which is sure as the roots of these hills, I should not talk Iwith thee thus. But I now speak with thee even as I should with him."

I said that he might do so with safety. I was now wholly a Jew, and so far desirous of the independence and liberty of my country, that I stood ready and waiting to join any enterprise that promised, through its extent and well-concerted plans, the success that ought to crown it.

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Thy countenance and thy voice give me assurance," said Herod, "of trustworthiness. But what set thee about that mad outbreak in Cæsarea? Thy present speech agrees not with that. Pilate was too strong for thee. It would have gone ill with thee, as well as Philip, but for Onias. I should hardly else have seen thee here in Machærus."

The possibility of such mischance seemed to amuse him. I then related to him minutely how it fell out there, and how it was by an accident alone that I had been involved in the enterprise.

“Ah, now again,” said Herod, "you seem the same person who first spoke. I see what swayed thee, friendship and love, not the sacred passion for thy country, of which the occasion was not worthy. The great God of Israel, the God of Moses and of Abraham, of David and the Maccabees, is to be worshipped and served only in honourable undertakings, agreeing in their greatness with his majesty."

In saying these words the manner of the king changed, and I could see in him without difficulty one not unworthy to reign over Israel. He rose and continued with energy.

"Unhappy Israel! when shall her sorrows cease, her oppressions end, her tears be wiped away from her eyes! All the nations of the earth have taken their fill in the slaughter of her children, and carrying them away into captivity. The king of Babylon, and the king of Syria, have in turn laid her waste. But as truly as God did bring about a return from the captivity, and a deliverance

from the great Antiochus, so surely will he accomplish a greater redemption still, from a greater thraldom, by the hand of the least of his servants. Rome shall yet know that there is a greater than herself; Judea shall yet know that her Redeemer liveth; the multitude of the people shall yet rejoice in her salvation. Unto me, Julian, unto me is committed this office, and to the least iota shall its duties be fulfilled."

"I believe it," I answered; "with all Israel as one man at thy back, thou canst not fail. But Israel is divided. How shall she be brought together in one faith and one submission?"

"That is the work," replied the Tetrarch, "we have to do. Ere one step in action can be taken, the mind and heart of the people must be assailed and converted. Already, Julian, has this been done beyond thy knowledge or belief. Emissaries, secret, and partners as it were of my own bosom, have gone out hence into every corner of the land, learning who were to be trusted, and to them confiding the purposes we cherish. The Herodians, ever lovers of our house, are with us. They will be divided from Rome whom they now affect, but as they perceive, in seeming only; to be more than rewarded for all they may lose in a future Rome here in Judea. In that new Rome, that new and more glorious kingdom, they shall have free indulgence in the customs they approve. The redeemed Jew shall be bound by no chains of a new slavery. Dost thou understand?"

I did not understand the glance with which he accompanied these words.

"The Law will then," I replied, "surely be supreme; it will be raised to new honour and a wider dominion; it will be the everlasting foundation on which we shall stand."

"Oh, surely, surely," he answered, "the Law will be supreme. It is for that we war, for that we dare all, for that we put in jeopardy our lives and our children and our

wealth. But - but enough of this for once, young Roman. Let us break away from a theme so grave, and look abroad upon the wonders of a place as yet so new to thee."

Thus saying, he directed me to accompany him to other parts of the palace and of the fortress, and he would display to me its resources. This I was by no means unwilling to do. So we left the apartment.

After we had surveyed the splendours of the palace the halls, the banqueting-rooms, the chambers, the marble roofs, the carved ceilings of cedar of Lebanon, the columns and the porticoes, we turned to the huge walls of this great prison-house, that by ascending them, and still more the lofty towers that shoot up from them at regular intervals, we might obtain a prospect of the region round about. We soon, though only after a wearisome ascent, stood on the top of the topmost tower, whence the eye looked abroad as far as it is in the power of the eye to penetrate, -no object coming between it and the utmost verge of the horizon. We looked in silence for a space upon the broad land of Judea lying before us in its luxuriance, yet in its slavery.

