We will now glance at the encampment of the Hebrew warriors1, upon a wild expanse of undulating ground, in view of the towers of Bethsura, a strong fortress3 rebuilt by the Edomite settlers on the site of that raised in former times by Rehoboam. Bethsura is now garrisoned4 by the Syrians, and its environs occupied by the countless5 tents of their mighty6 host.
On a small rising ground near the centre of the Hebrew camp stands, as on a rostrum, an old Jew clad in a camel-hair garment, with long gray unkempt hair hanging over his shoulders. His manner is excited, his gestures vehement7, and the shrill8 accents of his voice are so raised as to be heard to a considerable distance. A gradually increasing circle of listeners gathers around him--stern, weather-beaten men, who have toiled9 and suffered much for their faith. What marvel10 if with some of these warriors religion have darkened into fanaticism12, courage degenerated13 into savage14 fierceness? It is the tendency of war, especially if it be of a guerrilla character, to inflame15 the passions and harden the heart. Only terrible necessity can justify16 the unnatural17 strife18 which arms man against his brother man. Even the most noble struggle in which patriot19 can engage in defence of his country's freedom, draws along with it terrible evils, of which a vast amount of human suffering is not perhaps the greatest.
"Yea, I do charge you, Joab, I do charge you, O son of Ahijah, with having brought a spy, a traitor20, into our camp!" almost shrieked21 the wild orator22 Jasher, as he pointed23 with his shrivelled finger at the sturdy muleteer, who stood in the innermost rank of the circle. "Was not this Greek, by your own showing, present at the martyrdom of the blessed saint Solomona?--was he not tried for his life at her grave, where he was discovered coiling like a serpent in the darkness?--is he not one of a race of idolaters, worshippers of images made by man's hand?"
"All that I can say," replied Joab, doggedly24, "is, that whatever Lycidas may have been, he is not an idolater now."
"Who are you that you should judge, you Nabal, you son of folly25?" exclaimed the excited orator. "Mark you, men of Judah, mark you the blindness that falls on some men--ay, even on a reputed saint like the Lady Hadassah! Joab has learned from her handmaiden the astounding26 fact that for months this Lycidas, this viper28, was nurtured29 and tended in her home, as if he had been a son of Abraham! Doubtless it was this act of worse than folly on the part of Hadassah that drew down a judgment30 on her and her house. Mark what followed. The warmed viper escapes from her dwelling31, and the next day--ay, the very next day--Syrian dogs beset32 the house of Salathiel as he celebrates the holy Feast! Who guided them thither33?" The question was asked with passionate34 energy, and the feelings of the speaker were evidently beginning to communicate themselves to the audience. "Who then lay a bleeding corpse35 on the threshold, slain36 by the murderous Syrians?" continued Jasher, with yet fiercer action; "who but Abishai, the brave, the faithful, he who had denounced the viper, and had sought, but in vain, to crush it--it was he who fell at last a victim to its treacherous37 sting!" Jasher ended his peroration38 with a hissing39 sound from between his clinched40 teeth, and the caldron of human feelings around him began, as it were, to seethe41 and boil. Fanaticism stops not to weigh evidence, or to listen to reason. Joab could hardly make his voice heard amidst the roar of angry voices that was rising around him.
"Lycidas was present and helped at the burial of the Lady Hadassah; he has risked his life to protect her daughter," cried the honest defender42 of the Greek.
"Ha! ha! how much he risked we know not, but we can well guess what he would win!" exclaimed Jasher, with a look of withering43 scorn. "He has crept into the favour of a foolish girl, who forgets the traditions of her people, who cares not for the afflictions of Jacob, who prefers a goodly person"--the old man's features writhed44 with the fierceness of his satire--"to all that a child of Abraham should regard with reverence45 and honour! But what can we expect from the daughter of a perjured46 traitor, an apostate47? Had she not Abner for a father, and can we expect otherwise than that she should disgrace her family, her tribe, her nation, by wedding an accursed Gentile, a detestable Greek?"
"Never! never!" yelled out a hundred fierce voices. And one of the crowd shouted aloud, "I would rather slay48 her with my own hand, were she my own daughter!"
