SALATHIE L.

A STORY OF

THE PAST, THE PRESENT, AND

THE FUTURE.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. II.

LONDON:

HENRY COLBURN, NEW BURLINGTON STREET:

1828.

SALATHIEL.

CHAPTER I.

THE first rage of the persecution was at an end. The popular thirst of blood was satiated. The natural admiration that follows fortitude and innocence, and the natural hatred that consigns a tyrant to the execration of his time and of posterity, found their way; and Nero dared murder no more. I had voluntarily shared the prison of Constantius and my child. Its doors were set open. The liberality of my people supplied the means of returning to Judea, and we

VOL. II.

A

hastened down the Tiber in the first vessel that spread her sails from this throne of desolation. The chances that had brought us together were easily explained. Salome urged to desperation by the near approach of her marriage, and solicited to save herself from the perjury of vowing her love to a man unpossessed of her heart, flew with Constantius to Cæsarea. The only person in their confidence was the domestic who betrayed me into the hands of the procurator, and who assisted them only that he might lure me from home.

At Cæsarea they were married, and remained in concealment under the protection of the young Septimius. My transmission to Rome struck them with terror, and Constantius instantly embarked to save me by his Italian influence. The attempt was surrounded with peril; but Salome would not be left behind. Disguised, to avoid my possible refusal of life at his hands, he followed me step by step. There were many of our people among the attendants, and even in the higher offices of the court. The empress had, in her reproaches to Nero, disclosed the new