[Illustration] Pearl-Maiden A Tale Of The Fall of Jerusalem by H. Rider Haggard First Published 1901. Contents CHAPTER I. THE PRISON AT CÆSAREA CHAPTER II. THE VOICE OF A GOD CHAPTER III. THE GRAIN STORE CHAPTER IV. THE BIRTH OF MIRIAM CHAPTER V. MIRIAM IS ENTHRONED CHAPTER VI. CALEB CHAPTER VII. MARCUS CHAPTER VIII. MARCUS AND CALEB CHAPTER IX. THE JUSTICE OF FLORUS CHAPTER X. BENONI CHAPTER XI. THE ESSENES LOSE THEIR QUEEN CHAPTER XII. THE RING, THE NECKLACE AND THE LETTER CHAPTER XIII. WOE, WOE TO JERUSALEM CHAPTER XIV. THE ESSENES FIND THEIR QUEEN AGAIN CHAPTER XV. WHAT PASSED IN THE TOWER CHAPTER XVI. THE SANHEDRIM CHAPTER XVII. THE GATE OF NICANOR CHAPTER XVIII. THE DEATH-STRUGGLE OF ISRAEL CHAPTER XIX. PEARL-MAIDEN CHAPTER XX. THE MERCHANT DEMETRIUS CHAPTER XXI. THE CÆSARS AND PRINCE DOMITIAN CHAPTER XXII. THE TRIUMPH CHAPTER XXIII. THE SLAVE-RING CHAPTER XXIV. MASTER AND SLAVE CHAPTER XXV. THE REWARD OF SATURIUS CHAPTER XXVI. THE JUDGMENT OF DOMITIAN CHAPTER XXVII. THE BISHOP CYRIL CHAPTER XXVIII. THE LAMP CHAPTER XXIX. HOW MARCUS CHANGED HIS FAITH TO GLADYS CHRISTIAN A DWELLER IN THE EAST THIS EASTERN TALE IS DEDICATED BY HER OWN AND HER FATHER’S FRIEND THE AUTHOR Ditchingham: September 14, 1902. PEARL-MAIDEN CHAPTER I THE PRISON AT CÆSAREA It was but two hours after midnight, yet many were wakeful in Cæsarea on the Syrian coast. Herod Agrippa, King of all Palestine—by grace of the Romans—now at the very apex of his power, celebrated a festival in honour of the Emperor Claudius, to which had flocked all the mightiest in the land and tens of thousands of the people. The city was full of them, their camps were set upon the sea-beach and for miles around; there was no room at the inns or in the private houses, where guests slept upon the roofs, the couches, the floors, and in the gardens. The great town hummed like a hive of bees disturbed after sunset, and though the louder sounds of revelling had died away, parties of feasters, many of them still crowned with fading roses, passed along the streets shouting and singing to their lodgings. As they went, they discussed—those of them who were sufficiently sober—the incidents of that day’s games in the great circus, and offered or accepted odds upon the more exciting events of the morrow.