We have to acknowledge special obligations to Captain Conder’s “Judas Maccabæus,” a volume of the series entitled “The New Plutarch.” We also owe much to Canon Rawlinson’s notes in the “Speaker’s Commentary on the Bible,” to Canon Westcott’s articles in the “Dictionary of the Bible,” and to Dean Stanley’s “Lectures on the Jewish Church.” If any reader should be curious as to the literary partnership announced on the title-page—a partnership that has grown, so to speak, out of another of many years’ standing, shared by the writers as author and publisher—he may be informed that the plan of the story and a detailed outline of it have been contributed by Richmond Seeley, and the story itself written for the most part by Alfred Church. LONDON, _Sept. 3, 1889._ CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. A NEW ORDER OF THINGS 1 II. ANTIOCHUS 19 III. MENELAÜS 37 IV. AT ANTIOCH 49 V. THE WRATH TO COME 68 VI. THE EVIL DAYS 79 VII. THE DARKNESS THICKENS 90 VIII. SHALLUM THE WINE-SELLER 101 IX. THE PERSECUTION 113 X. IN THE MOUNTAINS 124 XI. NEWS BAD AND GOOD 135 XII. THE PATRIOT ARMY 148 XIII. GUERILLA WARFARE IN THE MOUNTAINS 159 XIV. THE BURIAL OF MATTATHIAS 171 XV. THE SWORD OF APOLLONIUS 184 XVI. NEWS FROM THE BATTLE-FIELD 193 XVII. THE BATTLE OF EMMAUS 208 XVIII. THE BATTLE OF BETH-ZUR 225 XIX. IN JERUSALEM 235 XX. THE CLEANSING OF THE TEMPLE 242 XXI. THE DEDICATION OF THE TEMPLE 254 XXII. WARS AND RUMOURS OF WARS 263 XXIII. MORE VICTORIES 274 XXIV. THE SABBATICAL YEAR 284 XXV. REVERSES 294 XXVI. LIGHT OUT OF DARKNESS 304 XXVII. A PEACEFUL INTERVAL 314 XXVIII. HOPES AND FEARS 323 XXIX. CIVIL WAR 331 XXX. NICANOR 339 XXXI. THE FALLING AWAY 352 XXXII. THE LAST BATTLE 362 XXXIII. THE HOPE OF ISRAEL 368 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS