Robertson's Library of Australian Authors

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A TALE OF THE TIME OF SOLOMON, KING OF ISRAEL AND SESONCHIS, KING OF EGYPT BY FRANCIS MYER-S. ('TELEMACHU8') LONDON SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO., LIMITED GEORGE ROBERTSON & CO. Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, and Brisbane PEEFACE A YOUTH of eighteen years, chosen beyond all his elder brethren to inheritance and kingship ; dowered with such a fortune as the world saw never before nor since ; lord of a turbulent, fanatical people, glutted with conquest ; the vast majority of whom had become priests, or soldiers, or task masters, or employers of slaves. A man in his prime consecrated to one great purpose, yet yielding to everydesire, and feeding to satiety every passion. A man scarce past his prime, yet sunk in degrading sensualism and loathsome idolatry, babbling wisdom, moralising, lamenting, repenting.

A small city in a mean and barren land which yet concentrated in itself all the splendours of the east as in a single crystal. Nations, immediately around, subdued and laid under tribute. Mighty powers in a wider ring, supinely content with their own well being, or in the throes of dynastic changes, or — waiting

Preface

A strange queen coming up out of the south through fierce and hostile tribes, yet accompanied with force sufficient to guard a royal treasure; coming and going, a dazzling comet whose origin and orbit are for ever undetermined. A death, a burial of no recorded solemnity or pomp. A mean son, inheriting a kingdom for ever divided ; a regal city, captured without a blow; temple and palace sacked, the treasure won, and the empire founded by the fighting king of Hebron, lost for evermore. Scope enough in it all for any flight of imagination, and in garbled traditions and foolish fables generally accepted as fact, justification for any effort. CONTENTS

Chapter I. The Captain Of The Host

In an angle of the wall of the upper city, a warrior paced to and fro, a long sword by his side, a javelin nursed on his arm. A tower of a man, though bowed with age. As he came out into the moonlight his head shone silverly, and his dark bronzed cheeks glowed as heated copper. The black eyes gleamed as he looked down on the city, and there was no tenderness in his voice as he muttered — " I loved ; aye, loved and served him well." A strange and bodeful hush was over all below, for in an inner chamber of the fort, David, the king, lay dying. David, the king, whom Joab, the captain of the host, had loved and served right well. David, the king, who never forgave ; and Joab, the warrior, who never stooped to ask forgiveness. The old fighting days of Hebron crowded on the warrior's mind — the days when he, with Iiis sword, had beaten down walls that the king might enter triumphantly in ; the days when he had withstood the king to his face in acts of B folly and sin, and that day of never-to-be-atoned crime and shame, when he had obeyed the base command which left Uriah, the Hittite, to be foully slain.

"Had I played the man that day," he said, "this time had never come ; the harlotwife might have sported herself on the house-top still, and Adonijah have entered into his own, anointed of God, and accepted of the people." A boy who watched below, sent up a warning cry. Joab loosed his sword in the 'sheath, and leaning on his javelin, stood still. In a little space, a tall and stately figure, armed even as himself, was seen ascending the narrow path. His brazen helmet gleamed, his javelin point flashed, but as he halted for a moment, and the moonlight fell on his profile, beard and hair were seen to be black as the raven's wing. " Art weary, noble captain ? " "Aye, weary unto death," answered Joab. " But journey down hither, then, where death may be met, for I tell thee he hovers nigh." " The king lives yet !

" " Aye, he lives indeed, and if another Bathsheba should come now between him and the sun, I wot not how it might fare with her who reio-ns." " Adonijah, speak no evil of the king, thy father." " I speak plain truth, noble captain. The kinolieth as a fallen tree that shall never rise again, but even as 1 went into his presence a voice came from the throat that shook all his beard as a rising wind, and prices and prophet cowered, as he bade the officers of the THE CAPTAIN OF THE HOST. 3 household go seek out a damsel to warm the blood and cheer the soul within him, and I tell thee the queer* rageth now in her chamber, and the young Solomon beareth a moody brow." The frown on Joab's countenance relaxed, and an evil light came into his cruel eyes. " Speak out thy mind, Adonijah, for I see there is purpose in thy mirth."