"I cannot believe Lycidas false!" cried out Joab, at the risk of drawing the tempest of rage upon himself.
"You cannot believe him false, you son of the nether49 millstone!" screamed out the furious Jasher, stamping with passion; "as if you were a match for a wily Greek, born in that idolatrous, base, ungrateful Athens, that banished50 her only good citizen, and poisoned her only wise one!" The fierce prejudices of race were only too easily aroused in that assembly of Hebrew warriors, and if Jasher were blamed by some of his auditors51, it was for allowing that any Athenian could be either wise or good.
"Yet hear me for a moment--I must be heard," cried Joab, straining his voice to its loudest pitch, yet scarcely able to make his words audible; "Lycidas has been admitted into the Covenant52 by our priests; he can give proofs--"
"Who talks of proofs?" exclaimed Jasher, stamping again on the earth. "Did you never hear of the proofs given by Zopyrus? Know you not how Babylon, the golden city, fell under the sword of Darius? Zopyrus, minion53 of that king, fled to the city which he was besieging54, showed its defenders55 his ghastly hurts--nose, ears shorn off--and pointed to the bleeding wounds as proofs that Darius the tyrant56, by inflicting57 such injuries upon him, had won a right to his deathless hatred58.[1] The Babylonians believed the proofs, they received the impostor, and ye know the result. Babylon fell, not because the courage of her defenders quailed59, or famine thinned their numbers; not because the enemy stormed at her wall, or pestilence60 raged within it; but because she had received, and believed, and trusted a traitor, who had sacrificed his own members to gain the opportunity of destroying those who put faith in his honour! Hebrews! a Zopyrus has now come into our camp! Will ye open your arms, or draw your swords, to receive him?"
A wild yell of fury arose from the listening throng61, so fierce, so loud, that it drew towards the spot Hebrews from all parts of the encampment. It drew amongst others the young proselyte, who came eager to know the cause of the noise and excitement, quite unconscious that it was in any way connected with himself. As Lycidas made towards the centre of the crowd, it divided to let him pass into the immediate62 presence of Jasher, his accuser and self-constituted judge, and then ominously63 closed in behind him, so as to prevent the possibility of his retreat.
Lycidas had come amongst the Hebrew warriors with all the frank confidence of a volunteer into their ranks; and the Greek's first emotion was that of amazement64, when he found himself suddenly the object of universal indignation and hatred. There was no mistaking the expression of the angry eyes that glared upon him from every direction, nor the gestures of hands raising javelins65 on high, or unsheathing keen glittering blades.
"Here he is, the traitor, the Gentile, led hither to die the death he deserves!" exclaimed Jasher.
"What mean ye, Hebrews--friends? Slay me not unheard!" cried Lycidas, raising on high his voice and his hand. "I am a proselyte; I renounce66 my false gods,--"
"He has their very effigies67 on his arm!" yelled out Jasher, pointing with frenzied68 action to the silver bracelet69 of Pollux worn by the Greek, on which had been fashioned heads of Apollo and Diana encircled with rays.
Here was evidence deemed conclusive70; nothing further was needed. "He dies! he dies!" was the almost unanimous cry. The life of Lycidas had not been in greater peril71 when he had been discovered at the midnight burial, or when he had wrestled72 with Abishai on the edge of the cliff. In a few moments the young Greek would have lain a shapeless trampled73 corpse beneath his murderers' feet, when the one word "Forbear!" uttered in a loud, clear voice whose tones of command had been heard above the din27 of battle, stayed hands uplifted to destroy; and with the exclamation74, "Maccabeus! the prince!" the throng fell back on either side, and through the ranks of his followers75 the leader strode into the centre of the circle. One glance sufficed to inform him sufficiently76 of the nature of the disturbance77; he saw that he had arrived on the spot barely in time to save his Athenian rival from being torn in pieces by the crowd.
"What means this tumult78? shame on ye!" exclaimed Maccabeus, sternly surveying the excited throng.
"We would execute righteous judgment on a Greek--an idolater--a spy!" cried Jasher, pointing at Lycidas, but with less impassioned gesture; for the fanatic11 quailed in the presence of Maccabeus, who was the one man on earth whom he feared.
