soldiers pass. Agrippa peered at them intently through the gloom, and rai

ga broidered with silver. And thou, Eutychus, prepare our belongings so thou canst carry them and bring t

bowed and

risoner and Agrippa were led to the barracks and turned into a cubiculum, or slee

lf on the straw and, bidding the others

ed Agrippa that the soldier could not be easily aroused,

tion over the dusky interior. Under the half-light the face of Marsyas looked fallen and lifeless,-his dark hair in disorder on his forehead, his shadowe

rms of a woman. I have had experience; I know! But if thou art an Essene that comfort is denie

somber eyes of the youn

Marsyas' face showed a little surprise at the choi

I here?"

ponded under his breath, indicating t

g this soldier's ears if he knows our fathers

signed h

rippa pursued. "Look now and see if t

lbow and gazed into the Herod'

ias-in power-as-as prefect

eyes filled with question and

hed the point of asking what the Herod had to do with him. "To-morrow thou wilt be f

syas with growing light,

prisoner here. I became so,

prisoner to save me?" Mar

much as thou needest me,

ou shouldst need me?" Marsyas a

ds so wholly that thou wast willi

sene, poor, persecuted, homeless, hungry a

him. Agrippa was silent; after a pause Marsyas put out his hand and lifting the hem of the pagan tunic pressed it to his lips. The act could not fail

rippa rais

my history, br

others, yes; but

rly childhood, after the death of my young father, I was taken to Rome by my mother and reared among princes and the sons of consuls. Best of all my friends was Drusus, C?sar's

out of Rome because I had been the living Drusus' shadow and it stung t

ship at Puteoli for Palestine I owed three hundred thousand

nt. But I was a young man, hopeless, and young hopelessness is harder than the hopelessness of age. I should

ttle time an answer came. It was from my brother-in-law, Herod Antipas, who is tetrarch of Galilee. Cypros had besought him to help us. He wrote cour

ent on thereafter it seemed as

and boasted his charity. I tore off the prefect's badge and flung it in his face. And

ecently that Alexander Lysimachus, Alabarch of Alexandria, was in Jerusalem, presenting a Gate to the Temple, and sending my wife and children to Ptolemais, I hastened hither to get a loan of him.

at Marsyas' i

im successfully, but for thy close straits. All that would save thee w

ugh Marsyas knew of these things, his heart stirred with great pity. His was that large nature which turns to the unfortunate whether or not his misfortune be merited. It

in my behalf?" he asked earnestly. "Thou s

me know o

hought on Agrippa to turn

ine infancy by the Essenic master of the school in Nazareth and reared to be an Essene. But I developed a certain aptness for learning and in later youth a certain aptness for teaching, and my master by the consent of the order, whose ward I was

u not a member of the bro

neophyte,

gers though his hair,

, and until the coming of his Prophet, a good Jew. But when Jesus arose in Nazareth, Stephen followed Him, and, after the Nazarene was put aw

s of Stephen's apostasy spread abroad. An evil messenger finally set Saul upon Stephen, and I plea

on to become a scholar and take S

l and continued prese

one to get my patrimony which the Essene master hel

he climax of his story and he ceased becaus

vengeance as signs of apostasy, would stone you also," Agrippa remarked, filling in the rest of the narrative f

ubtless hi

ber of the Essenic order-only a neophyte. That is disc

what

's brow. Marsyas, with his eyes

p thee?" he as

t thou sayest that thou hast no power

hou wouldst h

Roman law I can be required to become the slave of my creditor. That I might secure intercession

as cried,

g finger on his lip. The two sat silent until t

drachm?!" Marsyas repe

easury and that they are believed to be rich. I thoug

great bulk, and the little they own must be expended in hospitality and in ma

roaned aloud. "I am un

or that stood between him and liberty. He had set the subject aside

hast thou in

imachus, is my friend. He is

nd go thither," Mars

und of it is most generous and kindly. How

e set eyes of one plunged into deep specu

truth help thee to borr

now

then

ial favor! To suze

hold on the

th of thy nostrils. Yet swear to me that thou wilt aspire-aye, even desperately a

und amusement in the young man's earne

imed. "I have sworn! Being a Herod, m

thee my story: thou heardest my vow to-night! For my fealty, yield m

ll anything thou markest; yield thee my last crust, and

ear

d his right h

grippa made signs and urged for more discussion, but the Essene, masterful in his silence, refused to sp

