He was tall, comely, dressed as I
have seen the Hindu priests dress in Ephesus, but in garments that
were fairly radiant for whiteness. But his face gave cause enough to
make any man lose his tongue. Believe me, when I say he looked as if
he had seen angels, and had talked with the dead. His eyes gazed
through us as if we had been thin air. So dreadful they were in their
unseeing look that every man asked himself what would happen if that
gaze should light upon him. He stood a moment, walked as soft-footed
and as swiftly as some shade through our burrow and vanished as he had
come. In all the time he tarried, he made not one sound!"
Laodice was looking at him with awed, but understanding eyes.
"It was Seraiah," she said in a low voice. "He entered this place on a
day last week. All the city is afraid of him."
"So my soldiers told me afterward, between chattering teeth. He almost
damped our patriotism. We uttered our bombast, sealed our vows and
made our sorties, thereafter, every man of us, with our chins over our
shoulders! Spare me Seraiah! He has too much influence!"
"Is he a madman?" she asked.
"Or else a supernatural man. Would I could manage men by the fall of
my foot, as he does. I should have Jerusalem's fealty by to-morrow
night. But it was near early morning that the other incident occurred.
That was of another nature.
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