Page:Ben-Hur a tale of the Christ.djvu/183

Rh &quot;The Grove of Daphne!&quot; he said, to a third inquirer. &quot;Nobody can describe it; only beware! It was begun by Apollo, and completed by him. He prefers it to Olympus. People go there for one look—just one—and never come away. They have a saying which tells it all—’Better be a worm and feed on the mulberries of Daphne than a king's guest.&quot; &quot;Then you advise me to stay away from it?&quot; &quot;Not I! Go you will. Everybody goes, cynic philosopher, virile boy, women, and priests—all go. So sure am I of what you will do that I assume to advise you. Do not take quarters in the city—that will be loss of time; but go at once to the village in the edge of the grove. The way is through a garden, under the spray of fountains. The lovers of the god and his Penæan maid built the town; and in its porticos and paths and thousand retreats you will find characters and habits and sweets and kinds&quot; elsewhere impossible. But the wall of the city! there it is, the masterpiece of Xeræus, the master of mural architecture.&quot;

All eyes followed his pointing finger.

&quot;This part was raised by order of the first of the Scleucidæ. Three hundred years have made it part of the rock it rests upon.&quot;

The defence justified the encomium. High, solid, and with many bold angles, it curved southwardly out of view.

&quot;On the top there are four hundred towers, each a reservoir of water,&quot; the Hebrew continued. &quot;Look now! Over the wall, tall as it is, see in the distance two hills, which you may know as the rival crests of Sulpius. The structure on the farthest one is the citadel, garrisoned all the year round by a Roman legion. Opposite it this way rises the Temple of Jupiter, and under that the front of the legate’s residence—a palace full of offices, and yet a fortress against which a mob would dash harmlessly as a south wind.&quot;

At this point the sailors began taking in sail, whereupon the Hebrew exclaimed, heartily, &quot;See! you who hate the sea, and you who have vows, get ready your curses and your prayers. The bridge yonder, over which the road to