the lamps produced by the factory appearedsome of singular and charming design, so good, indeed, that although themakers reaped little extra benefit, the middlemen found no difficultyin disposing of these pieces at a high price. All day long Miriam satfashioning them, while old Nehushta, who had learnt something of thetask years ago by Jordan, prepared and tempered the clay and carried thefinished work to the furnace.
Now, though none would have guessed it, in this workshop all thelabourers were Christians, and the product of their toil was cast intoa common treasury on the proceeds of which they lived, taking, each ofthem, such share as their elders might decree, and giving the surplus tobrethren who had need, or to the sick. Connected with these shops werelodging houses, mean enough to look at, but clean within. At the topof one of them, up three flights of narrow stairs, Miriam and Nehushtadwelt in a large attic that was very hot when the sun shone on theroof, and very cold in the bitter winds and rains of winter. In otherrespects, however, the room was not unpleasant, since being so highthere were few smells and little noise; also the air that blew in at thewindows was fresh and odorous of the open lands beyond the city.
So there they dwelt in peace, for none came to search for the costly andbeautiful Pearl-Maiden in those squalid courts, occupied by workingfolk of the meaner sort. By day they laboured, and at night they rested,ministering and ministered to in the community of Christian brotherhood,and, notwithstanding their fears and anxieties for themselves andanother, were happier than they had been for years. So the weeks wentby.
Very soon tidings came to them, for these Christians knew of all thatpassed in the great city; also, when they met in the catacombs at night,as was their custom, especially upon the Lord's Day, Julia gave themnews. From her they learned that they had done wisely to flee her house.Within three hours of their departure, indeed before Julia had returnedthere, officers arrived to inquire whether they had seen anything of theJewish captive named Pearl-Maiden, who had been sold in the Forum on theprevious night, and, as they said, escaped from her purchaser, on whosebehalf they searched. Gallus received them, and, not being a Christian,lied boldly, vowing that he had seen nothing of the girl since he gaveher over into the charge of the servants of Caesar upon the morningof the Triumph. So suspecting no guile they departed and troubled hishousehold no more.