divide them. Often had Hadassah
thought that her heart would break with grief;--it had burst with joy!
Her day of sorrow was over; her long Sabbath rest had begun. The happy
smile which had lately played on her lips in sleep, now rested upon
them in that last peaceful slumber from which she should never again
awake to weep. She had been given her heart's desire, and so had
departed in peace. Blessed death; most joyful departure!

CHAPTER XXVIII.

UNITED IN THE GRAVE.

Lycidas dared not at first break to Zarah the mournful truth that one
blow had bereft her of both her protectors, that she was now indeed an
orphan, and alone in the world. Zarah saw that her father was dead,
but believed that Hadassah had swooned. The subdued wail of Anne over
the corpse of her mistress, first revealed to the bereaved girl the
full extent of her loss. Its greatness, its suddenness, almost stunned
her; it was a paralyzing grief.

But this was no time for lamentation or wail. Lycidas
remembered--though Zarah herself for the moment entirely forgot it--her
imminent personal peril should she be discovered and arrested by the
Syrians. To save her precious life, was now the Greek's most anxious
care. He tried to persuade her to fly; but even his entreaties could
not draw the mourner from the dead bodies of Hadassah and Pollux. It
seemed as if Zarah could understand nothing but the greatness of her
bereavements. A terrible fear arose in the mind of the Greek that all
that the maiden had undergone during the last two days had unsettled
her reason.

"What can be done!" exclaimed Lycidas, almost in despair; "if the
Syrians find her here, she is lost. The city will soon be astir;
already I hear the sound of hoofs!"

A man, leading a large mule with two empty panniers, appeared, trudging
on his solitary way. As he approached the spot, Lycidas to his
inexpressible relief recognized in him Joab, a man whose countenance
was never likely to be forgotten by him--being connected with one of
the most exciting passages in the life of the young Athenian.

"Ha! the lady Hadassah!" exclaimed the muleteer, in a tone of surprise
and regret, as his eye fell on the lifeless body, round which Zarah was
clinging, with her face buried in the folds of its garments.

"I have seen you before; I know you to be a good man and true," said
Lycidas, hurriedly. "You risked your life to bury the martyrs, you
will help us now in this our sore need.