Pearl-Maiden | Page 5

salutation, then uttered
a little cry and said:
"Mother Anna, do you not know me, Rachel, the daughter of Benoni?"
"Rachel!" she answered, starting. "Alas! child, how came you here?"
"By the paths that we Christians have to tread, mother," said Rachel,
sadly. "But sit; you are weary. Nou, help her."
Anna nodded, and slowly, for her limbs were stiff, sank down on to the
step of the fountain.
"Give me to drink, child," she said, "for I have been brought upon a
mule from Tyre, and am athirst."
Rachel made her hands into a cup, for she had no other, and held water
to Anna's lips, which she drank greedily, emptying them many times.
"For this refreshment, God be praised. What said you? The daughter of
Benoni a Christian! Well, even here and now, for that God be praised
also. Strange that I should not have heard of it; but I have been in
Jerusalem these two years, and was brought back to Tyre last Sabbath
as a prisoner."
"Yes, Mother, and since then I have become both wife and widow."
"Whom did you marry, child?"
"Demas, the merchant. They killed him in the amphitheatre yonder at
Berytus six months ago," and the poor woman began to sob.

"I heard of his end," replied Anna. "It was a good and noble one, and
his soul rests in Heaven. He would not fight with the gladiators, so he
was beheaded by order of Agrippa. But cease weeping, child, and tell
me your story. We have little time for tears, who, perhaps, soon will
have done with them."
Rachel dried her eyes.
"It is short and sad," she said. "Demas and I met often and learned to
love each other. My father was no friend to him, for they were rivals in
trade, but in those days knowing no better, Demas followed the faith of
the Jews; therefore, because he was rich my father consented to our
marriage, and they became partners in their business. Afterwards,
within a month indeed, the Apostles came to Tyre, and we attended
their preaching--at first, because we were curious to learn the truth of
this new faith against which my father railed, for, as you know, he is of
the strictest sect of the Jews; and then, because our hearts were touched.
So in the end we believed, and were baptised, both on one night, by the
very hand of the brother of the Lord. The holy Apostles departed,
blessing us before they went, and Demas, who would play no double
part, told my father of what we had done. Oh! mother, it was awful to
see. He raved, shouted and cursed us in his rage, blaspheming Him we
worship. More, woe is me that I should have to tell it: When we refused
to become apostates he denounced us to the priests, and the priests
denounced us to the Romans, and we were seized and thrown into
prison; but my husband's wealth, most of it except that which the
priests and Romans stole, stayed with my father. For many months we
were held in prison here in Cæsarea; then they took my husband to
Berytus, to be trained as a gladiator, and murdered him. Here I have
stayed since with this beloved servant, Nehushta, who also became a
Christian and shared our fate, and now, by the decree of Agrippa, it is
my turn and hers to die to-day."
"Child, you should not weep for that; nay, you should be glad who at
once will find your husband and your Saviour."
"Mother, I am glad; but, you see my state. It is for the child's sake I
weep, that now never will be born. Had it won life even for an hour all

of us would have dwelt together in bliss until eternity. But it cannot
be--it cannot be."
Anna looked at her with her piercing eyes.
"Have you, then, also the gift of prophecy, child, who are so young a
member of the Church, that you dare to say that this or that cannot be?
The future is in the hand of God. King Agrippa, your father, the
Romans, the cruel Jews, those lions that roar yonder, and we who are
doomed to feed them, are all in the hand of God, and that which He
wills shall befall, and no other thing. Therefore, let us praise Him and
rejoice, and take no thought for the morrow, unless it be to pray that we
may die and go hence to our Master, rather than live on in doubts and
terrors and tribulations."
"You are right, mother," answered Rachel, "and I will try to be brave,
whatever may befall; but my state makes me feeble. The spirit, truly, is
willing, but oh! the flesh is weak.