"
"Spare to reproach me in my misfortune," murmured Elissa; "have I not
enough to bear, knowing that I have brought death upon him I love? Oh!
curse me not, but pray that my sins may be forgiven me."
"That I will do gladly, daughter," replied Issachar more gently, "the
more so that, although you seem to be the cause of them, these things
can have happened only by the will of Heaven. Therefore I was wrong to
revile you, and I ask your pardon."
Before she could answer the Shadid commanded silence. At the same moment
the woman Mesa stepped from behind the effigy of the goddess on the
shrine.
"Who are you and what do you here?" asked the Shadid, as though he did
not know her.
"I am Mesa, the daughter of her who was the lady Baaltis," she answered,
"and my rank is that of Mother of the priestesses of Baaltis. I appear
to give true evidence against her, who is the anointed Baaltis, against
the Israelitish stranger named Aziel, and the priest of the Lord of the
Jews."
"Lay your hand upon the altar and speak, but beware what you speak,"
said the Shadid.
Mesa bowed her head, took the oath of truth by touching the altar with
her fingers, and began:--
"From the time that she was appointed I have been suspicious of the lady
Baaltis."
"Why were you suspicious?" asked the Shadid.
The witness let her eyes wander towards Metem, then hesitated. Evidently
for some reason of her own she did not wish to implicate him.
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