im alone. No, there
was no hurry. As he assured her of that the prophet looked up.

"Jezebel!"

The guests approached. Their number had increased. There were Greek
merchants from Hippos and Sepphoris, Pharisees from Jericho, and Scribes
from Jerusalem. Herodias clapped her hands. A negro, naked to the waist,
appeared.

"Take him below."

But the guests surrounded Iohanan. The Pharisees recognized him at once.
He was the terror of the hierarchs.

As he cried out at Herodias he seemed as though he would rise and wrench
his bonds and mount to where she was. His eyes had lost their pathos; they
blazed.

"Woe unto you!" he shouted, "and woe unto your barren bed! Though you hid
in the bowels of the earth, in the uttermost depths of a jungle, the
stench of your incest would betray you. Woe unto you, I say; the swine
will turn from you, the Eternal will rend you, and the heart of hell will
vomit you back!"

Herodias shook with anger. She was livid. Murmurs circulated through the
increasing throng.

The Pharisees edged nearer. On their foreheads were slips of vellum on
which passages of the Law had been inscribed. About their left arms other
slips extended spiralwise from the elbow to the end of the third finger.
They were in white; where their garments had become soiled, the spots had
been chalked.

To them the prophet showed his teeth. "And woe unto you too, race of
vipers, bladders of wind! As the fire devours the stubble, and the flame
consumes the chaff, so your root will be rottenness and your seed go up as
dust. Fear will engulf you like a torrent. The high peaks will be broken,
the mountains will sever, and night be upon all. The valleys and hills
will be strewn with your corpses, the rocks will run with your blood, the
plain will drink it, and the vultures feast on your flesh. Woe unto you
all, I say, that call good evil, and evil good!"

The invective continued. It enveloped the world. Everything was to be
destroyed. Presently it subsided; the voice of the prophet sank lower; his
eyes sought the sky, the pupils dilated; and the dream of his nation, the
triumphant future, the sanctification of the faithful, the magnificence
that was to be, poured rapturously from his lips.

"The whole land will glow with glory. The sky will be a rose in bloom. The
meadows will rejoice, and the earth will be filled with men and maidens
singing and kneeling to Thee, Immanuel, whom I await."

The vision would have expanded,