sent, with the same result. But
Joram, discovering that the one who drove so rapidly must be his own
impetuous captain of the host, and suspecting no treachery from him,
ordered out his own chariot to meet Jehu, accompanied by his uncle
Ahaziah, king of Judah. He expected stirring news from the army, and was
eager to learn it. He supposed that Hazael, then king of Damascus, who
had murdered Benhadad, had proposed peace. So as he approached Jehu--the
frightful irony of fate halting him for the interview in the very
vineyard of Naboth--he cried out, "Is it peace, Jehu?" "Peace!" replied
Jehu; "what peace can be made so long as Jezebel bears rule?" In an
instant the king understood the ominous words of his general, turned
back his chariot, and fled toward his palace, crying, "There is
treachery, O Ahaziah!" An arrow from Jehu pierced the monarch in the
back, and he sank dead in his chariot. Ahaziah also was mortally wounded
by another arrow from Jehu, but he succeeded in reaching Megiddo, where
he died. Jehu spoke to Bidkar, his captain, and recalling the dread
prophecy of Elijah, commanded the body of Ahab's son to be cast out into
the dearly-bought field of Naboth.

In the mean time, Jezebel from her palace window at Jezreel had seen the
murder of her son. She was then sixty years of age. The first thing she
did was to paint her eyelids, and put on her most attractive apparel, to
appear as beautiful as possible, with the hope doubtless of attracting
Jehu,--as Cleopatra, after the death of Antony, sought to win Augustus.
Will a flattered woman, once beautiful, ever admit that her charms have
passed away? But if the painted and bedizened queen anticipated her
fate, she determined to die as she had lived,--without fear, imperious,
and disdainful. So from her open window she tauntingly accosted Jehu as
he approached: "What came of Zimri, who murdered his master as thou hast
done?" "Are there any on my side?" was the only reply he deigned to
make, as he looked up to a window of the palace, which was a part of the
wall of the city. Two or three eunuchs, looking out from behind her,
answered the summons, for the wicked and haughty queen had no real
friends. "Throw her down!" ordered Jehu; and in a moment the blood from
her mangled body splashed upon the walls and upon the horses. In another
instant the wheels of the chariot passed over her lifeless remains. Jehu
would have permitted a decent burial, "for," said he, "she is a ki