Page:Ben-Hur a tale of the Christ.djvu/133

Rh down, clasped his knees, the coarse black hair powdered with dust veiling her eyes.

&quot;O Amrah, good Amrah,&quot; he said to her, &quot;God help you; I cannot.&quot;

She could not speak.

He bent down, and whispered, &quot;Live, Amrah, for Tirzah and my mother. They will come back, and—&quot;

A soldier drew her away; whereupon she sprang up and rushed through the gateway and passage into the vacant court-yard.

&quot;Let her go,&quot; the officer shouted. &quot;We will seal the house, and she will starve.&quot;

The men resumed their work, and, when it was finished there, passed round to the west side. That gate was also secured, after which the palace of the Hurs was lost to use.

The cohort at length marched back to the Tower, where the procurator stayed to recover from his hurts and dispose of his prisoners. On the tenth day following, he visited the Market-place.

day a detachment of legionaries went to the desolated palace, and, closing the gates permanently, plastered the corners with wax, and at the sides nailed a notice in Latin:

In the haughty Roman idea, the sententious announcement was thought sufficient for the purpose—and it was.

The day after that again, about noon, a decurion with his command of ten horsemen approached Nazareth from the south—that is, from the direction of Jerusalem. The place was then a straggling village, perched on a hill-side, and so insignificant that its one street was little more than a path well beaten by the coming and going of flocks and herds. The great plain of Esdraelon crept close to it on the south, and from the height on the west a view could be had of the shores of the Mediterranean, the region beyond the Jordan, and Hermon. The valley below, and the