Herod the Great, for a hearing before Vitellius and Herrenius Capito. But Marsyas' offense against a Roma

may. Agrippa's nonchalance was only a surface air overlaying doubts and no little tr

d to speak, but Vitellius cut in with a

is man?" he asked,

nswered, turning his so

rachm? to C?sar; he says that tho

is,

ctly steady; it would not

next demand flu

way of certain wealth,

ow

but there are certain thing

and collected schemer the innocent Essene he had

Herod with three hundred thousand drachm?

himself with three hundred thousand drachm?. If he pa

e Essene

ed, his composure unshaken by the

inkest thou?" Vi

ippered feet, and his antique tre

t the emperor's commendation, not his blam

us take down this Jew's promise. Now, Herod, speak up. There are

ed, unblushing. "From the young

yers, why have you not p

ssenic doctor to validate my note, O Vitel

ed; the clerk finish

s ordered Marsya

Greek under the voucher. After

let Capito foreclose upon you, Agrippa. But there is a chance that this rigid youth may be telling the truth; if he is not-" the legate closed his t

ainst you, Agrippa, is remitted. G

tanglement in a supposedly clear skei

t thy hospitality must be a little longer strained. The wolves of Jonathan wait without to lay hands on this you

ne go with you, curse you for a

ut there was no la

with barbaric splendors, to a small apartment wh

rmed, but of uncertain nationality. His head was like a cocoanut set on its smaller end, and covered with thick, stiff, lusterless black hair, cut close and growing in a rounded point on his forehe

been put off for a tunic and mantle of fine umber wool, embroidered with silver. A tallith of silk of the same color was bound with a silver cord about his forehead. Agrippa's gar

ud, "and thou art to ent

s did not

oldiery had been detailed as escort, and stood prepared in marching order; the collector's personal array of apparitors was assembl

y that was almost disconcerting. The old man signed his appar

he could be rid of the surveillance of Capito, both he and the Herod were in sore straits. But Agrippa's ami

of the royal house into the state wing a

time in years through that royal chamber without comment upon it. Agrippa after cross

y, "but only as a dream. I went this way whe

lackened their steps, until by the time the center of t

elegantarium, to govern his building or his garnishment. He harkened to the Arab in him and made a bacchanal of color; he remembered his one-time poverty and debased the hauteur of gold to the humility of wood and clay and stone. He imaged Life in all its forms and crowded it into mosaics on his pavement, subjected it in the decoration of his scented wood couches, tables, taborets, weighted it with the cornices of his ceilings, the rails of his balustrades, the basins of his founta

ry. The immense space, peopled with graven images, yet animated with ghostly swaying of hangings, had its own shifting currents of air, drafts that were streaming

w. Then Agrippa made a little sound

d on Capito's shoulder and pointi

the muscles giving softness and pliability to the pose. So perfect was the work that the marble promised to be yielding to the touch. Some imitator of Phidias had achieved his masterpiece in this. I

rtainly taking his withered ch

"The illumination is from the b

ich the image stood, not more

e continued softly, for ordinary tones aw

the old man whispered

ne might hear, and cling about this fair marble's knees in such agony of passion and remorse and grief that life would desert him. They would come in time to find him there

o shi

shment!" h

ould not, if they had their will, visit such

t now in contempla

ful," he said a

tor's back was turned to the prince, that he might have

So I saw her in the lightest of vestments, for the day wa

ppa put in, leaning against one of the cestop

ht, willowy, with the eyes of an Attic antelope, yet braver and more commanding than any woma

f the cestophorus and fumbled a lit

on, "the sole drapery of her bosom-a ve

head. The panel between the cestophori was gone and

essly the two servants dived into the blackn

to slide between them an

s shamed this marble-" the old man was saying as the p

n delight, "he tells that