"By Bacchus!" he said, "I have seen that face before; it is not one that
a man would forget. Ah! I have it now." Then he stooped and eagerly read
the writing that was tied upon her breast:
"Miriam, Nazarene and traitress, is doomed here to die as God shall
appoint before the face of her friends, the Romans."
"Miriam," he said, then started and checked himself.
"Look!" cried one of the soldiers, "the girl wears pearls, and good
ones. Is it your pleasure that I should cut them off?"
"Nay, let them be," he answered. "Neither she nor her pearls are for any
of us. Loosen her chain, not her necklet."
So with much trouble they broke the rivets of the chain.
"Can you stand, lady?" said the captain to Miriam.
She shook her head.
"Then I needs must carry you," and stooping down he lifted her in
his strong arms as though she had been but a child, and, bidding the
soldiers bring the Jew Simeon with them, slowly and with great care
descended the staircase up which Miriam had been taken more than sixty
hours before.
Passing through the outer doors into the archway where the great gate by
which the Romans had gained access to the Temple stood wide, the captain
turned into the Court of Israel, where some soldiers who were engaged
in dividing spoil looked up laughing and asked him whose baby he had
captured.
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