se of the pale
placid face of one of the shrouded forms, but needed not that glimpse
to feel certain that those whose remains were thus secretly interred by
kinsmen or friends at the peril of their lives, were the same as those
whose martyrdom he had so indignantly witnessed. The Athenian knew
enough of the Syrian tyrant to estimate how daring and how difficult
must have been the feat of rescuing so many of the bodies of his
victims from the dishonour of being left to the dog or the vulture.
The devotion of the living, as well as the martyrdom of the dead, gave
an interest to that midnight burial which no earthly pomp could have
lent. The spirit of the young Athenian glowed with generous sympathy;
and of high descent and proud antecedents as he was, Lycidas would have
deemed it an honour to have helped to dig that wide grave for the eight
slaughtered Jews.

The burial was conducted in solemn silence, save as regarded the Hebrew
matron, and her deep thrilling accents were meeter requiem for the
martyrs than the loudest lamentations of hired mourners would have
been. As the chief received each lifeless form into his arms, the
matron uttered a short sentence over it, in which words of the ancient
Hebrew spoken by her fathers blended with the Chaldee, then the
language commonly used by the Jews. Her thoughts, as she gave them
utterance, clothed themselves in unpremeditated poetry; the Athenian
could neither understand all her words, nor her allusions to the past,
but the majesty of gesture the music of sound, made him listen as he
might have done to the inspired priestess of some oracle's shrine.

"We may not wail aloud for thee, my son, nor rend our garments, nor put
on sackcloth, nor pour dust upon our heads. He who hath bereaved thee
of life, would bereave thee even of our tears; but thou art resting on
Abraham's bosom, where the tyrant can reach thee no more.

"Thou art taken away from the evil. Thou seest no longer Jerusalem
trodden by the heathen, nor the abomination of desolation set up in the
sanctuary of the Lord.

"Even as Isaac was laid on the altar, so didst thou yield thy body to
death, and thy sacrifice is accepted.

"As the dead wood of Aaron's rod, cut off from the tree on which it had
grown, yet blossomed and bare fruit; cut off as thou art in thy prime,
thy memory shall blossom for ever.

"The three holy children trod unharmed the fiery furnace seven time
heated. He who was with them was sure