The next toast was—­The Jewish Sicarii.

Upon which I made the following explanation to the company:—­“Gentlemen, I am sure it will interest you all to hear that the assassins, ancient as they were, had a race of predecessors in the very same country.  All over Syria, but particularly in Palestine, during the early years of the Emperor Nero, there was a band of murderers, who prosecuted their studies in a very novel manner.  They did not practise in the night-time, or in lonely places; but justly considering that great crowds are in themselves a sort of darkness by means of the dense pressure and the impossibility of finding out who it was that gave the blow, they mingled with mobs everywhere; particularly at the great paschal feast in Jerusalem; where they actually had the audacity, as Josephus assures us, to press into the temple,—­and whom should they choose for operating upon but Jonathan himself, the Pontifex Maximus?  They murdered him, gentlemen, as beautifully as if they had had him alone on a moonless night in a dark lane.  And when it was asked, who was the murderer, and where he was”—­

“Why, then, it was answered,” interrupted Toad-in-the-hole, “Non est inventus.”  And then, in spite of all I could do or say, the orchestra opened, and the whole company began—­“Et interrogatum est a Toad-in-the-hole—­Ubi est ille Sicarius?  Et responsum est ab omnibus—­Non est inventus.”

When the tempestuous chorus had subsided, I began again:—­“Gentlemen, you will find a very circumstantial account of the Sicarii in at least three different parts of Josephus; once in Book XX. sect. v. c. 8, of his Antiquities; once in Book I. of his Wars:  but in sect. 10 of the chapter first cited you will find a particular description of their tooling.  This is what he says—­’They tooled with small scymetars not much different from the Persian acinacae, but more curved, and for all the world most like the Roman sickles or sicae.’  It is perfectly magnificent, gentlemen, to hear the sequel of their history.  Perhaps the only case on record where a regular army of murderers was assembled, a justus exercitus, was in the case of these Sicarii.  They mustered in such strength in the wilderness, that Festus himself was obliged to march against them with the Roman legionary force.”

Upon which Toad-in-the-hole, that cursed interrupter, broke out a-singing—­“Et interrogatum est a Toad-in-the-hole—­Ubi est ille exercitus?  Et responsum est ab omnibus—­Non est inventus.”

“No, no, Toad—­you are wrong for once:  that army was found, and was all cut to pieces in the desert.  Heavens, gentlemen, what a sublime picture!  The Roman legions—­the wilderness—­Jerusalem in the distance—­an army of murderers in the foreground!”

Mr. R., a member, now gave the next toast—­“To the further improvement of Tooling, and thanks to the Committee for their services.”