And when Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she came to the people into the temple of the Lord.-- And when she looked, behold, the king stood by a pillar, as the manner was, and the princes and the trumpeters by the king, and all the people of the land rejoiced, and blew with trumpets: And Athaliah rent her clothes, and cried Treason, Treason.--But Jehoiada the priest commanded the captains of the hundreds, the officers of the host, and said unto them, Have her forth without the ranges.... --And they laid hands on her; and she went by the way by the which the horses came into the king's house: and there was she slain. Let a youngster read this, I say, just as it is written; and how the true East--sound, scent, form, colour--pours into the narrative!--cymbals and trumpets, leagues of sand, caravans trailing through the heat, priest and soldiery and kings going up between them to the altar; blood at the foot of the steps, blood everywhere, smell of blood mingled with spices, sandal-wood, dung of camels! Yes, but how--if you will permit the word--how the _enjoyment_ of it as magnificent literature might be enhanced by a scholar who would condescend to whisper, of his knowledge, the magical word here or there, to the child as he reads! For an instance.-- No child--no grown man with any sense of poetry--can deny his ear to the Forty-fifth Psalm; the one that begins 'My heart is inditing a good matter,' and plunges into a hymn of royal nuptials. First (you remember) the singing-men, the sons of Korah, lift their chant to the bridegroom, the King: Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty ... And in thy majesty ride prosperously. Or as we hear it in the Book of Common Prayer: Good luck have thou with thine honour... because of the word of truth, of meekness, and righteousness; and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things.... All thy garments smell of myrrh, aloes, and cassia: out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad. Anon they turn to the Bride: Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father's house.... The King's daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of wrought gold. She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework: the virgins that be her fellows shall bear her company. And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift. Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth. For whom (wonders the young reader, spell-bound by this), for what happy bride and bridegroom was this glorious chant raised? Now suppose that, just here, he has a scholar ready to tell him what is likeliest true--that the bridegroom was Ahab--that the bride, the daughter of Sidon, was no other than Jezebel, and became what Jezebel now is--with what an awe of surmise would two other passages of the history toll on his ear?