"Well, in this, as in other things, let us hope that fortune will
favour you."
"I should like Marcus to learn that I am to march in the Triumph, and
afterwards to be set up in the Forum and sold as a slave to the highest
bidder," said Miriam.
"I should like Marcus to learn--but, in the name of the gods--how is he
to learn, if he still lives? Look you, we sail to-morrow night. What do
you wish me to do?"
"I wish you to send a messenger to Marcus bearing a token from me to
him."
"A messenger! What messenger? Who can find him? I can despatch a
soldier, but your Marcus is with the Essenes, who for their own sakes
will keep him fast enough as a hostage, if they have cured him. Also the
Essenes live, according to your story, in some hyaena-burrow, opening out
of an underground quarry in Jerusalem, that is, if they have not been
discovered and killed long ago. How, then, will any soldier find their
hiding-place?"
"I do not think that such a man would find it," answered Miriam, "but I
have friends in this city, and if I could come at them I might discover
one who would meet with better fortune. You know that I am a Christian
who was brought up among the Essenes, both of them persecuted people
that have their secrets.
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