"Hist, then ; come hither where the heavens see not, and lend me thine ear, lest the walls betray us. Knowest thou Abishag, daughter of the Shunamite ? " " I know her not, but let not that concern thee." " Abishag is fair to look on, captain, and mirthful withal; and, moreover, hath made affinity with me, which waiteth but the king's death to be accom plished." " Speak on." " Nebat, the chamberlain, as thou knowest, is with us, and even now brings this Abishag into the presence of the king." " Hast schooled her well ?" " Doubt nought of that. Grant us three days of harmless dalliance, and Bathsheba shall be no more to him than Ahinoam, or Abigail, or Abital, or Eglah, or she, for whose dear sake I would fain see Bathsheba and her offspring hurled to the dogs or delivered to the ravens." " But 'tis said death creeps on him even now."

"That I know not; but there was the old thunder in his voice this day at noon and it had gone ill with priest and prophet had sword or javelin been within his reach." "Aye ! and 'twill be even so till Azrael smite him, prince. Warrior and king was he always, and so will die. But if the damsel send for thee, what then ?" " Then stand thou ready, and the mighty men around thee, and the priests with their trumpets, and let all the people shout, ' Adonijah is King.' " Joab pondered a while, and at length said, " I like it not. Were this stripling son of Bathsheba's a bearded man, I had rather abide the king's death, and then Benaiah and all beside him notwithstanding, hurl throne and crown to earth together, and establish thee prince, as I upheld him by this sword and this spear. But the people have gone off from me.

The evil word of a king is a desert blast, and evil has been the king's mind to me from the time I slew Abner, the son of Ner, avenging mine own brother, and saving the crown of Israel to the root of Jesse until now. To Benaiah hath he given mine office, and well I wot Benaiah hath it in charge to slay me. Nathan, the prophet, also holdeth fast to Bathsheba and to Solomon, and unless thou canst win the king's sanction, and sound thy trumpet ere the breath depart out of him, 'twere better I, even as Saul, bade my armour bearer slay me, and that thou shouldst lay hold on the horns of the altar, or get thee into the wilderness, or seek shelter with Egypt, or with Syria. Hence, speed thy plan, and acquaint me of its progress at the place thou knowest." THE CAPTAIN OF THE HOST. 5 Adonijah left him, for again the cloud settled on Joab's face, and when the evil spirit, whose shadow that cloud was, possessed the warrior's soul, there was not man or prince in all Israel but held him in fear.

The dark mood in all its intensity was on him now ; for far away in the hazy distance he could discern the outlines of the hills of Philistia, and scarce a valley was there amongst those hills, wherein he had not drawn sword for David. North, south, east and west lay the battlefields, whereon he had ever stood a conqueror, and but for the sin he had sinned in the matter of Uriah, his place now should be at the king's right hand, and his next duty to place Adonijah on the throne. Bitterly Joab cursed the day that he had paid heed to a king's mad wish ; terribly he cursed the fair false woman who had risen between him and all the fulfilment of the hope of his life. For he was never deluded by the mockery of lamentation about Abner or Amasa. He slew them, the one and the other, in pursuance of blood feud, and for the safety of the kingdom, even as he had slain Absalom, braving a wrath which might well have consumed him.

The sin of his life, in the old king's eyes, was the stead fast opposition he had given to Bathsheba and her son. Adonijah, to Joab, was David's lawful heir. Adonijah, in war and in government, had proved his worth, and justified his claim to the succession. Adonijah, as was natural, therefore, was hated of Bathsheba, and Joab, his champion, was in the list of her most bitter foes. And how easy was it for this last of the old king's multitudinous loves to be for ever at his ear poisoning the fountains of his mind. How readily through her means was the sacrificial doctrine of Zadok, the priest, instilled. The curse of blood was on the house of David ; how should it be removed, but by the shedding of blood again ? Joab was the guilty one : let Joab die, and so should the curse depart from David.

