elf-possession, she flung them from her with a
look of aversion and horror.

"Ha! is it so?" thundered Antiochus; "if the incense go not into the
fire, the hand that held it shall go. Executioners, do your work!"

Four of the fierce black slaves approached the young Hebrew maiden.
She clasped her hands, and shrieked out, "Father, save me!" It was no
mortal to whom she addressed that wild cry for help.

But the cry was answered by a mortal. Pollux, as if moved by an
irresistible impulse, sprang forward, by a gesture of his hand arrested
the movements of the executioners, and bent his knee before Epiphanes.

"The mighty king," he began, with a great effort to appear indifferent
and at his ease; "the mighty king has spoken of magicians who have
skill to force out sounds from lips that are dumb. I dispute not the
power of yonder black magi, but I should deem one their superior in the
mysterious art who could bring songs rather than shrieks from a Hebrew;
who could subdue the proud will rather than torture the body. Oh,
illustrious monarch of the world, let me but for twenty-four hours try
my potent spells upon this young rebel, and I will answer for it with
my head that, before the twenty-four hours be past, she shall gladly
and cheerfully do sacrifice to any god in Olympus, feast on swine's
flesh, dance as a Bacchante, or drink wine, like Belshazzar of old, out
of the vessels of the Temple. Try my powers, O king, and according to
my failure or success, so be the maiden's fate and mine!"

Antiochus hesitated; with a look of keen suspicion he regarded the
kneeling courtier. Zarah watched the king's countenance with
breathless anxiety--a respite even of twenty-four hours seemed to the
poor captive so priceless a boon. Intense was her relief when she
heard the tyrant's reply to Pollux:--

"Twenty-four hours' delay you have asked, and I grant. It were a
nobler triumph to make a proselyte than to slay a victim. I myself, as
you well know, Pollux," continued the tyrant, with sarcastic emphasis,
"won such a triumph myself. Take yonder obstinate Jewess, and work
upon her your spells, whatever they may be; but hear my final
decision," the king raised his hand and uttered a deep oath: "if
to-morrow you have failed in doing what you now undertake to perform,
if the girl be obdurate still, the moment when she refuses to do
sacrifice shall be your last upon earth--she shall go to the furnace,
and her protector to the bl