"He is a Greek, but neither idolater nor spy," said the prince. "He is one of a gallant79 people who fought bravely for their own independence, and can sympathize with our love of freedom. He has come to offer us the aid of his arm; shame on ye thus to requite80 him."
"I doubt but he will play us false," muttered one of the warriors, giving voice to the thoughts of the rest.
"We shall soon have an opportunity of settling all such doubts," said Maccabeus; "we shall attack the enemy at noon, and then shall this Greek prove in the battle whether he be false man or true."
The prospect81 of so soon closing with the enemy was sufficient to turn the attention of every Hebrew warrior2 present to something of more stirring interest than the fate of a solitary82 stranger. Jasher, however, would not so easily let his intended victim go free.
"He's an Achan!" exclaimed the fanatic; "if he fight amongst us, he will bring a curse on our arms!"
"He is a proselyte," replied Maccabeus in a loud voice, which was heard to the farthest edge of the crowd; "our priests and elders have received him--and I receive him--as a Hebrew by adoption83, companion in arms, a brother in the faith!"
The words of the prince were received with respectful submission84, if not with satisfaction. Maccabeus was regarded with enthusiasm by his followers, not only as a gallant and successful leader, but as one whose prudence85 they could trust, and whose piety86 they must honour. No man dare lay a finger upon him over whom the chief had thrown the shield of his powerful protection.
Lycidas felt that for the second time he owed his life to Judas Maccabeus. There was a gush87 of warm gratitude88 towards his preserver in the heart of the young Athenian; but something in the manner of the prince told Lycidas that he would not listen to thanks, that the expression of the Greek's sense of deep obligation would be regarded as an intrusion. Lycidas therefore, compelled, as it were, to silence, could only with fervour ask Heaven for an opportunity of showing his gratitude in the coming fight by actions more forcible than words.
"Now, sound the trumpets89 to arms," exclaimed Maccabeus, "and gather my troops together. If God give us the victory to-day, the way to Jerusalem itself will be open before us! Here will I marshal our ranks for the fight." Maccabeus strode to the summit of the rising ground from which Jasher had just been addressing the crowd, and beckoned90 to his standard-bearer to plant his banner behind him, where it could be seen from all parts of the camp. Here, with folded arms, Maccabeus watched the movements of his warriors as, at the signal-call of the trumpet-blast, they hastened from every quarter to be marshalled in battle-array, by their respective captains, under the eye of their great commander. With rapid precision the columns were formed; but before they moved on to the attack, Maccabeus, in brief but earnest supplication91, besought92 the Divine blessing93 on their arms.
[1] The student of history need not be reminded that the fall of Babylon through the stratagem94 of Zopyrus was quite distinct from and subsequent to its conquest by Cyrus. (See Rollins's "Ancient History.")
收听单词发音 |
1
warriors
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| 武士，勇士，战士( warrior的名词复数 ) | |
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warrior
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| n.勇士，武士，斗士 | |
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fortress
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| n.堡垒，防御工事 | |
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garrisoned
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| 卫戍部队守备( garrison的过去式和过去分词 )； 派部队驻防 | |
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countless
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| adj.无数的，多得不计其数的 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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vehement
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| adj.感情强烈的；热烈的；(人)有强烈感情的 | |
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shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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toiled
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| 长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的过去式和过去分词 )； 艰难缓慢地移动，跋涉 | |
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marvel
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| vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异；n.令人惊异的事 | |
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fanatic
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| n.狂热者，入迷者；adj.狂热入迷的 | |
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fanaticism
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| n.狂热，盲信 | |
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degenerated
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| 衰退，堕落，退化( degenerate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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inflame
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| v.使燃烧；使极度激动；使发炎 | |
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justify
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| vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护 | |
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unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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strife
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| n.争吵，冲突，倾轧，竞争 | |
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patriot
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| n.爱国者，爱国主义者 | |
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traitor
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| n.叛徒，卖国贼 | |
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shrieked
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| v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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orator
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| n.演说者，演讲者，雄辩家 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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doggedly
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| adv.顽强地，固执地 | |
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folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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astounding
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| adj.使人震惊的vt.使震惊，使大吃一惊astound的现在分词) | |
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din
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| n.喧闹声，嘈杂声 | |
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viper
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| n.毒蛇；危险的人 | |
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nurtured
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| 养育( nurture的过去式和过去分词 )； 培育； 滋长； 助长 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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beset
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| v.镶嵌；困扰，包围 | |
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thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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corpse
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| n.尸体，死尸 | |
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slain
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| 杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的过去分词 )； (slay的过去分词) | |
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treacherous
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| adj.不可靠的，有暗藏的危险的；adj.背叛的，背信弃义的 | |
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peroration
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| n.（演说等之）结论 | |