Joab knew this well. Bathsheba was bent on his destruction, and if the young Solomon came to the throne, his doom would be swift and sure. Could he hope to lead the people to any successful revolt if once Solomon was proclaimed ? He had pondered that question many a time and oft, and the conclusion was ever the same — -whosoever David made king in his stead, as king would reign. The mighty men were David's men, one and all, and Benaiah even now took Joab's orders with no good grace, and was too evidently in the confidence of Bathsheba, and probably in her pay. And he, old and gray, scarred and time-worn, must connive with concubines, and abide the issue of chamber intrigues, foreign to bis nature and detestable to his soul, as the Ashtoreth worship, or the abomination of Moab he had spurned and scorned his whole life through.

For Joab, even as David, had never swerved from his allegiance to Jehovah Elohim. Pie was a man of God as a man of blood, austere, cruel, patriotic, loyal, living in the camp or in " his own house in the wilder ness," an Israelite of the Israelites. A stinging storm of anguish came to him with realization of the foul web THE CAPTAIN OF THE HOST. of circumstance in which he was entangled, and he smote his spear butt on the hard rock so that it rang. Up from a shadow at his feet, as if responding to that summons, started the boy who should have been watching. " What doest thou here ?" " The prince Adonijah sent me to my lord. Joab bent on him a terrible look, but the boy blenched not. " Follow thou me," said the captain, and strode down to the city. Now, the name of the youth was Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, the chamberlain of the king.

Joab entered the citadel, but long ere he reached the palace porch, the youth had passed from his thoughts. So lightly do the very threads of fate elude the human grasp, wherein they may be surely laid. The youth vanished from the warrior's side, and made, by another gate, to the apartments of the women. "What haste, young armour-bearer," cried the damsels, as he passed them by; and he answered, "I seek my mother." " Stay him not then, for mercy's sake," cried a merry maid, " for, by his lily face, he needs comfort. Hast sniffed blood to-day, young warrior?" "My mother! my mother!" cried the boy impetuously. And they told him at length, that she made lamentation with the queen. " Is the king then dead ? " "I trow not," answered a damsel, quaintly demure. " The lamentation in the queen's chambers is not for death, I trow ; but come now, I will lead thee to thy mother ; only quit thee first of spear and sword, for surely they become not the chambers of the women."

She disarmed him gently, and taking a hand which trembled strangely in her own, led him into an ante chamber of Bathsheba's apartments. A moment, and the curtain was lightly parted. Within, he caught a glimpse of the queen, surrounded by her women. Her beautiful brow was furrowed, her eyes were aflame, and the white teeth flashed between her parted lips. Fury possessed her; and the boy's own mother, as she appeared to him, was wan with fear and amazement. She hurried him away. " Her wrath is a flaming sword, child ; and I marvel not, I marvel not. But now what hast thou ? Thy Lord, where is he ? And what of the Prince Adonijah \ " Then did the young Jeroboam creep close to his mother's ear, and tell there, word for word, all the things that had passed between Joab and Adonijah in the shadow of the wall of the upper city. And the mother bade him keep silence, but abide in the house and herself hastened back to the queen.

Chapter II. The Tangling Of The Threads

Great was the consternation when, to the queen, Johanna, the wife of Nebat, told all that she had learned. " And if my lord yet lives," said Bathsheba, " Joab's head shall fall this day. I will to the king forthwith." But her maidens and her wise women withstood her. " Nay, but tarry," said they, " till we hear the wisdom of Zadok, the priest, and of Nathan, the prophet." " What need we of wisdom ? " she stormed forth. " Is't not enough that I am mocked in the presence of my lord the king by this Shunamite, and shall I tarry now till Solomon, my son, is robbed of his inheritance? Withstand me not, I say. " Yet still they constrained her to remain, and presently Zadok, the priest, appearing, bade all be still till the course to be pursued should be fully resolved on. Now Zadok was witness before God how King David had sworn an oath that Solomon should succeed him.

