y any
light of reason or of memory. All this, at least, was spared to her.

Well, the deed was done and she must pay the price, for without a doubt
they would kill her, as they had a right to do, who had saved a Roman
general from their clutches. Or if they did not, Caleb would, Caleb
whose bitter jealousy, as her instinct told her, had turned his love to
hate. Never would he let her live to fall, perchance, as his share of
the Temple spoil, into the hands of the Roman rival who had escaped him.

It was not too great a price. Because of the birth doom laid upon her,
even if he sought it, and fortune brought them back together again, she
could never be a wife to Marcus. And for the rest she was weary, sick
with the sight and sound of slaughter and with the misery that in these
latter days, as her Lord had prophesied, was come upon the city that
rejected him and the people who had slain Him, their Messiah. Miriam
wished to die, to pass to that home of perfect and eternal peace in
which she believed; where, mayhap, it might be given to her in reward of
her sufferings, to watch from afar over the soul of Marcus, and to make
ready an abode for it to dwell in through all the ages of infinity. The
thought pleased her, and lifting his ring, she pressed it to her lips
which that very night had been pressed upon his lips, then drew it off
and hid it in her hair. She wished to keep that ring until the end, if
so she might. As for the pearls, she could not hide them, and though she
loved them as his gift--well, they must go to the hand of the spoiler,
and to the necks of other women, who would never know their tale.

This done Miriam rose to her knees and began to pray with the vivid,
simple faith that was given to the first children of the Church. She
prayed for Marcus, that he might recover and not forget her, and that
the light of truth might shine upon him; for Nehushta, that her sorrow
might be soothed; for herself, that her end might be merciful and her
awakening happy; for Caleb, that his heart might be turned; for the dead
and dying, that their sins might be forgiven; for the little children,
that the Lord of Pity would have pity on their sufferings; for the
people of the Jews, that He would lift the rod of His wrath from off
them; yes, and even for the Romans, though for these, poor maid, she
knew not what petition to put up.

Her prayer finished, once more Miriam strove to sleep and dozed a
little, to be aroused by a c