“She lay in my bosom as a clear stone that one has bought and polished and set in fine gold at the end of a golden chain.  Never was she glad at my coming or sorry at my going.  Never did she give me anything except what I took from her.  There was nothing in it.

“Now whether Herod knew of the jewel that I kept in my dwelling I cannot tell.  It was sure that he had his spies in all the city, and himself walked the streets by night in a disguise.  On a certain day he sent for me, and had me into his secret chamber, professing great love toward me and more confidence than in any man that lived.  So I must go to Rome for him, bearing a sealed letter and a private message to Caesar.  All my goods would be left safely in the hands of the king, my friend, who would reward me double.  There was a certain place of high authority at Jerusalem which Caesar would gladly bestow on a Jew who had done him a service.  This mission would commend me to him.  It was a great occasion, suited to my powers.  Thus Herod fed me with fair promises, and I ran his errand.  There was nothing in it.

“I stood before Caesar and gave him the letter.  He read it and laughed, saying that a prince with an incurable hunger is a servant of value to an emperor.  Then he asked me if there was nothing sent with the letter.  I answered that there was no gift, but a message for his private ear.  He drew me aside and I told him that Herod begged earnestly that his dear son, Antipater, might be sent back in haste from Rome to Palestine, for the king had great need of him.

“At this Caesar laughed again.  ‘To bury him, I suppose,’ said he, ’with his brothers, Alexander and Aristobulus!  Truly, it is better to be Herod’s swine than his son.  Tell the old fox he may catch his own prey.’  With this he turned from me and I withdrew unrewarded, to make my way back, as best I could with an empty purse, to Palestine.  I had seen the Lord of the World.  There was nothing in it.

“Selling my rings and bracelets I got passage in a trading ship for Joppa.  There I heard that the king was not in Jerusalem, at his Palace of the Upper City, but had gone with his friends to make merry for a month on the Mountain of the Little Paradise.  On that hill-top over against us, where the lights are flaring to-night, in the banquet-hall where couches are spread for a hundred guests, I found Herod.”

The listening shepherds spat upon the ground again, and Jotham muttered, “May the worms that devour his flesh never die!” But Zadok whispered, “We wait for the Lord’s salvation to come out of Zion.”  And the sad shepherd, looking with fixed eyes at the firelit mountain far away, continued his story: 

“The king lay on his ivory couch, and the sweat of his disease was heavy upon him, for he was old, and his flesh was corrupted.  But his hair and his beard were dyed and perfumed and there was a wreath of roses on his head.  The hall was full of nobles and great men, the sons of the high-priest were there, and the servants poured their wine in cups of gold.  There was a sound of soft music; and all the men were watching a girl who danced in the middle of the hall; and the eyes of Herod were fiery, like the eyes of a fox.