And Solomon, moreover, was a child of the Temple, and dear to Zadok's heart. He had mastered all learning, and was skilled in all law ; the secrets of the king's treasury, moreover, were his, and his delight was to tell of the glory of the Temple that should be raised when death gave unto him the key. Zadok had no mind that Adonijah should enter into power. Adonijah, with Joab, the captain, delighted but in war, and would seek to extend yet farther the kingdom which David had rendered complete. Well knew Zadok the power of the Assyrians in their cities on the great rivers. Little desire had he to bring a fastresucitating Egypt out to battle, and he knew, moreover, the value of Phœnicia as an ally ; and dear as heaven to him was the dream of the goodly temple, which the treasures and the slaves won by all the conquests of David should enable him to raise.

But Zadok knew, also, the intensity of the passion which still glowed in the embers of life remaining in the old king. And he concluded, "We will counsel of Nathan since wisdom and knowledge were ever with him." As Nathan appeared, Bathsheba flashed forth on him also : " How now, thou man of God, is the fire of vengeance quenched, that the king's death chamber is thus dishonoured, and Haggith's son, ere yet the crown be fallen from my lord's brow, takes counsel with Joab and Abiathar how he may establish himself in the kingdom." The prophet glanced darkly at her from beneath his beetling brows, and, it may be, he thought it had not been altogether evil for Israel had fire fallen, when she bared her beauty to the eventide on the housetop, and as it happened in view of the king. No love had Nathan for any of Hittite blood, yet well he knew the power of the woman, the absolute thral dom in wliich she had held David, and the controlling influence she kept over her son.

With the increasing splendour of the city, and the augmented position of all who attached themselves to David, Nathan had shed the shard of rugged majesty which characterised all the greater prophets. He was no longer the awful medium of the voice of Jehovah proclaiming doom or announcing pardon. It was Gad, the seer, who was sent with the choice of three plagues when the overween ing vanity of the king had borne down Israel's strong opposition, and all the council of the mighty men. Nathan had become a courtier and a plotter. With Zadok he proposed, through Solomon, to rule Israel, and to that end he must serve Bathsheba while ever her power held. He answered, therefore, " The fire of the Lord is in the eyes of the queen. Let it but lighten once more on the face of the king, and surely this madness shall depart from him.

For who is this Shunamite that her beauty should avail in the presence of the Queen Bathsheba ? " " What think ye, Zadok ? " asked the Queen. " The king's anger is fierce and his spoken word returns not. I have small mind either to perish in this hour, or to join company with those ten concu bines we wot of." Zadok's counsel was even as that of Nathan, and he said, " I myself will follow into the king's presence, and if his doom go forth against thee, then will I call on the name of the Lord who hath witnessed his oath." Thus counselled, Bathsheba called to her the woman Johanna, and bade her prepare royal robes, and bring forth ornaments of gold and precious stones, and follow to the threshold of the chamber of the king. On either side that threshold stood one of the king's own guard, the mighty men of Israel, every one of whom had slain his hundreds, with his own sword and spear.

Benaiah was not there, else had Bathsheba passed with ease. The two Pelethites advanced their javelins as she approached, for they had command of Joab, that none should pass in unto the king; but Bathsheba cried aloud, " Thy servant, Bathsheba, the mother of thy son Solomon is without, oh, king ; and doth the word of Joab prevail against both thee and There was silence for a moment, and then a deep, but hollow voice : " Let the queen pass in." The warriors grounded their spears, the curtains of camel-hair rose, and with jewels blazing on her brow, gold at her throat and wrists, and trailing robes of purple sweeping behind, Bathsheba entered ; and the light from the narrow cleft, high in the wall, streamed full on her. The Shunamite saw the old king rise on his elbow, and rapture kindle on his face.

