The City of Delight | Page 2

Elizabeth Miller
is
fulfilled. Rather rejoice that you have prepared your daughter for this
great use. Be glad that you have borne her."
But in Hannah's face wavered signs of another interpretation of these
things. She broke in on him without the patience to wait until he had
completed his sentence.
"Are they prophecies of hope which are fulfilled, or the words of the
prophet of despair?" she insisted. "What saith Daniel of this hour? Did
he not name it the abomination of desolation? Said he not that the city
and the sanctuary should be destroyed, that there should be a flood and
that unto the end of the war desolations shall be determined?
Desolations, Costobarus! And Laodice is but a child and delicately
reared!"
"All these things may come to pass and not a hair of the heads of the
chosen people be harmed," he assured her.
"But Laodice is too young to have part in the conflict of nations, the
business of Heaven and earth and the end of all things!"
A courier strode into the hall and approached Costobarus, saw that he

was engaged in conversation and stopped. The merchant noted him and
withdrew to read the message which the man carried.
"A letter from Philadelphus," he said over his shoulder, as he moved
away from Hannah. "He hath landed in Cæsarea with his cousin Julian
of Ephesus. He will proceed at once to Jerusalem. We have no time to
lose. Ah, Momus?"
He spoke to a servant who had limped into the hall and stood waiting
for his notice. He was the ruin of a man, physically powerful but as a
tree wrecked by storm and grown strong again in spite of its mutilation.
Pestilence in years long past had attacked him and had left him dumb,
distorted of feature, wry-necked and stiffened in the right leg and arm.
His left arm, forced to double duty, had become tremendously muscular,
his left hand unusually dexterous. Much of his facial distortion was the
result of his efforts to convey his ideas by expression and by his
attempts to overcome the interference of his wry neck with the sweep
of his vision.
"Whom have we in our party, Momus?" Costobarus asked. As the man
made rapid, uncouth signs, the master interpreted.
"Keturah, Hiram and Aquila--and thou and I, Momus. Three camels,
one of which is the beast of burden. Good! Aquila will ride a horse; ha!
a horse in a party of camels--well, perhaps--if he were bought in
Ascalon. How? What? St--t! The physician told me even now. Let none
of the household know it--above all things not thy mistress!" The last
sentence was delivered in a whisper in response to certain uneasy
gestures the mute had made. The man bowed and withdrew.
A second servitor now approached with papers which the merchant
inspected and signed hastily with ink and stylus which the clerk bore.
When this last item was disposed of, Hannah was again at her
husband's side.
"Costobarus," she whispered, "it is known that the East Gate of the
Temple, which twenty Levites can close only with effort, opened of
itself in the sixth hour of the night!"

"A sign that God reëntereth His house," the merchant explained.
"A sign, O my husband, that the security of the Holy House is
dissolved of its own accord for the advantage of its enemies!"
Costobarus observed two huge Ethiopians who appeared bewildered at
the threshold of the unfamiliar interior, looking for the master of the
house to tell them what to do. The merchant motioned toward a tall
ebony case that stood against one of the walls and showed them that
they were to carry it out. Hannah continued:
"And thou hast not forgotten that night when the priests at the Pentecost,
entering the inner court, were thrown down by the trembling of the
Temple and that a vast multitude, which they could not see, cried: 'Let
us go hence!' And that dreadful sunset which we watched and which all
Israel saw when armies were seen fighting in the skies and cities with
toppling towers and rocking walls fell into red clouds and vanished!"
"What of thyself, Hannah?" he broke in. "Art thou ready to depart for
Tyre? Philip will leave to-morrow. Do not delay him. Go and prepare."
But the woman rushed on to indiscretion, in her desperate intent to stop
the journey to Jerusalem at any cost.
"But there are those of good repute here in Ascalon, sober men and
excellent women, who say that our hope for the Branch of David is too
late--that Israel is come to judgment, this hour--for He is come and
gone and we received Him not!"
Costobarus turned upon her sharply.
"What is this?" he demanded.
"O my husband," she insisted hopefully, "it measures
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