“Fly?  Where to?”

“To the Romans, who will spare you because of what you did yesterday—­and me also.”

“Because of what you did yesterday?”

“No—­because you will say that I am your husband.  It will not be true, but what of that?”

“What of it, indeed?” asked Miriam, “since it can always become true.  But how is it that you, being one of the first of the Jewish warriors, are prepared to fly and ask the mercy of your foes?  Is it because——­”

“Spare to insult me, Miriam.  You know well why it is.  You know well that I am no traitor, and that I do not fly for fear.”

“Yes,” she answered, in a changed tone, for his manly words touched her, “I know that.”

“It is for you that I fly, for your sake I will eat this dirt and crown myself with shame.  I fly that for the second time I may save you.”

“And in return you demand—­what?”

“Yourself.”

“That I will not give, Caleb.  I reject your offer.”

“I feared it,” he answered huskily, “who am accustomed to such denials.  Then I demand this, for know that if once you pass your word I may trust it:  that you will not marry the Roman Marcus.”

“I cannot marry the Roman Marcus any more than I can marry you, because neither of you are Christians, and as you know well it is laid upon me as a birth duty that I may take no man to husband who is not a Christian.”

“For your sake, Miriam,” he answered slowly, “I am prepared to be baptised into your faith.  Let this show you how much I love you.”

“It does not show that you love the faith, Caleb, nor if you did love it could I love you.  Jew or Christian, I cannot be your wife.”

He turned his face to the wall and for a while was silent.  Then he spoke again.

“Miriam, so be it.  I will still save you.  Go, and marry Marcus, if you can, only, if I live, I will kill him if I can, but that you need scarcely fear, for I do not think that I shall live.”

She shook her head.  “I will not go, who am weary of flights and hidings.  Let God deal with me and Marcus and you as He pleases.  Yet I thank you, and am sorry for the unkind words I spoke.  Oh!  Caleb, cannot you put me out of your mind?  Are there not many fairer women who would be glad to love you?  Why do you waste your life upon me?  Take your path and suffer me to take mine.  Yet all this talk is foolishness, for both are likely to be short.”

“Yours, and that of Marcus the Roman, and my own are all one path, Miriam, and I seek no other.  As a lad, I swore that I would never take you, except by your own wish, and to that oath I hold.  Also, I swore that if I could I would kill my rival, and to that oath I hold.  If he kills me, you may wed him.  If I kill him, you need not wed me unless you so desire.  But this fight is to the death, yes, whether you live or die, it is still to the death as between me and him.  Do you understand?”