reply to such a charge, and instead of soothing, irritate still anew. Love her husband Mariamne could not, but she knew her duty as a wife. She could feel that, however he had injured her family and herself, in this instance he did her at least the justice to demand the truth or falsehood of the charge from her own lips, and with all a woman's quickness of feeling, have felt for his agony under such a suspicion, and at that moment felt she might love him yet again. Conquering all personal emotions, she so calmly, so fully exculpated herself, that Herod was not only convinced, but conjured her to pardon the momentary suspicion. Her truth, her purity, seemed for the moment to infuse themselves into him, and to arouse his better nature. Professing, and by caresses endeavouring to manifest unbounded affection and firm confidence in her fidelity, Josephus tells us, that he sought to "draw from her a like confidence in himself," words very convincing, that Mariamne, even while she vindicated herself, never lost that lofty bearing, and quiet, gentle dignity, which, from the hour of her brother's murder, had marked her conduct. Even to her husband she never stooped, as many women so situated would have done, to feign a love and confidence which she could not feel. She must have known that her life with him was in constant danger—a word might be her deathdoom; but she feared him not. Strong in her own innocence and noble virtues, she walked on her way, acting as honesty dictated, without turning this side or that, or fearing any peril that straightforwardness might bring. Exactly in accordance with the uncomplaining, but deeply feeling spirit, which would never breathe to any human ear the anguish and terror which Herod's com mand must have excited, was the noble remonstrance which bade her reply to his entreaties for her confidence and love, "if the command he had given, that if any harm had befallen him from Antony, she who had been no occasion of it should perish with him, were indeed a proof of his love for her?" Even had she known the evils, which were to spring from this very simple question, Mariamne could not have permitted its recollection to rankle in her heart, and secretly poison every outward demonstration of Herod's love. Touched, in all probability, at his unwonted candour towards herself, her upright mind shrunk from concealing her knowledge of his secret command, and she appealed to him, in the same confiding spirit as he had appealed to her; but the effect was as different as their respective characters. Herod sprung from her side, in a burst of uncontrolled fury. Her truth, her purity, all passed away before a blaze of passion, appalling to witness, and terrible to feel. Madly believing, that nothing but improper intimacy with Joseph could have called for such a betrayal of a command, imparted to his uncle in strictest confidence, he rushed upon Mariamne, with his drawn sword, and would have slain her on the spot, had not the calm and dignified composure, enhancing her extraordinary beauty, even at such a moment, disarmed him towards herself. His whole rage fell on Joseph and Alexandra; ordering` the immediate execution of the former without permitting trial, or even defence, and imprisoning the latter with every mark of ignominy and insult. Why his rage, on this occasion, should so have fallen on Alexandra, appears rather a problem. He seems entirely to have overlooked the charge against her, of seeking the protection of the Romans, and to have imprisoned her on this implied supposition of being accessory to the dishonour of his wife. We rather imagine that he was rejoiced at any opportunity to get her out of his way, without caring to give any reason for so doing. Nor does it appear quite clear to me, that after the first transports of his rage, and its gratification in the removal of two obnoxious individuals, that he ever seriously retained any idea of Mariamne's guilt. He evidently lived with her, and loved her (if he could love) as before, seeking to conciliate her at every opportunity; as thus tacitly allowing, that he had accused and condemned her wrongfully; and if he really had believed her guilty, this, even to Herod, would have been impossible. But whatever were his secret feelings, they could have brought neither rest nor comfort to the deeply wounded spirit of his injured wife. She must have felt more and more convinced, that her life was not worth a day's purchase, her honour constantly liable to be attacked, her innocence impossible to be proved, for neither law nor defence would be allowed her,-compelled to associate in daily intimacy with the man, who had actually drawn his sword upon her, insulted, vilified, and then added to the horror with which she must have regarded him, by daring to profess love, and lavish caresses, from which she must have shrunk in utmost loathing, her mother imprisoned, degraded; and though Mariamne was conscious of Alexandra's many faults, she was yet her mother: her worst qualities were hidden from her child;-the power of her race, the glory of -- her people, passing away before the successful ambition of an Idumæan usurper; the laws and customs of her country wholly disregarded, that by a gradual, yet sure process, the manners and customs of heathen nations should take their place ;-it was impossible, that to an Asmonæan, the last pure unmixed scion of that noble race, such feelings should be unknown; and what then must have been the harrowing trials of her inward and outward life? Yet we read of no manifestation of her intense suffering, no secret intrigues, no public appeals, no turning to equivocal sources of enjoyment, to banish the misery of home. No! Compared with the dark machinations, the subtle intrigues of Salome, Alexandra, and Cypros, she stands forth in untouched and untarnished lustre, as some pure spirit of truth and light, sent upon the earth to whisper that even in the blackest and most appalling periods of human depravity, the divine essence breathed within us by God himself still has existence; often, it may be, invisible, but still there. Historians do Mariamne no justice. It is only by reflection and analogy, that we can penetrate the truth concerning her and other characters of the period; and doing so with one or two, bringing out the strong lights of individual character against the dark shadows of the tyrant circumstance, comparing what is, with what might be, it is thus, we relieve truth in its crystal purity from the web of prejudice and superficialism, and so learn the important lesson, that never yet was human nature wholly dark, or this earth left without some witnesses of the divinity within us. A mere glance over Josephus, and other historians compiled from him, confounds Mariamne with the intriguing and subtle spirits, male and female, by whom she was surrounded; and thus it is, that we can so seldom discern the good from the bad, the divine from the earthly, and we condemn all as equally evil, equally retrograding. A careful study of history, not merely satisfied with the views of the writer, but using, freely and fearlessly, our own powers of reflection and analogy, would teach us much to fill our hearts with charity and hope, and inculcate the refreshing faith, that every IDEAL of the immortal mind, may find in the ACTUAL its origin and end. |