528 



Monthly Review of Literature, 



[MAY, 



flict, he was welcomed as a leader in the 

 Jewish councils, and his compelling urgency 

 to resist the Romans to the utterance, pre- 

 vailed over the dastardly, or rather treache- 

 rous suggestions of other counsellors. Forces, 

 it was resolved, should be raised on all 

 sides, and he and Eleazer accordingly 

 withdrew to the north, the seat of their 

 influence, to assemble their friends and 

 retainers. But, on his arrival, an event 

 had occurred which turned him from his 

 purpose ; his wife and daughters had been 

 forcibly carried ofF by robbers ; and he 

 roams for a time in sorrow and distraction 

 over the hills of Lebanon, and at last, on 

 the coasts of Cilicia, while gazing upon a 

 wreck, he sees a struggling object, and, 

 plunging into the waves, brings to the shore 

 his own long-lost Miriam. 



Time had now been lost, and the project of 

 revolt was suspended ; but returning to his 

 home, new troubles quickly arose. Jabal, the 

 son of Eleazar, proposes to marry his cousin, 

 Salathiel's elder daughter ; but she had given 

 her affections to Constantius, a Greek, the 

 captain of the vessel in which the family 

 had been wrecked ; and, though the most 

 dutiful of children, she proves, of course, in 

 such a case, restive. The father, of course, 

 also, is obstinate he is enraged at the pre- 

 sumption of an idolatrous Greek, and at the 

 perverseness and degeneracy of a daughter 

 of Abraham, and insists upon her marrying 

 her cousin, according to the good old custom 

 of Jewish families. There is but one alter- 

 native for the young lady flight and fly 

 she does ; and an active search is set on 

 foot by the indignant father, in vain. In 

 the eagerness of pursuit, he determines even 

 to demand satisfaction of the Roman govern- 

 ment, in whose service Constantius had 

 been ; but, in the meanwhile, he is betrayed, 

 and charged by the governor, Florus, with 

 an act of treason, and forthwith despatched 

 to Rome to appear before Nero. To Rome 

 he accordingly goes, and, while there, the 

 universal conflagration of the eternal city 

 takes place, and there he recognizes his run- 

 away daughter, just as she is sinking in the 

 flames, amid a pile of ruins, too late to save 

 her. For this general destruction satisfac- 

 tion must be taken, and the Christians were 

 to be the victims. Among other criminals, 

 Salathiel receives a pardon, on condition of 

 giving information against the Christians, 

 and by some chance or other he has the 

 opportunity of giving the requisite informa- 

 tion against a considerable party. At the 

 execution of these unhappy people, in the 

 amphitheatre, he is compelled to be present, 

 and, to his amazement, discovers in the per- 

 son of his first victim, Constantius, the 

 husband of his daughter, both of whom had 

 for some time been converts to Christianity. 

 Exhausted, at length, by his terrible conflict 

 with a raging lion, Constantius sinks to the 

 earth ; and while Salathiel, in an agony of 

 remorse, is in the act of leaping into the 



arena, appears again, flinging herself upon 

 the prostrate form of her husband. Shouts 

 of admiration follow from the assembled 

 multitude; and even Nero, in obedience 

 to the popular feeling, is compelled to par- 

 don them. 



Returned, at length, again, to his home, 

 accompanied by his daughter and her hus- 

 band, Salathiel resumes the design of rescu- 

 ing Judea. Constantius heads a party in 

 the attack upon Masada, a fortress built by 

 Herod, and then the principal magazine of 

 arms belonging to the Romans. Salathiel 

 follows ; and in threading the defiles of the 

 mountains, rouses a whole host of lions, and 

 witnesses a most tremendous encounter be- 

 tween them and some squadrons of Roman 

 cavalry. Ultimately the attack on Masada 

 succeeds, and the whole country is instantly 

 up in arms. Speedily was Salathiel at the 

 head of 100,000 men, and forthwith he 

 marches to raise the siege of Jerusalem ; 

 but, while exulting in the immediate pros- 

 pect of entering the capital in triumph, and 

 of being welcomed as the paramount chief 

 of the nation, a voice, which he instantly 

 recognizes, rings in his ears ' thou shalt 

 never enter Jerusalem but in sorrow.' Still 

 he advances, encounters the Romans, de- 

 feats them with dreadful slaughter, in sight 

 of Jerusalem, and pursues the relics to the 

 walls of Bethhoron, within which they had 

 taken refuge. In the assault of this place 

 he was beaten down, and losing his senses, 

 awoke in a dungeon in Jerusalem the 

 effect of treachery. 



In this dungeon he lies two years, when 

 he is at length rescued by the exertions of 

 ther epentant Jabal, who had been made 

 the instrument of Salathiel's enemies the 

 Roman faction. Scarcely, and with the 

 most imminent perils, escaped from the 

 dungeon, he falls into the hands of pirates, 

 and, in company with them, encounters a 

 Roman fleet. In the engagement he falls, 

 or is thrown overboard scrambles up the 

 sides of a trireme gets singly on board of 

 her she takes fire is driven onward before 

 the wind precipitated into a whirlpool, and 

 is thrown up again ; and again Salathiel 

 miraculously gets to land. Hastening for- 

 wards now to Masada, his course is ar- 

 rested by robbers of the desert ; but again 

 he escapes ; and, after a succession of sur- 

 prising adventures, and hair-breadth perils 

 too numerous for us to trace he finally 

 reaches Jerusalem in time to assist in re- 

 pelling the last and scccessful efforts of the 

 army of Titus. But in vain were all exer- 

 tions to calm and conciliate the conflicting 

 factions within, or to repel the overwhelm- 

 ing force from without. " Titus advanced 

 from day to day the city was captured, the 

 temple on fire, the blaze melted the plates 

 of the roof in a golden shower. It calcined 

 the marble floor it dissipated in vapour the 

 inestimable gems that studded the walls. 

 All who entered lay turned to ashes ; but 



