The Hammer: A Story of the Maccabean TimesChurch, Alfred John
History
The Hammer: A Story of the Maccabean Times
Church, Alfred John
Jewish fiction; Jews -- History -- To 70 A.D. -- Fiction; Maccabees -- Fiction
beast how to behave himself.” The two rushed at the Jew, aiming blows at
his head with the staves which they carried in their hands. One of them
stumbled against the stones of a ruined house, and fell so heavily that he
was unable or unwilling to raise himself again. Shallum easily evaded the
attack of the other, dealing him at the same time so fierce a stroke of
the fist that it stretched him senseless on the ground. The deed done, he
looked hastily round to see whether any spectator had witnessed it. To his
great relief, he found himself alone. From the lower city came the sounds
of furious revelry and the strains of the Bacchic chorus—
“Comrades, crown the bowl with wine,
Round your locks the ivy twine,
Deeper drink and join again
Bacchus and his reeling train.”
His first impulse was to tear the ivy-wreath from his head. Then he
reflected that if he could endure to wear it for a few moments longer, it
might serve him as a passport. The event proved that he was right. He
passed unquestioned through the crowd of revellers, left the precincts of
the valley, and striking on an unfrequented path, hurried on at the top of
his speed, not pausing till he had put at least six miles between himself
and the scene of his late adventure. Then he threw himself on the ground
and bewailed his grievous fall in an agony of shame and remorse. After a
while the fatigue and excitement of the day, helped by the fumes of the
wine, which his rapid movements had sent to his brain, overpowered him,
and he sank into a heavy sleep.
His slumbers lasted late into the day. When he woke, his head aching with
the excess of the day before, he felt even more wretched, more hopeless.
To return to the city was out of the question. But where was he to go?
While he was debating this question with himself, and could find nothing
in the least resembling an answer, he caught the sound of approaching
footsteps. Mingled feelings of shame and fear suggested to him that he
should hide himself, and he plunged into the bushes which lined the side
of the road.
The traveller approached. He was a renegade Jew, and Shallum recognized
him as one who had taken an active part in the festivities of the
preceding day. Just as he passed Shallum’s hiding-place an unlucky impulse
made him burst forth into a snatch of the Bacchic chant—
“Deeper drink and join again
Bacchus and his reeling train.”
His listener heard the words with mingled feelings of disgust and rage,
and leaping down into the road felled him senseless to the ground.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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