Pearl-Maiden | Page 4

I spread your bride-bed, and if
need be, to save you from worse things, I will lay you dead before me
and myself dead across your body. Then let God or Satan--I care not
which--deal with my soul. At least, I shall have done my best and died
faithful."
"You should not speak so," sighed Rachel. "But, dear, I know it is
because you love me, and I wish to die as easily as may be and to join

my husband. Only if the child could have lived, as I think, all three of
us would have dwelt together eternally. Nay, not all three, all four, for
you are well-nigh as dear to me, Nou, as husband or as child."
"That cannot be, I do not wish that it should be, who am but a slave
woman, the dog beneath the table. Oh! if I could save you, then I would
be glad to show them how this daughter of my father can bear their
torments."
The Libyan ceased, grinding her teeth in impotent rage. Then suddenly
she leant towards her mistress, kissed her fiercely on the cheek and
began to sob, slow, heavy sobs.
"Listen," said Rachel. "The lions are roaring in their dens yonder."
Nehushta lifted her head and hearkened as a hunter hearkens in the
desert. True enough, from near the great tower that ended the southern
wall of the amphitheatre, echoed short, coughing notes and fierce
whimperings, to be followed presently by roar upon roar, as lion after
lion joined in that fearful music, till the whole air shook with the
volume of their voices.
"Aha!" cried a keeper at the gate--not the Roman soldier who marched
to and fro unconcernedly, but a jailor, named Rufus, who was clad in a
padded robe and armed with a great knife. "Aha! listen to them, the
pretty kittens. Don't be greedy, little ones--be patient. To-night you will
purr upon a full stomach."
"Nine of them," muttered Nehushta, who had counted the roars, "all
bearded and old, royal beasts. To hearken to them makes me young
again. Yes, yes, I smell the desert and see the smoke rising from my
father's tents. As a child I hunted them, now they will hunt me; it is
their hour."
"Give me air! I faint!" gasped Rachel, sinking against her.
With a guttural exclamation of pity Nehushta bent down. Placing her
strong arms beneath the slender form of her young mistress, and lifting

her as though she were a child, she carried her to the centre of the court,
where stood a fountain; for before it was turned to the purposes of a jail
once this place had been a palace. Here she set her mistress on the
ground with her back against the stonework, and dashed water in her
face till presently she was herself again.
While Rachel sat thus--for the place was cool and pleasant and she
could not sleep who must die that day--a wicket-gate was opened and
several persons, men, women, and children, were thrust through it into
the court.
"Newcomers from Tyre in a great hurry not to lose the lions' party,"
cried the facetious warden of the gate. "Pass in, my Christian friends,
pass in and eat your last supper according to your customs. You will
find it over there, bread and wine in plenty. Eat, my hungry friends, eat
before you are eaten and enter into Heaven or--the stomach of the
lions."
An old woman, the last of the party, for she could not walk fast, turned
round and pointed at the buffoon with her staff.
"Blaspheme not, you heathen dog!" she said, "or rather, blaspheme on
and go to your reward! I, Anna, who have the gift of prophecy, tell you,
renegade who were a Christian, and therefore are doubly guilty, that
/you/ have eaten your last meal--on earth."
The man, a half-bred Syrian who had abandoned his faith for profit and
now tormented those who were once his brethren, uttered a furious
curse and snatched a knife from his girdle.
"You draw the knife? So be it, perish by the knife!" said Anna. Then
without heeding him further the old woman hobbled on after her
companions, leaving the man to slink away white to the lips with terror.
He had been a Christian and knew something of Anna and of this "gift
of prophecy."
The path of these strangers led them past the fountain, where Rachel
and Nehushta rose to greet them as they came.

"Peace be with you," said Rachel.
"In the name of Christ, peace," they answered, and passed on towards
the arches where the other captives were gathered. Last of all, at some
distance behind the rest, came the white-haired woman, leaning on her
staff.
As she approached, Rachel turned to repeat her