She knew that of old he had, for this woman, sacrificed honour, faith, loyalty, and friendship. She knew that her power on him was as that of Delilah on Samson. She knew, moreover, that there were dungeons within the king's house, the way out of which was rarely found by the living. There was a passage behind the arras which led by a secret way to the outer courts of the house. Abishag passed the soldiers who kept it without question, and fled like a roe to the house of Adonijah. " Come hither, thou eagle with the plumage of the dove, thou lion with the heart of the fawn." The king stretched out a palsied hand as he spoke. Bathsheba approached and knelt. And while his hand wandered over her bare and gleaming-; shoulders, asked with a sob, " And is it not then the truth that my lord, the king, hath given to another the place which is mine?

" Nay, never, queen ! The poor Shunamite did but tend my bed and prepare me for my bier. Reach thou the harp, Bathsheba, and if life serve me to voice my love, I will sound yet another song in thy praise." She brought the harp to his bedside ; she raised him while he grasped it with a loving hand. She heard him strike a chord of triumph and of joy. But, ah ! it was brief ; nerve and sinew failed together, and the great tone died away in a weak and jangling discord. As the music died, so died the flickering love-light which had fired his eyes. The harp fell with a crash, and the king's head struck the pillow with a dull thud. The queen stooped over him ; his breath came flut tering. Would it cease utterly ? Would the soul go out now, and leave all things uncertain ? It was a moment of terrible suspense to her; but as she listened, the breathing became more regular.

He slept; be would waken once more at the least. " And I depart from his side no more," resolved Bathsheba, "till Azrael takes him into his everlasting keeping." Meanwhile Abishag fled through the city to the house of Adonijah, and burst through the door where armed men stood in waiting, and the boy Jeroboam attended his master, Joab. "Thou can'st not enter, damsel," said the soldier at the chamber door. " The captain of the host is with my lord, the prince. Get thee to the house of the concubines, and await the prince's bidding." She drew back abashed and angered for a moment, then approaching, whispered, " Tell thou the prince I await him, and come from my lord, the king. I tell thee, soldier, there's life or death in the matter." The soldier gazed at her fixedly for a moment, then smote thrice with his spear butt on the floor.

The hand of Joab drew aside the curtain, and, as he saw Abishag, he beckoned her in. Adonijah lay upon a couch unarmed, his hair, only less beautiful than Absalom's, rolled on to his shoulders, his sinewy arms were bare, his tunic of blue was fastened at the throat with a brooch of gold, a golden girdle was round his waist, and sandals of gold were on his feet. All the grace and the beauty of princely strength were his, he was indeed the goodliest man in all Israel ; and, as he rose to greet her, the damsel's heart went out to him with a passion tenfold greater than she had ever felt before. " My prince, my lord, flee thee while yet there is time. Bathsheba, the queen, is even now with the king, and she moulds him as wax. Zadok, the priest, and Nathan, the prophet, are with her. Benaiah and the mighty men wait within the hold, and the Prince Solomon girds himself at his mother's command, and I tell thee there is evil in his eye."

Adonijah's face kindled, but the brow of Joab clouded as she spoke. " And thou could'st not beguile him, Abishag ?" "The woman never lived who could beguile him from her. I tell thee, as she flashed on his sight, such new life entered into him as I had never deemed to see again, and as I fled down the secret passage his harp was struck with a lordly tone. Oh, haste thee away, Adonijah, to Egypt, to Damascus, to a cave in the wilderness, if nought better remains, for I tell thee, if the king lives, thou art lost, and if the youth Solomon reigns, thou wilt die." She ceased, and Adonijah paused, musing. Joab broke through the silence, " Has the damsel made an end of her prating. If it be so, let her to the court of the women, for I have that to say unto thee which brooks neither listeners nor delay."

Adonijah took the trembling girl by the arm, and with tender words conducted her to the door. There he delivered her to a soldier with strict charge as to safe and honourable entertainment. Joab faced him as he returned, abrupt and stern. " Is there one mind between me and thee, prince Adonijah ?" " That know I not." " Is thy mind then towards the damsel, or the kingdom ?" " My mind, noble captain, is to mine own right, and the welfare of Israel." " List then. That damsel spoke both truth and folly. Well know I that my doom is sacrifice. The king will not stretch forth his own hand against me, but his last word to Solomon will be that I die to make atonement for Abner and for Amasa. Traitors were they both, and I slew them for the sake of the king and for Israel. Nevertheless, blood lieth heavily on thy father's soul, and Joab will be his atonement.

