Adonijah: A Tale of the Jewish Dispersion. — John Shaqi
Adonijah: A Tale of the Jewish Dispersion.Strickland, Jane Margaret
History
Adonijah: A Tale of the Jewish Dispersion.
Strickland, Jane Margaret
Jerusalem -- History -- Fiction; Jerusalem -- History -- Siege, 70 A.D. -- Fiction; Jews -- Fiction
his sect arrogantly claimed for themselves, to the exclusion of all who
differed from them in opinion.
The singularly noble person of the Hebrew, the curious fashion of his
garments, and the deference with which her brother treated him, excited
Lucia Claudia’s curiosity. She asked Lucius “who this stranger was whom
he honoured with his friendship.” The account he gave of his first
interview with Adonijah interested her greatly; the patriotism of the
slave appeared to her worthy of a better country; and reverencing his
character, and pitying his misfortunes, she softened her voice when
addressing him, and permitted her mild eyes to express the compassionate
interest she felt for his condition. Indeed she even listened without
condemnation to the account Lucius gave of his singular creed, though
too much devoted to her own superstition to suffer at that moment her
reliance on its truth to be shaken; nor did she suspect that her brother
was a secret proselyte to a religion so mysterious, and to her present
bounded views so inexplicable.
While gazing on the beautiful countenance of Lucia, or listening to the
touching sweetness of her accents, Adonijah forgot that she was a
heathen; even the sacerdotal robes with which superstition had invested
her appeared only a dress admirably calculated to set off the symmetry
of her form. The deep melancholy into which captivity and slavery had
plunged him yielded to the new feelings that now filled his heart, and,
giving way to the sweet influence of virtuous love, he remembered not
that the law he reverenced forbade him to cherish such a sentiment for
the unbelieving daughter of the stranger, whom he preferred to the
maidens of his own people. A slight incident dispelled the illusion, and
warned the Hebrew that the creature he doted upon was indeed a blind and
bigoted idolatress.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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