with those that care for thee with an eternal regard."
" My conscience does not condemn, and I commit
all I am to the guidance of you two men. I feel
quiet and safe in the committal."
And the solemn sealing words were soon spoken.
"Shall I pronounce you husband and wife ?" ques
tioned the priest.
Cornelius, like a knight in full charge desirous of
taking all before him as trophy, exclaimed quickly,
confidently : " Yes, yes, all ! "
Then Miriamne recovered herself in the emergency,
and with maidenly dignity and tenderness, yet with
unalterable firmness, said : " Nay."
" But, Miriamne"
The .youth could proceed no further. He was de
feated by the glance that met his, filled with pious,
kindly, yet firm dissent. She spoke then freely.
" Before God we are affianced ; the first step, as an
Israelite, I ve taken. We are now bound to each
other forever. I am proud to wear the yoke of be
trothal. We must wait before the final words are
spoken, until we ve seen my parents, and until God
has given us further wisdom."
She prevailed. Shortly after the foregoing, Corne
lius, taking a tender farewell, returned to his work at
Jerusalem.
CHAPTER XXXII.
THE QUEEN AND THE GRAIL SEEKERS.
" My good blade carves the casques of men ;
My tough lance thrusteth sure,
My strength is as the strength of ten,
Because my heart is pure.
" Sometimes on lonely mountain meres ;
I find a magic bark,
I leap on board, no helmsman steers,
I float till all is dark.
A gentle sound, an awful light !
Three angels bear the Holy Grail,
With folded feet, in stoles of white,
On sleeping wings they sail.
So pass I hostel, hall and grange;
By hedge, and fort, by park and pale,
All armed I ride, what e er betide,
Until I find the Holy Grail.
TENNYSON.
" Moreover certain women of our company amazed us, having
bee early at the tomb."
ANOTHER Easter, to some the brightest yet,
smiled in Bozrah, and Miriamne was at the
Christian Chapel.
Father Adolphus, after serious, tender
greeting, questioned :
" I wonder thy father came rot to-day? "
" Oh, he s celebrating the resurrection of love, joy.
The Queen and the Grail Seekers. 485
and peace, at home. You often told me these were
the realities of Christ s rising."
" Thy joy in this must reach all fullness ? "
"I don t know, I m in a strange way very happy,
yet very restless."
" I have seen souls before at their noon ; hast thou
not observed how the^air seems to tremble sometimes
at midday? This is not fear but fullness."
" Oh, my shepherd, I m not at noon yet, only dawn.
I ve only begun my work."
" Has our missionary Cupid other couples at odds to
reunite ? "
"Perhaps so; but whether God calls me to such
work or not, this much I know, He has put a bur
den on me."
"Will Miriamne confide it to me or has the lover
dethroned the priest?"
" There now, never say that again ! None on earth
can dethrone in my heart my constant friend and
guide; yea under God, my savior! Had there been
no Father Adolphus there would have been no lover ;
at least no Christian Cornelius, as my heart s lord."
" I fear Miriamne in her generous desire to cheer a
tired old man flatters."
" No ; not flattery, but just award. As the ancient
captives on their return to their own Israel gave their
wealth to provide crowns for their priests, so do I to
day offer the finest gold of my heart to the man who
piloted me with purity, patience, and wisdom, along
and over perilous ways, to happiness beyond all words
to express."
The old missionary s face expressed the wondrous
comfort he felt in the words of his convert.
486 The Queen of tJie House of David.
" And what is it that burdens thee, daughter? "
" I hope my pastor will not be offended, but I m
burdened by the slow dawning of religious day. Why
does it take so long to convert the earth ? "
" The zeal of the young convert fills thee! "
" Ah, but that trite answer, defense of the slow prog
ress of true or false creed, after all does not answer.
I feel those Easter services at times lifting me up, out
of and beyond myself, out of all thought of my own
final glory, and to anxiety for a lost Israel, a lost world !
I think, at times, I comprehend what was meant by
the descent to the grave, the captivity of death, the
triumphal ascent, and then I wonder and doubt."
" Wonder and doubt ? "
" Yes ; I wonder at the grandeur of all that the
resurrection implies, and seeing it unrealized I doubt
whether my interpretation of it be the right one.
Worse than that, I m pained by darker doubts. For
give me, but my poor soul sometimes questions
whether or not God has grown weary or failed to keep
His promises. Oh, these doubts pain me to my heart s
core, but they will come ! I see day by day on every
hand such widespread gloom ; not only that very few
walk in the light, but how many shadows fall on those
who profess to have entered the light of the Rising? "
" Alas, day drags wearily ! " slowly responded the
priest.