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hissing
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| n. 发嘶嘶声, 蔑视 动词hiss的现在分词形式 | |
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clinched
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| v.（尤指两人）互相紧紧抱[扭]住( clinch的过去式和过去分词 )；解决（争端、交易），达成（协议） | |
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seethe
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| vi.拥挤，云集；发怒，激动，骚动 | |
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defender
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| n.保卫者，拥护者，辩护人 | |
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withering
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| 使人畏缩的，使人害羞的，使人难堪的 | |
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writhed
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| （因极度痛苦而）扭动或翻滚( writhe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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reverence
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| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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perjured
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| adj.伪证的，犯伪证罪的v.发假誓，作伪证( perjure的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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apostate
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| n.背叛者，变节者 | |
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slay
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| v.杀死，宰杀，杀戮 | |
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nether
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| adj.下部的，下面的；n.阴间；下层社会 | |
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banished
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| v.放逐，驱逐( banish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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auditors
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| n.审计员，稽核员( auditor的名词复数 )；（大学课程的）旁听生 | |
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covenant
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| n.盟约，契约；v.订盟约 | |
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minion
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| n.宠仆；宠爱之人 | |
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besieging
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| 包围，围困，围攻( besiege的现在分词 ) | |
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defenders
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| n.防御者( defender的名词复数 )；守卫者；保护者；辩护者 | |
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tyrant
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| n.暴君，专制的君主，残暴的人 | |
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inflicting
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| 把…强加给，使承受，遭受( inflict的现在分词 ) | |
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hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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quailed
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| 害怕，发抖，畏缩( quail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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pestilence
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| n.瘟疫 | |
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throng
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| n.人群，群众；v.拥挤，群集 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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ominously
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| adv.恶兆地，不吉利地；预示地 | |
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amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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javelins
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| n.标枪( javelin的名词复数 ) | |
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renounce
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| v.放弃；拒绝承认，宣布与…断绝关系 | |
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effigies
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| n.（人的）雕像，模拟像，肖像( effigy的名词复数 ) | |
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frenzied
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| a.激怒的；疯狂的 | |
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bracelet
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| n.手镯，臂镯 | |
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conclusive
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| adj.最后的，结论的；确凿的，消除怀疑的 | |
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peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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wrestled
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| v.（与某人）搏斗( wrestle的过去式和过去分词 )；扭成一团；扭打；（与…）摔跤 | |
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trampled
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| 踩( trample的过去式和过去分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯 | |
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exclamation
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| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
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followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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disturbance
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| n.动乱，骚动；打扰，干扰；(身心)失调 | |
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tumult
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| n.喧哗；激动，混乱；吵闹 | |
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gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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requite
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| v.报酬，报答 | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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82
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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83
adoption
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| n.采用，采纳，通过；收养 | |
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84
submission
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| n.服从，投降；温顺，谦虚；提出 | |
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85
prudence
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| n.谨慎，精明，节俭 | |
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86
piety
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| n.虔诚，虔敬 | |
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87
gush
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| v.喷，涌；滔滔不绝(说话)；n.喷，涌流；迸发 | |
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88
gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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89
trumpets
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| 喇叭( trumpet的名词复数 )； 小号； 喇叭形物； （尤指）绽开的水仙花 | |
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90
beckoned
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| v.（用头或手的动作）示意，召唤( beckon的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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91
supplication
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| n.恳求，祈愿，哀求 | |
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92
besought
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| v.恳求，乞求（某事物）( beseech的过去式和过去分词 )；(beseech的过去式与过去分词) | |
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93
blessing
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| n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿 | |
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94
stratagem
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| n.诡计，计谋 | |
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