What, then, remains to me ? Man never saw the back of Joab in battle, and this hoar head shall never dis grace its prime and its youth. And thou, wilt thou sit as a menial at thy younger brother's table, or at his will end thy days in a dungeon of the king's house ?" Adonijah answered, " My mind is towards Pharaoh or haply to Zobah." "Then here, Prince Adonijah, do our ways part. Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was ever true to Israel's cause. Syrian and Egyptian, Philistine and Moabite, hath he met face to face, but never in friend ship. I will that my bones rest in peace with the warriors who conquered Canaan and the judges who made Israel. Strange gods served I never, and strangers' hands have I never grasped. My heart is with the people and the king, and I say unto thee, if thy heart is as mine, thou art the king."

"Thy saying is dark," said the prince. "I pray thee make it plain." " 'Tis thus, then. I hold the king as dead, and the crown is within thy grasp as within thy sight. Bid me sound trumpet and gather the host, and call Abiathar to anoint thee in the name of the Lord. The people shall be with thee as of old they were with Absalom, and God and the king know well that the hand which smote Absalom through, could, if the heart had willed, have given him the crown." The prince rose and grasped the captain's hand in silence. He seized his javelin then, and called to the guard : " Send hither my armour-bearer." Thus shortly these two sallied forth and met, at the entrance of the Tabernacle Abiathar the priest. Few words sufficed to make the matter clear. The trumpets of Joab pealed forth to the expectant yet astonished city Adonijah hastened to his brethren, the king's sons, who bore no more good-will to the youth Solomon than did Israel's sons to Joseph.

The people, ran together. The young men of the city girded up their loins and shouted, " God save King Adonijah." And with sackbut and psaltery, and timbrel and pipe, the jubilant procession swept on to the high place of Gihon. But Benaiah, with Zadok and Nathan, abode within the fort, awaiting the summons of Bathsheba. ABISHAG, THE SHUNAMITE. The cloud lifted not from the face of Joab through those few brief hours of riotous pomp and solemn ritual. He saw the red sun glare through the smoke of the sacrifices, as he sank towards Philistia, and he said in his soul, " So sinks my life's star in blood and fire." Yet all as a priest of God looked Abiathar as he poured forth the oil of anointing, and grand was the priestly array as the trumpets sounded, and the procession moved onwards again by the olive-shaded road to the city.

The high priest went before, and the servants of the Tabernacle followed after. Then came " King " Adonijah with robe and crown, and David's sons, his brethren, riding on white asses, and Joab, his head upon his breast, and the butt of his javelin trailing in the dust. " Would God," he said, " that the route now was to Hebron, and that but four score of my Pelethites were with me, and that David indeed were dead. One single shock of battle would shiver that stripling king with all his train, and, oh ! Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, would thou or I ask better than to meet once and for all, and the kingdom the cause between us." But these things were not to be. They rode on through the city amid the rejoicing of the people, and entered the house of Adonijah, and sat down to the feast.

Chapter III. How David Died And Did Not Forgive

Meanwhile, in that inner chamber of the old king's house Bathsheba kept watch, and Nathan and Zadok stood beside her. From the inner court came an occasional clang of arms and armour, for there Benaiah had gathered the body-guard of Cherethites and Pele thites, with whom, as he knew well, the dying words of David would have more power than promises of kingdoms from any others whatever. And Solomon waited also, alone, expectant and moody. Long time lay the king, breathing fitfully and low, and muttering at times of blood and of sacrifice. At length he opened his eyes, and a brief return of vigour thrilled his limbs. Bathsheba bowed towards him. " My lord the king is revived." "Go, bring in wine," said he. And he drank, and bade them lift him on the bed. The warmth of the great draught fired his eyes once more, and Bathsheba said, " My lord shall sit on his throne, and rule Israel still."