It was late in the evening: the slaves extinguished the seven-branched lamp and laid the cushions for beds in the porticoes which surrounded the inner court. All retired speedily to rest, that they might set out the earlier on the following morning. But the mother still lingered on the spot; her grief increased as the time of departure drew nigh; weeping she embraced her child, and said, “Call me Mara, for I am a sorrowful mother in Israel.” Helon in silence leant upon her bosom, till Elisama came, and said to her: “Bethink thee of what our prophet saith,[18] 'Rachel weepeth for her children and refuseth to be comforted. But thus saith the Lord, refrain thy voice from weeping and thine eye from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded and thy children shall come again to their own border.'” He forced her away into the inner apartments, and himself lay down on one of the cushions in the portico. Footnote 18: Jer. xxxi. 15. Helon did not attempt to sleep. Wishing his uncle calm repose, he ascended the roof of the house where stood the _alija_, a small apartment like a turret, dedicated to secret meditation and prayer. From the roof there was an extensive view over the city of Alexandria; on the north to the Mediterranean, on the south to the lake Mareotis, and on the east to the Nile and the Delta. Here he had often stood when a boy, and with restless longing had looked towards the Holy Land. It was a clear, calm night of spring. Refreshing odours arose from the surrounding gardens. The countless stars shed down their twinkling radiance upon him, and the moon’s new light was mirrored in the lake and the canals of the Nile. Before him lay the city of Alexander, justly styled in the days of her highest prosperity, the Queen of the East and the Chief of Cities. In what stillness she now reposed, with her towering obelisks! How deep the silence and the rest which wrapt her 600,000 inhabitants, and her five harbours, by day so full of activity and noise! The house was near the Panium, from which the whole city could be seen at one view. There stood the Bruchium which, besides the royal palace, contained the Museum, rendered the chief seat of the learning of the times, by its library of 400,000 volumes, and by being the residence of the learned men, whom the munificence of the Ptolemies had collected around their court. Here Helon had sat for several years, at the feet of the philosophers. He thought on those years, and, as he compared them with his present hopes, he exclaimed: Better is a day in thy courts than a thousand! I would rather be a door-keeper in the house of the Lord Than dwell in the tents of sin.—Ps. lxxxiv. 10.