"All that we now see," cried Herod, pointing to the four quarters of heaven, "shall yet be mine-by my arm shall Jehovah get the victory, upon me is his spirit and his power poured out, this my soul knoweth, and by me shall be filled the throne of David. Have faith in this, Julian, and thou shalt sit on the right hand of my power when I shall have obtained the kingdom."

I said that the reward of having served Israel according to my strength was all that I coveted.

"Nevertheless," said the Tetrarch, "more shall be added. He that worketh for love shall reap the best reward, the reward that love alone can give; but he shall not lose what cometh of the world's honour. Let us now descend."

We then descended; but when we had reached the bottom of the tower, in place of passing out by the door

through which we had entered, Herod took a contrary direction, and beckoned me to follow him, and again to descend still farther. So we began to descend lower and lower, until, as it seemed, we must have reached the roots. of the mountain and the fountains of the great springs. But at length we paused, and drawing the bolts of a door we entered a vast hall perfectly finished after the rules of art, lighted, but whence I saw not, and filled with all the various munitions of war. It was an armoury of weapons of every kind known to the arts of modern warfare, all of the most perfect workmanship, and arranged, each kind by itself, in the most exact order. I was filled with amazement at such displays of power; but it was increased when from this apartment I was led into another and still another of equal dimensions, and all in like manner stored with the implements of death, with harness for men and horses and elephants. I gave words to the wonder which I could not repress, and asked, "Why is all this, and whence?"

"Thanks to the providence of the great God of Israel,” replied the Tetrarch, "his servant has been led to lay aside from the uses of luxury and a vain show, wherewith to heap together these treasures, richer than stores of gold, and kept against the day of the Lord, that great day when Israel shall arise and shake off her oppressors. Herod the Great built cities and palaces and strongholds; hath filled them with both men and arms. seest, without a show of right, Julian, that he asks thy confidence and allegiance."

I said that I confessed his greatness.

Herod Antipas
It is not, thou

We then left the armouries and again ascended, but only a part of the way, when Herod, by a door opening toward another quarter, entered an apartment lighted by windows pierced through the walls of the rock, and filled with vessels in which were deposited coin and jewels of immense value. "Here," "said my conductor, "dost thou behold the secrets of the power that shall be displayed in Israel. Let but the

children of Israel come up to their tents as of old, when the Philistine was in the land, and there shall not be wanting any other of the instruments of successful warfare. Think not, moreover, that thou hast seen the whole of Herod's power. At Herodium, at Tiberias, at Sepphoris, are their magazines not less well supplied than these thou hast seen here. We wait but for the day and the hour, which the Lord hath put in his own hand."

We returned to the courts around the palace. I was there shown the huge reservoirs of water prepared for the subsistence of those who should be besieged, the granaries for the necessary supplies of food, and all the various stores in secret chambers within the body of the outward walls, of missiles of every kind, as well as of the most combustible substances for the annoyance and destruction of the assailants. So that when I had seen all, it seemed to me a place now wholly impregnable; to be subdued only, if at all, by years of patient waiting and watching, until the food within should be consumed, or pestilence do the work of the sword.

When we had ended this survey of a thousand wonders, we re-entered the apartment whence we had departed, where Herod informed me that I was no longer the guest of the merchant, but his own, and that Chuz, the steward of the household, would conduct me to the part of the palace provided for me.

As I sat within the apartment thus made ready for me, in that part of the palace where the walls of the fortress sinking with the form of the ground, the eye could freely wander over the whole adjacent country and the streets of the lower city, I could not but marvel at the strange position in which I found myself, and the course that seemed now plainly to be marked out before me. I could from my windows survey the distant valley of the Jordan and the verdant slopes of Moab, together with the sandy deserts that we had traversed. This desert, said I to myself, and