one of those ruined castles on the Rhine, had been for many years the
scene of brigandage, pillage, and bloodshed.

It is not difficult to imagine that sumptuous and splendid retinue.
Roman soldiers and officials in all the splendour of their
accoutrements and mounting; carriages conveying the royal consort,
Herodias, Salome, and their ladies; large numbers of native soldiers;
swarthy Bedouin and Greek traders; priests and levites, who lived on
the smile of the Court; court officials, camp-bearers, a motley
following of servants and slaves. In the front of the cavalcade,
Herod, on a magnificent steed. The line of march, enlivened by the
sound of martial music, and the flaunting of innumerable banners.
Slowly they made their way through those desert solitudes, across the
pasture-lands, and finally swept up through the little village that lay
at the foot of the hill to the castellated fortress which covered the
summit, edging its mighty walls to the brink of the steep cliffs. Soon
the last straggler would be lost to view, the heavy portcullis fall,
and the massive iron gate swing to, and the first step would be taken
towards the tragedy, which lay right before Herod's path. One
sometimes wonders whether the whole of these circumstances had not been
planned by the cunning device of Herodias. In any case, nothing could
have been arranged more exactly to suit her murderous schemes.

The days that preceded the celebration of Herod's birthday were
probably filled with merry-making and carouse. Groups of nobles,
knights, and ladies, would gather on the terraces, looking out over the
Dead Sea, and away to Jerusalem, and in the far distance to the
gleaming waters of the Mediterranean. Picnics and excursions would be
arranged into the neighbouring country. Archery, jousts, and other
sports would beguile the slowly-moving hours. Jests, light laughter,
and buffoonery would fill the air. And all the while, in the dungeons
beneath the castle, lay that mighty preacher, the confessor,
forerunner, herald, and soon to be the martyr.

But this contrast was more than ever accentuated on the evening of
Herod's birthday, when the great banqueting-chamber was specially
illuminated; the tables decked with flowers and gold and silver plate;
laughter and mirth echoing through the vaulted roof from the splendid
company that lay, after the Eastern mode, on sumptuous couches,
strewing the floor from one end to the other of the spacious h