However, of this she was sure, she liked him better than Caleb,
because, even then and there, comparing them in her thoughts, this
truth came home to her; with it, too, a certain sense of shame that the
newcomer should be preferred to the friend of her childhood, although of
late that friend had displeased her by showing too warm a friendship.
Having given his instructions, the captain dismissed the orderly,
commanding him to follow at a distance with the men. Then saying, "Lady,
I am ready," he began to walk forward, leading his horse by the bridle.
"You will forgive me," he added, "if I introduce myself more formally.
I am called Marcus, the son of Emilius--a name which was known in its
day," and he sighed, "as I hope before I have done with it, mine will
be. At present I cannot boast that this is so, who, unless it should
please my uncle Caius to decease and leave me the great fortune he
squeezes out of the Spaniards--neither of which things he shows any
present intention of doing--am but a soldier of fortune: an officer
under the command of the excellent and most noble procurator Albinus,"
he added sarcastically. "For the rest," he went on, "I have spent a
year in this interesting and turbulent but somewhat arid land of
yours, coming here from Egypt, and am now honoured with a commission
to investigate and make report on a charge laid at the door of your
virtuous guardians, the Essenes, of having murdered, or been privy to
the murder of, a certain rascally Jew, who, as I understand, was sent
with others to steal their goods.
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