" Yes ; the centuries since Calvary, filled with misery,
ignorance, and sin, seem to me to have rebuke in them
to all who saw, from time to time, the Gospel light, and
imperious urgency for those who see it now."
" But the church is doing its best to get onward,
Miriamne,"
The Queen and the Grail Seekers. 487
""That I doubt, though I d fear to be heretical."
"Again, I do not comprehend thee, girl."
"That s it; I do not comprehend myself, or what it
is that I m stirred to be or do. I think that there s
a reason for sadness at Easter lime. It is the re
minder of a great hope unfulfilled. Over twelve hun
dred years have passed away since Christ arose, typical
of the rising of mankind by faith to all that was noble
and blissful, and yet we are all in the dim twilight of
the morning. Oh, my teacher, it seems to me as if a
funeral chord went weeping through every Easter
anthem."
The old priest sat silently for a time, then bowed his
head and wearily sighed ; " I have done my best any
way! "
" Oh, do not think I doubt that! No, no; I d not
hint a rebuke of my noble guide ; but I can t make
you understand me ! Nobody seems to grasp my
meaning! Yet of this I m certain, I want to do some
thing differing from what has been ; something great,
revolutionary, for the world, for Christ."
" All reforms are revolutionary ; all consecration to
noble work, noble."
"I suppose I express myself as vaguely as other
Christians, whose efforts are chiefly words. But why
is it that there can not be a presentment of Divine
truth in such a simple and attractive form as to make
all hearing and seeing love it ? Why is it that the fol
lowers of truth separate into armies, not only not
sympathizing with, but opposing each other? Why do
not all having a common Father and one Saviour, join
as one loving family to bear aloft the banner of the
Invincible ? "
The Queen of the House of David.
" That day will come in God s good time."
" Oh, again forgive me ; but that trite apology for the
delayed dawn seems to me to fling the blame on God
in order to palliate man s indifference."
" Miriamne, thou art thoughtful beyond thy years,
but what wouldst thou have ? "
" Some one to show me how, and when, and where
to proclaim a revolution ! There is need that Israel
believe ; that one half the race, its women, be crowned
with its full privileges and powers ; that Christian
humanity check war, banish poverty and bring in uni
versal justice."
" Revolutionist, indeed ; though a blessed one art
thou ! "
"So I m often told ; but who will show me how to
work for such ends! "
" Hast thou among thy knightly companionships
heard of the Grail knights? "
"I ve heard of them; but not a great deal. Why
ask?"
"Thou art like them."
" I m glad to know whom I m like ; tell me of them
that I may know myself."
" They, as their life work, and with charming enthu
siasm, sought an object pure and noble, but which none
but they themselves could see."
" Did they obtain their object and do much good ? "
" They were a blessing to the world ; but sometimes,
like others seeking lofty ends, they failed. Eternity
alone can estimate their work and worth."
" Where are they now ? "
" Their successors are like thee. That grail guild of
old is now no more."
The Queen and the Grail Seekers. 489
" Tell me all about them and the Grail ! "
" Listen. Joseph of Arimathaea, he that secretly fol
lowed the Lord in his lifetime, and openly, after he
saw the glory of His crucifixion, is said to have caught
the blood that flowed from the speared side in the pas
chal vessel or cup used at the last supper. There is a
cathedral in Glastonbury, England, which once I saw,
erected on the place where Joseph builded a little
wicker oratory, when there as a missionary. At least
they say he once was there. The aged Joseph died and
the^Grail or Passion cup passed into the custody of other
holy men. Finally a custodian of it sinned, and there
upon it was caught away quickly to heaven. But there
is a legend that it is brought, from time to time, to
earth, only to be seen by those that are pure virgin
men and women. Then out of the yearnings for the
cup s presence (for it is said it gave unutterable joy
as well as miraculous healings to any that came nigh
to it), an order of knights sprung up, to seek it, every
where in earth. They were sworn not to disclose their
mission, and bound, as their only hope of success,
to keep their hearts noble and pure."
" But how am I like a grail knight ? "
" Miriamne pursues a heavenly cure for human ills, a
something she cannot see nor quite explain."
" Tis true and wonderful."
"The grail story is almost as old as man, being
shaped out of other most ancient pilgrim quests. All
noble hearts yearn for a healer and ideal."
