What Metem, and those who worked with him, had forgotten was, that this
offering of incense to Baal would be the most deadly of crimes in the
eyes of any faithful Jew--one, indeed, which, were he alone concerned,
he would die rather than commit.
When the prince heard this decree, and the full terror of the choice
came home to his mind, his blood turned cold, and for a while his senses
were bewildered. There was no escape for him; either he must abjure his
faith at the price of his own soul, or, because of it, the woman whom
he loved, now, before his eyes, must suffer a most horrible and sudden
death. It was hideous to think of, and yet how could he do this sin in
the face of heaven and of these ministers of Satan?
The moment was at hand; a priest held out to him a bowl of incense, a
golden bowl, he noticed idly, with handles of green stone fashioned in
the likeness of Baaltis, whose servant he was asked to declare himself.
He, Aziel of the royal house of Israel, a servant of Baal and Baaltis,
nay, a high-priest of their worship! It was monstrous, it might not be.
But Elissa? Well, she must die--if this was not a farce, and in truth
they meant to murder her; her life could not be bought at such a price.
"I cannot do it," he gasped with dry lips, thrusting aside the bowl.
Now all looked astonished, for his refusal had not been foreseen.
There was a pause, and once more the woman Mesa, in her character of
prosecutrix on behalf of the outraged gods, appeared before the altar,
and said in her cold voice:
"The Jew whom the lady Baaltis has chosen as husband will not do homage
to her gods.
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