s in sign of mourning, and went out into
the streets of the city clothed in sack-cloth uttering a loud and
bitter cry. He cried even before the king's gate.

All through the kingdom there was great mourning among the Jews, and
they fasted and wept in sack-cloth and ashes.

When Esther heard that Mordecai was clothed in sack-cloth she was
deeply grieved, and sent some garments to clothe him, but he would not
receive them. Then she sent for the king's chamberlain Hatach, and
gave him a command to Mordecai to tell what caused his grief.

Hatach found him at the king's gate, and Mordecai told him all that had
happened to him, and of the great sum of money that Haman had promised
to pay into the king's treasuries for the Jews to destroy them. He
also gave him a copy of the decree to show Esther, and told Hatach to
charge her that she go before the king and make request for her people.

Hatach took these words to Esther, and Esther sent a reply by Hatach,
saying that it was known in all the king's palace that no man or woman
could come into the king's presence in the inner court who had not been
called, and for any who so entered there was but one law, and that was
that they be put to death, unless the king hold out to them the golden
sceptre. She had not been called to see the king, she said, in thirty
days.

Hatach gave this message to Mordecai, and he again sent word to Esther
that she could not hope to escape the decree, as she too was of the
Jews. He told her that deliverance must come to the Jews in some other
way, but she and her family would be destroyed, and then he added,

"Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as
this?"

Then Esther made her resolve, and sent word to Mordecai to gather all
the Jews in Shushan together to fast night and day, while she and her
maidens fasted also.

"And so I will go in unto the king," she said, "which is not according
to the law, and if I perish, I perish."

And Mordecai went his way and did as Esther had commanded.

It was the third day when Esther arose from her fast before the Lord
and put on her beautiful royal robes and stood in the inner court of
the king's house in sight of the royal throne.

When the king saw Esther standing in the inner court he was not
displeased, but his heart was turned toward her, and he held out to her
the golden sceptre that was in his hand.

"What wilt thou, Queen Esther?" he said, "and what is thy request