"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!"