" Perhaps the time has come for a woman crusade, a
new order of grail seekers?"
"Indeed, I think as much ; and Miriamne, taking
Mary as her model, may be the very one to proclaim it."
490 The Queen of the House of David.
"But being a woman, and so young, I might be ridi
culed as an enthusiast, as brazen, perhaps, or worse, if
I attempted such things."
" If thou didst undertake any thing truly good, thou
wouldst best know its goodness by the bitterness of its
opposing. The cross is very bright on one side, on the
other it casts shadows. Walking toward it \ve walk in
those chastening shadows. But when we ve passed the
grave, which it ever guards, there is light, all light not
before."
" Sometimes I think I m a very womanish woman
and not the stuff of which the heroine can be made."
" To be a woman is to have within thee a wealth of
power. To be queenly is to do in queenly spirit the
work falling to thy lot. Behold the queenly women
of the patriarchs ! Rebecca watered the flocks, Rachel
was a shepherdess. The daughter of Jethro, King of
Midian, also kept the flocks; and Tamar baked bread.
The Word of God records these things, methinks, to
show in what a queenly way a queenly woman may
perform a seemingly unimportant work. Doing hum
ble works well, they had their honor in due time.
Think of our Mary, Mother of Jesus, after her call,
serving humbly as a good housewife to a carpenter."
" Oh, if I could only catch the flavor of her life more
fully ! "
"A worthy wish ! Her life was a sermon on faith.
Called of God to bring forth Immanuel, she accepted
the trust with joyful humility, leaving the miraculous
performance to the Promiser. For thirty years, from
Bethlehem s cradle to Bethabara, where her Son was
owned of God, she bore her pains and toils, facing per
secutions, the leers and slanderous innuendoes of the
The Queen and the Grail Seekers. 491
rabble, all without faltering. Only wondrous faith
kept her gentle young heart from breaking! I think
she carried the cross all along the course of Christ s
life until He Himself took it. She wrought out her
work as a satellite of her son, and yet as a poem most
eloquent, voicing thoughts without which some of His
wondrous, greater life would lack explanation."
" I fain would be like her, but then to be so seems
beyond my capacities."
" If thou cans-t not be a satellite of the Sun as Mary,
be a satellite of a satellite. Reflect her, and it will be
well, since she reflected Him. Tis a simple lesson,
but profitable ; learn it ; there is greatness in little
things ; regarding them we may at the same time lay
hold of that that is great. I d have all women hero
ines by teaching them what heroism is."
" Was Mary learned ? She had to meet some grand
company?"
" Wise, as thou mayst be in the solid culture of
God s word."
" But I can never be a Mary," presently the maiden
murmured.
" Thou canst be thyself, and what thou canst. A
seraph could be no more. God needed for his lofty
purpose but one like the Maiden of Nazareth, ?nd for
thy comfort remember Mary could not have been the
mother of Jesus and Miriamne de Griffin of Bozrah
also. She had her mission, thou thine; it is a judg
ment of God to attempt to say that each in her station
was not and is not placed in the way most excellent."
Their converse ended but to be renewed. At fre
quent intervals Miriamne advised with her guide
upon the subject uppermost in her mind, and more and
49 2 The Queen of the House of David.
more became endued with the spirit of the missionary,
To all questionings within herself, as to how she might
compass her lofty and philanthropic designs, there came
but one answer, "To Jerusalem !" It seemed to her
that there, at the heart of Syrian life, she might obtain
inspiration and wisdom, as well as the widest possible
opportunity of applying these for others. To her to
believe was to act, and so she soon had completed all
her arrangements to join a band of pilgrims passing
by way of Bozrah toward the great city. The parting
was painful to mother and daughter, and unlike any
they had experienced before. The daughter felt a mis
giving. Her mother was aged. The tensions of trial
and responsibility being removed so largely from the
life of the latter by recent events, left her spiritless.
Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that in the
days of excitement and conflict she exerted herself
beyond her ability ; now, when the motive was gone,
nature proclaimed its premature exhaustion. Miriamne
was convinced that she would be motherless ere long,
and was haunted by misgivings as to ever again seeing
her if she left Bozrah. Rizpah herself, though she
feared that the present separation and farewell were to
be final, urged her child tenderly, earnestly, to go for
ward as conscience dictated. The parting between
these two women was secret, they two being alone.
