'
'Go tell my uncle that I will presently join the banquet. Leave me a
moment, Miriam. Nay, dry those tears.'
'Oh, Alroy! they are not tears of sorrow.'
'God be with thee! Thou art the charm and consolation of my life.
Farewell! farewell!
'I do observe the influence of women very potent over me. 'Tis not
of such stuff that they make heroes. I know not love, save that pure
affection which doth subsist between me and this girl, an orphan and my
sister. We are so alike, that when, last Passover, in mimicry she twined
my turban round her head, our uncle called her David.
'The daughters of my tribe, they please me not, though they are passing
fair. Were our sons as brave as they are beautiful, we still might dance
on Sion. Yet have I often thought that, could I pillow this moody brow
upon some snowy bosom that were my own, and dwell in the wilderness,
far from the sight and ken of man, and all the care and toil and
wretchedness that groan and sweat and sigh about me, I might haply lose
this deep sensation of overwhelming woe that broods upon by being. No
matter! Life is but a dream, and mine must be a dull one.'
Without the gates of Hamadan, a short distance from the city, was
an enclosed piece of elevated ground, in the centre of which rose an
ancient sepulchre, the traditionary tomb of Esther and Mordecai.
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