“And if the House of Zadok have perished, why should not Judas, son of Mattathias, be high priest?” said Azariah. “He is of a principal house among the sons of Aaron, and the Lord has been with him always.” Joseph had never forgiven Judas for his own disaster. His was one of those mean natures that justify the saying, “The injured may forgive, the injurer never.” The captain had treated him with the same generous kindness which he had showed to Azariah, but this kindness had not been received in the same temper. On the contrary it rankled in his mind, till by a strange, yet not uncommon, perversion of feeling, it had produced a positive sense of injury. He now broke out: “Nay, nay, my friend, you say too much. That he has won victories I deny not; but was the Lord with him when he fled before the face of the heathen at Beth-Zachariah, or when Beth-zur was yielded up to Lysias, or when we had well-nigh perished with famine in the siege, or when the King broke down the ramparts of the Temple? Not so: whatever the people may shout or sing in his praise, he too has known defeat, even as we have.” “This I know,” said Azariah, “that whereas we were trodden underfoot by the heathen till there was no life left in us, now we are risen and stand upright.” “And how long, think you,” returned Joseph, “will it be so with us? Did we drive away the King, or did he not rather depart of his own accord, because of what he and his counsellors had heard of the doings of Philip? And will he not return, and the end be worse than the beginning?” Azariah answered, with some heat, “As for that which may happen hereafter, I say nothing. These things are in the hand of God. But that the young Antiochus departed to his own land was, I doubt not at all, of the Lord’s doing. Why, even this child knows the story of Sennacherib, and the words which Isaiah the prophet spoke to Hezekiah when the King was faint-hearted, and could not see how there should be any deliverance for Israel. Did not the prophet say, ‘He shall hear a rumour, and shall return unto his own land?’” Joseph said nothing. With all his meanness and littleness he was a patriot, and really loved his country; and it went against his heart and conscience to prophesy evil against her. Then the little Daniel startled them all by saying, with flashing eyes, “And I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.” CHAPTER XXVIII. HOPES AND FEARS. A few weeks after the conversation recorded in the last chapter, Ruth was hearing her little boy repeat the Commandment when Seraiah came in, carrying in his hand an open letter. “There is news from Syria,” he said. “And is it good or bad?” asked his wife.