It was affectionate and most tender, and yet cheered
by the mutual hope both expressed of an eternal reun
ion after death. The eventful day and the supreme
moment came to find Miriamne and her mother nerved
for the parting. That was soon over, and the maiden
moved out of the old stone home toward the white
camel already caparisoned for her i^e. Father Adol-
The Queen and the Grail Seekers. 493
phus and Sir Charleroy awaited her by its side, having
repeated, over and over, to the maiden s chosen attend
ant a score of directions, and having in the fussiness of
nervousness again and again examined bridle and girt
and hamper. The maiden, glancing after the caravan
of pilgrims which was to be her convoy, now slowly
passing out of the city, turned toward her father to say
the last words of parting. She began : "And now,
dear father." Her voice, tremulous to begin with,
broke down.
" There, Miriamne," interrupted the knight, "wait,
we ll accompany thee a little distance." The three
moved out of the city together, the attendant riding
on before them. They were all too sorrowful to speak
cheerfully, so each said nothing. On the crest of a
hillock the old priest paused ; simultaneously the father
and daughter did likewise. " I m too weary to go
further," spoke the priest. Miriamne s eyes filled
with tears, and Sir Charleroy, drawing close to the
maiden, turned his eyes away. He stood in silence
gazing afar, but at nothing. Each at the last seemed
to dread to be the first to speak that one word so
inexpressibly sad when believed to be about to be
spoken as a last " farewell." The silence became
oppressive, and then Father Adolphus murmured, " I
suppose we must bid thee adieu-, now." Sir Charleroy
shuddered and drew his turban down over his eyes.
Just then all the child and all the woman in Miri
amne s nature was awakened. Her feelings well nigh
over-mastered her, and she exclaimed : " Oh, Bozrah,
how can I leave thee and thy dear ones!" Bozrah to
her meant home ; for a moment her world seemed cen
tred there. The old priest, ever adroit in ministering
494 The Qttccn of the House of David.
comfort, sought to divert the thoughts of those about
him from needless pain, and so shading his eyes looked
steadily eastward for a few moments. Then he ques
tioned : " Daughter, canst thou see Salchad, at the
Crater s Mouth. I can not see it for my sight faileth ;
but I know tis yonder." Miriamne followed the
direction of the priest s pointing hand, though she
knew full well without directing, where the grim fort
ress city lay. Habit had made it natural to follow the
guidance of that old, trembling hand. Some way, it
helped her; she seemed better to understand what she
already partly knew, when it directed.
"Yes, I see it. It is there; changeless and dreary as
ever. But why this question ? "
" Dost thou observe how the prospect fades away
south of it, until it reaches the spreading desert?"
"Yes, I perceive ! "
" Turn to the north, what object is most striking ? "
" Oh, Hermon ! The old-man mountain ; the sun
makes its snowy-top appear to-day very like the white
on an old man s head and chin."
Sir Charleroy s attention was recalled from his con
templation of the pain of parting for an instant, and he
questioned :
" Canst thou see aught of the ruins of the Temple
of the Sun, said to be at Hermon s crest ? "
But before an answer could be given to the knight s
question, Father Adolphus exclaimed : " Daughter,
look back again to ruined Salchad ! Beyond its war
tower of giants, there lies only the desert. Now turn
thy back on it all forever, without repinings. Leave
the desert and the war tower of the giants to the wan
dering Bedouin."
The Queen and the Grail Seekers. 495
"And then what?"
" Turn thy face toward Jerusalem, thy back to the
drear desert
The maiden almost involuntarily complied, and the
priest continued :
" Go forward with Hermon on thy right. Remem
ber that the temple of the Fire Worshipers is over
turned, its altars cold ; but more remember that on
Hermon humanity was transfigured in answer to
prayer."
"And so my shepherd and guide would promise me
blessing and bid me God speed ? " quoth the maiden.
" Thou read st my heart, daughter."
" The same true heart ; it never gets old or weary of
cheering."
" I m made grateful and happy, daughter, by thy
words. He that saith, Let not your hearts be troubled !
and comfort ye, comfort ye my people] is my leader.
For cheering, I was called."
" How noble such a call seems to me, now."
" Yea ; daughter, if one can not be as the stars that
fought in their course for Sisera, he may be as a sum
mer evening s breeze, in cooling pain s fevers, and in
drying the tears from cheeks that blush through the
rains of weeping times."
Gently, firmly she guided her camel from the hillock,
on which it was feeding, toward the highway, along
which the caravan was departing. " We must be going
now."
