Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/367

Rh and, attended by two maids, who held her train, went, with fear and confusion, into the presence of the king. But, on his looking on her with some sternness and surprise, she fainted; on which he leaped from his throne and took her in his arms, bidding her be of good cheer, as that law was made only for subjects, and not for a queen. But her spirits were too much flattened to allow her to enter on the subject she intended: and though he assured he would grant her request to the half of his kingdom, she delayed declaring herself, and only asked him, together with Haman, the Amalekite, to a banquet the next day. Even then she put it off, asked them a second time; and then when the king wished her to name the request, she told him of the plot to destroy herself and her nation, and named Haman as the author of it. The king was, at first, in some disorder on hearing his favourite accused; but, persuaded of his vileness, he commanded him to be hung upon a gallows he had that day erected for Mordecai: and, as he could not revoke a decree, which, having once passed, the laws of Persia rendered irrevocable, he passed another, to encourage the Jews to defend themselves and slay their enemies, of which 75,800, chiefly Amalekites, perished that day; which was commemorated among the Jews, by an annual feast, called Purim. Mordecai became a considerable person at court, and the influence of Esther considerably bettered the state of the Jews. . mother of mankind, who suffering herself to be seduced