And as he spoke the five young men, his sons, rose up in their places, and answered, _Amen_. The decision was generally accepted and acted upon, though to the last some of the more determined of the Chasidim avoided, as far as was possible, all military action on the Sabbath. The rule of Sabbath observance was, however, still very strictly kept. It was two or three days after the council described above had been held, when one of the half-bandit, half-patriot recruits was discovered busily employed in cleaning his armour on the Lord’s day. He was kept in confinement till sunset, when the Sabbath was considered to end; a council of war was hastily summoned to hear the case. The man pleaded the recent decision of Mattathias, which had, he said, relaxed the law of the Sabbath. It was answered to him that the cleaning of armour was no necessary work, and that the distinction must now be kept more strictly than before, lest the people should fall into sin. He then urged that his offence was an error, and might be atoned for by a sin-offering. “Alas! my son,” said Mattathias, “the Temple is profaned; nor can there be any more either sin-offering or peace-offering till it be purified. You must bear your iniquity yourself.” John the soldier, who was unwilling that the army should lose one whose offence, after all, had only been an excess of military zeal, and Simon, whose gentle soul always was inclined to the milder course, voted for a lighter punishment than death, but they were overruled. Even Judas voted against them, knowing that such an army as theirs could only be held together by the bond of an enthusiastic faith. “Give the glory to God,” said the aged president of the Court, when he had communicated his sentence to the prisoner, “and take your death patiently, knowing that though you be judged according to men in the flesh, you shall live according to God in the spirit.” The man bowed his head in submission, and repeated the confession of faith, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one Lord.” “The Lord bless thee, my son,” said Mattathias, “and take thee into Abraham’s bosom.” So the transgressor died. And they buried him under a heap of stones to which every passer-by made it his duty to add his tribute. CHAPTER XIII. GUERILLA WARFARE IN THE MOUNTAINS.