"
She shook her head. "I will not go, who am weary of flights and hidings.
Let God deal with me and Marcus and you as He pleases. Yet I thank you,
and am sorry for the unkind words I spoke. Oh! Caleb, cannot you put me
out of your mind? Are there not many fairer women who would be glad to
love you? Why do you waste your life upon me? Take your path and suffer
me to take mine. Yet all this talk is foolishness, for both are likely
to be short."
"Yours, and that of Marcus the Roman, and my own are all one path,
Miriam, and I seek no other. As a lad, I swore that I would never take
you, except by your own wish, and to that oath I hold. Also, I swore
that if I could I would kill my rival, and to that oath I hold. If he
kills me, you may wed him. If I kill him, you need not wed me unless you
so desire. But this fight is to the death, yes, whether you live or die,
it is still to the death as between me and him. Do you understand?"
"Your words are very plain, Caleb, but this is a strange hour to choose
to speak them, seeing that, for aught I know, Marcus is already
dead, and that within some short time I shall be dead, and that death
threatens you and all within this Temple."
"Yet we live, Miriam, and I believe that for none of the three of us is
the end at hand.
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