aste!" said he, "take the apparel, and the horse, as thou hast
said, and do even so to Mordecai the Jew, who sitteth at the king's
gate. Let nothing fail that thou hast spoken." You have devised the very
highest honour that I can render: now confer it on the man I designate.

The Eastern despots are arbitrary; and Haman, confounded and petrified,
ventured no remonstrance. He bowed and obeyed. He departed as the
messenger of honour to Mordecai the Jew. Whatever the malignant and
bitter feelings of his heart, he dared not give expression to them. He
was compelled to serve the man he hated, to confer the highest honour on
the man he had doomed to the deepest obloquy, publicly to bow before one
whom he hoped to trample beneath his feet! With what contending
feelings must he have delivered the mandate of the king to Mordecai!
What strong emotion must have convulsed his soul! Yet the most powerful
feelings are seldom displayed. The green sod covers the pent volcano,
and a slight trembling alone denotes the action of the devouring
element. It is all repose and calmness on the surface while the billows
of flame are raging beneath.

Thus the aspect of the courtier was calm, though sullen, while with his
own hands he acted as chamberlain to the Jew and arrayed him in robes of
royalty and honour. We may imagine a group for a painter, in Haman,
dark, malignant, and sullen--and Mordecai, calm, proud, unbending,
receiving service from his enemy. And after having with his own hands
arrayed the new object of royal favour, Haman was placed at the head of
the proud war-horse, as he slowly bore the Jew through the multitude,
who thronged the street "to behold the man whom the king delighteth to
honour." We seem to see him--the proudest, the most arrogant of
men--with bowed head and averted eye, while Mordecai sits erect and
firm, in all the dignity of conscious worth.

As they slowly proceed through the thronged thoroughfare, obstructed by
crowds who came to gaze upon the pageant, many a significant sneer or
half-uttered jest would convey to Haman a sense of his degradation in
appearing as the groom of the despised Jew.

When the ceremonies were over, Mordecai again appeared at the gates of
the palace. Nothing in the apparent condition of the two was changed,
and the pageant may have seemed like a dream to Mordecai. He was only
anxious to know the proceedings and fate of Esther. Yet he must have
gathered hope for the future, as he stil