an one by apostasy from God!"

Pollux bit his nether lip till the blood came. When he resumed
speaking, his voice sounded hoarse and strange.

"If you care not for your own danger, maiden, think of my peril; my
head is staked upon your submission," he said.

Zarah looked distressed and perplexed for a moment, then her fair face
brightened again. "Even cruel Antiochus," she replied, "would never
slay one of his nobles because he failed in persuading a Hebrew girl to
violate conscience. You are not--cannot be in peril through me."

"I am, whether you believe it or not," said the courtier. "But
methinks, when speaking to a girl like yourself in the morning of life,
with so much that might make existence delightful"--Pollux glanced at
the luxurious decorations of the apartment--"one might be supposed to
need small power of persuasion to convince her that music, dance, and
feasting are better than torture; life than death; nature's sunshine
and earth's love than a nameless grave. The king is munificent to
those who oppose not his will; his hand is bounteous and open. Listen
to me, fair maiden. Antiochus has promised, if you yield to his
commands, to give you in marriage; it shall be my care that his choice
for you shall fall upon one gentle and noble, one who will not deal
harshly with you if you choose to follow your own religion, but who
will accord to you in the privacy of your home all the freedom of
worship which you could desire." Pollux paused, turning over in his
mind who would be the noble most likely to fulfil these conditions; and
thinking aloud, he uttered the words, "such a one as Lycidas the
Athenian."

How the heart of Zarah bounded at the name! The temptation was
fearfully strong. She beheld life and Lycidas on the one hand; on the
other the cold steel and the glowing flame, and those black fearful
ministers of death, the remembrance of whom made her shudder.

Pollux, skilful in the courtier's art of reading the thoughts of men,
saw symptoms of yielding in the face of his prisoner, and pushed his
advantage. He had appealed to Zarah's instincts, now he attempted to
dazzle and pervert her reason. With subtle sophistry he brought
forward arguments with which his mind was but too familiar. Pollux
spoke of necessity, that artful plea of the tempter, who would try to
make the Deity Himself answerable for the sin of His creatures, as
having placed them under circumstances where such sin could not