At her words, Sir Charleroy and the old Sacrist each
caught one of her hands.
" Oh, my fathers ! " was her pitying but not pitiable
exclamation. Sir Charleroy, standing on the hillock
496 The Queen of tJie House of David.
by the camel, on which his daughter was mounted v
drew the hand he held close to his heart, then his arm
tenderly encircled its owner. The maiden s head
rested upon the breast that had often borne her since
babyhood, her lips met in unfeigned tenderness those
of the man who not only loved her as a daughter, but
as his good angel, almost savior. .It was a scene for
a painter ; the past and the present, sunset and morn-
ing; the one looking back in a confessed ineffective
ness of a life nearly spent, in contrast with a fresh,
young, hopeful life, before which lay a world to be
conquered. Miriamne, the called leader in a new
crusade for women, for humanity, was bidding farewell
to the ruins of giant land, and to a representative of
the last of the sworded-crusaders.
Her staff fell on the side of the beast that bore her
and it moved away quickly after the departing troop.
The parting was over, and yet the two old men
silently lingered at the place of the farewell. Once or
twice the maiden looked back to them, as she was
borne forward, to wave an adieu. The lone watchers
followed her with their eyes, until her white camel ap
peared but a speck moving along at the skirt of a column
of dust. The eyes of the watchers dimmed by years,
now supplemented by tears, presently could discern only
dust. She was buried from their view forever. Then
they silently returned to the city, each busy with his
own thoughts. Thereafter there was a heavy loneliness
on all hearts in that Bozrah circle. The priest moved
about his chapel, and the parents about their home as
though an angel of light had gone from their midst, or
as if the angel of death had come among them.
" It seems strange like," said the Sacrist s sister, " to
The Queen and the Grail Seekers. 497
let a girl go away to that far-off city, among strangers,
and about such meaningless purposes."
" Never mind ; never mind, sister, God s lambs are
ever safe. Her mission is clear to her, at least, and
she ll not be among strangers. The knights who secretly
abide in the city of God have a charge concerning her
in letters I ve sent them. As well, Cornelius, her be
trothed, is there. Pure love will be her wall of fire/
Thus ended all arguments and misgivings.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
THE HOSPITALER S ORATION.
" I do not say that a social cyclone is impending ; oui tnt
of the times certainly admonish us that if Christianity is <o avert a
revolution of the most gigantic proportions, and the most ruinous
results, we have not an hour to lose in assuring the restless masses
that they have no better friends than are the professed disciples
of Him whose glory it was to preach the gospel to the poor, and to
lift up their crushing burdens." REV. DR. A. J. F. BEHREND S
Socialism and Christianity."
" My soul doth magnify the Lord. * * * He hath put down
princes from their thrones, and exalted them of low degree. "-
MARY.
HE daughter of Sir Charleroy found a home
and a mother with Dorothea Woelfkin, the
widowed parent of her affianced. What
manner of woman the latter was may be
readily inferred from the character of her beloved and
only son, Cornelius. It sufTiceth to say, mother and
son were in all things wonderfully alike.
" Miriamne, I ve called to ask, if we get flic consent
of my mother, that you attend a conclave of knights, to
be secretly held, after Moslem prayers this evening."
"Where?"
"At the house of the Christian sister, aged Phebe:
just by the second wall of the city."
" And why do they meet ? "
"An eloquent Hospitaler, lately returned from a
The Hospitaler s Oration. 499
long mission, is to address the companions and their
friends."
"A Hospitaler; what s his name?"
" Ah, there it is ; the question all ask, and none can
answer ! He has given full tokens of his right to con
fidence, but declines, for reasons which he says are most
pious, to reveal himself further than that he is a Knight
Hospitaler of Rhodes."
" Rhodes? Is he very tall, of piercing eyes, his hair
long and jet, with streaks of gray? "
" Even so."
" My father knew such a man, whom he called silver-
tongued. "
"This man is as eloquent as Apollos."
" We met such an one, and were with him for a time.
We left him here, on our journey from Acre to
Bozrah."
" Did you penetrate his secret?"
"I did not, though my father once said to him
Grail. After that he kept aloof from us."
"A proof it must be as I ve suspected ; the Hospitaler
is one of the new Grail-Knights! " exclaimed Cornelius.
"And he is here? I must hear him again. The
words he spoke to me in Gethsemane have followed
me night and day since. He made the journey of Mary
and Christ, by way of Kedron, to the cross, seem like a
present reality ; a path typical of the one before