“I may not name him.” “Doth our city contain many of this faith?” “Very many.” “Name some,” commanded Simeon. This he said, not believing that she would do so, but knowing that her refusal would add to the wrath of the assembly. “Even among the heathen to betray one’s friends is counted base. How much more, then, among Christians?” “By revealing their names you will be doing much towards redeeming yourself from the punishment that otherwise will most surely come upon you.” “Not even to redeem myself from death will I betray my friends.” “Come, girl, be not obstinate. Who were they that persuaded you to adopt Christianity?” “The Law and the Prophets chiefly.” “You blaspheme.” “Nay, give me leave to speak, and I will show you that our so-called new faith is but the fulfillment and completion of the old.” “This damsel resembles her master Paul,” sneered Agrippa. “With a little talking she thinks to make us Christians.” Simeon, seeking to prejudice her still more in the opinion of the narrow-minded Jews, to whom all Gentile learning was an abomination, continued: “You have given much time to the study of the Greek writings?” “As did your father Gamaliel,” was the quiet reply. “If it were a virtue in him, why seek to make it a fault in me?” “Hear, O Israel,” said Simeon, addressing the assembly, “in my father’s school were a thousand students, of whom five hundred studied the wisdom that is in the Law; and to-day they are all living, and held in honor. And there were five hundred who studied the Grecian vanities, and to-day there is not one of them alive.”[9] He paused for a moment, and then put the customary question: “Can anyone here present show just cause why punishment should not be inflicted upon Vashti, daughter of Hyrcanus?” Vashti looked round upon the assembly, but in the words of the Psalmist she had become a stranger to her brethren, an alien among her mother’s children. There was none that would speak a good word for her. “There are two persons here,” said Vashti, “who can testify, if they would, that my change of creed is not deserving of punishment.” “Who are these witnesses?” “King Agrippa for one.” That monarch, upon hearing himself appealed to, regarded Vashti with a languid and scornful gaze. “Thou callest upon _me_ to testify in thy favor?” “O king, after Paul of Tarsus had set forth his tenets before your tribunal, did you not say, ‘This man doeth nothing worthy of death or of bonds’? My faith is but the same with his. Since you pronounced _him_ innocent, how can you declare _me_ guilty?” These words put the king in a very awkward dilemma. Deny them he could not; to confirm them would be equivalent to a declaration of her innocence. He shrugged his shoulders, and, like the coward that he was, took refuge in silence. “And who is the other witness?” asked Simeon, after a very awkward pause.