BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 273

career was red with the blood of many murders. He mas-
sacred priests and nobles; he caused Aristobulus, his brother-in-
law, a young man full of hope and promise, to be drowned in
pretended sport before his very eyes. His sons, his uncle,
his kinsmen, and his most intimate friends, Dosistheus and
Gadius, all in turn drank to the dregs the cup of his fierce
anger; and even his wife, the beautiful Armonzan princess
Mariamne, the only human being he ever seemed to care for,
was put to the awful death of strangulation by his own
distinct orders. The plea of the gray-haired sire, the cry of
helpless infancy, were all the same to the wicked, cruel
Herod. The slaughter of the innocents was a thing this
monster could order to. be done, and then sleep soundly
while the dreadful thing was being done. But oh, the sad-
hearted mothers of Bethlehem! how loud their wailing!
how bitter their tears! Thus was brought to pass that
which was spoken by the prophet Jeremy, saying: “In
Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping,
and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and
would not be comforted because they are not.”

It will interest boys to know that all sorts of remark-
able legends arose in the early Christian centuries, about the
wonderful miracles wrought by the infant Jesus in this brief
sojourn in Egypt. Idols are made to fall down before him;
wild beasts come forth to worship him; trees bud and bloom
at his very presence; robpers yield up their ill-gotten gains;
a poor man who has been changed intoa mule by the evil spirits
of the time, is turned into a man again. Then comes quite a
charming legend of mercy vouchsafed to a young Egyptian
bride, who, on the very morning of the day set apart for her
marriage—the day which should have been the happiest. of
all her glad young life—was smitten with dumbness through